Nyssa-isms

Nyssa, Fall 2005 (Her friend took this picture)

"The years when we are parenting teenagers are the high point, the crest when everything seems to be in bright colors and in ten-foot letters." ~ Jean Jacobs Speizer. Ourselves and Our Children,(1978).

Nyssa has decided to do a double major in Geology and English. It is hard to see the English major in her blog but I understand it is an exhibit of the "teen" form of writing and communicating. Life is fast, furious and so is teenage communication. There is no time for punctuation, grammar or even complete words. I don't always understand the abbreviations or the connotations but as someone wise once said... "It's hard to be 'hip' over thirty," and I am WAY past that landmark. Sometimes when I visit her blog I cry, sometimes I cringe, and sometimes I just laugh out loud. She tends to speak her mind (wonder where she got that) but just when you want to reach through the computer screen and strangle her, she inserts a phrase that is so completely off-topic, off-hand and off-the-wall that you just have to laugh. After the immediate gut response, you read it again and sometimes see a deeper meaning and insight into life. It is downright strange. Perhaps that's why she's doing this particular double major. The Geology fulfills her newly developed interest in science. (She said she was wondering when her genetic make-up would finally kick in.) The English highlights her passion for literature and her ability to take details of ordinary life and express them in an extraordinary way with her words. So, I've compiled a few Nyssa-isms from the past few weeks and months, taken exactly as she wrote them. Please remember that she really does know grammar and punctuation backwards and forwards, she simply chooses to be different. Why? I don't know, only the "cool" know the answer to that. (Continue reading "Nyssa-isms")

• as i sit here in the government section of the library, a man passes softly, slowly by. i glance down to see no shoes, only socks.


• today i saw a girl with a side pony tail.
  what a pity.


• four words: black cherry vanilla coke


• as for the riveting game of scategories, here's a small excerpt:
  the category: a leisure activity
  the letter: B
  grandma and mom: bicycling
  uncle: bowling
  me: bathing
  uncle stephen: "yeah, bathing IS a leisure activity for you"


• starlight, starbright, first star i see tonight. on the five oclock drive home i looked up into the sky, life draining away into faded red, orange, yellow into bruised purples and blues, and i spotted a sprinkle - the first star. and laughed to myself. realizing it was just a piece of tintrash delivering TV to half of america.


• i feel that on the rollercoaster that is this week, i am now done with the clink-clink-clink uphill part and am now at the top, looking down at the freefall which is this weekend. LET THE SCREAMING BEGIN!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


• i learned today that my prestigious college is named after....
  a Dutch usurper and his English harlot.
  rock on.


• Sometimes, when i'm walking down the hall in my pink, silk robe, i have to stop and make sure my boob isn't hanging out, because it's just that comfortable.


• i think i will go sit in the big field and contemplate life. or burn my textbooks. whichever is more therapeutic.


• whatever.


• i'm glad my voice isn't annoying. there was a girl on the bus with a high-pitched ANNNOYING voice. i'm glad i'm not her. that's mean. but sincere.


• my puppy has cancer and won't live too long.
  oh, hole in my heart.

So, there you have it. Nyssa-isms. The observations of a nineteen (soon to be twenty) year old. I love you Nyssa!

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