#536 High school summers.

Every morning I wake up with a song in my head—never for any reason or with any amount of recent relevance. This morning’s song was Hey Sandy, the theme song from The Adventures of Pete & Pete. I watched reruns of this show late late at night during summer vacation on Nickelodeon. I hope you did too! It was such a surreal show for kids, with a lot of really cool musicians from the 90s making cameo appearances (not that I knew who they were at the time). I downloaded the song right away and hummed it all afternoon.
Then I found out that Ryan Dunn of Jackass fame passed away today and I was honestly devastated about it. The show was SO popular when I was in 10th and 11th grade and I had a crush on the bearded funny guy from the get go. Regardless of how gross the show was, you can’t explain a high school crush. Honestly, I still have a crush. He reminded me of someone…..
With these 2 pieces of my adolescent history on my mind, the smothering heat outside and an easy work schedule (thanks to Annalee for Hope’s wedding week!), it felt almost like I was 15 again.
I wanted to go rollerblading, to go swimming, to smell AromaTonic perfume or cucumber melon bubble bath, to eat frozen pizza, to stay up late (here I am at 12:22 am), to get a sunburn, to paint my fingernails light blue, to make mix CDs, to play my guitar and avoid being a grown up for a little while. It felt good to have such an intense longing for that time and place—to remember those days.
A photo I took in 11th grade in downtown Laurel with the 35mm Canon Rebel I bought with my coffee house paychecks.