mighty mustang memories

More stuff ripped from the Facebook headlines/notes application:

1. Did you date someone from your school?

I went on one double-date-like thing with Bonnie, Jason and this friend of Jason’s who clearly had some mental irregularities. He called me for a few months afterward to tell me the news that was coming through his police scanner. I didn’t go on another date until college.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?

No, since I am not into police scanners.

3. Did you carpool to school?

I walked or hitched a ride with Bonnie in her mom’s VW Bug, which would sometimes stall when we tried to drive over the huge roots in our school’s crappy parking lot.

4. What kind of car did you have?

None. I wished I had an easily-stalling VW Bug.

5. What kind of car do you have now?

Ninety-seven Honda Civic. Movin’ on uh-uuup.

6. It’s Friday night in the present:

I’m probably dashing off to whatever my social-butterfly girlfriend has planned for us, complaining mildly that we’re too busy.

7. It’s Friday night your senior year:

I’m cheering (because I am a cheerleader, not because I care about the game) at the football game, then going home to watch X-Files with my parents, complaining mildly that I have no life.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?

Dance studio grunt, gymnastics teacher, bagel server, baby-sitter.

9. What kind of job do you do now?

Nonprofit arts administrator, unpaid fiction writer.

10. Were you a party animal?

Nooo. “Costa parties” were like a myth I heard about the Monday after, where children drank beer and sometimes popular girls made out with each other. Senior year, people would complain in English class, “Oh my god, I’m so sick of Costa parties!” My friends and I talked about how lame they sounded and how much we hated The Cute People (which I guess is like the high school version of The Beautiful People). But at least once, Bonnie and I confessed to each other that we wouldn’t mind checking one out, just to make sure it was lame. I think Amy, Jenessa and Kristy may have actually gone to a few.

11. Were you considered a flirt?

In my mind, I sometimes flirted with Mike Matt in AP English. In reality, no.

12. Were you in band, orchestra or choir?

No, that would require musical ability.

13. Were you a nerd?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: I hate how it’s almost mandatory to say you were a nerd in high school—being an insecure teenager (which everyone probably was) is not the same as being a nerd. I had a couple of points in the non-nerd category (cheerleading, friends I ate lunch with, some of whom listened to cool music) and several in the nerd column (a crush on my AP history textbook; also, see answers #1 and #10).

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?

Okay, this is one more point in the nerd column. The only time I even went off campus without a pass was when I spilled glaze all over my sweater in ceramics class and went home to change during lunch.

15. Can you sing the fight song?

Da, da, da, da-da da dah. See?

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?

Mr. Fauver (AP U.S. history and yearbook), Mr. Sumpter (world history and government), Dr. Whirry (AP English), ego aside.

17. Where did you sit during lunch?

Near the flagpole. I think that was considered medium-cool.

18. What was your school’s full name?

Mira Costa High School

19. When did you graduate?

1995

20. What was your school mascot?

The mighty mustang.

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?

Do you mean would I like to enter high school as a 32-year-old woman? Or will I have a 32-year-old brain in a 17-year-old body a la Zac Efron? Or will I actually be my full 17-year-old self? Or do you just mean am I happy with my high school experience?

No, no, no and yes.

22. Did you have fun at prom?

I did not go to one single dance in high school! In fact, I even quit Girls’ League because their main activity was putting on the Christmas Dance and it seemed clear pretty early on that I wouldn’t have a date. One year Amy and Jenessa and I went to see Speed instead. The next year I think I baby-sat.

Don’t feel sad. Through pain comes writing material.

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to senior prom with?

Um, I still talk to Amy and Jenessa periodically.

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?

If they cheap it down a bit.

25. Do you still talk to people from school?

Yes, thank you Facebook! But I talk to a handful in real life too.

26. School colors:

Green and gold—it was a big deal when our cheerleading uniforms went from kelly green and street-sign yellow to forest green and sparkly gold.

27. What celebrities came from your high school?

Probably some Olympic volleyball players. And some of my friends knew Wee Man, although he didn’t go to our school.

28. What were you listening to on the radio?

KROQ. Our school was so white.

29. What were you wearing?

Cut-offs and flannels and tiny earrings from Aaardvark’s; cords and Vans and old men’s polo shirts because I was a pretend skater chick; cheerleading uniform, always slightly too small by the end of the year.

30. What did you want to be when you grew up?

A screenwriter/actor during my drama phase, a nutritionist during my brief anorexic phase, later a social worker or a magazine writer/editor. I still kind of want to be a social worker.

31. Were you in a fight with anyone?

Half the varsity cheer squad was in a fight with the other half. Also, I remember crying into Amy and Jenessa’s arms when I got in a fight with Bonnie and Angie at one of Jenessa’s birthday parties. Versions of this fight would play out at various slumber parties, but I think that was the only time I cried. Later I think some sides switched and it was more about playing pranks on each other. Probably someone else cried.