Weddingbee Blog

So, you want to know what I was like in high school, eh? Oh man.

High School Thimble was: Drama Club Actress, Stage Manager and Treasurer; Choir Alto 2, and Officer with a made-up title of Instrumental Liaison to communicate schedules with Marching Band in which I served as a Squad Leader in the Flute Section. Add to that a community service stint in a traveling educational puppet show called Kids on the Block, my weekend job as a Cashier and Bagger at Shop N’ Bag and occasional Babysitter, a fairly intense Social Life and All Honors Classes because I was gifted and I could do it all!

In other words, I was a disaster. An all-nighter-pulling, granola-bars-for-dinner on my way to rehearsal, struggling-to-keep-up with my school work while maintaining an academic elitist attitude. An over-extended teenager who would not listen to reason from my parents to chill the heck out.

AP English class with some friends I’ve hardly seen since then during finals week, or the last week… or sometime toward the end. On the left is the AP chalkboard where students of note were posted for all to see… Mr. T and I were listed under “AP Couples.”

While my best friends were celebrating senior week at the beach, I was performing Moliere at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska:

Nerd Alert! I’m in the red off-the-shoulder number. Ooooh I loved that costume! Le sigh…

When I wasn’t in my imaginary world of theatre and music and schoolwork, I was hanging out with a fun and down to earth group of girls. I wasn’t the one you called if you wanted to go out dancing, sneak alcohol, party—I was pretty tame and always played the role of “responsible one” who was afraid we’d all get caught or something. (Probably because I was teeerrrible at lying to my parents.)  But I was the one to call for heart-to-heart time, to help vent and sort out this crazy teenage life and its pressures.

Some of my girls and me celebrating at Senior Supper, April 2002

The whole gang at Prom. I loved me some gloves, so I posed like that in every pic of me at prom. Here, I remember posing in some sort of specific line-up according to our designated Disney Princesses. That’s normal, right? I was Belle because I liked to read and sing in the street.

I was shy around most guys I liked—I always had one intense, unattainable crush or another. The kinds where you change your route to class just to catch a glimpse of him. I got braver in Junior year, and that spring is what I consider my single girl phase when I tested the waters—-that’s right, when I was 16 I dated all the (3) men necessary to know what I wanted in a life partner. I wasn’t a casual dater. No “friends with benefits,” no BS. Despite the fact that I didn’t see myself going off to college while in a relationship, I didn’t want to get into one that wasn’t just right. So when Mr. Thimble and I started dating in senior year, we knew were good together early on; and when it’s right, it’s right! So we held on through college and beyond.

Mr. T and I on our senior trip to Disney World

Trying to pin the prom boutonniere

And now? Well… I’m kind of the same! I had always wanted marriage and a family, so my relationship ideals have not changed. However, my dreams of being a famous actress have come down to earth in my mid-twenties. Not shattered or anything, I just can’t keep up with all the auditions and projects while keeping a full time job to pay the rent—not like High School Thimble could have kept up. My dreams are still creative, but they’re a little simpler. This year, I have learned that I am a thousand times more satisfied writing and crafting, and well, planning weddings and parties as a creative outlet than I have been in a long time looking for theatre work. So…that’s where I am now!

Now I’ve got a little treat for you, since I didn’t have the full gamut of embarrassing high school pics in my NY apartment. I was debating whether to save this for my rehearsal dinner recap, but this is just the perfect opportunity. My LA MOH Laura made a fun slideshow/video to get us pumped and teary-eyed the night before our wedding. We’re gonna to go waaay back before high school, and right up to this year…and I’m throwing Mr. Thimble under the bus with me for this Then and Now video:

It made us laugh, it made us cry. Laura is pretty good at what she does. She’s starting up a little biz, Our Reel Life and making more vids! I’m so so proud.

That pretty much covers Thimble(s) Then and Now! Have you changed a lot as a person since your teens? Have your life goals and dreams evolved over the years?