I’m afraid I’ll look out the window at night and see someone staring back at me.
I’m afraid a sinkhole will open under my feet.
I’m afraid a snake will slither over my foot while I’m driving.
And those are just my irrational fears. Which let’s be honest aren’t really all even out of the realm of possibility. Is there any such thing as an irrational fear? Airplanes crash into houses. Creeps are everywhere. A sinkhole opened in a parking lot across the street from my house last month. My mother-in-law found a snake in her car a few years ago. These things happen.
But what are the chances they’ll happen to me, and why do I spend so much time worrying about them? Sometimes I think I’m taking a Bob Wiley approach to life: “If I fake it, then I don’t have it.” That’s not healthy. I know that. But I can’t stop myself. I think it comes from reading too much John Irving in my formative years.
My dad usually picked me up for the summer a few days after school ended for the year — I still remember the day he picked me up at school on the last day; totally awesome — and he brought me back home just a few days before the next school year started. It meant that I got to spend nearly every possible day of the summer with Dad, but it also meant that I usually went more than two months without much contact with my friends. This was in the Dark Ages, before Facebook and Twitter were around to give us the opportunity to give one another very important updates on, say, lunch or that cute boy at the mall.
Judging by Melissa’s get-up, this was backstage at “Bye-Bye Birdie,” which would make it my junior year in high school (1994-95). The babe in the Roxette shirt is Stephanie, who dug this gem up from the archives.
So the first day of school for me was always exciting. It was a chance to find out what my friends had done over the summer. To see who’d gotten their braces off or who’d had them put on. To see who’d finally had a growth spurt. To see who’d become Totally Cute and to check out the Totally Cute New Kid. It was the day you found out who was in all of your classes and who had the locker next to yours. If you were lucky, it was either the Totally Cute New Kid or the kid who’d become Totally Cute over the summer.
But that wasn’t the only reason I loved the first day of school. Beyond my obsession with cute boys, there was my abiding love of office supplies. The No. 2 pencils sharpened to a deadly point, the plasticky sharp smell of a brand-spankin’-new Trapper Keeper, the notebook paper unmarred by even a solitary mark? Be still my heart. Uncapping a good pen for the first time can still make my day a little bit brighter.
Yep. I’ve always been this nerdy.
Marching band practice with Heather. This is probably also from junior year, and it’s also presented courtesy of Steph.
My kids are homeschooled, so they don’t have that definitive First Day of School to look forward to, and we don’t do a big shopping trip for new school clothes or to gather new school supplies.
(We do, however, order new curriculum. And the day the UPS guy shows up with the new stuff? Christmas in July. Poppy’s new math workbook got here yesterday, and she immediately stretched out in the floor to knock out some arithmetic. The nerd, as they say, doesn’t fall far from the nerdery.)
These days we really wouldn’t need to go out for a big shopping trip even if we weren’t homeschoolers. The internet makes it pretty simple to get a hold of whatever you need without leaving your couch. This is one of my favorite things about the internet in general; I like my couch and am generally loathe to leave it.
And Imma let me finish but hold the phone there’s a Doctor Who lunchbox set available. It looks kinda small, but I’ll bet you could fit a whole lunchroom’s worth of PB&Js in there.
In addition to being your source for awesome lunchboxes, eBay has a couple of neat back-to-school promotions coming up:
eBay is hosting a Back-to-School Twitter party from 3-5pm EST on August 14th, when they’ll be talking about ways to take the stress out of going back to school. Go to ebay.com/schoolparty to RSVP!
This compensated post is part of a Splash Creative Media campaign on behalf of eBay. Opinions within remain 100 percent Nichole’s own. Especially the part about the thrill of the Trapper Keeper.
Our very last Summertime Rewind post is brought to us by our own Rockford, who as I type this is singing Vanessa Williams’ “Saved the Best for Last” to me. Which really does something for his rock & roll street cred, doesn’t it?
Like everyone else, I have lots of great summer memories. Family gatherings on hot days, road trips, vacations to exotic locations (you know, like Wisconsin or other upper Mid-Western states), cookouts, playing frisbee in the backyard — all of these are in the memory banks.
The memory that recently rose to the surface of my recollection relates to summertime concerts. I have seen lot of shows over the years, and many of them in the summertime. Funny thing, the summertime heat seems to bring out the classic rockers that find a welcome reception on the state fair/theme park rotation. You know, we’ve all seen the billboards beckoning us to come see Bad Company at some regional casino usually in July or August.
I’m afraid an airplane will crash into my house.
Our very last Summertime Rewind post is brought to us by our own Rockford, who as I type this is singing Vanessa Williams’ “Saved the Best for Last” to me. Which really does something for his rock & roll street cred, doesn’t it?
Funny thing, the summertime heat seems to bring out the classic rockers that find a welcome reception on the state fair/theme park rotation. You know, we’ve all seen the billboards beckoning us to come see Bad Company at some regional casino usually in July or August.