|
Post by En on Jan 30, 2004 14:45:51 GMT -5
*nods* Yeah, I get that. My friends in high school were in many ways like a family to me -- we were each other's support group, and sometimes they physically took care of me too. And we did a lot of family kinds of things together, like argue over whose responsibility it was to drive and try to give each other advice when we should really just shut up
In a way, TD is my third yellow-family. I don't actually make soup for any of you when you're sick, or sit down with the grownups (however we want to define that : and decide how to cover the household bills, or give you away at your weddings, or hold your hand at funerals, or many other red-family sorts of things. But I do try to be around, helpful (in my 2-year-old kind of way ), whatever. And I care a lot about the people here, and I'm proud of you, too. You're all so cool
In a lot of ways, TD filled a gap left open by leaving my last community and not having a religious life or much of a connection with most of my family. Now I've got a closer bond with my siblings, and a faith to follow, and I might be changing communities again this fall, but TD is still my neighbourhood.
|
|
|
Post by Will on Feb 3, 2004 21:51:23 GMT -5
Cheers, En. Cheers.
Though I know that I love my family, I’ve come to wonder if I’m beginning to drift. Or maybe I’m distancing myself with them… wondering, trying to find the right path to follow. I have my dad holding up big neon arrows which point in one direction and then there is my mother telling me I could do whatever I wish while she drops hints on the preferred road to take. How is a girl like me supposed to juggle everything and walk on a tightrope all at once? I’m not an acrobat.
Moving on…
At long last I got to see my cousin Kevin! He’s finishing up his last year of college down in LA so it’s been tough to get together with him. Haha. He’s just as hilarious as before, maybe even more. If there is ever an awkward moment of silence, which I know we all hate, Kevin finds a way out of it. …Usually by a) humming funky tunes, b) making weird faces, or c) just making weird sounds. All results in laughter from everyone.
Anyone have relatives they’d like to see again?
|
|
|
Post by KoNeko on Feb 4, 2004 5:11:13 GMT -5
What, you mean besides you guys here?
Well, I have these really cool cousins called [Chris] and [Spic] that live in Canada, and my sister and I saw them last year in July. But, before then, we hadn't really seen each other for... Hmmm, must have been over 10 years. Most of that was because we were all school-age so it was hard for us to meet up, being on opposite sides of the world, and being so young and stuff, and we couldn't get our holidays to coincide.
But it was so bizarre because we so clicked when we met each other again. I mean, the last time we saw each other, we were all in primary school or early secondary, so like about 8-12 kind of age, and now we're all at college/university and studying totally different things, and yeah. But we all would go out and Chris would drive around Toronto and we'd randomly quote the Simpsons and hang out and yeah! It was great. We also went camping/to their lakeside cottage and went tubing and stuff. One night we all ended up in a piercing/tattoo studio and well, that's where my industrial piercing came from. We now all stay in contact with MSN and stuff too. Lots of happy memories of that trip, and now that we're old enough and like, make money and stuff, so hopefully it won't be another 10 years before we meet up again.
Actually, Chris and Spic are two of a group of 10 cousins (myself and my sister included) on my mum's side- and they've been trying to organise a reunion with all of us and their families for ages now, because my Grandpa getting on in age and yeah. But if we did, that would be uber cool.
|
|
|
Post by En on Feb 4, 2004 16:43:21 GMT -5
Uncle Snake. The tattoo artist in South Dakota. Also, he's got a daughter I've never met who is supposed to be super cool.
It's a weird thing about Uncle Snake; I never knew anyone like him growing up, because my da's family were all uberconservative and incredibly protective of me (because of course anyone who is a tattoo artist must be a Hell's Angel )... and the only time I met him was when my grandmother died and my mum couldn't get to AZ to help with the funeral and stuff. So Uncle Snake helped me with everything, in a lot more ways than just knowing what to do when. He knows how to deal with pain, without talking it out or wallowing in it, just taking it in and letting it out like breath. And the whole time, I was totally bowled over by the Biker Mystique just radiating from this guy. He just seemed so powerful and alien.
Five years down the road, I'm more comfortable around bikers than I am around my da's family. So I want to see Uncle Snake again. I want to see him with biker's eyes. I want to know if he's the kind of biker who thinks bikers are the modern incarnation of cowboys, or the kind who thinks bikers are the last bastion of liberal thought, or what....
|
|
Calavera Diablos
Ravenclaw Alumni
Draws grown men wearing underpants outside their trousers
Posts: 1,547
|
Post by Calavera Diablos on Feb 5, 2004 0:05:59 GMT -5
*grins* You've told me about Uncle Snake before. One of these days I'll have to mail you some designs I've sketched and see if he approves. Everyone seems to have that really cool Uncle in their family. My Uncle Bob, or Animal as was nicknamed, is from the same mentality as your Uncle Snake. He got that nickname from his friends in Minnesota (even though, in Minnesota, you'd be considered radical for putting tabasco on your tuna casserole ), he's a real character. He's like one of the old men in "SecondHand Lions", when you first saw them trying to fish with rifles and shotguns. He loves motorcycles and used to test out jet skis. He's calmed down considerably since then thanks to his wife, Aunt Tutti, how's more abrasive and stubborn than he is, so I guess it was a perfect match. I remember when I first met him as a little girl, I instantly bonded with him. Usually when relatives came over, I'd clam up and be very shy and quiet. I was too young to go for a ride on his bike, but he always promised me he would when I was older since he could tell I was a hog queen. I find that really interesting, I wonder if we love motorcycles so much because of people like him and your Uncle Snake or if we just like them for what they symbolize. Maybe both. We have a Harley club down the street in our neighborhood and one of the horse club members did me a huge favour by letting me ride with him. I got to talk with other bike enthusiasts, some were in old biker groups that still ride on every sunday. It was a great experience. He tried to sweet talk my mother into getting me a little sportster, but no such luck...
|
|
|
Post by sparksy on Feb 21, 2004 12:58:19 GMT -5
I don't have one of those weird uncles (unless you call a high-school math teacher who is addicted to computer games weird) but my friend's grandpa cracks me up. he has his motercycle, and recently he purchased this way cool motor home. Oh, and did I mention that her family layers mayonaise on everything? it's rather disgusting.
my family has like 0 traditions. all i really know is that i'm a total of half scandinavian as well as english, scotch-irish, and of ethnicity of other unimportant cultures. but basically, i'm finish and norweigen (sp) and swedish as well (i am eenga, frum sveeden!).
|
|
|
Post by En on Apr 3, 2004 12:30:07 GMT -5
You know, I was thinking about sparksy's answer, and I was like, don't we have traditions in the US? I mean, what could we call our traditions? Getting a driver's license is a big deal in our culture; do we have any traditions about that? Or what about school -- schools have traditions, sometimes short-lived ones, but you know how some places always have the prankster bunch and the straight-A bunch and stuff. So what are our traditions?
|
|
Natz
Ravenclaw Alumni
Posts: 4,269
|
Post by Natz on Apr 11, 2004 5:49:05 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the traditions are in the us. Forgive me.
I too have a cool uncle but hes not a tatto artist hes really into computors acting and gadgets.
Getting a driving license over here is not such a big deal. there are still loads of people who don't want to drive out of choice. Some of its mainly out of cost as well because the insurance is really high until you are twenty five.
|
|
|
Post by En on Apr 12, 2004 15:38:07 GMT -5
Don't worry, Natz, I don't think many people in the US know what our traditions are here either -- including me. I know we have them; humans in any kind of organised society do. They're just very different from what one normally considers 'traditions,' and there are also many different groups of tradition-celebrators in the States.
The reason I mentioned driving is because having a car is a big part of social life here. We don't have good public transportation outside the very-large-cities (NY, Chicago, LA) and even there, cars can be used as status symbols even if they're not regular modes of transportation. To have a car of your own is a rite of passage for young men in this country, and increasingly for young women as well; and I don't think I'd be overboard to say that in some groups, owning your first car is more vital to being a fully-fledged adult than being married or owning a home is.
And driver's training is one of the few things almost every person in the US has to do during high school. So, I think there must be some traditions associated with learning to drive or driving, though I wouldn't know as I didn't learn to drive until I was 21 and am still not keen on it
Our insurance rates are high up to 25 as well... I just turned 26 and shaved about $300 off my insurance bill for that alone Seems a bit silly. I haven't changed all that much from, say, January til now, but I was 25 then and thus had to pay $300 more every 6 months
|
|
Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
|
Post by Calantha on Apr 12, 2004 19:08:35 GMT -5
I've thought about it and I was stumped, like...I do realize they're there...they just don't jump out at me.
*snorts* The only public transportation here is one very small and slow trolley during the nice, warm months and a very dented cab that hardly works.
En, it isn't just with insurance...the whole age thing. In Virginia, they passed a law (right before I turned fifteen) that to get your learner's permit you had to be fifteen and six months and to get your license you had to be sixteen and three months. They took off three months on your practice and made you only three months older to get your license...does that make much sense?
I will agree that getting your driver's license is a big thing over here for some people, but I know a lot of people who have passed sixteen and three months and don't have their license and don't want their license at all. I would say voting at eighteen, but that seems to be fairly underplayed and ridden with voter apathy...sooo...and I would say a prom might be a tradition but is that limited to only America? And even then, to a lot of people it isn't a big deal at all...
|
|
|
Post by En on Apr 13, 2004 1:42:51 GMT -5
I've been thinking more and noticing how many different cultural groups there are, even in Iowa... I mean, when I say drivers' licenses are a big deal to some people, I don't mean they were to me or my friends. We didn't have cars. We didn't want cars. We lived in a small town, and the people who had cars wanted them to take their dates out; the only ones among my friends who cared were those who had parental permission to go on short road trips, and those were rather few.
Prom: meaningless to me. I didn't go. I'm told I didn't miss much. The dances I liked were the ones with loads of techno, back before most people in the States had even heard the horrid word "Macarena." But I kind of wish I'd at least gone once, to see what the deal was. Could have shook things up a bit and taken a same-sex partner or something. Ah well, what we don't do we'll never know about.
But voting, that was a big deal. I made a sort of private ceremony out of registering, and I've made a big point of getting registered wherever I've been since. Grant you, I'm a highly political creature, and I know not everyone in my generation shares my passion there.
Turning 21: relatively silly. I got a couple of free drinks, and somebody tried to teach me some Czech, but by then I'd been drinking long enough to know my tolerances, so it wasn't wild or anything. But becoming old enough to buy alcohol in the States does have meaning for other people.
Um... I dunno... some people seem to make a big deal out of taking their kids to see 'St. Nick' in the shopping malls. Trips to someplace warm on spring break also seem important to some people... I'm at a loss here...?
For me, the most important ritual moments of my life have been rituals I've chosen. Walking to a certain place on certain days to stand and remember certain things, none of which would mean much to anyone other than me. Remembering the three important veterans in my life on Memorial Day, at the end of May. Pressing the first violet I find each year in the pages of my monster French dictionary. Shakespeare's birthday in April. St. Pat's. Taking the time to look good when I go somewhere in full drag -- that's a complicated ritual. Making coffee each morning, and some of the goofy little things I do when I'm getting ready to write for a few hours. Watching The Wizard of Oz with my grandmother, or Gone with the Wind. Reading LotR sometime around the hols. Stuff like that.
|
|
Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
|
Post by Calantha on Apr 13, 2004 15:54:58 GMT -5
Maybe there just isn't anything that everyone does in our country? Graduating from school? High school or college? And even then it's not like it's only a big deal in America...
I don't know. My traditions are more singled out to my family and friends. Like, on each other's birthday we go to this mexican place and we get a sombero that is way to big for our heads and they come out and sing happy birthday to the person and then we get deep fried ice cream...or every Christmas we watch It's a Wonderful Life and we go to a service and light candles... Things like that... So a lot like you, En, there are traditions. There are things we do...just not all of America does them.
|
|
|
Post by Will on Apr 13, 2004 23:44:21 GMT -5
Yipes! I haven’t been in here for a while –slaps own hand- Shame on me.
Hmmm… California is a… long state. The people here… vary.
How about we compare notes? There is an age difference, so that may affect some things. I'm a strange one too.
Driving: I admit; I want to drive and buy a car. ((though that will be very difficult)) I don’t care much for dating, so that’s not the reason. Road trips? Not possible. I suppose a main reason I want to be able to drive legally is the feeling of freedom, like most teenagers want. Seriously, I feel like I’m wasting my life away, being so anti-social. I never go out with friends and I don’t feel close to anyone. Perhaps I could take them out once I learn to drive. Another reason is to lend a hand. The community service club I’m in always needs people to drive everyone to the projects. I could help! And my parents never seem to stop dropping and picking up my younger sisters from whatever they are doing.
Public transportation? There’s the Bart and Cal train. Buses, of course, and then the cabs, but you’ll only find those in big cities. Otherwise you’ll have to call them up. There’s light rail.
Prom: Heh. No one seems to care for prom anymore. Though I do want to go. Actually a friend and I has come up with a plan for prom even though it’s two years away. We shall rent one of those caterpillar limos… Do you know what that is? And since I’m obsessed about the Carnival of Venice, we have decided to pretend the prom is really a masquerade. We’ll wear masks and costumes. I can’t wait! Heehee… We plan to drag all the drama people into this.
Voting: Oh yes, this is a big thing from me. And again it’ll be a while before I can do it. And that includes the city mayor, cabinet members. I find it sad that I’m more informed about the city I live in than my parents. They know nothing of the latest news, ignoring the Wednesday newspaper. I’m trying to convince them to focus on shopping in our downtown area since our economy isn’t doing so well.
Turning 21: Not much to say on this one. It’s funny. I know quite a few kids my age who drink.
|
|
|
Post by En on Apr 14, 2004 15:40:09 GMT -5
You may think that driving sets you free, but it doesn't If you have younger siblings, and if your parents are anything like a lot of the parents I know, they will need for you to pick up your siblings... during the middle of rehearsal; while you are trying to talk a friend out of doing something very stupid; when you're too tired to drive safely; before you can eat dinner; when you have a date / meeting; or most likely of all, when you're three pages from the end of a really, really good book.
No, seriously, driving can be a lot of hassle. Petrol's up to $1.75/gal here, so I can't imagine what it's costing out there, and nobody's car gets better than 30mi/gal in town unless you drive one of those $75,000 hybrid cars. If you get hit, your car can get seriously messed up with just a wee tap -- the other car can be going as slowly as 35mph and spring your frame -- and if your insurance is garbage, they'll take forever to process your claim, while your garage takes forever and a half to fix the car. Insurance rates are skyrocketing, too. At least the odds of your having to drive in snow are slim to none.
But then again, I won't be giving up my car -- it's too necessary when one has multiple jobs and family in multiple places.
I wish my high school gang had gotten together to do something weird at prom. We could have gone as dead poets. I'd probably have gotten stuck doing Emily Dickinson though, as I was the only one with a flowing white dress I'd rather have been Adrienne Rich or Yeats or something.
Odd, isn't it, how there are so many overlapping cultural groups in this place? More so now than ever... I never know how to identify myself either. Do I slap the labels on myself so people know which traditions I keep? Hello, I'm a political, transgendered, work-commuting, close-to-family Jew? Or do I just ask for time off when I need time off and let people ask what I'm doing if they want to?
|
|
Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
|
Post by Calantha on May 12, 2004 20:11:13 GMT -5
I wasn't able to go to my prom this year because of a family thing (this past weekend, actually) but it turns out that not many of the seniors came anyway and most were busted for drugs that night. It's typical for this area though.
I read an article about how in Georgia there is a place with segregated proms. One for each major race. And it was school funded up until like three or four years ago. Since the seventeenth? Eighteenth? Something like that is the 50th aniversary of Brown v. Board of Education it's plastered in our newspapers.
And it just made me think about my relatives. Although my parents are pretty open-minded about different races, I have a lot of relatives who aren't. I've a lot of relatives who are very much "the south will rise again" sort of thing and even some who think that Virginia should succeede from the US and become it's own country.
And those are the times I'm happy I'm not like all my other relatives...but you know what? They're all on my mom's side and they lived in South Carolina for a long time so maybe that's why.
*shrugs* It's just sort of sad.
|
|