A few weeks ago Cassie over at The Veda House posted about little trinkets she holds on to. I thought it was a great idea and since I have an entire drawer of my desk packed full of junk precious  memories, I thought I’d share.

1. Flyer from a local show – guessing this was around 2002. I have A LOT of these, but they were the best memories so I can’t get rid of them.

2. Wristband from Warped Tour ’09 – Jenn and I spent the day sweating our asses off in the Planned Parenthood tent handing out condoms to kids. We sang along to NOFX and met Jay Bentley from Bad Religion on the way out of the show.

3. I bought a plane ticket the night before the show and flew to Chicago to see Motion City at the last minute. Got to meet Jamie and hang out with Jessica again!

4. A book of sonnets that belonged to my great grandmother, given to me by my grandmother a few years ago.

5. First date. He tried to be sly and pretend he just happen to have tickets, but plan was foiled when he handed me a printed ticket with his name on it. Nice try ;)

6. Green Day show, 2002 – they ended their set by launching ping-pong balls and red confetti into the audience.

7. New Kids on the Block trading card circa 1989. Yes, I somehow still have these.

8. Ticket stub from my first plane ride – flew to Hartford, CT in 2009. Yes, it really was my first.

9. Rancid at St. Andrews Hall, 2006. Jenn and I lost our minds singing along and drooling over Tim Armstrong.

10. Wristband from a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2004-ish. We were in Cleveland to see Reggie & the Full Effect and ran into him at a little pizza shop after the show.

11. Matches from Louie’s Bar in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina – our lunch spot during the girls shopping trip while we were on vacation three years ago.

12. Lunch token for Bamboozle ’08 – obviously I did not eat lunch >_<

13. My boss left this on my desk with an arrow pointing to my picture and a note asking for my autograph.

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Also – thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post. Your words mean a lot to me and I really appreciate the support <3

[ My brother and I at my grandparent's house ]

When I was a kid, my grandparents lived on Lake Huron and once or twice a month we would spend the weekend there. After lunch, we would gather our sand pails, beach towels, and sunscreen and walk in bare feet down to the end of the street, over the cool stone, through a path between pine trees to the beach.

We would play in the sand for hours, then venture out into the rocky, freezing lake. After we were sufficiently sunned with a pound of sand in our swim suits, we’d walk back to the house. On to the porch and in through the sliding door, welcomed by my grandfather listening to the ball game on the radio.

That’s what Ernie’s voice reminds me off. Coming back from the lake, tired and covered in sand. The smell of burgers on the grill, grandma handing us juice jugs that looked like little barrels, and running around the backyard with my cousins.

Blink’s set was OK – they played mostly newer stuff but saved their asses from two very annoyed ladies by playing “Josie,” Carousel,” and “Dammit.” Tom did a nice job of filling the lyrics he forgot with obscenities.

See the model of the Skankin' Bunny? I want it!!

I ran into a kid I was friends with in high school, but hadn’t seen since. I almost didn’t recognize him, but he immediately recognized me. Seeing him really took me back to my days of blue hair and big pants.

Toward the end of the set, Travis did some sort of drum solo/high wire act and I decided to test the video capabilities of my phone…bad idea. (OK actually it was kind of a good idea because I just watched the video and it’s awesome!) My phone totally choked on the video and got stuck in camera mode – it wouldn’t even turn off.

Travis Barker Acrobatic Drum Solo from Silly Grrl on Vimeo.

(Jump out of your reader if you can’t see the video!)

Once the show was over and we were sitting in a line of cars barely moving for 40 minutes, I pulled the battery out of my phone and waited and waited, having a mild freak out, while my phone restarted.

We passed the time watching a group of 40-somethings continue to drunkenly tailgate while kids ran around the parking lot like morons. Being the adults we are, Jessica and I played Trivial Pursuit on her phone. Once we had pulled up next to the 40-somethings they came over to help us answer some questions.

The night ended with a long drive home listening to Reggie and the Full Effect and kinda getting The Sad from all the cheesy love songs.

* Good pictures by Jessica, shit ones by me :)

I had short, spikey, ever color-changing hair and a penchant for converse, plaid pants and band t-shirts. I worked at Michaels Arts and Crafts and then at a fancy Italian restaurant and spent almost every weekend taking photos at hall shows for my local music website.

I was trying to pick an old entry to post, but they were all pretty ridiculous, until I found this:

after sitting around inside/outside for a while we all piled into connelly’s clown car around 1am and went to taco bell and white castle. then came back and ate in the driveway. colin and i left about two. i went to his house for a while and got home a little after 3. it doesn’t sound too exciting and eventful but i had a good time. hi klair if you read this ;)

See that little note at the end? That was the first time anyone ever recognized me from the internet. Klair, who I had never met before, walked up to me and said “I know you from LiveJournal.” It freaked me out just a little, but we had a lot in common and ended up being very good friends for a long time.

2002 - Check out those walls!

Then there are gems like:

i have a lot of cheese in my mouth right now

and

my parents are pissed at me again for coming home late. but i called and said i’d be home in a bit. who’s to say that a bit isn’t an hour long?? thats what i thought. and i’m 18 so they can just kiss my ass

There are also a lot of entries that go like this: today i rained a lot, so i decided that was a good reason to not go to class. (It’s a miracle I made it through college in 4 years!)

My conclusion after reading through all these old entries is that I was a damn weird kid and was (still am) oblivious to my eccentricities. But I think that’s the way all kids should grow up – being deliriously happy thinking everything they love and everything they are is amazing. Then we can all look back and laugh at what freaks we were.

Somewhere around age 13, when us kids were just starting to explore the World Wide Web, I stumbled on a web page owned by some girl named Claire. It was one column and purple with a big *Claire* at the top. I was memorized and intrigued. I created an account at gURLpages, like she had, and made my own one column *Sarah* page. (I looked at gURL.com the other day and sadly, it looks like gURLpages no longer exists. Where will the nerdlettes come from now?)

I spent the next few years dissecting every site with a fancy layout and flashy graphics, teaching myself HTML and then CSS. I wish I had gotten my hands on a copy of Dreamweaver back then because I wasted a whole lot of time coding everything in Notepad. I remember trying to figure out mouseover buttons and frames and being thrilled with my discovery of the iframe. (Any of you nerds still with me here?)

At some point, maybe around 15, I started blogging. I had an account at Blogger and Diaryland and then graduated to having my blog hosted at another blogger’s site.

In college, while getting my degree in journalism, I built websites for bands (they mostly paid in food and merch) and small companies. I also spent a good amount of time redesigning my portfolio. I don’t think any layout lasted more than a couple weeks before I came up with something new.

In 2005, when I graduated from college, the almost 10 years of being a total nerd finally paid off when I landed a job at the TV station I now work at. My degree got me in the door, but my portfolio definitely got the job.

I don’t design much outside of work anymore. I spend most of my day glued to a computer sifting through code, so when I go home I prefer to stay away from the internets.

I owe a big thanks to Claire and her adorable purple webpage for making me the employed nerd I am today.

Local music filled my weekends and occasionally my weekdays from the time I was a junior in high school through college. I realized it was the same 15 – 20 bands I saw over and over and over again.

How many nights did I spend at VFW halls packed with kids, singing until I lost my voice and drinking in the parking lot? I’d go to a show, didn’t matter who was playing, and there were all my friends – every single one of them.

Almost can’t watch this without crying a little. I was standing just to the right of the camera.

I miss the high-fives, the handshakes and heartbreaks, the 40 ouncers, sing-a-longs, parking lots full of vans, late night trips to Pizza Bell, the Wrecking Crew, bball before the show, hanging out at the Supina’s, my ridiculous haircut, makeups, makeouts, solos and the overrated clapping part in every other song, holes in ceilings, grumpy old men, touring band sleepovers, no girlfriends allowed, halloween, and the songs…damn those kids were talented.

I miss it all. I hope the scene is still there, but the bands broke up and the kids moved on and I think all that passion went with them. We were really, really spoiled with how amazing it was.

So, to the King of the Detroit Local Music Scene, you know who you are…thanks for the memories.

I made a playlist on Last.fm, too many bands are missing. B was in about 50 of them ;)

I’ll go through my photos when I get home, I’m sure I’ve got some good ones I can post.

(Does anyone know how to put a playlist chart on a blog?)

- Aunt Sue always leaves the food at home and shows up with her extendo-fork instead. You’re sitting there enjoying a burger and out of nowhere a fork slides in a starts stealing your potato salad. Also good for poking children when they’re being annoying…or when she’s being annoying.

- One year my will was tested in a competition to essentially determine who was too stubborn to quit. Sitting around the camp fire one night we decided to see who could last the longest holding their legs straight out in front of them. We sat like that for hours (and this was way before we were old enough to drink) It came down to myself, my brother, and two other guys, which meant there was no way I was losing. I held my legs like that for 5, yes FIVE hours. I won, but paid the price when I couldn’t sleep due to the pain shooting through my legs and back.

- The first, and only time I had White Castle was around 1am one summer while camping in the thumb (Michigan people…) The whole family had been partying all day and my uncle and his buddy decided it was time for a crave case. An hour later they were back with 50 burgers. Even though I practically ate an entire container of Goldfish I could not get that disgusting oniony taste out of my mouth.

Last time I had a dream like this I was in high school and not a week later a friend and I were at the store buying bleach and stocking up on Manic Panic.

Back in the day my hair was short, pixie cut, which makes it very easy to change hair color over and over without going bald. My mom protested from outside the bathroom as we began bleaching my hair to an Easter-ish yellow. Then, as we smeared the dark purple/blue dye all over my head, I knew I had made the right decision. An hour later, properly washed and styled, my hair was short, spiky, dark purple and totally fucking awesome.

Now, the thing about a Crayola inspired hair color is, it washes out very quick. Two weeks later my hair had gone from dark purple, to bright blue, to light blue, to silvery blue. And so we slathered my hair in dye again and I was back to dark purple.

Three re-redyes and a couple months later, graduation was fast approaching and my mom demanded that I “look normal” for the photos. (I’d like to point out right now that my sister had bleach blond hair with purple streaks at her graduation. So unfair!) Instead of bleaching the shit out of my hair again I decided to let it fade and grow out.

Let me tell you, purple/blue/silver hair with brown roots doesn’t look so good. It took two attempts to color my hair red before I looked decent again.

If I didn’t work a “normal” job and think my boss’ boss would be a little freaked by me showing up to work with blue hair I’d be in the bathroom right now turning my self back into Sonic the Hedgehog.

p.s. I’ll dig out and upload some pictures later tonight – ok locating a photo has proven to be more difficult than I had imagined…way to be organized. I’ll find one soon!