Tuesday, July 12, 2005
the BAD news, and the GOOD news
A very wise woman once said:
I haven't been writing much mostly because I have been living. Yes, dear friends, I am back in the world of the living and out of the world of the living Dead!
Intelligent words indeed.
Because you see, ladies and gentlemen, I have been doing far too much living lately to write. I have good news, I have bad news - I have all sorts of news. Let's start with the bad, because I like to get it over with first.
In high school I had a wonderful, inspiring, brilliant, kind, thoughtful English teacher. He made us laugh, he had patented catch-phrases, he made me want to read everything ever written by anyone, anywhere, he taught us about Russian prisons and the Napoleon complex and existentialism, and he made the world seem tremendously huge and scary, yet he made sure we knew that it was also a loving place where people cared about each other. He made us read Shakespeare with emphasis and 90% of the big words I use today came from him. His name was Thomas Henderson (this is his real name), and the other day he died. He was only 55 years old, two years younger than my dad. He had a heart attack on the treadmill in his basement. I want to say for the record, to the whole fucking world, that this was a wonderful man. A great light has gone out since he left this earth. Perhaps one of my old school friends said it best, in typical Mr. Henderson style -- quoting another brilliant person who came before him:
May our dear teacher dream well, for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come.
I only wish I could have told him just how very much he meant to me. Truly wonderful people like him only come along once in a blue moon, and I am so very, very sad to see the sky once again so bereft of his glowing blue rays. May he rest in peace.
There is my bad news. I shant dwell on it, but I will give him the sadness he deserves from me.
My good news is very simply that I have met a girl that I really, really, like.
I called her Anna, but now that I've talked to her a lot more, I will have to change her name to Kylie, because it suits her much better. I still haven't met her in person, but our first date is tomorrow and I am super-excited. We've been talking on the phone the past few days and I am really, really into her. She's a classically-trained pianist, she sings, she's taking creative writing in school, and she is really sweet, super-funny, outspoken, and totally beautiful (she sent me a few great pictures, which I'd post if I didn't want to keep her privacy completely sacrosanct). We talk about everything, both the happy and the sad, and we get along really, really well. I actually have never felt this way before. I'm trying not to get my hopes up about her, but it's really hard because she is just incredibly wonderful.
I'll keep you posted about how things go tomorrow.
I have pretty much lost interest in Jamie. I met him in person last week and took him to an art show that Apple and her friend Sasha were going to downtown. It was at a teeny little gallery made from a converted storage shed owned by Apple's ex-but-maybe-they're-back-together. The ex is called Simon (his real name is MUCH weirder!), and he actually turned out to be pretty chilled-out and interesting, and he definitely mellows Apple out a lot. The art on display was by this brilliantly schizophrenic painter called Anais who paints characters with huge eyes and naked girls cutting themselves with razor blades, among other things. Apple and Sasha and I were really into it, and we talked to Anais all evening, but Jamie was totally out of place and clearly couldn't handle the randomness of it all. He is just too straight-laced, too boring, too reserved, and too law-abiding for me. I will have to either keep him just as a friend or lose him entirely. In the immortal words of my father, "don't force anything, ever." I especially don't want to force a relationship with a less-than-fascinating guy when I've found a girl I'm so excited about.
I have tons to do because I've been putting everything off to talk to Kylie until 4:30 am practically every night, so I'd better get to it.
In response to what may be the obvious questions....No, my parents don't know about her yet, and no, I don't plan to tell them for a while. But that's not because I think they'd be weird about it, it's because I want them to think she's just my friend so she can sleep over and we can make out. Pretty clever, eh?
Oh, and I read my story at the open-mike. It went over insanely well. Cris was impressed, and so was everyone else. There was lots more applause than usual, and I know that for a fact, because I am usually one of the people applauding. Emma and Jake read it too and they also loved it. This is great, but I definitely have to write more in order for it to be worth anything at all. Consistency is key.
Lots more to say, but not enough time to say it in.
I'll make sure to write about my date tomorrow though.
Bye for now.
-N
