4 posts tagged “friends”

Michael Jackson impersonator/dealer in action: 1
Unconscious people lying full-length on the ground outside: 1
Unconscious people lying full-length outside the elevator doors when they opened: 1
Arrests: 1.5
Actual strippers (female): 40
Actual strippers (male): 2
Girls who just wanted to look like strippers: 500
Bums: 5
Beers: 4
Shots: 2
Wine: 5
Other drinks: 4
Guys in drag: 2
Rpattz lookalikes: 1
Blisters: 2
Girlie cards collected: 60
Bachelorette parties seen: 2
Brides seen in full dress running through a casino: 3
People getting tattooed: 1
Limo rides: 2
Hours to drive round trip: 11
Regrets: 1 [not bringing comfy shoes]

Full entry over here:  http://retention.livejournal.com/776687.html?mode=reply
Full album over here:  http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=799177&albumId=3460442

http://www.glubdub.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=8&Itemid=10039

Booga and Brody - Collaborative Works In Progress.

Just because this is The Internet, you get the disclaimer.  If your place of employment doesn't care if you surf it at work, then it's probably okay.  There are some nudie bits in the drawings though... but they're just drawings.  

Gahh.  Their work (collectively and separately) is so GOOD.  I love it.  Michelle proves that there's more to life than just drinking your way through the weekend.  If any of you people are in the PA/Ohio area, please go check their stuff out and support it.  

::wayne's world moment::

Who is the very first friend you ever had?  Are you still in touch?

To my best recollection, Leslie Douglas was the very first friend I ever had.  She introduced me to Amika & Angela, and the three of us hung out for a good portion of my childhood.  Suffice it to say*, she and I lost touch roughly a decade ago, however Amika and I still speak (via the Internet) weekly, if not more than that. 

Angela (who kept going MIA) has been found, and is married, living in Seattle.  Angela is tough to not only keep in touch with but to stay in touch with, so the two of us have sort of given up on her.  She knows how to reach us and we're not turning her away, but it's too great of an effort to keep running after someone like that.  It sounds terrible but it's just that she has moved on, and while we know that she still thinks of us, she doesn't exactly write too often.

Leslie, last I heard, was living with some guy back in the town we all grew up in.  She changed (or maybe we did), and we never really kept in touch after tenth grade or so.  Her cousin I still talk to somewhat regularly, if only to say hi.  We did the church thing for a long time, and yes, I still talk to all my church peeps (mostly). :)

Thanks, MySpace, for helping to keep everyone in touch and for making reunions obsolete.

*one of my favorite phrases.

I want you to think back... *way* back.  Remember, let's say, eighth grade dances?  Prom?  Graduation?  Chorus and band concerts?  College graduation, random parties?  Anything from five years or further back?

Well, you all know that somebody was there, documenting it, probably with a huge camera... getting all your hairstyles and crazy outfits and stupid poses on film.  Laughing as you tried to duck from the camera, because nobody had The Internet then, but you pretended to be camera-shy when you  know you really just wanted a goofy photo.  Maybe you caught a sneak shot of that girl or boy you had a crush on, or maybe they posed with you and didn't know you'd save the photo for the rest of your life.

Maybe as the years went on the memories faded, all you could remember were good feelings (or bad), but the faces had blurred too much.  Now in the digital world things are so much easier to duplicate, to share, to look back and laugh at.  Nobody really thought much of being in front of or behind the camera, and we would write all over our photos, documenting the place and time for reference.

I'd like to present a little glimpse back to those days, the days before Photoshop and MySpace and cell phones that make tiny movies.  Did I mention this is pre-Photoshop?  Yeah.  Maybe this is why some cultures are afraid the lens will steal a piece of their soul. 

----

I don't have a scanner, only a digital camera.  Some of these weren't great quality to begin with, but taking a good snapshot of a snapshot can be very tough.  I tried to salvage what I could.

I haven't always been a cat person; MarSing still lives with my family back in PA.  She was a tiny little rockstar Shih Tzu, she's maybe 14 now.  We got her when I was in sixth grade.

One day I decided to take a nap with her on the kitchen floor.  Barrettes and a shirt that changed color in the sun, oh lord.

A lot of you don't know about Cedar Point, but it's my second favorite amusement park ever, and holds a lot of sentimentality to me.  The Raptor was the first roller coaster I ever went on, a good way to get rid of my crippling fear of coastes.  That ride was PIMP.  So here I am on a weekend band trip to Cedar Point, buzzed off of two airplane bottles of rum.  It's come full circle because it's a photo... of me, holding a photo... of me.  In a handicapped parking space.

Here's where people are going to start with the "I can't believe you still have that... and you put it online!"

Clockwise from left is Maria, Brandi, Telise way in the back, Lindsay, me (still buzzed), and Toni.  It was SO HOT out.

Clockwise from left here is Corinn, someone I don't remember, Brandi, Daren, possibly Scooter, Toni, me, and Genevieve in the front.

Here we've got Sarah on the left, Toni, Brandi, Jennifer, and Tiffani.  Somewhere around 98, I think.

Lindsay and her ex Josh dancing at our cast party for Oliver. YES WE WERE ALL IN IT EVEN ME OKAY.

Webb and Alda at their (senior?) prom.

Dante at the same prom...heh, nice hair.  He cleans up aiight, and Kim (class of 99) is in the background.  I had braids too for like... a minute.

Daren (class of 99) and Toni (class of 00)

Daren and her friend

Shalynn (class of 99)... and yeah, I made Jason name his Blood Elf Shaelynn. Now you know.

I totally said I would dig these up and was glad to see they were still in the safety of plastic.  If I can find my old colorguard photos they'll be up too, so don't worry.

first one is Daren/Toni in the top row and me/Rikki on the bottom.  Rikki played flute, Toni and Daren played clarinet with me in regular band but Daren stayed on the Quipette (cheerleading) squad for marching band.  

Senior band shot, hah!  Clockwise from bottom left, me, Brian, Maria, Telise (way in back again), Brandi, Cyndi, Anna, Genevieve (should have been in front), Shalynn, Chimdi (who's MIA), and Mike.  The girls in the sparklies are all colorguard except Maria who was a majorette.  Anna played flute, Chimdi and Brian on sax, and the other two played trumpet.

Myself and Rob (Mike's brother) at District band.

Andre and Josh on drums (in back), Jesse/Shalynn/Mike/Autumn or Heather (can't remember) on trumpet.  Jesse and Brian on sax, and Raymond/Toni on clarinet.  We totally all had those same expressions all four years of HS.

The faces they're making had me all kinds of LOL here.  Andre & Josh in back, Maria/Jesse/Brian on sax, Ray/Toni/me/Lisa on clarinet (YES I STILL ROCKED THE SUNGLASSES), and Missy over on flute.

Rob & Ray before one of our band/chorus concerts, with their infamous grins.

Brandi & Amy at the same concert.

Brandi, me, Corinn... and Hamm.

And now for the college photos, just a few.  I love these photos so much. :)

This was at our '01 graduation, a month before I moved here.  DaveCasey, me, Rich, MacIntyre and his kid.

Very oldschool, at the non-Oakdale building downtown.  From left, Eugene, John Alexander, Rich, Brad, DaveCasey, Michelle, Derek (i think), and Winters

Myself with Zimmie... yeah, he's about 7 feet tall.

Classic Rich.

One day Ward and I went to the movies, probably with Hobbit & Crew.  They had a photo booth with the cool slides, and this was the result.  He rocks, this photo always makes me laugh.

My favorite PTI photo of all time, taken outside The Only Nearby Coffee Shop (aka Our Common Grounds) I used to hang out at *all* the time, before it became a 21+ "CyberBar".  Rich, me and Winters.  

And just in case you thought I was gonna rock it and not make fun of myself, here you go.  If you can't laugh at yourself then you can't laugh at anyone else.  So... a transition!
Once upon a time.  I was only a couple months here, and can no longer do that thing with my right eyebrow.  Nice shaved head.

I might have been two here, rockin' the flower tossing at some family member's wedding.  My cousin was the ring bearer and we are ultimately very creepy looking.

Shut up, if you're a girl my age and your mother doesn't have at least one photo like this of you then I will be surprised.  Tap, jazz AND ballet... for like four years.

Yes, it's a church photo.  Judging from the hair, this was perhaps eighth grade, right before My Transition to Makeup, Contacts, and No Bangs.  My mom totally did my hair every day until probably the beginning of summer going into ninth grade.  Ahhh.

Class of 1999, and it's finally over.  Hence the happy grin.  I wonder where my tassle is?

Progressing, this was shortly after graduation when I really was at Clarion for the weekend.  That's Craig, 1 of the 2 cool people in the old version of Everclear.  Greg was also cool.  I'm happy with this photo even though the flash was crazy.

And finally we've got me a little more like you know me today.  This was the very humid summer of '01, during my PTI graduation week.  Despite having spent the day crying, this is probably my favorite photo of Jason & me.  It was his last day of visiting, and the next time I would see him would be a month later, after moving to SD.  I was about a buck ten here.

I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.  A few of the people in those photos are MIA... anybody know what's up?