i haven't always been perfect

we were all annoying once, right?

i, for one, had a myriad of really neat things i did in my adolescent years that i'm sure drove everyone around me bonkers. there was the time my friend heather and i decided to add "the most" into our dialogue AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE.  as in, "he is the most cute." or, "aren't we the most coolest?"  "the most".  (although, to this day, whenever heather and i are together we like to throw in a few "mosts".)  there was also the time my entire freshman cheerleading squad created an unusual word/sound that we used CONSTANTLY.  we never really did come to a consensus on how to spell our word/sound but maybe it looked like this, "OOOOOEEEEERRRRIIIHH!"  we used it in the place of "duh", or "of course", or "i just did something stupid", or "aren't we hilarious?"  and let's remind ourselves what i looked like my freshman year...

...so i'm sure walking around making noises like a fog horn wasn't doing me any favors.

besides these typical adolescent examples, there are however, a handful of incidents that i can clearly recall of very obnoxious things that i did a little too far into my adulthood for me to be comfortable with.  let's revisit some of them...

summer of 1996.  i was 17.  shania twain's song "no one needs to know" was a big hit.  i loved that song and believed i had caught on to the harmonies quite nicely. i had practiced so much in my car and i truly thought i had what it took to be a backup country singer.  one evening i was hanging out with a guy i was kind of dating and that song came on.  i just thought it would be a really good idea to tell him how awesome i was at harmonizing and proceeded to make him SIT THERE AND LISTEN TO ME SING!!!!!!!!!!  (in my defense, i had taken tylenol pm before he called me to hang out... so i was a little loopy.  but there really was no excuse for my behavior.)  

may, 1998.  i was almost 19.  i road tripped with three of my best friends from high school from california to salt lake to see a dave matthews concert.  this was my first real concert and i had no idea what to expect.  i just assumed he would sing his entire album he was promoting ("before these crowded streets") and it would be exactly like the cd.  one of the songs on the album featured alanis morisette... so the entire car ride to utah i was so perplexed at how they would get alanis morisette to go on tour with him to sing backup for ONE song.  i kept saying to my (very patient) friends, "this is gonna be so cool when alanis comes on stage!" or something like, "yeah, but how are they going to get alanis morisette to be at every concert to sing just ONE song?"  i probably repeated myself dozens of times and i don't remember my friends every responding.  OOOEEERRRRRIIIH.

1998-1999.  i lived with gina, often my partner in crime.  the byu building we attended church in was not very far from our apartment building and most of the righteous members of our ward would walk to church every sunday.  but we were lazy and gina would transport us to and from church in ramona, her '94 maroon ford tempo.  it was during these drives that we created a bit of a tradition.  as we drove past our ward members trekking it home from church we would roll down our windows, crank up the music, and loudly sing along with "there is a meetin' here" by our favorite a cappella boy band, 259.  (oh yeah.  it's a real knee-slapper.) we did this EVERY SUNDAY for months.  a lot of the members of 259 were in our ward but we were completely shameless in our fangirling.  not only was our behavior super annoying, it was not very sabbath-appropriate.  shame on us.

here we are with some of the members of 259 whom we coerced into participating in a murder mystery date.

summer, 1999.  i was 20.  i believed my taste in music was superior and that everyone needed to bend to my musical will.  the apartment complex we lived in was a huge fishbowl.  all the apartments faced inward toward a courtyard in the middle and everyone could see and hear everything everyone was doing and be up in each other's business.  i would open our door, and BLAST my music in hopes that everyone would know how cool i was.  cake, indigo girls, dave matthews, and my personal favorite at the time, mr. big's "to be with you".  i assumed everyone loved it!!  who wouldn't?!!  until one day one of the boys in the building walked on over and wordlessly shut our door.  ooh, snap.

aaaannnnyway... wasn't that fun?  i think it's time i go make someone listen to me sing...