All About Me: The letter J

This post is brought to you by the letter J ... here's a little peek at me and what makes me ... umm, me. This weekly series is "All About Me: from A to Z." Check out my inaugural post if you want to know more about why I'm doing this!

Jennie and me ... somewhere around 1992. Don't you love our outfits?

Jennie: Most people call her Jennifer now. I still call her Jennie. Sometimes I call her Skinny. She’s my best girlfriend of more than 20 years, more than half my life -- forever it feels like.
It all started in 1988. Jennie was 14; I was 13. We were stuck in freshman health class together. To be honest, we didn’t like each other.

Then a boy came along (isn’t that how it always works?). We’ll call him Larry, and Larry was too shy to ask Jen to the Homecoming dance. He enlisted my help. Jen went, it didn’t work out, but that’s not what this story’s about.

Us girls bonded through their mockery of Larry the dork, and thus began a friendship that’s lasted more than two decades (quickly approaching three).

We’ve traveled together through some of life’s greatest moments – college, marriage, divorce (yikes!), remarriage, pregnancy and child birth (double yikes!).

There’s nothing more satisfying or comforting than having a best friend who knows everything about you and you never, ever have to explain a thing to … that’s Jennie.

Note: Larry isn't really a dork. He's turned out to be a great guy ... is married with kiddos. He was just a shy kid growing up. 

Juicer: We bought a juicer about 8 months ago. Juicing became our new obsession. We juiced everything. We drank juice all day long. We ate nothing. We just consumed juice. I know … a little odd. Mike and I have some issues with weight, food and overeating. Like always, we were on a quest to be healthier and end our attachments to food. Juicing wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and but it didn’t last long. After a few weeks of juicing, the juicer now sits empty, unused … gathering dust.

Jets, The:


Last night, soon after we got into bed, Mike played a song for me. It was a new song by Bon Iver, his current favorite band. Bon Iver’s new album sounds as if it could've been made in the ‘80s. That’s a bad thing: I love '80s music. Wih the song, we started reminiscing about music we loved as teenagers. He played the theme song for “St. Elmo’s Fire.” I played the theme from “Lost Boys.” We went back and forth like this for a while.
Eventually, he played “You’ve Got it All” by The Jets and I was right back at Joe Walker Middle School in Quartz Hill, California: drill team practice, afternoon dances, slipping notes into my friends' lockers (Kendra, Susan, Megan, Kelsi – all girls I’m still friends) … all the things that make up junior high school. It’s like I was right back there; and for the length of a song I could swim in the fond memories of my childhood.

Isn’t amazing what music can do? The memories and feelings it evokes? I’ll always think of my siblings when the song “Somewhere Out There" comes one (especially if it’s the cartoon version from American Tail). I’ll think of Kelsi D. and our trip to EFY when I hear “I Want to Sex You Up,” though I’ve never heard the “sanitized” version again since that day we rolled into Provo, Utah so many years ago.
“How Great Thou Art” brings visions of my Aunt Wanda. Patsy Cline will forever be associated with my mother.  Erasure songs transport me to church dances in the LPC.  Pet Shop Boys, specifically “Shopping,” remind me of Susan D. College can be summed up with "Ghetto Superstar" (Spring Fling),  "Intergalactic" (BYU Volleyball games) and "Time of my Life" (dancing with my roomies Beth and April as the credits roll for “Dirty Dancing”).  

I very well could sit here all day and list the songs that mark the days of my life. That’s the power of music. Instead, I’ll leave you with this:

P.S.Maybe some time soon I'll tell you why I picked the last video ... but for sure Jennie can tell why and yes, the story involves a boy!