I'm no more boring than Kansas
Aug. 3rd, 2014 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzI know it's a time thing, but everyone in Kansas is tattooed. Driving to coffee and lunch, I heard "Turn the Page," and giggled at the sad singer lyrics. Today long hair is not only something you wouldn't mock even out in the sticks, but everyone from rednecks to flamers are sporting body-sized ink. It's like the entire country's skin was parked too long in a railyard. But "the same old cliches - is that a woman or a man" is a touching lyric with no grounding in current reality. I wonder if people still sing along because it is so sad-puppy, or if they go "Huh?"
The hotel clerk, who has calmed down from hitting on me finally, said he wished he sounded as "fluent" as I did. That was post-hitting (told him I had a girlfriend, let him assume despite my swish I'm straight because he's bordering on annoying) so...I dunno, he didn't sound dumb or anything. Fluent? I like to think I speak plain english, dumb english even.
I do see my reflection and think I am someone else until I realize those are my muscles and face.
Perhaps I'll look like a new phase of gentrified humans - those rich enough to afford to have their ink removed.
I can't go to a club in Washington DC, other than a standing talking bar, or the famous restaurant basement. I mean I can hit a huge gay club, or a mainstream electro club, or a big douchebag bar of any flavor, but while there is no big goth/rivet club night in DC - there is enough of a goth scene brimming in Garden City, KS, that there is a goth-steampunk store in town (not checking for hot topic). The club scene might have died in my town but that whole freaky thing is very widespread. Why? Internet, cable?
But I've changed - I judge less and meet a lot more people. I'm also tons more confident, which seems to change how people react to me. A guy in the gym asked if I found it a lot more of a slower pace - I said honestly no, we have the same strip mall stores and people didn't seem all that different. I meant it.
The hotel clerk, who has calmed down from hitting on me finally, said he wished he sounded as "fluent" as I did. That was post-hitting (told him I had a girlfriend, let him assume despite my swish I'm straight because he's bordering on annoying) so...I dunno, he didn't sound dumb or anything. Fluent? I like to think I speak plain english, dumb english even.
I do see my reflection and think I am someone else until I realize those are my muscles and face.
Perhaps I'll look like a new phase of gentrified humans - those rich enough to afford to have their ink removed.
I can't go to a club in Washington DC, other than a standing talking bar, or the famous restaurant basement. I mean I can hit a huge gay club, or a mainstream electro club, or a big douchebag bar of any flavor, but while there is no big goth/rivet club night in DC - there is enough of a goth scene brimming in Garden City, KS, that there is a goth-steampunk store in town (not checking for hot topic). The club scene might have died in my town but that whole freaky thing is very widespread. Why? Internet, cable?
But I've changed - I judge less and meet a lot more people. I'm also tons more confident, which seems to change how people react to me. A guy in the gym asked if I found it a lot more of a slower pace - I said honestly no, we have the same strip mall stores and people didn't seem all that different. I meant it.
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-04 04:47 pm (UTC)Remember when I commented on the house-video post that you sounded articulate, as I expected you would? I know your education and your life experience and I've seen you write and blah blah, but I still noted it. You're educated and you've worked hard to learn certain ways of speaking to be clear and create a certain image.
Plain English doesn't translate to dumb English, in my mind. Plain English is fluent English, English everyone can understand—or at least that's the hope. Of course "everyone" forgets that not every person can understand even the plainest, simplest of English. And your accent might fuck you up in certain parts of North America. Although in your work you have probably learned to even it out for optimum comprehension.
An interesting observation from your annoying boyfriend all the same. Maybe if he did a bunch of schooling and worked in law for however many years, he'd be able to talk like you.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-04 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-04 05:29 pm (UTC)