Thursday, February 18, 2010
Lyric in Verse
This nervous reaction, is what I come back to,
as I stutter through each moment.
It always comes back to this.
The song skips, stuck on a single lyric
we will never escape from.
It's running your fingers down a brick wall,
in a room with no windows
just ten lonely square feet.
Describe it in words only a child would understand,
but it's always the same melody
concealed by false covenants...
the vagaries of life.
Our presience should be trusted,
as gut feeling ignored, can alter which piece you take,
or which note will repeat itself in hopeless redundancy.
Take care which piece you choose.
Lost
I let it slip away for a single fold in time
only to find it's been missing all along.
Compress it to a single moment,
the realization that you've lost control.
Pulling the skin from beneath my nails
to understand I stand alone
to understand the scars are mine
and they have been there all along.
To think I had escaped was infantile
and empty in this trust,
and I could beg and plead,
and squeeze the juice from it
as if it were ripened fruit...
but still it stands un-phased,
like it were pointing and laughing
with bony fingers of truth,
wrapped in lies,
confronted by time
but missed it's mark.
As I have missed my mark a million times
standing inches from it
but light years away.
As though a single breath would freeze in the wind
to reach this fold in time
I will not be mistaken.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
My Lost Hope
She was vibrant, and amazing when we first became friends. She had ambitions, dreams, and an attitude to contend with, very close to her family and friends and very down to earth. Eight years later I see nothing left of the friend, confident, and partner in crime I had found so long ago. It seems that a handful of difficult experiences has lead her to drown herself in bad decisions, and whatever she can find that comes with a childproof lid.
As a friend, you want to be there for someone in their time in need. You want to be that shoulder to cry on, or their last resort for a ride if they need it. When does this become enabling? Am I giving them what they need to stay sick? I feel like I am watching a close friend with a terminal illness die slowly...and it is killing me. The only difference is that I know there is a cure for this, but it remains just out of reach. Everyone I talk to, gives me the same suggestion which is completely impossible at this point in time. How do you help someone that cannot, and will not help themselves alone? I guess only time will tell.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
My Timeline
So, I have recently come to terms with the fact that all behaviors, and actions come with a sell by date stamped neatly on the bottom in red ink. Everyone has a "timeline" and at certain points on this "timeline" there are dots in different colors telling you when it is no longer acceptable to do said action. The problem that I have is that this timeline is different for everyone. What is good for me at a certain age may be at a completely different age in another person. There are also specific choices in your life that can skew your line. Take your average conservative republican.....their timeline everything starts being unacceptable far before the normal person. Unless he has a lot of money then he can snort coke well into his forties and no one flinches an eye. That is another group that is completely different than the average joe.....famous and rich people. Now you have two different groups of the rich and famous. Group A: The "Role Models" or people who really care about the way their actions affect the people reading Us Weekly, and Group B: The "Dennis Rodmans and Pairs Hiltons" I don't think I really need to expand on what this encompasses.
Group A's timeline and the timeline shown to the public eye are actually quite different. While it should be wrong for them to drink before they are twenty one, many of them still do. It is inappropriate to 'party hardy" past thirty one or thirty two, but yet they still do that too. See the social timeline doesn't apply to Group A based on the fact that they can cure everything with a public apology or trip to the Park City mountains for a little Rehab. We as a public, appreciatetimelines.
Group B however, doesn't care about how people see them basically choose to remain a rebellious teenager into their fifties. I am sure in a boardroom somewhere, possibly salt lake there is a high ranked official in a very important company snorting cocaine of the boardroom table.
Another thing that can change your line is having kids. This TOTALLY changes it. For instance a 21 year old male college student....it is still socially anticipated, if not accepted that he will party 70% of his evenings, catch a LOT of tail, like-a-the football and drink of the beer. Probably live off campus with his buddies if he isn't in a fraternity. Now, take that same 21 year old male and give him a child....changes a bit. Assuming he took the high road and didn't bitch out on the other half of this scenario he isn't going to be doing most things listed above. It won't be acceptable for him to party, other than maybe once a month with his guy friends and would be lucky to be attending college.
I will agree that a lot of these things change by maturity level as well. I think that at some point we in ourselves decide where the different marks on our timeline fall. I am going to go ahead and do something completely out of character for me and quote the bible because this is a quote I have always thought was if nothing else, the one true line in a book full of babble, " When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
That being said, I don't think that some people should be allowed to write their own timeline. I have admitted before that I am an against the grain kinda girl, but I think there should be a general timeline agreed upon that will include the following points:
and forgive them stepping outside their
- If you're a girl, you shouldn't be allowed to wear spandex pants past the age of eight
- If you're a boy.....wtf were you doing wearing them in the first place? What is wrong with your parents?
- It is not acceptable to wear character shirts past the age of fifteen (and that is stretching it)
- It is not acceptable to hang out at the mall for hours once you get your drivers license unless you are actually shopping
- Past the age of 22 you really shouldn't be living in your parents basement unless you are pursuing a very expensive college degree and even that that's still pushing it.
- Past the age of 25 it is probably not normal for you to be a "usual" anywhere with blacklighting.
So, that is kinda what I got started. I left out a lot of stuff about social stigmas and hot topic issues on purpose because things are always changing. The major point to this is that at some point everyone needs to grow up. Realistically some will grow up sooner than others, and some people never will. It is just difficult when you feel that you have surpassed some of your friends on the maturity and responsibility scale...especially when they have a few years on you.
Bottom line: As much as we would like to think differently, age IS NOT just a number. Ask yourself what you want your timeline to look like, and I'm not just talking about silly style choices I've listed above. Hang onto immaturity forever and you will never understand the joy of living, feeling, and thinking like an adult.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My Unfortunate Consequence
For most of my life I have also managed to be very accident prone. As a small child we had an "Urgent Care" center down the street from my house with two files on me so thick you would think they were bringing two levels of The Encyclopedia Britannica into the room every time I paid them a visit. My accidents did tend to be minor in most cases. At the time I had never broken a bone. I just managed to do stupid things that would warrant an emergency visit. Usually small sprains or large cuts and concussions and the like. I was very active when I was younger, so things like this tend to happen to active children. When you take an accident prone indivdual and give them alcohol....it should be clear to see that hilarity will surely ensue.
When I was about 16 I went out with my bubbly friend to one of the "clubs" around town that would allow young minors to attend because they didn't serve any alcohol. It was generally common for us to drink in the parking lot before entering. So, we got really loaded and when we left we drank even more and then proceeded to the diner...which was the drill for anyone that attended said establishment. Between two lightweight teenagers we made short work of a bottle of vodka. Not just any Vodka, the stuff they would keep BELOW the bottom shelf if they could....you should have to dig a hole and bottle it yourself it is so toxic. I was running around in front of the diner with a friend of mine when I twisted my ankle. Not just a little bit....a lot. I remember not really knowing what was happening. It was as if suddenly the world tilted sideways and I was laid out on the grass with people standing over me asking if I was alright. The following morning assessment of the damage would show that I had sprained my ankle so badly I had bruises running up either side of my leg, my entire foot was purple and my ankle was roughly the size of a grapefruit. I couldn't walk right for about two months.
I didn't have another unfortunate drinking accident until I was much older. The next instance occurs when I am about 22 or 23. My (at the time) boyfriend and a friend of mine went over to a friends house he was renting out with a bunch of his friends. They were having a rager. One of those parties where there are people laying on the lawn puking their guts out, sleeping in the bathroom on the toilet seat, and fighting on the front porch. The entire living room/kitchen area was hardwood floor, which apparently gets slippery when wet. In the kitchen there were shots going around, drinks being mixed and spilled. The entire floor was a giant puddle. We were all splashing around in it and tracking it into other rooms of the house. Looking back now someone was bound for an accident. Someone, meaning me.
When the evening started coming to a close I went to walk down the stairs....which were also hardwood. I was wearing these silver platforms with absolutely no traction on the bottom of them when I suddenly had a small confrontation with gravity. In any fight with gravity, it will always win. One leg went down the stairs and the other....didn't really. It is all really fuzzy after that. I remember feeling really hurt, but nothing serious. I actually walked myself out to the car and everything.
I woke up the next morning and tried to roll over in bed and couldn't. Every time I would make the slightest movement pain would shoot down my legs and up my back. I couldn't imagine what was wrong. Luckily the Dr. knew the moment he saw me doing the walk of shame down the long hallway to the exam room. I had broken my tailbone....the only bone I have ever broken in my entire life. I couldn't stand up from my chair, sit down or do really anything without an immense amount of pain for months. Total nightmare. If you are going to break something, don't let it be your tailbone.
I managed to go a couple years without incident, until about a month ago. I had a bunch of friends over to my house and we were playing beer pong, eating pizza and so on. This doesn't really have much pre-story to it because I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. I was simply walking through my kitchen when I slipped on a cheese wrapper that had apparently missed the garbage can. I fell on my ass, smacked my head on the refrigerator and felt a huge pop when I fell. I immediately started screaming bloody murder because at first I thought I broke my leg. Everyone in my house was concerned at first but when they saw that my leg was obviously not protruding bones or flopping lifelessly they assumed I must be fine. They thought I was just being drunk and ridiculous. The people at the Emergency Room at 6:00 AM felt the same way. They sent me home diagnosing it as a knee sprain. After a few hundred dollars and and MRI later, I have torn some very important ligaments in my knee that will need surgery for repair.
That really sums it up at this point. The funniest thing is that all of these injuries could have just as easily happened when I was sober, but manage to only plague me in my drunken state. Why is that? Is the the horror movie mentality that if you are doing something wrong you are in for some karma? Not sure. I guess I will have to be extra careful when navigating around my own kitchen. Moral of the story: don't drink and walk.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
My Status Update
I would like to introduce a new saying for the type of issue I am currently explaining. It is more of a small edit to one that is more than well known. I propose a change from-
If you have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all
to
If you have NOTHING to say, then don't say anything at all.
I read the funniest comic strip the other day in reference to what I am talking about. Due to the fact that I don't have the option to paste it into my blog I am going to quote it
"Where have you been? No email, you didn't text me. Not a clue on your blog, you didn't update your status on Facebook. It is like you fell off the earth!"
"Did you not check Twitter?"
"Oops, sorry 'Upstairs, going to the bathroom, be back in five'."
The side ache I got while laughing at this comic strip would possibly have caused me to drown if I had been swimming. Now, I am willing to admit that I am occasionally guilty of the no update update but it should be the exception rather than the rule. When I have 100 people updating information that I need to scroll through (not to mention every app update, which I actually don't mind) I don't need to know that you sneezed. Call me crazy, but it isn't life altering information for me. The even funnier thing is that you will find twenty comments following this update saying, "bless you."
So, in the spirit of fun let's take a look at some of the updates currently taking up space on my news feed. Names, of course removed to protect the guilty.
"I wanna snuggle."
"Please please please don't let what I am thinking happen." - small comment on this is that I hate half a story. I am not a goddamn mind reader and I am certainly not going to break out the crystal ball.
"Wish that Cyber Monday came on payday"
"I'm hungry" -Stop the presses! Someone is hungry, alert the media.
"Totoro and ice cream"
"I need to poo"
Okay, so I actually made that last one up, but it wasn't any different than anything that preceded it. I am actually not going to go any further down the feed or I will never find my pillow, but this is why I prefer the layout of MySpace to Facebook. I can see one status update, or click to see more if I choose. I don't have to sort my way through everyone's stream of consciousness looking for things I would actually care to know about someone. Update and let people know how you're doing, or chit chat about your shows, share something funny or crappy that happened today...or awesome quotes...everyone loves a good quote. I guess a good rule of thumb is, if what you are saying could not be followed with some sort of conversation, don't say it.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
My Bird
Thanksgiving. If nothing else, a valid excuse to escape the cubical farm and breathe real air if only for a day. Other than that, it is a cruel, inhumane ritual where you eat far too much food, and travel (sometimes) insane distances to submit yourself to the torture of "family dynamic."
The one thing I can say, is this is the only widely celebrated American holiday that we didn't steal from the Pagans and try to claim it as our own... so YAY US!
So, I love my family, and my hubbys family, but I know I cannot be the only one who would agree that after you stretch past the teenage years, you see Thanksgiving as a mundane chore. Day off MY ASS.
Your day could probably go one of a few different ways:
Option A "Bird Cooker": You get up at the butt crack of dawn. Althought you may be up in time to see the suns rays grace the mountain tops, you will be busy shoving the oversized bird in the oven, and boiling potatoes. After this, your next 8 hours will be spent with your toes tightly pressed against where your oven meets the linoleum. Then, you await the arrival of your family, rush through the dinner at some ridiculous hour so that whoever is there will have time to climb into their cars and make their next appointment. Then, you get to clean every plate, fork, crock pot and gravy ladel in your kitchen.
Keep in mind that to do Thanksgiving this way, you probably spent all day yesterday crack cleaning your home. You probably even broke out the toothpicks. Q-Tips and bleach to get those hard to reach (and never noticied) places.
Option B "Appointmenter": You go to someone elses house for thanksgiving. Possibly several houses for Thanksgiving. If you have mastered the art of bolemia, this will not be a problem for you. You wake up...not as early as the bird cooker, but early enough to make sure you have whatever your assigned food was for each dinner. You may have had to prepare one, or two, or three of these dishes the day before hand, or possibly half way....have some cream, dough, jello, or pasta dish "cooling overnight" in your refrigerater. Or, if you're like me, you are going to have to spend the morning fighting Thanksgiving traffic, speeding from location to location to find an open store that has whatever you need to make the dishes, that you should've made the night before.
While this is your day off, it would probably be nice to be able to snuggle into your bed, hit snooze on your alarm and sleep until a ripe hour of the morning...but no. You will most likely be climbing into your car in the frigid morning air, scraping the ice from your windows, and running SOME SORT of errand.
After all this is completed you will arrive in a timely enough manner for your first appointment. You will eat more food than humanly possible(if you didn't have a breakfast somewhere), because you're starving at this point, and the smells of Thanksgiving are one of it's upsides. You will chit chat. You will dash off, in time to make your next dinner. You will then arrive there....force yourself to eat enough food to appear "polite" and then sit there for an hour or two,top button undone, cursing the pilgrims for ever even DREAMING of coming to this god forsaken nation. **Note: An experienced appointmenter will wear an elastic wasteband.
Option C "The Traveler": So....your Thanksgiving probably started yesterday. Could've started by rushing to the airport in morning traffic...turkey isn't the only bird you'll be seeing (haha). Then, you wait in an ungodly line to be poked, and prodded by airport security and making your flight, by the graces of God alone. Or, it could've started by waking up at a ridiculous hour, cramming the children in the car with the pillows and hot cocoa, and making a trek somewhere.
On the actual day of Thanksgiving, you are waking up in unfamiliar territory. Unless you had the money and thought to book a hotel room three months ago, you're staying with family. You will now compete for the sink to brush your teeth, and the shower to take a shower. Envision that scene from "Home Alone" when they are all trying to get ready to go to the airport. It will likely be something like that.
At some point you should really probably offer help to the bird cooker...even if you don't really want to help and just pray they say "I've got it." The real catch though, is that you're completely trapped. No stepping away.... no going home, no sleeping in your own bed. Hope your family is great, because you are glued to it until you get to play the traveling game either on Saturday, or Sunday. Either way, good luck with that. On the upside, if you're a mule carrying heroin....probably the best day to sneak it by airport security.
Option D "The Fuckit.....er": Usually this is someone who I was lucky enought oe be for a couple years when I was a teenager. Probably someone that has family out of town they can't travel to go see, or don't care to. You will sleep in...late. Close the drapes, put the cell phone on silent. Maybe shower....maybe not. Call another friend in your same situation. Maybe grab a movie. Maybe not. Maybe get drunk. Who knows! Fuck it!
Option E "Footballer": Wake up whenever. Eat Bird. Watch Football.
Now, it is possible to inter-mesh some of these....but pretty much you're doin something listed up there tomorrow.