Amy’s Adventures

Yippee--I'm finally a senior and we get to lean on tables and have the glamour shots we waited 12 years for.

My SWGHS class reunion was last October, but at the time I was so deep in the Big Red Engine craziness I really didn’t have time to think about what life was like back in 1990. Tonight, as I was working out I noticed an old Purple Rain video was on and it got me thinking about what movies, tv shows, songs, etc. were all the rage in 1990, the year the Class of 1990 said good-bye to lockers, pep rallies and Friday night football.

So for the Class of 1990, these are for you.

Movie of the Year: Driving Miss Daisy (Never did see that one. Somehow watching an old woman get driven around didn’t appeal to me then or now.)

Best Comedy: Murphy Brown (This show inspired me that if I never married, I could still have a kid on my own. I guess this could still happen. I think I’d rather have a kid than a husband anyway! )

Best Drama: LA Law (Yep, didn’t watch this. I knew then and I know now that lawyers just aren’t for me.)

Song of the Year: Wind Beneath My Wings (Must be the worst song ever. Every time I hear this song, I cringe and turn the station. I’m convinced all copies should be destroyed along with every Shaina Twain song.)

NCAA Champion: UNLV over Duke (Probably, the best thing that happened that year)

Trivia: Milli Vannili admits to lip-synching. (I don’t care who sang it, I still love “Blame it on the Rain”)

Cost of a stamp: .25

So as I look back, I would say it was a lack-luster year and one I’d just soon forget. The only thing that really mattered back then was getting the heck out of the house and finding someone to buy the beer.

My Saturday morning started with an early morning showing of the 1994 Gen X classic, Reality Bites. Fifteen years later, the movie still strikes a chord and makes me wonder if we ever got over our quest for nirvana in a world ruled by Baby Boomers?



Looking around at my friends, it seems we’ve grown up. After all, we’ve moved out of sharing an apartment and rent with friends, to sharing a mortgage with a spouse. We’ve traded the Big Gulp for Chardonnay and microbrews. And we’ve moved from The Gap to jobs with companies that provide benefits to our families and pay us enough well enough to send our kids to private school. On the surface, reality doesn’t look so bad anymore. Or does it?



Today’s reality equals mortgages, child care, car payments, alimony, child support and sucky jobs. We may have grown up, but the realities fifteen years later just have a higher price tag than that of Lelaina’s $400 phone bill to the Psychic Friends’ Network.



We’re conflicted. Lelaina’s father tells her, “The problem with your generation is there’s no work ethic,” while in the same breath he tells her to “use her ingenuity.” Okay, so we find jobs that pay us well for our knowledge and skills and it pays for the stuff that our parents and society tell us we’re suppose to have, all the while the ‘establishment’ is killing our sense of creativity, and the ingenious spirit that propels us to move forward.



Troy’s fired from 11 jobs, but all he wants to do anyway is play music. He refuses to sell out, even when everyone’s telling him to get up before noon and get a job. In hindsight, he’s a trailblazer and we all really want to be like Troy, refusing to sell our soul to the establishment. His courage to pursue his passion, something that his rival, Michael, the up-tight, Saab driving, movie producer does not have is still inspiring today. After all, an entire industry devoted to finding your passion has proliferated since Troy and Lelaina fought to buck the established rules of 9 to 5 created by our parents.



Vickie’s proud of being a Manager at The Gap. She lives for the moment and for that moment she’s content with the intricacies of folding t-shirts and jeans all day, even when she’s tortured with the thoughts of dying with AIDS. Maybe the fear of dying of AIDS diminished as we married, but the thoughts of lay-offs, failure, and missed opportunities continue to haunt us. No matter what the world sees on the outside, we’re always tortured with something.



So maybe we have larger paychecks and larger responsibilities, and maybe we’re no longer in “the winter of discontent.” But in the end, we still know that reality still bites.

Sometimes when my evil twin and angelic twin  collide they do not always play fairly. Today, my angelic twin was cleaning out old photos and having difficulty throwing away such precious faces from the past. And then my evil twin appeared and said, why not scan and make a post of it.  Now I did spare some of them for future posts when the two forces will inevitably collide again, but today, I was taken in by the huge Mr. T influence of gold necklaces, which all those dear friends who were kind enough to give me their school photo are proudly displaying.  

Summer is my favorite season. I love it when it’s real humid and is in the 90’s. It just reminds me of being a kid again, growing up in NC. So today, as I sat with my feet dangling in the pool, I contemplated all those things that make me still feel like a kid.

1. Eating a PB&J sandwich anytime of the year, but especially after a day at the pool.

2. Jumping off the diving board. I think I could still do a back flip.

3. Doing a cartwheel in the grass barefooted.

4. Drinking a slurpee/slushee from 7-11.

5. Swimming under water for as long as I can hold my breath.

6. Riding a bike down hill.

7. Playing basketball in the driveway.

8. Waving sparklers on the 4th of July.

9. Eating Halloween candy for breakfast.

10. Playing PacMan or Centipede at the Arcade.

Today, I became part of the 1 billion people that watched the Michael Jackson Memorial. This after, an e-mail from the Staples Center, “Sorry, we regret to inform you that your registration to attend the public Michael Jackson Memorial was not selected.” Okay, so maybe I was planning to sell my ticket to pay off a credit card, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t intrigued by the hype of the event.

Thanks to an early meeting with a future client, I made it home just in time to see the casket rolling in alongside Michael’s band of brothers adorning the iconic sequined, one-glove; and all this to the tune, “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.” A creepy, eerie feeling overwhelms me and I begin to wonder if they were implying MJ was the king or was he having a meet-up with Elvis? My religious roots tell me differently, but nonetheless it felt weird.

Okay, so that moment passes and I start to get into the “show.” Mariah Carey apparently hadn’t performed since her Glitter disaster, but I still enjoy the song.

I get a little bored with Lionel Richie and some of the speakers, so I tune into Twitter for commentary. Things in the Twittersphere were all a buzz and everything was trending Michael Jackson, MJ or Staples Center. I live alone, so I often look to Twitter to talk about things that are happening on TV. To me, this is better than any roommate or spouse because I choose the conversations I want to have. Anyways, I digress.

It’s not my nature to just sit and listen to everyone else chatting and Paxton, the cat, was napping, so I started providing my Twitter followers with my personal commentary of the “show.” Since most of my real-life friends are not on Twitter(shame on you all), here’s the transcript of my commentary.

·         Geraldo Rivera giving good points on MJ that the stars at memorial 2day did not support him during the trials of 2005.

·         Why does this memorial feel so eerie to me?

·         Do you think Michael’s body is really in the casket at the Staples Ctr?    

·         If there was this much attention for each soldier that died in combat, we’d have a new cable channel dedicated to memorial services

·         I guess it’s official now, Jennifer Hudson is pregnant.

·         This MJ Memorial stuff was pretty good until Al Sharpton came on. Thanks for the mute button!

·         Glad that the news scroll continues during MJ Memorial , so we can be privy to news other than MJ.

·         Wonder if Joe Jackson will make a final plea at the end of the service for his new recording company?

·         Holy Moley!! This thing just turned into a political rally.

·         RT @JohnRDowdy: I hope my Representative isn’t at this memorial service. There’s still work to be done in DC. #MJ Memorial

·         Looking forward to reading the book by Prince, Paris and Blanket.

·         Paris looks like she enjoys singing

·         I really need this Memorial to wrap up…I need to go to the grocery store.

·         I have a feeling that somebody’s going 2 profit from this Memorial and it won’t be his estate.

·         The family members are grabbing the mic. Joe this is your moment!

·         So did MJ’s Memorial surpass Princess Di in viewership?

Overall and regardless of my cynical, sometimes evil thoughts, I enjoyed most parts of the memorial, and I’m glad I watched. MJ is part of the fabric of Gen X, and is the Elvis of my generation—for this he gets my respect.