wandering ponderings

[theladyrose]

"I hope you woke up this morning not regretting anything...heck, I hope you woke up without a hangover at the least!"

As much as I appreciate my friends' birthday wishes, why is it that people like to imagine what I'm like drunk? Or assume that I would get drunk in the first place, or perform other sketchy activities? I simply don't understand it. I have nothing against a little political subversion, although it's never anything destructive or harmful, and I don't consider myself asexual, but that's a different story.

People have been commenting lately that I have a British accent and/or British mannerisms, although Ellie repeatedly denies this. I don't get that either to be honest; I personally think that I sound rather American, and I've lived in this country for quite some time now. Occasionally I do sense a couple of vaguely trans-Atlantic phrases slipping into my speech; as I've said before, when I was younger my mother was beginning to lose her BBC announcer accent as I started to speak English. Kids used to give me strange looks in early elementary school whenever I spoke so I consciously tried to eradicate my accent and sound more American like everyone else. Perhaps in recent years I've been reversing this trend as many of the people with whom I keep in contact on a regular basis live across the pond. Perhaps it's my closet snobbish anglophilism coming out? I generally avoid using British spellings, though.

I am now the proud gardien of a garden gnome whom I have dubbed Jean. Jean Gnome, get it? It makes more sense when you say it out loud. For the record, the nickname was Ellie's idea. I am going to take a picture of him some time and you can all rejoice in his kitschiness.

I can't wait for my latest shimpment of soundtracks to come in; there's Michael Giacchino's Alias seasons one and two, Bernard Herrmann's North by Northwest (the recording not conducted by Laurie Johnson, composer of Dr. Strangelove and the Avengers series) and Marnie, and another one whose name I've temporarily forgotten. I'm starting to binge on Vertigo (Bernard Herrmann), Goodbye, Lenin! (Yann Tiersen), and the Incredibles (Michael Giacchino); I think I've been listening them too long in a row. I'm starting to lose my touch as I branch away from the jazzy swing experimentalism of 60's caper and spy films in identifying clips; it took me about twelve seconds to identify a five second clip from Burt Bacharach's Casino Royale (the 1967 version, not the 1954 American TV movie). If I've seen a film within a six month period and have heard the soundtrack twice, I need a three second clip to identify the composer, film, and track name in five seconds. It's a strange little gift of mine that comes in handy to quash sexist film score reviewers' doubts about me; it also makes me sound like I actually know what I'm talking about!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You don't speak with a British accent. You always speak with proper gramar and sometimes you use fairly archaic terms. Though this isn't British, people tend to think that if you don't speak like them, you must be a Brit. Don't worry, I get it too. And seriously, you don't sound British. Trust me, you know I'm quite adept at hearing accents.
-me
p.s. I told you you'd like your present :-p

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

I do know what you mean, and you definitely know a lot more about accents than I do :) *coughs* Ummm, my spoken grammar is OK, but hardly proper all the time. I guess it's generally assumed that if you're just the slightest bit familiar with British politics and educational system, you have to be from there. But seriously, how many Brits say "dude"?

[(Anonymous)]

A Brit saying dude would actually be funny. Your grammar is better than most, trust me. Also, I doubt that most people know how familiar you are with British politics and the educational system; it's not as if you go around talking about it all the time. Who tells you that you have an accent anyway?
Random note: you know what I'm thinking of right now? That joke about the dumb American in the resturaunt "in the groove man, in the groove"

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

That's probably true. Both Jen and Olivia kept joking about my weirdo English-American accent during our math study sessions, and most of the people in my CrWr class claim that I use a lot of British expressions...

You must tell me that American joke!

Rant about Drunks

[a-mire.livejournal.com]

I am 34. 14 years ago everyone wanted to see me drunk. Everyone told me I would outgrow my distaste for binge drinking. That I would understand in a few years. Um, no.

I still don't understand why people get drunk, or think its fun, or whatever. I mean, yes it's their business if that's their hobby and they aren't driving I won't say anything about it. I tried it but I will never get it. Boring. I didn't see any difference between that and Benadryl, which I also don't like. It made me cranky. Like I need to be any more cranky. I'm not the kind of person who wants to walk around a party in a daze.

Incidentally, I should mention that I don't like parties. Most people who plan a "party" invite a bunch of people over and fill them up with beer and music. That's not a party, that's a gathering. My last party (which I did serve beer at to people who wanted it), we played paintball and had water balloons and silly string hidden around the property, then we had a dirty riddle contest, and the winner of the riddle contest got to light up a bonfire with a roman candle where we burned Kenny from South Park at the stake. People still talk about it.

First of all you have to develop a taste for alcohol to even be able to ingest enough to get drunk, and most alcohol tastes terrible. It tastes like medicine and anyone who says otherwise when they first try a whole beer is just trying to fit in. (With the notable exception of Irish Cream, IMO, but it has so much fat in it that it's not the kind of thing you can really get smashed on.) Second of all, you are doing something that YOU KNOW is going to make you dizzy, stupid and sick, and it will kill brain cells. Bah. Not interested.

Thirdly, since alcohol brings out the part of a person that is usually hidden, I think if that bit is a happy person, you should just let them out anyway. There's no shame in being a happy person. If it's a bit that thinks it's funny to punch people in the face, leave it there and get a gym membership.

In my experience its either people who don't want to take responsibility for their own actions who feel they have to drink to have fun every time they go out, (or worse, who feel YOU can't have fun without drinking, or even worse, think you won't notice when they put rum in your coke), or people who are self-medicating. I can understand a little why someone might binge every once in awhile, I do that with cheesecake when I find a place that serves a good one, I do it with Doritos once a year or so even though I know my stomach doesn't like them, but the people who do it every weekend are missing something crucial. Like a reason for being, or a life's work. I don't know. But something isn't there that should be.

And Jean Gnome? LMAO!!

Re: Rant about Drunks

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

I'm generally not too big on parties, either. Every year my friends hold a Halloween party in which we bring along different kinds of candy and hold a massive bartering session that rivals the New York Stock Exchange. Lately it hasn't been on Halloween so we get all of the candy that's being sold after the holiday because the neighbors give us funny looks for being so old to go trick or treating! And then we end up watching Young Frankenstein or play around with ballet slippers or do one of those murder mystery party games and put on terribly fake accents. But your party beats out everything.

I've tried some alcoholic bevarages (wine, mostly), and the most ingested I've in one sitting was a cup of ceremonial sake for celebrating New Year's in Japan while visiting an aunt there. It tastes like expensive cough medicine that then proceeds to beat you over the head with a large gold brick. I don't taste the appeal, really.

Sadly just about all of my intelligent (and not so intelligent, although there are few of them) male friends seem to enjoy drinking with their buddies a little too frequently for my liking. They seem to enjoy the male bonding aspect free from responsability or whatnot. I've tried advising them to drink ginger ale instead which is much more pleasant tasting anyway, but it doesn't seem to work. Alcohol is associated so much with positive social interactions that a lot of people seem to think that you can't have fun with friends and strangers without being totally intoxicated.