Eel-grass
No matter what I say,
All that I really love
Is the rain that flattens on the bay,
And the eel-grass in the cove;
The jingle-shells that lie on the beach
At the tide-line, and the trace
Of higher tides along the beach:
Nothing in this place.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Who is this person?
- Shelly Armstrong Houghton. A 24-year-old junior studying Linguistics at Michigan
State University. The wife of Andy Houghton. A cat-owner. A lover of languages.
- What does she look like?
- It's
easiest if you just look at the picture.
- Who are all these people she keeps referring to, and why are they
mentioned at all?
- Andy
- The Husband. That man that lives in the same apartment. He's
adorable.
- Wendy
- Wendy is
a long-time friend of Shelly's who also keeps a journal.
- Jeff C.
- Jeff C. is probably one of Shelly's
closest and most trusted friends, which is a fact that
has developed over the past year.
- Jeff D.
- Jeff D. and Shelly argue a lot, but have somehow built a foundation
of friendship that doesn't go away even when they don't speak for two months after being
forced to spend more than a day in each other's presence.
- Tiffy
- Tiffy is a constant in Shelly's life. They have breakfast together,
and do other random things now and then.
- Daryl
- Daryl's an odd cookie. Shelly likes him, though. He's got to be one of
the least judgmental people she knows.
- Bridgette and Richard (and Dominic)
- These two are ... very relaxing to be around. Andy and Shelly
are rarely more relaxed than after an evening spent with Rick and Bridgette.
Our intrepid heroine likes them quite a bit. Also loved is their
baby boy (god, he's nearly two) Dominic, who will
someday rail at his parents for calling him their little packzi. (pronounced
"poonch-key." It's the name of a pastry, 'cause he was born on Fat Tuesday, which
is when packzis are eaten).
- The Family
- Mom and Dad are self-explanatory. Two little brothers: Frankie, 18 & Mikie,
12. Doesn't everyone have 'family issues'?
- Kris, Marcellous, Fred
- These are the other people that make guest appearances in Shelly's life, some more than others.
She would consider some of them 'friends,' and others 'acquaintances,' but none of them are people
she focuses on very often. If that changes, so will this list. They're only here because she may
occasionally mention their names in the journal.
- Anni/Mel, Deb, Lance
- These people fall into a general heading of "Net Friends," but it's not very fair to stick
them all in the same category, since they're all very different people with very different
relationships with Shelly. Anni/Mel and Deb are people she talks to a lot throughout each
day.
Lance is a linguist that she's known for several years now and finds herself talking
to at least once a day.
- What about the places she mentions?
- Barley's
- A bar that she visits once in a while. They have trivia, nice waitresses, and
an appropriately seedy atmosphere. She smokes, drinks, and likes to talk to her friends at
Barley's. It's anonymous, except that the waitresses know the group by sight
and can generally even predict what they'll be drinking that evening.
- MSU
- Michigan State University. This is where she's
getting her degree. It's located in East Lansing, MI.
- Home
- Home is an apartment located in South Lansing. It has two bedrooms, tan carpets,
and a balcony. It also has an orange velvet couch, often referred to by Shelly as "The Pimp
Couch," though not in this journal. It's never clean enough.
- Bath
- Bath is a smallish town about 15 minutes from Lansing. Shelly goes there often,
because all of her friends and her husband are involved with
Bath's Community Theatre. Oddly, very
few of them live in Bath. Bath reminds Shelly of her hometown...
- Columbia
- Columbia is the itty bitty town near the northeast coast of North
Carolina that Shelly grew up in. She visits there on Holidays, and when
she talks about calling home that's where she's talking about. There's a wild mixture
of good and bad when she recalls living in Columbia.
- The often mentioned but never explained 'online'.
- By 'online,' she generally means 'on PernMUSH or TooMUSH.'
- Does Shelly like to get email?
- Yes,
yes,
yes, and
yes.
- Does she also like writing about herself in third person?
- She has no preference, really, but started out this way and was unable to stop herself.
Fortunately, this doesn't occur in her journal proper.
- Is there a notification list?
- Sure! If you want to be informed when there's a new entry up, send Shelly email
and she'll be sure to let you know.
- Is there anything else I should know?
- Yeah. If you're mentioned in this journal or on this basic information page and
you don't want to be, you should send Shelly email
and
let her know. She'll take out references to your name without any argument and replace
them with an alias.
- Is that really it?
- Well, no:
If you have any other questions, please send me mail.
3/24/00