20 February 2002 ~ The test...

I have been respectfully avoiding the internet -- sort of -- for the past day or two, due to the phase of the moon.

Or, in men's terms, I have PMS, and I'm bitchy, and I don't want to alienate anybody. Yesterday, I actually snapped at a guy in my class, and I felt so bad about it that I gave him a card today; something I NEVER would have done in Binghamton, but what the hell. I'm really trying to live up to the whole system of politeness and respect that's going on around me...

Speaking of which, I am officially a Northwesterner, as of last week. Well, officially if you consider the rules that Louise and I made up to be "official." Allow me to explain:

Okay, so by now, my accent is Northwest. Somebody asked me to do a "New York accent" for them (they meant downstate, which is something that occasionally slips out, for some reason, when I'm pissed off...), and I couldn't do it. Two months, and already I sound like I belong here. Oh well. I've been secretly preacticing for about a year. Heh.

By now, I've trained myself never, ever, EVER, under threat of scorn, whippings, and possibly being quartered, to throw a cigarette butt on the ground. I've actually picked up other people's. Good gahd, all those delicious nights at Oak Street, drinking beers on the porch and throwing butts over the side? Gone now, gone forever. A man in Spokane told me: "You're in Washington now, sweetie; you don't throw no shit on the ground." Hm. Okay.

I've started using words like "sexy," and "delicious." It's not so much the words themselves that are so popular, but words that are sensual. I'm a sensual person; I can get used to this...

Hell, I can even name more than one Modest Mouse album! Hell, I've been on the road that Sleater-Kinney (the band) is named after!

I've quit asking stupid questions like, "whoa, that's MOSS? I thought it was just wet toilet paper in that tree!" I've quit being outwardly freaked out by blatant liberalism. I can read Savage Love out loud in the cafeteria now without giggling or turning pink. I'm not terrified of wearing the pentacle that Rachel made me a few years back; I've gotten used to the idea that you don't get beat up for that shit here. I've gotten used to a lot of things...

BUT! The ULTIMATE TEST! Oh yes, the ULTIMATE test is achieving the confidence to wear the "Northwest Chic" outfit. Louise and I decided that people aren't real Northwesterners until they can summon up the guts to do it: to wear a skirt with pants. ARGH.

But I did it! Nobody made fun of me, either. People don't make fun of you at Evergreen unless you profess a desire to "git chicks" or to be in a fraternity. Seriously. But that takes a hell of a lot of getting used to for folks raised with sticks up their asses(ie: me).

Anyway.

I have to get going -- I'm still feeling a little miserable, and I've got some work to get done, so I'm off to do that......

~Helena*