Assorted Oddities

 Probably one of the strangest things I'm known to do is dress up in clothing from other times. Some of it I make myself, some I get from antique stores. I love the elegance and romanticism of old dresses, and the way you put one on and you really feel like you've been transported to that time. Edwardian is my favorite (think Anne of Green Gables), but the time for which I have the least amount of clothing from. I do have a 1930's evening gown that the dry cleaner (a little old lady) was very impressed with, several dresses from the late 1940s, and a few from the 1950's - kind of an "I Love Lucy" look. I wear them to class when the mood takes me, but usually just out, for fun and to see what people do when they see it. The turn of the century ones I use when my friends and I go to little Victorian towns like Jim Thorpe, PA or Christmas Eve. (I do believe that the one thing I've done that is my greatest source of pride is that I was mistaken for a ghost in Walnutport and nearly caused some poor man to fall into the canal!) I designed my best friend Shanna's prom gown from a 1930s movie I caught a glimpse of on AMC one afternoon. My parents don't even bother trying to convince me it's unhealthy to be so weird. They've given up.

 It doesn't stop there, either. I watch old movies all the time. My old roommate Stacy at Millersville was addicted to hockey, I couldn't get enough AMC. I guess it worked out about evenly, though sometimes it didn't seem like it to me, being a person who finds sports less interesting than watching bread rise. I listen to swing music all the time, too. My grandfather and I once grew very frustrated with the rest of the family one Christmas morning and decided to ignore them. We sat talking about Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and the Andrews Sisters for two hours, then my grandmother yelled at us for being unsociable.

 I used to write an underground newspaper at Millersville University, it was called "Le Eminance Grise". (I didn't take French, I found it in a book, so don't yell at me for the spelling or grammer or whatever it is that's wrong with it.) It means "a confidential agent wielding unofficial power" which is exactly what I was doing -- in the beginning no one knew it was me writing it. There must have been a severe vacancy in their heads though, I mean if they had thought about it there was no one else on the floor I lived on who was sarcastic enough to come up with the stuff, let alone have the nerve to say it. I did it mostly just so I could get things off my mind. I found it really amusing, everyone else got mad at me because they didn’t understand sarcasm. Obviously they were not acquainted with Jonathan Swift, Monty Python, etc. Ah, well. We can't all be perfect. Personally I think cynicism is a lot better than being bubbly, I mean bubbles are so easy to pop if you just have a sharp enough pin… but I'm sure the fizzy people of the world would be offended by that. Not that I'm sorry or anything. Could I interest you in a peach?

 There's lots more quirky (read: frightening/strange and amusing, depending on your perception) things about me, which I'd be happy to tell you if we became friends, but I'm terribly suspicious of people I don't know. So e-mail me, and I'll always write back, and maybe I'll tell you more.

By the way, if you're confused by the various references to peaches (and other things), you obviously haven't seen Labyrinth. I can't help you, you're hopelessly trapped in reality. Renting it may be your only hope of escape.