I'm a Barbie Girl...

Currently Reading: Finished Breaking Dawn last night! Also finished Jake's Return. Another Recommended Read! Liana's got another one I'm looking forward to, Thin Ice. I'll be getting to it in a few weeks. Right now, I'm reading another Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart.

I'll post the March Reading Schedule tomorrow; time to buy some more!


Am I the only one who LIKES that Aqua song? I find it catchy. Heck, the entire CD is great! (Almost said album...oops, I'm dating myself!)

Anyway, didja see the news? Barbie turns 50 this year! I like her newer expressions better than the original. She looked snooty in the original. Haughty. Stuck-up.

My Barbie had straight hair; drove a camper; had cool evening wear, but the shoes always got lost. So my Barbie went barefoot a lot. Ken wore white shorts and a red and white striped top. I never owned Skipper; we had an assortment of other 'friends'.

Remember Tiffany? She had both blonde and brown hair, and just by giving her scalp a twist, you could change her hair color.

Jody, the old-fashioned Country Girl? She had hair to her ankles. I got her for Christmas, and two weeks later, we played 'Barbie Hair Salon' and cut off all that hair to her shoulders. My mother was furious.

The Lone Ranger? Okay; he wasn't a doll, he was an Action Figure! But he came complete with Silver, the horse, and took my Barbie off into the Sunset.

What happened to Ken? The dog got a hold of him and destoyed one of his legs. He couldn't ride a horse with only one leg, so he fell in love with Tiffany.

And when the dog got a hold of Barbie and chewed off one of her hands, my fickle Lone Ranger abandoned her for one of my sister's dolls. By this time, Barbie had better hair, better accessories, and drove a Corvette. Silver was left in my toybox while the two zoomed around the house.

Barbie's been criticized over the years for giving little girls a bad body image. I remember seeing on a talk show about a woman who had plastic surgery so she could LOOK like Barbie. We thought she was insane...Barbie's a DOLL, not an actual PERSON!

In my opinion, Barbie gave us dreams. She gave us hope, that someday we would find our dream men, live in our dream house, drive our dream cars. But when you become teenagers, that dream gets pushed aside as reality of peer pressure and acceptance sets in. Yes, some of us will have that dream of being popular, Homecoming Queen, and marrying the best-looking guy. But for the majority of us, we make our own happiness and find our unlikely Kens in the guys we didn't look twice at in junior high; the not-so-good-looking ones who turn out to be the 'one who got away'.

These are the ones who helped us with our homework; the ones who held the doors for us; the ones who listened as we cried about 'Mr. Wonderful' who broke our hearts.

Be honest; Did you marry your Ken? Or did you marry Someone Else?

My Ken is now on his second marriage.

My Someone Else has fathered 3 children with me and continues to struggle to make our marriage work.

And as I look back, Barbie starred in many of the stories I created, not knowing how to write them down.

My sister had Super-Sized Barbie, but of course, Ken would have nothing to do with her; she was too tall. I think she's now leading a lonely life in the bottom of our old toy box. And when we lost the makeup to the Barbie head, we used Magic Markers. If she's still around, I think she may be sporting a look more towards 'Clown Barbie'.

My daughter has 'My Size Angel Barbie', but since she stopped playing with 'girlie stuff' at the tender age of seven, she too sits in a closet. Thankfully, Birthday Barbie, Millenium Barbie, and Japanese Barbie are still in their boxes, packed away somewhere. The others are probably tossed in a box, waiting to be rediscovered. We also have two Barbie Volkswagon Beetles.

So what Barbies did you play with? What house/car did she have? Any particular memories you'd like to share?