May
4
May 4, 2006
After some serious googling involving quotes and boolean strings and every damn search term I could think of, I finally unearthed the one photo I know of from my fabulously charming goth-girl phase. And so, behold:

Yes. Ahem.
Well.
My hair certainly was mushroomy and…crimped, wasn’t it? Crimped. Hmmm. Because the undead carry the burdensome clanking vestiges of their corporeal life in the form of crimping irons, I guess.
The eyeshadow, I’m sure, was provided by the good people of Wet ‘n Wild cosmetics, which had the advantage of 1) coming in hideous colors such as “Charcoal Ash” and 2) costing $.99. Also, I believe this was during my phase of drawing a pointy black eyeliner outline on my lips and filling them in with red lipstick. For that subtle come-hither-yon-young-Lestat-look. I imagine it was very attractive, especially when it rubbed off on my teeth.
That there on the left was my boyfriend at the time. He was very into Robert Smith. Perhaps you can tell?
Anyway, there you go. And with that, I believe I have officially discarded my last wisp of dignity as far as this website is concerned.
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63 Responses to “You ask, and I deliver”
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Since your first hints at goth-hood, I have wanted to see a picture.
Undignified or not, thanks for sharing!
Do you miss that girl? The girl who expressed herself through her clothing, who didn’t care what adults thought? I miss my 18-year-old self. Sometimes.
I have photos like that. Except I believe there was a necklace with a snack pendant. With a matching snake ring. Because goth = dark = evil =snakes. In case you were unaware.
That just made my day.
Especially the eyeliner used as lipliner part.
FAAAAABULOUS.
But hey, look at it this way - at least there’s one photo of the goth phase. Unfortunately for me, my “teal and padded shoulder” phase is on display all the hell OVER my mother’s house.
Oh, my god. I’m speechless. And all along I thought you were kidding. You’re so cute now. I like the 2006 version!
O MY GOD
SO funny! Yet so cute…I hope my future kids go through phases like this one!
A dorable
Your hair is not so bad. But how did your boyfriend get his hair to do that mushroom cloud looking thing? And what color is his hair anyway?
OMG, that’s great! An ex-boyfriend of mine had a kid sister who was heavily into her “Madonna-wannabe” phase. Her parents made sure to take lots of pictures of her during this phase which they used later in life as comedic fodder. Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh. Me? I was more of a long-haired, ripped jean kind of teen. Oh, how I miss those days…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I love it! The expression on your boyfriend’s face is priceless. His hair is priceless. Your crimpiness is priceless.
I totally love everything about this picture. You are my hero.
That’s absolutely fantastic, I love it. It’s so undeniably dated. And before I finished reading, I thought to myself, “That looks like that dude from The Cure”
oh, we’ve all been through the goth phase, haven’t we? well, maybe not everyone. i did, though. although the farthest i went was dark eyeliner and marilyn manson t-shirts. so, i guess, as a goth i was even pretty lame.
and the guy? definitely has a robert smith vibe going on.
oh. my. god. that is priceless.
Do you and Robert Smith still keep in touch? He’s what, an investment banker these days or something?
I love it. I suspect we were “gothy” at the same time. Your boyfriend does look like a ghoul. Have you google-stalked him to see what he looks like now? That is just priceless.
My computer is being an ass and is delaying as I type this, so it’s taken far too long to write these few sentences. The folk music on my co-worker’s computer is making me want to hurt someone…
This picture makes you even more awesome, and I didn’t know that was possible.
You would have kicked the shit out of my skinny sportif ass in high school.
can. not. stop. looking.
That? Is awesome.
Hell yah, that’s awesome! Thanks for digging deep for us.
Looks like you were on your way out the door to a Bauhaus concert all goth tarty and such. Very, very cute! (Probably not the look you were going for back then, but nonetheless you look cute!)
Speaking of Bauhaus, I will never forget the time my husband and I were in downtown Seattle staying at the Camlin hotel and across the street at the Paramount theater (this was in 1998) there was the longest line of goth galore peeps that I have ever seen. We were like, what the hell is going on? We asked some nice white powdered man/woman? wearing some funky gothy getup which showed of his/her individuality, personality and uniqueness. There may have been a top hat involved, I can’t be sure.
Anyhow, BAUHAUS, that’s what was going on. We decided right then and there that we must be a part of this and bought two tickets off a scalper. Then? We spent three hours looking for (wet and wild) black lipstick and other such gothy makeup funness. You would THINK that it would not be hard to find black lipstick in Seattle. Obviously, we were in the wrong part of downtown and long story short we ended up in ahem, err.. Nordstrom and spent $20 on a tube of black lipstick. So wrong, so very very wrong. But, we had a blast and fit right in once we were done with our hair and makeup. This is one of our fondest memories of our early years as a couple.
Thanks again, we just love you more for sharing with us your goth princess pic. We are all better people for it. Seriously. No, really.
You are both SMILING. Good Goths don’t smile. Ever. The pain, you know. :D
To me, you both look young and happy. I think it’s a really sweet photo.
Brave solider!
As if that wasn’t making me giggle enough, there is pippa’s comment. The pain, SO FUNNY.
it’s. just. so. excellent.
Robert Smith? Really? I mean, I went through a Goth / Robert Smith phase and I could make myself look pretty Smithy… But that? Hmm… I was thinking Uncle Fester when I first saw the pic…
Dear God that is seriously the most awesome photo. Oh man, thanks Sundry, you just totally made my day, and now I must go and see if I can’t find some equally awesome photos of myself at my mom’s house. Sweet.
What a great photo - I never had a goth stage or anything cool like that. So what were you looking at anyway?
Thanks for sharing! I think you and your old boyfriend look super-cute. (But, I’m guessing that your mothers didn’t think so at the time :)
I, alas, have always been a good-girl, and so missed out on the fun of ever wearing inappropriate makeup and clothing. However, at the ripe old age of 27, I have finally fallen in love with the Cure, and suddenly, I’m wishing it were okay for me to go through my own Goth stage. Sigh.
Hilarious! I personally never had a goth phase, because *sob* I’m too OLD. But I did have some lovely 70s and 80s stages which include the shameful neon, jams-vans-n-painter’s-hats, knickers, back pocket combs with ’sit on it’ on them, lambswool vests and gauchos, girl tuxedos and, god help me, various articles of clothing with “dyn-o-mite” emblazoned on them.
I’ve always thought you were exaggerating your goth phase in the interests of storytelling! That is too much! I imagine JB finds quite a bit of fun in all of that!
Your beau looks not like Uncle Fester, but Herman Munster. You dated HERMAN MUNSTER.
Thank youuu! I love this picture. It makes me wish I could do it all over again and be more goth this time around.
So when the most cutest and wholesomest boy in the whole freakin world comes to you and says he wants to pierce his nose/nipple/manmeat/left pinky toe you are going to be the hippest friggin Mom on the face of the EARTH and say, “Been there-Done that-Got the picture to prove it!”
I yearn to tell my boys that they will be able to pull NOTHING over on me as I have experienced a lot in life but man oh man I never did THAT! Yay you! You will be the coolest mom in the kindergarten class.
You are awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Oh yay!!! The thing I love most about this picture (besides the mf crimped hair!) is the way you’re sort of looking off in the distance, looking perhaps, where the futureghost of current Sundry is standing, squinty-eyed and a little drool crusted, beaming her big Sundry smile and shaking her head like, ‘girl, you have no idea…’
i love the photo! i wish i had any of myself in my indie days.
Oh my God, that brings back so many memories! I have a photo from 10th grade (1990) of my best friend and i getting ready for a sisters of mercy show in philly. We were so misunderstood and unknowable! Which was evidenced by my flowy white shirt, black velvet stretchpants, pointy fleuvog shoes and black, black hair. Said friend still has a skinny puppy tattoo on her ankle.
Did your boyfriend wear big white sneakers too?
By the way, riley is quite the handsome fellow.
Oh My God. That is SO spectacularly humiliating. Teenage Riley has much power over you now.
I’m with Lori. This is honestly my fifth visit today, because I can’t stop looking at it. I just find the whole thing so…HILARIOUS. And I love that you posted it. Who needs dignity when you’ve got humor?
hello there,
longtime reader, first-time commenter ;-)
love the photo, love that you found it via google, and lovelovelove the suburban tract housing backdrop.
your sordid past is safe with us!!!
I imagine you were looking at your future entering stage left. Good pix
Am I reading this correctly …… your old boyfriend has that picture on his website?? (which I totally want the link to). I am not sure which is scarier…the picture itself or your old boyfriend having it on his website.
You look very pretty-in-goth cute, but sorry…your boyfriend of the day looks like a total geek!
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh my god oh my god, that is priceless. Thank you for posting that!
Excellent photo! But I have to say, I love Robert Smith, and your partner there does not look like Robert Smith. He looks like a mime.
You were CUTE. If that’s the worst it gets for you, you’re pretty lucky. I spent my highschool years looking like I’m dressed up as Pat Benatar. Did JB go through any phases we can laugh at? Any funny photos?
Dude does look like a mime.
I feel faintly cheated, because I know I’d have made a great goth, but, way too old. And my daughter was more skater-chick than gothly inclined, so I didn’t get to live out my gothinclinations vicariously.
Great photo, you should have it photoshopped into sepia, add a few cobwebs, and display it over your mantelpiece when young Riley brings girls home….
You look totally adorable! You look insufficiently sullen and pained to be True Goth, and so you end up looking Cute Goth. I wish I’d gone with Cute Goth in high school, but instead I went with bagel bangs, frosted feathered hair, spiral perms, frosty eye shadow and lipstick, shoulder pads, colored Reeboks, etc. The pain, the pain.
I was thinking that was Uncle Fester’s love child you were dating there … I missed the whole goth thing, did SOF (son of Fester) wear lipstick too? It had to be sweet sharing the same make up at least :)
O…M…G….
You look just like me in high school!
Okay, your goth beats my red electric guitar and leather hat pix with the long, permed 80’s hair. Just freaking fabulous! Thanks for posting this one.
hahaha oh goodness, my stomach hurts from laughing so hard, but I can only laugh because I have been there too. damn.
my big item was a necklace that consisted of a double strand of cross-stitch thread doing through the center of a dolls head, that was severed off of a doll that came in a McDonalds Happy Meal. Oh and I had cut all her hair off.
fucking right.
I was big into the black lipstick and and nail polish and big necklace chains. my boyfriend was big into the black too, another Robert Smith crush.
Is that the boyfriend that did the elaborate getting-into-his-own-coffin dance routine?
Somewhere, there is a very similar picture of me, although I was blonde, which made it hard for me to be gloomy enough. I made up for it with lots of hair hanging in my face though.
And in fact, tonight I’m going out to dinner with my Robert Smith wannabe friend from high school. I haven’t seen him in about 15 years. I’m not sure which will be more bizarre — him not looking like Robert Smith anymore, or if he’s still going for that look after all this time.
And yet you’re still frickin’ adorable. How is that? Keep this picture around for when your son turns thirteen/fourteen (as mine is now) and starts wanting to push your fashion buttons.
He really does look like Robert Smith…except he’s smiling. If it weren’t for who we were in the past, we wouldn’t be the people we are today. Not very profound, but true. And I suspect this isn’t the only phase you went through on your way to being the terrifically snide and brilliant, very happily married and proud mother you are today.
When I was in sixth grade, I wore lots of black eye make-up and WHITE lipstick. It was ALL the rage. Yes, I’m old…
This picture made my day. I’d always wanted to be a goth in junior high and high school, but my parents were really strict and they refused to allow me the rights to dress however I wanted. Sad, but true. You looked so cute, though. Hahaha! I’m sure Riley will really get a kick out of seeing his mom in her teen years, someday.
I love the photo!! I went through a goth phase (or more like an ‘alternative’ phase…more into the music than the look).
I’m 41 now and have an almost-16-year old who is stunned that I was into all the bands he currently likes. He saw Bauhaus in concert not too long ago (and did a perfect Robert Smith hair and makeup job for the show) and I took him to see Depeche Mode in November. He has totally tested my open-mindedness, let me tell you!! Now he’s into Japanese rock (j-rock) and designs his own clothes. He looks totally, completely bizarre every single day of his life. We go to a store and people turn and stare. One woman passed him in the mall and muttered, “I hope my kid doesn’t turn out like that.” (He thought it was funny.)
Anyway! I just hope someday I can produce one of the many, many photos I have of him in his goth/fishnet/j-rock/gothic aristocrat phases and embarrass him…when he’s an investment banker or something…but right now it feels like he’ll still be dressing this way when he’s 35!! LOL
I wish I had photos back when of my crazy phases of life. But, then maybe it’s a good thing, now I can lie to my kids. Ha ha ha. I also had a crush on Robert smith and had a friend who tried to look like him too. Small world.
I totally wanted to be your friend in high school.
Yay! Thank you for posting the picture! I wasn’t goth but I totally crimped my hair, too.
Um…did you think he was totally sexy or what?
No, I’m not an investment banker (I work for a software company), and no, I don’t look like that anymore (as Jello Biafra said, “A hairstyle’s not a lifestyle, imagine Sid Vicious at 35″).
I’ll always treasure this photo tho, it really sums up things from back then. Linda was a lot of fun to hang out with and grow up with. It’s probably a good thing none of our gothy poetry exists today..
And yeah, I do look more like a mime.. (lol) - I was actually going more for a Nick Fiend look (from the band Alien Sex Fiend) than Robert Smith..
Goth’s do smile you know.. it’s the modern ones that have a problem with smiles.. We originals were coming from the perspective of either laughing or crying at the absurdity of it all ;)
That said, I have a 10 year old daughter who’s favorite comic books are Teen Titan’s Go! and Roman Dirge’s Lenore.. so things seem to have a way of repeating themseleves.
Who knows - maybe one day Mom will catch Riley trying on her lipstick? ;)