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staytruetonorthch · 4 years

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Perfect Ch. 1

A/N: I’m super anxious but here is my first official post. It’s just a single chapter around 4.5k. I plan on this being a pretty detailed, long-form story so if you like it, hang in there. I promise it’ll speed up once we get past exposition. I’m also highly aware of the switches from past/present tense, but I’m too tired to fix it and I’ve been so hesitant to post it’s either a now or never. I hope you guys enjoy <3

Football!Calum x Dancer!OC

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"Don't make me come over there!" It may have looked like I was yelling into the racks of clothing and shoes in my closet, and to be honest, I might as well be.

"You worry too much, Celley." I can hear the smile on my best friend, Brynn's face from my bed in the other room.

"I do, but only because you don't give a fuck, B and I know those boys don't," I said, counting each person out on my fingers. "That's four people in, and not a single fuck is being given. Someone's got to, or nothing would get done."

"You've got a point. The delivery was a little aggressive, but I'm moved nonetheless," Ash spoke up through Brynn's phone.

"I'm cleaning as we speak, Cel. It's gonna be fine," Luke chimed in from the boys' side of the phone.

"I can hear you lads playing FIFA," I said with an exasperated sigh.

We have a party planned at the boy's house tonight. A party I only had five hours to prepare, but that's the beauty of university, right? Spontaneity. All precautions to the wind. Everything that I never could be in high school and am still afraid to do today after a whole month of coursework. Don't ask me what I think might happen. Spontaneous combustion? Instantaneous death? A party that no one has fun at because I didn't have time to make an updated playlist or look up the actual rules for any drinking games?

"Brynn, are you ready to go?" I ask, peeking my head out of my closet to look at her sprawled out across my bed. I can hardly see her underneath the excessive number of decorative pillows and thick white down cover.

"I just got so comfortable. I was actually contemplating taking a nap."

"Please," I plead, batting my lashes over large dewy eyes. It’s a trick I picked up after so many lyrical dances over the years. Direct eye contact with these watery eyes always left judges speechless.

"Ugh… fine, but I'm getting wasted tonight and sleeping in this wonderful bed. Have your asses in gear by the time we get there," she said, hanging up on the boys and throwing pillows haphazardly across the floor. I cringed at every one as it landed in the thick white carpet. I don't bother telling her that I hadn't expected the night to end any other way. I pull myself back into the closet, eyeing my options once more. I could either go with a red gingham top, or I could tie my white vogue tee shirt in the front for a more casual look. Both require a bra sadly.

"The red is trying too hard," Brynn said, leaning against the doorframe. "You can't pull out picnic bitch chic at a party."

"I guess you're right." I pull the tee over my head careful to avoid touching the thin white fabric to my made-up face. Once I had a knot secured at the base of my rib cage, I fluffed my hair as if it could get any bigger and smoothed out my denim skirt. "Shoe's and I'm good. What about you?" I said eyeing her in the reflection of my full-length mirror. She wore a white hoodie underneath black overalls and black high-top converse. Splitting her hair in half, she tied it up into multicolored space buns on top of her head. Brynn is the kind of girl who could put on mascara and chapstick five minutes before she left, and she’s effortlessly beautiful. Her freckles do most of the work across her nose and cheeks, making her insanely adorable.

"Done. Let's hit the road, Jack," she said, walking towards the door to my studio flat. I quickly replace the pillows back on the bed and turned off all the lights before joining her. She grabbed the keys to my Jeep, knowing I’m too preoccupied to drive us.

"Are we stopping at the store on the way or coming back out?"

"Stopping on the way. We just need paper towels, red cups, more ping pong balls because Mikey lost three of the last four, and snacks. I also found this recipe for a cool looking pink drink, but the boys are all stocked on beer."

"I almost hate the fact that I can't use my fake here. I spent good money and almost got arrested for something that's legal here." I smile, scrolling through my checklist one more time to make sure I didn't forget anything.

"Well that's your fault for not doing a simple google search before you came to uni in Aus."

"I'm just saying, in America, I would be a plug." She turned wide out into the street, speeding past every car. She has a bit of a lead foot.

"That one's lost on me, love." I try to keep up with her American slang, but I wasn't able to watch a lot of American shows or anything growing up, so I'm a little behind to put it gently.

She said she has a southern accent, but I can't tell any difference. Everything she says just sounds brutal to me. Shit slams, anything can pop off apparently, and a lot of good things burn. At least that's what I gather when she uses 'fire' and 'flames' as adjectives.

I met Brynn at new student orientation. She seemed to be the only other one unamused by the school's welcoming parade meant to encourage school spirit, so as soon as our parents left, we left campus to explore the surrounding area locating the nearest shops and eating places. She was unlike any friend I had ever made swearing and speaking in riddles. I went to an all-girls catholic school filled to the brim with carbon copies of perfect people. We were second to none in both academics and clubs, which my parents loved, and Brynn was the absolute antithesis of that. She was a self- proclaimed 'thick' queen who was a pleasant deviance to the bird thin girls I was usually surrounded by. Her hair couldn't choose a color after multiple self- dye jobs. Even her mixed Mexican and Jamaican heritage were new to me. She said what she wanted and smiled wide at everything. I'm just happy she saw something in me to stick around even if it was the fact that I kidnapped her on the first day, keeping her from someone better.

I grab the frame of the car as she whips into the car park stopping short of a disgruntled gentleman in the crosswalk. She cursed loudly, causing my face to heat up. I contemplate jumping out of the car seeing as how the doors to the Jeep are safely kept in my garage. It’ll be a quick getaway, but I may need to make sure she makes it into a spot that isn't already occupied with this lovely gentlemen's car.

We soon found a spot and made quick work of the shopping, splitting the list I organized by section right down the middle. We’re back on the road in no time, heading closer to the edge of campus where the boys lived.

Ashton was actually the first person to befriend Brynn. They met at a summer fellowship program that put them in parts of Australia that don't have service for a hundred miles. They have that rugged woodsman thing in common. It kept them in touch through their final year in high school before she 'coincidentally' got accepted into the same university as him an entire ocean's length away. They were equally as smiley; she was just a little more… brash at times which is hard to believe. She didn't want to admit that she was nervous when he invited her to the house, he shared with two of his best mates, so I didn't mention anything when she asked me along. As the male version of Brynn, I immediately got on with Ashton. Mikey was chirpy and so sweet despite his punk persona. His other mate Luke was quiet only offering his very corny, yet intriguing commentary. He seems to be the closest thing I have to the friends I'm used to at home despite his lip ring. We formed a group of sorts meeting up in the library to study during the week and finding anything else but coursework to do on the weekends.

Our first kickback was just a barbeque featuring the five of us until Ash invited a few friends he made throughout the week with his open and boyish charm. Brynn had a few of her own, and Mikey wanted to join in on the fun, so he found a few friends to join. Luke and I were just fine meeting people as they were brought to us. Before we knew it, there was a group chat of about fifteen of us with more and more ideas of who to invite to the weekend shenanigans.

The boys had felt the pressure of expectation early this morning before Michael was a functioning human being. He shooed everyone off with a 'ya sure' before hanging up and going back to sleep. Brynn called me with our invite not only to attend the party but to host it at about 5:00 and of course, I freaked out. I plan everything, including some of the most successful events of my college career, if I do say so myself, so I took the praise for last week's party in stride. The difference is, I didn't spend my week planning out this event down to the second hand, so anything can happen. I wouldn't feel all the way like expelling my insides if it hadn't been confirmed that the first-year football players were going to be in attendance after today's match.

This confirmation came directly to Ash from another one of his mates from college, Calum Hood. Not only the best first year but the best player on the whole bloody team. He's also the hottest. The first time I saw him, he was leaving the classroom I was walking into. He opened the door just as I turned the handle, pushing me backward and almost to the floor.

"My fault, mate," he said distractedly, zipping his bag and flipping it over his shoulder. He was obviously sponsored by Nike dressed top to bottom in their slate grey gear, the school's emblem attached to every piece. The only thing I could tell wasn't sponsored was the gray beanie he had pulled down over his ears covering his hair. When he finally looked up a smirk graced his pink lips.

"You alright, doll?"

I couldn't tell if my reaction showed on my face because I didn't expect him to be so adorable with the brute force, he opened the door with. I just nodded my head taking deep breaths, trying to keep my face still. His tan skin was smooth and warm, complimenting the heat in his eyes that was slowly melting my resolve.

"Right. Well you're late, so you might want to…" he trailed off, nodding over his shoulder into the classroom.

"Right," I replied, hoping my hair was doing that cool thing it does when the wind pushes it back. It's either doing that, or the curls are fighting themselves on top of my head. It's so thick I can never really tell without a mirror, but let's be honest. My hair tells me what it wants to do, I rarely have any say in the matter. Instead of walking out of the door, he extended his arm, acting as a human door frame for me to walk under. When I turned my head to look again, he was gone.

I showed up a little earlier to class the next day to see if I could catch him again. Then I was late again and right on time before I decided to be outside the room before his class even ended. He was still nowhere to be found. I had practiced redeeming myself with a smile or maybe even words. Anything but how cringe-worthy I had been the first time, but to no avail. I didn't see him again until the boys dragged us to the first football game.

I don't mind sports at all. I grew up going to my older brother's rugby matches, so I'm not entirely clueless. Brynn, on the other hand, sat unmoving and quiet for the first time in our friendship. I think she concerned Ashton the most, as he asked her if she was ok every time the ball stopped moving.

"Someone tell me why I chose the guitar over football again," Luke said, pulling his hands down his face. "I was just as good as him, but now he's got fans and his face on posters."

"If that was true, I'm sure you'd be out there, dude," Mikey said, patting his shoulder. Michael wasn't interested in playing sports unless it was FIFA on the Xbox, but he was supportive nonetheless. Luke wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer, so he could point out the center forward dribbling through two defenders.

"That's my best mate, or at least he was before he got club offers," he said, taking a swig of his beer.

"I'm surprised he even came to university. He could've just gone pro," Ash said before he cursed the refs loudly. The boy Luke had been pointing out was quick with powerful legs and defined arms. His jaw was clenched, making it sharp enough to cut through glass. Thick curly hair was pushed out of his face with a thin gauzy headband, a gold streak shone prominently in the surrounding darkness of his curls. As he made quick work of the remaining defender, there was only himself and the goalkeeper who looked menacing. Making a sharp left jab, he caused the goalie's weight to shift, giving him the perfect opportunity to use his nondominant foot for a goal.

I jumped out of the way as the boys leaped up, hugging each other, and spilling beer. The entire crowd erupted in shouts, holding on to one another as if the world depended on it.

"CALUM! CALUM! CALUM!" the entire stadium roared. He smirked up at the crowd with a small wave. I gasped, grabbing onto Brynn's arm in surprise.

"Calum?" I asked incredulously. Oh boy what did I miss out on being dumbstruck? Not only is he incredibly attractive, but he's a football king? My parents would love him, I would literally win my family if I could've snagged him, but I'm stupid. So incredibly stupid.

This is why tonight is so stressful and important. If I can not only get a football player, but the best football player here and he looks that good, I can get my parents off my back. My mum went to university solely to get a husband, which she found in my dad. She worked as a primary school teacher until he could support them at his father's law firm, and before you know it, he was running the place. They pop out a few kids, dad runs for Parliament, and the rest is unfortunately history. Mum loved teaching, but she loved being a mum more. She just raised the 'perfect children' she liked to say to anyone who would listen. My too perfect to be true brother Cleo and her wannabe prima ballerina Celeste, me. So tonight, I have to look perfect, and everything has to be perfect, but I don't have time to bustle around and host. This party has to go on autopilot, so I can set my focus on Calum.

"It could be worse, Celley," Brynn shrugged as she set the grocery bags down on the counter of the boys' home. She's right, it could be. I didn't expect it to be this clean actually, but there were no discarded clothes in sight, no pizza boxes on the counters, and no beer cans all over the place. At first glance the place looks fine, I just have to get the dishes out of the sink and out of sight, so they're not broken. A quick vacuum run and the place would work out just fine. I relaxed a little letting my shoulders pull forward.

"Thank you, Lukey," I said, starting the water in the sink. I knew he was the only person who really did any cleaning around here. As much as they were all messy, he couldn't live in filth for too long.

"No problem," he replied sitting on the island watching me work.

"Hey, I picked up my own stuff," Michael complained looking through the bags we brought in pulling out various things.

"You picked up the underwear that your mum wrote your name in and sat back down." Ash always laughs when he chastises, never letting you know if he’s serious or not.

"Exactly. I picked up MY stuff. You guys never listen to me." He shook his head, disapprovingly.

"Thank you too, Mikey, but start throwing those balls around this kitchen, and I will cut yours off as a replacement," I said sweetly. His eyes went wide as he set the ping pong balls back in the bag he got them out of.

"So, what's the vibe going to be tonight?" Brynn asked, putting chips in bowls and swatting the boys’ hands away.

"Well I accidentally invited like twenty people this morning."

"And those people invited people," Ash added.

"And word got around so looks like we've got ourselves a rager," Luke said, rubbing his hands together with a devilish grin. "You've got to admit, we're becoming the best party house for first years."

"Calm down. We're just the only first-years who don't live in dorms where you can't party," Ashton said, punching Luke in the arm. Not many groups of friends stay together long enough or get into the same university for their parents to go in thirds on the house. It worked out to be less expensive than staying in dorms.

"We've got the fucking football team coming, Ash, I think we're doing pretty well." I listened to their banter silently as I cleaned and set things exactly where I had imagined them. The first guest started to arrive a few hours later after I had time to add a few extra touches and have my first glass of the wine Brynn and I had hidden in the fridge. Neither of us is too keen on liquor or beer.

Boys are scattered around the living room, passing around joints and playing FIFA. Girls talk around them, mingling on the patio. There’s a very competitive game of beer pong going on in the dining room that somehow consists of all four corners of the table instead of teams on halves. I was content for the first few hours refilling bowls and dancing with friends I had made at past parties. I even had time to play wingman for Michael and a blue-haired girl in the corner, but soon I got anxious. It was reaching the first hour of the new day. I found myself sitting on the floor between Luke's long legs watching him play Super Smash and stealing hits of the joint he had held between his fingers. I gave up on being cute at about two, smoking enough for my eyes to be as red as Luke's, and my shoes had long been discarded in one of the boy's rooms. I didn't know, nor did I care who's it was.

There were just about the maximum amount of people possible crammed into this small house, and I didn't bother saying excuse me as I got up to make my way to the bathroom. At one point there were so many people taller than me I felt I was walking through a forest. I tried slipping past one particularly muscular redhead boy caging a giggling blonde against the wall. I did my best to slip behind him, but he decided it was the perfect time to do the douche stretch and flex hitting me with the red cup in his hand. The pink sticky drink that was delicious if I do say so myself covered me from neck to foot. My skin went hot, and I'm pretty sure the blonde's giggles were going to cause me to evaporate the liquid from my skin with embarrassment alone. Where was my snarky American friend when I needed her to tongue-lash someone?

"I'm sorry, love," the boy said, failing to conceal his laughter. I tried to avoid his face at all costs burning a hole through his chest with my eyes. The school's emblem was stitched into his slate grey shirt, but I couldn't quite remember where I had seen this exact shirt before. I didn't have time to worry about it with my shirt becoming more see-through by the second and my head spinning in circles.

"Just let me by please," I said. Redhead stepped closer to the girl who was giving me a snarky look over his shoulder. "Stay in your lane, honey," I said, trying out one of Brynn's colloquialisms on my own tongue. My glare was enough to split the crowd like the red sea as I stormed past. Just as I reached the bathroom and twisted the handle, it swung open forcefully, revealing a disheveled brunette with smeared makeup and haunting blue eyes.

"What the fuck happened to you?" she said with an amused smile playing at the corner of her lips.

"I could ask you the same thing," I said, pushing my hair out of my face. "Are you finished in there, so I can get cleaned up or?" She just smirked sauntering out with a wink. I shook my head, entering the bathroom and shutting the door behind me. I looked in the mirror at my hair that was slowly but surely frizzing out, and my shirt may as well have been a window into my soul for how see-through it was. My mascara was smudged in the corners of my eyes and my lips had lost their shine ages ago.

"Are you alright?" I was startled by a voice coming from the toilet.

"Oh my goodness, I didn't know anyone was in here," I said, covering my eyes. "I thought that girl was the only one and she left and--"

"It's fine. I'm not doing anything but looking at my phone." I peeked through the cracks of my fingers to see a boy was sat on the toilet cover searching diligently through his phone. I scanned him from head to toe. Black Vans, faded black skinny jeans, a cut-up muscle shirt that was barely attached at his hips, exposing his defined torso and arms. His warm skin, his dark hair with a single gold streak running up the front. I gulped, hoping I would take my own advice and just spontaneously combust.

"I'm gonna just go," I said quietly, reaching for the door behind me. I had forgotten how quick he was on the field because he scared me shitless when his hand captured my shoulder stopping me from leaving.

"No, I'll go," he said quickly. "I don't think I'm going to find what I'm looking for anyways. Unless… do you happen to know whose party this is?"

"It's my mate's house actually," I said, quirking an eyebrow in confusion. He should know. He invited himself and the whole team this morning.

"So you know all the lads? Michael, Ashton…"

"And Luke," I finished for him.

"I've been trying to reach Ashton and I just barely caught Mikey before he went down to the beach with some girl. He let me in, but there's so much going on I never made it past the kitchen. Do you know where Luke is?"

"Uh… couch." I pushed my hair out of my face taking a deep breath. I may as well just give up at this point. I'm in no position to charm anyone, and I can see the remnants of that girl's lip gloss on his lips. It was kind of cute on his pink pout, but I shook my head to clear the thought. He's not looking at me like that, and he probably never will.

I turned the faucet on testing the temp before grabbing a washcloth from the cupboard and washing the stickiness from my neck and exposed stomach. I expected him to leave, but he just sat back on the toilet cover, fiddling with his thumbs. He looked forlorn, his eyes longing.

"You ok?" I asked undoing the tie at the front of my shirt and attempting to wring it out to no avail. I glanced at the sad boy in the mirror and shrugged before pulling the wet material over my head and rinsing it out underneath the water. It's not like anything was left to the imagination with it on.

"Have you ever heard Luke say anything about me?" he asked quietly.

"Kinda," I tilted my head slightly as if it would help me think harder. "He did say you used to be his best mate when we went to one of your matches."

"He did?" he asked, perking up like a puppy.

"Yeah, watches every match. About loses his mind with pride every time you score, which you do quite often, good on you," I said, fixated with the faint pink water swirling around the drain. Maybe it wouldn't be a lost cause to put this in the wash. I'm so high and sleepy it probably won't make it tonight. "Well, I'm gonna go. If you work it up in you to go see Lu, tell him I've gone back to my flat. I'm sure he'd be thrilled to see you."

"I'll do that," he said, standing up assuredly. "I'm Calum, by the way."

"I gathered that," I said with a small grin. "I'm Celeste." When I opened the door, I didn't imagine how bad it might look with me leaving sans shirt, with the school's football star following close behind me. I decided to start caring in the morning when I had Brynn to complain to. I'm a person who knows how to quit while they're ahead. My perfect night shouldn't be able to get any worse, and I'm not going to give the universe the time to try.

#5sos fanfic #5sos #Calum Hood #calum hood fanfiction #Calum Hood fanfic #Luke Hemmings #michael clifford #Ashton Irwin #First fic #Perfect Ch. 1 #five seconds of summer #football!Calum

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mateotorrezjr · 5 years

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permanent record → mary h.k. choi

i was lucky enough to receive an arc of this at yallwest, the thoughts expressed in the following discussion though are completely mine.

before we get into specifics, this was one of my most anticipated reads. if i’m being honest i’m still looking forward to september when i can get my hands on a finished copy of this. i also went into this book pretty blind. after finishing emergency contact earlier this year i was pretty confident that i’d want to pick up anything other stories mary h.k. choi decided to write and spoiler, i’m just as content after having finished this as i was after having finished choi’s debut.

i also want to say that i am almost certainly biased in favor of enjoying the way in which choi tells stories, and while there are aspects i’ll discuss in a more negative light toward the end of this discussion on the whole even the aspects that some readers might take issue with, they weren’t as big a deal with me. i also don’t believe that it’s not my place as a person who talks about books to do so in an objective way or to discuss this book as though it exists in a vacuum. as i discuss my thoughts here they are inherently subjective and i can only talk about the book in the way that i experienced it through a singular lens. hopefully, i’ll be able to articulate my thoughts to clearly convey that lens and how my lens and my experiences and what i got out of the book can assist someone else assessing whether this content could be for them.

i don’t really feel it’s my place to discuss pablo being korean + pakistani or the son of a not so strict muslim, nor is it my place to talk about how leanna’s being mexican is handled in the book. i don’t think anything in terms of their diverse heritage is written in any kind of problematic way, i think that both identities and the respective characters relationship with that identity is something that was explored in a really thoughtful way in the novel. with pablo, in particular, i felt that there were several moments where choi would callback to very specific feelings that he had where pablo would have these introspective reflective moments that were really a joy to read. i think that there were a number of lines in the book that dealt with the topic of identity and racism that really made me pause and chew on that thought for a moment. i really appreciated getting to have that sort of relationship with the text, specifically on that topic. i don’t think that the goal of any of these moments or scenes was characters moving to accept the intersection of their identities, rather than simply acknowledging how those intersections have impacted them as people and formed all aspects of their personality. i feel like the way i described and interpreted those moments makes it sound technical or detached, but it really resonated with me on a very fundamental level. the moments carried with them an honesty that i found to be really refreshing. because as i said they weren’t so much written as the characters struggling with what it meant to be x identity and more understanding how said identity has shaped them as people and continues to impact their lives. honestly not sure if that made anything more clear there, but i just really liked that aspect of the book.

i guess i want to start this discussion off with pablo rind, that just seems the most logical place to root this. i was initially surprised that the entire narrative was told from his perspective. or at least i was surprised after having skimmed the summary. i don’t think that the narrative falters because we only get pab’s perspective it was just something i wasn’t expecting. that said, being in pablo’s head was easily my favorite thing about this book. much like i’ve already talked about his introspective thoughts on his identity, i was in love with how pablo saw the world and thought about it. i don’t know if i would say that i agree with all of pablo’s observations, i would say that i was thoroughly entertained by them. while pablo is technically younger than i am, i felt that pablo was easily someone i could know. his friend group to a lesser extent also felt like people i could know. i appreciated the fact that pablo had a complicated relationship with his parents and family, but they were still an integral part of the book. if i’m being honest i’m really happy that this seems to be a trend with choi’s work so far. there’s even a sequence toward the last third of the book that involves pablo that is sort of a homecoming, it’s not really the correct phrasing but the best i can do while still remaining vague enough to not spoil anything that i thought was really fantastic. there’s something about the way choi juxtaposes his initial joy in this homecoming as his first instinctive thought against the realization that the childhood expectations he had were sort of silly that resonated with me on a very real level. it felt very grounded in a reality that allowed the reader to really connect with pablo in that moment.

i think that a lot of what i loved about pablo in particular, and again something that was a surprise, was how little the romance plays into this contemporary. i don’t mean to imply that the romance isn’t, i think that pablo allows this romance to be the thing that distracts him from everything else. almost in an “if i can keep this thing then the fact that all the other shit in my life that’s currently falling apart will work out” kind of way, that while anxiety-inducing in a way that i’ve never experienced before; was also just something that again grounded the novel. i’m very lucky in that i don’t have a crushing amount of student loan debt from my decision to drop out after one semester, so i couldn’t relate to that aspect of his journey, at least on a personal level, i was able to empathize with it. i think that a lot of the financial binds that pablo finds himself in are not only very real but provided something i don’t think gets a lot of page time in contemporary novels with this. the struggle with paying for college is something that a lot of american’s at least have to struggle with, and including that in the realistic way i thought was really a nice thing to do. even if only because when pablo was explaining the situation that landed him in the financial situation he was in gave me the big short vibes [ a film that has nothing to do with twenty-somethings falling in love, but their way of explaining complicated concepts relating to the lead up to the great recession was easily some of the best cinema ever made ] and i was already a sucker for pablo’s thoughts and when random bits of foundational material can be incorporated into the narrative in an organic way that was at least entertaining af to this human.

more than anything though the fact that pablo wasn’t really sure what it was that he wanted to do with his life was by far the most relatable. while i couldn’t relate to the full pressure of being financially in debt to the extent he was, can’t relate to bill collectors hounding me, but the sense of “i have plan” without actually moving forward was the biggest mood™. there was something anxiety-inducing about continuously reading about pablo continuously ignoring those particular responsibilities, but i think that was really a credit to choi’s writing. i was genuinely concerned about pablo. just as i was about his family when around halfway through the book there’s an emergency. obviously, not all of the characters were given an equitable amount of page time, but i felt that the page time we got with them was spent crafting believable and easily relatable.

i guess this is the part of the discussion where i guess we can turn to things that i didn’t quite vibe with. i’ll be honest, i don’t expect this portion to be any less ramble-y than the first half of this was, but i also am still unsure if these are actual flaws of the novel. i’ll do my best to remain spoiler free and i’ll do my best to explain the context of the lens through which i experienced this, and i fully accept the fact that i might not have interpreted this as was intended, but i don’t think that i’ve reached too far in terms of me not appreciating these aspects.

first, and what i think is the briefest conversation is some of the interactions between pablo and his friend group was just odd. maybe i’m more like pab’s mom [ the scene where he talks about her being the least sentimental person really struck a chord with me ], but there were moments that i thought really should have been called out. to be fair they were, and again, pablo’s position in life is different than my own circumstances and so expecting him to react to wyn’s obama birther comment in a way that i would have is unfair to all parties. the part that really left me speechless though had more to do with the cultural insensitivity of his friend getting his first big break on a law and order type procedural focused more on federal agents in nyc where he’d be playing a terrorist character with a generic middle eastern sounding name that fairly rubbed pablo the wrong way. this notion that pablo was somehow being a shitty friend for not being happy for this break or even that pablo had sorta ghosted the friend group to spend time with leanna at this point in time was wild to me. sure the girlfriend stuff is pretty valid, but the idea that a person should be happy that their friend is going to go on national television and play a stereotype about my culture, that seems to be outside the realm of what i would consider being actual friend behavior. the scene later with them making up and mending bridges and moving past that was nice because again we got to have a moment with pablo being introspective and his friend did raise a lot of valid points to all of the things going on in pablo’s life that he wasn’t dealing with. all of that i thought was really well handled. again, it’s hard for me to really label it a flaw, especially given i feel like it could have been written with the intent for the reader to stand with pab in that particular instance, but i remember just having a really getting rubbed the wrong way by the part of the conversation that dealt with this friend playing the terrorist on the racist television show.

now we get to the hard part of this discussion, the part of the book that honestly made me the most conflicted. the romance between our two leads. seeing as i didn’t talk at length about the stuff i liked about that particular aspect at length before i will do so now. i was a big fan of their initial meeting. as far as meet-cutes go this was solid, and i was really on board with their dynamic from the jump. i will say though that i’m a sucker for any dynamic where both parties are clever, i’m a sucker for a snappy one-liner when two characters teeter on the edge of being mean to each other i’m destined to fall for them. i think that’s sort of the appeal in a contemporary with romance elements, you want those conversations where both parties are on the top of their game, where there isn’t that missing beat or that thing you wish you could take back. the dialogue is just heightened enough to where you can believe that people would say these things but still at a level where it can come off as aspirational. if that at all makes any sense.

i even thought that the duo was opposite enough to make it work. sure the famous entity going matched with someone who leads a more ordinary person isn’t the most unique idea under the sun, but even then i think that the setup worked well enough. there were still aspects, particularly the interim between the first and second bodega visits that could tug on a reader’s suspension of disbelief, but i don’t think that it’s anything that ruins the novel. again, we’re operating in a heightened space that is still trying to come across as realistic, and a minor tug isn’t going to be the thing that makes me lose it. i’d need a few more instances and thankfully none popped up.

i want to revisit the part of the discussion where i talked about this being told solely from pablo’s perspective. i didn’t really start to think this was an issue until the end of the novel where i felt things started to come together almost too neatly? i started to get this sense that it was almost like through his time with leanna that pablo was able to see the things in his life that he wasn’t doing, the steps he should be taking to better himself. i’m hesitant to really call leanna a plot device because i do think that it’s always been clear that the two of them weren’t exactly the best of matches for one another. again, i think that there were a lot of moments in the novel where pablo was allowed to have introspective moments and it was established that he was the type of person that allowed himself to be distracted or chased after thing for the chase and that relationship with leanna could easily be one of those instances, so discussing it in this way is hard for me to do. taken as a whole i don’t think that the novel is poorly written, especially in regards to their relationship. i don’t really think that there were any moments where leanna outwardly tried to change pab or show him how his life could be better, which is part of why i stop short of calling her a plot device. i do think on some level even before the final third of the book pab knew and understood what the endgame would be. i actually liked what the endgame happened to be. i’m a big fan of the trend in contemporaries not to give in to the expected ending, or at least the ending that would break the internal logic of the book. i think it’d be easy to call the ending a disappointment, but i appreciated that the ending like so much else int he narrative was honest in a raw way that allowed the reader to connect to it.

before i transition into my closing thoughts, i do want to say that there is a part in the book, the final third where there is a discussion of actions that i thought were just grossly manipulative of leanna as a minor. i wasn’t expecting it, i don’t think that it detracts from the narrative in any way. i just think that i think that it implies a more complex dynamic between leanna and a side character that i know i would have appreciated having explored with leanna’s perspective. that also wasn’t the story that choi wanted to tell, and i think that it’s always a sign of a good story when there are threads that you want to keep pulling, so it’s not a knock in this case i guess. if it wasn’t clear by this point that i have a lot of contradictory thoughts, particularly in what are the “weaker” points of the novel, then i don’t know what to say to you. just know that there’s about a paragraph of text in the last third of the book that could be considered grooming behavior. around the middle-ish, just before the third act, there’s a conversation centering around assault / unwanted touching. again, it’s nothing graphic, it’s two pages of a conversation, but it is there. i think both instances were well handled and well written. just know.

at the end of the day, this is one of my favorite books i’ve ever read, period. i have never felt more connected to the main character than i did reading pablo. i was constantly torn between wanting to read the book as slowly as possible as to savor every moment i’d get to spend with pablo for the first time and reading through the novel as quickly as possible to continue the experience i was having. this book constantly had me pausing to chew on a sentence, whether it was because of the construction or the content, and i’ve honestly never felt this engaged while reading something. choi crafted something in these 400+ pages that were truly magical and one of a kind. i will forever be jealous of those that get to come to this story for the first time and is a book that i know i will return to time and time again. not only to check back in on pab but because of the narrative; while discussing issues that are relevant today, are also issues that i think are timeless and welcome a revisit. someday things might fall into place for me the way that they did for pablo, i’ll have to work on that. until then though i’m grateful to have had this experience at this point in my life. i hope that all future readers of this are able to enjoy this book at least a fraction of the amount that i did if not more so.

#permanent record #mary h.k. choi #book review

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surveys-at-your-service · 6 years

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Survey #131

“demolition woman, can i be your man?”

Do you know if you were a planned child? I've no clue. What's your favorite gem? Mexican dragon's breath opal. Do you like Oregon Trail? I loved that game. Although I only won like maybe once or twice lmao. As an adult, do you want to live in an apartment or house? I wouldn't mind an apartment if it was just a starting point, but once my spouse and I were financially stable, I'd definitely want our own place. Do you like the stem or leafy part of the broccoli? Steam. Do you believe in the "innocent until proven guilty" idea? As far as imprisoning someone goes, yes, I believe you shouldn't be put away until there is substantial evidence you are indeed guilty. This sadly doesn't get all criminals, but I think just saying "this guy is guilty because I say so" is far more dangerous and more people would see jail time. Do bats frighten you? No no no, they're high on my list of favorite animals, especially flying foxes. <3 Does Paris appeal to you? I'd loooove to visit! What’s the song that reminds you of your special someone? I think maybe above all, the acoustic version of "If You're James Dean, I'm Audrey Hepburn" by Sleeping With Sirens <3 Are you a KPOP fan? No. Who is the 6th person in your contacts? My friend Jax. Do you believe in the phrase "If it’s meant to be, it will be"? Honestly... I don't think so. You can't tell me a young child dying from a disease is "meant to be." How long was your longest relationship? Three years and seven or eight months. Considering it was a legitimate trauma, I'm very surprised I don't remember the exact date we broke up... I just know it was August or September. First time you kissed the last person you kissed? We haven't kissed on the lips yet, but the first time I kissed her cheek was because she was crying. Do you have to really know someone to kiss them? Me personally, I think you should love someone before kissing. S/os, family, friends... Were you anyone's first kiss? No. Will you keep your last name when you get married? If I marry a man, no, but if I marry a girl, depends. If I marry my current girlfriend, nope. Which would be more meaningful to you: I love you a lot, I love you so much? The latter. Where was the last place you held hands at? In a car. If you could live in any home on television, what would it be? The Munsters' house. <3 If you had to be named after one of the 50 states of America, what state would you WANT to be named after? Dakota. What is your heritage? I know mostly German, Irish, and a bit of Polish, but I think that's only Mom's heritage, I think. I wonder if Dad has Scottish roots because our last name is Scottish. Do you think morals are universal or relative to the beliefs, traditions, and practices of individuals or groups? Universal. Is torture ever a good option? If no, why not? If yes, when? No. It's just... excessive to me. Even criminals, just kill them quickly. What do you think is one of the most undervalued professions right now? Teaching. Have you ever seen anyone have a heart attack? NO THANK GOD. Have you personalized your answering machine/voicemail? No. Have you ever had Fiji brand water? No. What’s your favorite horror movie? The Crazies, The Blair Witch Project, and The Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows. Would you say you have a high sexdrive or not so much? It's normal, I guess? What animal is the scariest in your opinion? Hmmm... I'll put animal phobias aside and acknowledge those with legitimate danger. Probably African killer bees. Fucking terrifying. How do you feel about people wearing fur coats? are you for or against it? I am completely against that shit unless you're like an Eskimo and need to wear animal coats for survival. What’s the worst thing a friend has either done or said to you? Preach me the "pick yourself up by your boot strings" mentality while I was fucking suicidally depressed. What’s your favorite memory with one or both of your parents? Ha ha oh boy, this question just made me remember this... With Mom, it was probably that one time we drove to Chick-fil-a at night, got some milkshakes, and rocked out hardcore to Judas Priest. A lot of laughs... As for Dad, hm. Probably childhood fishing trips. Something you feared as a kid but don’t anymore? Uhhh... unsure? Well, my phobia of dolls isn't as bad as it was when I was a kid. What’s your opinion on girls who become obsessed with their boyfriends? DO NOT DO IT, but I understand it much too well. Are you biracial? No. What was the most unique pet you’ve owned? Probably my champagne ball python I have now. Do you have a fence? In the backyard. When was the last time you got mad and broke something? I've never done that, but I've come close. How long do you think you will live? I don't know the average life span of my family, but maybe like... early 80s? Idk. I don't WANT to live past the point where I can't care for myself. Favorite nonliving musician? Uhhhhh... probably Ronnie James Dio. <3 WAIT NO. FREDDIE MERCURY. Favorite album? "Black Rain" by Ozzy Osbourne. Introduced me to metal. What color dress did you wear to prom? Sophomore year was maroon, senior year was black Ever have an ultra-sound performed on you? What was it for? Yes, on my liver. Apparently nothing was wrong. How many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust? Only my dad. Does your family use coasters? Is anyone in your family excessively tidy? Nope. Do you still have your tonsils? Yeah. Do you think making out is slutty? No...? Do you have any traits that you obviously inherited from your parents? I pace like my dad. Have you ever hit your significant other or ex-significant other? Has he/she ever hit you? No to both. Would you say that you have a nice smile? No, I will without fail look high. Do you get motion sickness? Never have. Are men more attractive with longer or shorter hair? Long. *swoons* Would you ever keep your favorite animal as a pet? No, they are not meant to be pets. I have an acquaintance in the U.K. who has two and they're perfectly loved, but it's just not right for them. They in general are very destructive pets, too. If you had the power to end the world right now, would you? No. Have you ever been in an ambulance? No Have you ever had the flu? Thank goodness, no. What's worse: Depression or anxiety? My answer hasn't changed: "WOW that's a hard question. But. Depression. Because imo it's easier to become suicidal when depressed. And I'd rather be afraid than wanting to die." Have you ever made out with someone you weren’t dating? No. What’s one of the most difficult things you’ve ever had to do? Get myself to see holding onto Jason was the most detrimental thing I'd done in my life thus far. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be? A bottle-nosed dolphin. What is the wallpaper of your cell phone? My lock screen is Sara and me, and my home screen is Markiplier. What's your favorite high school memory? Art class with three friends. Should ANY country be allowed to have WMDs? N o. Should schools give out condoms? No. Should all people have access to medical marijuana? All people, no. I have mixed emotions on anyone having medical marijuana. Ever considered cannibalism? No. o_o When’s the next time you will consume alcohol? *shrugs* Do you address older people by their first or last name? It depends on the person and what they prefer. When I first meet the person and I know their last name however, I'll use Mrs./Ms./Mr. Whatever. What is your guilty pleasure (make it SFW)? Markiplier in dresses kms. Do you want children/how many? At the time I'm taking this, I'm questioning if I do, but I HIGHLY doubt it. I would NOT want more than two. Maybe even just one. You find out your wonderful one-year-old child is not yours because of a mix-up at the hospital. Would you exchange for your own? Yeah, honestly. One year old is still young. Are you a good kisser? Idk? Ever made out in the bathroom? No like that sounds so uncomfortable and unsanitary. On the floor? @_@ Who was the hottest teacher you ever had? Omfg so I had a band teacher that all the girls were crazy for, but then a good number of years back, he got charged for sexual relations with a student o o p s. When's the last time you've been sledding? E o n s ago.

#survey #quiz #questions

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tomemyxmen2017-blog · 6 years

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The Best (and Worst) Free Comics of FCBD 2018

Of the fifty-two comics released for Free Comic Book Day 2018, there were an unsurprisingly high number of excellent comics in this year’s class. Here are my picks for the best of the best (with a few dishonorable mentions too) from the many choices available this year.

THE BEST

10. BERLIN by Jason Lutes (w, a, c). (Drawn & Quarterly).

Set in 1928 Germany, a journalist and an art student meet on a train to Berlin; when they arrive, the young student is surprised by what she sees, and the journalist must navigate a changing climate for the press. Narrated in part by the main characters’ writings (his reporting and her diary), this street-level view of Berlin prior to the rise of fascism is masterful and cinematic. Even in this preview, the sense of menace and dread to the events that are to come in the story permeates every page. Absolutely genius. Part of a series written over the past twenty years, this FCBD release promotes the hardcover omnibus of the series due for release in fall 2018.

9. STRANGERS IN PARADISE by Terry Moore (w, a). (Abstract Studios).

The issue opens with an exciting pickpocket scene in which Scott, a generic business type, has his phone and SIM card stolen. He later contacts his wife, Laura, to tell her that he’ll be late coming home and why, prompting Laura to stoically retrieve her run bag and leave home for good. The phone thief heads to Laura’s house to discover she’s already gone and runs into Scott; the thief reveals that “Laura” is actually Stephanie Kelly, a Parker girl caught up in treason and espionage. This is a dynamic, fully realized introduction to what seems like a fun and exciting story loaded with intelligent, powerful women kicking all kinds of ass.

8. ULTRA STREET FIGHTER II #1 by Ken Siu-Chong (w), Hanzo Steinbach (a), Marshall Dillon (l). (Udon).

Trying to shake off his dark side, Ken meets with Ryu to fight through his worst urges and achieve some balance in his life. The pair travel to Japan for some high-level meditation (and fighting, of course), but that only gets Ken so far. Later in San Francisco, Ken is surprised by an attack from Rufus, and during the battle, he learns to control his evil within. Although this comic attempts to apply drama to a fighting video game, the result is fun, colorful, ridiculous, and delightfully entertaining. What more could you want out of a Street Fighter comic?

7. SHADOWMAN by Andy Diggle (w), Stephen Segovia (w), Karl Bollers (e). (Valiant).

Alyssa and her guide Isiah explore the swamps of Louisiana at night, searching for the cause of cursed water that’s making locals sick. She encounters a monster, the Grinder of Bones, and tries to use magic to protect herself to no avail. She runs, and summons Papa Legba for guidance: in return, her friend Jack, now the Shadowman, appears from a portal to help her in her fight. With gorgeous artwork, beautiful coloring, and a plot like nothing else on the stands right now, this issue draws readers into this world so effortlessly that it’s hard to imagine someone reading this issue without being fully engrossed and wanting to pick up the whole series. Terrifically well-done.

6. THE GHOST IN THE SHELL by Max Gladstone (w), David Lopez (a), Nayoung Kim (color), Jodi Wynne (l), Alejandro Arbona (e), Ben Applegate (e). (Kodansha).

Major Kusanagi (aka Motoko) and Aramaki are intercepted by an American Ghost Force Squad while on a business trip to Shangai. After her arrest, Motoko dramatically escapes through the streets of Shangai and meets her old wartime enemy, Li; the pair must work together to save Aramaki and others. This issue, part of an upcoming anthology, is perhaps the most complete, cover-to-cover, issue released on FCBD. At a whopping forty-five pages, readers are treated to an entire story that is exceptional all on its own. This is a fabulous issue that will convert even the most stoic of non-believers into fans of this character and this series.

5. RELAY by Zac Thompson (w), Andy Clarke (a), Eric Bromberg (st), Donny Cates (st), Dan Brown (color), Charles Pritchett (l), Mike Marts (e). (Aftershock).

In this sci-fi story, a space traveler lands on a planet with an undeveloped population and offers them “the Relay,” a monolith that creates uniformity in technology and ideas. Is it intergalactic socialism, or will it be intergalactic fascism? The Relay seemingly destroys community identity and cultural heritage with a new sort of religion: ultimate fath in the monolith itself. This is an expertly paced and well-rendered metaphor that gives sci-fi fans something deeper to ponder.

4. MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS by Kyle Higgins (w), Ryan Parrott (w), Digo Galindo (a), Marcelo Costa (color), Ed Dukeshire (l), Dafna Pleban (e). (Boom!).

This one takes me back! Chosing to advertise its best-selling series, Boom! strategically used its FCBD option to bridge the gap between fans of the old TV show(s) and the current comics mythology, hoping to draw in readers who may have been overwhelmed by the thousands of different Power Ranger characters and their convoluted origin stories and missions. This issue is a straight-forward explanation of how the first episode of the original TV series connects to the comic storyline today, with some surprisingly awesome artwork and a shockingly murderous ending. The issue concedes its childish origins, but by the end, these aren’t your kids’ Power Rangers anymore!

3. AVENGERS by Jason Aaron (w), Sarah Pichelli (p, i), Elisabetta D’Amico (i), Justin Ponsor (color), Cory Petit (l), Tom Brevoort (e). (Marvel).

This issue, frankly, defied my expectations. As the official free preview to Marvel’s “Fresh Start,” there was a lot riding on this issue, the release of which coinciding with yet another reboot of the Avengers in the same week and a blockbuster weekend for the House of Ideas at the cinema a week prior. And it did not disappoint. In a direct follow-up to last year’s Marvel Legacy #1, Odin meets with Black Panther in the ruins of Asgard. Odin explains that he has fallen to Loki and his manipulation of a Celestial and requests that T’Challa kill Loki; he agrees. The story ends in another scene with Captain America and Thor reaching out to Tony Stark for a meeting between the three of them as a new Avengers era begins. Rather than using its FCBD offering to pump in half-assed action, Aaron instead tries to win new readers over with a well-told and interesting story setup. It is refreshing to see Marvel return to storytelling in its flagship series rather than resort to the redundant tropes of its recent past. Very well done.

2. JAMES BOND 007: VARGR by Warren Ellis (w), Jason Masters (a), Guy Major (color), Simon Bowland (l), Joseph Rybant (e). (Dynamite).

On a mission in Finland, 007 hunts down 008’s killer and exacts gruesome revenge. Later at MI6 Headquarters, M is assigned to take over 008’s case load, setting up a story that is simultaneously exhilirating for new readers and faithful in spirit to fans of the classic Bond. With darkly exquisite artwork throughout (particularly the Helsinki scene) and a character whose charm radiates off the page, it’s hard to imagine any comic fan not falling madly in love with this series. Originally published in 2016, this issue and the rest of the story is already available in trade.

1.BARRIER by Brian K. Vaughn (w), Marcos Martin (a, c), Muntsa Vincente. (Image).

No comic in this bunch left my jaw on the floor and mouth agape quite like this one. In this exquisite story, Liddy discovers signs of a Mexican cartel using her land, which happens to be on the Texas-Mexican border, as a throughway for drug trades and illegal immigration. In a parallel story, Oscar migrates from his home in Honduras to reach the U.S., crossing onto Liddy’s land in the middle of the night. She finds him and holds him at gunpoint suddenly the pair are interrupted. It’s a contemporary story involving gruesome violence, cartels, guns, and sci-fi. Half the issue is in Spanish (a language deficit won’t detract from your enjoyment of the issue), and the entire book – at an impressive fifty-three pages – is elegantly printed in landscape format. The artwork is phenomenal. The writing is incomparable. This is simply a perfect comic book from cover to cover. Frankly, I’m shocked it was available for FCBD as it’s well-worth a cover price. I recommend this enthusiastically, and I can’t wait to pick up the whole series this month. An exceptional beauty of a comic.

THE WORST

3. SHADOW ROADS by Cullen Bunn (w), Brian Hurtt (w), A.C. Zamudio (a), Carlos Zamudio (color), Crank! (l), Charlie Chu (e). (Oni Press).

In this deeply convoluted introduction presumptively set in the late nineteenth century, we meet Henry Grey, a Native American and a Cambridge man who visits the British Museum of Natural History’s new Native American exhibit with remorse and perhaps disgust. He meets an elder at the Museum who gives him a magical ceremonial dagger carved from bone that ultimately lights up. En route home, his train passes through a Crossroads where Abigail Redmayne and Kalfu intercept him and bring him to the New Mexico Territory. What causes this issue to fail – aside from the onslaught of new characters to learn and an unexplained mythology to understand – is that by the issue’s end, we are no closer to knowing why any of these events occur. Why does Abigail bring Henry to New Mexico? What is so special about Henry? What’s the point of the glowing dagger? While a free comic book should purposefully leave questions unresolved to entice readers to find their answers in subsequent issues, this romp is sadly too obscure and complicated to elicit any interest.

2. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN by Nick Spencer (w), Ryan Ottley (o), Cliff Rathburn (i), Laura Martin (color), VC’s Joe Caramagna (l), Nick Lowe (e). (Marvel).

Facing off against America’s greatest threat – the Manhattan real estate market – Peter Parker and his buddy Randy look for an apartment when they are interrupted by a fight with Boomerang, Electro, Rhino, and Big Wheel. After a quick costume change, Spider-Man battles them all until Kingpin intervenes. Despite the Mayor’s apparent gratitude for Spider-Man, Peter drops his professionalism instantly and leaves the scene. Later, Randy and Peter settle on a new three-bedroom apartment with a third roommate: Boomerang himself. From the ludicrous dialogue, the boring trope-laden plot, the cartoonish graphic design, and the overall neutering of Peter Parker’s character, this was a deep, deep disappointment for me that goes beyond this single issue; if this was meant to be an advertisement for the new Amazing Spider-Man series, I’m afraid it did more to turn me off than on. In addition, despite picking up all fifty-two free comics on FCBD, this issue is the only one with running ink and cheap printing errors. Oh, Marvel. Why do you do this to me?

1. TANK GIRL by Alan Martin (w), Brett Parson (a), Warwick Johnson-Cadwell (a), Jonathan Edwards (a), Brett Parson (l), Martin Eden (e). (Titan).

This was perhaps my fault for setting my expectations too high. Having never read a Tank Girl comic and only vaguely understanding her origins from nineties samples and the Lori Petty film, I was expecting a post-apocalyptic badass who breaks the fourth-wall and uses ingenuity, humor, grit, and charm to fight the Man. Instead, I got an insufferable cutsey-wootsey romp about a woman face-punching an adult man after he ruined her birthday big wheel when they were children. In between this awful plot’s progression, vignettes either drawn by a child or rendered to look like it had been drawn by child are too annoying to attempt to read. The only enjoyable bit of this comic was the cover by Jamie Hewlett, who should have done the interiors as well.

#comics marvel fcbd image dc valiant darkhorse boom

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its-quinceanera-blog · 5 years

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My Quinceañera Experience...

As a Latina born in the United States, and both of my parents also being born here, having a Quinceañera was different but also expected of me. About fifty percent of my family lives in different parts of Mexico, while the other half is scattered all around California. With that being said, there are two completely different sides of my family; the close to religion and traditional ones that use spanish as their primary language, and the ones that don't really speak any spanish at all. For the most part my imideite family tries to keep traditions alive for the sake of the older and newer generations. Having a Quinceañera seemed necessary at the time to fully fit into the “Latina/ Mexican” description, because I was born in the U.S. lots of the typical norms were lost. Having parents that were born in the U.S. meant that they were educated in different ways and had more opportunities to walk away from the stereotypes that their parents moved away from as well. Coming to terms with being latina by blood and chicana by choice was confusing at the time, but family and traditions are what reminded me of my heritage and encouraged me to have a Quinceañera.

The process of having a Quinceañera typically takes months or even a year in advance to plan out. My Quinceañera was a last minute decision, it took about us about 4-5 months prior to my birthday to plan and save up for. My parents, grandparents, godparents and even other family members helped out with the money. After all it felt like we only had a couple of weeks to do everything because people usually plan these things since they're like ten years old. The necessitates of hosting a Quinceañera consisted of hiring a dance teacher, putting together invitations, reserving a hall, getting in contact with family members, setting the date, food, kids willing to dance and show up to practices, photographers, every little thing for a quince we had to find in the matter of months. Luckily, as a November baby, I was always the youngest in my group of friends to celebrate any party, so I had a lot of friends recommend people for my quince. It was a stressful time for all of us, so much so that I dropped like 20 lbs right before my party, but we still managed to have the Quinceañera.

Having a Quinceañera was very special to me because it made me feel like I was finally accepted in the latino community. Being chicana, and growing up a citizen of the U.S., meant that I had a lot more opportunities to grow away from my heritage, but celebrating traditions like having a Quinceañera keeps the authenticity alive.

The process of having a Quinceañera makes you feel like a princess, because this big day you and your family have planned for has finally arrived. It's your special day, not only is it your birthday, but its a representation of your womanhood coming together.

My experience was honestly beautiful and heart warming to think of all the people who showed their love for me all in different ways. I was a princess for one day, and that feeling of family can never override the traditions true meaning in the latino community.

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Como latina nacida en los Estados Unidos, y mis dos padres también nacieron aquí, tener una Quinceañera fue diferente, pero también se esperaba de mí. Alrededor del cincuenta por ciento de mi familia vive en diferentes partes de México, mientras que la otra mitad está dispersa por todo California. Dicho esto, hay dos lados completamente diferentes de mi familia; los cercanos a la religión y los tradicionales que usan el español como su idioma principal, y los que realmente no hablan nada de español. En su mayor parte, mi familia imideita trata de mantener vivas las tradiciones por el bien de las generaciones más antiguas y más nuevas. Tener una Quinceañera parecía necesario en ese momento para encajar completamente en la descripción de "latina / mexicana", porque nací en los Estados Unidos y se perdieron muchas de las normas típicas. Tener padres que nacieron en los Estados Unidos significó que fueron educados de diferentes maneras y tuvieron más oportunidades de alejarse de los estereotipos de los que sus padres también se alejaron. Llegar a un acuerdo con ser latina de sangre y chicana por elección fue confuso en ese momento, pero la familia y las tradiciones son lo que me recordó mi herencia y me animó a tener una Quinceañera.

El proceso de tener una Quinceañera generalmente toma meses o incluso un año de anticipación para planificar. Mi Quinceañera fue una decisión de última hora, nos tomó alrededor de 4 a 5 meses antes de mi cumpleaños para planificar y ahorrar. Mis padres, abuelos, padrinos e incluso otros miembros de la familia ayudaron con el dinero. Después de todo, parecía que solo teníamos un par de semanas para hacer todo porque la gente generalmente planea estas cosas desde que tienen diez años. Las necesidades de ser anfitriones de una Quinceañera consistían en contratar a un profesor de baile, armar invitaciones, reservar un salón, ponerse en contacto con miembros de la familia, fijar la fecha, comida, niños dispuestos a bailar y asistir a las prácticas, fotógrafos, todo para Un membrillo que teníamos que encontrar en cuestión de meses. Afortunadamente, como bebé de noviembre, siempre fui el más joven de mi grupo de amigos para celebrar cualquier fiesta, así que muchos amigos recomendaron personas para mis quince. Fue un momento estresante para todos nosotros, tanto que bajé como 20 libras justo antes de mi fiesta, pero aún así conseguimos la Quinceañera.

Tener una Quinceañera fue muy especial para mí porque me hizo sentir que finalmente fui aceptado en la comunidad latina. Ser chicana y crecer como ciudadano de los EE. UU. Significaba que tenía muchas más oportunidades de alejarme de mi herencia, pero celebrar tradiciones como tener una Quinceañera mantiene viva la autenticidad.

El proceso de tener una Quinceañera te hace sentir como una princesa, porque este gran día que tú y tu familia han planeado finalmente ha llegado. Es tu día especial, no solo es tu cumpleaños, sino que es una representación de tu unión femenina.

Mi experiencia fue honestamente hermosa y reconfortante al pensar en todas las personas que mostraron su amor por mí de diferentes maneras. Fui una princesa por un día, y ese sentimiento de familia nunca puede anular el verdadero significado de las tradiciones en la comunidad latina.

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作为一个出生在美国的拉丁裔，我的父母也都出生在这里，有一个Quinceañera是不同的，但也期待我。我家的大约百分之五十生活在墨西哥的不同地区，而另一半则分散在加利福尼亚各地。话虽如此，我家有两个完全不同的方面;接近使用西班牙语作为主要语言的宗教和传统语言，以及那些根本不会说西班牙语的语言。在大多数情况下，我的imideite家族试图为了老一代和新一代的缘故保持传统。当时有一个Quinceañera似乎有必要完全符合“拉丁/墨西哥”的描述，因为我出生在美国很多典型的规范都丢失了。在美国出生的父母意味着他们受到不同方式的教育，并有更多的机会摆脱他们的父母离开的刻板印象。选择血液和chicana作为拉丁的术语当时令人困惑，但家庭和传统让我想起了我的遗产，并鼓励我有一个Quinceañera

拥有Quinceañera的过程通常需要数月甚至一年才能计划出来。我的Quinceañera是最后一分钟的决定，它在我生日前大约4-5个月花了大约计划和储蓄。我的父母，祖父母，教父母甚至其他家庭成员都帮了钱。毕竟感觉我们只有几个星期的时间来完成所有事情，因为人们通常会计划这些事情，因为他们已经十岁了。主办Quinceañera的必要条件包括聘请舞蹈老师，组合邀请，预订大厅，与家人联系，设定日期，食物，孩子们愿意跳舞和出现在练习，摄影师，每一件小事。我们不得不在几个月内找到一个木瓜。幸运的是，作为一个十一月的孩子，我一直是我的朋友组中最年轻的庆祝任何一个派对，所以我有很多朋友推荐人为我的木瓜。这对我们所有人来说都是一个压力很大的时刻，以至于我在参加聚会之前就像20磅一样掉了下来，但我们仍然设法让Quinceañera。

拥有Quinceañera对我来说非常特别，因为它让我觉得我最终被拉丁裔社区所接受。作为chicana，并成长为美国公民，意味着我有更多的机会远离我的遗产，但庆祝像Quinceañera这样的传统保持真实性。

拥有Quinceañera的过程让你感觉自己像个公主，因为你和你的家人计划的这个重要日子终于到来了。这是你特殊的一天，不仅是你的生日，而且是你女性聚会的代表。

我的经历是诚实的美丽和温暖的心情，想到所有以不同的方式表达对我的爱的人。我有一天是一位公主，这种家庭的感觉永远无法超越拉丁裔社区的传统。

#myquinceanera #princess #latina #chicano #family

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moonshroooms · 7 years

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My Multiracial Experience (thus far)

So I’m both white and black, and sometimes I feel like I don’t have enough ‘experience’ being mixed to have an opinion on it. And that seems like a silly thought as well.

This entire rant/ramble has been sparked by reading this comic here:

http://kianamaiart.tumblr.com/post/160203876884/continued-under-the-cutmore-thanks-for

As a disclaimer, if anyone stumbles across this lonely post in the wide ocean and I have said something offensive, I apologize. I’m probably not sure what I said, but it was never my intention to offend or ostracize. I’m just trying to ramble off my own experiences that I’m still not sure what to make of myself.

Growing up I was with my white mother, and thus my mom’s side of the family. I will note my brother and sister from my mother’s side are also mixed, being white and syrian/mexican, but they’re both very pale and you would never guess they’re mixed unless they told you (especially since my sister dyes her hair red, people assume she’s irish. Which we are, but that’s not the point).

Anyways, for the majority of my life I somehow grew up ‘not seeing race’. And yeah yeah that’s a bad term, but I’m not sure how else to put it. My race or anyone else’s was seldom the forefront of my mind, and I’m not sure if it’s because I wasn’t exposed to a lot of other cultures growing up where I did (likely), or if it’s because hopscotch was a way hotter topic than cultural and racial differences. Either way, without being exposed to many other cultures, I also didn’t learn to be afraid of different cultures either.

Very little was brought up about my race as a child, not because it was withheld or avoided, but just because it was never really the subject.

There were very few times I brought up my race at all, as it was never a big impact in my life.

One time with my dad I had the perfect tan not because of genes or anything, but because I spent 5 minutes in the pool and 5 minutes out. I was like 5, so I probably had only the vaguest of ideas of what gave me my skin color. I remember in elementary school in history class I told a classmate that I would have been double forbidden in Old Times™ since I was white and black and he giggled and said I was ‘choco-nilla’, which made me laugh. I remember asking my mom when I was little one day that if she was white, and my dad was black, what did that make me? And she responded with “You’re perfect.” And that pretty much sums up the way I felt about my race for the majority of my childhood, as well as the majority of my experience with it as a child.

It wasn’t ever presented as an issue, or something negatively different. I wasn’t common, but I wasn’t odd either. I was just me. And there wasn’t much culture I got from either my mom or dad’s side, (unless you’re counting holidays like Christmas and whatnot, but that’s about it).

Now it didn’t stay like this forever. I can’t say I’ve been largely discriminated against or anything like that, thankfully, but there was a point in which it started to be pointed out to me more often.

I grew up in largely white and middle-class communities until I was about 13, when we moved into a much poorer and largely black neighborhood (where we still live now). Now, I didn’t take much note of what races the community was until much later, after I started becoming more hyperaware about race. (And even then it’s not really like, a negative thing. But it will be something I point out in a bit).

I think my first honest ‘racial awakening’ (for lack of a better term), I had was when I’d brought my friend A (who I think I’ve spoken of before), from my new apartments to my old friends in their house for a birthday party. We were coming down the stairs after jumping into our bathing suits and she stopped me at the bottom and asked me if I wasn’t nervous. I was incredibly confused and asked why I’d be nervous. I mean, I had lived in this house for the better part of a year, I knew most everyone present since I was 8 – why would I be nervous? And her response was: “Because we’re the only black people…”

And that answer confused me to no end. I can’t entirely remember what I replied, probably something like an upbeat ‘of course not’, probably. Because that was the answer to her question: of course I didn’t feel out of place or nervous. I don’t think I ever really decided what to think of the moment, I still don’t know what to think about it. Was it good? Was it bad? I’m not sure. I do know that it sums up the majority of my experiences with my race since I’d move to where I live now. Not necessarily or obviously negative, but certainly not positive. It was just kinda. Pointed out. Made noticeable.

Now, despite growing up in largely white neighborhoods, I didn’t feel out of place in my new black neighborhood, at least not initially.

I remember in my middle school I made friends with a girl named Amy who sat next to me, who was a bit of an anomaly since she was one of only two white people in the entire school. She had told me she liked being the only white person because it meant she was different, and had gotten a little jealous when the second white kid had started attending. I thought it was an odd notion, but there wasn’t much significance to it. It’s just a thing that’s stuck in my mind.

I eventually made friends with a kid we’ll call T, (and I shan’t name since I’m friends with him today). I didn’t like him much when he first tried making friends with me. He asked a lot of weird questions and mumbled a lot (which now I realize he was just shy back then. I literally had next to no contact with anyone who was shy like me, all my friends were very social and extroverted. So when I came across this dude who was just fricken shy I was like ‘yo he a weirdo’. Now it’s obvious to me he’s very social, just shy and reserved at first.)

Anyways, it wasn’t long before T asked me ‘what are you?’ That’s a question I’ve read that quite a few mixed people have problems with. Personally, I’ve never been offended by the question (aside from one time I’ll point out later). I always took it as a scientific question. Some people may find it obvious I’m of African descent, and others might not. And many usually want to know what the other ‘half’ is. And I simply respond that I’m white and black, white from my mother, black from my father. Sometimes I’ll delve into the like, 13 Caucasian things my mom is, usually as a joke that I was a double mutt. And that’s usually the end of it. T actually asked me what I was a couple times. The first time was normal, the second time I figured he forgot, the third time I started feeling weird the question so much. At that point I think I’d told him I was human. That was the last time T had asked me ‘what I was’ but it was not the last time my mixed heritage had been pointed out by him.

One time we’d gone to the pool with T and his little brother. I don’t quite remember the conversation that had led up to all this, but something had prompted me to say that I was black, which I am. And T quickly responded with: “No you not, you mixed.” And… Hm. You know, last time I checked, my biological father being black made me black as well. And my biological mother being white made me white as well. And my biological parents made me not only white AND black, but ALSO mixed. Funny, it’s almost like that’s how genetics and racial constructs worked. worked. At this point in time I’d started getting a little snarky with racial remarks. I don’t recall what I responded with, if anything, in this instance however.

Another instance of my race being pointed out was with my next-door-neighbor (who we’re just gonna dub Lily). Now, I never really liked Lily much. She was a bit rude at times, and spread a rumor that my hair was a weave. Keeping in mind that I was like, 14 at the time. Is a grown woman really spreading rumors about a little girl that just stays in her house and minds her own business?? Second, my hair isn’t a weave, which I’d taken offense to back then. I didn’t know why it was offensive, it just felt like it was supposed to be an insult. Nowadays its like ‘lol it’s all real I would know I wash it’. Also at that age I just kinda. Stuffed my hair all poofy in a ponytail. My poor mom didn’t know what to do with black hair and hadn’t learned, and consequently I never learned how to deal with my hair. I’m doing my own research nowadays (which is a bit hard since there’s not much on mixed or black hair that’s at my length), but that’s a conversation for another day.

One time Lily was drunk and told me and my friend A she would take us to Applebees (this encounter happened because my friend invited me after Lily invited her. I said no, and my friend A brought Lily into my home and into my room to push me to go. I was an introverted and awkward fop and wtf a mildly drunk lady was pressuring me to go places). I sure as hell did not want to go. I was like, 14/15, didn’t like Lily, and didn’t want to be trapped with some random drunk lady. (Looking back now, who the hell was going to get us to Applebees if she was drunk??) Anyways, while Lily was drunk she mostly cried about her life and problems. At some point she was drunkenly laughing that I ‘talked like a white girl’. Later on we’d walked to our nearby Starbucks, my friend A and Lily took some unclaimed cups off the counter, decided they were nasty and threw them away. While we were walking back home Lily kept claiming me and A as her children and saying (and I quote), “they daddies was white”.

Now, A and I are both fairly light-skinned. A’s a shade or two darker, but we’re close enough many people have mistaken us as sisters. Difference between us being that both of A’s parents are of African descent (and I’ve never met her dad, but her mom is fairly dark), and my mother is not black at all. Not only was it uncomfortable to have our random drunk neighbor who I didn’t like in the first place claiming to be our mother, but what the fuck was the point of randomly shouting and announcing that apparently our fathers were white? Why? What did it accomplish? Was it funny? Because you shouting random things at strangers just made everyone uncomfortable. At the end of the day, A was annoyed that she kept saying that ‘our fathers were white’ and claiming us as her daughters, but also that we didn’t go to Applebees. (I wasn’t really surprised on that front. My personal experience with drunks was that you don’t take everything they say as fact).

This wasn’t my last encounter with Lily and her random comments though. At some other point I was at her apartment for some reason or another, and she once again made the comment that I ‘talked like a white girl’. And she repeated this maybe 2 or 3 times.

Now, there’s a lot of social this that and the other thing about all sorts of things pertaining to dialect and the way people talk. I talk the same way I do around the people I was raised with. I talk like my mother who is yes, white. Now, I assume she pointed this out because I didn’t talk like “””””black people talk””””””, which I find a completely ridiculous incentive in and of itself. It’s not like black people own a certain speech pattern. If a black child grew up in a Texan community they’d have southern slang, accent, and idioms. They would not talk in the manner many black communities in say, California, do BECAUSE THEY WEREN’T RAISED IN THOSE COMMUNITIES. If I talk ‘like a white girl’ it’s because I was raised by my mother, who is *gasp* white.

Anyways, this was at the time I had been exposed to people pointing things out about my race randomly and started getting snarky about it. So my response was to put on my most innocent face, look her in the eye and say:

“I don’t understand. How do white people talk?”

And boy did that shut her up quick. I quickly picked up in that in a some situations like that, pointing out race things are funny as long as you only skip along the top of the pond of prejudice. Fall in the water and oops, now you sound like a jackass.

Now, I feel like prejudice is a strong word to use in that case. But I feel like calling it something else is also underplaying it. Did she have no idea how speech patterns and quirks worked? Why did she feel the need to not only stereotype me with a certain speech, but feel like it was odd that I spoke in that manner? What did she expect? I talk like my mother talked. If my mother talks ‘white’, then it would only be logical that I did as well, right? Right?

Another instance I’d had wasn’t of much note and was much more recent, but just another thing that stuck in my mind. I was out to dinner with my friend C and her 10billion friends for her birthday. In that group was a single black kid. I don’t really remember what the conversation was, but our blackness was brought up and he said that ‘at least I was light-skinned’. I still don’t know quite what to think of it.

Now, I stated a thousand paragraphs ago that there was a reason I pointed out the community I lived in now was largely black. That reason is that ever since I’d moved to where I live now, the people that had been the ones to make me hyperaware of my own race and my mixed heritage were black. At some point I’d asked my therapist why people felt the need to say I wasn’t black, I was mixed. Or point out that I talked like a white girl, or this that and the other thing. And she asked me what the races of the people who pointed these things out were, which they answer was (at the time), that they were all black. She told me that were was definitely a sort of thing with mixed people and black people. And I did my best to look up what the conflict or social stigma was, but I will get back to that later.

I did have another encounter with my race recently, and this one was one that I would definitely perceive as negative with no doubts. And unfortunately for me it was with my longtime friend C. Now, C, much like my siblings, is also mixed. C is white and Mexican, but if C never told you you’d never guess in your entire life that she was anything but white. And I know she’s part Mexican, and I am friends with her extended family, but I for the life of me have no idea where got her Mexican heritage from. And for that matter, they don’t partake in any sort of Mexican culture either.

Sometime last year I was just hanging out in C’s room and she decided to randomly ‘inform’ me that I was ‘white-washed’.

And like.

What am I supposed to feel about that?

Unfortunately for me I have a lot of anxiety around C and her family, so I wasn’t as assertive about the issue as I wish I could’ve been. I asked C if I was supposed to act like black people do on TV. And to my absolutely shock, her answer was a definitive yes.

And I just.

Really?

You’re going to base an entire race, group, community of people, off of the single black stereotype you’ve seen on television? REALLY? My god, I genuinely thought my friend was smarter than that. I seriously thought she was more understanding than that. But I may held her mental state in higher regard than I should have.

She tried to be all like “dude it’s okay I’m totally white-washed too people call me cracker all the time”, but no. I love C, and I understand that she’s of mixed race as well, but she has a completely different experience of it than me. If someone knows she’s mixed it’s because she told them she was. It’s not something people can just see on her. And as for people calling her cracker, from what I’ve seen the only people who do that are her friends who are also white. And I’ve also heard those same friends use the term ‘nigger’. Not niggA, niggER, which while not completely different when you get down to it, do have different connotations on the surface.

Around this point I tried standing up and being like, ‘you know that’s not how white-washing works’, but she laughed and said sarcastically “Oh my god I’m being sooo racist towards you.” To which I replied sarcastically, “I know, right?”

Now tone I said that in was obviously sarcastic, but C didn’t seem to take it that way, and her response to me ‘agreeing’ with her sarcastic sentiment was to tell me to outright “shut the fuck up”. I went quiet after that.

So far this has been my biggest negative experience with my race and how others view the way I should act. And I get so angry and hurt and confused when I think about it. And I don’t know what I could’ve done to educate or have an honest discussion about it. And all it does is make me wonder how people view me without getting to know me. And it hurts even more because it came from a long-time friend.

AND THAT’S NOT EVEN THE WORST IT COULD GET! I FEEL LIKE I’VE GOTTEN OFF SO EASY WHEN IT COMES TO MY RACE AND HERITAGE THAT I’M NOT EVEN SURE EXACTLY HOW EASY I MAY HAVE IT!

And there’s so much about race and racial relations and prejudice and racism that I don’t know about and just don’t understand, from slurs to terms to history and everything in between! And as I said previously, I tried to research at least one aspect of my mixed heritage and its relationship to black communities and I just…

I got bored.

Yeah.

I researched it, there’s some stigmas with black people who are lighter or darker skinned, mixed people, yadda yadda, and just. I can’t.

I can’t be bothered.

Look, racism is bad. Xenophobia is bad. Prejudice is bad. We know that, and it feels like it should be easy enough to just stop. But there’s hundreds of stupid layers covering the whole thing that only exist because people put them there and enough people keep adding to it or watch it pile up and not enough work to take those layers off.

And the thing about all this is: I hate humans. I’ve never been a people person. I don’t understand a lot of human problems. I’ve wanted to work with animals my whole life. I understand animals, I connect with them. People as a whole do so much stupid shit that I just can’t understand. And more than that I don’t care. Prejudice fuckheads are prejudice fuckheads, and if I ever encounter someone else being a victim of prejudice I’d do my best with what’s in my ability to help them. But as a whole? I’m not someone who’s going to organize marches. I’m not going to make speeches. I’m not going to devote a life of research into understanding and trying to fix it all. I’ll do what I can with what I encounter, but I’m not going to devote my life to it.

The way I want to impact the earth has never been with the humans living in it, it’s always been my wish to have a positive impact on the nature community. And it sucks that there’s just this big rabbit hole that of Issues that I’ve got a foot in not because I take an interest in it or have a particular passion for it, but because we all have those damn worldly issues we’re apart of whether we like it or not.

I don’t know. It’s late and I’m tired. My words on the subject are not graceful. They’re not polished or fleshed-out, or well-educated on the subject, and their a little emotional. They’re just the things I’ve felt and am feeling as I type this up late at night.

I still don’t have negative issues about my own heritage. It’s other people’s reaction to it that I’ve started being wary of. But I still like being mixed. I like the fact that I can be mixed. I like saying I’m white and black. I like seeing mixed families. I don’t always know why, but I get happy if I see a little girl or boy who’s obviously mixed like I am. There’s a sense that I’m not alone, that there are younger children like me. They might have a family like me. And have a different experience like me. And I hope they don’t have to go through any of the confusion or hurt that I did. I hope that they can see themselves in a mirror and simply think ‘I am me’. And that’s all they really need to be.

#ramble #rant #personal #mixed #multiracial #biracial #I feel like I started getting preachy at the end #it's late what do you want #not perfection I hope #the only thing I'm perfect at is eating

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ourdarkcollectorrunawayme · 8 years

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Conversations with my conservative friend

specrOkay, so my friend is huge defender of Ben Carson and claims that the criticisms against him with his appointment to the secretary of Urban Development and Housing, with his lack of experience is racist. I sent him a list of points as to why the criticisms against Carson are not racist, but actually reasonable. My friend then responded, trying to redact logic and reality. I going to post the points I made and the responses he made, to make sure that their is a complete context to the conversation. I would appreciate anybody, whichever side of the political spectrum you are on, with your opinions.

If Ben Carson was white he would still get the same criticism that he is receiving from Elizabeth Warren and other progressives on his qualifications to be the secretary of the Department of Urban Housing and Development.

Ben Carson, M.D. is a Republican, and if he were a Democrat, he would be getting NO Criticism from Warren. This IS a Type of Racism ... against Minorities in a non-progressive Party that Warren deems an “Uncle Tom” Figure. That is still racist, and that is still disgusting.

Research what other black figures are saying about him, and Kanye West doesn't count, because he doesn't know what he is talking about half the time.

Colonel Allen West, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Senator Tim Scott all like him. That is good enough for me. Even Herman Cain knows Carson, M.D. is a Genius.

The term "urban" is a word that conversatives use when they are talking to their white constituants. It is term used to dogwhistles the idea that "people of color live in the cities and they don't have the same values as rural white Americans and I will protect you from them".So saying that Carson is qualified for the position because he grew up in the urban city of baltimore is like saying because I lived near a beach, I am qualified to be head of the navy.

That is not a Comparison I recognise as accurate. In the South, the rural AND urban Areas have mixed black and white Areas in it. It is only up north that “urban” is a derogatory Term for “black.” And it is true that Values ARE different. The Society and Culture is different. Just look at B.E.T. and C.M.T.

2. Urban Development and Housing department specializes in programs that help people who live in those urban areas, and may not have the same advantages as people with money. And how a city can operate to the best advantages for everyone. Meaning he would be in charge of which programs get funding and contacts and loans going to different companies. This also covers people who would be well within or under the poverty and approves or denies them public housing.If anything, this means my stepmom, as an architect, is more qualified than Carson for the position.

Do you honestly think Obama was qualified for the Presidency or even Hillary? I do not see you going after them. These Secretaries have People under them that have worked in that Department for Years waiting on Retirement that will help guide Doctor Ben into making the big Decisions. I am not worried. H.U.D. IS an important Department. I know someone who works at the Francis Marion Hotel who used to live in Federally subsidised Housing. It is very important. But Carson, M.D. is not making the big Decisions all by himself.

3.Warren's main concern is that the incoming president's business and companies deal in construction and real estate, who he has violated many anti-discrimination laws and mistreating and underpaying the people who build his hotels. Warren just wants a yes or no answer out of Carson that the funds the department receives will not benefit from that department with a friend of his incharge. Carson keeps evading answering that question.

Trump’s Businesses are going to be run by his Sons and Daughters, and they are more than qualified to do that. Donald is not going to be involved with them while he is President. As for Mistreatment, this is the first I am hearing of it. As for underpaying, my last Boss did that for Painters and Construction Workers that did a shitty Job when no Contract was signed. That is Business. I am also concerned Trump’s former Businesses do not benefit, but I have no Reason to assume he would be devious about it.

4. Carson constantly tells the story that when he was young he was angry black man, who was only tamed by Christianity to white conservatives because it plays into their racist master narrative that all blacks are savage and violent. Friends, family members, and people he knew when he was young contract those claims, saying that he was actually quiet.

I am not surprised vindictive Shits would lie about his Childhood. The Lifetime Film I watched about his Life starring Cuba Gooding Jr., seemed to portray him as inwardly angry but outwardly silent about his Frustrations. That is the way I am. And why are only conservatives racist? And why are only whites racist? Larry Elder, a black Libertarian Radio Show Host from L.A. says in one of his Books that black Americans are more racist than white Americans. Hell, he and I are alike in the Christianity tamed me Story. I used to be very angry. You are looking at it from a racial P.O.V. when Race should not be a Factor. He is a PERSON! He is a Human Being and a Christian who happens to have had a troubled Childhood. I think you are inventing Racism – and though I am not calling you prejudiced – that CAN be a Form of Prejudice. Not saying you are!

5. Name another black politician other than Herman Cain.

Lt. Col. And former Congressman Allen West, Amb. Alan Keyes (I voted for him for President over George W. Bush), Doctor Ben Carson, Sen. Tim Scott, John Knight, Thad McClammy, Alvin Holmes, Richard Arrington, Jr.

6. I looked up your claim about Elizabeth Warren, I check politifact and this is what I got http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/oct/29/facebook-posts/critics-say-elizabeth-warren-lives-54-million-mans/ . Another good thing to do when making accusations is the credibility of your source of information.

I said she lived in a two million dollar House with two Servants, a Maid, a Cook, and a Butler, but I may be wrong about the Butler. I think she has a total of four People waiting on her in her Cambridge Mansion.

7. Would you be saying the same things about Elizabeth Warren if she was a man. When you describe women of power like her as "sharp-tongued", "domineering", "ambisious", you are saying she is a "bitch and shouldn't be in a man's position of power". Where as you would applaud men with similar or the same traits.

Instead of inventing Racism, now you are inventing Sexism? Rough Stuff ... I am mad at her for using the Myth of Native American Heritage to get into a good University, obtain Work Credit, and get to where she is. When she ran against Scott Brown it all came out, but she upset him anyway. Women of Power? What about how much I like Condoleeza Rice, Janet Brewer, Sarah Palin, Lurleen Burns Wallace, and so forth? Did you vote for Nikki Haley? I never used the word Bitch. I never even called Hillary Clinton a Bitch, even though my Mom has. And what about your Attitude towards Maggie Thatcher and repeating a Quote where she was called a Bitch? I would not throw Stones in Glass Houses.

7. The word "elitism" has now become a dogwhistle for conservatives. It means "people who are smart and know what they are doing". In the most recent episode of the Young Turks, the panel talks about that and what it means. In a tolitarian society, its not the most vernrable in society to go first, its the intellectuals because they are warning everyone of the danger that is coming. Then ruling party begins devaluing education.

An Elitist is not necessarily someone smart. People criticised Mitt Romney and Donald Trump on Intelligence. An Elitist is someone in a high Mark in Society, plenty of Money, lot of Power, and looks down on everyone else. You are taking my Words and making up your own Definitions. Intellectuals are Libertarians, not Conservatives, Liberals, or Statists (Authoritarians/Totalitarians). Intellectuals never get elected. John Kerry is an Elitist. He married into Money twice. Now he flies aboard Air Force Three. Mitt Romney is not an Elitist because he was a Servant to Men, Women, and Children two Years in Paris giving up a lot of free time, College Years, and earned Money. He was also the Son of Mexican Immigrants. I doubt he has armed Bodyguards. Donald Trump is more or less an Elitist, because he has his own Money, earned, Bodyguards, he looks down on others, and has an arrogant Aura about him. He is still the best out of those four Oddballs. Jill Stein, M.D. was my second Choice. The Liberals and Progressives hate and despise her. The real War on Women is coming from the Left.

And Education is being devalued as we speak. Elimination of Vouchers and Charter Schools, cracking down on private and parochial Schools, sprouting up of Common Core, New Math, etc., and getting rid of School Choice. It is the dumbing down of America, and the inner Cities and metropolitan Areas are being hit the hardest. Ben Carson, M.D. would be better served as Secretary of Education or Surgeon General. I am not sure what the Qualifications for Cabinet Posts are, but Hillary was not qualified for Secretary of State, and look how People flocked to her. She served less than a Decade in the Senate, and she was a First Lady. She got nothing accomplished. I agree that spells bad News for these non-Politicians in Trump’s Cabinet, but maybe it is for the best. You might have preferred Ivanka Trump in the Oval Office since she is a Woman, yes? ~_^

I have noticed Liberals and Progressives not only hate Conservatives, they hate Libertarians as well. I never understood their Bigotry and Intolerance of others who were different ... or traditional. Present Company excluded. I will get to your other Messages tonight, Jen. Take Care! And sorry for me getting all heated.

Please keep comments and reblog responses civil. I am not putting up my friend’s name or email, because I don’t want to throw him completely under the bus or cyberbullied by anyone

#longform #politics #sexism #racism

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bacon-lettuce-tomato-blog1 · 6 years

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Seed Folks

In the Paul Fleischman's children's book, Seedfolks, the idea of diversity and multiculturalism is introduced to younger audiences. Fleischman does this by introducing characters from different races and ages. Some of these characters also have other distinguishing factors such as pregnancy or being crippled. All these characters are linked together by a small community garden where everyone is invited to plant their own plants and help each other out, putting the “unity” in community. Amir is a great representation of multiculturalism because, he is always trying to meet new people in the community.

Paul Fleischman depicts Amir as an Indian man who comes from Delhi. Amir compares the cities in India to cities in America, as both countries have large cities with an abundance of people. It is later revealed that Amir runs a fabric store in Cleveland. According to Fleischman, Amir is trying to “ … avoid contact, to treat all as foes …”(58) This quote shows Amir to be a quiet person that doesn't want much interaction.

Amir sees the garden as an opportunity to meet his neighbors. Once he joins the garden, Amir starts to grow out of his shell once his eggplants showed a coloration that the other participants have not seen before. He seemed happy to explain the strange color and talk to the other members of the community. Amir makes friends with the person that borders his plot and is taught about her polish culture. He then made friends with Royce, who made everyone feel uneasy. That was until Royce, Amir, and one other man stopped a thief, all the characters seem to respect Royce even more and treat him like one of the other plot owners.

Fleischman’s representation of Amir is very remenaciant of someone who just moved somewhere new. By showing the evolution of Amir before and after joining the garden. At first he kept to himself but, in contrast, he then openly learns about the another foreign culture. Fleischman also did his research when choosing between the Amir’s occupation and vegetable that he plants. Working in a fabric store is a nod to indian culture. Having fancy fabrics is very important in indian culture. Fabrics “. . .has a significant presence in the [Indian] economy as well as in the international textile economy”, according to Dr.P. Chellasamy and N. Sumathi in their paper entitled Indian Textile Industry. Eggplants (Amir’s choice of vegetable) is very common in indian dishes. India is the second largest producer of eggplant in the world next to China, as stated on specialtyproduce.com. He is also asked how to cook his eggplants by members of the garden.

Amir’s main conflict is trying to be a part of the community. Before the garden he was afraid of everyone and treated them like enemies unless they were deemed friendly. He overcame this by trying to be more accepting of others by engaging in conversation with others, getting to know more about people and their background, and being curious and accepting other cultures in into his life. He did this in five stages.

The first thing he did to become apart of the community is planting a variant of eggplant that many of the other gardeners have not seen. “Very many people came over to ask about them [eggplants] and talked to me.”(59) This quote shows how many people are intrigued by the plant and how Amir is able to connect to the other gardeners through this.

His second stage was getting to know Royce better. Before helping catch a robber, Royce left the participants in the garden feel “ … relieved when he left the garden.”(61). By seeing what Royce can do and not stereotyping him, Amir was able to see Royce past his gangbanger look on the outside, by witnessing his act of courage while stopping the thief. Eventually, the members of the garden found out that Royce has sisters that he has to take care of. Through Royce’s actions, Amir was able to connect with him more, as well as the other gardeners.

Amir’s third stage was learning a heritage through conversation. Instead of keeping to himself, Amir engaged in a conversation with a person where her garden border his. Through this conversation Amir learned a lot about the lady’s polish culture. Amir has always heard about the the hard working polish men and women but, even admits that “ … I’d never know one - until the garden.” This shows how he didn’t expect to to learn anything about the Poles but he is very accepting of the fact that he is able to learn.

His fourth way that he became part of the community was by accepting other cultures ways of celebration. Amir was confused once he saw Mexican men bring food and instruments into the garden. “Perhaps it was one of their birthdays, or perhaps no reason was needed for the party.”(63) This shows how Amir thought that there was supposed to be a reason for the food and instruments but, he later found out that this celebration didn’t really have any reason behind it. It was just a party to just relax, have fun, and connect with each other.

His final step was confronting a woman who called him out in his own store. According to the text, this woman called Amir “ … a dirty foreigner.”(64), despite both of them being foreigners. The woman apologizes to Amir, as they have became friends through the garden, and constantly saying, “ ‘Back then, I didn’t know it was you . . .’ ” (64) This shows how the garden itself was able to bring people together, even if they had a feud at a previous time.

Amir as a character seems to be pretty realistic. Amir can be related to the Daryl Davis story, where Davis was able to befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan by engaging in conversations and respecting what each party had to say. In Amir’s version of the story, he was able to befriend his “enemies” by getting to know them more through conversations. He was once a shy person who didn't want to talk to anyone. Once he started working on the garden, and started to make contact with other people, who he once saw as villainous, that's when him and his community became acquainted with one another. A lot of people today don't try to engage in a conversation with strangers unless if they have seen them around a common place of interest.

Is Seedfolks a good book to teach children about diversity and multiculturalism? Yes, it is. If you look at the book as a whole, you will be able to see the good that the book is able to teach. It shows how many different people from different cultures unite. It also shows how people will help each other out. Lastly, it shows how to be accepting of people who are different from yourself.

The characters in Seedfolks show unification, even though they are from different cultures. “A man with a knife had taken her purse. Three men from the garden ran after him.”(60) These two quotes show how, when presented the opportunity, the members of the garden will come together to solve a problem. The problem in this case being a thief. They put aside their differences and together they helped a person in need. “When people all the time complain about carrying water, he [Sam] start contest.”(38) This quote shows how Sam is trying to get the community to work together to overcome a problem that they all experience. “Someone bring three old pots to scoop water out of cans”, “I quick go to score. Buy three funnels to make easier filling containers.”(39) These quotes show how people are expanding on the contest winners product. This shows members of the community uniting to overcome a roadblock to benefit the rest of the community.

Members of the garden are willing to help each other out, despite their different backgrounds. “And it’s up to us to save them.”(10) This quote is in regards of Wendell seeing Kim’s beans die. The characters Ana and Wendell work together in saving Kim’s lima beans. Ana spots the dying beans from an apartment building near the beginnings of the garden. Ana later informs Wendell about the dying beans. At this point, Wendell saves one of Kim’s beans and see Kim for the first time. Wendell backs away, as he didn’t want to scare Kim. We can later see that Kim fixes all her beans so they mirror Wendell’s saved bean. Later on in the book, Royce is introduced into the book. Royce, although he does not have a chapter, always helps the members in the garden.

”In return, he watered for people who are sick and and fixed fences and made other repairs. He might weed your garden or use the bricks from the building that was torn down up the block to make you a brick path between your rows.”(62)

Royce was willing to help out the gardeners without asking for much. This is one of the reasons that Royce became trusted and accepted within the garden community.

Seedfolks introduces a few characters who are different from the rest of the cast. Instead of their race, other features are brought out with these characters. Fleischman introduces a pregnant teen and a disabled man. When introducing Maricela, the pregnant 16 year old, Fleischman puts us in her shoes to feel what she is feeling in the chapter. “My body was part of nature.”(56) By accept her pregnancy by realizing that it’s all just a part of nature allows the reader to relate even more to Maricela because everyone is a part of nature. Nora’s chapter introduces us to Mr. Myles, an elderly man bound to his wheelchair. Mr. Myles was intrigued by the garden and with the help of Nora, they started at their own plot. Introducing Mr. Myles shows the young readers that elderly people are able to enjoy the same things as middle-aged adults, teenagers, and children, regardless of disability.

Despite the book trying to teach diversity, it fails when you focus more on specific characters. This is when you see stereotypes show up, unintentionally. For example, Fleischman introduces Tío Juan and Sae Young, two foreigners who can’t speak, or can only speak broken english. Tío Juan has probably resorted to using pantomime (as stated on page 50) because of his inability to communicate with most people. Sae Young speaks very broken and basic english. The best example of this is, “When people all the time complain about water, he start contest.”(38) Another stereotype that shows up is with Royce. It is stated that “. . . people would have crossed the street if they’d see him coming . . .”(62) It is implied that Royce, being African-American, has a threatening exterior. “ … The blacks on one side, the whites on another, the Central Americans and Asians toward the back. The garden was a copy of the neighborhood.”(26) This quote supports David Brooks’s People Like Us, which states that people are “making strenuous efforts to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves.” The members of the garden are unintentionally segregating themselves, despite the garden representing unity.

In conclusion, Seedfolks, by Paul Fleischman, is a great book to show to kids to teach them about diversity and multiculturalism. The book shows people, regardless of diversity can work together to reach a combined goal. It also shows how people will assist one another if. Finally, the book teaches young kids to accept people who are different from them. Although there are flaws within each character, the book, as a whole, is beneficial to young readers.

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violiving · 6 years

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I volunteer at an animal clinic in a predominately Mexican neighborhood in Chicago (Little Village). Being half-Mexican, I see everyone there being so happy and talking in Spanish. I see the child tugging at their mothers shirt begging to get some fruit or chicharrón from the street vendors. I see all the panaderías and restaurants and quinceañera store after quinceañera store. I see people who look like my family, and everything that reminds me of my heritage.

Yet I’ve never felt like such a stranger when being there.

I look around and see what could’ve been if I weren’t conditioned to forget about my heritage and to be ashamed to embrace it. And they’re not things like I’ve been directly told to my face that being Mexican is bad. But time after time growing up there were things that I remember that could’ve conditioned me to think this way.

Its my 4th grade elementary school teacher yelling at the new Mexican student who barely spoke a word of English when it was his time to read aloud the page of the book, and him not being able to speak English he was struggling a lot but had a smile on his face. And then it went away when she yelled why he couldn’t speak English. I knew very few words of Spanish at the time, but I stopped talking to my mom in the Spanish I knew and didn’t listen when she tried to talk to me in Spanish after that day. I wish i wasn’t afraid.

It’s my non-Hispanic dad yelling at my mother whenever she did try to teach me Spanish, and would try to get me to speak only English. As a result from fear from people I don’t speak very much Spanish, and I can’t speak to my own family 90% of the time because while I understand them, I can’t and I don’t know how to talk to them. I go to Little Village and I’m scared to go inside shops cause I don’t know how to talk in Spanish very well. I wish I spoke more Spanish.

It’s trying to LEARN Spanish in my adult years and being unable to roll my r’s when I talk. Might not seem like a big deal. But it’s a big deal to me, and I’m disappointed in myself every time I try, and it makes me feel like a fake Mexican. I wish I could roll my r’s.

It’s being raised in a huge white neighborhood for all of my life and being around all white people most of the time and having mostly white friends. I wanted to be like them, so I listened while they commented on Mexican food whenever we go to a Mexican restaurant and say how gross some of the things sounded. It’s ordering whatever they did. It’s believing their comments and telling my mom i didn’t want any of her Mexican food cause it was “gross”. It’s being the “token Hispanic” in every friend group I’m ever in. It’s feeling like an outsider to the other Hispanic people I come in contact with. It’s to shutting out my culture cause my friends couldn’t relate to that. I wish I had more cultured friends.

It’s looking at a Mexican flag for my room and almost buying it, but then thinking that I shouldn’t have that because I’m not really Mexican, so I don’t buy it. Because putting it in my room would make me feel off. I wish I could buy a flag.

It’s actually befriending Hispanic people in college and feeling like I can’t relate to them whatsoever. They talk about their childhoods and their friends back home and their family and I can’t relate because I wasn’t allowed that kind of experience and I never wanted to have those experience when I was younger. They talk to each other in Spanish and English casually and I can’t do that with them. It’s like they talk in riddle. And the references they make I don’t understand and I want to, but I laugh with them like I know what they’re talking about. I wish I knew what they were talking about.

It’s being in the Hispanic club in college and learning all new things and even making executive board for this club. I’ve helped out with so many cultural events and even spoke a little Spanish in front of my old college town community, which is predominantly Hispanic. Despite all this, I still felt out of place in this club. I wish I didn’t feel out of place.

I wish I was Mexican.

#would y’all believe that i was thinking all this while on the bus #i’m not even 20 yet i’m having a mid life crisis HA #sorry this is long #i just wanted to get this all out of my system #i’m sorry if it sounds confusing i never proofread anything

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awesome-legendarystudentcho-blog · 6 years

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Farmersburg Indiana Cheap car insurance quotes zip 47850

"Farmersburg Indiana Cheap car insurance quotes zip 47850

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I am 17 year old male, I have spent months looking for a car that I can be insured on for at least a respectable price, I have have gotten quotes for all the typical first cars, KA, Corsa, Punto, Ibiza etc. and they have all been ridiculous like 5-6k?! Now I know you can get insurance as a new male driver cheaper I just don't know what car or how that is possible. I've heard rumors that Ford Puma's are actually very good on insurance for new male drivers even though they are 1.4l and up? is that true?""

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Well I got a speeding ticket on my bike, my first one in 3 years. But thing is I don't have a License or insurance (don't bother, I just never wanted to even bother with the long lines at dmv) and no I'd in possession. So I got a 1200 ticket and I refuse to sell my bike,(yeah they didn't impound it, I'm OK, USA by the way). So any way I can get it reduced? Insurance costs the most. So is could I could the insurance and DL part waived if I got the paperwork?""

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commercials

Canada Car Insurance?

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About how much is car insurance in British Columbia, particularly Vancouver or nearby? Perhaps if you could share how much it costs you or someone in your family with a good driving record. Perhaps give a hint of what car you have, liability limits, etc. In the U.S., you can get online quotes. For Canada, I've never seen anything like it.""

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I can't get any quotes from companies as I haven't passed my test yet - so irritating, anyway I really want a Nissan figaro and have seen one I like (info in title) but my mum said insurance would be , anyone have a rough estimate? :/ help!?!""

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I am soon to be 17 and take my driving test, I have an audi 80 tdi being offered to me for 50 with the only fault being a broken break light. It is a 1.9 litre diesel and is apparently (according to the internet) cheap to fuel. Insurance no doubt on a 2.0 litre would be expensive. On the car insurance websites I get quotes from around 6500> I've heard however that the price on the websites is exaggerated and actually the price is much cheaper. How much do you think it would cost me to insure ? How could I reduce this cost? Is it worth getting a pass plus certificate? If the insurance on this IS a ridicuous price as it says on the insurance websites, what saloon car is cheap to insure? (preferably with a modest engine size:P) Thanks""

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/affordable-insurance-agency-augusta-ga-samuel-phillips/"

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zeemonkey1 · 7 years

Text

$101

I guess I just don’t understand auctions. I’ve managed to stay alive on this useless-ass mudball for forty years without truly recognizing what this most capitalist of activities truly entails. And I’ve been to a lot of auctions. I’m from South Alabama, an admission that I realize is like coming out as Cletus Spuckler, and rest assured I’m about as proud of my heritage as Roy Moore is of his browser history, but it is the truth. Everyone with crippling depression and chihuahua-tier anxiety has to have an origin story, so there you are.

But I have attended auctions. I have listened to JD Swearingen sell third-hand tractors, and I’ve seen old men pull on their earlobes when some cow or other piques their interest. I even got a participation trophy from a dating auction once.

And I have read my Horkheimer. There is money to be made—lots of money—from the various insecurities of both the very rich and very poor. It is simple. If one wishes to acquire a rich man’s money, convince him that other rich people have better stuff, and then put him into a situation in which he can make eye contact with his enemies and defeat them by spending one more dollar than they do on some ridiculous play-pretty. If one wishes to acquire a poor man’s money, convince him that spending enough of it will eventually make him rich. Auctions destroy hope by providing metric assloads of it. My own ancestors are perhaps most famous for the most capitalistic and insidious of all auctions, taking piles of Grandaddy’s money from semi-literate fops in exchange for the production potential of subjugated human beings. Entire city blocks in my homeland were once dedicated to the proposition that the most enviable position in society was reserved for the guy who could buy the whitest-looking concubine.

Gee that’s fun to think about. Maybe instead of ruminating on the deep evil of this useless-ass mudball I should instead wax eloquent about a cartoon monkey. If only I could separate the two.

But I can’t, because in this latest episode Curious George learns all about auctions. The local elementary school library was holding an auction of things the librarian had apparently found in an attic so that more books could be purchased. Curious George’s little Mexican friend Marco wouldn’t shut up about what a good cause this was. Imagine how many books they will buy, he said over and over. Just imagine.

On a table full of potential MacGuffins, George finds a pair of red mittens with elephants on them.

Roll Tide

George wants the mittens. Has to have them. Were the happenings in Curious George’s universe in any way logical or consistent, the Man in the Yellow Hat (MYH) would have bought them then and there. MYH could have bought the whole damn auction, like the time Rory’s father ruined the Star’s Hollow knitting bee. MYH has more than one house. He once bought George a robot that was aware of its own existence. MYH has no doubt paid for literally millions of dollars in damage caused by his Mayan Apocalypse of a pet. But not this time; this time he wants to teach George about auctions and the value of a dollar because why the hell not.

In they go, and MYH gets one of those little yellow paddles with numbers on them. As proof of concept, he spends ten dollars on what they SAID was a bright yellow traffic cone, and MYH SAID it would make a great mute for his tuba.

wtf.jpg

Okay, first off, I ain’t never seen an all-yellow traffic cone in my whole life, nor would a guy who owns his own tuba—even a shitty one costs more than my car—buy some piece of plastic bullcrap for a mute. It kind of looked like his hat, though, so maybe that was it.

So then MYH leaves to go pay for the damn traffic cone, leaving George and Marco in possession of an auction paddle and sitting in the same row as Mr. Glass, stereotypical plutocrat. I’ve seen this guy before—one time George destroyed one of his skyscrapers and he was happy about it. He looks like a Dick Tracy villain hate-fucked Rich Uncle Pennybags and somehow produced a child with fewer redeeming qualities than either of them. Which means he might be the best, most likable character in the show.

Mr. Glass wants the mittens. Curious George wants the mittens. Curious George has a dollar he earned by washing a giant pig twice. Mr. Glass was born on third base.

In the real world we know how this story ends. Mr. Glass buys the mittens for $1.01 and then lets George watch him light one of his cigars with the burning mittens. Then he forces Marco into making ten pairs of similar mittens a day by threatening to deport his parents. George, in a blind rage, attacks Mr. Glass and eats part of his face before being killed by the police. The resulting lawsuit makes MYH utterly destitute, and his subsequent methamphetamine addiction ensures that he lives just long enough to see his beloved yellow apartment building blasted into dust by the Glass Construction Company with the Doorman and Hundley still trapped inside.

lifeisbeautiful

But this is not the real world; this is the world in which a cartoon monkey gets whatever the fuck he wants and never suffers any repercussions. Mr. Glass says he has “auction elbow,” no doubt exacerbated by decades of buying tenements to gentrify, and thus he cannot match the frantic paddle-waving of Curious George. And so it comes to pass that Curious George wins the mittens with a bid price of one hundred dollars. Mr. Glass doesn’t even care—he just fucks off to Pisghetti’s to eat dinner.

There is a lesson in here somewhere. Sometimes buying can cause more misery than not buying. The poor need to learn their place. Marco knows what’s up—he says “That’s a lot of money, George” with the wisdom and certainty of a boy whose parents probably floated over here on a beer cooler. No problem, thinks George, we’ll just go see MYH. Surely this is the smallest amount of money George has made MYH pay in the history of their relationship.

Richuncleyellowhat

But not this time. This time, MYH is exasperated and says one hundred dollars is a lot of money. He even demonstrates this fact by counting out one hundred pieces of popcorn in a perfect square on a table. Amazingly, George understands. He imagines having to wash one hundred pigs in order to pay for some busted-ass mittens. Marco is optimistic, infuriatingly so. I want to snap his little pollyannaish neck. “You could just explain that you made a mistake,” he says, “Ms. Nguyen is nice; she will understand.” Then he gets that dreamy look on his face like the Elevator-Epsilon in Brave New World.

Snaphisneck

“But…what about the books?” says Marco suddenly, “how can we buy books?”

Snaphisgoddamneck

“Oh, I know!” says the Mexican kid with an unsnapped neck,”Let’s auction the mittens again, and Mr. Glass can buy them for $101!”

SnaphisneckandeathisfaceGeorge

I want to kill MYH too, because he could have ended this whole stupid charade at the beginning just by opening his checkbook. Money solves every problem George has ever had. But WHY spend the MONEY when you can get onstage and embarrass yourself for a half-hour trying to beg people at an elementary school auction to spend $101 on some elephant mittens?

I could see the faces in the audience. They saw right through MYH’s bullshit. Here was a guy trying to pawn off some stupid mittens ON THEM when everybody KNEW the guy could have bought them himself at any point and still have enough money left over to buy two used space shuttles. So they just stare at him and wait for 5:00, at which point the auction would end and MYH would be stuck with the mittens. To make the whole situation even more cringy, MYH brings Marco’s grandmother onstage and declares her the creator of the mittens.

Of course she is. The analogy runs deep.

Marco’s grandmother tells everyone she made them out of yarn like Feynman telling gradeschoolers what protons are.

So where is Mr. Glass? I done said he was at Pisghetti’s. Marco gets on his bike and goes to fetch him. Gotta get him before 5:00 or George will have to wash a bunch of pigs.

Capitalistpigs

Mr. Glass is eating pisghetti at Pisghetti’s. Marco runs up yelling and scares the hell out of him. Mr. Glass’s yelp of shock when he sees how close a brown kid has gotten to his pisghetti has echoed down through the ages. Patricians of Rome made such noises when commoners dared to brush against their togas. Francisco Franco made such a noise when he was told Barcelona was being resupplied by sea. Czar Nicholas II made such a noise when the first Bolshevik soldier through the palace doors did not have the cup of tea he had specifically requested. But when Marco explains the situation, Mr. Glass agrees to go back. But the clock says 4:59. How could Mr.Glass get from Pisghetti’s back to the elementary school in time to prove the day-saving power of disposable income?

If you answered “by magically producing a bicycle helmet and riding tandem on Marco’s bicycle at the kind of breakneck speed Lance Armstrong could not have produced even after injecting ten years’ worth of saved-up red blood cells” you win the prize. Pick your favorite useless crap from the auction table.

Mr. Glass wins in the end. $101 buys a pair of hecho a mano mittens con elefantes. Inexplicably, George is butthurt about this, but Marco’s grandmother says not to worry, because she’ll make George a new pair of mittens with giraffes on them.

Good Lord. There is no point to anything.

#curiousgeorge #madnessofcuriousgeorge #manintheyellowhat #mocg #myh #mrglass #marco #horkheimer

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