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2003-10-25 @ Some Late Hour : >>
Carving Pumpkins
It is good to be back in Portland. Even though it feels very quiet and empty here at the moment, since most people are still away for Fall Break. It has apparently been so quiet and empty, in fact, that someone has scrawled 'REDRUM' in crayon on one of the walls.
On my way to check my mail-box, I just happened to bump into Kathryn - the girl who was at Sussex (my university in England) last year as an exchange. She is evidently far more impulsive than I (I am the type who likes to plan everything ahead down to the finest detail - hence perhaps my frets about what I'm going to be doing in two years from now), for she suggested we eat dinner together and I then go over to her place to carve pumpkins with she and her housemates. For once I thought, "Great! What else have I to do? Well, actually lots, but there's plenty of time. Why not?" And went along. It was good. I had fun.
Kathryn misses Sussex and Brighton too, although she misses different things from me. We both miss clubbing, but she likes drum 'n' bass and hip hop and UK garage. I like retro, kitsch, tackiness. I like nights where they stop the music at midnight to have some whacky cabaret (I'm thinking of one in particular that they have on a Thursday called Dynamite Boogaloo). Nights where one celebrates just how tacky things can actually be. Where one can dance to The Human League under a shimmering mirror ball, having indulged in rather a lot of tequila.
As we carved away at our pumpkins on the front porch, I think we both realized that Brighton means quite different things to each of us. To me it is a totally unpretentious jolly seaside town where anything goes. Living there feels almost like being on holiday all the time. That is what I love about it. Perhaps it's because I grew up in London and felt much more inhibited there. I am interested to know more about what it means to Kathryn.
I told her about my trip to Connecticut and she seemed to know about exactly the kind of life I was talking about - ladies that lunch, belong to The League, get weekly manicures, and rarely seeing their investment banker husbands who commute to Manhattan by day. She asked me what I liked at the time about living there. I found that a difficult question to answer. For I find myself failing to see now what I could ever have liked.
I liked being a nanny, I suppose. I like children and I love to be around them. I liked that I had a real, grown-up, responsible job. I liked that I had set it up all on my own, traveled across the world all on my own, and succeeded. Also, I would probably say that I am more concerned with nice surroundings than most people (shallow as that may sound). I like things to be green and pretty and well-kept. I knew I was good at my job and I got a lot of positive feedback from it. I also had great friends, although they were nannies too and have all moved on now.
There is nothing even remotely like Dynamite Boogaloo in Connecticut though. I never went clubbing when I lived there, ever, ever, ever. I was under-age, so were my friends, and we just didn't do that kind of thing. That is something I have discovered since then. And I miss it a lot.
Carving Pumpkins
It is good to be back in Portland. Even though it feels very quiet and empty here at the moment, since most people are still away for Fall Break. It has apparently been so quiet and empty, in fact, that someone has scrawled 'REDRUM' in crayon on one of the walls.
On my way to check my mail-box, I just happened to bump into Kathryn - the girl who was at Sussex (my university in England) last year as an exchange. She is evidently far more impulsive than I (I am the type who likes to plan everything ahead down to the finest detail - hence perhaps my frets about what I'm going to be doing in two years from now), for she suggested we eat dinner together and I then go over to her place to carve pumpkins with she and her housemates. For once I thought, "Great! What else have I to do? Well, actually lots, but there's plenty of time. Why not?" And went along. It was good. I had fun.
Kathryn misses Sussex and Brighton too, although she misses different things from me. We both miss clubbing, but she likes drum 'n' bass and hip hop and UK garage. I like retro, kitsch, tackiness. I like nights where they stop the music at midnight to have some whacky cabaret (I'm thinking of one in particular that they have on a Thursday called Dynamite Boogaloo). Nights where one celebrates just how tacky things can actually be. Where one can dance to The Human League under a shimmering mirror ball, having indulged in rather a lot of tequila.
As we carved away at our pumpkins on the front porch, I think we both realized that Brighton means quite different things to each of us. To me it is a totally unpretentious jolly seaside town where anything goes. Living there feels almost like being on holiday all the time. That is what I love about it. Perhaps it's because I grew up in London and felt much more inhibited there. I am interested to know more about what it means to Kathryn.
I told her about my trip to Connecticut and she seemed to know about exactly the kind of life I was talking about - ladies that lunch, belong to The League, get weekly manicures, and rarely seeing their investment banker husbands who commute to Manhattan by day. She asked me what I liked at the time about living there. I found that a difficult question to answer. For I find myself failing to see now what I could ever have liked.
I liked being a nanny, I suppose. I like children and I love to be around them. I liked that I had a real, grown-up, responsible job. I liked that I had set it up all on my own, traveled across the world all on my own, and succeeded. Also, I would probably say that I am more concerned with nice surroundings than most people (shallow as that may sound). I like things to be green and pretty and well-kept. I knew I was good at my job and I got a lot of positive feedback from it. I also had great friends, although they were nannies too and have all moved on now.
There is nothing even remotely like Dynamite Boogaloo in Connecticut though. I never went clubbing when I lived there, ever, ever, ever. I was under-age, so were my friends, and we just didn't do that kind of thing. That is something I have discovered since then. And I miss it a lot.