I am in print! Hurray!

This is a letter I wrote that was published in the OU Daily (the University newspaper) today, this is their edited version:

Eric Combs’ column ‘Don’t be tacky when breaking a heart’ was really great,

One of my friends recommended I pick up the paper to read the column because I seem to have been a recent victim of the first brutal break-up method: the cold shoulder.

Friends had tried to counsel me, saying it was probably a misunderstanding.

At first, they said, “Oh, his phone is probably broken,” then, “He’s probably with family for the holidays,” and now, finally, “Perhaps he’s dead.”

Well, either way, he’s definitely not been calling or texting me back.

Combs’ column has confirmed for me that I should probably give up hope of hearing from this guy ever again. Is it truly tragic that I am hoping to UPGRADE to brutal break-up method three: the break-up text message.

Yes, being both foolish and female, I decided it was a good idea to text him and ask if he did want to see me again. I didn’t even get a reply to that, though.

I handed him a golden opportunity to reply with a simple “No” or perhaps a nice “Screw you,” and even that wasn’t deemed worthy of a reply.

I met the guy in question at a costume party. An inspired and rockin’ costume apparently does not guarantee a fifth date. At least I know for next time.

By sharing my sad story, I am making an impassioned plea to all of the OU guys out there: Please, be a man when ditching your date.

Telling her you don’t want to see her anymore might be awkward, but it’s undoubtedly a lot less awkward than the ensuing round of texts and voicemails from a hopeful young lady asking if you’re free at the weekend, dwindling gradually into ‘So...what happened to you?’

Thank you, Eric Combs, for waking me up to the sad truth. I have been dumped.

Before you read it, it is probably best if you read the column I wrote in response to. Unless you're not bothered about it making sense, in which case do what you like. The column can be found here: http://oudaily.com/news/2008/dec/02/column-dont-do/

I have been having lots of sad, mad and gladventures but I don't have time to put them all on paper (screen?) now, hopefully when semester is over.

For now, peace out, homies.

--Charlotte

May the MADventures begin!

Let the MADventures begin! This is a VERY long post, so if you have something in the oven right now, you should probably set the timer before you too engrossed in the story of my weekend and burn your dinner. If you don't, put the oven on, you'll be hungry by the time you've read all this!

Since we called this blog the MADventures of Charrrel Kingwright, I decided it was time I started having some MADventures to contribute. So, this weekend I went all out and had 4 mini-adventures in a row! Oh yes, you’d better believe it! I shall share assorted tales from the weekend with you here now.

This week the weekend started on Thursday with the annual Research Campus Bash. Basically, they gave us free beer and german food and polka music. All three of these were most excellent, particularly the beer. I had biked to work in anticipation of possibly partaking in an amount of beer such as to render me over the drink-drive limit. It’s a good job I did, because this is what occurred. My skype chat records show a sharp deterioration of my typing skills after the bash ended. Funny that. Anyhow, as a female international student, I had been invited to a sorority house later that evening to share in some nice autumn foods (read: pie) with the girls there.

**Disclaimer 1: please don’t think the story that follows makes me a terrible person. Beer was involved.**

I had already emailed the girl who invited me to ask if I could bring an American friend, and she’d said yes, with no restrictions. Now, this perhaps was a mistake on her part as all she knew about me was that I’m not American. I decided to make the most of this opportunity and take a male friend, for several reasons:

1) I didn’t want to bike there on my own. Safety first, see?

2) Said friend has taken me to free food events before.

3) I thought it would be funny.

We biked over to the sorority house and it was decided (this is the part where the free beer may or may not have played an important role) that in order to excuse the presence of my male friend, I should pretend to not speak English very well. This was a fairly tall order, since I am in fact English. A snap decision was made that I would pretend to be from Serbia. Quite why Serbia was chosen is beyond me now, but I think it could have been that I know some people from Serbia. So an hour of me pretending to not know very much English ensued. It was more difficult than I’d thought it might be! My friend spent a lot of time explaining things to me, and how he managed to keep a straight face is beyond me. It was both ridiculous and hilarious. The girls never questioned whether I was in fact Serbian (but you wouldn’t I suppose!) and they were very kind to us. I felt a bit guilty by the time we left, because they’d been so nice and given us pie. Sorry girls! You were very good hostesses! The pie was very good, by the way.

The MADventures continued on Friday, when I was invited to a costume party. The night before I found a large box in our garage (the lawnmower box) and decided to use it to make my costume. Later that evening I was talking to a (drunk) friend on skype chat and I asked him what the funniest thing I could be in a box was. Before this conversation, I’d had Froot Loops in mind. However, when Matt suggested I go as a box of condoms a new idea was born. It was genius really. So on Friday night after work I hot-footed it down to Walmart to buy spray paint. I picked blue glossy for the Durex Extra Safe box. By the time I got home it was dark so I opened the window to let some light out and stood in the back garden spray painting this box. Then disaster struck! The spray paint ran out and ‘Black and Decker’ was still clearly visible through the paint! There was only one solution. I headed back to Walmart for more paint. As luck would have it, I had the same server as before. To look less suspicious I also bought bread and milk. When I got home the first layer of paint was dry so I moved to the garage for the rest of the spraying and painting of the letters. I spent a happy hour painting and trying to keep the dog out of the way. I was pretty pleased with the finished product and I headed over to pick up some friends. They helped me tape up the back of the box and after sorting out their costumes we headed for the party. I should explain at this point that I didn’t really know any of the party hosts, but my friends had invited me. So I’m walking into a party where I don’t really know many people dressed as a box of condoms. It went down pretty well though, all in all. It was impossible to sit down wearing the box, and dancing required some special and unusual moves. There were lots of other amazing costumes going on there, including two Sarah Palins, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Ashley Todd (google her, stupid girl), Daft Punk and Amy Winehouse. Very good times.

On Sunday I went to the Kings of Leon concert in Oklahoma City with some friends. It was incredible! They played all my favorite songs from the new album so I was very happy indeed. You’d think this would be adventure enough, but no, there was more. I bought drink vouchers and when I went back to get my second beer the girl gave me a voucher back by mistake (I think). I decided it was time for a random act of kindness so gave it to somebody waiting in the line. The guy I’d given the voucher then introduced me to his friends and came back to stand with us to watch the concert. He was a REALLY big Kings of Leon fan. His friends invited us to go to the Deli with them after the concert, but by the time we got back to Norman everyone else was wiped out from their parties on Saturday night. Well, everyone except me. After getting home I decided that my friends being tired was no reason for the party to stop, so I went to meet the people at the Deli to watch Hosty (who you really should see if you’ve not seen him before, what a great musician). After an hour or so the new people I’d met decided to head out, and they invited me to go back and hang out with them. Being a street-wise and safety-first young lady, of course I went. They dropped me off back at my car and beer-voucher-boy came with me while I followed his friend’s van. We eventually made it back to the house via Taco Bell and Conoco. Now, I should really have been paying attention to the directions. This would become apparent later on. A happy hour was spent sitting around chatting and watching two of the guys play Wii baseball. Then one of the guys fell asleep with his shoes on, which in their house meant he got stacked. I’d never witnessed stacking before, but the general idea is to pile as much stuff on the drunk person as possible. It was incredible, this guy ended up under chairs, pumpkins, cushions, rugs, coats, and a lot of other stuff. Once he was stacked up, we took lots of pictures on his camera and then unstacked him until no evidence was left. I wish I could have seen his face when he went to upload his pictures onto the computer! Once 2.30am rolled around it was time for me to head home. I thanked the hosts and went back to my car. This was where the problems started. The girl whose house it was had given me vague directions for how to get back, but anyone who knows me well will know the trouble I have with directions. Well, predictably I got very, very lost in NW Norman. I’ve tried looking back at google maps since and I still can’t work out where I went. After many three point turns I eventually found a sign for Robinson (finally! A street I knew!) and took it. It took me over half an hour to get home, which is pretty shameful for a town I’ve lived in for 14 months now. Oh well, can’t be helped. At least I made it home safely in the end.

**Disclaimer 2: I am not recommending that it is a good idea to go to the houses of folks you’ve just met. Think smart, kids. Stranger danger and all that.**

That is the story of my first weekend of MADventures. It was pretty EPIC all in all. However, now it’s back to ground with a bump for more homework and research. Darrel, I expect suitably comparable MADventure stories from you shortly.

-Charlotte

Introducing the handsome beefcake... aka Darrel.

DARREL'S INTRODUCTION TIME!

Hello all. I'm Darrel and I'm the larger, male, Grade A 100% American half of Charrrel. None of you reading this are friends of Charlotte's and that's sad because she is a classy lady. I'm 24 years old or roughly 624 fortnights. I've been living/working/studying/eating/sleeping/dancing/blinking in Oklahoma for 12 months now (26 fortnights). I hope to add random things to this blog as well and, in general, just keep writing. I feel like most other blogs I've had (and 3rd world children I've sponsored) have died because I stopped writing to it. Hopefully this blog will not end up in the mass grave that contains my other blogs and *click click* Shamantha Babbatunde.

I too shall be a socialist and fill out the survey.


What time do you wish you'd got up this morning?
11:45am, but sadly, I have a job.
What was the last film you wish you'd seen at the cinema?
The video of me being born.
What are your nicknames?
Big D and Dizzle, also people call me Darren and Dale by mistake.
What do you usually have for breakfast?
Eggo waffles & a protein bar.
What do you wish your middle name was?
Rutherford
What food do you dislike?
Many different foods mixed into one heap of stuff, like Chili.
What kind of car do you drive?
I drive an Asian European Edition car, anything but America I guess. :(
Favorite sandwich?
Anything cut into 4 triangles
What characteristic do you despise?
Ego, you're most likely not better than me, and I'm freaking amazing, a sex God amongst the ladies.
What is your favorite item of clothing?
My skull socks
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Tokyo, I want to drink sake, eat sushi, and stop a giant robot from destroying the city
What was one of your most memorable birthdays?
The day I was born, the one where the Challenger exploded, and the ones which shared the same day as the Super Bowl
What do you wish you were going to do when you finish this?
Getting on a plane to Tokyo for sake, sushi, robot fighting, etc.
What tattoo do you wish you had?
Something weather related, or a tattoo of my skin so you wouldn't even know it was a tattoo
What pet do you wish you had?
Realistically, an okapi. Unrealistically, a talking dinosaur who wouldn't eat me. A talking dog wouldn't be bad either.
When is your birthday?
Wikipedia "Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster".
Morning person or a night person?
Night person, mornings are cold and sucky.
What did you want to be when you were little?
The airplane that flew into hurricanes, when I didn't grow metal wings at puberty I decided to just do something with the weather.
What are you listening to right now?
The sound of other people being productive.
What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
December 20th, I will be done with this semester and hopefully heading home for a relaxing stretch of time.
Do you wish on stars?
Vengeful death on my friends...or is it enemies?
If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
The color that children are least likely to eat
How do you wish the weather was right now?
Supercells everywhere with a PDS watch up
Favorite restaurant?
I guess it would have to be Braum's, it's almost impossible to screw up ice cream
What do you wish your hair colour was?
Gray, then I would look distinguished, like Anderson Cooper.
What was your favorite toy as a child?
My dad's shotgun. Okay, that's a lie, his chainsaw.
What is you favourite season?
Late Spring/Early Summer = Awesomeness
When was the last time you cried?
I make myself cry on a daily basis
What do you wish was under your bed?
A talking dinosaur and/or talking dog
What did you do yesterday?
Went to work, class, work, haircut, eternal sadness time with homework
What are you afraid of?
The truth that talking dinosaurs will never exist, and cottage cheese
How many keys on your key ring?
One. I have multiple key rings.
What talent do you wish you had?
I wish I could talk to animals, then I wouldn't have all these conflicts in the previous questions.

Now that introductions are over....let the official MADventure entries begin!

The End.

-Darrel

P.S. I got the concussion on roller skates, we had a roller skating unit in 8th grade P.E. and I wasn't very good at it. One day I thought I was getting the hang of it and some a-hole tripped me. Two weeks later he disappeared, and the crime was never solved. So if you ever see me on roller skates again, stay the **** away from me.

Introducing the classy laydeez... oh sorry, introducing Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE'S INTRODUCTION TIME!

Hi everyone! I'm Charlotte and I'm the smaller, female, European half of Charrrel. Since some of you reading this are friends of Darrel's, I should probably introduce myself. I'm 22 years old and I'm originally from England. I've been living and studying in Oklahoma for 14 months now. My life on it's own wasn't exciting enough to merit a blog, but when it's combined with Darrel's exciting adventures, between us we have enough to scrape together a few amusing comments and stories. Hopefully. I guess you guys, our avid fans (all 2 of you! TWO! So proud!) can be the judge of that. What am I bringing to the party? Hopefully amusing tales of the strange, wonderful, and shamefully hilarious things that seem top happen to me all too regularly. Occasionally pictures too... if I can figure out how to add them. Those of you who know me well will realize this is unlikely.

For now, in the traditional Myspace way, I thought the best way to introduce myself properly would be through a survey. In a crazy sweet coincidence, my Aunt sent me one this morning, so here for your viewing pleasure, is a little bit of information about me:

What time do you wish you'd got up this morning? 7.30am, I missed by half an hour.
What was the last film you wish you'd seen at the cinema? Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist.
What are your nicknames? Shazza and Wizzle.
What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal and milk or nutella on toast with juice.
What do you wish your middle name was? Something more unusual than mine. Perhaps Ruth.
What food do you dislike? Cheese.
What kind of car do you drive? A pimpin' 1989 Dodge Dynasty with a gold steering wheel cover and dodgy brakes.
Favorite sandwich? Egg and salad cream.
What characteristic do you despise? Prejudice of any kind. People are people, people!
What is you favourite item of clothing? Funky pyjamas and socks.
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia, New Zealand or Iceland. I am horribly indecisive.
What was one of your most memorable birthdays? Twenty two as it was recent. I am bad at laser tag.
What do you wish you were going to do when you finish this? Watch a film with a glass of wine. Alas, OBAN calls.
What tattoo do you wish you had? Some stars, but I am both wussy and indecisive.
What pet do you wish you had? Guinea pigs or penguins.
When is your birthday? July 16th.
Morning person or a night person? I'm good in the morning and at night but not so good in the afternoon. It makes planning my day difficult.
What did you want to be when you were little? A nurse, a ballerina and a digger driver. I had a mad schedule all worked out.
What are you listening to right now? The Brandywine Killaz, wicked cool.
What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Wednesday, I like Wednesdays.
Do you wish on stars? Occasionally if desperate.
If you were a crayon, what color would you be? IF?! WHEN we were crayons I was a green one.
How do you wish the weather was right now? Cool and breezy.
Favorite restaurant? Does Rusty's count as a restaurant? It should. So Rusty's.
What do you wish your hair colour was? Peroxide blonde. I would look HILARIOUS.
What was your favorite toy as a child? My toolkit.
What is you favourite season? Autumn by a long way. Autumn rocks my socks.
When was the last time you cried? Last Wednesday I cried with laughter at a story Matt told and one of the responses.
What do you wish was under your bed? Money I'd forgotten about, new car brakes, and a unicorn.
What did you do yesterday? Hoovered, went to Panera, went to NWC and worked.
What are you afraid of? I've conquered most of my fears now, but worms still freak me out.
How many keys on your key ring? 8 but some are duplicates.
What talent do you wish you had? I wish I could sing in tune and click my fingers without injuring myself.

Well, that's about it. I think that's pretty much me covered. Fun tales of adventures, misadventures and MADventures to come in future posts.

Peace out, playaz.

P.S. It was me that once went to a Halloween party as a broom. In case you're wondering, a broom is not a good fancy dress idea. Nobody knew what I was supposed to be. Tragic.

Hello Earth! A Pom & A Yankee Have Something To Say

No, we're not selling you a timeshare.  Sorry?

JOINT INTRODUCTION TIME!

I think we should introduce ourselves first.

My name is Darrel and I am an American citizen.

My name is Charlotte and I am not.

Together we form Charrrel Kingwright, a blogging duo who will share our love with the world.

We both currently live in Oklahoma and we are both meteorologists.  Darrel enjoys loooooong walks on the beach while Charlotte enjoys shorter walks on the beach.  One thing is for sure though, sand castles are the bomb.

Okay, the format for these blogs.  Sometimes we will write together under the pen name Charrrel.  Other times, we won't.  Other other times, we'll eat cereal.  Finally, we'll ride horses into the horizon.....but we'll save those MADventures for our other blog, The MADventures of Charrrel Horsewright.

Individual entries going into our own backgrounds will come in future posts.  Which one of us was a broom for halloween? Which one of us got a concussion while on roller skates?  All this and more in future entries.

The End.

-Charrrel

PS This is our last blog entry, we really appreciated all the time we had and all the people we've met along this time consuming adventure.  We'd like to thank our 1 fan, Angelyn, you've always been there for us.  Okay, we'll write again, stop begging!  But just this once.

Oh! We also have an email address: charrrel.kingwright@gmail.com, send us questions and pictures and male enhancement promotions, Charlotte isn't feeling as confident as she used to. Darrel on the other hand is the cock of the walk. Boo Yah!