so tired. so much to do. and no time in which to do it. I have an absolutely insane amount to accomplish in the next 24 hours, and I have this awful creeping sensation like something's gonna give.
I have not, however, gone into mass depression/panic this time.
this is good. this is progress.
-Laurel
9.29.2003
Today was the honors field trip to go apple-picking (yay for classes on food and culture!). I ended up driving a group--John and Erik and this cool girl named Megan and me--to this place like an hour away that wasn't even all that good. And we got lost a lot. But we had lots of fun. And the apples were only fifty cents a picked bag. And my sentences are short and fragmented lately and starting with conjunctions. Oh, well.
It was nice to climb a tree again. Even if later we were told not to do it (only by Dr. M, though, not like the people who work there). And it was funny getting these things to pick the high-up apples with that looked like a combination between a garden rake and a lacrosse stick.
Had play practice tonight; mostly boring. But got a line. Though at the moment I don't remember what it is.
I have honors homework I should be doing. But it's not due until Thursday, and for once my Spanish is done, so I think I'll be impressed with that for now.
This entry says 9-29-03 now 'cause it's after midnight. I suppose I could use the new "change time and date" feature to make it read Sunday, but I feel like I'm cheating somehow. ::shrugs:: So I won't.
Yay for Erik coming, and yay for my being home next weekend. :)
-Laurel
It was nice to climb a tree again. Even if later we were told not to do it (only by Dr. M, though, not like the people who work there). And it was funny getting these things to pick the high-up apples with that looked like a combination between a garden rake and a lacrosse stick.
Had play practice tonight; mostly boring. But got a line. Though at the moment I don't remember what it is.
I have honors homework I should be doing. But it's not due until Thursday, and for once my Spanish is done, so I think I'll be impressed with that for now.
This entry says 9-29-03 now 'cause it's after midnight. I suppose I could use the new "change time and date" feature to make it read Sunday, but I feel like I'm cheating somehow. ::shrugs:: So I won't.
Yay for Erik coming, and yay for my being home next weekend. :)
-Laurel
9.28.2003
Have just watched my first anime episodes--several of Trigun and one of Cowboy Bebop. The former rules. The latter is decent.
Erik has been here all weekend, and it has been fun.
This has made it hard to be online, but that's okay, 'cause if Blogger had been working Thursday night, all you would have gotten would've been angsty anyway. :-P
Hm. Time for bed.
-Laurel
Erik has been here all weekend, and it has been fun.
This has made it hard to be online, but that's okay, 'cause if Blogger had been working Thursday night, all you would have gotten would've been angsty anyway. :-P
Hm. Time for bed.
-Laurel
9.25.2003
Have had a hysterical night making key-lime Oreo-style cookie-things with John as an honors mini-project. Though the first recipe he found, the one he bought the ingredients for? Turns out that's frosting for Danishes, and therefore too runny, 'cause you're to ice the Danishes and then put them in the oven, where the frosting will dry and harden. Only we weren't planning on using the oven, which explained why our frosting never reached any thicker consistency than sugar water (flecked with butter; whoever heard of butter in non-buttercream frosting, anyway?).
So after a rather false start there, we found a suitable frosting containing most of the same basic ingredients (sans the butter) and mixed it up, and that came out wonderfully. Spread it over vanilla wafers, put whipped cream on another one each, slapped the key-lime and whipped cream halves together like sandwiches, and tested...
...and, goodness grapefruit (picked that up from Megs; I love that, I'm so amused!), John's harebrained idea worked. They kicked. (Yes, this was his brainchild; you think anybody sane would have come up with such a thing?) So we made several dozen of them, somewhere around fifty. ...Was supposed to be sixty, but John kept messing his up and having to eat them. You would not think that one could make such a slopped-up mess with some frosting and whipped cream, especially not the multitalented John, but so it went. I was amused at being, for once, the competent knowledgeable one. *g*
We had a bowl of frosting left over, but of course John had plans for that, too. Met his other friends 'cause I went to dinner with him and them tonight, straight from the cookie assembly. Two of them're in my microbio class and already knew me; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not--::laughs::--
--but either way, we took about five bananas, cut them up, slathered them with icing, stuck toothpicks in them...
...and left them out. On a tray. John made an announcement to the cafeteria at large that there were free key-lime banana treats to be had, and he'd made up about half a dozen slips of paper with his e-mail on them so we could get comments.
And we left them there, free to a good home (and a forgiving palate, perhaps--but we thought they were good).
It was probably the most random night I've had since coming here, and it felt great.
Random Unfathomable Quote of the Night is also John's: We deserve to be stupid!, which really had no base in context, but which I believe had something to do with our using two pieces of cardboard as weapons and having a swordfight and basically being reduced to laughing maniacs. I have never heard him laugh so hard as he did all tonight.
If it hasn't been obvious, I will point it out: outside of Lily, he is my best friend here.
Going to bed now, though. 'night.
-Laurel
So after a rather false start there, we found a suitable frosting containing most of the same basic ingredients (sans the butter) and mixed it up, and that came out wonderfully. Spread it over vanilla wafers, put whipped cream on another one each, slapped the key-lime and whipped cream halves together like sandwiches, and tested...
...and, goodness grapefruit (picked that up from Megs; I love that, I'm so amused!), John's harebrained idea worked. They kicked. (Yes, this was his brainchild; you think anybody sane would have come up with such a thing?) So we made several dozen of them, somewhere around fifty. ...Was supposed to be sixty, but John kept messing his up and having to eat them. You would not think that one could make such a slopped-up mess with some frosting and whipped cream, especially not the multitalented John, but so it went. I was amused at being, for once, the competent knowledgeable one. *g*
We had a bowl of frosting left over, but of course John had plans for that, too. Met his other friends 'cause I went to dinner with him and them tonight, straight from the cookie assembly. Two of them're in my microbio class and already knew me; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not--::laughs::--
--but either way, we took about five bananas, cut them up, slathered them with icing, stuck toothpicks in them...
...and left them out. On a tray. John made an announcement to the cafeteria at large that there were free key-lime banana treats to be had, and he'd made up about half a dozen slips of paper with his e-mail on them so we could get comments.
And we left them there, free to a good home (and a forgiving palate, perhaps--but we thought they were good).
It was probably the most random night I've had since coming here, and it felt great.
Random Unfathomable Quote of the Night is also John's: We deserve to be stupid!, which really had no base in context, but which I believe had something to do with our using two pieces of cardboard as weapons and having a swordfight and basically being reduced to laughing maniacs. I have never heard him laugh so hard as he did all tonight.
If it hasn't been obvious, I will point it out: outside of Lily, he is my best friend here.
Going to bed now, though. 'night.
-Laurel
9.19.2003
I really like having Lily for a roommate. We finish each other's CapriSuns without batting an eye (or wrinkling a nose), we borrow each other's bowls, we can sleep (or play video games) on each other's beds. We don't have to devote thought to whether we're spending too little time getting to know each other, we're not obligated to always agree with each other, and if one of us is in a bad way, we don't feel like we're weirded out or like we have to get out of the room. If we're talking to the same person online, we glance over each other's shoulders and compare conversations; we can stay up late laughing at Strong Bad and Teen Girl Squad.
...relativity is the way to go, to be sure.
::blinks sleepily::
Why'm I more tired today than I was yesterday? Maybe 'cause yesterday I got naps; today I haven't.
And still won't, at least not until microbio is done and over with. Fridays in microbio always seem a little out-there, a little surreal, prolly dating back to the first one I had there, where I spent the entire class dreaming about the going-home that I was going to be doing an hour hence.
::blinks again::
I need to start taking more pictures. My next college-journal entry is due next week.
-Laurel
...relativity is the way to go, to be sure.
::blinks sleepily::
Why'm I more tired today than I was yesterday? Maybe 'cause yesterday I got naps; today I haven't.
And still won't, at least not until microbio is done and over with. Fridays in microbio always seem a little out-there, a little surreal, prolly dating back to the first one I had there, where I spent the entire class dreaming about the going-home that I was going to be doing an hour hence.
::blinks again::
I need to start taking more pictures. My next college-journal entry is due next week.
-Laurel
9.18.2003
'kay, last night was pretty wretched for a while, but thanks very much to John, who doesn't even read this blog, but who was up late doing calc as I was up late doing microbio. We ended up talking online for about four hours, sporadically, and then (why the heck not?) meeting for breakfast around eight, both having had not-quite-two-hours of sleep (five-thirtyish to seven-twenty, yeah for me...). I've gotten somewhat more since then; he may not have, as he had more classes.
Microbio kicked for once: since middle school I've been wanting to grow microbes on agar, and now we're finally doing it. Ten samples--walked all around campus, finding places that I thought would have different microbial life, from the soil outside the performing arts center to the counter of the health center to the yogurt in the campus center (I had to get some permission for that one). I've decided that I hate the smell of agar, but this should be cool.
Honors seminar tonight. Hurrah for Thursdays. No choir 'cause it's guys' night, so I think I'll take a nap.
-Laurel
Microbio kicked for once: since middle school I've been wanting to grow microbes on agar, and now we're finally doing it. Ten samples--walked all around campus, finding places that I thought would have different microbial life, from the soil outside the performing arts center to the counter of the health center to the yogurt in the campus center (I had to get some permission for that one). I've decided that I hate the smell of agar, but this should be cool.
Honors seminar tonight. Hurrah for Thursdays. No choir 'cause it's guys' night, so I think I'll take a nap.
-Laurel
9.17.2003
I thought seniority was supposed to end after college.
Right.
So it turns out that this so-called part I have is another mutation of a character given to somebody else. That is, she couldn't find a place for me, so she stuck me in. Lily's and my characters have no original lines; we'll be given two lines each. We sat through two and a half hours of script reading and got no lines.
Our production weekend happens to be the same weekend as that of the play at school (this is college; at home is school). Which I've been planning on seeing for months now. And I am missing it for what? I am going to countless wretched hours of rehearsal for what?
I hate how directors make you initial for your part before you know what it is.
I hate this bipolar college existence.
Can I maybe have a nice series of days? Is there some reason this doesn't happen to me? Three wretched weeks here, and how many more until even the next time I get to go home?
If I skipped out completely, made John do my part (he's got two others anyway), and went home, d'you think they'd even notice?
Gah.
-Laurel
Right.
So it turns out that this so-called part I have is another mutation of a character given to somebody else. That is, she couldn't find a place for me, so she stuck me in. Lily's and my characters have no original lines; we'll be given two lines each. We sat through two and a half hours of script reading and got no lines.
Our production weekend happens to be the same weekend as that of the play at school (this is college; at home is school). Which I've been planning on seeing for months now. And I am missing it for what? I am going to countless wretched hours of rehearsal for what?
I hate how directors make you initial for your part before you know what it is.
I hate this bipolar college existence.
Can I maybe have a nice series of days? Is there some reason this doesn't happen to me? Three wretched weeks here, and how many more until even the next time I get to go home?
If I skipped out completely, made John do my part (he's got two others anyway), and went home, d'you think they'd even notice?
Gah.
-Laurel
Have had, actually, a lovely night.
Didn't hurt that my only class of the day was Spanish, which was mercifully easy. Went to Wal-Mart thereafter and bought myself a headset--pair of cheapish headphones with a microphone connected--which should help me in my AIM Talk endeavors.
(Idiot move of the day, however: locking myself out of the room. Ya-a-a-ay for me; this's the second time since I've been here...)
Went to choir (as distinct from chorus, which is only on Mondays for me). Jamie and John weren't there--was girls' practice only and Jamie didn't make choir--but I managed to be impressive, actually. We're doing a song called "Il Est Bel et Bon", all in French, and the basic premise is that two women are talking over a fence, trying to outdo each other in talking about their husbands. Dr. C asked for a brave alto to battle with her at one part, and I, feeling good about myself (my music-oriented high school has trained me well, I can't tell you how much I see that now...), volunteered, though I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work. She made me come up to the front, she set up a music stand as the fence, and she did the soprano, voice and expression, and I was supposed to outdo her on the alto line.
Secret truth be told, the concept itself was easy: I've been dying to try it with John, because in the actual song, it's more like a soprano/alto-versus-tenor/bass vocal battle, and he and I would glance at each other in rehearsal last Thursday as we did the song. So in anticipation of that again, I already kind of knew in my head how it was going to work, and I followed that.
The hard part, as it turned out, was keeping one's place. I "won" the first one simply because Dr. C lost where she was singing (which impressed my fellow altos, which gave me another nice little ego boost). The other two times, though, I lost: unlike most of the choir, I'm still working with photocopied music, and I'd accidentally organized my pages wrong. Unable to find my place, I tried to do it from memory, and for the first battle, that worked fine, but after that, I lost it at the same point both times.
I was right in one thing I'd guessed about choir, though: Alto I, which's what she made me, is really an all-purpose role. Another Alto I named Erin and I were switched to--get ready--second soprano in one of the songs we did tonight. This freaks me out. I spent my first three years of music as a Soprano I and all the rest as an Alto II; I've never been a Soprano II in my life. Or, for that matter, an Alto I, which I am for all the rest of the songs. ...It was easier to follow the second-soprano line than I expected; I'd forgotten that I was used to reading the second line in SATB songs, and therefore it wasn't a major break from the third line. Still, Erin and I got out our pencils and scribbled arrows by all our staffs.
Got a compliment on my singing tonight that I think I prize more than anything else anyone's ever said about it: I got done with my second soprano line (we seconds sang by ourselves at one point) and the alto next to me, a junior or something, asked me what instrument I played. When I told her I didn't, that I'd only made it through one year of clarinet, she said, "Really. [Not a question so much's a statement, with her tone.] You sing like you play an instrument."
You don't understand how jealous I've been of people who've played instruments all their lives, how much I can tell it helps their vocal skills. You could see, then, how incredible it is to me to be equated with that whole group.
And this college isn't a music school, I know, but our perf-arts program is really pretty good, from what I can tell.
Ate dinner with Erin, my fellow sopralto. That was very cool. ...Even by my standards, Erin is a little odd. But it's a good kind of odd. I like her really well so far. If I can keep talking to her, I think it could be cool.
Went to callbacks right after dinner, where Lily (who also made it back) and I read some dialogues together. Best one was this one where we were these two similar characters (brothers or something) who're telling a story and keep interrupting each other. Becky, the director, knows we're related, and she's got Lily in her acting class and had both of us in the college-orientation "model class". This's a good thing.
We got out just in time to go to the coffee shop and join the BASIC people for trivia--we were on the other team this time, with Roger and Brett and Matt and Roger's-son-whose-name-I-don't-remember. We kicked, were in second place (just under the other BASIC team) until the final question.
There are 24 time zones in the world. We guessed 25 and ended up in last place 'cause we'd wagered all but five of our points. *g*
Went to the cafe back on campus, bought chocolate scones (nutrition takes a backseat to basic hunger) and have been here ever since. Lovely night, lovely.
We'll see how the others go. Music is going to be my lifeline this semester, isn't it? That and AIM, which already is.
But music and maybe the play--that's what'll make me feel at home here. Not English, not Spanish, not bio. Honors does play a part, but...
...music. Love it so.
-Laurel
Didn't hurt that my only class of the day was Spanish, which was mercifully easy. Went to Wal-Mart thereafter and bought myself a headset--pair of cheapish headphones with a microphone connected--which should help me in my AIM Talk endeavors.
(Idiot move of the day, however: locking myself out of the room. Ya-a-a-ay for me; this's the second time since I've been here...)
Went to choir (as distinct from chorus, which is only on Mondays for me). Jamie and John weren't there--was girls' practice only and Jamie didn't make choir--but I managed to be impressive, actually. We're doing a song called "Il Est Bel et Bon", all in French, and the basic premise is that two women are talking over a fence, trying to outdo each other in talking about their husbands. Dr. C asked for a brave alto to battle with her at one part, and I, feeling good about myself (my music-oriented high school has trained me well, I can't tell you how much I see that now...), volunteered, though I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work. She made me come up to the front, she set up a music stand as the fence, and she did the soprano, voice and expression, and I was supposed to outdo her on the alto line.
Secret truth be told, the concept itself was easy: I've been dying to try it with John, because in the actual song, it's more like a soprano/alto-versus-tenor/bass vocal battle, and he and I would glance at each other in rehearsal last Thursday as we did the song. So in anticipation of that again, I already kind of knew in my head how it was going to work, and I followed that.
The hard part, as it turned out, was keeping one's place. I "won" the first one simply because Dr. C lost where she was singing (which impressed my fellow altos, which gave me another nice little ego boost). The other two times, though, I lost: unlike most of the choir, I'm still working with photocopied music, and I'd accidentally organized my pages wrong. Unable to find my place, I tried to do it from memory, and for the first battle, that worked fine, but after that, I lost it at the same point both times.
I was right in one thing I'd guessed about choir, though: Alto I, which's what she made me, is really an all-purpose role. Another Alto I named Erin and I were switched to--get ready--second soprano in one of the songs we did tonight. This freaks me out. I spent my first three years of music as a Soprano I and all the rest as an Alto II; I've never been a Soprano II in my life. Or, for that matter, an Alto I, which I am for all the rest of the songs. ...It was easier to follow the second-soprano line than I expected; I'd forgotten that I was used to reading the second line in SATB songs, and therefore it wasn't a major break from the third line. Still, Erin and I got out our pencils and scribbled arrows by all our staffs.
Got a compliment on my singing tonight that I think I prize more than anything else anyone's ever said about it: I got done with my second soprano line (we seconds sang by ourselves at one point) and the alto next to me, a junior or something, asked me what instrument I played. When I told her I didn't, that I'd only made it through one year of clarinet, she said, "Really. [Not a question so much's a statement, with her tone.] You sing like you play an instrument."
You don't understand how jealous I've been of people who've played instruments all their lives, how much I can tell it helps their vocal skills. You could see, then, how incredible it is to me to be equated with that whole group.
And this college isn't a music school, I know, but our perf-arts program is really pretty good, from what I can tell.
Ate dinner with Erin, my fellow sopralto. That was very cool. ...Even by my standards, Erin is a little odd. But it's a good kind of odd. I like her really well so far. If I can keep talking to her, I think it could be cool.
Went to callbacks right after dinner, where Lily (who also made it back) and I read some dialogues together. Best one was this one where we were these two similar characters (brothers or something) who're telling a story and keep interrupting each other. Becky, the director, knows we're related, and she's got Lily in her acting class and had both of us in the college-orientation "model class". This's a good thing.
We got out just in time to go to the coffee shop and join the BASIC people for trivia--we were on the other team this time, with Roger and Brett and Matt and Roger's-son-whose-name-I-don't-remember. We kicked, were in second place (just under the other BASIC team) until the final question.
There are 24 time zones in the world. We guessed 25 and ended up in last place 'cause we'd wagered all but five of our points. *g*
Went to the cafe back on campus, bought chocolate scones (nutrition takes a backseat to basic hunger) and have been here ever since. Lovely night, lovely.
We'll see how the others go. Music is going to be my lifeline this semester, isn't it? That and AIM, which already is.
But music and maybe the play--that's what'll make me feel at home here. Not English, not Spanish, not bio. Honors does play a part, but...
...music. Love it so.
-Laurel
9.15.2003
Here is what I cannot say on the college livejournal: It is an incredibly bipolar existence I lead here. I'm actually getting less shy in chorus, enjoying warmups and laughing with Jamie and John--and things're coming together in Spanish class. I'm out of Writing II, honors seminar kicks, I've been wrapping myself in music and Lemmings and DDR when I'm not talking to friends. I do fewer stupid things, though they're nowhere near scarcity-level as of yet (newest being my penchant for leaving my shower bucket in the shower stall and forgetting about it for some 12 hours).
But then there's the fact that, after nearly three weeks here, my only real friends, outside of Lily, are Evan and John. Amy and Yumi are gone, and John, ultra-social as he is, is wrapped up in every other female in Tefft--any time I get of seeing him, outside of honors, is time I have to share with his girl-of-the-moment, and--::sighs::--many of my friends know, unfortunately, that I crave the attention of those that intrigue me, and get rather jealous when I can't have it. Evan is easier to find, and he's always good for trading smart remarks, but...not quite the same, you know?
The more I see Lily getting invited everywhere, the more I wrap myself in my own affairs--the more I withdraw to the friends I have, crossing the distance as best I can with AIM--and/or ignoring my homework to read, to talk, to play. I'm lost in microbiology, a class I respect so much that I'd love to excel in it. Spanish I get by because right now it's review; honors is so fascinating that I can't help devoting effort to it. But...
...::sighs:: I only like it here sometimes. I've identified with a lot of things Scott's been saying on his lj, the one Aneya linked me to. He's feeling like loneliness is making him dumb, college is making him lazy and apathetic, and I feel exactly like that, too.
But tonight was nice, fun doing tiki-tah rhythms in chorus with Jamie (she and I met at choir tryouts) and John, jumping our eyebrows (me following even though there're three people between me and them) at the emphasized parts and sending each other funny looks. (We'll end up like Charlsey and Lani and Kristina at this rate, oh gracious.)
Tomorrow I only have Spanish and chorus, and it's Bible-study-and-trivia-night again, so that should be entertaining and cool.
::long pause::
::grin::
Have just figured out the Talk feature over AIM. I think this's maybe the beginning of something to help ease it all...
-Laurel
But then there's the fact that, after nearly three weeks here, my only real friends, outside of Lily, are Evan and John. Amy and Yumi are gone, and John, ultra-social as he is, is wrapped up in every other female in Tefft--any time I get of seeing him, outside of honors, is time I have to share with his girl-of-the-moment, and--::sighs::--many of my friends know, unfortunately, that I crave the attention of those that intrigue me, and get rather jealous when I can't have it. Evan is easier to find, and he's always good for trading smart remarks, but...not quite the same, you know?
The more I see Lily getting invited everywhere, the more I wrap myself in my own affairs--the more I withdraw to the friends I have, crossing the distance as best I can with AIM--and/or ignoring my homework to read, to talk, to play. I'm lost in microbiology, a class I respect so much that I'd love to excel in it. Spanish I get by because right now it's review; honors is so fascinating that I can't help devoting effort to it. But...
...::sighs:: I only like it here sometimes. I've identified with a lot of things Scott's been saying on his lj, the one Aneya linked me to. He's feeling like loneliness is making him dumb, college is making him lazy and apathetic, and I feel exactly like that, too.
But tonight was nice, fun doing tiki-tah rhythms in chorus with Jamie (she and I met at choir tryouts) and John, jumping our eyebrows (me following even though there're three people between me and them) at the emphasized parts and sending each other funny looks. (We'll end up like Charlsey and Lani and Kristina at this rate, oh gracious.)
Tomorrow I only have Spanish and chorus, and it's Bible-study-and-trivia-night again, so that should be entertaining and cool.
::long pause::
::grin::
Have just figured out the Talk feature over AIM. I think this's maybe the beginning of something to help ease it all...
-Laurel
9.14.2003
Hurrah, titles!
Am working on figuring out how to tell my template to post my titles, now that Blogger's offering the option. And it's about time they did, too. And the new draft feature is nice. I'm liking the new goodness around here; I just have to figure out how to use it all.
So anyway, yeah, the last week has involved three trips to Wal-Mart: one by myself to buy some randomness--::smiles::, one last night with Lily and Evan because Lily was bored and Evan was kicked out of his room by his roommate who was making out with his girlfriend, and one today with Lily and John, 'cause John needed stuff to overhaul his hairstyle, apparently. ::laughs:: I was not aware of this on Thursday night, when I told John I'd take him; I was under the impression that he wanted stuff for a cooking project for honors. But whichever-and-ever.
...Only John would accost a random Wal-Mart shopper and ask her if she knew how to use hot oil, and if you could buy straight hair moisturizer, no shampoo involved...and only John would manage to be asking, sheerly by coincidence, an actual hairdresser. ::snorts:: And here I am, semi-tomboy with hair far worse than his, thinking, okay can we get away from this hot oil stuff that I have never seen used by anyone under the age of sixty?. ...I am so not cut out to reach whatever beauty potential I may (or may not) have. It involves dozens of factors that I simply lack the patience for, serious hair care being one (makeup being another, growing my nails out being a third, dressing in uncomfortable and/or revealing clothing being a fourth...).
I bought, among a couple of other little things, the computer game Lemmings Revolution, which kicks, and which kinda gives me a nostalgia-trip back to eighth grade, comparing original-version-Lemmings strategies with Bethie in the middle of Course I math. ::exhales:: The memories.
Went to a restaurant downtown tonight with Lily and Evan and Evan's girlfriend and two guys Dustin and James (I'm thinking James applied about a gallon of cologne, because I ended up next to him and could taste it in the air I was breathing...).
Am published as a college online journalist now. If you didn't get the link in your e-mail, it's prolly 'cause I meant to send it to you over AIM and haven't yet, so message me and yell at me if you want it.
More later. Cheerio.
-Laurel
So anyway, yeah, the last week has involved three trips to Wal-Mart: one by myself to buy some randomness--::smiles::, one last night with Lily and Evan because Lily was bored and Evan was kicked out of his room by his roommate who was making out with his girlfriend, and one today with Lily and John, 'cause John needed stuff to overhaul his hairstyle, apparently. ::laughs:: I was not aware of this on Thursday night, when I told John I'd take him; I was under the impression that he wanted stuff for a cooking project for honors. But whichever-and-ever.
...Only John would accost a random Wal-Mart shopper and ask her if she knew how to use hot oil, and if you could buy straight hair moisturizer, no shampoo involved...and only John would manage to be asking, sheerly by coincidence, an actual hairdresser. ::snorts:: And here I am, semi-tomboy with hair far worse than his, thinking, okay can we get away from this hot oil stuff that I have never seen used by anyone under the age of sixty?. ...I am so not cut out to reach whatever beauty potential I may (or may not) have. It involves dozens of factors that I simply lack the patience for, serious hair care being one (makeup being another, growing my nails out being a third, dressing in uncomfortable and/or revealing clothing being a fourth...).
I bought, among a couple of other little things, the computer game Lemmings Revolution, which kicks, and which kinda gives me a nostalgia-trip back to eighth grade, comparing original-version-Lemmings strategies with Bethie in the middle of Course I math. ::exhales:: The memories.
Went to a restaurant downtown tonight with Lily and Evan and Evan's girlfriend and two guys Dustin and James (I'm thinking James applied about a gallon of cologne, because I ended up next to him and could taste it in the air I was breathing...).
Am published as a college online journalist now. If you didn't get the link in your e-mail, it's prolly 'cause I meant to send it to you over AIM and haven't yet, so message me and yell at me if you want it.
More later. Cheerio.
-Laurel
9.12.2003
9.09.2003
They didn't let me give blood. The nice Red Cross people were pretty dubious from the start, inasmuch as my temperature was 99.5 degrees (they can't take you if you're running a fever), to say nothing of my being, according to Laurie-who-checked-me-in, one of the smallest donors they'd had all day. (::blinks:: I'm 5'6" and about 125...that's a whole fifteen pounds' leeway...) So when, after they'd taken a bit of preliminary blood to test for iron (that needle sucked; the one they use to take the blood is less painful than that; everyone says so), I suddenly got lightheaded and hot and kind of slurry, they put me in a wheelchair as fast as anything, put cold wet presses on my forehead and neck ("brain freeze without the Slurpee!", commented the wheelchair-guy), and took me to this bed-thing, where I lay for half an hour with my head below my feet and was told that I wasn't going to be giving any blood today (by this point I had no objections to that idea). I read, mostly, since I'm only about a sixth of the way through Tender at the Bone, which's supposed to be read in entirety for honors seminar by Thursday.
So now I'm still kind of cotton-headed, feeling like a major dork for almost passing out at losing several milliliters of blood, though I think it's more to do with the near-fever and the headache I had this morning than anything else. Still wearing a bandage on my right middle fingertip, which's making this entry interesting to type. Have been eating candy and popcorn and drinking pink lemonade.
I'd like it very much right now if I could go to sleep, but choir starts in about twenty minutes, and it's the first rehearsal, and after that I was going to do the whole trivia-night thing down at the cafe in town, so crap, this isn't so very good.
Gah. I miss you guys. I mean, I miss you when things're going well, too, not just when they aren't, but still.
-Laurel
So now I'm still kind of cotton-headed, feeling like a major dork for almost passing out at losing several milliliters of blood, though I think it's more to do with the near-fever and the headache I had this morning than anything else. Still wearing a bandage on my right middle fingertip, which's making this entry interesting to type. Have been eating candy and popcorn and drinking pink lemonade.
I'd like it very much right now if I could go to sleep, but choir starts in about twenty minutes, and it's the first rehearsal, and after that I was going to do the whole trivia-night thing down at the cafe in town, so crap, this isn't so very good.
Gah. I miss you guys. I mean, I miss you when things're going well, too, not just when they aren't, but still.
-Laurel
9.08.2003
Oh, but in other news, yay! :
You are Linus
You philosophical youngster you.
You are always around when your friends need
you, and you always seem to have the answers.
Others may find your overthinking and your
Bible quotes a little odd, but they know you
are always there to help. Others may view you
as a follower, but you are merely a guide...
just like an angel.
Which member of the Peanuts Gang are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
...Linus is my favorite, too. I'm all happy and stuff. :)
-Laurel
You are Linus
You philosophical youngster you.
You are always around when your friends need
you, and you always seem to have the answers.
Others may find your overthinking and your
Bible quotes a little odd, but they know you
are always there to help. Others may view you
as a follower, but you are merely a guide...
just like an angel.
Which member of the Peanuts Gang are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
...Linus is my favorite, too. I'm all happy and stuff. :)
-Laurel
I figured out today what I don't like about writing class, besides it being mind-numbingly easy most of the time.
There are two types of writing, or two that I can identify offhand: literature writing and journalism writing. I mean, you know how different these are. There's A Wrinkle in Time, and then there's The New York Times. There're magazine pieces, and there're written epics.
My prof's style is journalism--she worked for a newspaper, and it carries over into everything she writes. We've done 5-W charts like from middle school; we're writing papers based on them. She talked today about writing methods that're better than others, and what's her reasoning, every single time? That it makes for a shorter sentence, less wordiness. Don't use thesauruses, she says. Write at your own level; that's the level everyone else is at. Don't say offer an apology if you can say apologize.
...With all due respect to her many years of writing, to me that's all such crap.
'Cause okay, if you're trying to get someone the facts, if you're into telegrams, then okay, fine. Science lab writeups, et cetera, fine. But why do newspapers run human interest pieces? To bring the news to life. You cut out too many of the words, you start cutting out the soul, if you will, of what you're writing. Sometimes the extra words are the important thing; sometimes I want to see azure instead of blue; sometimes offering an apology, emphasizing the free will thereof, means more than someone just apologizing. I like writing that challenges me, stretches me, changes me. Crud, that's why I read, and that's why I like to write. Not just to convey information.
Of all the compliments I've ever gotten on my writing, I think one of the highest has to be when Ananda told me I could take the mundane and make it worth reading. In a way, that's a journalist's job, too. But sometimes journalism goes to the other extreme, reduces life and death to a series of terse sentences. And in a way, they're right to do so: to connect to someone on every single story would be--could be--more emotion in one place than maybe we'd want to handle, to say nothing of could handle.
But think about that for a second: how different would our world be if suddenly we realized the implication of this starving boy, this murdered man's family, this sports star's effort and victory? How would it be if all our writing was intricate?
There's a lot of writing that's wordy. But that means, as far as I can tell, that the words are arranged wrong, or that they don't flow. But don't get out the eraser yet. If the writing doesn't say what you're thinking, then either you're not putting in the effort, or you just need to figure out how to translate from heart to screen, or to paper, or whatever. I don't like sentences with five adjectives in them, for the most part. Still, I don't like the extreme we go to in my writing class.
...or maybe that's because I'm stubborn and wordy. But yeah.
Chorus was pretty decent; choir tomorrow should be even better.
I give blood tomorrow, eek! Here's hoping I don't pass out, but I'm not wonderfully confident, seeing as eye-dilating drops at the optometrist reduced me to a nauseated, lightheaded mound on my mom's lap (I don't think I've ever been so dizzy in my life)...so yeah. Red meat and sugar for the next series of hours; might as well prepare. *g*
-Laurel
There are two types of writing, or two that I can identify offhand: literature writing and journalism writing. I mean, you know how different these are. There's A Wrinkle in Time, and then there's The New York Times. There're magazine pieces, and there're written epics.
My prof's style is journalism--she worked for a newspaper, and it carries over into everything she writes. We've done 5-W charts like from middle school; we're writing papers based on them. She talked today about writing methods that're better than others, and what's her reasoning, every single time? That it makes for a shorter sentence, less wordiness. Don't use thesauruses, she says. Write at your own level; that's the level everyone else is at. Don't say offer an apology if you can say apologize.
...With all due respect to her many years of writing, to me that's all such crap.
'Cause okay, if you're trying to get someone the facts, if you're into telegrams, then okay, fine. Science lab writeups, et cetera, fine. But why do newspapers run human interest pieces? To bring the news to life. You cut out too many of the words, you start cutting out the soul, if you will, of what you're writing. Sometimes the extra words are the important thing; sometimes I want to see azure instead of blue; sometimes offering an apology, emphasizing the free will thereof, means more than someone just apologizing. I like writing that challenges me, stretches me, changes me. Crud, that's why I read, and that's why I like to write. Not just to convey information.
Of all the compliments I've ever gotten on my writing, I think one of the highest has to be when Ananda told me I could take the mundane and make it worth reading. In a way, that's a journalist's job, too. But sometimes journalism goes to the other extreme, reduces life and death to a series of terse sentences. And in a way, they're right to do so: to connect to someone on every single story would be--could be--more emotion in one place than maybe we'd want to handle, to say nothing of could handle.
But think about that for a second: how different would our world be if suddenly we realized the implication of this starving boy, this murdered man's family, this sports star's effort and victory? How would it be if all our writing was intricate?
There's a lot of writing that's wordy. But that means, as far as I can tell, that the words are arranged wrong, or that they don't flow. But don't get out the eraser yet. If the writing doesn't say what you're thinking, then either you're not putting in the effort, or you just need to figure out how to translate from heart to screen, or to paper, or whatever. I don't like sentences with five adjectives in them, for the most part. Still, I don't like the extreme we go to in my writing class.
...or maybe that's because I'm stubborn and wordy. But yeah.
Chorus was pretty decent; choir tomorrow should be even better.
I give blood tomorrow, eek! Here's hoping I don't pass out, but I'm not wonderfully confident, seeing as eye-dilating drops at the optometrist reduced me to a nauseated, lightheaded mound on my mom's lap (I don't think I've ever been so dizzy in my life)...so yeah. Red meat and sugar for the next series of hours; might as well prepare. *g*
-Laurel
9.07.2003
'kay, right, am back. I tried to post within 24 hours, but Blogger was down.
Had an absolutely incredible weekend, 'specially Saturday at Darien Lake with Glenn and his friends (a couple of them, like Matt, are my friends, too). Still have not mustered the nerve to go on a roller coaster, but yesterday I did everything short of that, a bunch of rides I've never done. My ego thanked me. My stomach didn't (not that I got sick, per se; we learned just how far you can push a stomachache).
Quote of the weekend:
Jared: "Let's go into the arcade and blow some money."
Glenn: "Okay! [To me:] And maybe they'll have some PFQ...or--what's it called? EEC...RGH...[naming triples of letters]..."
Me [sudden flash of insight after blank look]: "Show me what you mean."
Glenn: [makes motions as he walks]
Me [laughing]: "DDR, love?"
Glenn: "Yeah, that!"
(Note: Glenn had played DDR ma-a-any times by last night...)
So he and Matt and I played some DDR, too, and Jared won a Gonzo and an Animal (you know, the Muppets), and things were nice.
Right, so am back, and still have homework, but for now, nail it.
-Laurel
Had an absolutely incredible weekend, 'specially Saturday at Darien Lake with Glenn and his friends (a couple of them, like Matt, are my friends, too). Still have not mustered the nerve to go on a roller coaster, but yesterday I did everything short of that, a bunch of rides I've never done. My ego thanked me. My stomach didn't (not that I got sick, per se; we learned just how far you can push a stomachache).
Quote of the weekend:
Jared: "Let's go into the arcade and blow some money."
Glenn: "Okay! [To me:] And maybe they'll have some PFQ...or--what's it called? EEC...RGH...[naming triples of letters]..."
Me [sudden flash of insight after blank look]: "Show me what you mean."
Glenn: [makes motions as he walks]
Me [laughing]: "DDR, love?"
Glenn: "Yeah, that!"
(Note: Glenn had played DDR ma-a-any times by last night...)
So he and Matt and I played some DDR, too, and Jared won a Gonzo and an Animal (you know, the Muppets), and things were nice.
Right, so am back, and still have homework, but for now, nail it.
-Laurel
9.05.2003
9.04.2003
Mm, tired. This'll be short.
Things're getting better around here: I think I have a good chance of making chamber choir, and that'll be good, 'cause anyone can join a club, but choir'd mean more to me because I've had to work for it and will therefore feel deserving of my place in it. And I'll make friends through there, maybe people I can really connect to, 'cause so far the closest I've gotten to that're John and Evan, and while I like that, it also seems--::laughs::--it also seems wrong somehow that my best friends here should be guys. Like I know that nothing is wrong with that, but it's so different from what I'm used to that it feels wrong.
And honors seminar looks to be a really great time.
Still, this has been the Week of Random Crap, as I may have said, and I'm incredibly glad to be going home tomorrow.
-Laurel
Things're getting better around here: I think I have a good chance of making chamber choir, and that'll be good, 'cause anyone can join a club, but choir'd mean more to me because I've had to work for it and will therefore feel deserving of my place in it. And I'll make friends through there, maybe people I can really connect to, 'cause so far the closest I've gotten to that're John and Evan, and while I like that, it also seems--::laughs::--it also seems wrong somehow that my best friends here should be guys. Like I know that nothing is wrong with that, but it's so different from what I'm used to that it feels wrong.
And honors seminar looks to be a really great time.
Still, this has been the Week of Random Crap, as I may have said, and I'm incredibly glad to be going home tomorrow.
-Laurel
9.03.2003
::blinks:: I didn't get called back for the play.
Ruddy crud, I always get called back for things. 'cept Singing Saints, but that's a different story. For plays, I always get called back. Always.
So now, of course, I'm doing that hyper mental thing, that oh crap I *was* hyperdramatic and I just sucked and I was only the second one to go you'd think that I'd be cut some slack and I pronounced everything right made no mistakes in reading but what is it am I too WASP for a Spanish play or is it what I was wearing or what I was doing and oh *crap* this guy's the chair of the entire performing arts department and he hated what I did I'll *never* get anywhere now...
::sighs, mumbling under breath:: johnsaidididn'tsuckandheoughtaknowhegotcalledback...
-Laurel
Ruddy crud, I always get called back for things. 'cept Singing Saints, but that's a different story. For plays, I always get called back. Always.
So now, of course, I'm doing that hyper mental thing, that oh crap I *was* hyperdramatic and I just sucked and I was only the second one to go you'd think that I'd be cut some slack and I pronounced everything right made no mistakes in reading but what is it am I too WASP for a Spanish play or is it what I was wearing or what I was doing and oh *crap* this guy's the chair of the entire performing arts department and he hated what I did I'll *never* get anywhere now...
::sighs, mumbling under breath:: johnsaidididn'tsuckandheoughtaknowhegotcalledback...
-Laurel
9.02.2003
Today was a whole lot better. Writing II's getting less dumb, though I still think it's too easy; in Spanish I've realized that the biggest thing holding me back is my inability to understand my prof's thick Argentinian accent (they pronounce things very differently from how we learned them), and once I get used to her, I'll be pretty all right. It's also much more speaking-oriented than I'm used to, so that I go into massive brain-freeze whenever she asks a question, but the only way to get through that is to (ha ha!) speak more, so I suppose I'll just have to play catch-as-catch-can with that one: when I get it, great; if not, oh well.
'sides, the texts themselves're what're going to teach me the most for both classes. That's a good thing, that they're good textbooks, 'cause in AP stats, the book sucked and Ms. E wasn't great at teaching, and then we were all in trouble.
(Note to self, incidentally: find alternate word for "massive"...used far too often here...)
Microbio's been canceled, but there's an extra credit assignment that looks easy enough that I should do it. Goodness knows I don't feel like an honors kid yet; maybe being nerdy like that will help.
It probably also helps that I'm not quite so incredibly sleep-deprived today as I was yesterday.
Chamber choir tryouts are 5:20 tonight. Here's hoping I get in, though I'm not thinking it's wonderfully likely. ...But I did make it into ensemble a couple of times in school, once as alto, once as soprano--and I've been in and out of choir all my life...and Prof. C says we don't have to know how to sight-read. Those have to count for something, right?
-Laurel
'sides, the texts themselves're what're going to teach me the most for both classes. That's a good thing, that they're good textbooks, 'cause in AP stats, the book sucked and Ms. E wasn't great at teaching, and then we were all in trouble.
(Note to self, incidentally: find alternate word for "massive"...used far too often here...)
Microbio's been canceled, but there's an extra credit assignment that looks easy enough that I should do it. Goodness knows I don't feel like an honors kid yet; maybe being nerdy like that will help.
It probably also helps that I'm not quite so incredibly sleep-deprived today as I was yesterday.
Chamber choir tryouts are 5:20 tonight. Here's hoping I get in, though I'm not thinking it's wonderfully likely. ...But I did make it into ensemble a couple of times in school, once as alto, once as soprano--and I've been in and out of choir all my life...and Prof. C says we don't have to know how to sight-read. Those have to count for something, right?
-Laurel
9.01.2003
In the words of Erik, my day has been pretty craptacular.
I'm so exhausted, and I got massively, stupidly, idiotically lost, and was having such a rough time of everything that I actually went to find John this afternoon, just to have ten minutes' reprieve from reality, 'cause talking to him last night was really great, and I had this vague idea like maybe that'd happen again if I could find him, 'cause he and I'd hung out after the reception and that was cool, too. 'Cept that I wasn't wonderfully coherent when I found him, and he thought I had like this massive crisis going on at first, so he's prolly wondering who this airhead type is who showed up at his dorm, so tired that she's sounding spacey like Liv Tyler. Thank goodness I've met easygoing, kind people who don't make snap judgments, 'cause if they were any other kind, I'd be in big trouble. Oh, man.
Bed. I'm gonna sleep through dinner, I hope. ...But I can't sleep through chorus. Goodness knows enough things've--
--oh crap, performing arts open house is tonight; when the heck is that?
Crap.
-Laurel
I'm so exhausted, and I got massively, stupidly, idiotically lost, and was having such a rough time of everything that I actually went to find John this afternoon, just to have ten minutes' reprieve from reality, 'cause talking to him last night was really great, and I had this vague idea like maybe that'd happen again if I could find him, 'cause he and I'd hung out after the reception and that was cool, too. 'Cept that I wasn't wonderfully coherent when I found him, and he thought I had like this massive crisis going on at first, so he's prolly wondering who this airhead type is who showed up at his dorm, so tired that she's sounding spacey like Liv Tyler. Thank goodness I've met easygoing, kind people who don't make snap judgments, 'cause if they were any other kind, I'd be in big trouble. Oh, man.
Bed. I'm gonna sleep through dinner, I hope. ...But I can't sleep through chorus. Goodness knows enough things've--
--oh crap, performing arts open house is tonight; when the heck is that?
Crap.
-Laurel