"When Wonder Woman Left Me, and Napoleon Dynamite Took Over."

As a kid I was invincible...nobody could tell me otherwise....In fact I had a pair of Wonder Woman Underoos set that told me I was invincible. I proudly wore these underwear and camisole everywhere around the house, and if I added accessories such as gold bracelets and a cape, I felt the outfit was suited for outside apparel...much to my older sisters embarrassment. Leana (the older sister) would stand in the front window yelling for mom to come get me because I was outside in my underwear.

Really..... she should have been happy because apparently on irrigation day ( you flooded your lawn with irrigation water instead of using sprinklers and it left a lake of water on your lawn) ...I would run naked with the neighbor boy through the water. So at least with Underoos on, I was wearing something.


I am going to get off track here for a moment and discuss the irrigation water. So our neighbors behind us had a pool, and you could hear them diving off their diving board, yelling Marco...Polo..., and splashing about. We did not have a pool...we had dirty canal water. Our solution...pull out heavy duty garbage bags and make a "Redneck" slip and slide out of it.....when I look back on this memory all that comes to mind is....

..."You Might be Redneck If...."......

 
Anyways  back to my train of thought......I continued going through childhood with this same invincibility attitude...

...and then junior high hit......

So let me paint a picture. I moved to Utah in junior high...

I went from a fairly small town where I knew everyone to a big city and didn't know anybody. I was going through that weird puberty/ awkward body time. It was the 80's so I was sporting a horrendous perm. I had this perm right before I left Idaho. I believe I had it done at the local mall, and for some reason back then they found the smallest rods, and did your whole head including bangs.

So I may be exaggerating but I am pretty sure I looked something look this...

I am sure I have actual pictures around here but it was a traumatic time in my life and I try to block this period of time out of my memories. So in Utah the style was more like.....

which also looked stupid but in junior high you just want to look like everyone else.....and once again I may exaggerating but I am pretty sure I looked something like this....

I made it through Junior High...I survived...I lost my invincibility mojo along the way...I was no longer Wonder Women in my head....it changed me..


My twin daughters start junior high this year. I had anxiety walking into the school. All those years of hell flashed through my head. I felt my anxiety growing as they couldn't figure out how to open their lockers, they couldn't find where their classrooms were going to be, and they had to take their yearbook photo that day and none of us knew that....they were not picture ready....

and then...

I saw other kids struggling to open their lockers, unaware pictures were going to be taken, and confused about where their classrooms were going to be...

aaahhh junior high...that place where all your super hero attitudes seep away...

...that place where you learn just how vulnerable you truly are...

The twins will survive...they may come out a little bruised and battered like we all did...

...maybe....

I should take them to the mall this weekend and see about getting them...

..a perm.....