1990 - 1991

1990 - end of 7th grade, first half of 8th grade: At the end of 7th grade, I was in a play, with the older kids, called A Mouse that Roared. My role was the Page and I had an awesomely long speech. I loved it, the rehearsals, the cast party, feeling like the kid sister to the cool older theatre kids. I was blessed with not knowing yet how stereotyped the Drama Kids were at my highschool, and I just loved it. I also remember a couple of 8th grade boys doing a routine to
What I Like About You that was pretty damn sweet, but I can't remember which of a group of about 4 guys it was. 7th grade summer was spent mainly at the pool devising ways to get our hot lifeguards to notice us. We were slightly boys-obsessed, as girls are.

8th grade:

First of all, I loved 8th grade. I had a great group of friends that felt really tight-knit for the first time since moving to Fairfax. I was still a reasonably good student and mostly enjoying school. Things that jump out for me in 8th grade: Boys. Lots of them. Matt Carr specifically (where are you Matt Carr?). The 8th grade dance, which by some sort of law requires playing of "Doin Da Butt" and "It Takes Two" or maybe that was just about when I grew up.

What definitely WAS about when I grew up was the playing of Unchained Melody and our stoic determination to dance with "hot" guys to that song. We were successful (thanks Cristian and Drew!). I also vividly remember the Fairfax Fair that year as it was still held on the grounds of GMU and we were able to walk from my school.

Fashion-wise, we wore a lot of Champion gear and stretchy skirt/top ensembles from The Limited. Also, Vuarnet shirts. (French sunglasses, why?). I remember the Magazine Drive clearly, including these little fuzzy things with ribbons (bear with me) that you got for selling magazines. I don't remember exactly why they were enticing. This would have been around the era of slap bracelets as well. I can only imagine how annoying we were at this age, the lot of us. Oh, also, Motley Crue totally released Dr Feelgood. I discovered Skid Row (actually, that WOULD have been 7th grade) and promptly memorized all the words to I Remember You (I still can't forget them).

I somehow, by some grace, managed to narrowly escape NKOTB fandom. Michelle tried it, and I think I gave her the smack down musically. I DID however enjoy ABC, Boyz II Men, AND BBD. and really, freaking Jodeci. Or wait, that may have been 9th grade...

I feel like I had to have had some boyfriends, and I'm sure I did, in their innocence. Dave Kohne, yep. A boy named Carey that I met at Cameron Run. Large crushes on multiple hockey players and/or skate guards at Fairfax Ice Rink. Keith Michlik. Again, large crushes on our lifeguards (summer crushes/winter crushes - they were seasonally appropriate).