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Welcome to my world: A world in which I am still finding my way and my voice; where the language is laced with dry humor; where stilettos and football games go together like peas and carrots; where happy hour starts long before 5; where I make mistakes, get angry and laugh my ass off; where I will never love anything as much as I love my cat; where no one knows your name and you like it that way; where comments are welcome and where strong women who fight for what they believe in are always adored.
Frankly,
On My Mind
Six Months of Short Sentences
Letter from my Father [Part 2]
My Greatest Fans
Brick Walls & Picket Lines
Kindred Spirits (Part One)
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Friday, April 20, 2007
Going Back
While I’m waiting for my boyfriend to pick me up and take me to my 5th year college reunion. I must confess I’m looking forward to the old friends, $1 pitchers of beer, beautiful picturesque campus, my favorite sandwich at the bar I used to waitress at….
I really haven’t thought much about college since I left it. I spent the majority of my senior year counting the days till I was done that the relief of being out of school lasted well beyond my first summer in the ‘real world’. And I’ve seldom looked back, perhaps to my own detriment at times. But as I’ve been preparing to return, my memories, which seem to appear once every semi-decade, have begun washing over me. Visions of sorority living, classes on the democratization of Latin America, long evenings plunking out Mozart and Rachmaninoff in the corner practice room of the music hall, fraternity formals and reading on the quad have been flashing into my head with the speed of a freight train. I’m sure there will be more memory cinema being played in my head as the weekend wears on.
And as this is the setting where the boyfriend an I first became friends, it will be very special for us. Many of our friends do not yet know we have become an ‘us’ and I’m interested to see their reaction.
I’m generally enthusiastic about the entire weekend and hope college will be as good as I am now remembering it to be.
Have a lovely weekend!
I wish he'd hurry up and get here!!!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Today, My Heart is Maroon
The events and tragedy in unfolding Virginia over the past few days have left me with a loss for words. So many people have written so eloquently on the subjects of friendship, loss, violence and blame and so I will not attempt to duplicate their poignant words.
This event affected me, as it did so many others, having spent a great deal of time in Blacksburg and on the Virginia Tech campus. Thinking about pre gaming in the loft adorned rooms across from the football stadium at the age of 18…..It certainly shined a harsh halogen bulb of cruelty, reality and mortality on my adolescent memories. I can only imagine what it did to the current residents of West AJ.
But as I suppose is the case with most tragedies, we are tempted to take stock in our own lives, thank the heavens for the blessings bestowed upon us and pray for those suffering.
And so I shall.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Tired, Cranky and STARVING
Preface: This post was written on Tuesday, I believe - just getting around to posting it now. Oops!
I am tired. I was high on life and productivity yesterday and my efficiency buzz lasted through this morning until around 1 p.m. Then…crash, thud, boom, flat line buzz on the heart monitor….it died. And after what seemed to be a buzzing of activity and the spinning of a fast and furious world, I all of a sudden found myself at my desk staring at my computer screen with a dazed expression thinking….huh?
I think that sometimes you just reach a point where…you’re done. You’re done for the day and people should just let you go home because you just know that there’s no WAY you’re going to get anything of even the smallest magnitude accomplished in the last 45 minutes of the official work schedule.
And so I’m cranky that I still have to be here. And I’m cranky because I am going home to an apartment that I completely demolished in my whirlwind of productiveness last night. Oh yes, my room looks fabulous to be sure…the perfect “After” picture in a spring cleaning portfolio. My bathroom sparkles, my carpets are vacuumed and I got rid of a mysterious stain that’s been on my carpet since roughly St. Patrick’s Day so I’m not going to even BEGIN to speculate as to its origin. I even made piles upon piles of clothes to donate to Good Will, books for a book drive, movies, etc. If I had a garage or a yard…well then…I’d really be in business!
So I’m looking at my room and feeling a strong sense of accomplishment when I turn to walk out the door to the adjoining common area….clearly I did not think this process through for there in my doorway, spilling out into the hallway was (you guessed it) The piles upon piles of clothes, books, movies and junk GALORE. And so now I have to clean THAT up as well!
Finally – I’m starving! I received the following unsolicited advice in an email from Sue Ellen yesterday (totally unsolicited btw)
Subject: Weight
Scarlett honey, if you want to lose some weight, soon....here is a sure fire way...
Drink a 1/2 gallon of water every day. Fill up a pitcher and don't drink anything else until it is gone.
NO sugar, in any form!!!
No butter, margarine, mayonnaise, ice cream, or cheese, of any kind.
NO fried foods.
Only one bread (1 slice) daily.
As much as you can eat of baked or broiled fish.
No alcohol!!! ...of any kind, NOT EVEN A SIP!
LOVE YOU!
And so, reluctant as I am to follow any advice from a woman whose face has been lifted so high, she can almost blink her lips….today I started what I have dubbed…The Holocaust Diet.
And I’m sure it has added to my crankiness and general lack of motivation as I AM STARVING and it is taking every ounce of willpower in my body not to march myself over to the vending machine and eat cupcakes until I fall down.
UUUGGGHHHHHHH – well I’ll be out west with the Russian this weekend (I really should think up a new name for him) – all this on TOP of sexual frustration …Oy! Preemptive apologies for those of you that have to deal with me this week.
Frankly,
Monday, April 9, 2007
Global Warming My Ass!
P.S. If I have to hear ANYTHING MORE about warmer temperatures coming out of Al Gore's pompous, chubby face......
Monday, April 9, 2007
The Nightmare Begins
In my attempt to avoid another INSANE rent hike (in 2005, it was $200 more/month – in 2006…$400) it has begun….my search for the perfect apartment.
I’m not moving until June/July – but I hate having the inevitable relocation hanging over me. And so I decided to start checking out apartment buildings this weekend. Truth be told, I’d actually prefer to be looking at English basements in converted row houses on Craigslist. However….as one would suspect, most of the places are being advertised are for April/May.
It’s frustrating though, as I have this OCD tendency to want to plan out my life for the next 9 months at least – and I have for the most part – aside from the minor detail of not wanting to be homeless on the street with my cat and my furniture. However, it just might brighten up the shabby décor with which the bums have decorated McPherson Square.
And so I had made the appointments with various leasing offices in DuPont circle, gallery place, foggy bottom. It was going well and I was certainly getting a fabulous workout hauling my ass from one end of the city to the other. The only annoyance of the day – aside from the snow flurries of APRIL – was that one of the property managers didn’t show up and left me waiting for over an hour. Blah.
I’m sure it was just the first of many frustrating cracks in the sidewalk on the long path one must trek on the daunting adventure that is DC relocation.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Ignorance Breeding Hate
This morning, my father forwarded me an article, printed yesterday, April 2, 2007 in The London Daily Mail.
Shocked does not even begin to express my initial reaction…appalled is more like it. I should preface my outrage with the statement that I do my best to respect and tolerate all cultures, religions and diverging points of view. However, I believe, in this instance, we have crossed the line from religious and cultural tolerance to the perpetuation of IN-tolerance and blatant propaganda.
I offer two scenarios:
Theoretical
You are teaching in a public school and a child beings touting the belief that all redheads are witches. They have actually stolen the fire from hell and should be burned at the state. Ok, wait. Let’s pick a scenario that’s a tad more universally outrageous….
Ok, so you’re teaching and a child starts spouting offensive, racial epithets against African Americans, saying that slavery never happened and that, in fact, the entire Civil War was a hoax. Furthermore, it was their religious and cultural belief that Abraham Lincoln is on the same plane of existence with Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. Would you ….
A) Attempt to ignore the child and encourage the school to devise some sort of independent study for them during the class’s President’s Day celebration.
B) Resolve to teach American History only POST the 13th Amendment, obscure all photographs of the Lincoln Memorial in text books and ban the use of pennies and $5 bills on school grounds and grant the child’s petition to start a Future Members of the KKK Organization – after all, the school shouldn’t trample on anyone’s religious beliefs.
C) Continue your history lessons as planned teaching the ENTIRE class the historical facts surrounding the Civil War and slavery and assign the students to memorize the
Gettysburg address. Then promptly threaten the little racist urchin with suspension for the use of inappropriate and offensive language towards classmates of all color.*
Factual
Teachers Drop the Holocaust to Avoid Offending Muslims
By LAURA CLARK
Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.
It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.
There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of
The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a vehicle for promoting political correctness'.
The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.
It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class.
The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.
The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.
It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.
"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."
A third school found itself 'strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the state of
The report concluded: "In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship."
But Chris McGovern, history education adviser to the former Tory government, said: "History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness. Children must have access to knowledge of these controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable."
The researchers also warned that a lack of subject knowledge among teachers - particularly at primary level - was leading to history being taught in a 'shallow way leading to routine and superficial learning'.
Lessons in difficult topics were too often 'bland, simplistic and unproblematic' and bored pupils.
Could someone please help me understand the logical rationale behind this….because I am at a loss.
Frankly,
* This quiz was brought to you by the letter ‘C’.
Monday, April 2, 2007
I Dwell in Possibility - A Fairer House Than Prose
I’ve been struggling lately with posting (in case you didn’t notice). It’s not so much a lack of topics I wish to cover but the problem is one of a deficit of words to explore them.
At any rate – I seem to have developed literary laryngitis.
While searching for inspiration and indulging in a bit of nostalgia, I perused a few of my old journals. Remember those? Pre blogging…pre email….pre Internet! I kept journals and my bookshelves contain at least half a dozen volumes in my small, swirly style - dating back to around 1993 when my biggest concerns were parent teacher conferences and the fact that my best friend had a B cup and I was still stuck in a training bra. Oh if I knew then....
So I was attempting to figure out – around the end of March – beginning of April what I’ve written about in year's past and along the way I discovered a trend .... I don’t write much this time of year! Historically speaking, I seem to stop most written communication from the beginning of March to the end of April. Apparently the beginning of spring is a verbally dry dry season for yours truly. So that made me feel a bit better with the hope that the words will rain down again at some point.
However, I did discover one exception - a lone entry on Sunday, March 29, 1998. A bit of background before I share the entry with you….I was 17, still a virgin and on the eve of completing my senior year of high school, still unsure about where I was going to college. I was dating my first love – Harvard. I had also just finished a month long run performing in a one woman show at a regional theatre: The Belle of Amherst. Yep – me, on stage, for an hour and half long monologue. (It’s amazing what people will pay money to see!)
I don’t pretend the entry is eloquent they are, after all, the ramblings of a 17 year old. But if you’re interested in the thoughts of Scarlett circa 1998…read on.
March 28, 1998
Hi. I haven’t written in awhile. I apologize. Well, I’m going to write while I’m waiting for Harvard to call. Probably the most pressing matter to discuss is “Belle”. It went great! Standing ovations every night. It was truly the most amazing experience of my life thus far.
At the end of the play, after everyone had gone, I stood in ‘Amherst’ for the last time. I took my roses, walked down the stairs to the back of the theatre then turned and stood at the green doors in the back and looked it one last time.
Another chapter in my life has closed. It’s so hard to look back while being pulled further away. I know that very soon, everything will be very different. Not that I’m not exacted about the totally new world that I’m about to enter, but I just don’t want my current existence to alter.
OK so now it's down to my Alma Mater College, Alternate #1, #2 and #3. I hear from the one Ivy League school that I applied to this week. Decisions have really already been made. So why be anxious to learn? I still have hope right now. There's still a chance.
I wonder what will happen to Harvard and I next year. Its going to be very different for both of us. I love him, I really do and he makes me very happy. He…I don’t know. But I’m also worried about that because of the fact that I’m also physically attracted to him and I’m afraid that morals will eventually be compromised and I really don’t want that to happen. *
Well, I'm gonna go. I'll write soon.
Love,
*Well I guess THAT point's moot!