I was looking through our photo albums and photo boxes, the other day, looking for a very specific picture of Real Man and I.
I didn’t find the picture I was looking for, but I had a great time looking through the photos.
Until I got to the photos of us in the late 90’s.
Apparently, from 1997-1999, (wedding photos excluded), I was going through a phase of smiling for pictures with my tongue just peeking out between my front teeth, like a small child with a serious lisp.
Maybe I thought it made me look cute or sweet or innocent?
I don’t remember doing it, but looking at the pictures now, it annoys me.
So, I started to think if there were other phases I had gone through that I could remember.
Clearly, there were phases…but could I remember them?
The first phase that I really remember is my “Harriet the Spy” phase.
I read the book, as a kid, and remember being absolutely enamored with the story.
And so, I got a little notebook and carried it with me. Everywhere.
However, there weren’t many conversations to listen to in my house.
The adults in the neighborhood all played bridge together once a month, so I already knew pretty much everything there was to know about them.
I couldn’t bring the notebook to school, or I’d get in trouble.
So, that phase was short-lived.
When I was a sophomore in college, I went through a vegetarian phase.
I had spent a week, the summer before, visiting the guy I was dating, who lived in Illinois.
They were big meat and potatoes people, and in that week, I ate more meat than I had ever eaten before.
I’m pretty sure that, at one meal, they served the big chop that flips the Flinstone’s car on it’s side in the opening montage of the cartoon.
After that week, I didn’t eat meat for the next year.
And then I wanted a cheeseburger.
When I was a senior in college, I decided I was going to be a coffee drinker.
Except I knew I hated coffee.
So, I bought myself a few boxes of those instant cappucino packets.
You know…like Cup-a-Soup, but with coffee.
Guess what?
I hated those, too.
But, it was senior year and it was spring and everyone around me was drinking coffee by the gallon in order to stay awake so they could get their Independent Studies done and I wanted, so badly, to share the experience.
But, I was pretty much done with my IS and was able to manage my time so I could do my work and still be ready for bed at a reasonable hour, so I had no reason for the coffee.
The worst part?
As a senior, I had my own room, and I only drank the coffee packets in my room, so no one even got to see me fitting in.
It was just me, my cup-o-java, and my Pump Up the Volume VHS tape, which I watched until the ribbon actually fell out of the cassette case.
I think I’m not so good at going through phases.
So, maybe you guys are better at phases than I am.
I’d love to hear what phases you’ve gone through, in your lives. How long did they last? Do you have photographic evidence? 
Can’t wait to about them!
