#173 "Let's Rock" - Olmec

I feel like I've taken a lot of photos of myself with a helmet on for this blog. Not sure what that says about me or the quality of content that appears on this thing. I mean, look at the look on my face. Even I know that I look like the kid that eats all the paste and ruins art time.

TANGENTS. Anywho, I got this shirt from MyPartyShirt.com. Seriously, just the best site for shirts that encapsulate my childhood.

Legends of the Hidden Temple is maybe the best game show ever produced. I mean that Temple was just one of the coolest sets I've ever seen. How fun must that have been to run through.

During the first year of my friendship with Jaime there was a period of time where we fell into this rhythm of I'd go to class and then afterward I'd make it back to her dorm to watch Legends of the Hidden Temple and The Joy of Painting. We'd sit there riveted and her roommate would judge us and our life choices. (note that I'm probably remembering this wrong) Then that Halloween we decided to dress up as the Green Monkeys team and Brandon begrudgingly agreed to be our temple guard. Brandon's costume was made up of a colorful feather headdress from the cowboys and indians section of the costume store and bits from a little girl's Cleopatra costume (not exaggerating even at all). He drove alone to our friend Bob's annual Halloween party straight from work and he rather conveniently forgot to bring his costume along with him when he had left. So sadly there was never a public debut to his ramshackle costume.

#168 "You're a loser, Tony. A loser with a skinny weiner!"

Heavyweights was maybe my favorite movie when I was a kid. It's just hilarious and weird and a total classic. Fun fact time: this movie is co-written by Judd Apatow aka the man behind practically every money-making, critically-lauded comedy of the past few years.

This shirt is one of the ones that the kids wear once Ben Stiller's character (Tony Perkis) takes over the camp. By far though, the breakout star of the movie is Lars, one of Uncle Tony's henchmen/camp counselors. Every line he has is pretty much comedy gold.

BUY: I got this one from mypartyshirt.com. They also have the counselor shirts (which are the same but in black).

#164 Go Bayside!

I'm not particularly proud of this photo. Though, to be fair, I'm not particularly proud of any photo taken of me ever. The one with me and Brandon suited up James Bond style is pretty good I suppose.

I digress. Saved By The Bell was one of my very favorite shows when I was growing up. I very desperately wanted to be Zach Morris. Guy had it all; the phone, the always impeccably coiffed hair, Kelly Kapowski, he was one radical motherfucker.

Favorite episode: Off the top of my head what stands out is the one where Screech and AC Slater (a pun that I now understand after spending time on a movie set) were both going for the Mr. Bayside title. I can only assume that Zach didn't run because he disqualified for being too handsome or something. A quick rundown of the plot: Screech's robot punches Screech in the eye, Screech gets a black eye, rumor spreads that Slater did it, Screech lets people believe the rumor like the dick that he is, he gets the sympathy vote and Screech gladly accepts the Mr. Bayside crown with no repercussions. At least that's how I remember the episode. Why do I like this episode? Because the plot hinges on a robot that a character built themselves that he lets smack him in the eye. They just don't make shows like that anymore (thank god).

Buy it: I got this shirt from 80s Tees.com during their black friday sale. They're a quality source of nostalgia-wear.

#162 Ai yi yi yi yi

I loved the ever loving crap out of the Power Rangers when I was a kid. Loved it. My brother and I would watch it every morning before school while we munched on Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

(Ladies please, just try and restrain yourselves from me after reading this paragraph) The green ranger was the best. Don't even try to dispute me. He always had the best weapons (the Dragon Dagger, that awesome dragon sword thing, that talking tiger scimitar), the best zord (the Dragonzord was gigantic and even had its own special mashup zord when it combined with the others), and he got all the girls. Seriously, that guy must have been the producer's nephew or something because he totally got all the best stuff.

When I was a kid I begged and begged to get Power Rangers toys for Christmas and birthdays. However, either because I'm a girl or because they just plain didn't like the Power Rangers, neither my brother nor I never got any of the toys...well from them at least. Our Aunt Tess was always the one to indulge us, partly because she and Uncle Bernie lived in Florida so we didn't see them much.

Kid stuff nowadays seems way less badass. Growing up in the 90s, so many children's shows involved action and superheroes and evil villains. Kids growing up now have Dora the Explorer. These are sad, sad times we're living in, friend.

BUY: This shirt was purchased off of MyPartyShirt.com. They've got a fantastic selection of shirts that look like character jerseys and costumes. I basically want to own their entire catalog.

#150 I want to go to there

This is a shirt that I got when I was younger from the San Diego Wild Animal Park. For those of you that don't know, the San Diego Wild Animal Park is awesome. It's out in northeast San Diego county on a pretty giant lot of land. The best part of it is the gigantic Africa exhibit that you have to view on their safari tram tour. It's just fun watching giraffes trot around on their awkwardly long legs (perhaps this explains my friendship with Brandon).

Anywho Dino Mountain was an exhibit the had for a while with a bunch of dinosaur animatronics I think and prehistoric decorations and a dinosaur 3d movie ride. I was probably super duper into it when I was a kid since I liked dinosaurs for probably a little longer than was normal (probably right up to middle school).

#113 It kind of looks like the Cowardly Lion's medal of courage

This is a shirt that I got in elementary school (either the second or third grade I think) during a school-wide reading promotion. I managed to be one of the more voracious little readers (read: I spent a lot of time alone and indoors) so I got quite a bit of swag from the campaign. This badass shirt, free pizza coupons, I even got a physical medal like the one on my shirt. When they say "gold medal winner" they aren't playing around (well, the gold part is still a bit of a lie...and they're playing it fast and loose with the word "winner"). I actually had to accept this shirt on stage at an assembly that they had in front of the whole school so they could all laud me for my nerdiness (kneel, peasants!).

#97

This was the shirt that my elementary school band wore when we played at our little concerts. We also were in the Mira Mesa 4th of July parade at least once. I really don't know why this shirt is so big. It's big on me even now. I must have been just swimming in it when I was in the 5th grade. I guess I was already starting to get taller then, but still.

I can't remember much about band in elementary school. I just remember being very excited by the prospect of being able to play TLC's "Waterfalls" on saxophone because that was the song that the director and his friend came in and played for my fifth grade class. At the time it was my favorite song after all. Really that silly story is rather appropriate. I joined band because it sounded like fun and I kept up with it because it continues to be fun for me.

Anywho, the anteater band played at the UCI women's soccer game today and they won 2-0! These women's games are starting to make me come around to the whole idea of watching soccer I think. Somehow I've managed to have fun and stay entertained during a game that I normally loathe. The fact that we're a pretty good team certainly helps. Plus on a more shallow level, soccer players are hot.

#93 Stunner

Much like every other little girl I grew up with a love for professional wrestling. Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Randy Macho Man Savage, Rey Mysterio Jr., The Rock, they were all fantastic in my young eyes. I was also into Stone Cold Steve Austin for a while. I don't really know why, he didn't really have as cool a personality as the others. My guess is that like a lot of things I liked when I was younger (South Park, the Wu Tang Clan, basketball) these were things that my older (and thus obviously cooler) cousins liked so I glommed onto them too.

Tubular

This shirt is something that was purchased sometime in the 90s when I was a kid. It was probably my dad's first and I just swiped it. I love how super 90s it is. That and it's kind of like every generic zoo/animal shirt of that era. Lots of black and basic colors and random pseudo tribal patterns. It's from either the San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park. I'm a big fan of the Wild Animal Park just because of the huge open animal enclosure that you can only see on their tram tour.