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Wendy News
May 2, 1999
Issue #6
It's about freakin' time.
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CONTENTS:
o Let Me Splain
o Job? What Job?
o Reviews
o Really Official Credits
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Let Me Splain
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Okay, okay, I know, I know. I am incredibly lame. Not only because I've been missing for three months and haven't written a thing the entire time, but because I disappeared because of A BOY. All those years of hard-earned feminism swirled down the toity. But at least I'll own up to it. That's right, I found a wonderful boy and I've been spending pretty much every spare minute I have with him. So there, I said it.
But who the hell ever thought it would happen? Not me, that's for sure. So let me catch you up. I met Mark at work, i.e. Disney, sometime in mid-January. I thought he was pretty cute and not only that, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. We ate lunch together a couple of times and he'd come visit me on his breaks. He checked out my website and sent me e-mail. Whatever he said he was gonna do, he actually did. A very good sign.
On January 28, we went out on our first date, which really turned out to be a whole day of driving around and getting lost over and over looking for the place to get our Disney I.D.s, and then an evening of walking around the lake and eating in a small Irish pub. Not only did he turn out to be even cuter than I thought, but he had a great sense of humor and all the qualities I look for in a boy. All that crap people say they want but then they go out with the player guy (who I grew tired of a long time ago) -- all that "nice, sincere guy" stuff -- well, Mark had it. And he appeared to dig ME. Of all the luck.
From that night we were "an item." Our running joke was that we couldn't break up before Valentine's Day so we would actually have someone to celebrate it with. Of course by the end of the first date I wanted to marry him. But then I had to set that craziness aside (Lord knows I tend to get swept up in things) and simply let the time go by, observing and enjoying us. Every day I liked him even better than before. New discoveries would also be pleasant surprises. Instead of finding little things I didn't really like about him, I found more stuff to appreciate. He teases me a lot, but that's about my only complaint so far. (I'm an only child, okay? I'm not good at being teased.)
One night we were falling asleep (now keep that mind out of the gutter, you) and Grover jumped up on my desk and knocked a plant off, making a terrible crashing sound. It scared me to death and woke us both up. In the second after the crash, when I simply was scared, Mark instinctively covered me with his arm and said, "Are you okay?" I don't even think he was really awake. But that's the first thing he did. It may have been that moment that I knew I loved him.
ANYhoo, that's the whole syrupy sweet story. Three months later we're still together. Of course that's not a very long time, but I've got a feeling we'll last awhile. I always thought that expression, "You'll just know," about meeting the right person for you was such a load of doody, but now I understand it. At least I think I do. Boy will I be embarrassed if this whole thing goes bust. But I guess that's the risk you take when you fall for someone. Mmm.
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Job? What Job?
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So you may be wondering, how the hell did I get off my ass and start writing again? Well, it helped that I quit my job two days ago. Man, nothing feels better than quitting a job you hate. And I pretty much had grown to hate my job at Disney. Six months of being Pluto, Rafiki and Miss Piggy were just about all I could take. I didn't even WANT to hug the kids anymore. My joints ached, it's getting to be summer here in Florida (contrary to urban myth, there are NO air conditioners in those costumes), and I realized that I was working awfully damn hard for $6.40 an hour. So one morning I got up, called in sick and then went in later to say I quit.
Now, what was keeping me there was that I was literally a day away from getting health insurance. You have to work full-time at Disney for three months until you get insured. May 1st was my day. And as it loomed ahead of me, I found myself more and more down. I was tired, I had a cold, there was some sort of sore in my mouth that wouldn't heal and every morning that I got up I didn't want to get out of bed and go be a character.
I took inventory of my life. Why was I here? What counted? What made me most happy? Was the "smart" choice really the smart choice? Did I have enough faith to believe I would be okay no matter what happened?
The conclusion I came to was the same no matter which angle I approached it. I couldn't own my own soul and stay at Disney. Sound dramatic? Well, maybe it's a little dramatic, but there's a lot to owning your own soul, and I'm never happy when I'm "selling out" in some way, shape or form. The only reason I was staying at Disney was to save $233.60 a month, the exact amount it costs me to pay for my own health insurance. That's a lot of money, especially when you're making $6.40 an hour. The thought of saving that much money was really appealing to me. Appealing enough to make me forget that I had only taken this job for fun, and as soon as it wasn't fun anymore, I was going to leave.
I got the opinions of my mom (the best mom in the whole world) and Mark (the best boyfriend in the whole world) and both of them supported my decision 100 percent (see?). I couldn't worry about the money -- I had to get out of there. It was sucking my will to live. I didn't enjoy it anymore. I was tired of sweating and always looking like a slob. I wanted to wear lipstick and my red nail polish (Disney standards state you cannot wear nail polish that is "unnatural to your skin tone" or some such baloney, so I had to start painting my nails white -- I figured they coudn't argue with white, since it's the color of my eyeballs, heh-heh). I also wanted to wear my favorite necklace and not worry about someone telling me to take it off because it "wasn't in the dress code."
Can you see how this place could slowly crush my spirit?
All right, enough griping. I'm happy I quit and I haven't smiled this much in weeks. A huge weight has lifted off of my shoulders. I am flat broke and I have no idea how I'm going to pay this month's bills, but I feel 100 percent better, and that's what counts right now. It's the whole reason I moved out of New York in the first place -- I want to do what makes me happy. I figure tomorrow I'll start temping. Maybe the next day. I like having these few days off. It's decadent. And look -- I'm writing again! How about that.
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Reviews
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THE NEW ALMOND M&Ms
The Easter Bunny brought me these in my Easter Basket this year. In each M&M, nestled in the candy-coated chocolate, lies a whole roasted almond. IN EACH M&M. Do I need to say more? These even top Hershey's Almond Kisses, which only have half an almond in each kiss, PLUS there's no delicious and crunchy candy coating. And Peanut M&Ms -- well, you really can't compare. It's kind of a completely different animal. But put in a room and made to choose, I'd choose the Almond M&Ms over ANY other, ANY day. Yep.
Go try them and get hooked! I don't want those little weasels to stop making 'em.
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Really Official Credits!
Editor, Writer, Keeping it Short: Wendy Hall
To write to Wendy, send her an e-mail at:
hall_wendy@hotmail.com
To visit Wendy's website, go to:
http://geocities.datacellar.net/soho/studios/1232 -- it's long, but reliable. Bookmark it, wouldja?
"Wendy News" is a Girl Planet Production. Copyright 1999,
All Rights Reserved. Any stealing, cheating, backstabbing,
duplication or otherwise funky bad behavior without permission from Wendy Hall will result in Girl Planet Productions... well, I just don't want to say what we'll do. It's that ugly.
Who sprayed hair spray?
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