Last night, after exiting a private showing of "Running With Scissors" (honestly, people just don't recognize excellent cinema when it comes to town!), I was driving around Hazard. I passed Big Lots and did a double take. Something simply was not right. After staring for half a second I realized that blinking there in front of me were enormous neon red letters proclaiming for the world to see that this store was called "Big ots." Yes, that's right folks, Bigots. Here in our very own Hazard, KY rests the precise locality at which people obstinately or intolerantly devoted to their own opinions and prejudices may purchase low quality merchandise at close-out prices. How thrilling. Or maybe just fitting. I laughed merrily.
I think I just need to give all my worldly possessions a moon bath.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Alice....Around Here
I find myself using the phrase "around here" a lot lately. I go back and forth about life around here, the people around here, the ideas, beliefs, postulations, and attitudes around here. This area is dear to me, and yet I mostly feel isolated from it... nomadic, fluxuating between feeling at home and not.
For a long time after we moved here, I stood out completely, constantly fielding inquiries of "Yer not frum around year, are ya?" I appreciated these sentiments because they separated me from a place that I found mildy deplorable. Yet as the years have passed, I've grown attatched to small town life and have become slightly intimidated by the thought that my life could be different somewhere else. I wonder, "Have I become what I once scoffed?"
Recently, I noticed that I was beginning to become defensive when people would degrade life in this small town. I began to see the merits of simplistic, if frugal, living. Resistance to change seemed more like peace than small-mindedness. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with living fairly statically, for that is a choice, not a vice. I found that I've grown to love it here.
Yet for all the admiration I feel towards the beauty of eastern Kentucky's people, landscapes, and idiosyncracies, I'm back to a place of frustration, hence my current internal debate about the nature of life "around here." So little of the world is accessible. It's kind of like an alternate universe, or so it seems at times. You have to travel almost an hour to access a decent, functional movie theatre. Live theatre is almost non-existent.
Honestly, I think I was set off thinking about the whole thing because I couldn't find giant pretzels I needed for a cooking endeavour last weekend. "What a world do I live in," I wondered, "when I have to drive to the next county to find pretzels?" Maybe I just need to walk it off! : )
I was American McGee's Alice for our Halloween Lock-In at ALC. Ahhh. It was fabulous. Everyday is Halloween in my head, and this was the first time I've had the opportunity to dress up since I was, like, twelve. So I was fairly thrilled. I wanted my dog, Lucy, to be my White Rabbit, with bunny ears and a little pocket watch, but she couldn't behave herself until two in the morning, so no dice, I'm afraid. Still a blast being deliciously gory.
For a long time after we moved here, I stood out completely, constantly fielding inquiries of "Yer not frum around year, are ya?" I appreciated these sentiments because they separated me from a place that I found mildy deplorable. Yet as the years have passed, I've grown attatched to small town life and have become slightly intimidated by the thought that my life could be different somewhere else. I wonder, "Have I become what I once scoffed?"
Recently, I noticed that I was beginning to become defensive when people would degrade life in this small town. I began to see the merits of simplistic, if frugal, living. Resistance to change seemed more like peace than small-mindedness. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with living fairly statically, for that is a choice, not a vice. I found that I've grown to love it here.
Yet for all the admiration I feel towards the beauty of eastern Kentucky's people, landscapes, and idiosyncracies, I'm back to a place of frustration, hence my current internal debate about the nature of life "around here." So little of the world is accessible. It's kind of like an alternate universe, or so it seems at times. You have to travel almost an hour to access a decent, functional movie theatre. Live theatre is almost non-existent.
Honestly, I think I was set off thinking about the whole thing because I couldn't find giant pretzels I needed for a cooking endeavour last weekend. "What a world do I live in," I wondered, "when I have to drive to the next county to find pretzels?" Maybe I just need to walk it off! : )
I was American McGee's Alice for our Halloween Lock-In at ALC. Ahhh. It was fabulous. Everyday is Halloween in my head, and this was the first time I've had the opportunity to dress up since I was, like, twelve. So I was fairly thrilled. I wanted my dog, Lucy, to be my White Rabbit, with bunny ears and a little pocket watch, but she couldn't behave herself until two in the morning, so no dice, I'm afraid. Still a blast being deliciously gory.
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