It’s Gypsy Feet I Got; The 90s tag

My blogging bestie Pinkie got me with the 90s tag. Thank you, Pinkie! I think it’s fair to say that we were world’s apart during that decade, and not just because she lives the Netherlands, and I was wandering the U.S.A.

Favorite TV Show

I married hubby in 1990. After he moved all his stuff into my apartment, he asked me where the heck the TV was. I didn’t have one. It says something about what we did with our time together that he had not noticed until then. Wink wink.

Crime is my guilty pleasure. Mystery and true crime books, especially gritty police procedurals, deep psychological dives into the criminal mind. So it will come as no surprise that I very quickly fell in love with Law & Order. Duh dun.

Being someone who read about crime all the time, I was often familiar with the actual cases many of their episodes were based on. I knew the details and the outcome. But the best part was watching with my hubby and discussing it later. Law & Order tackled controversial subjects, and showed all the shades of grey. What is justice? What is punishment? Who is really wrong here? It inspired much discussion after every show, and I loved every minute of it.

But lest you think we are that serious – we also waited every week with great anticipation for the latest episode of F. R.I.E.N.D.S. We were delighted when it went into reruns, and could happily binge it for weeks at a time. I did get really tired of the Ross/Rachel thing. I’m pretty direct, as you may know, and considered most of that bullshit. I loved Phoebe and saw a lot of myself in her, but other people mostly accuse me of being a Monica because I was a pretty fanatical housekeeper. Imagine if Monica relaxed a little bit and didn’t care if you spilled if you were having fun and enjoying the dinner.

Another big favorite of mine was Deep Space 9. Again, I really liked the stories and I also had a bit of a crush on this man’s VOICE:

Again, like Law & Order, we would often discuss the story line and details for days afterward. I was less of a fan of Voyager. What really made Voyager for me, was Captain Janeway played by Kate Mulgrew. I did a total little happy dance when I saw this actress in a leading role. I was a fan of hers back in the Ryan’s Hope days and, in fact, quit watching entirely when she left the show. Nothing left for me to enjoy at that point. She makes an awesome starship Captain and later an Admiral.

My hubby watches a lot more TV than I do. So in the 90s I’d be working on stuff in my studio and walking back and forth to the kitchen and so forth and I would catch glimpses of what he was watching. Which is how, heaven help me, I got interested in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I went from thinking this was the most ridiculous show ever, to being intrigued and finally – okay, I’ll admit. I’m a fan. I have the hots for Spike. Another one I got hooked on the same way was Stargate SG-1, although I did find the world building intriguing from the outset. I’m a big believer in the ancient astronaut theories.

Favorite 90s Song

You know what happens when you ask me about music. These three songs combined pretty well describes where I was at in my life in the 90s. My theme songs if you like.

Favorite Commercial

I had to go look up 90s commercials to even remember any I liked. I was pretty sure from the outside it would be a NASCAR related commercial. I was at that time a huge NASCAR fan – and Jeff Gordon was MY GUY.

NSync or Backstreet Boys

Ugh. Alright, alright if I have to. By a thin margin Backstreet Boys, but I’d really prefer it if you never mention them again.

Favorite Music Artist

I never, but never have ONE favorite artist. Not even for a year, let alone a decade. How about a quick top ten – in no particular order; LIVE, NIN, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Robert Cray, Godsmack, Metallica, Indigenous, Jonny Lang, Prince. I’m sure I left some out that I really loved.

Jonny Lang I got to see live at a Bluesfest. This skinny little white boy who looks about 12 years old walks out on stage, fires up his guitar, opens his mouth, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown falls out. It was the most amazing thing.

Sadly, he got God and quit the blues and hasn’t done anything since that appealed to me. Too bad.

What did you collect back then?

Ah, back when I had ridiculous sums of money to blow. I collected horse figurines and anything and everything Jeff Gordon #24 related as well as lots of other NASCAR diecast.

How many Tomagotchi’s did you go through?

OMG, let me think. I loved them. I played them to DEATH. Then I got my wonder boy genius husband to tinker them into rebirth and played them some more. They were a little hard to find here, so when I did see them I tended to buy as many as I possibly could. I know at one point I had three of them going at once. So at least three, but I really think the truth might be more like ten or twelve.

Favorite Video Game and Console

It’s true, I managed to go through the entire decade without a game console, or video games. I played them a little in the early 80s but nothing impressed me enough to want to purchase one with my own money. From 1985 to 1990 I didn’t even own a TV. We didn’t have a computer until 1999 and I only learned to use it then because my husband refused to have my typewriter repaired – and managed to win that argument by showing me that we could buy a brand new printer for less $$ than it would cost to repair (again) my aged typewriter. I had a bad experience with a work computer back in the 80s and I basically thought they were shit. I could do far more with a pencil and a piece of paper than those old clunkers could do on a good day. I felt like they were a waste of time.

Cain’t miss what you ain’t never had.

Favorite Cereal/Cereal Toy

IF I ate breakfast it was either yogurt at home, or a massive 3 am breakfast at a 24 hour restaurant after the bars closed.

Who was your 90s crush growing up?

There was this girl at a bar where I worked – oh, you mean like a celebrity crush? I don’t really do those – but I did think Spike was kinda sexy. And I love this video.

I may be love’s bitch but at least I’m man enough to admit it.

What was your favorite Disney channel movie?

Disney? Was that a thing? Did I have it? Was Jeff Gordon in it?

Favorite Show? (Disney/Nick/Cartoon Network)

Uh…again…

Weirdest Fashion Trend?

I had a mohawk a long, long time before it was cool, let alone allowed on girls. I don’t really do much fashion. I kind of do my own thing. Which, I guess, is pretty weird in itself. I did dress kind of goth and kind of grunge. But it was more like, grunge and goth caught up with me.

What Were your favorite toys?

Far as I remember I had collectibles that happened to BE toys in some cases. Like the huge chest full of diecast cars. But come to think of it, hubby and I had a series of cool cars that we called “zippy” cars. Those are the ones that you pull backwards to wind them up and then they take off. And “chasers” which are the remote control cars that have a cord that goes back to the controller – so you have to chase them. And we had a bunch of cat toys because we had a bunch of cats.

Disney/Nicklodeon/Cartoon Network

That was a thing?

What early morning/weekend shows would you watch?

NASCAR at that time had Busch races on Saturday, and the Winston Cup races on Sunday. Once the racing began, you could forget talking to me unless it was about the race.

And then NASCAR decided to get political and religious and commercial. Suddenly the drivers all parroted the same lines “Thank God, thank my family, thank all my wonderful sponsors, amen” Like, what?

You’re right – this isn’t my fathers NASCAR. And I don’t like it.

Right about the time I started getting pretty sick of NASCAR’s non-racing related bullshit, SPEED channel briefly (before NASCAR bought them) showed the highlights of the WRC – World Rally Cup – races. Their drivers could still (and do still) say “This car is a piece of shit” and they race over dirt, gravel, and pavement in wind, rain, shine, and snow so deep they use the banks to lean on and keep them on the road. NASCAR’s loss was WRCs gain.

Favorite McDonalds Happy Meal Toy

During most of the 90s I was making shit tons of money and I almost never ate at McDonalds if I could possibly help it.

Favourite Book

The Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun featuring a retired investigative reporter and two Siamese cats. They were really kind of the start of the “cozy” mystery genre here and I devoured them as fast as she could write them.

What would you watch when you got home from school?

I wasn’t in school. I usually got home from work about 3 in the morning and generally watched taped NASCAR races until I went to sleep. If they sold the sound track from stock car races as a white noise track – I’d want it. Puts me to sleep like a charm!

What was your favorite thing from the 90s that’s no longer around today?

My athletic, hard body figure. ROFLMAO. It’s just ROUND now, rather than around.

I miss my father’s NASCAR. In case you don’t know, I’m making fun of NASCAR’s advertising logo of a few years ago – “this isn’t your Daddy’s NASCAR”. I did actually begin watching NASCAR with my Daddy, thank you, and it has certainly changed into something completely different.

“Years ago, you used to get out and fight and run around and chase each other with a jackhammer and stuff like that. Those were the good ol’ days.” – Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Tag!

Tiny Ugly Animal

I Drink and Watch Anime – Irina

Fred au Natural

And anybody else who wants to jump in on this, just comment.

Whew! I finally managed to finish this. It was a fun little trip through memory lane I must admit. The 90s were a pretty cool decade for me. I was working, traveling, making good money, newly and happily married, and such a car guy that I not only had a room full of die cast, at one point I actually owned like six cars at once – almost all classic muscle cars.