TGIF... le blast from the past!

Thank the Lord for the weekend. Can I just say that while I'm now an adult and Fridays are a highlight of the week because they equal no work and more sleep, there was a time not all that long ago (only about 17 years, ohmyword when did I get so old?) when Fridays were the absolute best of the week because they meant any/all of the following:

SQUARE PIZZA DAY AT SCHOOL

Please do not fib and tell me that I am the only one who loved this pizza. Accept the shame and join me, won't you? I know for a fact that I'm not alone because when I Googled "square lunchroom pizza," multiple message boards popped with people both declaring their love for the "food" and desperately asking how they can find it as an adult.

I don't know if they still serve this culinary delight, but if they don't, kiddos today are certainly missing out. When I have babies I will certainly guide them to make healthy, balanced diet choices... but I will never deny them cafeteria pizza. It's saying something if it's still on my mind 17 years after last consuming it.

TREAT DAY
Friday was also the day when were allowed to bring 50 cents to school to buy a treat when the final bell rang. That's right-- FIFTY. CENTS. That is all that was needed to buy a $.25 bag of popcorn and an enormous $.25 dill pickle. God forbid if you ever lost one of the quarters during the day and had to go without-- tragedies of the heart, I tell you.

Friday nights were also the one night of the week when my family would either go out for pizza or order it in. Yes-- this does indeed mean that I was constantly consuming twice a day at least once per week. Wanna make something of it? No? Alright, then. My parents would ask, per routine, what my brother and I wanted for dinner and I would always reply "P-I-Z-Z-A!!" I've always been a good speller, and I'm confident that this came from spelling all of the foods that I loved to eat... repeatedly. Should I have taken this early obsession with food spellings as a sign of what my overeating future would hold? Perhaps, but let's not darken the Friday spirit, right? Indeed.

Lastly, I give you the highlight of my childhood Friday nights...


After eating my pizza for lunch, my popcorn/pickle combo for a snack, and hitting up the local Mazzio's with the fam, it was time to get down to business with ABC's genius marketing ploy: How do we get kids in front of the TV to watch our shows? Air the shows during a two hour block on Friday nights so the kids not invited to sleepovers with the popular girls or Skate Haven to skate to "Achey Break-y Heart" have something to occupy their time!!

Step by Step

JT, Karen, Mark in all his nerdiness... I just loved this show. Remember the opening of the show, with the family at an amusement park, playing games and then going down the big hill on the roller coaster at the end? Weeeeee!! So good... yet so corny. Did Cody, the surfer-esque dude bug the childhood crap out of anyone else? Sidenote: he abruptly left the show due to spousal abuse in 1995. The things you don't hear about when you're busy organizing your Lisa Frank sticker collection...

Family Matters

Carl, Harriet, Laura, Waldo... the beloved Steven Urkel. I was obsessed with the Winslows and their cheeriness, how mad Carl would get at ole Steve, how Laura would be so mean to Steve while the audience track "Awwww"d in the background and then they would inevitably make up. Looking back, there was not much drama on the show. No swearing, no violence, no inappropriate jokes and such. What do kids these days watch that give them the same kind of carefree entertainment we had? Do they not stay home with the parentals and relax with pizza and cable TV? Perhaps I'm just THAT out of touch with reality and kids these days.

Dinosaurs

"Not the baby!"
That's all I have to say about that. That and the fact that I might have had Dinosaurs toys and I might have reenacted scenes in my own pretend Dinosaurs living room. Totally normal... totally believe the talking dinosaurs were out in the world and wearing plaid shirts.

Boy Meets World

This... was my favorite. The Matthews ranked higher in my TV-obsessed heart than the Winslows (but not as high as the Cosbys. NOBODY outranks the Cosbys). At times I was convinced that I wanted to marry Eric... then Corey grew up and got less annoying and I wanted to marry him too. Never Shawn though-- no, Shawn/Rider Strong is one of the very, very few celebrities who shared my birthday and I was always a bit hostile about that, so he ranked tres low on my list.

I also just noticed that Topanga is not included in this picture-- I say GOOD RIDDANCE to Topanga anyways! She was always on my bad list as well, then once she started dating a member of NSYNC, she was dead to me.

It was Lance Bass, who later came out as being gay, but whatever-- he was A MEMBER OF NYSNC, my most beloved and favorite music group. Plus she had great hair. Man bitterness + hair bitterness = a big ole negative for a girl trying to win over a TV audience.

Nothing like a blast from the past to make you feel old... or remember the lovely days of being a carefree kiddo. We do still have a mandatory stay-in every Friday in which I go to the gym, pick up pizza on my way home, then proceed to have a date while watching Dateline. Traditions can stick around while evolving, yes?


Just a handful of additional updates...

This was me last night:

Oh yes, I had me some Christian chicken for supper. I've mentioned on here once or fifty times before, but the closest Chick-Fil-A is about 40 minutes away (such a tragedy for a girl who had three in my tiny hometown alone), so if we're ever even in the vicinity of this particular mall food court, I wrangle a detour into the trip so I can have my delicious, beloved chicken sandwich. Excuse the hair-- someone insisted on driving with the windows down, so the 75 degree, 90% humidity weather did a number on it and left me with no other option that to stick it in a ponytail and band it back.

Also, we saw this in IMAX:

It was actually really good, minus the whole disease spreading like wild fire across the world. My comments?
1. Wash your hands.
2. Purel the hell out of your hands AFTER you wash your hands.
3. Purel the hell out of your hands before/during/after you touch the poles on a train, elevator buttons, an escalator rail.
4. If you're on public transportation and someone coughs and foams at the mouth, EVACUATE THE PREMISES!
5. Don't touch me. Seriously.

Considering that I am a germaphobe who already has to deal with riding buses and trains everyday while people cough and sneeze all around me, this movie about did me in. But for real-- when you think your hands are clean enough... wash again.

Alright, I'm outtie! We're off to Baltimore for the weekend to visit Mr. Lion--

--updates and pictures once we're back!