I miss ...

... childhood. Hours upon hours of playing outside. Bikes. Being tan. Having a high metabolism. Dreaming of being a fashion designer. Making clubhouses. Playing at the pool. My blood sugars not fluctuating every month.

... my meemaw's bluish gray Ford Escort. I can remember the sound of it pulling up in the driveway. Sumbitch had like 250,000 miles on it at least.

... living in Berry Hall with my Berry Hall shugpies.

... my friend Ashley. I still talk to her fairly often, but she lives too far away.

... and my friend Lauren. Again, just too far away.

... believing in Santa.

... when Sex and the City was new every week.

... when I was small enough for my uncle to pick me up and lift me up to the ceiling when he came in for lunch.

... when my granddaddy would ask me to pull his boots off for him (took all the strength I had, and then when I finally got them off, I'd go flying across the room). Then I'd ask him if I could comb his hair and he'd let me, with one of those tiny black barber's combs.

... the leather smell of the drawer in my granddaddy's bathroom - it's where he kept all his old wallets.

... watching Little House on the Prairie, Matlock, and The Golden Girls when my mama was my granddaddy's secretary. 

... how carefree high school was. Everything could be solved with a can of Diet Mt. Dew, and a ride up and down the boulevard in my Honda.

... my great aunt Geraldine's house on Christmas Eve. And her biscuits.

... Buster & Elnora's house at 6:30 am on Christmas morning. And oyster stew, even though I didn't eat it. And bluegrass music in the front room.

... cookouts at my aunt & uncle's house when my cousins were still small and we still lived just through the woods.

... when Darius Rucker was still part of Hootie & the Blowfish.

... kids being able to play outside for a long time, without you having to worry that something awful has happened to them.

... mud-slingin' in the middle of the night, and then eating grease at Timberland afterward.

... being able to drink all the beer I want without anxiously awaiting the stomach pains and hair loss that come with it.

... James, Patch, Prissy ... my sweet furry babies.

... not thinking about babies. My babies. Friends' babies. Pregnancy. Clomid. Ovulation. Implantation bleeding. #STFUbrain

... my natural curl.

... the sound of the attic fan at my granddaddy's house. I want a  house with an attic fan. And a screen door.

when i think about seventeen ...

Ever hear a song that takes you right back to high school?

{usually mine's a rap song, natch}

I ain't gone lie, I had fun in high school.

Possibly more fun than college, although college was definitely magical.

 {Don't worry, I ain't tryin' to ruin nobody's life or marriage, so I carefully chose photos for this post - anything that still looks questionable, I got permission for.}

I went to a high school in a small NC town {only public high school in the county at the time},
where everybody got along for the most part.

There may have been the occasional suspension for slappin' somebody in the face, but nothin' crazy.

For me, high school was afternoon trips to Bojangle's {if i didn't have to babysit}

wastin' way to much gas ridin' up and down the boulevard 

{with the windows rolled down just enough to seem mysterious if i was with somebody whose parent got them tinted windows, that is. me and the honda? naw}

jeans from

wantin' a wardrobe like the chicks in Coyote Ugly

rap music as loud as it would go

too much DMD
... like 2 or 3 cans a day. Whattup, Mrs. White?!
 (I was her T.A. in 4th period and we drank the hell out of some DMD from the teacher's lounge.)

too much Jack Daniels Downhome punch

{and the occasional Smirnoff Ice - woof!}

deciphering pager codes.  
yep, you read right. everybody had a pager. no, we weren't drug dealers. 

mud-slingin' in Toyota trucks
{and every boy I knew had one of those gel air fresheners - berry, coolwater}

Carhartt

Timberland boots

boys huntin' and talkin' about huntin'

football Fridays
{although I confess I never watched the games, I mostly wanted to dance to the drum music}

bonfires, house parties, sometimes mud ones

takin' a whole lot of shots {insulin ones. because I ate all the time, and this was pre-pump}
did scare the crap out of my boy Daniel one time though, because he thought i was doin' heroin in the back of his truck. sorry bout that.

and my beloved Honda, Tawanda
Tawanda was my homegirl.
She has heard so much rap, inhaled so much dust from the windows bein' down on a dirt road,
saw so many rounds of Popeye ...

I love this picture, because it just shows how carefree life was then. And it gets you to thinkin', how much of 'adult' stress can we help? A lot of it, we can't. But, I'm sure as hell tryin' to eliminate and avoid as much of it as possible. Life's too short, friends.
One of my very best friends in high school was a guy, and the girls that I was close with weren't the 'mean girl/bitchy/jealous' types, so most of my high school life was way too much fun, and pretty drama-free.

I remember one time, my friend's nerves were so toe up over a dude that she threw her tea up first thing in the mornin'. Ain't that crazy? Wastin' a good Bojangle's tea over a dude! I think most of us have been there - maybe not throwin' up, but thinkin' you gone die over his ass.
Thank God for livin' and learnin'.

And I thought I'd met the love of my life, {at least twice}. 

They say you never get over your first love. Hmm ... I'd say your first love leaves a mark, and it's different than any other because, duh, you never been hit over the head with it before. It's fun, it's exciting, it's hot. You are naive.

But you grow up, and you realize all the reasons why it would never have worked.
And if you are lucky, you meet someone that is clearly made for you.

High school was cozy for me, because it was a small town, and our group of friends was so tight knit. And though there was more than one "group", we all meshed well, I think.
There won't shit to do in our tiny town. So, we always ended up in bigger towns nearby for restaurants, the mall, the movies.

But, we typically ended up back at somebody's house.
Every weekend. All weekend, nights anyway. All of us. Together.
And I loved that.

I think if I could go back for a month, and come back to my life now, and have everything turn out just as it has now, I would.
Would you?

Omigyahh, EMbarrassin!

Middle School. What a trip down suppressed memory lane. 

Picture it: 

Lynchurg, VA, 1995

Girl moves from small, rural NC town to significantly larger city in VA, where they DON'T talk like her

Hell, they don't even eat the same foods she does

Or listen to the same music

super cool Lynchburg kids enjoy making fun of small town country bunkin and the way she talks

(Richard, are you out there?? Remember how you thought Guns N Roses was the greatest thing to hit Earth?)

girl feels shy, miserable even

everybody OBSESSIVELY says, "Embarrassin!" about every other ten seconds, hence it's appearance in this post title.

Cringe.

she gets the eff over it and tells them to kiss her ass and begins to roll with her own posse with whom she throws bomb 70's themed party, and shops at DAV and The Record Exchange

Also, she discovered a treasure called Weenie Stand, that sold yummy hot dogs and stew ... nothing like food to make you feel better, eh?

So here you go folks,
 tidbits from my version of the middle school era ...

The disgusting shiz that we wore

the wardrobe ...

I did not shop from the dELiA*s mail order catalog, nor did I own these Adidas sandals, but Lord knows everybody else did.

Ahh, the music. 

When I moved to Lynchburg, I was fresh from the sticks of NC and mostly a country music kinda girl, with the exception of Snoop - I totally loved him already.

Enter Allison, Fallon, and bomb rap artists.

yes, that's Biggie's Hypnotize video, and that'd be Jay-Z and Foxy Brown in I'll Be ... go youtube it. You know you want to.

And let's not forget these gems. Right now I'm getting a flash of Heather and me at Amanda's house with 65 million makeup products all over the floor and that pale purple comforter on her twin bed.

One time, Amanda's mama asked me if I thought Smashing Pumpkins was appropriate for Amanda to be listening to. Is this a trick? Why did Smashing Pumpkins break up anyway? Tragic.

I wasn't really obsessed with Silverchair, but my friend Diane LOVED her some Daniel Johns. Therefore, by default, he is one of my middle school memories.

 Amanda (make-up product girl mentioned above) was MADLY in love with Gavin Rossdale. She could pull off a mad Gwen Stefani too. Remember the blue polka dot dress? She had one almost just like it.

My crush?

Mr. Robert Plant. Yessss.

Remember Garbage? You stupid girl. Bowwww bowwwww.

My sister was all about some Mariah Carey - you know, when she had straight bangs and the big curls? 

Barf.

and, this one song - always takes me back to the pool ...



man, they played it everydayyyyy like 15 times. And I NEVER got tired of it. Still don't.



I really wanted to post genuine old school, man we were so cool pics, but they are in the attic, and that'll have to be for another day. Lynchburg peeps, you're welcome.

Anybody else posted about middle school or some other equally painful turned awesome time in your life? Please let me know about it, PRONTO!

It would make me super happy.

Epic Early 80s Pig Pickin' - a photostory

Bein the thoughtful person that I am - when I found this treasure, I knew - there was no way in the moon I could keep this to myself. 

Below, you will find a timeless classic.

A photostory of my granddaddy's annual pig pickins. Well - him and his frand Buck. Sadly, the pig pickins - they are no more. 

But, here is a walk down memory lane - and I HOPE WITH ALL I AM that one day, Anj & I can be the hosts of somethin just a tiny fragment as magical. The photos below simply ooze AWESOMENESS. Get ready for photo overload and bomb ass 80s western wear. I warned you - now go ahead, don't try to resist ...

Now, click your little faingah below to let Mr. Waylon Jennings give us the full effect: