I might seem like a well-adjusted adult, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I was one of the weird kids. In high school I went through phases where I dressed like an emo kid and then a hippie. I was both a band kid and a cheerleader. Through it all, I was a weirdo. A fun weirdo, but a weirdo nonetheless. Thankfully, I have friends who accepted my weirdness and are a little weird themselves.

This might sound like I’m writing a negative post, but let me fast-forward to my message before I post the pictures: It is okay to be weird. You can be weird and unpopular and still go on to become an adult fulfilling whatever sort of life you want to live. Weird people settle down and have families. Weird people travel the world and live out of their suitcases. Weird people start their own successful businesses. When you march to the beat of your own drummer, it is easier to hear the direction of the music.

My close group of weirdos liked to have a fun time in our small town doing whatever we could think of. We played on the playgrounds and got stuck in the baby swings. We played hide and seek in cars where you hid somewhere in town and called everyone else with a clue. It was all harmless fun and amazingly, we did it all without alcohol. People who sort of knew us will probably be shocked to figure out we weren’t drinking, just weird.

The night before we left for college, two friends and I were hanging out trying to figure out what to do with our time. Somehow we came up with a plan that ended up going something like this:

• Put on weird costumes
• Kidnap Amanda when she was done with work and make her come along
• Take enough pictures to fill 2 disposable cameras
• Stop at the gas station for a gallon of ice cream to split 4 ways
• Go to Wal-Mart for a posing session before developing the film
• Stay out as late as possible before going off to college the next day.

Here I am in a Renaissance fair costume. Eating a candle? and holding flowers? We thought we were really funny. After this, we piled into my friend’s old beater and drove to the coffee shop where Amanda worked. Once we knew she was done with work, we walked in, pushed her into the bathroom, shoved a dress in her hands and told her to get changed. She describes it as “Get in loser, we’re going to Wal-Mart.” It was like Mean Girls, but the indie film version.

Here we are walking around. Nothing to see here.

I think we were pretending to ride a broomstick? I mean, we were just pumping gas like normal people. P.S. this is my hands-down, favorite picture of Amanda and I. And we have some real doozies.

When I think of most graduation parties, I think of cake, mixed nuts, signing a guest book and bringing a card with some money. Pretty standard fare for an open house. But when I think of my sister’s open house, I think of something all together different. Let’s just say the memory contains baked potatoes, a broken scent warmer and Emotion Storm Molly.

Here is proof that Molly does come through and we all band together to throw her a great graduation open house. A happy ending for everyone, but it was quite a trip to get there.

So, today is Throwback Thursday and I thought I would tell the story of the time I cracked my head open while doing a waterski pyramid. As most people haven’t done any show skiing, I have a little explaining to do. And as an aside, the pictures I am posting will be a little blurry for two reasons: 1) They were small pictures that I blew up and 2) I try not to post pictures of people who don’t give me their express permission, so I blurred these so you could get the general idea without seeing the other people clearly.

I spent 6 years skiing with a show team in my home town. We were a family oriented team who competed, but were more into creating a fun show for all ages. I wasn’t great on skis myself, but I did a lot of other things like climbing pyramids and doing doubles routines along with land acts like acting and dancing.