Thursday, November 06, 2008

Really, 17-year-old self? Really? Also known as: reaching into the High School Shame File.

Honest to God. I had no idea what they were up to on my t-shirt. I never gave it a moment of thought.

Also, sorry in advance, mom and dad. You are going to hate all of the following information. You might want to stop reading now.

I bought this shirt at the disco in Greece. A friend and I had spent the night dancing at Disco 69. This is not a euphemism.

Looking at this photo - this terrible t-shirt - I do not know how I was so oblivious. But I was.

It took me years to figure out why my mom was so upset about it.

This is another of the memories I came across while pulling out old photos for our rehearsal dinner slide show. This one didn't, as you might imagine, make the cut.

It takes place our kitchen in India, this little scene. We most likely came home at 11 or 12 and then snuck out again, because my curfew was early. It is probably around 2 or 3 am on a weekend, after a long night of dancing and drinking gin - at that point, gin was our drink of choice - at the disco in Delhi.

I'm not kidding.

My friend Kris took this picture. I know this because one, she was the person I drank and danced and binged the most with, and two, because there are more in the series. We did this regularly - went out partying and then took ridiculous pictures of each other.

I didn't ever wear this shirt out of the house. But I slept in it just to prove that I could do whatever I wanted - my parents weren't the boss of me! (See how much rebellion out of this first-born rule follower? They were so the boss of me.)

The fact that it went through the laundry just made Betty crazy. Somehow, that was enough.

And so here I am, 17, after a night at the disco, wearing my ultra-crass but somehow assertive of my independence Disco 69 t-shirt and eating peanut butter sandwiches and drinking Diet Coke in my parents' kitchen.

Look how how much blue eyeliner I am wearing. You can't tell, even if you enlarge the picture, but I have a tiny blue star painted with eyeliner on my cheek. Because I thought that was cute. And I loved that red Swatch - I wore it forever. Sometimes I'd wear it with another watch, which I also though was a fabulous look. With the pegged jeans and neon.

My judgment, ohhh, it was so lacking in so many areas.

22 comments:

  1. oh come on! you were totally fabulous and still are. Can't we use being in a far away land as an excuse for our fashion choices?

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  2. This photo just made me laugh out loud. In the office.

    How cool did we all think we were aged 17?

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  3. Your 17-year-old self is so cute!

    Funny about your parents hating that shirt (understandably so, being parents), but not taking it away from you. Funny, too, that you had no idea "what the people were doing" so you didn't know why they were upset. :)

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  4. You totally look like Christina Applegate in this picture...cuteness.

    Shocking to probably NO ONE, I was elected to explain 69 to a particularly naive friend in high school...

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  5. Soph - I definitely think a lot can be chalked up to where we lived. I feel like there are just no good excuses for this shirt, though.

    nuttycow - I should probably have put NSFW on it.:) I know - so cool at 17. Ha.

    Zandria - I would be so upset if my teenage daughter had a shirt like this. Probably this will happen one day precisely to teach me a lesson.

    Lemmonex - Hey, thanks! I wonder if I was generally so much more oblivious or if this has to do with our age gap? Nobody explained it to me in high school.

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  6. hilarious! i can remember when i didn't know what 69 meant either, but i knew it had something to do with sex, so i thought it might mean "six minutes, nine months" - ha! i am SO glad you did not wear this out of the house - and i am SO glad that MY seventeen year old (who, by the way is also clueless) has a very conservative wardrobe!!

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  7. Foxy!

    At that age, I didn't know what 69 was either. Actually, I still don't. Lemmonex? Would you mind explaining it to me? I'll let you use my Barbies for the demo.

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  8. You DO look like Christina Applegate there! Lurve.

    I don't think I would have had the foggiest about the t-shirt either... TICKLE FIGHT!!!

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  9. Looks like an Astrological sign to me.

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  10. Well, it *was* a fabulous look at the time. But I think you might be missing the leSportSac bag and Members Only jacket.

    Besides, I think we all went through the Figure Skating School of Aesthetics for a phase or too - no?

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  11. Kris was frequently a bad influence on me as well -- sneaking out, drinking and smoking too much, and questionable fashion choices borne of shopping excursions to Jan Paath. I look at some of the shit I used to wear and just shake my head, muttering "tsk tsk."

    Betty was pretty lenient, though. My mother would have ripped that shirt off my body and burned it.

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  12. LJ - Six minutes, nine months. I could see that. And nobody should wear anythign like this out of the house ever ever every.

    FreckledK - Noo! Nothing dirty with the Barbies! And it does kinda look like an astrological sign...

    LiLu - Hey, thanks! As for tickle fight - absolutely!

    Jessica - Ooh, I did have a leSportSac at some point. But not a Members Only jacket. :)

    Wendy - HAhahaha! She was a bad bad influence! All the running around and being ridiculous. AND how could we have thought a lot of those outfits were normal?? Attractive, even!? And yes, Betty should've taken it and burned it.

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  13. What a coincidence, I was GOING to post a high school photo of myself for my post today on losing my virginity.

    But I didn't have the balls to post it. Maybe you've inspired me.

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  14. I can't figure out what you're holding in your hand...it looks like a scalpel or a pen...what is that?

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  15. I had these underwear when I was 14 that said No all over them... but when you turned off the lights they glowed "yes". My mom flipped out when she saw them one day in my laundry pile and i never understood why.

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  16. Arjerwtino - When in doubt, I sincerely try to go with the most ridiculous option.

    JoLee - It's a butter knife. For the spreading of peanut butter and jelly.

    Maxie - THAT is really funny!

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  17. I'm with FreckledK -- you are FOXAY!

    I always hid my contraband wardrobe items, and snuck them out of the house to wear... awesome that you had yours out in the open.

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  18. So...wait. Are you saying that neon and pegged jeans weren't cool?!? ;-)

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  19. Some of us were Kris, some of us had Kris for a friend.

    That shirt is hilarious. I can totally see wearing something like that to drive my mom nuts.

    Sorry, Betty.

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  20. oh.. my. god. somehow I missed this the first time around! So very funny!!!

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  21. omg - somehow i missed this one. too funny!!!

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