Sylvia...

Eighth grade.  My best friend's name was Nicole.  We loved Dirty Dancing.  We loved Patrick Swayze.  I remember going to see it (one of many times) for free over spring break at the theater at the mall.  I remember pausing the scene where Johnny gets out of bed just to see if we could catch a good glimpse of his naked tush (nothing but a blur no matter how many times we tried).  I remember loving the Mickey & Sylvia scene and wanting to be Baby as she danced her way home from rehearsal ("spaghetti arms"), down those wooden steps and across that bridge. 

I also remember buying the Us magazine with Swayze and his wife on the cover...I used an eraser to white out her hands and face and drew in my own gruesome representation of my crush's significant other.  I just read that they've been together since she was 15 and he was 19 which now, as a grown up, I think is pretty awesome. 

I can't say that I've seen many Patrick Swayze movies since Dirty Dancing besides, of course, Ghost (oh!  and To Wong Foo - love that movie), but it was still surprising and a little sad to read last night that he had passed away.  Thinking of him and our obsession with that movie made me remember a lot of good things about that year, though, and that's kind of nice.