dude, the Strokes are really reminding me of Wanda.

That's part of the reason I didn't get the album immediately after I came back from the trip. Getting a CD and playing it over and over sort of dilutes the memories you have tied up in it.

But it just....floods back.

Like this conversation:

Wanda: *talking to a particularly strange/somewhat pervy guy named Kevin on the internet* Phoe's finally here!
Me: *reading the title of a Bloodhound Gang album of Wanda's* Hooray for boobies!
Kevin: How is she?
Wanda: She just said, "Hooray for boobies!"

Okay....after typing that out, it kind of became one of those "you had to have been there" things.

But I remember so many other things.... The way Wanda sung along to music, especially the lines "and I don't know why!" "Go go go go!" "I took too many varieties," and various Presidents songs. Deciding someone should make a music video with dorks like us lip synching to the song, complete with air guitar, headbanging, fake mess ups and cursing. Laying on her bed, browsing "The Mullet: Haircut of the Gods" and various and sundry Red Dwarf books. Having English Big Brother explained to me. My first taste of Fanta. Her mother, like all friends' mothers I've ever met, desperately trying to find something to make that I'll eat. My first chuckle at dirty King Adora lyrics. Naming Kevin "boll weevil." Her brooklyn accent "coffee." Showing her how to do "libary" hick-like, and her doing it southern belle-like. Sharing my Forrest Gump impression, Bobby's World's Mom impression, her sharing "coun'ry" english accent and welsh accent. Her disturbing enjoyment of Hello Kitty. Clothes shopping. Feeling like a jackass when confronted with my inability to flush low pressure English toilets. Throwing up in one of said toilets as my very first act at her house. Listening to No Doubt, Offspring, and REM in the family car. Foriegn cows. The first time she proudly buffed her nails on her shirt after reading *buffs nails proudly* on the AIM screen from her for years. Seeing my first cathedral. Camden market--competes with St. Paul's cathedral for my best english memory. The sights, the smells--the sounds especially. Foreign, Indian-sounding music coming out of a lot of stalls. Nirvana in one stall. Paperback writer, just to make the experience authentically english, from another. One store playing Offspring's "Americana." No crappy pop music whatsoever. The first sight of my Mulletproof T-shirt. Ordering water at pizza hut to try and make it cheaper on Wanda's mom, ending up with a 3 pound bottle of water and a confusing discussion with the waitress about still vs. sparkling, and what plain cheese pizza is called. Forbidden Planet, in which we decided Kevin from up above would wet himself and die if he ever visited, hell, I almost did so, it was that great. We went twice. I bought a couple books--I wanted to buy more. And I wanted to buy all their videos, but took none because of the incompatibility of british vcr's. My first tube ride. That guy on the bus who felt compelled to list out everything he knew about America to me. Talking while waiting for the bus. Discussing how stressed out some woman on the PA at heathrow sounded. Telling her that I was going to buy her a huge bag of jerky at O'Hare before I remembered she was vegetarian. The first time I saw her, not sure if it was her, trying not to freak her out if it actually was someone else. Border's books, where I bought even more. The place was so huge that they had the most minute categories. Reading Wanda's animal avatars book, and deciding the most accurate avatar was her ex's, the description being "unintelligent copying of what others have to say." Buying King Adora at a music store, listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in another music store, discussing a crush she had on a music store clerk at yet another music store. Calling her up in the distinctive red telephone booths, or getting a call from her in the common area, babbling on and on about what I've seen, the other members of my group, whining about mumbler. Listening to the bloodhound gang. Being frightened that we had ran out of things to talk about, being reassured that "the british don't feel compelled to talk all the time." This great bookstore at St. Albans. A great knicknack store at st albans. Making Wanda find a bathroom for me at St. Albans, ending up in this place with (literally) tracing paper for toilet paper. Having lunch in a cobblestoney courtyard at St. Albans, being blown away at how my coke can has ads for World Cup tickets instead of Six Flags tickets. A burning hot day prowling around Covent Garden. Watching Spiderman on the hugest screen I've ever watched a movie on. Watching Wayne's World for the first time ever at her house, complete with Bohemian Rhapsody intro. Painting our nails together. The drunk people outside my window that one night. Being excited by seeing foreign "capri-sonne" in the grocery store on her block. Asking her the names of the species of english trees as we passed them. Her confession that she presses the buttons to make the lights turn red even when there's no cars around in hopes that it screws over a car that comes later. Passing through Hatfield on the bus, and having it hit me that it's the "Shatfield" she's always talking about.

Reading this back, I sound very stalkeresque. Actually, I wrote them down, because I don't want to forget them when The Strokes cease to evoke these memories. Especially since Wanda's too busy for me now that she's in college, and though we talked about it at one time: I would probably never be able to host her the way she did me. And Talia's too busy for me now that she has her man. My high school friends are gone, my best friend of my college years hates me..... I've been feeling pretty lonely.