street cred

It's Way Back When-sday!! Woohoo!!

And I just want yall to know what things I have suffered for YOUR sake.

It is 103 degrees outside. AT FOUR THIRTY PM. And I had NO inspirational-enough pictures already scanned or anywhere around me. And so instead of settling for some sub-par, cop-out WBW...I crawled upstairs into the ATTIC, which is probably closer to 103,000 degrees (heat rises and multiplies, remember? I'm pretty sure it works something like that) and THEN had to rearrange all the suitcases we haphazardly tossed up there after our vacation so that I could clear a path to the photo albums, and THEN had to find the right photo albums, and THEN dug through them until I found the perfect pictures. Just for you. If that's not love, I don't know what is. And in case you're wondering why I'm still storing my old photo albums in the attic when I obviously have to access them once a week for Way Back When-sday...I will agree that that's an excellent question. The primary reason is those albums are a hot mess and I don't have anywhere downstairs that I'd like to turn into a hot mess. I'd rather suffer the attic stairs and the heat and complain about it later.

Anyway. I feel like last Friday I was a little huffy and snarky going on and on about the importance of spelling and grammar in blogs. I thought it might help me look like less of a witch if I at least showed a little of my spelling 'street cred,' so to speak. Therefore I present to you...

 the Westmont Elementary School Spelling Bee 1991 (-ish?). I was in second grade. 

But Erika, you might ask. Why are you the only one on the stage?

Oh, that?? Oh, I'm the last man standing because I WON, PLAYAZ! Booyah.

I can therefore demand that all of you spell things correctly on your blogs. If I can win the school-wide spelling bee in second grade, you can learn to spell (or at least use spell-check). 
 

 Here I am with my mom and my sweet trophy.


And it is at this point that I am going to admit something. I know I was in second grade here. HOWEVER, I must admit that I honestly don't remember if this was the school-wide spelling bee or just the second grade spelling bee. I must be getting too old, but I just can't remember, and for some reason I don't have that trophy still proudly displayed on the mantel. So obviously I'm going to err on the side of making myself look way more awesome and just go with "it was a school-wide bee and a wee second grader dominated it." If you happen to be a Westmont alumni from that era and you have evidence to the contrary, feel free to present it in the comments. And then if you notice your comment is deleted later, think nothing of it...Blogger has comment-deleting glitches all the time! Craziness.

 So now you've seen me in the french-braided, bespectacled, matching shorts-set glory that was the spelling bee. Sadly, I never made it past school-level 'bees.' I never got to revel in the ultimate glory of televised bees, a la Scripps National Spelling Bee.  It's okay. I got over it. 


And just because I was up there sweating it out and saw this and thought "why not, I definitely wanna make this trip up to the attic worth it," I will also share with you a picture of the First Day of School in...not sure, fourth or fifth grade?

 That's in honor of all the First Days of School happening around Georgia right now. I'm sure students everywhere are jealous of my trendy outfit. Obviously I didn't make huge strides in fashion between second and fourth grades, haha. And check out my enormous bookbag! I think that was foreshadowing the future, like the year 2011 when I would carry handbags weighing approximately that much. Never have been a light packer.


That's all, folks. Happy Wednesday!