Shut up...

Happy first day of spring, everyone. It’s rather dreary here today – not very spring-like. Or maybe it IS spring-like, since we need the rain, and rain makes things like flowers and grass and trees grow, and flowers and grass and trees are all springy, blah blah blah. Yeah, so the dreary, rainy, cloudy sky is actually a harbinger of a new, warmer season. Hmmm… somehow that doesn’t make it any less gloomy…

So, it turns out I was not the only one to escape jury duty unscathed this week. My mom had to go to the municipal building in downtown Austin yesterday morning. Since we live within the Austin city limits, but we’re in Williamson county, apparently they can call us up to Georgetown OR down to Austin. And mom and I thought it was a bit of a conspiracy that we were both called on consecutive days. I know it’s all supposed to be “random,” but that’s kinda weird, isn’t it? Anyway, my mom’s group of jurors was told that half of the litigants who were supposed to show up yesterday HADN’T shown up (we all remember what a “litigant” is, right? That’s right: a cute little innocent puppy dog who just wants to go for a walk in the park… and since half of them didn’t bother showing up, I’m sure the APD dogcatchers are out looking for them as I type…). And the other half didn’t feel like facing a jury. So once again, the jury wasn’t even needed and everyone got to go home. But it was a tense couple days, not knowing if mom or I would be chosen to serve on the jury of some high-profile trial – so high-profile that we’d all have to be sequestered in a cheesy Holiday Inn somewhere… and one by one, something bad would start happening to all the jurors, and eventually someone would realize I’d wanted to be on the jury all along… no, wait – that’s Runaway Jury by John Grisham. Nevermind…

The last few weeks have been so busy – what with Eric visiting, and proofreading work, and the specter of jury duty haunting me on a daily basis – that I almost forgot that this Saturday is the fantasy baseball draft. And I have no idea who I’m going to choose for my first pick. It’ll depend on who the eight guys ahead of me choose, of course… I’m hoping the first eight people will take Eric’s advice and pick a bunch of Montreal Expos players. That would leave all the good players for me…

Anyway… who watched American Idol last night? Overall, I thought everyone did better last night than last week. But something is really bothering me about this show – actually, it’s not just American Idol, it’s pretty much society in general. What bothers me is the obvious mockery directed toward quiet people, coupled with the obvious favoring of loud people. And it doesn’t matter if the quiet people have interesting things to say, or if they’re talented, or if they’re intelligent – all that seems to matter is the introverted personality. And in the same way, it doesn’t matter if loud people have anything interesting to say, or if they’re talented, or if they’re intelligent – all that matters is their extroverted personalities. It all comes down to quiet and loud. On American Idol this year, the perfect example of this has been Sanjaya Malakar. Poor little Sanjaya, who’s only 17 years old and who has prettier hair than I have (that’s just wrong…), is the quietest singer of all the contestants. He is NOT, however, the WORST singer of the contestants. In fact, most of his songs have been spot on as far as pitch and tone are concerned – but his volume has been lacking, and so he’s been panned by every critic in the country. And then last night, in an attempt to break out some volume, he sang quite horribly – but also pretty much shouted the entire time. And guess what? The judges gave him the best feedback he’s had all season. Randy even said it was his “best performance” so far. (What??? Did you even HEAR that?) It just proved my point – all anyone cares about is “quiet” versus “loud”…

And of course Sanjaya of the Pretty Hair is not going to win – there are too many powerful, good singers in the competition. I just find it ridiculous for the judges to say over and over, “that was horrible” or “it sounded really bad” when what they REALLY mean is, “your voice is too quiet.” And then to say last night’s performance was “good,” when obviously it was just LOUD. It’s the same thing I’ve been hearing my entire life: loud = good, quiet = bad. I’m quiet, therefore I’m not as good or important or interesting or talented or intelligent as a loud person. The message comes through LOUD and clear.

It was funny when Sanjaya was singing last night, and they showed that little girl in the audience who was crying. I was thinking, “awww… isn’t that cute… that girl has a crush on Sanjaya…” I figured all her friends would either make fun of her in school today (because her teary face was all over national television), or they’d be really jealous because he gave her a hug when he was finished singing. Except then I noticed at the end of the show, the little girl was STILL crying when Melinda was singing… and then it was clear – she didn’t have a crush on Sanjaya, she was just REALLY excited to be at the American Idol show. And again, I have to figure she’s either having a really BAD day in school today (because kids are horrible little cruel things) or a really GOOD day – because she was invited on stage at the end of the show to hug EVERYONE. She got to meet all the American Idol contestants. So if her jealous classmates give her a hard time about the crying, at least she can hold that over their heads…

It’s funny, isn’t it – that I really am SO quiet, and yet I can still write six paragraphs about nothing? Most people just chatter away about nothing in their loud, extroverted voices all day… so I’m just playing catch-up… :)