Throwback Thursday

Ah, the 90s/early 2000s.  It was a simple time-- a time of easy bake ovens, Mary-Kate and Ashley straight-to-VHS movies, Slime Time Live, spiral shoelaces, skip-it, frosted tips and tons and tons of other awesome things.  I'm going to *try* to write a Throwback Thursday post every week reminiscing on the golden days (we'll see how this pans out) because 2013 is so gross.  I feel sorry for the kids that don't know the Zoog Disney "Let's watch a Disney channel movie" song that played before every, well, Disney channel movie.  A girl I worked with who was just a few years younger than me didn't know why Nick Lachey was famous (other than the fact that he was married to Jessica Simpson and is extremely attractive).  Crazy, crazy times we live in.  In an effort to revive your and my monotonous Thursdays, I present to you the first order of business: GEL PENS!

"And on the seventh day, God rested and he was pleased with what he had created. Except he noticed there were no gel pens, and so gel pens rained down from the heavens and fell onto the land" (Book of Awkward Girl 3:11-12).  Even this picture of these bright colored assorted writing utensils is making my heart go all jiggly and is causing a huge smile to creep onto my face.  I received the above pack of gel pens for my 8th birthday and it is still one of my favorite presents to date.

Teachers just didn't understand the firm grasp these vessels of happiness had on their students.  I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAN'T READ MY TANGERINE COLORED INK ON THAT WHITE PIECE OF PAPER, MRS. SMITH.  Haha, just kidding, I cared--which is why I stopped using these bad boys when my grade school enacted a "no gel pens during class" ban.  Interestingly enough, I didn't stop carrying around my Pokemon cards when a similar ban was enacted, but that's another story.

One of my first (what I thought was) funny statements involved me asking a friend if they "gel-ous" that I had more gel pens than them and they didn't get it--but it didn't matter because I HAD MORE GEL PENS THAN THEM.  It was the currency of my 2nd grade class, which sparked controversy when some kid tried to swap his cheap gel pen for someone else's state-of-the-art swirly one.

Basically, these were awesome and I miss them.


Peace, love, and swirly colored goodness in a plastic tube,

Awkward Girl

CATastrophe

We all have our fears. For some it's heights, while maybe the sight of a spider makes others' skin shrivel up and crawl right off their body.  For me, it's cats. Yes, you read that right, cats. I'm not going to pretend that I'm referring to the king of the jungle tigers/lions/panthers/cougars. Nope, I'm talking about the little bundle of fur that you might be curled up next to at this very moment.  I've received many @replies about cats and if I like them and I thought I'd write this little blog post to clear up any confusion that might be floating around.

Cool, I haven't found my Ryan Gosling knight in shining Under Armour, whatever.  But does this have to mean that I have to love cats?  Cats are not my cup of tea. In fact, cats are my stubborn pouch of Capri Sun that I can't seem to poke that pesky yellow straw into.  Maybe it's because I didn't grow up around them, but they just evoke a fear in me that is only rivaled by my fear of girls with perfectly curled hair. How do you create those beachy waves, Courtney? HOW?

 Back to cats.  A Facebook friend was in the musical "Cats" and I couldn't even bring myself to look at the pictures. What's scarier than a life-size "cat" that is actually a human pretending to be a cat?  Though, to be fair, if a human was dressed up as a dog, I'd probably scream at my laptop screen too.  I don't know though because Simba playfully bats at my heart strings as if they're strings of yarn.  Because cats do that, right?  Like, bat at yarn and stuff? If they don't then they do now because I just pretended they did.  

On the one hand, fingers.  On the other hand, more fingers.  Haha, no, but back to cats.  I freak out when they purr and rub up against my legs, like I visibly get frazzled and immediately sit Indian style.  They're also so smart, like, I'm positive that every cat I've ever met somehow knows that I stole those jolly ranchers from the teacher's private stockpile in third grade.  Can cats go on walks?  Or ride in cars?  Serious questions, people. I am as ignorant when it comes to cats as I am on painting my nails without getting nail polish all over my skin.  

 If you like cats, good for you.  If you like dogs, good for you.  Just thought I'd let you guys know that I will never let the cat outta the bag because I'm terrified it might get my tongue and gouge my eyes out and sing "Shine Bright Like a Diamond" on repeat while bouncing on my head.


Curiosity didn't kill the cat, I did 
(haha just kidding, I don't kill anything but jokes),

Awkward Girl