here today & gone tomorrow
today i got my nose pierced.
after waking up around 2.30 as a result of a drunken night with char, mia, and various others, i met char and we began our adventure. first we went to the army base nearby to get gas, and formulated the goal of hanging around there in the future and getting an army boyfriend. we waited in line at the atm and eavesdropped on their immature and homophobic conversations, then saw a cute punk soldier who the other meatheads taunted. it was sad; i was planning on telling him i liked his outfit and then hopefully start a conversation, but he was on the phone (as a defense mechanism, char surmised). then we were off to newport news, where we went to patrick henry mall. i was a little bit offended that naming a mall after someone seems to be one of the highest recognitions (right up there with a highway). char told me that what patrick henry actually said was 'give me liberty, or give me death. and name a mall after me.' unfortunately the piercing place was under renovation or something, so instead we had lunch and gawked at hot punk high schoolers. it was the most interesting place, the juxtapositions we witnessed were amazing. unlike the DC area where it's pretty homogeneous at the mall, this place was different. milling around were preps, country people, ghetto guys, punks, jocks, emo kids.. it was a prime people-watching opportunity. we decided we're both gonna cut/dye our hair in a more 'extreme' (gah) way - though i'd already made that decision. i already know what i want anyway. so then we walked around and shopped, had conversations full of social commentary, and continued our people-watching.
when we left the mall we decided to go to gloucester and get my nose pierced at abstract art. i was sort of irked by the man who pierced my nose, because at first he was rude. but then once i sat down and all we had a nice conversation and it was a good experience. i like talking to random people and getting a small view of what the world is like from their place in it. i can't even imagine what life must be like as a tattoo/piercing artist, but he talked about how people in his line of work are always perceived as assholes and the like. afterwards, we made our way back to williamsburg and then stopped at dunkin donuts YUM. i also told her about my past, which felt good. i probably should have done that a while ago. i like being with char because we're always on the same wavelength; we have such similar thoughts and perceptions of the world, but we can still get into heated discussions or debates. like we argued about the 'support our troops' stickers, because i see it as conservatives trying to shift the debate over iraq to a debate about supporting troops, which are unrelated. but anyway, tonight i'm meant to go out with a bunch of alpha chis to someone's birthday party. i don't know him but i met him last night at wawa and he seemed eccentric enough, so that's good. and i'm really excited about my piercing.. today i finally felt kind of alive, like a limb reawakening. last night was fun but i felt like i couldn't really be around people.. it was hard. i'm still trying to get back into the mode of being around a lot of people. but today was really good, kind of like a new start. i mean obviously the piercing is a new thing but i'm starting to be able to forget about the things that depressed me at the end of winter break. i think it'll take a while, but hopefully things will get better day by day. gah, i wish i could write more eloquently in this damn journal, but i can't manage to care enough or to find enough meaning in my life at the moment to do so.
after waking up around 2.30 as a result of a drunken night with char, mia, and various others, i met char and we began our adventure. first we went to the army base nearby to get gas, and formulated the goal of hanging around there in the future and getting an army boyfriend. we waited in line at the atm and eavesdropped on their immature and homophobic conversations, then saw a cute punk soldier who the other meatheads taunted. it was sad; i was planning on telling him i liked his outfit and then hopefully start a conversation, but he was on the phone (as a defense mechanism, char surmised). then we were off to newport news, where we went to patrick henry mall. i was a little bit offended that naming a mall after someone seems to be one of the highest recognitions (right up there with a highway). char told me that what patrick henry actually said was 'give me liberty, or give me death. and name a mall after me.' unfortunately the piercing place was under renovation or something, so instead we had lunch and gawked at hot punk high schoolers. it was the most interesting place, the juxtapositions we witnessed were amazing. unlike the DC area where it's pretty homogeneous at the mall, this place was different. milling around were preps, country people, ghetto guys, punks, jocks, emo kids.. it was a prime people-watching opportunity. we decided we're both gonna cut/dye our hair in a more 'extreme' (gah) way - though i'd already made that decision. i already know what i want anyway. so then we walked around and shopped, had conversations full of social commentary, and continued our people-watching.
when we left the mall we decided to go to gloucester and get my nose pierced at abstract art. i was sort of irked by the man who pierced my nose, because at first he was rude. but then once i sat down and all we had a nice conversation and it was a good experience. i like talking to random people and getting a small view of what the world is like from their place in it. i can't even imagine what life must be like as a tattoo/piercing artist, but he talked about how people in his line of work are always perceived as assholes and the like. afterwards, we made our way back to williamsburg and then stopped at dunkin donuts YUM. i also told her about my past, which felt good. i probably should have done that a while ago. i like being with char because we're always on the same wavelength; we have such similar thoughts and perceptions of the world, but we can still get into heated discussions or debates. like we argued about the 'support our troops' stickers, because i see it as conservatives trying to shift the debate over iraq to a debate about supporting troops, which are unrelated. but anyway, tonight i'm meant to go out with a bunch of alpha chis to someone's birthday party. i don't know him but i met him last night at wawa and he seemed eccentric enough, so that's good. and i'm really excited about my piercing.. today i finally felt kind of alive, like a limb reawakening. last night was fun but i felt like i couldn't really be around people.. it was hard. i'm still trying to get back into the mode of being around a lot of people. but today was really good, kind of like a new start. i mean obviously the piercing is a new thing but i'm starting to be able to forget about the things that depressed me at the end of winter break. i think it'll take a while, but hopefully things will get better day by day. gah, i wish i could write more eloquently in this damn journal, but i can't manage to care enough or to find enough meaning in my life at the moment to do so.