To all the me’s I’ve loved before…

Time passes quickly up here at my age. For the younger me’s (I so want to type me’s because I know that’s what you need to see, but I’m fairly certain that mes is correct), though, it passed much more slowly. Perhaps time, in youth, passes more slowly because we change, so much, from one year to another.  I think back now on the 80’s as a decade.  But in reality, the 80’s was so much more.

I’m going to use me’s from here because although that’s not correct, mes looks too much like a typo for me to persist with it. Also, in the title. Moving on…

They were a lifetime, and, in that lifetime, there were a lot of me’s.

It was 1980 when I left sixth grade.  A little kid.  I looked something like this.

This is what happens when you go to horse camp and don’t have access to hair products. Oh, and braces. See my jacket? Yup, that’s my name sewn above the horse. In all caps. I rocked awkward.

Please, God, tell me I wore this because my mother made me. Really??? Please.

The 80’s were long, friends.  They were there when I matured enough to move on to middle school and bring homemade suckers to school, hopeful that I’d come home wealthy from my lucrative business venture. In reality, I gave them away for free to pretty much anybody I deemed as cooler than I was.  Which was pretty much everybody.

The 80’s also encompassed my highschool years.  They include the year I lost my virginity. The 80’s were there for my awkward freshman year, when my parents got divorced. They were there for braces and puberty and boys.

It was 1985 when I went to Mexico and found boyfriend number x, who I loved for x weeks.

#1 My roommate got pissed at me – this photo was on my bulletin board (do you remember bulletin boards???) and took a thumbtack (do you remember thumbtacks??) and scratched my photographed face with it. Bitch.

# 2.  I had a rat-tail.  For real. That is, until Bob C cut if off at a party and hung it from the rear-view of his yellow Camaro, which was considered a sweet ride back then.

#3 Check out my boyfriend’s pants!  And they were cool!

Here’s some of what I listened to, back then…

1983.  The Eurithmics and The Violent Femmes…Who doesn’t remember hearing “When I’m a walking, I strut my stuff, and I’m so strung out…” wondering if it was a joke or for real and loving it because you didn’t know?  Dude was so bad, he was good.  Ah. Blister in the Sun. I love you forever.

I’m saving my ultimate 80’s favorite song for next week, because it’s more of an 80’s #2 thing – but (foreshadowing), one song was the inspiration for my license plate for a while.  And OMG Duran Duran. Those douche bags deserve a mention here because hello, huge cultural influencers. Plus, I really dug their music.

Also, I’m not bragging or anything (I’m so totally bragging), but I was at the Under a Blood Red Sky concert at Red Rocks (those not in the US or not in the music world or not familiar with Red Rocks can skip this part). It was the summer after my freshman year.  I went because a friend told me they were amazing – I’d heard them but hadn’t really “known” them at that point.  We got general seating tickets, which, back then meant that you camped out in line overnight, drinking and living the good life until the gates opened up and everybody who was friends an hour ago then competed for the best seats in the house.

We camped out, sat in the rain, and waited for this…the finale. I’ve seen U2 live five times now (but not recently because their new stuff sucks) and can tell you that this concert was the most memorable of all concerts, ever.  After they blew us away, their final encore was 40.  “How long…” was sung by everybody leaving, drifting slowly to the parking lot, hanging on to what would become one of the best memories of their lives.  A memory that that is tied completely to one of the me’s I’ve been before.  This, my friends is the 80’s. And if you haven’t been to Red Rocks – I recommend you put it on your bucket list. It’s that awesome.

Oh.  And this.  When it was still cool to have sunburned cheeks, a perm, and a shaved “step thang” going on on the side of your head:

I’m hooking up with my pally Jen, over at My Skewed View (formerly Break the Parenting Mold) for Twisted Mixed Tape Tuesday! Wanna link up with us?  Enter your post below and happy Tuesday!