Saturday, December 20, 2008

21 jump street

what follows is a close approximation of an actual friday night phone call:

kid: audrey what are you doing? we're bored! hang out with us!

me: well, i'm actually going to a party tonight.

kid and friend in background: ooooooooohhhhh, a party! can we come? (a freshman in college and a senior in high school.

me (knowing full well that the parties i attend now consist of adults standing around and talking, with a some good booze; not a raging kegger that they might be imagining. but to keep up my cool factor, i do not explain this to them.): no.

kid: no, we think you should hang out with us! we're more fun that a party!

me: well... i haven't hung out with my peers in a while. (it's true. i'm usually with kids, various parents that are now my friends, and only usually hang out with my trivia night geeky crew). i'd like to go. (but only after talking my introverted self into going)

kid: oh, audrey! WE'RE your peers! come on!

me: um right... do you remember that i'm almost twice as old as you? well, i am.

kid: no you're not.

.... and we proceed to argue a little bit about this, until i point out the math.

i am still bemused by this conversation. wondering about many things... a) how cultivating relationships with kids (and people in general) is just a part of who i am (in spite of my sometimes militant introversion), that the word ministry doesn't quite accurately describe it for me. b) that people would find me this approachable, when i consider myself to be generally socially awkward. c) how in the last month, i have been asked what high school i attend in one conversation, and then in a different one asked if i have children (i'm guessing she was asking about high school age kids since i was teen-sitting for the weekend - if only i were as cool as lorelai gilmore); d) why i have been using so many parenthetical phrases in this post, and e) just how it is God figures out how to draw us all into life together in the odd way that He does.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

where teen angst comes from

tonight i went to some friends' house for dinner for dinner. i helped them decorate their christmas tree. tried my first stinger - brandy and creme de menthe over ice. refreshing.

then i watched part of the movie version of the heart of darkness because their daughter had a test on it the next day and she hadn't read the book - but had read the spark notes version (what happened to cliff notes?). not apocalypse now, but some version with tim roth and john malkovich where everyone looks brooding and delivers their stilted lines really slowly. it was pretty bad. while watching the movie, she also finished her essay on the metamorphosis by kafka. you know, where the main character has turned into a giant cockroach.

i read heart of darkness in high school but don't remember any of it. didn't read any kafka, but i do recall a lot of hermann hesse. my general impression is that high school english curriculums are mostly based on how damn depressing the stories are. although i do love to kill a mockingbird. but everything else made me want to slash my wrists. i mean, i alread listened to morrisey and the cure a lot then - how did i not actually jump off a bridge? who picks these books? go ahead and chime in with the books you loved or hated in high school.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

things that suck

hiring freezes.

coupled with the words "for the foreseeable future."

yep.

stupid economy.

rather than write about how i feel, i'll just let you think about how you'd feel if you got an email with those words when you were looking for a job. that's way easier and with less whining here on the blog.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

makes me laugh every time

actual conversation, on internet dating sites:

friend: would you do it again?
me: i suppose, but i don't have a job right now, so i don't think that'd be the best thing to do with my money.
friend: but you could get free food!
me: very good point.