The delusion that I could still pull off being a blonde. I’m talking full-time blonde here, of course, not the partial blonde that I currently rock to, if I may say so myself, great success.
My high school glory days, as evidenced by the Odyssey of the Mind t-shirt I’m wearing here. I had graduated three years ago, and hadn’t solved a Spontaneous problem since spring of ’02! Yet I still wear the swag. Huh.
Baggy jeans with a hole. Can’t tell from this picture, but this worn-out pair of bell-bottoms was probably purchased at WAL*MART and loved to pieces. I still have trouble throwing away “perfectly good” pants: my boyfriend jeans from college now have sizeable holes in both the left knee and, er, “seat”. But I can’t bring myself to throw them away. Why? I’m a clinger.
And in this photo, I’m clinging to the roof-rack of Big Red, the family van since 1998, a Dodge Grand Caravan I totalled almost two years to the day before this picture was taken. Big Red was my first car, and constantly breaking down. Brakes were a serious issue: brake pads would wear through faster than I could afford to replace them on the steep hills of Binghamton, NY, giving Big Red the occasional nickname “The Red Scare” when nearly rolling through stop-lights out of control-like.
Sadly, in a matter of mere months, I would trade in Big Red for Bonnie Blue, a slightly smaller, compact and newer van. But I’ll always cling to this photo and to the memories of me and Big Red, rockin’ the grunge Tawny Kitaen look in my parents’ driveway.