I hated being it. I was always it. I stumbled across the playground equipment made for four year olds with a blindfold over my eyes.
"Hey Cutshall, over here!" I heard a light saber swish open behind me. Oh no he had better not. When we fought with them, light sabers would leave great welts on your arms. I was waiting for it. Jab! Right between the shoulder blades.
"Joel!" I groaned. I heard him chuckling. I swung around to try to grab him but he was too quick for me. Gosh dang it Joel, I thought. Tomorrow when I'm a 7 ft 4 elf with a broadsword and you're wimpy little mage you are going to pay.
"Cut… Cut…" he taunted. I disregarded him; he was always too fast for me.
"Cutshall… oh Cut…" I heard to my right. It was probably Christy. Emilie didn’t tend to provoke people too much. I lunged blindly. My reflexes were awesome from years of playing video games. "Ha!" I shouted, "Victory!" I had gotten someone by the ankle. I pulled off the blindfold to see that I had gotten Christy. "May the force be with you," I teased as I threw the blindfold at her.
"Whatever Cut," she scoffed as she put it on. I was excited to not be it and I wasn’t thinking. I jumped down to the sand to get away just in time to hear Christy shout, "GROUNDIES, GROUNDIES, GROUNDIES!" Crap, I was it again.
On this magic night a million stars will play beside us, cast a spell of light: glimmering, shimmering, carouseling. Round the world tonight a symphony in Spectromagic, pure enchantment lights our way!
I vaguely heard Davy shouting at me. "Christie-gonna-Cut-y'all, are you coming?" I was swept up in the enchantment of the nightly parade at Magic Kingdom while the rest of my friends ran for cover, sick of hearing Spectromagic night after night. I don’t know why, but I still loved it every time I saw it.
"I'm coming," I yelled back as I snapped out of it. We were headed for Big Thunder Mountain, my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom. It's the wildest ride in the wilderness, so the catchphrase goes. But you have to ride in the very back car at night and if it's during the fireworks show, Wishes, that is even better. There is never a line at this time of night. There were just a few of us hanging out at MK after work that day: Joe, Davy, Sara, Mackenzie and myself. We spent every spare moment of the summer in the parks.
On our way to Frontierland, we pass the gleaming Cinderella Castle. It stands at a towering 189 feet tall because at the time it was built if it had been 190 feet there would have needed to be a red flashing light on the top for low flying aircraft. That would have ruined the magic and at Disney it's all about the magic. They even made the castle look taller by putting main street in forced perspective.
I find every little detail about Disney absolutely fascinating. 1901 has become one of my favorite years because that was when Walt Disney was born. He would grow up to enable me to live in this little world over a century later.
"Hey, we should play Disney Scene It when we get back later," I suggested, as we passed the Pineapple Dole Whip stand. Mackenzie shouted, "I'm on a team with Christie! We are gonna Cut-y'all!"
Traffic was terrible as we headed into Denver. There were a ton of Wyoming license plates, but that was probably because we were headed the same place they were: The National Western Stock Show and Rodeo. My dad and I were in his big pick-up truck, both of us in our cowboy hats and boots. "Put it on KYGO, Chris," my dad asked. I switched the radio station.
It's boots and chaps and cowboy hats. It's spurs and a lotta gold. Quite an applicable song for the moment. I loved the rodeo. My favorite was bull riding. They open the chute and you hold your breath for 8 long seconds to see if the brave cowboy is going to make it. It was so thrilling! We always go to the exhibition halls before to see all of the bulls. One Night Stand was absolutely gorgeous and my pick for getting rid of his cowboy the fastest.
"Hey Chris, do you want to go play 9 holes tomorrow? It's supposed to be nice out."
"That would be great, Daddy," I responded excitedly. Playing golf was me and my dad's thing. I was on the team in high school. "Maybe I'll even get an eagle." He chuckled at that.
"Or," I added, "maybe we can take the MG for a spin." We have this beautiful 1960 MGA that my dad had built. It was a blue, two door convertible with bucket seats and no seat belts. I felt so cool driving around in that car.
"Sure thing, Chris. And I'll even teach you how to drive with the clutch," he said. I had been trying to learn how to drive a stick shift and failing miserably. But all that was tomorrow. Just then we were in for bucking broncos, bull riding, and mutton busting. I started to sing along to the radio, "It's the bulls and the blood, it's the dust and the mud and they call the thing a rodeo."
"Ah! Kristin poked me! She poked me!" Meredith whined.
"I did not Miss Cutshall!" Kristin rebuked.
"Now Kristin," I said, giving my best you're-in-trouble look, "you need to apologize to Meredith or you are going to time-out.
"Fine. Sorry Mer," she said begrudgingly.
"Good. Now may I continue class?" I asked. "Yes Miss Cutshall," all four of them chimed. I continued to read: "I would not, could not, in a box. I could not, would not, with a fox. I will not eat them with a mouse, I will not eat them in a house. I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam-I-am."
Amie had gotten out of her seat. "Where do you think you're going young lady?" I asked.
"I have History of South Africa class in ten minutes," she said. I checked my watch.
"Oh man, I have Italian Renaissance Art in ten minutes too." I grabbed my backpack. "Who's night is it to do the dishes?" I asked.
"Umm, it's Meredith's" Haley said, checking the chart made of construction paper on our pantry door. "Okay, just checking. See y'all later" I said as I left our house and headed for class.
I love my roommates.
Something I've discovered over the years: hanging out with different people brings out different sides of me and with each of those comes a different nickname.
My friends from high school really bring out Geeky Christie. One of my best friends from that period is also named Christy, so ever since orchestra class in middle school I've been known as Cutshall or Cut. That group of friends will probably still call me Cut even after I'm married with a different last name.
Christie gonna-Cut-y'all is a counter-intuitively menacing nickname that I got while working at Disney over the summer. We were having silly sword fights one day before work and we decided we all needed fighting names; this was mine. It's the name my summer friends call me by and they definitely bring out the Disney in me.
Chris is what my dad calls me. When I hang out with him I'm a total tomboy, like the son he never had.
Miss Cutshall is a name I am still not used to. It's what my real students call me and what my roommates call me jokingly. My roommates and my other college friends bring out the teacher in me, the future.
Finally, my name is Christie. Christie Ann Cutshall. I like my name. It isn't short for anything and it's spelled differently than any other Christie I've ever met. It's the name my mother picked for me for no other reason than she just liked it. She doesn’t even call me Christie though, she calls me Christie-Anna. Another nickname.
Despite all of my nicknames, I am sincerely and truly Christie.
The End
i got way too excited after section two and had to come straight to comment. <3 i totally found a receipt from pineapple dole whip in the purse i hadn't used since the summer just the other day.
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