Back in NYC, playing catch-up with work and trying to finish up the pages for david's Antigone Prologue.
I hope that everyone had a good holiday. Mine was better than I could've hoped. It was great to see my family for an extended period of time. It seems as though the older I get, the more I appreciate having them around. We hopped from state to state: Northern Virginia with my parents, my sister's place in PA for Christmas, my extended family in Buffalo for Boxing day, and a jaunt to Virginia Beach with close family friends to ring in the New Year. For once in my life, I had the money to get my family gifts, and felt better giving them than getting. Somewhere along the way I shed the mountain man whiskers.
Now that I'm back, having come to the realization over the past two years that my emotions overwhelmed my good sense when it came to the opposite sex, and finally figuring out what it is I like in a girl... I find myself missing a girl I've known since I lived in England 13 years ago. It didn't hit me when I saw her and her family for New Years. In fact, I'm not sure what it is that's hitting me.
THE STORY SO FAR:
After one year as the sole Americans in seperate English schools, she and I met in sixth grade on an American Naval Base. We courted in an adorable sixth grade way, and dated for the year. I left her by the wayside that summer, when she and her family went to the States for vacation. Months after her homecoming, upon our return to school I realized my mistake. I tried to woo her back, but we never passed the friends plateau again.
She moved to Florida with her family and I moved to Maine. We kept in touch and stayed close without really knowing one another (those early high school years are horribly formative ones). She and her family visited, and it became apparent that her folks and mine jokingly conspired to have us marry one day and bring them bouncy, little chubsome grandchildren. I resented that, but was still quite infatuated with her.
She moved to Virginia and I to Maryland. Even in such close proximity we started to lose touch, save our fledgling tradition of a New Years family gathering. When she was dating someone, I wasn't. When I was, she wasn't. After feeling a slight pang of jealousy one year when she brought her 22 year-old boyfriend with her to the New Years celebration, I realized that I still had feelings for her.
As time passed, they grew apart. She visited me when I was the lead in a school play. We talked all night, drove to a grammar school parking lot where we danced outside the car to music from the radio. We sat and watched the sunrise and kissed. For the rest of the year we went back and forth to each other, but agreed that we couldn't continue a long distance thing, especially with college just around the bend.
Then college came. I went to FSU for film and she to William & Mary for writing. In my sophomore year she joined me on a Spring Break trip to New Orleans and Orlando. She initiated a romantic reunion and I fell for it completely, only to have my hopes dashed. Our friendship was strained, but there. Every New Year we saw each other. I went to see her dance in a show and the pair of us acted rather odd and childish. We started to lose touch.
I had a relationship during my last year of school that was a horrible mind-game. The entire time I thought of her, now in Colorado, and how I always fell back into something with her when things didn't work out. I wondered it if it was more than just being comfortable.
After my horrible reationship I became a horrible person for no less than a year. I made bad choices and severed ties to people, isolating myself after graduation. I took an editing job, then got lucky when my portfolio struck a chord with someone at a comic company. I moved to New York, determined to avoid relationships altogether. I've done a good job of it thusfar, and haven't missed a thing. In fact, it's been enlightening and I feel more at peace with myself and the world around me than I ever have.
She wasn't at the New Years celebration last year, but this year she was. I saw her differently. Not the girl on the pedestal any more, but an intelligent and like-minded peer. I never once thought of her beyond a rediscovered friend. Now that I'm back... I've got those stomach pangs that I hadn't felt in forever. I don't know what to make of it.
Maybe I can't escape the hopeless romantic. Maybe she really is the only girl I feel like being with. Maybe I ate bad Chinese.
New pics added
I hope that everyone had a good holiday. Mine was better than I could've hoped. It was great to see my family for an extended period of time. It seems as though the older I get, the more I appreciate having them around. We hopped from state to state: Northern Virginia with my parents, my sister's place in PA for Christmas, my extended family in Buffalo for Boxing day, and a jaunt to Virginia Beach with close family friends to ring in the New Year. For once in my life, I had the money to get my family gifts, and felt better giving them than getting. Somewhere along the way I shed the mountain man whiskers.
Now that I'm back, having come to the realization over the past two years that my emotions overwhelmed my good sense when it came to the opposite sex, and finally figuring out what it is I like in a girl... I find myself missing a girl I've known since I lived in England 13 years ago. It didn't hit me when I saw her and her family for New Years. In fact, I'm not sure what it is that's hitting me.
THE STORY SO FAR:
After one year as the sole Americans in seperate English schools, she and I met in sixth grade on an American Naval Base. We courted in an adorable sixth grade way, and dated for the year. I left her by the wayside that summer, when she and her family went to the States for vacation. Months after her homecoming, upon our return to school I realized my mistake. I tried to woo her back, but we never passed the friends plateau again.
She moved to Florida with her family and I moved to Maine. We kept in touch and stayed close without really knowing one another (those early high school years are horribly formative ones). She and her family visited, and it became apparent that her folks and mine jokingly conspired to have us marry one day and bring them bouncy, little chubsome grandchildren. I resented that, but was still quite infatuated with her.
She moved to Virginia and I to Maryland. Even in such close proximity we started to lose touch, save our fledgling tradition of a New Years family gathering. When she was dating someone, I wasn't. When I was, she wasn't. After feeling a slight pang of jealousy one year when she brought her 22 year-old boyfriend with her to the New Years celebration, I realized that I still had feelings for her.
As time passed, they grew apart. She visited me when I was the lead in a school play. We talked all night, drove to a grammar school parking lot where we danced outside the car to music from the radio. We sat and watched the sunrise and kissed. For the rest of the year we went back and forth to each other, but agreed that we couldn't continue a long distance thing, especially with college just around the bend.
Then college came. I went to FSU for film and she to William & Mary for writing. In my sophomore year she joined me on a Spring Break trip to New Orleans and Orlando. She initiated a romantic reunion and I fell for it completely, only to have my hopes dashed. Our friendship was strained, but there. Every New Year we saw each other. I went to see her dance in a show and the pair of us acted rather odd and childish. We started to lose touch.
I had a relationship during my last year of school that was a horrible mind-game. The entire time I thought of her, now in Colorado, and how I always fell back into something with her when things didn't work out. I wondered it if it was more than just being comfortable.
After my horrible reationship I became a horrible person for no less than a year. I made bad choices and severed ties to people, isolating myself after graduation. I took an editing job, then got lucky when my portfolio struck a chord with someone at a comic company. I moved to New York, determined to avoid relationships altogether. I've done a good job of it thusfar, and haven't missed a thing. In fact, it's been enlightening and I feel more at peace with myself and the world around me than I ever have.
She wasn't at the New Years celebration last year, but this year she was. I saw her differently. Not the girl on the pedestal any more, but an intelligent and like-minded peer. I never once thought of her beyond a rediscovered friend. Now that I'm back... I've got those stomach pangs that I hadn't felt in forever. I don't know what to make of it.
Maybe I can't escape the hopeless romantic. Maybe she really is the only girl I feel like being with. Maybe I ate bad Chinese.
New pics added
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
And the amazing thing about that documentary was that it also talked about all of the other cities in Japan that were bombed, and compared them to sizes of American cities. So it would say things like:
47% of Cleaveland destroyed.
And it goes on and on, and it is shocking, absolutely shocking.
As for your dilemma...I read this a few days ago, but did not comment. I have a long line of relationships I've fucked up in one way or another, so I abstain from giving advice about women, until I know what the hell I'm talking about.
I agree. Chinese food doesn't get that bad. Maybe tai food, but not chinese. I hope it all works out.
[Edited on Jan 10, 2004 7:32AM]