Thursday, December 14, 2006

We rule the streets tonight until the morning light

I'm at Quack's doing laundry and trying to get some writing done (I've made it my goal to write a novel over my Christmas break) and they just started playing the Go-Go's record Beauty and the Beat. God, what a great record.

When I lived in Dallas I bought this on tape, because my sad little silver Mustang only had a tape player (it was a '92) and it rarely ever left my tape player for months. There were so many times Valerie would sit in my front seat and we'd just cruise up and down the freeway, or drive downtown blaring the Go-Go's, and sometimes Valerie would tie a silk handkerchief around her head and we'd both put on our oversized sunglasses and pretend like we were in the video for "Our Lips are Sealed." It was around that time that I started kicking myself for not taking the authentic t-shirt from that tour in the early 80's that my roommate Clay tried to give me my first year at the University of Arkansas. Even though I didn't take the t-shirt, at the time my heart swelled with pride when, in turning down the shirt, that bitch Jenny J*mison* desperately wanted it and Clay wouldn't give it to her. When she protested by saying, "But you offered it to Ryan!" Clay said, "Yeah, but Ryan's Ryan, and if he doesn't want it, then I'm going to keep it." I wonder if he still has that shirt. It was pretty ratty at that time, and that was 11 years ago. So probably not.

Anyway, just a bit of nostalgic waxing this afternoon. Just hearing it played in its entirety instantly transports me back to that time so vividly. It's a little bittersweet. I guess like most nostalgia.

*if you didn't go to high school with me, which excludes everyone who reads this except Mandy, you have no idea who Jenny is, but trust me that she was annoying as hell. And usually got everything she wanted, especially from guys, which made Clay's refusal of her all the better. And also because I was horribly in love with him at the time.

Their lips are sealed. That's not what I heard....

1 comment:

Mandy said...

Ah, Jenny. It's good to know she didn't get everything.