Sunday, January 14, 2007

A Squishy Post.

So I was bored and wanted to write an entry for my blog, but was feeling uninspired. So I broke out my trusty blogger book and decided I would write about whatever was on the page that I opened to (boy would my boss hate that sentence). I opened to one that said scan an embarrassing photo of yourself and write about it.
In the process of finding a photo to scan, I found some I had scanned a few months ago (not of me). I had done it with the intention of writing a post about them, but couldn't find the words, so I didn't, Now maybe I do.
When I was in eighth grade I had some tough times. Times that made me want to leave everybody I knew and head to a school, far away from my neighborhood. Very few students from my school had gone to this high school, and half of those were my sisters. But even that far away I still had trouble. Despite all the choices open to me, I ended up with friends of questionable influence. So I decided to transfer to a different school, which was incredibly difficult.
My first high school was co-ed and liberal. It was filled with intelligent people, and lots of interesting classes. My second high school was exactly the opposite. It was an all-girls' school in the middle of no where built next to a strict Franciscan convent. It was NOT filled with intelligent people. It was not liberal and as the principle at the second school had warned me at my interview, it was like going back to grammar school after my first high school.
To this day my mother asks if I regretted transferring and my answer is always the same.
My second school saved me. My grades were so much better and I rid myself of the bad influences. Most importantly, I took away something from that school that wasn't in the curriculum: the ability to be myself, and not give a fiddler's fart what the rest of the world thought of me.
I certainly didn't learn that from the teachers there. Not the nuns who tried to tell me "Ladies do not get angry." I learned it from the friends I made there, especially Anna and Lisa.
I think that every girl, for at least one period in your life needs the kind of girl friends that stupid coming of age/chick flick movies are made of. Anna and Lisa were mine. When we were together, which was practically always, we just had crazy fun. There was an entire summer where we just went out every weekend night and goofed around. There wasn't (usually) drinking, just coffee, grilled cheese (hold the pickles) and more sugar than humans are supposed to consume in a lifetime. We'd go up north to the Fireside Bowl, then to Don's Coffeehouse(very far away) then way south to Denny's. Afterwards we'd go back to my house (because I didn't have a curfew). Where we'd sit on the front porch until the sun got ready to come up. Then we'd go to the top of the hill in a nearby park and watch the sun rise, while we composed really horrible beat-like poetry (some of which I still have, but will never share with anyone else)!


There seems to be something so entirely wonderful about having a friend or two to whom you tell everything. People who you have totally ridiculous movie moments, and never care if people see you. Like the time we went camping and all our tents leaked so we spent an evening at the campsite laundry mat drying our sleeping bags and swing dancing in the parking lot (way before the Gap commercial).

We also enjoyed going places and taking really strange pictures. This resulted in me having a boxful of pictures that are really weird but having no desire to get rid of them. Here are some of the more normal ones:


This one was taken at the Woodhaven Lakes mini-golf course.



This one was one of a series taken on our last day before we went off to three different colleges. The whole series was really great. Some of my best photography. I took this which is why I am the only one not on the swing, and yes, this was taken at our park at six a.m.

This one was taken this summer (the lens flare was added in Photoshop). It's good to see that somethings never change.

4 comments:

La Sirena said...

Nice post, Liza. Cool pics. I just have one question:

How did you not have a curfew???

I had the earliest curfew of any adolescent in the entire city AND I was always grounded for getting home 15 or so after curfew and you didn't even have a curfew!!!

Damn, I guess that's why mom spent so much time telling me life isn't fair.

Woodlandmama said...

City curfew was imposed on me throughout high school. I always told mom where I was going, and came home on time. For these reasons, at 17 when city curfew no longer applied to me, I no longer had a curfew. Still, Mom knew where I was going and who I was with. Plus, she liked and trusted my friends.

No, life isn't fair.

Woodlandmama said...

Plus things are always tougher on the oldest than they are on the baby. Also, when I lived with Dad, I had a MUCH more strict curfew, as in I had to be where I was going to be for the night when the streetlights came on. F.Y.I.-I was 16 when I lived with Dad.

Meander said...

The no curfew maybe started with me. Mom knew I liked to go to bed early so she said, I am not giving you a curfew because then you will feel like you HAVE to stay out until curfew when really you want to come home at 9. This was almost always true for me. (nerd)