Trust me when I say I’ll never ever shop in the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, NY. Lawyer Arrested for Wearing a ‘Peace’ T-Shirt Who gives a rat’s ass if you’re a hawk or a dove (or a grackle or a turkey)? Telling someone to leave a mall because he’s wearing a shirt that doesn’t match your opinion is fascist. Whoever called those guards must lead a very lonely, ugly life.
Sometimes I’ll encounter something that totally brings back a period of time. A smell, a song, the feel of the air against my face. Tonight I heard Heartbreak Beat by The Psychedelic Furs for the first time in around 10 years and it brought back my junior year in high school. I was very into the new wave side of music back then – no hair bands, please. The Cars, Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, U2 (back when they were cool), Cactus World News (anyone even remember them now?).
I attended a very cliquish high school, and although I was “expected” to be in the popular crowd, they would have nothing to do with me and eventually I spurned them even more vehemently than they pushed me away. My school had a reputation in town for being snobbish, and I had several occasions when in UIL competition or something of that ilk people would actually just walk away from me when I said what school I went to.
The summers before my junior and senior years in high school I went to classes at a local university and earned college credits. I met up with a bunch of people, good people, from high schools all over the city. They liked me for who I was, not for my Louis Vuitton purse (the girls in my high school had Louis Vuitton purses, holyshit) or any other material possession. We were the best of friends and called ourselves The Lunch Bunch because we’d go out to eat every other day.
Nef and I kept in touch until we drifted apart completely about 5 years ago. Weirdly enough and unbeknownenst to me, he dated a friend of a friend briefly here in Austin.
Tara and I drifted apart, too – the last time I saw her was about 10 years ago after I found out she also lived in Austin. We got together and started drinking and unearthed Eldridge, who had also moved to Austin, called him up at midnight and pestered him until he came over to visit.
Kevin was in a band and he hooked me up with cool music. Back then about all we could do was a tape to tape recording (mp3 wha?), so I stocked up on dozens of high quality chromium cassettes.
J.C. was my unrequited love. I was so totally stuck on him for 3 or 4 years. He ended up going out with one of Nef’s old girlfriends and none of us heard from him again. Last I knew, he and Kevin were at UC Berkeley, but that was 14 years ago.
God, I really miss them. Nef, Tara, Maria, Kevin, J.C., Eldridge, or anyone else from UTSA’s Honors Program for Young Scholars… if you read this, drop me a line. Let’s do lunch and listen to 80s music and do Breakfast Club quotes.
I think it’s fantastic that you have an opinion. That’s just super, that you are able to form an opinion. Hopefully you formed it all by yourself, without jumping on a bandwagon or adopting the viewpoint of someone you like without researching it for yourself. Having your opinion, and expressing it, is a great American Right(tm), the very first one that We as Americans are specifically granted.
However, if I ever, ever see you telling my children in school that any of our friends and family who are called over to fight in Iraq are unethical, you are going to feel the toe of my shoe so far up your ass that you’re likely to be gnawing on my toenails.
Got it? Good.
Went to see the surgeon today. He doesn’t know what’s wrong wtih me. He’s pawning me off to a dermatologist. Fine.
I’m tired and grouchy and the kids have been terrorizing me all week. I’m sure they’re tired of being cooped up, but that doesn’t mean they get to sleep with us and damn near break my nose. Seriously.
Anyway, I’m going to look into Mother’s Day Out programs for them, maybe twice a week, and start planning more outdoor activities as well as going-out activities, like the children’s museum and storytime at the bookstore. I think it will do us all some good to get out, even though my first urge lately has been to hide under the covers and pretend I’m not there.
Also, I miss my cat.
There are people in the world, stupid people, who just don’t get it and never will. They will never bother to read directions, and they will always be perplexed as to why things don’t go right for them.
Trust me on this.
You know what, don’t even bother explaining to me the antipathy that straights have for gays and gays have for straights. I don’t understand it, I never have, and I don’t think I ever will.
Straights: gays aren’t going to make you want to wear lavender and arrange flowers, unless you like that sort of thing to begin with.
Gays: if you enter a straight conservative (like Baptist) church, you’re not going to be struck dead by God, nor dragged to the altar and sacrificed, nor even stoned to death. If they even know you’re gay to begin with – and why is it anyone’s business who’s sleeping with whom?
Yeah if you go around announcing details of your sex life, you’ve opened a gossip door. You’re showing that it’s ok to gossip about your sex life, so others probably will too. This is the same case with both gays and straights.
And if you’re sitting over there on your high moral ground, looking down your nose at those who don’t subscribe to your point of view, you can go to hell.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
-William Shakespeare, a Very Smart Man.
(this post is mostly based on overhearing a guy last night tell his friend something like “Can you believe it? Me! I actually set foot in a Baptist church. I was terrified!” What the hell did you think they’d do, eat you and then go play with their rattlesnakes?)
I was reading someone else’s blog and I felt that I needed to comment here, without naming names, because I think it’s pretty rude to go incite a comments war.
The post was about the recent anti-war demonstrations in Austin, with pictures. The caption was something like “This is what Texas looks like”. A commenter posted “I wish Texas looked like this every day”.
That’s got the be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard – unless the commenter likes thousands of protestors campaigning against possible global war, as well as complete disagreement with their government.
Protestors are out there on damned serious business. They’re out there protesting a potentially greatly damaging war. They don’t want to see all the cost in lives, equipment, and money. It’s not all about holding hands and singing Kumbayah. If you want Texas to look like that every day then you’re just a sadist.
Perhaps I’m too utopian. What I’d like Texas to look like every day is a pro-rally, not an anti-rally. Why revel in negativeness? Can’t anyone find something they like and march en masse, educating people about it? That’s what I think it would be nice to see every day. No name-calling, no flaming effigies, no ugly caricatures.
When I’m queen of the world…
After Hub and I went to see Jewel at the rodeo, we stayed in San Antonio for a couple of nights. On our way out of town, we were driving to the highway and happened to pass the Alamo. I glanced over to admire the cradle of Texas freedom and saw… THE ENTIRE UNION ARMY MILLING AROUND OUR PRECIOUS ALAMO! AAAH! AAAAHHH!
Those of you from Yankeeland may not realize the impact that the sight of a buncha Yankees lollygagging around one of the South’s precious landmarks will have. I could make analogies, but they’d make someone mad. (Like what if you lived in South Dakota and looked out the window and saw a huge bunch of Native Americans on horses riding around your town square?) Just know that it was surreal and frightening. We rolled down our car windows and hub started yelling about Yankees while I whistled “Dixie” really loud.
Turns out they were having some sort of Civil War re-enactment that day. Twouldn’t have been so bad if I’d seen some of our Boys in Grey so I could give ’em a nice Rebel Yell, instead of having to see all those damnyankees.
Did you know that the statue on top of the Texas Capitol, as well as all the main entrances on the University of Texas buildings face south? The builders and the legislators literally wanted to turn their backs on the North.
South’s gonna rise again, y’all. And we’re gonna laugh and laugh at all y’all Yankees who are snowed under.