My roommate went to sleep early last night, which really encouraged me to shut down before midnight. I have been waking up lately during the night, and for me that's bad. If I wake up during the night, I spend most of the day really tired. I was fine this morning when Stina, Suzanne, and I went to breakfast, but during my Artificial Intelligence class I couldn't keep my eyes open. I came home and slept from 11am to noon, and still felt like crap. Maybe I shouldn't go to bed early...
I am supposedly a child of the 80s... someone highly familiar with Strawberry Shortcake, Goonies, the Brat Pack, Pacman, and dressing like Madonna. The problem was it seemed to me that my stepmom was too protective of me, and so I don't know much about the 80s. Not the pop culture end of it, at any rate.
I wasn't allowed to watch She-Ra or He-Man... or cartoons in general. So no GI Joe for me, or Strawberry Shortcake, or Transformers ("more than meets the eye").
This also applied to movies. The first time I saw The Breakfast Club was at Kurt's house two weeks ago, and I saw Goonies for the first time as a college sophomore. I saw Gremlins when I was quite small, when I was still at my mother's house, but I can't remember much since I was so young.
As far as 80s music goes, I think that's about all I'm literate in. My parents never banned me from having a radio, which is good because otherwise I'd have gone mad. So I know all the quintessential 80s songs -- Tiffany and Debbie Gibson and Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and Billy Ocean.
Some days I think I missed out on a lot... The rest of my friends feel nostalgic for their childhoods when they see something 80s-related. But then, I am known as the girl with the swiss cheese memory. :o)
Strawberry Shortcake. That's one 80s icon I dealt with every day -- my room was decorated in it!! :o) That's right, folks -- the whole works. Sheets, comforter, pillowcases, curtains... Along with a moss green carpet. :o) And unfinished wooden window sills that my sister and I would draw all over when we got bored. Pink walls that matched the Strawberry Shortcake theme. Dark wood bunk beds. A closet with a double hanging pole, my stuff on the lower pole -- my dance costumes hanging in that closet. I used to love to touch my dance costumes; one was a yellow duck outfit (complete with a strap on hat consisting of a few feather), and the other was a yellow leotard with a black-and-white checkered skirt, to look like the Indy 500. They were made of the softest thick satin, shiny and smooth. I loved them.
I gave up dance in the second grade. I had been taking ballet and tap when I was living with my mother, but once I moved to Dad's I had to drop tap. The studio near my home didn't teach it, so I took ballet and jazz. It wasn't the same, because it was tap that I really loved.
I dropped it for a couple of reasons... I was a lazy girl who didn't want to get up that early on a Saturday morning, for one thing. The other reason was I had a bit of a tummy when I was younger, and I was really self-conscious in my leotard. All the other little girls were skinny, and there I was with my tummy preceding me. I was a lot taller and a lot thicker than a lot of the little girls. I wasn't fat -- but a lot of little kids are downright skinny. I wasn't. I had meat on my bones.
My mother had the hardest time finding ballet and tap shoes for me when I was little. I have always had WIDE feet. Not just wide, but WIDE! A triple-E when I was little, and now they've widened out to a single E. Most of the time I can get away with a D, but I am used to wearing my shoes tight. I guess that's why I never wear my shoes indoors or even outdoors if I can help it.
Speaking of dance, however, tonight I went to see the performance of Philadanco, the Philadelphia Dance Company, with my roommate here at the college. DAMN they were good!!! I haven't ever been much for modern dance, preferring the more traditional form of ballet, but I was very impressed with them. They were spectacular.
I have always admired dancers beacause of the sheer strength and endurance they need, not just for the performances, but just to make it in dance as far as performing professionally. You need physical and mental strength. I watched these men and women perform things I know I couldn't... One lady used a ladder in her dance, and was collapsed over top of it with her stomach resting on the topmost step, and her arms and legs draped to either side. She then raised herself up using only her stomach muscles to the flying superman position -- and repeated the whole sequence!!! YOU do that!! :o) The other thing I thought was awesome was they had two men dancing together the way they would have a woman and a man dance. The one guy would leap into the air and the other would catch him. Now catching a woman is no mean feat, but remember that lady dancers are typically rather light -- I don't know exact figures, but I'm guessing 120lbs or less. The male dancers are usually rather heavy since they have a lot of muscle built up to be able to catch the women and throw them and all. It was just amazing. Very well choreographed, very well lit, very well costumed, the music was cool... JUST TOO COOL!!! :o)
Take care, all!