The Friend Archetypes of casetheplace

Throughout life, the interpersonal relationships you form essentially repeat the same friend scripts over and over, each friend a variation on your own personal friend archetypes. These are mine.

The Big Dumb Black Dude


He's not really dumb, just kind of bumbling and empty-headed, in a Homer Simpson kind of way. His size and his blackness intimidate most, but casetheplace knows that deep down he has a heart of gold, just like that hooker Julia Roberts played.



The Redhead


From strawberry blonde to carrot top, natural to bottle-bred, she's the Rita Hayworth to my Elizabeth Taylor.



The Gemini

Double the pleasure, double the fun. Double the switchblades when we get into a brawl.



The Pen Pal

Friends that are at least 1000 miles away are the closest friends of all.



The Ghost From the Past

Oh my god, where have you been for the past five years?! Let's pick up where we left off!



The Instant BFF 4 EVR!

Love you like a sister until we fall out, then I'll hate you like the heifer I secretly always knew you were.


The Colleague/Partner in Gossip

Did you hear what Cheryl said to Austin?/Gossip is the glue of true sisterhood.

***

Yes, Allison, send me any and everything you think I might like to watch! I never say no to television shows, unless it's Everybody Loves Raymond or Will & Grace. The line must be drawn.



I hope all the Americans out there had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. It got off to a slow start for me, what with working Saturday and all, but soon turned into the Ori & Case show.



From a conversation on the way to the liquor store

ME: We should totally make margaritas when we get back!

ORI: Yes! I have everything we need at home.

ME: You know, Margarita is my middle name.

ORI: (giggling) Haha, yeah.

ME: Yeah, it really is.

ORI: Yeah, Margarita is your middle name. (giggles)

ME: No, seriously, it really is.

ORI: Case, stop.

ME: No, seriously. Look, here's my driver's license.

(PAUSE)

ORI: Whoa, your middle name really is Margarita!

***

Books I'm reading



But before I get to that, let me say I have never watched Veronica Mars. Moving on.



I've decided to quote from a couple books I'm reading at the moment, because they are good and I want to share with you.



FICTION

"There were plenty of things to want to feel safe from when you're young, but when you're older, Charlotte thought, it feels good to stand close to someone who would be willing to take your side, no matter what, and have the size and the conviction to really stick to it."

--Ellen Cooney, A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies


NON-FICTION

"Rising out of the ashes of feminism, and repudiating its critique of the narrow confines of middle-class motherhood, the celebrity mom profile was an absolutely crucial tool in the media construction of maternal guilt and insecurity, as well as the romanticizing of motherhood, in the 1980s and byond."

--Susan J. Douglas & Meredith W. Michaels, The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women

***

Big Love




I love this show. I do. I love Chloe Sevigny being all evil and diabolical, I love the examination of creepy fringe religious types (I have extended family that fit that description, except they are not polygamists and they don't live in Utah...but the basic idea's the same), I love Bill Paxton, I love the oldest daughter who can't decided if she's skeezed out by her family or a willing member, I love the guest spots from the chick from Napolean Dynomite...but mostly I love the character Margene. Especially after this latest episode, where we find out she's 23 and a closet smoker and feels like a total fuck-up most of the time. Oh yeah, I feel ya Margene. I feel ya.



My birthday weekend was basically a four day ruckus, culminating last night in French bubbly and pastries from Alon's while watching The Princess Bride and Mad Hot Ballroom with my friend Ori. Her husband came home towards the end of the complete and total girl-out, and by that point we were all winey and loud. I was rather surprised he didn't retreat to the office, but sat down on the couch and interacted with us. And then the long suffering man got to drive my mostly drunk ass home.



I got something that I really, really wanted in the career and job department Monday, and am super awesome excited about it. So life continues being pretty damn good on the casetheplace front. You?

***

Further evidence in the case "Rachael knows everybody"



I took my friend Ori to Rachael's birthday party extravaganza last night. They'd been wanting to meet each other since I'm always talking about one to the other. Well, when I went to introduce them they both squealed, "I KNOW YOU!" So much for never having met.



My birthday's tomorrow, and I think tonight I'm either a) going to let someone take me out for an insanely expensive dinner b) go to the club and find men to buy me insanely expensive drinks or c) both. Or maybe d) none of the above. I don't know yet. If anyone wants to celebrate my turning 23, give me a holla.

***

The long and the short of it



Really, the only way the marriage issue will ever be fair is if it is delegalized. That is, marriage as a legal entity ceases to exist. Because, you see, this issue of gay marriage is really an issue about legal, or state-sanctioned, marriage versus religious or spiritual marriage. Keep your laws off my fucking relationship, or some such. Word.

***

Signs Point to Yes



Lots of good things going on lately... my chi must be all balanced or something. Job offers have been pouring in, the interview this morning went soooo well and I should know if I have it or not by Monday. I really really really want it...and if wanting is getting, I'll have it.



I ran into an old schoolmate today, totally by chance, and I was able to eat lunch with her and have old memories dredged up without having a total meltdown, or even a minor one. This is a good thing; it means that I've definitely moved on with my life.



And omigod, Jim and Pam on The Office finale?!?! I figure enough time has passed that I'm not spoiling this for anyone. And McDreamy and Meredith on Grey's?!?!? How am I supposed to get through the summer not knowing how those two romances resolve?? How??

***

Who cares if I'm crazy, I've got it going on!

Or

An entry in which I brag a lot




Who made five, count them, FIVE A's???!!!??? I did! That's a 4.0 for this semester, bitches.



Who aced her job interview this evening?? I did! I start training in a few weeks.



Who has a phone interview for a certain governmental internship position tomorrow morning?? I do! This could really get me on the political power track I so desperately crave.



Man. Things are really looking super awesome alright. And my Maymester class started today, and I'm in it with my girl Ori, and I have a total teacher crush on the professor. Life is good!

***

Less talk, more rock




Me: I have to go to my friend's going away party tonight and after today I don't really feel like it. I'm sick of dealing with people. Plus the last time he had a party at his house I set his trash can on fire, so I have to be on good behavior.


J: How'd you set his trash can on fire?


L: Smoking. Threw a cigarette in it, right?


Me: It was sitting outside, and I'd had a few drinks, and it was full of all this paper, so I set it on fire.

J: (alarmed) Oh! So you set it on fire on purpose! (long pause) Well.



The above exchange occurred at work today, and has apprently sealed my fate as "that crazy chick you don't want to fuck with cause she's crazy." I was a little bit hurt by the judgemental, wide-eyed, slightly fearful looks my three coworkers gave me. I mean, I'm not crazy, right? Anyone would set their friend's trash can on fire, if it was outside and full of paper and they'd had a few frozen daquiris on top of a couple beers, right? Right?




This kept nagging me the whole way home; up until now, in fact. I was trying to take a quick disco nap a few minutes ago, and couldn't fall asleep, the thought that people think I'm some crazy unstable chick eating at my piece of mind. I'd never given it too much thought before; in fact, I'd long cultivated a less talk, more rock image, lest people think I was all talk and no action. Because, damnit, I'm nothing if not action. Nothing wrong with that; perhaps the world would be a less fucked up place if there were more doers rocking and less talkers talking.




But then I started reviewing some of my more notorious moments, those times from my past that always come back to haunt me. ("You're the girl who could name everyone in the motherfucker!") When viewed in a line up all together, one right after another, they are pretty damning. And it was kind of a shock, that I give off this aura of instability that is completely, 100% justified in terms of what most people see. I know all that's going on upstairs, but most people don't know all that. They just see some girl hanging off a balcony New Year's Eve, or vindictively throwing her boyfriend's clothes out the window, or fucking her roomate's boyfriend just to piss her off. I mean, that is serious unstable stuff. That is cart-her-ass-off-to-Milledgeville crazy. But only when taken completely out of context, back to back to back. These things, in reality, are merely minor blips on my little life radar, just one thing in a long line of more mundane things. Everyone worth knowing has those knockout moments that always stand out in everyone's mind, and I think mine just make me a little more interesting than most.





But I can definitely see how people think I'm crazy.

***

A little more on the subject



I've stayed away from livejournal for months, as most of you know, but of course I just HAD to go see what the husband had to say about the big D. And I got a little jealous for a minute, cause he had all these comments posted, all public and life affirming and shit. But then I remembered how great my friends have been...the ones I've held close through everything, the ones I talk to on the phone and drink with, and smoke with, and scheme with. So really, I have nothing to be jealous about, other than that my friends haven't been PUBLIC about our love and affection for one another, and really, as I go through this messy life of mine, I prefer to keep some things hidden.
Or quiet. Or secret. Whatever you want to call it.



It's been sad around here the past few weeks, once we really had to face the cold hard truth of incompatibility and irreparably brokenness. We're not angry, just deflated, and I've definitely had a lack of wind in my sails as a result. But I pulled through this semester at school, I found a great place to live, I've been applying for jobs and internships like mad. Things are really good in a lot of ways, and I've got a lot of positives going on.



I'm in a much healthier place than I was a year and a half ago, when I was partying (too much) and feeling sorry for myself (too much). I've been doing a lot of personal processing, and hopefully getting my shit together, although only time can really prove that to be true or not. I have plans for the future, real things I want to do; I'm taking action and getting going. And hell, I'm not even 23 yet. But as I was telling a friend the other night, I've been living in fast forward for so long (thank you, Kenny Chesney) it's hard to know how to slow down a little bit and flip it over to something new and better. That's it. That's what this divorce is the beginning of. Something new...and hopefully better.



Don't get it twisted, Rob's still my buddy. He's just not my life partner. I think maybe though I'm like the cat that walks alone. That I just might walk alone.

***

There's no good way to put this, so here it is: Rob and I are getting a divorce.

It's almost over! Two finals down, three to go.

I haven't been writing here much, but I've been writing a lot elsewhere. Will I share it with you some day? Who knows...maybe if I get that big book contract...