"So, what did you do today, Sweetie?"
"I went to Macaroni Grill for lunch."
"Who did you go with?"
"No one. I just sat at the bar."
"Okay, Christine!"
No, this was not my mother's conversation with me ... but rather another mother's conversation with her daughter. So yeah ... I go to restaurants and movies by myself ... why not!
Last night I met a fellow blogger.
"You must like green."
"Ha, I do. It sort of helps me feel content. Unlike pink ... you'd better watch out if you ever see me around wearing pink! Those are days when I don't feel like a good little girl. Those are days when I'm just oozing with sarcasm and am very short on patience. I also got deathly sick one day when I was wearing an excess of pink."
I'm not sure what else mothers have characterized me as ... but so far girls, you might be a Christine if ...
36 comments:
oh yeah
... if you sit in the middle of the Seminary lawn to *avoid* the benches.
what is so stigmatizing about the benches? (I really DONT know)
Must be a euro photo. Musee du Louvre? Vatican Museum? Somthing in Deutchland?
You don't have to worry about it, you're a guy ...
As for the photo, you don't find interior art work like this in the Americas too often. It's in the "Lipstick." The bombed out bell tower of a Lutheran cathedral in Berlin.
click here for a picture i took of the outside.
... if you don't know what time your flight leaves and it's the day before you leave.
why? what's the big deal? as long as you know *what* day you're leaving.
As a fellow Christine, I totally agree. However, there are days that I sit on the benches anyway. Hope you have an amazing summer and I hope to see you around campus again...or maybe at Logos! =)
Yeah, I think you caught me sitting on a bench, too. It doesn't happen too often, though.
... if you somehow make your mundane life sound interesting.
I like going to cafes by myself. Does that count? I'm not yet game to try restaurants.
I was there in Berlin, but it was a Sunday, so it was closed. :-(
I like going to movies by myself.
Again, I think I'm in need of enlightenment on the benches thing. What on earth are you talking about? Are you a germophobe afraid of "catching" something from the benches???
-the voice of cluelessness
Yeah, I go to the movies by myself as well.
It really bothers me that complete strangers might think I have no friends, it's devastating...
Maybe there is bird poo on the benches?
No no ... i guess you do need to know this, Guillaume ... seeing how you're an incoming student.
Many a new girl (myself included) has made the error of making herself vulnerable by sitting on one of the benches surrounding the seminary lawn. Incoming men (or even a couple of guys who have been around for a few semesters but haven't found that preacher's wife yet) make a bee line for said prey and the rest is history.
The benches are best avoided.
My theory of the center of the lawn occured in this way:
I was coming out of my OT I class and I walked outside. My phone rang. It was my friend C.B. He wanted to know what I was up to ... blah blah blah ... and as I reached for the doors to enter the cafeteria I heard him say ...
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"what am I doing?"
"I wouldn't go into the cafeteria just yet." (example of me eating by myself)
"why, is there someone i shouldn't see in there? wait ... how did you ...?" I looked around to see if I could see him. How did he know I was going into the cafeteria? "Well, if I shouldn't go in, what do you recommend I do?"
"I think you need to study."
"I can study in there."
"Or, you can study outside. It's a nice day."
"What if I'm hungry?"
"Half an hour won't kill you."
"What happens in half an hour?"
"That's when I'm going to eat."
"Ah, you'd like for me to wait for you."
"You can do whatever you want ... I'm just saying ... Don't sit there!"
Now I was really weirded out. I had been walking towards a bench. He was obviously watching me from somewhere.
"Why not? Where are you?"
"In the library. You know you don't want to sit there. You know what will happen."
"C---, what do you recommend?"
"You could sit on the grass."
"Fine. Have it your way ... I'll sit smack dab in the middle of the stupid lawn."
So ... I sat there ... mid-February ... on the grass, to wait for my friend to finish reading a couple more pages of his book in the *warm* library. But you know what, I got to thinking about it.
It really was brilliant. Guys can sneak up on you in a covert manner when you're sitting on one of the benches. It's more private, etc. But for a guy to walk out into the middle of the lawn to approach me ... that takes guts!
For the record ... I'm not opposed to meeting new people ... i just don't like sneaky tactics. Be bold and real. Don't be pushy and attempt to figure out in the first five minutes if I'd like to go with you to Zimbabwe as your missionary wife. That's just creepy. Be relational ... not pushy.
I just got back from seeing Ice Age 2 in the theaters
... with a friend.
I know ... I know ... completely uncharacteristic of me ... but i'm branching out.
... if you give dating advice to anyone who will listen but have never been on a date yourself.
I'm just chalk full of advice.
... if you're not quite sure how to answer the question, "Where are you from?"
I like to go to the movies by myself, and I also like to go with other people.
I don't care if other patrons at the movies think I have no friends. I become engrossed in the movie and what they think is irrelevant to my enjoyment.
I don't go to cafes by myself though....that's when I worry people will think I have no friends..and I'm often too shy to order!
Christine, that's hilarious about the benches.
... if you are constantly referred to as the Tall German Girl.
some tack on to the end: ... who wears green.
Do you have a German accent?
Do I have a German accent? Scroll down to June 11 and then up to June 23. They'll explain it all.
You know, there must be something to this name because lately I don't know how to answer the "Where are you from?" and people keep asking. Hope you enjoy your summer! =)
So you can put one if the moment demands, but if someone slaps you in the face, in what accent do you reply "What was that for?!"
(I guess you do an American accent in Kentucky, but that's pretty easy to imitate.)
Because I have such an international background I adapt my pattern of speach to whoever I am currently around. Put me in a house full of New England relatives and I'm ready to "Pahk the Cah." (Park the car.) Send me off to Arkansas, I easily slip a manner of speaking that is a bit more "countryfied." If I'm sitting at a table of English-speaking Malaysians, I will subconsciously adapt to their grammar. If I'm speaking to someone with braces on their teeth or a retaiiner, I find myself slurping at my saliva along with them.
But if I was slapped in the face? ... pure American ...
When I am home ... however, my English becomes very "international" ... slow, innunciated, a hybrid of british/american. It's easier for everyone to understand. It takes a day or so for me to re-adapt when returning to the States.
Thanks for the explanation. I guess I now know to cruise the benches for that special girl who will follow me to Cameroon. (Just kidding)
Confession time, When I returned from the UK, my mother, a Quebec-nationalist who hates the English, kept slapping me in the mouth on account of my mid-atlantic accent I'd developed. A fellow Canadian friend of mine in England tracked my accent shift, (His had already well shifted) First went the consonants. Gone were the American pronunciations like, "budder" for "butter" or "boddle" for "bottle". The vowels took much longer to shift. I knew I had somewhat arrived when shopkeepers would ask where in the North I was from, or sometimes they would include the veiled insult of asking me if I was from Ireland or Wales. I don't think I sounded particularly Welsh or Irish, but I didn't sound North American.
Americans may dull the "tt" sound ... however, they do pronounce the "r" at the end of words.
"butteh"?
indeed.
Hi, i've just come back from Mexico, and i'm catching up with you. Or with me. I can't decide which. I told tori today (before i read this) I'm definitely becoming the "christine sterotype"! (i think it's a good thing..my mom..not so much..)
You might be Christine if...you really love morbid children's books.
Heck yeah, write one for me. I might try too.
You might be christine if...you look like an indie singer.
what are you talking about? your mom *loves* me!
Sure, but she loves you as you. She isn't sure what to think of me as...the more like you type
Carmen, you know i'm all about *unique individualism*. You better not be turning into me!
Although it is the most flattering thing in the world.
You're welcome to try my clothes on ... but only until you figure out for yourself what it is you truly like. After that, go get your own wardrobe.
(which I know you will ... i'm just teaching you what I have learned, young grasshopper. in the process you are developing your own philosophies in life and will surpass whatever your teacher has to offer you.)
I think I could fit into yours. I've grown a little more. And I just purged my closet. I'll be purchasing a new wardrobe as I travel the world this summer. I think I'll come visit you sometime. Standby tickets are the coolest...when's good for you this fall?
I'll definitely (and I have been) come into my own very soon. I am only grateful to have such a wonderful friend and role model to help me on my way.
Nice pic again... pics are good
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