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gmonkey42I need to do another PCR but I'd have to go home to shower and change first because I've already been in post-PCR today and I can't be arsed. So here's a meme.
I was going to do one of those memes where you bold the things that apply to you like "I had a Rainbow Brite doll" but those are always about the 80s. I'd prefer one about the 90s so I can look back fondly on that festering hellpit that was junior high. And some stuff about high school. I'm not going to do this like a meme because I probably won't be able to think of enough things to list but here's...
GMonkey's reminiscing
1. There was a girl in my class who was really, really into Guns n Roses. She was also sort of the resident trouble-maker, except we were a bunch of suburban kids going to a high-rated (but public) school so she didn't get up to all that much, as far as I knew anyway. But one time in 8th grade, she brought a condom to school, which caused a ruckus among us kids. She filled it up with water and everyone said she should name it "Axl" so she did.
Sophomore year in high school, if I remember correctly, a bunch of us (but not this girl) were at the Hard Rock Cafe for a friend's birthday. There was a condom machine in the bathroom and I decided we should get one. Nobody else had the guts but one friend (with whom I've remained in touch) came with me for moral support. You should've seen the looks I got. I was about 15. The friend said I should get a blue one, because it said in the machine that they came in assorted colors, but I couldn't choose, I just had to take the one that came out of the slot. I didn't open it till I got home and when I did it turned out it was a blue one. I called my friend to tell her. Then I filled it up with water.
2. Style-wise, I went totally grunge/alternative, followed by practically cross-dressing, followed by semi-goth. Ah, for the days when 13-year-old girls wanted to wear jeans, Doc Martens (or Chuck Taylors) and flannel, instead of pink belly shirts that say "porn star." I was shopping at Hot Topic back when it was unusual to see people with tongue piercings walking around. Not that I had anything pierced. Not with my sensitive skin. But I dyed part of my hair blue (during the semi-goth phase). It didn't stay and I had to keep re-dyeing it about once a week. I still have it on my driver's license photo.
3. The summer between 7th and 8th grade, I discovered MTV. I remember it was actually conscious and deliberate on my part; I thought "OK, I'm a teenager now and teenagers watch MTV." My younger brother and I drank a ton of Barq's rootbeer that summer for the Barqtoos (which they advertised relentlessly on MTV). I loved Liquid TV and Beavis and Butthead. And I liked the videos, which they actually played back then. In 8th grade, we had to cover our books so the actual covers wouldn't get messed up. My mum had, in past years, insisted on using fancy paper with seashells and crap. By 8th grade, I was assertive enough to demand brown paper like everyone else. (No, covering my own books was out of the question. I'd have to have taken them home at some point and then she would've removed my covers and put on "nice" ones. At least she could feel like she had some control if she could go out and buy brown packing paper and do it all neatly herself instead of letting me use shopping bags). On the brown paper, on each book, I drew Beavis and Butthead doing something relevant to the subject of the book. For Spanish class, Beavis was saying "heh heh heh Rico Suave" and Butthead was saying "uhh tacos" like in that one episode when they were trying to speak Spanish. The other kids got a kick out of it.
It even, temporarily, won over the 'bad' kids who'd normally pick on nerds like me. That's always how it's been for me - never really fitting in with any one group. Too crude to fit in with the nerds, too well-behaved to fit in with the trouble-makers, too weird to fit in with the cheerleader/student government crowd (plus I didn't like them). I ended up aligning myself with the nerds because they were mostly nice and we were all in the advanced classes together. But we didn't really have that many common interests. They did speech and debate and piano lessons and I, uh, didn't. I was actually in speech and debate for one year but I was too lazy to do anything that required any preparation, therefore I did Impromptu. I did quite well on the second and third speeches but always botched the first out of nervousness. And I only joined the team because all my friends were on it and I felt left out.
That reminds me of one time senior year, when we were in AP English, divided up into groups to discuss whatever it was we'd read. We finished our discussion and it naturally progressed to my describing to the other members of the group the previous night's South Park episode. It was "Mecha-Streisand". When I got to the part where the Asian reporter guy was singing "Baaaa-bu-ra! Baaaa-bu-ra!" the teacher from the English class next door came to tell us to shut up. We apologized and did shut up. I'm sure she was thinking "damn AP kids." It didn't help that the AP English teacher was very cool and lax about letting us goof off as long as our work got done when it was due. It was his class for which I did my second full-length comic, a parody of Jane Eyre. (The first, as careful readers of my X-Files Kids page will know, was a parody of James Bond and is seriously un-publishable because I drew it on crappy binder paper. I'm still thinking I might scan the Jane Eyre one, though.) It was also in his class that I wrote my one and only completed fanfic, which is available on my site.
4. 8th grade was my worst year, academically. Mainly because I was bored and didn't like most of my teachers. We had these two godawful teachers who taught a combined advanced English and U.S. History class. One was female and the other was male and they were always hitting on each other. They seemed to think it was funny. They started the year by saying "we're married......but not to each other!" The English teacher (the male) was the worse of the two. He made us read crappy books about girls in pioneer times and write rap songs about them. I'm not kidding. I can't begin to describe the disparity between how hip he thought he was and how we students perceived him. More than once, he confiscated Stephen King books from me that I'd been reading in class when we were supposed to be reading "The Tamarack Tree" or "A Lantern in Her Hand." Anyway, I got bad grades the first semester but by second semester, I'd pulled my socks up. To encourage me, I guess, one of these teachers (can't remember which) chose me for an award. Every month, each teacher could choose one student to get the award for that month, whatever it was, like "Best Attendance" or whatever. The month I got it, it was "Most Improved Socially." Never have I found something so insulting and hilarious at the same time.
ETA: whoops, I've fixed the LJ cut now.
I was going to do one of those memes where you bold the things that apply to you like "I had a Rainbow Brite doll" but those are always about the 80s. I'd prefer one about the 90s so I can look back fondly on that festering hellpit that was junior high. And some stuff about high school. I'm not going to do this like a meme because I probably won't be able to think of enough things to list but here's...
GMonkey's reminiscing
1. There was a girl in my class who was really, really into Guns n Roses. She was also sort of the resident trouble-maker, except we were a bunch of suburban kids going to a high-rated (but public) school so she didn't get up to all that much, as far as I knew anyway. But one time in 8th grade, she brought a condom to school, which caused a ruckus among us kids. She filled it up with water and everyone said she should name it "Axl" so she did.
Sophomore year in high school, if I remember correctly, a bunch of us (but not this girl) were at the Hard Rock Cafe for a friend's birthday. There was a condom machine in the bathroom and I decided we should get one. Nobody else had the guts but one friend (with whom I've remained in touch) came with me for moral support. You should've seen the looks I got. I was about 15. The friend said I should get a blue one, because it said in the machine that they came in assorted colors, but I couldn't choose, I just had to take the one that came out of the slot. I didn't open it till I got home and when I did it turned out it was a blue one. I called my friend to tell her. Then I filled it up with water.
2. Style-wise, I went totally grunge/alternative, followed by practically cross-dressing, followed by semi-goth. Ah, for the days when 13-year-old girls wanted to wear jeans, Doc Martens (or Chuck Taylors) and flannel, instead of pink belly shirts that say "porn star." I was shopping at Hot Topic back when it was unusual to see people with tongue piercings walking around. Not that I had anything pierced. Not with my sensitive skin. But I dyed part of my hair blue (during the semi-goth phase). It didn't stay and I had to keep re-dyeing it about once a week. I still have it on my driver's license photo.
3. The summer between 7th and 8th grade, I discovered MTV. I remember it was actually conscious and deliberate on my part; I thought "OK, I'm a teenager now and teenagers watch MTV." My younger brother and I drank a ton of Barq's rootbeer that summer for the Barqtoos (which they advertised relentlessly on MTV). I loved Liquid TV and Beavis and Butthead. And I liked the videos, which they actually played back then. In 8th grade, we had to cover our books so the actual covers wouldn't get messed up. My mum had, in past years, insisted on using fancy paper with seashells and crap. By 8th grade, I was assertive enough to demand brown paper like everyone else. (No, covering my own books was out of the question. I'd have to have taken them home at some point and then she would've removed my covers and put on "nice" ones. At least she could feel like she had some control if she could go out and buy brown packing paper and do it all neatly herself instead of letting me use shopping bags). On the brown paper, on each book, I drew Beavis and Butthead doing something relevant to the subject of the book. For Spanish class, Beavis was saying "heh heh heh Rico Suave" and Butthead was saying "uhh tacos" like in that one episode when they were trying to speak Spanish. The other kids got a kick out of it.
It even, temporarily, won over the 'bad' kids who'd normally pick on nerds like me. That's always how it's been for me - never really fitting in with any one group. Too crude to fit in with the nerds, too well-behaved to fit in with the trouble-makers, too weird to fit in with the cheerleader/student government crowd (plus I didn't like them). I ended up aligning myself with the nerds because they were mostly nice and we were all in the advanced classes together. But we didn't really have that many common interests. They did speech and debate and piano lessons and I, uh, didn't. I was actually in speech and debate for one year but I was too lazy to do anything that required any preparation, therefore I did Impromptu. I did quite well on the second and third speeches but always botched the first out of nervousness. And I only joined the team because all my friends were on it and I felt left out.
That reminds me of one time senior year, when we were in AP English, divided up into groups to discuss whatever it was we'd read. We finished our discussion and it naturally progressed to my describing to the other members of the group the previous night's South Park episode. It was "Mecha-Streisand". When I got to the part where the Asian reporter guy was singing "Baaaa-bu-ra! Baaaa-bu-ra!" the teacher from the English class next door came to tell us to shut up. We apologized and did shut up. I'm sure she was thinking "damn AP kids." It didn't help that the AP English teacher was very cool and lax about letting us goof off as long as our work got done when it was due. It was his class for which I did my second full-length comic, a parody of Jane Eyre. (The first, as careful readers of my X-Files Kids page will know, was a parody of James Bond and is seriously un-publishable because I drew it on crappy binder paper. I'm still thinking I might scan the Jane Eyre one, though.) It was also in his class that I wrote my one and only completed fanfic, which is available on my site.
4. 8th grade was my worst year, academically. Mainly because I was bored and didn't like most of my teachers. We had these two godawful teachers who taught a combined advanced English and U.S. History class. One was female and the other was male and they were always hitting on each other. They seemed to think it was funny. They started the year by saying "we're married......but not to each other!" The English teacher (the male) was the worse of the two. He made us read crappy books about girls in pioneer times and write rap songs about them. I'm not kidding. I can't begin to describe the disparity between how hip he thought he was and how we students perceived him. More than once, he confiscated Stephen King books from me that I'd been reading in class when we were supposed to be reading "The Tamarack Tree" or "A Lantern in Her Hand." Anyway, I got bad grades the first semester but by second semester, I'd pulled my socks up. To encourage me, I guess, one of these teachers (can't remember which) chose me for an award. Every month, each teacher could choose one student to get the award for that month, whatever it was, like "Best Attendance" or whatever. The month I got it, it was "Most Improved Socially." Never have I found something so insulting and hilarious at the same time.
ETA: whoops, I've fixed the LJ cut now.
