Deep Purple Rain... Haze, Yellow and Green

Nothing really happened today. I went to math at Graham and came back home. My dad gave me a ride home because he was in the area. We are supposed to be going to see Jesus Christ Superstar together but I haven't bought the tickets yet so with each passing second my chances at getting us seats at a decent price gets slimmer and slimmer. There was an awkward silence in the car so I filled the void with talk on the subject of Jesus Christ Superstar (I'm sure he was glad that the weight of the silence was relieved). We made fun of Ted Neely for playing Christ again. He played Him in 1973 in the film version of the musical and must now be at least in his mid 50's (whereas Jesus Himself was in his early 30's when he was crucified). Some guy from In Living Color is playing Judas which raised the question: "Are all the Judas's in Jesus Christ Superstar black?" I had been wondering for a month or two but had been too lazy to answer the question myself, so now I finally had the chance to ask my dad (whose pretty educated on the subjects of black people, music, movies and theatre among other things). It turns out that the original Judas was some white guy from Deep Purple, a seventies rock band. But somewhere down the line of Judas' a black one slipped in and at least since the movie came out all of the stage Judas's have been black, it's kind of like a tradition.
When he mentioned Deep Purple, mistaking it as a movie, I said "Oh I haven't seen that", there was a long silence and I back stepped trying to correct my blunder and added "Or heard them, I mean I've heard the name but I don't really know what your talking about."I think he was disappointed that I didn't know that Deep Purple was a band, but really, band names and short movie titles are easily confused (think Purple Rain and Purple Haze, one is a terrible movie starring Prince and one is a song by Jimi Hendrix), especially if your not familiar with 70's rock bands. It was an embarrassing blunder so I tried to recoup with Oscar talk. He powned me at this too when I confused Ellen Page as a Supporting Actress nominee and not as Leading Actress nominee. All in all it was a pretty uncomfortable conversation for me and despite my continuous attempts I didn't feel too intelligent in the end. This tends to happen alot when I try to talk to my dad about... anything. I rarely come out on top or as a conversational equal when I talk to him. I guess that just means whenever we I'll learn something new and no matter at what age I'll still feel like a child in the shadow of a giant library of black people, music, movies, and theatre knowledge.
We also made fun of my brother Cole who has recently proclaimed the colors Purple, Yellow and Green to be "his colors". I found this out when he came into my room last night clutching a purple tee shirt asking if I had anymore purple shirts that I wasn't wearing anymore. First of all I was still wearing that shirt and secondly what?" I went onto ask "you mean purple like a girl" (because Cole is a ballet dancer I enjoy the occasional jab at his sexuality). He elaborated with the explanation "Purple is the color of royalty. Green and yellow are also my new colors." I'm glad that he doesn't wear five pairs of destroyed jeans at the same time but there's only room for one picky shopper in this family, me. I started to notice his interest in dressing nicely when he adopted my moms white sweatshirt because "white is so fresh" (despite the sweatshirts darting meant to accentuate a womans frame). I have no problem with the colors purple, green and yellow but what he fails to realize is that together they are Mardi Gras colors. All I can do at this point is make sure that he never wears them together (except possibly during Mardi Gras).
Reading this journal entry to him he says "Well green has always been my color." This makes me wonder is everyone supposed to have a color, and why don't I have one. I don't have a color per say or a pallet, I've tended to gravitated recently towards colors that work well with brown (my skin color) but I wouldn't call them "my colors", maybe I should work on getting a signature color(s) in the near future so that when people see the color seafoam or mauve they'll think of me. That way I'll always on some level be remembered. I'll also benefit from the adoption of colors on other levels, "Oh look at that seafoam blazer, Jordan would love that, I'll get it for her birthday." No longer would I be plagued with people buying me clothes that I don't like. Now instead of saying "Oh... thanks... a velvet track suit" I can say, "Oh... thanks... a velvet tracksuit in mauve, this is my color, how did you know!."

Until next time...

Birth Canal of Concertia Wire

I haven't posted for a week because I've been to busy watching my senior year unravel before my eyes. For starters I'm beginning to regret taking French 2. My passing the class is hanging on by a thread and I'm in a state of panic 24/7. I understand concepts but when it comes to applying them in online assignments and tests it's apparent that something isn't really clicking. I broke down emotionally this morning and eventually mustered the energy to go to class and talk to my professor about my grade. He told me that office hours are posted for a reason and that I can stop by whenever I have trouble with my work. I also discovered that Columbus State has a peer tutoring program that had I known about I would have signed up for in my second week of classes. Now I only have 2 weeks to try and pull through with a passing grade. Professor Serrano rescheduled the test that was supposed to be taken today to monday, this gives me an extra 4 days to study.

Secondly I found out yesterday that because of my excessive truancy the credits I earned in Junior and Senior year have come into question. To remedy this I have to get official documents excusing me from school from doctors, priests and whoever facilitates an "excused absence" from school. The letter came as a surprise but really what else could I expect with the amount of times I've missed school. Sometimes I was sick, but not sick enough to go to the doctor so those absences are unexcused because I don't have a doctors note. Other unexcused absences could have been excused but I didn't bother with the process of repeatedly reminding myself to ask my parents for a note and then repeatedly reminding them to write it. I didn't really think that getting my absences excused really mattered. Obviously I was wrong and now I face loosing a bunch of credits. I try not to think about this too much because I get really depressed when I do especially when I considered my Junior and Senior years two of my best high school years, I guess that so far my best still isn't good enough.

On a lighter subject... I'm not going to lie, nothing exceedingly positive has happened to me in the past week. What ever strides I made at the end of last week and the beginning of this week were nullified with how terrible the past few days have been. Maybe by the beginning of next week my spirits and fortune will have changed.

Oh well, here's to a brighter tomorrow, until next time...

Cat Anniversaries and Other Annoying Announcements

I'm so tired! Today has been non stop. First I tried to catch the bus to Columbus State and thinking I'd missed it tiptoed a mile over ice covered sidewalks (the bus pulls up to my arrival stop at the same time I do). I made it to French a minute before class started, finished French, walked to the library, walked to McDonalds, walked home, slept for an hour and a half, tried repeatedly to snooze an alarm clock that wasn't alarming (it was actually my cell phone that was alarming), got a ride to the German Village Music House, layed down some beats, walked back to Columbus State, made it to English Class a minute before class started (again), finished English class, walked to Ballet Met, waited in the lobey for my mom to pick me up, came home, practiced guitar, went back to Ballet Met to pick up Cole (my brother) from class, went to Chipotle only to find myself to tired to consume a burrito and settled for munching off of Coles chips, almost bought an ipod but the store ran out of my color.

Today I learned that it takes upwards of four hours to study for a French quiz and that I probably shouldn't try and cram before taking it. I also learned how to conjugate French adjectives into adverbs, which made me feel confident in class for the first time in a while. Then we began to learn about imparfait where I kind of get the gist of what I'm supposed to do but not solidly. I have a quiz on Thursday which I intend on studying adequately for. I need to pass this class to graduate on time and although we've only had one test so far (which I didn't do so well on) and my compositions have been B material my self-esteem needs a few really good quiz score and my grade needs a really good test score.
I find myself worrying alot about grades often breaking down into the "Well graduating late wouldn't be that bad I could do a really cool summer walkabout" (which it wouldn't and I could) lament, but for now I just need to study my best and whatever happens happens, at least I could say I really tried. I hate taking classes for requirement. Over the summer I took French to learn the language, nothing was riding on me (other than my parents investment). Now not only does my graduation hang on this class but with all of the money put into this bilingual endeavor I'd better be good at French or else thats several hundreds of dollars wasted.
On a lighter note my English classes are usually really fun. The class is very conversational. The Professor is really nice and laid back and the students reflect his attitude. Right now were working on a unit about social justice and just finished watching CRASH. Today we began the first draft of a response to the movies themes. This is a nice break from the incessant research papers that I found myself writing at the Graham School. Not that I'm complaining I love research papers and I love learning about new things but I hate the process, I often push off doing the work until the very last minute. With response papers I find myself wanting to write them.
Anyway I need some sleep, sorry nothing interesting happened today, until next time...

Oh yeah, I've always had a fear of pedestrian overpasses. Every time I walk across one I imagine a cable snapping and me plummeting onto the bustling highway. Today not only did I have to cross the overpass but I had to do so with the sidewalk covered in ice, so if the bridge did crumble beneath me I wouldn't even be able to summon super speed and run to the other side before I ended up as road kill, I'd likely slip and crack my head open on the concrete divider. If thats not risk I don't know what is. I can imagine James's announcement at school "Jordan (Henry-Jones), you know the black girl with the nappy hair and gap teeth, yeah well walking to her walkabout site on Tuesday the overpass she was crossing gave way and she plummeted onto the high way below. (This is when a few people will start to remember who I am and realize that this announcement was just about as annoying as when people announce their cats birthday) Don't worry she's not dead but she is in a full body cast at Children's Hospital I'm sending a Get Well card around for every one to sign, and on a unrelated note Jack Addison can I talk to you after announcements." The whole Big Room will laugh at Jack Addison's name and in their euphoria will have completely forgotten about me or my full body cast. But on a positive note I will have completed walkabout for risking my life to further my education and will graduated on time (albeit in a wheelchair)

Okay that's all, until next time...

Valentines for Bolivia

The highlight of my day so far has been a soy hot chocolate that I made myself. It was just the right temperature and although it had no whipped cream it was still delicious. I volunteered at my first semester internship site "The Global Gallery Coffee Shop"this afternoon. When I walked into the shop I remembered that today was the "Valentines for Bolivia" fundraiser. I spent the rest of my time there setting up appetizers, cleaning bathrooms, boiling water and washing dishes. This isn't a complaint but rather an account of what I did, I tend not to mind monotonous chores as much as others, it gives me time to daydream. I met this volunteer that was introduced to the Global Gallery through the head of the store, Connie. She's traveled throughout the world on different missions trips with her church and was just recently introduced to fair trade. "I'm really dedicated to poverty" she said. It seems as though she's trying to find a way to help end poverty, a different means than the traditional toy or blanket drive. In which case I think that the Global Gallery will be a nice fit for her.
I also finally met Lydia (age 8), the youngest Global Gallery volunteer. She's so eager to help and confident and friendly in a way I always wish I could be. I think I may have almost tripped over her two years ago when my "all girl youth group" met at the global gallery. From my point of view she was a floating tray full of dirty dishes. Even then she was an "employee" and rather than dropping the tray of dishes she was struggling to carry, and run back to her mother following our near collision, she asked if she could take my dirty mug and saucer. I doubt she remembers the incident.
It turns out that the whole staff of all the global gallery locations (which amounts to like 6 people) are all going to Bolivia to look in on the orphanage that they've been building. I told my mom this and she asked me in all seriousness, "Did you want to go?". She then tried to convince me that tagging on to the Global Gallery group a month before their departure was a plausible notion. Although I do admit that going to Bolivia would be pretty much the coolest, I told her the idea of me tagging along would be absurd. "I'm just a volunteer and not nearly as devoted to this orphanage as the other travelers would be" I told her, "but thanks for the offer." She looked at me in disbelief and said,"Okay, but you should really stop disabling yourself before even inquiring". I'm not sure whether its that she doesn't think things through completely or she does and she doesn't think that factors such as money, time and appropriateness matter, but her spontaneity (although sometimes off putting) is one of the traits I hope to have inherited from her.
Anyway I have another four hours to go and make something worth journaling about, so until next time...

Snow Days and American Humor

Here's to the end of a strange week! I have been on Walkabout un- ofically for the past month. I've been taking Elementary French 2 and English Composition at Columbus State. This set-up has proven difficult with Winterim (I chose to go on the Border Trip which cut into my class schedule and set me behind) and Senior Seminar still meeting twice a week. But this week was going to be the beginning of some sort of "Walkabout Normalcy"... then I was blessed with two snow days.
On Tuesday I checked four different sources of news for school cancellings before finally conceding and going to class. I had hope that Columbus State had been closed and possible forgotten to post it online but they were open (damn their efficiency and commitment to education). I got to class 15 minutes late, again hoping that maybe Professor Serrano had not bothered coming in, but again my hopes proved futile for he was directing group work and greeted me with a surprised "Bonjour!" Apparently he had been hoping the same thing for he not only was he wearing jeans and a sweatshirt (as opposed to his usual pressed khaki, starched white blouse, vest and contrasting tie) but also cut class more than an hour short.
Waiting on the ground floor of Franklin Hall for my mom to pick me up from class I began to realize that the only people in the building other than me and a slew of teachers were the ESOL students. Waiting I watched different ethnicities pass me either talking on their cell phones in Cantonese or conversing with a friend in Somali. About five minutes into my wait two women in their early twenties walked in through the main campus automatic doors (I was waiting at the parking lot doors). They were both wearing head scarves and long skirt and looked to be from East Africa if not specifically from Somalia. Stomping their boots on the carpet to rid them of the snow/ ice and salt mixture the taller of the two turned to the other and said "What nice weather we have outside...JOKE!" They both laughed and shuffled off to the staircase with what I hope were the intentions of sharing that Joke in the presence of as many people who have seen Borat as possible. I don't think that the two Somali girls realized their jokes connection to a certain Kazakhstani Travel Guide but as far as I'm concerned their joke was the best "Not" joke I've ever had the pleasure of eavesdropping on.