Say Cheese... Now Smile!

:) just got home from a really fun and kick back night. Had dinner and movie with Maritess, old school friend back from Montessori, tap dancing, and Holy Name days. It was really great. We were reminicing about the days, how people are doing, and how old we feel but won't allow ourselves to act that way. Wait... Do I hear a story coming? Yes... yes I do.

Keri.. you'll enjoy this.

Our 8th grade class at Holy Name was tiny. I guess over the years, kids would come but wouldn't return when the year ended. In the end, our final year... we had a whopping 27 students in the class. 8 of which, I might add, were boys. (maybe this is the source to why I have a hard time with boys?) So just imagine how those dances were. (Well, they weren't as SUCKY as you wouldn think. They were very very interesting... we had Beth-Ann, the church music director as our DJ. Don't fret, we brought our own music though.) Actually, we would have had 30 students... but this whore of a new girl named Andrea came and ruined everything. She was caught smoking out with Mike Sargent and my 5th-8th dream crush of mine Paul Sheilds and all 3 were expelled. Ok.. so maybe it wasnt HER fault... but in the end, we LOST 2 boys. 2 boys!! Those are 2 wallflowers that could have been saved during the dances.

Anyways, 8th grade was a great year. We were the offical bad asses of the school. Unfortunantly we didn't get to call anyone scrubs because our teacher, Mrs. Davis, was determined to make sure we didn't leave the school as a group of neanderthals who would go all power trippy once they hit the real world. So each friday, we had different activites that didn't pertain to the curriculum. We learned swing dancing, self defence, basic drawing methods, had camp outs, played games, cooked... it was awesome. And it all culminated to the ever so fantastic and memorable trip to Catalina. Who can EVER forget throwing up 7 times in a 3 hour time span! But aside from having my head over the railing of the ship, we were having bonfires, playing charades (you try to mime DICK TRACY!), being dragged along the water on giant floating banana, even played an ever so scandalous game of spin the bottle on the beach behind the tree so the adults couldnt see what everyone was up to. Ahhh memories.

You know what I loved from those days? Its actually silly, but its something that really makes me smile when I think about it. I love the days where they had activites in the hall. The talent shows, that sports award nights when all the older boys started chating *BEEF* to Mike Keller when he won his award, the haunted houses, the day when the trampoline came to HNM, and especially those rainyday games of indoor dodgeball. Sure it was brutal and painful, but was so much fun. OK. Getting pegged HARD with the ball by Mike Sargent (who threw a ball with his WHOLE body) wasn't the greatest feeling in the world, but being indoors in our own little world of absolute fun was pretty great.

My first dance was in the hall too. 7th grade signified that you were truly an *almost* badass because you finally get to have a co-ed dance with the 8th graders. I blush when I think about it now, but I was so excited for it. My mom and I went SHOPPING for the perfect outfit for it and while we were shopping, I remember mom telling the sales girl that I was going to my FIRST dance. Oh my gosh.... first slow dance was with Greg Ojeda, who when the slow song came on, turned to me, raised his arm in a "dance" motion and pointed with his head to the empty dancefoor. It was very cute and I guess maybe in a way kind of romantic... just a shame that he was way shorter than me and my heart was still enthralled with that one gosh darn crush. *stop laughing Keri*

:) Martitess mentioned that in 2 years time, we're going to be celebrating our 10 year annivesary of leaving HNM. She wants to have a reunion where we all can get together and catch up. I think we should play dodgeball in the hall for good times sake.