>Oh, Cringe!
>
Oh, to be 13 again. It vied with 12 as one of the most awkward years of my life, and the evidence of this fact is scrawled all over the pages of my Strawberry Shortcake diary.
For years, I kept the diary hidden away in a cardboard moving box tucked back in the darkest recesses of our attic, until this site convinced me to bring my dubious relic out of my previously mouse-infested and now trap-filled archives and into the glaring light of public inspection. Here now, released worldwide for the first time ever, is a passage…
10/2/89 (Beige & turquoise Forenza tee, acid washed Guess! jeans)
You would not BELIEVE this! I went to Stacey’s Second Annual Ultra Cool Halloween Party and how cool it was. That’s a joke. Actually, gorgeous babe Dave was there and we were gettin’ it on to the max, but he was really depressed because Courtney had broken up with him and he still had it for her, ok? So I figured I’d just take it slow, like the mags say, sympathize and quietly, subtly make him realize that I’m the one he’s been looking for, where have you been all my life, that sort of thing, WHEN they make a dedication from me to Dave!! (which means he’s s’posed to ask me to dance). Omigosh omigosh omigosh, this is NOT the way it’s supposed to go!
Anyways, he got one of his little friends to tell me he was so sorry to decline the offer, but he still loved Courtney. I only told a FEW of what I CONSIDERED to be my close personal friends that I had it for D. When I find out who dedicated that song, I’ll get even.
I never did find out who made that dedication- or if I did, I’ve forgotten by now. And I’m horrified now that Dave and I were apparently gettin’ it on to the max that night. I wonder when I found out what gettin’ it on really meant, and how many people I went around telling whom I was gettin’ it on with before I found out what I was actually talking about. As I said. Awkward.
My favorite parts of my journal, though, are the descriptions of my clothing that start off each passage. The day after Stacey’s Second Annual Ultra Cool Halloween Party, for example, I was strutting my stuff in a white Generra tee and white jeans. Does it get any more awesome than that? I think not!
Anyway, I’m hoping this inspires some of you to post cringeworthy journal entries of your own. If I’m not the only one baring my adolescent soul here, I might be inspired to post something from the historical romance I wrote at 12 or even The (horrifyingly bad) Poetry Years (1990-1992). Good times, people. Good times.
>What I think is most amazing is that the smile and eyes (minus makeup, of course) are STILL exactly the same – I know my smile changed a lot.I never did manage to keep a journal or diary. I was terrible. But I did write a lot of poetry – some of it pretty bad. I still have all the books I wrote the stuff in, and it’s pretty pathetic how every other poem is dedicated to a new guy, lol! I’d share on my blog, but I really don’t ever want to have people see how pathetic I was!
>ow.. flash back lol. but I was only ten while you were getting it awwwn with gorgeous dave.LOL
>H.E.L.L. N.O. I will never post my old diary. I think I burned it a couple of years ago. I couldn’t even bring myself to open it up and read it. Some things are just better off left unremembered.That’s not to say I want you to stop posting yours. I think it’s hilarious!! You were totally hot.
>I posted some diary entries in my early blogging days. Funny stuff.Awesome gettup there.
>I think I was in 9th grade in ’89, and I was OBSESSSED, and I mean that with a capital “O” with this dude who was my algebra tutor. In hindsight, I realize what a prick he was to me, knowing I was in love with him, but I’ve got some choice journal entries from that year that make me laugh and laugh. I also have some from my first year in college, and I am talking about maybe 2 or 3 different guys in many of the entries, but I use the word “him” so much that I can’t figure out who the hell I’m talking about half the time. So funny. I LOVED your outfit descriptions! Acid washed jeans haven’t made a come back, have they? I hope not!!!
>Oh, how cute were you?!I must say, your writing skills have improved drastically, but the style is still kind of the same. When we were cleaning out the attic, I found a diary with just a couple entries (that’s all any of them had) and it said something about how much I hated Valentines…I think I was 11 or 12. Sadness.That is super-cool that you tracked your outfits. Why, OH WHY didn’t I think of that? Oh, wait, my clothes didn’t have names!! (I wuz poor). 🙂
>You look like Anne Hathaway. I just realized that.Is that the first time anyone has told you this? Or am I wacked out?
>Holy dooley what is that in your hair? I shouldn’t talk, my high school pictures are ultra dorky, and I know I tossed everything I wrote as a teenager when I cleaned out my father’s house after his death 11+ years ago… but it was horrible stuff. Which is why I chucked it.
>HOLY CRAP! this is awesome- as in acid washed jeans awesome. I now must go dig up my Ramone Quinby diary and copy you… oh man.
>um, why did you go to a Halloween party in February?
>Good question, wisenheimer. I must’ve reversed the 10 and the 2.
>1989… I was a backpacking around Europe… pretty damn good year!
>Raehan, no one’s ever told me I look like Anne Hathaway, but when I did that picture analyzation on the web that tells you which celebrity you most resemble, she was second. Kate Winslett was first. Fine with me! 🙂
>My first thought was that you look like Anne Hathaway also. My journal entries include the word “like” 400 million times in each entry. I still find the word like popping up in my writing. Also the word “so”. But I guess that’s like so 80’s!
>OMG! After reading this I had to pull out my old diary! I had two that were actually written in. One that spanned from 4th grade to 6th grade, and then a journal I started when I was a freshman in high school.Read the one from when I was in 6th grade… must have been 12 or so…. and mostly I’m mortified at how intense I thought my feelings were for some kid. The way I wrote about it…. definitely stuff I must have heard from older siblings. I was so dramatic!
>I have been very nostalgic on my blog lately too. This post is all about meeting my wife in high school but has pictures of me in very bad 80s hair. Your smile hasn’t changed. You can still light a room with it.
>You are one brave chickee! Don’t think I have the guts. But you’ve inspired me to dig mine up and have a look… I have some old notes that one of my best friends saved from high school and gave to me a few years ago. (folded up in all those creative ways) Even better than my diary! Oy, the drama of teenage angst. That’s some ensemble you put together!
>That is hilarious. I can’t stop laughing. You were a very skilled writer for your age. I’m totally bummed submissions for the book are closed. I totally know what I would have submitted — a song I wrote in jr. high (think Debbie Gibson meets deranged teenage stalker). If I can remember all the lyrics, I’ll post them on my blog.
>Wow. What courage.All my adolescent journals were properly destroyed at soem point, to spare me and the world my cringe-worthy poetry.
>You were so cute! Adorable. I would never have the nerve to post anything like that. And especially not a picture!
>OMG, I did that same thing – documented my outfit every day. Forenza … Limited … Esprit … acid washed denim … two colors of scrunch socks … Keds … matching giant hair scrunchy. Oh yes, my friends. Oh yes. And I have about 15 spiral notebooks that I filled up between 1987 and 1992, plus about 4 shoeboxes full of notes (folded in those crazy little origami shapes – remember that?). I figure I’ll read them when my daughter is 13, to get back in touch with what it was like …
>oh geesh! i tossed all of my old diaries and my poetry journal (also 90-92). They were horrible, and full of things I want to forget. I do have a couple of lover letters I may be able to dig up…..
>No way. No freakin’ way. But those painted on t-shirt takes me back. Way back.I was about to say that you look like Anne Hathaway…then I saw someone else already said it.But I’ll reiterate…you look like Anne Hathaway.
>Nice!!!I wish I wrote when I was that age. Guys didn’t do stuff like that -we were too busy breakdancing and playing Nintendo. Actually, I still do those.
>HAHAHA!I’m just very surprised you didn’t have one of those plastic clips that kept the knot in FOR YOU. Those rocked.Your journal = awesome. The 13 you and the 13 me would have ruled school.
>This is one of those times I thank God I never journaled! :)~Monica
>Which means that you were in Jr. High when I was in high school.That totally wigs me out.
>I have been cracking up since opening your blog today. Must be careful or the coworkers will think I’m crazy.Very much a ringer for Anne Hathaway!Oh, that entry is bringing back memories. I remember Forenza! I remember Generra! What about Benneton(sp?)? I should get out my diaries. I’m sure it would be a riot. Yearbooks are great fun too – “stay sweet!” or “you two are going to be together FOREVER!”
>Ooooh, Kate Winslet is gorgeous….as are you.
>Hm.I was SURE I had an old journal from high school laying around here somewhere, but it appears that I must have thrown it out in a last ditch effort to preserve my dignity.At least the one I kept wasn’t the one filled with morbid poetry and decorated with the weird, gruesome, vaguely tribal skeleton drawings that I was so fond of doodling on everything.
>I love it! I have kept a diary since I was in 3rd grade. I’m going to have to dig out some and look up a blog-worthy post. I may have to make that a regular monthtly event, because that is too freakin’ funny! Thanks for sharing – and the picture was great too!