Miss Raquel's Second Novel- Part 2

[DaisyD]

She's a social chameleon. She'd be really good at it if she weren't so self absorbed. As a teenager I switched between everything from country, to hippie, to punk in my style and professed beliefs. Now I'm little bits of all of them. I just took the pieces that I liked and kept them. I don't see anything wrong with that method of figuring out who you are. It's the "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" that Raquel adds to it that makes her a hypocrite. 

[Georgiana]

50 minutes ago, daisyd681 said:

She's a social chameleon. She'd be really good at it if she weren't so self absorbed. As a teenager I switched between everything from country, to hippie, to punk in my style and professed beliefs. Now I'm little bits of all of them. I just took the pieces that I liked and kept them. I don't see anything wrong with that method of figuring out who you are. It's the "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" that Raquel adds to it that makes her a hypocrite. 

She's also in her 20s.

I don't think you can never, ever change once you hit 20, but you should start getting to the point where you aren't completely re-inventing yourself every time the wind changes direction.  This is especially true if, like Raquel, you are dreaming of having kids sooner than later.  Children need stability, and you should get to a place where you basically know who you are and your core values before you start trying to throw husbands and children in the mix.  

Once again, Raquel would be perfectly normal if she were a teenager.  But she isn't.  She's an adult, and she is well past the time where she should start acting like it.  

[Terrie]

Agreed. Raquel has stated she always wanted to marry young and have kids young. Like, right out of high school young. But when she describes it, it's a rom-com fantasy. Has she ever taken care of a gerbil, let alone a human baby? 

[Anonymousguest]

10 minutes ago, Terrie said:

Agreed. Raquel has stated she always wanted to marry young and have kids young. Like, right out of high school young. But when she describes it, it's a rom-com fantasy. Has she ever taken care of a gerbil, let alone a human baby? 

Her youngest sibling is 15 or 16 years younger than her. Yes, she has cared for him quite a bit.

[formergothardite]

4 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

Her youngest sibling is 15 or 16 years younger than her. Yes, she has cared for him quite a bit.

Do you know more of her because she hasn't really mentioned caring for her younger siblings. 

She has managed to treat a horse and a dog poorly. 

[Anonymousguest]

16 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

Do you know more of her because she hasn't really mentioned caring for her younger siblings. 

She has managed to treat a horse and a dog poorly. 

Yes, I did know the family fairly well when that youngest sibling was born. 

[formergothardite]

39 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

Yes, I did know the family fairly well when that youngest sibling was born. 

I've always wondered how much her real life matched the life she acted like she had on her blog. More and more it seems like she was just creating a fantasy life for her blog. Reading her blog you would never guess she spent a lot of time with any of her siblings. The oldest brother is mentioned the most. 

[Anonymousguest]

1 minute ago, formergothardite said:

I've always wondered how much her real life matched the life she acted like she had on her blog. More and more it seems like she was just creating a fantasy life for her blog. Reading her blog you would never guess she spent a lot of time with any of her siblings. The oldest brother is mentioned the most. 

She and her brother are just over a year apart, then there is a 5yr gap between her and the next sister. The next 4 girls are closer in age. But she was homeschooled with them, so together all the time. 

[AmazonGrace]

I'm conflicted about this. Basically I think it's seriously fucked up to make girls feel guilty because they held hands with someone or kissed a boy (or a girl, for that matter..) and I agree with Raquel that if you happen to meet a guy who objects to hearing that you have held hands with someone before, you should run, not walk, away from him (because who wants to date a disturbed, jealous control freak of a person anyway). But her reasoning makes no sense.  Parts of it sound like, it's wrong if you do it but because I'm Raquel it's all right. 

 

Quote

Yes, you should exercise extreme caution on WHAT you're doing and HOW you're showing you care, but all of my hand-holdings, hugs, and kisses were never because I just 'felt like it'.  They were meant, whole-heartedly from a girl who cared for a boy. 

Yet she had just told us that she wasn't particularly interested in one of them: 

Quote

The first guy I ever held hands with wasn't even someone I was interested in dating.  We just kinda liked each other.  We were both 16.  Oh and we snuggled during a movie too.

 

The difference between, "I just felt like it" and "I want to be affectionate with them" escapes me at the moment. 

[Shoobydoo]

If she's a virgin how does she know she enjoys having sexy time with guys? Honestly, if she wants to have sex, more power to her. Use birth control. They make cheap, very low hormone IUDs these days that are totally safe for teen/YA use. Go get one! 

PS: It's okay to have a physical relationship with no emotional connection whatsoever. That might not be what makes it work for you, but that's because of your personal preferences, not some cosmic moral guideline that thou shalt not have one night stands and shalt only bone thy soulmate.

 

 

OH YEAH

The April session of Camp Nano started today. You can set your own goal-- anything from 1 to 1 million words. Going to play, Raquel? You can set something small, so you get a nice feeling of accomplishment from completing a project. Goals in my cabin range from 15K to 65K, so you really can do whatever you want. Write something! Finish it! 

[clueliss]

I'm signed up for camp.  And I'm a day behind my personal goal (30k total based on the formula of hours to words for editing time) because yesterday was a fucky day at work.  

Goals can be set as low as 10k.  Even Raquel based on her nano count could accomplish that.  Or she could go back to Fathom and say finish it.  

[refugee]

11 hours ago, Shoobydoo said:

If she's a virgin how does she know she enjoys having sexy time with guys? Honestly, if she wants to have sex, more power to her. Use birth control. They make cheap, very low hormone IUDs these days that are totally safe for teen/YA use. Go get one! 

PS: It's okay to have a physical relationship with no emotional connection whatsoever. That might not be what makes it work for you, but that's because of your personal preferences, not some cosmic moral guideline that thou shalt not have one night stands and shalt only bone thy soulmate.

 

 

OH YEAH

The April session of Camp Nano started today. You can set your own goal-- anything from 1 to 1 million words. Going to play, Raquel? You can set something small, so you get a nice feeling of accomplishment from completing a project. Goals in my cabin range from 15K to 65K, so you really can do whatever you want. Write something! Finish it! 

Really? I thought it was a November thing. It's in April, too?

[LilMissMetaphor]

November is the main event, but they added "camp" sessions in April and July.

[refugee]

1 minute ago, LilMissMetaphor said:

November is the main event, but they added "camp" sessions in April and July.

Cool! Thanks. I wonder if I can get my stuff together... It might be a motivation-helper, but I'm already behind.

[clueliss]

I prefer the camp months to the main event.  50k pushes me to write but I write crap.  Setting my own more reasonable pace gets me to write and actual produce something worth continuing.  

[O Latin]

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I just don't think she's THAT immature for 20 (granted, I don't follow everything she blogs/posts/tweets/whatever). I'm taking a class right now that is mostly college freshmen and sophomores between about 19 and 21 (I'm 26 and this is my first time being the token "older" person in the class) and she would fit right in with most of them. She reminds me of myself and my friends at that age. She does seem overly convinced that she's got the whole world figured out and I think some of her romantic notions are sort of odd (although I also had some odd romantic notions in my late teens and very early 20s), but she doesn't seem immature on the level of a 13-year-old, either. 

I think her video would be better with some editing. My brother, who is 19, so close in age to Raquel, is keeping a video blog diary while in college in another country and his videos are edited to get rid of most of the "um's" and pauses and whatnot. Perhaps if Raquel keeps up the vlog she'll eventually figure out how to edit her videos properly.  

[Grimalkin]

[Terrie]

12 hours ago, O Latin said:

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I just don't think she's THAT immature for 20 (granted, I don't follow everything she blogs/posts/tweets/whatever). I'm taking a class right now that is mostly college freshmen and sophomores between about 19 and 21 (I'm 26 and this is my first time being the token "older" person in the class) and she would fit right in with most of them. She reminds me of myself and my friends at that age. She does seem overly convinced that she's got the whole world figured out and I think some of her romantic notions are sort of odd (although I also had some odd romantic notions in my late teens and very early 20s), but she doesn't seem immature on the level of a 13-year-old, either. 

If I didn't know, I would have pegged her at around 16. It's her obliviousness to the wider world. (E.g. her post on the attack in Belgium with the "We're so sheltered from violence in the US." comments)  as much as her rom-com views on relationships.

[formergothardite]

Raquel is going to be writing a poem each day for the month of April. At least that is what she claims. It will probably go the way of Fathom and she will be bored of this idea in a week or so. 

And by poetry I mean things like this:

Quote

You asked me for chances And I gave them to you Now you're the one wondering why we never made it through."

 

[formergothardite]

Can someone go watch Raquel's 21st birthday video and explain what her tattoo is supposed to mean? It just looks like a fancy upper case G with some random squiggles. 

Other notes from the video:

~She looks just like her mother.

~I wonder if she was supposed to carve her initials into that wood. It looked like she carved in on a bench and then on a fallen tree. The tree isn't a biggie, but it always annoys me when people start carving up benches and other public property. 

~She ate a lot of junk food. Oh for the days when my metabolism could handle eating like that. 

~She posed for pictures with several guys.

~She went wine tasting

~She got her nose pierced.

 

[Shoobydoo]

Going for a wine tasting is a fun way to celebrate your 21st birthday. I don't remember what we did for mine-- my b-day is smack in the middle of fall semester, so whatever it was, it wasn't much. I always like the idea of a wine tasting, but then I remember the only wine I like is Italian moscatos. (For realz, if you like sweet wines buy an Italian one for you next bottle. It's the BEST. Way better than Cali ones, and not much more expensive.)

Don't carve up public property. Here's a thought-- a lot of benches is public parks and other institutions were actually put up as a memorial for a dead loved one. I would be royally pissed if my grandma died and we bought her a bench at the arboretum and some douchecanoe came and carved it up.

[ladyamylynn]

Yikes- she was uncomfortably close to me this weekend! I think the tattoo is supposed to say "God is greater than infinity" maybe? It's unfathomably stupid- and not in a place that will be easy to cover up once she (hopefully) figures out how awful it is.

[fiery redhead]

1 hour ago, ladyamylynn said:

Yikes- she was uncomfortably close to me this weekend! I think the tattoo is supposed to say "God is greater than infinity" maybe? It's unfathomably stupid- and not in a place that will be easy to cover up once she (hopefully) figures out how awful it is.

Agreed. Placement is everything. I love tattoos, and I am 6 months older than Raquel. After I turned 18 I did heavy research about tattoos (and my "research", I do NOT mean finding one on Pinterest and squealing) and while there are many talented artists that can do great cover up work, that tattoo is still where you put it. What is about young girls and getting their first ink on their arm like that? (Not that anyone cares but I never got one and most likely never will)

 

I rarely vocalize when I look at my phone, but I did literally shout "that is a stupid ass tattoo" when I looked at her insta just now. I changed my mind about what I like and what is meaningful to me has naturally changed with age in just the last 3 years. Everyone here is on the same page about Raquel having the mind of a teen, and also: it's Raquel. In 3 months she'll be having a series of fits about this mistake. 

 

From a purely artistic perspective: a graphic that has greater/lesser than symbols should have an equally simplistic font for the whole image. A big cursive G and a funky infinity simple just looks gawdy, and not in a fabulous way either.

 

From a purely theological perspective: God is greater than infinity? You do believe God is eternal, right Raquel? We all know you went hyper-but-hipster(wanna be hipster?)-Calvinist on us (not just because that's where the men are - of course not) but I am genuinely curious about this new flavor of theology you subscribe to at the moment. Please write a post about it, but keep it short. My ADD...

[formergothardite]

I would have never gotten God is greater than infinity out of that. 

[fiery redhead]

14 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I would have never gotten God is greater than infinity out of that. 

Well she says it means ups and downs but it's the infinity symbol