July 30, 2003
KP! KP!
Northwestern Entry
Originally posted on July 30, 2003
At some points I have sat at a meal here or walked along the street thinking to myself "I will never talk to these people again once I leave here." That is often the case in these kinds of situations but usually I do not come into it with that knowledge. I did not come into it thinking that way this time either but it took me a longer amount of time this time around to realize who I really love.
One of the people I really love is Thomas. He needed a buddy to go with him to town the other day and being anxious to walk around and do something beside hang out in the dorm I agreed. We talked and I discovered he was a really funny kid. Being bright is a given here at "The Center for the Talented and Gifted." I may have re-arranged the word order, I am a little less gifted than the rest.
Dorm life agrees with me. I like getting my own food and planning most of my day, budgeting my time. As an only child I lack playmates at home, but here doors are open and everyone is welcome to simply walk in.
Analyzing poetry has turned out to be a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. The discussions are not only intelligent but insightful and everyone seems to care. One of my big fears coming here was that everyone would be pretentious. Some of that is here, I won't lie, but it is quickly fading away.
The Creative Writing students have quickly established themselves to be the most social of any others in the program. Earlier in the day we were talking to some Physics and Human Biology refugees. Most of the kids there close their doors and stick to their computers. I also met a Calculus kid from a suburb really close to me. He was sporting a shirt that said Columbus and I asked him if it was Columbus, OH, he said yes, and then I discovered he is a UA kid. I told him I maybe am supposed to hate him, but he insisted my hatred should go to Dublin.
KP. KP all the way. I have KP, do you have KP?
Right after class today my group went to the library then we hung out on some rocks near the lake. It was gorgeous, beyond words. One of the rocks had a love poem spray painted on it. I find that kind of thing to be devestatingly beautiful, no trees are harmed in the process. I could have stared there for hours. From where we were we could see Chicago, also gorgeous.
When we came back to the dorm a good deal of our class was going out but I had done that the other night and I wanted to hang at the dorm with some people I had not talked to as much. I completely invited myself to sit with two guys, Rusty and Ben, at dinner.
Ben looks like Jack Osbourne. He has only spoken a little bit to me but I really enjoyed his poetry and he read one of my poems and told me he really liked it in a sincere way. Flattery gets you everywhere, especially when someone seems to be sincere. He had written this great political poem, something I cannot do at all. I did my own "Theme for English B" that turned into this interesting portrait of solitude. I think I had one or two nifty juxtapositions, even if I do not show off major Merriam-Webster skillz.
Rusty reminds me of the snitch kid from the cartoon Recess. He is younger and gifted, so he unfortunately ends up alone a lot. Over dinner he started telling me about some heartbreak from back home. I always love when people seem to open up with me.
Then I spent a good three hours with Shayne, Carmen, and Thomas attempting to do our homework, with Jeff occasionally coming in. The Purity Test was a big topic of discussion for the night. And Korean Pride. Woo.
Shayne is awesome because she is just so incredibley innocent and sweet. She tends to slip into Barry Manilow for me when she sees me. She was 91% pure. She also likes Bush but we all forgive her, she mostly likes him because he is cute. There is something amazing about the genuinely kind people.
Carmen is my first female bisexual friend. She is flat-out hilarious and easy going and funny. When I first met her she started rattling off dirty limericks. SOO funny. I have not read much of her writing but I cannot wait to read it because she has this awesome straight-forward way of dealing with people. When people speak with such style and have so many interests, I find it difficult to think that person will be anything but amazing on the page.
Thomas is Korean and he educated us on Korean Pride. For whatever reason we all thought it was hilarious and started bringing it up in conversation as much. We shouted KP as often as possible and made a few new acquaintances in the process. Just to needle Thomas after he had gone into a mini-speech about how annoying it is to be asked if he is Chinese or Japanese, Shayne asked him if he had ever been to China. It was great. I have not laughed that hard or freely for too long.
Jeff I have not figured out, though I read his purity test (52%). He seems to be very intense about his poetry without being annoying, and he is always extremely careful about his diction. Even though he has a single and could easily box himself off, he is extremely welcoming and friendly. After reading the PurityTest he said that he wanted to do some of the things mentioned, but he would not say what. He is a sly one, that Jeff.
I scored a 72% and Andrew #2 (there are two, duh ;) ) told me that made him incredibley happy. He would not say why (Talia inserted that he wanted to bang me or something), but he did tell me he thought I would be more pure. Andrew #2 is a dirty boy, 43% Pure or something.
It is good times, though. I just need to write a bunch of poems really soon.
Oh, and it pissed me off when someone asked me to pull down the bottom of my shirt. I was not trying to be "sexy" or anything, my shirt had just slipped up while I was walking around. Very little skin. Blech, it just felt kindof humiliating to be talked to about it. I would have adjusted it myself but I did not even realize it was doing its own thing.
Love,
Mandy