Post #57: This Week: June 23-28 - Kansas City Edition

Greetings from Kansas City! This is one big long post about my week. It's written in mostly real time!

Day One: Airports are great! At the Las Vegas airport, there was a group of honor flight vets! I shook almost everyone's hands and said thank you! It was the best part of my day. We took a charter bus to the hotel It's really green and flat here. It's not quite Seattle green, but it's green. And the humidity is not awesome. 

The room has a microwave, a fridge, and a kuerig coffee maker. It's awesome!

Day Two: Our "bus" (the three SUV's our school district rented) didn't leave until 10, so I got to sleep in a bit, which was nice. 

I had my contest orientation, and then we took the test for the competition (CPR-First Aid) then I walked around techspo. I got lots of stickers and free fun stuff. I still need to pick up some postcards.  

The "dance" was less fun. The band only played covers and the grass was infested with large bugs. We left an hour early, and headed back to the hotel. Then we swam in the pool at the hotel. That was really fun. 

Day Three: Today I bummed around Techspo. I picked up some more free swag and I went to the army medic seminar. Except it wasn't about army medics. It was about nursing. I was really disappointed. The description said that it was going to be about the army's cutting edge medical technology and combat medics. It was not. The speaker couldn't answer any questions about medics, because she was "only the head nurse."

After the seminar, I did the Army obstacle course. I manged to do 11 pushups, solve the chemical plant attack scenario, crashed the helicopter 4 times, and tried a peach-berry tart. It's too bad that there were no other branches of the military represented (read: The Marine Corps). 

Shark guy Chris Fisher came and talked to us at opening ceremonies, and a girl from my school won first in the safety video contest. 

Day four: competition day! I got up at 5:40 and was out the door by 6:40. Scrubs are terrible. Everyone keeps saying "aren't they like pajamas?". They are. That's the problem. They don't have a real waistband, they have no shape, and I hate them. I feel exposed. The criminal justice kids get utility belts. I would like a utility belt, and pants with belt loops. 

I sat in the holding area for 5 hours, and we weren't allowed to have any reading materials, which was fine, but everyone got pretty bored pretty fast. 

My actual competition did not go so well. The scenarios were not well put together, and the live dummies didn't seem to know what was going on. 

In order to escape drama, I rode the rides at the amusement park by myself. It was really fun. I got to ride what I wanted and I had a swell time. 

Day Five: Today was a bum around day until opening ceremonies, so I got up at 8:30, packed my stuff back up (all three items that weren't already in my luggage) and then we went for lunch. We went to Jack Stacks for BBQ, and it was the first time I have been full all week. I had some brisket and chicken. And some really yummy fries.  Then we headed to the mall. I wanted to go to the one with the lego store, but the other girls didn't so we went to the plaza mall. I went into Tiffany's, and did not buy anything. Then I went to Kate Spade, and there of all places, found postcards. They were free because I bought something (a cute to do/remember notepad). Then I went to Vera Bradley and bought a headband for myself and one for my sister. Everything came with fancy bags. The kind with tissue paper! Also- in Kansas City, the pedestrian does not have right of way. I had to tell myself that anytime I needed to cross the street. People here drive like maniacs. Then we went to a Wendy's in the sketchy part of town so we could change. Closing ceremonies at Nationals were long, and not very well organized. I did not place top three. I'm okay with that. I'm hoping top five. It will be up on the website later.

Day Six: I placed 21st. So, that was not as great as I was hoping, but it's better than 4th. The kids who got 4th were really upset. Today was mostly spent at airports and on airplanes. We made a sketchy friend at the San Diego airport who was drunk off his rear. Harbor police also made friends with him. Thankfully he was not on our flight.

"All voluntary travel is characterized by longing for some elusive element that lies out of reach in daily life." - Lucy Lippard
-D.

Post #56: Graduation, Moths, and My Two Dads

So, I finally graduated this past weekend, and the whole weekend was a mixed bag of happiness, sleep deprivation and family encounters. 

Graduation itself was pretty awesome. I got to walk with the girl I have sat next to in most of my classes for the past four years, which was rad, and I managed not to straight up bawl. I teared up, but I didn't cry. I didn't fall down the stairs, and I got lots of hugs, about half of which I would have normally felt were awkward/inappropriate.

Safe and sober was really fun, and I came home with a tatoo. A henna tatoo, but a tatoo nonetheless. I stayed up the whole time, but by about 3:30 am, I was not doing super great. I got home about 5:30am, took a shower, and then slept for six hours. And then it was party time. 

My mom's best friend very graciously held the party at her house, and that part was awesome! She always puts on a fabulous party, and this time was no exception. And then guests arrived. 

I'm not super familiar with the show My Two Dads, but the premise is basically that this girl's mom dies and she goes to live with two guys, both of whom were the mom's partners, and one of whom is the girl's dad. They both take on parenting roles, and we learn stuff about the human condition.  My situation is a little bit different.  I know which one is my dad, I'm just not on super great terms with either one. Niether is a big part of my life either due to distance or general deadbeat behavior. One of them was invited as a courtesy, and in a matter of minutes, managed to make everyone else in 

attendance uncomfortable. The other was just... There. The courtesy invitee managed to leave without saying good bye to me, which is astounding considering I was gone for 30 seconds to walk someone to their car, and he managed to hug people (which was a little inappropriate) before leaving. 

So, that happened. 

I don't know if it's just my geographical location or what, but there a a gajillion moths everywhere. I like moths, but they are a nuisance! So, I've been trying to catch them and put them outside. I have been pretty sucessful, and when I realease them, I encourage them to go home. Just not my home. I also like to quote the great Jake Blues and tell them "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." They need to find places other than my lamp to hang out. 

"Decide what to be, and go be it." - The Avett Brothers

-D.

Post #55: Restrepo

Last week on NPR, I heard a story about a documentary sequel from two guys, one of whom died in Libya in 2011, that used mostly footage they didn't use from the first documentary. I was intrigued, so I looked up the first film, Restrepo, and put it on hold at the library so I could watch it and then when the sequel came out, if I chose, I could see it.

I wanted to say that I enjoy military documentaries, but enjoy is not the right word. I watch lot of them, and I like to consider myself fairly knowledgeable about WWI and WWII. I'm not an expert, but I've done research and whatnot. I think politically and socially, war is an interesting thing. Terrible, but fascinating. So, I brought home Restrepo and I settled in for the hour and a half that was the movie.
Restrepo is the outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, named for a platoon medic who was killed in action. The documentary is ninety minutes of either footage of what was happening to the soldiers in the valley, i.e. combat, patrols, etc., or interviews with the soldiers. That's it. There are no politicians, no Generals, no score, no analysis from "experts". Just the soldiers, the valley, and the valley's inhabitants.
It wasn't necessarily this big tragic drama that is supposed to leave you in a mess of ugly crying, but still hopeful at the end. It was ninety minutes out of a year, and while there was sadness and loss, there were also strange, comical moments. The scenes that were most emotionally taxing for me were the scenes where there was a lull. When nothing happened. Those were, I think, the most tense for me as a viewer, and also for the men stationed in the valley as well. I waited for gunshots, but none came. The tension builds and builds and builds, and the combat scenes are almost a relief, because something is taking place. There are two options, live or die. Shoot or don't shoot. That's it. In the lulls, there are too many options, most of which are scarier and more complicated than do or do not.
In one of my favorite WWII documentaries, Ken Burns: The War, there is a lot of reflection and personal stories, and the ones that always got me were the first hand stories told through letters or straight up interviews. The ones told through b-roll and narration were still affecting, but not as much as the first-hand accounts. And that's all that's in Restrepo. First hand accounts. The filmmakers were there. They spent a year with this platoon. Restrepo is one of the most effective war documentaries I have seen because it is so personal, and it doesn't have the commentary about why they did this or that in relation to politics. This is what they did and this is what happened as a result.
"one of the most troublesome things in life is that what you do or do not want has very little to do with what does or does not happen." - Lemony Snicket
-D.

Post #54: Double Standards

This year, one of my biggest struggles has been overcoming double standards. I have been told one thing, adhered to it, only to watch someone else win/get credit/get away with something after completely disregarding the standards set for everyone else. For a short film competition, I altered my short film to fit the strict 'no violence' rules. I was told if I used nerf guns my film would be disqualified. I was allowed to use my fingers to make "guns" but I was not allowed to fire them. The video that won in my category featured explicit, R-rated violence. A guy's head is shot and explodes. All over the screen. And they had highly realistic fake M-16s. My nerf gun is bright pink with white swirls amd flowers on it. When I and a few other contestants asked about this other video, we were told that the violence in the winning film was acceptable because it was pertinent to the story line. A story about starting a nuclear war with Russia. My thirty second scene was a Mark Wahlberg movie parody. The guns are "cocked", but never fired. The MW character has animal control on her tail. It's a parody of Shooter. But my almost violence was unacceptable.

I was told to read poems that were school appropriate at my school's poetry slam this week. I left my mother's day poem at home because it said "shit", and I knew that it would be considered inappropriate. I read one of my other poems. I watched contestant after contestant get up amd share poems that would quickly get DQ'ed if held to the same standards I was told to adhere to. And at a school function, I don't want to see mindless violence or hear about you and your significant other getting naked and doing I don't want to know what. It's not the time or place. In my free time, I watch violent movies. But I am aware of the rating, and so is my mom. I am aware of what I am exposing myself to. But at school functions, if I am expected to keep it clean and PG, I expect everyone to be. I have never been dress-coded, sent to an administrator's office or held after class. I follow the rules, and sometimes I wonder what would happen if I broke the rules. If I let my Tyler Durden side out to play. But I know better. So I'll just keep following the rules and being a fairly decent person.

"Creepy people do the things decent people want to do, but have decided are probably not a great idea." - Mike Birbiglia, This American Life "#515"

-D.