Blog Tour Guest Post: Erin McCahan

Hitting up my blog today is I Now Pronounce You Someone Else author Erin McCahan, giving us a look into her teenage years, garage sale style.


Mostly, when I think of my teenage years, I wish I had been my own mother or older sister, saying, “Uh, no,” to any number of bad fashion choices I actually left the house in. Also keep in mind, please, that I grew up in the 80s, a decade marked by bad fashion and bizarre trends that we all loved at the time but definitely don’t want to revisit in real time. So when I was asked what from my teen years I’d sell at a garage sale, I just smiled, and thought – pretty much everything from my bedroom and closet. So with that in mind, the following would be for sale at the Teen Years Garage Sale, this weekend, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., come early for best selection:

For $1.00

1. The curling iron I regularly got my so-long-I-could-sit-on-it hair stuck in.
2. Bottles of Sun-In that were supposed to add sun-kissed highlights to my blonde hair but just turned it orange.
3. My pink-and-green plaid – yes, plaid – jumper – yes, jumper.
4. The Rubik’s Cube I never solved.
5. The round, white telephone I asked for in 9^th grade.
6. A shoebox full of eye shadow – mostly in shades of purple, which did not, as a beauty expert in some magazine wrote, highlight the blue of my eyes but made me look like I’d gotten punched in them, instead.
7. Benetton sweaters – name the color, I had it.
8. Big barrettes with a big bow on each one – in a variety of colors to match my nifty Benetton sweaters.
9. One defective Ouija board. Never got one reliable message from the spook world, but, in retrospect, I’m glad of that. There are certain things I do not wish to tamper with now, and the spook world is definitely one of them.
10. Tennis shoe roller skates – size 8.5.
11. Roughly 14 pairs of argyle socks in such nifty color combinations as gray and pink or blue and green.
12. One complete Trivial Pursuit game. (Though I might reconsider selling this. It may be fun to play now.)
    

For $2.00

1. Maroon-colored pea coat. The entire school had navy blue. My mother just had to make me different and buy me a maroon one.
2. Portable, electric typewriter weighing roughly 12 pounds. That and a watch were my high school graduation presents. I’m keeping the watch.
3. The electronic game Simon, batteries not included.
4. A Sony Walkman, which was like strapping a brick onto my waist, but I wore that brick every day.
5. Wicker bookshelves, tipping slightly to the right.
6. bunch of different Swatch Watches.
7. multiple tennis skirts – hideously ugly “tennis panties” included.

Make Me An Offer

1. A three-year collection of Torch newspapers – my high school paper – containing every article I ever wrote or edited and every page I designed.
2. One boom-box with built-in cassette player, and a complete collection of Styx and R.E.M. tapes up to 1989.
3. a doll collection my mother and grandmothers were determined to give me despite my protestations one Christmas that “I hate this doll crap.”
4. one rarely used guitar, despite 2 years of lessons.
5. One add-a-pearl necklace that stopped getting added to after about 13 pearls the size of tomato seeds.
6. My all maroon – apparently to match my pea coat – Buick Skylark, four doors, boxy, bench seats, no cruise control, no fm radio, no power locks, no power windows, excellent condition. I loved that car, but – really – everything but the seatbelt buckles was maroon.
7. And for that lucky person who shares my initials (ESM): a bewildering array of monogrammed sweaters, shirts, sheets, towels, cushions, jewelry, tote bags, paper, stationary, pens and pencils and – are you sitting down? – a pink, plastic shoe-organizer with the name Erin printed in big black letters at the top. I know. It sounds too good to be true, but, no, really. I had it.

Thank you, Erin, for that humorous look into your teenage years. Now for my blog readers, take that openness and humor and think of how it will inevitably show up in Erin's book. Yep. You're grinning at the thought. Now go get it!