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I found a capella through the show, “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?”. Rockapella was my first exposure to that style of music, and I loved them! Some people I know used to tease me by singing, “Where in the World is, Laura San Diego”, to the point that I just hated to hear it when the song came on, so I quit watching the show. Consequently, I still don’t know where Yemen is, but for real, could you look at an unlabelled map and tell us where it is? I guess I should add dates for context, eh? This would’ve been circa 1994/95, when we were living in Lemoore, CA, because my dad and my stepdad were both stationed on the same base. My maiden name played well with “Hakuna Matata”, so that was a fun way to have that song ruined for a while, too.
After I stopped watching the show, I didn’t come across a capella again until this commercial. I loved it so much that I tried to record it on VHS, and then play that while recording on my boom box to get it onto a cassette to listen to. I wouldn’t call it a successful venture.
A few years later, due to a complex set of circumstances, I switched schools in the middle of my freshman year of high school. In the fall of 1999, I started 9th grade at Mountain Pointe High School in Ahwatukee, Arizona, and then shortly into 2000, I moved back to Cuyahoga Falls, OH.
I wouldn’t have been happy anywhere except Mountain Pointe, because I had been so enamored with their school, their theater program, and the people I’d met there, but I was especially bummed with the fact that my new school’s theater program was in a transition year, and not much was going on. Mountain Pointe had an improv group, multiple main stage plays, a musical, advanced classes that needed to cast for one act projects, a haunted house that needed performers, like… there was just ALWAYS something going on.
One dreary day in gloomy Ohio, (where they didn’t even bring in Taco Bell or Burger King as lunch options, or have an ice cream vending machine 😂), we were all shuffled into the auditorium for an assembly (Pops), and a group of guys sang my favorite Folger’s commercial IRL. That’s when I was like, Oh… What’s this show choir thing all about? They sing like that all the time in the A Capella class? Hmm.. How do you get in that class? Oh, you have to do freshmen choir first? But, what if freshman year is almost over? Women’s Ensemble?! What…even is that? I wanna be over in that other class, please.
That’s how living in Ohio has always felt to me, like, I’m always a little bit behind schedule. “Hey, you’re a junior and just realized you need some kind of GPA to go to college? Failing creative writing because you skipped the final to go hang out with your boyfriend probably isn’t a great way to fix that. Oh, you didn’t know you needed to buy Christmas train tickets in October? How silly. Don’t forget next year!” You know that weird sense of loss that doesn’t make sense because you didn’t really have it to lose, but you wanted it, and just barely missed it… what do you call that? It’s that same feeling that fuels your SNKRS draw attempts even though they rarely go through. Or that feeling when you get up from a slot machine and the next person gets your payout. Is that what FOMO is? Whatever you call it, I have been chasing stability, consistency, and “boring” my whole life, but when you live in a world of perceived chaos, constant uprooting/starting over, traditions, people who are planners, and schedules are annoying. (Where are the grammar police?) Ain’t nobody got time to make a plan, let alone STICK to a plan for any significant amount of time, and who knows how long I'll even be here. #militarybrat
This is something that I have always admired about my husband. He grew up here and lived the traditions, the routines, played on travel teams, all the “normal things” that I wanted and felt like I had just barely missed. This community helped shape him to be the kind of person prepared to push through the hard times and enforce the structure that I’ve always wanted for my children, but didn’t know how to give them. Obviously, his parents had a lot to do with that and they made their own sacrifices to give him and his siblings those opportunities. Credit given where it’s due, but it took a long time for me to see the value of how I grew up, compared to someone who hadn’t ever lived that way. Turns out, impulsivity, adaptability, and false senses of confidence can have their places in a marriage, too.
When I got to Marysville/ORW in January 2020, I had no interest in coffee, but everyone around me, in admissions, was fiending for it. During our breakfast, we had the option of something that looked brownish, but the people who drank it said it was, at best, comparable to some kind of decaf coffee. So, people got in trouble for sneaking coffee into admissions that they’d gotten from someone they knew in the cafeteria, or people would try to sell coffee they had received, but none of that was me. It wasn’t until I had access to a reasonable hazelnut coffee creamer powder, after getting a job at the commissary, that I even considered trying prison coffee. The only reason I like Starbucks is because it doesn’t taste like coffee…so this instant coffee crystal junk is supposed to be “coffee”? No, thank you. The main brand options were Taster’s Choice, Maxwell House and Folgers. I don’t know why, but I tried the MH first, and then promptly gave it away in exchange for some “juice” packets. (Ya know, those powdered Hawaiian punch singles that you put in water? No? You didn't know those are a thing? Well, they are, they're usually sugar free, and that’s called juice in the clink.)
Eventually, I got used to the instant coffee, and now, we even keep it around the house for a quick cup, when it’s too cold to go out, when we don’t want to deal with a pod, or clean a whole coffee pot. I left the hazelnut powder creamer where I found it, but every time I use my peppermint mocha creamer, I say a little thank you that I’m no longer stuck in the land without overly sugary, caffeinated beverages whenever I want them. Depending on where you find yourself opening your eyes, that cup of Folger's instant coffee really can be the best part of wakin’ up.
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