With Polka Dots on Ziggzagging Stripes

The Cookie Quiz

2010-11-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

I took it as well, but I don't feel very akin to it, except the first one. haha and probably the last one as well, the not-great-at-execution part haha :) ps I love you all!

You Are Solid and Honest

Your sense of humor is goofy and silly. You try to never hurt people with your jokes.

You are the type of person who is more life smart than book smart. You are creative and intuitive.

You have fun when you're doing something new. You crave novelty and different experiences.

You are an ideas person. You aren't great on execution, but you're good at brainstorming.

I love my school :)

2010-10-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

Friday was pivotal for the functionality of our community. Since the beginning of the school year we've had issues that kept being pushed to the back burner because we never had enough time to discuss them. Gordy, Norah and I took the reins and started a meeting that ran the entire school day to figure out these issues. The students were all for it, and we didn't go to classes at all.

It revamped the student body, and reminded me of how wonderful our school is. We're a democracy, and although there are some students who don't care enough to participate, the majority of us consider TNS our second home and do all we can to make it a better place to learn, to grow, and to simply be.

I'm very excited for the changes in the system we've now implemented, and can't wait to go to school tomorrow! (But I'm always excited for school haha)

Another thing that happened on Friday was my science gateway. I researched the development of the lens throughout history, how our understanding of light influenced our discoveries of the lens, and the harmony of math, science, and technology (and how they all push each other forward). I passed, and although I thought I did a mediocre job, both Nate (the science teacher) and Christine (the English teacher/my advisor) told me I did fabulously and stated that I had presented the best science gateway they had seen. Granted, not very many students have completed a science gateway, but I was still honored. :) Christine also announced I was the first student to complete every gateway! :) :) :) (Persuasive Essay, Applied Mathematics, Science and Technology, and Personal Passion) In that regard, I'm the first new school student to ever get into Phase 3! I'm so excited, I feel like I've actually accomplished something.

All I have to do now to graduate is finish my research paper (about fluoride in the town water) and do my senior project. I'm focusing on alternative methods of healing, especially yoga, polarity therapy, reiki, massage, homeopathy, acupuncture, and the power of herbs, food, water, and tea. I'm going to apprentice with people on Wednesdays, practice Yoga at the school (it's soooo wonderful!) and do my own independent research at home. I feel so wonderful right now, as if all the stress is gone and I can just enjoy my last year of high school. Although I'm quite disappointed that I didn't find out about The New School or the School Around Us sooner, I'm so thankful I found it at all. It's been a life-saver.

So that's just an update of my school year so far. I'm taking some AP level English/History classes, a fun language class (ASL), and a very informative Maine Elections class. I have a free block to get all my senior portfolio shiznit together, and then I use the flex time either in advisory, doing committee work, or in one of the infamous meetings.

By the way, we're having a Harvest Fair on the 23rd that I bet almost no one will show up to, considering everyone and their uncles are having harvest fairs on that day. We're also having a haunted house on the 22nd, which probably won't be as bad because we're not putting a whole bunch of money and effort into.

Ahhhhhh life.

Titles have never been my forte

2010-08-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

I've decided to change my favorite quotes on facebook, (however little-sounding that may be) considering they have been the same for about a year, and I haven't talked to any of those people for more than a half hour since then. They still make me laugh, and I still want to remember them, so I've decided to keep them here, like a pensieve.

Speaking of which, it makes me extremely happy to have itunes on shuffle and see a song called "Fluffy's Harp".

"but I thought you got gingivitis when a ginger kisses you..."

"One two buckle my shoe, three four watch a tv show." -My
three year old niece :)

"Hey now, that's what almost destroyed the Cheetah Girls
in the second movie." -Alienor

"No offense Frank but you remind me of Shrek. The ogre."
"As if there was any other Shrek we could possibly be
confused with."

"Did you know that bananas are going extinct?"
"But what about the monkeys?!" - Catey

"It's hotter in here than Satan's womb." -Travis

Kath: If these rocks are cold we could lie on them like
snakes,and they would absorb the heat from our bodies.
Francie: (after feeling the rocks) they aren't really hot
or cold
Kath: oh, so they're neither hither nor thither

"You should get your nose pierced right here."
"A septum piercing, they're so cool! You could be a bull!"
"Well not if it's called THAT, that's like a cross between
septic and rectum." -Cody

Haley: Coalton, crack my back!
Coalton: What do I look like, a psychiatrist?

"And six plus seven, that's like almost 12." -Coalton

"Wait, is Anne Frank the one who didn't get off the bus?"-Cody

Mom: I feel like Gumby, I'm being very mechanical.
Sara: Is Gumby very mechanical?
Mom: Well, no...
Sara: Isn't Gumby the opposite of mechanical?
Mom: The little clay one? Well you know someone has to
move him mechanically...oh man I'm going to wet my
pants...BUT I'M NOT WEARING PANTS!

"Wait, is Rumpelstiltskin from the Bible?" -Nick haha

And in its place I shall share a lovely passage from one
of my favorite philosophers:

Now one autumn morning when the wind had blown all
the leaves off the trees in the night,and was trying to blow
the branches off, Pooh and Piglet were sitting in the
Thoughtful Spot and wondering.

"What I think," said Pooh, "is I think we'll go to Pooh
Corner and see Eeyore, because perhaps his house has
been blown down, and perhaps he'd like us to build it again."

"What I think," said Piglet, "is I think we'll go and see
Christopher Robin only he won't be there, so we can't."

"Let's go and see everybody," said Pooh. "Because when
you've been walking in the wind for miles, and you suddenly
go into somebody's house, and he says, 'Hallo,Pooh, you're
just in time for a little smackerel of something,' and you are,
then it's what I call a Friendly Day."

Piglet thought that they ought to have a Reason for going
to see everybody, like Looking for Small or Organizing an
Expotition, if Pooh could think of something.

Pooh could.

"We'll go because it's Thursday," he said, "and we'll go to
wish everybody a Very Happy Thursday. Come on, Piglet."

They got up; and when Piglet had sat down again, because
he didn't know the wind was so strong, and had been
helped up by Pooh, they started off..

They went to Pooh's house first, and luckily Pooh
was at home just as they got there, so he asked them
in, and they had some, and then they went on to Kanga's
house, holding on to each other, and shouting, "isn't it?"
and "What?" and "I can't hear."

By the time they got to Kanga's house they were so
buffeted that they stayed to lunch. Just at first it
seemed rather cold outside afterwards, so they pushed
on to Rabbit's as quickly as they could.

"We've come to wish you a Very Happy Thursday,"
said Pooh, when he had gone in and out once or twice
just to make sure that he could get out again.

"Why, what's going to happen on Thursday?" asked
Rabbit, and when Pooh had explained, and Rabbit,
whose life was made up of Important Things, said
"Oh, I thought you'd really come about something,"
they sat down for a little ... and by-and-by Pooh and
Piglet went on again. The wind was behind them now,
so they didn't have to shout.

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbits clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never
understands anything."

Gee, Officer Krupke, Krup you!

2010-04-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq28qCklEHc

It's such an excellent song! I've been playing it on repeat ever since we got our parts for the musical.

The main male roles were Tony, Riff, and Bernardo, with some small parts to Chino, Officer Krupke, Doc, and the Party Planner. The two main female roles were Maria and Anita, with a small part for Anybodys. It turned out like this:

Tony (main guy)- Gordy

Maria (main girl)- Myself

Riff (leader of the Jets) - Chase

Bernardo (leader of the Sharks)- Chris

Anita (Bernardo's gf/Maria's best friend)- Grace

Chino (Bernardo's best friend)- Coalton

Officer Krupke/Doc/Party Planner- Will (hahaha)

Anybodys (tomboyish girl of the Jets)- Jamie

Gordy wanted to be Bernardo so he wouldn't have to remember as many lines, and Chris wanted to be Tony because he wanted the lead, but Gordy's such a good singer that Deb (the teacher) wouldn't let him have a role with no solos. Jamie really wanted to be Anybodys [a tomboy who wants to be part of the Jets (the white gang), but is picked on because she acts like a man], and Grace wanted to be either Anybodys or Anita, so that left Maria for lil' ole me.

From what I've heard Will is a talented actor, but he claims he can't sing, and we know he can't dance because of his foot surgery. So even though he deserves a big role, he got the extras that don't have to sing and dance. Coalton just wanted to kill someone, so he got Chino, which is funny because Bernardo and Chino are best friends and so are Chris and Coalton. Chase is a pretty good singer, and I'm not sure about his acting abilities, but from what I know I think he'll do well as Riff.

Gordy wants to switch with Chris, but also doesn't want Chris kissing me. Chris doesn't really want to have to kiss Grace, so he wants to switch with Gordy. Boys! haha :) I've never seen Chris act, but he said at one of his old schools he was Romeo, which most likely means he could pull off Tony...if he got over his singing stage fright.

I'm so pumped!! Deb's going to be in Newfoundland next week, and then we have vacation, so we're not going to get our scripts for a while. I can hardly contain myself, and I don't know why. Musical Theater's become my favorite class, mostly because Chris and Coalton are absolutely hilarious. I love Coalton's ADHD, it makes life ten times more wonderful. He's always jumping, running around, doing cartwheels, pretending to have epic sword fights with the coat hanger, and bringing up random topics of conversation that pop into his head at the strangest of times. We could be talking about the tension between the Sharks and the Jets, and he'll ask "Do you think Poseidon ever got raped by a water animal? 'Cause I've seen that on youtube before, those dolphins are horny little mackerels." ("Mackerel", "Riggin'/Rallyin' ", and "Eeeeoooh!" are his most used words, and we hear them about 1234567890 times a day.)

Too bad Musical Theater is the only class that doesn't happen everyday. Oh well, at least it's happening. At first I thought we wouldn't have enough people to do anything, but since Roland's numbers were down ASL wasn't going to be offered, and the majority of the ASL class switched into Musical Theater. I hope Roland's feeling better...

The sunlight's really pretty. On windy days like this I'm reminded of Winnie the Pooh, which makes everything better. :) My Sundays usually consist of rejuvenating my mental health by being by myself. Sometimes I wonder if this is the right thing to do, and other times I thank myself for how little stress I put myself under.

And sometimes, I just need some advice from Winnie the Pooh.

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

I'm so screwed yayayayayayay!!

2010-03-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

On Monday Marylyn told us "We're burned out. We didn't leave ourselves anytime to plan Session 3 classes, so we're letting Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday be work days where you don't have to come to school as long as you're doing work at home."

kjbtehuertbkj on Wednesday I thought, "Oh, I have lots of time, I'll just have a fun day of revisiting my childhood with nostalgic video games."

Then Wednesday night I had the idea that Gordy could stay the night on Thursday because we had to go to Augusta Friday morning and he lives really far away, so he could sleep a little later if he stayed with us. I thought he could come over in the afternoon so I could get a little work done in the morning, but the most convenient time for his ride was dropping him off at 10:30 am, so I got no work done at all. I had to wake up early to go to school to wait for Ruth (the math teacher) so she could help me with my math gateway. I waited for an hour and a half and she showed up just as I was walking out the door to leave. Oh well.

Gordy's awesome. :) We got about three and a half hours of sleep Friday morning, woke up at an ungodly hour where it was still dark out, and dressed up for the fancies at the capital building. (and it was snowing. What the hell??)

The reason we had to go to Augusta was because the representatives wanted to meet their respective robotics teams. Ross (our teacher), Gordy, and I were the only ones who went. Most of the other teams had more people, but then again, Gordy and I are like a quarter of our team. haha then when Hannah Pingree (speaker of the house) was saying the teams she forgot us. Later some lady came over and apologized, and after lunch we got pictures with some well-to-do peeps, but other than that it was basically pointless. I had fun talking to Gordy and Ross, though. They're hilarious!

The minute we got back into the Bunk Marylyn made us cook for the local foods dinner. Then I had the recruitment meeting, but I had to leave that one early to go to an admissions meeting. We've accepted our first new kid for next year! And right after that I had to eat noms noms and go to the gym before it closed. Probably one of the busiest days of my life, but it was awesome anyway.

Yesterday I said "Okay, I really have to do my work. The teachers gave us three extra days, I can't just blow it off completely. All I have to write five more pages on my research paper and finish my writing portfolio." I went to the library, got some books, and rushed back home because Marylyn was making us come to school to cook again. We only made about a hundred dollars, but it's better than nothing.

So now I'm wallowing in self pity at how I screwed myself over like usual. bkaweiuoe at least classes start tomorrow, I'm wicked pumped! First block I'm taking Philosophy, second is either going to be Art or King Arthur Through the Ages, third block will be Women's Studies, and fourth block is Musical Theater. :) :) :) I can't decide right now whether to do Art or King Arthur. Christine (the English teacher) said King Arthur's just going to be reading some books and watching lots of movies, because her spring classes are a lot easier than her fall ones. But almost everyone in the art class is really talented, and even though I'd like to get better I'm afraid I'll be the odd one out who never knows what's going on. Such a dilemma!!

But I'm really looking forward to Session 3...if I can get my work done. Philosophy I have with Gordy, and Women's Studies is all girls, which will be such a change from last session. I remember ASL where I was the only girl in the class, and in Robotics it was just me and Rhiannon, but she's Rhiannon, so I was basically the only girl. haha. Having an all girls class will be refreshing. :) Except Rhiannon's in Women's Studies...hahaha

And I can't wait for musical theater! Since we're so small we only have a few choices. We'll probably be doing The Fantasticks. And since I'm either one of or the only girl in the class, I'll probably have a role I don't deserve. But I'll try my best!

The Auction, our biggest money maker (besides your mom), is coming up on April 10th at KHS. It'll be a party!! Last year I won a $50 gift card to a bar and grill. It expired a month ago, but we went there and the manager extended it to March of 2013. Ssccoorree.

I wish I had the super power to do homework asap. That'd be pretty cool.

I hope this gets played at my wedding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfoqELZWcp8

Love and Light everybody!

Sara

El concierto!

2010-03-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

All the days are blending together into one big, happy mess. I can't remember the last time I had a bad day. And it's awesome! :)

Everything is good and whole and wonderful. Yesterday was beautiful! Gordy showed me a secret spot by the Pescataqua river and I felt like we were in a movie, or a Kingdom Hearts game...yeah I'm still partially obsessed haha

The March Interlude is going swimmingly! Tomorrow is sort of our last day, then Tuesday's sharing night, Wednesday we have off, and Thursday we start our new classes. It was the perfect break from the classroom, and now I'm ready for Session 3. I wish society wouldn't label me as a bum for going to high school when I'm 20, otherwise I think it'd be amazing to stay at TNS a little longer. It's really hard to graduate in two years! Most kids can graduate in four years but some of them have to take five. I have to pass four gateways, have all my roundtables, and complete my senior project. But that's alright, at least I'll have my super senior year! :)

I don't know when our anniversary is, but when I asked Gordy how long we've been together he answered, "Well, if you're talking about the first time you kissed me, that'd be February 22nd at 11:04 pm." (which is absolutely adorable :]) But we've been such good friends for a long time now, it feels like our connection is so much stronger. Because love without friendship isn't love, not to me, at least.

Since I've been driving to York and Eliot so much lately Dad got me a GPS, because I always get lost and he's overprotective. I haven't thought of a name yet, I'm not even sure if it's a boy or girl. That was pointless to say, pretend you didn't read that.

In retrospect, most of this was like the fluff that turns to dust and is thoughtlessly swept from the mind. I apologize.

Soooo there's a Cobra Starship/3OH!3 concert in Boston on May 9th...and guess who's six months will be up by then?? I feel like my dad wouldn't let me go to a concert without an adult, but there's always hope. Anyone in? :) :) :)

Loooooong day

2010-02-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Granted, I had a lot of fun, but it went on forever! (like your mom)

Got to school at about 8:40-ish. A little late, but that happens every Monday.

Food class was hilarious as usual, my book group is just Gordy, Noah, and myself. When those two are together it's just non-stop laughter. I love dem, even if Noah smells. :) haha

Towards the end of class, Chris starts talking about how he wants to punch Connor. He said he and Connor argued earlier about whether or not you can drink your own piss. (Connor said you couldn't, Chris said you could before it turned into ammonia, and I believe you can up to seven times before it becomes toxic for your body, so I was kinda on Chris's side...plus he's just a lot chiller.)

Connor starts yelling from God knows where, screaming "No you can't!". Chris just shrugs and says "Okay, crybaby!" Then third block was about to start, and I decided to boil some water to make tea. I was walking with Gordy to the kitchen, and when we were about ten feet away Chris comes out and lightly shoves Connor, and all hell broke lose. Connor immediately put Chris in a headlock and shoved him against the cubbies. Chris was flexing but didn't lay a finger on Connor, even saying "I'm not going to hit you." Nate the teacher then rushed out of the science room and broke up the fight. The only people who saw it were Haley and Nick (who had been making out prior to the fight) and Gordy and I.

Both Chris and Connor were in the wrong. After solutions someone stated "Chris needs to leave", but I don't think we could do that. Not really. He's a cool guy, just a little rough around the edges and slightly more obnoxious than the average person. He's been kicked out of both Noble and Sanford, which doesn't surprise me, but he doesn't deserve to be expelled from TNS as well. We can't just let him be a drop out. Connor's gonna be gone soon anyway, he's going to South Carolina to presumably do his senior project.

Flora's going to have her baby any second now, so why she's actually showing up to school I have no idea, but she's not teaching. She just chills, goes to adviosry/meetings, helps out. For a pregnant lady she does a crap-ton of work. She never even asks for help when she's carrying stuff. She's such a cool gal! We're throwing her a party on Friday, and the decoration committee gave me their list of things to make the big room look festive. It included "Fetuses", "Gordon in diaper", and "Ewwww babies". Earlier Marylyn had gone beyond creepy when she suggested we decorate with "Hanging babies". bahaha I love her

Flora's taking us to Augusta on Thursday. I'm nervous that her water'll break and she'll make us have the baby in the van. She wants to have the baby at her house, not the hospital, so I would have no idea what to do in that situation. I just hope she makes it 'til then. haha Instead of Public Policy, we went to Christine's room and chilled with her Writing Workshop. Amandajean showed up, so hopefully this is the start of a new age for her. :) This morning she wasn't there yet and Landon said "Well that was a short lived victory." haha

In Creative Writing we read these creepy but reallly awesome stories about fairy tales being altered and told differently. When we were brainstorming fairy tales we talked about Cain and Abel, and how the only people who knew the story were those who had seen Year One. haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR0c1t-WFjI

Then we talked about Rumpelstiltskin, and the transition got Nick confused, so he asked "Wait, is Rumpelstiltskin from the Bible?" hahaha he's so awesome. :) Nick's definitely one of my favorite people in the school.

Then in Solutions we actually had two cases (some drama's goin' down at TNS), but they were just about kids using cell phones. Rhiannon acts defensive whenever she's in the wrong, and it makes her seem more childish than she really is. It's a little immature of her, and I really wish she would take more responsibility, but that's just a part of growing up. She is only 15, after all.

After that I cleaned and went to Nick's roundtable. It's the third senior roundtable I've attended in the last week, and they're all almost two hours long. I get so tired just sitting there, and although at the time I wish I could be in robotics, I'm glad I'm preparing myself for what I have to do next year. Jenna's going to intern at a zoo in Colorado for a month, Cody's going to teach the wilderness survival for the March Interlude, and Nick's going to make a book about plastic and pollution/garbage. Nick's plan really inspired me to create something beautiful, but alas, I didn't have time today. Maybe tomorrow!

I got to spend a half and hour at robotics, and then I went home for a few minutes to quickly grab some din-din before the All School Meeting. The meeting was actually interesting for once. We talked about the Auction coming up in April (just ten weeks away!), the van we're buying for a dollar, charter schools, recruiting students (we need to get another 15-20 for next year because we never have money haha), and the March Interlude!

I don't believe I've explained the March Interlude. It's March 1st-24th-ish. We decided it was going to be about survival, so the first couple of days we'll be learning about first aid and other useful skills, then that Thursday through Saturday is the robotics competition!!! I'm super stoked, it's gonna be so sick, even if I have to sleep in a room with just Rhiannon. :/

There are five options for the interlude. Wilderness, WWOOF (World-Wide Workers on Organic Farms), Urban, Documentary, and Senior Project. The majority of the kids are camping in the Wilderness with Cody, some are going down to Delaware with Marylyn to work on a farm, and a couple kids are going to live in the city (and be homeless for a little while) with Ross. I'm documenting! It worked out perfectly, there were three of us, and we all wanted to document different things. I'm gonna follow Cody and company around for the first part of the interlude then head back to TNS and make a film with Nate, Landon, and Christine with the footage we got. This means that soon I actually have to learn how to use a video camera...haha

I'm wicked pumped for March. Robotics plus the interlude's gonna be BALLIN.

haha I like using ballin and baller as adjectives, because they don't make sense. At all. Like, how did that actually happen?

After the meeting I went to the gym and got home a little after 9. It was crazy, but I love it. Gah I can't get over how much I love my school. :) :) :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful day!!!

I haven't blogged in so long!

2010-01-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

Lots has happened at TNS.

Amandajean has showed up to school four times since she got accepted.

Robotics is now all systems go. Competition's only a month and a half away, but even so I think we're doing quite well. Everyday the team stay after school for a few hours [and by the team I mean only the cool peeps like Will, Cody, Gordy, Ross, and myself (plus the not so cool Rhiannon and Josh)]. Yesterday we had a good five minute conversation of Josh jokes comparing him to a robot. It was great. :)

New Kid's Class is now only an hour on Wednesday mornings, then I have photography for the rest of the day. It's wicked awesome, we've been wearing white and having slides projected onto ourselves and people taking pictures. I had to share a camera with Gordy last time and because of that Haley and Gordy got in a huge fight. :/ That's pretty much the only drama that's happened since Marylyn found the bong piece in Haley's bag a couple months ago.

Speaking of which, the kid who Haley says put the piece in her bag is Chris, who now goes to the school. He amounts to being almost the exact same person as Coalton, except slightly more intelligent. There are lots of funny stories involving the guy. haha I think he likes Jade, because he vaguely said "I asked her...she's such a confusing person!" and then Devin came by and he said he'd tell me later. But Jade is so awesome!!! I miss her, I haven't seen her since Tuesday! :(

On Thursday our public policy class went to Augusta. It was awesome! We had Representative Jane Eberlee (who's son graduated from TNS a couple years ago) showing us around and introducing us to a bunch of people like all of our representatives and senators, speaker of the house (Chellie Pingree's daughter Hannah, whom Zeb could not stop talking about yesterday. "She's so attractive!!"), and even the govnah John Baldacci. It was a lot of fun. The House was pretty informal, they had this freshman from a local high school jamming out the the national anthem on his electric guitar. We missed the Senate, but got a bunch of pictures anyway with this guy who wouldn't leave Zach alone. haha then later when we were in the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife committee they were all wicked chill! They were cracking jokes, and the leader had no tie, his shirt unbuttoned and rolled up, and a gold chain around his neck. It was awesome!

On the way back from Augusta we stopped at an agricultural fest and I got a brochure for the Maine Cheese Guild. Possibly one of the most epic names EVAR. On the table when you first walk in they had little bags with free samples of seaweed meal that looked just like pot. I saw Zeb run over to the table only to look disappointed a few seconds later. haha

Ballroom Dancing...hahahaha Coalton's ADHD never ceases to amuse me. He makes Josh look like Einstein next to him. (and that's really saying something). We're starting to learn Salsa. It's a lot of fun, and during the breaks Chris and Coalton make you tear up with laughter because they're so funny. So many good times...

Marylyn is still Marylyn. She signed the food class up for going to Augusta to prove that we're actually doing something with the local foods din-din. And in February the public policy class is going back to the state house...TOO MUCH AUGUSTA. In Food we've been watching movies because Marylyn's doing her job for once and has a bunch of meetings. So far we've watched The Botany of Desire, King Corn, and Food, Inc. They're all wicked good, and even though I'd rather be doing something in class than just watching something, I'm glad that we got to see these. They're all very enlightening. And for some reason Michael Pollan shows up in every one. haha

Creative Writing has gone down the drain. I missed a class when I went to New York, then Christine was sick (she's the teacher), I missed a class when we traveled to Augusta, then our next class in canceled because of MLK juniah day. I'm not even bothering to catch up, it's too complicated haha.

ASL has been wicked fun since Chris joined. Coalton will try to sign something to him and get it wrong, then be confused because Roland (the teacher) is asking him something and randomly say the only words he knows, which never make any sense. haha Yesterday was kind of awkward, though, because Chris was absent, Coalton had to be picked up early because there was a fire at the place his ride works, and Will's family was skiing (he invited me to go, but I'm such a bad skier that I had to decline), so it was just me and Roland. Then backpack boy came so it was alright, but for the first few minutes it was just me and Roland's really loud, wheezy breathing. He's still sick. Poor guy. :(

I can't think of anything else for the moment, except that tonight's the Chili and Chowder din-din for TNS at the Unitarian Church. I'm bringing vegan, gluten-free cookies and cleaning up. I think Noah, Jade, and Princess Sara will be cleaning up too, so it's okay. :)

Have a lovely three day weekend everybody!

Wicked pumped!! :)

2009-12-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

Last week the teachers came to us during committee time asking if we could find a solution (hence our name) to a problem. They knew most kids wouldn't be coming to school on the last day before vacation and were wondering if we could think of a way to motivate kids to come.

As Solutions, we decided that tomorrow we'd have a half day, party a little, then play laser tag.

Having power = Win

I'm pumped, AND tomorrow morning Jessie and co. arrive in Maine! I'm so excited to see her!!! And of course my wonderful brother-in-law and nieces. :) :) :)

Jessie has laryngitis right now. Regardless, I talked to her more today than I have in a loooong time.

Today I realized something when I was sleeping on the couch (there's one that's horrible for sitting but purely excellent for sleeping). Chris, the new junior, and Rhiannon are similar. They're both very flirtatious people, and when they hold you everything fits together, even in the spaces between fingers.

I kinda wish Rhiannon wouldn't be, though. :/ haha but good for her, it's some kind of born talent, I guess, to make anyone feel comfortable just by touching them.

It's so wicked cooool, but I kinda wonder if it would work for her if her prey was taller than 5' 2". Those charts we used in middle school lied, it said I'd grow to at least 5' 5". Oh well, being short is awesome. You can always get kid's menus at restaurants, and we all know that's where the good stuff is anyway.

I...didn't get enough sleep last night. It's the Monday Syndrome, where everything throughout the day is funny because you're hysterical and nothing makes sense. Hopefully I'll be normal tomorrow, I'll need energy for running away from the merciless, laser tagging boys of TNS.

Oh God I'm in trouble! How did I not see it before? I'm so screwed. I'll hit someone, apologize, get shot, and just hide behind the employees only door until the coast is clear. Then I'll still get shot.

But that's okay because it's gonna be a blast! For the yankee swap I got one of those bank pens, you know the kind that have the chain attached? Because it's so annoying when someone's swiped the pen...like really where could it have gone? It's on a frickin' chain!

We finished The Botany of Desire in food class. It's wicked good! I highly recommend you guys go see it. :) In Public Policy we started the movie Thank You For Smoking. It's really interesting. In Creative Writing my group taught the class about character and devised a fun activity to do, I have no idea how we took up the whole block.

As you can see, the teachers have given up teaching for the week. haha

I gots to go make cookies for da cookie swap. They shall be vegan, gluten-free, and have a subtle hint of banana.

Sleep is needed. Please and thank you. :)

Yesterday...

2009-12-12T10:15:00.001-08:00

School on Friday was awesome, I had lots of fun and learned some stuffs.

In Food class we tasted sugar water and then soda and juice and vitamin water, and we were all laughing about how confusing the set up was and being hyper. It was a blast.

In Public Policy we're still talking about the health care bill, and I worked on a mini presentation for the class. I felt pretty good when I found two different maps that could show the correlation to red/blue states and the percentage of population in a state that is uninsured. I felt productive, a rare event for me.

During lunch me, Gordy, and Noah were talking about video game theme songs, and Gordy said his all time favorite song was from a game called Duck Tales, and he played this dainty little tune that had us all in tears. It was so funny. :)

In Robotics I was paired up with two of my favorite TNS students, Cody and Landon. We decided they were going to wear kilts at the Robotics competition, and we learned Ross (the teacher) is all for it. I'm so excited! I've heard the couple months in between kick-off (when the teams find out what the game for the competition will be) and the competition are wicked intense. They sometimes have sleepovers at the school and get almost no sleep so they can finish the robot in time.

Something that made me smile was when Will was describing the party that they have every year, and he couldn't stop talking about all the activities. Josh then said "He doesn't even mention the socializing aspect," (that's a big word for Josh haha) and Ross said "Alright, I'll give you the jist of it. Basically it's all ugly, nerdy guys, and for some reason only attractive girls join Robotics--" Rhiannon cut him off with a "Whoo!" and Gordy said "Amen to that!" haha

We didn't have ASL because Roland was sick, so me and Will crashed the World Religions class because we noticed the oreos on the table. We took a "quiz"on Judaism that almost everyone failed, because no one brought their notes to class that they were able to use on it. Harry, the Jewish kid, got a couple wrong. I don't quite understand how that's possible, James would totally school this kid. :P I got the one about the Torrah and Kabbalah right, Gordy (who's in the class) was trying to copy off me and Will, forgetting that we don't even take World Religions. haha afterwards we ate cookies and everyone else got to try this traditional Jewish food that Jade made (I couldn't, it wasn't gluten-free :[ )

Harry lit the Menorah and taught us how to play with a dradle. It's like gambling. I totally kicked their butooties in the first game! It was fun. I had a great day at school. But then afterwards...

Every year we have s girl scout Christmas party. I despise them. I don't particularly like large crowds of people who all know each other and don't try to include me at all. I hate how immature the girls are with their petty problems and ignorant points of view. But something I really dislike is the conventionalism.

We were upstairs in a bedroom hiding from Mike (because they still think hiding from their guests is funny) and one girl said "Oh my God guys let me show you the freaky-est video ever," and goes on youtube to type in "bad romance". It starts to play, and I accidentally said "I love this video!".

This was such a poor decision.

This girl continues to berate the video, harass Lady GaGa and attack my point of view. (which remarks like "This is so weird!", "She's permanently messed up," and "How can you like this, Sara??")

Lady GaGa is one of my idols. She's artistic, beautiful, and different. I feel like I can relate to her, because she's said that she didn't fit in during her high school years, and I felt the same way when I was at my old school.

Then this girl plays Single Ladies, one of my least favorite songs, and begins to praise how gorgeous Beyonce is, and how amazing the choreography is.

I cried last night for an hour.

I haven't cried for months, besides when I was reading or watching a movie.

I really don't know many people who are bad. I feel like this girl can change, but it's going to take a long time and a lot of hurt.

Later in the night this girl was getting a phone call from a boy she was leading on but didn't like. After she rejected him heartlessly in a horribly short phone call (she was gone for about twenty seconds) she said "Rejecting guys is like a sport now, I'm so good at it!"

She also told us all the guys her best friend has slept with, including two others that "no one knows, so don't tell anybody."

I left the party early with dad, we both hate these kind of social obligations. I started crying when I got home. Fortunately we had some vegan, gluten-free leftover pizza and a Seinfeld to make me feel better. Dad helped me a lot, too.

I'm sorry I've been busy so much lately. I've put more of a priority into learning this year, and this research paper is taking a lot out of me. I'm really sorry if I've hurt any of you guys, because lately I've felt like a huge jerk, but it's very hard for me to do a good job learning unless I isolate myself from things I want to do, like hang out with the people I love. I want you to know that every time I say "Sorry I can't come, I'm exhausted" or "I really wish I could be there", I mean it, and I miss you sooo much, but I have to stick to my guns. I get tired earlier, because I put more effort into things in my life that never used to be there, like going to the gym, taking care of/house-breaking the puppies, cleaning and volunteering with TNS, and trying to spend more time with my parents.

I want to make sure my parents know I love them. They do so much for me, have made so many sacrifices, that I feel obligated to take time out of my day to tell them about my life more than I have in the past. We now have dinner together every night and occasionally play a board game together. Seeing my parents not arguing with each other is a wonderful feeling, I really appreciate everything they're doing.

Sorry this was partly depressing, I try not spread this type of emotion, because you guys certainly don't deserve to be around it, but my experience last night really made me feel so thankful to have friends like you guys that I had to tell you. Thanks for everything, you really mean a lot to me.

I'm typing on a psychic's computer. Mom's having a reading, which has gone way into my session, but that's a good thing. It gave me time to write. :) It sounds like it's wrapping up...We're going xmas shopping after we're done here. Jessie and co. are coming in a couple weeks!!!

Happy Hanukkah, James! Love you guys!

Sara

Session dos funnies

2009-12-07T17:49:00.000-08:00

New session, new classes.

Oh my Gooooood

My first block was "Food Wonderful Food", taught by Marylyn.

I was laughing for a good 3/4 of the class, which was not a good thing Everything was just so funny, plus I couldn't take Marylyn seriously after she said "Remember, garbage doesn't go in the trash."

She's nuts, and I love her, but I felt guilty that I was laughing so much. I found a fly's wing connected to his abdomen and started pushing it around the table with my pencil, then Nick gave me an intact, dead fly and we started playing with them, all while Marylyn was reading "a page" from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (she ended up reading the entire chapter).

Then Marylyn asked us what we thought of when she said the word "food", and to her surprise the only things we thought of were various types of food. She was shocked at how little imagination we had, but what were we supposed to think? It was the first block of the day, on a Monday! What could she expect?

Tomorrow I think I might try the Odysseys class instead, because I felt bad at how much my end of the table was laughing during our food class. We made some goodies at the end, though, that was oodles of fun. I love cooking, especially when there's no meat involved. :)

Then Public Policy, I'm so glad that class is continuing! We talked about the health care bill, and watched C-Span for a little while (live broadcasts of the House and Senate related stuffs). One Republican form Wyoming just could not stop saying the phrase "fraud and abuse". He must have said it at least twenty times in the couple minutes he was talking.

Lunch was hilarious! Too bad Gordy had to leave to go to court. :( We were talking about weird/hilarious names, I happened to mention the member of Travis's Mormon church named Dick Eaton. Then Rhiannon was talking about a dog named "Stay", and how all the commands contradicted themselves. "Come here, Stay!" Noah then said to name your dog "Stain" so you could say "Come, Stain!" whenever you wanted to. haha it was great :)

Singing...it was just me and Landon (plus the teacher). It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I'm kind of obligated to continue with it since there are so few kids. If I bail, that means Landon'll probably have to as well. Regardless, I'm going to check out creative writing on Thursday. The class is huge, it's got ten kids, and only two of them are girls. (That's absolutely massive for our school. haha)

Solutions was just nap time, since we didn't have any cases and I did the work a few weeks ago. After I woke up, we saw this guy wearing a kilt and biking with a Burly Rou (I don't know what else to call it, those bike attachments kids ride in) with a lady behind him doing the same thing. It was so epic, then Landon told Zeb to chase after him on his longboard and ask him why he's wearing a kilt. Zeb said "I will if someone else does!", and we got all excited before Christine and Nathan interjected their views on how mean that would be. Zeb continued to dig a hole by saying "We were just going to welcome him into the school. 'Hey, you're a freak, just like us!' "

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, I asked Ross if I could join the Robotics team (which happens during my free block), and even though Landon's told me repeatedly that he wishes to switch out because they never get anything done, I'd rather be in the class goofing off than goofing off by myself. Plus they got the $5,000 grant, so they're allowed to go to the Regional Robotics Competition. They just gotta raise money for room and board and they'll be golden...and they quite possibly might have to build a robot. I don't know if they're allowed to use the one from last year...

During Committee time, Connor asked us if we would be offended if we celebrated Christmas at the school. Haley said "Yeah, I'm a Gebovah...what are those people called?"

Rhiannon: A Jehovah's Witness?

Haley: Yeah, I'm a Joho, and I'd be offended if we celebrated Christmas!

Connor: Do you know any religions that would be offended?

Haley: Uh, Christian-ism? Beats the hell out of me!

Rhiannon: Of course she picks the only religion that--wait did she just say Christian-ism?

Connor: We're so ignorant.

Cody: This really doesn't surprise me.

Ahh, the holidays are so close. Hugs and kisses everyone! Love you guys. :)

Sara

Mah first LEAP night! :)

2009-12-02T18:15:00.001-08:00

I was at the school for eleven and a half hours straight today. That's almost half the day! I got there early (8:30) because I was one of the four kids who figured out who was presenting where (or as Coalton would say "where they were presentatin'!") for LEAP night. Landon decided I'd be good in the common room with Jade, Joey, and Nick. They're three of my favorite people in the school, so that was wonderful! It was such a dilemma trying to figure out where to put Connor, he would complain no matter where we put him because he's just so pessimistic, so we stuck him with Dillon (who's grateful for anyone), Zeb (who's learned to just deal with him), and Noah (because there wasn't any room left for him...)

Since we did feedback teams before it started, we actually got out an hour early. I got to show Alienor around the school and introduce her to some peeps. Thanks for coming, Ali-chan!!

I spent about six hours getting everything ready for my presentation, from making a portfolio to sorting through papers to writing a personal statement that everyone was confused about. Even though it was a lot of work, today was so much fun! I got to talk to lots of people for most of the day, but the main four were Will, Zeb, Nick, and Gordy. They're really cool people. :) Today was just such a blast!

On Sundays the church uses our school, and sometimes they leave their stuff lying around accidentally. There was a bible on the table today with really thin pages outlined in gold, and Zeb said "This is sick! I want this, well actually I just want the pages. They're so thin, you can role them up easy and they burn real slow..." He said he wanted to steal the bible. I thought that was funny in an ironic, kind of messed up way.

I read an essay that I wrote about the time Sophie saved my life. Some people came up to me afterwards and told me I did a good job, even though I know I'm a horrible public speaker. It was so nerve-wracking! There were at least fifty people in the audience, but it's a lot easier when they're your friends instead of just your classmates.

Joey had her boyfriend read her pick-up lines review, it was hilarious the way Cody presented it. It was supposed to be coming from a girl's point of view, and Cody's just a really funny guy in general. Speaking of which, just a few more days of cleaning the kitchen!!

And with LEAP night (btw that stands for Learning by Exhibition and Performance) marks the end of session 1. Tomorrow we'll be writing our narratives and on Friday we'll be working on our portfolios. Since we stayed so long at school today (even though it was mostly just us having fun) we get to start school at 10 tomorrow and Friday is a half day. And then session 2 starts on Monday!! The year is going by so fast...

Does it not feel like December to anyone else? Maybe it's the whole "no snow" thing.

Blargh (I need sleep)

2009-11-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

I finished my nature writing project. At 2:30 in the morning.

I didn't even start on the 8-12 research paper that was due today, but luckily only two people did. I was way too tired to think about doing homework, so I decided I'll do the paper for next week.

Despite my exhaustion, today was a good day. In Ecology me and Jade finished our projects, in Public Policy we watched the first hour of Sicko (it's sooo good), and in Nature Writing we presented our projects. Absolutely one of my favorite lines by Ralph Waldo Emerson is "All the thoughts of a turtle are turtle."

Then Solutions went really well. We addressed two cases, one of them being anonymous about Coalton's sexual comments making people uncomfortable and it was such a mystery to not know who sent it in!

Then we brought in some kids that we talked to a couple weeks ago and apologized for the way we spoke to them. (Even though it was really only Rhiannon's fault, she just let her personal opinions slip out) So I smile at them, and Cody walks over to me and starts rubbing my head and neck/back while Nathan the teacher is lecturing about being positive. It was so weird, it went on for a few minutes while his girlfriend just stared at him. It was really funny in retrospect, but at the time I didn't know how to react, especially after they left and Landon asked "So did anybody else just see that creeper move?" haha

LEAP night is this Wednesday! It's from 6:00-8:30/9:00-ish. Anyone is welcome to come, it's like an open house combined with student presentations to show what we've learned this session, since we don't have midterms and finals. I have classes tomorrow, and then the rest of this week is preparing for LEAP night, doing narratives and portfolios, and signing up for the next session's classes, because Monday is the start of the new session. (Which means I won't have to clean the kitchen anymore!!!)

If you guys come to LEAP night I can show you who everyone is and you'll finally have a name to a face when I mention them! It'd be great if you guys wanted to check it out, even if only for a few minutes, but I'm not forcing you into anything. However if you do come I'll make you scrumptious cookies. And cake.

And I'll recite the Shoes song from memory and dedicate it to you.

(Pwease?)

Lots of love,

Sara

Thanksgivin'!

2009-11-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=111529

That's totes my school! Zach's a little slow, so we were all very pleasantly surprised he did such a great job being interviewed. Marylyn toned down her craziness for the camera, and Coalton wasn't nearly as ADHD as usual.

Today was fabulous, and it was a real treat to see so much of the family. Since the feud started I didn't think I'd ever see Amy (my almost 40-year-old cousin) set foot in this house, and then due to recent events involving my estranged, deceased grandfather's will, I thought we'd stay a broken family forever.

But what really amazed me was seeing my parents sitting next to each other at the table. They didn't even argue a whole lot. I don't think anybody noticed (maybe you did Alienor) but I cried a little bit. I couldn't believe how happy everyone was. The holiday gave us all an excuse to let our guards down and be joyful. To love and be loved in return.

My mom's family is certainly one of the most dysfunctional families I could ever dream of. It was astounding to see my parents, uncles, aunt, cousin, and second cousins sitting around the dining table talking as if nothing was wrong and forgetting about all their hatred for each other, if only for one night.

This is why I want to give thanks, because to experience this coming together is more valuable than any amount of food could possibly be worth. I'm not sure who to thank, though, it was really an effort on everybody's part.

Travis and Cathy stopped by after dinner. I hadn't seen him in months, and reminiscing with him and Alienor for what seemed like ten minutes turned out to be five hours. It was fantastic, I loved every second of it.

I really value all of the wonderful people in my life. Everyone is so special, I don't know what I did to deserve such a great group of friends and family. I think right now is a good point in my life. I'm healthy, I'm learning, and I'm happy. And hopefully I'm making others happy, too.

Happy Thanksgiving guys! Only a few weeks until Christmas. Jessie and co. are gonna try to make it up here for xmas. When are we gonna get snow? We can't have peeps from South Carolina fly all the way up here and not get to see snow...

Love and light,

Sara

Giving Back Days

2009-11-24T18:55:00.001-08:00

This is what I've been doing for the past two days.

We winterized houses of low income, disabled, or elderly families. We insulated outlets and wrapped plastic over the windows (which took a surprising amount of work).

Insulating the outlets only takes a few minutes. You just take the screw and the metal plate out, put in an insulating foam mold, put the plate back on and put the screw back in. But the windows...holy crap.

We start by priming the wood with alcohol swabs. Then we put a double-sided adhesive strip on each side of the window. We let that sit for about ten minutes while we make sure we have enough plastic. After it's been sitting for a while, we would attach the plastic sheet to all sides of the window, pulling it as taut as we could. Then we had to take a hairdryer (but sometimes we got a heat gun :P) and use the heat to shrink the plastic to get rid of the ripples. For the final step we would cut the excess trim off the plastic, and the window would have an invisible layer of plastic to help keep heat inside the house.

Sara accidentally melted a couple holes in one of the plastic sheets at the first house. We had to do it over, so we spent about three and a half hours there. We did three windows because the little old lady, probably about 4' 7", wouldn't let us in to most of her house ("don't go in the bedroom, the cat's sleeping there. Oh, you don't need to go into the attic, it's really cluttered. Why on Earth would you need to go into the bathroom???")

The second house we went to was owned by another old woman. The place only took about an hour, and the newspaper interviewed us while we were there. Today channel 6 news recorded Coalton breaking a window while Marylyn was babbling on being Marylyn. For some reason Coalton thought glass could bend...

Yesterday went really well, but today was an absolute joke. We took two cars so we could all go to Wells. The lady there ended up having a really big house, and the only thing she needed was a hot water blanket. That took Connor and Will ten minutes to tape on and we were done. She didn't even need that much help, by the looks of her finished basement she could have just hired someone. Three of us didn't do anything while we were there.

Then we went back to TNS, had a short break, and found out Wallingford Farm needed all their windows done.

No one even lives there! They don't use heat in that part of the building, what's the point of insulating a building they just use to store all their old junk??

After half an hour of pretending we could do something there, me and Sara decided to drive back to the school and find an excuse for staying there. Gordy, Rhiannon, and Joey moseyed on back as well, and we decided it was time for a lunch break. At 11:15.

At 12 our adult supervisor told us he'd rather stay home than work, so we had to merge with another group. Zach had to drive us, and he was worried because his 6 months would be up in two weeks, but after some persuasion he said it was alright. I got shotgun :P

We went to another little old lady's house, and she only had three windows to do. For the first time that day I touched one of the supplies and did about five minutes worth of work. I felt bad for not helping more, but there were just so many people there and not enough space to work in. Zach, Will and I decided to go to Kennebunk Glass (which I didn't know existed before today) to replace the window that Coalton broke. Then Zach drove us really far to a house bombarded with teenagers.

The neighbor almost called the cops because there were so many of us, but after just staring out her window for ten minutes and being persuaded by us that we were alright, she put the phone down and took a nap.

I didn't even go in the house. Connor, Sara, Will and I just stood around Connor's truck because the other little old lady (I didn't know we had this many around here) felt overwhelmed by all of us and didn't want us inside. We then drove back to TNS in his truck...which comfortably seats two people. I got shotgun again :) this is a pun because Connor had to move his rifle from the front seat for me. haha

I knew this before I set foot in his car, but the ride re-affirmed my belief that Connor is a horrible driver. We were in the middle of a curving road, and Connor says "Oh, let me turn the airbag on for you, Sara," He takes the keys out of the ignition to turn the airbag on, a few seconds later saying "Oh yeah, I forgot the steering wheel locks when you take the keys out."

We were completely in the other lane, diagonal to the flow of traffic! And on a bridge!! It wasn't even a fun kind of dangerous, it was just an "oh crap" kind.

And those are called Giving Back Days. But now it's vacation! ~Party~

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I love you all so very much.

Sara :)

Ballroom Dancing and my spectacular dreamish-nightmare thing

2009-11-19T14:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Coalton's birthday. I was positive he was going to ditch ballroom dancing class and I was going to awkwardly have to steal Sara's boyfriend Josh for a partner every few minutes. Coalton was very close to bailing, but in the end he stayed I didn't feel guilty about anything. He's a way better dancer than Josh anyway. :)

Already on a tangent, I must say that Sara and Josh remind me so much of Lily Evans and Snape. Sara is a naturally beautiful red-head and a strong person (in a passive way). Josh is the school's scapegoat who gets made fun of in a joking way often, plus he's a rather severe person. Everything is his fault, no matter what, and Sara is always vouching for him. "He wouldn't do that," "He wasn't there when that happened," "No he didn't," etc. Sara can do so much better than him...

At dancing class Coalton can't control his ADD anymore than he can in a normal situation. He regularly spaces out and starts jumping around. At one point our teacher, Jane, scolded him for not paying attention and he mumbled, "Sorry, I was just smelling my armpit..." And then seeing him sing and dance to "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" was hysterical.

Overall last night was very productive, and I admired Coalton for staying for dance class even on his 16th birthday. That was very professional of him.

Rosie has felt threatened ever since the puppies arrived. She's been stealing herself away into the depths of my room, for what reason I'm not sure. It's the only room in the house that doesn't get heat in the winter and AC in the summer, but she likes it anyway. Little, white hairs cover my blankets and any clothes I accidentally place there.

Rosie likes to knead her paws into your stomach when you're trying to fall asleep. It's quite painful, especially when she uses her claws, so I try not to sleep around her. Last night, however, was horrible.

I had just finished reading the whomping willow chapter of the second Harry Potter book before turning out the lights. At least once every hour during the night she would continue her painful, pawing practices on my stomach, and I started dreaming that the whomping willow was punching me and I was going to die. Needless to say, I got very little sleep, but I guess it was worth it to get a few chuckles from eager story-listeners.

Today in Public Policy we talked about the health care reform bill. Even though it excludes abortion, I believe we need this. Maybe in the future we can make it better, but for now this change will be good. I really want to see this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJyyyRYbSk

It's a Michael Moore film, so obviously there's gonna be bias, but I still like him. Capitalism: A Love Story was soooo good, I cried for hours at how horribly our country is run.

I really wish everything wasn't all about money...

Lots of love,

Sara

Ze play!

2009-11-17T08:02:00.001-08:00

Dad told me that he saw a poster at the library for the KHS play. He said it's showing this week.

Why didn't anybody tell me?! I feel so out of the loop.

Would I be able to accompany any of you to see it on either Friday or Saturday? I haven't been in the school for so long...I'll be at the school on Saturday though! That's where the SAU (School Around Us) craft fair is taking place. Mom and I are manning the booth in the afternoon. Hopefully I won't get another battle scar...it's still there, too. It's been two and a half months, I would've thought it would be gone by now.

On Sunday while I was simultaneously soaking up some vitamin D on my lawn at mom's house and reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets something really cool happened. Two dragonflies had sex on my leg while another one watched. It was probably the highlight of my day. It was so nice out! Too bad one of the dragonflies bit me. :/ It was probably the one that didn't get any action.

I had a dream about watching Quidditch in the Gryffindor stands the other day. I'm so obsessed...

oh my God! :)

2009-11-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

We just got back frmo Massachusetts with two new puppies!!!!

I'M SO EXCITED

Mom's is a female cavachon and mine's a male morkie. :) :) :) I really want to name him Oliver or Jack, but I've heard that dog's better understand two syllable names, so I think I'm siding towards Lupin. He reminded me of the one from Harry Potter. When he's sitting on your lap (he's 2.3 pounds) he was quiet and mellow, but on the floor he was running around like a madman. It was as if he was the lovable, bookwormy Lupin and then the hyperactive, werewolf Lupin. Plus we got lost several times on the way to the kennel, we were going in loops. haha

Sorry I was a party pooper yesterday, I really need to catch up on homework and I knew I wasn't going to get anything done today because of the dogs. It was worth the trip, though. :)

Tomorrow I'll have to isolate myself in order to do more homework. Why do I procrastinate? It never turns out how I imagine it might.

I said something really stupid a few minutes ago. Mom asked where Rosie went and I said "She went ranning."

:/ That's what long car rides do to my sanity, I guess.

Peace,

Sara

ps mine doesn't stop humping mom's dog. Mom said "I think that's all they do their whole life". haha

hahahaha

2009-11-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

I really should be doing my homework, but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HM9tyNkUAg

Rap, Disneyworld, and Adoption (Typical)

2009-11-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

Recently I've grown a fondness for rap.

I used to just think "oh they can write that song on garageband in an hour. There's no real depth."

But now I've grown some kind of filter, and a new appreciation. I listen to these songs that are so negative I don't know why I'm not crying. They're filled to the brim with cursing, blood, death, racism, guns, rape...but I can't help it. I listen anyway.

Leaving the Past- Immortal Technique

It's currently my favorite song. I guess it's more like underground hip-hop.

It turns out several people at TNS listen to Immortal Technique. Zeb first showed them to me, then whenever I would go into the computer lab there'd be five or so people singing along to Dance with the Devil. I usually don't finish that one...haha

I wish Disneyworld wasn't in Florida. That state is so...augh. First the controversy in the 2000 election where Gore won the popular vote but Bush won, and now this. Plus, it's just a bunch of old people. haha

I'm doing my research paper on same-sex couple adoption. In Florida you can't adopt if you're gay. Vermont's one of the four states that specifically allows homosexuals to adopt. I always knew Vermont was a cool place. They're the home of Circus Smirkus. :) :) :)

I love tangents. So much.

Today

2009-11-06T17:53:00.000-08:00

hahaha

It's kind of humorous how little I did in school today.

Advisory sort of got canceled because Marylyn and Nate the teacher were out sick, so pretty much anyone who isn't a senior just chilled in the common room. This meant all the rest of us ended up out there as well.

Ecology didn't happen because Nate the teacher wasn't there, so me and Jade talked. She's awesome!! :)

Public Policy was a work day for our research papers. Flora was hoping to have an 8+ page paper by the end of the month, but she shortened it down to 4+ because she's merciful. :P So the three of us in the class who have laptops chilled in the common room (again) and pretended to do work.

During my free block I thought I was going to catch up on the Nature Writing reading I've missed, but all the marine bio kids (including Jenna, Cam, Zeb, and various other kids from Flora's class) were still congregated on all the lovely couches, so we talked some more. I'm pretty sure I stayed in the common room almost all day. haha

At this point I was so hyper that I was literally jumping around the room, spinning on the wheeled footrests, even imagining the Gatorade and the Mountain Dew bottles going on a gondola date and then wondering what their baby would look like out loud. Christine said "I've never seen this side of you, Sara."

I think it was because I hadn't done anything the entire day.

I love Jenna, she has such a great smile! We talked about pets, and how mom decided we're going to drive two hours down to Massachusetts to get some puppies and two hours back instead of just going to the Kennebunk Animal Shelter, but that's okay because we're gonna have dogs again!!! Sophie passed away two years ago, and Dede lived about a year longer. I can't believe we survived being dog-less for so long!

Then we should've had ASL. We haven't had class in almost two weeks. Roland was sick again, so me and Will watched this stand-up comedian on youtube. He's hilarious, if you get used to this weird voice thing he does. <3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjJCIbC9sxA&NR=1&feature=fvwp

That was the first one we watched. I also highly recommend circumcision and escalators. :) All of them are really funny, though. Hot pockets...Jesus...bahaha

And that's what I did at school. Talked, talked, talked, and watched youtube videos.

After school I actually did stuff that doesn't really matter in any way to counteract my less-than-productive school day.

With much love,

Sara

The Election 2009

2009-11-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

If only I was one year older...

Obviously I was frustrated at the outcome of question 1. I just wanted my home to actually be "the way life should be." I wish that if I ever do marry it wouldn't matter if he's a boy or if she's a girl. I'm all about rights for humans and animals, I think it's only fair that we end this modern segregation that civil unions have created. Some congressmen may believe differently, but civil unions will never be equal to marriage. What year is this anyway, the 1800s? It's the 21st-century, we deserve equal rights for all.

But the majority of people who will read this are in the same boat (opinion-wise).

I'm happy with the result of question 2. There were lots of loopholes, it kind of relates to cash for clunkers, where there were actually people who got ripped-off. Some people traded in their old cars for new ones that got less gas-mileage than their former car. But in general cash for clunkers seems to be working well, but this new excise tax law wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm saddened by the consolidation results. I wish everything wasn't about money, because that's exactly what this was. Some schools are saving money, but Arundel had to pay roughly $300,000 in order to get the benefits of the consolidation, which was about $50,000. After all the trouble of firing faculty and transitioning from SAD to RSU, they lost a bunch of money. Plus, their little school with all the familiar kids will never be the same. I wish we could go back to SADs, but I can't do anything about it.

Tabor is way too hard to explain.

At least medical marijuana passed. I have no right to deny patients the medicine they need. Before the election marijuana was legal, but sick people who had a doctor's prescription had to grow their own plants. They can have up to six plants, but only three can be flowering at a time. To people who are so sick, or to those who don't have enough of a green thumb, that they can't grow plants, they have no way of getting their medicine. If this will help people I'm all for it. I do think that some regulations will need to be tightened, we don't want a repeat of California, where they have too many dispensaries (those vending machines) that they can't keep track of who's getting what. At least now we're not being hypocrites.

I'm such a liberal. :P

I'm happy about question 6 as well. I want to make sure our roads are safe, so even though it's gonna be a lot of money we get some benefits. I'm just one of those people who will most likely always vote yes on these types of bond questions.

I had no idea people were so opinionated about question 7. Currently officials have 5 days to verify +55,000 signatures. Pushing their deadline to 10 days didn't seem like such a bad idea, but I guess I was wrong. It has nothing to do with the time it actually takes to get the signatures, which I believe some people may have been confused about, but I don't care that much. I'm not one of those officials that'll be scrambling to see if Dustin McKnockers is a real person.

This Summer

2009-10-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

I really just want to live in the woods

At least for a little while

?

2009-10-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to do.

I've always viewed myself as either a humble or undeserving person. I never assume that I'm equal to everyone else, because I'm not, so I was surprised to have a certain thought pop into my head a few days ago.

I think Will likes me.

I then felt like an awful person. There's no possible way that could happen, I'm not a good enough person to deserve anything of the sort.

Then the next day instead of sitting next to Nate, his best friend, he sat next to me. I invited Nate to sit at our table, since now he was by himself, but he just smiled and shook his head.

I think the world needs more people like Nate.

Will continued to drop little hints here and there, always saying hi to me, sitting next to me during the meetings and ASL and whatnot.

After the gym I drove home and got my homework out, so obviously I went on facebook.

Will commented on a photo of mine twice, saying I was the "best" and the "cutest". Then he posted on my wall several times. Then he posted a status saying "Cant wait for sgining cuz my favoritest person in the whole worlds there shes also the nicest person!"

I'm the only girl in the class. :/ As sweet, flattering, and utterly aww-inspring as that is, he's a little young. I really like him, but as a friend.

By the way I had an absolutely lovely day at Walden Pond! I got to know Nick pretty well, and he's probably one of my favorite people ever!!! I was in a group with him and Rhiannon, and the contrast between my opinions of each of them was...wow.

Nick is a thinker, a very mature philosopher.

Rhiannon thinks she's mature, but she's far from it. She's got a lot of growing to do, which hopefully will come in time.

It pains me that she doesn't like the people I absolutely adore, like Landon, Jamie...and Zeb (she can't stand him). She's rather pessimistic, and I guess that just doesn't mesh with me. It seems there are more people at the school she dislikes than likes, it's the complete opposite for me.

But Nick is wonderful. :) He and Zeb are best friends. I had a very joyous time talking to him, and during public policy, after everybody else left, Zeb played some music for me. Ahhhh <3

I'm not sure why I even bother trying to stay on topic, it never works.

I feel really selfish for posting this, but I guess I just really needed to tell someone, or something.

Thanks guys, I guess I'll just have to play the Will thing by ear.

Sweet dreams all you lovelies!

To clarify

2009-10-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

To who it may concern, I'm fascinated with several students at The New School. I like to express my feelings and observations about these uniquely wonderful people in the form of stories and blogs. I've realized I've been talking a lot about one in particular and none of the others. Please allow me to explain, and possibly redeem myself?

Nick is unusual. He's hilarious in his own, distinct way. I've honestly never met anyone like him. He doesn't force himself. It just happens. Flora is convinced he's an alien. Some would call him "strange", but that doesn't have the right connotation. Nick thinks differently than the rest of us. He dreams of being a bird. He's an absolutely fantastic writer, and I dare say an even better artist. Plus, he's left-handed.

I can't describe him the way I would like to, he's one of those peculiar cases that you may only meet once in you entire life. I feel so fortunate to be able to say "Hi, Nick!" upon entering all but one of my classes. (ASL, he takes Chinese, but since he's in that with Haley and Anthony they usually skip)

The reason I don't write about Nick is difficult for me to explain. There's no possible way I could convey his personality, his tone of voice, his thinking process. I would fail. I already have, he deserves better.

Nick's just one person. One, very unusual, person.

Another is Jade. And Haley. And Gordy. And JOEY AND CODY!!

The list is quite long, I don't have the attention span to name all of them, but I've realized that writing about Zeb is the easiest. For example:

On Thursday he was totally wired. He said he felt like he took adderall that morning, but didn't. At one point he was about to pull down his pants to show us one of his scars. He had already unzipped them by the time we convinced him otherwise.

It's more fun to write about little scenarios like this. If I could write more about the rest of them I would, but I'm not sure I can.

Just wanted to let you guys know.

Meringue time!

2009-10-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a roller coaster. And it shouldn't have been, I let the little things bring me up and down.

My day started off quite nice by imagining myself at an underwater concert where Colton (more on him later), Nick, Zeb, and some unidentifiable new-schoolians were performing onstage. Shirtless.

But for some reason I could only hear "You'll be in my Heart." Yeah, the Phil Collins version from Tarzan. Don't worry, I know I'm cool.

I had a Phil Collins shower jam, and I'm not erasing that. I'm making a pact to not use the backspace button for the rest of the post starting now. If I mess up spelling...oh God this is gonna be good.

So I was up! But then I went down when I realized it was raining and I had to bring two posters to school. I forgot to get myself a lunch, so I had to do an impromptu pantry scrounge. Plus when we left for school the clock in the kitchen is slow and said 8:59. :/

Then I went up because the teachers were in a meeting and started class fifteen minutes late. I did well on the quiz we took, and when Christine asked everybody else "What are you going to do differently next week so you guys ace the quiz?" Gordy replied "Copy off Sara?" :)

Down...down to the pits of room 2, where I spent two hours attempting to figure out a logic puzzle Ross (the teacher) gave us. I had to start over in the middle, and I still didn't finish by the time lunch was over. I felt like a failure, I've always loved those kinds of puzzles, I didn't know why I couldn't figure it out. Then I had a moment of weakness. I hate to admit this, but for a split second I was jealous. I saw Joey (I love her!) sitting in the art room, and she was drawing a really pretty picture. I wished I could take art & photography instead of New Kids Class. Then I heard Zeb say "Really? Wow, you're so intense!" I felt bad. I know Joey doesn't like him (Cody's views on him are rubbing off on her, ps they're going out now :]), and I'd never heard him speak so enthusiastically to a girl before.

I can't believe I was stupid enough to let that get me. It's just a silly, childish infatuation, it's not like I want to marry the guy, I don't even have a "crush", if you will. It's not my fault that he happens to be so unique. And if I really wanted to become better at art I need to take some initiative. I've just never took any art classes that weren't required at public school because I've always felt like an inadequate artist. I think it'd be different in a place where people don't judge you, but who knows. I certainly don't. Yet.

I was kinda bummed for the rest of the class because of the puzzle I couldn't complete. It turns out that it was flawed, Ross couldn't even do it. That didn't help, though, because I forced myself into isolation so I could work while everybody gave up in the first ten minutes and just socialized. But I was stubborn, or determined, whatever connotation you prefer, and wasted two hours of my life thinking about Michael Devlin getting an ace of spades tattoo on his chest, and how John came before the friend who got his ankle tattooed (that's kinda a girl thing haha), and that one of the last names is Fair, which was incredibly frustrating considering it wasn't mentioned in the clues at all.

This no backspace thing is forming lovely run-ons.

In class we had a conversation about how we're all underclassmen except for Gordy. Then I laughed, because I'm the only senior in the class, but no one seemed to catch on. It's becoming apparent to me that no matter how many times I deny rumors, people believe I'm twelve and just abnormally smart for my age. When I said "I'm seventeen." all six of them snapped their heads in my direction. They thought I was a frosh...I was beginning to wonder if anybody knew I was a senior.

Then after class I cleaned the kitchen, having to put away all the clean dishes, rinse and re-load dirty dishes, disinfect the counters/tables, sweep the floor, check on the plants, and put up the chairs, all without the help of Cody or Nick. I guess neither of them come to school on Wednesdays. It was just me and Noah.

When I was getting close to leaving (fifteen minutes after everybody else got done cleaning) Zeb comes in with an empty bowl and fork. A part of me expected him to just dump his stuff in the sink and leave, but instead he rinsed off the crap I would've had to scrub and placed it in the open dishwasher. I thanked him, because most people had just been letting me and Noah do all the work.

Zeb seemed surprised, but smiled all the same. I asked him about art class, and he said it was good. He asked what I was doing here, "Do you have an apprenticeship or something?" "Nah, I have New Kid's Class." "Really? They make you take that even though you're a senior?"

That was probably the highlight of my day. After thoroughly trying to convince some sophomores and frosh that I was in fact a senior (and failing badly), it was really nice to have someone who believed me. It turns out he was in a great mood.

Then Rhiannon came in and started making a mess, and as I thought "I just cleaned that" Zeb looked at her, picked up his stuff, and left for the door. I made sure to slip in a "Bye, Zeb!" before the door closed. It opened again and he said "Bye, Sara!" before really leaving.

I've become accustomed to having a reputation at the school. I'm "the nice one", I say hi and bye to people that I may or may not know well, always say thank you after the teacher hands out some papers, etc. so this wasn't a big deal, but I take pride in having an open mind. Almost everybody at the school thinks he's a spoiled jerk (I understand that he has a mac book pro and an Audi, so he must have some money, but it's not like he rubs it in anybody's face), but I like that I act friendly to him and he does the same to me. It's like having a truly special place where you can always go that no one else appreciates, but people would if they actually looked around. If they opened their eyes.

I love those kinds of places.

I couldn't get much higher, even after dad and I went parallel parking practicing. (PPP haha) I'm going for my license on Tuesday the 13th. Maybe that's why people thought I was young, because I still don't have that yet...

I had my first ballroom dancing class tonight. It was fun! I love dancing. We worked on the meringue. The only people who signed up all happened to be from the school (it's a community class taught in the big room). It was me, Colton, Josh, and the other red-headed, vegetarian Sara. She and Josh are going out, so my partner was Colton.

Colton Stacy: Acts just like his brother, ADHD kid, always finds an opportunity to make an idiot out of himself and be proud of it, catchphrase (that we hear every few minutes): "RUGGED!"

I found myself sometimes nervous that I would start laughing at him, sometimes excited to actually be dancing, and sometimes wishing we were moving faster, but all in all I had a great time. For about two minutes I danced with Josh because our teacher made us switch partners, but I felt awkward for dancing with Sara's boyfriend, who happened to be carrying a knife and not wearing shoes, like everybody else at the school. haha

My backspace key needs some lovin'. I just wrote a bunch of random letters and erased them, but you couldn't see, so I'm telling you now. Trust me, the key is now satisfied.

Thank you, Phil Collins. You'll be in my heart, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJh-oU0M9Y

YAADA and my German!

2009-10-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

On Friday there wasn't any school. The teachers decided that going to the common ground fair on Sunday and Monday counted for credit and told us to take Friday off. Rhiannon and I went to a YAADA training session for eight hours yesterday and four hours today. YAADA stands for Young Adults Against Dating Abuse. It was very informative, I'm glad I went. Rhiannon didn't actually go to the fair, but our school is so liberal that they count the training as her going to school.

Friday was lots of information while Saturday was a presentation on how to give a presentation. In hindsight it's quite humorous, but at the time I couldn't stop thinking about how I had to wake up early on the weekend. The point was to convey awareness to your school by doing some type of an event, and they were telling us how to advertise for such an event.

In public school that would be a lot of work and lots of kids still probably wouldn't hear about it. At TNS you could tell a couple friends and the whole school would know in ten minutes.

There's a lightning storm outside and it's magnificent.

So after the training was over I had a couple hours to myself before I went to the school. Rhiannon, Murphy, Sarah Brockway +her mom and sister, and I rode up in her van to greet the Germans at the airport! Dad went up in his van and Marylyn drove the honking 14 passenger van that moves to the right when you brake.

Murphy had never been to the Portland Jetport. You haven't lived until you've gone there. It's such a big airport, it rivals O'Hare, and it's so luxurious. You go from the dank parking garage to the smoker-infested entrance to that one little food stand run by someone who can barely speak English. Hence, Murphy had not lived yet. Now she's living.

There are three guys and five girls...I think. My German's name is Kristin, Rhiannon's likes to be called by her middle name (Melody), Haley's is Christine (sp?), Landon's is Steph (the Barbie looking one), and Cody's is Johanna. Cody currently has both Johanna and Johanna. Thank God we call her Joey, otherwise that mess would be complete chaos. Then Josh's is Kai, and the Brockways have both Simon and Jannis.

Kristin is so nice, she brought chocolates and gummies and postcards and a cookbook all from Germany! I broke the vegan rule and had some chocolate, it was sooo good. German chocolate = almost as delicious as Zac Lounsbury, and that's saying something. ;)

By the way we often refer to the Germans as objects. Common phrases are "Where's your German?", "I lost the German.", and "What would the German do?".

jnkeahoud all the girls are really pretty and fashionable because they're European and that means they're all around better. They make me feel less than super. haha but that's okay! I don't know the guys very well, but they're also quite stylish.

Ahh...Europe. How I miss thee.

Expect fewer blogs during the next couple of weeks, with less quality written by a very sleepy Sara who should've done her homework before now. Darn. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. I...really should get to bed.

Sorry about the awful blog. Good night, pleasant dreams, hope all is well.

ps I've rather fallen in love with Owl City. And Sedona Journal totally changed the way they do the horoscopes! :( oh well, I can't complain, last week was good at least. I had fun.

Love you

:) :) :) <3

2009-10-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

This morning I brought in vegan, gluten-free pancakes with maple syrup. Christine brought lots of fruit, wheat-free granola (she's so sweet!) and yogurt. Our advisory had breakfast, and both Joey and Connor told me my food was good.

Self-esteem: 4

Then we talked about Solutions. It's the committee that deals with all the issues between people and the school itself. Zeb and Rhiannon were the only two remaining members of Solutions because all the others had either graduated or left the school. This meant we had to have an election.

We decided that the people who were running in our advisory were Landon, Zeb, Zach, and myself. I had a feeling I wouldn't make it because I'm a new kid, but all six of them reassured me that I would be great for the job.

Self-esteem: 16

We had to pick one person who would represent our advisory and then any other candidates would run for the "vote at large" category (this means the whole school votes, not just your advisory). We brainstormed strategies and agreed that I would be in the at large category because I would win anyway. "You're so likeable".

Self-esteem: 28

The others who were running talked about why they would be good on Solutions. Landon was on the committee half of last year, then quit because it was so dysfunctional. He seems like a really good guy, so I think he'd do well. He said he wouldn't mind if he didn't get on, but he'd rather be on the committee than not.

I've come to think Zeb is misunderstood. When he get brought up in discussion I usually describe him as musical, funny, skillful, unique, beautiful, etc. but others say he's spoiled, a slacker, absent 99.9% of the time, and several negative descriptions I believe are false. They also say he smells, which leads me to think they're not giving him a chance. I don't think he smells, even if he occasionally wears the same shirt twice or more days in a row. haha

Either I'm an optimistic person who focuses on the positive or I'm an oblivious person who doesn't notice these things. The point is I like him, most people dislike him, he's misunderstood and as a result is hardly involved in the school (he seems to feel excluded except in Solutions), and unless he rallies up votes during advisory, chances are he's not going to be reelected. Zeb represents the people who don't usually have a say, and I think that's important. Plus he's very motivated, Solutions is his only real tie to the "extra-curricular" part of the school. We need people who want to do their job, that attribute would have saved Solutions from falling apart last year.

Zach...I don't know what he was thinking. He's a nice guy, but rather slow and not particularly open-minded. He said, "I've never been on Solutions before and I'm a senior, and I think it'd be cool." That was his argument. Needless to say Zach didn't garner any votes from the six of us.

This was all during advisory (the first half hour of the day). During the meeting at the end of the day we all went back to our advisories and discussed this more. Most other groups had either picked their representative or were close to doing this. We had barely stuck our toe in the water.

As a side note, I adore awkwardly placed sayings and phrases. They remind me of Mr. Lewia, and his uncanny ability to fearlessly say whatever came to his mind, whether it was "back to the ranch", "don't make a mountain our of a molehill", or my personal favorite "you blow and I'll do the fingering".

After an accumulated hour of persuasion, criticism, and a suggested maple syrup chugging contest, we decided on an anonymous ballot vote. Connor decided not to participate and Christine abstained from casting her teacher-tainted vote, so it was just the five of us voting (me, Joey <3,>

I decided to vote for Zeb, because I knew Landon would win the vote at large because he's loved by almost everyone. Landon didn't need the sure-fire victory. I was pleasantly surprised to see Zach vote for Landon instead of himself. I thought this was very mature of him, but critics would probably say "if you don't think you're the best qualified then why are you running?". The votes were tallied, and it was 3-2. Landon got three votes (from Zach, Joey, and himself) and Zeb got two. I knew it was a long shot, but I sincerely hoped that Zeb and I could both win the vote at large. He deserves it more than I do.

We go into the big room (I love the names we have) and the four advisory representatives are listed on the board: Rhiannon, Sara H, Jenna, and Landon. I'm happy with Jenna and Landon, but I think Rhiannon might be too close-minded and merciless to do an effective job. Sara H was elected because no one wanted anything to do with it from their advisory so she half-heartedly signed up and got in by default. It worries me that there will be someone on the team who not only doesn't ever talk but doesn't want to be there, when my advisory was full of people who really wanted to be on the team.

Tim was facilitating the meeting, and he asked the people who were running for the vote at large to raise their hands. Zeb and I did so, and for a second my system was filled with complete and overwhelming excitement. We were the only ones, no one would have to lose. Then Will tentatively raised his hand, and Noah nominated Jade. Connor felt bad that Zach didn't get any votes in advisory so he nominated Zach to make him feel better. Some people wanted to nominate Nate Bennett, since he was absent at his grandmother's funeral, because he's so nice and caring, but his best friend Will (the same one who's running) said he tried to convince him to run twice but Nate didn't want to be a part of it.

It turns out Jade really likes her committee (the thrift store) and had no intention of running, even though she'd be GREAT. I love her, she's wonderful. <3

That left the nominees to Zach, Will, Zeb, and myself.

The way the voting is structured is rather confusing. You give four points to one person, three to another, two to someone else, and one miserable point to whoever's left. I was scared that Will was going to win; I like him a lot and I'm pretty sure many others feel the same way. I then thought Zach would probably beat Zeb, just because Zach has more friends and unfortunately life turns into a popularity contest at all the wrong moments.

I gave four points to Zeb, three to me, two to Will, and one to Zach. I figured that out of the three of them I wanted Zeb to win the most, so I gave four points to the underdog. I gave the least to the people I thought would be him. Then the three point slot was the only thing left, so I ended up there by default. I wasn't intentionally being selfish.

Twenty minutes later, after we discussed fundraising and the Germans who are arriving on Saturday, the votes were tallied. Marylyn (our principal) said there's a problem. "First, Sara got in for sure,"

Self-esteem: 7r6354trejke98 billion

"but there's a tie between Zeb and Zach."

I was shocked. My heart was racing, I really wanted Solutions to be at its best. I was so thankful that I got in, but I couldn't think about that now. The only thing running though my hyperactive mind was the question "Who would win?"

Christine asked Zeb and Zach to go to the art room. Zeb donned his skateboard and Connor said "Watch out, Zach, he's armed!". I love my school. It's so liberal. Everyone carries pocketknives, there's always someone who's barefoot, and it's perfectly acceptable to skateboard inside.

We were told to close our eyes and raise our hand when either Zach or Zeb's name was called. I heard a shuffling of arms moving when Zach's name was said and I got nervous. After everyone had voted Marylyn said "Open your eyes".

My heart broke. A large red circle had been drawn around Zach's name. The two boys returned and both seemed to be good sports about it. After the meeting was over I hugged Zeb and said sorry. He knew I was voting for him. He said it was fine and congratulated me. For the record he didn't smell. :)

The only thing that bugs me is that Zach didn't get a single vote from our advisory and was nominated out of pity. It's like playing with fate. But oh well, everything happens for a reason, I guess. Zeb is the alternate in case someone gets mono and is out for a month, at least. He gets to go through the training with us and seemed pleased about this.

Later I was cleaning with Cody in the kitchen when I expressed my sympathy for Zeb. Cody said "Don't be, sweetheart. I opened my eyes during the voting, you and Jenna were the only ones who voted for him."

Way to go, Jenna! She's awesome, I'm glad she's on Solutions. Too bad we were the only ones...

Even though Zeb didn't get picked I was still incredibly happy that I got elected. I got lots of hugs and claps on the shoulder, and I skipped to the car on the way out of school. I couldn't help it. To be surrounded by people who liked me, to have the confidence that I was doing something right was so new and exhilarating. I loved it. I felt happy. I felt whole.

I felt at home.

And to top it all off I'm starting a new book (I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower, now I'm on one Christine's letting me borrow called The Memory Keeper's Daughter), dad just bought me The Beatles Rock Band and the new Kingdom Hearts game (358/2 Days) which makes my heart sing. Plus I don't have school tomorrow since I volunteered at the Common Ground fair, which was fabulous. Thanks to Timmy for letting me borrow his sleeping bag! <3

Life is good, thank you everyone for being great and always supporting me. I love you guys so much.

Vegan hugs and kisses for all!

Overview

2009-09-24T19:44:00.001-07:00

Monday was my first day of classes. It was fun, in Ecology tomorrow we're going to the Rachel Carson Preserve. We watched a video on her today and it was really interesting, she's the reason our teacher Nathan decided to study environmental science. He's super cool, he spent time in the rain forest on a conservation project. He's really laid-back and nice too. :)

The first thing we did in Public Policy was watch a clip of teens texting and driving. Then we read a paper aloud about certain death toll statistics and I my voice was barely under control. After I finished reading my paragraph I had to leave the room because I was crying about Allen, but everybody just thought I was throwing away my apple core in the kitchen compost. Everyone except Flora, she hugged me after class. She's definitely my favorite vegan teacher.

We have a persuasive essay to write, and I've generally narrowed my topic down to either same-sex marriage or clean water access. Everyone has such interesting topics, so I'm thinking I might need to switch mine up. I don't want to be the weak link in the class.

Ahh, Nature Writing...I like words. A lot. I'm pretty sure most of the class really wants to be there, so I'm excited that I won't have to deal with any negativity. We've already written a poem, for next week we're going to do a nature essay. I don't think I've ever written an essay that was fun before. Nick kept falling asleep during class. Come to think of it, he fell asleep inevery class. Ecology, Public Policy, Nature Writing, the meeting...he was standing up, drawing a dinosaur next to an attribute for the Solutions committee representatives when his eyes closed and his head dropped. Nick's such a character.

At the All School Meeting today I did Speaker's List, but I didn't really have to do anything because there were no super issues, so there were never more than two hands raised. I still like the meetings. Maybe I'll conform to everyone's beliefs next week.

Tomorrow is International Hug a Vegetarian Day! I made an announcement at the beginning of the meeting, it's strange speaking in public and not completely spazzing out.

On Tuesdays I have ASL, and I guess this was obvious but the teacher's deaf. I can honestly say I've never learned a language from someone who doesn't talk, but he's really funny and I like him a lot. He reminds me of Santa Claus because he's huge and jolly and has a lovely white beard. Christmas is only a few months away... <3

So today in Public Policy, Zeb was writing our ideas on a piece of poster paper taped to a wall, and someone said "animal suicide/euthanasia" and people started joking about how no one can spell euthanasia and Zeb says "of course I can spell that!" and writes "animal suicide youth in Asia". haha it was rather priceless.

By the way he's worn the same shirt since last week. I think it's because the majority of TNS students rarely go home, they just stay at a friend's house. That's why Nick was so tired, he was at Anthony's.

Tim heard a story on the radio where an obese man was told by the cops that he was too obese to use a breathalyzer and in major doo-doo, so Landon said "wow, his birthday parties must be depressing. Okay, blow out all your candles!" haha

On Wednesday was my first ever Self Directed Learner's Seminar, aka New Kids Class. It was fine, I'm not sure why Haley was complaining so much. At one point she, Gordy, and Noah were eating some chips with salsa and Haley puts her bare foot on the table right next to their food and when we gave her odd looks she said "What? I'm just picking my scab!" haha it was so hilariously trashy, but it probably wouldn't have been as great if I were the one eating.

At the start I thought I had a lot more motivation to be organized, but I think that got crushed when mom slept through our plans to straighten out my room. I still can't see the floor.

Happy Birthday to my lovely sister <3

http://www.peta2.com/feat/hug/index.asp

Awesome Opossum

2009-09-17T17:54:00.001-07:00

Today was great. Granted, the last two weeks of my life have been the start of something wonderful, but today was particularly fun.

Yesterday we started a mini project (it's due tomorrow) where each person was randomly given a new identity and has to create a healthy, balanced diet for their needs. I'm now a 13-year-old, very athletic male. Landon's an 82 year old who just had triple bi-pass surgery or something awful like that, and Zeb has irritable bowel syndrome. They're in a family together, paired with an obese person and someone who needs to gain weight. Good luck to them. They bought a vending machine, the Snack Master 500 to be precise, but went $3800 over their budget. Nate sold his 168 cats to help pay for it, but I guess life doesn't work like that.

Cats = Vending Machine

(Fail)

Landon's such a great person. He's absolutely hilarious to boot. I love my advisory. This morning we talked about poop.

Christine: Did you know that if your poop sinks you're not getting enough fiber?

Me: ...Really?

Zeb: Well I always knew sinking was a good thing.

Christine: Uhh, that's a bad thing.

Zeb: Wh-what?

Christine: If it's not floating you're not getting enough fiber.

Zeb: Oh...I need some more fiber.

It was probably the best way the day could have started. Today was an all-around good experience, our assignment was actually fun.

What? Schoolwork being fun? Wth?

My family's Cody, Joey and myself (I needed an adult since I'm only 13). We decided to kick Connor out, since he wasn't here today and isn't going to be here tomorrow. Cody's a 17 year old lacto-ovo vegetarian and Joey's a 33-year-old who's totally preggerz. Our budget was so low that we were literally living off of a dollar a day, but it turned out to be a typo. We got a generous donation from our "cousins", so we ditched the whole pricing thing. We'll see how that works out tomorrow.

When we were working in the computer lab Gordy called up a grocery store because he needed to know how much lobster cost. His character is an elder with diabetes, so he took on this old smoker's voice and started ranting about killing Nazis in the war (while he was sitting next to the German girl haha). When he finally got through he said "HELLO I have diabeterz and I'm a diabetic, I need some lobster."

Girl: I can connect you to our seafood department!

Gordy: Why THANK YOU.

Guy: Hello?

Gordy: HELLO how much does your lobster cost? ... Do I get a discount if I use my Hannaford card?... Alright, I'll be in soon. I'll be the old guy with liver spots.

We "worked" straight through lunch, and after that we took a break to eat and didn't do anything the rest of the day. Rhiannon found Joey's iphone and was looking through the apps and happened upon one called "ibrate". That was beginning the of a long string of sexual innuendos. They got so bad that Nate had to leave the room. When Will asked why, Nate told him about the phone, and now the whole school knows about Joey's special vibrating phone. We taped it under her chair when she was out of the room. The look on her face when she sat down was priceless, she was so embarrassed. (When she said she needed to go to the bathroom we of course asked if she needed her phone haha)

Joey also has an app on her phone that eerily resembles the magic eight ball; you ask it a question and it gives you a yes or no answer. We asked questions about Gordy such as (but certainly not limited to):

Will he have sex with a she-male? -Yes

Will he have an orgy with only she-males? -Yes

Will he ever have sex with a respectable woman? -No

Is all this crap happening to him just because he's Black? -Yes

Which brings up another topic. School started almost two weeks ago, and I've only seen George once. (I was reminded because he's Black, and they're pretty rare around these parts). I don't think he even counts as a student at this point.

Classes start on Monday. I'm pumped, even if French probably won't happen because I'm the only student signed up. Singing most likely won't be until session 2 as well, so I'm guessing that's a sign that I didn't do a good job picking my schedule.

Today was our first business meeting, and I seem to be one of the few who likes them. I'm sure after the honeymoon's over I'll evolve into a real senior and detest the meetings, but for now I like them. I think it's because I want to show my appreciation for the freedom that we're handed on a silver platter, or rather one of the dishes Cody used for his "clean these or I'll hide them" discussion. I like being involved and making decisions on what had previously been a mystery to me, like what the adults had always handled.

During the meeting Nick slipped away and found his ipod. I've decided that he's like Kramer from Seinfeld, and that's why I adore being around him. You just can't find someone like Nick, I can't even describe him. I'm sorry I'm at a loss, he's just so interesting. Cody's kinda like Jerry, now that I think about it. Mom told me the other night that I'm like Elaine during an episode where she wouldn't stop complaining about being hungry. :/ Whining is generally something I try to limit, because I feel it's purely negative and doesn't particularly help anyone, but I guess I don't do a good job. I'll just have to try harder!

I really need to finish my part of the project. Good night all, and just because Lady Gaga's amazing:

http://www.dailystab.com/lady-gaga-mtv-vma-performance/

Committees (thank God for spell check)

2009-09-13T08:17:00.001-07:00

So on Thursday we had to pick which committee we wanted to be on. You can only be on one. I narrowed down my choices to three before I started having nagging doubts, guilt-induced nausea, and obligatory contradictions. I was slightly chained by shackles to the thrift store, since I had volunteered and recently signed up for OTB.

Then a part of me told myself (my body parts like to talk) I should be on the welcoming committee, because I love having an excuse to not be shy. It helps. I love being friendly and including people, I thought being on the welcoming committee would be perfect for me. The only other person who was on it was Cody, and he was really nice to me when I attended the planning day in June. Not only did he get me a chair, explain to me how the schedule works, and make sure to incorporate a music class for me (I was a little too shy to voice my opinions at that point), but he also drove me home afterwards. I never told dad about that and I'm not gonna.

But then I saw it...the school spirit committee. We've had group discussions about our school colors and mascot. As of right now, our colors are plaid and clear because when the school was started ten years ago there were these horrible plaid couches and clear windows, and that was basically all their furniture. And then the mascot. We don't exactly have one, since we don't participate in organized sports, but we've joked A LOT about being TNS roosters: home of the raging cocks. haha

In the end I signed up for the school spirit committee. It consists of me, Haley, and Joey the Germ. Haley's one of the biggest sluts I've ever met, but she's really funny and outgoing, I can't help but like her. I don't think she'd be as bad if she didn't have a giant rack and like to expose said giant rack at every possible moment by taking off her shirt and wearing clothing that doesn't even cover her whole bra. Yeah she's a mega hit to my self-esteem, but I like her anyway. :)

It's us three girls on a quest to improve morale and bring spirit into the lives of our fellow peers. Instead of finishing a Harry Potter book last night, I started writing down ideas that we could do throughout the year. I got so into it, planning possible dances, holiday parties, spirit week (which was quite difficult because everyday is pretty much spirit week at TNS haha).

I'm excited. Hopefully I won't screw anything up. Responsibility is a stranger to me, I've been so sheltered that I don't know what to do if there's no one to help me. Oh well, life's just a learning experience. I don't ever want to stop learning.

Health week starts tomorrow. We're going to be cooking food and running around playing games. We already read some articles on high fructose corn syrup and parenting, it's really interesting. The reason corn syrup and soy lecithin are in everything is because it's subsidised by the government, and that's why cows are fed so much corn, because everything revolves around moolah. It's not really about our well-being, it's all about the money, right?

I wish it were all just about love. I think we need a little more of that.

ahhhhhh :)

2009-09-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was technically my first day of school. It was wonderful, we played some bonding games where we all had an excuse to touch each other. There was this one game where some people were blindfolded, and we were stripping because it was so hot, and...yeah. Good times.

I'm in Christine's advisory and it's marvelous! It consists of Landon, Zach, Connor, Zeb, me, and Joey. (Her name is Johana, she's the German exchange student who's staying for six months). Everyone is either funny, nice, or rather attractive (I'm such a hormonal teenager haha) so I'm very pleased with my advisory. :)

So Wednesday morning we left and had a three hour car ride, which was a pleasant surprise considering we were informed of a four hour ride. The mornings and nights were below 40 and the afternoons were above 70, but there were a few brief moments in the day when we weren't fretting over the temperature. Sleeping in that tent was freezing, the guys lucked out with ones made out of metal and plywood so they were actually warm. But oh well, we toughed it out, because that's how chicks do it.

As I knew would happen, I am a Caring person. There are these things called Facilitation teams, and I know them a little bit more than I did last week. Apparently there's a facilitator who runs the meeting, a speaker's list who writes down who has their hand raised so the facilitator can call on the next person, a note taker (too obvious for explanations), and a time keeper. There might be a moderator, but I'm not sure. Each facilitation team is about four or five people. The ideal team has at least one person from each corner (Action, Caring, Structure, and Meaning). Since there were a few students who didn't go on the retreat some kids aren't in a team yet. That means mine's missing one person, but I like it. I have Cody, Nick, Noah, and myself. Cody's a redheaded redneck, one of the people who lives on a farm and tells lots of hay stories. Nick is really interesting, in a completely awesome way. Both of them are nice and extremely funny. Then there's Noah, who's alright. I can't complain. He just happens to brag with all his drug and sex stories, trying to impress the upperclassmen (he's a frosh). Coincidentally, all of my team is from York except for me. Marilyn said something like "3 Yorkies and a Bunker" and Flora asked "Is that a joke?" "Where's the punch line?" haha

Something that really boosted my self esteem was when the senior leaders (Landon, who technically should be a senior, Tim, Connor, Cody, and Zach) were picking their team: playground style. They were going around in a circle and started with Action because that's who they were closest to, and then instead of going in any logical order Connor skipped over the next group to Caring and chose me by pointing and saying "I pick Sara". (In elementary school not only was I picked last, sometimes the others would act like I was invisible and not pick me at all, even in gym class when the teacher was there. It felt so great to sever that part of my life.) But there were two Sara's, (we both spell our name the same, have red hair, and don't eat meat haha) and she wasn't looking. She thought he meant her, so she sat down right next to me and we were both confused as to who Connor was motioning to. After everyone had been picked we asked him for clarification. Cody said he wanted me, too, so Connor gave me up to him. Somehow I ended up on three teams. haha it felt so great to be wanted! Especially because I thought Connor didn't like me. He's another redneck, go figure.

Then white water rafting! It was awesome!! I was in a raft with all adults and new kids (except for Rhiannon) including Will (Cody's little redheaded brother), Nate, Jamie, me, an alumna, Flora and our awesome guide. That was when I first realized Nate was new, for some reason I was under the impression he wasn't because the other kids knew who he was. But it turns out he had taken some classes there but he was no officially a freshman. He's a Caring person like myself and has a wicked throwing arm that all the guys marvel over. He was the only person who was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt at night while we were all bundled up in our winter coats. I really like him, even if he should live in Antarctica.

All in all I had a great time, learned a lot about most of the kids, and even made a few friends. I'm so glad I'm not as shy as I used to be. Next week is health week, more on that when it happens.

kajergodfhg I love The New School, I'm actually looking forward to Monday. I don't know what's gotten into me.

Much easier to read

2009-09-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here's the schedule. :) I'm taking Ecology, Public Policy, Singing, the purple block is my free period, and French.

http://www.tnsk.org/Schedule2009.htm

Xine is Christine, like Xmas and Christmas. haha

Monster post of the new schedule (haha puns)

2009-09-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday and felt a little sick. I shrugged it off, still feeling stuffy the rest of the day.

This morning I woke up really sick. I don't think it helps that I was surrounded by sneezers, snifflers, and coughers yesterday. I thought "If I'm careful I can get out alive." The constant phlegm-stirring coughs emanating from Flora was really reassuring. But after some Airborne, several tissues, and a butt-load of food I'm as right as rain, if rain was actually right.

I probably shouldn't use the words "butt" and "food" in the same sentence. :/

I'm about to give you way too much information about TNS, but I'm so enthused that I can't stop. haha

Yesterday was the school's planning day. About 11 students attended, which was a great turnout. That's more than a third of the school. We believe this year we'll have between 28-32 students, a lot better than the 22 we had in July, but a little less than last year.

I'm amazed at how incredible TNS's program is. School hasn't even started yet and I can already feel an inner leader in me attempting to claw its way to the surface. The discussions and activities that we participated in were almost completely student-run, it's such a nice change of pace from the zombie-mentality inducing effects of other schools.

The curriculum at TNS has changed several times since June, but they've finally decided on the one that shall be used this year.

For who it may concern, this is what my schedule looks like:

We have a half an hour of advisory every morning except Wednesday.

First block is Ecology, second block is Public Policy, third block on Mondays/Thursdays is Singing and on Tuesdays/Fridays is a free block. After that on Tuesdays/Fridays I have French. (Mondays are Committees and Thursdays are All School Meetings)

Committees are like clubs. Some of them are necessary, like fundraising, and others aren't, like the yearbook committee I'm thinking of starting. It's about keeping the school running by democracy and the students, so it's great that they allow time in the actual school day instead of forcing students to stay after.

All School Meetings are great. They talk about how to help the school and/or make it function better, current events, they even give compliments, which is like thanking people.

"Compliments to Flora's advisory for running the booth at the fair all on their own."

"Compliments to Ross's hair, just 'cause it's awesome."

"Compliments to Jen for designing the friggen SWEET costumes, they make me feel pretty." (a boy said that haha)

During discussions they have a gesture called "Sparkle" where they wave their hands (it's pretty much jazz hands) when they like something that was just said. Such as if Landon suggested an ingenious idea to a problem, Cody could wave his hands, showing that he likes what Landon just said/agrees with Landon while being silent and not interrupting him. If I'm not mistaken it's American Sign Language (ASL is offered as a class :)) for "Applause".

Wednesdays you don't have to go to school. They leave that open for apprenticeships, self-directed learning seminars, art and photography classes, greenhouse/gardening classes, independent studies, gateway preps (you complete gateways to move up to the next phase/grade), and senior projects.

Gateways are what you complete to move onto the next phase/grade. They're like examinations, except you just have to demonstrate that you know the skills and/or information you've been taught, not take an hour long test that doesn't pertain to the study sheet the teacher gave you. It's just you and the teacher, no pressure, because you can re-do it whenever you feel like you're ready. There are gateways to meet the Maine Learning Results for all core subjects like math, science, etc. Every student they've ever had has met the results, it's such a great system.

Senior Project is a big cookie. Seniors work on it all year long. It's a presentation of some sort about a passion of theirs. Some kids who really like art create an exhibit that's showcased in museums or in their own homes. One students built the greenhouse and set up the garden. There really aren't any limits. And the project is kind of optional, but most students want to do it because it's about what they love. It furthers their knowledge of what they hope to do the rest of their lives or maybe just their beloved hobbies.

For those who are interested in apprenticeships the people at the school personally help find a suitable place/person for the student to learn from. Sara (she's also a redhead haha) is working at a tea shop which is run by an extremely knowledgeable woman, because Sara really likes tea and growing the plants for the leaves and such. (She also goes to Flora the vegan social studies teacher's farm, because the teachers are chill like that.)

For the first couple of months I'll be taking a required SDLS for incoming students on Wednesdays from 9:00-2:00. It's about moral/ethical problems and writing about them. Such as "Is stealing always bad?" (it seems like is has a little but of Psychology thrown in for kicks and giggles). I think it sounds cool. :)

For ten minutes everyday after school we clean up the place, since there isn't any custodial staff. Doing chores is lame, but when you're with your friends it's alright, so I don't mind. When we were talking about cleaning most of the students seemed to be nonchalant, as if every teenager should be taking charge on a regular basis and it would be strange to rely on a janitor for their own mess. They take pride in being independent and taking care of not only the school but the Earth as well. Even the redneck-est of men felt ashamed when he accidentally put a paper bag in the trash, only to take it out moments later and place it in the correct recycling bin.

PLUS they have a compost! It's so oddly wonderful to go to school and be cooking tofu (totes vegan) stir fry using vegetables from their garden with your principal, who you call by her first name. I don't know any of the teachers last names. haha

Getting back to my schedule...oh God I get side-tracked so easily. I've always been interested in flora + fauna and the environment, especially how we're destroying the planet that we were blessed with, so I'm glad I'll be able to educate myself by taking Ecology. That's a really long sentence... Oh well too late now.

Public Policy is a required class, but you only have to take it once throughout high school. It's about getting involved locally, state-wide, and even sometimes nationally. It looks into the government and how we have a say in what goes on. The really cool thing is that it's actually doing something. One of the students who took it last year did a lot of work on getting the equality bill passed in Maine. I can thank her when I marry the love of my life, be it man or woman. :)

Ecology and Public Policy are both classes that change after Session 1 because I have them every morning.

I'll refuse to stay on topic by explaining Sessions. There are four of 'em. Session 1 goes until November/December, Session 2 goes until March-ish, Session 3 is most of March, and Session 4 is 'til the end of the year. Session 3 is three weeks long and is called Intensives, where people usually travel around the world, the country, or the state and do something big they've been planning for several months. Some students decide to just stay at home, though.

Back to the ranch (such a Bruce Lewia expression), I'm excited for singing. It's going to be acapella and we'll be singing a wide range (haha more puns) of genres, including some contemporary music. The teacher's not only going to help with voice strengthening but she's going to tackle performance anxiety, which I greatly need assistance with. I'm very thankful. :)

So on Tuesdays/Fridays I finish Public Policy at 11:50, and then because of lunch, my free block, and then a regular ten minute break in between each class, I don't have to go back to school until 2:00. That's more than two hours that I get to drive home and then chill, make some lunch and take a nap, finish homework that I didn't do the night before, even laze in front of thetv while I unwind. Ahh the perks of being senior. Can I get an amen?

Singing changes after Session 1 because of the arrangements for the instructor (which may be switched) and my free block changes after session 2 because I don't have it every day. I have it half the time I have Ecology and Public Policy, but it goes a whole extra Session so it's all the same time. It's like late start Wednesdays at KHS and how it affects the first two blocks (which are longer than the others) so it all evens out...sorta.

Then after my free block I have French, which I'm excited for. It should be refreshing after all these years of Spanish. I can't wait to be able to correctly sing Coeur de Pirate songs. haha

After those TNS offers classes to the public. I'm going to take ball room dancing. I've always wanted to learn how to Salsa and Tango, and waltzing reminds me of the Harry Potter Yule Ball so that's a definite plus. haha

Speaking of Harry Potter, Christine (one of my favorite teachers) said "I'm in a Harry Potter mood because I just reread the series, and I think an inter-advisory competition would be great!" Then Ross replied "Like the House Cup?"

"Yeah! And we can add and dock points for behavior."

"Like professors and prefects?"

"Yeah!!! And whoever wins the activities garners points."

"Like the Quidditch Cup?"

"YEAH!!"

I love her. She's so happy but still very mature, it's hard to find people like that these days, because gaining maturity usually has the consequence of losing your inner child. She's the super cool English teacher. Ross is the teacher for random subjects ranging from Philosophy to Japanese to World Religions to Robotics, since all those things are so similar. He graduated from Bonny Eagle a few years ago.

I realize now that I'm rather fond of all the teachers except Ruth. She's the only old one (Marylyn the principal doesn't count since she acts so youthful). Luckily Ruth's the math teacher, so I won't ever have her. haha triumph! That sounded mean. :( sorry!

Due to the fact that I'm giving all you pretty people a quick rundown of how the school works, I might as well explain phases. This is why I'm writing what has got to be my longest blog post to date. haha

In order to graduate students move through phases, not grades. There are three phases, I, II, and III (to point out the obvious). Incoming students start at Phase I, which is for students at the very beginning, so it mostly consists of freshmen and sophomores and the occasional junior. I'm gonna fit in great.

Phase II is almost all juniors and seniors. This is the advisory I'm going to be put into because Christine thought this is where I would be most comfortable, since I'm thinking about doing 3-4 semesters before I graduate instead of just 1 year. I'm gonna be a super senior, it'll be sooosick! There was a girl who just graduated from her five years at TNS and she taught an AP level Soviet History class. Now she's going to Mt. Holyoke, therefore, she's wicked smaht. My nanaattended college there. :/

Phase III is made up of students thinking about graduating close to the end of the year, so it contains the seniors, the possible super seniors, and the random "wth are you doing here?" junior.

Each phase has an advisory, Phase I has two just because that's where the majority of the school is placed. I'll either have Flora (the newly-wed vegan one) or Christine (<3)

OMG I forgot to tell about the most Harry Potter-ish part of the school!

There's this system they have called "4 corners". It's pretty much having the disgruntled sorting hat placed on your pretty little head while you sit awkwardly on a stool in front your magical schoolmates who aren't paying attention, except there's no pms-y hat, no stool of doom, and no magic.

Darn it.

There are four categories: Action (Gryffindor), Caring (Hufflepuff), Meaning (Ravenclaw?), and Structure (???). Most of the school is Action. There are some Caring, but almost no Meaning and/or Structure. Good thing google already knows I'm going to be in Caring since I puff your mom's huff.

Then, based on what you fit best into, you find people of other houses--I mean categories--to function well with. There are groups of four people called Facilitations, and during meetings one person is the Facilitator, one is the Note Taker, and I can't remember the other two for the life of me. haha

I've been told on multiple occasions that it's "cliche" to like Gryffindor, but this just totally re-affirms my belief. I want to be like all the Action people! They're all people I admire greatly. If I had to change myself, I would be more leader-ish/public speaker-y. Hurray for words that actually exist!

So I'm pretty much going to Hogwarts...psh I wish.

One time when Wolfie was still around I was 11 and hadn't received my Hogwarts letter, and he had just turned 10. We both hoped that he was a muggle born and would get his letter next year. He didn't. Oh the woes of life.

Just read the monumental poop story

2009-08-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

I had such a good day, which made up for the disappointing people to people sleepover reunion.

I thought I wasn't going to see anybody after I left Kelsey's house this morning because we got about 4 and a half hours of sleep and I believed this would make me crabby, but SURPRISE SURPRISE. Caitlin texted me proposing an all day Harry Potter movie marathon and I couldn't resist.

We only got through the first two ones because we left for a few hours to get sewing materials for the wonderful birthday gift Alienor (<3) got for me. :)

The p2p reunion didn't live up to any great expectations, but there was a couple moments where I was having fun. An example would now be one of the best poop stories in my arsenal.

Note: don't read if you're eating.

Travis and Jim were climbing a tree, and after they were about 80 feet up they decided to just chill for a while before Jim suddenly rushed down. Travis followed suit. Once Jim was on the porch he asked Kelsey where her bathroom was. After he had been gone for almost 10 minutes Travis told us he said "Trav, I gotta go poop."

Travis: He is going to work in there!

Troy: Well now it's going to be really awkward when he comes out.

Then Jim entered the porch. With a plunger. "Where can I leave this to dry?"

I can't remember the last time I thought something was so disgusting and so perfect at the same time.

"I ate 20 wings last night, at least I cleaned up...Sorry I just made things incredibly awkward for everyone."

In all honesty I almost wish I hadn't gone. It was a lot of trouble, as sleepovers usually are. Only about 10 people showed up. Plus I had to hide the fact from dad that we drove to ihop and back, and by "we" I mean a teenager drove.

Dad's brother Allen died in an automobile accident where teenagers were being stupid and drag racing. They hit him and he died instantly. He was a great man, definitely my type of guy. I never got to meet him, but my dad sometimes talks about him. He was totally non-conformist, everything he did I admired greatly. He's one of my biggest role models. I cry for him a lot.

I was actually planned to be born the day he was, June 24th, but I came early. My mother, father, and half-sister were all born on the 24th of a month. I'm the oddball. In all honesty my dad doesn't know that mom picked out Elana as my middle name because it's as close to Allen as she could get without being obvious. Dad wouldn't have approved of the name if he knew that it was acting as a tribute to my late uncle.

r.i.p.

The point is that the all-around awesome Allen died because of teenage drivers. This is why dad doesn't let me ride in a car with a teenager driving. It's so stressful, he called me twice while we were at ihop and I was sure that he had found out that Kelsey's parents hadn't driven us. Fortunately when he picked me up later I managed to avoid the topic.

It's become extremely apparent that this issue is plaguing me. Life would be so much easier and I'd be a lot happier if I could just ride with one of my friends driving rather than be an awkward, hassle-causing party-pooper because my dad forbids me this right. But I can't do anything about it, that's like me smoking a cigarette after Papa died of lung cancer. It would be an insult to his memory if I stood up to dad. I might just have to tough out one more year until I move out of the house and can make my own rules.

Oh well. Can't do much about it. The reunion was good closure, though. Now I can finally move on.

In other news, vh1's 40 hottest hotties of the 90s jingle is stuck in my head. I like it. A lot.

If I could meet Neil Cicierega, I'd haha my butooty off

2009-08-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-a8USS84F4

I've always wanted a friend so dull, monotonous, and utterly boring as Snape is portrayed in the Potter Puppet Pals series. I'd laugh to my heart's content. That's why I secretly like eavesdropping on others' conversations and cracking up, because usually the topic is surprisingly average and induces me with the gigglies.

But all my friends are awesome, so that didn't work...

The New School is losing one of the two science teachers due to the lack of students enrolling this year (because the economy sucks), which means the schedule's going to be reworked in a couple of weeks. Every other subject only has one teacher, so it was a dead giveaway that a science teacher was going to have to leave. Now I have no idea whether I'll be able to take chamber choir or not. I heard from Steph Lewia that Mr. Murray's going to be replaced by an attractive Black guy. How racially diverse for the bunk! Way to go Mr. Lewia.

Grammy's doing better! It's been two months since she left her house to have the heart surgery, and for a while things were looking pretty grim. But now she's doing fantastic, she can actually move her legs and she might be coming home soon. I'm so happy!

I'm teaching myself to juggle.

My yoga class is starting up again tomorrow. I might be joining a health club to support my yoga teacher.

I'm about to watch the first Harry Potter movie, back when all the little tykes were absolutely adorable. When Wolfie was still around we promised each other we'd have an all day Harry Potter fest where we would watch all the movies in a row together. He was going to make his special, organic, super healthy popcorn. I miss him a lot.

I'm really excited for school to start and for the retreat (every year TNSK starts by doing something fun, in this case white water rafting, so that the students get to bond). I had a dream about an anonymous male TNSK student, clad in skinny jeans, the other night. My hormones really liked it. haha

Mom keeps bugging me to clean my room and it's starting to get on my nerves slightly. But I'm trying my best not to say anything about it.

My insanely accurate horoscope started this week by asking "Are you looking for a fight this week, Gemini?" so I'm trying my best to be a lover, not a fighter. I forgot how madly enamoured I am with Across the Universe until last night. The Beatles are amazing, my parents are so lucky they got to grow up when they did.

I have all my hours done on my permit. I just need to do some parallel parking practicing (ppphaha like potter puppet pals...) then I'm going to send out for my date. !!!

Enya is fantastic, she's been a favorite of mine and mom's for years now.

There's a The Academy Is... concert in Boston on November 5th. Does anyone want to go? I'd invite my friend Sara from the trip because her favorite song is The Phrase That Pays. Anybody who can dig their older stuff is good in my book, even if it is a hit single. Me and some bestieswent to the mall the other day and I finally got a band tee-shirt of theirs. <3

At the mall we went in an intensely wonderful tea shop. I can't wait to brew the tea I got tomorrow!

Look up The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allen Poe. It's amazing.

I just got to see my dad today. :)

Alright, the stream of consciousness is finished. Just wanted to provide a little update of Sara's life. Now onto Tom Felton and the ginger!

Why not

2009-08-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

Both my nana and my grammy got sent to the hospital yesterday. Dad and I visited Grammy (my mum's mum) today and afterwards she said "Pray for me, loves." I did.

Suck on that James haha

2009-08-08T13:56:00.001-07:00

http://www.personalitylab.org/tests/ccq_hogwarts.htm

There, a more in depth, "this is gonna take forever" sorting quiz. I still got Hufflepuff...

At least do the quiz at the end if you don't want to read the whole thing haha

2009-08-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know what's going on anymore. Or rather, I've realized I never knew, not really. There were a few things I thought I was sure about, but now that's all out the window.

If you asked me a month ago about God I'd reply "I'm Atheist." because we don't have a whole lot of proof.

Now I know that I've been sheltered my whole life. I never gave religion a chance. If my dad wasn't as Atheist as Tyra Banks is crazy then maybe I would have been raised differently. One ordinary day mom requested that I pray for someone (she asks this a lot) and I stated "Mom it makes me uncomfortable when you say things like that, you know I don't believe in God." She looked hurt for a moment, but at the same time it felt like the right thing to do. I only ever enter a church for a chamber choir concert, I've never read the bible, why would she expect me to pray on a daily basis?

But I've come to the conclusion that there was always a little part of me that thought "If there is a God, I don't want to offend him by not believing." because that's how my mind works. I think of others first. After Ronette died I cried for weeks. I clearly remember me saying "Please, God, she deserved so much more than this. Make sure she's happy and safe in heaven. Thank you so much."

I always wondered what came over me. I would always "pray" for a loved one when they passed away, but the rest of my life I pretended as if he didn't exist. But I certainly don't want him to retract his blessings on Cunie and Sophie and Dede and Bootsie and Papa and Allen and Ronette and all the wonderful beings that are missed, so a small part of me will always believe. I'd much rather protect those who I love and believe in something that may or may not exist than curse them because I'm too ignorant to even consider that God may be real.

r.i.p.

I hope in my life I experience several different spiritualities and religions, maybe even find one that's right for me.

Another thing I'm confused about is love.

I'm quite confident that most high school relationships move too quickly. Maturity hasn't fully set in, and two people start saying "I love you" meaning "I'm in love with you" shortly after they start a relationship, or even right after they start dating. Friendships are formed that create a foundation for love that they build upon since we're always around the same people.

But many students don't realize the difference between love, infatuation, and lust, which leads to downfall in several relationships.

I'm a believer in don't start a romantic relationship with someone unless you can consider marrying the person, or at least spending the rest of your life with him/her. At the same time I think that people's minds and views and desires are always changing, and seem to plateau after they've matured to their personal, full extent.

I also don't believe in sex before love. I'm grateful for pre-marital sex, otherwise I wouldn't be here, but in all honesty my parents certainly weren't in love when I was conceived. I was accident, and now I'm just a really lucky bastard. Literally. If I hadn't come into the picture my parents wouldn't have dated for more than a couple months. They're just two different people that didn't work out. I feel bad, because my parents don't get along, but they put up with each other for my sake. They even feign friendship when we're with company, and I thank them for that. What they've done is incredibly self-less.

This leads to another point. Abortion. I value life, I'm a friggen vegan, and if I did someday get pregnant before I was ready I probably would keep what could possibly turn into a baby, just because it might have a chance. Contrarily, I'm pro-choice.

Mom told me a story about when she was in school several decades ago. A popular girl stole her boyfriend and she ended up pregnant because of it. Abortion was outlawed in America and several other countries at the time, so the boyfriend's family had to pay the girl lots of money so she could fly to Japan, have the operation, and fly back.

My mum was going to abort me, but two days before she decided against it. She felt that I was special. I'm not sure if I lived up to her or anybody's standards, in fact I'm pretty sure I haven't and won't until I'm older, but the point is that if she had doubt in her mind while on a plane to Asia she probably would have gone through with the operation for all the hassle she had gone through and I wouldn't be here blogging at 2 in the morning.

It's kind of hard for me to not be pro-choice. The last thing I want to do is be ungrateful for what I was blessed with.

But I think that making love is one of the most intimate things you can do with someone, why would you want to do this with someone you don't fully care about? Isn't that like cheating love? I'm scared that someday I won't be strong enough, that I'll be pressured and I'll go against my views because I'm afraid of loss and rejection. Hopefully this won't happen, but it's a definite possibility, and I can already see myself regretting how much of a wimpy pushover I am.

I admire chivalry, and having the courage to do what's right. Like Gryffindor, but for real. Because we all know Hermione probably should've been in Ravenclaw, but she was one of those lucky souls that could've fit into two houses so that there'd be a popular series to make millions. That's why Giligan never made a boat to get off the island.

I'm always in friggen Hufflepuff. What's up with that? I'm not smart, not brave, not cunning, so I was put in the reject house. The "wellll since you're already here you can stay, but you kinda suck" house. It wouldn't be as fail-tastic if someone else was sorted accordingly, just given the circumstances it makes it seem like I wouldn't fit in Hogwarts at all. haha

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/HarryPotter/Docs/Quiz-House.html

What'd everyone else get? Anybody join me in the loyal, dependable, hardworking ranks? :)

Attraction

2009-08-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

I like the feeling of being attracted. When you can't stop grinning, whether you're staring at a new book or an old lover. This was inspired by a recent obsession in the form of a song.

If That's All Right With You- Feltbeats

If that's alright with you,
I'll pack my bags and be on my way.
And still if that's not alright with you -
Speak now 'cause I'm on my way round
To spend the night with you,
Hold you in my arms like you was a guitar.
And by now you're guessing I'm liking you.
So fine and I want you to be mine.

So while I'm in this state of mind there's no time like the present.
Pick you up to sing you little songs under a half crescent.
Be so very pleasant
Only you and myself.
The only problem is I'm here
And you appear just to be somewhere else.

That's just the way it is.
I've done my best yet still I'm stressed.
Oh no I'm sick of the way it is.
And what to do I simply haven't got two clues.

Because I've been searching for a person of a kind,
But the only thing I've found is she's pretty hard to find.
Starry shine from the sky at night like it's my final sign.
I wish that you were with me but I guess that I'll get by alright.

'Cause that's when I woke up you're not lying there.
For that's when I woke up and realized how much I simply care...
And How much I simply care...

If that's alright with you
I'll pack my bags and be on my way.
And still if that's not alright with you speak now 'cause I'm on my way round
To spend the night with you,
Hold you in my arms like you was a guitar.
And by now you're guessing I'm liking you.
You're so fine and I want you to be mine.

Wherever she is and whatever she's doing,
She's probably got a hundred thousand people already queuing,
And on top of it my brain and body haven't seemed to got a grip,
Every time I try to ring you up I seem to bottle it.
What a dick!
What to say to you? Forgotten it.
Supposed to be so confident and cool - I'm quite the opposite.
Listen, yeah, being by myself already sick of that.
Kiss your lips - hit me for six, just like a cricket bat.
Smack, gone, going, what's happened is not knowing -
Wont stop flowing 'till I've filled up my little cup of fort.
Looking for a little lady to love and not the other sort.
I love the thought of you and I living like it's do or die.
I'm here for you my girl you as long as I'm blue and I
There'll be a cloudless sky when I see the sight of you.
I kiss you on the lips, but only if that's alright with you.
(But only if that's alright with you.)

If that's alright with you
I'll pack my bags and be on my way.
And still if that's not alright with you,
Speak now 'cause I'm on my way round
To spend the night with you,
Hold you in my arms like you was a guitar.
And by now you're guessing I'm liking you.
You're so fine and I want you to be mine.
I want you to be mine.

The last verse is my personal favorite.

I'm not very judgmental, and I don't look for faults in others. I like people, that's just the way I am. Regardless, there are some qualities I like more than others.

To name a few things I am attracted to:

Energy.

Caring.

Funny.

Martyrs.

Spirit.

British.

Commitment.

Confidence.

Sensitivity.

Alternative.

Loyal.

Self-less.

Magic.

Love, and love of life.

Piercings.

Pierce-free.

Tom Felton.

Accepting.

Effective talkers.

Dancing.

Skinny jeans.

Romantic.

Acoustic.

Spontaneity.

Tears.

Devotion.

Poetry.

Converse.

Friendship.

Open-minded.

Hugs.

Not stressing over the little things.

Guitars.

Inner beauty.

Scents.

Barefoot frame of mind.

Valentines.

Trust.

Laughter.

Emotion.

Kisses.

Gentlemen.

Sweet.

Vegetarians.

Love songs.

Musicians.

Listen.

Seduction.

Punk.

Genuine.

Inner child.

Exotic.

Brendon Urie.

Smiles.

Humble.

Accents.

Optimism.

Flustered.

Don't worry, that's just a start. This list is never ending, and hopefully always changing. Transforming, lengthening, growing. Blossoming until one individual decides to impact the rest of our lives for the better. Forever with each other, and love will linger in the spaces where hands fit together.

If I could live a life of love I would be eternally grateful to whatever force granted my happiness. If it's not too bold of me, I'd like to say in advance:

Thank you.

Tales of p2p 2 (haha it's like a pattern!)

2009-08-03T19:34:00.001-07:00

One day we got to learn some Greek dances. We got split randomly into two groups. My group danced first then went to the beach next to the dance studio and the others went to the beach first. I was fortunate, we got to cool off after a workout while the other group got to have a layer of sweat caked onto their skin. Yummay!

Towards the end of the dancing lesson our instructor, who had a raging unobrow, told us that the boys had to pick a girl to dance with. Travis picked Kelsey, Hudson picked Sara (she's been dancing since she was 1), then it was Alex's turn to choose. I discreetly looked away, hoping he wouldn't pick me. I'd a hundred times rather have a girl than have him. So obviously he picked me.

KBiggYGvIHVIHVkhv

Alex is Max's brother (from Kennebunk, not Max on the trip), and since they look almost identical it made me nauseous just being around him. Having to touch him had me hating myself for a long while. That wasn't a pleasant experience, but it's over now. The sad thing was that I saw Jim frown when Alex said my name. He later hinted that he was going to pick me if he had gotten the chance.

WHY ALEX :(

While my group was at the beach, eyeing each other in our prude-ish, ambassadorial bathing suits (us girls couldn't show our stomachs, it was pretty bad), the other kids were breaking a sweat in the stuffy dance studio. Max misheard the instructor when he told him to say "Opah!" and instead repeated "Opar!" every few minutes. This continued for a long time before anybody had the heart to tell him the error of his ways. It turned into a running joke (the best kind of joke). Instead of saying cheers we would just raise our glasses and yell "Opar!"

Another funny thing that happened was this.

Travis calls his grandpa "Grandpar!". He's really close to his family. During one of the bus rides he said "Grandpar! He's an awesome guy, I miss him." then completely out of the blue he stated "He can make a mean root beer float."

Thank the stars for random humor.

He also really liked Fire Burning, which is why we played that song a lot. We visited an Italian school and most of the kids had tan skin, dark hair and dark eyes. There was one kid who was pale and had red hair. The other boys who attended the school were making fun of him. At one point Travis got really pissed off about this, stating "I don't like bullies." he told the leaders but they didn't do anything, so he yelled "Sara the vegan! Come over here!" I approached him as he said "See she's got red hair and she's totally hott! It's cool to be ginger." He tried his best to help out the kid but after a minute it was apparent that they didn't understand English. He was getting really worked up so he quoted the song by saying "I need to be cool like fire."

Which made us all think about how that doesn't make the least bit of sense. haha yay dance music lyrics!

One of our conversations on the bus went like this:

Travis: Have you seen Hot Rod?

Sara: Yeah I love that movie!

Travis: Well I haven't.

Then he quoted one of my favorite scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOa_Uzyxhnk

Sara: I love how you can quote all these movies you've never seen

Travis: Me too, quoting movies like Hot Rod and Napoleon Dynamite is my life. Did you know Jon Heder's Mormon?

He then monologued Napoleon Dynamite for at least 5 minutes. It was hilarious because here was a real life human being who could flawlessly recite each and every word to a movie so stupidly ingenious as this. I was cracking up the entire time. Because you know you've found someone great when they can do the accent perfectly.

The last few days when we were in Rome we stayed in a Holiday Inn. It was the only normal hotel. Before that we were in the sketchiest hotel alive where the lights flickered and the hallways were narrow and frightening. Great fun.

But at the hotel you wouldn't find in a horror film, the guys started having these really intense "pillow fights". They would take off their shirts, go into Travis, Max, and Frank's room and wrestle each other in the dark. At one point me, Kelsey, and Sara were in our room (which is directly above Troy, Klebage, and Jim Sobanik bubonic jump up on it electronic's room) and Jim had his shirt off. Kelsey asked "what are you guys doing?" and he replied "wrestling other men in the dark with our shirts off...and honey." to be awkwardly funny.

And when we were outside their room (we couldn't go in because Francie and DBB (Kelsey) had already gotten in trouble and almost sent home for being in a guy's room. They didn't really tell us it was against the rules 'til afterwards...) Klebage would randomly open and close the door, so sometimes they could see and other times Sweet Pete would hit his head on the nightstand, Max would pile drive Jim and Travis into Frank's broken bed, or someone would hit Travis's glasses so they almost break in the darkness. It was great fun. At one point Klebage threw a shoe and it hit Travis right in the face. He almost passed out, but me and Sara air kissed him to make it better. Kisses make everything better.

I find Jim to be very profound. We were talking about SAT scores and it was evident that he got a very high score, but was being humble about his intelligence. To boost his confidence I said "You're smart, you're taking all AP classes." and he replied with "Sometimes I feel dumb for taking them."

He knows that kids forget most of what they learn in school and that most of the time we spend there is virtually useless because of this. It would be fine if we were learning things that were important. In 20 years we'll look back on our education and wish we had tried harder but only because we can't remember what we were taught. The system needs some work, it's not our fault.

The point is he has his priorities in order even if he takes all AP classes. He lives and breathes music, wants to be an engineer, and knows how he's getting there while still leaving time for his friends and hobbies. I admire him.

Another conversation we had went like this.

"You wore your glasses today! I like them."

"Thanks, Sara the vegan."

"Thanks for appreciating my compliment to you."

"Thank you for noticing my appearance."

"Thank you for wearing your glasses today."

Then he grinned and said, "You're welcome."

It stuck with me for some reason and I don't know why, so it must be important. Maybe I was meant to share it with all you folk.

Tales of p2p

2009-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of some of the infamous songs that I'll never forget because of the trip:

Jack Johnson's album In Between Dreams (Never Know was our good morning song that we played every morning)

Right Round- Flo Rida

Fire Burning- Sean Kingston

Boom Boom Pow- Black Eyed Peas

I'm on a Boat- The Lonely Island (this happened several times due to overnight ferry rides)

Baby Got Back- Sir Mix A Lot

I Love College- Asher Roth

La Bomba- King Africa (we learned an Italian dance to this song <3)

Chica- Culcha Candela

Big City Life- Mattafix

And a song about African children crying no more and dynamo and a better tomorrow that none of us could find haha

We played lots of dance music on the bus and in the clubs on the ferries.

No one used the club on the first ferry ride because it was empty. On the second ferry ride me, Kelsey and Francie were being teenage girls and dancing with each other instead of with the guys because they weren't doing much of anything (even though all but two of them were present). It was about 15 minutes before bed checks and Boom Boom Pow came on. Travis was doing some funny dance move during the beginning so we were like "YES they're not just standing there". Then Right Round came on and they were loosening up. We were excited, we were going to make the most of the time before bed checks when suddenly they all froze. The girls and I looked behind them to see Jim LaPlante (aka the leaf) standing there, grinning like he had just fulfilled a certain manly want of his. We screamed and bolted in the opposite direction. We didn't want a creeper like him seeing a bunch of girls grinding on each other. After we were down a few floors from the club we stopped to catch our breath. Jim Sobanik bubonic jump up on it electronic jumped down the stairs and informed us that the leaf was pissed. We walked him to his room, so that he wouldn't get caught being alone (a major no no in the p2p protocol), and then found Travis, who told us the same thing in a much funnier, more animated way. Then as we were talking to him the leaf appeared at the top of the stairs. He crept by us while laughing sketchily as we tried to avoid eye contact with him. We failed dismally at pretending to be highly interested in the large mirror that covered the wall. It was incredibly awkward. We ran back to our rooms, completely traumatized. Then I traded that story with Hannah for the one where Sweet Pete punched Klebage in the face.

I might as well explain that one.

For future reference Hudson's last name is Klebs, pronounced just like it looks. That didn't last very long, and people started saying Kleebs. This soon turned into Klebage. Peter's name is Sweet Pete, but that doesn't really have much of a story. It just rhymed.

Klebage is pretty chill but can be really awkward. He reminds me somewhat of Shawn Callahan. It's hard to be around him for more than a couple of minutes before the conversation is strained and awful. He can be nice, though. He was usually the one to get my suitcase off the bus because I'm such a wimp. He can do this really cool trick to make cards disappear and oh my God it's awesome. Magic is so attractive.

Sweet Pete is pretty obnoxious and immature. He's also very materialistic. The only time I ever believe he acts his age is when he's talking about money or cars or weapons. (He burned down a forest and once we caught wind of this story labeled him as the group's pyromaniac. He bought several lighters and knives, which he collects, while we were over there.) I'm such a Debbie Downer, I need to be a Positive Polly. But really even after I told him I'm afraid of fire he continued to wave a lit lighter in front of my face until Travis told him to knock it off. I'm pretty sure Sweet Pete had a man crush on most of the guys on the trip, because he was always trying to impress them.

It was late, so I don't really remember a whole lot about the story. The gist of it was that Klebage turned off the light to go to sleep when Sweet Pete used his key to enter the room. Then he turned on the lights and went into the bathroom. Klebage turned off the lights again because he thought Sweet Pete had left and he was trying to get to sleep. Upon exiting the bathroom, Sweet Pete stumbled and got frustrated with Klebage, saying if the lights had been off he wouldn't have hurt himself. He then punched Klebage in the face and left the room, storming the halls of the ferry by himself. This explained why these two boys were the only ones not in the club at one point or another during the night. They're cool now, but Sweet Pete was wicked pissed before, which is really sad 'cause Klebage is pretty chill.

The cast of p2p

2009-07-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

The trip was amazing. It's probably the best time I've had in my life. I met some wonderful people, got to see great things, it was a perfect chunk of my summer. Now that I'm back in the states there's a part of me that's a little under the weather (I forgot how cold Maine is), but I'm trying to stick some genuinely good advice.

Don't frown because it's over, smile because it happened. ~Dr. Seuss

It's going to take me forever to sort through all the pictures I took, so those will trickle onto facebook eventually. In the mean time you can correlate the few pics I've uploaded with the names I'll be mentioning.

One of the girls I got to know is named Sara. I love her, she's awesome, we even have a handshake. She's had such a rough past but she still smiles like youthful optimism. I find this very admirable. She lives in Cape Elizabeth, so that's not terribly far away. Hopefully I'll still be able to see her. I still miss her, of course. Why can't everybody who's wonderful just live in Kennebunk so I can see them whenever I want? How incredibly selfish of me to wish haha

Two girls I befriended, they're pretty much a pair, are Kelsey and Francie. They're great, and they live in Scarborough and Saco so I'll be able to chill with them. Lots of inside jokes started with us. I love them. Kelsey's a girly partyer and Francie's a tomboy, a perfect combination. Francie works at Funtown so whenever we go there we must look for her in the food stands. Kelsey used to work at Funtown too at the front gate. It's just a town of fun people! (that was some kind of pathetic play on words)

One of the guys I got close to is named Travis. We actually had deep one-on-one conversations with each other, and I can't say that about most people. We would sit next to each other against the hallway wall and as an emotional subject came up, he would put his arm around me when I cried. If someone walked by and interrupted us he would say "We're kind of talking here, so if you don't mind-" and politely give them their que to leave. It was really sweet. He wants to be a psychiatrist, so he likes talking intimately with people. We discussed lots of things like our pasts, his religion (I asked 'cause I didn't know anything about Mormonism), our families, I even told him I was bi. I was relieved to find out he's not against homosexuality like facebook told me he was. (just some pre-trip facebook stalking to find out who's too cool for school and who's lamer than Mondays) He lives almost 2 hours away, so I'm going to miss him a lot. He's probably one of the most caring, accepting persons I've ever met in my life. Plus he's absolutely hilarious.

Max is a funny guy, but since he has dial up he can't get facebook which means I probably won't talk to him until the reunion. Lots of the guys (besides the equally comical Travis) didn't like him. They thought he was obnoxious and annoying. I didn't find anything wrong with him. I mean to say that I wouldn't want to be dating the guy but he's not bad. He always smelled good, though. And he's on the football team, so he has to be in shape. Those were some great pluses. haha

Jim was a pretty laid-back, funny in a slightly awkward way, classic rocker. We would sing Beatles songs on the long bus rides. Sometimes he would have these pms-y moments where he would make fun of me but I'm hoping he didn't mean it. A few of us would say this rhyme every 5 seconds or so that involved his awesome last name. Jim Sobanik bubonic jump up on it electronic. (We also listened to that song Apache (Jump on it) a lot, along with various others)

There were definitely a lot of other people I was friends with, but I'll explain them when they come up in stories. I'm going to try writing down as many funny or memorable moments as possible in future entries.

Probably one of the most important things I learned from this trip is one doesn't really know a person at first glance. People usually don't express themselves the way they really are, and they can't tailor themselves to anybody. You may think that you know someone because of the clothes they wear, but that doesn't mean anything. Not in this world. It takes a long time. Appearances are deceiving, and so are opinions and views and haircuts and jokes and the way lips curl into smiles. But hearts are wonderful things, and I'm sure life will treat us all well. We have the honor, the privilege, to know and love amazing people with magnificent shock lacing every step of the journey. Talk to someone. You might be surprised.

"I vish I vere a vitch vith wiolet, welvet, vings!"

2009-06-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight I laughed harder than I have in a long time. I convinced my parents to play a game because they were being more civil to each other than usual. They agreed. It's always a good night when they're not arguing. We played Clue and it was epic.

Dad's awful at Clue, he always has been. He banishes his logical mind and frequently guesses weapons and suspects that he already knows about, which leads him to explain, "Ah yes...I was just confirming my knowledge." and chortle whole-heartily in an I'm-a-chimney-sweep-from-Mary-Poppins accent.

Mom is slightly better, but since I know how she plays she's not much of a threat unless she rolls really high numbers. Mom does, however, like to poke fun at dad for sucking horribly at Clue in her posh English accent.

For some reason we always revert to dialects and speech patterns foreign to America such as Russian, Chinese, African, etc. It's one of the highlights of living in a Wilson or Appleton residence.

{Quick side notes deserve the cool looking brackets. My immediate family all have different last names. Mama Wilson, Daddy Appleton, my sis Jessie Thompson, Jessie's dad Ted Orzech, grammy Alice Clunie, and then the whole rest of the family we never see: the Fairfields. How weird is that?}

Halfway through the game mom speculates out-loud, "The violet-hued Professor Plum in the dining room with the wrench." Upon hearing this color dad blurts out, "I vish I vere a vitch vith wiolet, welvet, vings!" in a voice resembling Count Dracula. Mom and I were baffled as to what he was saying. "Are you saying witch? -or bitch? Wait dad wouldn't want to be that..." "No, I vish I vere a VITCH vith wiolet, welvet, vings!" Seeing the two of us stare at him in utter confusion, he leaps up, clasps his hands together in from of himself and parades around the living room. "Sumo wrestler?" "Buddha!" "No, a VITCH a VITCH!" he exclaims. This vague manner of confrontation wasn't succeeding, so he picked up a guitar and began to ride around. "Oh, a vitch!" "Wait, so what's he saying?"

Dad was running around while perched on the guitar, cackling like the wicked witch of the west from The Wizard of Oz. Mom was muttering incoherent nonsense about dad's clever joke, purple vs. violet, and the Schuyler White song. (She had this stuck in her head all day and asked me on numerous occasions to serenade her with something non-Schuyler and/or the color white related.)

The entire scene was hysterical. That's when I said "I'm going to have a blogging extravaganza tonight!" Good thing I chose to exploit some of cyber-communication's many drawbacks. You can't hear the tones, the accents, the joke, and you can't see dad looking completely ridiculous. Plus mom's laughter is funnier than the new season of Paris Hilton's my new bff. (at least the first one was good, but this one actually has straight men. What the hell's up with that?)

For all of those who don't yet understand what dad was saying, if you replace the v's with w's and vice versa it states "I wish I were a witch with violet, velvet, wings!" Dad ended up hearing this hilarious phrase from his brother during their childhood and it stuck with him all these years. Good thing, too, otherwise we would've missed out on life. Spontaneously-planned family game nights are always worth talking about.

Being girly and music oriented at the same time

2009-06-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

William Beckett. One of the several musicians who make my hormones happy.

The reason this glorious figure is the center of today's post is because he did two extraordinary things that only a true man could do (on his blog).

1) He posted Regina Spektor's video Laughing With and proceeded to tell how he has been a fan of hers for a few years and is "particularly blown away with her unique lyric and vocal phrasing/delivery." He also stated how this song inspired him and his amigo to write some new music. (Regina Spektor as an influence on The Academy Is...= hit of the year on Sara's ipod)

2) "Saturday Night Music Club" is a weekly feature where he broadcasts the great music of other talented artists. Last night was Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap.

How freaking awesome is that?! I knew I had good taste in girly men. Plus he's wearing an Obama shirt. It doesn't get much better than that. He's one of the only celebrities I've ever met. I met George Bush (Senior) once when I was like 7... in a fishing boat. :/ William's a lot cuter. And his hand is softer. kwefiywew I got to hold Bilvy's hand for five whole seconds!

Temporary moment of spontaneous combustion. Sorry, I got a little excited...

http://thewilliambeckettblog.com/

I put the link there in case you wanted to get some good tunage and stalk celebs and the same time. Happy Father's Day everyone. I still need to get my dad a card....crapsicles.

P.S. Even though he was in the hospital yesterday he's perfectly fine today (sorta) and shall hopefully enjoy a lovely day of celebration ambulance-free. He thanks you guys for all the concern. A kidney stone is probably the worst father's day gift he could have gotten. This'll make whatever I do look like he's the king of England. (I spelled king wrong three times trying to type that haha)

I remember when (part 1)

2009-06-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

I remember when Sophie saved my life.

I was at my mom's house in the middle of a Maine winter. Mom was asleep on the couch (go figure), and besides her, I was home alone at the age of 6. Seeing as it was snowing and looked lovely outside, I decided to enjoy the weather. Dede was off doing her own thing but Sophie was there for me. I told an unconscious mom I'd be outside (I left a note for good measure), got my snow gear on, and headed down the snow covered hill in the backyard. Sophie raced me down the hill and despite my best efforts she would always win. I traveled to the boardwalk to look at the ice. I tested the slippery surface by putting a foot on. It seemed fine, so I gradually put more weight on it.

It didn't break. Sophie decided to stay on the boardwalk while I pretended I was pretty and could dance like a fairy. I heard a peculiar noise from a nearby animal and in my surprise I jumped, accidentally sliding over into uncharted territory. Sophie perked her head up as if she knew what was coming.

I fell right through the ice. The water was so cold I couldn't move my legs, and the water had soaked me so thoroughly that I couldn't propel my tiny self out. I started to panic, and as my breathing became unstable I actually started to inhale water, which made me freak out even more. Sophie knew what was going on and carefully but swiftly made her way towards me. She grabbed my coat with her teeth and managed to pull me out of the water and onto the boardwalk without harming me.

I was chilled to the bone and shivering all over. Sophie let go of me, thinking I would get up to run inside, but I couldn't. I couldn't move. She stared at me for a second, then maneuvered herself so that she was beneath me. She hoisted me onto her back and carried me up the hill. A few minutes later we were back in the house and the warmth allowed me to move again. When she saw me get up and hug her in immense appreciation she wore the happiest of grins I've ever seen in my life.

If there's one thing I can remember about my childhood, it's her smile. She will always be one of the most lovable, caring creatures I've had the honor of knowing. I never told my parents about this little event because I didn't want them to ever think they were irresponsible, because they're not. It was completely my 6-year-old fault.

But that was more than a decade ago. When Sophie got the tumor I started beating her in our runs down the hill, and soon those became slow walks. I have no doubt in my mind that she is one of my biggest influences. To be nice, to be selfless. To love others the way I wish I was loved.

One day on the way home from school dad turned right down Storer street. I immediately thought "What's going on?", this never happened. Knowing we must be heading to mom's house, we turned down our beloved Grasshopper Lane and drove to the last house. There was a foreign vehicle there and a small gathering outside our house.

Dread filled my system. I had been thinking this would happen for a while, but I still wasn't ready for it. The man I didn't recognize standing next to my mother was here to put Sophie to sleep.

All the hurried, rushed goodbyes didn't prepare me to see her smiling figure be buried beneath the shoveled mounds of dirt. Wave after wave of rich earth pounded against her golden, furry body. It didn't even sink in until much later that I would never see her again, that she was physically gone forever. She'd never scratch her paw on the sliding door again.

That was one of the saddest days I have ever experienced. I wrote for catharsis, not for enjoyment. I cry. I mourn. Tears stream down my face and I can't do anything about it, especially not when it's 2 o'clock in the morning with no one to hold me. I still remember how she would wait patiently at the door wishing to come in. She'd only bark once because she didn't want to bother anyone. Gratitude would stretch across her face every time she got to walk through that sliding door. Every time she got to brighten someone's day. Every time she got to make life a little easier for the rest of us.

Out of all the good hearted souls that enter this world, I was blessed with the best dog I could've asked for. I never truly got over her passing away. If she hadn't been so sick towards the end I would've felt better, but we all knew she was in so much pain and agony. She still tried to live on, for our sakes.

The closest I ever come to believing in God is when I think of her. I want her to be safe, to be happy so badly that I sometimes quickly mutter words of hope, a "prayer" if you will. I'd like to think it pays off, but who knows. No one really knows.

I miss you so much. I hope whatever is after life is treating you well, because you deserve it. You deserved so much more, Sophie. I love you, I always will.

I support love

2009-06-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

I finally came out on facebook. :)

Prom, peeps to peeps, the letter P seems to make me happy haha

2009-05-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Last night was prom. Mucho fun! I sincerely enjoyed when Zac (:] :] smileys for Zac!) requested Britney Spears from the dj. I'm not gonna lie, she's one of the embarrasing, pop, hit-single artists that I like. Brit Brit's on my shower mix. I have really nice showers.

Next year at The New School will be another adventure: Pirate Prom. It's the perfect occasion to don my peg leg and train Chi-Chi, the lovable parrot, to spew inappropriate words from his beak.

Today there was a p2p meeting. We had a presentation due. Being the procrastinator I am, I did most of my section the hour before the meeting began.

Somehow I managed to have a good idea. I looked up some Italian phrases, thinking that would be a lot more useful than knowing about Italian pre-schools and what exact percentage of Italians speak the different dialects that all sound the same to us uncultured Americans.

So I was the last person to present in my group and at the end I asked that the crowd repeat those phrases after I stated them. I WAS SO RELIEVED after it went so well.

This whole year I've been making a conscious effort to be less shy. It's been a challenge, but I'm slowly seeing the changes. It's awesome, actually having people notice me and not think I'm a loser. After my presentation four parents came up to me to tell me how great I did, and it made me feel really good. Granted, one of them was my dad haha. I respect people who can go up to someone they don't know too well to compliment them and be vulnerable, even if just for a moment.

(I feel really pompous right now, writing blogs about myself has that effect on me haha)

owaertohiru!! I'm currently watching Daisy of Love instead of doing my homework, and I went on yahoo answers to see what song they always play when the incredibly attractive Fox enters the scene and someone on there spoiled tonight's episode! And some girl posted "I feel horrible for Daisy because all those guys on there are hideous (except for 12 Pack but he's kind of a douche). " 12 Pack? Are you serious anonymous yahoo answerer? Out of all the cute, gorgeous, musically-inclined sex gods on the show you had to pick one of the few who AREN'T cute? grrr they didn't even know what song it was anyway. :( The tv just showed a commercial for the show with the awful slogan "Wanna pluck?" because Daisy is a flower, but it sounds like she needs to pluck her eyebrows. haha

I've joined the track team, and I'm SO glad the season is almost over. Running sucks. A lot. At the 1st meet I went to (which was actually the 3rd or 4th meet) I did the 800 m and got fourth to last and at the next meet I got second to last (but I improved my time so it's alllll good). I'm just gratful I haven't gotten last...yet. Tyler got 5th on the mile!! Woo-hoo! :)

I took my IB music exam on Friday. 6 questions, all worth 20 "marks" (Europeans are so cool!!). I was pleased with the extract from a Jimi Hendrix song. haha The exam was two and a half hours long, and afterwards I went to history instead of skipping the rest of the day like we were allowed to. We ended up having the most awkward sub I've ever seen in my life while we watched a movie about Somalia that I didn't understand in the slightest. All the characters looked the same, it was confuzling my little mind. And then band is a joke, so I could've just left school. Lame poop.

I need to start my homework for tomorrow, considering it's almost 10 o'clock. haha but here's a poem I felt like writing. Nothing big, just one of those short five minutes things. I've been feeling happier recently because of my great friends who make me feel better about myself. :) Arrivederci y'all!

Sprouting like kites upon a cloudless beach sky, my butterfly soars with blinding splashes of balloon color.
I am aware that yours is misplaced, but don't fear.
She is alive and well, I feel her heartbeat as you dream fondly of cherries upon nitrous oxide
Mountains
Turning into cliffs
Nightmares become frequent, until I find her
And when I do, she shall be the most beautiful relief
Because flying across fields with flowering gems will be the landscape of the
Future
Some might wonder about you.
But she's there.
An adventure for your light may be in order, and if so I'm ready when you are.
I have uncorked my bottle of comfort because safety never seemed so silly before now.
You make me realize just how wonderful our secluded planetarium is, why metaphors and symbols shooting across imagination's realm bring joy to every core of my skeletal figure.
If a butterfly could be split in two, I would share.
But reality isn't one to humor us.
I will help you in different ways.

With much love,
Optimism

Humorous mothers and sexual pacts, not together you pervs (I was thinking the same thing [and lots of brackets (really long title {sorry})])

2009-03-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

So me and mom went to Biddeford Crossing last night, to buy Spirit Week clothes and bond, like every child does on a Saturday night, right guys? While we were in Target we went to the checkout and started placing our items on the mini conveyor belt (those always looked really cool to work!) and mom starts to make small talk with the cashier before telling her, and every other unfortunate soul we bumped into that evening, about this whole fiasco with one of her friends concerning her car. I gave the girl, who happened to be named Sarah (not quite as awesome as Sara, though) an apologetic look. Once mom was done ranting to a complete stranger, she made a horrible joke. It was so bad I almost laughed. Underneath the word "Sarah" on her name tag it said "Target", and mom was like "Hello, Target!", thinking that it was a silly name that no one would ever have, and Sarah stood there awkwardly and explained "My sister's last name is Targett." "Oh...well nice meeting you, Sarah." And we rushed out of there as fast as we could.

We used dad's car, and mom couldn't stop complaining about how she wasn't used to it and that was the reason it would take her several minutes to unlock the car while I was like "Mom! Maine is colder outside than inside stores with hot dogs!" Which made her giggle that really funny laugh that she does when I say something that's not amusing in the slightest but she believes it is and she loses her concentration and forgets what she's doing. One time it took us four full minutes for her to unlock it. Mom's really dependable like that.

Oh right, the hot dog story. While we were still inside and not freezing our bootylicious asses off (eww I shouldn't have mentioned mom in that sentence. Bad mental images! Sorry that I just poisoned you guys...), her stomach growled.

Mom: I want a hot dog.
Me: You always want a hot dog.
Mom: That's because I crave real food.
Me: Because pig fat surrounded by synthetic casing is definitely real.
Mom: Oh, right. Maybe I'll get two to make up for it.

Awesome, Mom...

Then at Panera we were eating dinner (it was more like a snack for me because the only thing I could eat there were the fruit cups) and the entire time there was this guy with gray hair and glasses diligently working on his laptop with several charts strewn upon his table. He seemed really boring, so I barely payed any attention to him at all. Incidentally, this story is about him and I can recall all these pointless, unnecessary details. (I'd be a super good stalker, if anybody needs one) He was sitting next to the glass near the door, so when me and mom left the building (haha, we're both Elvis in disguise. Oh the surprises 21st century living presents us with) she turned left and was right next to him (I said both left and right in that sentence haha), the only thing between them being the glass. She waved, and then left before he noticed. It was so sketchy, and had me laughing hysterically. Apparently she knows him because he's an orthodontist, which is super random seeing as he's not mom's. You kinda had to be there, to see her funny-looking hair flying and that puffy, blue jacket she wears. That's a joke in itself. haha I love my mommy. :)

You know when you post a comment, and you have to type some letters as a security precaution? They usually look like wetgf (that was completely random, but looking back those were perfectly chosen letters haha the gutter is full with my mind) or spell out some completely random word. What I've been wondering about is that little sign next to the box. What the hell is a handicap symbol doing there? Does anyone know what that means? Or is someone clever trying to humor me and make inappropriate wheelchair jokes at the same time? Whatever it is, it's hilarious.

Hearts are wonderful. So are hugs, but that doesn't have to do with my nomadic attention span. There's a heart in the food I'm eating (I'm so scandalous, I eat and blog at the same time, I'm underage! [that was a crappy attempt at humor, don't laugh at that]), and now I think I don't want to eat it. Which is weirder, to eat a heart or to leave leftover food when you're still hungry because of a teenage girlish symbol? In case you were wondering, I used to be a middle-aged man, but the technology they have these days is amazing. It can really work wonders on your liver spots and unwanted appendages.

My hunger won, the heart is gone. And now I'm really sad! T___T The poor heart, I didn't even realize what I was doing. (Wow that sounded super serious, go away Sunday-induced thoughts!) I think because I turned the plate so it faced in a different direction and I couldn't see it clearly.

Grr I dislike Sundays, because you spend the whole day dreading tomorrow, which makes it impossible to enjoy the day off from torture-school. Today isn't as bad because there's a chance tomorrow will be a snow day (dad says I shouldn't even set my alarm. =) [hah! You thought that was the ending parenthesis when it was actually a smiley (let's make this even more confusing [I can't count this high (or this high)])]) (that looked really cool), even if a part of me doesn't want it to be because I want to dress up as Ryan Ross and go to air band. (You just had to go back and read that because my parenthesis made you forget what the sentence was about. [Now you're going to have to do it again (sucker [WOW that sounds like suck her (Let's make a pact to be as sexual as possible [no pics])])]) I'm so excited to have an excuse to wear crazy make-up. Thank God for supremely metro Ryan. (That's not stating he's better than Brendon [this is even funner than awkward conversations (I lost count again [damn it (I wonder how many of you guys are going to try and see if I've messed up)])]) I've barely thought about hippie day, because since my ancient mother was, and still thinks of herself as, a hippie, she can't stop telling me about how different they really are than the stereotype of them is. She's like "We wore peasant shirts..." I have no idea what that is and have no intention of finding out, so I just pushed it to the back of my mind.

This is really pathetic and un-lazy-like (haha, it sounds like lady-like [I stole this idea from someone (you know him {why don't I ever use this thing? (it's such a loner)})]) of me, but I went downstairs and got some more food to arrange in a heart shape. This time I'm going to remember not to eat it.

3 minutes later

R.I.P. Heart-shaped bean meal. I miss you, even though you're inside me (that's so what she said! [sexual pact (another opportunity to do this)])

Salutations, world!

2009-02-23T18:36:00.000-08:00

So apparently all my friends have been blogging for a while. For some reason I was under the impression that it was short-lived, but obviously not. Don't worry, though, the crisis has been averted, because I have arrived!

I hope I don't sound extremely obnoxious throughout this. If I do, tell me while air slapping me. Don't actually hit me, that'd be mean.

I'll probably be reliving my day here. Or gushing nonstop about gorgeous musicians, especially the ones that pull at your heartstrings the moment they burst into the chorus and you jizz in your pants. I'm completely in love with music, by the way. And no, I don't actually jizz...usually.

I'll also talk about my opinion on not having an opinion, since I, unfortunately, never seem to have these. I'm too mellow...just go with the flow. Take a chill pill, or even better: a chillaxative.

(Eww)

So the snow delay today was a fail. We had 33 minutes of IB music where we just talked about tv shows, funny yet mildly disturbing Donkey Kong documentaries, Rock Band and how Mr. Murray's son is more musically gifted than his daughter, and the like. Then in English we watched a movie. After, lunch was amazing (as always).

Tyler is so unintentionally hilarious! I'm not laughing at him or anything, but I can't help but double over at the table whenever he speaks. He's just a funny guy, I guess. Some people are born with it, oh how I wish I were one of them...

Then Chamber Choir. It's by far my favorite class. I can't remember what I did with my life before I started singing. Don't take that too literally, I can remember bits and pieces. ;)

So Mr. Murray finally came to his senses and made us only sing some of the Concert Choir songs. When I was in Concert Choir freshman year, I know I was proud of myself and the group. We sang all our own songs, without the assistance of the Chamber Choir. We did a decently good job for the amount of effort we put in, and I knew we would just get better. So then when I got into Chamber Choir the next year I was disappointed to learn that we would be singing all of the Concert Choir's songs. But now it's like a compromise, just some of their repetoire will be covered by us as well. :)

I'm not afraid to say that I teared up when we sang Bridge Over Troubled Water (Yes, Simon and Garfunkel!) Granted, I cry a lot, but it was so moving. And as an added bonus, the sopranos always have the melody. Score! I can't wait to perform our songs, two of them are written by the chordgasmic Eric Whitacre. Yum.

Then Chem...augh. Mr. Bennet must have been in a particularly sucky mood this morning, because there was a lab book due today (yeah, the day after vacation. So lame), so I went in early this morning to ask him for help. He specifically told us to come see him before we passed the book in, so he could check over our work, tell us if we were right or wrong, and give us the information to use on our conclusion section. Well, I would like to say that he was his usual, boring, yet amiable, self (I must've used some of those commas wrong), but he wasn't. I asked him to look over my equation, and he just nodded. So when he left the room I thought he'd be coming right back with an answer sheet, but he never returned.

No, this isn't some crappy folk myth, he just didn't come back from his office, even after me and my lab partner heard him talking to himself in a jovial manner. At first we thought he was talking to another teacher, but reality likes to humor us.

So I guess we didn't do the lab book right, and it's mostly his fault. Oh well, just a silly grade that's not going to affect if I'm a good person in life.

After school I actually got to spend time with my mom, which was wonderful. I hadn't done so in a long time, because she's usually crashed on the coach, on the phone with one of her friends, or wearing this atrocious, green, "sporty" sweater while having lunch with her crew. Yes, in public, how horrifying...

Well, I spent tweleve hours on an English assignment yesterday, so I only got 4 hours of sleep this morning. It's probably time I got to bed. Good night, and pleasant dreams.

With Polka Dots on Ziggzagging Stripes

The Cookie Quiz

You Are Solid and Honest

I love my school :)

Titles have never been my forte

Gee, Officer Krupke, Krup you!

I'm so screwed yayayayayayay!!

El concierto!

Loooooong day

I haven't blogged in so long!

Wicked pumped!! :)

Yesterday...

Session dos funnies

Mah first LEAP night! :)

Blargh (I need sleep)

Thanksgivin'!

Giving Back Days

Ballroom Dancing and my spectacular dreamish-nightmare thing

Ze play!

oh my God! :)

hahahaha

Rap, Disneyworld, and Adoption (Typical)

Today

The Election 2009

This Summer

?

To clarify

Meringue time!

YAADA and my German!

:) :) :) <3

Overview

Awesome Opossum

Committees (thank God for spell check)

ahhhhhh :)

Much easier to read

Monster post of the new schedule (haha puns)

Just read the monumental poop story

If I could meet Neil Cicierega, I'd haha my butooty off

Why not

Suck on that James haha

At least do the quiz at the end if you don't want to read the whole thing haha

Attraction

Tales of p2p 2 (haha it's like a pattern!)

Tales of p2p

The cast of p2p

"I vish I vere a vitch vith wiolet, welvet, vings!"

Being girly and music oriented at the same time

I remember when (part 1)

I support love

Prom, peeps to peeps, the letter P seems to make me happy haha

More mother stories, secret names, and P Diddy, not in that order of course :)

Humorous mothers and sexual pacts, not together you pervs (I was thinking the same thing [and lots of brackets (really long title {sorry})])

Salutations, world!