High School

I loved high school.
I really did.

Attending my 20 year reunion
was so much fun.

Almost as fun as digging out the old photos.

Feel free to ignore this post.
There are lots of pictures from the 80's.
It's for the family history
after I'm dead and gone.



Softball team.
This wasn't the coach that checked me out in the locker-room
which creeped me out and made me quit.
My team probably just thought I was a flake
when I quit showing up to practices without explanation.
They now have the explanation
I felt unable to verbalize in 1991.
No, I'm not a homophobe.
Just a fan of appropriate
student-coach relationships.

Chamber singers.

It was an awesome place to be.

That's me and Jen up front.

We sang together at graduation.

This was my best attempt at the

Julia Roberts look-alike contest.

Dang, I was smokin' hot.

It broke my prom date's heart

when I wouldn't sleep with him.

Has enough time gone by to admit that publicly?

Sorry Ben,

but my husband thanks you

from the bottom of his heart.

The ladies on graduation night

right before we stuffed in a limo

and drove around town all night.

Me, Shelly, and Anna

on New Year's Eve.

ASB retreat.

We had so much fun.

Have no idea why Kelly and I were trying to seduce a tree.

Me and Travis Parker.

Travis Matthew Parker.

He was quite possibly the person who knew me best.

We could talk about anything and everything

and we always had intellectually stimulating conversations

while simultaneously having a really great time.

I crushed on him forever.

We then dated.

I got freaked out.

I never told him it was because I didn't want to

disappoint yet one more boyfriend by not having sex.

You now know the truth Travis.

Somehow, I think I should have just been honest with him.

Here we are on choir tour.

I was bloated and we were messing around.

Pretty amazing that I could blow enough air into my belly to look 8 months pregnant.

Poor LeGrand.

I've never looked this good for him when I was 8 months preggers.

Jen, me and Kristen on the infamous wave.

It's amazing to me how people figure out how to screw

teenagers out of all their lunch money.

I wonder how much I forked over collectively 

for the 10 different poses I have in the box out in the garage?

This one means the most because

Kristen is my only high school friend who I wish with all my heart was still alive.

My sister and I with our Christmas pajama dance dates.

Greg later married Jen up above.

Homecoming 1991.

My first date.

It was the day after my 16th birthday.
Anna's brother Adam took me.

And I still apologize to this day for

ridiculing him with my awful taste in semi-formals.

The ladies I am with in the photo

got into a tragic car accident later in the evening.

We prayed over Stephanie for a long time.

The day she finally came back to school

was pretty much a miracle.

I can't remember another time in high school

that I was that happy.

The Del Mar Fair.

Check out Todd and Fred

at the bottom.

They were Team Flatulence,

so you can imagine what is going on in the photo.

This is me with Melanie and Angela.

They were my only friends in junior high

and always my best of friends,

even if sometimes we only hung out at church.

On our way out to the dance club.

Yeah, my parents thought I was bowling.

To be honest, I would have rather been bowling.

I hate dancing.

Even that one dance with Chuck Alberton

was completely and totally not worth it.

Thanks to Mike Rice for bribing him into it.

20 years later, as he walked in the reunion,

Jen and I turned to each other simultaneously, 

and replayed the moment

for the 200th time.

Hi I'm Alice.

I know.

(silence)

He was our freshman class president.

I was sophomore class president.

I crushed on him for three years.

I even requested Notre Dame memorabilia

because it was his favorite school

and when given that one moment

to make an impression

that was all I could come up with.

What a dork I was.

And my friends were the best to remind me.

Me and Shelly with her mom and dad.

Rest in peace Chuck Duff.

I want you to know that I am so happy that I am now married to an attorney

because I was always so jealous of Shelly

when she could threaten her way out of any situation

with my dad is going to sue.

In Napa Valley

on choir tour.

What cute boys.

I have no recollection of the guy left of Todd.

I already told you about Travis.

Next to me is Stephen Blake.

He moved to Carlsbad in 7th grade

from Boston.

I would hound him relentlessly

to say the word "car."

So sexy.

And look at his hair.

All the girls were always jealous.

Facebook has informed me that

Steve is in a popular band.

How fitting.

I wonder if he still has the same hair?

The girls outside the choir tour bus.

Those pearls almost make us look innocent.

How naughty of us pulling down our sleeves like that.

Spaghetti dinner, jr year I believe.

We sang a 50's medley

and worked out butts off to build our own arrangements.

Homecoming was always the BEST.

We would rent out a warehouse for a week

where everyone would stay all night

building the floats.

Or at least some of us would actually do the work.

These are all working girls

except that girl in the front left.

I have no idea who she is.

Some surfer girl that Shelly sucked into the picture.

The same p.j. dance the next year.

That's me and Matt Jewell.

We were scandalous.

I was a senior,

he was a freshman.

I saw him singing and dancing with his 8th grade show choir

when I was a junior and knew instantly

that I would make him my boyfriend the next year.

 He was officially my longest relationship

until my husband.

6 months I think.

Man, he broke my heart.

The only boy to ever break up with me.

After him I got smart

and did the breaking up first.

On this very night,

everyone else had to wait on us

because Matt was so late

because he had to play in an away

freshman basketball game.

So funny.

This is Jeff Graf, Chelsea and I.

Chelsea was one of those insanely popular girls,

and I was delightfully surprised when we had ASB together

at how normal and down to earth she really was.

We had some great talks.

I believe she and her blogging bestie shunned me at the reunion though

so I will refrain from linking to their very popular blog.

I may just have been sensitive that night,

but there is nothing like being out of high school

and not needing to be loved.

Pretty sure she doesn't read my blog

so it's all good.

I show you this picture

because you just had to see

that I had the coolest  hair of the 80's.