Party like it's 1998

I've seen this on a couple blogs, and thought it would be fun and mindless for a (VERY EARLY) Monday morning...

High School Meme


1.Who was your best friend?
I didn't have one - Sam, Abby, Jessica, Becca, Lindsay, Sarah, Ben and Eric (I'm still good friends with 4 of them).

2. What sports did you play?
I was a cheerleader (did all those ESPN competitions), and I was on the Varsity gymnastics team for 2 years.

3. What kind of car did you drive?
My first car was a '89 Ford Escort that everyone called "White Trash". It broke down 13 times in 12 months. When I turned 18, I got a black Saturn Coupe.

4. It's Friday night, where were you at?
Cheering at a football or basketball game, or out doing something I shouldn't be (i.e. drinking beer in an orchard or sneaking out of the house).

5. Were you a party animal?
I guess you could say yes. I did drink and smoke a few cigarettes, but..... oh who am I kidding. I definitely was.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
No... I had a boyfriend who went to another HS and that wasn't my thing.

7. Ever skip school?
A couple times - but I was a class officer and would ALWAYS get caught doing it. Of course, coming back late from off-campus lunch is a completely different story...

8. Ever smoke?
Yes. I thought Swisher Sweets were cigarettes for about a year.

9. Were you a nerd?
I was a nerd in a cheerleading uniform. I wasn't into the 'jock/cheerleader' crowd - I took a bunch of honors and AP classes and wrote for the school paper.

10. Did you get suspended/expelled?
No.

11. Can you sing the Alma Mater?
I know the last part was "Hail Our Alma Mater Sing, Hail Hail Hail!"

12. Who was your favorite teacher?
Mr. Williams, the faculty supervisor for the school paper and Mrs. Ferdinansen, AP Composition.

13. Favorite class?
Chemistry. I don't know why I never pursued science further than HS... but I really liked it and always kicked a*s in it. I won some state award for Chemistry my Jr. year.

14. What was your school's full name?
Clovis West High School

15. School mascot?
Golden Eagle

16. Did you go to Prom?
I went my Senior year. My junior year, my boyfriend and I broke up the night before and we decided not to go together (he went with someone else!!!!) I ended up going out with a girlfriend who had recently become single, and we had an absolute BLAST eating a bunch of Italian food and drinking wine on top of a haystack.

17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
I really liked HS - but if I were to do it again, I would have convinced myself to have a lot more confidence.

18. What do you remember most about graduation?
Watching Dazed and Confused, drinking Coronas, and swimming every afternoon for a week straight. Since I was Sr. class secretary, I got to speak and lead the tassel-turn so that was pretty cool. I also got to walk with one of my best friends, Ben.

19. Favorite memory of your senior year?
Spring Break trip to San Diego with about 30 people from my class. I still can't believe my mom let me go!

20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall?
No idea what this is.

21. Did you have a job your senior year?
I coached a jr. high Pop Warner cheer squad. That was SO much fun - like having 20 little sisters that liked you and looked up to you.

22. Who did you date?
My cheer coaches little brother. No Joke! It was a constant source of tension, as you would imagine. I met him at a party because he went to another school - not through her. We dated on and off for 2 years (he's the one who went to prom with someone else - and then we got back together!)

23. Where did you go most often for lunch?
Bobby Sal's carry-out for make-your-own burritos, or Zeni-Yah Rice bowls. Or my house, because it was 3 blocks away.

24. Have you gained weight since then?
Um, YES. When I started HS, I weighed 90 pounds. I definitely don't weigh 90 pounds right now.

25. What did you do after graduation?
I bummed around for the summer, then moved to Santa Barbara to go to UCSB.

26. When did you graduate?
1998.

---

On Knitting...


Why oh why is this sleeve so big?? I swear it doesn't look that way in the book?!?!?


Slow but steady on the Prarie Tunic. This is 3 balls in (minus the small bit at the top). About 7 more inches to go.


Stash yarn + Joann's coupon + bordem with tiny needles and sleeve problems = new WIP. Any guesses??

Night of the Living Dead [Bodysuits]

Reading all YOUR comments about tearing up made ME tear up!!! Then I re-read my post and full on started crying. I'm in sap overload right now, apparently. The big send off is the weekend of June 16-18th, when I'll be making my last trip to Santa Cruz to visit. Of course, I may be doing some extended cat sitting of Lola the wondercat for awhile, so there may be a brief visit to get that set up. Two cats! What am I getting myself into....

---

So I've been good about sticking to my yarn diet (22 days to go!), but I need to stop reading about Mason-Dixon knitting and the Sugar n' Cream revolution if I hope to make it through. Through this drought, I've experienced a new-found desire to finish all those old FO's (worked on the Light-As-Air sweater and Sari Silk bag last night) that have been laying around for months. I've also ripped and restarted the sleeves to Aline 3 times - they keep turning out HUGE. I even tried casting on the size AFTER the decreases and it's still dwarfing my arm. Can't deal with that right now.

Back to what I came here to talk about: Style. I had some extra cash laying around at the end of last month, so I took myself to Forever 21 to pick up some cheapo, breezy summer tanks for the 95-degree days coming up this month. A lot of my friends know that I adore 70's-style clothing while at the same time being a bargain whore, so this place fits the bill for that quicky, cheap wardrobe fix.

However, I was absolutely HORRIFIED at what I saw when I walked in. Excuse my french, but what the f*ck is this? I can deal with the return of leggings. I even totally dig the legwarmer trend. But THIS!?! Why can't bodysuits have DIED and stayed in the 80s???? Seriously, this is awful - it's like the night of the living dead! Do you ladies REMEMBER how much those things sucked when you had to use the restroom, the gnarly wedgey, and how they so keenly accentuated any buldge or flab in the torso region. Not to mention they made it look like girls with even the longest torsos had only 8 inches between the neckline and hips. AAAAHHHHAAHHHH!!!! Die!!!!

K is for Kaci

"Some friends come into our hearts and quickly leave, while others leave footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same"

I know I've posted this photo before, but it is quite possibly my favorite photo of Kaci and I EVER

This is going to be sappy and some what hard to write, because 1) SAPPY is not normally in my vocabulary and 2) she is moving 2500 miles away in 3 weeks.

I meet Kaci in 2002 under a palm tree at a random party in Santa Cruz. I had just graduated from college, and being all fierce and indepedent, I decided I was moving to Santa Cruz where I didn't know a soul for the adventure of it. Another friend was in town visiting and she knew this "friend of a friend" who was having a 4th of July get together, so we decided to go. By 2am my other friend was running around hitting people with a plastic hammer (don't ask) and I was being constantly hit on by this creepy guy, so I went out into the front yard to have a cigarette. Sitting myself down under the tree, I hear this voice from the other side say "hey.... got an extra light?" So there was Kaci, another recent addition to the Santa Cruz scene, having just moved out from Michigan with her boyfriend and another friend. A "friend of a friend" happened to get them to this party as well... and the rest is history.

Kaci is a couple years older than I, and moved out here after graduating from Eastern Michigan University. Her and her now-husband, Don, drove out in two cars with a giant cat and walkie-talkies, as fast as they could to get to the California coast. Since that day under the palm tree, it's been quite an adventure.

Kaci's Bachelorette Party and Wedding, August 2005
We've cooked hundreds of dinners, spent numerous hours on the beach, drank about 200 bottles of wine, been mistaken for fashionists by boutique owners, rocked concerts spanning from O.A.R. to James Taylor, had slumber parties with our cats, made up drunk names for each other (Kachi and Pete), danced to gnarly blues bands on the Capitola Esplanade, hazed each other, drunk-dialed once a weekend, and smoked a bunch of cigarettes when we weren't supposed to. We've cried to each other, laughed more than should be humanly possible, and given and taken advice like sisters. I moved, she moved, then I moved again to Fresno, but it's still never been more than 150 miles apart.


Post-Margaritaville
So one night, about 8 months ago, I was visiting and Kaci drops the bomb. "Don and I are moving back to the Michigan within the year". Of course, there had been some tequila-drinking going on that evening, and the idea for tattoos was born. Operation Pride laced with Tequila produced the following results:

Kaci on Left, me on Right

Yup, she's got my matching tattoo on inside of her foot (I'm resisting the urge to make some sort of comment like "superheros UNITE! when we put our feet next to each other like this).

The quote at the start of this post is somewhat cheesy, but it's the best way I can think to describe this awesome chick. I sort of hate her for moving (KIDDING!), but she'll always be my girl.