It's Like Totally Awesome Dudes

To say that I love the 90s would be a colossal understatement. I am obsessed. I think it is the greatest decade of the last, I don't know, 230 years or so and I cling desperately to it.

I may not have the Rachel cut or wear overalls and jelly sandals (anymore) but I still sometimes wish I could find myself some of those super radical stick on earrings. You know, to stick on next to my eyes. In bright neon pink and green of course-to match my husband's hammer pants. Not that he HAS hammer pants-I haven't seen a pair of those in more than a decade. But once upon a time, when we were kids, if you were rockin the hammer genie pants you were the coolest guy in the school. I still think they're cool...just not
to be worn in public and stuff.

I have personally worn the same type of clothes for the last 10 years or more and I know I will never change. The way I see it, trends are a cycle and my styles will cycle around again. When they're "in" I'm trendy, when they're not I'm vintage. Either way, I'm good--I'll wear my wide leg pants with my tight black t-shirt FOREVER, thank you, and I'll take my holey jeans and strappy shirts with me to the old folks home.

I can't wait until our children are teenagers so I can embarrass the poo out of them. And if they think my clothes are bad they'll really hate my kickin' dance moves. Oh yes, I learned all my dance moves in the 90s. I can cabbage patch, I can do the running man, I can do the lawnmower, the sprinkler, the fisherman, and the grapevine (for my Achy Breaky Heart) until I puke. Or until my children have me committed. But that speaks nothing of my favorite 90s dance....you know the one....oh yes-the Macarena!

Oh, Macarena I love you so! As Spanish is not my native tongue I mostly have no idea what they're saying of course--but the word is, it's dirty. Like reeeeeeeealll dirty. All I know is, whatever the words, it's a booty-shaking song. I will dance it at my children's weddings....just so their new spouse knows exactly what they are getting themselves into.

I totally don't see any shame in this either. I still feel like the 90s was just yesterday. Funny how the older you get the more time just runs together. Hubby and I will often have conversations like:

Hubby: "Some kid at work today said he's never seen Con Air. CON AIR. Come on, that's not an old movie."

Me: "Uh....Honey? That was 11 years ago. That kid was what, 5?"

Hubby: "No it wasn't 11 years. It came out at the same time as Donnie Darko."

Me: "Ummm...noooo. Donnie Darko was 7 years ago."

Hubby: "Really? I thought Donnie Darko was like the same time as Good Morning Vietnam"

Me: "No way, babe. Donnie Darko was 2001, and Good Morning Vietnam was like 86 or 87."

Hubby: "For real?"

Me: "Totally."

Hubby: "When did we get old?"

Me: " Just recently, I think."

But when I think about all the things our kids won't remember I realise that we may be getting older a little faster than we think. Our kids won't remember the Y2K scare. They'll only see my favorite Disney movies-like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, 101 Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast-on 10th and 20th Anniversary Special additions...certainly never at a drive in. They'll grow up with iPods, Blue Ray, and High Def instead of walkmans, VHS, and bunny ear antennas that you have to perform crazy acrobatics to get in just the right place.

My kids will watch streaming video on YouTube on the widescreen laptop instead of playing Oregon Trail and DOS games on green screened computers as big as a small freezer. They'll see technologies that I can't even imagine and will probably be both unable and unwilling to operate.

My kids will be ridiculously embarrassed by my blasting 90s music. And I know that I will still be listening to 90s music when my children are old enough to be embarrassed-though the music of my youth and soul may be twenty years old or more at some point I know it'll always be there for me.

Nirvana, Blind Melon, The Cranberries, Presidents of the United States of America, Weezer, Green Day, System of a Down, Offspring, Garbage, Goo Goo Dolls, Oasis, Cake, Soundgarden, REM, The Fugees, Beck, Alanis Morisette, Lisa Loeb, Fiona Apple, Tracy Bonham, Boys II Men, DrDre, Tupac, Third Eye Blind, No Doubt, The Cardigans, Ace of Base (oh yes), Foo Fighters........

I now understand why my dad used to pull up to my school with Black Sabbath blasting. I would crawl into the car and melt into the seat and hoped that he would get out of there faster than I could die of embarassment. But it wasn't because he wanted to embarass me-it was the music of his young life and he loves it.

Just as much as I love MY music. As much as I LOVE the 90s.

In fact, I love the 90s so much I WOULD marry it.