Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I'm in Europe!

And having colossal amounts of fun. I get home in four days, or maybe three. I lost track. I miss my blog. This is costing me half a euro.

See you!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

My plane takes off at 3:30

And won't bring me back to America until July 3rd. Don't expect any posts from tomorrow 'til then.
I should write about what I've been doing the last couple of days, but it's going to have to be quick because I need to return some library books before I leave the country. Reading is actually a lot of what I've been up to. I got a big stack of books from the library, and placed them in several locations around the house. There's one on my dresser for late-night and early-morning reading, one on my desk for when I'm waiting for my mom to get ready when we're about to go run errands or something, one on the bay-window sill next to the kitchen for reading during meals, and a scattering of others in other places.
I have so much more time for fun stuff like hikes down to the Quicksilver reservoir, long bike rides, little craft project things, walking my dog around the neighborhood, and whatever else. Summer is amazing.
Okay, I have to go. We need to be at the airport in an hour, and I still have library books to return. Sorry for the short post!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Summer

I won’t try to argue with the fact that Christmas is the best day of the year. But the first day of summer vacation is a close second. What other day fills you with that exhilarating rush of freedom, provided by the knowledge you have over two months ahead of you to spend any way you’d like? There are some limitations (not enough money to go bowling, mothers sometimes unwilling to give rides to friend’s houses, extra summer chores, etc.) but those obstacles hardly stand in the way of two free months.
As I did last summer, I composed a list of things to do during the vacation. My calendar is nearly blank now, but I’ve been filling in the empty boxes with Stuff To Do. Tomorrow, I’m going to write funny quotes and also “inspirational” quotes every few squares on the sidewalk out in front of and beside my house, and also glue a quarter to the ground. That way, people strolling past will have a reason to look down (read: to see the quotes) and they’ll spot this COIN. I can never resist the temptation to bend down and pick up a coin lying on the ground. It’s so amazing, like an omen or something. Whenever I get change after a purchase, I always toss a coin on the ground once I exit the store, so somebody can experience the joy of finding it. I doubt anybody in the human race will ever be able to spot a quarter on the ground and just leave it there. No organism in the world has that degree of self-control. But anyway, I’m going to be watching out my front window, peering over the sill and keeping a tally of how many people either don’t notice the coin, or spot it and leave it (gasp!) and how many people jump on it and start scrabbling at its edges and try to pry it off, to no avail, and then straighten up and toss back their heads and strut off pretending the incident had never even happened. It’ll take up the whole morning, probably, searching for good quotes, laying down trails of chalk spelling them out, gluing a coin to the ground, then retreating to my window to look on and chuckle. Then, I’m going to walk to Leland with a stopwatch and pedometer, record how many steps and minutes it took to get there, then return and walk back, record, come back home, walk back to Leland, record, and so on until I have a considerable amount of data to work with. I’ll average out the amount of steps and minutes so that when school starts up again (shudder) I’ll know exactly what time I need to leave for school in the morning in order to arrive just as the bell rings. I’m gonna have to start all over again: last summer I did this with the middle school on two different days, and got it down to a science. I calculated the average and found that in order to arrive at 8:10 exactly, I would need to leave at 8:06. I usually got there either on time or a minute-or-so late, which didn’t matter because I’d always make it to class before the final bell.
Today was a slower day. I woke up at quarter to noon, no lie. (It’s the first day of summer-- I deserve it, right?) After a shower, I biked over to my grandma’s house to walk her dog for about an hour. Then I moseyed around her neighborhood and the one next to hers a little on my bike, riding down the streets and deciding which house I liked best on each street. After a while I returned home, ate a late lunch of cantaloupe cubes and leftover steamed broccoli, and walked to the library with my sister. I promptly shoved several girl-books into my sack, you know, those ones about a girl who goes to school and, I don’t know, gets in a fight with her friends or something, develops a crush on somebody, deals with some type of queen bee/mean girl person, and then works it all out by the last chapter. The literature equivalent of a chick flick. I devour those things. They’re perfect light summer reading. I picked up some books more stimulating to the brain just to make myself feel less guilty, then bought a mango Italian soda at the cafe while my sister browsed the DVDs and music.
I went home and made teensy hamburger patties from a package of ground beef, then sliced up tomatoes and onions and stuff and made a salad. We were going to have “sliders,” my mom had said as she handed me the ground beef, as in “fun-size.” Both of those terms are hers, not mine. I just shrugged and headed to the grill. I don’t like hamburgers, but these thingies were actually delicious. I made very skinny little patties and put a lot of pepper on them before grilling. Plus I slathered mine with Dijon mustard and piled on a whole bunch of pickles and onions. AND I made cantaloupe-flavored frozen yogurt for dessert which I am very proud of because I didn’t even use a recipe. :) I just plopped vanilla yogurt and diced cantaloupe in the rarely used ice cream machine and hoped everything would turn out well. Which it did. It tasted like cantaloupy yogurt.
So anyway, this post is from yesterday. I hopped onto the computer really quick today to post this. Just a reminder, I’ll be gone from the seventeenth this month to July 3rd. I’ll be home just in time for the Fourth of July, which is obviously not celebrated over there. I just hope I’m not jet-lagged. I’ve never had jet-lag before because of my never having left the time zone-ness, so I’m kinda worried. Is it scary? Does it kill you?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Magic Eyes

Okay, I found a blog quiz thing on a different blog SO I'M GONNA DO IT NOW OKAY! Some of the first questions are kind of awkward but whatever.

have-you-ever

1. Ate Crocodile?
Yes

2. Slept in a different bed?
Yes- hotels

3. Made out in a movie theatre?

Noo...

4. made out with 2 different people in one night?
Noo...

5. Thought your cousin was hot?
No

6. Been in love?
No

7. Slept?
Yes

8. Eaten a hamburger?
Sadly...

9. Gone over the speed limit?
It's not like I've ever driven a car or anything.

10. Painted your room?
Yes, but only one wall

11. Drove a car?
see answer to question 9

12. Danced in front of your mirror?
YES

13. Gotten a hickey?
No

14. Been dumped?

No

15. Stole money from a friend?
No

16. Gotten in a car with people you just met?
Yes... at safe organized events. You know, those organizer mom-people who go like:
*checks name sticker* "Okay honey, you're in Group B, so you'll be riding with Mrs. Brown, over there with the blond hair?"

17. Been in a fist fight?
With my sister :D

18. Snuck out of your house?
Kinda-but-not-really

9-lasts

1. cigarette:
Eeeuck.

2. beverage:
Water, last night.

3. kiss:
Never

4. hug:
I don't remember...

5. movie seen:
Hotel Rwana

6. cd played:
Something by the Beach Boys that my mom put o
n.

7. song listened to:
Lifesize by a Fine Frenzy

8. bubble bath:
Forever ago.

9. time you cried:
I don't remember.

25 questions

1. Where were you 3 hours ago?
Asleep

2. Who are you in love with?
My cat.

3. Have you ever eaten a crayon?
I tasted it, but I didn't eat the whole thing...

4. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?
Yeah

5. When is the last time you went to the mall?
Last weekend, I think. Or maybe the one before that.

6. Are you wearing socks right now?
Yep. With flamingos on them. :)

7. Do you have a car worth over $2,000?
Aren't all cars worth that much...? But anyway no.

8. When was the last time you drove out of town?
Salinas, a few weeks ago.

9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?
No... haven't been since I watched 17 Again.

10. Are you hot?
No it's morning right now... I'm cold.

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Water

12. What are you wearing right now?
Clothes.

13. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it?
C. none of the above

14. Last food that you ate?
Toast

15. Where were you last week at this time?
Either eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, or blogging.

16. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
No... none in the last YEAR!

17. When is the last time you ran?
Yesterday.

18. What's the last sporting event you watched?
Few weeks ago, my sister's softball tourney.

19. What is your favorite animal?
Penguinsmicecats

20. Your dream vacation?
...is gonna happen! Sightseeing in Europe.

21. Last person's house you were in?
Mine. In fact, I'm still here.

22. Worst injury you've ever had?
A scrape. From falling out of a tree. It was a rather large scrape. But nothing very serious.

23. Have you been in love?
Yes. With a feline.

24. Do you miss anyone right now?
Yes

25. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
WHAT

very-interesting

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.
systematic, can be correlated with geographical re-

(the rest of the word is "regions," by the way. Don't wanna leave you hanging, there :])

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What's there?
Air.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Chopped. A week or two ago.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is:
(I continued the post from this morning, so it's later now)

4:40

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
4:55

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Dryer.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
About an hour ago, to pick up my glasse
s/go to the bank/ get a haircut.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
My cat.

9. What are you wearing?
Wait... didn't you already ask this?

10. Did you dream last night?

Probably, but I don't remember any of them.

11. When did you last laugh?
Two seconds ago. I was trying to think of the last time I laughed, and then I remembered and it was funny so I laughed again.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A map, painting copies from Seattle, clock, picture frame I made with my sister in like fifth grade, painting copies from Ikea, a
nd watercolors from childhood.

13. Seen anything weird lately?
Yeah, YOUR FACE.

Just kidding.

That was a really bad joke.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
The questions repeat themselves a lot.

15. What is the last film you saw?
Speak of the devil.

(That's not a film, by the way... it's just that I JUST SAID THERE WERE REPEATED QUESTIONS AND THEN LOOK HERE'S ANOTHER ONE.)

16.If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
If the idea is unlimited money, I'd donate a bunch of it to help starving people in developing countries.

And THEN I'd go buy a whole bunch of clothes, probably, and also a trip for my whole family to go to Spain. Also maybe a beach house in Santa Barbara.

17. Tell me something about you that I don't know:
I have different hair now, and also glasses. I'll show you later.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I would get all the poor starving homeless people into homes with food and also get rid of this whole "economic crisis," plus I'd make it less
expensive to travel and give the Native Americans their land back, and the animals too, and turn every resource into a renewable resource so we wouldn't have to worry about depletion, and I'd stop global warming.

If it's only one sentence, it's only one thing, right? :)

19. Do you like to dance?
No.

20. George Bush:
This is not a question. And he's literally history now.

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Sunflower is she's blond, Esmerelda if she's brunnette.

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Darn-it-I-wanted-a-girl.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
OH YES.

24. What do you want to say to God when you reach the pearly gates?
What's the "pearly gates?"

1-word answers

1. whats your name spelt backwards?
ynneJ

2. What did you do last night?
Sleep

3. The last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
Personas for Firefox

4. Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery?
Huh?

5. Last time you swam in a pool?
About a month ago

6. What are you wearing?
Oh my Zeus!!

7. How many cars have you owned?
Ningun.

8. Type of music you dislike most?
Stuff like Coldplay and Snow Patrol... generic guitar/drumset/boy's screaming-singing voice stuff.

9. Are you registered to vote?
No.

10. Do you have cable?
You mean like TV? I think so.

11. What kind of computer do you use?
Mapple. (I never know whether to call it a Mac or an Apple, so.)

12. Ever made a prank phone call?
Yeah.

13. You like anyone right now?
No.

14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
¡Claro que si!

15. Furthest place you ever traveled?
Florida

16.Do you have a garden?
Who doesn't?

17. What's your favorite comic strip?
Garfield

18. Do you know all the words to the national anthem?
Just the first verse.

19. Shower, morning or night?
Mornin'.

20. Best movie you've seen in the past month?
Well, I only watched one-and-a-half movies in
the past month. They were at the same quality-level or whatever, but I only watched half of National Treasure and I watched all of Hotel Rwanda. So, I'll just say Hotel Rwanda. (Geez, how many times have I had to mention that movie in this quiz?)

21. Favorite pizza toppings?
Pineapples and olives.

22. Chips or popcorn?
Chips=bleh. Popcorn=meh. So, I'll say popcorn.

23. What cell phone provider do you have?
Verizon Wireless.

24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells?
What?

25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
Why would I?

26. Orange Juice or apple?
Apple.

27. Who were the last people you sat at lunch with?
My dog.

28. favorite chocolate bar?
Those little dark chocolate Ghirardelli squares filled with raspberry goo.

29. Who is your longest friend and how long?
Uhhhhmmmmm I actually don't know.

30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?
Yesterday. From the garden. In a salad. With balsamic vinegar.

31. Have you ever won a trophy?
Yeah.

32.Favorite artist?
Alison Sudol. (A Fine Frenzy)

33. Favorite computer game?
Dropple

34. Ever ordered from an infomercial?
No, but dreamed about it.

35. Sprite or 7-UP?
Wait, aren't they the same?

36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school/work?
Yeah.

37. Last thing you bought at Walgreens?
I'm more of a Long's Drugs kinda girl. But I actually do remember, it was in Arizona, and we bought a pack of marshmallow Peeps.

38. Ever thrown up in public?
No.

39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love?

Millionaire

40. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Eh... I guess it could happen, but eh.

41.Can exes just be friends?
Yes.

42. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
Grandma.

43. Did you have long hair as a young kid?
Sorta.

44. What message is on your voicemail machine?
Ugh I don't wanna go check.

45. Where would you like to go right now?
Rome.

46. What was the name of your first pet?
Ditto the goldfish whom I b
ought for twenty-five cents.

47. What kind of back pack do you have, and what's in it?
The normal kind. And school stuff.

48. Last incoming/outgoing call on your phone?
Incoming: my dad. Outgoing: my grandma.

49. What is one thing you are grateful for today?
Good health.

50. What do you think about most?
My Europe trip, and also what it would be like to live with no food and no money and no family.

So that's that. Now, as I stated up there^ as a response to one of the questions, I got new glasses and new hair. Wanna see wanna see?Y-e-a-h, so, that's that. Also, today was the last day of intermediate school. Figure I better have that on this post somewhere. It was weird walking to school knowing this was the *last time* I would take these steps, and entering my classes knowing this was the *last time* I would pass through those thresholds. Well, maybe I'd go back to visit my teachers, but it was the *last time* that I would belong in the microcommunity inside. It's so weird though, because it doesn't even feel like summer right now. As soon as I stepped outside of the classroom when the final bell rang, I was expecting to feel a jolt of excited energy, or at least a whoosh of relief, but it just felt like walking out of a classroom on a regular old day, going home to do chores and walk the dog, then eat dinner and fall asleep. Just waiting for summer was more exciting and fun than summer itself. It's like a wrapped birthday gift, with endless potential: there could be anything inside. As soon as you tear off the colorful paper and discover what's inside, all of the exciting rush of what could have been inside is gone. But that's probably because I haven't even done anything yet, and it pretty much has been like a normal school day with the exception of early dismissal. I hopped on my bike to kick off a summers-worth of long rides through both new, unfamiliar neighborhoods and trusty tried-and-true trails.

The people who are going on Blackwood's trip to France get to leave tomorrow, lucky ducks. I have to wait all the way until next Wednesday. Bleh.

But now, I can actually see Europe without the fuzzy curtain that usually hangs over my vision. The strength of my vision prescription tripled with these new glasses. (I'm not even exagerrating right now... the optometrist person told me.) God, the world looks so weird. Everything looks so up-close and three-dimensional. Things seem closer than they did before, and I can read road signs from far away. I have magic eyes.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Final Chapter

Tomorrow is
the last day of school and then
school's gonna be over
and then
you know what's next?
SUMMER
and
EUROPE
and
BLISS
and oh my taquito I am going to explode from excitement. I never really get so-called "spring fever," but "summer fever"...? Oh yeah. And this year, I am ready for it more than I ever have been in my life. Today the rest of the eighth graders went to Great America to stand in lines and sizzle in the sun. Me and a bunch of other people who decided not to go sat in a classroom and watched a movie. It was fine-just-fine, except I didn't really know anybody except Matt and Mikaela, and I don't actually know Micaela really, and Matt ditched halfway through. I created a masterpiece-ful work of art as well. I was drawing a giraffe, but then I didn't have room for the neck so I had to draw the neck and the head sprouting from the bottom of the page while the body was at the top.Like so. I wrote "to be continued" next to the cut-off body so as to justify the head poking up from the bottom.
The next few hours of my life:
6:00 Walk to my mommy's classroom, shove wriggling kids into their Jack and the Beanstalk costumes, lug props into the cafeteria, arrange finger foods on a cafeteria table, and herd bumbling family members into the caf and get their butts onto the seats in front of the stage.
6:30 Sit back, relax, and watch adorable first-graders sing Jack and the Beanstalk songs off-key and mumble lines into microphones.
7:00 Clap for the talented performers, then subtly nudge people outside with the promise of delicious finger foods to shove into their faces.
7:05 Fold and pack the costumes, disassemble props, drag everything back to the classroom, hand out little bags of "magical" jelly beans to the performers while cracking mild Jack and the Beanstalk jokes. "Don't let your mom throw those out the window, now!" "Those are most certainly worth that cow you traded for them!" "Better make sure to not drop those, or a giant beanstalk will grow in your yard!" (Read the play or book or something if you don't understand the listed wisecracks. If you're familiar with the story they're real knee-slappers, lemme tell you that.)
7:30 Go home. Make dinner. Eat dinner. Sleep. (next day...)
8:05 Leave for school.
8:15-1:00 Last day of school, suckas. I'm bringing a camera to take pictures of people because all the cool kids bring a camera to take pictures of people.
Then it's pure freedom. I'll probably dance and smile in joyful lust for a while, then realize that I am very bored. I'll have six days until Europe. I hope I don't pee my pants waiting. That would be unpleasant.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Today the eighth graders practiced for promotion. That means we marched in neat rows up the quad steps, then sat in folding chairs while the principal muttered into a microphone. He held it too close to his lips. I don't know about the rest of them, but all I heard was a bunch of spit ejecting from his mouth. Anyway, that somehow took 'till eleven thirty. I went home and ate a waffle and carrot sticks for lunch. It is so wonderfully sunny today. I just had to go for a bike ride to the lake. But now I'm back, and of course I just have to write a blog entry.
Still amazed that summer's here. Almost. How long will these next three days drag on? I am nine days away from the plane to Europe, ten days away from the hotel in London, our first stop. What I just realized is that Mrs. Goldman, with her broken leg and all, might not be able to go to France! :O She was planning to go on the trip with Blackwood, but if she can't even come to school I doubt that she'll be able to board a plane, you know? I feel bad for her. If my Europe trip were to be snatched away for one reason or another, my heart would shatter. X3 <-- and THAT was supposed to be a broken heart, but came out really retarded. Here, I'll go make a google image search and put a picture on my desktop, and upload it and resize it and hope I don't faint from exhaustion in the process.There you go. A broken heart.
So anyway, I added a chatbox in the sidebar. I tried to make the colors correspond to the background of the blog, but as you can see, they were more off than I'd guessed. At least the thing is green, right? Right? Yeah so, feel free to pop a message in there. I think I put something there yesterday, but I kind of forget what I said. Probably something along the lines of "HEY LOOK i has chat thingie now!!!" Because I am so intelligent.
By the way, I just realized that I put the wrong link for the post "Melancholy phantoms eye our skins" Look up "Rangers" by a Fine Frenzy for the right song. There's actually a multitude of phrases in that song that make no sense. I love it.
I have an eye appointment today. I'm so excited. I'm gonna get new glasses, ones that actually get rid of all the blurry fuzzy stuff that clings to things in my vision. My old glasses don't really work anymore. When I put them on, the blurriness is diminished, but not gone completely. I want to get cool square thick-rimmed ones, with like, red frames or something. They'll make me look smart.
So. I'm going to go do something productive now.

I<()>I

Sunday, June 7, 2009

This girl is a failure.

I failed the project. I felt like jumping off a cliff.
But as I sat there mourning and staring desolately at the PIV, at the B burning a hateful zouo into the screen, wondering how all my effort could have amounted to something so lowly, it occurred to me that getting a B on a project was not a huge problem compared to all the tragedies of the world. There are people starving in Argentina. There are men with wives and children getting kicked out of their houses because they can’t pay the mortgage, and end up on the streets. When I went to Mexico, there were little kids everywhere peddling gum and trinkets for money, or just plain begging because there was no way otherwise to get it. There are little kids in China working under horrible conditions in factories making Happy Meal toys and getting paid two cents an hour. Some people in Africa dig holes in the dirt and sleep there simply because there is just nowhere else to go. There are alcoholic mothers who come home late at night, drunk, and beat their children until they wail and bleed when they see they haven’t gone to bed but were instead sitting in the moonlight waiting for their mommy to arrive.
Earning a B on a project? Not so bad. As much as I tried to look at it that way, though, the burning shame of failure was nestled into my gut and there to stay. I guess we’re all going to fail sometime or other. It’s part of life, right? I should accept that I suck at everything and will never do anything right. This project just proved it. My consolation is that I still have an A in the class, and an A in all the rest of them. But on this project, I have a B.
Ugh. I'm going to continue this post in a few days or so. Assuming I don't go hang myself on a curtain cord. (Just kidding!)
Okay, the continuation, as promised. I've been kind of busy with construction stuff. For the last few days I worked on assembling and building the vanity for the bathroom, and also "caulking." Caulk is this weird rubbery stuff that you squirt and smooth over edges. Whatever it is, my daddy says I'm an expert at it. And my daddy don't lie. But today, I had free time, so I went TOILETRY SHOPPING! Yeah. I walked to Long's and bought a super-cute little deodorant stick that's like, two inches tall, and also some Exfoliating Power-Clear Scrub, to be decanted into a smaller container. (Which is soap to be slathered upon the face, to prevent acne.) I wanted to buy a cutesy travel-size sunscreen, too, but they were all quite expensive, and I needed money left over to buy oriental chicken salad at P.W. :)
Anyway, I constructed a packing list, then kept adding things in the margins, so I rewrote the whole thing. But then I still kept adding on, so rewrote it again. Did you know you're only allowed to bring one quart-bag's worth of liquids with you? I found that out on the TSA website. I couldn't even fit all my little soap-bottles and stuff in there, after a good fifteen minutes of rearranging and cramming. Bleh. I still have more packing to do, though: I'm not going to put in the clothes until the last minute, because I might want to wear them. plus, there're some things I need to mooch off my sister. (I don't have seventeen day's worth of clothes... not even ten day's worth! Eek!) I should have bought something at Long's to bribe her with. Oh well. Maybe I'll go again another day.
So anyway, sorry for not posting for so long. I feel guilty, but caulking is importanter, right?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Melancholy phantoms eye our skins

I don't what that means. The title, I mean. It was in this song, which I listen to... often. Very often. I don't particularly like any of those individual words, "melancholy," "phantoms," or anything, but they sound nice all strung together in that order.
Blarg. This would be an appropriate time to get to the point, but un-surprisingly, there isn't one. I could list some countdowns here: Eight more days until the end of school, twelve more days until I board the plane and take off for Europe, nine more posts after this one until I reach the big one-oh-oh. (One hundred.) Promotion dance is on Monday, I think. So, four days. I don't know when the ceremony is, but now I have to wear a medal to it. I was given some sort of eighth grade student achievement-type award yesterday, and now I have to wear it to promotion ceremony. It's blue and yellow. My dress is pink. *cue mighty clash* The entirety of next week is full of non-academics. Us eighth graders dance, practice walking across stages, walk across stages, and go on rides at Great America while the rest of the school takes their finals. I haven't made up my mind whether or not to go to Great America yet. I have to decide before tomorrow morning... when I leave for school... because that's when the money for the trip is due.
Oh yeah. I'm in trouble for not mentioning Billy here on the blog. Hi Billy. Okay, done.
I haven't talked about what is major buzz at school: Mrs. Goldman went to see the Wicked play in San Francisco, and fell down the stairs on her way out. She twisted her leg-bone (pebula?) and snapped it in two places. Ouch. I feel bad for her, but also almost a teensy bit happy that she isn't here. ^-_-^ <-- That's a devil face, by the way. The pointy things are horns. And it's red. Because the devil is red, I think. Anyway, this means that a sub hovers in the corner of the classroom while we do whatever. Today me and a bunchload of other people vandalized Goldman's chalkboard with random doodles and messages, then erased the evidence before the bell rung. I think we should have left it there. It was all rather interesting to look at, in a smudgy chalk dust/misshapen scribbles kind of way.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Blarg.

I am having trouble constructing a topic sentence for this blog entry. I keep starting sentences, and then deleting and rewriting, deleting, repeating. And, as it stands, I really don’t have any idea what I’m going to talk about.
I went to a retirement ceremony for Miss Stephen today. She had cancer, but she seemed to be in pretty good condition. (God, I sound like I’m talking about a used car or something.) She’s moving to Texas to be close to her family. There was a “royal ceremony” where the principal gave her a crown. And a staff thingie. And a robe. And roses. And a diamond necklace. Then we were all invited to join in for a rousing chorus of an Ode to Miss Stephen. I moved my lips a little bit and wished more people were singing so I could too, and people wouldn’t notice my voice sounded like a strangled goose because everybody else’s voices would overlap (was that the right word?) it. A bunch of retired principals and a handful of former colleagues went up onstage and read very touching prepared speeches off 3X5 cards. After all the people aloof the stage finished up with their praise and memories, occasional mild jokes and moments of stifled sobs, we were directed to the refreshments station thingie. The line was a thousand miles long. I skipped out on standing around for an hour amongst pocket-tissue-carrying old ladies and hungry little children and went to go help my mom in her classroom instead. Then I came home and washed windows, consumed salad and cantaloupe for dinner, and came up here to write a blog entry. I’m going to have to leave in about an hour, though. There’s a meeting tonight in Mrs. Kalman’s room to discuss Europe. Gweesht! I don’t know what the heck that was. I’m just trying to convey excitement here, know what I mean?
Okay, let’s talk about scary movies. WHAT’S THE POINT? Movies should be a pleasurable experience. I prefer to look at attractive people singing and dancing and having clever little conversations than grimacing at a half-dead guy with his eyeballs gushing out of their sockets, moaning and getting blood all over the place. Does it really make people feel nice inside to see people with their heads torn off and the neck-bones glinting while somebody else wails and starts shooting people? Is it a fun experience to watch somebody get sliced open with a chainsaw? Movies are supposed to be entertaining. The human race must be very sick if we enjoy those sorts of images. Why watch that when you could be watching Hilary Duff flirt with some other attractive being in front of her locker, or Vanessa Hudgens dancing through the halls of a school and singing a cheerful tune? Pretty images are just so much more enjoyable than ugly ones. It’s just the way logic works.
I can’t think of a smooth transition to the next subject, so I’ll just skip that part and move along with whatever else there is to say.
Oh yeah... school is like, done. There are only ten more days left, and I’m through with two of my finals already. Only Spanish and language arts left, plus a simple project for science. (Wait, I think I already talked about this. Oh well.) Thursday is the last testing day, and the rest of the year (One week) is full of nothing. The nothing-ness has already seeped into social studies class: for the past two days we were permitted to sit and chat, or read, or draw, or whatever. Yesterday I created a masterful piece of artwork. Today I listened to Beethoven and watched Steven screw around with dominoes. Which reminds me, I should bring my iPod tomorrow. Not that it’s really mine: it’s my mom’s hand-me-down, scratcheyd Shuffle, which I loaded up with NINE whole songs. Thirty percent of them are in different languages.
So anyway, I need to go now. Well, not really, but I’m gonna go anyway.