Let the classes begin!

My group of 30 has a 45 minute break right now as we wait for the round robin sessions to switch so I'm using the time to write about things so far.  My group's consolation for not getting to go home early (yesterday, another group had "free study" time last; today, the second group has that time last; we don't get it last) will be getting our papers returned to us first.  I'm not sure that's a consolation but what can you do.

After a restless night on Thursday because of nerves and excitement, I dragged out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for back to school.  This is the first time I've been the student in 7 years.  I didn't realize it had been that long until I looked at my transcript from UNM when I was getting my graduate school paperwork together, which confirmed that my last class was summer 2002.  Time really does fly--if you had asked me a couple of months ago, I would have said it was more like five, even though I know I was finished with my library certification before I became the school librarian and this is my 6th year in that position.  I was given a pep talk by Donna, who also filled up my water bottle and made me a chai latte before scooting me out the door at 6:45.  We weren't sure what traffic would be like between her house and Denton plus I needed to stop by the parking office to pick up a temporary pass.  I had plenty of time since I got to Denton by 7:15.  As an aside observation, the sun comes up really late here.  It's not daylight at home at that time of the morning but it is much brighter by then.  I know why but it's one of those things you forget about until you're there.

Parking permit was obtained with little ado and I found my way to the classroom in a building that wasn't here when I was a student 15 years ago (it was built/dedicated in 2001 according to a plaque).  I spent the first two hours of class having a serious panic attack about this.  I honestly felt like I was two steps behind everyone else--some had come with the syllabus printed out from a website that I didn't know about and I didn't know my ID to log in to the UNT system and it was all very frustrating and disheartening and if I could have cried without anyone seeing, I probably would have.  But I'm in a room with about 100 other people so I'm fairly certain I couldn't do that.  I did, however, frantically text Donna to see if she could get onto the UNT site at her house to find out all my information for me.  After just a bit, she texted back with all the information I needed, I got onto the UNT system, found the mysterious website, and felt myself calm down enough to listen to the lecture that had been going on the entire time.

And I found myself really interested.  I am such a nerd but I LOVE this stuff.  The class that I'm on campus for is on information organization and we're going to spend the semester creating a database of information for a hypothetical collection.  I know eyes will glaze over when I talk about that but I think it's cool.  My other class is on information resources development and from the syllabus, it seems to be about, well, developing information resources.  All the stuff to acquire collections, collection development, evaluating different resources, etc., etc.  I do that already in my day job and I'm hoping that I'll be able to use information from there in the class.  I've got to email the instructor to make certain that it is allowable.  If not, I'll get even chummier with some of my colleagues in the district and use their library collections.  Or maybe use a combination of the two.

I know that I need to get a big calendar and write out all the due dates for everything.  I've got to work on my time management skills again.  The past seven years of managing my sitting time with my productive time hasn't exactly been very taxing and I'm thinking it will be a 180 degree shift very soon.  The second class seems to will allow for more independent pacing as long as I have the assignments in on time (and don't wait until the last minute to do them!).  This class that I'm on campus for will require more specific work and online chat times.  Paul will be happy that I'm busy in the evenings again so he won't feel guilty when he has to work so much.

It is very surreal being back on the UNT campus.  When I was walking to lunch yesterday, I went by Maple Hall, my dorm at UNT, and got a little sentimental.  I did a quick drive around campus yesterday afternoon and just a flood of memories came back--mostly good, lots of funny ones, some a little bittersweet.  I was, of course, reminded of my seriously crazy roommate from freshman year--Kathie with all her crazy Aladdin and Disney paraphernalia including a glow-in-the-dark Aladdin poster and all the Disney princes (her boyfriend had all the princesses) and the 35 pictures of her boyfriend plastered around the room and her cartoon in the bathroom.  Meeting our friend Peter whose dorm room overlooked the sidewalk from Maple to the main part of campus.  Jacqueline, Debbie, Teri, Tina, Nicole, Katie, Christine (Steph's roommate), and Diana (my roommate when Kathie finally moved out).  Our friend Bryan who casually knew Kathie in high school and didn't really like her but stuck around with me and Steph.  Spending way too much time at the Delta Sig house.  Being so sick while trying to take finals in December.  Never quite knowing what to do about Ray.  Kathie's cookies being made with "a double dose of love."  Steph, Xavier, and I inviting our professor Dr. Bruner to coffee because it seemed like the thing to do (he just had that aura about him) and then nearly choking because I'd never had coffee before.  Imbibing just a bit too much at a party in Peter's room and getting pathetically weepy with Steph.  Getting written up for playing Beastie Boys too loud after quiet hours.  Not really knowing what to expect with my mom being sick in the spring.  All the laughs and fights and tears that come when you stick a bunch of girls together in closely confined space.  I remember being so homesick during the year and desperately wanting to transfer to Texas Tech to be closer to home but not wanting to because I didn't want to leave my friends at UNT.  Most of those friendships didn't stick after I moved but I'm really glad for the one that did because she reminds me of that very crazy year of life when I was so ready to conquer the world but utterly clueless and unequipped about how to do it.  And she can verify so much of the things that happened and remind me of the things I've forgotten.  I love her for all those things and for being a friend for the past 15 years.  And since I'm making myself all mushy and sentimental and weepy while writing about freshman year, I'm going to stop.  It's time to get back to the work at hand anyway.

Now and some stuff from Then

The Now:
It is book fair week at my fair school. Everyone's reaction when I say that is always "Oh, I love the book fair!" Yep. I used to as well--you know, until I started running the book fair. It's not bad, just a very high-energy week for me. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are scheduled with all the language arts classes so it's super busy. This morning was Doughnut Day so I was there at 7:30 with 4 dozen doughnuts and my husband to hand them out. I'm all about recruiting those close to you to help out. Paul didn't think it was too bad as the children were well-behaved since he was the Doughnut Guy. We'd debated if 4 dozen would be enough. I think we could have given away another dozen easily. The doughnuts were "free with a fair purchase" or a quarter each. Paul was concerned that we wouldn't break even and thought we should charge 50 cents--I didn't care so much about breaking so much as generating a little interest in the book fair this morning. I picked a quarter because the cheapest thing we have at the fair is a pencil for 35 cents. The doughnuts definitely a hit and something I'll keep in mind to do during the next fair. (Speaking of recruiting family members, my FIL helped man the register during lunches on Monday and my MIL was there today. And if my own family was closer, they would have been called into service as well.) Tomorrow will most likely be a bit slow as no classes are scheduled and there isn't the urgency to buy stuff that comes with Friday. Friday is always busy with walk-ins and the two lunches are crazy. But then it's over and I can shelve all the library books that have been returned and ignored.

The Then:
For the December Junior League meeting, we were asked to submit our old prom pictures. The president is going to use them during to create a funny a little presentation on "What Not to Wear" for holiday parties. It took a while but I managed to dig them up.

My junior prom in 1992. I'd had to screw up all my nerve to ask Bob to be my date to the prom. I was in Lubbock for the UIL Regional Academic contests and he went to play Putt-Putt with all of us from Texline. Everyone, including the sponsor, knew I was trying to gather enough courage to ask him to go with me as I'd blathered on about it for the entire trip to Lubbock. I'm not sure why I was so nervous since we were kinda sorta dating at the time and he wouldn't be surprised by my asking. But he was a sophomore in college and I didn't know if he'd want to come back for a prom. He did and we had a fabulous time. Definitely my favorite prom of the four I attended (yes, four. And I was actually asked to go to a 5th. I made a very good prom date.)

Most people are shocked when I say 1) the place I consider my hometown, Texline, has 450 people (yes, I realize your graduating class was bigger than that) and 2) there were 14 people in my graduating class. Here's the proof. That is everyone in the Texline High School Class of 1993. One of my coworkers asked which one was my boyfriend. I can honestly say none of them although I did kiss one of them quite a bit. We won't go into that further because my mother and sisters will read this.

My senior prom in 1993. Like my dress. Didn't like my date. I'm still not sure why I didn't ask Bob to escort me again (oh yeah--that whole drama queen thing). My h.s. best friend (she's the one in the black and white dress in the front row in the class picture) and I still bemoan the fact that we didn't just go together because we probably would have had a lot more fun in the end as she wasn't terribly fond of her date at the time, either (that would be the blonde boy on the right in the front row in the above picture). I don't think half my class was talking to each other by this time and it was just a very teenage-dramatic evening and not nearly as much fun as it should have been for a senior prom.

And I had to throw in this one of Amy and David because I love both the size of Amy's hair and the size of her ruffles on her dress. (The dress was very cute in a 1992 kind of way.)

How I finally snagged him

I've always said I knew I was going to marry Paul before we were even dating. I had that moment of epiphany over Labor Day Weekend, 1995. Paul was dog-sitting for a friend of his who was out of town for the long weekend. He was playing with this obnoxious little poodle and suddenly I just knew I was going to marry this boy. I was 20 years old, we weren't dating, we were barely friends. But something in me just knew.

Convincing Paul took a bit longer.

We were together at Tech for about a year until Paul finished his master's program mid-semester and moved back to Albuquerque in October 1996. I graduated in May 1997 and spent a year teaching in Texas.

I moved to Albuquerque in the summer of 1998 to start graduate school and gave us 16 months (the length of the graduate program) to figure out what we were going to do--we'd dated almost three years but we'd only spent one year in the same town. There were more than a few naysayers when I announced I was moving to NM for a boy. Most people couldn't believe I was going to do this without us being engaged and no real promise that we ever would be. Honestly, I had plenty of my own doubts but it was something I had to do.

My first year in ABQ was rough. When I look back, I'm amazed and happy Paul stuck it out with me. I was horribly homesick when I first moved here--there is more than a little animosity for Texans among many New Mexicans and during my first graduate class, I was actually greeted with an "I hate Texans" by one of my classmates. Welcome to the Land of Enchantment! After I started teaching, I was transferred to a different school after the 20-day enrollment count. Because the numbers were down at the school where I was, as the last-hired, I was sent to a school that had higher-than-predicted enrollment. It was horrid--it's a tough school to begin with and the students were understandably angry about changing teachers. I was miserable. I cried almost daily and there were times when Paul would stay at my apartment to make certain I went to work the next morning.

Of course, as the year was progressing, it was getting closer and closer to my deadline for when Paul had to propose or I moved back to Texas. I've had several friends (mostly male) tell me it was rotten to give Paul an ultimatum but I don't think it was one. I just wanted to know if I was just spinning my wheels or if we were actually heading down the aisle. I wasn't getting any younger--heck, I was already a ripe old 24. Paul was relunctant to even talk about marriage so I honestly didn't know what he was thinking. Did he want to marry me? Was he just being nice to me because I'd moved for him and life wasn't exactly rosy as a result? Did he think it was all a big mistake? I had no clue.

Then, our friend with the obnoxious poodle ratted Paul out during a visit in early March that he'd gotten his grandmother's ring from his parents. That got my hopes up a bit but after three weeks with no sign of a ring, I had pretty much given up on a proposal. I was heading to Texas for Spring Break and was going to start looking for jobs back there. Paul and I were going to spend Monday together before I was gone for the week when he decided to go in to work for the morning which turned into most of the day. By 2:00, I'd had it with waiting and decided I'd just leave early and called Paul to tell him so. He told me to please wait, he'd be coming over soon.

So I went to Target.

And the grocery store and just wasted time for a few hours, knowing full well that Paul was probably waiting at my apartment. (Yes, I know--passive-agressive.) Walking into my apartment, Paul was indeed waiting there for me with the cat. Still a little peeved with him, I opted to open junk mail in the kitchen rather than talk to him.

That's when he handed me this beautiful wooden jewelry box he'd gotten a few years earlier on a trip to San Francisco. He hadn't given it to me after that trip because he thought it needed something nice in it. Something nice like his grandmother's wedding ring.
I think he said something about how much he loved me and that he wanted to spend his life with me and would you marry me? I honestly can't remember because I was too busy shouting, "Oh, my gosh! That's a big diamond!" It wasn't the most romantic of proposals but it did the job since I said yes and we got married six months later--it took 3 1/2 years to get to a proposal, didn't see a need to wait around any more. Paul's idea was "any time after May" but I'd had my heart set on a fall wedding for a long time. October 2 it was.

My sister Amy jokes about my "used" diamond. The ring was from Paul's step-grandmother Esther. She married Paul's grandfather Ralph in the mid-70's (Paul's grandmother died of cancer when Paul was about 3). The diamonds were ones from her family--the main diamond is an Old European cut which dates back to the early 1900's--but we don't have any history before that. The style of the ring wasn't really me so I did have it reset into something much simpler and part of the platinum was incorporated into Paul's wedding band.

After we were married, my MIL told me she was really worried Paul was going to mess up and I would move back to Texas. She didn't know of the "ultimatum" I'd given Paul--she just couldn't blame me for leaving him if he didn't do something. I have to admit I was really worried about Paul messing up, too. I didn't know if Paul would actually make me live up to my word. I've been asked many times if I actually would have done it--actually left him if it hadn't proposed. I don't think I really would have had a choice.

Every day, I'm so glad I didn't have to make that decision.

Marriage Meme

Paul laughs that I will still get a little weepy when reading about weddings or talking about ours. It's exactly what I did when reading Loni's post about her wedding. My sister Donna and I were at the wedding and it was such a beautiful day. It was also the first time I met Loni and her now-husband. We'd met online on an AOL wedding board and we figured out we'd both attended Texas Tech. She so graciously invited me to her wedding and after much discussion with Paul and Donna because I didn't know if Loni really wanted me there, Paul finally told me to get an airline ticket and go. Donna and I sat towards the back of the church so we could leave quickly if necessary--like if we were getting kicked out. What can I say--she was the first person I met from Internet world and it was her wedding. I didn't know what to expect, I was a little nervous, and I was still worried that she really didn't want me there. But I'm glad we went and I'm even happier to count her among my IRL friends.

Since she tagged me to do this, I was going to wait to post this because the anniversary of our engagement is coming up (March 29). But, I'll reminisce about that day in another post. Here is all about our wedding day.
1. Where/How did you meet? We met through a mutual friend who was back in Lubbock for a visit. I was a sophomore and Paul was a first-year grad student.

2. How long have you known each other? Since April 1995.

3. How long after you met did you start dating? 5-ish months. We never had an "official" first date; we were always together so it's hard to say when we actually started dating. It was after Labor Day but before my birthday. :)

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? 3 1/2 years.

5. How long was your engagement? About six months.

6. How long have you been married? 7 1/2 years

7. What is your anniversary? October 2

8. How many people came to your wedding reception? We had about 80 people at our wedding and I think they all went to the reception

9. What kind of cake did you serve? The wedding cake was a 3-tiered stacked carrot cake with buttercream icing. Groom's cake was devil's food cake.

10. Where was your wedding? First Baptist Church in Canadian, TX; my parents' house was just across the street

11. What did you serve for your meal? We had a luncheon with salad, chicken cordon bleu, Paul's favorite green beans, something else I'm sure...

12. How many people were in your bridal party? 2 bridesmaids and 2 groomsmen

13. Are you still friends with them all? Yes, because it would make for awkward holidays if we weren't (my sisters were my MOHs; Paul's brother and best friend were the groomsmen)

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? No, but I was about 2 seconds from hitting the full-on ugly cry. I was starting to cry and I could see Jeff (best man) looking at the Kleenex in the front pew (because I didn't have any). Paul offered me his shirt sleeve to wipe my nose and I started laughing which made me stop crying.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? My favorite picture is us walking back down the aisle as husband and wife--all the stress and worries getting up to that point were over and we were married! Oh, and Tech beat A&M in football that afternoon, which is always good.

16. Any funny moments? Yep, recounted here. And we didn't practice the "feeding the cake" bit (and didn't use forks) so I managed to get my thumb in Paul's mouth so he bit it when he bit down. I found it really amusing but I'm not sure anyone else knew what was going on. **And the thing Donna mentioned in the comments--the centerpieces at the reception were small pumpkins hollowed out and filled with mums. Our friend Bob decided he needed to carve a jack-o-lantern in the pumpkin on his table using his table knife. My aunt saw him and just thought he was "hiding" behind the flowers so she started "hiding" as well, like they were playing peek-a-book but Bob had *no* idea as to what my aunt was doing (and having been around my family quite a bit, he was already convinced 90% of them were crazy and this just reinforced that belief)

17. Any big disasters? No disasters, big or small. I remember my mom walking into the bride's room as we were taking pictures, grabbing me by the shoulders and saying "The cake! It's leaning!" I'm thinking Leaning Tower of Pisa leaning but it wasn't. Just a slight tilt. Crisis averted when I suggested we turn the cake plate so it was leaning to the back. Mom was a little nervous. :) Oh, and then one of my cousins refused to come into the reception if she couldn't sit next to our grandparents--Mom managed to resolve that issue with very few people (including me until after the reception) knowing what was going on.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? We went to San Francisco. It just happened to be one of the hottest weeks on record for SF. We did get to see the fog one day though, so I was happy.

19. How long were you gone? We were in CA for a week.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? There would be a few things I'd change if I were planning our wedding today just because I'm older and my tastes have changed. But for the most part, I'd have a very similar wedding if for no other reason than because it got us married which was the ultimate goal.

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Paul would say "the middle side" but I start out on the left-hand side (if you're in the bed).

22. What size is your bed? Queen

23. Greatest strength as a couple? Our commitment to each other and this marriage. We're a good balance for each other, as well.

24. Greatest challenge as a couple? Communication. But we know it and it's something we work on all the time, sometimes to more success than other times.

25. Who literally pays the bills? That would be the magic of online banking and automatic bill pay. But it was all set up by me because it just doesn't enter into Paul's thinking that oh, yeah, we should pay the electric bill.

26. What is your song? Hmmm...we don't really have a "song" although Paul likes to antagonize me and say Supernova by Liz Phair. And while I like the song, it's not exactly something you could play for a first dance or even play in polite company. "Hey, Grandma! Just ignore that f-bomb and the reference to sex! Thanks!"

27. What did you dance your first dance to? Paul's one request was no dancing at the reception. I would have loved it but he's not much of a dancer. We did agree that if we'd had a first dance, it would have been to Sinatra's You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me.

28. Describe your wedding dress. It was white with a tatted-lace bodice, cummerbund waist and a satin A-line skirt. The train, which was "sweep length" (a.k.a short) and detachable, had the tatted lace around the edge. No beading or sequins or fuss or muss--very simple and low-key which was perfect for our simple, low-key morning wedding. I found a picture of it in a wedding magazine and just knew it was the dress I wanted. It was the only one I tried on.

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? My MOHs carried hand-tied bouquets of red, orange, and yellow Gerbera daisies tied with chocolate brown ribbons. Mine was hand-tied cream Gerberas with a cream ribbon. The rest of the flowers around the church and reception were various kinds of mums and other fall-esque flowers. I loved our flowers. My inlaws paid the flower bill and I remember my MIL telling me that I could pick more expensive flowers but it was just what I wanted.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? What do they say? I had Paul's engraved with "Always" and our anniversary date (10-2-99). I didn't mention engraving so he didn't do anything for my ring.

**My sister Donna has said that the picture of us kissing "freaks her out" because our eyes are open. I'd never even noticed that until she pointed it out to me on her last visit.

A happy ending for an old story

Fight Matadors, for Tech
There is an old Mac Davis song entitled "Texas in my Rearview Mirror" and the chorus is that he thought happiness was Lubbock, Texas, in his rearview mirror--that he just wanted to grow up and get out of that dusty little town.

Funny, because for so long, it was just where I wanted to be.

Songs of love we'll sing to thee
We went to Lubbock this weekend for the Texas Tech Homecoming game. As we were driving there, it occurred to me that the first Tech football game I attended was 15 years ago. There was a boy from my hometown who was a sophomore at Tech--whenever he'd come home, we'd go out on dates, and this being the era before e-mail and cell phones, we wrote frequent letters and made occasional phone calls in the other times. This boy invited me, along with my family, to come to Lubbock for a football game. My parents agreed (much to my surprise and delight) and we chose a weekend in October when my sister Amy was running in a cross country meet in Lubbock.

Bear our banners, far and wide
He picked me up from the cross country meet and we spent the day together in Lubbock. I was all of 16 years old (but almost 17 so I thought I was so grown-up) and just thought it was the coolest thing to be on the Tech campus with a college boy. I'm sure I was hoping that no one would realize I was just a junior in high school and trying to play it so cool. He showed me all around campus--I had a rather eye-opening experience at his dorm--and at the game, I sat in the student section with him. I remember being amazed at the crowd and the band--just taking it all in. It was just where I wanted to be and I started imagining a future at Tech and with this boy.

Ever to be our pride
We went to a game the next year as well. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and while I don't remember the opponent, I do remember that I have never been colder. It was a wet, cold, windy day and we spent most of the first half facing one endzone because then our backs were to the wind. (We, along with most of the faithful, left at halftime.) Since I was now an ever-so-adult 18, the boy took me out dancing and then we went to a real-live college party. I can still remember telling one of the friends that I while I might be in high school, I wasn't an idiot after he told me that it was OK to eat the fruit from the trash can punch.

And then the boy broke my heart. He told me that he'd met a girl and he wanted to make it more serious--that she might just be "the one." We'd always had a very curious open relationship--both of us dated other people but they had never been "serious." It was just crushing to hear that he thought this girl was someone worth ending whatever strange little thing we had going. Not even two weeks earlier, I'd sat with him as he cried after his father's funeral. I was ready for us to be "serious." I wanted to be the one. I was sending in college applications and Tech was at the top of my list. Because of him.

Fearless champions ever be
I cried the entire four hour trip home. I decided not to go to Tech the following fall. I decided to move on.

When he came home at Christmas, he admitted that he and "the one" had broken up. Seems she just wanted to get laid. And so did he. But that wasn't much to build a relationship on. We dated a bit again after that, but he'd really hurt me. I know now I was just a child when we started dating, despite however old I felt at 16, but I'd really believed that we would have a "grown-up" relationship when I went to college. That we could be more than whatever we were when we were apart. I admit I was scheming to marry this boy (but everyone else in town was having the same thoughts as well, including him).

That one football weekend changed everything that would finally bring me to this point in my life.

Stand on heights of victory
I chose to go to North Texas in the fall (well, my mother didn't give me much choice when I'd decided I'd changed my mind about Tech in May). I met another boy who I ended up dating for two years, although that mostly became a lesson in what I *didn't* want in a relationship. I did transfer to Tech at the start of my sophomore year and I saw the boy from time to time on campus (he'd "extended" his senior year by a semester). We became friends again. We even dated a bit the summer between my sophomore and junior year. But I just couldn't do it again. Too much time had passed. Too much had changed between us.

Strive for honor, evermore
But something very good did come out of that relationship--that boy introduced me to the one I married. He and Paul had been great friends as undergrads and he introduced us because he thought we'd be friends. Before he left for graduate school in Michigan, he tried to make Paul and I promise that we wouldn't date--neither of us would because we just couldn't imagine that happening.

I made Paul call him two months later when we started dating. He wasn't thrilled (OK, he was really, really angry with me but not Paul for whatever reason) but he wasn't surprised. He was in our wedding four years later. Sadly, he committed suicide a couple of years ago due to severe depression and a wife who didn't support his efforts to get the medical help he needed to deal with it. I often wonder what would have happened if that one weekend 14 years ago had gone differently. I wouldn't change my life now, except to have that boy still be a part of it.

But from time to time, I do wonder.

Long live the Matadors!
So, here I am some 15 years later in a completely different place (literally--Albuquerque? what's up with that?) than what I'd envisioned my future would hold. I'm not nearly as self-assured or as smart at that 16-almost 17!-year-old girl. But I am much happier with who I am and what my life holds. And I also know (at least, I'm learning) that no amount of planning can ever be as wonderful as just letting the future take us where it will.

Part of the happy ending--pictures from this weekend:


Abigail and Benjamin play with the new Little People toy we brought them. Abigail kept running into her room for "more peoples!" to put on the LP ferris wheel. Benjamin turned one on September 29.
Pregame (and probably the best part of the game)--the band takes the field.
We were right next to the tunnel, which meant we were surrounded by tons of little boys wanting to see the players and maybe, just maybe, get a high-five from them.
Band+ cheerleaders+Saddle Tramps+media+players+random other people = on field pregame madness
After spotting Missouri 21 points, Tech finally scores a touchdown just before the half.
Our friends Karen and Chris with their little girl, Kelly.
Amy and David with the new foam gun for Abigail, who has a collection of foam fingers (when you wear one, you have to say "Woohoo!")
Yep, Paul was still sick and probably shouldn't have been at the game but he insisted.
The band at halftime.
Kelly gets her guns up. We said it would be a shame if in 16 years, she says she's going to A&M.
The Masked Rider roaming the sidelines.
After halftime the team runs back on the field. Tech ended up losing to Missouri 38-21. Boo.

Maybe I should start by asking for the Easy-Bake Oven I never owned as a child*

I saw this cookbook while in Carmel. I was tempted to buy it. I didn't but I was very tempted.

*My older sister did have an Easy-Bake Oven but Donna wouldn't allow Amy or me near it to look at its plastic gloriousness, much less let us play with it. The Lite Brite, yes. But never the Easy-Bake Oven.

Rockin' the sweater vest

Me, circa 1987.

In addition to the extremely large glasses, please note also the peach Swatch and the friendship bracelet. Not visible in the photo are the pegged khakis and the boat shoes.

It helps when I explain that it was 1987 and that this is my 7th grade school picture. It doesn't help when I mention that in the school pictures taken in 1986 and 1988, I'm also wearing a sweater vest. The yearbook staff is putting pictures of the school staff in middle school in this year's book. This is the one they chose for me. It was apparently a toss-up between this one with those obnoxiously huge frames or my 1988 picture where I've got some obnoxiously big bangs (but contacts--I was so happy).