Making a Nuisance of Myself
When I was twelve our family had a reunion at a camp in the Adirondacks, a place called Putnam Camp. A lot of the staff were high school kids, often friends and relatives of the family. I spent my entire week following some of them around, trying to be one of them. In retrospect, I can see that I wasn't quite as popular with them as I thought I was ("Hey Chris, you didn't tell me you were all going swimming." "Uh, I forgot." "It's a good thing I was waiting outside your door." "Yeah, good thing.")
One way in particular that I tried to be one of the gang was with a board they had in the kitchen. It was mostly for daily announcements but they had put up, on one part of it, the "quote of the day". Whenever one of these camp guys said something particularly witty and funny, it would be written on the board. Typical of the genre were: "If this is supposed to be China, why does it say 'made in Japan?'" and "My balls ache!" Needless to say, I was desparate to have one of MY lines put up on the board. To this end, I followed them around, repeating jokes, quotes and trying to make up funny things, each one puntuated by "Shouldn't that go up on the board?" Chris tried to explain to me that it had to be a bit more spontaneous, but I was determined to get something up on the board.
I remember that story today, because I've been doing it again. Andrew Sullivan has a feature called "The View From Your Window" which is, simply put, pictures submitted by readers around the world from their windows (who would've guessed?) I've been trying to get a picture posted since the begining. I mean, I live in Cairo, how could he not post my picture? I've sent him at least four different pictures, but still nothin has appeared.
Two nights ago, I woke up around three in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep. When I went to make myself a bowl of cereal, I noticed that dawn was just about to break. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. These had to make it onto the page. I took four shots and sent them all off to Andy, fingers crossed. Her's the best one:
Well, this morning, Sullivan put this post on his blog. I can only assume it was directed at me.
Sigh, I'll never be cool.
One way in particular that I tried to be one of the gang was with a board they had in the kitchen. It was mostly for daily announcements but they had put up, on one part of it, the "quote of the day". Whenever one of these camp guys said something particularly witty and funny, it would be written on the board. Typical of the genre were: "If this is supposed to be China, why does it say 'made in Japan?'" and "My balls ache!" Needless to say, I was desparate to have one of MY lines put up on the board. To this end, I followed them around, repeating jokes, quotes and trying to make up funny things, each one puntuated by "Shouldn't that go up on the board?" Chris tried to explain to me that it had to be a bit more spontaneous, but I was determined to get something up on the board.
I remember that story today, because I've been doing it again. Andrew Sullivan has a feature called "The View From Your Window" which is, simply put, pictures submitted by readers around the world from their windows (who would've guessed?) I've been trying to get a picture posted since the begining. I mean, I live in Cairo, how could he not post my picture? I've sent him at least four different pictures, but still nothin has appeared.
Two nights ago, I woke up around three in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep. When I went to make myself a bowl of cereal, I noticed that dawn was just about to break. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. These had to make it onto the page. I took four shots and sent them all off to Andy, fingers crossed. Her's the best one:
Well, this morning, Sullivan put this post on his blog. I can only assume it was directed at me.
Sigh, I'll never be cool.
Labels: Biographical
posted by Jonah at 10:51 AM
1 Comments:
Well, I thought you were cool at Putnam Camp. OK, maybe I just thought Sarah was cool. I liked you though, regardless. And I was probably much less cool than you were, if that helps at all.
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