My So-Called Teenage Life Blog Hop

This bloghop is hosted by Amy at The Green Bathtub and Christa Desir.

Here are the rules.

Step One: Sign up on the linky below.

Step Two: Dust off those old sappy journals or high school notebooks filled with bad poetry.*

Step Three: Skim through them until you find something share-worthy.

Step Four: On June 21 POST IT on your blog.

Optional: We all love seeing old photos, so if you have one lying around of you as a teen, post that, too.

We'll all be hopping around peeking into each others private teenage lives on June 21. Can you imagine a better way to spend the first day of summer?

*Didn't write in a journal or compose poetry as a teenager? Have no fear! Counterfeit entries are welcome! Pretend you're a teenager and write whatever you feel. Just make sure you're using your teenage voice.

And if you're still a teenager, hey, you're going to basically rock this blog hop.

Sign up below!

 

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I wasn't sure about this bloghop when I first read about it. Sure I wrote a lot of papers for school, maybe a poem here or there, but nothing I would say was very interesting. I didn't feel like making anything up, so before adding my name to the list I wanted to find something I could use. I have a trunk where I keep a bunch of old school-related papers (dating back to 1st grade!) so I asked my husband to unearth it and started to dig. It took a good chunk of time to wade through the boring term papers, but I found a gem.

This particular assignment was titled Story Quiz, and I think it was from my senior year in high school. The idea, I'm guessing, was to take our 20 vocabulary words and use them in a story. My teacher's words at the top were as follows. "Whew! This is a mini-series! You earned the A- for using your words appropriately, but it is necessary to write so long a piece to utilize 20 words?"

I typed my hand-written story into Word today and it came in at 1,503 words!

I won't put the entire story in this blog post, but here is a summary and then I will add a few excerpts that had me laughing out loud. I hope you find them amusing as well. I have kept all the awful punctuation and grammar intact. And remember, I had to use specific vocabulary words which will be highlighted in red.

Summary: Kim and Karlee are best friends. Kim comes over to Karlee's house where Tony (Karlee's boyfriend) is bringing Ferris (his cousin, a blind date for Kim) and they are all going to a U2 concert. Can you say 1980's! Well, this would have been 1990 or 1991, but still.

A couple interesting things to note: My husband's name is Tony. In this story Tony drives a 1966 mustang and my husband owns a 1967 camaro. Foreshadowing of my life to come?

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Excerpt #1 - Kim has just arrived in Karlee's room.

“You know, your room is a mess.”

“I know, I know. Don’t think my mom doesn’t tell me that every day.” They looked at each other and started giggling, but the unbridled excitement got the best of them and they started cracking up.

Karlee stood up and twirled around. “How do I look, dahling?” Kim had to admit she did look good.

“Simply perfect, dahling. Your clothes are cool, each and every hair on your head is in place and your make-up has been applied with the most circumspect and delicate touch as usual.”

“Well… I really want to look good for Tony. You know how much I like him.”

“Yeah!”

“What about Ferris?”

“What about him?”

“Aren’t you just dying waiting to see him? Tony said he was pretty easy on the eyes.”

“Yeah, I know. I have to confess I am curious, but I didn’t want to seem too anxious. You can tell by my clothes. It doesn’t look bad, but it’s only an old pair of jeans and a rugby I salvaged from a bag of my brother’s old clothes. And I can relinquish the idea of getting new clothes this fall.”

“Oh, I know. Having an older sister and brother who grow out of clothes is the pits.”

“How would you know? You are the oldest.”

“OK, OK, but you do look good.”

“Thanks.”

They went downstairs to wait and nearly collided with Karlee’s mom.

“Oh, hello girls. All set?”

“Yes, mom.”

“Yes, Mrs. Mitchell.”

It was coming, they knew it. The speech. Each girl tried to escape before it hit them, but…

“Wait one second my two favorite teenagers.” She started to admonish them. “Now, no drugs, alcohol and please be careful and stick together. I don’t want you coming home telling me that you lost more than your hearing. (Yeah, I have no idea where this line came from.) And remember you are to be home by one. Kim, you’ll be sleeping over tonight. Am I correct?”

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Excerpt #2 - The boys have just pulled up in the car. My teacher wrote "Isn't this a rather ominous vision?" Yes, it is... darn vocabulary words!

Just then they heard a car and whirled around to the window. A slick 1966 mustang pulled up and two figures stepped out on the shadows of the car like brigands stepping out of the woods to attack their next victims.

Karlee sighed. “Look how handsome Tony is.”

Kim ran her eyes over her own date, Ferris. He was tall, and well built, maybe a little cumbersome looking. He had soft dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

“Not too bad for a blind date, hunh?”

“What?” Karlee was still staring at Tony.

“Ferris, remember him, my date.”

“Oh, yeah he is pretty good looking, just like Tony said.”

The doorbell rang and Karlee immediately wished it hadn’t. It sounded like a sudden spasmodic firing or guns. Her family really needed to get it fixed, along with everything else in the house. But it got them to the door just the same.

The two girls hurried to the door and attempted to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. What a dilemma.

“Great, we’re standing here trying to open a locked door,” announced Kim.

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There are some other funny lines like the news on the radio talking about the Navy commandeering (yes, another vocabulary work) the Love Boat. And then finally, 1,500 words later they have arrived at the concert hall. I'm sure my teacher was very relieved to have it all come to an end!

And as an extra special bonus, I have included a self-portrait from one of my art classes, freshman year of college. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by.