Friday, May 16, 2008

a half an hour in a life of a girl

The simple rectangular ad in The New York Times was enough to reinstill that sense of wanderlust, unquenchable while remaining in Connecticut. On the page advertizing summer camps, the small ad ran under the heading of "Travel". "The Experiment in International Living" it read in stark black capitals. Underneath, in smaller italics: Changing the world one friendship at a time. The ad offered "Challenging programs for high school students in"-it then listed locations in boldface print- "Europe, The Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania." Below that, in small italics, was its claim to having been providing "Excellence in International Education since 1932." Following that was a phone number (1-800-345-2929) and a web address (www.usexperiment.org). As she wrote and contemplated, all the while acutely aware of her own metacognition, her dramatic background soundtrack was provided by occasional outbursts of windblown rain outside and the musical ramblings and tangents of her sister playing the piano, playing what the girl thought was quite loud and a bit annoying considering the time. She had sort of been trying to sleep for the past half-hour or so, and with ther sister miraculously having been spontaneously energized, it looked like she would be trying for a while now.

The whole day a growing resentment of these near-weekly family parties was creeping over her. Nost of that stemmed from petty and rather selfish reasons, she supposed. It was just that, even with the spending of four hours in the car and nearly three hours with relatives, it just didn't seem to matter that much. Of course, it was her cousin's first birthday, how exciting, how nice, but she somehow got the feeling that she wasn't particularly hyped to see any of her relatives, and they weren't particularly excited to see her. The conversation was far from stimulating and the pizza crust was too sweet. It was so cute, though, to see how her little cousin would instantly react to a camera by splitting his face into a huge smile. Good little celebrity- or, should one say- prince.

Finally her sister let the last chord fade away. FINALLY she could go to sleep...

5 comments:

david santos said...

Hello, Gina!
I loved this post and this blog.
Have a nice day

Maddie said...

good job, this confused me though.

Maria said...

Ahem... moody much????

jk.

I definitely understood more of this than anyone else on the blog will, being the pianist sister. I would have to say I agree with a lot of the thoughts you put forth in this somewhat whiny piece. The description of the ad at the beginning is a nice touch.

Gina said...

Ah, well, I feel I have the right to express myself in a whiny way once in a while, being a generally agreeable teenager (out of considerable effort at times, I might add). Sorry if this was confusing, I typed it up in a study hall straight from my journal in the school library to make the librarians think I was doing schoolwork. I apologize for that confusing sentence as well. I will try to do better in the future. Signed, the Duke of Luxembourg

Post-script: I did originally write this in the third person, to reduce the whininess factor. However, in order to spare any hurt feelings, I have replaced names with pronouns and adjectives (although apparently this attempt at anonymity was foiled by my dear sister. Foiled again! FOILED, I say! FOILED!).

Maria said...

I do adore foil... particularly Foaly-inspired tin-foil hats...