amplified to rock
I was fifteen once, back in the day: ...and I was really trying very hard to be an angsty teen. It was difficult because I didn't have all that much to rebel against. Like many fifteen-year old girls, I wrote poetry and the occasional short story. Some of it was pretty good, and I joined this Writer's Workshop thing at my high school. It was cool, really. I got to get out of going to classes at least once a month, which was cool, because avoiding going to classes was a top priority.
So anyway, there would be these exchanges with our sister school. Sometimes the students would come to our school, sometimes we'd go to theirs. It happened about every other month of so. The exchanges were rad because there were these two really really cool punkrockish-type boys, the likes of which you would never see in the hallowed halls of Bloom Trail High School. Of course I had crushes on both of them, but they were far too cool for little ol' me. I mean, they sat there and looked all deep and dark and mysterious and they read Rimbaud and other poets I had never heard of and they just exuded this sort of, shit, I don't know what to call it, but it made me all hot 'n bothered. Of course, I don't think I ever said two words to either of them because I figured they'd just laugh at my incredible uncoolness and lack of depth.
Yes, there's a point. This isn't just another one of my famous meandering reminscences. Ann and I have been emailing each other back and forth lately. Oddly enough, it turns out that she is very, very good friends with BOTH of these very cool and deep and dark and mysterious boys who so totally captivated fifteen-year old me! This world is awfully tiny, you know.
Are you Nanette? A quiz: No, this isn't in fancy self-scoring format, I don't have those kinds of skillz, yo. You have to score it yourself.
1. You're in the bathroom at work (also known as the World's Filthiest Bathroom). Some woman brings in a whole assload of kids who need to use the facilities. They are doing things like pushing on the door of your stall and pulling down their pants before they get in the stall. You:
A. Smile and giggle and think "awww, kids, how cute"
B. Hiss under your breath "I hate small children" and then marvel at the fact that there's a 10-year old (or possibly older) boy standing at the sink washing his hands when you leave the stall. You think he'd be a little creeped out by having to pee in the women's bathroom. He must be aware of gender differences by now.
C. Hurry up and do your business and flee
D. Sit on the toilet for as long as humanly possible because it would be really funny to hear what the woman who is ineptly caring for all these children would say in order to boost the self-esteem of a crying six-year old who has just pissed her pants
2. You are hoping to leave work early, as is your custom on Friday afternoons. Some jackass makes an appointment for 4:30, which means that you have to stay all day on Friday, which is something you haven't done in about six weeks. You:
A. Fume and curse and utter vile oaths under your breath
B. Call them on the phone and insist that they reschedule...or else
C. Rationalize having to stay late because you've had so many Fridays where you didn't have to work late
D. Leave anyway and keep this poor person hanging. If they needed help with a paper, they shouldn't have waited until the last day of classes half an hour before the semester ends.
3. There's a conference today, and there's a bunch of people sitting in the atrium eating box lunches. Mmmm, box lunches. You:
A. Pull a Mentos and cut in line, obtaining for yourself a yummy chicken sandwich with lukewarm pasta salad lunch
B. Sit it out and wait...the spoils of the box lunch may be yours shortly
C. Sit at your desk, gloweringly eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich you made this morning, wishing food poisoning on the lucky bastards who got the box lunch
D. Rationalize the fact that the box lunch will never be yours by thinking things like "that pasta salad is always gross anyways, and half the times the sandwiches are smeared with nasty mayonnaise"
4. You have a "friend" with a propensity for getting mad at you for no reason approximately every month and a half. You:
A. Take it quietly, realizing that this too shall pass, as it has the past four times it's happened
B. Create a Sim version of your "friend", and then kill it either by starvation or by fire
C. Get really mad and talk a bunch of shit, realizing that this too shall pass and it will seem foolish in a couple of weeks
D. Realize that this is your golden opportunity to sever ties with your "friend" completely and never have to go through this again
5. Tonight, you will be meeting your boyfriend's parents for the first time. This fills you with a feeling of:
A. Dread, because they might not like you
B. Dread, because this means that the relationship is actually serious
C. Anticipation, because you love meeting new people
D. Anticipation, because they are potential readers of your weblog
6. Someone is driving like an asshole. According to their license plate, they are from:
A. New York
B. Massachusetts
C. Indiana
D. Illinois
SCORING
1. A = 1; B = 4; C = 3; D = 2
2. A = 4; B = 3; C = 1; D = 2
3. A = 1; B = 2; C = 4; D = 3
4. A = 2; B = 3; C = 1; D = 4
5. A = 4; B = 2; C = 1; D = 3
6. A = 1; B = 3; C = 4; D = 2
Now, add up your points.
19 - 24: We are like twins. Of course, the last time I met someone and felt that we were "like twins," he ended up getting all weird on me. So maybe that's not a good thing. Your personality is so much like mine that we would have a lot to talk about. Or we would hate each other. I'm not sure.
13 - 18: You're probably just not bitter and jaded and crabby enough yet. In a couple of years, given the right negative, crappy experiences, you just might turn into me.
7 - 12: You might be a little bit like me, but for the most part, we're really different. Depending on what the difference is, we just might get along anyhow.
6: You are the anti-Nanette. I like your style. You've got spunk.
The trimester is...over! No, it wasn't all that difficult, but I was up until midnight last night compiling an annotated bibliography that I knew about all semester but didn't feel the need to complete in a timely fashion. When I turned it in this morning, I really hoped I would feel that elation that I used to feel at the end of the semester when everything was all turned in, that great "a burden has been lifted" feeling. But I didn't. That's probably because I have two theses to complete in the next four months.
I'm headed to Dayton, Ohio for the weekend. I hate Ohio, you know. But I'm told that southern Ohio is different from northern Ohio. It can't be as bad as the Youngstown area, which is quite possibly the deepest pit in hell.
It drives me up the wall when people say "wow, you look like you've been up for hours." It's like, "yeah, thanks for reminding me that I look exhausted."
I think spring is finally here for good. I also think that there's probably some donuts out in the atrium outside Student Development. There's a conference here today, and I think the attendees have all made their way to the sessions, which means it's time for a donut free-for-all. I hope they have the good red punch, too. I have become fond of the good red punch.
I can't believe I didn't post yesterday: I was working on my paper. The one I knew about all semester but put off until the night before. That's all done now, and I turned it in about an hour and a half ago and took my first (and only) final. The only thing I still need to finish is my annotated bibliography for Thesis #2, and I'm going to do some serious work on that tonight and finish it up tomorrow. I'll be turning it in on Friday when I come in to work.
I'm busy filling out scholarship applications for school. I need to send in a letter of application so I can be considered for an assistantship in one of the U of I libraries. If you have any sample letters of application (or if you know of a site that has sample letters of application) please, please, please let me know.
I spent some time apartment hunting on the web today. I've found several places that look promising, but I still need to check them out in person. I'm hoping to take care of some of that next week when I go down to Champaign to meet with my advisor. It looks like I'm going to go ahead and get a one-bedroom instead of a studio--it doesn't cost that much more, and I think I'd be more comfortable. I have so much crap that I really need my space. I'm really liking this place--maybe you Champaign-dwellers could give me the lowdown on this neighborhood, this apartment complex, etc. In other words, let me know if this place is a total dump or what. I see things like "built-in bookshelves" and I get all excited.
I stayed up way too late last night playing The Sims. I've decided that, in addition to creating myself and my friends in handy Sim-form, I'm going to create some famous literary figures as well. I'm already planning a Gertrude Stein/Alice B. Toklas house, and I'm considering an Ernest and Hadley Hemingway house as well. Heck, I could do an entire Sim-Lost Generation Paris! After that, I may construct a Sim-Haworth Parsonage to house my Sim-Bronte sisters. Oh, the English major geekery!
August 2001: It's on! I received my acceptance letter from the
University of Illinois School of Library and Information Science today! I'm going to contact my advisor within the next day or two, and I'll probably meet with her when I go down to Champaign next week to visit with
Hellsbelle. I've been looking at the course schedule for the fall, and I already have an idea of what I'd like to take, but I definitely need to run it by my advisor. I also need to put together a letter of application and update my resume so I can send it in for consideration for an assistantship.
I cannot tell you how happy I am to finally be sure of what I'm going to be doing in August.
Joey Ramone, 1951-2001: Two Ramones memories: In high school, my friend Jayson discovered the Ramones. He was 14. We used to pass notes all the time between classes, and I would sit in the hallway by the art room waiting for him to walk by on the way to lunch. Sometimes he would ditch class and sit out there with me. We'd talk about music and we'd talk about writing and we'd talk about whatever else was on our minds. He was a writer and an artist and an amazing-but-crazy person, and he'd draw me pictures sometimes, pictures based on songs that he liked. He had a whole series of Ramones drawings: "Beat on the Brat," "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," "I Wanna Be Sedated." I still have a couple of them somewhere.
And: Every year, my university had a Fall Family Weekend. My brother would usually stay in my dorm room with me that weekend, and we'd spend a night hanging out and doing all the cool brother-sister stuff that we couldn't do when I was away. On Fall Family Weekend 1993, we rented Rock and Roll High School and sat and watched it. Then my building got struck by lightning and we had to run across the street in a downpour and seek shelter in a different dorm until the smoke cleared. He fell asleep before the movie ended, but I stayed up late and watched the whole thing. Then I watched it again the next day. I couldn't believe I had found a copy of Rock and Roll High School in Decatur, of all places--I had been looking for it for years.
The best tribute to Joey Ramone that I've seen thus far is here at Salon. Musicians, critics, and fans, all talking about what the Ramones meant to them.
Busy busy: But I have a lot to say. I saw two shows this weekend: Kleenex Girl Wonder on Saturday and Lefty's Deceiver on Sunday. I had a gathering on Sunday. I had some car trouble. I saw a friend who I haven't seen in ages. So much to write about...but I've also got to work on a paper that's due on Wednesday, and I have to go to work, so it will all have to wait!
Oh, and I'm going to Dayton, Ohio next weekend. The World Tour rages on...heh.
