So, without further ado (To plagerize the Un-Mom), here are 7 things you should know about me as a teenager:

1. I totally had a thing for basketball players. Seriously, I dated a lot of basketball players in high school. My long-term boyfriend played (and was really good). I had crushes on the varsity players when I was a freshman. I had crushes on freshman players when I was a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. I was just crazy about basketball players. I was crazy about basketball. I was the basketball manager. I even got kicked out of a basketball game, as a cheerleader, for getting in a ref’s face and mouthing off.
   
2. Nice segue to #2. I was a cheerleader. Pom-poms, short skirts, flash pants and all. I cheered in junior high and in high school. I was pretty good. Of course, back in the 80s cheerleading was not the Gatorade-sponsored, ESPN-lovin’, crazed sport it is now. It was good, clean fun with a few backflips thrown in. I did manage to break my tailbone, though (thanks Stacy, if you were to ever read this) so don’t tell me it’s not a sport!

   

3. I was a roller-DIVA! I grew up in a roller rink called Roller City. My mom taught me when I was 3 and we would go every Thursday night for family night. It was our thing. It got to the point where the limbo winner AND the person who came in second would get free passes. (Since I won every week, that only seemed fair.) For races, when the other kids only had to do 1 lap, I had to do 2. And I would still win. They moved me up to the teen races when I was 9. Then I only had to do 1 1/2 laps. They say do what you love, so I worked there for a few years too. I know, I’m so cool such a loser.

   

4. My first car was this horrible Datsun. It was a 4-speed, manual transmission wagon that I bought for $500 from a friend of my mom’s, not knowing the heater didn’t work. It was November in Colorado. I was also so afraid of not being able to time the gas and the clutch correctly on hills that I would go a mile out of my way to the aforementioned roller rink (work) because there was a huge hill, where the light was always red. (God’s idea of a joke, I guess.)

   

5. I was in the habit of sneaking out some nights to meet up with my friends (not boys, other girls who were actually allowed to go out after dinner). One winter night—everything happens during the winter in Colorado—I snuck out to chill (literally, it would appear). I came home about midnight to discover that some time in the night my mother had gotten up and closed my window. And locked the front door. I was crushed. She must really hate me to lock me outside in the dead of winter. I refused to give in to her and knock on the door. I was young and tough so I figured I would just wait it out in the car (she never locked her car). Well, 3 hours 10 minutes later, the wuss in me won out. I had to knock on the door and beg her to let me in. Boy was she surprised to see me. She had no idea that I had been out. She got up to pee, noticed my window open and closed it, never noticing I wasn’t in bed. Mental note: when sneaking out, take your keys!
6. Like all teenage girls, I had some posters on the wall. My walls were covered with pre-gay George Michael, Sting, Rick Springfield, and Duran Duran.

   

7. And last but not least, I LOVED JAKE RYAN. If you don’t know who Jake Ryan was, 1) you were not a teen chick in the 80s and/or 2) you haven’t seen one of the greatest movies of all time!

   

Now it’s my turn to tag. I know she’s probably sick of being tagged, but that’s what happens to the popular girls…they get tagged! So, Miss Caught Up, go go go and relive your teenage years! I’d also like to know more about the teen years of:

Dagny a.ka. Scratch Bags: because she seems like a cool chick!
Daddy Papersurfer: I don’t know if he’ll participate, but it would be fun to hear about the “olden days”!
Atomic DogmA: DP knows all the fun people.
Probably Sucks: I want to read what crazy shit he’ll write!

I’m only tagging 5 people. The rest of you, use the comments and tell me something about you as a teenager!