One of the pivotal moments of my childhood was in the late 80’s when my parents finally caved and bought my brother and I a Nintendo. The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) became like a babysitter for my mother because it would keep my brother and I entertained for hours. Any time she wanted to punish me, she didn’t take away the TV or my toys: she took away the Nintendo. Although I was only 8 years old, I became quite good at Super Mario Bros. and my life’s goal became to pass all 8 worlds. I don’t even remember how long it took me to pass the whole game, but I do remember the day it happened as if it was just yesterday. I had gotten to world 8 stage 4 and I had no more lives left and I was little Mario which meant that one touch would kill me. I made it all the way to Bowser/Koopa and in some random inspiration, I just ran under Bowser when he jumped up and pulled the bridge out from under his feet. At that point, both my brother and I stared at each other neither daring to utter a single word. Once we saw Princess Toadstool, we both screamed. I threw the control in the air and we jumped up and we hugged each other while still jumping up and down. Does this make me sound silly? Maybe. But I don’t think I can remember any other massive accomplishment at that age that rivaled the sweet triumph of beating Super Mario Bros. This video is of level 8-4 and obviously this person is pretty good at the game. I just wanted to show you what it looked like:
Even the music made me what to cry. So why am I telling you about my nerdiest of nerdy childhood moments? (Ok, there is another moment that is nerdier than this: I created a “Plant Club” and made all the neighborhood kids join. It involved digging holes and looking for pre-hisotric plants and fossils. Yeah, stop laughing. Now. Bite me, ok?) The reason why I am sharing this is because you might start to imagine what a video game and polish boner I got when I heard about Dollish Polish’s Super Mario Bros. Collection. So when I got It’s A Me, Mario! from the lovely Amanda (go check out her blog–she’s awesome!!) for my birthday, I was seriously in Nintendo heaven. I’ve been admiring it on its velvet cushion for the last month or so and finally decided to use it. I started with 2 coats of Essie Butler Please:
When I applied the first coat ofButler Please, I was kind of surprised at how watery it seemed. It was really thin and kind of streaky. However, after a second thick coat, it was fine.
And here is the star of the show:
This is 1 coat of Dollish Polish It’s A Me, Mario! The blue and red glitter was not very hard to apply, but getting some stars was a serious bitch. I had to fish for those stars for what seemed like ages. In the end, I don’t care that I had to fish for stars because they were worth it. I love this polish.
Ready for some food porn?
I didn’t have anything to eat for lunch so by around 5:00, I was starving. I wanted a sandwich–with a twist–so I decided to go to El Gallo Giro which is a chain of Mexican food restaurants that are based in Socal. I was craving horchata as well so I thought it would be perfect. This was my lunch/dinner:
This thing was massive–massively delicious. It is a carne asada torta which is basically a grilled steak sandwich. They grill thin steak and layer it in a toasted bun with mayo, cheese, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos and guacamole. Holy moley this was good…and I’m full until next week.
What do you think of my Super Mario Bros. mani? Do you have any nerdy childhood moments that you would like to share? No? Just me? Alrighty then.
LOVE IT 🙂 My nerdiest moments as a child…well, I have to say that I was pretty much a nerd as a child in general. Ha! Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, dinosaurs…My dad swore I was supposed to be a boy. But I think the worst was Pokemon. My best friend and I collected all things Pokemon. I’m incredibly embarrassed by this now. I had all the cards, sticker books, guide books, video games. Sad. Very very sad.
LOL…I think some of those things were a little after my time since I’m 33, but I have two younger brothers. The youngest is 22 and he went through the whole Power Rangers phase. He was so spoiled that I stood in line at the mall to get him all the Power Rangers action figures when they first came out. I laughed so hard when you mentioned Pokemon because there is a story about that that I always tease him about. I guess he had a pokemon card that all the kids wanted but he wouldn’t trade or sell it. The neighborhood bully tried to take it from him but didn’t succeed so then he choked my brother. LOL I know it’s not really funny because he could have gotten hurt, but he got choked for a Pokemon card. A POKEMON CARD. LMAO…I always make fun of him because of them. What about Pogs? Did you get into pogs as well?
Yeah that is pretty funny, especially since he didn’t get hurt haha. I just laughed so hard because you related me to your brother. HAHA. 🙂 I guess nerd isn’t so much the term as “boy” is hahaha. I didn’t really get into pogs, but I do remember them. I thought they were kind of stupid(which in all honesty is hilarious in itself, coming from the girl who was into Pokemon…). To defend myself, some of the Pokemon were pretty darn cute. Lol. I’m actually thinking about trying to do some Picachu nails… Hmmm… I blame you. 😉 Also in my defense, I was into all things girly too. I used to think the only makeup was Lipstick, and put it on my eyes and cheeks as well as my lips; I had my Power Wheels Pink Barbie Jeep, about 400 Barbies, and a Barbie Dream House. I played school with my chalk board and dolls(wanted to be a teacher from 3rd grade on, now I’m in school for Elementary Ed.) I didn’t get REALLY into video games until an older cousin of mine got a PlayStation(I am 21 by the way haha.) and taught me how to play Tekken and Mortal Kombat, which by the way I still will beast anyone at a given time. 😉 I look at is as I was a “well-rounded” child… haha) I just think its SUPER sad that kids these days are “too old” for real toys by middle elementary school and have iPhones and tablets before they reach middle school. I just bought my TWO YEAR OLD a LeapPad2 for his birthday. TWO.YEARS.OLD. Because he wouldn’t leave my computer and phone alone. RIDICULOUS. Haha. Sorry, I think I got off topic and into a rant just now… Sorry 😉
Oh my dear lord…I totally got into Super Nintendo as well and always played Sega games (sonic) at my cousin’s house. I also got super addicted to Street Fighter and I would play against my brother all the time. I actually got pretty good. I was 10 years old when my youngest brother was born so he kind of grew up watching us play video games. He would beg us to let him play once he got old enough to play and I used to let him just so I could kick his ass. What kind of sister does that? LOL He used to get so mad every time I beat him at Street Fighter that he would throw the control, jump and throw himself on the floor crying. I did play Mortal Kombat, but I didn’t get super addicted to it. I remember going to see the MK movie when it first came out–boy that was a nerdfest. I never really liked playingn with Barbies myself…I did have a lot but I would get so bored of them. I do think I’ve been pretty tomboy-ish since I was born.
Oh my goodness I was laughing so hard when I read about your digging for prehistoric fossils. That’s freaking hilarious!! I was also super excited to get a NES. I remember it was 100 bucks and my mom and dad said they’d pay for the other half if we earned 50 bucks. I’m sure we earned 50 bucks in like 10 seconds doing who knows what because I don’t remember waiting very long but I do remember getting my Nintendo and being psyched!!! Mario Bros was the best! Something nerdy from my childhood is that after watching the movie Harriet The Spy (I must have been like 10…?) I totally thought I was gonna be a spy so I had this notebook and climbed around all my neighbors houses and spied on them writing what they were doing “appears to be pulling weeds.” It was all fun and games until I was behind my neighbor’s house and stepped on a nail. Apparently I wasn’t that good of a spy cuz he saw me step on the nail and had to carry me back to my parents’ house. That was the end of my spying. 🙁 Oh and I really like these nails and this polish. Very fun and cute!! 🙂
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LMAO…Nicole the spy…that is freaking priceless. Don’t you wish you still had that notebook? I used to have this notebook where I would write little summaries of the books I read (I used to read like crazy) because I wanted to be on Reading Rainbow. Remember those little segments when the kids would introduce a book they were reading and would talk about it? I so wanted to be one of those kids. I also remember my parents telling us the nintendo belonged to both of us, but I hogged it because I’m the oldest. On his birthday, my brother got some cash so I remember we went to Toys r us and he bought The Legend Of Zelda and Skate Or Die. The Legend Of Zelda became my new obsession. I played so much and I actually don’t even remember if I passed the whole game!
GIIIIRL I have missed your blog! I’m so far behind and will probably catch up from the hospital, so don’t be surprised if you see 3 months worth of comments in like 2 days! 🙂
I was SO the same way with Mario! Now I wanna play it!!!
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Oh my gosh Tara! Hospital?? Are you ok???????
Yayyyy !! It looks awesome! I loved your story about super mario brothers lol i can just picture it 🙂 and the fossils lollol great post as always! And fanulous polish i love love love it
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Thank you so much for such a lovely present. <3 As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I am so glad its absolutely gorgeous you have amazing taste 😀
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🙂
i think that everyone had a moment like that. I was around 6 or 7, and I remember my brother and I were in this together.. and we had the same reaction, even my mum was jumping (later i discovered she used to play in the nights when we were sleeping and she was stucked in this very stage), she finished the game few weeks after I did.
i even found by myself a few cheats, like getting 99 lives in world 3-1, or jumping directly to world 6 in the castle of one of the levels.
then it came mario kart, i’m the MASTER and COMMANDER in mario kart.
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LOL…that is so funny that your mom was playing it at night!!! My parents always thought we were crazy for playing so much but we kind of grew out of it. My youngest brother is 22 and my mom is always telling him not to play so much because he could die. lol Remember that story in the news where some guy had a seizure or something like that because he played so much? I do remember finding a bunch of cheats!! It was so much fun playing Mario Bros. Oooohhh!!! I love Mario Kart. It’s so much freaking fun but I am not that good at it. This had made me think a lot about what I am going to do for the challenge that calls for video game inspiration. While I love Mario Bros., It’s not my favorite game. My favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger!
my mom played in the night, because she was always telling us not to play that much because of the same story your mom read! LOL.
i don’t know how i got so good playing mario kart, i have a friend whose nickname is: nintendo boy (niño nintendo), so we were arguing about games and I mentioned that I was the best playing this game, he told me that he could beat my a** with his eyes closed. So we played. he was good he said. I kicked his butt. I am not allowed to tell this story to people that knows us both LOL.
my favorite game gotta be mario kart.. or on playstation tony hawk. i got the playstation when I was like 12-13, and it has all this punk rock music on it. that’s the day I told myself forget about this reggae, salsa tropical, you can’t dance girl and I gave my heart away to punk rock. Thank you Tony Hawk.
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LMAO!!!!! That is the best story ever. You made him eat his words. hahaha. Nowadays I get bored of video games pretty quickly unless it’s like Just Dance. I have all of them except for the newest one. I am such a nerd…I can play the ABBA one for hours…lol
when we lived in italy, going out on winter wasn’t on my mind a lot, first, because I’m lazy and second, because it was too cool outside.
so I bought guitar hero.. it has been by far the game I’ve played the most in my entire life.
mariaemmafaria recently posted..Grunge “semi-fail”
I have never played guitar hero bu so many people tell me it’s fun. One of these days I’ll get those games.
Hahaha, I love this post and reading about everyone’s childhood memories! My brother and I got a Nintendo for Christmas. I remember being very specifically instructed that it was both of ours. At first it resided in my room on this little white-painted table with heart cut-outs in it…OMG, the tv is so ancient in my memory! Mario Bros. was our favorite to play, although Duck Hunt was also rather entertaining. I remember hating to wait your turn when the other person was doing well and also hating when you died fast and then had to wait again! My video game enthusiasm kind of died out after Nintendo, but it’s definitely been lifelong for my brother.
In terms of nerdy stuff, I do remember having a gemstone collection in the later grade school years. I also remember seeing my 3rd grade picture and knowing it was awful…bad bangs, huge glasses, and buck teeth. I pretty much got braces immediately afterward, which I still think is one of the best things my parents ever did for me.
Otherwise, I remember setting up big G.I. Joe and Transformer wars with my brother. I also randomly remember playing with Barbies and the Barbie dollhouse with him and he put the baby boy from the Barbie family on the roof and called it Baby Godzilla and we both found that hilarious. I remember my first Barbies being Crystal Barbie and Peaches and Cream Barbie. When I was very little I for some reason absolutely refused to change Peaches and Cream Barbie’s dress, but caved eventually. Oh, I also had My Little Ponies and She-Ra action figures. Now I kinda wish I had all this stuff, including my mom’s Barbies.
Nail polish! I thought I’d want that Essie based on swatches, but I saw it in person recently and was kinda eh on it. I like it on you and in this mani! Very fun.
All I’ve been wanting to eat since I was sick was won ton soup and Sprite (yeah, I dunno) and your food porn is making me want to branch out! 😉
Ok, so I have soooooo much stuff to say about your comment that I don’t even know where to start. lol I seriously had flashbacks when you said you and your brother had GI Joe and Transformer wars because my brother and I did the same thing! I also used to create really elaborate games–almost like role playing games. There is one particular game that my brother likes to forget but I always bring it up and we crack up. I don’t remember everything, but I made my brother pretend that he was an orphan named “Pelotita” which means “little ball” in Spanish. I have no idea why I called him that. Anyway, he was an orphan and I was a teacher that taught him how to read. I would make him wear a blanket on his head like a nun…I don’t even know what the hell that was about. Ahhh! She-Ra!! My brother had all the He-Man action figures and I thought they were so much cooler than Barbies. I actually still watch He-Man and She-Ra cartoons on Netflix sometimes. LOL My little pony!! I might have shared this story before but I’m not sure. When I was a kid, I really wanted a My Little Pony but it was during a time when my parents were struggling financially so they didn’t get me one. When I was in my 20’s one day my mom found one at a garage sale and she bought it for me…that still makes me tear up cause it was one of the best presents ever cause she remembered!!! You know, I think I should have passed on Butler Please. It’s pretty but it’s so similar to a bunch of other blues I already have.
Ahhaha, I love this post! Good times. Thanks to Amanda for picking the polish that ignited the nostalgia!
I particularly like the “little ball” (I am horrible with Spanish, so thanks for including the translation so that I recognize the randomness and therefore hilariousness) and the blanket on the head. The My Little Pony story is very sweet, too.
Yeah…my brother stills asks me WHY but I don’t have answer. I guess I was just a weirdo even back then.
I love this! I also was obsessed with Mario around the same time (I’m 33 as well!). I always give my kids hell about how, “back in my day, we couldn’t go *back* in a world if we missed something, or “continue” if we ran out of lives! You have it easy!!”. They downloaded the orignal Mario brothers on the Wii not too long ago and I was amazed that I still remembered the order you had to go to finish 8-4 🙂
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I don’t have kids, but I’m always saying the same thing to my brother who is 10 years younger than me. He’s like the child I never wanted since he lives with me. lol He still plays video games pretty much every day and his room is like a shrine to Street Fighter. I always tease him and tell him that no girl would ever want to see his room. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I would remember what the pattern was on 8-4…it might come back to me if I just started playing it again.
I used to get so frustrated when I couldn’t beat Mario on my own. I’d have to wait til I’d visit my cousin so he could do it for me because I would get mad and give up. Lame ChiChi. I loved your memory. Do you still play video games? What’s your favorite system?
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I don’t really play video games too much. I have a wii and I mostly like to play dancing or singing games. I do play mariokart and mario bros wii. My brothers has a playstation but I don’t really use it. I like older games–especially rpg games.