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Momentary Thought
Dude, this took me, like, forever and everything to type. God, I was all like "When am I gonna get to the end of this tape?" and stuff.
High/Low
High: Long weekend!
Low: Ain't one!
Current Obsession
Making berry shortbread cookies this weekend.
Grin Source
This entry, which was really quite fun to create. I should count how many times Marie said "Dude".
Singing
Nothing yet.
A Year Ago
More or less
I was sick. Interestingly enough, I mention going to The Coffee Grounds in that entry's "Mission". (So technically this was a year from the night Marie and I actually went, on the 16th, instead of a year from when I posted this entry.)
Storyteller
Bio
Dramatis Personnae
Who I Read
Recipes
One night last week, Calvin had to be in Flagstaff, so Marie and I planned our outing. Then I had an idea, stemmed from a project that Jessamyn did once, to record our conversation and transcribe it into an entry.
So here it is. I'm in regular type, Marie's in italics. Plus some parenthetical comments to help explain things. One thing I've realized about this little experiment is that you don't gain full understanding, as an outsider, by just reading the words that were spoken. You have to have an understanding of the person who is speaking, and see the gestures, and understand the mannerisms. There's a way of abbreviating concepts and experiences into a few words plus a significant look or gesture, that brings about the meaning more clearly to someone who knows you well. So while I completely understand everything Marie and I talked about, and why we (rapidly) transitioned from one topic or thought to another, I'm sure it will be bewildering to you. Have fun!
*******************************
Wait, how do you turn it up? How do we know that it's, um, hearing us?I don't know.
Hey, we'll just put it right here, if it comes out it comes out.
(muffled, talking about her muffin) It's very very very thick.
Thick?
Here... (she gives me some)
Oh, that's really good. It tastes like there's something else in it besides blueberry. Like cake, kinda pasty, but in a good way.
umm num num... How are you going to put this on your website?
I'm going to play back the tape, and, well, what I used to do when I first started...
Oh, I thought you were going to put the sound on the website somehow, and I was like, wha?
No, what I used to do when I first got married, I worked in Portland as a transcriptionist. I worked in an office and transcribed tapes, you know, where you press the foot pedal thingy...
Ooh fun...
Yeah, well it was a windowless office and I typed 8 hours a day. Straight. It was a suck job.
Hey, that's mine. Nyah. He's looking at me weird. (referring to a guy at another table)
That's because you're acting weird. Ahh...(drinking my Sprite)... I was thirsty.
Huh?
I was thirsty.
What did you type when you worked there?
It was for an ergonomics company, and what it was, was these therapists would go to different companies and watched how they did their work and made sure that their workstations were set up right... What's the matter, brain freeze? (she was drinking an iced mocha)
Uh huh! Ow!
And made sure that their workstations were set up right, and that they weren't doing, like, repetitive motions that cause an injury, like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and stuff like that.
Oh, I see.
They would do an analysis of all these different places and they would talk into one of these little recorder things while they were observing what people were doing. They would take pictures at the same time, so I would transcribe all of the tapes, and then I would... that's just weird... okay (Marie was doing something strange, I forget what). Anyway! I would put the pictures together with what I typed and make manuals out of them.
What is that?
Probably ice.
Umm... numm...
Aren't you cold drinking that stuff? (she puts on her sweatshirt) There, see nobody can see the stains on your sweatshirt because we're in the dark. What did you get on yourself?
Ziti. (we'd had it for dinner) I got it all over. And then Daddy had to go...
(we say in unison) Nyah...
I think he should have taken you with him.
I didn't think you were serious (I'd suggested it to Calvin before he left).
Why not?
Because I have school tomorrow... oh, if I miss more than four periods I can't go to the dance.
You mean next week?
I mean tomorrow.
Oh, okay, I get what you mean.
Yeah, if you miss more than four periods in a day you're not allowed to go.
Heaven forbid!
If you miss class you're not allowed to go, if you have social probation you're not allowed to go. Oh, and Ashley's on social probation *and* grounded.
What did she do?
I have no idea. All I know is that in eighth period some people's names were called, and she left and when she came back she was like, "Yeah, that list of people was everybody who was on probation." I was like, holy crap! Or, academic probation or something, I'm not sure.
Some kind of probation.
Yeah, which means she's not allowed to go to the dance, even if she wasn't grounded. Her *dad*... God.
Why, what'd she do?
I guess Katie came over the day before I came over, because I guess he's been going to work early, and her dad's like, "So... had a friend over?" And she's like, "What, how'd you find out?" He finds out about the weirdest crap. But he said something, cuz we were talking about Ashley finding cigarettes in their house or whatever, and she asked her dad about it and everything, and he was like, "No! Those are unholy..."
What?!?
He doesn't believe in smoking cigarettes. They're like way religious...
What religion do they practice?
I dunno, they're Christians, but ever since him and Nancy "found the Lord" they've been such "good people". She said something, I can't remember what she was talking about. She said that her dad said, "No, that's evil" or something like that. Talking about something... I can't remember what we were saying.
Anyway.
I have no idea.
What irritates me about people who live a sort of certain kind of life, and all of a sudden they "find the lord" and they completely turn their back on...
He's been there the whole time...
Yeah, I know! "I just found him", but he's been there the whole time. They completely change their character around, which, I mean, is good if they were doing bad things. But then if they start being all high and mighty like "we live our lives *this* way", but they were the most evil heinous person you'd ever wanna meet before they "found the lord".
Exactly. That irritates me, though. I mean, her dad, he's like nice and everything when he can be, but usually he's like a giant baby.
Heh heh...
He looks like one too. If you've ever looked at him...
Oh, I know, he's got a bald head and those chubby cheeks.
Yeah! With that little itty bitty layer of hair, and it looks even worse when he gets mad cuz he does this little "humph"... (she pouts her mouth out)
Ha!
He looks like the Gerber baby. That's what we were talking about, me and Ashley, we were like, "We found a new word!" It was like, "Gerber". "What?" "Gerber!" "Dude, that's not even a word."
It's a word, you've just decided to make it popular now!
Gerber baby. Not "Ger-ber"... "Guh-buhr" baby.
They actually did an interview on TV, like, recently, like within the last year. Um, they interviewed the actual model for the Gerber baby.
What?
He's like a little old person now.
Oh my God!
Yeah, that was their claim to fame - they were the Gerber baby! Well, maybe it was that they just recently died or something, and they were playing an interview of that person, or something like that. I don't know...
They were the actual baby, or they were the model?
They were "the" Gerber baby. The little "meh" (here I make a chubby baby face)...
The little "meh"? (she makes the face. she laughs)
On the little baby food jars? You know, the little face? That person, that that face is of.
Oh. What is it, a cartoon?
Nah, kind of like a pencil drawing. You know, how somebody would do a portrait?
Ms. Brohme (one of her teachers) has these pictures in her room of a Gerber baby, it has a baby food jar and everything. But the picture of the baby is all... what are you doing?
I'm taking a picture.
Again?
Yes. Just talk.
Okay...
Act natural!
Well, yeah, the picture... no! (I'm grinning at her, she's getting flustered.) Because you're aiming a camera at me and I can't do that.Then look out at the ducks. There ya go. Look pensive.
No, don't! (I take the picture, we laugh)
Wait, lemme see... (I show her the picture on the display. we laugh again) Don't take my picture again.
There it is.
Hmm... I do weird things sometimes.
(we sit for a second and we can hear other conversations around us.)
It's interesting to listen in on other people's conversations sometimes.
Let's put the tape recorder over next to their seat. Hmmm... let's listen to what they talk about. Dude! That fish keeps moving over there! What the heck! Stop it!
They're allowed to. They're fine.
No they're not. Just stop wiggling! I don't know.
(I'm taking another picture)
Imagine turning night into a negative, though? That would be weird. Um. Yeah, but the Gerber baby in Ms. Brohm's room, that picture... it's a picture of like an old, wrinkly baby. It's like messed up, and there's another picture of a baby - it's actually a pacifier, because they actually make 'em. What looks like two really big teeth so when they put it in their mouth it looks like...
Here.
What...
Take my picture.
Oh... wait, I can't see you.
I'm right here. Isn't it weird how the motion is slower... it's exposing it longer like if you set the F-stop on a regular camera for a long exposure.
You don't look too happy (looking at the picture on the display).Oh, that's just me.
"Me. Sublime. Go figure!" (we laugh) Remember that one? God, I love that movie! I think I saw that like fifty times. You need to watch that movie all the way through. I mean, Dad...
Which movie are we talking about?
Men of Honor.
Oh.
Dad was like "Oh, I thought it was going to be better," and he went to bed, and I was like, "You've watched an hour and fifteen minutes of it, sit down!" But no...
We've turned into old people, because we have to go to bed by 10:30 so we can get up and function the next day. I don't know how your Dad and Mom stayed up, because I remember they used to stay up until, like 1:00 in the morning on a work night.
My mom still does.
Ugh! How does she do that? How do you get enough sleep?
Oh, if I do that I'll be.. it depends, like if I don't get any sleep then I'll be like fine for a while, but if go to sleep at like twelve or one or so, I'll be really really really tired. Like first thing in the morning, I always fall asleep during Ms. Brohm's class. She has the most monotone voice. She was like "Have you ever met those people with like, the voice that doesn't ever change or have any enthusiasm?" I was like, "She's standing right in front of me..."
(I laugh)
She was like "What?" And I was like, "Yeah, like Ben Stein?" And she was like "Oh, yeah, him." I was like, mmm-hmmm... God. I mean, she's nice and everything but she can be like a total... "meh" (take that to mean blase) She's nice, actually, but she's so *boring*...
Well, not every nice person can be entertaining.
Oh, yeah, remember how I asked you if Ms. Brohme is going to be mean? Cuz, well, she's like a little old lady and so I figured she'd be mean. But she's not!
No, she's really nice.
I keep seeing... keep seeing lights. (she points to the reflection in the lake)
Oh, that's the airplanes flying overhead.
I knew that!
I know every time we come here we keep saying we want this in our back yard, but wouldn't it be nice if we had this in our back yard?!?
Yeah. Get bored, it would be like, no! I'm not going in that!
No, I wouldn't go swimming in that. I think it gets fed by the canals that run through here.
Eeeew! Well, I would get this little boat and then I'd get in and be like doo de doo doo doo...
Oh, you mean like one of those little paddle boats?
And I'd be like, "Row row row your boat, gently down the stream..."
Cuz that's what you have to do, you have to sing "Row row row your boat" when you're row row rowing your boat!
Yeah, because it'd be like, "Hey, I'm goin' rowin'. I'll be right back. Gonna check out some hot guys." Row row row row row...
(I laugh) Gonna check out hot guys in your row boat?
Dude, I'd be all like row row row... I'd row backwards. (she does that arm movement that is commonly called the Cabbage Patch) I wouldn't get anywhere doing that...
You can't row and do the Cabbage Patch at the same time.
Dude, Ashley calls it that too. Where do you guys get that from?
That's what it's called.
It is?
Yeah. My ex-brother-in-law Ray... you remember Ray?
Yeah.
You should see when he does that. Except he calls it the Bad Bus Driver. But, oh my God, it's so funny when he does it.
It's called Circles!
Okay, you're original. You're going to knock your drink over...
So I got there (she's now talking about the grocery store stop we made prior to the Coffee Grounds) and I sort of stood there in front of the line, and he's like, bagging (talking about a male friend of her's who is working as a bagger)... and he kept looking back and forth, and he looked up and I was like, "Oh, bye bye!", and I left. And he was like, "Hold on! Don't you dare leave me with those bags!"
You probably don't want to bother him while he's working.
Oh, I wasn't, I was just watching him.
What, do you like him or something!
Nooooo! No. NO!
What are you icking about? You were all like "Ooohh!" when we were at the grocery store.
He's my friend!
So who does he like? Ashley, right?
Tall Ashley. (because there's more than one Ashley) How did you know?
I think I heard you guys saying something when she was over last weekend, I don't know.
Well, he just finally finally asked her out, but she was like...Did she say no??
No, she said yes. Yeah, she's been waiting for him to. But she's like sitting there at the park and everything like that. And she was like, "You know what? Fine..." Well, because after we went to the park, when she came home with us that night? She was like, "You know what?" And I was like "What, you don't want to go out with him anymore?" And she said "No, he just hugs me and then just sort of just bicycles away..."
Well, what did she want him to do?
Well, he's like fifteen or sixteen now...
He is?!? (he's really, really short)
Yeah.
He's so short!
He's gonna be a junior next year.
He looks like all the other little short boys in your class!
He was in eighth grade when I was in sixth grade.
Yeah... so if you're in eighth grade now...
Yeah, he's a sophomore. Yeah. And she's like, "Well, I've known him for like, God, at least six or seven months now, and I've liked him forever, and I know he likes me and everything, but it's just like, we've been going out for three weeks, and it's just hug, bye-bye..." I was like, "What were you expecting?" (we laugh) She was like, "I mean, he kisses me and all, but you know, I was with him the other night and he turned his hat forward." I was like, "What do you mean?"
Oh, so she couldn't get in...
Yeah! She said "But it was like I tried, but I hit my forehead on the bill of his hat!" She was like "I took it off and everything like that, but he was like, "No!" and he grabbed it and he put it back on."
Is it the same thing as cowboys, when you take the cowboy's hat off and put it on your own head it means you're after him? Is that the same thing as, like, all the little boys in your class with their baseball caps turned around, if you take it off and put it on your own head does it mean the same thing as when you take a cowboy's hat off and put it on your head?
I steal all my friend's hats, and most of 'em are like, eeew!
Head lice! And sweat, and unwashed hair... ew, Marie!
Eew! Well, actually, our kind of skaters aren't like really long greasy hair, baggy jeans kind of skaters.
More preppy.
Oh, no, not preppy, they'd be so mad if you called them preppy.
Well, I mean for skaters they're kind of preppy. The way they dress.
Well, they dress like, well they're not like hard-core skaters like as in Clueless, like when she says they just roll out of bed, put their hair back and slip on some jeans or whatever like that. They're like all gross and everything? They *wash* themselves...
Believe it or not, I've never watched Clueless all the way through.
Oh, you haven't?
Yeah.
Well, she was just talking about it in the beginning. That, most of the guys that went to her school, "Either they're all preppy... and these guys, they just roll out of bed, put on their hat backwards, and just slip on some old clothes that they find in their laundry, and come to school." And then it shows this guy, and the guy comes up near her, and grabs on her, and she's like, "Ugh! As if!" and she pushes him off... Where do they get "as if" from? That doesn't make any sense.
Um, okay, so there's a grammatical explanation for this but basically it's just short for, "As if I would go out with you," or "As if I would do this" or "As if I would do that".
Oh, okey dokey.
So instead of saying the whole thing, you just say "As if!"I get it.
It's a contraction of a sentence or something.
Yeah. I'm not a preppy ditzy blonde! I don't even know what "As if" means.
Bwa!
Oh, no...
Oh, no.
You know how Phoebe (from "Friends") does that all the time? That "Oh, no..." thing? Me and Ashley picked up on it, and we're starting to say it and everything. Roxanne, Kirby and Lisa, I have them in second period locker room. Roxanne trips and falls, and she does this little hair thing... number one, that's *ours*...
Hah! They *steal* your moves!
No, well, I mean seriously I guess copying someone is like the highest form of flattery and everything like that, but it's annoying! I'm like, you can use our stuff, but do it right or don't do it at all!
Oh, so what they're supposed to do is do the Marie hair flip like this, and then go "Copyright, Marie."
Yeah. Like, "Jack! 2001/2002!" (referring now to "Will and Grace") He is so awesome! Sean Hayes, is that his name?
I don't know.
He's so hot!
The only thing I refer to him as, when I'm describing him, is as "Jack" from "Will and Grace".
Well, I mean, he's just... for a gay guy... he's not really gay. Dad's just convinced he's gay. He's not! He's not gay!
Are you sure?
I watched an interview. He has a girlfriend.
That doesn't mean anything!
They're engaged! So it's like, girlfriend (she shows the ring finger on her *right* hand), I mean girlfriend (she shows the ring finger on her *left* hand). Ring... left hand...
There ya go. Left.
I was talking to Ashley, cuz her nickname is Snuggle...
Why?
Because she always does a Snagglepuss face... "Exit, stage right..."
Oh, *Snaggle*. I thought you said "Snuggle".
Yeah. We call her that. "Snuggle". We don't like calling her "Snaggle" because we have to change it a little bit.
Oh, okay.
Well, we call her "Snuggle" all the time. And everybody kept saying "What do you mean?" "Well, you know the little pink cat, the lion thing how he's like..." (she makes what I guess is her version of a Snagglepuss face)... and everybody's all like, "Yeah"... "And he goes exit stage left..." and I went this way (she gestures to the right)...
That's right, Marie...
Yeah, they were like "Honey..." and I was like "I knew that!". And by the end of the day I was like "I didn't go that way, I was going this way..." At least I didn't go all the way that way, so nyah. So, yeah, so that's where we got her nickname.
All right, so where does "Cooney" come from? (that's Ashley's nickname for Marie)
She thinks I look like a raccoon for some reason. I don't know. She calls me Cooney.
She's a freak.
Well, because we try to like, relate all our friends to animals. PK is Penguin.
Okay, so like how your Dad calls me "Cricket" and I call him "Firefly"? (yes, we're too cute)
Well, I mean, other than the fact that you guys don't look like a cricket and a firefly.
I hope not!
Well, yeah, so like Wyatt, we were talking and we said to him "Oh, man, if a stiff wind came by it would pick you up and carry you away!" He was like "What?" and I was like "Oh, I was talking about... that... kid..."
That's mean!
"There's trash all over the floor!" "It wasn't us, we saw some kids running..." That's always our excuse.
(I laugh) We saw some kids running?
Yeah, it's like every time we do something, I don't know. Like if we're going over to Monique's house or something, and we throw a rock at the window, and she's like "What are you doing?" "It wasn't us, we saw some kids running." But... God, I hate it when we get off on a tangent.
My next-door neighbor used to throw rocks at my window at night. My Grandmother would get so *pissed*!Why? Oh my God!
Well, he was my age, and you know that big brown house across the way...
Oh, "he". Never mind.
So he would come over in the middle of the night, and you know how my bedroom window and Grandma's bedroom window faced the driveway?
Uh huh...
So he would stand below my bedroom window and throw rocks up.
And she could hear it?
Well, and I would be, like (whispered) "What are you doing?" And he would say back "What are *you* doing?" And I would be like "I was *asleep*, what are *you* doing?"
(Marie and I look at each other and say, in unison...) "What are *you* doing?" (You know, from that Budweiser commercial. Damn, we watch a lot of TV.)
Then he would come around to the other window that was up on the lawn, and we would talk. And he would usually be smoking pot, and then he would blow pot smoke in my room, and I'd be like, "Oh, my God. My Grandmother's totally going to think I'm smoking pot. Oh, my God."
Ew. Lately everybody's just, like, "Yeah, man, this is cool." And I'm like, yeah, right...
I was listening to, I don't know, the Edge (a local radio station) this morning, and this guy called in and asked for that "I got high" song...
Uh huh...
And he was like going on about "Yeah, I was thinking about lighting one up, get the day started right..." and all this stuff. And the DJ started going off saying "Dude, that's not cool... you don't wanna do stuff like that. Didn't you listen to the song?"
Honey, just because you're on the radio doesn't mean you have to be an example.
Well, she has to be a roll model.
Um, but, remember how you were asking why we relate all our friends to animals and everything? Basically, it's just Wyatt and PK, because PK really resembles a penguin. I mean, he waddles.
Are you sure you want all of this information going on the website?
Well, um...
Don't they read?
Yeah, well, not unless I tell them to. Dude, there's like, who else? Alex, he's either a Cabbage Patch Doll, or a...
Oh, *totally*. With that pug nose? He's a pug!
I mean, that's cute, that's what's cute about him. But he's being a jerk lately. I was talking to him on line, he IM's me and was like "Hey", and I was like, "Hey." Then he was like, "You know what? You're really annoying."
Out of the blue?
Yeah. I was like, "You IM'ed *me*! I just said hi! What do you want from me?" So he says, "You know what's really annoying, is when you say "hi"." I'm like, wha?
He's got a hair up his butt...
Yeah, I'm like, you know what? It's gonna take major surgery to pull that stick outta your bootey, honey. At lunch or whatever, he'll just be sitting there and look at me, and I'm like "hi". And he's like "Stop waiving at me at school. Maybe I'd talk to you if you weren't so annoying." And I was all, "I don't *do* anything except try to talk to you."
I think he liiiikes you.
He's always a jerk to everybody. Except his girlfriends.
Well, that's gonna get him a lot of friends. Who's he going out with now?
My friend Lauren. We were like really good friends in second and third grade, and then we just didn't hang around each other for a while. We separated classes, we separated friends. But we have classes this year, and we're like "Oh! You remember third grade, your birthday party..." and all that.
Reminiscing about the good ol' days.
You have not been officially hugged by Monique unless your face goes (she makes a squished face look). She does that, face-to-face, mmmuh.
Yeah?
That's just a Monique hug. She's just weird.
Well, there's worse things than being mauled by a hug.
Yeah. Being mauled by a Cabbage Patch doll. (we laugh)
I had *five* of them growing up.
I have never owned a Cabbage Patch doll.
You're really actually quite lucky.
Why?
Because they're homely. And they were all the rage, and I have no idea why. I just know that people kept giving them to me, because kids were supposed to want them very badly.
And you didn't?
Not particularly.
Well, I heard something about this doll, I'm not sure if it was a Cabbage Patch Kid or not, but it ate food and everything. On the news, I guess this girl got her hair caught in the food thing, and it was like pulling her hair down into the Cabbage Patch Doll or something. I'm not sure if it was a Cabbage Patch or not.
Ack! I'm being eaten by my doll!
But I remember me and Michael, well, Michael more because he got it before me... he gets *everything* before me.
That's because he was *here* before you.
Yeah. I hated that. He got this, um, what's it called? It had a tape player in it, and it was a bear and everything, and we had books on him...
Oh, I know what you're talking about.
Snugglebear? No, it wasn't Snugglebear.
I know what you're talking about, though. I remember seeing it.
Yeah, we used to have that, and we had the books and everything, and when my Papa came for Christmas he read it to me. When he got me the snowglobe that year, in the apartment, and I broke it. That's why I was so upset, because at that point he never did anything like that. I mean, he never gave us money or anything. Actually, it was from him, but he gave my mom money to go buy it, but it was from him. He didn't want to go out, or be seen in the store like that, or anything.
I know! Can you see your Papa, in his Harley getup, buying a snowglobe?
Well, it was a really cute one. I mean, I have a bunch of ceramic stuff at my mom's, up on the top row above the TV. After he got me that, he read me a story, and it was all, "Oooh!" mushy gushy. I mean God, you know Papa.
He's getting mellow in his old age.
Yeah, he's getting into it and everything now, but he just wasn't like that back then. It was so cool. When he came over he took Michael's room, so we always had to share my room. It's not like I would go a night without sleeping in his room anyway. I would wait until my parents went to sleep and then I would sneak into his room. I remember actually getting caught doing that one time, because my mom had just gone to bed. Me, being young and stupid, thought "Oh! She went into her bedroom! That must mean she's asleep already!" So I walked in, and her light was off and everything. I mean, you can lay down but that doesn't mean you have to be asleep. I just grabbed her door and I shut it and everything. Then I mosey on into Michael's room and she's like "What do you think you're doing?!?" And it was like, oh! I thought you were asleep! But I don't know why, I just always had to be in his room. Always.
Oh, I know. I remember.
We have a picture of us asleep together like that.
I know. There's been times at our house, after you guys had separate rooms, and then we'd look in your room, and there's no Marie. So we'd look in Michael's room, and there's Michael and Marie. Then sometimes we'd look in Michael's room, and there's no Michael. So we'd look in your room, and there's Michael and Marie!
One night he spent the night, I think it was right after we got our separate rooms... Oh, my God, he would *not* leave me alone! He's like "Marie... Marie, wake up. Marie... Marie!" And I'd be like "What???" It's like "Ah, I didn't wanna go to sleep." Well, *I* did!!
Your dad's like that! He's like "Come on, wake up... come on, wake up. Talk to me..."
Do it to him while he's tired and you're not.
Oh, are you kidding me? He would ROAR. Like a lion.
That's when you look at him, like you're pouting, and you go "humph!" (she makes a pouty face) When he was like, frustrated the other night, he sat down at the bar, looking at me. I said "Am I making it yet?" He said, "Making it?" I said, "Yeah, can you see my butt!"
The butt face! (Calvin has a particular scowl that we call his "Butt Face")
He was like, what?? I said "Yeah, you know. When you get made, you have like a butt between your eyes. Am I making it?" I kept staring at him, and he was like "Stop it".
Well, he hates it when he wants to be mad and you make him laugh.
Yeah, and I was like "Aww, am I making you laugh?" He's like "Stop it, I'm mad!" (Marie deepens her voice and frowns hard) "I'm *mad*!" And I was like (gruff voice and face again) "Me, too!"
What was he mad about?
I don't know. It was the other night when he came home and was, like, "grrr". Grumpy. Yeah, so, when Papa came over...
(I laugh) Whoa, reel it back again...
We got this tape for Christmas, it was a Lion King Tape, I rememberer. I think it got ruined or something.
It was a cassette tape?
Yeah, and it was all green, and I used to put it in, and we would sing and everything, to like...
Awee moway, awee moway...
No, it was like, um, God I don't even know the name of the song. It was the Timone and Poombah one...
I've only seen it once.
But yeah, that song they sing together? We would always argue about who was Timone and who was Poombah.
You and Michael, you mean?
Yeah.
Hah!
Cuz we would always...
He's five years older than you!
Well, yeah, because we would always sing it and everything like that? We would always argue about who was Timone and who was Poombah. I always wanted to be Timone, because Timone was the cool one. Michael was always Timone. I always had to be the fat warthog thing.
But I thought that Timone was a girl?
No, they're both guys. But we argued about it all the time.
I was like "Michael wanted to be the girl?"
I was like, "I wanted to be Timone!" He let me be Timone for like five seconds one time, and I was really happy. I got to say a line. We would always, because I had a backboard, we'd sit up and put our arms around each other, and be like "La!" and we'd sing together, right? It was so cool, we went all out on it.
I wish I had a video of that.
Yeah, it was so awesome. We totally got into it.
We'll have to find the tape so that when Michael comes home for Christmas you can do that.
I wonder, if we go back out, I want to find the Lion King tape. We had a bunch of little story tapes, like Bible stories, I used to have those on tape all the time. I'd listen to them in Mom's room.
I remember when I was little I had Bible stories on records, and there was one about the flood, and the music that was playing and the thunder crashing, used to scare the crap outta me.
I remember there was one, I don't know if I can remember, but it played this little piano slow music and everything, and it was talking about someone dying. And it would always make me cry. Always. And I'd get up, and I'd rewind it, and I'd play it again, and I'd lay down and listen to it...
And you'd cry again.
Well, cuz I do that even now sometimes. I make myself do it. It's like, know what? I'm going to be sad, and I'll look at pictures and everything, and I'd be like "Wah!" I don't know why, I just make myself do that.
Well, it's therapeutic. It's cathartic.
Wha, cathartic?
It's good for you.
I don't know, I just cry. Like, once a week. I don't know why.
Well, it's because you're a girl, and you're thirteen. And I will tell you, when you're a girl and you're twenty-seven, it doesn't change.
Yeah. Like, it kinda makes me feel a little bit more comfortable when Dad says he used to cry at just about nothing. But then that kinda scares me.
Well, your dad is one of the more emotional men I've ever met, really. Which, you know, that's cool.
It's awesome. Ashley is like, "I hate you," when we were walking home one day, because I was talking about how cool my parents are compared to her's. She's like "Shut up, I don't care about your parents, my parents are gay." Because when we got over there, it was like "Ashley and her gay dad"...
Your friend's parents must *hate* me! (Once, Ashley's dad did something that I thought was unreasonable, and I said "Well, he's gay." Not as in he's a homosexual, but in a "That's so gay" kind of way. Oh, you know what I mean. Back away from the e-mail link, please.)
Well, it's like "When I get mad at him or something like that, and he's yelling at me, or something, I'm gonna tell him that even my friends parents hate him." She thought that was so funny.
Well, good, I figured that would cheer her up.
She's kinda mad about that whole Matt (a boy they both like) thing, though. Well, cuz I wrote her and it was like "If you don't want me to go into this just tell me, right then and there, because that's what I'm going to do." And she walked up to me today, and she put her arm around me, and it was like "Buddy?" And I was like "What, what do you mean?" And she's like "He's gone." And I said "Oh, alright. That's all you needed to say." And she was like, "That's cool. Just wanted to make it clear." Ugh! Stop it! Go to sleep. Stupid fish.
I wonder if they sleep.
This one is kinda like possessed.
They just float, then Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle... (I make a motion with my hand like drifting with the current)
Yeah. That would be weird.
I think it would feel good, if you could be suspended in water or something and fall asleep. Somehow keep your chin propped up so you don't drown.
Yeah. I try to do that in the bathtub, but I always end up...
Actually I saw on the internet, they sell this thing that fits in a standard bathtub, and it's like this brace. You basically sit down in it, through it, and it props you up.
So you can be in the water...
And there's a pillow behind you so you can fall asleep in the water.
Dude, that would be awesome! Dude, I always try to do that. I used to fall asleep in the bathtub all the time, on accident though. Warm water always makes me tired. But when I was little and I first started taking baths by myself... it was awesome, we used to shower all the time... okay never mind.
Ahahahahah! Tape recorder! Tape recorder!
Well, yeah, as soon as I used to start taking baths by myself, my mom would always have to come in and watch me because I would always fall asleep and everything, and it scared the crap out of her.
Well, I would imagine that if you slipped down under the water, you'd wake yourself up.
Yeah, that would always happen to me, I would suck in water, and be like "Hack! Hack! I'm up!"
I'm up!
Yeah, I'd always do that. I'd try to listen to a CD player, and it'd be like, the cord... ugh! Throw it off, cuz I can't reach my stereo. Or like if I want to watch TV and take a bath... I can't! It makes me so mad. There are so many things I want to do...
Mmm...
Push a button, have a flat screen fold down out of the ceiling. That would be cool! And have little speakers drop by cords. That would be so awesome!
I think your room is pretty cool for a thirteen year old's right now.
You should see Katie's room. It looks like a little girl's room because it's all...
Like poofy and canopy and dollies and gah...
Yeah. And she has a bunch of pictures of when she was little...
I think you're going for goth, a little bit. With the black wraught iron and red curtains and the black comforter and everything. I mean, don't turn total goth...
Oh, no. Gross, no.
That's just nasty.
I mean, I like the look and everything, with like the long coats and the little spiked bracelets...
Not black lipstick...
Oh, gross, no.
Or black nail polish and black dyed hair...
Hey, black nail polish is cool. And black hair dye, when guys do that it's so cool, when they have brown hair...
Dead girl sitting, here... if you dye your hair black, swear to God.
Ashley E., her hair is actually blonde.
Didn't she say that she was first, like, she did her hair red?
Red, yeah. It was like an auburn color so it looked natural, then she did it dark. Like that guy Avi that goes to our school, he did his hair black and it looks really cool. And so does Max, one of the guys in the band, in "Bad Motivation" with Justin? He looks so cool playing. He looks like he's actually doing it, and, well, he is, but... I wish I could find something I'm good at.
Well, you're good at writing, you're good at talking, you're good at being on the phone...
Things that actually take neurons. I mean, I have an active imagination...
I had hobbies when...
I mean you rode horses.... well at least it was something you were known for.
That was my grandmother, I mean, she did good by me. She made sure that I did things when I was little. I think that your parents tried to get you guys to do stuff.
Well, I mean it's just the way I grew up, too. It's not like I had very many options to do things. I didn't even know what life was until we moved out and actually got a life and I made friends and everything. I didn't have friends up until second grade, because I always stayed home and Michael was my friend...
Well, yeah, but you were really little then, too. You don't develop a social life until you are older, in middle school at least.
Well, yeah. Well, I'm kinda glad... I don't know. Things happen for a reason, I guess. Otherwise they wouldn't happen. I don't know.
What? What things happen for a reason?
Well, I mean like different things that you do in life, moving away from places and schools, doing just small things, everything happens for a reason.
Why, do you miss going to Tri City? (that's the school she and Michael used to go to before they moved to a different part of the Valley)
Well, I miss that whole area. After we moved, and I think about it, dude I can't even remember the place now. I mean it was awesome to me when I was little and everything, because I thought it was the best thing. But when I really think about it? I lived in a trailer.
Yeah, but you had a loving family and a happy home and they gave you everything you needed and that's what made it nice.
Well, yeah, I know that's what did make it nice, and it's not like we lived in a trailer out in the middle of nowhere. But when I really think about it, I lived in a mobile home, which is a fancy name for a trailer.
Well, it was nice. It was big. I mean, not as big as our houses now...
I had my own room, that was good. Oh, god, my water bed? I've had that thing since I was four.
Is your mom ever planning on using either your's or Michael's room in her house? She's still living in that spare room, right?
She has like three mattresses piled on top...
I thought she got a new bed?
She did. You know like how your bed has like two mattresses, however it's set up? Her's is really big and poofy like that. It's kinda cool.
It must take up that whole room!
Yeah, obviously. I'm planning on spending the night over there Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then just having it there, because I guess... oh, and I talked to her about the braces thing...
Did you want to go straight over there after school on Wednesday?
Yeah. And I talked to her about the braces thing and everything, and I was asking her stuff and I mentioned that you and Dad have the money and everything, so when are we getting my braces put on, in the next few weeks? And she was like, "Well, Laura made you an appointment for January..."
Your mom told me to do that. For after Christmas.
Well, I was like, I was asking, "Wait a second, *Laura* made the appointment for January?" She was like, "Yeah!" I was like, "Well, I thought Dad and Laura both wanted to get them on as soon as possible." She's like "I don't know, Laura made the appointment for January." I was like, hmmm...
She said to me why don't we wait until after Christmas, so, I quote, "Marie can enjoy Christmas without having her teeth hurt her."
That is not an excuse. I mean, Mom can just come out and tell us that she doesn't have the money, if she needs to. I mean, God, it's not like it's going to make us think low of her, and like, so what, like it matters to her what we think. Obviously, it does, I guess.
No, what I did was I called her and I said "We've got our half of the money together, when do you want to do this?" She said "Oh, well, um... I'm looking at my... well, I don't think we can even do it before Christmas, and we probably should wait until after Christmas so that Marie can enjoy it without her teeth hurting her." I said, "Alright, so when, after Christmas?" She said, "How about the first week in January, you know, whichever. Do you want me to call and set up the appointment?" And I said "No, I'll call and set up the appointment," because I know she'd never do it.
Yeah, I know. Well, I was like, "I wanna get 'em on, and get kinda used to them with the brackets and the wires on, for when I go back to school so I don't look like a total geeb with part of 'em on. I wanna get used to them and everything, and I know everyone's gonna notice, because everybody notices when someone in our group gets braces. I'm gonna be like, "Don't look at me." So, I was talking to her, and I said I kinda wanted to get them on and everything because it takes forever to make an appointment, and God knows it could take like a month if we start now to get an actual appointment and everything, and she said "Okay, I'll check tomorrow." I said "Well, I really want them on because I really want to get used to them before the holiday is over, so I can get back to school and have 'em." She's like, "I understand," and kept doing one of those uh huh, okay, whatever kind of things. It's like, you know what, don't tell me that you don't know... so I told her to go ahead and make the appointment...
Do you want me to call her and talk to her?
Well, I talk to her on Yahoo, and that thing automatically saves conversations, which is so cool.
Look! We have evidence!
Well, I mean, if you... well, I do, because I send certain conversations to my friends...
I save IM's that Dawn and I have together. Some of them are not PG!
Oh, well... if I talk to someone about someone, and they're like, "Hey, talk to this person about this, and tell me what they say," I can just send them the conversation.
So you don't have to repeat the whole thing.
Exactly. I hate that when you close out, or you get kicked off and it closes out of IM, you lose it... gr. That's why I'm telling all my friends to get Yahoo.
Do you Yahoo?
Yeah. Oh, no.
What's the matter? What are you doing? (she's squirming around) Do you have to go potty?
Yes!
Well then go potty!
Whatever. Turn off the tape recorder!
(I turn it off, she goes and I sit and wait for her. She comes back, and we decide it's time to leave. We head back to the truck, and turn the tape recorder back on once we're inside.)
Okay... we were talking about my friends, we were talking about mom, and when I was a little kid...
That makes for good conversation. When you don't stick to just one topic.
Yeah.
Because you know, you and your little tangents, you are your father's daughter.
I hope so!
He couldn't stick to one topic to save his life. We do that a lot. We'll be lying in bed together and we end up talking and talking about everything.
Well, I mean I can talk about one thing, but everything leads into another thing. It goes off into another thing, and that one thing is related to another thing.
That's kind of how, sometimes, the way I write, it's called "Stream of Consciousness", so that you just write what comes to mind, no matter which order it comes in, or where it's going, it just goes all over the place.
Yeah.
That's pretty much the way we talk!
In Spanish... the memorial thing. God, what are those things called? For the Day of the Dead, we had to do... Oh, God, what is it called?
I don't know.
Well, you had to do, they do a cross or something on the side of the road? Offering, that's what it was. I couldn't think of it.
Sounds like... first syllable...
Yeah. We had to do an offering, and one of my friends is in band and everything, he's like heavy into a lot of music, and he did Kirk Cobain. I did Alieah, because I waited until the last second and I couldn't think of anything.
Oh, well, she's dead too.
It's cool, she's...
Aaah! Speed bump!
I hate those things. They're like huge.
I know, it's like at night? And all of a sudden it's just there.
Yeah, they don't have like little things on them.
Lights! That go "Hello! Speed bump over here!"
Exactly. Marcos... gross (we were passing Marcos de Niza Middle School).
Your dad spends a lot of time over here.
Yeah. I feel so bad because a lot of my friends who were going to go to Corona with me? Mountain Point changed their boundaries, so a lot of them are going to Mountain Point now.
Does our house fall under Mountain Point?
No.
Oh, okay.
Lisa and everybody over there... you know where Ray Ranch is over by Polar Ice? She lives across the street in that neighborhood, so everything in that area by Polar Ice is all Mountain Point territory. So a lot of my friends are going to Mountain Point, which really sucks.
Are you still okay with going to Corona?
Oh, yeah! Ashley's going, Shannon's going, I think Monique is going to Desert Vista, I'm not sure. If they don't get another boundary change. But nobody else is going to Desert Vista.
One thing about you, Marie, you'll have no problem making friends.
I dunno...
Judging by the amount of phone calls we get in any given period of time, you have no problem making friends.
As long as I know the people already, but if I have classes with them or whatever... Serli and I hated each other in sixth grade, but now we're like best friends.
She's cool.
And me and Ashley... Ashley and I, sorry...
I didn't say it!
Well, you were going to. You were thinking it.
You're right, but I didn't say it.
But, we both thought we hated each other, because both our brothers were friends, but they always told us to go be friends or whatever. "Come on, Ashley's your age, and you're both exactly alike... you sit on your butt and don't do any chores..."
Oh, whatever. He is the laziest person I've ever met in my life! He has no right to go off and say somebody else is lazy.
Well, yeah, so Matt always used to tell me to go hang out with her, and Michael used to always tell her to hang out with me and everything.
So automatically you wouldn't because they said so.
What song are you looking for?
I don't know.
So, but as soon as we actually did, because I was kind of jealous because Monique was friends with her, and I wasn't, and Michael and her brother were friends and everything. So it was like, why am I not her friend? And so finally I said "Oh, hey, Monique's friends with you, so can I get an introduction?" And we became like really really good friends, and we were like "Yeah, we always thought we'd be best friends." Or, well, our brothers did, at least.
Hello, Mormon! (I spotted a pair on bikes crossing the road)
Hello, Mormon! Oh, I think they're so funny...
********************************
Strangely enough, that's where the tape ends. The "Hello, Mormon!" thing is based off of an advertisement on the Discovery Channel, where two mosquitos "buzz buzz buzz" their way down onto a person, and they greet each other "Hello, Mosquito". "Hello, Mosquito". And they start talking about the Discovery Channel.
You had to be there.