StinkyLemsky: A Child of the 80s Grows Up

In Which I Get Nostalgic Over Books from My Childhood

I taught myself to read at age 3. My mom insists that one day she just realized that I actually knew what the words on the pages meant. Even at preschool, I would grab my favorite book and read it every morning. Of course, I still love reading, but don't have as much time for it as I used to.

So, because I’m feeling nostalgic, I’ve decided to list some of my favorites.

#5: My Side of the Mountain: This story about Sam Gribley and his desire to run away from home and live off the land in the mountains was so different from the books that I usually read as a child. I remember being impressed by Sam’s ingenuity and of course, I wondered if I could be just like him. Now, the fact that I can’t stand bugs, camping, or hunting would probably keep me from making my own clothes out of deerskin and living in a tree in the wilderness, but a girl can dream, right?

#4:Sweet Valley High: Oh, how I envied Jessica and Elizabeth! The most popular girls in school, beautiful, talented, smart. And Elizabeth nearly always had a boyfriend (dreamy Todd, wasn’t it?) I kept reading these novels long after it was really socially acceptable, and even remember getting my little sister to check them out at the library for me when I was 15. Hey, in my defense, the plotlines really did get more mature, especially the University ones.

#3: Sleepover Friends: This series epitomized my desire to have a group of friends that had traditions together. The girls had a Sleepover Club and would spend their weekends eating junk food, gossiping, and having “adventures.” Oh man, I would have loved my own sleepover club as a teenager!

#2: The Gymnasts: I’ve always been enamored with gymnastics. My favorite Olympic sport is Women’s Gymnastics (did anyone else cry when Kerri Strug won the gold for USA?) These novels weren’t as universally popular as my #1 selection below, but oh how I loved them! I probably read each one 10 times, and still have several of them in a box in the basement.

#1: Baby-sitters Club: Yes, I loved the Baby-sitters Club books- who didn’t? (As an aside, shouldn’t it be “The Baby-sitters’ Club”? I really think there should be an apostrophe somewhere). I probably owned 30 of these books, including a few Super Specials, and I constantly checked out volumes from the library. I had the board game, saw the movie, and knew every trivia question. I even wrote Ann M. Martin a fan letter and received a form personal letter from her in response.

On a whim, last year, I actually went on eBay and bought a set of the BSC books 1-50. My rationale was that I would want to share them with my daughters someday, but who knows if I’ll even end up with daughters, much less ones that feel as passionately as I do about reading. They’re still in a box in the basement. I tried reading one for old time’s sake, but as an adult they’re kinda horrible. (Check out the archives of Claudia’s Room to see what I mean).

So there are my top five (with some honorable mentions listed below, because I just couldn’t leave them out and this post was getting long).

Oh - in case there was ever any doubt – yes, I am a dork.

Honorable Mentions:

There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom

The Secret Garden

Remember Me (and other Christopher Pike masterpieces)

The Castle in the Attic

Ocean City

Have a Magical Day

I used to work at Walt Disney World. Yes, that’s right; I was a “Cast Member” (that’s what WDW calls their employees) from January to May of 2001.

And let me just say, it was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life.

It’s not easy to get into the College Program. There were about 130 other people at the recruiting session I attended, and they were all probably just as qualified as me. The recruiters (who only hired 20 students from my session) were looking for energetic, enthusiastic, hard-working people. You even had to have the “Disney Look.” Luckily, I didn’t have blue streaks in my hair or a nose ring. Phew.

At the recruiting session, they gave me a sheet of potential job categories to review. Each candidate was only allowed to pick one job category that they would not be willing to work.

I picked custodial. Can you blame me?

I was so completely thrilled when I got my acceptance call & was told that I would be working Attractions (I didn't yet know which one). Upon arriving in Florida, I had a telephone interview to determine where I would best be suited. At the end of that call, I got my assignment... I was going to be a tour guide on The Disney MGM Studios Backlot Tour!

I was thrilled!! I had really thought that I would end up as a lifeguard or a cashier, so this was even better than I had hoped. Once I was able to start training (they had to stick me at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playground for two weeks until a trainer was available), the real adventures began.

First of all, I had to learn how to drive a 140 passenger shuttle, memorize a 16 page script, and learn the ins and outs of loading the shuttles with passengers (including passengers with wheelchairs). The script really wasn’t a problem, but I was pretty nervous about learning to drive that huge shuttle! They make you try on your second day of training, and (because I had the best trainer) it really wasn’t that bad.

Working at Disney was a completely unique experience. For one thing, I was living in an apartment complex with thousands of college students who had nothing to do but work 40 hours per week. There was something going on every night, parties, game nights, outings to Pleasure Island. If you showed up for a movie night, so did about 20 other people that you knew.

My favorite part of the whole experience was probably the fact that I had free entrance into all of the parks. On any given night, instead of staying home watching television, I could do something like go to Epcot and watch the IllumiNations show!

I was only a Cast Member for one semester- which was probably the best decision because it wasn’t long enough for me to get jaded. There were plenty of ‘lifers’ that had grown bitter over time and really didn’t see the magic anymore. What’s the point of working at Disney World if you can’t watch the parade at Magic Kingdom and feel like a little kid again?

I’m so glad I left before the pixie dust wore off.

Double the Fun

A few years ago, my mom and I both had a dream that I was pregnant with twin girls on the same night. Since then, my whole family has been sure that I would someday give birth to twins.

In high school, I had a Child Development class and our big project was making “flour sack babies.” If you didn’t do this in your school, I’m sure you’ve seen something like it on TV. (Remember the Saved by the Bell episode where they had baby eggs? And weren’t Zach and Kelly ‘married’?)

In our class, we weren’t allowed to pick what gender our baby was going to be. In order to make the experiment more “realistic,” we rolled a pair of dice. If you rolled an odd number, you had a boy. If you rolled an even number, you had a girl. If you rolled doubles, you had twins (and rolled again to see what their genders would be).

I got doubles. Boy / Girl Twins.

Growing up, my best friend was a twin. Less than a year ago, I even married a twin.

When I picture myself with children, I almost always picture having a set of twins. I think I would be more surprised if I didn’t have twins than if I did.

Now, logically I know that there’s really no predictor of conceiving twins. In fact, the only thing that increases your likelihood of spontaneously having twins is if your mom had fraternal twins. I don’t have twin siblings, but I could have. My youngest sister was supposed to be a twin, but the second baby just didn’t develop. It’s called vanishing twin syndrome, and I guess it’s quite common.

Am I destined to have twins someday? Probably not. But I have to admit that I think it would be pretty cool if I did.

Although... I do distinctly remember leaving my flour sack babies in the trunk of my car during cheerleading practice a few times… Maybe I should re-think the whole baby thing and get a house plant instead.

I want my Gmail Chat

Well, it’s official. I’ve joined the millions of bloggers out there in the blog-o-sphere & started my own personal blog. What sparked this monumental decision, you ask? Was it my burning desire to share my clever & witty social commentary with the world? (Ha!) Was it my life-long dream to actually keep a diary or journal on a regular basis? (Perhaps).

If I’m being honest – the real reason why I started a blog is simple. My workplace banned Gmail (and Gchat, AOL, Yahoo, MSN…). Yes, you heard correctly. I now officially have nothing to do ALL DAY. Let’s stop for a moment and mourn the loss of what was arguably the only part of my day that I found enjoyable…

Done? Okay then, moving on. How about some background information? First of all, why did I pick “stinkylemsky” as my blog title? It’s simple really. Have you seen the movie “Girls Just want to Have Fun” aka “Sarah Jessica Parker’s Cinematic Masterpiece”? If you call yourself a child of the 80s, you surely remember that little gem of a flick. Bonus points if you used to make up dance routines in your backyard to mimic the main characters.

Anyway, in the movie there is a scene where SJP (Janie) and Helen Hunt (Lynn) are babysitting & Lynn picks up the baby and says “Stinky Lemsky.” Please tell me that you remember this scene, because the phrase “Stinky Lemsky” is still used in my family any time we pick up a cute little chubby baby. In my mind, it’s the perfect phrase to represent my age group (late 20s) and writing tone (never too serious). Plus, it’s a pretty memorable title. To me at least!

What can you expect from this blog? Who knows! I’d love to include TV & Movie reviews, snippets from the life of a newlywed, and maybe even a fun anecdote or two. The world is our oyster!

Stick around… things could get interesting.