alright…
I have a lot of explaining to do.
I. 17th Birthday party last night
Well, it was on Friday so not really “last night” anymore. I've never seen that much pizza in my life.
i. My creative gift wrapping
The little sister always wraps presents in newspaper so I decided to do the same but added a collage aspect. The collage did not have any particular theme. Pictures of W., Brandon Knight, Rachel Corrie (about to get bulldozed), Bombs Over Baghdad (ha) and random soldiers adorned the Fela Kuti CD (which she hated) and the Eddie Izzard DVD (which she liked). My mother was disturbed by my choices of wrapping paper for a birthday gift, a supposedly joyous occasion. But the little sister “got it.” I'm not sure what that says about me…or her. It was a kick ass collage, though.
ii. being surrounded by teenagers
This wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be because they were all downstairs watching TV while us “old people” were upstairs talking about heart medications and dead people. I'm at this weird age where I can't sit at the “kid's table” anymore and I don't really give a shit what the old biddies are talking about. So I just I sort of nod.
II. Picking subject for immersion for Nonfiction 2
i. Process
Alright, immersion is Pitt-talk for feature, like one you would read in a magazine. The rough draft was due today and it was going to be more about writing scenes than structure or anything. I had this pretty good idea of going to a birth center, talking to some midwives and natural birth advocates and ideally witnessing a birth. I had it all planned out in my mind. But actually getting access to midwives or births proved to be much more difficult than I thought. So Friday morning after yet another failed attempt to gain access, I decided that I should probably start thinking of something else to write about. I racked my brain and really couldn't come up with any ideas. So I grabbed Pulp and started looking through their events listings, particularly for things that happened weekly so that I could go to it more than once. I found Shift Saturdays, this “alternative to the bar scene” Christian get together for young people.
ii. excitement
This was perfect. My teacher, the Esteemed Ms. Laskas, had advised us to look for something that would be very unfamiliar and uncomfortable for us. I'm not comfortable around religious gatherings and Christian Contemporary Music makes me shudder. I called Stacey and we were ready to go get saved.
III. Immersing myself at Victory Christian Fellowship.
i. Driving to Bum Fuck
VCF is out in Cranberry Twp. which is basically suburban hell. It also takes way too long to get there. We got lost several times thanks to mapquest's shoddy directions and Millvale's lack of street signs. We didn't get there until about an hour after the thing had started so there was only about a half hour left. This made me a little apprehensive since we're supposed to spend at least a couple of hours with our subject. I'm going to have to go back which both excites me and fills me with dread. (I should take a moment here to explain to those of you who are religious and thinking of taking offense to my condescension towards religion that my dread has nothing to do with Christianity in particular. I'm one of those stereotypical Gen-Xers who doesn't like organized religion or whatever buzz phrase you want to put on it. I'd be just as unhappy at a gathering for an Eastern religion or something…well, maybe not, the ceremonies for those tend to be somewhat cooler. Anyway…)
ii. getting saved and shit.
I fucked up with my tape recorder and unfortunately didn't record the sermon that was taking place when we walked in but the pastor was talking abouth how homosexuality can be cured. Also how premarital sex or too much sex will, like, ruin your life. I guess. We also met this yinzer named John who was about 40 and looked a little out of place. He had this Members Only jacket on and I'm pretty sure he was there to pick up chicks. Kind of strange. He takes a class up 'ere at Slippy Rawk.
IV. Krispy Kreme
We were stressed and starved afterwards and since I'm trying to retain my commitment to non-smoking (Stacey's still a chimney and sometimes the mere presence of cigarettes can send me into fits of nicotine hysterics) we headed to Krispy Kreme right down the road.
i. Krispy Kreme can save the world.
I hate people who say, “I don't get it. They're just doughnuts.” They're so fucking not. Anyone who's had a fresh, hot glazed doughnut late at night knows what I'm talking about. They're just so amazingly good.
ii. Free doughnut? Weight Watchers will just have to shut the fuck up
Yeah, when we got there a batch had just come out of the oven? fryer? whatever. This kid walked over and just handed us a doughnut each. I had a moment of weakness I suppose and inhaled the doughnut with some degree of vulgarity. I even licked the wax paper afterwards. It sent me over my WW points for the day but I figured I deserved it. It had been a rough week and I had burst into tears for no discernable reason twice that day. I needed some sugar and fat to get me back onto an even keel.
I watched the Oscars last night on our crappy little 3 1/2″ TV since we couldn't get ABC to come in on my TV. Now, I don't want any comments on here about how the Oscars are fixed, dick-sucking, pile of bullshit and how could I watch those being the cinemaphile that I am? I fucking know that they're bullshit but I'm still going to watch them. Leave me alone.
Anyway, I was really glad that Chris Cooper won. He's a cool guy and he rocked in Adaptation.
Michael Moore's acceptance speech for Bowling for Columbine was especially funny. As you've probably heard by now, he got booed off the stage more or less. What I couldn't figure out is that any time someone made an anti-war statement the whole crowd went nuts. When Bowling for Columbine won the whole theatre was up on its feet cheering wildly. It's Hollywood, so it's a liberal crowd, right? So Moore starts his speech and just starts ripping W. a new asshole. 80% of the place starts booing him. Everyone else just sort of sat there and looked like they had hemmorrhoids. I didn't get it. I guess we're supposed to support the president but poo-poo everything he does? Whatever. Those Hollywood types are fickle little fucks. Plus, I refuse to believe that anyone there voted for him…since practically no one in America voted for him anyway. hehehe. I suppose if your anti-war statement wasn't blubbered through tears and completely ambivalent it just wasn't considered valid. Annoying.
Well, I'm starving and I think the baby is more than ready for a nap. Ta for now.
