DTC 355 - This is my embarrassing story

My name is Katy and this is my embarrassing story:

Just about everyone I know has been through an awkward stage. (Some still haven’t come out of theirs, but that is an entirely different story.) My awkward stage had a full mouth of metal, frizzy hair, and an embarrassing lunchbox.

Now that you have a nice visual of the main character, let’s dive into the pathetic puddle of my embarrassing story.

During middle school, my growing years, I ate some rather large breakfasts. On this particular morning I ate three bowls of milk with honey nut cheerios. I know that sounds backwards, but I like my milk and I like a lot of it. In any case, I brushed my teeth and headed downstairs to wait by the door for my friend and her mother to pick me up. We were going to go see a movie together!

As I tied my left shoe, I heard a honking from the driveway—Robin’s mother always honked when she arrived. I opened the front door and breathed in the refreshing winter air, “Bye Mom!” I yelled, skipping off the porch towards Robin’s car.

Once we hit the road, all three of us were cracking jokes and laughing up a storm. The Bell family is gifted with humor; they have a way of making anyone and everyone laugh, no matter the setting. My favorite moments are usually when one of them is doing an impression or speaking in a silly voice.

We were too early for the movie to wait in the theatre, so Mrs. Bell decided to buy the tickets and then take us on some errands she needed to run. We went across the way to a hardware store, down the street to a drugstore and then a few blocks over to REI where Mrs. Bell had an item to return. For this errand, Robin and I sat in the Jeep because it wouldn’t take too long. Besides, we were having too much fun being silly in the car.

We laughed and laughed until our stomachs hurt. There would be a moment of silence, and then we would look at each other and burst back into laughter for no reason at all.

At one point the car became quiet and I said to Robin, “I have to pee.”

Again, we busted up laughing. Here and there I would snort and the laughing cascaded further. We laughed until the only sound coming out of our mouths was the air leaving our lungs.

“Ah! I have to pee!” I yelled, crossing my legs as tight as I could to hold it in, my bladder about to burst.

“Go inside to the R-E-I baa—b-b-baaathroom! Ha ha!” Robin could barely speak.

As Mrs. Bell opened the door to the car, I jumped out of fright and immediately felt my legs heated with, well, you know. Needless to say, a little puddle formed on the leather seats.

“Mom! Look! She peed her p-pa-paaants! Ha ha!”

Mrs. Bell might have been more frightened than I was. Ready to cry, I hopped off the seat as she found a spare towel in the trunk to wipe up my mess. Because we had already bought the movie tickets and show time was in 10 minutes, Mrs. Bell wouldn’t take me home to get a change of clothes. Instead, she walked me to a store called LimitedToo. If you are unaware of this store, you should be thankful—the sight of it as a not-so-girly-middle-schooler made me pretend I was about to throw-up every time I saw it. There are far too many hearts and flowers, and far too much pink for anyone’s sanity.

Mrs. Bell hurried into the store while I wobbled like a penguin and Robin giggled behind me. Mrs. Bell was on a mission to find a cheap pair of underwear and some pants to replace my smelly, wet, and not to mention, uncomfortable ones.

To my dismay, the only pair of pants left in my size were hot pink. I could deal with the pink underwear, but pink pants? Mrs. Bell, come on!

Mrs. Bell paid for my new pants and underwear while explaining to the cashier that I wet my pants and would need to use the dressing room to change into the purchased clothing.

I left the store embarrassed for what I had done, and embarrassed that I had to be wearing those awful pants for the rest of the day.

And that’s why you should always go potty after eating three bowls of milk for breakfast.

DTC 355 - Foss and myself on rhetoric

Rhetoric, as defined by Foss in Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, is "the human use of symbols to communicate" (1). Foss further describes each of the important terms in this definition to elaborate on the meaning. Because I find the word human not needing an explanation, I will skip right to symbols.

Symbols are everywhere. They are letters, numbers, shapes and pictures. A simple hieroglyphic character is a symbol. The grouping and ordering of these symbols are what gives them meaning; sometimes symbols standing alone have a meaning in themselves as well. This grouping of symbols is the part of rhetoric that is doing the communicating. Foss describes communication just as another word for rhetoric; however, he states, some professionals would disagree (4). I, on the other hand, would have to agree with Foss.

When it comes to defining rhetoric, the first term that occurs to me is infact, communication. Not only is rhetoric communication, but the style of which this communication is being conveyed. The rhetoric I use on a day-to-day basis, for example, would include symbols grouped to create words like "dude", "awesome". Though there are definitely exceptions, this rhetoric is generally used by a younger population. While I studied abroad in Florence, Italy last semester, the rhetoric I used there was completely different than what I use now. In Italy, depending on who I was speaking to, my rhetoric would include simple words and phrases in English, or simple words and phrases in Italian. While speaking with locals I would have to speak slowly picking and choosing my words wisely to be sure there would not be any misunderstanding from my style of communication. When writing an email to my mother or a professor, the rhetoric I use will be very different.

In every situation, every person may use a different style of rhetoric. The above mentioned are only a few that I might use on a day-to-day basis, excluding Italy of course because I am no longer there. Rhetoric is our use of symbols to communicate in every way.

"The art of using language, especially public speaking, as a means to persuade" (Rhetoric).

"The style of writing, the art of composition such that the
written piece comes to serve a particular purpose, whether descriptive,
persuasive, or interpretive" (Glossary).

Works Cited

Foss, Sonja K., Karen A. Foss, and Robert Trapp. Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric. 3rd. Waveland Press.

"Glossary from the New Interpreter’s Study Bible ." 21 Jan 2009 <www.philosophy-religion.org/bible/glossary_new-interpreters-bible.htm>.

"Rhetoric." Wiktionary. 21 Jan 2009 <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rhetoric>.

I'm back!

After my fantastic semester abroad, I will be switching back to this blog to post for a class I am taking at WSU called Media Authoring. You will essentially be reading my homework assignments!