Mood Ring Music

 So, after spending the last year gathering stories, bits of wisdom, and cautionary tales from various women, it has really made me start to reflect on myself. I’ve been through the wringer, and also, quite obviously, I’ve lived to tell about it. What would I say to try and reassure my sixteen-year-old self? So many things that I feel as if my head could explode! First of all, just hold on. Seriously, dig your feet in and hold on, because absolutely everything passes. All of those things that you absolutely believe are the end of the world? They are not. Trust me. In a few short years, you won’t be able to call those things to mind, even if someone offers you a million in cold hard cash and is standing there holding the briefcase. Thankfully, the passage of time seems to bring a healing sort of amnesia, so just hold on another minute. Let that minute turn into an hour, into a day, into next week. Everything will pass. I have to caution you, though, because just as all of the b...

I'll never forget getting in a cab probably 15 years ago. The driver was in his 40s and had big curly headbanger hair, still frosted as if it was 1988. He was wearing an old  RATT  concert tee that blended in with his sleeves of tattoos. He was on the phone at first trying to figure out who was going to get the  Motley Crue  tickets for him and his friends once they went on sale the next day and I instantly liked him. He was like a fossil leftover from the 80s but the thing was, he was the real deal. He stayed true to the music that he was raised on and had no desire to change any of that. Or at least that was my first impression. I've since learned never to think for certain that I have someone all figured out in a quick glance or three. As the cab finally started to move he asked if I minded the radio and of course, I didn't. I remember being intrigued by him but also worried that he wouldn't get me to the airport on time.  Then he told me he didn't ...

Motley Crue's  " Wild Side " always takes me back to high school- on one day in particular. When I was in 11th grade I'd spend my morning cramming in all of my academic classes so that my afternoon could be spent at a vocational school. Cosmetology seemed like a dream job for a 16-year-old girl that spent plenty of time teasing her own hair, and being in beauty school meant that I had a little card that gave me access to every professional beauty supply store around. My supply of Apple Pectin shampoo was endless and eventually, I traded in a big can of Aqua Net for an even larger can of Vavoom which cemented your hair in place AND made it smell like coconut. Anyway, the afternoon bus was filled with headbangers that had zero desire to go to college when they could be learning how to take a car engine apart, cook like a pro, or even become a medical assistant, all while in high school. This bus ride was the high point of most days because we truly became a family and h...