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Posts tagged ‘Nostalgia’

Jan 1

16 Comments

A Year in the 80’s – like, totally me

IN WHICH I SQUEEZE 10 YEARS INTO 52 DAYS
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When I say I grew up in the 80’s, I really mean it.

I turned 10 a few months before the ball dropped on the end of ’79, and I had just passed 20 when 1989 closed out in the same fashion. Only, then I was old enough to stay up and watch it happen.

Memories from my first decade of life are patchy at best: snapshots and bits of mental film that I string together as best I can. Honestly, I don’t have really strong memories until I was 12 or 13.

So when I think about “growing up”, I think of the 80’s, the decade when I was starting to be who I am.

Ok, well maybe that was happening already, and I just didn’t know it yet. But that period between 10 and 20 was pretty amazing, a mixture of understanding and confusion, a constant battle between feeling grown up already and realizing I had a hell of a long way to go.

Ah, youth! I treasure those days.

But I wouldn’t have them to do over for anything!! 😉

What I am  happy to do is take this year of Wednesdays to look back at the 80’s. The fabulous, may they never be forgotten (so we can’t make those fashion mistakes twice) 1980’s!

So pull on your Air Jordan’s and hold on to your shoulder pads, cause we’re going back in time! (Get it? Like Back to the Future? It’s an 80’s reference, ya’ll! I am so good at this.)

Here’s me in the 80’s:

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Do you have a favorite decade?

What do you remember most about the 1980’s?

♦

Apr 7

4 Comments

the Infinite Monkey speaks: on parenting

Random brilliance from across the blogosphere…

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Parenting is exhausting, but at least the kids appreciate the work you do for them. Just kidding. They totally don’t appreciate it.

 – Todd Pack

from:

Happy Birthday, Mr. Rogers (comments)

∞

Jan 7

19 Comments

Memories Old and New

As I was cleaning this weekend, I took a good long look at the picture frames sprinkled around my house.  Every now and then I take particular notice of them, but most of the time they blend in to the surround sound of visual white noise.

What I thought about is how old the pictures are and why I bother to keep them on display.  Why keep them up if I don’t pay attention to them? Why, with all of the wonderful new memories I have, with the thousands of photos I take every year, do I continue to display old ones?

Am I clinging to the past or celebrating it?

I have a tendency toward infusing objects with my emotions. Or perhaps confusing objects with emotion. To put away a photo can feel like a statement that the experience it documents doesn’t matter, as though I’m saying that time in my life, that person, that memory has no value to me. Throwing or giving away sentimental items is even harder. 

I’ve been working on that these last two years, with great results, but I don’t think it’s a part of me that will ever really change.

It does get easier.  This time I kept some and took some down.  I definitely want to highlight new memories, but there are a few old times that I’m not yet ready to let out of my sight.

And that’s okay.

♦

Items of Interest:

How do you know when it’s time to let go?

Why do I hold on to things?

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Oct 4

8 Comments

Follow through…or not, whatever.

I have no idea when I made this little diary, except that I was in elementary school and it was a special project we did in art class.  Maybe second grade?  And I also have no idea why on earth I started out writing “dear book”.  Seems kinda weird now, but that’s what I did.  Pretty soon I switched over to “dear diary” and I’ve been writing, documenting, journaling, venting – however you want to classify it – ever since.

There are other things about myself that I can trace back to the beginnings of my memory.  I’ve always been shy, timid even, and unsure.  The trifecta, right?  Don’t bet on it, haha!  Get it?  Bet on it?  The trifecta…  Yeah, I’ve had a fantastic sense of humor for as far back as I can remember.  I’ve always had trouble with left and right (don’t ask me for directions).  I’ve always struggled to understand others or to  make my own meaning understood.  I think that’s why I over-explain things, and often end up repeating people’s words back to them in my own language.  I think I know what they’re saying, but I’ve been told I was wrong so much, that I feel the need to clarify.  

And then there’s the little problem of follow through.

Dear Book, We have to write book reports every week, this is my book report, ↓

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Love the arrow pointing to all that nothingness.  And clearly my expectations were high, considering I felt I would need to “con.” on the next page.  That’s just so me.  Well, all we can do is keep on trying to improve ourselves, right?

And what about you?  What are some of the ways that you are the same now as ever?

I’m just being nosy – something else about me that hasn’t changed!

♦

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