Green Olives/Cheaters

Green Olives and cheaters are alike in that they are both disgusting and make me want to vomit. That particular food is one that I hate. Olives are tangy and disgusting. Cheaters are scumbags.

Friends/Love

Friends are forever but sometimes love doesn’t last. I have had the same group of friends for many years and they will remain with me until the end. But you never know when you may fall out of love with a person; it happens all the time.

Health Care/Tonsillitis

Health care is like tonsillitis in that they both make me sick. Healthcare in this country is terrible; children live with disfiguring conditions and don’t get the care they need. Families and mothers go without medical insurance. This makes me ill. Tonsillitis occurs when your tonsils become swollen and infected with puss filled sores which leads to fevers and seriously painful sore throats.

List A

• Friends
• Love
• Reading
• Books
• Pleasure
• Family
• Animals
• Fudgie
• Scruffy
• Trudy
• Dogs
• Spay/Neuter
• Nature
• Weed
• Body By Victoria Bras
• Cooking
• Internet
• Food
• Traveling
• Movies
• Monogamy
• Sarah
• Forensics
• The Dog Park
• Hiking
• Kisses
• Intimacy
• Chocolate
• Coffee
• Healthcare
• Cookie the dog
• Touch
• Fog
• Dancing

List B

• Animal Cruelty
• Ignorant Fools
• Liars
• Waking up early
• Dwelling on the past
• Green Olives
• Cheaters
• Douchebags
• Braggers
• Cold Coffee
• Cockroaches
• Wearing socks to bed
• Control freaks
• Tonsillitis
• Homophobia
• Fleas and ticks
• Gas Prices
• Minimum Wage
• Haters

Reindeer Grub

My family has many rituals but one of my favorites occurred on Christmas Eve. I do not recall when this ritual began, but for as long as I can remember we completed it every year. The Christmas Holiday has always been a time to celebrate with your family, but for children it is mostly about Santa Clause. On the night before Christmas my whole family, Mom, Dad, Jack, Sarah, and myself, would go out back with handfuls of dog food and throw it on the roof. It sounded like little balls of hail smacking the shingles. The purpose of this misuse of dog food was to give Santa’s Reindeer a little snack too. We would stay outside for a bit watching the night sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa’s sleigh. My parents later divorced and we children grew up, so that was the end of the family ritual. I remember it fondly, though, because we were still innocent kids then, still believing that Jolly Old Saint Nick would come down the chimney with a sack full of toys for everyone.

Good Clean Fun

I work at a dry cleaners in the Germantown area. I have been working there for about 2 years and it has proven to be a very simple job and one that works well with my school schedule. Easy money. I am a CSA. My duties include helping customers, writing up tickets (i.e. describing each article of clothing and pricing it), tagging clothes, and checking pockets. This proves to be the best part of the job because I often find that the lazy housewives and their careless husbands leave money, change, etc. that I happily put in my own pocket, a finder’s fee if you will. But money is not the only thing that our customers forget to remove. I have discovered a wide array of miscellaneous, disgusting, interesting, and disturbing paraphernalia left behind in the depths of this dirty laundry. Most of our clientele are middle aged/aging successful people so one of the most common items to discover in a pocket are drugs, legal and illegal. Viagra proves to be the most common pill, but I have found nitrates, valium, xanax, and hundreds of unidentifiable pills of varying shapes, colors, and sizes. We (my co-worker and I) can choose to save these pills in an envelope and return them to the customer when he or she returns to pick up their cleaning or just toss them. I have found narcotics like cocaine and even a little marijuana here and there. But drugs are only the tip of the iceberg. We find plenty of filthy things too: handfuls of cigarette butts, used snot rags, waxy ear plugs, combs with hair in them, condoms (unused thank god), random trash, chewed gum, bloody tissues, and dirty thongs. Needless to say I wash my hands many, many times during my shift. I have discovered bank statements, credit cards, drivers licenses, plane tickets, foreign money from all over the world, blank checks, golf tees, bullets, love letters, receipts, I.D. badges, pens, pencils, toothpicks, chapstick, chewing gum packets, candy, the list goes on forever. We do return important things like the credit cards and drivers licenses, but I am not going to put a customer’s dirty underwear and old concert stubs into an envelope and save it for them. No, I am just going to throw it away. This should serve as a lesson to anyone visiting their local dry cleaners: CHECK YOUR DAMN POCKETS!

Bath Time

One of the first memories I have as young child involves my twin sister, Sarah. We were probably four or five years old, and at this point we were still taking baths together. I recall this being a fun bath, one which included splashing and playing with the various toys which bath time requires. It was nearing the end of our aquatic playtime when, suddenly, shockingly, Sarah proceeded to take a dump in the tub with me still in it. This must have upset her as she began to cry, saying there was a monster in the tub with us. I am assuming at that age our baths were being supervised, but I do not really remember my mother or father being present. But I can recall that at that point my parents did appear and remove us from the bathtub. My father drained the water until all that remained was the brown mound of fecal matter which he promptly removed with his bare hand. That bath will forever be burned into my memory. It was actually quite comical thinking back on it.

I LOVE animals, Do you?

I am a huge advocate of spay and neuter. It is very important, as a pet owner, to get your animals, i.e., cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. spayed and neutered. Here are just a few of the many reasons for doing so:

Spaying or Neutering Is Good for Your Pet

• Spaying and neutering helps dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives.
• Spaying and neutering can eliminate or reduce the incidence of a number of health problems that can be very difficult or expensive to treat.
• Spaying eliminates the possibility of uterine or ovarian cancer and greatly reduces the incidence of breast cancer, particularly when your pet is spayed before her first estrous cycle.
• Neutering eliminates testicular cancer and decreases the incidence of prostate disease.

Spaying or Neutering Is Good for You

• Spaying and neutering makes pets better, more affectionate companions.
• Neutering cats makes them less likely to spray and mark territory.
• Spaying a dog or cat eliminates her heat cycle. Estrus lasts an average of six to 12 days, often twice a year, in dogs and an average of six to seven days, three or more times a year, in cats. Females in heat can cry incessantly, show nervous behavior, and attract unwanted male animals.
• Unsterilized animals often exhibit more behavior and temperament problems than do those who have been spayed or neutered.
• Spaying and neutering can make pets less likely to bite.
• Neutering makes pets less likely to roam the neighborhood, run away, or get into fights.

Spaying and Neutering Are Good for the Community

• Communities spend millions of dollars to control unwanted animals.
• Irresponsible breeding contributes to the problem of dog bites and attacks.
• Animal shelters are overburdened with surplus animals.
• Stray pets and homeless animals get into trash containers, defecate in public areas or on private lawns, and frighten or anger people who have no understanding of their misery or needs.
• Some stray animals also scare away or kill birds and wildlife.

If you would like more information you can call the Memphis Humane Society at 901-272-1753, or log onto their website: www.hsus.org/. Or call PetVax at 901-362-2393 or 901-362-9580 for seriously affordable rates.

A Scene form "The Rake"

The image that stood out in ”The Rake” was the mention of the Family joke. Mamet writes that he and his family would go out to dinner occasionally and when it was time to leave his stepfather and mother would retrieve the car and come pick up he and his sister at the front door. But when they would attempt to climb in his stepfather would drive off a little ways and this would continue for some time, all the while his mother would be laughing at the hilarity of this “family joke.” But Mamet details the cruel, abusive behavior of his stepfather and mother before this scene, so this “joke” isn’t very funny at all. Their family itself is a kind of sick joke. They live in a “model home” with a well-kempt yard, but behind that perfect façade lurks the dark and sinister reality that their family is plagued by abuse and pain. There is no love or joy or any of the things we think of as being part of a “normal” family, only deep dysfunction.

Mad Memphis

I have been exposed to death and murder countless times so I am a bit desensitized to it. I definitely did not know the boy who was shot, but it is terribly tragic. He was so young. Shooting deaths are common here in Memphis, but this wasn’t the usual gang related crime that took place in the ghetto; this boy was a student and football player at the University of Memphis and he was murdered on campus. It was mentioned on the news that earlier on the evening that he was killed, the young man had been at Tunica and had won a large sum of money. It scares me that perhaps he was being watched at Tunica and was then followed and gunned down for his money. That is all speculation at this point but that will always be at the back of my mind anytime I go there. This young kid was just out having a good time, living life, certainly not expecting to be shot and killed as he was walking back to his dorm. Why did this happen? Why does this kind of violent crime happen on a daily basis here in Memphis? As students we should feel safe on campus, but Memphis was recently named the most violent city in America, so we cannot really feel secure anywhere in this city. I am not an expert on the psychoanalysis of violent criminals and why these people commit the atrocities they do, but I think we need better public education. It seems to me that knowledge and understanding are the only tools that can effectively deter someone from committing such a violent act against another human being. Most of these criminals have had little to no quality education and have usually had a poor upbringing because their parents were mere children when they started having babies. It is a vicious cycle of ignorance and neglect and hate. Something has to be done about this. It is probably the single most important thing that needs to be addressed in this city which is rife with so many problems.

Textual Analysis Essay

In the short essay The Fourth of July, author Audre Lorde tells the coming-of-age story of her first trip to Washington, D.C. as a young black teen in pre-Civil Rights movement America. The year was 1947. This family vacation exposes Lorde to racism, something her parents choose to ignore in an effort to protect their children, and ultimately leads to a fall from innocence as she must come to terms with her place as a “colored”(Lorde,568) in the white world. Throughout the work, Lorde uses imagery and symbolism to convey her newly discovered awareness of her incompatibility with her surroundings.

Banned from the dining car, her mother packs a bountiful lunch for their train ride to the city: “slices of brown bread and butter and green pepper and carrot sticks…little violently yellow iced cakes…a spice bun and rock-cakes…iced tea in a wrapped mayonnaise jar…sweet pickles…dill pickles…and peaches with the fuzz still on them.”(Lorde,567.568) The food detailed is sustaining and brilliantly colored, much like her own family. They encompass a variegated rainbow of blacks and browns. Her mother is light-skinned while Lorde and her father are of a much darker complexion. And her two sisters are depicted as “somewhere in-between.”(Lorde,568) This rich, intensely hued world that Lorde resides in is in stark contrast to the “whiteness”(Lorde,569) she encounters that summer in D.C.

As the colorful quintet traverse the streets of Washington, Lorde squints up at the monuments as their whiteness is reflected onto her “dilated and vulnerable eyes.”(Lorde,569) She notices too that “even the pavement on the streets [is] a shade lighter in color than back home.”(Lorde,569) At the close of the day the family heads to a Breyer’s ice cream shop where they sit at a “white mottled marble counter”(Lorde,569) and order vanilla ice-cream from the Caucasian waitress who politely informs them that she cannot serve them. Lorde realizes then that she and her multi-colored family do not belong in the sterile, hard whiteness of the achromatic city. They rise and march out.

This “dazzling [white]”(Lorde,569) summer reveals the “new and crushing reality”(Lorde,568) that American racism imposes onto her and her family that she had yet to experience in her hometown of New York City. Lorde’s rich imagery and symbolism help express the deep contrast between her full-toned world and the concrete, dull actuality that she has become wise to.

"Prime Directive"

I enjoyed reading “Prime Directive” by Dave Griffith. I am particularly interested in his thoughts about human nature. The author is very honest about the human capacity for both hate and sympathy. He writes, “this is the part of tragedy that exposes our own violent, desirous, prideful human natures, and also our capacity for true sympathy.” He discusses how many people have moralized the situation at Abu Ghraib as a few “hicks from the sticks” doing what was in their nature to do and that they, “educated, metropolitan people”, could and would never be capable of such atrocities due to their supreme “awareness.” Griffith then states that it is this denial of commonality, of the capacity in each of us to sin, which allows “all that is most despicable and ugly in our nature to thrive.” He wrestles with his own opposing human capacities for sin and awareness. He poses for the photo, which degrades the victims of Abu Ghraib, but the picture also serves to commemorate, it becomes “sacramental, a reminder of my fall from grace”, because Griffith is “mindful” of the basic fact that in some ways he is exactly like Graner. And so we all are.

Domestic Dispute

Sometimes, when we grow up with siblings, we have a brother or sister that is so close in age with us that we cannot help but fight with that sibling. This rivalry can be vicious at times, but for the most part, things take a turn in the right direction, and the pair sees how much they need each other.

Mat and his younger brother Sean are an ideal example of this. When they were younger, the two brothers had so much in common that their rivalry brought them into what seemed to be a never ending dispute of words and hatred of even the thought of each other. Mat was the smart, artistic musician, whereas Sean played all of the sports he could without passing out from exhaustion. It is not difficult to imagine that two boys with an age difference of less than two years would get into arguments, skirmishes, and violent outbursts.

Their rivalry would seem like hell to anyone else unless they had also been through it as well, and this is where we find Molly and Sarah. Not only are they sisters, but they are also twins. Their differing interests and personalities caused extreme contention, which led to battles, brawls, and mean words being slung back and forth. This friction, mixed with the stereotypes that come with being a twin, produced a rivalry that would become so intense that it led them to move away from each other when their parents split up.

Chaos must resolve itself in the end and that is exactly what happens with these four sibling rivals. Instead of the fights, harsh words, insults, and violence, there is an understanding of each other’s individuality. Mat and Sean have an all new respect for each other, and they have realized that without each other, they would never have turned out to be the people they are today. Molly and her fraternal twin sister have come to realize the deep love they have for one another which they will both need to get through the times when there is no one there for them but each other. In the end these two sets of siblings have shown that fighting rivalries between siblings are only a natural aspect of growing up.

The Twins

My sister and I share a birthday: August 25, 1985. We are fraternal twins; I possess dark hair and brown eyes while Sarah has dirty-blonde tresses paired with blue eyes. Though our date of birth is one of the few things that we have in common, we have settled into a comfortable sisterly relationship characterized by deep love. But this strong bond that now exists between us took almost two decades to forge and the path that led here was wrought with vicious sibling rivalry and the dreaded “twin” labels that most of our kind has to suffer through.
Growing up she and I shared a mutual love of Barbie, My Little Pony, and bike riding. We also shared a room until we were thirteen which was the probable culprit of much of the arguing that went on. As we matured our interests shifted. In elementary school our differences became a lot more obvious. Though we were both active athletes, Sarah was a much more talented sportsman and therefore became known as the “sporty” twin. I was much more active at school and had always been a top student so I was dubbed the “smart” twin. There was a lot of competition between the two of us in those areas and much of the rivalry that existed at this time in our lives was a direct result of this. Sarah and I were always trying to out-shine the other in our chosen fields and would not hesitate to rub in any victory we may have achieved. Even our contrasting appearances wore at odds with one another. Sarah began to dye her hair a paler shade of blonde, while I tinted my strands a darker hue.
Another key difference at this stage in our lives was our individual choice of friends. Sarah preferred the company of the more popular, if not less kind, girls at school, while I stuck with a closer-knit, less socially savvy bunch. My friends and I hated her crowd and we definitely bad-mouthed them behind their backs. And I am certain Sarah and her cronies did not have many pleasant words to say about us.
Sarah and I were getting more and more distant as middle school approached. Our differences at school caused extreme amounts of fighting on the home front. But before we could kill each other with our hair pulling, teeth gnashing brawls something happened that completely altered the sister-hating path we were barreling down at full speed: our parents got divorced and Sarah chose to reside with our father, while I stayed with our mother. And we attended separate high schools. This separation alleviated all of the contention between us because we were able to begin the lifelong process of discovering who we were as individuals. The “twin” labels no longer applied as we were free to become whatever we desired without having to out-do one another or fit into our predetermined twin molds. The bitter arguing stopped and we struck up a friendship.
Today my sister is the most important person in my life. I love her more than I ever thought possible and when I think back to the rocky road that led us here, I can only laugh at how silly and petty we both were then. We still have our moments, but it is a friendly sort of rivalry.

Siblings

*My twin, Sarah
*Older brother, Jack
*Growing up- separate identities
*Opposing through middle school, parts of high school
*Labeled
*Love her most of all
*Joy, family experiences
*Love
*Different. the same
*Fighting
*Shape who you are
*Dress alike as children
*Wish I could see Jack more
*Fraternal
*Bond
*Separate friends/scenes/interests
*Similiar friends/scenes/interests
*Childhood/adulthood

Tool Box Review of "Demolition"

I read a short story from The New Yorker entitled Demolition, about a young man and his affair with the much older town doctor, C. The tale spans the course of more than a decade and revolves around how this tryst shapes his life. As far a structure is concerned Demolition is relayed in first-person narrative by the nameless main character and told in chronological order. And there is a recurring theme throughout: death. The most obvious representation of the theme is the fact that He works at a cemetery for almost the entire duration of the story, his father passes away (of old age), and C's general contractor husband Ted is killed by bees. The more subtle representations are the eventual destruction of the home He and his father lived in and finally the end of his affair with C. Even the title of the work is indicative of death.
The voice of the piece is ironic, at times humorous, reflective. It is a kind of introspective flashback about the "unbearable weight of human sexual love."
The tone of the piece was intimate and real.
I don't have much to say about diction. The vocabulary was poetic; both simple and complex. The syntax was pretty standard.
I thoroughly enjoyed Demolition and I whole-heartedly recommend that anyone else read it.