My Little Man
October 20, 2003 - 9:45 am
Despite all of my recent stress, there was one moment in the midst of
it all where I was tremendously happy.
Wednesday night I received two extremely unexpected phone calls. Both
made me happy, of course, but one of the phone calls was from my little
man, Eric (so that has to take precedence). Eric never even wants to talk
to me when I call, let alone call me on his own will. A little background
to why this phone call took place is necessary. You see, every single
time I talk to Eric I always get on his case about college. It is my personal
opinion that I'm the only one in the family who truly wants Eric to go
to college. I mean, if you asked my family what they thought of the subject
they'd probably say "of course we want Eric to go to college, as
long as that's what he wants to do." While I would like to say that
I agree, I can't. I don't think Eric would consider the right reasons
when making the decision to go to college or not. He would put his friends
and family first. While keeping these people in mind is a good idea, it
shouldn't be the deciding factor. Eric shouldn't worry about what his
friends will do or think if he leaves. Eric should consider what he really
wants to do with his life, and then make a plan to achieve it. He doesn't
have to be extremely specific (for example, he doesn't have to know the
exact job title he wants or the exact location he wants to go to school).
He just really needs to get some direction AND, more importantly (this
is where I come in), he needs support. He needs someone to push him to
do it. So that's what I've been trying to do. I want him to know that
I think he has tremendous talent. Eric is a car genius, and if he wants
to make a career out of his knowledge, then he already is way ahead of
everyone else. He is SOOOOOO creative and artistic. I am completely amazed
when I see some of his artwork. He is just incredibly sharp and he CAN
do so much. He hates it when I talk about college though. I'm not going
to stop though. He NEEDS to go to college (and NOT a community college).
It's either a Tech school (which I believe is the better choice) or a
university. That is definitely a rule. So anyways, back to him calling
me. Apparently, a college representative from WyoTech
came to our high school and pretty much spent the day with Eric. Eric
was so pro-active in getting information about the college and letting
the rep know how interested he was. I think that Eric really wants to
go this school too, which is wonderful. In order to get accepted though,
he has to be on a waitlist starting when he's a junior. He's now on the
waitlist, which makes me so incredibly happy. Eric was SO excited about
it and it affected his speech pattern. It was completely adorable and
it made me want to cry. I was (and am) immensely proud of him. My mom
told me that when Eric got home from football practice, all he talked
about was how he couldn't wait to tell me about his day (which also made
me want to cry). My pestering-about-college is actually affecting him.
It's nice to know that I'm making a difference in someone I love so much.
And it's equally nice to know that he values my opinion.
There has always been this barrier between Eric and I in regards to school.
My family (and pretty much everyone else we know) sort of holds me up
on a pedestal. I have always been an exceptional student and an over-achiever
(and I'm treated accordingly). Eric isn't a bad student. He just has never
been as focused and dedicated as me. I have this fear that Eric has developed
some sort of complex as a consequence to my 'success'. Every time I talk
about college to him, he uses the argument that he's not like me, he'll
never be like me, why am I trying to make him out to be something he's
not, blah blah blah. He misses the point completely, because I'm not trying
to turn him into me (that could never happen anyways). I just want him
to recognize his talents and the qualities that make him 'better' than
I could ever be. While I like to consider myself a pretty social person,
Eric is far better in that department than I ever will be. Even though
there isn't really cliques in our high school, there are definitely kids
that are more popular than others. Eric is, has always been, and probably
will always be a part of the popular crowd. He doesn't have the insecurities
that I have (he's also a good-looking football player, which definitely
helps in our high school). I consider myself a pretty smart individual,
however, my intelligence is mostly 'book smarts'. I lack a little common
sense and there are definitely certain areas where I'm a complete retard.
One of these areas is automobiles. Like I said earlier, Eric is a genius
when it comes to cars. That might not sound like a big deal, especially
to New Yorkers. But Eric could really go far with his knowledge.
My second phone call was from my friend, Danelle (pronounced Duh-Nell).
Danelle left for the army last December, and I hadn't spoken to her since.
She really likes the army, which seems so strange to me. I could NEVER
join the army (or any of the armed forces for that matter). Her phone
call was such a nice surprise. I miss her a lot. She's only going to be
home for two more weeks, then she's leaving for Germany (for 3 years).
Who knows when I'll get to see her again?
My last phone call with Christina (from home) really bothered me. She
is having some troubles at home. I really wish there was something I could
do. I don't want to go into the problems, because they are pretty personal,
but let's just say that I think she needs to move (as fast as she can).
Other Christina news, she really liked what I sent Caitlin for her first
birthday (October 9). I went to Buy Buy Baby and there was a Lucky Brand
section of baby clothes. I fell in love with these cute little jeans,
so, even though they were quite out of my price range, I had to buy them
for her. They are SO cute. In the zipper where it usually says "Lucky
You", it said "Lucky Me". And the back pockets were designed
SO adorable. I also got her a purple and pink sweater. I can't wait to
see Caitlin in the outfit. SOOOO adorable!
I have seen SO many violent movies lately! Last Friday, JP, Bart, and
I went to see Kill Bill , directed
by Quentin Taratino. This movie was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The whole movie was
nonstop blood, swords, death, and fighting. I couldn't really believe
I was seeing Uma Thurman
kicking ass like that. I haven't seen her play such a bad-ass role before.
She wasn't a good girl in Pulp Fiction , but that role was nothing like
Black Mamba (from Kill Bill). The movie left me speechless (besides my
constant exclaming how amazing the movie was). Saturday I saw Party
Monster again. My friend, Christina, wanted to see it, so of course
I offered to see it with her. Macaulay was great just like the first time.
I just love the part where Macaulay is trying to cheer up Seth Green,
and they end up dancing. It's SO funny. Saturday evening I went to Brooklyn
to Bart's place. We were going to start our Freddy Krueger marathon. We
ended up watching the first three in the series. Bart fell asleep during
the third, which was extremely annoying. That is one of my biggest pet
peeves. Sunday, Stan and I went to see Scarface
at the AMC. The movie blew me away. I can definitely see why it's considered
such a classic. Al Pacino is brilliant. Michelle Pfeiffer was absolutely
perfect. This is by far her best role. I've never seen her act better.
Then this past weekend, despite my attempts to stay home and do work all
weekend, I ended up seeing Texas
Chainsaw Massacre with Bart and JP. I wanted to hate the movie, because
I thought remaking such a classic was an exremely bad idea. The original
was just SO good. However, this new remake was pretty good too. It was
SO scary. I was literally screaming for most of the movie. I really liked
the cast too. I didn't realize that Mike
Vogel was in the movie. It was a very nice surprise, because I really
like him. In my opinion, he had the best part in the whole film (and he
definitely had the most painful role). Poor guy! I really like Eric
Balfour too. On Saturday I went back to see "Kill Bill"
with Cherish. She wanted to see it really bad, and I couldn't wait for
her to see it. She didn't love it as much as I expected her too, so that
was a little disappointing. She liked it though.
I was so busy this weekend. I have tons of homework due this week. Two
assignments are midterm projects. I finished one of them on Saturday night.
It was a 10 page paper. I ended up with 15 pages though. I'm almost done
with the other midterm, which is an electronic publishing assignment,
I have to design 3 logos and 3 coinciding banner ads. Then I have to write
a paper about my designs. Sometime this week, I need to have a mascot
meeting. I still need to assign an assistant for the Children's Halloween
Parade. I think I'm going to have the meeting today.
Last night, right as I was getting ready to go to bed, I received a very
unexpected phone call from Pip. It was around 2:30 in the morning, and
I had just finished making the basketball schedule. We hadn't spoken since
Jodi's birthday party back in July. We talked for several hours, stopping
only because I had to go to work a couple hours later. It was so good
to talk to him. We have so many wonderful memories, which we reminisced
about. We talked about how we met, our old parties, my prom, et cetera.
I also learned some things involving Buzzy that I didn't know before.
All in all, it was DEFINITELY worth the lack of sleep. Awww, I miss the
old days so much sometimes (like right now).
