Sunday, May 16, 2010

What is strange?

Throughout the past couple weeks, I’ve chronicled strange. I’ve thought about why we love strange and I’ve examined lots of strange things we love, like weddings, fests, talented kids, arbitrary rules, maps, strangers and more. However, as a culmination to my blog, I think it is important that I examine what strange really is and what makes this small Ohio town that I’ve called home for four years, strange. So join me as I question the strangeness around me.

Strange to me

When it comes to strange, I think just about anything can fit the part. I think it all just depends on how you look at it; it truly requires looking beneath the surface and questioning our culture. For example, look at my last post about talented kids. At first glance, it doesn’t seem that strange for kids to be talented and express their talent, but when you look deeper questions come up. Like, who videotaped you doing this and felt the need to post it online? Why did they post it- for good-natured humor or for 15 seconds of fame? Why do people love watching these videos so much that they get millions of votes and then Ellen Degeneres has them on her show? Really, anything can be strange- you just have to dig deep.

Strange to others

To further my quest for what is strange, I wanted to ask some friends what they thought. I began with my roommate Shelby West, who (as I’ve said before) is one of the strangest people I know. I figured of all my friends, she would know best what is strange. Shelby says, “There can be a spectrum of what strange is. It could be a good or bad thing.” She goes on to say, “It could be another word for unique or uncommon…a lot of people view things as strange [because] it makes them feel uncomfortable or it’s new to them and they don’t know how to think about it so they label it as strange.” Most times when people think something is strange, they actually just think it is uncomfortable and instead of dealing with it, they write it off as strange.

After speaking with Shelby, I wanted some more insight, so I asked my friend Maggie Rentsch. Maggie is one of the silliest and happiest people I know and I love the outlook she has on life. Because she often takes a different viewpoint and reserves judgment, I thought I’d ask her what she thinks about strange. “Strange is abnormal or different than the common norm,” she says, “I think something is strange when something is different than what the normal population is doing.” Again, she calls upon the same theme as Shelby, that people label what they don’t understand as strange. It seems to be a cultural phenomenon.

My friend Kirstin Grodrian said “Something strange is not normal or bizarre. If something were out of the ordinary, I would call it strange. I thought that a boy was strange when I saw him on Court Street wearing a top hat. I guess for me, something that is strange is something that is not understandable and very different to me.”

I asked my little sister in my sorority, Angela Yacovazzi, and she said, “to me, strange is something out of line from the norm that society gives. This can change from place to place though depending on the people in a given area and what they think is normal.”

I needed to know more, so I went to another friend and roommate, Su Sachdeva. Su is a journalism major and a patron of the strange. It is in Su’s nature to like little silly things that I think most people would call strange, like Aqua songs and caramel corn Ditto’s. When asked about strange, Su says “I think it has to be out of the ordinary and something that you don’t see or deal with on a daily basis; [something] you don’t deal with in normal life.” I think I am sensing a pattern…

Strange Athens

Being in a college town, strange in all around me. Around every corner I see 20-something kids spreading their wings for the first time, pretending to be liberal to backlash against everything their parents have taught them, practicing kung fu on college green and being hipster skinny. Obviously, I think Athens is strange- but do others? I had to know, so I asked my friends: What makes Athens strange?

Maggie said, “I don’t think Athens is strange per se. I think there are people in Athens that are a little different- either super hippie or just new age, and they stand out and are different.” So for my lovely friend Maggie, it was more about the people and the culture of Athens.

Shelby had a little different opinion. She said, “There’s a lot of people and random things in Athens that you wouldn’t normally see altogether in one place. There’s an overload of different things at the same time that makes [Athens] a little out of the ordinary.” Shelby seems to agree with Maggie that it is more about the blending of people and their own personal quirks.

My little, Angela, did not agree that Athens was strange, saying “I feel there isn't anything strange in Athens because the openness and differences between people is accepted. I feel one of the norms in Athens is to be different.” I think it is interesting that Angela talked about the norms of Athens, because norms create strangeness, so it really depends on the norms of the culture.

Su put in some good insight saying, “I think a lot of things make Athens strange, from the people and the setting, to the general culture of Athens. It’s very different from other cities or towns I’ve been in. A lot of things go on here that are more eccentric than your normal village.”

After speaking with all of them, I think it’s pretty clear that strange is in the eye of the beholder. Strange can be anything- whether it be because we just don’t understand, or something is generally quite weird, strange comes from all different places. And Athens? Well, I think you just need to walk down Court Street to see the strange- but it’s because of the people. College is a melting pot of education, opinions, backgrounds and ideology. It is here that we stretch our wings for the first time and begin to question things- or go through that weird phase of tribal dance that will haunt us the rest of our lives. Regardless, it is here that we are all allowed to be strange, and Athens provides a haven for us. So go on. Get out there and be strange.



Below is a slideshow of some of the awesome things that make Athens our strange home.



All photos are my own

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Strange Little Kid Talents

I feel like every time I turn on my computer there is some new kid star doing a crazy video on YouTube! There were the British babies talking about charlie Then there was the dancing kids, whether Beyonce or the Black Eyed Peas. But the newest sensation, that I have to say I have fallen in love with as well is...



That's right, I am now at the mercy of a 12-year-old boy singing Paparazzi on YouTube. I even watched him on Ellen today sing it live. So what is it about Americans, and maybe people in general, that we just love kids who do neat or funny stuff? I think that we like to see funny things in general (see Why Do We Love Strange?), but also, we love to see kids doing it because it is so unexpected. Our minds are collectively blown when kids sing, dance, bite, giggle, anything that is somewhat cute or impressive.

We don't expect children to pull out these mad talents, we expect them to sing off-key and be adorable, but we love when they surprise us! Also, I think we all like to see a little bit of ourselves in these kids, like That Could Have Been Me!! Or perhaps, That Could Be My Kid!! But the strangest of all is the creepy parents a-la-balloon boy who exploit their kids for 15-seconds of fame. But for now, we can sit back end enjoy some pint-sized entertainment. Now isn't that strange?

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Strange Fests

So really, what is the big deal about fests? A huge group of drunk, dirty people climbing on roofs and taking over streets and fields? This does not sound like my idea of fun. And yet, every spring quarter people crawl out of the woodwork to get to these things. What is the allure? Today is Palmer Fest and as one of the bigger fests, everyone is there. Well, everyone but me. I participated in a diversity conference today so I did not go to Palmer, but all day long I have been getting mad texts telling me to get to Palmer, and when I explain that I can't go, it's "oh, poor thing, sucks for you." No. It doesn't. I don't want to be lit on fire or have a couch hurled at me. And, it's cold this year, so why would you want to be out day drinking in 50 degree weather? If there is a fest I will risk it all for, it's number fest, this year 7 fest. Man, I love me some number fest. I don't know what it is, but there's something about getting muddy and running around in a field that gets my heart pumping, and being legally allowed to drink doesn't hurt either. I mean, look at this picture- don't you wish you could have been there?

Want a hug?

A fest isn't a fest without mud!
Photo courtesy myself

Nice and Muddy

Handsome, right?
Photo courtesy myself

As college students, we just can't resist the excuse to drink outdoors with all of our friends enjoying those final weeks of spring quarter. We love the sun, we love the music, we love the people. Fest season is one of the things that makes Athens, Athens and many students are just as attached to the fests as they are the campus. And isn't that strange?

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Strange Arbitrary rules

In America, is seems that we love arbitrary rules. We love to enforce these strange guidelines that don't really come from anywhere. This week, I have had so many experiences with arbitrary rules because it is Greek Week. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ohio University's Greek Week, it's basically a week long competition where fraternities and sororities pair up and participate in different challenges including philanthropy, attendance, speakers, sports and something called Airbands. Airbands is the culmination event and worth the most points. Basically, airbands is a skit that we make up that also has songs and dances. Check out the video below to see my team's Airbands skit which I wrote with my other Greek Week Representatives.



Some of the rules for Airbands are ridiculous! Don't step outside the tape line. Don't clap or make any sound. Enter only from the right and exit only from the left. No cleavage. No shoes. Because of my exasperation and frustration with arbitrary rules for greek week, I'd like to list some arbitrary rules we follow every day in America.

1. Walking on the right side of the sidewalk I don't know how we came up with this, but everyone follows! My roommate Kate Shicks, who I call Gogo, grew up in Japan and doesn't know this custom, so she walks on the left side of the sidewalk and is constantly running into people. As a social experiment, try to defy this rule and see how many people YOU bump into!

2. Showing up 15 minutes lateMy. Biggest. Pet. Peeve. Of. All. Time. Enough said.

3. Facing forward in elevators Try this social experiment sometime. It is so strange that we have been socialized to always face forward in an elevator instead of back or to the side or leaning up against the door...I guess it makes sense to face forward since you will be walking out, but still..who started this and why can't we stop doing it?

4. Waiting until everyone has their food to eat I understand social graces, but sometimes I've waited 20 minutes for my food! Why is it that we are willing to sacrifice the warmth of our food and our tremendous hunger so someone else doesn't have to watch us eat for a couple more minutes? And then they're so shocked when you wait, it's like uhh...what did you expect me to do? I've been socialized by American culture.

5. Denying help the first time offered Man, it is hard to get more stubborn than this. Why is it that we just cannot accept help the first time, but almost always accept help the second time offered. I do this all the time! No, no really I'm fine with this 40 lb. box, I can totally handle it, I am good...alright if you insist!! If we know we're going to say yes eventually, why not just say yes the first time?

Friday, April 30, 2010

Strange Maps

When walking home from breakfast this morning, I noticed all of the truly strange things around me. Being a college town, this is the perfect place to experiment with weird food, habits and people and of course, I wanted to share them with you! Follow this walking tour in order to see some of the strangest sights in uptown Athens. I challenge you to go explore your own town to see what strange things you can find!



View Strangest Places in Athens in a larger map

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Strange Strangers

Possibly one of the weirdest people I know is my dear friend and roommate, Shelby West. Shelby is one of those people who you meet and just think she is nuts--and I mean this in the best possible way, I love Shelby more than anything because she keeps me sane (ironic, right?) But because Shelby is so strange, strange things just seem to happen to her. Now she is just a chip off the old block, making her mom an equally strange specimen. The two of them together can only produce strange and hilarious stories, so here is a real gem from the last time they were together in Athens. Oh the things that happen when you meet strangers...



Sunday, April 25, 2010

Weird Wedding Slideshow!

Well readers, I know you are excited because, as promised, I have a slideshow that gives representation to my last post. We love weddings in America- we love to eat huge amounts of food, dress up, get drunk and dance badly- so really, what's not to love about a wedding? No one knows where these traditions come from, or why we all do them, but we do them none the less. Holding other people's babies? Check. Dancing with people you don't want to dance with? Check. Color-coordinating family members? Check. Check out the pictures that explain better than I, what makes weddings so strange.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Weird Weddings

Alright, who hasn't been to a crazy, strange, weird wedding? The very idea of weddings is kind of bizarre if you think about it. A bunch of people getting together to celebrate two people who have chosen to sign a document together, mash up all their money and spend every single day waking up to that person for the rest of their lives! So sure, what better way to celebrate than to get dressed up, watch a five-minute ceremony (unless your Catholic, then it's an hour--that's a whole other post..), then get smashed, shovel cake into your mouth and dance to Shout! (A little bit softer now! A little bit softer now!). Don't get me wrong, I love weddings! I plan on having one myself and doin all sorts of weird stuff at it. I am lucky enough to be going to my cousin Laurie's wedding in Dallas this weekend, and let me tell you, I am beyond excited to see how Texas does weddings. But before we get into a whole other conversation of weird, lets take a moment to examine the strange, strange traditions of the American wedding...

1. Wedding Cake ahh the wedding cake. The scrumptious centerpiece that brides are willing for fork over thousands of dollars for. Talk about a strange tradition! Why on earth do we spend incredible amounts of money on something that is going to be cut up, distributed to a bunch of people- half of which we probably don't even know, and then gone forever? And those creepy cake toppers? Ahh and lets not forget about that creepy top layer that the bride and groom will save forever getting crusty in their freezer because they'll forget to eat it their first anniversary...and second...and third...Essentially, the wedding cake is a hungry monster in which to throw money into. If you paid me a couple thousand dollars, I would be your wedding cake, frosting and all!

2. Tossing the flowers Please, let me gather all my lady friends and have them wait with baited breath while I proceed to blindly pummel them with my hugely expensive flower arrangement! I mean, who doesn't want to get smacked across the faces with some calla lilies and then have some creepy guy take a garter off your leg with his teeth? Eww, enough said.

3. Ushers Ok come on...I can find my seat by myself, you're only here because the bride and groom forgot to put you in the wedding party. Bride or grooms side? Forget it, I'm parkin in the aisle.

4. Open Bars Truly the creme de la creme of a fancy wedding- only a very loving (and loaded) bride and groom will provide you with this service. They're trying to thank you for sitting through their boring ceremony by gettin ya sauced enough to do the funky chicken and other awkward, forced community dances...do yourself a favor- once you hit the bar, stay there.

5. Honeymoon Because after I've spent thousands of dollars on a wedding, all I want to do is shovel out more money to go lay on a beach...ahhh, isn't it relaxing to think about your savings washing away like the tides? Why is it that we feel we deserve a vacation after a wedding? You sat on your butt planning for like two years, so now you get a trip? Huh? I've been in college working my butt off for four years, do I get a trip? No, I get to move back in with my parents...

I could go on and on, but I will spare you dear readers. Weddings are tons of fun, maybe because of the dancing, definitely because of the drinking, and sometimes because of the people you meet- but weddings are always weird. Strange traditions never die, and I am pleased to tell you that I will be posting a slideshow of all the strange and lovely things I experience this weekend at my cousin's wedding...get excited, I'll be hunting for strange.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Why do we love strange?

As I read over my last post, a question occurred to me…why is it that we love strange? Peoplelove to hear weird stories, strange facts and obscure gossip- just look at tabloid sales, they practically fly off the rack! And I don’t know about you, but my favorite page in the newspaper is News of the Odd.

So what’s going on here? Why do we feel this way? Well, I have a couple theories…

1. Nothing interesting ever seems to happen to me. My life is so boring, I have to reach out to other sources to find strangeness. Every once in a while I’ll get a good nugget of strange in my life, so I always share it with other pe
ople to make up for the lack of strangeness in their lives. I like to think they would do the same for me.

photo courtesy chalboardmanifesto.com
2. We are nosy. Oh come on, you know you are. We love knowing what’s going on in other people’s lives and what crazy things happen to them. This goes along with the first theory- we’re just too boring to be entertaining all the time.
photo courtesy atrandomcomics.com
3. It didn’t really happen unless you share it. This is so true! Unless you tell everyone about your strange story, it will fall into a vortex of if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did it really happen? We just seem to need our experiences validated.

photo courtesy cartoonstock.com
4. We love to laugh. This one may be most powerful of all. We just cannot resist the opportunity to have a good laugh! When we can all laugh together, it strengthens our friendships and even our love, so why not share a strange and embarrassing story at your own expense in order to fall more in love with your friends.

photo courtesy myself and my best friend, Jenna

I don’t know what it is about strange, but it seems to bring people together. Whether it’s sharing the story to make your friends laugh, or it was just so strange you need to say it just to know that it actually existed, we all must continue to share our strangeness. Because without it, well, life would just be less fun.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Your apartment....is on fire!

Well readers, I promised you my own strange story, so here it is.
I live in a crappy apartment that is basically above a bar. Being a college town, it is always impossibly loud at night, and if by some act of God, the bars are quiet, my crappy neighbors throw ragers just to spite me. On this particular night, it had been hellishly loud outside. Once I finally got to sleep, I thought I had smooth sailing until morning.
Alas, my neighbors are idiot.
At about 3 in the morning, I awake to loud beeping. In my half-sleep state I look around my room- I look at my phone, at my alarm clock, at my computer- anything that could be making noise. Nothing in my room is making the heinous sound. Our fire alarm is often prone to be very sensitive to anything (I mean anything- you say the word eggs and the alarm goes off), so I thought maybe our alarm was going off. I run out to the living room to complete darkness and no alarm. I go back into my room and have an internal debate.
Should I go check on the neighbors? Could they possibly have an alarm going off and not hear it? Should I just wait it out?
Finally, the angel on my shoulder prompts me to throw on some pants and flip flops and run upstairs. Now we kind of knew the girls upstairs because we were currently inhabiting their old apartment (which they were not pleased about). The second I open the door to the hallways upstairs, it is silent and I can tell the alarm is not coming from that floor. I book it down two floors, to the apartment below mine.
Jackpot. My ears are practically bleeding from the piercing sound.
I pound and pound on the door. Nothing. I pound harder. Still nothing. I try to door knob. The idiots left it open- thank God in this case, as they may have gotten a little toasty in there.
I run into the living room/kitchen, immediately consumed with smoke as I enter. I cover my face with my old t-shirt and run directly to the stove. I check all 4 stove tops, they are all off. I look at the control panel...
The oven is on at 400 degrees.
I turn off the oven and open the oven door to plumes of smoke billowing out. After my hacking coughs subside and the smoke dies down a little, I see some unidentifiable lump of black AND A DISHTOWEL!!! I cannot believe the stupidity of these people.
At this exact moment the entire apartment complex's fire alarm begins to sound and a bumbling drunk girl tumbles out of her room in nothing but her underwear.
"Wh-what's goin on?" (her)
"YOUR APARTMENT...IS ON FIRE!!" (me)
She scurries back into her room.
I run upstairs to my apartment to evacuate my roommates, one of which is sleeping at her boyfriends house.
Within twenty minutes everyone is outside watching the apartment complex not burning down. Naked idiot girl is no where to be found.
Being the weekend, no one was working that could come turn off the alarm, so we had to wait for the apartment maintenance crew to show up. After about 40 minutes, we realized that the fire department was not coming- we were all under the impression that they were alerted immediately when the complex fire alam went off...no no no, we had to call them ourselves (thanks Cornwell...rip us off AND kill us). About ten minutes later the fire department shows up. They want to talk to me to hear all the details of the story. They tell me that all the girls from the apartment had ran away, not wanting to take the blame- but one of them had left her naked boyfriend passed out in her bed to be consumed by smoke...so romantic.
About an hour later, we all finally make out way back to our beds. The next morning as I recount my story to everyone, our roommate-the one who we thought was sleeping at her boyfriends- stumbles out of her room, having slept through the whole thing.
Now what did we learn from this encounter?
1. Do not be an idiot.
2. Do not cook when you are drunk.
3. Do not cook dish towels.
4. Check to make sure your roommates are where they are supposed to be.
5. Call the fire department- they will not come rescue you on their own.
6. Wake up your naked boyfriend when your apartment is on fire.
7. People are strange.

Until next time...keep bein strange

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Strange Me

Why hello there. I'm Veronica. I'm a 22, blonde, college senior-- and I'm strange. Well, isn't everybody? I know what you're thinking- I'm not that strange...am I? Yes. You are. The sooner you admit it, the sooner you can let go and enjoy the strangeness around you. Just walking down the street to class this morning I encountered strangeness. I delightfully waved at weird homeless man who sits on the city's stoop that is the courthouse while he toothlessly grinned back at me. I chattered with strange girl in weather boots on a sunny day of 72 degrees while waiting for the light to change on the street corner. I even called Mom who went on to give me the play-by-play of her "Dining Divas" out-to-dinner crew's latest outing. Thanks to all who participated in providing me with weirdness. You are the reason for this blog. Your stories are gold. And hey, don't think I'm making fun of you- I'm just as guilty of complete strangeness as you. And just to prove it to you, my next post will be my very own strange story. I told you, we've all got strange stories to tell.