Echo

Stolen from M-squared and non-girlfriend:

My Uncle Once: Bet me $10 that he could beat me at H-O-R-S-E. Seeing as I was 9, I thought he would go easy on me but no, he kicked my ass. So he asked me if I wanted to play again and I said yes, thinking he would let me win this one so I could break even. But he kicked my ass again. He asked me if I wanted to go again for all or nothing and I said yes, thinking now he would let me win so that there wouldn’t be money on the table. But he kicked my ass again. He asked me if I wanted to play again and I said no. He said, you owe me $30. I told him, I don’t have $30, I’m 9. So he called my mom and told her that I lacked integrity.

Never in my life: Have I wanted to be president.

When I was five: My best friend Linus and I had a game called the Pants Down Game. We would jump up and down on my parents bed and flash each other. I moved away but 10 years later, he moved to my city and showed up at my high school. We talked to each other for the first time in 10 years and he asked me, “Remember the Pants Down Game?”

High School was: a little bitch. But to take some responsibility, if I were to do it again, I would do it a lot less angry and try to focus on the likeminded people who were accepting of me instead of stewing about the hypocrisy and hierarchy.

I will never forget: That meter maid who gave me a hug and comforted me instead of giving me a ticket on that day when I was very very sad.

I once met: a kid who talked just like Professor Frink from The Simpsons.

There’s this girl I know who: Used to give me money and ask me to run across the street to buy her a soda because she was afraid to cross the street.

Once, at a bar: I saw someone projectile vomit. It looked just like it did on that Garbage Pail Kids card.

By noon I’m usually: Nodding off.

Last night: I slept alone.

Next time I go to church I: will wake up, find myself naked and pray that this is just a nightmare because Julia P S__ does not set foot in a church.

Terry Schiavo: People made it a public battle over their own beliefs when it really should have been about you.

When I turn my head left, I see: A wall.

When I turn my head right, I see: a file cabinet. Thanks for reminding me that I’m trapped at work.

You know I’m lying when: I look like I’m on the verge of either laughing or crying.

What I miss most about the eighties: When all that it took to make me happy was going to 7-Eleven and picking up Jolly Ranchers, Now & Laters, Bonkers and Bubblicious, going home with a mountain of candy and having spent less than three bucks.

If I was a character written by Shakespeare, I’d be: Puck. Though whenever I hear that name, I always think of that disgusting guy with poor hygiene on Real World: San Francisco.

By this time next year: I want to be shooting my movie!

A better name for me would be: golden-palace-dot-com

I have a hard time understanding: Anything spoken. I need subtitles for everything.

If I ever go back to school I’ll: go to frat parties and be that old person standing by the keg flirting with people way too young for me, and whose inappropriate presence creeps the kids out. Except for the kids with low self-esteem because those I’ll bag.

You know I like you if: I lick your eye. It’s an ancient Chinese custom.

If I won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: No one. I would use my time to make an ill-informed politically-driven rant until they cued the music and had Charlize Theron escort me off the stage.

Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens, and Geraldine Ferraro: Names men give their penises.

Take my advice, never: Get up in the middle of the night and pee with the cover down.

My ideal breakfast is: Pumpkin pancakes with cantaloupe juice, coffee and two eggs over easy at 11am because I pulled an Office Space and decided that I don’t like work so I’m just not going in anymore.

A love song I love, but do not have is: Ricky don’t lose that numba…

If you visit my hometown, I suggest: You prepare to see hicks.

Tulips, character flaws, microchips, and track stars: The circumstances surrounding my loss of virginity.

Why won’t anyone invent: Something that would allow women the convenience of peeing standing up?

If you spend the night at my house, don’t: be surprised to wake up to find me spooning you.

I’d stop my wedding for: a passing ice cream truck

The world could do without: assholes

I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: lick a part of it that excretes.

My favorite blonde is: Denzel Washington

Paper clips are more useful than: nothing. I use paper clips to pick the locks on diaries.

If I do anything well, it’s: snoozing

The last time I was drunk, I: I’ve never been drunk. Only happy.

And, by the way: boys have penises and girls have vaginas.

This is a great article on the consciousness of fetuses. When I have a kid, I’m going to take the entire 9 months off and do meditative things to nurture the spiritual and emotional development of this baby. Lots of listening to music, energy work, reading outloud and envisioning of the immense power this human being will have to make positive changes in this universe. I only want one kid so I can focus on nurturing him/her and mentoring his/her development. I will try not to be overbearing and turn him/her gay.

I found this part of the article interesting:

Babies react with alarm to loud noises, car accidents, earthquakes, and even to their mother’s watching terrifying scenes on television. They swallow less when they do not like the taste of amniotic fluid, and they stop their usual breathing movements when their mothers drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.

In a documented report of work via ultrasound, a baby struck accidentally by a needle not only twisted away, but located the needle barrel and hit it repeatedly–surely an aggressive and angry behavior. Similarly, ultrasound experts have reported seeing twins hitting each other, while others have seen twins playing together, gently awakening one another, playing cheek-to-cheek, and and even kissing. Such scenes, some at only 20 weeks g.a., were never anticipated in developmental psychology. No one anticipated sociable behavior nor emotional behavior until months after a baby’s birth.

We can see emotion expressed in crying and smiling long before 40 weeks, the usual time of birth. We see first smiles on the faces of premature infants who are dreaming. Smiles and pleasant looks, along with a variety of unhappy facial expressions, tell us dreams have pleasant or unpleasant contents to which babies are reacting. Mental activity is causing emotional activity. Audible crying has been reported by 23 weeks g.a. in cases of abortion, revealing that babies are experiencing very appropriate emotion by that time. Close to the time of birth, medical personnel have documented crying from within the womb, in association with obstetrical procedures which have allowed air to enter the space around the fetal larynx.

We saw the lead singer of this band whose CD release party we went to last week. He was with these two very LA-ish blond chicks. Reggie introduces me to him but he seems like the kind of guy who is self-involved and overly aware that he can make women worship him, so I say hello politely but continue to talk to someone else.

He left for a while but at some point, I noticed him standing next to our booth, facing me. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught him looking at me out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to be carefully posturing himself in what he believed was his failproof “sexy” pose, and was trying to catch me checking him out. It was super egotistical. So I continued to ignore him and got into a really intense conversation with Reggie, until he left.

After a while, the two guys who were sitting across from us left. That singer guy came back and slid into our booth. Reggie asked him who were the girls he was with. One was his friend and he was just chatting with the other one. Reggie says that it looked like she was interested in him, and the guy says really off-hand, oh we’ve dated before….. sleazily implying that he’s had her in the biblical sense.

I decide, I don’t like this guy. He came over here to make a point that women lust after him. He thinks he’s the shit when it comes to women, but he clearly has misogynistic tendencies with the way he interacts with women. I suspect he’s sitting with us because he’s curious about why I’m not checking him out and fawning. So I suddenly change directions, turning on the faucet of flirt. I give him my best, the deep gazes and appreciative laughs, the showing of intelligent interest in what he has to say, pointing out things in common, establishing a rapport, etc. Then just as quickly, I turn it off, suddenly getting very involved in sportscenter which is being broadcast on a large TV by the bar. Reggie’s talking to him but the guy’s not really listening. He seems irritated now. I look at him and think about what dysfunctional creatures we humans have the potential to become when we get everything we want too easily.

5/12 Recap

I’ve gotta make this quick and dirty since I need to get up in 4 1/2 hours. I feel like I’ve been running on so little sleep and such a creative high ever since the NY trip. Or maybe I’ve just been quietly tripping about these things and these are but my muffled screams.

I went to a play with Reggie that was about truth and following your impulses. He let me analyze the performances and point out the nuances of concentration and actors who are playing off the audience and losing their centers.

Afterwards, we went to my friend John’s birthday party at Q’s. Here’s the thing. I randomly went onto Friendster on Tuesday, and that site’s doing birthday notifications now. I saw that his birthday was “today.” So I dropped him a quick line that just said happy birthday. He writes back that he’s having a party on Thursday and sends me and evite. So even though I’m going to a play, I make a point of stopping by since I haven’t seen those guys in 2 years.

I get there and Reggie’s friends happen to be there. We explore the bar further and I find John and his crew playing pool. I see my friend Randy and I get happy. He and I used to work together and we used to hang out a lot after we both quit. He used to invite me out then kind of ignore me, so it was never clear if he was interested in me. He started dating this girl (the relationship went on to last 3 years) and he was eccentric with her, doing things like not even spending Valentine’s Day with her and going to a concert with his friends instead, despite having been dating for a year. And he would still call me and invite me out, but sometimes I wouldn’t come out because it was awkward and because sometimes he wasn’t friendly, so I didn’t understand what exactly our relationship was. I see him and I’m happy because I’m thinking, “friend I haven’t seen in a while,” but he says hi in a really unfriendly way then makes a big show of ignoring me. I’m like, what the hell, so I go say happy birthday to John. He’s a very friendly guy. I have no interest in him whatsoever. So I’m just asking him where he’s working now when out of nowhere, this girl pushes her way between us, sticks out her hand and says, “Hi. I’m Eva. John’s girlfriend.” Being always diplomatic and friendly as I am, I quash the recognition of her antagonism in my head and just introduce myself and ask about her. I’m a pretty friendly innocent person so she chilled out a little bit. But the vibe was messed up, and I could tell Reggie wasn’t liking it either. It’s kind of cute how protective he is of me. So we slip out of the room and go back to the booth his friends had saved us.

I have to admit though, this kind of hurt my feelings, which is a huge admission for me. And of all people, I was surprised that Randy could hurt my feelings, considering he’s not that close to me and I don’t really care enough for feelings to be hurt. But it hurt to be blindsighted by someone who you think is a friend and always had positive regard for, and I think just the circumstances of that was what tripped me up. His friend Paul told me as I slipped out of the room, that Randy’s girlfriend broke up with him 6 weeks ago after three years so he’s still pretty bummed about it. But to be honest, he didn’t treat her that well and really took her for granted. So perhaps he’s just being a huge dick and taking something weird out on me. Honestly, he can’t ever say that I rejected him back in the day and he can’t say that I was anything but nice and respectful of him. He was never clear about what he wanted and frankly, I found his moods to be incredibly inconsistent.

Regarding John’s girlfriend, Reggie said later that the moment I hugged John, his girlfriend came storming over from across the room, made a big deal of keeping her body between his and mine and was looking me up and down like, “Who the fuck IS this bitch.”

I haven’t seen a catty display like that since junior high.

What a strange night.

I have been on such a people watching kick lately. I just want to watch people, analyze who they are, how they think, what their secrets are, and it fuels my creative process. It helps me grow and builds a better understanding of our inner wirings. I feel safe to people watch with Reggie since he makes sure that I don’t get harassed.