Steven Bedingfield

Pink Flamingo

I picked up the phone, dialed seven numbers and got a clean and very polite voice in my ear. The conversation took no time to begin.

≥Lacy, this is Steven Bedingfield, I was wondering if you had time toäoh you do? Righä.Right now? That works perfectly. So how do I get toäohäthe Lord Center? Wow, thank you. No, yeahäIπll..Iπll see you in a bitä<click>äwell that was easy.≤

The door to the second floor McCombs Center apartment was plastered with a white R.A. sign boasting times of duty and a phone number to call for emergencies. I surveyed the stairwell and the gray door contrasted by the dÈcor of dull, orange, October festivities. At my feet lived a miniature orange pumpkin who always wore a scowl and was missing most of his teeth. Perhaps his poor dental hygiene was due to all the sweets residing in his belly. Two knocks and a tap and at that the door sprang to life.

Usually light travels faster than anything else, but this time it was fragrance followed by audio. The door unleashed a scent that nearly tackled me to the ground. Maybe one of the most pleasant scents my nose has ever encountered. Who would have known that a Glade Plug-In could produce so much joy for the sense of smell? Before I could react, Adam Duritz sucker-punched me and landed in my earä

≥Hi Steven, please come in. Have a seat.≤ I straightened up, my eyes caught up and I recognized the face of Lacy Klosterman. I breached the inside of the apartment and I was introduced to her world.

***

The first thing my eyes were drawn to was a bright blue star hovering in the corner of the living room. It was a color straight out of Amelie. Directly beneath this star were a couple of neatly placed floor pillows next to a couch that had been provided by the McCombs Center. I walked over and sat down on the couch.

There was a common theme running through this apartment. I could tell after being in it for just several minutes. This place was incredibly clean. From the gray-carpeted floor to the neatly arranged books, CDs, DVDs, and picture frames on the built-in shelves, everything had its place. It was apparent to me that this apartment was kept very clean. Thatπs why I was astonished by the next thing I heard.

≥Iπm sorry our apartment is so messy, Iπve had a pretty busy week.≤

I looked at her with that confused puppy dog look complete with the head tilt, ≥Messy?! How is this place messy in the slightest?≤

She scanned the carpet and showed me four scraps of white paper that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. I wouldnπt have noticed it even with my senses at full throttle in a new environment. I looked at her, blinked twice, and moved on.

My eyes continued to survey the room. The next thing I came upon was an end table holding a lamp and several magazines. There were a couple In-Style magazines and one J-Crew catalogue. Lacy noticed me looking intently at the J-Crew catalogue.

≥I really like looking in that magazine. Some of the clothes in there I couldnπt wear but the style is incredibleäWould you like the grand tour?≤

I got up from my seat on the couch and walked ten feet to Lacyπs bedroom. With little surprise I found a twin-size bed. It was made-up and very neat in its presentation. On the walls there were several crosses of different shapes and colors hung proudly in a pattern. I made a mental note to ask a question about them when the time was right. The closest wall ornament to me was a pool sign which read, ≥Pool.≤ It was peculiarly similar to a pool sign youπd find at a college campus athletic center.

≥Whatπs with the pool sign. Looks stolen,≤ I said, using my keen observational wit. She proceeded to tell me that it was actually stolen but that the theft was not hers. It was in fact a gift from one of her sorority sisters. To be more specific it was her ≥Big Sis.≤

≥So youπre an R.A., huh? What are the rules about having stolen signs up in your room? I canπt help but think the board members of Resident Advisors would frown on such type of activity.≤ I said this in quite a joking and highly sarcastic manner. I was ≥testing the waters≤ so-to-speak.

≥You know what? Youπre right. I think Iπll go turn myself in to the board of advisors for having a stolen sign up in my room. There is no board. You are an idiot.≤ I was pleasantly surprised by this response. It brought a whole new dynamic to the ≥interview.≤ At this point in time everything changed from a formal question and answer session to discussion with a friend. The door of sarcasm was opened and gave a new element to everything that was said.

The next stop on the tour was the kitchen. I turned and walked the three feet from the bedroom to the kitchen. I was greeted heartily by a bright florescent pink flamingo. It was standing, with all its splendor, on the kitchen counter. I shot a glance of perplexity towards Lacy.

She received it and came back with, ≥Oh yeah, mind the pink florescent flamingo. Itπs my roommateπs. I begged her to take it down, but compromise, right? Isnπt that the name of the game when living with someone else? I mean, it could be worse, the flamingo could be pink florescentäthis is our kitchen!≤

I followed Lacy to our next destination. She opened up the door to the balcony. This balcony turned out to be about four-foot square. Taking up about five feet of the four-foot square was a miniature trampoline. Around the trampoline were several potted plants. They were kept surprisingly clean for college campus, student run foliage. I was impressed.

≥Sometimes I like to come outside, jump on the trampoline, talk on the phone, look at the plants and wave at the people passing by.≤

≥Really?≤

≥No.≤

We made our way back into the living room and sat down to the sounds of John Mayer coming from the 5 disc CD-changer found in the built-in entertainment center.

≥Are you a fan?≤ I asked.

≥Yes and no. Iπm more a fan of the Toadies. Itπs a shame they broke up. They put on a great show when they came here last year.≤

This launched a discussion about music. I asked her what types of music she enjoyed listening to and she gave me the genuinely good answer of ≥it depends.≤ Counting Crows, Toadies, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Hootie and the Blowfish all came up in this conversation.

≥Hootie and the Blowfish was the first CD I ever bought,≤ Lacy said, ≥I have a connection with it.≤

The conversation moved and then trickled into discussion of movies. I jumped up from my seat to go see the movies that were being represented on the top shelf of the entertainment center. I found Apollo 13, Monsters, Inc., Zoolander, and I commented on each separately.

≥Some of these are my roommateπs. I should tell you though that I really like Apollo 13. That movie is amazing to me and I could watch it over and again.≤

Looking at the scarce collection of DVDs, I asked, ≥Are you more of a book person or a visual person?≤

≥Oh, Iπm much more a book person than a movie person. I love books. I have a good imagination so my mind visualizes things much better with the written word than when something is imagined and visualized for me.≤

I remembered my mental note from before and decided this was the appropriate time to ask,

≥What are the crosses on your wall? Do they symbolize something for you?≤

She took a minute and then answered honestly. ≥They do symbolize something for me. I was raised in a Christian household, so that element has been with me for a while. I am trying to learn more about who and what God is and how He works. Iπm very fortunate for being taught good morals from my parents. Iπm not a big drinker. I just donπt need it to enjoy myself.≤

I took what she was saying for face value because of the look on her face when she was speaking. She lightened the mood back up by saying,

≥Sometimes I can be a stick in the mud.≤

***

Authorπs Afterwords

It was apparent to me from all our conversations that Lacy has a wonderful spirit about her. She was polite, kind, witty, and she made the atmosphere around her as comfortable as she could for other people in it. She reflected the responsibility she had for being an R.A., a successful student, a girlfriend, a daughter, and a sincere person in a truly genuine and beautiful way.

As a journalist, I tried to express my experiences as faithfully as I could with the words above. I think they represent a strong, responsible, funny, open person. My time spent in conversation was truly not an interviewer-interviewee, type of discussion. It was much more friendly, much less daunting, and much more enjoyable.

I did my best as a journalist to display the atmosphere of what I was subject to. It was carefree and inviting. I hope that the quotations Iπve provided are taken for face value some of the time and read into for a deeper context other times. That is what their purpose is.

In writing this I came to the conclusion that the best angle for this story and for this person was a real angle. I tried not to distort any of the conversation we had. Nor did I try to shape this person to be something she wasnπt. I did my best to paint a realistic picture. I didnπt bring any guidelines with me when I visited Lacy. I constructed all our conversations and interactions as one big scene in order to convey fluidity and make it an easier read. I tried to let it be only what it was and let the conversation go where it would. Lacy proved to be a person who doesnπt mind speaking what she is thinking so there was no need for facilitated conversation or ≥filler.≤ We just spoke like two people hanging out in a McCombs Center living room.

Authorπs Afterwords (Reprise)

Looking back on my experience with this journalism class I can see a lot of things that I have learned and a lot of things to improve on. I came to the class without any writing experience other than papers Iπve had to write for other classes. Quite honestly, I had no idea that this type of intimate journalism existed as a class. I didnπt realize that this section of journalism had a set of rules or guidelines to follow. This class proved to be important me and to my understanding of the things I read and articles people write. It taught me how to analyze and realize what is being put into articles and documentaries. Above all the biggest lesson I learned was respect for authors who attempt and succeed in producing excellent, readable articles. Acquiring information and producing a story that is even remotely interesting to read or know about can be and unusually daunting task. I thought that most anyone, if they knew how to form sentences, could write articles. In a sense this is true, but not everyone who can write can write in a way that is readable or interesting. My hat is definitely off to people who make it their living.

I chose this article of the three that we wrote during the class, because it was my favorite to produce. I enjoyed spending the time getting to know another personπs world. For me, it was a very interesting experience learning about someone who I knew nothing about and writing about them in a paper. I learned a lot about how to write for an audience as opposed to writing for a professor. I had to take into account that more than just my professor and I were going to be reading my writing. The style I wrote this paper in makes it my favorite. I tried to relate my experience as closely as I could to paper. I think this paper does a good job of making it seem that I am telling the story rather than merely reporting it. I wanted the reader to become interested with Lacy as a character and to get insight into her life.

For me, this article represents all the other papers we had to prepare for the course. As a journalist I had to seek out information about Lacy which required research into her daily and weekly routine. This assignment made me actively pursue someone in order to get a story to write about. To me that is what an effective journalist has to do. They have to pursue a story to all ends for it to be presentable as a worthwhile article. I think this paper most closely represents the idea of intimate journalism.