Do the Time Warp, Baby.

I grew up in a very small town. I hated it, and I ran to the first college that accepted me-- sight unseen. Lucky me that I loved the school I chose.

It just seemed so goddamn oppressive. I showed a friend of mine my high school yearbook, and it brought me back 6 years to my senior year. My prevailing feeling was "I HAVE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE." My school was run by people that pissed me off and lived to try and rattle my chains. They succeeded more than I care to admit. But thanks to the passage of time, I'm amused by it now. Not so much that I had pennies thrown at me when I was walking home, or had guys pretend to like me just to jerk me around-- but at how hard they tried to bother me. I know it was a small town, but they really had Nothing better to do? haha. If I were truly that unimportant, they would have ignored me. I wish they'd known how silly I thought they were. Hopefully my brother doesn't let himself get yanked around too much-- he's going into 8th grade.

As I remember, they were fairly stupid. Perhaps cracking a book or watching something other than TRL would have been beneficial to them.

I miss the town itself. I haven't lived there since I was 18, so it's been long enough for my glasses to turn sufficiently rose-colored. There's a bunch of people I really do want to see, my close friends from school and my family, mostly. I'm bringing a friend of mine from Long Island. I think the only reason I'm not dreading going back is because he's going. We're going back for my town's big annual fair. IE-- the biggest thing that happens every year. Complete with cheap t-shirts, cheap beer in a commemorative mug, scary rides (think Gravitron and Swings-- and I mean scary as questionable maintenance) along with the Great Unwashed from all over the county. Maybe it's the Anthropology major in me...but it's just so interesting to people-watch there.

There's the younger kids, the ones that save up their allowances to buy invisible ink and exploding poppers that litter white paper packets all over the ground. They live to destroy one another with silly string, while their parents hide in the beer tent or under the pavilion listening to country cover bands. I like the littler kids, they genuinely have fun. They haven't gotten old enough to realize that other things are out there. I'm not so fond of the teenagers. They're in that snotty "don't trust anyone over 20" stage. The girls walk around in estro-packs, dressed in their trashiest best, pretending to ignore the boys. The guys stroll around, clearly thinking they own the very ground they walk on, dressed to the nines themselves-- in either flannel shirts and tank tops, or t-shirts 4 times too big. I know this because I lived it. Not so much the trash-tastic clothing or wasting all my money on crappy souvenirs (which I did,) but more so the interaction. In a town with little to offer to teenagers other than recreational drug use and jumping off a local bridge into the lake...this is big news. My friends and I used to harrass each other with those poppers, and we took our turns irritating the older members of the community.

I'm now old enough to hide from the pubertal masses in the beer tent and drink Coors Light from my mug. I can get a sausage and pepper sandwich or wings and relax and listen to the music while my brother and his friends terrorize each other.

I don't know how I ended up a liberal feminist bitch having grown up there. It's very much a land of yellow ribbon magnets, flags everywhere and having an anti-Bush or anti-war opinion in the wrong place is likely a very bad idea. I've even taken my turn helping our local Republican Club at thier booth. I did it for my dad, and because it was fun to see the kids play the game they always had. I don't usually hide my beliefs, but I'm going to try to avoid the political discussions, so I don't end up asking why cranky old republicans are afraid of gay people, but still think that personal responsibility is the key to life. Or, even worse, ask them why my reproductive system is any of their damned business, and point them to NOW's website. I'm supportive of my country and our troops...but that doesn't mean I need to agree with it. But no way in hell am I getting into all that on a trip back. All I want is some good greasy food and to have fun with my friends. If anything, it'll be an interesting blog entry.

Someday, I'll bring a boyfriend back there. But not yet haha...