Today's rambling: My mini-trip
Written on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2002 at 4:17 p.m.
while feeling a bit

I'm ba-ack!

Glad to be back, too. It wasn't that I totally hated the mini-vacation, I just disliked it a bit. I'm always uncomfortable in other people's houses, unless I a)Know the friend really really well, and b)Have been to the house and met the family before. I don't know Amanda all that well, and I've never been to her house or met her family before, so I was really ill at ease that first night. The one calming factor were her cats; pets usually tend to make me feel more at home because I spend half the time playing with them. One of her cats is a Himalayan Persian, which reminded me so much of Meecho (a cat we had back when I was 4 or 5). Anyway...

On Saturday, we saw "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". Of course, the place was packed with Muggles...*falls over laughing at herself* That's NOT what I meant to say! I was trying to say that it was packed with kids, but it reminded me of Mrs. Weasley's quote from the first book and so the 'Muggles' part just slipped. Anyway, since I'm probably the only one who was amused by that, I'll continue. ;) The theater we went to had stadium seating and cushy chairs that rocked backward a little when you leaned into them. Unfortunately, this rocking feature was annoying because when people tried filing into the row behind us they ended up jarring our seats. This annoyance doubled because there were a bunch of rude little kids in that row who kept filing in and out of the row during the movie. For whatever reason, they kept grabbing the backs of people's chairs, and I was really getting fed up with it. On one pass, I slammed my chair back just at the right moment to knock into one of the kids...immature, yes, but oh-so-briefly-satisfying. On another pass, the kid pulled my chair back and I turned around and loudly hissed, "Would you knock it off, you little spawn!!"

At least no one else bothered us during the movie.

The other thing that irritated me was Lauren. She loves Harry Potter (the series, not the boy), but the thing that had her all excited was the fact that Lucius Malfoy was being played by her favorite actor. That's all well and good, since I've been the same way many times before. But she was so annoying! She's got this obsession with the Malfoy family, so every time Draco comes on she's like, "It's my son! Isn't he cute!" And then whenever Lucius would pop on the screen, she'd squeal and grin like an idiot and fan herself with a hand. I couldn't even grumble about the annoying Malfoys because she was all like, "He's so sexy!" And frankly, he looked like a girl with that long hair (especially in the one scene where he's got it pulled back with a black ribbon). For the rest of the night, she was like "I can't make any decisions; all I can see is blond hair and blue eyes..."

She's got one of those unhealthy obsessions with this man. She keeps saying, "When I marry.." and all this ridiculous stuff. The man has a wife and daughter, but according to Lauren, the wife is fat and ugly and she hopes they both (as in wife and daughter) catch the West Nile virus and die. *pauses for a moment* Yeah, I thought so too. Even I'm not that mean. Amanda and I were both getting annoyed with it. I was about to just shout, "Would you GET OVER IT??" last night, but I didn't because of course that wouldn't have been good. There are times (such as that) when she reminds me SO much of Mel that I can't stand it.

This morning, I got up two hours earlier than the others so I could shower and get ready before they all woke up. Of course, my hair decided it didn't want to be put up, and so I took like an hour just trying to make it look decent (and if you ever saw me, you'd know that I don't even do anything remotely extravagant with it...but because I'm so self-conscious about how thin it is, I always have to make sure it at least looks nice). Her mother made fun of me about that. : And then later, Lauren and I were idly talking to each other and I remarked (after seeing something on TV) that I didn't think we should ever have a woman for president.

Bad move. Apparently, Amanda's mother was a huge hippie in her youth (though she said she wore miniskirts, which would make her more of a mod...but I won't go there, hehe). She started ripping into us, reminding us that it was her generation that got us all the rights we have now and blah blah blah. I tried defending myself (unusual for me), but finally I just kept quiet and let her rant on, since she wasn't listening to me at all. "If you keep talking like that, all that you have now will be taken away from you!" she lectured. "I'm just saying that you should think before you open your big mouths." She used that last line several times, but she only said 'big mouths' once.

I was so incensed. I was ready for her to start in again on the way home, because that time I actually had some thought-out rebuttals from her. During my first defense, I had tried to explain that all the women managers I've ever had have been flighty and bitchy and very good at picking favorites...not exactly leadership material, in my opinion. However, she just said that I should wait 20 more years before I can say something like that, because apparently 21 is not old enough to have some idea of what's good and what's not. Was she any older than me when she went out protesting? How did she know that making women equal was a good thing?

Don't get me wrong; I am infinitely glad for the fact that women have equal rights. While I wish we could be a little more feminine again, I'm glad that if I wanted to run for office I'd be able to. And if a woman came along that was perfect for the job of President, then hey, that's terrific! Who knows, maybe some emotion is needed in government. However, in my experience, women haven't made terrific leaders. That's not to say that there aren't women out there who are good leaders, but I haven't found any in my experience. That's what prompted my comment at breakfast, not some need to have men rule over me. Goodness knows from everything I've said in this diary that the LAST thing I'd want is for a guy to rule my actions!!! But Amanda's mother seemed to think that any opinion not with hers in this matter was absolutely wrong. It really rubbed me the wrong way.

A shame, really, since she was so super nice to Lauren and I. She gave Amanda enough money for us all to go out and eat last night, she bought coffee for Lauren and I today on the way home...she even bought us the tickets to see Harry Potter! And it's not that I hate her, because I'm sure she has reason to feel the way she does--she IS right in saying that Lauren and I don't know what it was like not to have equal rights--but I don't feel that my opinions were any less justified. I could see her point of view very clearly, and even agreed with it, but my opinions just veered off a little from what she was saying.

*shrugs* Oh well, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

One thing is for certain, however: I have no intentions of going back there any time in the near future. I was finding myself very homesick, which I hate..and I was awkward and uncomfortable the entire time. Even going out to shop or watch a movie was an unpleasant experience for me. I'm just not made to go away from my home spaces. It's not enjoyable for me (unless it's at a hotel in a totally new place, because for some reason I like that, hehe). I am infinitely appreciative to Amanda's parents for letting me stay there that weekend, and treating me as if I was part of the family, but I don't want to repeat the experience. I didn't even get to see Pittsburgh!!! *sniffles* But at least I had the experience, I suppose...

Now, I absolutely HAVE to get off this darn computer and work on my essay!!! I didn't have any opportunity to do so at Amanda's place, so I've got a lot left to do. :