Friends
Posted by Gypsy on Jan 30, 2006
Yesterday, Jeremy said something to me. I won’t get into why he said it or what he meant by it, but he told me the difference between him and I is that my friends are everything to me. That I don’t rate them anywhere above him in my life, but that I don’t rate them below him either.
By friends, he didn’t mean all of my friends, just a specific group of friends, my friends from college.
In the military, it’s really hard to make those friendships that are going to last a lifetime. People move around so much and you never know how long someone is going to be around, so eventually you start to build a wall, create a persona, turn yourself into who you want to be to that person, because you know eventually you will part ways. Sure, you may talk on the phone a bit at first, then it will taper off to the occasional e-mail, then the friendship will become only a yearly Christmas card until eventually you lose all contact with that person. Regulating them to a random thought, a “wonder where she is now,” only when a nearly forgotten memory flashes into your head.
Those people, my “temporary friends,” mean nothing to me. When I or they leave here, I doubt I’ll even attempt to keep in touch with them. In fact, there are some already who have left and I don’t bother to try and reach out to them. Why prolong the inevitable.
This makes my friends from home all that much more important to me. These are people who have known me for all of my adult life, all of them except one I met when I was 18 and a theater major at FLCC. The exception has known me since I was in middle school.
These are people who have seen me on good days and bad, through happy times and bad times. These were the people who were there, at least in spirit if not physically, when I went through the roughest part of my life. Even though they are three thousand miles away, if anything happened to one, I would still drop everything to be there for him (or her for the only other girl in the group).
No matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen any of them, nothing ever changes. Sure, they’ve grown up from the people I met 6 years ago, they’ve gotten more mature, found jobs or are off to grad school, settling down a little, but they are still the same people inside. No matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen any of them, the conversation still flows as if we were in the Green Room just yesterday.
Most importantly, none of them has ever really judged me. Sure, one or two have said something I’ve done or said is fucked up, but they haven’t stopped being my friends for it. They haven’t lectured me for it. They just accept me for who I am and have never tried to change me, which has pretty much cemented my loyalty to all of them.
Don’t get me wrong. Nothing is perfect and there are times where there is tension within the group. I know I’ve been pissed off at one or two of them at some point or another. I’m sure someone’s been mad at me. But it seems like no matter what happens, we’ve all remained friends.
So, do I rank them pretty high in my life? Fuck yeah, I do. I know people who would give anything to have found one friend like that in their life and I was lucky enough to find a group of them. And nothing would make me give them up.
My weekend with Andy Taylor
Posted by Gypsy on Jan 29, 2006
This weekend I got to see one of my best friends from college, who I hadn’t seen in three years. There’s only one way to describe the Andy Taylor I knew back at FLCC. It’s all in a phrase. “Every guy wanted to be him, and every girl wanted to do him.” Well, in three years nothing has changed, except that as I’m now a married woman mady in love with my husband, I’m immune to his charm. But other women still swoon at the site of him.
We just went out for a few drinks, but I had a wonderful time reminiscing on good times from back in the day and catching up on the last three years. After all the stress I’ve been going through over the last few months, a complete break away from all things military was just what the doctor ordered. It’s really nice having this little piece of home right here in SoCal and I look forward to hanging out with him again soon.
A few photos have been posted on my Flickr site, but here is the best one of the night, taken at some bar in Burbank. And yes, ladies, he’s single.
How soon it’s forgotten
Posted by Gypsy on Jan 24, 2006
A comment was made on my last post that really got me. I was going to just comment on that, but it turned into this: It’s really shameful that so many Americans have forgotten the events that occured on Sept. 11, 2001 were an attack against America, an act of war, taking place on American soil. Yes, Pearl Harbor was also an act of war on American soil against Americans, but the similarities end there. Pearl Harbor was an attack on American MILITARY forces. Yes, 68 civilians were killed. But so were 2,403 American servicemen. People who’s job it is to fight and die for their country. And when the attacks occurred on Pearl Harbor, the world was already in a state of war. It was only a matter of time before America was forced to join in. The attackers were the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States had already been intercepting Japanese messages and ciphering them. We knew an attack was possible, though were still caught unaware when we were attacked. 9-11 was an attack on CIVILIANS. The goal of the terrorists was to kill civilians and they did. They killed 2,967 of them. These were people going about their daily lives during PEACETIME when 19 terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flights 11 and 77 and United Airlines Flights 175 and crashed them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked and would have crashed somewhere else, no doubt killing more civilians if it hadn’t been for the heros on that flight who fought back, causing the plane to crash in a field in Pennsylvania. At Pearl Harbor, though caught unaware, the military had the means to fight back, to do their job. On 9/11, everyday Americans going about their lives became heros. Some by attacking their attackers and saving many lives at the risk of their own. Others, like the members New York City Police Department and the Fire Department City of New York, lost their lives trying to save lives. I think the main difference between Pearl Harbor and the events of Sept. 11, 2001 is this: I remember being TAUGHT about Pearl Harbor in school. But for the rest of my life, I will remember even detail of 9/11. I’ll remember the exact spot I was standing when I heard a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I will remember WATCHING on television the World Trade Center fall to the ground not 650 miles from where I was standing. I’ll remember wanting more than anything in the world to be home with my mother and my family and to not be seeing what was happening on telelvision. I’ll remember the aftermath, seeing people post signs all over Manhattan looking for information on missing loved ones, the months and months it took to clear the devastation at Ground Zero and the way everyone was so proud to be American. Just one month after the attacks of 9/11, the United States led coalition forces in invading Afghanistan, the home of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Al-Qaeda network and the plot to attack the World Trade Center. That was almost 4 and a half years ago. We are still there. In less than five months, I will be there. Maybe most Americans have forgotten what happened on 9/11. You can bet those are the people who’s everyday lives weren’t affected or even interrupted by 9/11. Ask a family member of someone who was killed that day, and they’ll probably say they think of that tragic day every morning when they wake up and realize their spouse, child, parent, sister, brother, friend isn’t there anymore. I remember 9/11. Too bad so many others have forgotten.
It’s official, I’m a fucking geek
Posted by Gypsy on Jan 21, 2006
Ok, so I’m officially coming out as a geek. And the proof is I’m taking leave and flying to New York City in February 23-26 for a comic book convention.
In my defense, though, my reason for going to the Con is Kevin Smith will be there. Now, that usually wouldn’t be enough to fly all the way accross the country, but a bunch of people I know from his message board will be in town as well, so I’m also getting the chance to meet a group of awesome people I know from online.
Ok, that made me sound like an even bigger geek. Oh well, I guess my secret is out.
I haven’t been to NYC since before 9-11, so I’m also going to take time while I’m there to see Ground Zero. A friend of mine went there last year while he was in the city and said it was very emotional for him. He said he cried when he went there. This is a man who didn’t even cry when his own father died of cancer last year, so that really says a lot about how much it affected him.
Anyway, it should be a really good trip and I can’t wait to go.
