a realization

The gods love Africa
The beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile,
The humbled, the opressed
The tears of Africa
Are only for the moment
They'll fall into the river
And we'll never cry again

I had a calling today. To hell with law school, I want to join the Peace Corps. With my French skills I could go to Burkina Faso or Cote d'Ivoire. Well, no matter what I do I have to help people. If God wants me in a pencil skirt putting criminals away as a prosecutor, so be it; or ruining my complexion beneath the hot sun to deliver rice to starving people, so be it; or just singing a hymn in a nursing home to brighten up the day of a woman who's been bypassed by the rest of the world, so be it. I love people and I want to spend my life helping them.

So enough thoughtful business :-) this weekend = chore weekend. Last night I was in that dumb play, but thank God it's over now. Good times though, sorta. I liked my hoops and poofy pink skirt (the skit was Wizard of Oz, I was Glinda) but the goddamn crown kept cutting off circulation to my brain and I felt like I was drunk. So yeah, interesting times but fun.

Had a singing gig with the BCCQ this afternoon (which sucked). Only minor messups, but we were just generally off. Sometimes I really can't stand Shanna or Karolyn. It was just really stupid, some grandma hired us for her spoiled little grandbrat's first communion party. All I could think about was how bored the little brat had to be. And I even missed my own cousin's confirmation to be there. What the fuck. Yay for being the human pitchpipe too. :-)

But yeah, Shanna hasn't changed one bit since middle school and it's really annoying. She acts like she's five and then wonders why people make fun of her. And Karolyn just likes to play psychologist all the livelong day and make excuses for herself whenever she's dumb instead of just being normal and fixing it. Like today she wouldn't shut up about her goddamn sore throat. And I'm just like "I don't give a shit because mine is sore too but you sure don't hear me complaining," or at least that's what I wanted to say. I need to stop bottling up all this resentment towards people. I really don't hate them. They just piss me off. Well, blogs are for venting.

Inother news, Joe is an asshole. Good riddance to bad rubbish, that's all I have to say about this "oh, well I never technically asked her out" business. I thought I might let it go when Craig told me about it a week and a half ago but now I'm hearing it from other people and I'm like "what the hell, this is bullshit."

I have to babysit Andrew tomorrow. What a dull weekend. This whole month has just sucked. I miss the musical. Those were good times, even if the character shoes and five- or six-hour rehearsals killed. But it was awesome. I need to find a show to do over the summer or I think I'll rot. I'm also going to see if that guy with the horsebarn on Huntley Rd. needs anyone who knows how to care for horses to work there over the summer. If I get a job I won't do a musical. I guess some money would be nice :-).

That's all. Much love!

don't you worry, we'll all float on

So I haven't written these past few days for a very simple reason: I literally had nothing to write about! This was the most boring week possible, not even kidding. This was the most boring week in the HISTORY OF MANKIND. And my People magazine didn't even come today either. Just my luck. That's the first time in months that it didn't come on time. I'm sad.

Just to digest I am taking a night off and nerding it up at home. The alternatives were to go to a movie or to see The Coop, neither of which appealed.

I took most of the day off on Monday due to a bad set of cramps and a severe case of laziness . So I left after first block and that was all fun and good. I sat in my room w/ popcorn watching movies, while all my peers were stuck at school. I also painted a new piece (entitled "Aida" since I painted it with Aida in the background and also because with the exception of the hair it bears a resemblance to Heather Headley) and whenever I get around to taking some pictures you will see it!

I am still stuck in that dumb Wizard of Oz play and I still don't know my lines. Dress rehearsal is Tuesday. Oh, and I still have no costume. Shit. But our scarecrow is British and it rocks! Hehe.

I thought about a lot of things today. I am a very thoughtful person sometimes. The things I thought about include death, religion, whether people would be sad if I died in a freak accident, my grades and how I should probably have tried a little harder this year because I kinda screwed my class rank, how life is mostly luck-of-the-draw and no matter how prepared you are things can still get fucked up, and how no matter what happens, I don't really care because I know myself and I know Jesus and everything floats on. I have nothing to prove to the world and I'm not going to be someone who spends his or her life striving for something and then when they get there they realize it was all for nothing, and that they were a total asshole for their entire lives just for a nice house and a Jaguar. Though my very own law practice in Manhattan and a beautiful Napa Valley vineyard to retire to would be nice.

The good thing is that I am so multitalented that if all else fails, I can become a starving artist and be damn good at that too.

I also thought about how Donald Trump could literally save the entire third world from hunger and disease because he has so much goddamn money. But instead he chooses gold-plated toilet seats. What the hell.

In other news, I lost four pounds this week, whoo.

Oh yeah, I got inducted into Tri-M (which is a rather pointless and stuffy but college-application-friendly honor society for outstanding music students, complete with a chapter president who very much resembles a stuttering Ben Stein in need of a haircut ) on Thursday. The yearbook pictures for that took longer than the actual ceremony and it made me laugh.

Our choir concert at the Raue in Crystal Lake was on Tuesday. It just made me look forward to next year even more! Madrigals, jazz, and varsity, here I come!

Don't worry, even if things end up a bit too heavy, we'll all float on!

i would rather wear a barrel than conservative apparel, for a dress has always been my strongest suit

Yay I made money this weekend. $55 to be exact. Just for babysitting and mopping my house. How fun. Damnit I need a real job, lol.

On Friday night I went to set (which was totally pointless because there were A LOT of people there and practically nothing to do) and ended up leaving early (for reasons just stated). So I went to Woodfield with my sister to look for prom dresses. We found her a really gorgeous dress. I want to go to prom now. I think I will go on an adventure to find some dateless boy to take me to prom just so I can go.

My basement is turning out so hotly. I'm excited.

Okay so I'm really pissed about something: One, I got a B in drivers' ed (well that was kinda my own fault, and I almost got a C so I can't really complain), and two, I got a B in health because my teacher messed up and lost two assignments! I even reminded him on the last day of class to fix those empty scores and clearly he never did. I marked it in goddamn red pen in the grade book. That is so dumb. I am so sad now. Plus that dude had better be grateful I was in his class because I was the only one who answered questions! So why did he give me a B? I am so pissed. Who gets a B in health? So now my class rank sucks and it's not even my fault. (But of course I got A+'s in everything else save for Espel who just doesn't bother giving pluses, but I had like a 99 in her class.)
/end rant about something as stupid as grades

I don't really care anyways, as long as I get into a half-decent college then I'll be okay. All that really matters to me is law school, and they just look at your college grades. So I'll be fine.

So anyways... I'm bored, someone call me.

On a final note, Damian Perkins cannot pronounce the sound "oo" and it pisses me off. Oh, and the Beatles kick ass to the highest power.

Goodbye my lovelies!

your gentleman caller, well he's been calling on another

Wow, a real blast from the past five minutes ago! My dad used to work with this guy Clodfelter, and when I was little I would hang out with his kids Carrie and Bryan. And I just found Bryan's Xanga, how crazy. Small world!

Anywho...

The talent show was tonight and Brian Nowak should have won, dammit. He did a dance to "Thriller" and it was amazing! Why did he get beaten by Erin O'brien and some band geeks? Grr... no fair. Those judges are dumb. Michael Jackson songs and amazing moonwalk skills > jazz stuff, even though Matt Bishop rocks, so does that kid who played drums. But still.

Ah well, I digress.

Ick, choir tomorrow.

Awww, my cousin Jonny has a girlfriend, and she's pwetty! Awwwwww... my widdle Jonboy is gwowing up. Goddamn I just realized he's already 14. Crazy.

Question of the day: why do Americans have to supersize everything?

That is pretty much all. A bientot, mes homies.

i remember doing the time warp

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!
(It's just a jump to the left!)

Lol, that song has been stuck in my head all day! Hehe, anyways, school was boring today, but after school I hung out with Craig and we went bowling. It was fun! I lost the second game (by a lot, but I suck at bowling) and somehow managed to win the second. I kept getting gutterballs and then spares in combinations. It was crazy! Lol, good fun.

Then Craig was taking me back to my house and we almost rear-ended someone, it was really scary. LOL and we saw Jackie Tyiran driving her little brothers to Blockbuster. They were bouncing around to "I'm Walking on Sunshine" and it made me laugh a lot.

My sister is playing chopsticks upstairs. That is funny.

Yay time for gov't homework. Goodbye dahlings!

as my childhood treasures burn

Yay, American Idol tonight!

I am in love with Elton John's show Aida, it totally rocks! I think I might sing a song from it for solo/ensemble. I wonder if Espelia would let me do something remotely poppish if I'm doing something else that's totally not. Hmm. Well whutev, I'm doing it anyway, she won't even notice.

Aggh, today was a bad nails day. That's even worse than a bad hair day. I did my nails yesterday and somehow it got messed up, so I fixed it this morning before I came to school and I smudged like four of them! So it was sad, and I had to walk around with ugly looking nails all day, and I hate that. Other than that it was a good day.
I thought a lot about fake people today, and how many people I just might be friends with who really hate me. If you hated me would you be honest? Fake people piss me off, I'd rather someone hate me than pretend to like me, you know?

Lol, Craig wants to do Rocky Horror Picture Show for senior year musical. That would be so funny... yet so, well, creepy. But at least people would have at least heard of it and might even come to see it. Glynn is so concerned about making artistic breakthroughs with somewhat obscure musicals, that he forgets that people just want to see their friends and family members be in shows that they're familiar with.

I have to go do my homework and fix my nails and watch American Idol now. Take care my lovey-doves!

close my eyes and leap...

Whee! Lol, anyway, just writing something for the sake of writing I guess. I know for a fact I was going to write about something important... and it seems I have forgotten just what it was, so clearly it wasn't really that important. Whatever. Anyway, today was a typical Monday. Long and dull. Choir was horrible, I can't wait 'til next year - to hell with Bel Canto at last, hello Madrigals and people who are good at singing!

Argh, I have a rehearsal for that goddamn Wizard of Oz thing in a few minutes. Goodbye my loves!

i'm defying gravity

So this weekend was really rather dull. Most of my plans kinda just fell through the roof.

Friday there were the I-acts, for which I did makeup. Putting makeup on boys is fun, hehe! Except that someone (I think it was Ben Schillmoeller) kept flinching and it literally took me 15 minutes just to put mascara on the boy. The junior play was so funny, I nearly died laughing and I had already seen it. The other plays were okay (maybe two girls in the freshman play were good actresses but the rest were kinda just yelling, the sophomore play was good except that I knew everyone in it so it was just weird, especially Laura and Craig kissing because that would NEVER happen in real life, lol). But mostly it was fun. The cast party was so dull, the music was too loud to talk to anyone but there were only a couple people dancing and they looked like idiots, so mostly it was me, Mary Kate, and Fran sitting on Zach's couch being bored.

Saturday, I ditched set to sleep in, watched some 80s King Arthur movie with Richard Gere as Lancelot (lol) and Sean Connery as King Arthur (LOL he's too Scottish to be English), and that was hilarious. Then Craig and I were s'posed to go see Fever Pitch but then my mom didn't let me go, argh. So then we went to Pierce Chapel in Wheaton to my friend Emily's piano recital - not a recital with a bunch of first graders plunking out Mary Had a Little Lamb, it was just her. She's a junior at Wheaton in music performance so this was a course requirement. The program was basically some Sweelinck, Couperin, and Bach on the harpsichord, and then Mozart, Chopin, and Poulenc (which she played on the most beautiful grand I have ever seen!). It was awesome; my favorites were Couperin's Seventeeth Ordre: Les Petits Moulins à Vent and Chopin's preludes 3: (G major), 14: (E-flat minor), 23: (F major), and 24: (D minor). Poulenc's Novelette Two in B-flat minor was good too. After that we went to my Uncle Ted's house and he showed us his victory garden and solar electric and heating system (as you can see, he's quite a hippie). His cats are adorable, Simba and... er, I can't remember the other one but they're adorable. After that we were supposed to go to Chowpatti's, my absolute favorite restaurant, but then (argh) there was a non-unanimous decision not to go. So I read The Kalahari Typing School for Men (which is a sequel to The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) on the way home and listened to Wicked. Of course I couldn't get a ride anywhere, and all my friends with cars were at work so I was stuck at home, goddammit.

I'm stuck playing Glinda in a little Wizard of Oz skit at the end of this month and I so do not want to do it.

In other news, I got my cell phone back, huzzah! Someone call me, I'm bored and I need an excuse not to do my homework right now.

On a final note, Defying Gravity is my new theme song (I LOVE POWER ANTHEMS), and Jackie Tyiran is an angel for burning me Wicked and Aida, among others.

That is all! Much love!

let's do the time warp again

Yay for listening to Rocky Horror! LOL but I like the music.

One-acts tomorrow and I feel embarrassed for the seniors who totally blew theirs off. Lol, I feel bad about the flyers now because they say "4 one-act plays" but because the seniors will not be performing theirs it should just say "3 one-act plays."

I made a Xanga and it's really lame. I just wanted a username so I can comment on other people's pages and so I could join the HDJ ring, even though it's mostly freshman and kids from junior high who want to make themselves feel older. Anyway it links to this, my actual blog with actual stuff about my life, so yay. :-)

Goddammit I have to watch my little brother tonight. No fun. My life during the week is soooo dull. I NEED TO BE IN ANOTHER SHOW OR SOMETHING! AAH! I AM DYING HERE! As you can see I am not my usual giggly self today, I'm actually kind of annoyed with shit right now. It doesn't help that certain people who were all cutesy over spring break are totally blowing me off now except when they need something *cough cough*.

Yay for moping about nothing. I hate when I'm depressed for no reason. I think I'm gonna go eat dinner and paint something. Phoo. Call me if you're bored too (not my cell, it died a watery death in Disney World =P).

just the way you are

Yay for rocking out to old school Billy Joel in my basement that reeks of paint fumes. I picked the color for my basement and Tim is in the process of painting it! It's pwetty, kind of a buttery yellow. I'm making a kind of eclectic, jazz lounge type shiz going on down here. Along with the yellow there's black, white, tan, and red. The furniture will be modern, but the accessories will be mostly antiques from the 20s and 30s. Add some Frank and some Ella for background music, and poof, this will be my favorite room in the house.

Pet peeve: Why do people always sign their blog posts with their names? It's not like we dunno who you are.

(Clearly) I'm trying really hard to find shit to write about regularly. A lot happens in my life, but very little of it is interesting enough to write about, lol. If I'm not careful I'll turn into one of those people who just posts cliche philosophical crap and song lyrics, but for now I will just tell you all about my day.

I slept in until 6:15 (normally I wake up at 5:20 sharp), got up, rushed out the door and into the car, drove to school, went to French class, amazed Madame with my intelligence, went to gym, had one of those goddamn random dizzy spells I get once or twice a month, thankfully didn't faint, played frisbee (bahaha, I have Ledford, SUCKERS!!), ate lunch, debated about Terri Schiavo with my geeky friends, laughed with my geeky friends, went to econ, got bored to tears by Allen within the first five minutes, pouted because I have to sit next to Jared Taylor and I hate that kid with a fiery passion, drew more ballpoint pen henna all over my hand, drew henna all over Mary Kate's hand, ran out of ink and sat there listening to Allen (and burning up because it was so godforsaken hot) until dismissal. Then I checked the callback list, reminded myself that my lack of callback was inevitable, went to government, rolled my eyes at my crazed Dem teacher Stukenburg and how obvious he is about how much he hates Republicans (honestly, it's to the point where it shouldn't even be allowed because he doesn't leave room for discussion; it's so goddamn one-sided!!), finished a worksheet before everyone else had even finished half, smiled and pretended not to notice people copying said worksheet, worked on some country project about Monaco (and ended up doing twice the work I had to because the other peeps in my group are lazy slackers), got into an unhappy funk, thought about death, felt better, and got out of school. Went downstairs, felt sad about the lack of cookies, found Emily, went home, worked on my book a bit, thought about how nerdy it is that I'm writing a book but it's okay, listened to my dad and uncle duke it out on the phone about politics, told them to stop squabbling like children, was ignored, thought about starting my French homework but blowing it off, watched Home Improvement and the news, turned on some Billy Joel and logged onto Blogger which is clearly cooler than Myspace or Xanga, told you all about my day, and then laughed at myself because I wrote the whole thing in about three run-on sentences.

As I suspected: pas de callback. I'd be perfectly happy with a bit part, then I'll just put all my energy into committees. Whatever I do I need to be in another show, dammit. I need to inject some stage into my veins, it's seriously like a heroin addiction.

Ph34r the brotherly love: http://www.crosbystillsnash.com/ - click on CSN BBS on the left and then navigate into the politics section. LOL my dad and uncle have been duking it out. Unfortunately you won't find too many of my daddy's posts, apparently they were too "offensive" for my hopelessly liberal uncle to tolerate (since he's a moderator there he just deleted them). But honestly, if you read my dad's posts (his screen name is "Chipper", my uncle's is jeff@musicbenefits) they're not that bad. Plus it's not like Daddy could bear to have a left-wingers forum where everyone just agreed with each other, that would be sooo boring.

Something I noticed about the most intolerant of Democrats today: nothing will EVER make them happy so we should just leave them alone. We're incumbent. We win. Who cares what they think, let them go move to Canada and hug their trees while we get on with life. :-) (I'm completely kidding, by the way. Canada and trees both rock.)

Aah now I am officially out of things to write about. Peace out.

bright and shiny

Since I've been ignoring all this blog business for long, I feel like writing again. I went through and got rid of all the dumb posts, yay. Today was so long and boring. My gov't teacher is a raving liberal and it makes me laugh. I drew ballpoint pen henna all over my hand in third block. Auditions for "Little Murders" were today and I did good but I'm not going to get a part, I know that much. Oy vey. I have to face the wrath of Amy Sutton tomorrow for not having those goddamn flyers done for One-Acts. I want it to be summer now.

No one reads my blog anyways, it's not angsty enough to be in vogue :) so bye for now. Hang tight my homies (lol that was such a Ryan Seacrest moment).

influences

I've had major artist's block lately (aside from my doodles, of course, where good-luck-on-finals Jesus, nightvision Rudolph and poncho dude are only a sampling of the creative madness) and I've decided that the best way to combat it is to inundate myself with art of all kinds. These are my influences.
Artists I look up to, artists who inspire me, etc.:

Any of my fellow art geeks will enjoy these!

Jérôme - ink and digital art
Severin - architectural photography
Drea - pen and ink
Thu - acrylics
Heather - silly madness ^_^ and digital art
Matt - nature photography
Nykolai - paintings like you have never seen before!
Plangdon - ditto!
Pascal - conceptual photography
Lia - traditional portraits
Kayne - vector art

and others. You guys are amazing!

omigawdhooray.

ABOVE ALL, HOORAY FOR SOUNDING LIKE A COMPLETE AIR-HEAD. ^_____^

Yes. Hooray for getting straight A's, hooray for easy term papers, hooray for getting a perfect score on a paper that sucked, hooray for not missing the bus this week, hooray for not having any school tomorrow, and hooray for George Dubyah winning. Hooray for not writing in like, two weeks.

And hooray for starting all the Christmas music in choir! And hooray for Thanksgiving coming up, and hooray for Veteran's day, and hooray for all the other holidays, and hooray for all the soldiers who are fighting for us, and hooray for not having any Christmas shopping done yet, and hooray for getting new glasses. And hooray for bad design shows, and hooray for my Bush-Cheney t-shirt, and hooray for reading Lord of the Flies in English even though it sucks, and hooray for reading 1984 as if LOTF wasn't bad enough (even though I cheated and just read the sparknotes), and hooray for looking intelligent, and hooray for feeling stupid.

And hooray for it being almost 2005, and hooray for winter holidays, and hooray for cold mornings, and hooray for unreliable bus drivers, and hooray for parents even if they suck sometimes but not that often if you keep an open mind, and hooray for onion rings, and hooray for industrial drivel also known as my sister's music, and hooray for having such amazing friends, and hooray for my sketchbook and all its random glory, and hooray for not posting any art at AA for like two months, and hooray for dirty masking tape, and hooray for Steve's computer dying and me having to do the program instead, and hooray for cast member drama when lines aren't memorized, and hooray for my dad reading this over my shoulder and laughing at me, and hooray for bubble baths, and hooray for scholarships, and hooray for websites that help you find scholarships, and hooray for Law and Order, and hooray for it not being CSI because CSI is crap and Law and Order is godly, and hooray for orange sherbet.

And hooray for living near Chicago, and hooray for meeting up with old friends, and hooray for freshmen even if they're buttheads because we were once too, and hooray for clowns even if they're scary, and hooray for Shanna even if her poking is really annoying, and hooray for Karolyn even if she's too much of a goody-goody, and hooray for Stephanie in all her brain-condition glory, and hooray for Laura Piel and for never saying just Laura but always Laura Piel and hooray for her sparkly scarf too, and hooray for Jonny Piel and his pimpocity, and hooray for Mary Kate and not having to poke her because SHEANDMATTAREFINALLYDATINGYAY, and hooray for Andrea and all her black eyeliner and gothed-out music, and hooray for Erika and Starbucks, and hooray for Jessi and the fact that she can dissect a cat without throwing up, and hooray for Jackie even if I still haven't found her picture but I did still draw her the pleasantly plump ballerina, and hooray for Monica and Scottish pride, and hooray for Craig calling me a lesbian and me calling him a fruitcake even though he really IS a fruitcake x), and hooray for everyone else who I don't have an inside joke for yet. That's okay, I will.

And hooray for playing jazz chords on the piano, and hooray for sexy Jason Isaacs, and hooray for cappucinos, and hooray for flowers, and hooray for Chinese food, and hooray for being a dork and not caring, and hooray for being a Republican and not a Democrap.

And hooray for having so many things to be thankful for. 8)

another chilly day

I'm surprisingly depressed today. Not depressed depressed, just having one of those days that make you feel crappy for no reason. I think it's the English paper I'm procrastinating on that's making me blue. x) This time it's Antigone vs. Creon, ding ding ding!

Oedipus had problems.

No, there's a real reason why I'm depressed but I think it's best left unwritten. I just wish she didn't hate me so much.

"It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to." - Fannie Hurst. Whoever that is, she's a genius.

The end.

do re mi fa sol la ti do

Heheheh, I sat through a Hilary Duff movie today. Laura Piel and Mary Kate and I went to see Raise Your Voice, and, true to our expectations, it was formulistic, unrealistic, and really quite corny. (Because obviously they would let kids at some prissy musical conservatory sing pop songs, duh!!)

Still, it was more fun to sit in the movie theatre and crack jokes about it every two seconds than it would have been to go see a movie that was actually good. The rest of my day was really really dull.

That is all.

vote george

As the three debates come to an end, I've become very set in my choice (even though I can't vote -_-) for this election. I say George Dubyah had better get reelected for four more years (which is ironic for me, because before this pre-election stuff started I was very anti-war and anti-Bush). Kerry is a lying, flip-flopping hypocrite. Honestly, I don't know what my grandmother is feeding off of (besides Kitty Kelly and all the other idiots with a bone to pick and a lot of free time) that makes her see John Kerry the way she does. And just f.y.i., she basically sees Kerry as a god. Hmm.

What I don't understand is why we are in such turmoil over who started what and who pulled what strings to get us into Iraq. The reality is this: the intelligence was faulty, but the world is still safer because Saddam is gone, and whether we like it or not, we are in Iraq and we need to finish the job. The question is not about what happened two or three years ago, but which candidate can best lead the country in the war that we are now stuck in. John Kerry, it seems, would like to believe that if he just closes his eyes and covers his ears and raises our taxes, all the terrorists will go away and Iraq will clean itself up. Do we honestly want someone like that in office? I know I don't.

If anybody's credibility is on trial here, it's the CIA. Why aren't we seeing anti-Tenet (former CIA head) 527's playing adverts about his war records? Gotta love those 527's. They can pull just about anything out of their butts, put it on TV using those hefty donations (that were supposed to be regulated), and whether it is true or not, it delivers some pretty damaging blows. Everyone sees commercials. Not nearly as many people actually watch the news, or check sources, or make sure that what they're being told is correct. All this turmoil is so divergent from the real issues at hand, it makes me so annoyed and frustrated.

But what bothers me the most is when you are trying to discuss the candidates with people (for example, my dear grandmother, who has the best spaghetti sauce and is so sweet, but is very misguided), they reference effing Michael Moore and then they try to claim they're not biased. The second you give Michael Moore one ounce of credit for presenting true and unprejudiced facts, you throw your own credibility out the window. Honestly, the man won't even go on Larry King Live and defend his 'documentary', tsk tsk God forbid, because he knows that it's all fabricated bull. But once again, true or not, people take it seriously. So then people swallow so many conspiracy theories and lies that they get this mentality where absolutely everyone is out to get them, and then when people who actually know what they're talking about try to straighten them out, the conspiracy junkies and democraps go 'OMG! PROPOGANDA!' And before you know it, a semi-intelligent discussion has turned into 'is not!' 'is too!' 'is not!' 'is too!' Honestly. Beneath the satin ties and the nicely starched shirts and the political citations, people are morons.

You should vote for George Bush because he rocks. And because he's not John Kerry.

And because Dick Cheney kicks butt.

tas'e de rainbow, mon!

I wish I was in Jamaica. Mon. And goddammit I wish I had some Skittles.

I'm procrastinating big-time on my English paper. It's really stupid of me, since it's due tomorrow and it isn't even that hard. Oy vey. I'll work on it later. (I need to read one of those self-help-for-procrastinators books, but I'd probably put off reading it. :-\) Have you ever noticed how I tend to write in my blog only when I am procrastinating on something?

I went antiquing in Long Grove on Friday. We ended up coming right in the middle of some festival, which made me laugh.

My cousin had a football game at DMS today against the Junior Chargers and they totally beat down the Chargers, it was awesome! :) GO PALATINE! Funny kid. You should IM him on AIM: LedMyZeppelin33. Tell him you came from Erin's blog, that automatically makes you cool.

catching up

It was inevitable... send me on vacation for a week and boom, I've forgotten my blog. Thankfully it's only been two weeks.

So, catching up!

I spent a week down in the beautiful Carribean. We stayed at the Lago Mar, which I hear is frequented by celebrities, in Fort Lauderdale for three days before sailing day for the cruise. The beaches were absolutely gorgeous, so we got to do lots of swimming and sunning (and getting sunburned, I got a really bad one on my shoulders) and enjoying the beautiful hotel. There was even a life-size chess board, so Jon and I played one-on-one wizard chess. I beat the crap out of him. It was amazing. Tee-hee!


Wizard chess!

On the last night we were at Lago Mar, Nana, Auntie, Ali, Mom, and I ate in the little diner next to the pool, and it was so cute! It was exactly like the diners you see in movies, with the high stools and counters and the black and white checker floor. And the waitress was so funny, she had blond hair in an updo and long pink nails just like movies. The cuteness of it all was kinda ruined when poor Auntie had rancid cheese in her veggie wrap, though. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

Our cruise was supposed to go to the Keys and Cazumel, Mexico, but Hurricane Charley had other plans. We ended up going east instead, to Coco Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas.

The day we got on the boat kinda sucked, because we only had one car for twelve people AND all our luggage, so we had to make two trips to the port. I went on the first trip, so I had to sit around on the ground with my luggage in the dirty great sun for almost an hour while everyone else got there. It was really smelly and it was at least 95 degrees out. I ended up getting so bored I braided a bracelet out of shreds of palm leaves (yeah, count on them to have great landscaping and no bloody benches). So finally, the rest of the gang got there, and we got to go through four waves of security before we got to get on the boat! Sounds fun, eh?

Well, at least we got on the boat before 4 in the afternoon, so it was pretty good considering the sheer amount of people and luggage we had to account for (and if you know Nana, you know we had a headcount every five seconds ^^). Still, it sucked. Either way, it was completely worth it because the boat was AMAZING. You always hear about it from people from people who go on cruises, but you don't experience just how glamourous it really is until you're actually there. Then, of course, all the sense of glitz fades when you see your stateroom. :-P Count on my very frugal family to get the teeny-tiny budget rooms! ^_^ Our whole bathroom was about half the size of a typical public bathroom stall, it was ridiculous. Understandable, since we were on a boat, after all, but still ridiculous. Take that, and then try to fit all the clothes of four girls (it was my cousins and me in the room) into the six little drawers we got. Luckily we had Martha Stewart's friendly clone, Ali, to organize everything! :-P

The most fun part was finding out about the millions of age restrictions on the activities available (or should I say 'unavailable') on the ship. For all practical purposes I was 15, but since we boarded on the 12th I was still three days' shy of my technical birthday. So lucky me, I got to go to the 12-14 year old age group's activities. Needless to say, I didn't even bother. It wouldn't have mattered if they'd let me into the 15-17 year old activities, because it was practically the same thing. Anything that was half-decent besides eating and seeing the shows (but wait kids, if you're under 16 you gotta sit by Mom or Dad! *rolls eyes*) and swimming was off-limits to anyone under 18. I hate being a kid. I don't enjoy having the 'teen staff' think that my idea of having fun is sitting around with stupid people, eating pizza and listening to Britney Spears.

Don't get me wrong, I still had a lot of fun, but it was really frustrating just trying to find stuff to do. I'm really glad I had all my cousins around because there were definitely a lot of boring moments. Emily and Carly ended up going off to meet boys (*rolls eyes again*), and Jon was often either with them or with Andrew, so Ali and I spent a lot of time together.

I enjoyed the cruise, but next time I definitely want to go after I'm old enough to actually be able to go to stuff. The only impression I got of any of the kids' stuff was 'hey, parents, you can dump your kids here and go have fun!' Pffft.

Airport day sure was a blast too! We got off the boat and had everyone at the airport by 9:30 a.m. Oh goody, our flight doesn't leave until 4 p.m.! ;_;

Yay for family vacations!

insomnia isn't fun

Not fun at all. I couldn't sleep until 3 a.m. last night, and now I feel like a dead moose. Oy vey.

I went shopping yesterday! Well, sorta. I went to Borders and got

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• White Ladder - David Gray (CD)

I also went to Joann fabrics and got some stuff to make a giant knitted poncho, like this:

so now I'm just working away on that and doing a little message boarding, IMing, and blogging. Isn't the internet fun? ^_^

good times in afghanistan?

we all know evolution isn't real...

... because we all still act like monkeys. Ho hum. ^_^

Yup, that's my cousin.

I saw John Kerry speak at the Democrapvention yesterday. Even if he'll be a mediocre leader, he's a darn good speaker. Except for his support of abortion and stem cell research, I agreed with everything he said. There was one problem, though. Exactly how he was going to pull all those grandiose promises off, he didn't say.

Hmm.

Anyway, I hung out with my cousins today. We went swimming and then ate lunch. Then Emily had to leave, and Jon abandoned us to be alone in his 8th-grade-angstyness, so Ali and I watched Twister, which I had never seen before. Then we decided that Helen Hunt's hair and nose look just like my aunt's. It was quite the eye-opener, I must say. My cousins kick ass, clearly.

thoughts on the war

Well, no good blog is complete without a comprehensive explanation of its owner's personal opinions on the Iraq War (what can I say, it's just in vogue at the moment I guess). So here is mine.

Being hopelessly optimistic myself, with a cousin who is in the Army, I'd like to have some faith in our country's efforts. And we did kick out a seriously bad guy from that country. And change is hard, but things will probably start clearing up before too long. Somewhere along the line, an Iraqi will say 'Golly gee, this democracy stuff ain't so bad,' and boom, Iraq has turned into Texas. ^^

This election year, we're deciding between the lesser of two evils:

• Bush, who has made some bad decisions and may not be the most eloquent of people, but is good-natured at heart, I believe. He seems honest and ethical, and not half as dumb as Kitty Kelly'd love you to think. Plus, he's Republican, I'm Republican. Phoo.
• Kerry, who can't even live up to the same standard that he preaches, Kerry, who supports the killing of innocent children who haven't even had a chance at life, Kerry, who is mediocre at best. In my opinion, the country is in a very bad place indeed when the best choice is someone like Kerry.

Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.

Oh, that's attractive.

And for a good laugh about the current president and his rival, go to www.jibjab.com. It's absolutely hilarious, I guarantee it. But back to the war.

We can't hope to make steady progress with these stupid insurgents blowing up not only innocent Americans, but also innocent Iraqis who are trying to lend a hand in making their country stable and prosperous again. It's very difficult, and also not very effective, to be reasonable and steady-handed when we're not dealing with reasonable people. It pisses me off A LOT when people try to say this war is about religion, or Iraqi security. If that is truly the case then why the hell are these insurgents targeting so many innocent Iraqis? Cab drivers, humanitarians, children receiving candy from American soldiers - are THEY threats to Islam or Iraqi security?

Just food for thought.

new beginnings

Oh dear, it's been way too long since I last wrote. Well, starting over, I guess. New URL, new title, new template, wiped the slate clean of all my old, crappy, pointless posts. I feel like a new person! ^_^ Not really. And with any luck, I should be updating regularly. Now my blog is just like

Which is to say that my blog is now clean, shiny, and spotless, not a slim and trim young Santa Claus with decidedly less hair and fluffy eyebrows. ^_^

Exciting news! Erika just got back from an acting convention in New York City, and she accepted an offer to be on the main cast of an upcoming sitcom! She's gonna be a contender! No, actually just famous. ^_^ I hope she doesn't forget about me. But she's cool, so I know she won't. :-D I'm too cool to be forgotten about!

(Oh, she also met the cast of Harry Potter and Jeremy Sumpter, and Daniel Radcliffe gave her a hug. :3 I dunno about you, but if Daniel Radcliffe gave ME a hug, my life would be complete. :-P)

My golden birthday is fast approaching. And you know something? Half of me is excited to get older, and half of me wishes I was still a little girl. It's fun to get older and be able to try new things, but adult life seems so complicated and sad... sometimes I just wish I could fly away to Neverland or something. People always tell me how mature and insightful I am for my age, and it's nice to hear, of course, but I still feel like such a little kid. And at the same time, people expect me to be all smart because I do have an IQ of 149, but I'd rather act like a ditz. I have nothing to prove. Growing up is like I'm on a train that never stops until the final destination, even if you wish you could just take a 5-minute break from everything. A train of time. Heh, sounds like the name of a bad country song. ^^

Stuck on a train that doesn't stop until the end... oh dear, the angst is so potent, I can almost taste it. Baaaaad thing. Moving on.

I am so incredibly excited for the cruise! We leave in less than two weeks!