Tripping Tea Strikes Again

This morning, before my Spanish final, I was walking up the stairs. My foot caught on the edge, and I tripped forward. I looked back, hoping nobody had noticed, and that my skirt hadn't flown up. The guy behind me said, "Don't worry, nobody saw."

Except him....

In other news, the waiter at the restaurant we went to for dinner looked eerily like Lysander, only different, and with a possibly fake Italian accent, and no glasses. It was utterly bizarre.

Also, we had a pretty awesome impromptu party at my house; Ginny, Tierra, Dora, Avon, Nyx, Vicky, and Gretchen all came over, although Nyx didn't get there until almost everyone else had left. Regardless, it was a fun time.

I hugged Opmin during my last day of U.S. History. I was like, "this year was awesome, can I hug you?" and she went "Okay!" so I did. Horribly exciting, no?

Also, I might as well share a story from U.S.

I was sitting in my quartergroup with Emma, Joanie and Charles. Emma was talking about going to college, and how she wanted to go to University of Florida but that, since her sister (who is currently training to be a sex therapist) hadn't gotten in, wouldn't either.

Joanie responded with, "Well, was it a target school, or no, because it makes a difference."

and Rachel immediately butted in.

"Don't say that!"

"Um..."

"It's rude and cruel."

"Look, Rachel, I said a target school, it wasn't anything interesting."

"I told you not to say that!"

At that point, Charles mostly just looked confused, and Peter and I were cracking up.

"I have no idea what word you're talking about."

"Retarded. You said retarded."

"She didn't say retarded, she said target," I said.

"No she didn't." She looked at Peter and Emma for agreement.

"She definitely did not say-"

"STOP SAYING THAT!" Opmin interrupted.

"I didn't say anything in the first place," grumbled Joanie.

Oh, Rachel. In the beginning of class, Michael pulled out a pair of large silver headphones and put them over his ears. "These are great," he said. "I can't here Rachel at all!"

My table, at least, was in hysterics.

Also, there are suspicions that the gatorade was spiked. Charles was drinking it, and he said, "Wow, this gatorade tastes funny."

"It's blue gatorade, what do you expect?"

"No, I mean, it doesn't taste normal. Don't drink it, okay?"

"I wasn't planning on it."

"I'm serious. It's spiked or something."

I gave him an incredulous look. "Whatever you say."

A few minutes later, Daniel turned around.

"Charles," he said. "I think the gatorade is spiked."

"I know, dude. Weird." He turned to me. "See, it's corroborated. Don't drink it."

"I already said I wasn't going to."

"Good."

Ethnic Slurs

When discussing racial epithets with a black boy during U.S. history, you should

a-take a very serious tone and avoid saying any of said inappropriate terms.

b-insult him using said ethnic slurs

c-have an insightful discussion about the use of ethnic slurs by people past and present

d-google ethnic slurs and try to find the most ridiculous ones out there

Tea's answer is d, as demonstrated by her behavior today during U.S. history.

In this class, I was trying to find a racially insulting term that was not as bad as "nigger" but was nonetheless derogatory or had connotations that yielded associations with racism. I asked my group members, Joanie, Charles, and Emma, if they had any ideas. Emma, per usual, ignored me, but Joanie and Charles took it upon themselves to find something.

Joanie burrowed into her computer, not talking (which is unusual for her) while she looked. Charles immediately went to wikipedia and located this page. I went there as well, and he started at the top and I at the bottom, trying to find something suitable.

'Alligator bait' and 'gable' were bad enough, but by the time he reached 'porch monkey,' Charles couldn't take it any more. He dissolved into laughter, exclaiming over how utterly ridiculous it was. "Porch monkey! What?"

Not to be one-upped, I kept looking. "How about 'moon cricket?'"

"Moon cricket? Seriously? Like, what?"

I began laughing as well. "Could you seriously call somebody that with a straight face? I mean honestly, 'you moon cricket, you!' just sounds ridiculous!'

We kept laughing, and Joanie finally noticed us and looked up. "What's so funny?" she asked.

Charles waved a dismissive hand.

"Well," said Joanie, "I found the jackpot."

The racial slurs database contains such gems as 'cricket' 'dorito' and 'ghetto hampster'. To me, this sort of thing seems more ridiculous than rude, but I suppose that if someone had the nerve to call me 'fish-belly' or 'ghoul,' I would be upset. Even if the slurs themselves are ridiculous, I think it's the way they're said that creates the offensiveness.