Blast From the Past

For Thanksgiving I went back "home" to Charlotte for our traditional Thanksgiving gathering. Thanksgiving tends to be pretty low key and enjoyable, usually consisting of my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, and myself.

My trip to Charlotte was great. One of my favorite parts was mulling around in my room and finding a stack of diaries I had forgotten about. They were at the top of my closet, seemingly untouched.

Apparently there are 9 volumes of my diary (Each volume is a 70 pg spiral ruled notebook). I started writing in 7th grade and finished all 70 pages (front & back) of Volume 1 before 7th grade ended. My junior high writings always make me laugh.

Here's a particular favorite from 8th grade:

(This was the year when we all needed to have "boyfriends." I had already tried a few times, but all I got were rejections. Even with my platform shoes, I was shorter than every kid in the 8th grade, except for this one kid with a funny British accent named James. I knew nothing about him except that he was in Ms. Oelhafen's English class with me, had a British accent, and, Most Importantly, was shorter than I was. So, I asked my friends to ask James if he would go out with me.)


"Today Jackie D. and Nandi wanted to see me after school. They told me they had Bad news. They weren't sure if they even wanted to tell me or not. I told them I could not see them after school. I was leaving before 8th period to get my braces taken off. Finally, they called me up, & Jackie told me on the phone. She and Nandi had asked James to go out with me. The conversation was like this:

Nandi & Jackie---Will you go out with Mandy?
James---You mean the girl with the mile-high shoes?
Nandi & Jackie---Yeah.
James -- I don't know.
(He leaves with his friend, and his friend, Jeff, comes back.)
Jeff---James says he doesn't know who she is.
Nandi -- Well, tell your friend that he's an asshole! Okay?

(end of conversation)."