Sunday, September 24, 2017

Yearbooks

Last week I posted about Stranger's tenth birthday (OMG Eli no way how is that possible you look so young yolo i no stop u guys srlsly) and I told you I would give one of you a Snuggie as a little celebration gift and if you wanted to be eligible you just needed to leave a comment. Then eleventy of you left comments and half of you were all like "I never comment I just lurk but I've been watching you for several years and never said anything and I have a dozen lockets of your hair and I used to have two dozen but I sold a bunch of them on the black market and I like that shirt you're wearing right now."

First of all, thank you. I like that shirt you're wearing right now. 

Second, thanks for finally saying hi. This reminds me of this one time I sat next to the same woman in four different classes over three full semesters in college and we never once said a word to each other or knew one another's names and then finally on the very last day of class and just a couple of weeks before graduation she turned to me, held out her hand, and said "Hi. I'm Amanda."

We're still friends.

Or this other time when I was in law school and I used to take the 6:00 AM bus three times a week to Salt Lake City because I was working at the AG's office and one morning I sat down next to a blonde woman but didn't really take a good look at her until an hour and ten minutes later when I stood up to get off of the bus and I saw that it was Heather, one of my favorite cousins.

The point is, a lot more of you responded to that post than I was expecting and it made me sad that only one of you would get a Snuggie so I decided to up it to THREE (omg no way Eli you're so generous does $$$ grow on trees at your house how R U even doing this). I'll announce the winners at the end of the week when I (fingers crossed) bring back Pictures & Distractions (omg Eli u r like so ambitious ENOUGH WITH THE COMPLIMENTS GUYS).

Go ahead and leave a comment on that post if you haven't already.

The comments trickled in throughout Friday while I was at a work thing up in the mountains. I had a super weird sensation reading them that felt very familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. 

Then, sometime around Friday evening, I realized that this felt exactly like reading notes left in my yearbook. Except none of you told me to have a neat summer, which was actually very rude. 

Recently I was at Matt's house and he pulled out his middle school yearbooks and we passed them around in a circle and took turns reading hand-written messages out loud. Matt grew up in Mississippi so 70% of the messages said "your friend in Christ" at the end (I'm not exaggerating about this).

I should do a dramatic reading of my middle school yearbook messages sometime. I will dig them out and find out if they are funny first. I don't know why I'm sharing my brainstorming with you. Now you know what it feels like to be Jolyn and Meg. Except you can't smell me. 

Also, why don't we have yearbooks as adults? I think every April the government should issue a giant yearbook to every adult in America. And for the rest of the month we could go around to all of our neighbors and coworkers and make them sign our books. The sports pages could be filled up by the Olympic teams and the arts by professional musicians and painters, etc. And there could be a whole section on all the new puppies. Actually the whole book should just be all the new puppies. Why hasn't the government done this for us yet?

Thanks, Obama.  

Seriously, thank you so much for all of your kind words and for the amazing walk down memory lane this weekend. Many of you talked about how much this community has helped you feel not alone or get through a tough time or think Tami is so pretty. Ok, nobody said that last part. But I do believe that some of you at least thought it. 

Not that this is a competition or anything, but you have to know that however much Stranger has been a positive thing in your life you all have been an even more important thing to me times fifty. So it's a good thing this isn't a competition. Because I would definitely be winning.

I love you all so much. I have lockets of your hair, too. Plus a dozen of my own that I bought on the black market a while ago. They were very expensive, but totally worth it for Tami's weave collection.


~It Just Gets Stranger

26 comments:

  1. You forgot the part where we all stood in a circle holding hands and sang "kumbaya". Because as much as we love you, Eli, and your hair and (gag) Tami, we love our fellow Strangers, too. Hi guys! Hi lady from Australia! (Also, I kid you not, I have been laying in bed in the dark for two hours now unable to fall asleep because (boring health issues), and so I rolled over, got my ipad, and thought "I'll just check Stranger and Facebook and then I will be sleepy". But there was no new post so I scrolled my Facebook feed, "like, like, like" you know the drill, and then I was almost sleepy enough so I checked stranger one more time, and there it was, a post practically promising me a new snuggie. And now, I really think I can sleep. Wish me luck, everyone!)

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  2. Why am I crying again?? I just love this place on the internet so much. And Tami. And your hair, your shirt, Jolyn and Meg, and everything. I'm such a happy soul right now. :)

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  3. Can you send me a link to the black market shop that you bought those pockets on? Also I don't know how the black market works, I always pictured it as a website that is black with white text and there's like a bunch of different stalls somehow, and you can buy organs in one store and another sells lockets of people's hair? I don't really want to go near the organ stall though....

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    1. I'm just envisioning Etsy … but for human body parts? And it's an equal mix of hilarious and terrifying.

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    2. Makes sense! After all Etsy sells stuff people make so obviously that's where you'd sell body parts

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  4. Yearbooks for life are a fantastic idea.

    People should really spend more time telling each other how they feel.

    I love that Snuggie picture.

    Do the Snuggie people pay you yet for your endorsements? They totally should. Like how that Mike guy got free speedos after his Despacito parody.

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  5. Totally nailed it with the yearbook description! Except I don't think my yearbooks were ever quite so sappy/kumbaya like as Amy Rose described. I think I can generalize my yearbook notes into 4 groups: the H.A.G.S. folks, the H.A.K.A.S. folks (for precocious kids), the "I signed your crack"/"First one to sign this page" folks, and then the handful of actually meaningful notes from people I actually knew.

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  6. This reminds me of when one of my close friends moved back to our small town, I didn't know her but I knew who she was because it's a small town and also because her dad was our Deacon and TWO of her brothers were priests. I asked my husband if he thought it would be weird if I asked her to be my friend and he said "yes, it would be super weird". So I didn't but thankfully she did and then managed to connect several other young mothers together and now we have a great group of friends. Just like Stranger!

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  7. This is your 666 post that you have labeled under Ridiculous. What does that mean?

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  8. Ok, so I thought about posting last time but I don't comment. On anything. I just go to the comments to see what everyone else said. Internet is very different from real world me who talks a lot. Like a lot, a lot. If I have a thought in my head I've probably already said it out loud. In my wise old years in learning to keep a few just for me. I have loved your Ironman posts. I was a Ironwidow who's husband is recently back from the dead. I mean he did Ironman Boulder. I make him read your posts whether he likes it or not. My life's achievements including inserting once up the barrel twice down the side into my professional meetings (in healthcare IS) and never having anyone question what it means. Keep posting whether you get comments or not. I'm here even if I'm not commenting. Stay cool and I hope we have the same homeroom next year!

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    1. Not every hero wears a cape. You, madam, are a humor hero for inserting that phrase into a workplace meeting.

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  9. I thought about commenting last week but I didn't because I don't comment. On anything. I just go to the comments to see what other people said. Internet me is very different than real life me. Real life meet talks a lot. I mean a lot a lot. If I have a thought in my head I have probsbly already said it out loud. The older and wiser me is learning to keep a few just for me. I came for the Snuggie posts and stayed for your Iron Man posts. I have been an IronWidow whose husband just came back from the dead. Or rather I should say he finished his Ironman Boulder in June. I make him read your posts whether he likes it or not. Because that's what marriage is about! When i giggle and laugh at something on My phone you must instantly see what it is and enjoy it equally as much. My life's achievements include slipping the phrase once of the barrel twice down the side into my professional meetings and having no one question what that means. Keep posting even if there are no comments. I'm here I'm just being quiet. Stay cool and I hope we have the same homeroom next year!

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  10. See, I don't comment and I think I just commented twice with almost the exact same thing. I'll sit back down now and get back to work

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  11. I found you through Pinterest, Humor pages I think. The infamous Snuggie texts.

    I know this isn't the place really, but my husband and I just separated. And there's a lot of comfort in coming to your blog or Facebook page right now. It's filled with people that make me laugh and forget for a few moments that my real world life seems to be unraveling. I can count on your posts to be something I need to hear, whether it's your struggle to remain clothed in public or very real-world struggles. I can also count on the Stranger community to comment my exact thoughts and give me even more to think and laugh about.

    So keep on keeping on. Some of us need you, Mr. Duncan Doodle and your ridiculously good looking hair more than you know. Some days we even need Tami. {But let's be real, who doesn't need Tami?!?}

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  12. Have a neat summer. In arrears. If I recall correctly, I got to your blog from fastcory. I hope you two are friends in real life. That would be fantastic.

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  13. Yearbook would be awesome. I would just tear out the pages of the serious adulting stuff I did this year and remember the good. Like when I got my June Snapple for Prez shirt. Actually had someone ask me who she was. That person is not part of my tribe, clearly!

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  14. I'm on a business trip right now and anytime anything close to strange happens, I stop and think "What would Eli do in this situation?". For example, when I got totally lost looking for my lunch taco place and found a petting zoo that had a baby kangaroo (I kid you not!), I should have tried to adopt it. I didn't mostly due to the fact that I only had room for tacos on my brain. In other news, I have, however, kept all my clothes on so far. But we'll see what happens tomorrow.

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  15. Yes to adult yearbooks! Also, I recently looked through my high school yearbooks, and OMG teenage boys are so much grosser than I remembered!

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    1. Well I’m sure YOU weren’t a pervert Eli! NOT THAT WE KNOW WHAT THAT IS!

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    2. Adult yearbooks . . . Does that sound like something Cathie wouldn't want us to know about, or is it just me?

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  16. Most mommy bloggers (like myself) post a year in review or the like at the year end. #wayaheadofyoupeople

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  17. When I moved from Seattle to DC last year, I left various things with my parents because it was just easier. This included my yearbooks.

    Eleven months later, my parents decide to move to Minnesota, so they packed everything up and moved it to a state nobody in my family had ever been to before. They made my brother come get his stuff but were nice enough to move my stuff. So my yearbooks for a school district in Tacoma, WA are currently stored in Minnesota and I'm in DC.

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  18. My husband's grandparents live in a retirement community and they put together a yearbook last spring. We didn't get to sign it but we did get their yearbook picture, it's on our fridge and it's awesome.

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