5.30.2003
today, i broke a boom off of my tractor. it wasn't just bent, the metal was broken into three pieces. i had to quit work early because my tractor was broken. i didn't feel very awesome about that, but it turned out ok. i wrote this while i was out in the field:
i really meant to be upset and maybe even depressed about tearing off a boom, but i had such a good time because of it that i couldn't be upset. i figured that i would get bored, so i amused myself by picking blackberries. i managed to get half of a ziplock bag full before my fear of snakes overcame my desire for blackberries. while i wa ssearching for blackberries, i saw two bright orange butterflies, one rabbit, deer tracks, coyote tracks, raccoon tracks and more passion flower than i could use in a year. one the way back, as i was tromping through the weeds by a creek, i heard an alligator. if you've never head an alligator's sound, there is now way i can describe it to you. anyway, it was a very disturbing noise, considering my position, so i very quickly got out of the weeds and climbed on top of my tractor. i feel much better now because nothing can get me up here, except the bugs and maybe the occasional attack whipperwhil. now i'm waiting on aunt susan and trying to see the alligator that i'm sure wanted to eat me.
if you'll go
here, you'll see what my tractor looks like. it's a tiny picture, but it's the best i could do. those things are about ten feet high and about eight feet wide and we've got an extra eight feet to the side because of the booms that stick off to the side to spray the peanuts. it's craziness.
tomorrow i'm going to panama city for the weekend. i'm so excited.
quote of the . . .
"sexosity: a noun. a quantitative measure of someones's sexiness."
~nick
created at 10:13 PM
5.29.2003
i don't have anything to report really. today was the same as yesterday, but the wind was blowing so hard that we couldn't spray, so we knocked off early and left at four-thirty. it was great! we actually had an evening to enjoy! i was so excited. we ate a leisurely supper and then i watched quigley down under and just relaxed. it was great.
i got in a tanning bed today for the first time today. it was very strange.
created at 10:03 PM
5.28.2003
today it was eleven hours. it's really not a bad job, it's just that you have to pay attention all day and it wears you out. it's similar to driving a car all day because you've got to pay attention to what you're doing all the time. i finished my first fifteen hour book on tape today and started on a second one. we moved again, this time to "the other side of leary." it took about forty-five minutes to get there from where we were in baker county, but from the house in a truck, it takes an hour to get there.
i saw two eighteen-inch alligators today and one bobcat. we nearly ran over one of the alligators and it got up really high on its toes to run away and it moved quickly!
i watched the sunset while i was showering today.
i'm slowly wearing out, so i'm heading to bed. good night all.
created at 8:54 PM
5.27.2003
i spent ten hours in the tractor today. we moved the tractors to baker county, which took an hour and a half, then sprayed peanuts all day. i listened to my tense book on tape some more and only jumped out of my skin once when the radio crackled. other than that, nothing to report.
i am learning how to relax, to mellow out, not let things stress me. i've needed that.
man. i need to get to bed earlier.
if you're up for a little darkness, read edgar allen poe's
hop frog.
created at 8:54 PM
5.26.2003
i learned how to spray peanuts today. it's not hard. just watch your pressure and make sure you get on the right rows and then turn your brain off. at first i was afraid that i couldn't do it right, but it ended up being a mindless job.
in the tractors, we have radios so we can talk back and forth between tractors. while i was spraying peanuts, i listened to a book on tape called sieze the night. it's a rather tense book. somewhere in the middle of the field, i was really beginning to get into the mystery and the tension when suddenly the radio crackles
"whitney?"
i nearly jumped out of my skin before i realized that it was aunt susan needing to ask me a question.
tomorrow we're moving. let me explain moving. it's when the tractors are in one field and they need to be moved to another field. this wouldn't be an issue if all the fields were right next to each other, but noooo. they've got fields all over three counties. so tomorrow we've got to move two tractors thirty miles at twenty miles an hour along the roads of camilla and
baker county (go to the may 10 entry). it's gonna be a long ride.
created at 9:30 PM
5.25.2003
jarrell decided to go to awlbenny today, so he asked me if i'd like to come with him. i did, so first we got lunch from the diary queen, then we went to the mall to get his mama (aunt susan) a birthday present. he got her a present and i got me some clothes. once we decided we had gotten enough for one day, we headed to brusters where we both got a hot fudge brownie sundae. it was a blast.
this evening, jarrell and i went to glenn and elandra's house and ate hot dogs and watched sweet home alabama. on the way home, driving the awesomeness that is buster brown with the window open, i remembered how much i love it here. i was beginning to get worried because i've been here a week and i was thinking earlier that
this has been one of the longest weeks of my life and i'm here for seven more! but no, it's going to be good. tomorrow starts the hard work. i'm getting up at six thirty so i can be out of here by seven to spray peanuts for twelve hours or so.
have you ever experienced a rural southern night? no, not fairview or brevard country, i mean georgia or alabama or florida rural southern night. there's really nothing like it and there's no way to explain it. the nights are cool with a gentle breeze blowing and crickets all around you...you'll just have to come visit me in georgia to know what i'm talking about.
six thirty is going to come early, so i must say good night.
created at 9:17 PM
5.24.2003
aaarrrgggghhhh!! there's no artsy-ness here! you can't go to a coffeeshop and people watch! you can't have blue hair! you can't dress differently! you can't read and make jokes with subtle humour! they all make fun of you if you do!
EEEKKK!!!
created at 11:09 PM
well let's see. yesterday i did mostly nothing. i did go to see bruce almighty with jarrell and his girlfriend. we met up with glenn and elandra when we got to albany, so we ate supper with them and then we all went to the theatre together. my cousins treat me really well. i mean, they have every right to just treat me like the little cousin that's come to visit for a while, but they don't. i end up feeling like one of them and it's wonderful.
today we grouted the tile that we laid the other day. whatever nasty connotations that the word "grout" has for you--they're true. that is one heck of a nasty job. thankfully, fernando did most of the actual grouting and then aunt susan and i did the clean-up. but in the clean-up, i got grout all over my hands and it tore them all to pieces. they're not bleeding, but they've got cuts and scrapes all over them and one of my fingernails is starting to come off.
after all that was over, i got the old mustard yellow land cruiser named buster brown over to the house and i vacuumed rat turds out of it. that wasn't too fun, but now i get to drive buster brown. it is one of the most awesome cars ever! it's pretty much ugly and it smells like an old car! isn't that great?
one more thing. i have a new role model. he's a little mexican named fernando. he works for aunt susan and uncle joe and he works
hard. but he never complains. he does some of the worst work (like grouting) and he never says a word. he just does what he's told and he does it really well. and it's fun to listen to him talk because he speaks south georgia english with a hispanic accent. he also somehow manages to cut off all the ends of his words without losing the meaning. it's really hard to imitate.
last year fernando was just fernando and no one really thought much of him, but now he is (according to aunt susan), "my little mexican" or "my third son."
there's another little mexican guy that works for the sapps and his name is peewee. that's not his real name, obviously, but he's so little that that's what he gets called. around here they consider him to be of lesser intelligence, but i think he's only like that because he doesn't understand english very well. today, when i went to get buster brown from the barn, i couldn't get him in reverse. peewee was looking at me funny and i said "i can't get it to go backwards!" he started walking towards the car with a little grin and i said "can you?" he nodded and i got out of the car to let him in. he hopped in, backed the thing right up and then hopped back out. i smiled, said thank you and sheepishly got back into the car and headed off. i've since learned how to get it in reverse.
i really, really like...
patchouli
edgar allen poe
candles
the way an old car smells
fernando's eyes
jarrell's grin
a shower after you get really nasty
green eyes
blue eyes
brown eyes
gray eyes
hazel eyes
laughter
sincere compliments
linen spray
open windows while you're driving
sunsets
feeling freedom
honesty
showering outside
stars
previews
goths
created at 10:34 PM
5.22.2003
we spent the whole day tiling my bathroom upstairs. when it gets done, i'll have this spiffy little bathroom that opens into my bedroom. isn't that awesome! tiling was a lot of work though. actually, my aunt tiled and i sawed the tile and ran back and forth between the saw and the bathroom.
and then we watched i spy this evening. it was hilarious and ridiculous. perfect for a rainy day and a tired evening.
created at 9:08 PM
5.21.2003
i spent four and a half hours in the hairdresser's today and now my hair is dark brown with some subtle highlights. there is no more blue and i'm sad about it. my hair looks pretty good though. first she "erased" the blue, then she turned it a really light auburn, then she toned it down to a deep dark auburn, then she highlit the whole thing, then she washed my hair, cut it, dryed it, fixed it and then i went home.
i learned how to use a tile saw today and i can do some darn good circles with that thing. i'm pretty pleased with myself.
and, i'm learning more yoga. that stuff's really fun!
tomorrow, we're going to lay more tile and go to albany. hm. before i let you go, i just explain how to say albany. it's not how you think. it's more of an awl-binny. now say it. now add a southern twang. there you go. that's it.
good night everyone.
created at 9:06 PM
5.20.2003
we didn't do much of anything today, but it was a good day and i'm going to go do yoga in my room now.
good night.
created at 9:39 PM
and now ladies and gentleman, a journal entry in the style of angela . . .
really
really
long.
saturday, may 10
we finally left today. i had to get up much earlier than i wanted to, considering how late i had been up the night before and when we got to the airport, i was in a really bad mood. ethan came to see us off, but i didn't have much to say to him because i didn't want to talk to anyone just then. i
was glad to be flying though. i love flying.
we rented a mitsubishi spyder for the week and it's freakin' small.
our villa is awesome. it's got two bedrooms, two living rooms, two fridges, two microwaves, two jacuzzis and four tvs.
sunday, may 11
i went to disney world for the first time today. it was actually more fun than i expected. the haunted mansion was my favorite . . . but i imagine you could have guessed that.
my mom was talking to a little boy at disney world today and he decided to introduce her to his family. he points to each one and identifies them. "this is my dad, and this is my brother, and this is my guardian angel. his name is frank."
i discovered my fetish! nice arms! ::laughs to gray::
monday, may 12
today we didn't do much. we went to a science museum, then ate lunch, then saw holes. what a stupid name for a movie. it was a decent movie though. oh yeah, we got our pictures made in that old timey style . . . it was cheesy, but fun. my sister and i were the "barmaids." i thought that was a very delicate way for the photographer to put it.
tuesday, may 13
today we went to blizzard beach water park and i am so amazingly exhausted. we had so much fun though. there was a chairlift that held three people that took you to the top of the slides. originally, we all went up together, but then we found that it was faster and more fun to go up singly. when a group of two came up, the operator would stick you with those two random people for the duration of the lift ride. then allison and i and the rest of the family would swap stories about the people we rode up with. my most interesting coupld was a brother and sister, about eight and ten, from scotland. i loved to listen to them. we also met up with the dad and kids with the guardian angel that we had talked to at disney world. that was pretty funny.
i have noticed that there seems to be an abundance of pele here from the british isles. it's great to listen to the little kids speaking with british accents. they are so adorable!
tonight as super, the people at the table across from us were speaking swiss. it was most interesting to listen to. i couldn't understand a word of it.
wednesday, may 14
after much convincing and a phone call to an information answering machine because the guy on the machine had a nice voice, we went to the titanic exhibit. that was a blast. i've been interested in the titanic since i was thirteen years old. our tour guide had a british accent and i still haven't decided if it was real or faked. he did a darn good job.
tonight we went to "arabian nights," one of those dinner and a show sort of things. because we were on vacation, we decided to spend the extra money and get the "vip tour" before the show. they took you behind the scenes and let you meet the actors and the horses and such, then sat you in one of the front rows. i decided tonight that i would have made crap aristocracy. i could not possibly treat people like dirt simply because they were in a different class than me.
of course, on another level, i do that all the time. but i'm not getting into that just now.
thursday, may 15
at universal studios today, we rode the men in black ride five times! we had so much fun. but, a lot of the rides had tension involved and by the time i left the part, my nerves were shot. i kept expecting something to seriously reach out and grab me during the rides.
we found a different pool today. you have to walk farther to get to it, but it's worth it because there's no one there to bother you.
there was a lunar eclipse tonight, but i didn't get to see it because the clouds were covering it.
friday, may 16
sea world was awesome! i got to feed dolphins and pet them. they're a lot dryer feeling and rougher than i thought. i also go to pet stingrays and feed them. feeding them was the coolest thing i've done in a long time. you'd hold the shrimp between your fingers and then they'd swim over your hand and suction the shrimp into their mouths. it ws the best. i fed the queen mother stingray that was four or five feet in diameter! it just swam slowly over my hand (and up to my upper forearm was covered) and gently suctioned the shrimp into its soft mouth. the underside was very soft also. we also watched a dolphin show, a killer whale show and a sea lion show. those were amazing.
during the penguin exhibit, we decided that in their quest to take over the world, the king pengins were the overseers, the macronis and the rockhoppers were computer/tech, the adelies were in charge of finance, the gentoos were the strategists and the chinstraps were in charge of the military. in the same family as penguins, the puffins are in charge of public relations, communications and surveillance, because they can fly.
we're going home tomorrow.
saturday, may 17
well, we're finally home and i get to sleep in my bed once before i'm gone again.
on the flight from orlando to charlotte, a little boy and his father were sitting behind alli and i. the little boy, jordan, who was four, was a riot. i gave him some skittles before the plane took off. later, when i was talking about how hot the plane was, he took his safety card and fanned me for the next fifteen minutes. we talked to him and his father for almost the whole flight. towards the end, jordan looked at me and said, "kiss me." i grinned and blew him a kiss. he then grinned back and came and sat in my lap. once he had to fasten his seatbelt, he was very distressed and wanted to come sit in my lap agan. he said that he missed his mommy. he got quiet for a minute, then looked at me and said, "i want
you to be my mommy!" i laughed and said that i didn't think i'd be very good at it. once the plane landed, jordan followed me out of the airplane and stuck with me until his dady showed up. then we had to leave. that little boy brightened my whole day.
we watched tommy boy tonight. that movie is gradually creeping up on my favorite movies list. it's probably in the top seven already.
sunday, may 18
i'm at susan's now. we got up, met susan in altanta and then headed down here. it's raining, so i don't know we'll be up to tomorrow, but i probably should get to bed.
monday, may 19
somehow, i feel that here, more than anywhere else, i am being taken care of. i don't know that there's any better way to explain it than that. there's give and take. i'm going to be worked hard, but aunt susan will buy me whatever i need; i'm being pushed, but i have very few limitations. the whole family often asks me if i need anything. i just feel taken care of.
i harrowed a good bit today. harrowing is at once gratifying and infuriating. on the one hand, when the field i sgreen with weeds in front of you and black dirt behind you, you know what you've done. but, you do three or four rows through the field and you swear you're no farther along than when you started.
we're planning on tiling the bathroom floor tomorrow.
the best way to tear someone apart is from the inside. get to know them, find out what will hurt them the most and then use that knowledge for all it's worth. that's how to kill someone.
created at 9:23 PM
