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This is my “casual” senior picture, which was taken back in 1993 - I graduated high school in 1994.  I wish I could find the rest of the senior photos - they are a treat.  Especially the one of me draped in some god-awful purple smock, cupping a fake rose under my chin.  Maybe it’s best I cannot find those.  Of course I also took the traditional black, v-neck smocked senior picture as well, but this one was the “casual” one.  What cracks me up about this photo is that I really do not look that different now… seventeen years later… pathetic I know.  What also cracks me up is what I am wearing… do you remember those jumpers that were popular as hell in the early 90’s? - they were empire-waisted and zipped up in the back, they were all one piece and had wide legs that almost made it look like a dress, but it was not, it was a big illusion and it was really pants?  Awww yeah… that is what I was wearing!  I was AWESOME!!!

With today being Veteran’s Day - everyone should take a moment to think about all of the men and women that currently serve or have served in our country’s military to ensure us the freedoms that we enjoy on a daily basis.  I come from a military family, so my thankfulness starts there, in memory of my amazing grandfather, William R. Sisley, Sr. (Captain, USN, Ret.), who passed away in 2004 during Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola, FL.  In memory of my equally amazing uncle, Walter Carl Joller Jr. (Captain, USN, Ret.), who left us unexpectedly in January of this year.  And last but not least, in honor of my wonderful father, William R. Sisley, Jr. (Captain, USN, Ret.), who is enjoying retirement and spending his days being the best “Pop Pop” that two kids could ever know.

My grandfather served in the U.S. Navy for 32 years, retiring with the rank of Captain.  He was a fighter pilot, flying F6 Hellcat’s in WWII and F9 Panther’s in the Korean War.  On Feb 28, 1950, he made the Navy’s first night jet landing on the USS Valley Forge and was featured in TIME Magazine for this accomplishment.  He is listed in the National Naval Aviation Museum’s National Flight Log here.

My uncle John (we called him Uncle John) served in the U.S. Navy for 30 years, retiring with the rank of Captain.  He flew E2 Hawkeyes and after retirement was a Scientist for the U. S. Government.

My father served in the U.S. Navy for 27 years, retiring with the rank of Captain.  He was an accomplished E2 Hawkeye pilot, flying in missions in Libya and Lebanon.  He is listed in the National Naval Aviation Museum’s National Flight Log here.

Thank you to them for their years of service, and to all the other Veteran’s that risk so much and for all the sacrifices they make for our freedom.

This photo was taken back in 9th grade - before our very first “formal” dance.  I went to the dance with one of my very best guy friends - Josh Barclay - one of the funniest people I have ever known.  I spent a lot of my time at his house growing up.  We all went in a limo to Il Giardino’s for dinner, then on to the dance.  We had a fun night and laughed our asses off all through dinner.  I remember thinking that I looked hot as shit in my dress - yes seriously… that is UNTIL I arrived at the dance and saw that Nadine was wearing the EXACT same dress.  As you can see here:

Nadine will kill me for posting that picture of her - but that is what she gets for stealing my 9th Grade Dance thunder!!!  What were the odds that one of my best friends would wear the same dress and we had not figured it out BEFORE the dance?  I remember us talking about it too… “What does your dress look like?” - “Oh it’s black and white with some lacy stuff and a bow” - “Sweet, mine is kind of like that too!” - DUH… because it IS that dress!  It looked better on her, because she always had those damn Go-Go Gadget legs… not to mention with her hair sitting at 2 feet high, she towered over me.

Here is the whole group of us:

Hot looking group, huh?  In our sweet ass 1990 dresses.  Here is a fun tidbit - one of the guys in this photo was the one who wrote me my first love note.  We dated on and off all throughout junior high school, but I did not go to 9th Grade Dance with him… well I went with him in our group… but not WITH him.  That whole group in the photo all hung out constantly… except for the girl he brought that night, she was nice, but she was not a part of our group, so I think she felt left out all night, because we were all really close.

This is a photo of me and my friend Kristen in Junior High on our way to some Halloween party.  We had nothing to wear and everyone was dressing up, so this was our attempt at costumes - we were the Bobbsey Twins… except we were not mixed-gender fraternal twins like the real Bobbsey Twins, we were just a couple of retards.  I remember laughing so damn hard this night curling our bangs, putting on those stupid suspenders (that hiked our awesome rolled up jean shorts up our crotches giving us mega camel-toes) and then seriously searching the house for “accessories” to attach to the suspenders - I went with a lovely squeaky frog and she chose an elegant hot dog man that you could squeeze his back and open his arms.  But that was what was so great about most of my friendships - it took next to nothing to make us laugh for hours.  It is still like that with my friends.