July 7, 2004
"I can call you Betty....
...and you can call me Anne!" Deal? Excellent. I suppose I should tell you my real name, though....you know, just in case I'm famous someday. I'm gonna be a best-selling author when I grow up, you see. That or an ace reporter for the New York Times. Either way, my name won't show up as Anne or Wailer or even Anne Wailer. It'll be L'Anita. L'Anita WEILER. (unless I get married, that is...then it'll be L'Anita Weiler Davis...Just kidding, of course. Wishful thinking on my part.) Yes, naturally I capitalized the letters of my last name on purpose. I don't do things for no reason, you know. There's always a reason....(Ok, the responsible journalist in me is coming out....I'm feeling guilty. I should've put those last two lines in quotes. My favorite source always used to say that (that makes it sound like he's dead; he probably still says it...). But the same goes for me. I have a reason for capitalizing my last name.
So anyway....the name's L'Anita. And in case you're wondering, it's a family name. My mom invented the spelling, though. Please don't hate me for my name, now....I know you're all wishing you had an apostrophe in yours too, but...well, we can't all have what we want in life. And I got the apostrophe.
I'm not French. If I were, my name would mean "The Grace." That's why I'm not French. Now enough about that.
I happen to be from Pennsylvania. That's what I like to say, anyway. I was born there but only lived there for a year. I've spent every other year of my life in Georgia (No, I do not say "ya'll." We're not ALL rednecks in the South!), in the same little house in the same little town of Lawrenceville. I don't like to tell people that, so you should feel very special. I like to pretend that I remember everything about my "home state," but the truth is, I haven't a single memory of my life there. I've been back many, many times, though, and it always feels like home, but maybe that's just because I'm so determined to feel that way....
When this September rolls around, I will have been alive for 18 whole years. That sounds so strange to me. When I was little I thought 18 was so old! I'd be a grown up by then! Nope....I still feel 12. (I still look 12...) I don't know where the years have gone....18!
So you want to know what I look like, eh? (No, I'm not Canadian; I already told you I'm from Pennsylvania!) Yeah....I thought so. It's all about the looks these days. Sad. Well, let's just say my nickname in elementary school was "L'Anita, Plain and Tall." You know that part in "Emperor's New Groove" (stupidest, most plotless movie I've ever been dumb enough to sit through. You should go see it. Definitely one of the most quoteable movies of all time, that one.) when the Emperor's going through that long line of eligible females, one of whom he's supposed to pick as his bride? He's mincing down the line, looking each one up and down and shaking his head. "No way. Uh-uh. Yeah right!" he keeps saying to each one. Then he stops in front of one of them. "Let me guess," he says, assuming a kind voice, "You have a really great personality." Then he moves on.
The only reason Disney didn't cast me as that girl is because the movie was a cartoon, and the girl was just a drawing. Had they actually been looking for the kind of girl who gets the condoling "you must have a great personality" line from the guys.....I'd have been their girl.
I haven't always been ugly, you know. You wouldn't guess that from looking at me now, but I have pictures to prove it. My mom and dad say I'm still beautiful, but....well, if there's one thing I learned in Mr. Stroud's newspaper class last year it was this: you just can't have biased sources. So that pretty much rules out the parents....
I was sitting with my friend in the gym one afternoon when I was in sixth grade
Posted by lanita at 4:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Movin' up in the world....
...sorta. Scoop Wailer got her second story assignment today at the Gwinnett Daily Post! Exciting, huh?! Kinda makes it sound like I'm a real journalist...
Posted by lanita at 3:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack