OMG! I AM still a teenager

So, the past couple of days I've found myself (internally [mostly (not counting the venting to my mom and Luke)]) freaking out about my high school reunion...again. Not that I'm going to get crap dumped on me, but more that it's going to be like high school.

I've been freaking out because I've seen classmates on facebook who are buying new dresses and my reaction (in order) is:

1. To wonder if this really is a high school dance and roll my eyes at their teen-like ways.
2. Feel sorry for myself because I don't have the money to go buy a new dress, make sure Luke has a coordinating tie, and order a boutonniere from Hy-Vee. And my old prom dress definitely won't fit (thank you, college years, for giving me boobs).

Both Luke and Mom have reminded me that no one will know if I'm wearing a repeat outfit or not. And honestly, I don't really have the desire to go buy a new outfit. But it's just the idea of all of it ("it" being the stress of finding the perfect outfit) feels way too much like high school.

Really, this is where 10 years of "adulthood" gets me!? Still freaking out about who I'll talk to and what I'll wear and whether or not my hair will behave itself...gah.

For some reason, Brittany Murphy's line from clueless just popped into my head..."You're a virgin who can't drive." Well, guess what, stupid high school Jill, you AREN'T a virgin and you CAN drive! So there!

My husband is as cool as me now

For those of you who have been around for awhile, you may remember this. Luke had a similar moment tonight that he wanted me to blog about. Here's his story...

We've been watching The Guild the past couple of nights. Tonight we ended on an episode where someone goes in for a high five and misses, and the other high-fiver says "Watch the elbow, Dude." According to Luke, he came up with that and he's really excited that his idea has made it onto The Guild. Then he said, "You need to blog about this."

Now, I'm pretty sure that I heard "watch the elbow" before I met Luke. Has anyone else heard this advice before? Or has Luke's idea made it big time (of course, not as big time as mine; mine was on network tv after all)?

Peeling fingers

Luke and I have both been experiencing dry, peeling fingers recently. We've come up with a few hypotheses as to why this is happening:

-sitting in a/c air constantly
-the change in season
-(and my personal favorite, from my husband) touching the hot steering wheel.

The day I learned the purpose of the parking brake

It was a nice spring day in the early 90s, I know that much for (almost) sure. Joe and I were spending the weekend, or maybe just the day, with our dad and he'd taken us to the Village of East Davenport, where he was playing baseball (or more likely catch) with our uncle at Lindsay Park. We'd gotten bored and asked if we could go sit in Dad's pick up.

We were both pretty young; Joe was probably only 5 or 6, making me only 9 or 10. Dad had a red S10 pickup from the mid-80s. It had a long vinyl bench seat and behind the seat was at least two years worth of Dad's garbage; mainly empty packages of chocolate covered peanuts and Diet Mountain Dew bottles. He's a carpenter so everything had a thin layer of dirt. It was a clutch and the way I remember it, Joe started playing with stick shift (maybe it was me, I don't really remember this part).

As a person who has owned a stick for most of my car-owning life, I've tried to figure out what happened next several times.

Dad had parked the car on a hill. It was facing downhill. I guess the truck was in gear when Dad had parked it, and Joe (or me, again, I don't really remember who was the instigator) must have put the car into neutral and we started moving down the hill (coming down into the river valley, so it was a fairly steep hill for Iowa). I remember being incredibly terrified and trying to figure out how we'd explain this to our Mom later in the day (I'm not sure she ever found out). I remember having no idea what was going on or how to stop it, except for trying to move the stick shift around some more.

And then I remember our uncle running from the ball field, across the street, and opening the drivers' side door of the truck and slamming on the parking brake.

I filed "parking brake" away for all future emergencies. And I decided not to wait in cars with my brother when I was bored.