Halfway Hip

Flu Music

So, I have the flu. No wonder I was so cranky for my last post. I started with cold symptoms Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, I progressively felt worse and worse throughout the day. I knew that a student of mine came down with the flu the week before, and she and I had handed off a few things to each other, so I suspected it right away when I felt feverish. After taking Advil, my temp was still 101, so I went to urgent care that afternoon and got the diagnosis. Now that it's two days later, I feel somewhat better, but definitely not back to normal. Fever goes up and down, and I'm having a really hard time sleeping at night. Last night, I gave up trying and came out to the living room, where I happily discovered the VHI Classic was playing 120 Minutes! Even in my sickened misery, I felt giddy joy at watching some of these gems again: First up, Sinead O'Connor with MC Lyte: "Going Underground" by The Jam. Check out how fresh this would be now!! What goes around comes around! Elvis Costello's "What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding" played, too, but I can't share that with you b/c it was ganked from youtube. Boo. So, weird coincidence. I was just reading in Hillary's blog last night about her favorite album. Mere hours later, I'm watching this video, and I haven't thought about Lemonheads in years. "It's a Shame About Ray." So, not all 90s music was horrible. There was also the Pixies, whose "Monkey Gone to Heaven" was also played, much to my fevered delight. There was also "Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins. I have a love/hate relationship with this band, and still feel that they were waaaayyy overplayed, but this video is gorgeous. They were doing steampunk 10 years before the rest of the world was: Then, they had to go ahead and play one of the main reasons 90s music got so bad. Sony BMG disalbed embedding on this one, but you can follow the link. Actually, it's really not a bad song. Just way overplayed and then it started a huge downturn in "progressive" music that lasted til about the year 2001, when Interpol and The Strokes came along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCgFYz7VX74 Though, to be fair, my access to true indie, underground music at that time was very limited. No more 120 minutes. No more true college alt. radio. Enid, OK didn't have a quirky little record shop. I should have paid more attention to the reviews in Entertainment Weekly, and then I would have discovered Pavement and Pulp when they were timely. Okay, 90s music ramble over. I don't think this song by The Fixx would have EVER been on the real 120 minutes. It's probably just as well that I can't embed this one, either. It's like being Rik Rolled. Really. Hearing this one, I know I've been unfair to 90s music. Oh, how I loved James!!! I don't think I ever saw this one back then, which is so hard to believe!!!! "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths. The only video I remember seeing from them was "Stop Me If You Think..." and then of course Morrissey vids. What would 120 Minutes be without a New Order video? This is the one they played last night. Mom, I swear this song isn't about drugs! Why would anyone think that?! If you're still with me, hope you enjoyed this little stroll down memory lane. Kristen's probably the only one still with me. :)

10 years ago

It's fun to think about what was going on 10 years
ago. For some reason, I've been thinking about it a
lot lately. What were you up to 10 years ago? 

In the summer of 98, we lived in a small apartment in
the Warrington Estates complex on MacArthur and 122nd
in NW OKC. I had just finished my first year of
teaching in the small town of Covington, OK. I took
that job when we lived in Enid, but we had to move to
OKC in February for Matt's job at Tinker. I was going
to live during the week in Covington with another
teacher and then go home to Matt on the weekends. 
However, this only lasted about a week, as I was
extremely lonely and depressed in that small town. 
So, I decided to just live in OKC and commute an hour
each way up Hwy 74. One time, I counted over 50 dead
animals on the road. :)

By June, I had officially quit that job and was
looking for another one, so I was going on lots of
interviews. I ended up getting the job at Roosevelt
Middle School in OKC. We needed some extra $$, so I
took a temp job at the OKC Public Schools office
downtown. OMG, seeing the beast from the inside was
NOT a good idea that early on. I was in the
accounting dept and got to see firsthand the
depravity, incompetence, etc. that plagues inner-city
schools. 

I was also busy planning a big trip to
Stratford-Upon- Avon (Shakespeare' s birthplace) in July
to see New Order reunite at a big outdoor festival
there. I was going to go on a free buddy pass with my
friend, Chris, who worked for Delta. The concert was
rescheduled, though, til after school started. That's
why I have a 10 year old passport that's never been
used.

What about you?  If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Video from Skate Party

Courtesy of Victoria.

80s chicks from Victoria Akselsen on Vimeo.

80s Skate Night from Victoria Akselsen on Vimeo.

20th Friendiversary Gallery

This is circa 1988 or 89. We were bored and messing around at Kristen's house.

Here is our "before"

Here is the "after"

Who were we trying to be???

Robert Palmer's women, of course! Kristen's little bro, Davey, was such a good sport.

Here is us a year or two later, waiting for the bus, 10th grade.

Skip a few years, to sophomore year in college. Notice that I have the same hairstyle that I did in 8th grade!

Before my college graduation, 1995. Kristen's sportin' The Rachel. I wish I had more pics of this apartment. It was pretty bad!

1998, rockin' the MIA sandals:

1999, New Years Eve. God, this was a fun party.

Fini Flight

11 years ago, Matt took his first solo flight in the T-37 at Vance AFB, Enid, OK. The tradition is to "dunk" the pilot when this happens. Here is afterward, looking like a drowned rat:

On Friday, Matt took his final flight in the AWACS. I thought he'd be sad about it, but he's pretty relieved to be done. Here is his final parking job. I had to be very sneaky about taking these pics. The damned security guard would barely let us on the flight line, and I'm sure if they had seen me, they would have given me shit.

In appropriate closing tradition, Matt was once again "dunked" for his "fini flight." The kids were even able to get in on the action:

Congrats, Sweetie. It's been a long, hard slog, hasn't it?

Back in time

This past Sunday, I got to go back in time for a bit. See, there's this club in Dallas called The Church, and the place is a time capsule. My best friend, Kristen, and I spent way too many nights there back in the late 90s, when she was newly divorced and I was Air Force widowed for 6 months out of every year. We were both teaching, and The Church was only open on Thursdays and Sundays, so we had to be out on a school holiday to go, esp. considering that I lived in Ok. City at the time. So, even back then, it was a rare treat for me to be able to go there. Kristen and I spent the early 90s in a cowtown going to a shit-kicker college. When we found a club that played the exact music we used to dance to in various teen clubs in and around Dallas, such as Level V, NRG, The Alternative, Industry, and Metroplis/Xenon, we were hooked. What made it even better was that pretty much every time we went, we'd see old pals from high school.
2001 was the last time we got to go, and by then it wasn't as fun. We were both pregnant, Kristen was already showing and couldn't dance right, and the smoke bothered us more than usual. Plus, obviously, there was no drinking. During a 2003 visit to Dallas (from So. Cal), we attempted to go again. I had even bought a new skirt with pleather trim and rivets from Hot Topic for the occasion. Our children were both around 20 months old at the time, both still nursing, and both officially high-needs toddlers. Late evening rolled around, and it was pretty clear that our babies wouldn't be letting us out of the house anytime soon.
So, after 7 long years, we finally got the opportunity this past weekend to relive a bit of our shared history. (A LOT of our shared history takes place in nightclubs, come to think of it.) The dads had everything under control (Matt was at his mom's house with ours). I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I've only been to clubs just a few times since having children, and I've been feeling pretty old and out-of-it lately. The great thing about The Church, as we found out, is that it doesn't change much. Our old friend Joe is still DJing there, and he was happy as could be to see us there. I was shocked to see that the place still gets packed. Some of the same people were there, and I was relieved to see that the majority of the people were old like us. We did see a few indie-rock kids who were lovin the 80s music in an ironic way, much like we did on Trash Disco nights in 1992. We danced a lot, consumed a lot of Guiness (for us), and I even did a shot of Tuaca for old time's sake. The only thing that changed was that I turned into a pumpkin around 1am and had to get out of there. Too crowded, too smokey, and I had a baby waiting for me at home. Plus, I didn't want to pay for this too dearly the next day. Yes, we'll be going back whenever we can. Instead of feeling old and out-of-place there, I felt young again and totally at home.