Stuff Sweet Stuff. A Memorist Strikes Gold (and Mildew and Mold)

I cannot believe the crap I found. I mean stuff. Stuff. Stuff is good. I like stuff- I wrote about stuff before on this blog, and posted the video of George Carlin's schtick on stuff- it was a family favorite growing up. Here's a link to that- since I wrote that post, he passed away, so as you click on the link, think of George and all he shared with us.

So anyway- I like to save stuff. And I like to keep that stuff in boxes. Over the years, some of the boxes were transferred to Rubbermaid tubs for safer preservation. Many of my boxes of stuff have went from my house in Tulsa, to my several houses in the Poconos, to my mom's storage shed, to my apartment in Wilkes-Barre, to my house in Luzerne, to my apartment in Luzerne, to my house in Bear Creek and to my house in Sweet Valley. I've been on my own since I was 17 and some of these boxes, as just said, preceded even that. Some have not really been opened except to peek in and say, "Oh wow! I'll look at that later." When Dave and I decided to go our seperate ways, I got a very small apartment with no place for said stuff. So, I left with just what I needed, proclaiming to get a storage unit in a few weeks. Four months passed. I finally got a shed and moved a big chunk of that stuff into it tonight.

THE STUFF MEANS MORE NOW, THAN EVER BEFORE!
I have been thinking of this stuff for a while. Since I writing a memoir set from age 5 until about 16, I have been struggling for details. I knew I had pictures-- but little did I know just how much stuff I've saved. I struck gold tonight. Forget about my losing a few hundred dollars last night at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Plains. I'm rich as ever-- in memories!

I found a journal from when I was about 14!! I only wrote 11 entries- but it's good stuff!! I now have dates of important teenage events, like the day I got my braces on. I told my mentor about how I was missing details- I couldn't remember how I met this one girl who became a close friend. I had this gang of people in 8th grade, but I didn't remember how we got together. Lo and behold, tonight I find a journal from 1991 that starts off like this: "I can't think of anything to write so I will tell you how I got my good friends...." Just like that- my answer from a young me!! I now kick myself for not writing more back then. But the material!! An amazing find! I found photo keychains with dates on them- so now I can piece together details!! I can now use these times and places as settings for my memoir. I now know WHAT I wore to a school dance. And-- where I bought it.

I found all my old paycheck stubs from when I was 13-16 working for the Tulsa World- not shabby for a young kid!! I found a clipboard I broke in half because I was having a bad day while selling papers. I found two Cadillac hood ornaments that my friend and first boyfriend (if you can call it that when you are 13) stole for me. I found MY GLAMOURSHOTS which I found once before, but shoved in a box somewhere. I found a dozen Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries found brother and sister's baby pictures. I found a button from a fife & drum corp event I went to in St. Charles-- I couldn't remember when that was and now I know that dates. I found my first business card from my first 'real' job in radio. Just so much stuff. I brought some of the stuff here, but eveything else is in storage now. These are all things I have been writing about-- but now I have access to them again-- now they aren't just things in boxes!!

My old footlocker I used for Girl Scout camp, which is filled with photo albums-- these pictures that I haven't look at for so long reveal more details I have been struggling for. What's even more is that I describe a lot about Dado's house and when I was 16 before I moved back to PA, I flew in for Dado's funeral. While I was there, I took pictures of everything so I could remember Dado's house. Everything that I talk about in my book- that lacks detail- has a photo. It was as if at age 16 I knew I would need these pictures one day. There are plane ticket stubs, receipts and so much more so I can piece together the memories. I know what happened- but sometimes forget in what order. I found a Friendship Fill-in book my mom got me before we moved in OK- it has all these little details of my childhood friends, what we'd do together, etc. and just brought a smile and a tear at the same time! I still keep in touch with Jasmine and Laura more than any of the others and just saw Cori last month-- but to read my words about my friends when I was 12 is just incredible. I learned that skiing, playing outside games and playing Nintendo were my favorite things back then. I could go on and on, but I guess that is why I am writing a book!!

All this stuff I have been carting around for 15 years finally has a purpose. It's my life, in boxes. It's my research lab. It's my memory lane. It's my fact checking station.

My mentor is on a retreat until the 14th, but I CANNOT wait to tell her about all this stuff I found, especially these journals. Reading those entries brought me to my state of mind back then-- gave me a peak inside what I was thinking and feeling.

A Forgotten Blog- I Dug Up More Online History

So it's true. And I even forgot about it. I had a blog before Daily Dose o Donna.

I was being a dork and Googling myself and I found that I once took a stab at blogging before-- and I can't even log in-- not sure what address I had- it must have been before my gmail account. At any rate, it was called "Rants in Her Pants: Donna Talarico's Blog." And I made a whopping two posts in 2005:

--Directory Assistance vs. Pennsylvania Geography: Constant battle for hungry drivers and newspaper stringers

And

All Bladders not Equal and Other Ramblings from recent weeks...

It's funny to stumble across these things. Hehe. I remember those two incidents happening like it was yesterday.

My Twenties Are Over ... and I Am Okay With That: Donna enters 30-hood- a lifetime summed up in a blog post

When I was a kid, 30 seemed so old. Heck, so did 21. I mean, 30 is a milestone birthday I guess, at least according to the greeting card companies. It's a new decade, so that's something special I suppose. But what I am not, is old. 30 is not old. Since I have been 29 for 364.5 days, I must say that I truly feel younger than ever, even though each day I've been growing older. The past few years have been pivotal- I finally graduated college, I started a career in ecommerce at an excellent company and I've started and am more than halfway through my Master's in Creative Writing. I recently also made some choices in life that have given me independence- the freedom to truly find out who I am and what I want to be. So, the late 20s have been the best years of my life, but I know the 30s will only get better.

Recently, I was trying to remember dates for the memoir I am writing- I was trying to get a focus on the years 13-16-- they seem so distant- but to help, I had to physically draw a map- so I thought I'd share the timeline of my life up until now.

1978- born in Philadelphia as Donna Ploshay.

1979-1981- learned to walk, talk, pee in a toilet, moved a lot

1982- started nursery school; mom got remarried and I get new last name too; moved to Poconos; travel to music shows on weekends

1983- started kindergarten at Tobyhanna Elementary Center; travel to music shows on weekends

1984-1987- no major life events, continued elementary school, was a great Girl Scout; played Mrs. Do Right in "Invasion of the Quarter Snatchers"; travel to music shows on weekends; go to Disney World

1988- 1989- mom got divorced; we moved around & mom met Joe who'd be stepdad

1990- move to Reading, Pa for part of 7th grade, back to Poconos for part of 7th grade and then to Tulsa, Oklahoma to finish out the year at Nimitz Middle School; my most nomadic year

1991- got braces and contacts; had my first boyfriend and first kiss; join fife & drum corp; start job selling newspapers door-to-door for Tulsa World & Tulsa Tribune newspaper

1992- little brother born; mom got remarried; I got drunk for the first time; start high school, join marching band (flute)

1993- Still in high school; still working for Tulsa World; quit marching band; little sister born; lost my virginity (details reserved for the memoir!); join school newspaper staff, The Sentinel, try working at McDonald's for little while but went back to selling papers

1994-Get driver's license and first car, move to Muskogee, OK to start 11th grade; move back to Poconos to finish 11th grade; start working at Big Boulder Ski Area, Split Rock Resort and Piggy's

1995-Start senior year, still have those three jobs, join local radio station's high school intern program; editor of high school newspaper and on yearbook staff; pretty uneventful

1996-1998 Won high school a rock concert, get in first car accident, graduate high school, move to Wilkes-Barre, start at Wilkes, get first apartment, get my cat, Spectra, work briefly at Red Lobster and Taco Bell, work in radio part-time, start dabbling in writing and internet stuff; organize protest on campus, join every possible communication studies club there is; present petition to city hall to allow roller blading in downtown Wilkes-Barre

1998-2001- Leave college at end of sophomore year to work in radio full-time, do really cool things, some that can't be printed, go to Memphis 2x, Nashville 3x; win some industry promotion awards, start freelance writing locally; Turn 21; HIGHLIGHT: Meet my birth father!; have first long-term relationship with boy

2001- leave radio to go back to school, but don't go back to school yet; have a stint at Best Buy and then start as admissions rep at local career school; still freelancing; first real break-up (but it was all good)

2002-2004 Start back at Wilkes part-time to finish degree; still working at school- GO SKYDIVING & Go on TLC for reality show called Help Wanted and place 2nd; still freelancing; meet new guy and move in with boyfriend for first time

2005- quit work to finish degree; enjoy being a full-time college student again; still freelancing; self-publish, Kids, Have You Seen My Backpack? And Other Inspirational Stories of Non-Traditional Students.; get pregnant, miscarry (twice).

2006- start working at same school again, but still have two more college classes to finish; still freelancing

2007- Resign from job at school when they don't let me change schedule for school; start at Solid Cactus, graduate college with BA in Communication Studies, begin Wilkes' MA in Creative Writing program; have College Prowler guidebook on Wilkes published; get engaged

2008- Here I am. What next?

P.S. Wanted to add more links, but I got lazy. Wanted to add pictures, but they are all still at Dave's house. I'll perhaps update with some baby pics later. ; )

My Geocities Page: An 'Ancient' Internet Artifact that I Dug Up on Google Today

It's kind of funny that I ended up, "working for the Internet" as I said, buzzed during a Sunday happy hour last week. So, I don't work for for THE Internet, yet an Internet company, an ecommerce company to be exact. (But it was funnier the way I said it when I was tipsy....)

In 1995, my friend Jenn G. and I started a column, which I came up with the name for, in our high school newspaper: Nothing But Net. We both fell in love with this novel idea of interconnected computers and reviewed websites each week. I am in the process of moving so I do not have those papers with me-- but I should see if any of those sites are still around!

The Internet was still pretty new to the common household user, but Jenn and I were hip and with it. So hip and with it that we made the front page of the Sunday Pocono Record story about young people and the Internet. They interviewed us about the 'net, computers, and whatnot. We were famous for a Sunday and everyone at school was talking to us and everyone at school wanted us to help show them how to use it and how to create email addresses. Jenn was amazed at Yahoo and the directory they were building. I can't take credit- she built a Geocities site before me- but once I got off to Wilkes, I started my own site.

Anyway, back to high school. Jenn even knew was SPAM was back then and was quoted in the Pocono Record talking about it, which is hysterical-- she put her email address on something and got "spammed." She ventured into computer science and while we fell out of touch, I know she worked for some big time companies in the Internet industry and am sure she still does. She got more into the technical stuff that I am not smart enough for. I've dabbled it in as a hobby. She is a whiz.

Now that I work "for the Internet," I am up with the latest trends, at least within ecommerce and also all the Web 2.0 stuff- or at least I try to be. So, when I see someone who has a really old school site, I chuckle and think of my first website- a Yahoo Geocities website. No business's site should look like that! Haha. I am not a programmer now either- I work in sales- but it's cool to think back then how I learned HTML myself and how to create tables and make links and create email links, etc. I should be quite proud of myself that I learned all that back then before there were all these online resources od Dummy/Idiot books published and out there.... But of course by today's standards- my Geocities site blows-- you can still do Geocities, but they have SiteBuilder and all these other WYSIWIG editors to build a personal site. But it's still a very fun trip down memory lane to see this site- and it's funny that mostly everything still works on it, althought the mail address is long gone- and I cannot log into geocities to change anything- but I don't think I want to. This is an ancient artifact that should be preserved.

So, for shits and giggles, check this out. Check out the backgrounds, the animated gifs and all the old school personal website stuff.

Looking back at my content, it's actually funny because I still drink at the bar I did back then. I started the site in 1997 and I guess the last time I updated it was after I turned 21. Now, I'm about 30.

http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Stage/3464/

Be sure you visit the about me page: http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Stage/3464/stats.html

The "guest book" which is pretty much an obsolete thing nowadays, is pretty funny too-- it brings back a lot of memories-- it's before SEO was really big and there is this one guy who searched for "donna radio" because he was from some foreing country and that was a station there, and I came up. So, I had searchable keywords back then! hehe

Cheers to Yahoo Geocites!! Haha. Anyway- just wanted to share it. Laugh with me, because it is funny.

Being so good you get noticed-- and being a teenager agin

I was tanning today. Fake tanning in the fake sun. I was the only poor soul who opted to lay between two plastic pockets of ultraviolet lights to get even hotter than the scorching heat outside-- I mean it-- the tanning salon was a ghost town.

But, as I was laying there, sweating but turning more golden, I was listening to Charlie Daniels, The Devil Went Down to Georgia. I don't know if my tapping my hands and feet will affect the amount of fake sun my pale skin absorbed, but I was playing along. I got to thinking how I saw The Charlie Daniels Band live at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre several years ago. It was one of the best shows I've been to- this guy can fucking play. He had a fiddle tech who brought out a new bow after nearly every song- he tore the thing to shreds he played with such heart and emotion. So as I lay there naked (but I accidentally left my socks on) listening to Charlie Daniels, I thought he must be the best fiddle player ever. And then I thought about how Charlie Daniels was getting old and that made me sad to know that in a few years, he may not be here. But then I got happy again because he did something THAT well, that everyone knew him for it.

I got to thinking how great it must feel to be THAT good at something that EVERYONE knows who you are. I meet a lot of people who are good at what they do-- but that's just it. Me and a few others know what they excel it. A local karaoke bar may know how good a person can sing. A local restaurant may be known for a chef who makes the best desserts. A local high school team may have a great track star--- but why does talent always have to be confined? I know that not everyone will be famous or make it big or move on from their hometowns-- but it is cool to know that if you want it, you can make it happen. Imagine everyone- aside from your mom and dad- knowing what you were made to do? Imagine being THAT good at something that everyone knows you for it. Like Charlie Daniels and his fiddle.

*****
I had the greatest weekend. Seriously. Invigorating is the best word to describe it. I won't get into details here on a public blog. But, I felt like a rebellious teenager again. I am nearing 30. In a month and six days I'll be 11 years older than the teenager I once was. But this weekend, with a gang of friends I was more youthful than I have been in a long time. It felt nice this weekend to be brave, uninhibited and free.... ah....

I did journal about it... so perhaps it will be in Memoir #2 since the first one is about childhood.

Cheers,
Donna

Another Great Loss

You know you are getting older when your childhood heroes start passing away. Not long ago, we bid farewell to Mr. Rogers. We experienced another great loss yesterday: Mr. Wizard.

I grew up watching Mr. Wizard. While I was never great in science/math, I was always fascinated with science and experiements. Even this past summer when I took chemistry at LCCC, I thought of Mr. Wizard. I remember his experiments with static electricty and when he made the really big bubble by mixing up soap and water in a baby pool. I remember some of these episodes so vividly. I remember that I always wanted to be one of the kids in the episodes.

Someone at the site I write for contributed an article about him (beat me to the punch!). Check it out if you want. Mr. Wizards's real name was Don Herbert. He was 89-- so he had a great, long, successful life and probably inspired many of the doctors and scientists and engineers of today!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am loving my new job at Solid Cactus. What a cool place to work, what a great and creative team, and what a kick ass product. I am stoked, thrilled and every other adjective that means excited. I made the right decision.

I am watching a penguins and seals doc. on Discovery right now, and if people aren't worried about global warming, they perhaps should start to think about it. Seals swim, but when they need to take breaks, give birth, make nests, etc. they need to go up on small islands at sea. Well folks, those glaciers are melting and the water is rising and guess what- those islands are disappearing.

Well, I have a movie to toss in. We're trying the Blockbuster mail-order thing. So far, no complaints. Never had a prob. with Netflix either, just trying them both and seeing which one we have more luck with!

Old Friends

We went out on Saturday night for our friend Andy's birthday. We went to Hops & Barleys, my all-time favorite place. I used to be a regular there. A really, really regular. But, every time I go there it is like home. At any rate, on this particular eve I ran into some old friends that I used to hang out with at Hops, so it reminded me of the old times. I ran over with my camera to take a quick photo-- I'm just nostalgic like that. (In the pic, it's me, Ted, Cyndi, Doug and Brian.)

Ted and Cyndi are married now and have twins that are almost a year old. Time flies. Dave and I are engaged and have a house, and the friends we were with, Andy and Colleen are married and building their house. Where does the time go? I reminisced that night about when I was in my earlier 20s and was just worried about having fun. Even though I was always on my own since I was 18, I have more responsibilities now. Or maybe I am just growing more responsible?

But, the thing is-- when we get together-- me and my 'newer' friends or the old gang I ran into-- we all seem to party and have fun just like we're younger. I think that is important. Even though we may hang out less and less as the years go on, we need to have as much fun as we can and live it up! It's kind of sad to think that one day, we'll all be grown up with families of our own and see each other once or twice a year. Now, if we go a month without hanging out, it feels odd. Dave, Andy and I were talking that we each have to have a set annual party-- Andy already has Halloween-- that way we are guaranteed to see each other several times per year. That's a pretty good idea, I think.

I'm pushing 30. But I feel younger, and I still get carded. Age is a state of mind, really. I am glad to see that most people I know are still young at heart.

That's all for now. ; )

Random Article from My Archives: Best Corner Bars in and Around Wilkes-Barre

New CDs. Yes. As in Compact Discs. They DO still exist.

Even as obsessed as I am with the Internet, I am still quite the mail order junkie. A few weeks ago, I cancelled everything. Silkes, Grandma's Kitchen, Quality Paperback Book Club and even the One Spirit Book Club. I was tired of invoices and sending back forms saying I DIDN'T want to order anything.

Then guess what. I go and sign up for the BMG Music Club. Argh! But, I've been quite nostalgic these days and want to go back to the music I grew up with when my mom and adoptive father used to do campground shows-- the old folk songs, ya know. So, I went wild and ordered nothing from this decade. I don't know what to listen to first:

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits

Joni Mitchell, Hits

Gordon Lightfoot, Gord's Gold

The Essential Simon and Garfunkel

Or, the double-disc set, Peter, Paul and Mary, Around the Campfire

I don't own an iPod, although I do think I want one, moreso for Podcasts of NPR and such. There is still something so exciting about getting a CD, opening the jacket, looking at the pictures and lyrics, etc. I don't think that will ever go away. But of course, I still read the newspaper and read books made of paper. Let the music play!