Hey there,
As of late I've had no amazing inspiration of any sort. I mean, I'm always thinking, and life is always happening so you'd think there'd be some "Eureka!" by now. But there hasn't been. As Twenty One Pilots said in their song Migraine, "I do not have writer's block, my writer just hates the clock." Actually, I think just about everything about me hates the clock, not just my writer. I am a world class procrastinator. All of those people out there that claim to be the kings and queens of procrastination? Haha, yea, nope. Seriously, if there's anything I'm great at, this is it. There really need to be Procrastination Anonymous meetings for me and my fellow putter-offers.
Enough of my current procrastination though, what I decided to do was make little mini-stories about little events and thoughts that have happened in the past few days. It seems like a good idea. So here goes:
Over the weekend, I finally got to really spend time with my boyfriend. He's been gone a lot due to some RAWR!!! circumstances. It was really fun and relaxing to be with him. I find I get some sort of rejuvenation from being around people I love. I'm a weird kind of extrovert. I don't want small talk, and I don't crave people in general. I crave deep conversations and experiences with deep people that I feel deep connection with. Which is exactly what I get when I'm with my partner.
I went out thrift shopping with my best friend Bri, my aunt Lily, and her boyfriend Chuck. We aquired so many gems. Soft gems, made out of soft fabrics that caressed our skin in such a way that we knew if all else failed, these fabric gems would be there for us. Popping tags really is the best thing, you can get ten to twenty different articles of clothing for the price of one dress from Hot Topic. It's hella rad.
Yesterday, I was with my mom, Bri, and my little brother baybay. For some wild, unknown reason that only a year old could comprehend, baybay decided that the best course of action was to initiate butt cheer! What's butt cheer, you might ask? It is the spreading of happiness that happens when a person's butt cheeks contact another's skin and begin to sway back and forth in a twerking motion. This is the way to joy. This is the true way spread Christmas cheer. Baybay starts shaking his behind on everyone, and my mom was just absolutely dying of laughter. The best thing to do was, obviously, to capture the moment forever with a video camera. As she presses record she tells baybay to go to butt happiness on Bri. I hear her yell "Oh no!", followed by baybay's enthusiastic "Oh yes!!!" These were fun times.
Today in my AP Lang class I was so excited! We were gonna do this activity called "SOL Smackdown", which sounds terrible but is actually just mini-Lincoln-Douglas style debates. We had to pick a partner, but the only people I knew partnered with each other and then I had no idea who the rest of the class was. So I ended up with the teacher! Bonus points! I mean, when it comes to picking a good debate partner, who better to have but the teacher on your side? I was so pumped for all of the intelligent, well-educated, respectful arguing that was about to go down. I listened to all of these groups that got to go before me, woefully unprepared to be busting out sick rebuttals. And there I was, dying to say all of these THINGS but it wasn't my turn. The bell rang and I forever lost the opportunity. Sad. Face. :( (I got to go first next class though, so it was all good)
So that's it for this. I'm sure there's more events I could add now, since I wrote this as a draft a few days ago and am just not coming back to it, but it's a wrap! A hopefully tasteful wrap with 4 different story-ific ingredients.
~Jade~
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Rants about Rants about Sex
I walked to lunch today fully intending to start my book(Love Drugged by James Klise) and only halfway intending to eat lunch. I stood in line for a ridiculous amount of time and then finally got my food. Then I sat down at the table I usually sit at. I know everyone there, but I don't really talk to them. I sort of just sit there and occasionally eavesdrop on the conversations if they're interesting while lending out my rations of hushpuppies and milk. Which is fine by me.
So, I sit down and begin to eat when I notice what's going on beside me. A friend of mine is fully engaged in a ridiculous rant towards my other friend, while my other friend is either trying to get her two cents in or laughing. I would be laughing too, because really the ranting thing can be kinda funny sometimes, if it wasn't for what she was actually saying.
The situation seemed to be that my friend wants to have sex but her insurance doesn't cover birth control. Her friend is yelling at her about how you have to be using condoms and birth control unless you're prepared to have a baby because you will get pregnant. She says that if she gets pregnant then she'll have to have the baby because abortion is not an option. She even goes as far to say that sex really shouldn't be a thing she wants to do anyways, claiming that most girls don't like it and that since she's a virgin, the first time will hurt and she will bleed. She should just do things like oral sex instead.
My friend(the one getting yelled at) saw me looking on and said "I think Jade wants to say something." I did, I really did want to say something. However, I didn't want to seem rude, so all I did was offer some safety information. You know, thinks like condoms are 98% effective if used and stored correctly and birth control is 99.9% effective if used correctly. Together, they are quite an amazing team, so if you can you should use them both. But if you can't, condoms are still highly effective in preventing pregnancy and STI's. My friend high-fived me and said "Exactly." I guess it was refreshing to not have someone freaking out about the situation.
After my friend went to go get her lunch, I had a brief conversation with my other friend that ranted. It went like this:
"How old is she?"
"Twenty."
I shrugged, "It's her decision."
"Yea, but I'm just trying to beat this into her brain so she doesn't make any mistakes. She needs to be on birth control."
"Some people have different safety standards."
"I'm not having sex now, I'm not ready. I'm waiting until I get married, I need to be absolutely sure that I'm not going to get pregnant. If you're not ready to get pregnant, you need to be as cautious as possible."
This, I was alright with. Because these were her safety standards that she was using to make her decisions. I can agree with being as safe as possible, meaning birth control and condoms and getting tested regularly. These are all good, responsible things you should do for yourself. However, what I was not okay with was the was she over-exaggerated information and even provided false information in order to scare her friend away from having sex(in much the same way that abstinence only until marriage programs do).
I want to give some more appropriate advice to people wanting to have sex:
*DO: Be as safe as possible. If there's any way you can be on birth control and use condoms, do it! But if you can't, make sure you use condoms and, in case of emergency, can get Plan B. Condoms are 98% effective in preventing pregnancy and STI transmission if you wear them right and have the right size. You can even use female condoms, which you can wear up to 8 hours before sex. The odds will not be in the sperms favor!
*Please don't tell your lady friends whether they can or can't get an abortion, unless it's literally not an option in your state. Abortion is an option, and it is a legit option in most places whether you agree with it or not. Your lady friends can make their own decisions about their body's.
*GIRLS CAN LOVE SEX!!! They really can! It's a real, natural thing! The clitoris is made EXPLICITLY FOR SEXUAL PLEASURE. It has 8,000 nerve endings, whereas the penis has only 4,000. Girls are actually more equipt to feel sexual pleasure than men are.
*Your first time shouldn't hurt any significant amount, or at all, as long as you go slow. Meaning, lots of foreplay to make sure you're getting all kinds of lubricated. Speaking of, lube is your friend. Make sure you have some on hand in case you need it. Bleeding is actually not typical among virgins, and if it happens it's usually because the woman was not aroused or lubricated enough during intercourse.
*Even if you're just having oral or anal sex, STIs can still be transmitted. If you and your partner are not clean use condoms or dental dams, in the case of oral sex involving a vagina.
I think concerned friends are super rad. But I think false sex ed is super bad. Just like my rhymes! It upsets me that the majority of young women are not given realistic sex ed advice. We are taught abstinence and all of the bad things about sex, or even nothing at all. Unless you are inclined to do your own research, or are comfortable enough to take about sex with a knowledgeable friend, family member, or doctor you normally are not properly educated about sex. I hope that one day I can help break the barriers of communication about sex, and provide positive, and, I would hope, correct sex ed to young people. Or, really, people in general.
~Jade~
So, I sit down and begin to eat when I notice what's going on beside me. A friend of mine is fully engaged in a ridiculous rant towards my other friend, while my other friend is either trying to get her two cents in or laughing. I would be laughing too, because really the ranting thing can be kinda funny sometimes, if it wasn't for what she was actually saying.
The situation seemed to be that my friend wants to have sex but her insurance doesn't cover birth control. Her friend is yelling at her about how you have to be using condoms and birth control unless you're prepared to have a baby because you will get pregnant. She says that if she gets pregnant then she'll have to have the baby because abortion is not an option. She even goes as far to say that sex really shouldn't be a thing she wants to do anyways, claiming that most girls don't like it and that since she's a virgin, the first time will hurt and she will bleed. She should just do things like oral sex instead.
My friend(the one getting yelled at) saw me looking on and said "I think Jade wants to say something." I did, I really did want to say something. However, I didn't want to seem rude, so all I did was offer some safety information. You know, thinks like condoms are 98% effective if used and stored correctly and birth control is 99.9% effective if used correctly. Together, they are quite an amazing team, so if you can you should use them both. But if you can't, condoms are still highly effective in preventing pregnancy and STI's. My friend high-fived me and said "Exactly." I guess it was refreshing to not have someone freaking out about the situation.
After my friend went to go get her lunch, I had a brief conversation with my other friend that ranted. It went like this:
"How old is she?"
"Twenty."
I shrugged, "It's her decision."
"Yea, but I'm just trying to beat this into her brain so she doesn't make any mistakes. She needs to be on birth control."
"Some people have different safety standards."
"I'm not having sex now, I'm not ready. I'm waiting until I get married, I need to be absolutely sure that I'm not going to get pregnant. If you're not ready to get pregnant, you need to be as cautious as possible."
This, I was alright with. Because these were her safety standards that she was using to make her decisions. I can agree with being as safe as possible, meaning birth control and condoms and getting tested regularly. These are all good, responsible things you should do for yourself. However, what I was not okay with was the was she over-exaggerated information and even provided false information in order to scare her friend away from having sex(in much the same way that abstinence only until marriage programs do).
I want to give some more appropriate advice to people wanting to have sex:
*DO: Be as safe as possible. If there's any way you can be on birth control and use condoms, do it! But if you can't, make sure you use condoms and, in case of emergency, can get Plan B. Condoms are 98% effective in preventing pregnancy and STI transmission if you wear them right and have the right size. You can even use female condoms, which you can wear up to 8 hours before sex. The odds will not be in the sperms favor!
*Please don't tell your lady friends whether they can or can't get an abortion, unless it's literally not an option in your state. Abortion is an option, and it is a legit option in most places whether you agree with it or not. Your lady friends can make their own decisions about their body's.
*GIRLS CAN LOVE SEX!!! They really can! It's a real, natural thing! The clitoris is made EXPLICITLY FOR SEXUAL PLEASURE. It has 8,000 nerve endings, whereas the penis has only 4,000. Girls are actually more equipt to feel sexual pleasure than men are.
*Your first time shouldn't hurt any significant amount, or at all, as long as you go slow. Meaning, lots of foreplay to make sure you're getting all kinds of lubricated. Speaking of, lube is your friend. Make sure you have some on hand in case you need it. Bleeding is actually not typical among virgins, and if it happens it's usually because the woman was not aroused or lubricated enough during intercourse.
*Even if you're just having oral or anal sex, STIs can still be transmitted. If you and your partner are not clean use condoms or dental dams, in the case of oral sex involving a vagina.
I think concerned friends are super rad. But I think false sex ed is super bad. Just like my rhymes! It upsets me that the majority of young women are not given realistic sex ed advice. We are taught abstinence and all of the bad things about sex, or even nothing at all. Unless you are inclined to do your own research, or are comfortable enough to take about sex with a knowledgeable friend, family member, or doctor you normally are not properly educated about sex. I hope that one day I can help break the barriers of communication about sex, and provide positive, and, I would hope, correct sex ed to young people. Or, really, people in general.
~Jade~
Thursday, March 5, 2015
The Sexual Overtones of the Hoover Dam
Yesterday evening, I was sitting down diligently doing my AP Language homework. I had to annotate "At the Dam" by Joan Didion. At first she was talking about how it just "canted vertiginously" and was "ominous". But then it was amazing! A hopeful "monument of faith" that has sadly "since been misplaced". That was cool, I suppose the Hoover Dam can be frightening and amazing at the same time. I looked it up, and it's actually in quite a pretty place:
I kept reading, and kept reading. I thought I was getting it. You know, basically the Hoover Dam is super rad. But suddenly, the world tilted when I read this:
with power and pressure and the transparent sexual overtones to that involvement
For a moment I paused, then I turned to my best friend, Brianna, and asked her what this could possibly mean. How could the dam possibly be sexual or produce any sexual "overtones"? She told me that it absolutely had to be an extended metaphor. But a metaphor for what? I read the entire piece, waiting for the answer to pop out of thin air, much like these sexual overtones did.
I read about the almost ethereal qualities of the dam. About a "star map" and how the dam will continue when all the people are gone. Didion gets a revelation from this. She realizes the dam is beautiful because it is in "absolute isolation" and it is "transmitting water and power in a world where no one else is." Upon reading that statement, I wondered how deep it really was. Did she mean that no one else in the world is using dams? Not likely, since she states previously that dams are quite "commonplace". Or maybe, she means that now that we have dams that do all the work themselves, we don't have to work so hard to produce energy. However, consistently throughout her article, she portrays the dam as hopeful, the "brightest promise" for America. This is all good and well, but the underlying implication based on the article is that America is not quite as bright as the dam. So, perhaps, the dam is isolated in the sense that it is the hope that will carry on, even in a world where hope seems lost. The article was about the Hoover Dam after all, there really was no extended metaphor!
Okay, so that was fine. I put on my thinking hat for that last paragraph and powered through the complicated world that is syntax and diction. But the sexual overtones would not leave my head. I was frustrated to the point that a single, angry tear slipped down my face as I flipped another pancake then beat it violently with a spatula. This seems like an overreaction, I'm sure. And it was, I suppose. It was especially unfair to the pancakes that I so often make with love. Alas, no matter how many pancakes I tortured, the connection between the Hoover Dam and sexual overtones eluded me.
I came to the extreme conclusion that the Hoover Dam was alive, and it is a sexual being. It was isolated because so one accepted it for who it really was. It was pushing forth sexual energy in a world where no one is getting any. I told my best friend and she bursted into laughter and, of course, agreed with me. Because this was a perfectly reasonable conclusion.
Unfortunately, I have had no revelation about sexual overtones. This ridiculous conclusion still stands with me today. I even asked my AP Lang teacher. He said that he choose this article explicitly for the "WTF" effect that these sexual overtones would have on our brain. However, I don't think he intended for it to cause such intense frustration on my part.
But history does not explain it all, does not entirely suggest what
makes that dam so affecting. Nor, even, does energy, the massive involvement
with power and pressure and the transparent sexual overtones to that involvement
For a moment I paused, then I turned to my best friend, Brianna, and asked her what this could possibly mean. How could the dam possibly be sexual or produce any sexual "overtones"? She told me that it absolutely had to be an extended metaphor. But a metaphor for what? I read the entire piece, waiting for the answer to pop out of thin air, much like these sexual overtones did.
I read about the almost ethereal qualities of the dam. About a "star map" and how the dam will continue when all the people are gone. Didion gets a revelation from this. She realizes the dam is beautiful because it is in "absolute isolation" and it is "transmitting water and power in a world where no one else is." Upon reading that statement, I wondered how deep it really was. Did she mean that no one else in the world is using dams? Not likely, since she states previously that dams are quite "commonplace". Or maybe, she means that now that we have dams that do all the work themselves, we don't have to work so hard to produce energy. However, consistently throughout her article, she portrays the dam as hopeful, the "brightest promise" for America. This is all good and well, but the underlying implication based on the article is that America is not quite as bright as the dam. So, perhaps, the dam is isolated in the sense that it is the hope that will carry on, even in a world where hope seems lost. The article was about the Hoover Dam after all, there really was no extended metaphor!
Okay, so that was fine. I put on my thinking hat for that last paragraph and powered through the complicated world that is syntax and diction. But the sexual overtones would not leave my head. I was frustrated to the point that a single, angry tear slipped down my face as I flipped another pancake then beat it violently with a spatula. This seems like an overreaction, I'm sure. And it was, I suppose. It was especially unfair to the pancakes that I so often make with love. Alas, no matter how many pancakes I tortured, the connection between the Hoover Dam and sexual overtones eluded me.
I came to the extreme conclusion that the Hoover Dam was alive, and it is a sexual being. It was isolated because so one accepted it for who it really was. It was pushing forth sexual energy in a world where no one is getting any. I told my best friend and she bursted into laughter and, of course, agreed with me. Because this was a perfectly reasonable conclusion.
Unfortunately, I have had no revelation about sexual overtones. This ridiculous conclusion still stands with me today. I even asked my AP Lang teacher. He said that he choose this article explicitly for the "WTF" effect that these sexual overtones would have on our brain. However, I don't think he intended for it to cause such intense frustration on my part.
All is well in the world though, regardless of the sexual overtones pouring out of the Hoover Dam. I have made peace with the mystery words, and with the mysterious sex life of the Dam. It is happy in absolute isolation, and I am happy sitting here, decidedly not transmitting any water or power. Just like everyone else in the world.
~Jade~
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