Flashback Friday and GotYA

Hey guys!

Yes, it's me the sucktastic blogger actually blogging. Whoo hoo, right? Well, don't get too excited. I'm not actually blogging....I'm actually giving you some linkie love of today's post and last Friday's post on GotYA. Yes, I'm terrible and sacrifice my own blog for the sake of the group.

This week's Flashback Friday gives you some inspirational quotes to think about as well as the opportunity to enter and win Personal Demons.

Last week's Flashback Friday deals with awesome 90's show My So Called Life--a must see for any Contemporary YA writer.

So, check them out!!! :)

Where the Hell Have I been & How GotYA got me!!!!

Howdy peeps,


Yeah, I just realized that it had been almost a month since I posted. So, where the hell have I been? Was I lost in the desert somewhere like the Grizzwalds on their hellish crusade aka vacation to Wally World?















Um, no.

I wish I had that good of an excuse, but sadly, I don't. To go this long without blogging is...scary and shocking and slothful and a whole bunch of other "s" words. I promise you that the big L has gotten in the way....yep, life. Things have been rough, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Changes are coming my way. I can't really say for certain what they are yet, but this time next week I should be able to.

While my personal blog has suffered, I have been blogging over at my group blog GotYA. Here's some of my posts:

Flashback Fridays: 80's and 90's Toys...I even vlogged for this one....it's scary!

Flashback Fridays: 80's and 90's Fashion

Flashback Fridays: Memorial Day Salute to Veterans

Flashback Fridays: Summer Vacation Memories

Flashback Fridays: Summer Vacation Reads

Besides LIFE being scary and sucky, I spent a few days at Hilton Head. Love, love, love Hilton Head and the beach, but this time I had a little snafoo when I tried to come in around noon from the beach. Never worn flip flops on the beach before when I was there....didn't have them on thsi time, and what happen? 2nd degree burns on the bottom of my feet! Yes, I know, CRAZY! I ended up not getting to go back to the beach on Thursday, and thankfully, I made it back on Friday. My left foot is STILL healing. Yeah, not good.

Then this coming Thursday, I leave for Washington DC to attend the ALA conference!!!! I've never been to DC before, so I'm going up a few days before the conference, so I can see the sights. I'm also so pumped about meeting the authors at the conference along with some writing buddies too!

Tomorrow I promise to post blog awards since people have been kind enough to bestow them on me even when I suck at bogging lately!

Flashback Friday: 80's and 90's Fashion and Fads

This week over at GotYA we're talking about the Fads and Fashion of the 80's or 90's, depending on when you grew up. I'm kind of a child of both the 80's and 90's. Since I was born in 1979, I spent most of my childhood in the 80's, and then most of my adolescence and teens in the 90's.

So, I took a little stroll thru the family albums, and here's a few things I came up with and/or what I was able to scan in, lol. This pic is at my kindergarten graduation with my mom and grandmother. What I like it is captures both the fashion of childhood and adults. There's polka dots and bows on my mom and big beads on my grammy. Then whenever I got dressed up in my childhood, it was in the big dresses with crinolins, patent leather Mary Jane's, etc.

I totally had a purple Members Only jacket when I was little, and last night, I could not find the picture where I was I sporting it! My grandaddy bought it for me, and my cousin and I had matching purple ones. He, on the other hand, had one in almost every color! It was epic.

Ah, Swatch Watches....I loved these growing up! I probably had a couple.

I found this pic and totally snorted out loud at the fashion...er, maybe lack thereof. I'm sporting a Mickey Mouse hat, which was huge in the early 90's where I'm from, along with the epic "ghetto fabulous" Bugs Bunny and Taz t-shirt. Gotta love the length of the shorts too!

You probably didn't get out of the early to mid 90's without doing Glamour Shots at a local mall. Extreme hair and makeup along with four costume choices and voila, you could be on the cover of Vogue....or not, lol.

These are some of mine, and they HILARIOUS! You gotta remember I was 14 at the time....I look 30 if I'm a day!!!

So what were some of your favorite trends?

Flashback Friday: The Songs that Stayed With Me

Today's Flashback Friday is on the Songs that Stayed With Us. You know, those songs that when you hear them, you're instantly transported back to another place in time? The good times, the bad times, the crazy, fun, insane times? Well, here's a look back at some of mine! Not only do I mention some of the songs, but I'm also flashing back with some props from back in the day!

When I think of the first "tapes" I owned and my first "ghetto blaster", I think of two songs True Blue and Born in the USA. They were the first tapes I had to play on it, and I probably wore them out. Songs by Madonna take me back to my early childhood, jamming out to Material Girl, Papa Don't Preach, and True Blue. Whenever I hear Born in the USA, I think of my dad who was a HUGE Springsteen fan along with the fact that it references a Vietnam Veteran's issues readjusting to life after the war. My dad proudly served in Vietnam.

Hearing Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now reminds me of elementary school and all the great times I had playing dolls and Barbie's with my cousin, Andrea, or my good friends. I have a lot of Tiffany on my iPod, and when I hear this song or anything by her, I'm instantly transported back to those times.

Here's a bag o' Barbie's, lol. I kept most of the ones I had from when I was little. Was I tempted to brush their hair and straighten their clothes when I took the pic? HELL YES! LOL

Here's my puppy, Duke, checking out some of my Barbie's....he srsly wanted to chew their heads off!

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's Good Vibrations takes me back to 7-9th grade Tap and Jazz classes at The Academy of Dance Arts. We always stretched and warmed up to thumping songs, and this was one of them. I can hear the opening chords, and I'm back with Ms. Terry, my teacher, learning dances...and also considerably thinner!! LOL

Here's some of my old dance costumes....yes, I do keep EVERYTHING! LOL

It's kinda a strange music for a cheerleading dance, but for some reason, we danced to the a remix of the opening of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long when I was Varsity Cheerleader. Whenever I hear the opening of that song, I seriously start to count off in my head, and I can still remember the opening 16 counts and dance moves to that! LOL

Here's one of my old uniforms along with my letter jacket.

Deana Carter's Strawberry Wine is the essence of my Senior Year. I can remember rolling down the windows on my fire engine red Eclipse and cranking the cd player to insane decibels. Then my best friends, Kim and Tiffany, and I would sing at the top of my lungs. It's a song about going back to a particular time in my life, and I know that I can never go back to that special, carefree time in high school.

What about you? What are some of your "songs that stayed with you?"

Flashback Fridays: Movies That Defined a Generation

Over at GotYA, the group blog I belong to, we're starting a weekly segment called, "Flashback Fridays" where we stroll through the past along with making connections to the future. This week's topic is Movies that Shaped a Generation. Over there I mentioned Harry Potter, Twilight, Mean Girls, etc. So, it's a little hard finding some for here as well, lol. In truth, it's more of a generational gap that finds me stuck in the middle of movies that defined a generation.

Here's why. All the great 80's movies that I touched on over at GotYA like Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller were of my young years since I was a child in the 80's. Don't get me wrong, my friends and I totally wore out the VHS tapes to these movies, but it wasn't like I was experiencing them in the moment of my actual "young adult" phase.

When I think of my "young adult" years/tweens, comedy instantly comes to mind. The early to mid 90's saw the spike in SNL alumns like Mike Meyers, Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade. We flocked to see Tommy Boy, Wayne's World, and Billy Madison.

Here's some great lines from Billy Madison

Principal: Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Billy Madison: Okay, a simple "wrong" would've done just fine.

Billy Madison: I swear to God I'm sick. I can't go to school.

Juanita: If you're gonna stay home today, you can help me shave my armpits.

Billy Madison: Oh my God. I'll go to school.

Veronica Vaughn: So what's it like, being back in school?

Billy Madison: I don't know. I kinda feel like an idiot sometimes. Although I am an idiot, so it kinda works out.

And when I look back once more to high school, Jim Carrey movies like Ace Ventura and the Mask totally defined us because they brought words into our lexicon like "alrighty then","smokin'", "Looo-hooo-zuh-her!""Holy Testicle Tuesday", "Yes, Satan?", "Like a glove!"

Some of my favorite scenes from Ace Ventura:

(This scene is especially for my BFF Tiffany from HS, lol)

Ace Ventura: [with a German accent] How can I be getting zis vork done wit all de shouting? Control de shouting?

Reporter: Who's That?

Ace Ventura: Heinz Getwellvet. I am trainer of dolphins. You want to talk to de dolphin, you talk to me.

Reporter: What happened to the other trainer?

Ace Ventura: Vat happened to him? Vat happened to me? Seven years I am wit Siegfried. [he holds up only four fingers] Ve are making de dolphins disappear, und den Roy is coming wit de vite tiger und ze shtuffing in de pants und den I'm gone.

Reporter: [skeptically] Where is Snowflake?

Ace Ventura: Why do you care about Snowflake? Do you know him? Does he call you at home? [shouts]

Ace Ventura: Do you have a dorsal fin? To train ze dolphin you must zink like ze dolphin! You must be getting inside ze dolphin's head. I am saying to Snowflake, "Akay!... Akay Akay Akay?" und he is saying "AKay Akay!" und he is up on ze tail "Eeeeeeeeee!" und you can quote him! [Ace spits]

Roger Podacter: Alright, it's almost time for Coach Shula's press confrence, uh, lets let Heinz do his work?

Ace Ventura: [shooing reporters] Go to de conference, go to it.

Ace Ventura: I'm ready to go in, coach, just give me a chance. I know there's a lot of riding on it, but it's all psychological. Just gotta stay in a positive frame of mind. [Hops up] I'm gonna execute a button-hook pattern, super slo-mo. [Gestures and makes sounds of a slow-motion picture and stops] Let's see that in an instant replay. [Does a reverse playback sound and gesture]
[Melissa is pretending to be Ace's sister to check him into a mental hospital]

Doctor: Has he always had a history of mental illness?

Melissa: [truthfully] For as long as I've known him.

Then I was in college when the deluge of new teen movies surfaced like Cruel Intentions, American Pie, Not Another Teen Movie, She's All That, etc. Therefore, it's hard for me to find the exact movies of my generation, but no matter what, I'll always love feeling young at heart!!!!!