more hooks than Madonna got looks
Jul. 14th, 2003 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chestnutcurlsIt's Monday.
If there's one thing I can say about this weekend, it's that it was active. Friday night K & D and Evan and Ryan and I went to see T3. It was excellent, but (psychologically) very scary at the end, so much so that I called Jessica afterwards to let her know how scary it was. I'm torn between reading more of that dystopian stuff some of you sent me, and staying away from it for my own mental health. Wow, I have a lot I could say about that movie- but this isn't the time. After the movie, we went to Patricks to eat. There was a loud band there, so we didn't get to talk much. After we ate, Evan and I stood in the parking lot for an hour and talked about all kinds of things. It was nice. He treats me so well sometimes.
I slept in blissfully until 10 Saturday morning, sat around reading, went to Chick-fil-A with K& D, read some more, then headed to a cookout at Chris's house. Then five of the guys and I went down to Mud Island for the Better Than Ezra show. Some very unpleasant stuff involving drunk people went on, resulting in me being very angry at some of the guys I came with, and because of that it was a pretty horrible evening. However, the band rocked. The lead singer, Kevin Griffin, bears a really frightening resemblance to my brother Kevin -- and he sang a silly song about a sister named Debra. Very weird.
Church was great yesterday. We had communion. I felt refreshed. In the afternoon I went to the library and got several books I'd been wanting to read as well as several CDs that have been recommended to me (Watermark and Sara Groves included). I spent the rest of the evening reading, painting my nails and watching Buffy. Exciting, no?
1. Tell us a little about your family members (that you lived with) growing up (siblings, parents, etc.).
Well, it's always been my parents (married 26 years), Debs, Kev, and I. When one of my cousins first got married, he was in the Marines and was stationed in Millington for a while, so he and his wife lived with us briefly while they found a place. Otherwise it's just been the five of us.
2. Were you or any of your siblings adopted? If so, have you (or they) ever wanted to locate your biological parents?
Nope.
3. Do you feel you had a strict, relaxed, or in-between upbringing? Explain.
My upbringing was on the strict side of in-between, and my siblings' upbringing has been on the relaxed side of it. Everything you hear about the oldest child having to live by rules the younger ones don't is absolutely true. My siblings take things for granted that I would have had to fight for. Also, I was expected to be responsible for them, so when they got in trouble, I sometimes got in trouble too. I guess my parents weren't that strict about makeup and clothes and stuff, but they did keep a close eye on me. As I got older, though, they were more relaxed with me than my friends' parents were with them, because I was such a goody-goody. For instance, I didn't technically have a curfew in my last couple of years of high school. I hardly ever did anything, so when I did decide to go out, my parents were all for it, as long as I let them know where I was. That was nice. Ironically, they kind of regressed on this once I started college.
4. Did your family take vacations together? If so, how often and where did you go?
When we lived in Miami, we went camping a lot, and to Disney World a few times. After we moved here, we went to Miami every July and to Texas for Thanksgiving every year, and camping sometimes. It was nice that I got to travel, but we always went to the same places. I think this is why I'm so anxious to see new places now.
5. What kind of schooling did you have (home, private, public)? Briefly (I know this could be an entire entry in itself) explain your likes and dislikes about this method of schooling.
I always went to public school. It was frustrating at times because so many of the kids wouldn't behave, but like Jessica said, I think it was good for me to be exposed to diverse people and to be challenged with not-so-fun social situations. I never really felt in danger at public school until my junior year, when my high school really started getting bad with gangs and stuff. My parents offered to switch me to a better school, but nothing could have torn me from my band, so I stayed in the hood for the duration. Oh, and that's one of the things I like about public school- the group activities. I know private schools have bands, and even some homeschool groups, but a 25-member band just isn't the same caliber experience as a 120-member band. I wouldn't have traded my band experience for anything.
6. When did your parents start leaving you home alone?
Actually, when I was about 8. But that stopped for a while after I let it slip to my grandma that I was allowed to stay home alone. :P
7. Did both of your parents (if you had two) work outside of the home?
My mom didn't work for a long time. Once we were all in school she got a part-time job at a church daycare, but it never interfered with her raising us, since she was always home by afternoon.
8. Did you ever have any bad/creepy/weird babysitters?
Not unless you count me. :)
9. Did your family eat out more, or did you have more home-cooked meals? Did you eat them at the table or somewhere else? What kind of restaurants did your family go to when you did go out?
We didn't go out that much, but we did order a lot of pizzas. We always ate together at the table. When we did go out, we usually went to Ryan's Steakhouse and Buffet, until I got food poisoning there on my seventeenth birthday and refused to go back ever again. After that we switched to O'Charley's for a while.
10. Did you have a Christian upbringing? If so, what did your family do differently from nonChristian families to strengthen your relationship with Christ (i.e. family devotions, regular church attendance, certain rules, restrictions or habits practiced.)?
I definitely had a Christian upbringing, mainly due to my mom. My dad didn't become a believer until several years ago, and that created a lot of friction in the family, but my mom kept us on track. We had a special prayer time every Sunday night, and she encouraged us to read our Bibles daily and stuff. And of course, we went to church every week, and to youth group. I dropped out of the youth group at our church when I was fourteen, because the kids there were mean and snobby. My mother allowed this as long as I found another youth group. I ended up attending the one at the church where she worked, which is the parent church of the church I go to now. Weird, huh?
If there's one thing I can say about this weekend, it's that it was active. Friday night K & D and Evan and Ryan and I went to see T3. It was excellent, but (psychologically) very scary at the end, so much so that I called Jessica afterwards to let her know how scary it was. I'm torn between reading more of that dystopian stuff some of you sent me, and staying away from it for my own mental health. Wow, I have a lot I could say about that movie- but this isn't the time. After the movie, we went to Patricks to eat. There was a loud band there, so we didn't get to talk much. After we ate, Evan and I stood in the parking lot for an hour and talked about all kinds of things. It was nice. He treats me so well sometimes.
I slept in blissfully until 10 Saturday morning, sat around reading, went to Chick-fil-A with K& D, read some more, then headed to a cookout at Chris's house. Then five of the guys and I went down to Mud Island for the Better Than Ezra show. Some very unpleasant stuff involving drunk people went on, resulting in me being very angry at some of the guys I came with, and because of that it was a pretty horrible evening. However, the band rocked. The lead singer, Kevin Griffin, bears a really frightening resemblance to my brother Kevin -- and he sang a silly song about a sister named Debra. Very weird.
Church was great yesterday. We had communion. I felt refreshed. In the afternoon I went to the library and got several books I'd been wanting to read as well as several CDs that have been recommended to me (Watermark and Sara Groves included). I spent the rest of the evening reading, painting my nails and watching Buffy. Exciting, no?
1. Tell us a little about your family members (that you lived with) growing up (siblings, parents, etc.).
Well, it's always been my parents (married 26 years), Debs, Kev, and I. When one of my cousins first got married, he was in the Marines and was stationed in Millington for a while, so he and his wife lived with us briefly while they found a place. Otherwise it's just been the five of us.
2. Were you or any of your siblings adopted? If so, have you (or they) ever wanted to locate your biological parents?
Nope.
3. Do you feel you had a strict, relaxed, or in-between upbringing? Explain.
My upbringing was on the strict side of in-between, and my siblings' upbringing has been on the relaxed side of it. Everything you hear about the oldest child having to live by rules the younger ones don't is absolutely true. My siblings take things for granted that I would have had to fight for. Also, I was expected to be responsible for them, so when they got in trouble, I sometimes got in trouble too. I guess my parents weren't that strict about makeup and clothes and stuff, but they did keep a close eye on me. As I got older, though, they were more relaxed with me than my friends' parents were with them, because I was such a goody-goody. For instance, I didn't technically have a curfew in my last couple of years of high school. I hardly ever did anything, so when I did decide to go out, my parents were all for it, as long as I let them know where I was. That was nice. Ironically, they kind of regressed on this once I started college.
4. Did your family take vacations together? If so, how often and where did you go?
When we lived in Miami, we went camping a lot, and to Disney World a few times. After we moved here, we went to Miami every July and to Texas for Thanksgiving every year, and camping sometimes. It was nice that I got to travel, but we always went to the same places. I think this is why I'm so anxious to see new places now.
5. What kind of schooling did you have (home, private, public)? Briefly (I know this could be an entire entry in itself) explain your likes and dislikes about this method of schooling.
I always went to public school. It was frustrating at times because so many of the kids wouldn't behave, but like Jessica said, I think it was good for me to be exposed to diverse people and to be challenged with not-so-fun social situations. I never really felt in danger at public school until my junior year, when my high school really started getting bad with gangs and stuff. My parents offered to switch me to a better school, but nothing could have torn me from my band, so I stayed in the hood for the duration. Oh, and that's one of the things I like about public school- the group activities. I know private schools have bands, and even some homeschool groups, but a 25-member band just isn't the same caliber experience as a 120-member band. I wouldn't have traded my band experience for anything.
6. When did your parents start leaving you home alone?
Actually, when I was about 8. But that stopped for a while after I let it slip to my grandma that I was allowed to stay home alone. :P
7. Did both of your parents (if you had two) work outside of the home?
My mom didn't work for a long time. Once we were all in school she got a part-time job at a church daycare, but it never interfered with her raising us, since she was always home by afternoon.
8. Did you ever have any bad/creepy/weird babysitters?
Not unless you count me. :)
9. Did your family eat out more, or did you have more home-cooked meals? Did you eat them at the table or somewhere else? What kind of restaurants did your family go to when you did go out?
We didn't go out that much, but we did order a lot of pizzas. We always ate together at the table. When we did go out, we usually went to Ryan's Steakhouse and Buffet, until I got food poisoning there on my seventeenth birthday and refused to go back ever again. After that we switched to O'Charley's for a while.
10. Did you have a Christian upbringing? If so, what did your family do differently from nonChristian families to strengthen your relationship with Christ (i.e. family devotions, regular church attendance, certain rules, restrictions or habits practiced.)?
I definitely had a Christian upbringing, mainly due to my mom. My dad didn't become a believer until several years ago, and that created a lot of friction in the family, but my mom kept us on track. We had a special prayer time every Sunday night, and she encouraged us to read our Bibles daily and stuff. And of course, we went to church every week, and to youth group. I dropped out of the youth group at our church when I was fourteen, because the kids there were mean and snobby. My mother allowed this as long as I found another youth group. I ended up attending the one at the church where she worked, which is the parent church of the church I go to now. Weird, huh?
