I'm back from Chicago! I don't feel like writing about the whole Oprah event over and over, so I am just going to paste what i wrote in rec.arts.bodyart cuz I am a lazy bum:

I was picked up at the airport last night by an insane limo driver and taken to the beautiful Omni hotel in the heart of Chicago where I had my own room including a luxurious king size bed. woo woo!!

the next day i was picked up by a more sane limo driver (this was today) and taken to Harpo studios. I was taken up to the "green room" where my fellow "freaky teens" waited. We all had our makeup done, and my hair was pulled back to show my 1/2" holes in my lobes (all the producers and staff came to look at them and oohed and ouched as i stuck my finger through the hole and the owner of Body Basics...Perry, I think, helped me clean the ear cheese off my tunnels...whatta nice nice guy) and then we went to sit in the front row of the audience where we were hooked up with mics. there were a few people scattered throughout the audience that were very tattooed and pierced as well.

the first girl that came out was Rachel...Perry's apprentice. Her mom's really conservative, and there were a lot of tears, and her mom promised to treat her better, but she didn't seem too sincere about it, and Rachel didn't really seem to believe her.

During the commercial breaks, the audience made a lot of ignorant comments about how all pierced people are hurting themselves and punishing themselves, etc etc, and one guy asked Oprah to give money to his fraternity. nuts!

Then came Mike. A truly truly confused boy with no piercings, but a self-proclaimed goth in vinyl pants, fishnet shirt, and a white powdered face with black eyeliner all over. He was a very nice boy, as I had met him back stage. But he was truly confused. I doubt the show helped him too much. But there were more tears during that segment too.

Jaime was next, a reformed goth-druggie-runaway. She was dressed nice and clean-cut and they made a direct correlation with the way she dressed and all the trouble she had gotten into and now that she looks "normal", she's all better.

At the end of the show, while continuing to tape, they let the audience speak and I got to speak. I didn't really know what to say because I was pissed off Oprah said my name wrong :P So I doubt I'll be on the actual show speaking, but I'm sure my face will be on there because people on both sides of me got to talk.

My basic summary of the show was that no one really resolved anything, I doubt anyone left with a better understanding, and it was pretty much pointless. But hey, I got a free trip to Chicago and got a topic for my final paper in american studies, so I'd have to say it was definitely worth it!

So that's my story. Dan picked me up from the airport and gave me Ani's new CD!!!!!!!! It's extremely awesome. I kinda thought he would get it for me because I've been talking about it incessantly, but I was still surprised.

I went and hung out at his place for a while after I got back and we ended up getting in this fight about me not appreciating him enough. I wish I could have stormed out of there, but of course I had to sit there and wait for him to take me home. I need a car so I can storm properly!

We made up straight away, so it wasn't a very big deal. It was just a dumb dumb dumb fight.