Intermission

A brief break in the “Tales of Strasbourg,” mostly because I want to watch Johnny Carson tonight (yay Johnny Carson DVDs!; by the way, I’ve taken to writing my entries the night before I post them), and hence don’t want to write a big, long entry about Strasbourg.  But I do have one or two things that I want to say.

1.)  My friend Dustin ROCKS!!!!!  I received a little package from him a couple of days ago, which contained two burned-at-home DVDs and a letter.  I read the letter, and he mentioned something in the postscript about how he had read a few of my entries in this blog and thought that I could “use some bob.  It’s the best medicine for the weary soul that [he] can think of.”  I didn’t quite understand what he meant until I looked at the contents of the DVDs yesterday afternoon.  On one, he had included a bunch of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” a show that I have never seen (nor 2000, for that matter), but about which I have heard a lot of good.  On the other – and this is what really makes me say that he rocks – he included three episodes of Bob Ross, the fantastically soothing host of a long-running series on PBS titled “The Joy of Painting.”  Watching this guy is like taking a sedative.  I fondly remember one day on sub-free (the wonderful dorm that I lived in for all of my four years at Reed) when a group of us watched three or four episodes of Bob back to back.  Looking at us, you would have thought that we were all drugged up, but it’s just the effect of Bob and his “happy trees.”  ::grin::  So yeah, Dustin is marvelous!

2.)  The combination of Dustin’s gift and a conversation I had tonight with one of the other English assistants here in Laon just makes me realize how much I miss my friends in America.  As soon as I figured out what was on Dustin’s DVDs, I wanted to run over and tell my friends here about it, but then I realized that they would just think me strange and not understand why I get so worked up about a painting show and some fireworks.  (Dustin is a firework fanatic, and he has videotaped and meticulously cleaned up and transferred quite a few hours of live fireworks shows onto DVD, a bit of which he included on the DVD with “The Joy of Painting.”)  And then tonight, I was talking about which of my many new movies we should watch with two of the other English assistants, and one of them said that it couldn’t be any of the old ones, because she is just bored by old movies.  I tried to suggest that perhaps she wouldn’t be bored by all old movies, but she didn’t even allow the possibility.

This is all a way of explaining just why I miss my Reedie/American friends so much.  Even though my friends think I’m weird and don’t necessarily understand all of my eccentric tastes, they accept them and perhaps like me even more *because* they don’t understand them.  One of the things I find most wonderful about my experience at Reed is the fact that I made all these friends with myriad and unusual interests – Dustin with his fireworks and his theater organs, Debbie with her martial arts and her scrub jays, Jon with his beliefs and his percussion, David with his poetry and his puns – and that we all like the fact that we’re all “weird.”  I miss that here.  I miss feeling like I can be wholly myself and not be judged for it.  If I want to spend several hours watching reruns of a show featuring a holdover hippie painting happy trees, I would be joined in my endeavor by several other people, were I in America.  Here, I can’t even really watch my favorite movies in company, because everyone else is bored by them.  ::sigh and shrug::  Oh well – I’ll just be that much more happy to get back.  And I’m not unhappy here – I had just forgotten how much freedom and joy my friendships at home gave me. 

So thanks, to everyone – Debbie, Mom, Stephie, Paul, Dustin, April, Jamieson, Jonathan, David, Dan, Erik, Michelle, Nancy, Graham, Dad, Pop, Aunt Suse, the Elickers, Uncle Joey, Aunt Lokken, Natalie, Leah, Ron, Emma, Charlotte, Amy, Grandma Jo, Granddaddy Richard, Aunt Marguerite, Uncle Denis, Aunt Faith, Lucia… thank you all so much for loving and/or liking me freely and for who I am.  I love you all in return, and you are in my thoughts frequently.  ::big hug for everyone::