My 80's crush

My brother used to tease me alot about my crush on Don Mattingly. I enjoyed watching the Yankees games with him in the 80's. That crush ended in the early 90's but my brother still teases me about him. My dad got me the 1984 Topp's baseball card but it was stolen from me by a boyfriend 12 years later and I'm still mad about this. I got another one but it's slightly flawed. I should've been more careful when buying it at the flea market. Sometimes I wonder why I even thought that he was cute. I guess my tastes have changed - not really into guys with facial hair that much anymore.

The Gecko

Our family friend Paula who was about a year older than me would sometimes give me her used clothes in the mid 80's. One time when I was opening a bag of them in my bedroom I freaked out when I saw a creepy thing crawling out of the bag. I did not know what it was or how it had even gotten in there. It turns out that one of her brother's geckos had escaped and crawled into the bag. We returned it to him that night. Sometimes when I see the gecko in the Geico ads I think about this and laugh a little. It definitely wasn't funny back then.

Favourite Country Music Stars

I was really into country music in the 1990s. I kind of lost interest by 1998 though. Not that I don't like it anymore. We lost our country music station by the end of that decade which sucks. Our cable company took away CMT - you have to pay extra for it. This was shortly after I started watching it. I guess I could always go to You Tube to listen to it there if I get interested in it again. Occasionally I put one of my cds on. Here are my fav artists -

1. Vince Gill

2. Trisha Yearwood

3. Pam Tillis

4. Mary Chapin Carpenter

5. John Denver

6. Kenny Rogers

7. Dolly Parton

8. George Strait

9. The Judds

10.Randy Travis

11. Alabama

12. The Oak Ridge Boys

13. Alan Jackson

14. Travis Tritt

15. Clint Black

16. Patty Loveless

17. Tim McGraw

18. Faith Hill

19. Ronnie Milsap

20. Shenandoah

21. Eddie Rabbit

22. Lorrie Morgan

Musicals Mom and I like

I used to enjoy watching musicals with mom and also listening to her records of them. I don't really care for musicals anymore though. Maybe someday I'll be interested in them again. Our favourites were -

1. South Pacific

2. Oklahoma

3. The King and I

4. The Music Man

5. Bye, Bye Birdie - mom saw this on Broadway. Paul Lynde was in the cast.

6. Gypsy - mom would tell people that when I was a little girl that I danced around to one of the songs - how embarrassing.

7. Gigi

8. The Sound of Music

My sticker books

I loved collecting stickers in the 80s. I would trade stickers with my friends Suzy and Jenny sometimes. I have a few pages of smelly stickers. I also have a couple of sticker books from the late 90s and early 2000s. I traded some stickers with my friend Carolyn then.

My Duran Duran dream

November 18, 2001

I was abducted by aliens when I was sleeping. When I woke up I was laying on top of the picnic table at my old apartment where I lived until 1993. Loud music is what woke me up - it was the Pet Shop Boys only they weren't on the radio. They were across the street in the field performing West End Girls. There were a few screens. I didn't even try to go over there. I wasn't even scared. I guess that I was on a holodeck and they were either holograms or shape shifting aliens.

Next on the stage was Poison. When they were done they came into my yard. I did not want them there. Luckily they left quickly. I looked at the screen and got excited when I saw John Taylor. Duran Duran did a few songs. After New Moon on Monday they came across the street and were going down the alley next to my house. I decided to follow them. They were going to the Coachman Inn hotel nearby. They didn't seem to mind that I was tagging along.

Simon wanted a flashlight but the guy at the desk said that they didn't have one. I said that they could go to my house for one. The strange thing is that we all looked younger once we got to the hotel. They needed to change first. The elevator was broken so we had to walk up the stairs.

John and I were lagging behind. We stopped, sat on the stairs and started kissing. He said that I was a good kisser. Very weird but nice. Simon yelled "Hurry up!" I saw a poster of Jon Bon Jovi there and didn't even care that I'd be missing Bon Jovi's part of this concert. I used to be so into them.

We went back to my house. Too Shy was being performed by Kajagoogoo. I gave them the flashlight. I thought that they were all going to leave but John stayed. He saw the 2 McCartney posters in my bedroom and made a comment about this. He liked them. We did some talking but then started making out but when things got nastier the scene changed. We were in the bedroom of my present apartment. I never even kissed a boy in my old bedroom.

Even though he was just an alien I still feel embarrased about this. We spent a nice romantic weekend in Panama City Beach, Florida in the next part of this strange dream. I have no idea why Simon wanted that flashlight.

Cookies

This is my grandmother's chocolate chip cookie recipe. Mom said that it's been around for as long as she can remember so it's probably from the early 40s. I had it in our recipe box up until last month when I put it in my scrapbook. We've had it recopied on an index card for years now. I have great chilhood memories of us making these at Christmastime. We'd also do peanut butter, oatmeal and sugar cookies but these were always my favourite. It's been a few years since we've made them. We should do so soon - now I have a craving for them which is unusual because I'm a candy girl.

Nat King Cole

I've been listening to the Legendary Singers cassette alot lately. It's always been one of my go to tapes or CDs when I'm feeling blue or anxious. I never get tired of it like I do some of my other music. Mom got this in the mid 80s and I made a dubbed copy of it for myself later that decade. She hasn't listened to this tape in a very long time so I asked her if I could borrow it. Unfortunately the first songs on both sides are flawed partway. I wish that a CD version of it was available. I got the NKC CD in the early 90s. It doesn't have all the same songs on it though and the version of Route 66 is a bit different. There are some songs on it that aren't on the tape that I like too.

I wanted to get a Stevie Wonder Greatest Hits CD and found a good one only 2 songs that I really like aren't on it. Do they do this on purpose so you have to get another CD that has the other hits that you like? I've found this to be true with other artists too. My wish list is so long but right now CDs aren't in the budget.

My Real Life Crush

I was at the grocery store this morning and part of me was so glad to see that the cute guy that I've had a crush on for the past 8 years was working today. I can't help feeling embarrased that I go a bit ga-ga over him. He looks a little like that country singer Tim McGraw. I get kind of disappointed when he's not there which seems rather ridiculous to me.

I thought that I saw him smiling at me once 8 years ago but part of me was thinking that there's no way that someone that cute would want to even look at you. Very low self esteem. I convinced myself that I must have been imagining this. Now I'm thinking what if I had smiled back - maybe we would've eventually talked to one another and even gone on a date and perhaps become a couple. Yeah, right. Keep dreaming.

I wish that my fascination with this guy would end already. It's sort of annoying and depressing. I just can't see myself involved with any guy. He does look younger than me, maybe early 30s. Not that this matters to me , although I'm picturing my brother calling me a cougar which I'm tired of hearing. I'm sure that the cute guy must have a girlfriend or even a wife.

Oh how I hate some of the dirty thoughts that I've had about him. Sometimes I wish that he'd accidentally bump into me which seems absurd. I'm even ashamed that I get happy when I see him. I'm trying to work on the shame/guy issue with my therapist but so far I haven't made much progress there.

Mom forgot the potatoes so I volunteered to go back for them. It's so bad that part of the reason that I did so was because I was hoping to get the chance to see the cute guy again. Darn, how disappointing that he wasn't in his department near the deli counter. I hope that he hasn't seen me checking him out for this might creep him out.

My Hall and Oates dream

Mom , Mark and I went to see Hall & Oates at a club in a small hotel down the shore. Some of my grade school classmates were there also. It wasn't a very good show though. They did mostly songs from a new album and took a couple of breaks. I was practically falling asleep during it. I woke up before the dream ended so I don't know if maybe they did some of their greatest hits eventually.

I remember looking out a window at one point and being scared of the high tide. The one boy that I had a crush on was there but I was afraid to look at him because he was the one who told me not to stare at him anymore once. Mom and Mark left the room during the first break and I was worried that they wouldn't come back after 10 minutes. They did return but it was during the middle of a song.

We weren't sitting in regular chairs but in school desks which is really weird. Daryll Hall saw that I had put my head down on the desk and was falling asleep. He walked over to me and tapped me on the shoulder to wake me up. How embarrasing. He was walking around the room alot during that one song. They were doing quite a bit of goofy things during the show. They had on weird outfits during another song.

This is yet another one of my alien abduction dreams. No one else is human in them. Well, once my brother was real. Don't know why they like taking me so much. It's kind of cool except when it's the aliens who do awful things to me. I do like sci - fi but I'm not a geek about it.

This dream is from August 8, 2002

Classic Movies that Mom and I enjoy

Mom and I watched alot of classic movies when I was a kid. I'm glad that she got me into such films. These are some that we both enjoy -

- The Adventures of Robin Hood

- Arsenic and Old Lace

- Rear Window

- Gaslight

- Rebecca

- Bell, Book and Candle

- The Great Escape

- White Christmas

- It's A Wonderful Life

- The Ten Commandments

- Harvey

- The Quiet Man

- Mister Roberts

- Mrs. Miniver

- Three Coins in a Fountain

- Mildred Pierce

- Doctor Zhivago

- Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

- The Spiral Staircase

- Giant

- Topper

- The Thin Man

- The Uninvited

Disney World 1976

I looked in my tote with souveniers and other stuff from my childhood for the first time in many years. I wish that I had been more careful when storing my Mickey Mouse Ears - they got messed up. The damage on the back is from our sheltie pup Rusty. I thought that I still had my Mickey keychain from that 1976 trip too but I guess my Dad took it from me during the divorce.

Favourite 80's Songs Part 3

1. Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen
2. Cherish - Kool & The Gang
3. Planet Earth - Duran Duran
4. Heat of the Moment - Asia
5. Photograph - Def Leppard
6. How 'Bout Us - Champagne
7. Turn Your Love Around - George Benson
8. No Reply At All - Genesis
9. Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
10. No One Is To Blame - Howard Jones
11. Stuck On You - Lionel Richie
12. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Hall & Oates
13. Lights - Journey
14. The Power of Love - Huey Lewis and the News
15. Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
16. West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
17. Hurts So Good - John Mellencamp
18. Bad Medicine - Bon Jovi
19. If You Leave - OMD
20. Roseanna - Toto

My Crushes

These are 2 of my crushes from the 80's and early 90's. I was never into any of the teen idols like my classmates were. I never understood why they made such a big deal out of them. I have this clear memory of being on the grade school playground and 3 or 4 of the girls going ga-ga over the guys in Duran Duran. I guess that I liked the much older guys back then. It wasn't until the mid 90s that I could understand what they saw in them. I had a couple of Tom Selleck posters on my wall. I would sometimes debate which character of Harrison Ford that I liked better - Indiana Jones or Han Solo. I think that the former usually won this inner debate.

Favourite Games

My mom would always buy us a game or 2 for Christmas when we were kids. We would play with some of her games too like Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble and Parcheesi. We foolishly got rid of our Uncle Wiggly. I found the blue piece to it in my tote of momentos recently. She bought us a new one in the early 90s but it's just not the same. We loved Battleship, Hangman, Trouble, Double Trouble, Pokeno, Boggle, Uno, Yahtzee, Connect Four, Toss Across and Auto Bingo. Trivial Pursuit was okay but I wasn't that good at it. We still have many of our games. Mom had to buy us a new Clue though because we lent hers to our cousins and they never gave it back to us before moving to Florida. I can't help still being annoyed about this.

Mean Thoughts

This is my brother and I - Christmas 1989. We got along pretty well back then. Once the 90's came things started going downhill. I had alot of mean thoughts about him today because he was being verbally abusive towards me. These past 5 years have been especially bad. He is so self centered and wants everything to be his way. I have to live with him and mom because of our financial situations. Somedays I wish that God would just let me die in my sleep so I wouldn't have to be around him anymore. He causes us such stress but naturally refuses to see this but tells us we are the ones causing him alot of stress. He got on my case yet again about using his computer and said that me comparing it to having to drive them around in my car is not the same at all. I went upstairs and listened to a Duran Duran CD - Astronaut to try to calm myself down because music sometimes helps. It did but only a tiny bit. I was crying and thinking to myself that it feels like I haven't had a brother in a long time. When we watch certain shows together and go to concerts it feels like he is still my brother. It is so mean that I picture him as Darth Mark or Markzilla sometimes.

My Music Dream

December 11, 2001

I got to see Sting in concert last night - in my dreams that is. The weird thing is that this was taking place in the auditorium/ gym of my former grade school .There were 6 or 7 other performers at this show too like Rod Stewart. Sting did 4 songs then Rod came out and did a few of his hits. After him The Outfield did Your Love. Most of the people in the audience wanted Sting to do more songs which he did later. Culture Club did Miss Me Blind. Duran Duran was also there - with JT, as if he'd want to get back together with them. Michelle H., the girl who used to pick on me alot in that school was sitting next to me and was actually being very nice to me at this event. I kept wishing that I had a seat closer to the stage and was thinking that I wish that I had brought my binoculars. It's not as if this room was that big. The guy in back of me did have them though. Everybody was so happy when Sting performed again. He did 4 more songs including Every Breath You Take. He came off of the stage and for a few minutes was shaking people's hands which I thought was pretty cool.

I had no idea back then that all the original members of Duran Duran had indeed reunited that year - in May, I think. Didn't find this out until a few years later. I'm sure that this was yet another one of my alien abduction dreams and they had me in a holodeck like in Star Trek with either shape shifting aliens or holograms or both.

My Old Swatches

I got my first Swatch at Macy's in either 1983 or 1984. It's the one on the right. This isn't the original band - that was yellow, blue and red. I liked the Egyptian pattern on the center one that I got about a year later. The battery cover broke on that after 5 years. The one on the left is from my class trip to Switzerland in 1987. They are cheaper over there although I'm sure by the time my mom paid interest on credit card bills it worked out to be the same or more! I have others too from the mid - late 90s. I even got my mom liking them. We need to get new batteries for our Swatches. I finally went to the Swatch store in NYC last year. Such nice stuff there - not in the budget though.

Boy crazy phase

I didn't really go through a boy crazy phase in my preteen and teen years. I did have some crushes but they weren't as intense as the ones that I had in my mid - late 30s which is pretty embarrasing. James Franco and John Taylor were defintely on the top of the cute guy list. I'm just glad that I'm over this phase.

I showed my therapist my Duran Duran concert photos from 2008 and she looked at one and said that he kind of looks like James Franco. It's weird that I was thinking the same thing when I first noticed that JF is cute in 20o5. Maybe part of me wanted someone younger to replace JT with nowadays. That is so mean.

My thoughts are that once you are over 40 you are no longer in the hot category. There are some exceptions up to the mid 40s like Jon Bon Jovi. After this I consider a guy good looking. Maybe this isn't very nice of me but I just can't picture a man of a certain age as being hot. I wonder if guys think this about girls too?

Babushka Buffy

These photos are from about 11 years ago. I used my scarf/hat to make it look like a babushka. She wasn't even annoyed about this - what a good girl. I entered a contest for the Page a Day dog calender with the bottom one back then but unfortunately she didn't win. It wouldve' been nice if she did get into the calender but she's definitely a winner to us .

Muppet Magazine

This issue is from 1983. I have all of 1984 and 1985 and just some of 1986 - 1988. I was trying to sell them at flea markets a few times but I am glad that no one bought them or maybe they did buy some and I just don't remember. I am afraid that I'll mess them up if I take them out of the plastic. I should get over that because I'd like to look through them which I have not done since the 80's.

Tupperware Parties

I remember mom having a few Tupperware parties in the 70's and once in the early 80's my cousin Ellen had one at our house. We had these containers in that avocado green color just like our stove and refrigerator. My brother and I liked playing with the blocks that connected. I'm pretty sure they had animals that you could put inside.

Favourite Disco Songs Part 3

1. Stomp! - The Brothers Johnson
2 Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
3. Best of My Love - Emotions
4. I Just Want to Be Your Everything - Andy Gibb
5. If I Can't Have You - Yvonne Elliman
6. Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale
7. Boogie Nights - Heatwave
8. Shame - Evelyn Champagne King
9. I Want Your Love - Chic
10. I Feel Love - Donna Summer
11. We Are Family - Sister Sledge
12. Let's Groove - Earth, Wind and Fire
13. Tell Me Something Good - Rufus
14. Let It Whip - Dazz Band
15. Turn The Beat Around - Vicki Sue Robinson
16. Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches & Herb
17. The Hustle - Van McCoy
18. How Deep Is Your Love - The Bee Gees
19. Love Hangover - Diana Ross
20. Take Your Time (Do It Right) - S.O.S. Band