Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Mission: Ohio

finally started the drive-around-Ohio-and-photodocument-it mission. First stop? The abandoned gunpowder factory in Kings Mill.

This place is amazingly creepy/beautiful. Abandoned during World War 2, the factory has become a haven for kids who wish to wreak havoc, drink, and seek out the ghosts of the workers who died in gunpowder explosions. Perhaps, judging by the inside of some of the rooms, painted with messages like:

OUR GOAL IS TO BE EXTREMELY SCARY.

Perhaps some of those kids are the ones being the ghosts too.

Nature, too, is staking a claim here. Inside one portion of the factory, a large generator of sorts is rusting as it looms over a sapling. Ivy thrives on the interior walls of the factory and cats have made a home of the space as well.

I'm putting what pictures I can for now up. My computer memory is literally so low that I can no longer edit the photos. So, for now, here are some...

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Monday, June 21, 2004

Schoolhome

Tonight I hung out with Sparks, B, Mike and KTO. I felt very out of place. They've created their own memories that I'm not a part of.

As if it's not weird enough that KTO and Mike are back together (after two summers of double dates with them. every. single. night. out. just. b/cc. mike/kto. and then them being broken up while b and i were still together...)

It's not that I feel lacking, I just feel uneasy because everything's different.

But tonight, as they, some of my closest friends who are recently graduated, talked about how weird it will be to leave home and that they can't imagine making new friends and starting new....I realized how much that other place means to me.

I sat, looking through the screen of the gazebo and grazing my fingertips over its rough surface, thinking about everyone. Individually. Considering memories with each person.

Does (this random friend, maybe you reading this) know me better than mike? my favorite person to call up and just talk for hours with? my favorite duet partner? my best hairy friend?...

better than a? my enemy for so many years turned best friend during the latter half of high school? my art buddy and favorite crazy friend?...

better than b?? b--who was my other half for so long. b--who was my stunt double, my swing dancing partner, my picnic buddy, my skinny-dipping fellow swimmer, my favorite person to bicker with, my best friend, my boyfriend. The person who brought out the best and the worst in me for four years.


Then I realized. Yeah. You do.

And even though I already knew this, the feeling is all the more visceral now. And I miss you.

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Sunday, June 20, 2004

Summer Things

I came up with a Father's Day gift earlier this week and got all the necessities this afternoon while shopping with Amy. It's my Sensory Basket of Memories with Dad. It includes
1. A lottery ticket and beanie baby bear for sight (like middle school after-school trips all over again)
2. Dove Ice Cream Bars and York Peppermint Patties for taste (since my earliest memories are of sitting in my "playpen" and my dad trying to feed me those)
3. Sandalwood soap for smell (since it is his favorite)
4. A Garrison Keillor Prarie Home Companion CD for sound (I grew up listening to this with my parents in the van)
5. All wrapped up in a basket, stuffed with red tulle for touch (since when I had my first ballet recital in a red tutu, I told my dad then that it felt like his scruffy face)

Amy and I attended the Ben Folds, Guster, Rufus Wainwright concert at Fraze tonight. It was really great. Ben Folds is officially my favorite performer and I want him to be my brother.

Nothing beats him teaching the audience what a triad is and then climbing up on a piano in the heat of musical passion to get them to sing it back.

And the fact that both he and Guster walked around Kettering separately all afternoon. Ben Folds took photographs of the suburban houses, hoping not to get caught by the owners; and the lead singer of Guster bought a ten-speed bike from one of the many garage sales that he visited, deeming the bike "the best 10-speed seventies bike this side of the Mississippi."

Rufus was, of course, wonderful, but I think the order for the concert would have been better as follows: Guster, Rufus, Ben... rather than Ben, Guster, Rufus. But that's just me, and I'm a Benophile.

Other good moments included Ben Folds just sitting on the side of the stage during Guster, eating a banana...and Rufus Wainwright repeatedly apologizing for his singing, even though it was amazing as usual, and then putting it out there that no one should vote for Bush.

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Friday, June 11, 2004

Being Cliché

I'm getting all sentimental. That sucks.

I just got off the phone from an hour and a half long conversation with Brandon. Before that, I was with my parents moving around storage and we drove around looking at the old "familiar" sights of Wilmette.

Yesterday involved:
One last final
Packing
Burning CDs, a lot
Goodbyes
Dinner at Panera
Running in the rain with John down Sherman
Slideshows and pizza
Dance parties
Naps at midnight
More packing
Quietly spending last nights with friends

Stayed up last night with John til 4 am talking about our coming summers. Lil Jess came in shortly thereafter and we reviewed our short college experiences til 5. What stereotypical last-few-nights talks, but I think they had to happen.

Outside my window, cars nearly ram into one another in efforts to get parking spots near the dorms. It's chaos.

So many people left today. How can it be that I feel like I still JUST got to college and yet I have such a connection with a still unfamiliar place?

I was still just getting to know so many people and I don't want summer to interrupt. I'm, of course, anxious to get home and try to settle back into my old skin, but I don't know if that's going to be completely possible.

Sorry to make this cliche end-of-my-freshman-year-at-college entry, but I think...it had to happen. :)

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Monday, June 7, 2004

I've Been Doing Things

I've had an incredible end to this school year. I couldn't have asked for more in the last few days. Well, could someone cancel my exams this week? That'd be okay. I cannot possible describe the fun I had Saturday Luau'in, beachin', and music/movie/rearrangin' roomin' it up. Friday was amazing as well, what with finishing up a course a week early and seeing Harry Potter 3. So, in an abreviated version... Here are photos to let you know what I've been up to...

He almost managed to get me back...

Scott is amazing. This is what I love about kids.

Bryan and I in sepia-toned action.

Don't worry. We're still best buds, but we just taste better!

Ryan and Barrak fighting.

I think I look like the Virgin Mother of Pudding in this photo.

The dirty girls.

The aftermath.

PS. I love life.

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Monday, May 31, 2004

I Went to Dillo Day, Too!

No really. I did. I pulled myself out of the library for a good solid 24 hours to partake in the festivities...

Friday night, I saw NSTV, of which the most impressive portion was probably the opening shot/credits and Robert's Oregon Trail sketch. Indeed! I was "lucky enough" to get into Sax and Dixon at 11, and in between the two shows saw part of Dark Side of the Moon up at Norris and drank hot chocolate. After all the fun visual stimuli, many a person went to Sig Ep to dance. On the way home, I purposely fell off Brett's back and almost took out...Andy? maybe? Alex Robins? maybe?...Well, point is I almost hurt someone else on top of myself. I like to take people down with me.

Saturday, went something along the lines of this:
11 am...wake
11:30 am...realize Master Gary meant he wanted an "OLD FASHIONED" way to show his slides, but instead get awesome hour long convo about all his amazing experiences.
1 pm...Walk up with John to see Foster Walker Complex, meet up with Chris Britt for lunch
3 pm...Relaxing, drinking, eating in Jason's room whilst sitting in the window seat
4 pm...The M's :), meeting The M's, laying in sunshine
6 pm...Gavin Degraw...asshole extraordinaire, observation of crazy girls who scream and throw underwear on stage, admittance that the guy is a performer
7:30ish...Dinner with David, John, and Tom
8:15ish...Wine and drum corps with David
9 pm...The Wailers with David, Bryan, and John, dancing, feeling happy, watching fireworks, singing along, smiling
10:30ish...4 friends, sitting on lakefill, talking about respective homes.
11:15ish...Kafein with David, Bryan, and John for milkshakes to go
...rest of the evening in blurred frenzy...
watching game of Mafia///talking with friends whilst laying in hallway///more wine and drum corps with David///more drum corps in Rat Trap with David and John///techno dance party with John in Rat Trap///listening to Queen and falling asleep in Brett's bed///waking up to Brett trying to get in bed with me at 10 am.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2004

haikus

i allow myself
this one update to tell you
norris is freezing...

lest we not forget
this gentleman behind me
fell out of his chair...

i'm not in the scene
i don't watch trading spaces
i'll assume ty's hot...

why are these actors
these over-actors indeed
here, in norris?...

no matter because
tonight--i will be working
five in the morning...

in the last six days
i jumped with a four year old--
this was the best thing...

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Sunday, May 16, 2004

And then there was the time...

After a rather lethargic late lunch at Panera and a coffee-stop at Unicorn, I decided that there comes a time when one must face the facts and go home and take a nap. However, my plans would soon be thwarted by one 30-something flamboyantly gay man and one 20-something ethnically and handsomely ambiguous gentleman.

Walking along Sherman, the two men stopped me in the street, the flamboyantly gay man, who we'll call Charlie, demanding a "woman's opinion" on his ethnically-ambiguous friend's (Rufio's) hair. "How high is too high?...I'm talking height here. Not volume. REAL height!"

Slightly concerned that I was being hit on in some strange-conspicuous manner and eager to leave as quickly as possible, I quickly offered my advice that as long as the hair fits the personality, all is well.

"Okay, great! Thanks!" Charlie chortled. He reached out, grabbed my hand, and suddenly, I find myself being spun and danced around like an awkwardly-positioned mannequin holding an iced latte, purse, and textbooks. I laughed uncomfortably as the people eating outside Camilles sat by and watched.

"There, I just did that to see your smile, because I JUST KNEW it was beautiful!!" Charlie beamed at me. At this point, I was really ready to go and my latte was beginning to brim over and spill onto my hand.

"Thanks for being such a sport," he smiled, reaching out his hand once more. When I shook it, I didn't realize I would be forfeiting my own hand for another five minutes.

"Look at her handshake!!" Charlie grabbed Rufio's shoulder. "Isn't it INTERESTING??" During the next five minutes, my hand was passed between Charlie and Rufio, as they told me all about...me. A little sidewalk-offered palm reading.

"He knows ALL about this stuff," Charlie oozed, hiking his thumb at Rufio.
"I spent two years living in the mountains," Rufio offered.
Oh, that explains it, I thought.
"You know, monks and Nepal and all that junk," Charlie teased Rufio, handing my palm over to him.

Rufio squinted as my reddened palm, "Oh...Your heartline is short." Rufio's laments seeped through his eyes as he stared apologetically at me. "Your lovelife is unstable, is it not?"

Whose isn't? I thought. But, being the kind Ohio girl I am, I uttered instead, "I guess so."

"Yeah I can see that here," Rufio bit his lip. A moment's contemplation and, "Oh! Her lifeline is split in half." He turned to Charlie, concerned. Obviously this split-lifeline would prove some sort of problem for me. The people at Camille's sat on the edges of their seats, waiting to hear exactly what sort of problem it was.

"You live two lives," Rufio sternly and solemnly judged. The sentence was passed. I imagined myself donning a black leather suit, climbing the walls of Kresge, crawling the perimeter of Tech, and tormenting drunk Northwestern students at the rock during all hours of the night, screaming animalistic shrieks of terror.
"Yeah, I guess I do," I agreed with Rufio.

Abruptly, Charlie seized my hand, bent my fingers back and pronounced me to be as stubborn as they come and that was that. I didn't get a chance to voice my opinion on that judgement.

With that, Charlie asked me judge Rufio's mountainbred accuracy on the scale from Bruce Willis to Mohawk, short to tall hair, one to ten. I gave them a hearty "six or seven," wistfully recalling my nights in the bushes around Tech, black leather sticking to my sweaty legs.

And with Charlie's last confiscation of my hand, "a twirl to the left and-uh twirl to the right," I was on my way, having entertained not only the people lunching at Camille's, but passerbys as well, including my subtly-handsome-quiet-boy Geo Sci TA. I waved goodbye to Charlie and Rufio for maybe not the last time. Who knows, maybe it lies in my future to cross paths with them once more?

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Thursday, May 13, 2004

Oh, you know. Just a little something.

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Sunday, May 2, 2004

The Incomparable Knowledge of Mary Poppins

Bert: You've got to grind, grind, grind, at that grindstone.

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Mary Poppins: A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

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Mary Poppins: First of all, I'd like to make one thing perfectly clear.

Mr. Banks: Yes?

Mary Poppins: I never explain anything.

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Mrs. Banks: Though we adore men, in-di-vid-ual-ly, we agree that as a group, they're ra-ther stu-pid.

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Mr. Banks: Kindly attempt not to cloud the issue with the facts.

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Mr. Banks: Have this piano repaired. When I sit down to an instrument, I like to have it in tune.

Mrs. Banks: But George, you don't play.

Mr. Banks: Madam! That's entirely beside the point!

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Mary Poppins: In every job that must be done, there's an element of fun. Just find the fun and--snap!!--the job's a game!

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Mary Poppins: That's a piecrust promise. Easily made, easily broken.

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Jane: Good morning Father! Mary Poppins taught us the most wonderful word!

Michael: Supercalifrajilisticexpialodocious!

Mr. Banks: What on earth are you talking about? Super-super-or whatever the infernal thing is.

Jane: It's something to say when you don't know what to say!

Mr. Banks: Yes, well. I always know what to say.

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