Welcome to 15

I've been magically transported back to age 15 this week, starting with a visit from a friend from high school. We discovered a week ago that we live about a mile apart, and her daughter is about 4 months younger than Lindsay.

I don't have a lot of good memories of high school. With my overloaded academic schedule, chamber choir, orchestra, a smaller string group, a civic orchestra, drama club and working 2 part-time jobs, I was always running around like a crazy person. Near the end of my sophomore year, Carolyn and I became friends along with a couple of boys from the next town. They were all seniors. There was another girl who hung around with us who was a junior. I remember we had a good time that summer, and then Carolyn and the boys all went off to college. Most of the rest of the details pretty much escape me - other than it was a very straight-edged crowd: no one drank, did drugs, or had sex.

"Do you remember when we used to decide whose house we were hanging out at based on who had Tostados and salsa?"

I squinted at her. I have no recollection of this at all. I remember we played a board game called "Encore" that involved a lot of singing. I remember we went to see the laser light shows at the Science Museum's planetarium, but I don't remember any details about that other than we were probably the only ones there who weren't stoned.

Perhaps my life became very tumultuous after that? A lot of bad things happened to my family - death and divorce. I got into a relationship that wasn't good for me. I don't regret the things that happened. They made me who I am. The year and a half that followed eradicated that summer. Or maybe it is just it's now almost 20 years ago.

We listen to a radio show when our alarm goes off in the morning. Every day at 7:10 AM, they have a call-in contest. If your initials match the ones they announce, you call in to win $1000. This morning they called my initials. I squealed and ran downstairs to grab my replaced cell phone. My hands were actually shaking when I tried to key in the number.

But with my replacement phone all of my user preferences haven't been added yet, so there's no auto-redial when I got a busy number. I tried a bunch more times and finally got through, but no one answered - someone must've already called in. As I listened to the phone ring I thought, I haven't called into a radio station since I was trying to win tickets. I was 16, I remember driving around trying to find a pay phone to call.

I know a lot of people say they'd like to turn the clock back 20 years, but after this week, I think I'll pass...