Saturday night at a big ass honky tonk in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a drunk girl bit me in the face.
(Before I go on, I just need to recollect the once upon a time when I wrote a sentence in this blog about my friend Mike and I going to a kitschy little lesbian bar in the west village called the Cubby Hole that had $3 margaritas. And I noted that you should appreciate that sentence fully, because once I left New York opportunities to write about kitschy lesbian bars would be few and far between. Instead, now you get to read about big-ass honky tonks. I think it's a fair trade.)
Now, in this girl's defense I think she might've been trying to kiss me on the cheek. I'm not saying I have an explanation for WHY she was trying to kiss me on the cheek, it just seems more benevolent an intention than biting someone on the face. But when she leaned in for the kill, her crazy drunk mouth hung open like the crazy drunk that she was, and when she made contact with my cheek it was with her bicuspids, NOT her lips.
I was at this honky tonk for my best friend Holly's 25th birthday, and since there was a live band playing rock and blues and country and otherwise really good stuff to dance and sing drunkenly to, when the face biting occurred we pretty much walked it off and stayed in the game. Actually, I think SHE walked off her embarrassment, because apparently even toxically drunk people know to be mortified when they try to eat someone's cheekbones for a late night snack. We just laughed (and laughed and laughed and LAUGHED until breathing became problematic) and kept right on a-dancin'.
I can't think of a better way to ring in a new birthday year than drinking and jamming to live music. Holly and I did it for my 24th this year at Cafe Wha? in New York, and we did it for her 25th at (coincidentally enough) Wah Bah in Bowling Green. We also did a lot of other things, like for example, Holly gave a random lady directions to a titty bar by instructing her that it was "out 68-80 next to the animal shelter," and I sang an original song called "Fuck New Jersey" to a table of country bikers behind us, one of whom later ate one of our leftover potato skins and drank the beer we were too saturated to finish. Good country people. Then we got driven home by our cabby, Julian, whose wife left him for A MEXICAN (his words, not mine) and won't let him have partial custody of his daughter and who is apparently totally okay with the cabby-passenger overshare.
I digress.
I can think of no better way to celebrate a birthday than with live music. This is probably because there's not much I like more in the world, period, EVER, than live music. Whatever it is. As long as someone's strumming something and beating on something and I can wail out some notes, hold my beer in the air and swing my hair around like a wild woman (which I did in Kentucky, dear SWEET LORD the neck pain).
I'm embarking on a new adventure in blogging this week that's all about live music. I'm writing for a site called Live From Memphis -- they've been around for about 10 years, covering Memphis entertainment from art to comedy to film to music. My blog's called Prodigal Girl, and the inaugural post is up now (check it out here). I've got another one coming soon about a band I saw last night at a place called The Buccaneer and many more to follow.
And of course if that doesn't tickle your fancy, you can just keep coming back here for more true tales of a drunk southern girl who dances like Tina Turner to "Proud Mary" before realizing that Tina Turner probably didn't eat potato skins and drink five beers before she did all that jumping and shaking. And rightfully so. RIGHTFULLY SO.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.26.2009
wherein the lord is discussed at length
Y'all, I need to tell you something. Tonight I had a drink (okay, two) with a friend who I know because she dated my cousin but also I randomly came across her blog on LiveJournal (back in THOSE days, so we know how long ago that was) and also because we tried to be pen pals. Once. It didn't work.
We were having beers, other than for the sake of having beers, to chat about career stuff and job stuff and life stuff and any other sundry and assorted stuffs that we felt like discussing. In the midst of this conversation, Kerry dropped one of my all-time favorite phrases EVER. It's a phrase that I've rarely used in its entirety, mostly due to the penchant my best friend Holly and I have for shortening anything that can possibly be anacronized into a three-letter substitute.
In this case, we refer to a classic southern saying -- the "Come to Jesus meeting" -- as a CTJ.
Now, for those of you not in the know, the CTJ is a very particular kind of meeting/conversation/talkin' at. It is a shit-hits-the-fan, bottom of the ninth, FO REAL kind of situation. Like, if you don't figure this out and COME TO JESUS, the shit is gon' hit the fan and yo ass is goin' straight to the firey inferno.
(This does of course make me think of the Judgement House run by the local Baptist church when I was younger. It was all about his holiness, the Lord, and in said Judgement House there was a "Hell" scene that guests walked through via a long wooden bridge that TURNS OUT in the end is part of a cross leading you to Jesus HIM-OLD-SELF in heaven just-a-waitin' for you to come to the truths. What is awkward is when you have friends or acquaintainces who, say, are in your eighth grade pre-algebra class, who go to this church and have apparently been assigned the unfortunate duty of playing a condemned soul in the Hell scene. And then you look down off the wooden bridge through the fake smoke that smells like purple, through the funky red lighting, and you see that girl that let you borrow her notes last week. Why is she in Hell, you ask? And then you realize that it's all a bunch of hokum, but not before you hug the guy who's pretending to be the Lord and get your complimentary refreshments.)
Anywho.
Being able to spin a story for someone over a beer and refer to a moment in that story where somebody had to have a CTJ with somebody else and having that person just nod knowingly? THAT is life in the south. And that is a big ass "Welcome home!" to me.
cheers y'all,
elizabeth
We were having beers, other than for the sake of having beers, to chat about career stuff and job stuff and life stuff and any other sundry and assorted stuffs that we felt like discussing. In the midst of this conversation, Kerry dropped one of my all-time favorite phrases EVER. It's a phrase that I've rarely used in its entirety, mostly due to the penchant my best friend Holly and I have for shortening anything that can possibly be anacronized into a three-letter substitute.
In this case, we refer to a classic southern saying -- the "Come to Jesus meeting" -- as a CTJ.
Now, for those of you not in the know, the CTJ is a very particular kind of meeting/conversation/talkin' at. It is a shit-hits-the-fan, bottom of the ninth, FO REAL kind of situation. Like, if you don't figure this out and COME TO JESUS, the shit is gon' hit the fan and yo ass is goin' straight to the firey inferno.
(This does of course make me think of the Judgement House run by the local Baptist church when I was younger. It was all about his holiness, the Lord, and in said Judgement House there was a "Hell" scene that guests walked through via a long wooden bridge that TURNS OUT in the end is part of a cross leading you to Jesus HIM-OLD-SELF in heaven just-a-waitin' for you to come to the truths. What is awkward is when you have friends or acquaintainces who, say, are in your eighth grade pre-algebra class, who go to this church and have apparently been assigned the unfortunate duty of playing a condemned soul in the Hell scene. And then you look down off the wooden bridge through the fake smoke that smells like purple, through the funky red lighting, and you see that girl that let you borrow her notes last week. Why is she in Hell, you ask? And then you realize that it's all a bunch of hokum, but not before you hug the guy who's pretending to be the Lord and get your complimentary refreshments.)
Anywho.
Being able to spin a story for someone over a beer and refer to a moment in that story where somebody had to have a CTJ with somebody else and having that person just nod knowingly? THAT is life in the south. And that is a big ass "Welcome home!" to me.
cheers y'all,
elizabeth
8.24.2009
on the road again
When I took off from Newark International on Tuesday, it felt good to be heading home but that sense of total closure wasn't quite there. This is probably because just about all of my earthly belongings were stuffed inside a five-by-five unit at the American Self Storage in one of Jersey City's more scenic neighborhoods, waiting for their turn to be rescued from the Garden State and whisked back to the south.
As of this morning, that day is nigh.
Plans for what Holly and I have been referring to as the GART (Great American Road Trip) were made official this morning as I booked the truck we'll be driving to New Jersey and back over Labor Day weekend. It's both exciting and daunting -- I'm looking forward to knowing that I'm totally, 100 percent back in the south, not to mention the bastions of road-tripping we'll enjoy (DQ Blizzards, Big Gulps and adult contemporary hits, to name a few), but I'm definitely intimidated by the 24 hours of driving we're going to undertake in the span of a weekend.
This will, without a doubt, be the farthest I've ever traveled by car as one of the primary drivers. And I know how I am, I always think things like this will be just no big deal, no sweat at all, why are we even talking about this it'll be as easy as a GD James Taylor song. But really, I know that much driving can be exhausting. So I'm mentally preparing, mostly by mentally planning on drinking a lot of coffee and mentally imagining the sugary high I'm going to get off of mass DQ Blizzard consumption. Like I said, mental preparation. It's complicated.
Ultimately, though, intimidating as it is I know we'll have a blast, we'll live to tell about it and we'll both be doing one of our absolute favorite things: traveling. Yeah, it's not to some fancy vacay and our destination is actually the same as our starting point. But nonetheless we'll be traveling through five states, passing tons of little towns and funky stops along the way and seeing parts of this country neither of us has laid eyes on before now. It's an adventure, and I'm psyched to say the least.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go perform an ancient Indian gasoline dance and pray to the gods of price gouging that I don't have to give a Citgo attendant my first-born child to fill up our tank in two weeks. Please, Allah. Please.
cheers,
elizabeth
As of this morning, that day is nigh.
Plans for what Holly and I have been referring to as the GART (Great American Road Trip) were made official this morning as I booked the truck we'll be driving to New Jersey and back over Labor Day weekend. It's both exciting and daunting -- I'm looking forward to knowing that I'm totally, 100 percent back in the south, not to mention the bastions of road-tripping we'll enjoy (DQ Blizzards, Big Gulps and adult contemporary hits, to name a few), but I'm definitely intimidated by the 24 hours of driving we're going to undertake in the span of a weekend.
This will, without a doubt, be the farthest I've ever traveled by car as one of the primary drivers. And I know how I am, I always think things like this will be just no big deal, no sweat at all, why are we even talking about this it'll be as easy as a GD James Taylor song. But really, I know that much driving can be exhausting. So I'm mentally preparing, mostly by mentally planning on drinking a lot of coffee and mentally imagining the sugary high I'm going to get off of mass DQ Blizzard consumption. Like I said, mental preparation. It's complicated.
Ultimately, though, intimidating as it is I know we'll have a blast, we'll live to tell about it and we'll both be doing one of our absolute favorite things: traveling. Yeah, it's not to some fancy vacay and our destination is actually the same as our starting point. But nonetheless we'll be traveling through five states, passing tons of little towns and funky stops along the way and seeing parts of this country neither of us has laid eyes on before now. It's an adventure, and I'm psyched to say the least.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go perform an ancient Indian gasoline dance and pray to the gods of price gouging that I don't have to give a Citgo attendant my first-born child to fill up our tank in two weeks. Please, Allah. Please.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.20.2009
it's make it work time
When I first moved in to my apartment in Jersey City, before we got our wireless set up I would leach internet access off someone in the neighborhood called "Sayed." Well, that was the name of the network that popped up and possibly not an actual person, but in my mind there was a man named Sayed who was my unwitting internet sugar daddy.
In order to get Sayed's wireless to work, though, I had to smush myself basically inside the window frame and sit on top of the radiator in the corner of our kitchen. It didn't work in my bedroom, which was right next to the kitchen, and it didn't work at the kitchen table, which was two feet from the window. Only inside the window, squished next to the pane of glass like some kind of weird modern art installation. Perhaps this is proof that Sayed did, indeed, exist and spent most of his free time watching the silly white lady get all Cirque de Soleil in the window across the street.
Now, I'm home, where there's internet access, but no wireless. I can get on my parents' computer, but most of the time I need access to all the random assorted crap that is saved on my laptop. But! This morning I remembered that once long, long ago, in the before time, I had picked up a random wireless signal from our guest bedroom on the second floor. So I grabbed the laptop, plopped down next to the window and attempted to connect (to a network whose name is far less titilating than Sayed, I must tell you). And VOILA! Let there be light! Or something like that.
I quickly discovered, though, that much like Sayed, this crazy ass stolen internet doesn't want to make life easy for me either. So here I sit, squished up next to the window in the guest bedroom in a very particular position that I have not budged from in the last half an hour because I am superstitiously convinced that the way I'm seated has everything to do with the fact that it hasn't gone out on me in this 30-minute span the way it did when I first connected.
This time, though, there are blinds on the window and they are closed. So my new Sayed internet sugar daddy is getting no jollies whatsoever, thank you very much. I totally win.
cheers,
elizabeth
In order to get Sayed's wireless to work, though, I had to smush myself basically inside the window frame and sit on top of the radiator in the corner of our kitchen. It didn't work in my bedroom, which was right next to the kitchen, and it didn't work at the kitchen table, which was two feet from the window. Only inside the window, squished next to the pane of glass like some kind of weird modern art installation. Perhaps this is proof that Sayed did, indeed, exist and spent most of his free time watching the silly white lady get all Cirque de Soleil in the window across the street.
Now, I'm home, where there's internet access, but no wireless. I can get on my parents' computer, but most of the time I need access to all the random assorted crap that is saved on my laptop. But! This morning I remembered that once long, long ago, in the before time, I had picked up a random wireless signal from our guest bedroom on the second floor. So I grabbed the laptop, plopped down next to the window and attempted to connect (to a network whose name is far less titilating than Sayed, I must tell you). And VOILA! Let there be light! Or something like that.
I quickly discovered, though, that much like Sayed, this crazy ass stolen internet doesn't want to make life easy for me either. So here I sit, squished up next to the window in the guest bedroom in a very particular position that I have not budged from in the last half an hour because I am superstitiously convinced that the way I'm seated has everything to do with the fact that it hasn't gone out on me in this 30-minute span the way it did when I first connected.
This time, though, there are blinds on the window and they are closed. So my new Sayed internet sugar daddy is getting no jollies whatsoever, thank you very much. I totally win.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.17.2009
you can't take it with you
Back when I left London I kept meaning to do a post like this, but in my mind it had so many items in it that it went on and on AND ON for days endlessly and it just seemed to me that no one wanted to read me blurbling on endlessly about how much of an Anglophile I am.
This list, however, will be decidedly more brief.
Things I'll Miss About New York, In No Particular Order
Public Transportation
I love to drive. Love. To. Drive. In fact, there are few things I find more therapeutic than being behind the wheel of a car and blasting my music at a volume that should have damaged my hearing permanently by now. But when you live in a city that provides efficient public transportation, you get to do things like fall asleep on the way home from work, stumble home drunk without killing yourself or anyone else and get caught up on the book you're reading while someone else hauls you in to the city every morning. You also get to opt out of some of life's little annoyances like, say, paying a car note and worrying about insurance rates. And since most train stations require a little walking to and from, you're forced to get up off your ass a tad more than you are in suburban America.
General Abundance of Just About Everything
In most cities, even the bigger ones, you can name the neighborhoods that have the good stuff. Like this neighborhood has good shopping, that neighborhood has good restaurants, etc., etc., so forth and so on. In New York, everywhere has everything. There is a good restaurant on every block. There is a fancy boutique or a great thrift store within spitting distance of everywhere. No matter where you are, uptown, downtown, East side, West side, you can find a fun little dive bar and a place to get homemade ice cream and even a Kosher pizza joint that serves Halal kebabs at 3 in the morning. You want it? We got it. It's like the slogan of A.A. Schwaab's, a famous store full of random crap on Beale Street in Memphis: if you can't find it here, you don't need it.
You Want Fendi, You Want Gucci, You Want Prada?
Don't overthink it. One of the best things about New York is stolen designer handbags, and half the fun is being dragged underneath the Canal Street subway station by a frightening looking Asian man and through a tunnel of underground rooms to barter for them.
Bagels, Pizza and Cheesecake
Do I need to elaborate? I think we've discussed this before.
Being At The Center of Everything
This one's kind of a double-edged sword. I will miss it, sure. But for the past eight or nine months, I've been so poor and so hard up to find a job and so lacking any means to do much of anything that I haven't even been able to experience this intangible quality of the Big Apple. I haven't been able to experience much at all. It's sad to leave, knowing that I do love this city so much, but on the ever-present other hand is my desire to make the center of everything be wherever I am at that moment. I'm tired of feeling like I failed at life because I decided I didn't want to live in New York, the "greatest city on Earth." Maybe the greatest city on Earth isn't so easy to pin down. Maybe it's wherever I am, having adventures, discovering new things and living. Really living. That's my greatest city, that's my center of everything. So maybe I'm not really leaving this one behind, so much as I'm departing to discover it.
It's been real, New York. Don't miss me too much now, you hear?
cheers,
elizabeth
This list, however, will be decidedly more brief.
Things I'll Miss About New York, In No Particular Order
Public Transportation
I love to drive. Love. To. Drive. In fact, there are few things I find more therapeutic than being behind the wheel of a car and blasting my music at a volume that should have damaged my hearing permanently by now. But when you live in a city that provides efficient public transportation, you get to do things like fall asleep on the way home from work, stumble home drunk without killing yourself or anyone else and get caught up on the book you're reading while someone else hauls you in to the city every morning. You also get to opt out of some of life's little annoyances like, say, paying a car note and worrying about insurance rates. And since most train stations require a little walking to and from, you're forced to get up off your ass a tad more than you are in suburban America.
General Abundance of Just About Everything
In most cities, even the bigger ones, you can name the neighborhoods that have the good stuff. Like this neighborhood has good shopping, that neighborhood has good restaurants, etc., etc., so forth and so on. In New York, everywhere has everything. There is a good restaurant on every block. There is a fancy boutique or a great thrift store within spitting distance of everywhere. No matter where you are, uptown, downtown, East side, West side, you can find a fun little dive bar and a place to get homemade ice cream and even a Kosher pizza joint that serves Halal kebabs at 3 in the morning. You want it? We got it. It's like the slogan of A.A. Schwaab's, a famous store full of random crap on Beale Street in Memphis: if you can't find it here, you don't need it.
You Want Fendi, You Want Gucci, You Want Prada?
Don't overthink it. One of the best things about New York is stolen designer handbags, and half the fun is being dragged underneath the Canal Street subway station by a frightening looking Asian man and through a tunnel of underground rooms to barter for them.
Bagels, Pizza and Cheesecake
Do I need to elaborate? I think we've discussed this before.
Being At The Center of Everything
This one's kind of a double-edged sword. I will miss it, sure. But for the past eight or nine months, I've been so poor and so hard up to find a job and so lacking any means to do much of anything that I haven't even been able to experience this intangible quality of the Big Apple. I haven't been able to experience much at all. It's sad to leave, knowing that I do love this city so much, but on the ever-present other hand is my desire to make the center of everything be wherever I am at that moment. I'm tired of feeling like I failed at life because I decided I didn't want to live in New York, the "greatest city on Earth." Maybe the greatest city on Earth isn't so easy to pin down. Maybe it's wherever I am, having adventures, discovering new things and living. Really living. That's my greatest city, that's my center of everything. So maybe I'm not really leaving this one behind, so much as I'm departing to discover it.
It's been real, New York. Don't miss me too much now, you hear?
cheers,
elizabeth
8.16.2009
in which the nomadic lifestyle catches up with me
For the record, I am SO over moving. And packing. And cleaning. And organizing. And things that generally involve figuring something out. And I think I was almost eaten by a dust bunny this morning.
I sold my bed frame and mattress and my biggest book shelf, which means less stuff to store and an extra $40 in my pocket. Of course, it also means sitting here by my e-mail and phone all afternoon waiting for my buyers to let me know they're on their way, which is a tad bit annoying. Especially when everything I own is basically packed except for dirty laundry, a stolen grocery basket and a box of tampons. Oh, and the dust bunnies. Can't forget those.
So I'm watching old episodes of 30 Rock and Arrested Development that I have seen an inappropriate amount of times to admit on the internet and counting down the minutes til this is all over. Which, in case you were counting, too, is Tuesday when I board a plane to Memphis at 3:25 p.m.
Tomorrow in celebration of my time here in New York, I'm going to write a little homage to all the things I'll miss about living here. It might be a quick read.
cheers,
elizabeth
I sold my bed frame and mattress and my biggest book shelf, which means less stuff to store and an extra $40 in my pocket. Of course, it also means sitting here by my e-mail and phone all afternoon waiting for my buyers to let me know they're on their way, which is a tad bit annoying. Especially when everything I own is basically packed except for dirty laundry, a stolen grocery basket and a box of tampons. Oh, and the dust bunnies. Can't forget those.
So I'm watching old episodes of 30 Rock and Arrested Development that I have seen an inappropriate amount of times to admit on the internet and counting down the minutes til this is all over. Which, in case you were counting, too, is Tuesday when I board a plane to Memphis at 3:25 p.m.
Tomorrow in celebration of my time here in New York, I'm going to write a little homage to all the things I'll miss about living here. It might be a quick read.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.13.2009
thursday soundbites, no. 19
Like much of the music I've been rabidly obsessed with over the past several months, I first discovered Passion Pit while working at The Tripwire, when I did a little news blurb on their recording session with the famous choral kiddos at Staten Island's PS22 Choir.Fast forward a few months to present day and that recording session -- for the songs "Little Secrets" and "The Reeling" -- produced two of the many Passion Pit songs I cannot get out of my head or stop rotating on my iPod.
The music itself is hard to categorize, which perhaps makes me like it even more. It's synth, it's lyrical, it's pop, it's indie, there's a lot happening. But my favorite thing about it right now, at this particular moment in my life, is that it makes me feel good. These are my feel-good jams, August 2009. Topping the feel-good list are the aforementioned "Little Secrets" and another tune called "Better Things" which I cannot help but groove to, no matter where I am when it comes up on shuffle. Enjoy. (Oh, and -- you can check out the video of the guys in the studio with the PS22 gang here.)
Passion Pit - "Little Secrets"
Passion Pit - "Better Things"
cheers,
elizabeth
8.12.2009
a royal adieu from jersey city
In steady keeping with its slogan, "Jersey City: You just never know," this fine municipality bid me farewell on Monday morning by pulling out all the stops. Or really, just pulling it out.
10 o'clock Monday morning. I'm on my way back to my apartment, having just made a quick trip to the Goodwill to drop off two big bags of old clothes. I'm walking down Bergen Ave., minding my business, as I see a particularly thugged-out guy walking toward me. His jeans are baggy and his boxer shorts are all jacked up and he's got his hand all up in his shirt like he's in a music video showing off his six pack.
We're coming up to a cross-walk, and he's walking fairly nearby to two older ladies who seem to know each other but not him. I had given them all the cursory once-over, but my eyes had landed on this guy for just a split second longer because, well, his jeans just seemed TOO baggy and his boxers were up unusually high. It caught my eye.
And then something else caught my eye, and burned itself into my retinas, scorched my corneas and will NEVER GO AWAY. EVER. It's what I see behind my eyelids when I try to sleep at night. Okay, kidding on that last part. But the image is pretty much emblazoned in my mind, because he was out. All of him. All three bits, out, waving, thanking me for my stay in Jersey City and wishing me well on any future endeavors.
I'm sure my face went all screwy as soon as I realized just what I was looking at, and even though I had on sunglasses I KNOW he could tell because he almost instantly took his hand from his shirt and let it hang back down over his boxers. It was quite the adieu bid to me from this fine, fine city, and quite a way to start a Monday morning. But as I said to Holly almost immediately afterward, at least he didn't try to touch me with it. Silver lining, people. Silver lining.
cheers,
elizabeth
10 o'clock Monday morning. I'm on my way back to my apartment, having just made a quick trip to the Goodwill to drop off two big bags of old clothes. I'm walking down Bergen Ave., minding my business, as I see a particularly thugged-out guy walking toward me. His jeans are baggy and his boxer shorts are all jacked up and he's got his hand all up in his shirt like he's in a music video showing off his six pack.
We're coming up to a cross-walk, and he's walking fairly nearby to two older ladies who seem to know each other but not him. I had given them all the cursory once-over, but my eyes had landed on this guy for just a split second longer because, well, his jeans just seemed TOO baggy and his boxers were up unusually high. It caught my eye.
And then something else caught my eye, and burned itself into my retinas, scorched my corneas and will NEVER GO AWAY. EVER. It's what I see behind my eyelids when I try to sleep at night. Okay, kidding on that last part. But the image is pretty much emblazoned in my mind, because he was out. All of him. All three bits, out, waving, thanking me for my stay in Jersey City and wishing me well on any future endeavors.
I'm sure my face went all screwy as soon as I realized just what I was looking at, and even though I had on sunglasses I KNOW he could tell because he almost instantly took his hand from his shirt and let it hang back down over his boxers. It was quite the adieu bid to me from this fine, fine city, and quite a way to start a Monday morning. But as I said to Holly almost immediately afterward, at least he didn't try to touch me with it. Silver lining, people. Silver lining.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.11.2009
and how did that make you FEEL?
So. The exit interviews. After a week's worth of posts digging through relationships past and unearthing all the memories, good and bad, you'd think I would've come up with something profound to say about all of it. How it made me feel. Something deep. About feelings.
And while this has definitely been a revelatory project -- the fact that I even went through with it was pretty self-revelatory all on its own -- it didn't really get to me on any deep, emotional level or inspire some kind of dating epiphany. Or at least, it hasn't yet. Right now my brain is in a million places, and at least 600,000 or so of those are located at various points throughout my apartment, including (but not limited to) the dust bunnies under the bed that need to be routed out of their hovel, the clothes that still need to be packed in the closet and the sticky tack that needs to be scraped off the walls.
I'm just a little distracted at the moment. Because -- have I mentioned this? -- I'm moving home a week from today.
I've spent almost my entire life planning my escape from Memphis, and a healthy chunk of that planning my life in New York. Accepting that this actually isn't so much where I want to be was really difficult. It felt like I was failing, though even I wasn't quite sure at what. But when I started to think (quite recently) that I really wouldn't mind living in Memphis, that took some SERIOUS time to wrap my brain around. Not in New York is one thing. But me? Living. In Memphis. Wha?
And really, I don't know what's going to happen in the next few weeks. There are a lot of different cities that I would consider living in, should job opportunities arise there. But ideally? Here I go, admitting this for the first time in published writing: I think I want to stay in Memphis. At least for the time being.
When the whole exit interview project began and the responses started flowing in, I was pleasantly surprised by some trends I saw emerging. My favorite one is that they all mentioned our conversation in one way or another as being one of the best things about our relationship. With as much as I've scrutinized my dating patterns in the past few months, accusing myself of metamorphosing for each different partner and becoming some different version of me, I realized that's not entirely true. I have been myself. My verbose, creative, outgoing self.
And the rest of it, all the stuff we had in common back then that maybe isn't so true now? It's like living in Memphis. If you'd told me three years ago that I'd be writing those sentiments on this blog, I would've laughed at you. But now, I'd say it's much needed proof that I am still getting to know myself.
Now, back to packing.
cheers,
elizabeth
And while this has definitely been a revelatory project -- the fact that I even went through with it was pretty self-revelatory all on its own -- it didn't really get to me on any deep, emotional level or inspire some kind of dating epiphany. Or at least, it hasn't yet. Right now my brain is in a million places, and at least 600,000 or so of those are located at various points throughout my apartment, including (but not limited to) the dust bunnies under the bed that need to be routed out of their hovel, the clothes that still need to be packed in the closet and the sticky tack that needs to be scraped off the walls.
I'm just a little distracted at the moment. Because -- have I mentioned this? -- I'm moving home a week from today.
I've spent almost my entire life planning my escape from Memphis, and a healthy chunk of that planning my life in New York. Accepting that this actually isn't so much where I want to be was really difficult. It felt like I was failing, though even I wasn't quite sure at what. But when I started to think (quite recently) that I really wouldn't mind living in Memphis, that took some SERIOUS time to wrap my brain around. Not in New York is one thing. But me? Living. In Memphis. Wha?
And really, I don't know what's going to happen in the next few weeks. There are a lot of different cities that I would consider living in, should job opportunities arise there. But ideally? Here I go, admitting this for the first time in published writing: I think I want to stay in Memphis. At least for the time being.
When the whole exit interview project began and the responses started flowing in, I was pleasantly surprised by some trends I saw emerging. My favorite one is that they all mentioned our conversation in one way or another as being one of the best things about our relationship. With as much as I've scrutinized my dating patterns in the past few months, accusing myself of metamorphosing for each different partner and becoming some different version of me, I realized that's not entirely true. I have been myself. My verbose, creative, outgoing self.
And the rest of it, all the stuff we had in common back then that maybe isn't so true now? It's like living in Memphis. If you'd told me three years ago that I'd be writing those sentiments on this blog, I would've laughed at you. But now, I'd say it's much needed proof that I am still getting to know myself.
Now, back to packing.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.10.2009
Boyfriend No. 5
Meet Boyfriend No. 5. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know him better as Adorable English Boyfriend or, in the more colloquial, the AEB. I'll likely switch back and forth between that and his real name, Ed, just to keep you on your toes.
Back in February of last year, the AEB had the misfortune of sitting down next to me at the birthday party of a mutual friend. Being fabulous and taken to themes, Pete had deemed this birthday bash to be a "Dead Celebrities" party; I had come as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and was drinking straight from a bottle of red wine like a good Catholic girl. When Ed arrived at the party and grabbed the empty spot on the couch next to me I think I was about halfway through the bottle and took to his cute little face like it was the first cute little face I had ever seen. Ever. Fast forward to the next morning and I'm doing the walk of shame through campus in high heels and pearls, my hair still (somehow) perfectly coifed.
In the end we were together for just about a year, and in fact only just really ended things in January. It's probably fair to say I'm not entirely over this one just yet. Obviously distance was a major factor in our break-up -- being so far away from each other and still pretending it was truly a relationship just didn't seem fair to anyone involved. But when we were on the same continent, things were good. And (in that aforementioned grand tradition of glossing over the bad bits) really, really happy.
In all of our transcontinental-ness, Ed made two trips to the states (his first EVER was to Memphis, Tennessee, if you can imagine that), both of us met each others' respective parental and family units AND he can count himself among the lucky ones to have met (and loved on) the late, great Biscuit dog. There was quite a time there where I fancied myself moving to England permanently and really digging my heels in to this relationship. And though I do now regret (almost daily) not staying in London longer, I think part of the reason I chose to come back to the states was my fear of another Boyfriend No. 4 debacle. I'm scared of making decisions based on other people, because I worry that I'll immediately want to be rid of them, and there I'll be. Stuck.
So I came home. Ed came to see me in New York and about a month later, we called it quits. His answers were undoubtedly the hardest for me to read, and in my mind, the most unexpected. Here's the AEB's exit interview.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
Yes. We 'met' at the performance of the Vagina Monologues you took part in at Brunel. After helping organise the show with Sarah I passed the whole thing on to Rob so I didn't have to be there, but went along to help set up on the show night anyway. I think I came over to you and Sarah to help you tape up the banner and you let me take over, then stood there chatting with Sarah while I tried to tape it up by myself. Not the best first impression, but at least I remembered it - when we next met you didn't realise we had before!
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Fun but rough.
3. Did we have "a song"? What was it?
I don't think so, I mean there was never one song that defined us, but we shared a lot of music for the entire course of our relationship, like the Talking Heads, Bright Eyes and Iron & Wine.
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
A combination of many things. Partly that you chose to leave the UK and the distance was too much, partly a lack of understanding of each other on both our parts, and partly me being a little bit on the fucking-nuts end of the scale.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
We laughed, we shared a lot of interests, we both have the same lack of boundaries when it comes to personal issues and privacy, so it was always very easy being intimate or relaxed together. I only once felt embarrassed in front of you, and never changed my personality to fit with some ideal I imagined you have - possibly to the detriment of our relationship in the end. We both have faults that became apparent during our relationship but certainly before you first went back to the states they never affected how we were together.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
Your constant need to be right, and your anger at everything that went wrong that was out of your control. I've never been a high-stress person, thing just roll off me, but you are the opposite. Temperature, the wind, silly things I never noticed annoyed you, and because I never noticed them in the first place it annoyed me when you got wound up by them.
7. Did I hurt you?
Yes. I'd never been in a relationship where my own failings were made so obvious to me, or where things I did wrong were such a big deal. It hurt that you managed to pin point specific areas where I had fucked up when we broke up, and finding out someone I loved could be like that was a shock to me.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
Ummm, really? You burped within the first 20 minutes of us meeting the second time and pretty much every bodily function you can imagine became open territory pretty quickly, but that didn't really phase me. As I've already said - one of the best things was that we share the same philosophy on that sort of thing. You never once grossed me out and with only a few possible exceptions I never grossed you out. It made it easy to get along.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
I've never been a person that plays the short game - I always look into the long term and if I can't see someone fitting into that I won't waste my time on a relationship with them. So sure, I toyed with the idea, in fact I took it quite seriously, but only because I believe heavily in self fulfilling prophecies and wanted to take our relationship in a way that might have made it last.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I learned to look after my own self interests more. I spent a lot of time worrying about you that turns out to have been wasted time. Since we broke up I've tried to be more interested in me, the result of which is that even though I won't go out of my way to do something nice for me instead of someone else, I will actually think about what will be best for me. My dating philosophy is unchanged - girlfriends should be a good thing, if they just hurt you or make you unhappy then it's a waste of time, but I'm more prepared to live by it now.
Back in February of last year, the AEB had the misfortune of sitting down next to me at the birthday party of a mutual friend. Being fabulous and taken to themes, Pete had deemed this birthday bash to be a "Dead Celebrities" party; I had come as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and was drinking straight from a bottle of red wine like a good Catholic girl. When Ed arrived at the party and grabbed the empty spot on the couch next to me I think I was about halfway through the bottle and took to his cute little face like it was the first cute little face I had ever seen. Ever. Fast forward to the next morning and I'm doing the walk of shame through campus in high heels and pearls, my hair still (somehow) perfectly coifed.
In the end we were together for just about a year, and in fact only just really ended things in January. It's probably fair to say I'm not entirely over this one just yet. Obviously distance was a major factor in our break-up -- being so far away from each other and still pretending it was truly a relationship just didn't seem fair to anyone involved. But when we were on the same continent, things were good. And (in that aforementioned grand tradition of glossing over the bad bits) really, really happy.
In all of our transcontinental-ness, Ed made two trips to the states (his first EVER was to Memphis, Tennessee, if you can imagine that), both of us met each others' respective parental and family units AND he can count himself among the lucky ones to have met (and loved on) the late, great Biscuit dog. There was quite a time there where I fancied myself moving to England permanently and really digging my heels in to this relationship. And though I do now regret (almost daily) not staying in London longer, I think part of the reason I chose to come back to the states was my fear of another Boyfriend No. 4 debacle. I'm scared of making decisions based on other people, because I worry that I'll immediately want to be rid of them, and there I'll be. Stuck.
So I came home. Ed came to see me in New York and about a month later, we called it quits. His answers were undoubtedly the hardest for me to read, and in my mind, the most unexpected. Here's the AEB's exit interview.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
Yes. We 'met' at the performance of the Vagina Monologues you took part in at Brunel. After helping organise the show with Sarah I passed the whole thing on to Rob so I didn't have to be there, but went along to help set up on the show night anyway. I think I came over to you and Sarah to help you tape up the banner and you let me take over, then stood there chatting with Sarah while I tried to tape it up by myself. Not the best first impression, but at least I remembered it - when we next met you didn't realise we had before!
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Fun but rough.
3. Did we have "a song"? What was it?
I don't think so, I mean there was never one song that defined us, but we shared a lot of music for the entire course of our relationship, like the Talking Heads, Bright Eyes and Iron & Wine.
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
A combination of many things. Partly that you chose to leave the UK and the distance was too much, partly a lack of understanding of each other on both our parts, and partly me being a little bit on the fucking-nuts end of the scale.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
We laughed, we shared a lot of interests, we both have the same lack of boundaries when it comes to personal issues and privacy, so it was always very easy being intimate or relaxed together. I only once felt embarrassed in front of you, and never changed my personality to fit with some ideal I imagined you have - possibly to the detriment of our relationship in the end. We both have faults that became apparent during our relationship but certainly before you first went back to the states they never affected how we were together.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
Your constant need to be right, and your anger at everything that went wrong that was out of your control. I've never been a high-stress person, thing just roll off me, but you are the opposite. Temperature, the wind, silly things I never noticed annoyed you, and because I never noticed them in the first place it annoyed me when you got wound up by them.
7. Did I hurt you?
Yes. I'd never been in a relationship where my own failings were made so obvious to me, or where things I did wrong were such a big deal. It hurt that you managed to pin point specific areas where I had fucked up when we broke up, and finding out someone I loved could be like that was a shock to me.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
Ummm, really? You burped within the first 20 minutes of us meeting the second time and pretty much every bodily function you can imagine became open territory pretty quickly, but that didn't really phase me. As I've already said - one of the best things was that we share the same philosophy on that sort of thing. You never once grossed me out and with only a few possible exceptions I never grossed you out. It made it easy to get along.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
I've never been a person that plays the short game - I always look into the long term and if I can't see someone fitting into that I won't waste my time on a relationship with them. So sure, I toyed with the idea, in fact I took it quite seriously, but only because I believe heavily in self fulfilling prophecies and wanted to take our relationship in a way that might have made it last.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I learned to look after my own self interests more. I spent a lot of time worrying about you that turns out to have been wasted time. Since we broke up I've tried to be more interested in me, the result of which is that even though I won't go out of my way to do something nice for me instead of someone else, I will actually think about what will be best for me. My dating philosophy is unchanged - girlfriends should be a good thing, if they just hurt you or make you unhappy then it's a waste of time, but I'm more prepared to live by it now.
8.09.2009
Boyfriend No. 4
Meet Boyfriend No. 4. Surprise! As you might recall from my introductory post about this whole project, I was expecting to post only four exit interviews, skipping this very boyfriend right here. I hadn't heard from him, didn't expect to hear from him and was in fact SHOCKED when his name appeared in my inbox on the day Boyfriend No. 1's interview went live.
Apparently a mutual acquaintance had sent him a text asking if he was going to be featured, and since he had no idea what this person was talking about he checked out the blog and then checked a rarely used e-mail account, suspecting that was where I'd sent his interview. We e-mailed back and forth a couple of times, I swore up and down I would not use his name, and he sent me back his answers. Ironically this interview displays the most brevity of any of them when our relationship was one of the most, well, heavy-hitting in (I think I can safely say) both of our lives. Let's just say the last time we spoke wasn't exactly on fabulous terms.
Anywho. I knew of Boyfriend No. 4 in the way that you "know of" people who are involved on campus from the time I was a freshman. I later realized that the time we both spent working at The News did overlap slightly in those first weeks of my freshman year, but I don't ever remember formally meeting him then. He held offices in a few campus organizations that were featured semi-regularly in the paper, so I knew his face and his name and had put his words in quotation marks before but that was about it.
One night during the fall semester of my senior year, I'm out at a neighborhood bar with my best friend Jenny and our pal Adrienne, having a Blue Moon and shooting the shit. Next thing I know, Boyfriend No. 4 plops down in the extra chair at our table and starts chatting us up. Jenny and Adrienne both thought we were about to be assaulted, since they had no idea I knew who this guy was. He was drunk, and flirted heavily for a while, wrote us a haiku on a coaster and went on his merry way. The next day I had a Facebook friend request and a message saying we should go out some time. I believe my exact response was "I could be talked into that."
When we got back to school the next semester, a very good mutual friend aided and abetted the whole thing and soon enough we were an item. The relationship moved and grew FAST. Very fast. We vacationed in Florida with his parents at Spring Break, we took trips to Memphis to see my folks, we talked about marriage. We even planned for him to go to London with me and for the two of us to live there together while I got my master's. That plan, obviously, was later scrapped. (By me.)
We moved in together after we graduated and lived in Murray that summer; that's when things started to crumble. We had really just moved WAY too fast, and it was coming back to bite us. Me, in particular, as I started to feel suffocated by the weight of things. The relationship ended just before I left for London in 2007, which would've been early September. When I realize how short the whole affair really was, I can only shake my head at how emotionally invested I was in just a few months. In the end our break-up was spurred on by some other circumstances which I won't go into here for fear of writing a novel; here's what Boyfriend No. 4 himself had to say.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
Apparently a mutual acquaintance had sent him a text asking if he was going to be featured, and since he had no idea what this person was talking about he checked out the blog and then checked a rarely used e-mail account, suspecting that was where I'd sent his interview. We e-mailed back and forth a couple of times, I swore up and down I would not use his name, and he sent me back his answers. Ironically this interview displays the most brevity of any of them when our relationship was one of the most, well, heavy-hitting in (I think I can safely say) both of our lives. Let's just say the last time we spoke wasn't exactly on fabulous terms.
Anywho. I knew of Boyfriend No. 4 in the way that you "know of" people who are involved on campus from the time I was a freshman. I later realized that the time we both spent working at The News did overlap slightly in those first weeks of my freshman year, but I don't ever remember formally meeting him then. He held offices in a few campus organizations that were featured semi-regularly in the paper, so I knew his face and his name and had put his words in quotation marks before but that was about it.
One night during the fall semester of my senior year, I'm out at a neighborhood bar with my best friend Jenny and our pal Adrienne, having a Blue Moon and shooting the shit. Next thing I know, Boyfriend No. 4 plops down in the extra chair at our table and starts chatting us up. Jenny and Adrienne both thought we were about to be assaulted, since they had no idea I knew who this guy was. He was drunk, and flirted heavily for a while, wrote us a haiku on a coaster and went on his merry way. The next day I had a Facebook friend request and a message saying we should go out some time. I believe my exact response was "I could be talked into that."
When we got back to school the next semester, a very good mutual friend aided and abetted the whole thing and soon enough we were an item. The relationship moved and grew FAST. Very fast. We vacationed in Florida with his parents at Spring Break, we took trips to Memphis to see my folks, we talked about marriage. We even planned for him to go to London with me and for the two of us to live there together while I got my master's. That plan, obviously, was later scrapped. (By me.)
We moved in together after we graduated and lived in Murray that summer; that's when things started to crumble. We had really just moved WAY too fast, and it was coming back to bite us. Me, in particular, as I started to feel suffocated by the weight of things. The relationship ended just before I left for London in 2007, which would've been early September. When I realize how short the whole affair really was, I can only shake my head at how emotionally invested I was in just a few months. In the end our break-up was spurred on by some other circumstances which I won't go into here for fear of writing a novel; here's what Boyfriend No. 4 himself had to say.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
Loud, outgoing and confident.
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Weird....didn't I just use three words in the first question? I would say: fun, accelerated, educational
3. Did we have a "song"? What was it?
3. Did we have a "song"? What was it?
Not sure if it was "official," but I would say "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
Probably my insecurities and your "wanting cake and eat it too" mentality
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
The laughter.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
You were always better than me....in everything. And you never let me forget it.
7. Did I hurt you?
7. Did I hurt you?
One decision hurt me, yes. But overall, no.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
Yes. And this would probably be response No. 2 for question No. 5 (no pun intended on the No. 2 part)
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
Somewhat, yes, which was a mistake. Too quick. This may also be a factor for why the relationship ended.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I learned to slow down and enjoy the moment, rather than always be looking ahead and worrying about stuff you can't control.
8.08.2009
Boyfriend No. 3
Meet Boyfriend No. 3. Weirdly, before we actually met in person I remember believing -- because I'd heard it on some drunken clown-car-like ride through the Arby's drive through for roast beef sandwiches at 2 in the morning -- that Jon did not like me. Was this ridiculous? Since we'd never met, probably. But it did make for interesting conversation the night we did finally meet, out for a drink with a mutual friend who was visiting Murray and thus on limited time. We were sharing him.
After we got past this dirty rumor, we hit it off pretty much immediately. Other than my decision to drink three ice cream-based alcoholic beverages that evening and thus be constipated AND hungover the next day, it was a great first meeting. We started seeing each other shortly after that, and our relationship took off in a fairly insane manner because we were both working at The Murray State News. Making things a little more Awkward Town, population two, was the fact that I was his boss.
Nonetheless, dating him was fun. Because of that great thing about time passing where you can gloss over the bad stuff, I pretty much remember just that -- having a LOT of fun. We drank beer, we ate (his) amazing hot wing pizza and we made impromptu trips to Kentucky Lake in the middle of the night. It was another shortlived affair, with us only being "official" from September through around the end of November of 2006. But again, enough from me. He can tell you the rest.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
dinner with chris hodes at applebees. I thought you were quite witty and quick with it too. Immediately we had quite a bit to talk about , probably still do. and obviously I found you attractive, can i say you have a nice rack on here?
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Both gave tremendously.
3. Did we have "a song"? What was it?
I don't think we had a song. If we did I was never told it was "our song"
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
We were strained by being in the same employment. We had our time apart but it wasn't enough. The immediate merging of our relationship and workplace was the downfall before it had a chance. I was a needy asshole who wanted more attention.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
Conversations about music, disagreements about music, good food, singing in cars. It was a good time for sure.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
Most annoying thing during our relationship: umm.. really i remember good things but if i think of something that severely annoyed me during the relationship ill tell you.
Thing i found out about after it was all over: the fake orgasms. but that was kind of funny too since it wasn't just me.
7. Did I hurt you?
Yes. But not in an "I'll never forgive you, you bitch." way. It was initially but thinking about the way our lives were situated and all the stresses on the relationship I can see now it was a right place wrong time kind of relationship.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
Yeah. You have to be comfortable around somebody you're in a relationship with. I mean I have crohns disease, i was probably in the bathroom for a good third of our relationship. Bodily functions are something I have to be comfortable with.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
Yes. It was definitely a thought. It may not have been 100% serious thought but I think everyone at some point and time looks at who they're with and examines whether or not they could be a suitable spouse. It came across my thoughts more than once though.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
It matured my approach to a relationship quite a bit. I learned alot about myself from the standpoint of what I needed and what i wanted out of a girlfriend. I was completely infatuated with you to the point that I was greedy about your attention and tried to catch myself when I started to exert to much energy to impose myself into your daily life. I'm alot more honest with myself about relationships now.
After we got past this dirty rumor, we hit it off pretty much immediately. Other than my decision to drink three ice cream-based alcoholic beverages that evening and thus be constipated AND hungover the next day, it was a great first meeting. We started seeing each other shortly after that, and our relationship took off in a fairly insane manner because we were both working at The Murray State News. Making things a little more Awkward Town, population two, was the fact that I was his boss.
Nonetheless, dating him was fun. Because of that great thing about time passing where you can gloss over the bad stuff, I pretty much remember just that -- having a LOT of fun. We drank beer, we ate (his) amazing hot wing pizza and we made impromptu trips to Kentucky Lake in the middle of the night. It was another shortlived affair, with us only being "official" from September through around the end of November of 2006. But again, enough from me. He can tell you the rest.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
dinner with chris hodes at applebees. I thought you were quite witty and quick with it too. Immediately we had quite a bit to talk about , probably still do. and obviously I found you attractive, can i say you have a nice rack on here?
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Both gave tremendously.
3. Did we have "a song"? What was it?
I don't think we had a song. If we did I was never told it was "our song"
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
We were strained by being in the same employment. We had our time apart but it wasn't enough. The immediate merging of our relationship and workplace was the downfall before it had a chance. I was a needy asshole who wanted more attention.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
Conversations about music, disagreements about music, good food, singing in cars. It was a good time for sure.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
Most annoying thing during our relationship: umm.. really i remember good things but if i think of something that severely annoyed me during the relationship ill tell you.
Thing i found out about after it was all over: the fake orgasms. but that was kind of funny too since it wasn't just me.
7. Did I hurt you?
Yes. But not in an "I'll never forgive you, you bitch." way. It was initially but thinking about the way our lives were situated and all the stresses on the relationship I can see now it was a right place wrong time kind of relationship.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
Yeah. You have to be comfortable around somebody you're in a relationship with. I mean I have crohns disease, i was probably in the bathroom for a good third of our relationship. Bodily functions are something I have to be comfortable with.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
Yes. It was definitely a thought. It may not have been 100% serious thought but I think everyone at some point and time looks at who they're with and examines whether or not they could be a suitable spouse. It came across my thoughts more than once though.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
It matured my approach to a relationship quite a bit. I learned alot about myself from the standpoint of what I needed and what i wanted out of a girlfriend. I was completely infatuated with you to the point that I was greedy about your attention and tried to catch myself when I started to exert to much energy to impose myself into your daily life. I'm alot more honest with myself about relationships now.
8.07.2009
Boyfriend No. 2
Meet Boyfriend No. 2. His name is James, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I was cuh-RAZY about James from the first time we engaged in conversation, back in high school when we were both at a college prep program at Murray State. (The reason I ultimately attended, of course. The program, that is. Not James. I wasn't in quite that deep.) We hung out a lot in our freshman year, as my crush grew wildly and exponentially like some kind of creeping vine with a life of its own. But things happened. He was aloof and hard to read. And also, a boy. And I, ever the 19-year-old girl, thought I was giving all these "signals" and "signs" and that he should know that I liked him by now and DAMMIT WHY HASN'T HE ASKED FOR MY HAND IN MARRIAGE YET.
Anywho. After I broke up with Boyfriend No. 1 in April of 2005, I was at a Hughes Street party (Hughes St. being a street just off campus where there is a house where there are residents who for as long as I can remember have been members of the music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha, and thrown killer parties) celebrating both the annual Hughes Street occasion "Halloween II" and the 21st birthday of my best friend Jenny. Jenny, Holly and I had come to the party dressed as Winos, because what other costume allows you to dress in your normal clothes (read: look cute) and drink from three-liter bottles of wine in paper bags?
At this party James and I had a drunken heart-to-heart of sorts, kissed and the rest is -- well, I'll let him tell you. We dated from around that time up until late October of that year, and then we dated off and on all that next spring and dabbled a little over the next summer. The first summer we were together I spent in London doing my study abroad, which he alludes to here; it was a tough time to be apart and is probably very responsible for a lot of the issues we faced early in our relationship. But why am I still talking? Here's what James had to say.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
I'd say so. I believe it was one of the first nights of Commonwealth Honors Academy, so for the people playing the home version that would be the summer of 2002. Anyways, it was a closed-campus sort of community system and on this particular night the prearranged entertainment was a viewing of the movie "Life is Beautiful." Up to that moment I honestly hadn't paid much attention but I ended up in some sort of cloud of people walking to the Curris Center that included you and another girl who you had already made pretty fast friends with (see how I'm avoiding giving an incorrect name?). I was quite surprised how openly you spoke about things, even if it were slightly vulgar. I really can't recall too many people with that same quality, where they can bounce from topic to topic almost like a savvy AD&D. Can I say bouncy for short?
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Short. Educational. Limited.
Despite how long it may have seemed or the impact that either of us may have had on the other, the truth is that the time we had to spend with one another was a cursed affair to deal with. By our unfortunate circumstances, it all began at the end of the semester, and the summer was all but nixed out due to your time out of the area, then it cut short in what, late October of that same year? I'd say educational because honestly at the time that we dated I didn't have a realistic vision of what I wanted to achieve in a relationship; after some bad experiences at the end of high school I really had convinced myself that college wasn't for a serious, honest relationship so in our relationship (or rather, immediately after) I learned that someone has to put their best foot forward and put all their weight on that foot so to speak. Finally, limited because of the availability during the relationship; of course it wasn't able to be helped, but I always felt like I was working on a relationship in borrowed time, such as 2-3 AM breaks by the music building or one day a weekend being the limit of time given. In retrospect I'm sure that I rejoiced in such a situation as it allowed me to remain rather flighty, and if I were a man in a position where I were taking it seriously I'm sure it would have worn on me heavily.
3. Did we have "a song"? What was it?
Certainly, and I think there might be a modicum of agreement. I remember once on my ratty old couch in my dormitory we were watching TV and the video for Bright Eyes' "First Day of my Life" came on and it was a powerful song for the moment that I think both people honed in on. I really hate the idea of "songs" belonging to someone but for some reason there's a visceral connection between that song and the relationship/person.
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
Lack of time committed on both ends and my own lack of attempts to make that time more worthwhile or to extend it. I really hadn't placed much value on the relationship at the time and as I mentioned before in a previous question, I really was doing the hokey-pokey on devotion with one foot in. In addition, I was pretty stubborn regarding expressing myself and I'm sure that was in no small part contributory.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
Conversation, definitely. It's not very common that you find someone who you can bounce strange, pop-culture inspired statements off of and jump from musician to film director to shoes in just a few minutes' time. I loved the talking and moreso I liked that in the relationship when in conversation, when it got really interesting (as it often did) I would be a lucid, wholly honest individual with a reduced filter between his brain and his lips, and in those moments I felt the better for it.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
I suppose if you want you can chalk this up to a certain level of paranoia, but I never felt invited in, so to speak. I would typically feel like an oddity, like some sort of child who was occasionally checked in on to make sure he hadn't stumbled into trouble. Due to Racer Band and the MSU Musical Department, we had many mutual friends. However, as your sorority wasn't involved in that department aside from a few who were music majors, you had an extended area to explore. I can't recall ever being distinctly invited to meet these additional friends and instead, because we already knew most of the same people on my end, I always felt like I was subjected to tales about people who were somehow better than me, as if they were so precious that their existence couldn't be shared with me beyond a few sentences or references to inside jokes. Again, it's probably my insecurity poking out, but that's the first thing that I can think of. To find a second thing that annoyed me is a stretch.
7. Did I hurt you?
Hurt is a pretty malleable word. In the short term, was I hurt? Probably not; probably because of my lack of long-term memory retention won't let me be committal, and not because I didn't feel any right to be hurt; after all, if I recall it was my own stubbornness and inability to express myself, my wants, and needs which led to the downfall. In the long term? I suppose I was. Although I suppose it shouldn't be considered a relationship at all in the structure of this interview, I certainly felt hurt while relieved at the time when I recieved the e-mail/message that it just wasn't going to work in giving us another bit of the 'ol College try. In a way it was more frustration that I had finally put myself "out there," which I recall was one of the core reasons of the original break up, and I had achieved nothing after a summer of pining and anticipating while you were elsewhere.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
'Ya know, I can't for the life of me recall when either of these things happened. I'm sure they did, and if I had to randomly venture a guess as to when it happened, I'd almost bet that you did it within the first two weeks of knowing me while at CHA when we were in high school, given that at the time we were good conversational friends and I, alas, was seeing someone.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
Well I guess without going too far into details of the time and place and all the hard facts, and acknowledging that there was a time after the initial relationship when we were seeing each other occasionally but certainly not in a relationship, the answer would be no and yes. As it could probably be determined from previous questions, during the relationship itself I was immature and really didn't put a lot of thought into the future. At the time this was just someone who I loved spending time with and so it seemed like a gross error to not be dating her. After I sobered up from my freshman thinking? Most certainly. Somewhere around my junior year of college (a bit late, I suppose), I realized that it wasn't always appropriate to let my base instincts be my primary impetus for relationships and instead I should endeavor to not date anyone that I could not see myself marrying, even far into the future. At that time I definitely had those thoughts, although with your goals and my intended education I didn't know when that would be possible. I just knew that before it all went awry, I was willing to change my plans and figure it all out. I've long sustained since then that my idea for marriage is someone who I don't mind seeing every single morning and night (and many in-betweens), can push my buttons the right way to avoid seeing me pop a vein, and of course has a sufficiently strong sexual attraction to me and vice versa. Did I think, once I had mentally sobered myself, that these things all applied? Most certainly.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I did say the relationship was educational for a reason. I learned that if you're going to enter into a relationship, if one person is serious, you better be willing to go all-in yourself. On the other hand, I also think that the original relationship left me with a better concept of how hard dating in a professional world may be with dates tucked into pockets of time between meetings and deadlines. And finally, it helped me form a more coherent image for the future of who my ideal partner would be. As far as my dating philosophy, unfortunately it probably affected it negatively as I had become spoiled by things like never-catch-your-breath-multiple-topic-talking and I often need someone with a trait like this in order to really become immersed and active in a conversation.
Anywho. After I broke up with Boyfriend No. 1 in April of 2005, I was at a Hughes Street party (Hughes St. being a street just off campus where there is a house where there are residents who for as long as I can remember have been members of the music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha, and thrown killer parties) celebrating both the annual Hughes Street occasion "Halloween II" and the 21st birthday of my best friend Jenny. Jenny, Holly and I had come to the party dressed as Winos, because what other costume allows you to dress in your normal clothes (read: look cute) and drink from three-liter bottles of wine in paper bags?
At this party James and I had a drunken heart-to-heart of sorts, kissed and the rest is -- well, I'll let him tell you. We dated from around that time up until late October of that year, and then we dated off and on all that next spring and dabbled a little over the next summer. The first summer we were together I spent in London doing my study abroad, which he alludes to here; it was a tough time to be apart and is probably very responsible for a lot of the issues we faced early in our relationship. But why am I still talking? Here's what James had to say.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
I'd say so. I believe it was one of the first nights of Commonwealth Honors Academy, so for the people playing the home version that would be the summer of 2002. Anyways, it was a closed-campus sort of community system and on this particular night the prearranged entertainment was a viewing of the movie "Life is Beautiful." Up to that moment I honestly hadn't paid much attention but I ended up in some sort of cloud of people walking to the Curris Center that included you and another girl who you had already made pretty fast friends with (see how I'm avoiding giving an incorrect name?). I was quite surprised how openly you spoke about things, even if it were slightly vulgar. I really can't recall too many people with that same quality, where they can bounce from topic to topic almost like a savvy AD&D. Can I say bouncy for short?
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Short. Educational. Limited.
Despite how long it may have seemed or the impact that either of us may have had on the other, the truth is that the time we had to spend with one another was a cursed affair to deal with. By our unfortunate circumstances, it all began at the end of the semester, and the summer was all but nixed out due to your time out of the area, then it cut short in what, late October of that same year? I'd say educational because honestly at the time that we dated I didn't have a realistic vision of what I wanted to achieve in a relationship; after some bad experiences at the end of high school I really had convinced myself that college wasn't for a serious, honest relationship so in our relationship (or rather, immediately after) I learned that someone has to put their best foot forward and put all their weight on that foot so to speak. Finally, limited because of the availability during the relationship; of course it wasn't able to be helped, but I always felt like I was working on a relationship in borrowed time, such as 2-3 AM breaks by the music building or one day a weekend being the limit of time given. In retrospect I'm sure that I rejoiced in such a situation as it allowed me to remain rather flighty, and if I were a man in a position where I were taking it seriously I'm sure it would have worn on me heavily.
3. Did we have "a song"? What was it?
Certainly, and I think there might be a modicum of agreement. I remember once on my ratty old couch in my dormitory we were watching TV and the video for Bright Eyes' "First Day of my Life" came on and it was a powerful song for the moment that I think both people honed in on. I really hate the idea of "songs" belonging to someone but for some reason there's a visceral connection between that song and the relationship/person.
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
Lack of time committed on both ends and my own lack of attempts to make that time more worthwhile or to extend it. I really hadn't placed much value on the relationship at the time and as I mentioned before in a previous question, I really was doing the hokey-pokey on devotion with one foot in. In addition, I was pretty stubborn regarding expressing myself and I'm sure that was in no small part contributory.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
Conversation, definitely. It's not very common that you find someone who you can bounce strange, pop-culture inspired statements off of and jump from musician to film director to shoes in just a few minutes' time. I loved the talking and moreso I liked that in the relationship when in conversation, when it got really interesting (as it often did) I would be a lucid, wholly honest individual with a reduced filter between his brain and his lips, and in those moments I felt the better for it.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
I suppose if you want you can chalk this up to a certain level of paranoia, but I never felt invited in, so to speak. I would typically feel like an oddity, like some sort of child who was occasionally checked in on to make sure he hadn't stumbled into trouble. Due to Racer Band and the MSU Musical Department, we had many mutual friends. However, as your sorority wasn't involved in that department aside from a few who were music majors, you had an extended area to explore. I can't recall ever being distinctly invited to meet these additional friends and instead, because we already knew most of the same people on my end, I always felt like I was subjected to tales about people who were somehow better than me, as if they were so precious that their existence couldn't be shared with me beyond a few sentences or references to inside jokes. Again, it's probably my insecurity poking out, but that's the first thing that I can think of. To find a second thing that annoyed me is a stretch.
7. Did I hurt you?
Hurt is a pretty malleable word. In the short term, was I hurt? Probably not; probably because of my lack of long-term memory retention won't let me be committal, and not because I didn't feel any right to be hurt; after all, if I recall it was my own stubbornness and inability to express myself, my wants, and needs which led to the downfall. In the long term? I suppose I was. Although I suppose it shouldn't be considered a relationship at all in the structure of this interview, I certainly felt hurt while relieved at the time when I recieved the e-mail/message that it just wasn't going to work in giving us another bit of the 'ol College try. In a way it was more frustration that I had finally put myself "out there," which I recall was one of the core reasons of the original break up, and I had achieved nothing after a summer of pining and anticipating while you were elsewhere.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
'Ya know, I can't for the life of me recall when either of these things happened. I'm sure they did, and if I had to randomly venture a guess as to when it happened, I'd almost bet that you did it within the first two weeks of knowing me while at CHA when we were in high school, given that at the time we were good conversational friends and I, alas, was seeing someone.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
Well I guess without going too far into details of the time and place and all the hard facts, and acknowledging that there was a time after the initial relationship when we were seeing each other occasionally but certainly not in a relationship, the answer would be no and yes. As it could probably be determined from previous questions, during the relationship itself I was immature and really didn't put a lot of thought into the future. At the time this was just someone who I loved spending time with and so it seemed like a gross error to not be dating her. After I sobered up from my freshman thinking? Most certainly. Somewhere around my junior year of college (a bit late, I suppose), I realized that it wasn't always appropriate to let my base instincts be my primary impetus for relationships and instead I should endeavor to not date anyone that I could not see myself marrying, even far into the future. At that time I definitely had those thoughts, although with your goals and my intended education I didn't know when that would be possible. I just knew that before it all went awry, I was willing to change my plans and figure it all out. I've long sustained since then that my idea for marriage is someone who I don't mind seeing every single morning and night (and many in-betweens), can push my buttons the right way to avoid seeing me pop a vein, and of course has a sufficiently strong sexual attraction to me and vice versa. Did I think, once I had mentally sobered myself, that these things all applied? Most certainly.
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I did say the relationship was educational for a reason. I learned that if you're going to enter into a relationship, if one person is serious, you better be willing to go all-in yourself. On the other hand, I also think that the original relationship left me with a better concept of how hard dating in a professional world may be with dates tucked into pockets of time between meetings and deadlines. And finally, it helped me form a more coherent image for the future of who my ideal partner would be. As far as my dating philosophy, unfortunately it probably affected it negatively as I had become spoiled by things like never-catch-your-breath-multiple-topic-talking and I often need someone with a trait like this in order to really become immersed and active in a conversation.
8.06.2009
Boyfriend No. 1
Meet Boyfriend No. 1. We dated from January through April 2005, my sophomore year of college. Boyfriend No. 1 has asked not to be named, but hopefully he won't mind me telling you that we met on staff at The Murray State News and also lived in the same residential college on campus. We were both 19 and also turned 20 during the course of the relationship. It was short-lived, but also the first time I ever considered myself as having a boyfriend, officially. Even in the days before Facebook.
Boyfriend No. 1 and I broke up for a lot of reasons, high on that list the fact that he is a very spiritual person and I, as you might've noticed, am NOT. So here's his exit interview; nothing has been changed, cut or edited in any way.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
I thought you were sexy, driven, funny. You were into women's rights hardcore which made me think you were a man hater or something. Found out that you definitely love men! :)
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Fun, short, intresting
3. Did we have a "song"? What was it?
no, don't think we did
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
I think we were just going two different ways, and had different value systems.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
The best thing about our relationship was that I had fun(hope you did too). no matter what we were doing, arguing about a political topic, or just saying random stuff you would always bring a smile to my face, and I enjoyed the time spend together. I don't think I have been in a relationship where I enjoyed conversation so much.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
didn't introduce me to your parents when they were at the same event we were at.
7. Did I hurt you?
Yeah I was hurt. But understood that it wouldn't work out in the end.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
You were burped way before we started to date!! don't remember any farts though unless it was at one of our newspaper conferences.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
yes, What is the point of dating someone you know you could never see your self marrying them
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I learned that opposites attract. You were totally different from what I was used to, very strong, independent and confident. I know that I need someone that brings something to the table like that.
Boyfriend No. 1 and I broke up for a lot of reasons, high on that list the fact that he is a very spiritual person and I, as you might've noticed, am NOT. So here's his exit interview; nothing has been changed, cut or edited in any way.
1. Do you remember your first impression of me?
I thought you were sexy, driven, funny. You were into women's rights hardcore which made me think you were a man hater or something. Found out that you definitely love men! :)
2. Describe our relationship in three words.
Fun, short, intresting
3. Did we have a "song"? What was it?
no, don't think we did
4. Why do you think our relationship ended?
I think we were just going two different ways, and had different value systems.
5. What was the best thing about our relationship?
The best thing about our relationship was that I had fun(hope you did too). no matter what we were doing, arguing about a political topic, or just saying random stuff you would always bring a smile to my face, and I enjoyed the time spend together. I don't think I have been in a relationship where I enjoyed conversation so much.
6. What was the most annoying thing I did within the context of our relationship?
didn't introduce me to your parents when they were at the same event we were at.
7. Did I hurt you?
Yeah I was hurt. But understood that it wouldn't work out in the end.
8. Do you think I waited the appropriate amount of time to burp and/or fart in front of you?
You were burped way before we started to date!! don't remember any farts though unless it was at one of our newspaper conferences.
9. Did you ever entertain the idea of marrying me?
yes, What is the point of dating someone you know you could never see your self marrying them
10. What did you learn from our relationship? How did the things you took with you influence your dating philosophy, if at all?
I learned that opposites attract. You were totally different from what I was used to, very strong, independent and confident. I know that I need someone that brings something to the table like that.
8.05.2009
oh, boy(s)
As you might be aware, I don't have a TV. Well, there is a TV in the apartment, but since the digital switch-over it's really more of a very large and hideous paper weight.
Anywho. This lack of TV, coupled with my inexplicable need (can we blame it on my generation?) to be watching something almost constantly have led me down the path of addiction with a little web site called Hulu. In case you're not familiar, Hulu streams television shows and movies online 24 hours a day AND lucky for me, they carry just about every NBC show ever made, filmed or thought about deeply on the toilet.
So the other day, not long after I had a very important lunch with very important people, where we talked about what original content like interviews and video can do to drive traffic to a site, I watched an episode of The Office that features an exit interview with one of the characters who is leaving the company. And all that was a-stewin' in my brain and out came this idea. I won't call it brilliant, because it could be awful. But it was an idea nonetheless.
I decided to conduct exit interviews with my ex-boyfriends.
Am I crazy? Probably. But I think we've established that much already outside the context of this little social experiment. Here's the thing: I'm on decent terms with (almost) all of my exes, and I figured it would be funny. Plus, as I told the guys when soliciting their help, I know how much you people love to read about a.) me making an ass of myself, b.) my horrendous love life and c.) combinations of the two.
So brace yourselves. In the next four days you'll be getting an exit interview a day, starting from my first boyfriend and ending with my most recent. There is one missing in there; I put in the request and he did not oblige. But more about that later. I tried to vary the questions from serious to light to just downright ridiculous, and the answers I got in return are equally as varied. And hopefully a little entertaining, too.
Tomorrow you'll get the unedited, uncut exit interview answers of Boyfriend No. 1.
cheers,
elizabeth
Anywho. This lack of TV, coupled with my inexplicable need (can we blame it on my generation?) to be watching something almost constantly have led me down the path of addiction with a little web site called Hulu. In case you're not familiar, Hulu streams television shows and movies online 24 hours a day AND lucky for me, they carry just about every NBC show ever made, filmed or thought about deeply on the toilet.
So the other day, not long after I had a very important lunch with very important people, where we talked about what original content like interviews and video can do to drive traffic to a site, I watched an episode of The Office that features an exit interview with one of the characters who is leaving the company. And all that was a-stewin' in my brain and out came this idea. I won't call it brilliant, because it could be awful. But it was an idea nonetheless.
I decided to conduct exit interviews with my ex-boyfriends.
Am I crazy? Probably. But I think we've established that much already outside the context of this little social experiment. Here's the thing: I'm on decent terms with (almost) all of my exes, and I figured it would be funny. Plus, as I told the guys when soliciting their help, I know how much you people love to read about a.) me making an ass of myself, b.) my horrendous love life and c.) combinations of the two.
So brace yourselves. In the next four days you'll be getting an exit interview a day, starting from my first boyfriend and ending with my most recent. There is one missing in there; I put in the request and he did not oblige. But more about that later. I tried to vary the questions from serious to light to just downright ridiculous, and the answers I got in return are equally as varied. And hopefully a little entertaining, too.
Tomorrow you'll get the unedited, uncut exit interview answers of Boyfriend No. 1.
cheers,
elizabeth
8.04.2009
hailing from the volunteer state
World Leadership Congress 2001 - Group G-2
I remember way back when I volunteered at my first HOBY seminar, my junior year of high school. I was one year removed from my HOBY experience as a participant -- an ambassador, as we call them -- and I remember being deeply impacted by the weekend. I don't know what I had expected going into that seminar as a first-time staff member, but in the end I think I was genuinely surprised at just how much I had learned and taken away from those three days. It was just as much, if not more, than I had one year before as an ambassador.
I was inspired by that feeling and overwhelmed by how much I felt I'd grown, and as a result ended up writing a column in that next week's edition of The Bartlett Express -- my hometown newspaper where I was working as a reporter at the time -- about volunteerism. Because finally, after that weekend, I understood it. I knew that if someone would feed me meals and find me a place to sleep, I would volunteer for HOBY for the rest of my life. This was how I wanted to serve others, by ensuring that every HOBY ambassador I ever met had the same incredible experience that I'd been so fortunate to have as a 16-year-old sophomore.
Now, as I get older and form friendships with a lot of the volunteer staff I find that my reasons for keeping on keeping on every year through countless state seminars and WLCs have changed just a tad. Seeing those faces I only get to see once a year is a big part of why I can't stay away. But as I left WLC this year I was definitely struck with that feeling again, the one that makes me question if I actually got more out of the week than my ambassadors did because I feel like I've grown so much.
Of course in this day, I can answer that question pretty easily by sitting down on Facebook and reading their statuses and the titles of their photo albums - "The Best Week of My Life!" pretty much summed it up for me, too.
And of course, my guys. These are the ambassadors of group D-2, who have left an indelible mark on me.
HOBY Hugs,
elizabeth
8.03.2009
hey girl, do your thing
Oh, y'all. I am about as wore out as a lady can get.
I got home yesterday from my HOBY adventures, only one foot in the grave (as opposed to two, let's find things to be thankful for) and ready to sleep for about 18 hours. Which I did. Today I think I'm only dangling a toe over the grave and preparing to back out completely, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
I have pictures to post and stories to spin of my outstanding week in Washington, but I have to get caught up on real work a little bit first. But I will leave you with this: at some point during my 18-hour sleep-fest yesterday, I dreamed that my family and I genetically engineered a small dog out of something that looked like brownie batter. We had to pour it in this mold and then leave it in saran wrap in the backyard. And apparently my mom had picked up the packet of mix on sale at Costco.
I told you I was sick. Let's blame that one on fever brain. Can we?
cheers,
elizabeth
I got home yesterday from my HOBY adventures, only one foot in the grave (as opposed to two, let's find things to be thankful for) and ready to sleep for about 18 hours. Which I did. Today I think I'm only dangling a toe over the grave and preparing to back out completely, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
I have pictures to post and stories to spin of my outstanding week in Washington, but I have to get caught up on real work a little bit first. But I will leave you with this: at some point during my 18-hour sleep-fest yesterday, I dreamed that my family and I genetically engineered a small dog out of something that looked like brownie batter. We had to pour it in this mold and then leave it in saran wrap in the backyard. And apparently my mom had picked up the packet of mix on sale at Costco.
I told you I was sick. Let's blame that one on fever brain. Can we?
cheers,
elizabeth
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