"You Must Have Wanted the World To Know..."*

I am in such a deep fog today.

With so much going on, why do I get bogged down by dreams that suck me into memories of things that happened so very LONG ago now...

I had one of those extended high school era dreams last night, the common denominator being that of one Dr. Gerald Todd, former science teacher at my high school. I tried using the google on his name, but though a number of people popped up, the Dr. Todd of my youth doesn't seem to be on the internets where I can find him.

Is this why I'd drowning in nostalgia? I can't even blame FaceB00k seeing as I'm hardly ever on there and don't stalk people as heartily as the news media think I would. Maybe I can blame the Nivea hand lotion I just got last night. Do you all remember Wondra Lotion in the white bottle with the sky-blue, sometimes lime green top that was really the base because it was of the new generation of lotion bottles that stood up upside-down so you could get every last drop out? (I tried looking for a picture, but wikipeadia tells me it was discontinued in the 80s...except I thought I saw something using the name recently...whatevers, use your imaginations, 'kay?)

Well, my new Nivea hand lotion smells a whole lot like it. No really! I've forgotten a lot of things in my lifetime...more than I'd really like to admit, but certain smells? Definitely stay with me and are bringers of memories past, whether or not I want them to be. And after putting the cream on my hands last night, it's not that much of a stretch for me to be transported to decades past, when life was much more me-centric, and if not simpler, definitely more memorable (otherwise why am I dwelling so much?).

There were no Flock of Seagulls hairdos or Peggy Sue Got Married moments, but at one point a number of us were sitting on the sun-warmed steps of Cantwell Hall shifting through our notes and trying to figure out just what Dr. Todd's quiz was going to involve. I had him for both Chemistry and Physics, and yet, I could not tell you which set of notes these were for.

Gah, high school. I didn't have too rough of a time at all. It was fun in the general sense of the word. But yeah, really and truly was all about "me." Or "you" or "your best friend." The description of teenagers being ego-centric? Well, duh, of course they are. What else could they be if they are healthy and whole? I would hope that they're more worried about whether or not Jake knows they're alive than, say, what they're going to feed their younger brother for dinner and whether or not there will be a place for them to sleep next month.

It's said we infantilize our children a great deal more in these current generations than we ever have...but looking at what the 18 years later Mary has to deal with compared to the me then? I'm glad I had that time to just worry about quizzes and what I was going to wear at Carla's birthday party or whether I could sneak off to UCLA to buy that notebook I really wanted.

When I woke up? I was exhausted and lost in my thoughts...which I'm having a hard time wading out of.

~~~

*I was listening to the soundtrack for Romeo + Juliet and couldn't get "Little Star" by Stina Nordenstam out of my head...Yes, I did have to look up the lyrics....not the easiest song to sing along to.