The first of many...

Kristen over at We are THAT family started this "Blog Carnival" that is pretty popular in the Blogosphere. Never one to be left out, I decided to join the ranks of many. Permission to laugh at my expense.

Spring 1998

Man, that's a doozy, eh? Before I tell the story of what Missy & me were up to that night, let's spend a little time on the photo itself.

1. The purple feathers: I was a craft queen before my time. I made this picture frame for myself shortly after the picture was developed. I think I used some left over purple feathers from a (very) last minute mother's day gift I gave my mom that year. It was also a picture frame.

2. The wall: This was a wall in my bedroom that was devoted to rave party flyers. I attended each of those parties and eventually married the man who performed at most of them.

3. The Glasses: You may have been surprised to discover that even at the tender age of 16 I was wearing prescription glasses. But I wasn't. Those glasses were a fashion statement. One that probably said "I am Bono's illegitimate daughter".

4. The Jacket: Not only was jacket not even close to being the tackiest thing in my wardrobe; but I owned two of them. One more plastic-y than the other.

5. The Girl: The lovely teenager standing next to me is Missy Clinton. I'm posting her whole name in hopes that one day, she'll google herself and find this picture of us and me. I've spent years searching for her on the internet and was never able to find her - which makes me a little bit sad. Melissa Clinton from Lake Worth, FL was da bomb! See, Missy & me were BFFL4E when we were kids & met at the skating rink. She was the baby girl in a family with 2 older brothers (I made out with one of them once) and let me tell you, she was the apple of her momma's eye! She lived pretty far from me but that never stopped us from spending endless weekends at each other's houses. One thing was a drag - she was a kick-ass soccer player and sometimes our weekends would be cut short so she could travel around the state playing. We were like peaz 'n' carrotz until we got to be teenagers and lost touch. Until I was 15 and standing in line to get into a nightclub and low and behold, there was lil' miss missy clinton standing right behind me! And she was a raver, too! We was peaz 'n' carrotz again real fast like.

6. The Bathrobe: Yes, Missy is wearing a red bathrobe over her ensemble. It was my mother's bathrobe that she received as a baby shower gift when she was pregnant with me. And Missy could not stand to be without it because clearly, it just makes the outfit.

Back in da day, circa 1998, the internet was all the rage and chatting on AOL chat rooms was the thing to do - I was no exception to this new trend. The details of what led up to this night are a little foggy (ah-hem) but somehow a DJ at a nightclub in Fort Lauderdale thought I was a DJ and - probably thinking he was going to get him some Sophia love, he invited me and a guest to his club. To DJ. With records on turntables. This called for an adventure and the perfect escort would be Missy.

We drove down from Greenacres (the place to be) to Fort Lauderdale (about 50 minutes away) in my Dodge "K" car and found the place. I can remember that it was a fetish club but I can't remember if I knew that before hand. Regardless, we went in and the DJ guy was pretty old (even by my current standards) but shit - we were in a club! In Fort Lauderdale! We walked around and rejected the looks of disapproval from the elders who probably didn't know it was teeny-bopper night and generally enjoyed ourselves. Over the pounding techno music you heard something to the effect of "And now please welcome our guest DJ - DJ KREAM". Knowing that was my AOL name, Missy and I walked super slow into the DJ booth and we must have looked like a couple of baby deer in headlights! When el creepo handed me the headphones to start spinning, I accelerated into panic mode and gave Missy that look of desperation. There were a couple of whispers and a lot of giggles between us in those few minutes and next thing you know, we've high tailed it to the exit, jumped in that Reliable K car and were out of that joint quicker than you can say "Aunt Jemima".

Swear to God.