Random--inity 101

◄◄ I recently saw Rocky Balboa in the theaters. I also finally watched King Kong on New Year's night... It definitely exceeded my expectations and *cough* my sister and I both shed a few tears towards the end.

◄◄ I was reminded of the distinctiveness of style among the writers in the Bible as I read through the book of Nahum; the intensive imagery that he utilizes, though not dissimilar to the rest of prophets, has its own unique mark that I found intriguing.

◄◄ Three words at the top of my chart: 'Solidarity', 'anonymity', and 'impetus'. Especially as: 'Spirit of solidarity', 'sense of anonymity', and 'impetus for peace'. Why? I don't know. :)

◄◄ The world feels small when -- far across the land in the home state and city of my father, lives a young lady who is also named Jenna Bushey; she is a student athlete like me, the same age range, and soon to be entering the college scene as well. Furthermore, we have cousins, aunts, and great aunts who share the same names, though no relation. Go figure!

◄◄ I have heard it said repeatedly that, however true it may be, each person has an unrelated look-alike living somewhere in the world. I can attest to that in whatever limited form by these two examples:
◄ I was in a public camping bathroom brushing my teeth or something of that sort, when in walks a 30yr-ish woman who commences staring at me as soon as she enters. Upon exiting her stall she, looking puzzled, recommences her staring though a little more discreetly. This continues for a seemly eternal length of time (a reality of about 40secs), when suddenly the light dawns and she kindly enlightens me as to why on earth she was staring. Apparently she had been convinced that I was her niece Kellie, but was puzzled as to why I showed no sign of recognition beyond a smile; she then remembered that her brother and sister had made no plans to camp so I couldn't be Kellie etc. When there is another girl n this world who, at that time, looked enough like me to fool her own aunt for several moments, I begin to wonder.
◄ As we sat down at a restaurant for breakfast on a different vacation, I looked across the aisle to the table next to us and was taken aback to see Janean's look-alike. They not only shared the same facial looks, right down to skin texture, eye brow shape and color, but their demeanor, speaking voice, and height (within an 1 1/2in difference) were all in perfect accordance. Three things only stood out as apparent differences between the two. Janean had at that time short and dark curly hair, while this lady had straight blonde hair that reached her waist. This lady's teeth were also shaped differently, though that did not detract from the congruency of their smiles, and had hands/fingers that were either already adept at playing the piano or had the potential, for they were quite long, slender, and looked used to regularly reaching over an octave and a half.

◄◄ I was reading this guy's profile to my sister for fun the other day and this is how it read (words in parentheses are my reactions):
~I never watch anything rated above G! (That is perfectly fine as a general rule and I can respect that, though there are many good moves rated above)
~I will not listen to any contemporary music whether hip hop or anything else.... (Well, you being a black dude makes that a little unusual but ok.) I only listen to hymns.....(and here is where he really blew it) I will not listen in general to CLASSICAL music though a rare few I will permit. (Now I could see everything up till that even though I do like my hip hop and Latin flavored music to chill to, but to say that he would not listen to classical music just blew me away!)

◄◄ How is it that even grown sensible people often react differently to "celebrities" than they do to "normal people"? Even though I am not star crazy like much of the World is, where a star -- just any star makes them go loco, I must admit that if Marion Jones or Sherone Simpson taped me on the shoulder and said, "Hey girl, I have been watching your running and you look like you have potential..." I would be completely ecstatic and would break into song as soon as I was out of hearing!
My case in point comes from several weeks ago when I was shopping in Seattle with Sara and my Aunt Linda. I had drifted away from them, into the Baby Phat Designers section when I felt a reverent tap upon my shoulder. I turned around to behold a Black lady and her age 15 or so son smiling at me expectantly, though the son was more shyly embarrassed than anything. Their expectance quickly turned to an slightly disappointed but almost relieved smile while the lady said, “Oh I’m so sorry, I thought you were the actress from the African Documentaries on the Disney channel, and though I don’t normally do this your side profile was so similar I just had too stop you; never knowing when you might run into someone like that.” Concluding with a few complements to myself that were far too flattering to be true, she called out a “Happy Holidays” as she disappeared just as suddenly as she came.

◄◄ While I have miraculously escaped the general “star craze”, I have not been as blessed when it comes to the majority of female Americans being suckers for foreign accents. It pains me to admit it but I am a complete sucker for anyone who has the slightest foreign accent. Maybe it is because I find other cultures so fascinating, and having someone with a recognizable accent is so intriguing. Or maybe it is because I enjoy exercising my talent at imitating accents, so meeting someone with one unheard by me before adds another challenge. Be that as it may when I usually meet someone with an accent, a feeling of ¼ awe and ¾ curiosity involuntarily sweeps over me. Combine the above with a kind and friendly entrepreneur’s ability to maneuver me verbally into a compliant corner and you have the handsome young Greek man of the center kiosk in a Seattle mall.
Sara and I always make a point to avoid the center kiosks but this time as we walked along preoccupied with laughing about something or other, it didn’t register that that crowd of people coming towards us on the left would push us right into the waiting arms (figuratively....sort of) of the handsome Kriano. “Free sample!” He called out, “you must try dis ladies it is...” As I caught one last glimpse of the fast fading shore of conscious reason, I saw Aunt Sharon and Rebekah standing on the shore holding up a sign that read “Blog post entitled: “The Hawker”, and knew our chance of monetary survival was slim indeed. In fact the current swept us away so swiftly that before I could reply, my shoulders were draped with the ‘herb filled heat roll’ and Kriano was deftly massaging them.
“May I ask how old you are?” said Kriano
I replied that I was seventeen and the massage came to a sudden close, while he asked us among other things, what we bought our mom for Christmas. Much to my chagrin, I was so nervous and embarrassed that even though we had just made a successful trip to Victoria’s Secret and other stores, all I could think of were the martini glasses we had bought elsewhere and equate them with.....“cool candle stuff”.
“Well isn’t dis much cooler den ar candle stuff? He bemusedly replied.
Haltingly I agreed that yes it was and, lightening bolt from heaven, we weren’t really interested and had to go. His spell lifted, we made a hasty dash for shore and arrived abit breathless, but safe and dry -- if burning cheeks don’t count.
Out of earshot we laughed at my apparent inability to deal with a good looking Greek vendor; agreeing that, if we had bought our mom only that candle stuff that presented it’s self to us in those stores, his product would have been “much cooler den ar candle stuff”.