1994

This is me at age seventeen. Thought you ought to know. It was the fall of 1994. Sherri was taking a photography class at Clark College so of course I joined her for EVERY class, and didn't pay. But hey, the teacher let me stay and use all of their equipment and chemicals for free, so perhaps the cosmos meant for me to be there. This series was actually one of her finals for that class, and as usual I was goofing off in the entry area of the classroom. I believe the lollipop was Tootsie Roll pop of the grape variety. Perhaps the wrapper had one of those Indians shooting at the star; in fact, yes, we will say that it did.

I'm not sure how many licks it takes to get to the center of a grape Tootsie Roll pop, but what I AM sure about is that hair pretty much delays (or stops altogether) the licking process.

Please note the multi-layers so popular in the nineties - the raggy long-john top and the ill-fitting second-hand tye-dye, accentuated by a handmade necklace that may or may not have hemp in it. Ahh, those were the days. Just be happy I am not wearing a trenchcoat and army helmet in this picture. (And yes, I dressed like this before I ever did drugs.) No wonder my mother occasionally confused me for a transient.

Looking at this, I'm thankful that I got contacts - I look like a forty-five-year-old spinster sixth grade teacher who enjoys arranging her collection of cast off garter snake skins and reading bodice rippers on the toilet.