"...downstairs with the broken stick..."
Apr. 5th, 2005 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlLet's give a great big livejournal welcome to the illustrious Heather Frankland who shall be known from this day forth as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
risaypaz. Update your friends lists accordingly.
Leave it to Heather to screw up my nifty little writing exercise. Now I'm gonna have to recount the tale of how I met her out of sequence. She should sit confortably betweensilent_t and skoriaan. But since I actually want people to read it, rather then modifying that previous entry, I'm just gonna let her start off tonight's reverie. Gemma will have to wait for a few more paragraphs.
risaypaz - Heather doesn't remember the first two times we met, which isn't surprising considering that I had to be introduced to her three times before actually remembering her. We didn't make much of an impression on each other the first couple times.
I met her twice during the first week of college orientation way back in September of 1998. The first time she, Glenda Seagraves, and Starr Bushey had decided to come up to Raub 3 and introduce themselves to everyone on our floor. They went from room to room, knocking on doors, and shaking hands. Mel and I were always pretty reclusive, but we were especially so during those first few weeks. We had the door to our room open that day. Libby was chilling at Melly's desk, Mel was folding laundry, and I was on the floor sorting out items to stick on the walls. From out of nowhere came a knock and a hesitent "Hi." We looked up and found three strange girls crowding our doorway. Starr intoduced each of them, and we did the same. We engaged in a couple minutes of idle chit chat before I think they got the drift that we weren't in the mood to be bothered, and they moved on to Tina and Shreni's room. As I stared up at them I recall wondering how the hell I'd ever learn to tell them apart, they all looked frighteningly similar to my eyes. They were all about the same height, all had the same shade of sandy brown hair, all wore non-descript jeans and t-shirts. I even thought they sounded the same! These were not the sort of Stepford bunnies I wanted in my life. I forgot about them the second they turned to leave.
Second time I ran into Heather was a few days later as I was going to meet Lib and Mel for lunch. I was coming out of GDH and as I rounded the corner on my way towards Old Main, I came face to face with Heather. She asked me if I knew where one of the academic buildings, I don't recall which one, was located. I didn't. "Are you a first year?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Me too. Hi, I'm Heather," she cooed, extending her hand.
She asked me where I was from and we had a brief conversation about New York as compared to her hometown of Muncie, Indiana. "Do you know what you're majoring in?" she asked.
"Creative Writing."
"Me too," she cried. "Wow, we should hang out some time. Where do you live?"
"Raub 3," I replied.
"I live on Raub 2!" We were both smiley and giggly by this point. I didn't recognize her as the chick who'd invaded my doorway a few days earlier, and she didn't remember me as one of those weird chicks from the third floor. She was just this really friendly, open, and talkative girl who shared my interest in writing and seemed like someone I'd want to get to know better. We both had places to be so we went our separate ways tossing invitations to come up and/or down over our shoulders, invitations that were never followed up on, and soon passed from both of our memories.
The third and final time I met Heather was an evening during the third or fourth week of September when Wes Robinson pulled me into Raub 2 to play Truth or Dare and introduce me to all the girls. Heather and I did the whole "Hi my name is..." thing all over again. What made this incident stick in our heads though was that we had something specific to bond over this time. Not interested in playing Truth or Dare, Heather and Starr had retired to their room to listen to Heather's cassette of Bill Cosby's most side splitting comedy album, Himself. I did the whole "omigawd I love that album," thing and Heather was amazed. She said no one around Knox had ever seen or heard the program. I was shocked! She was shocked! That's some of the most down home, G rated comedy on the planet. They used to play it on HBO every other month! How could anyone avoid it? I sat down and listened to the dentist routine with them before deciding I was being anti-social and going back out to the suite to re-join the Truth or Dare game. But before I left I said, "Come get me when he gets to the part about the beatings, that's my favorite part."
A half hour later out came Heather. "Carla, he's up to the beatings!" I sprinted into Heather's room, leaving the seeds of what would later blossom into the melodramatic non-fight between Moses and Wes for my affectiuons behind me, and just sat laughing with Heather and Starr for the rest of the night.
nabuchodonosor - Here's what my vast spy network was able to drum up about Gemma after I'd conveyed that I wanted info on her stat: She was best friends with Leigh. (During Gemma's first year at Knox I don't think I saw the two of them separately outside of class ever.) She dated Chris Nelson. (Though by the time I got around to talking to her she'd moved on to Derrick Billings.) One night when Gayle and I were chilling in the Gizmo, and Leigh, Gemma, and Chris passed through, Gayle leaned over and whispered to me "There's a threesome waiting to happen." I damn near pissed myself laughing. Gemma was a creative writing major. She was a member of GIN. She never smiled and as a consequence always looked really fucking mean. Based on all of the above information (particularly her association with Leigh) I deemed her a bitch on sight.
Now imagine my terror the first day I stepped into Tom Franklin's Beginning Nonfiction Class in September of 2000 to see the bitch sitting with Erick Plumb. I was kinds scared. I'd been watching Gemma for a year at that point and I was convinced she was an evil person who associated with other evil people, and who would hurt me if she had the chance. That's just the sort of look she had about her. And when she transferred into my English Lit. class midway through the first week I wanted to shoot myself. She was a total know it all! Whenever she was called on in class she gave these very intellectual, well-read, learned responses that made me wish I'd read more Shakespeare. So not only was she a bitch she was a show off too. Great. And I had to deal with this wench every day of the week.
With this impression, you can imagine how apprehensive I was the day Miss Gemma decided to sit next to me in Nonfiction class. My body stiffened as she slid into the desk beside mine. My first thought was "God I hope she doesn't talk to me." My second...wasn't so much a thought as a feeling. I watched from the corner of my eye as she took her notebook from her backpack and placed the bag next to her chair. I stole a glance at all the patches of band logos sewn onto the flap. I noticed as she tucked her hair behind her ears, took a swig from her Pepsi can, stole a glance at me out the corner of her eye. I realized if she knew Leigh then she must know who I was. She must have been just as curious about the ex-best friend as I was about the new one. (At this point the grapevine had yet to feed me the knowledge that Leigh and Gemma were on the outs, Leigh having done to her almost exactly what she'd done to me.) With her Pepsi, and her scrunchy, and her bookbag she was much more human then I'd allowed her to be in my mind. I found myself feeling more curious about her than frightened. I live by the adage "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer." How this translates into practice is I always try to befriend people who intimidate me. My ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, my ex-best friend's new best friend. By getting close to the people who are trusted by your enemies, you gain power of them. Perhaps my realization that Gemma was human was a combined realization that I could milk infromation about Leigh out of her? (Hmm, I've never actually thought about that before. Just speculation.)
But then she spoke. Don't ask me what she said, I have no recollection. I'm not even sure she was talking to me. She just uttered something totally snarky and sarcastic, and it made me smile. She saw me smile. So she said something else, and I tried a tentative laugh. Pretty soon she was whispering snide comments for the sole purpose of making me laugh, and I was chiming in with my own. And that's how it began.
Damn, those were long. I thought I was gonna make it all the way up to Gabe and Evie tonight. Guess we'll have to save them for later.
PS: I am showing way too much cleavage today.
risaypaz. Update your friends lists accordingly. Leave it to Heather to screw up my nifty little writing exercise. Now I'm gonna have to recount the tale of how I met her out of sequence. She should sit confortably between
silent_t and skoriaan. But since I actually want people to read it, rather then modifying that previous entry, I'm just gonna let her start off tonight's reverie. Gemma will have to wait for a few more paragraphs.risaypaz - Heather doesn't remember the first two times we met, which isn't surprising considering that I had to be introduced to her three times before actually remembering her. We didn't make much of an impression on each other the first couple times. I met her twice during the first week of college orientation way back in September of 1998. The first time she, Glenda Seagraves, and Starr Bushey had decided to come up to Raub 3 and introduce themselves to everyone on our floor. They went from room to room, knocking on doors, and shaking hands. Mel and I were always pretty reclusive, but we were especially so during those first few weeks. We had the door to our room open that day. Libby was chilling at Melly's desk, Mel was folding laundry, and I was on the floor sorting out items to stick on the walls. From out of nowhere came a knock and a hesitent "Hi." We looked up and found three strange girls crowding our doorway. Starr intoduced each of them, and we did the same. We engaged in a couple minutes of idle chit chat before I think they got the drift that we weren't in the mood to be bothered, and they moved on to Tina and Shreni's room. As I stared up at them I recall wondering how the hell I'd ever learn to tell them apart, they all looked frighteningly similar to my eyes. They were all about the same height, all had the same shade of sandy brown hair, all wore non-descript jeans and t-shirts. I even thought they sounded the same! These were not the sort of Stepford bunnies I wanted in my life. I forgot about them the second they turned to leave.
Second time I ran into Heather was a few days later as I was going to meet Lib and Mel for lunch. I was coming out of GDH and as I rounded the corner on my way towards Old Main, I came face to face with Heather. She asked me if I knew where one of the academic buildings, I don't recall which one, was located. I didn't. "Are you a first year?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Me too. Hi, I'm Heather," she cooed, extending her hand.
She asked me where I was from and we had a brief conversation about New York as compared to her hometown of Muncie, Indiana. "Do you know what you're majoring in?" she asked.
"Creative Writing."
"Me too," she cried. "Wow, we should hang out some time. Where do you live?"
"Raub 3," I replied.
"I live on Raub 2!" We were both smiley and giggly by this point. I didn't recognize her as the chick who'd invaded my doorway a few days earlier, and she didn't remember me as one of those weird chicks from the third floor. She was just this really friendly, open, and talkative girl who shared my interest in writing and seemed like someone I'd want to get to know better. We both had places to be so we went our separate ways tossing invitations to come up and/or down over our shoulders, invitations that were never followed up on, and soon passed from both of our memories.
The third and final time I met Heather was an evening during the third or fourth week of September when Wes Robinson pulled me into Raub 2 to play Truth or Dare and introduce me to all the girls. Heather and I did the whole "Hi my name is..." thing all over again. What made this incident stick in our heads though was that we had something specific to bond over this time. Not interested in playing Truth or Dare, Heather and Starr had retired to their room to listen to Heather's cassette of Bill Cosby's most side splitting comedy album, Himself. I did the whole "omigawd I love that album," thing and Heather was amazed. She said no one around Knox had ever seen or heard the program. I was shocked! She was shocked! That's some of the most down home, G rated comedy on the planet. They used to play it on HBO every other month! How could anyone avoid it? I sat down and listened to the dentist routine with them before deciding I was being anti-social and going back out to the suite to re-join the Truth or Dare game. But before I left I said, "Come get me when he gets to the part about the beatings, that's my favorite part."
A half hour later out came Heather. "Carla, he's up to the beatings!" I sprinted into Heather's room, leaving the seeds of what would later blossom into the melodramatic non-fight between Moses and Wes for my affectiuons behind me, and just sat laughing with Heather and Starr for the rest of the night.
nabuchodonosor - Here's what my vast spy network was able to drum up about Gemma after I'd conveyed that I wanted info on her stat: She was best friends with Leigh. (During Gemma's first year at Knox I don't think I saw the two of them separately outside of class ever.) She dated Chris Nelson. (Though by the time I got around to talking to her she'd moved on to Derrick Billings.) One night when Gayle and I were chilling in the Gizmo, and Leigh, Gemma, and Chris passed through, Gayle leaned over and whispered to me "There's a threesome waiting to happen." I damn near pissed myself laughing. Gemma was a creative writing major. She was a member of GIN. She never smiled and as a consequence always looked really fucking mean. Based on all of the above information (particularly her association with Leigh) I deemed her a bitch on sight.Now imagine my terror the first day I stepped into Tom Franklin's Beginning Nonfiction Class in September of 2000 to see the bitch sitting with Erick Plumb. I was kinds scared. I'd been watching Gemma for a year at that point and I was convinced she was an evil person who associated with other evil people, and who would hurt me if she had the chance. That's just the sort of look she had about her. And when she transferred into my English Lit. class midway through the first week I wanted to shoot myself. She was a total know it all! Whenever she was called on in class she gave these very intellectual, well-read, learned responses that made me wish I'd read more Shakespeare. So not only was she a bitch she was a show off too. Great. And I had to deal with this wench every day of the week.
With this impression, you can imagine how apprehensive I was the day Miss Gemma decided to sit next to me in Nonfiction class. My body stiffened as she slid into the desk beside mine. My first thought was "God I hope she doesn't talk to me." My second...wasn't so much a thought as a feeling. I watched from the corner of my eye as she took her notebook from her backpack and placed the bag next to her chair. I stole a glance at all the patches of band logos sewn onto the flap. I noticed as she tucked her hair behind her ears, took a swig from her Pepsi can, stole a glance at me out the corner of her eye. I realized if she knew Leigh then she must know who I was. She must have been just as curious about the ex-best friend as I was about the new one. (At this point the grapevine had yet to feed me the knowledge that Leigh and Gemma were on the outs, Leigh having done to her almost exactly what she'd done to me.) With her Pepsi, and her scrunchy, and her bookbag she was much more human then I'd allowed her to be in my mind. I found myself feeling more curious about her than frightened. I live by the adage "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer." How this translates into practice is I always try to befriend people who intimidate me. My ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, my ex-best friend's new best friend. By getting close to the people who are trusted by your enemies, you gain power of them. Perhaps my realization that Gemma was human was a combined realization that I could milk infromation about Leigh out of her? (Hmm, I've never actually thought about that before. Just speculation.)
But then she spoke. Don't ask me what she said, I have no recollection. I'm not even sure she was talking to me. She just uttered something totally snarky and sarcastic, and it made me smile. She saw me smile. So she said something else, and I tried a tentative laugh. Pretty soon she was whispering snide comments for the sole purpose of making me laugh, and I was chiming in with my own. And that's how it began.
Damn, those were long. I thought I was gonna make it all the way up to Gabe and Evie tonight. Guess we'll have to save them for later.
PS: I am showing way too much cleavage today.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-06 02:11 am (UTC)Especially when it's Carla cleavage that is at stake.
huzzah!
Date: 2005-04-06 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-06 03:51 am (UTC)what year was this?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-06 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-06 07:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-06 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-06 11:52 pm (UTC)M.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-07 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-12 12:49 am (UTC)Wait...not true.
Llama. But you knew that.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-12 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-12 02:01 am (UTC)what i dont get is why both you & heather thought i was like too cool when you first met me, cause i was so totally not
I insist you read the first line of this response aloud in a valley girl voice.
Date: 2005-04-13 11:58 pm (UTC)Like I said, you were just really laid back, very sharp, very funny, you never gave a crap what anyone thought of you. You just came across as way cooler than the average Knox first year.
Re: I insist you read the first line of this response aloud in a valley girl voice.
Date: 2005-04-14 03:42 am (UTC)I still dont really give a crap what other people think (unless I know them & want to impress them), I learned that was a waste of time in Jr High
but other than that, you people are funny