Missing You: Teenage Me Edition

So - my sister and i were chatting the other day and she started talking about stuff she missed about " being a teenager ". Ahem - what ? My sister is only 18 years old! Yes, she works almost full time and she has a car loan to pay off and is all done with school, but i had to gently remind her that at 18 years of age, she is still technically a teenager. But it got me to thinking - as depressing as most of my time as a teenager was, what do i miss about the teenage me ? You know, things i had, or did, that i DONT have, or do now......

1. " Rollingstone " magazine - I used to buy " Rollingstone " magazine every month and read it cover to cover. I devoured all the articles, reviews, critiques, everything i could and i discovered some great albums and artists because of what i read in " Rollingstone " - stuff like Nikka Costa, Pete Yorn and Rilo Kiley. I'm not exactly sure why i stopped buying it. I think i can blame America. When i moved to the US i didnt have the money to buy all mny regular magazines, and unfortunately " Rollingstone " was the one that fell by the wayside.
2. Lunch breaks during the last year of high school - ah, lunch breaks, my favourite part of the school day. They were even better than normal during my final year of high school because for a while we " seniors " had what was known as the Year 12 Rec Room - we had a fold out sofa that we could sit/lie on, a stereo, a microwave, kettle and sandwich toaster at our disposal. It kind of rocked not having to share all our stuff with the junior grades - we were big fish in our little ocean! Rock on man! Even when our school had to up and move sites and we'd lost our Rec Room we started bringing picnic blankets and had our own little Year 12 territory on the grassed area of the playground. We'd lost the sofa and the appliances, but we still had a stereo, so each lunch break was like a mini music-fest with your friends. I miss that feel good vibe...
3. Posters on my bedroom wall - i loooooooooooved having posters on my bedroom wall, from the time i was old enough to ask mum to buy me magazines. I used to get a music/film magazine called " Smash Hits " ( which, as you may have guessed, was eventually replaced by " Rollingstone " ) and tear out the posters of my favourite stars, and plaster them to my walls and cupboards. I'd change them monthly - coincidetally, when the new issue came out - but i still had my favourites. Early on, i believe i had a picture of Dean Cain in his " Lois and Clark " days that was kept up for quite a while - but then, thankfully my tastes matured. There was a particular poster of Gavin Rossdale from Bush ( or now better known as Mr Gwen Stefani ) that i had posted on the side of my wardrobe, closest to my head, so it was the first thing i saw when i woke up and the last before i fell asleep. Gavin Rossdale was ( IS ) totally hot!
4. Bonfire parties in winter - pool parties seem to be all the rage here in Australia during summer, but what did we teenage type party people do in winter ? Bundle ourselves up and still have our parties outdoors, with everyone sitting around a huge old oil drum that had been set up as bonfire. The highschool parties i went to didnt really match the parties we saw on tv - it was more set up the bonfire, set up some old logs and stuff as seats and get your drink on. Which would lead to much talking, shouting and occasional making out. Oh, and also random groups of people yelling out " Hey, lets go for a walk " and then you end up losing yourself down some dirt road with only the glow of your mobile phone to guide you back.... yep, that was me.
5. School holidays - or the Americans amongst you would call " summer vacation ". We dont get a whole season off - down here the school year is broken up into four terms/semesters and you have a two week break between three of them and five or six weeks between the end of the school year at Christmas time and when school goes back in January. Its not so much what i got up to during school holidays ( going away with my family, bike tag, three day sleep overs at friends houses ) that i miss - rather its all that free time off! As a working adult it would be som awesome if i could have a five week period off, with pay. Seriously. Awesome.