It was a rainy day and a Monday all day. Only people my age or older will remember that classic song. I loved singing along with Karen Carpenter when I was a kid. I don't care if that makes me UNCOOL. I have always been uncool.
I also liked John Denver and Glen Campbell and I've watched Hee Haw more times than I can count.
When I was in high school the cool girls all had blazers and their hair flipped back perfectly and they carried Aigner purses. I eventually got a blazer that Mother found drastically on sale somewhere. My attempts at making my hair flip back perfectly were a disaster. I have naturally curly hair and the curling iron just made it go into a demented uncurling pop art shape from hell. I never bothered to even ask my parents for an Aigner purse. Or Aigner shoes.
Once, in middle school, my mother wasn't feeling well and Dad took me to buy school shoes. I came home with platform shoes in chocolate suede. I wore them to school. For an hour or so I was COOL. Then I sprained my ankle, and those shoes were never worn again.
Finally, when I got to college, I realized I didn't care if I was cool or not. Nobody I knew was cool.
We were all drama majors and we didn't give a flip about being cool. We wore shabby chic clothing long before it was fashionable. We had great parties. We'd walk to our classes singing. Drama majors know how to party. Once, after a performance of The Mikado, a bunch of us went to a bar in Athens carrying "bricks" made of styrofoam and threw them at other patrons, giggling at their looks of horror as realistic-appearing bricks came hurtling towards their heads. I was still wearing my white pancake makeup. I think I had a few beers and started singing "Three Little Maids from School." I am surprised we didn't get thrown out.
I spent some time recently looking at my old high school annuals. I don't appear often. I was a nerd. Some of my fellow nerds now have Ph.D.'s. Some make a lot of money.
Not me. I never went "full nerd." That would've been too much work. I was lazy.
Took me a long time to feel comfortable in my own skin. I had gray hair before that happened. If I have one prayer for Michael, it's this: EMBRACE THE INNER NERD. Don't worry about being cool. Next year he will be in high school. He will either love it or hate it. I loved it, despite all my insecurities.
Kirk out.
