Amsterdam at the beginning of October
The Isle of Wight at the end of October
and to Spain for Christmas.
Jealousy, will get you nowhere...look elsewhere with your green eyes.
Ok, so here's the story line. Roughly 1 year ago, an amazing woman from South Central Los Angeles decided after receiving her Master's degree to expand her horizons and venture off to London. So over the course of the next couple of years she will hope to bring two continents together through the eloquence of her words...ok that is complete and utter bullshit! Your not doing shit so just stay a minute for the hell of it!
Location: In a London borough not far away from 3 tube lines, England
About me: 1. Lover of all things Chocolate 2. Terrified of Texas flying Tree Roaches 3. New lover of roundabouts 4. The world is my oyster...w/out the fishy smell 5. God, does not like ugly...so rearrange yourself and your face
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Before the year is out my intention is to go to ...
Amsterdam at the beginning of October
The Isle of Wight at the end of October
and to Spain for Christmas.
Jealousy, will get you nowhere...look elsewhere with your green eyes.
Amsterdam at the beginning of October
The Isle of Wight at the end of October
and to Spain for Christmas.
Jealousy, will get you nowhere...look elsewhere with your green eyes.
posted by ReJoYcE at 7:40 pm
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Monday, September 18, 2006
So this past Saturday, Lynn and I ventured out to Chelmsford to do a little shopping and clubhopping. Lynn and I were going to meet up with 3 of the American girls that were placed in a different area, but that was not going to happen until later on that evening. Lynn, unfortunately was feeling sick and damn near cancelled on me and the other Americans, which almost meant that I would have to make trek to Chelmsford (30-45 minutes away) by myself. Oh no, I was not going to let that happen. Lynn was given a good pep talk and pumped herself full on non-drowsy flu medication and away we went.
We spent roughly 4 hours shopping in the town centre. We got Lynn's whole outfit, minus her undies, and I was able to find a jacket (I forgot mine at home), a cute top and some jewerly. The problem we ran into was trying to figure out where to change clothes. We opted for the car, since town centre start closing around 5p and the parking garage was nearly empty. Lynn sat in front seat, while I tried to maintain my modesty in the back seat. We would have been just fine, if the owner of the only car in our area did not take his precious time checking out what we were doing instead of driving the hell off. Lynn accidently teased him while pulling off her pants; unbeknownst to her, he had just walked up the stairs. So our perv hung around to see if more clothes would be separated from our bodies. Eventually he left, but I was ready to knock him upside his head with one of my boots (of course, after I got my britches on).
Once properly attired we met up with Becky, Leanne and Bonnie and ate at a tapas restaurant. It was supposedly expected to taste Mexican, but came off in the typical British fashion...bland. Two pitchers of sangria later, we were off to the first of 2 pubs. At Lloyds we met up with Matt (co-worker) and Matthew. Now Matthew is a guy that works in a different department, but has been flirting with Ms. Lynn throughout the week. So this was going to be their big night out. Matt and Matthew do not know each other so they brought at least 4 blokes a piece to keep 5 poor little American women company. (for all you slow counters, our group grew to about 15)
From Lloyds, we moved on to Edwards and when I say that place was crowded...we had to hold hands just to not lose each other, luckily we found two free couches. Throughout the night I was antagonizing one of Matt's friends about his dancing ability. I did not think he could and I wanted him to prove me wrong. Well, he thought that he could do a little reverse psychology and that I would timidly back off. Not me! I decided to create my own dance floor, by dancing on a table. I dropped it like it was hot about three times, before I spotted a security guard approaching. I quickly sat down, but not before noticing that all eyes were on me. Oops...what happened to being shy.
Back on the couch, I was able to pay close attention to the women in my group. Lynn stayed wrapped around Matthew like he was the best thing since British bacon (which is sooo delicious). Bonnie looked sad...probably thinking about her fiancee in the States. Becky was laid back, but obviously relishing in the night to come with her flatmate, who she says is so hot that I need to come over and watch him cook naked. Leanne, like a true New Yorker was working the crowd of men nearby.
The last stop of the night was Dukes nightclub. On the way, we lost Lynn for a bit while she played tongue hockey with Matthew. I, while in Dukes, set my sights on one of Matt's friends. He was sweet, funny, and a cute dancer. I did not realize how reserved he was until we started talking. Leave it up to me to have a bit of tongue wrestling with my reserved British bloke. Yup, yup I created my own makeout area for all of 2 minutes, before I came back to my senses. I was not about to give anyone a show. I leave that up to others.
Bonnie, Leanne, and Becky ended up calling it a night around 2am. Lynn and I, being the troopers that we are, stayed until the club closed at 3am. We decided to spend the night and Matt's house, since Matthew pulled an MIA on Lynn. Me and my bloke were arm locked walking back to the car. He took my number and plans to call me when he gets back from holiday. Cool shite! Getting to Matt's became problematic since neither Lynn nor I were capable of driving and my bloke (designated driver) only had so much room in his. Matt, who is short, took it upon himself to fit in the boot (trunk) of the car. I could not stop laughing and Matt did not help by calling my name and banging on the inside of the boot, while my bloke was driving.
Cheers to Chelmsford...where to next weekend? Hell, if I know.
posted by ReJoYcE at 8:48 pm |
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Saturday, September 16, 2006
So before leaving the States I had to leave my precious cats behind with one of my closest friends. The UK has a quarantine policy that requires you to get a rabies shot for your animal and sent it to a designated UK vet in the States. After 6 months you have to get another rabies shot and send it to the same vet. If it is negative, then your pet can enter the UK. The next step is flying your pet in the cargo area of the plane, which can get expensive. The biggest problem for me is the stress that it puts on the animals, 10 hours is a long time to be in the cargo area of a plane. I could not justify to myself the necessity of them going to the UK for 2 years and having to put them through that twice. Which is why they are still in States.
Below are pics that my friend sent me of my boy cat, his sister's pictures will be sent to me later. The two of them are officially 10 years old this year and seem to be getting crazier and crazier as the years go by. They have survived 3 boyfriends, lived in 3 states, resided in over 20 different apartments, and come in contact with so many people (I can't count how many).
Earlier this year, my boy cat started to lick his fur off of his tummy, so he went to the vet. Lo and behold the vet said that he was stressed out and needed to be placed on anti-depressants. I thought..."How horrible am I as a mother." Poor kitty stressed out from living a fuller life than most cats. His fur is growing back though, as you can see in the pic to the right.
Below are pics that my friend sent me of my boy cat, his sister's pictures will be sent to me later. The two of them are officially 10 years old this year and seem to be getting crazier and crazier as the years go by. They have survived 3 boyfriends, lived in 3 states, resided in over 20 different apartments, and come in contact with so many people (I can't count how many).
Earlier this year, my boy cat started to lick his fur off of his tummy, so he went to the vet. Lo and behold the vet said that he was stressed out and needed to be placed on anti-depressants. I thought..."How horrible am I as a mother." Poor kitty stressed out from living a fuller life than most cats. His fur is growing back though, as you can see in the pic to the right.
posted by ReJoYcE at 11:15 am |
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Tuesday, September 12, 2006
So this week has been pretty exciting as far as my driving skills are concerned, I have to back up and tell yall about last weekend.
Ms. Lynn from my job and I decided to go out Friday night and paint the town. So I put on my best outfit (mind you I only have one club outfit at the moment) and headed back out to Southend. We thought about going back to TALK, but decided against it and instead ventured off into new territory. Kudos to me for actually driving to the club and back. I took a night off from drinking to give Lynn a chance to get wobbly on her feet.
We went to a club called ZERO6 which was having an over 25 night. I am soooo trying to stay away from the half naked teenyboppers. The club wasn't half bad. There were television screens up so you could watch the video to the song you were dancing to. I got Lynn off her bum and sent her off ask one of two blokes to dance. For the rest of the night Lynn was back and forth checking in on me and shaking her tailfeather. I was having a wonderful time off in the corner doing what I love...people watching. Thanks to the folks in ZERO6 for giving me an eyeful of yall nasty asses!!! LOL!! I had about 5 couples sit in my area and swat spit, but one couple took the cake. They actually fornicated in front of me! This chick sat on a bloke's lap, he adjusted his willywanker while she moved her dress around. Away they went. Good shit...good shit. I pulled Lynn into my voyuerism by asking her to check them out so we could see when they climaxed. Ok many of you may be saying gross, but hell some of yall have in-house dick. Leave me alone.
Later on after the couple was roughly separated by their friends, Lynn and I made our exit as the club was closing down for the evening. We ended up giving one of Lynn's bloke's a ride home. Lynn and I had a good laugh when he told us that he was part of MI6, which is supposed to be similar to the CIA. Ohhhweee I had a MIB agent in my car....what ever! His other friend said that he was a millionaire...so what are you doing in a rinky dink club...aren't there special clubs for millionaires? On the other hand, he had a blast laughing at our accents.
The rest of the weekend was spent once again out in Southend with Saturday being a day where we walked around looking at the pier and doing a bit of shopping. She took some great pics, which I will a post later. This week I have logged over a 100 miles of driving by myself with no one in the car making me nervous. Plus, I did not hit anything! Always a plus, right?
This weekend Lynn and I are off to party in Chelmsford with this other guy she met during training. She is turning into a real social butterfly and I am her wing woman. No probs for me as long as they buy me a drink. So we will try to visit another friend we met at training, who lives out in Maldon. It is supposed to be a small town.
British Words Learned:
1. top up- add to Used in a sentence- "I need to top up my calling card"
2. sharps- hypodermic needles
3. boot- a trunk of a car
Differences:
1. I sat in a meeting today and was slightly put off when I observed my supervisor sticking out her middle finger at me. First thought "Why the hell is she flipping me off?" Fortunately, the middle finger out here does not carry the same weight as it does in the States.
Ms. Lynn from my job and I decided to go out Friday night and paint the town. So I put on my best outfit (mind you I only have one club outfit at the moment) and headed back out to Southend. We thought about going back to TALK, but decided against it and instead ventured off into new territory. Kudos to me for actually driving to the club and back. I took a night off from drinking to give Lynn a chance to get wobbly on her feet.
We went to a club called ZERO6 which was having an over 25 night. I am soooo trying to stay away from the half naked teenyboppers. The club wasn't half bad. There were television screens up so you could watch the video to the song you were dancing to. I got Lynn off her bum and sent her off ask one of two blokes to dance. For the rest of the night Lynn was back and forth checking in on me and shaking her tailfeather. I was having a wonderful time off in the corner doing what I love...people watching. Thanks to the folks in ZERO6 for giving me an eyeful of yall nasty asses!!! LOL!! I had about 5 couples sit in my area and swat spit, but one couple took the cake. They actually fornicated in front of me! This chick sat on a bloke's lap, he adjusted his willywanker while she moved her dress around. Away they went. Good shit...good shit. I pulled Lynn into my voyuerism by asking her to check them out so we could see when they climaxed. Ok many of you may be saying gross, but hell some of yall have in-house dick. Leave me alone.
Later on after the couple was roughly separated by their friends, Lynn and I made our exit as the club was closing down for the evening. We ended up giving one of Lynn's bloke's a ride home. Lynn and I had a good laugh when he told us that he was part of MI6, which is supposed to be similar to the CIA. Ohhhweee I had a MIB agent in my car....what ever! His other friend said that he was a millionaire...so what are you doing in a rinky dink club...aren't there special clubs for millionaires? On the other hand, he had a blast laughing at our accents.
The rest of the weekend was spent once again out in Southend with Saturday being a day where we walked around looking at the pier and doing a bit of shopping. She took some great pics, which I will a post later. This week I have logged over a 100 miles of driving by myself with no one in the car making me nervous. Plus, I did not hit anything! Always a plus, right?
This weekend Lynn and I are off to party in Chelmsford with this other guy she met during training. She is turning into a real social butterfly and I am her wing woman. No probs for me as long as they buy me a drink. So we will try to visit another friend we met at training, who lives out in Maldon. It is supposed to be a small town.
British Words Learned:
1. top up- add to Used in a sentence- "I need to top up my calling card"
2. sharps- hypodermic needles
3. boot- a trunk of a car
Differences:
1. I sat in a meeting today and was slightly put off when I observed my supervisor sticking out her middle finger at me. First thought "Why the hell is she flipping me off?" Fortunately, the middle finger out here does not carry the same weight as it does in the States.
posted by ReJoYcE at 7:50 pm |
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0 comments
Monday, September 11, 2006
So The Critter is nice and comfy back in the States. He has gone ahead and sent out his last mass email regarding his year long trip around the world. The following starts from when he left me and continued on to Dublin...
I'll start with when I left London. I was expecting a really hard time from immigration leaving the UK and possibly entering Ireland, based on prior experience. Only question leaving London: "Where are you going?" "Dublin." They didn't even open my passport. In Ireland: "How long ya here for?" "Less than 2 days." And I got my second to last stamp in a passport that's completely full (they stamped partially over my UK one). All the worrying, printing up itineraries just for
customs, etc. was all for not. Thank tha Lawrd! I got into Dublin at 10pm. After briefly considering sleeping in a bed that night, I decided to rough it one last time and unfurl my sleeping bag on a nasty nasty bench at the airport. I slept in an area by myself, but that's because it was right by the resting area for security guards (where they eat and change shifts). I got a solid 4 hours of sleep or so. I got into the city by 6:30am and checked my bag into a hostel, who unfortunately told me that I couldn't see the room until 12:30 or 1 that afternoon since they had to clean it.
I decided to walk around town, seeing a few sites like Four Courts (the big courthouse), Bank of Ireland, and the river, whatever its name is, before paying a visit to the Old Jameson Distillery at 10am. I figured I might take a tour, and if they have a free shot at the end, then so be it. Sure enough, I took the informative tour, and the guide needed some 'volunteers' to taste-test three Irish whiskeys, a Scotch and American whiskey (Jack Daniels). He passed me over for a birthday boy from Finland, but he said he liked me so much from talking to me that he'd
"take care of me." He ended up making me an extra volunteer, and I know he was happy with that decision when I told him that it was the last day of a year-long hiatus. He ended up announcing his birthday and my trip to the entire crowd. So I obliged and drank the 5 shots, followed by a few more (larger) freebies at the counter.
For volunteering, we all got a certificate, which I plan on hanging next to my one for building the houses for tsunami victims, and of course my minister certificate. I took this certificate (coiled inside of a gold cardboard tube) with me when I marched down to the Guiness factory for a tour and free beer there. The guy in front of me turned around and said, "Hey, I know what that tube is! I got my certificate yesterday." His name was Matt, and he ended up being from St. Louis Abisbo, CA, which is where my friend and co-Thai house builder Nate was from. We walked around the factory for a bit (which wasn't nearly as good as the tour at Jameson) before making our way upstairs and finding the bar, which gave us our free Guinness, that overlooked the entire city. We stayed there for a while before heading out into the city to hit few pubs.
First, I really wanted to eat something so we walked to a bar advertising fish and chips. I walked in and saw that it was really dark inside and the cashiers were busy doing something, and it wasn't getting the food ready. Two seconds later, Matt yelled, "Dude, get the fuck out of there! Can't you see it's on fire?!" The greaser caught on fire right before we'd walked in, and the smoke was just building up. 10 seconds after I exited, the cashiers (and I think owners) ran out cursing the store as black smoke billowed outside. Then we found out that some guy was still inside, on the john. I almost ran back inside until he came back out. We were also concerned since three stories of apartments sat atop the store, but we didn't stick around to see what all happened; we just waited for the firetrucks to arrive and we split.
We toured the Temple Bar area and drank nothing but Guinesses for a few more hours. At one point, we learned that Guinness was bought out ten years ago and is today only 0.4% Irish. This is really disappointing, especially considering how well it treated its poor Irish workers for a few hundred years. Anyways, 4pm rolled around, and I told Matt that I'd have to lay down and get some sleep if I was to go out that night. My head was swimming -- lack of sleep, not a lot of food, and a good amount (but not too much) of beer made me pretty tired. So we'd agreed to meet 8 for a pub crawl.
Unfortunately, I ended up sleeping until 9:15 that night, at which point I decided to sleep through the night. I felt bad that I wasn't able to meet up with him again since we had some interesting conversations. It's funny since he tried pulling off some surfer dude-tough guy combo that just didn't work. He talked tough in general and against the war, immigrants, and people on welfare, but when we went to jaywalk, for example, he'd run to the other side of the street even when no cars were coming. That was pretty funny.
So that was my time in Dublin. The next day, I arrived at the airport about 3 hours before customs let me through for my flight so I had some time to kill there, reading and writing in my journal. I also bought a ton of postcards that I hope to hand-deliver to many of you in the U.S.
So I'm back in the United States, after the most epic journey of all time. OK, not really, but it has given me new insights into the country I call home, which has some of the highest rates of drug use (though I wouldn't say alcohol..), mental illness, poverty, child molestation, capital murder, theft, and supporters of War on Iraq. I'm happy to be back, but I don't know if I'll always call it home. I don't mean to leave America forever or anything; I'll just try to incorporate more time abroad, such as organizing soccer tournaments in Macedonia, for example. (I'd love to do this, but obviously I have some things to think about.) But I know that thinking globally, no
matter how much I did before, is much more solidly engrained in me than I could've imagined.
I learned so much about myself, my limits and my capabilities, than I would've guessed. There's a lot to learn about the world that we aren't taught here. Histories of certain regions, goals and values of different peoples, and especially how the U.S. is perceived, which is certainly not as cut-and-dry as I thought it was. I encourage everyone reading this who hasn't traveled to take 3, 6, or more months out of their time to consider a trip outside of this country. No matter how
busy you are or what responsibilities you have, it'll be worth it. And the younger you are (starting at I'd say 20), the better off you'll be. As long as you keep an open mind and are able to talk to people, either very much like you or completely the opposite, you'll learn tons.
Well that's it.
I'll start with when I left London. I was expecting a really hard time from immigration leaving the UK and possibly entering Ireland, based on prior experience. Only question leaving London: "Where are you going?" "Dublin." They didn't even open my passport. In Ireland: "How long ya here for?" "Less than 2 days." And I got my second to last stamp in a passport that's completely full (they stamped partially over my UK one). All the worrying, printing up itineraries just for
customs, etc. was all for not. Thank tha Lawrd! I got into Dublin at 10pm. After briefly considering sleeping in a bed that night, I decided to rough it one last time and unfurl my sleeping bag on a nasty nasty bench at the airport. I slept in an area by myself, but that's because it was right by the resting area for security guards (where they eat and change shifts). I got a solid 4 hours of sleep or so. I got into the city by 6:30am and checked my bag into a hostel, who unfortunately told me that I couldn't see the room until 12:30 or 1 that afternoon since they had to clean it.
I decided to walk around town, seeing a few sites like Four Courts (the big courthouse), Bank of Ireland, and the river, whatever its name is, before paying a visit to the Old Jameson Distillery at 10am. I figured I might take a tour, and if they have a free shot at the end, then so be it. Sure enough, I took the informative tour, and the guide needed some 'volunteers' to taste-test three Irish whiskeys, a Scotch and American whiskey (Jack Daniels). He passed me over for a birthday boy from Finland, but he said he liked me so much from talking to me that he'd
"take care of me." He ended up making me an extra volunteer, and I know he was happy with that decision when I told him that it was the last day of a year-long hiatus. He ended up announcing his birthday and my trip to the entire crowd. So I obliged and drank the 5 shots, followed by a few more (larger) freebies at the counter.
For volunteering, we all got a certificate, which I plan on hanging next to my one for building the houses for tsunami victims, and of course my minister certificate. I took this certificate (coiled inside of a gold cardboard tube) with me when I marched down to the Guiness factory for a tour and free beer there. The guy in front of me turned around and said, "Hey, I know what that tube is! I got my certificate yesterday." His name was Matt, and he ended up being from St. Louis Abisbo, CA, which is where my friend and co-Thai house builder Nate was from. We walked around the factory for a bit (which wasn't nearly as good as the tour at Jameson) before making our way upstairs and finding the bar, which gave us our free Guinness, that overlooked the entire city. We stayed there for a while before heading out into the city to hit few pubs.
First, I really wanted to eat something so we walked to a bar advertising fish and chips. I walked in and saw that it was really dark inside and the cashiers were busy doing something, and it wasn't getting the food ready. Two seconds later, Matt yelled, "Dude, get the fuck out of there! Can't you see it's on fire?!" The greaser caught on fire right before we'd walked in, and the smoke was just building up. 10 seconds after I exited, the cashiers (and I think owners) ran out cursing the store as black smoke billowed outside. Then we found out that some guy was still inside, on the john. I almost ran back inside until he came back out. We were also concerned since three stories of apartments sat atop the store, but we didn't stick around to see what all happened; we just waited for the firetrucks to arrive and we split.
We toured the Temple Bar area and drank nothing but Guinesses for a few more hours. At one point, we learned that Guinness was bought out ten years ago and is today only 0.4% Irish. This is really disappointing, especially considering how well it treated its poor Irish workers for a few hundred years. Anyways, 4pm rolled around, and I told Matt that I'd have to lay down and get some sleep if I was to go out that night. My head was swimming -- lack of sleep, not a lot of food, and a good amount (but not too much) of beer made me pretty tired. So we'd agreed to meet 8 for a pub crawl.
Unfortunately, I ended up sleeping until 9:15 that night, at which point I decided to sleep through the night. I felt bad that I wasn't able to meet up with him again since we had some interesting conversations. It's funny since he tried pulling off some surfer dude-tough guy combo that just didn't work. He talked tough in general and against the war, immigrants, and people on welfare, but when we went to jaywalk, for example, he'd run to the other side of the street even when no cars were coming. That was pretty funny.
So that was my time in Dublin. The next day, I arrived at the airport about 3 hours before customs let me through for my flight so I had some time to kill there, reading and writing in my journal. I also bought a ton of postcards that I hope to hand-deliver to many of you in the U.S.
So I'm back in the United States, after the most epic journey of all time. OK, not really, but it has given me new insights into the country I call home, which has some of the highest rates of drug use (though I wouldn't say alcohol..), mental illness, poverty, child molestation, capital murder, theft, and supporters of War on Iraq. I'm happy to be back, but I don't know if I'll always call it home. I don't mean to leave America forever or anything; I'll just try to incorporate more time abroad, such as organizing soccer tournaments in Macedonia, for example. (I'd love to do this, but obviously I have some things to think about.) But I know that thinking globally, no
matter how much I did before, is much more solidly engrained in me than I could've imagined.
I learned so much about myself, my limits and my capabilities, than I would've guessed. There's a lot to learn about the world that we aren't taught here. Histories of certain regions, goals and values of different peoples, and especially how the U.S. is perceived, which is certainly not as cut-and-dry as I thought it was. I encourage everyone reading this who hasn't traveled to take 3, 6, or more months out of their time to consider a trip outside of this country. No matter how
busy you are or what responsibilities you have, it'll be worth it. And the younger you are (starting at I'd say 20), the better off you'll be. As long as you keep an open mind and are able to talk to people, either very much like you or completely the opposite, you'll learn tons.
Well that's it.
posted by ReJoYcE at 9:38 am |
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0 comments
Thursday, September 07, 2006
I happened to stop over by Kelly's blog in the midst of a boring IT training yesterday. She blogs about having an epiphany of sort that opens up a discussion of significant dates in one's life, friendships and the biggest moment of teenage angst...high school.
I believe high school for many is about one of the roughest periods in life. You have a 4 year time frame where you have to figure out: who you are, what you want to be, how do others percieve you, and how to manuveur between what is the norm (acceptable) and deviant (unacceptable) behavior. Please believe me, I really didn't see the difference between the two. To me, high school was all about cliques. Anyone forming a clique fit in. The loners were the ones that were considered deviant. The inability to gather and form a group was unfathomable for me in high school. What is wierd is that I had both legs firmly planted in what others would consider normal and deviant behavior.
During high school, I floated from one clique to another, regardless if you were in band, played football, cheered, a member of a school club (Spanish, French, Student Government, etc.), maybe you hung around the lunch area, or in a classroom kicking it with one of the cool teachers...you would always find me. I was like a chameleon in a sense, I could change who I was per clique I encountered. I would go from group to group in a given school day and literally check in. I was popular to the point that everyone knew who I was, eventhough I couldn't begin to name everyone that knew me. My yearbook had so much writing in it, that I had to reserve pages for people and add extra pages for people to leave untrue statements about how we would always "keep in touch or KIT." LOL!
I was the nerd in school, considered part of the in-crowd and a part of the dregs of society that mothers would warn their children not to hang around; all the while being Re-Re. How in the hell did this work? Unbelieveably life for me in high school was seamless. It all just flowed and I loved it!
I was in gifted classes for children that had been identified to have higher intelligence or had the potential for such intelligence than that of the rest of the student body. In high school, we had what was considered a school within a school. I had all the same high school classes with kids that were all identified gifted. So we were academically segregated, however we had mainstream classes such as art, physical education, etc. So I was a big blooming nerd! At the same time I was on the tennis team (tiny skirt brings lots of attention) and on the track and field team (tiny shorts bring lots of attention as well). So I got to know some of the popular football and basketball players that ran track. They looked quite nice when they broke into a sweat, but golly did they stink to high heaven!
To be honest what helped me to stand out was that I was part of the ethnic minority at my high school. I was damned if that was going to hold me back. I used it to my advantage. No effort needed to be the shining light in a tunnel. Others in my ethnic group decided to stick to each other like glue. They had their own table set up in the lunch area. You could spot them easily.
Meanwhile, I dated gang members and was a part of a tagging crew(a group of teenagers that would spray paint graffiti on walls, buses, buldings, cars, etc). I even sold absent slips to students that had ditched school and did not want their parents to know. All the while I was loved by the school staff (*my high school dean may read this blog--Red, I apologize, but you knew I was not an angel); from the asst. principal down to the custodial staff.
Looking back, I know that if anyone asked me who I was at that time, I would have been unable to answer. I was a little bit of everything...everything was a little bit of me. My conviction during that time was not to allow myself to be pinned down to one clique. I wanted the freedom to move about, whereas those that were solidified within their cliques could not. They were beholden to be loyal to the group. I had no loyalty. This is not to say that I did not have truly lasting friendships. I did, but I think those friends accepted my comings and goings.
My true definition of self did not arrive until college and over the years I have felt it narrow down. I am still a little bit of everything, cause everything interests me. How could have I ever have made the leap to create the chaos which is my life at the moment? I don't change per my environment or because of people I am around. I remain true myself and enjoy the environment for what it is and what it has to offer.
So who were you in high school? Were you able to define yourself, if not when did this occur?
Cheers.
By the way...The Critter has arrived back on American soil, safe and sound without incident!!!
I believe high school for many is about one of the roughest periods in life. You have a 4 year time frame where you have to figure out: who you are, what you want to be, how do others percieve you, and how to manuveur between what is the norm (acceptable) and deviant (unacceptable) behavior. Please believe me, I really didn't see the difference between the two. To me, high school was all about cliques. Anyone forming a clique fit in. The loners were the ones that were considered deviant. The inability to gather and form a group was unfathomable for me in high school. What is wierd is that I had both legs firmly planted in what others would consider normal and deviant behavior.
During high school, I floated from one clique to another, regardless if you were in band, played football, cheered, a member of a school club (Spanish, French, Student Government, etc.), maybe you hung around the lunch area, or in a classroom kicking it with one of the cool teachers...you would always find me. I was like a chameleon in a sense, I could change who I was per clique I encountered. I would go from group to group in a given school day and literally check in. I was popular to the point that everyone knew who I was, eventhough I couldn't begin to name everyone that knew me. My yearbook had so much writing in it, that I had to reserve pages for people and add extra pages for people to leave untrue statements about how we would always "keep in touch or KIT." LOL!
I was the nerd in school, considered part of the in-crowd and a part of the dregs of society that mothers would warn their children not to hang around; all the while being Re-Re. How in the hell did this work? Unbelieveably life for me in high school was seamless. It all just flowed and I loved it!
I was in gifted classes for children that had been identified to have higher intelligence or had the potential for such intelligence than that of the rest of the student body. In high school, we had what was considered a school within a school. I had all the same high school classes with kids that were all identified gifted. So we were academically segregated, however we had mainstream classes such as art, physical education, etc. So I was a big blooming nerd! At the same time I was on the tennis team (tiny skirt brings lots of attention) and on the track and field team (tiny shorts bring lots of attention as well). So I got to know some of the popular football and basketball players that ran track. They looked quite nice when they broke into a sweat, but golly did they stink to high heaven!
To be honest what helped me to stand out was that I was part of the ethnic minority at my high school. I was damned if that was going to hold me back. I used it to my advantage. No effort needed to be the shining light in a tunnel. Others in my ethnic group decided to stick to each other like glue. They had their own table set up in the lunch area. You could spot them easily.
Meanwhile, I dated gang members and was a part of a tagging crew(a group of teenagers that would spray paint graffiti on walls, buses, buldings, cars, etc). I even sold absent slips to students that had ditched school and did not want their parents to know. All the while I was loved by the school staff (*my high school dean may read this blog--Red, I apologize, but you knew I was not an angel); from the asst. principal down to the custodial staff.
Looking back, I know that if anyone asked me who I was at that time, I would have been unable to answer. I was a little bit of everything...everything was a little bit of me. My conviction during that time was not to allow myself to be pinned down to one clique. I wanted the freedom to move about, whereas those that were solidified within their cliques could not. They were beholden to be loyal to the group. I had no loyalty. This is not to say that I did not have truly lasting friendships. I did, but I think those friends accepted my comings and goings.
My true definition of self did not arrive until college and over the years I have felt it narrow down. I am still a little bit of everything, cause everything interests me. How could have I ever have made the leap to create the chaos which is my life at the moment? I don't change per my environment or because of people I am around. I remain true myself and enjoy the environment for what it is and what it has to offer.
So who were you in high school? Were you able to define yourself, if not when did this occur?
Cheers.
By the way...The Critter has arrived back on American soil, safe and sound without incident!!!
posted by ReJoYcE at 6:59 pm |
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Monday, September 04, 2006
This has been one of the longest weekends I have experienced in a long time. The Critter came back on Friday from his adventure in Bristol and I tried my best not to dwell on the fact that Monday was coming too quickly.
On Saturday we went out to a club called TALK in Southend. It was a nice club, with a hip decor and some of the men weren't half bad to look at. I garnered attention from at least two guys, but I was wearing my drunk goggles. Needless to say both The Critter and Lynn will have stories to tell about my drunken state. By the time Sunday came around The Critter and I suffered from semi-hangovers. I couldn't deal with sitting around the house so we went on a fruitless mission to develop film from my disposable camera. All day I could hear the clock counting down the hours until he was to leave. Tick, tick, tick, tick...
Today I went to another training for work, thinking that if I called off that I would drive myself crazy with the countdown going off in my head. The Critter was left a list of things to take care of, while I went off to learn how to be safe in the workplace. He came later on that afternoon to pick me up so that he could check in early for his flight. I am the only fool that likes to miss flights.
I held the tears back until we got to the airport. He walked away to purchase cappicinos and the floodgates were released. I told him it was his fault for leaving me alone, before he was supposed to leave me alone. I have always been the one to pack up and leave my friends, which is how I ended up in my current situation. Each one of you has dealt with me leaving in your own way. Some of you pushed me away, some had financial difficulties and could not meet up with me, others tried to remain in contact until the last hours before I had to get on my flight. We all deal with a friend leaving in our own way. No harm...no foul. The pain that I felt today cut so deep on so many different levels. I have enjoyed the time that he was here. He allowed me to forget or at least push aside the thought of this life-changing event. It all came flooding back watching him descend the stairs leading to his plane. The isolation of not being able to talk with so many of you on a regular basis. The fears of not being able to cut it in my current position. The anxiety of of having to acclimate to a new environment. The loss of my security blanket.
He may make light of this post once he reads it, but I thank him for being here for me and standing by my side during this transition. We went through some shite in the course of one month and we came out on top. He asked me before he left how I would rate him supporting me over the last month. I told him that it was about a 8 out of 10. I did not want him to get conceited, however through it all he was actually a 10. They always say that good friends are hard to find. I happy to say that I don't have that problem! So tonight, I sip on a glass of vodka and attempt to fortify myself for the days, months and years to come and am comforted in the knowledge that these feelings of anxiety will soon pass.
TO THE CRITTER!!!!
CHEERS!
posted by ReJoYcE at 11:21 pm |
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