stuck on mariah

 I was at work the other day when an old Mariah Carey song came on. Instantly I was transported to about the 5th grade. I could remember learning the lyrics to "Hero" in my elementary school's choir to sing at the 6th grade graduation ceremony.

I could remember being so excited to have it on CD and not just a tape like the rest of my tiny music collection. I could remember singing along to the songs of her Music Box album with my sister, Katie, and cousin, Lauren. We would spend hours listening to the same songs over and over again.






We would listen to Mariah while we organized and traded stickers. Yes. We were that cool. Mariah Carey, as it turns out, goes very well with sticker collecting. For me, the two are very much connected.

Did anyone else go this crazy over stickers? After hearing the song at work I went home and found my old sticker books. They aren't as full as they used to be. I blame this mostly on my years as a preschool teacher. Kids love stickers. Even kids that have access to their mom's iPhone. They still want stickers. Plus, peeling and sticking stickers is an excellent fine motor exercise.

Looking through these sticker albums reminded me of how crazy I got about organizing them. I had pages for fuzzy stickers, specific spots for holographic stickers and even a section for cats. If I had a sticker that fit into two categories, say a fuzzy sticker that was a cat, I would place it based on whichever category was my favorite (fuzzy obviously).

And, of course, let's not forget the star of the stickering community, Lisa Frank. She made the best of the best stickers. Stickers that made 9 year old girls everywhere swoon.

Life sure was grand when it was full of dolls, pogs, cartoons and stickers.