A woman in a man's...bathroom?

    For a class project a few weeks back, everyone in our class had to break a social norm and write a paper on it. I decided to break a huge social norm by going into the men's bathroom at Wal-mart to freshen up my makeup, rather than the women's bathroom. Here's an exerpt from the paper:
      When I walked into the bathroom, I saw one man in there at first. There was an uneasy pause when he froze and stared at me at least five seconds as I searched my purse for my makeup. Then he washed his hands and left without saying anything. The second man came out of one of the stalls. When I tried to carry on a conversation, he looked at me strangely, washed his hands, and made a hasty exit without saying anything. Before going into the bathroom, I felt very nervous. I wasn’t sure what to expect, how the occupants would react, or if I would be reported to the Wal-Mart employees. I felt both relieved and disappointed upon finding the bathrooms empty the first three times.  When I found that someone else was going into the bathroom after I left, I was too nervous to go back in. However, I became more determined to go in. The fourth time I went into the bathroom and found that there were people in there, I felt very anxious, even though Bill accompanied me each time. I had trouble keeping a straight face when I noticed the man staring at me. Even after I left the bathroom for the last time, I became nervous every time someone in a Wal-Mart uniform walked towards me or made eye contact, I had trouble making eye contact with anyone as I left.When I left the bathroom for the last time, I felt anxiety, relief, and shock. I didn’t feel shocked at what I saw, but because of what I had done. I had not only broken a major social norm, but it was very much out of character for me.

The tone of the parer was a lot more serious than I had hoped. I hadn't expected it to be so uncomfortable. But I also felt kind of liberated afterwards :)

This summer has definitely been...not boring. I wrapped up my first semester teaching at Batesville ballet. It was kind of sad for me because i thought I wasn't comming back, since I had just taken over for one of my classmates, and I had gotten attached to the kids. But I'm teaching again this fall, so that's great. I was  hardly home at all during JuneWe spent ten days in Virginia for Philip's last debate tournament; we got home Sunday evening, just in time to go to church, and had less than twenty-four hours to sleep, unpack and wash everything we had worn that week and repack it for youth camp. Jonathan was there to camp, I was staffing, and Philip was doing both. Friday, we came home to unpack, wash and repack everything again, and staff at children's camp. Fortunately, this time, we had an entire weekend. Jonathan left early to go to Super summer, though. Needless to say, when we finaly got to go home, and stay, I was pretty much kissing my bed! Philip had about a week at home before he went to Super summer for a week, and I was settling in for a nice relaxing rest of the summer. The day before he was to come back, however, I went on a mission trip. It was around four in the afternoon, and I was cleaning my room, when I got a call from one of the churches. The youth group was going to Missionfuge in Mobile, Alabama, but one of the sponsors couldn't make it. So, I said that I would go, no problem. And the fact that they were leaving at four in the morning was perfectly fine with me. I was slipping into a mundane and unproductive routine, anyway. So, I had twelve hours to wash and pack. At this point I have to say, I think that there was a reason that this summer, I couldn't find a job. Otherwise, there was no way I could have done that. Well, maybe three fourths of the way there, we had a tire blowout. That was fun. fortunately, someone came to help us out, and before we got back on the road, we took a group picture with what was left of the old tire. 

The mission work we had was awesome.At least for me. I was assigned to children's missions, and was in the same group as all but one of the girls in the youth group. I have to say on a side note, that I was with a really good group. I've found that smaller youth groups are more closely knit.  But our group worked at a children's summer camp that week. The kids were adorable, though I couldn't connect with them as fast as everyone else did for some reason; one of them ran from me, and I didn't know why. That was kind of sad, but I finaly was able to bond with them, and it was so awesome.

A couple of weeks ago, my grandmother moved in with us. It's something of an adjustment, but nothing we can't handle. she still has her mind, and she has her sense of humor, so that's alright with me. A little over week ago, I went to a friend's wedding; it was exciting, with a tinge of melancholy at the realization that she's not comming back for school.

So that was my summer in a nutshell. I wrote down some memorable quotes, which I'll post in my next entry. I'm really looking forward to school starting, though Philip's leaving, *sigh.

Love to all, Ronica

Hello, all

Well, finals have been over, and I've said good-bye to most of my graduating friends. For me, the beginning of summer can be a little depressing. And so I've been job hunting, kind of. I found one that I really want, at the pediatric day clinic, and just went today for an interview. Basically I was just observing and interacting with the kids for an hour and a half. I don't know if I'll get it or not, but I really hope I do.

I'll wrtite more later, but I've got to get the van home. Mom needs it.

L2a!

Well, I got back today from a really nice trip to Hot Springs with our choir director, piano teacher, and some friends from choir. I must say, it was quite an adventure, especially the ride there. We took a caravan of about four cars, and the one I was in was kind of slow. On top of that, we got lost, because we didn't know how to get to Hot Springs, and missed a turn, but we got back on track. It was awesome, almost. The goal was to recruit students to come to Lyon, and we had shifts to sit at the booth, but no one seemed interested in a small college in the microscopic town of Batesville, so to draw attention, we made paper airplanes and kind of tossed them in the general direction of passing students! That didn't work too well, but it was fun. I also got a hermit crab about the size of a small baseball. It scared the daylights out of the choir director!

On the non-business side of the trip, we stayed in the Arlington Hotel, and went out to the pool after midnight, which was really cool.

 On that note, I'll leave you with a couple of unforgettable quotations:

"You know, for someone who looks like a twelve-year-old, you're really hairy".           Annonymous

"Well, let me tell you something; the concert will probably be awful because they have one less day to rehearse" - A comment on a high school choir concert which was moved up one day because of an impending ice storm.

     Yesterday was Sunday. Not just any Sunday, though, Sanctity of Life Sunday, which meant that the March for Life took place yesterday, which was nice. I kind of forgot about it until the march started, and so I got there late (big surprise there) and had to drive alongside the marchers until I could find a parking space, and I managed to park just in time to walk the last couple of blocks. It was really nice weather, so I kind of wondered why we didn't go all the way to the court house, but I won't complain. Dr. Carpenter spoke/preached, which made it even better this year. Speaking of Sanctity of Life, My brother and I went to the Ballet Magnificat, which was so awesome, especialy the finale, which was obscenely awesome to the utmost extreme. Philip got autographs from the dancers, and I talked to a couple of them. Like I said, awesome to the utmost extreme, and what makes it that way is that they don't dance for their own publicity, but for God. And when you really think about it, that's kind of the reason for people's  talents....yeah.   

      Also, I got a new sweater! And it didn't cost me a thing. See, Philip had this sweater that looked so pretty, that I liked to borrow it a lot. Well, yesterday, he got to the sweater before I did, so he ended up wearing it to church. Apparently, he came to the conclusion that I looked better in the sweater than he did when a guy told him that he looked like a metro in it.
     So, aside from haveing a lousy sore throat and the same affliction I had last semester, great weekend!