I’m pretty sure I mentioned that after my grandmother passed away, my mom and uncle told me to think about anything that I wanted to take from her house before they packed the rest of it up to take to the church. I ended up taking her bedroom dresser, as well as some other odds and ends. then the dresser ended up sitting in our hall for, like, a MONTH because George couldn’t move my old one (a.k.a. the freakin’ Titanic) himself. Finally though, we were able to get our friend to come and help and the switch was made.

I wish that I had it for some other reason, like that my grandmother got new furniture and gave it to me. It’s hard to be excited about furniture you got because someone passed away. That said though, I really love it. It’s not as wide as my old one was – which is part of the appeal – and it has fewer drawers, but the actual drawer space is pretty much the same so I haven’t lost storage for my clothes. It’s beautiful and old and so solid.

Also, the fact that the surface is smaller means I feel less inclined to pile stuff on it. As it is, I’m thinking of taking some of the little knick knacks off so it doesn’t get cluttered. Yes, I still have unicorns on my dresser. Yes, I’m 32 years old. Leave me alone.

It’s funny, the things that you think about though, after it’s too late. Now that everything is gone I can think of a few little random things that I wish I had taken. Like the glass lamps that she used to have on the dresser, they were really pretty, and since they were glass even a little 40-watt bulb made the room bright. And strangely I wish I had taken her little butter dish. I rarely use butter since we get margarine, but we ran out last week and I used a block of butter that we had in the freezer. We just kept it wrapped in foil on the door of the fridge, but I remember my grandmother always kept hers in the cupboard (keep dairy refrigerated be damned!) in a little tin butter dish. It’s silly I guess, but I have weird attachments that way. That’s why I love my great-aunt’s wire wish so much.

Anyway, when I had to move things from one dresser to the other, I decided it was a good time to toss out some stuff, like the socks that have holes in them, or put things I don’t wear into a bag for charity. Underneath a pile of shirts I hadn’t worn in years, I found some old pictures. One of them was my grad picture. And I ask you: What were we thinking back in 1990? Who told us that we should make our hair as big and puffy as possible? Why did we curl and tease our bangs? Why did no one ever intervene and gently introduce me to a pair of tweezers? What on earth made Stephen Moore look at me that day and decide, “yes, I will ask HER out”?

Why was I channeling Lori Singer?!

No seriously. That’s me, circa 1990, age 16, and thinking I looked damn hot.

Forget asking what’s wrong with Britney and her bald head. What the hell was wrong with ME?!