And continuing the tweaking here at Quid Pro Quo, I've switched my commenting service, from enetation to BlogSpeak. ...Here's hoping the server will be down a little less often. BlogSpeak limits its users, so that might help. In any case, I like the format a little better in some ways (though a little less in others).
A change'll do you good, right?
...Now, if only I could remember my username and password at enetation so I could shut down the account. ::snorts::
-Laurel
12.31.2003
> >
Hm, a good blog template is so hard to find.
Would change mine if I could find one I liked better. So far I can't, especially since I don't have image hosting.
The search continues.
-Laurel
Would change mine if I could find one I liked better. So far I can't, especially since I don't have image hosting.
The search continues.
-Laurel
12.30.2003
...And 62 grams of carbs. Even by Atkins standards, these things suck. ::laughs::
And random thought for the morning:
Frozen PB&J "subs" (you know, frozen-food-section ones) contain twenty-six grams of fat. Like dude, one weekend when I was home and had never tried them before, I ate two of them! ::laughs:: 80% DV, oh yeah,oh yeah.
...Makes the frozen pizza I had for lunch instead (9g) look like health food.
Well, you know what that means: DDR this afternoon. ::grins::
-Laurel
Frozen PB&J "subs" (you know, frozen-food-section ones) contain twenty-six grams of fat. Like dude, one weekend when I was home and had never tried them before, I ate two of them! ::laughs:: 80% DV, oh yeah,oh yeah.
...Makes the frozen pizza I had for lunch instead (9g) look like health food.
Well, you know what that means: DDR this afternoon. ::grins::
-Laurel
A John-handed compliment
Quote of the night:
John [over AIM]: hey! ignoring the non-custom/interchangeable nature, and the horrible software collection, and the really small configurability of the OS, macs are pretty good
Whee. *g*
-Laurel
John [over AIM]: hey! ignoring the non-custom/interchangeable nature, and the horrible software collection, and the really small configurability of the OS, macs are pretty good
Whee. *g*
-Laurel
12.29.2003
Sea-Bond, now in new chocolate-fudge flavor...
Fudge-drop cookies: the S is for sucks.
Next time I will use a recipe that calls for butter or margarine or shortening or some form of lipid, 'cause I greased every surface those cookies baked on, and they still Sea-Bonded, first to the aluminum foil I was instructed to bake them on, then to the cookie sheet itself, which I tried for the second batch. A quarter-inch of shortening across that sheet, and the things fossilized after ten minutes, completely unremovable. What the he-e-e-e-e-eck?
But it is only one recipe, and from the 1920s at that, according to Joy of Cooking. So here's to progress: next attempt will be something like candy-bar bars.
-Laurel
Next time I will use a recipe that calls for butter or margarine or shortening or some form of lipid, 'cause I greased every surface those cookies baked on, and they still Sea-Bonded, first to the aluminum foil I was instructed to bake them on, then to the cookie sheet itself, which I tried for the second batch. A quarter-inch of shortening across that sheet, and the things fossilized after ten minutes, completely unremovable. What the he-e-e-e-e-eck?
But it is only one recipe, and from the 1920s at that, according to Joy of Cooking. So here's to progress: next attempt will be something like candy-bar bars.
-Laurel
12.28.2003
"We know a line is crooked 'cause we know what's straight--"
This isn't going to be thoroughly articulate, but whatever; you try making perfect sense when you're talking to so many people online. :-P
Am typing while my fudge-drop batter chills. Yay for Erik's cookbook. :)
Well, am back home. Whee.
On the way home I read Scott Russell Sanders's The Country of Language, which I loved so much from essay-class that I didn't try to sell back (as though I would have gotten crap-worth for it in any case! ::laughs::), and thought about career and life and stuff.
I have been lucky to have a balance of friends, ones with the same basic values, but very different general mindsets about them--people like Megan to ones like 'Nanda in high school, those that followed the rules simply because that was right (which has had its logic when we look back and see how so many things have fit together in rightness), and those that followed, but more questioningly, not content to be sheep (which tend to be the people, in the end, that make things easier for everyone by making it harder for themselves, a quality I also appreciate). It was odd--sometimes around tenth grade especially, I felt like I was the rebellious one with half my friends and the overly-careful one with the other half, though looking back I've decided that it was much less extremely so than it felt.
The balance has also held in college, in a different way--people like Tom on one side, giving and generous and upright in every traditional way; and people like John on the other, with as bright an idealism and as much to give, but such different ideas about whom to give it to. John and I will probably never agree with each other on some things, but as perplexing and sometimes-harrowing as our idealism-arguments are, I appreciate that they are making me think about what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel like college has robbed me, for now, of every conviction I have ever owned. Right now, nothing ever seems black and white--sometimes I have to grab on to Newsboys's "Believe" as a sort of defense: I just believe, I just believe it/And sometimes I don't know why/Gotta go with my gut again on this one/Not just a feeling, it's a reason/We know a line is crooked 'cause we know what's straight...
Sometimes I have no way to prove conviction. Arguing by parallel, I read once--which John and I do so much--doesn't ever win an argument; it's a way of making someone look at something with more open a mind. And I think that's true. We can throw situations at each other, but that's all we throw so much of the time--no facts, partly because he's gone through enough economics class, and I enough statistics, that we're both wary of surveys, studies, anything but finely-controlled experiment. And with things like charity, poverty--our biggest arguments--you don't get a lot of those. We know that even facts--what we call truth--can be wrapped around a finger. It's hard sometimes, knowing that, to say that much of anything is definite.
We're only eighteen--I'm half a year older than John, but half a year younger than Lily. How much have he or I lived, that we can say what's right with perfect authority? I have stories of Aubrey; John has stories of working at his church, the problems they had with blind charity.
I know that almost everything is dangerous when taken to an extreme, but gift is an extreme I have a hard time modifying. And what does one do, anyway, when suddenly everything they've been basing their future life on gets called into question?
Scott Russell Sanders, I realize, is very good at showing that moderate does not equal without conviction. Sometimes I'm afraid I'll get misread like that--John in his jibes pushes me farther left than I really am, just as mine to him give more Rush-Limbaugh-type implication to his life than I imagine is really so. In most things, almost all things, I think that case-by-case is the best way of deciding what's best to be done. But that's not how laws get made, how sweeping change happens, is it? Sometimes you're forced to pick a set of ideas.
Sanders' writing makes me believe, though, that I can find a way, somehow, to reconcile what I love with what I want. There has to be a way to make English more than books. Books are wonderful, and they change lives, but they change lives through stir of emotion or mind. That's the real power, and books just the medium. I have to make what I do more than just the words. I don't know if I have the art to do that as a professor. I don't know.
But reading things like that, I don't feel so much like the stakes are so far out of reach.
::exhales:: But my cookie batter and my freshly-dried clothing await. Time to resume household life.
-Laurel
Am typing while my fudge-drop batter chills. Yay for Erik's cookbook. :)
Well, am back home. Whee.
On the way home I read Scott Russell Sanders's The Country of Language, which I loved so much from essay-class that I didn't try to sell back (as though I would have gotten crap-worth for it in any case! ::laughs::), and thought about career and life and stuff.
I have been lucky to have a balance of friends, ones with the same basic values, but very different general mindsets about them--people like Megan to ones like 'Nanda in high school, those that followed the rules simply because that was right (which has had its logic when we look back and see how so many things have fit together in rightness), and those that followed, but more questioningly, not content to be sheep (which tend to be the people, in the end, that make things easier for everyone by making it harder for themselves, a quality I also appreciate). It was odd--sometimes around tenth grade especially, I felt like I was the rebellious one with half my friends and the overly-careful one with the other half, though looking back I've decided that it was much less extremely so than it felt.
The balance has also held in college, in a different way--people like Tom on one side, giving and generous and upright in every traditional way; and people like John on the other, with as bright an idealism and as much to give, but such different ideas about whom to give it to. John and I will probably never agree with each other on some things, but as perplexing and sometimes-harrowing as our idealism-arguments are, I appreciate that they are making me think about what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel like college has robbed me, for now, of every conviction I have ever owned. Right now, nothing ever seems black and white--sometimes I have to grab on to Newsboys's "Believe" as a sort of defense: I just believe, I just believe it/And sometimes I don't know why/Gotta go with my gut again on this one/Not just a feeling, it's a reason/We know a line is crooked 'cause we know what's straight...
Sometimes I have no way to prove conviction. Arguing by parallel, I read once--which John and I do so much--doesn't ever win an argument; it's a way of making someone look at something with more open a mind. And I think that's true. We can throw situations at each other, but that's all we throw so much of the time--no facts, partly because he's gone through enough economics class, and I enough statistics, that we're both wary of surveys, studies, anything but finely-controlled experiment. And with things like charity, poverty--our biggest arguments--you don't get a lot of those. We know that even facts--what we call truth--can be wrapped around a finger. It's hard sometimes, knowing that, to say that much of anything is definite.
We're only eighteen--I'm half a year older than John, but half a year younger than Lily. How much have he or I lived, that we can say what's right with perfect authority? I have stories of Aubrey; John has stories of working at his church, the problems they had with blind charity.
I know that almost everything is dangerous when taken to an extreme, but gift is an extreme I have a hard time modifying. And what does one do, anyway, when suddenly everything they've been basing their future life on gets called into question?
Scott Russell Sanders, I realize, is very good at showing that moderate does not equal without conviction. Sometimes I'm afraid I'll get misread like that--John in his jibes pushes me farther left than I really am, just as mine to him give more Rush-Limbaugh-type implication to his life than I imagine is really so. In most things, almost all things, I think that case-by-case is the best way of deciding what's best to be done. But that's not how laws get made, how sweeping change happens, is it? Sometimes you're forced to pick a set of ideas.
Sanders' writing makes me believe, though, that I can find a way, somehow, to reconcile what I love with what I want. There has to be a way to make English more than books. Books are wonderful, and they change lives, but they change lives through stir of emotion or mind. That's the real power, and books just the medium. I have to make what I do more than just the words. I don't know if I have the art to do that as a professor. I don't know.
But reading things like that, I don't feel so much like the stakes are so far out of reach.
::exhales:: But my cookie batter and my freshly-dried clothing await. Time to resume household life.
-Laurel
12.27.2003
Lovin' the feel of a keyboard beneath my fingertips again...
I have not been near a computer since Christmas Eve. ::laughs:: Can you say withdrawal?
So yeah, Christmas was great. Got a load of excellent stuff, half of which I can't remember now, so that'll have to wait. Went down to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Paul's--Matt was home from Korea (serving with the Army; he's been transferred to a fort here in New York), looking thin and slightly ill-at-ease; I couldn't believe it'd been a year since we'd seen him last.
We stayed there Christmas night and the 26th; the 26th was fun because I got over my urge to get online. Instead I read books for hours on end, like I used to before the internet was invented. ::giggles::
Now I'm here at Lily's, where I will stay 'til tomorrow sometime.
Must go now and shower and stuff. This afternoon: DDR with Lily at her friend Jason's house. Hurrah!
-Laurel
So yeah, Christmas was great. Got a load of excellent stuff, half of which I can't remember now, so that'll have to wait. Went down to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Paul's--Matt was home from Korea (serving with the Army; he's been transferred to a fort here in New York), looking thin and slightly ill-at-ease; I couldn't believe it'd been a year since we'd seen him last.
We stayed there Christmas night and the 26th; the 26th was fun because I got over my urge to get online. Instead I read books for hours on end, like I used to before the internet was invented. ::giggles::
Now I'm here at Lily's, where I will stay 'til tomorrow sometime.
Must go now and shower and stuff. This afternoon: DDR with Lily at her friend Jason's house. Hurrah!
-Laurel
12.24.2003
Christmas Eve. Have been showered, or so it feels, with gifts over the past couple of days by my friends--a VeggieTales ornament from Aneya and a cookbook (Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies) from Erik and various awesomeness from Glenn and his family...
::laughs:: ...and 'Nanda and Daf and I were presented with potato chips and cake by the English department at school when we visited them yesterday; their Christmas party was breaking up and they handed off their leftovers, which we took to SFE.
Tonight: church service and then sitting by the fire, eating things and spending time with my family.
A merry Christmas to all, especially to this year's new friends (and otherwise): Glenn, Kathy, Calypso, John, Tim, Tom, Krystal, Kristin, Simon, Mandie, Jaimie, Gabe, Tadd, Devin, Abby, Anna, and Evan. And to Samweli and Sunil (keep well another year, our children) and those overseas fighting, helping, and caring.
-Laurel
::laughs:: ...and 'Nanda and Daf and I were presented with potato chips and cake by the English department at school when we visited them yesterday; their Christmas party was breaking up and they handed off their leftovers, which we took to SFE.
Tonight: church service and then sitting by the fire, eating things and spending time with my family.
A merry Christmas to all, especially to this year's new friends (and otherwise): Glenn, Kathy, Calypso, John, Tim, Tom, Krystal, Kristin, Simon, Mandie, Jaimie, Gabe, Tadd, Devin, Abby, Anna, and Evan. And to Samweli and Sunil (keep well another year, our children) and those overseas fighting, helping, and caring.
-Laurel
12.23.2003
12.22.2003
LotR was lovely. I think most of my readers have seen it by now, so any who haven't, read on at your own risk...
They did a much better job with this one than Two Towers; I'm hard-pressed to say which I like better, this or Fellowship. This one brought to life a couple of things from the book that I hadn't really gotten the full effect of in the text--not that I can remember what they are at the moment.
The liberties they took in Return of the King were non-annoying ones, so I more or less approve of all of them, except for Denethor fireballing over the cliff to his death and Gandalf seeming more amused than grieved. Uh, no. Plus, I liked Beregond and Bergil and was sorry not to see them.
But as big a chapter as "Scouring of the Shire" was in the book, I actually approve of cutting that out entirely. I heard beforehand that they had and had initially been annoyed, but having sat through the whole movie, enjoying it but knowing it was long and suspenseful, I was happy to pretend that everything was just fine in the Shire the whole time.
And I don't remember offhand, even with the multiple times I've read RotK, whether Pippin ever sang that song (and, if so, whether he sang it for Denethor, 'cause I didn't think he had), but either way, a thousand points to Peter Jackson for sticking that in there, 'cause it was gorgeous. In fact, an additional thousand points to him for letting Pippin's general awesomeness finally show through in this movie, as it does in the book. The part with the Palantir could have been a bit better-done, but keep in mind that that's my favorite part of the Two Towers book, so anything less than the original was going to disappoint me.
Awarding of points holds for Aragorn's song, too, which was perhaps even more breathtakingly gorgeous, but I can't decide without further research. :)
So the night was wonderful. And our college grades for first semester are in, and my average is very good, and Lily's is good enough for honors; also wonderful.
The only downside was finding out online from a medical site that with the acne oral I'm on, for some-odd reason that they didn't bother to explain in the dermatologists' office, for half an hour after I take it, I'm not supposed to lie down. ::blinks:: This about the medicine I take just before bed.
::snorts:: Well, I'm alive so far. Will change my habit now that I know.
In any case, movie was wonderful, dinner afterwards was tasty, got a happy Christmas present from Bethie (yeah left-handers calendar!), and tomorrow is SFE and other happy randomness. And then...Christmas Eve and day and everything after.
Whee!
-Laurel
They did a much better job with this one than Two Towers; I'm hard-pressed to say which I like better, this or Fellowship. This one brought to life a couple of things from the book that I hadn't really gotten the full effect of in the text--not that I can remember what they are at the moment.
The liberties they took in Return of the King were non-annoying ones, so I more or less approve of all of them, except for Denethor fireballing over the cliff to his death and Gandalf seeming more amused than grieved. Uh, no. Plus, I liked Beregond and Bergil and was sorry not to see them.
But as big a chapter as "Scouring of the Shire" was in the book, I actually approve of cutting that out entirely. I heard beforehand that they had and had initially been annoyed, but having sat through the whole movie, enjoying it but knowing it was long and suspenseful, I was happy to pretend that everything was just fine in the Shire the whole time.
And I don't remember offhand, even with the multiple times I've read RotK, whether Pippin ever sang that song (and, if so, whether he sang it for Denethor, 'cause I didn't think he had), but either way, a thousand points to Peter Jackson for sticking that in there, 'cause it was gorgeous. In fact, an additional thousand points to him for letting Pippin's general awesomeness finally show through in this movie, as it does in the book. The part with the Palantir could have been a bit better-done, but keep in mind that that's my favorite part of the Two Towers book, so anything less than the original was going to disappoint me.
Awarding of points holds for Aragorn's song, too, which was perhaps even more breathtakingly gorgeous, but I can't decide without further research. :)
So the night was wonderful. And our college grades for first semester are in, and my average is very good, and Lily's is good enough for honors; also wonderful.
The only downside was finding out online from a medical site that with the acne oral I'm on, for some-odd reason that they didn't bother to explain in the dermatologists' office, for half an hour after I take it, I'm not supposed to lie down. ::blinks:: This about the medicine I take just before bed.
::snorts:: Well, I'm alive so far. Will change my habit now that I know.
In any case, movie was wonderful, dinner afterwards was tasty, got a happy Christmas present from Bethie (yeah left-handers calendar!), and tomorrow is SFE and other happy randomness. And then...Christmas Eve and day and everything after.
Whee!
-Laurel
12.20.2003
This's the result I got:
...the color I sign my name with wasn't one of the many choices, which seems odd to me. ::shrugs:: Ah, well.
-Laurel
#8A2BE2 |
Your dominant hues are blue and magenta. You're the one who goes to all the parties but doesn't quite fit in at every one... you know what you want, but are afraid of what the world might think of it. You're a little different and that's okay with them, and if you're smart it's okay with you too. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything. |
...the color I sign my name with wasn't one of the many choices, which seems odd to me. ::shrugs:: Ah, well.
-Laurel
12.19.2003
Today was nice. I enjoyed going up to school. :)
Anyway, since 'Nanda and Merani and Megs all did this on their blogs/ljs, I think I'll do it, too. Call me original.
...And yeah, for the most part, it's like Merani did it, "year" usually implies "school year", as opposed to "calendar year".
15 years ago I...
a) was three years old.
b) was learning to read (yup!).
c) was an only child for part of the year, then my brother was born in August.
d) sang marathon renditions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".
e) broke my nose while I was on vacation. I think I was only three then.
10 years ago I...
a) had my first male teacher, the guy who taught my third grade class.
b) was in the other school district.
c) got babysat by my best friend Amanda's mother.
d) was in Girl Scouts. :)
e) loved Baby-Sitters Club books with a passion and wanted to be an author when I grew up.
5 years ago I...
a) fell for Bryan.
b) became really good friends with Daf and Zinni (holy cow, was that only five years ago?) and met Aubrey.
c) saw my first concert (Jars of Clay).
d) started watching Whose Line and VeggieTales.
e) took my first Regentses, got 98s on both. :)
4 years ago I...
a) became really good friends with 'Nanda.
b) became obsessed with Whose Line and started liking Chris Rice's music.
c) read the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia books for the first time.
d) got into junior high ensemble after promising myself that I would. :)
e) joined Leo Club and became secretary. :)
3 years ago I...
a) got an e-mail address (finally!) and started e-mailing Zinni with updates 'cause she'd moved.
b) joined SFE. :)
c) ...think that's when I saw Weird Al in concert. That was fun.
d) went to NYC with chorus and saw real-Broadway plays (vive Aida, my first and the best!)
e) got cut from How to Succeed, but ushered for it and got to see it three times, thereby learning the plot and quite a bit of the music and dialogue, which have served me well in college--::grin::.
2 years ago I...
a) became obsessed with M*A*S*H.
b) took psych and creative writing and loved them both.
c) was in English with Daf and Bethie--yay for Mr. K, the clay figures, Dimmesdale, and Starkfield!
d) worried a lot about Aubrey and was mega-confused by Bryan. But that's okay.
e) got AIM and have been sleep-deprived ever since. ::laughs::
18 months ago I...
a) started this blog. :)
b) got my first job.
c) was looking at colleges (oh gracious).
d) went to see LotR: Fellowship again, dressed as Pippin.
e) didn't know I would be filling this out, and therefore didn't do enough, so I am out of ideas. :-P
One year ago I...
a) became president of Leo Club.
b) kicked butt with my team at Ocean Bowl and Envirothon counties and Envirothon states!
c) had an incredible time being O'Hara for Arsenic.
d) met Erik, Jordan, Jay Jei, Matt, and Glenn. In whatever order that happened to have been.
e) loved APs psych and English, hated AP stats, was in Spanish with Aneya and Bethie.
Six months ago I...
a) graduated.
b) did some of my first stargazing at Bunny's graduation party--with he who would become my boyfriend exactly seven weeks later. :)
c) got KaZaA, though I don't have it anymore.
d) d/led StepMania, putting me on my way to some semblance of DDR skill.
e) worked for seven hours twice a week, which brought me to the conclusion that I cannot have an office job: my sanity cannot support 40 hours of that a week when it could barely support 14. At least I got some pay for it.
One month ago I...
a) was in Inspector General (well, exactly one month ago, I was done already)
b) started singing after play practices with Simon and John.
c) went home for Thanksgiving.
d) started eating with the APOs. :)
e) did my presentation on wintergreen for honors (holy cow, it's been a whole month since that?!).
Yesterday I...
a) had lunch, left lunch, then came back to lunch to hang round with John and Mandie.
b) packed all my stuff.
c) finally got out of school.
d) saw the band concert with Aneya and Bethie (see previous entry).
e) stayed up a bit too late rereading parts of The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten.
Today I...
a) got up too early 'cause someone gave us a wrong-number call.
b) went out for lunch with my mom.
c) did a bit of Christmas shopping at Borders, yay!
d) attended Leo-Club-Katie's birthday party--ate some cake and played some Trivial Pursuit.
e) hung round with Glenn, just us--and the new security cameras at school. :-P But it was very very lovely.
Tomorrow I...
a) will get up earlyish to go to the mall and finish my Christmas shopping.
b) might see Matt, who is reportedly planning on doing the same.
c) have no further plans, so maybe I'll take a nap.
d) will be 24 hours from a trip to my uncle's for a Christmas-type gathering of some of Dad's side of the family.
e) will be 48 hours from the Lord of the Rings mass gathering!
One year from now I...
a) will be a college sophomore.
b) will be an official pledged member of Alpha Phi Omega, national co-ed service fraternity. :-D
c) will have gone to Peru.
d) will hopefully have been Chava in Fiddler on the Roof!
e) will hopefully be good at both cooking and driving. :)
::exhales:: Yeesh, that took a while. Going on hiatus now. Have a random craving for grilled cheese; perhaps I will go and satisfy it.
-Laurel
Anyway, since 'Nanda and Merani and Megs all did this on their blogs/ljs, I think I'll do it, too. Call me original.
...And yeah, for the most part, it's like Merani did it, "year" usually implies "school year", as opposed to "calendar year".
15 years ago I...
a) was three years old.
b) was learning to read (yup!).
c) was an only child for part of the year, then my brother was born in August.
d) sang marathon renditions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".
e) broke my nose while I was on vacation. I think I was only three then.
10 years ago I...
a) had my first male teacher, the guy who taught my third grade class.
b) was in the other school district.
c) got babysat by my best friend Amanda's mother.
d) was in Girl Scouts. :)
e) loved Baby-Sitters Club books with a passion and wanted to be an author when I grew up.
5 years ago I...
a) fell for Bryan.
b) became really good friends with Daf and Zinni (holy cow, was that only five years ago?) and met Aubrey.
c) saw my first concert (Jars of Clay).
d) started watching Whose Line and VeggieTales.
e) took my first Regentses, got 98s on both. :)
4 years ago I...
a) became really good friends with 'Nanda.
b) became obsessed with Whose Line and started liking Chris Rice's music.
c) read the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia books for the first time.
d) got into junior high ensemble after promising myself that I would. :)
e) joined Leo Club and became secretary. :)
3 years ago I...
a) got an e-mail address (finally!) and started e-mailing Zinni with updates 'cause she'd moved.
b) joined SFE. :)
c) ...think that's when I saw Weird Al in concert. That was fun.
d) went to NYC with chorus and saw real-Broadway plays (vive Aida, my first and the best!)
e) got cut from How to Succeed, but ushered for it and got to see it three times, thereby learning the plot and quite a bit of the music and dialogue, which have served me well in college--::grin::.
2 years ago I...
a) became obsessed with M*A*S*H.
b) took psych and creative writing and loved them both.
c) was in English with Daf and Bethie--yay for Mr. K, the clay figures, Dimmesdale, and Starkfield!
d) worried a lot about Aubrey and was mega-confused by Bryan. But that's okay.
e) got AIM and have been sleep-deprived ever since. ::laughs::
18 months ago I...
a) started this blog. :)
b) got my first job.
c) was looking at colleges (oh gracious).
d) went to see LotR: Fellowship again, dressed as Pippin.
e) didn't know I would be filling this out, and therefore didn't do enough, so I am out of ideas. :-P
One year ago I...
a) became president of Leo Club.
b) kicked butt with my team at Ocean Bowl and Envirothon counties and Envirothon states!
c) had an incredible time being O'Hara for Arsenic.
d) met Erik, Jordan, Jay Jei, Matt, and Glenn. In whatever order that happened to have been.
e) loved APs psych and English, hated AP stats, was in Spanish with Aneya and Bethie.
Six months ago I...
a) graduated.
b) did some of my first stargazing at Bunny's graduation party--with he who would become my boyfriend exactly seven weeks later. :)
c) got KaZaA, though I don't have it anymore.
d) d/led StepMania, putting me on my way to some semblance of DDR skill.
e) worked for seven hours twice a week, which brought me to the conclusion that I cannot have an office job: my sanity cannot support 40 hours of that a week when it could barely support 14. At least I got some pay for it.
One month ago I...
a) was in Inspector General (well, exactly one month ago, I was done already)
b) started singing after play practices with Simon and John.
c) went home for Thanksgiving.
d) started eating with the APOs. :)
e) did my presentation on wintergreen for honors (holy cow, it's been a whole month since that?!).
Yesterday I...
a) had lunch, left lunch, then came back to lunch to hang round with John and Mandie.
b) packed all my stuff.
c) finally got out of school.
d) saw the band concert with Aneya and Bethie (see previous entry).
e) stayed up a bit too late rereading parts of The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten.
Today I...
a) got up too early 'cause someone gave us a wrong-number call.
b) went out for lunch with my mom.
c) did a bit of Christmas shopping at Borders, yay!
d) attended Leo-Club-Katie's birthday party--ate some cake and played some Trivial Pursuit.
e) hung round with Glenn, just us--and the new security cameras at school. :-P But it was very very lovely.
Tomorrow I...
a) will get up earlyish to go to the mall and finish my Christmas shopping.
b) might see Matt, who is reportedly planning on doing the same.
c) have no further plans, so maybe I'll take a nap.
d) will be 24 hours from a trip to my uncle's for a Christmas-type gathering of some of Dad's side of the family.
e) will be 48 hours from the Lord of the Rings mass gathering!
One year from now I...
a) will be a college sophomore.
b) will be an official pledged member of Alpha Phi Omega, national co-ed service fraternity. :-D
c) will have gone to Peru.
d) will hopefully have been Chava in Fiddler on the Roof!
e) will hopefully be good at both cooking and driving. :)
::exhales:: Yeesh, that took a while. Going on hiatus now. Have a random craving for grilled cheese; perhaps I will go and satisfy it.
-Laurel
12.18.2003
Am home for a month, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.
Certainly took me long enough to get out of school--didn't get home 'til quarter to six--but I saw the high school band concert tonight, which was good as always. :) Hope you get to see the next one, Daf. ...Sadly, this's the only high school music production that I get to see this year, save possibly the chicken barbecue, 'cause the spring chorus and band concerts will take place when I am in Peru.
...I'd forgotten about the chicken barbecue, though, until just now. That would give me all the bands and choruses at once, an entire district-worth of music, and that would be lovely. I bet I'll be there, too, 'cause it's usually the first weekend in June, and we'll be home from Peru by then...
Last final at school was decent enough. The English department is apparently big on dogs: Susan has Cheddar, who we all met when we made pasta at her house, and I don't know what Other-Doctor-Susan's dog's name is, but that dog came into our essay-class final yesterday and had a cookie.
Going out to eat with Lily was also fun. Yay for chicken teriyaki.
And I discovered last night that I've a long way to go before I'll ever really be a solo voice (like okay, how about actually getting to the point where I can stand to hear myself without flinching?!), but it was a fun time anyway.
Tomorrow's plans: to finish Christmas shopping and then to go up to school to attend Leo-Club-Katie's birthday party and to see my boyfriend (I really love how that sounds), who was in every single part of the band concert tonight, 'cause even during the symphonic band, which he's not in, they had the singing group come out for the one medley and accompany the band (or was it the band accompanying them?), so he was there for that, too.
What I have missed most about my hometown: the people who live there.
What I have missed the second-most (though it's a distant second-most): the water. Tres hurras for drinkable H2O. I can actually take medicine with water now, 'cause here it actually runs really cold and tastes really good. Can turn on a faucet and stick my mouth under it, thereby quenching my thirst and grossing out my brother in one easy step.
::blinks:: Dude, I've been home (or thereabouts) for five hours and have not even seen my brother. He was already at Lord of the Rings when I came home, and by the time I was back from the band concert, he'd gone to bed. And tomorrow he will be gone to school by the time I get up.
::blinks again:: Ooh. Add to tomorrow's to-do list: laundry. At least one load. Eep.
-Laurel
Certainly took me long enough to get out of school--didn't get home 'til quarter to six--but I saw the high school band concert tonight, which was good as always. :) Hope you get to see the next one, Daf. ...Sadly, this's the only high school music production that I get to see this year, save possibly the chicken barbecue, 'cause the spring chorus and band concerts will take place when I am in Peru.
...I'd forgotten about the chicken barbecue, though, until just now. That would give me all the bands and choruses at once, an entire district-worth of music, and that would be lovely. I bet I'll be there, too, 'cause it's usually the first weekend in June, and we'll be home from Peru by then...
Last final at school was decent enough. The English department is apparently big on dogs: Susan has Cheddar, who we all met when we made pasta at her house, and I don't know what Other-Doctor-Susan's dog's name is, but that dog came into our essay-class final yesterday and had a cookie.
Going out to eat with Lily was also fun. Yay for chicken teriyaki.
And I discovered last night that I've a long way to go before I'll ever really be a solo voice (like okay, how about actually getting to the point where I can stand to hear myself without flinching?!), but it was a fun time anyway.
Tomorrow's plans: to finish Christmas shopping and then to go up to school to attend Leo-Club-Katie's birthday party and to see my boyfriend (I really love how that sounds), who was in every single part of the band concert tonight, 'cause even during the symphonic band, which he's not in, they had the singing group come out for the one medley and accompany the band (or was it the band accompanying them?), so he was there for that, too.
What I have missed most about my hometown: the people who live there.
What I have missed the second-most (though it's a distant second-most): the water. Tres hurras for drinkable H2O. I can actually take medicine with water now, 'cause here it actually runs really cold and tastes really good. Can turn on a faucet and stick my mouth under it, thereby quenching my thirst and grossing out my brother in one easy step.
::blinks:: Dude, I've been home (or thereabouts) for five hours and have not even seen my brother. He was already at Lord of the Rings when I came home, and by the time I was back from the band concert, he'd gone to bed. And tomorrow he will be gone to school by the time I get up.
::blinks again:: Ooh. Add to tomorrow's to-do list: laundry. At least one load. Eep.
-Laurel
12.17.2003
VeggieTales marathon Monday night was fun: saw two I hadn't before, Esther and Lyle; we also watched Dave and the Giant Pickle and Madame Blueberry. It was funny to watch John knock on Tom's door, where Tom, Tim, Kristin, Krystal, Kate, other-boy-I-can't-remember, Gabe, and I were all squished on the bed and floor. John took one look at us, one longer look at the TV (Esther in progress, Esther mid-song), and decided not to come in.
It was even funnier having Gabe there, because he's never seen VeggieTales before (probably because he's Jewish), and he was determined to pick faults in every anachronism and violation of physics that occurred in the movies we watched--and if you've ever seen VeggieTales, you know how rife with both the series is (and we fans of it like it that way, thank you). But he did admit to enjoying the ones he watched, especially "Dance of the Cucumber", which we sped to the proper point in Rack, Shack, and Benny so that he could see it (ignoring the rest of the movie due to time constraints).
We would have watched more, but we wanted to get to Midnight Breakfast (which really starts at 10:30) before it got too crowded--and it was already crowded enough. Oh my word, it's as though the entire college tried to cram into that dining hall. Food and music and decibels untold. But it was fun.
Last night was caroling with choir--dinner at Luanne's house and standing on top of the carillon. Lovely all round. We actually sang the Hallelujah Chorus up there, holy cow.
My finals've been pretty easy so far; last one is today, essay, and that should be pretty simple, too. Tonight is dinner with Lily and song practice with John. And tomorrow...
...home.
-Laurel
It was even funnier having Gabe there, because he's never seen VeggieTales before (probably because he's Jewish), and he was determined to pick faults in every anachronism and violation of physics that occurred in the movies we watched--and if you've ever seen VeggieTales, you know how rife with both the series is (and we fans of it like it that way, thank you). But he did admit to enjoying the ones he watched, especially "Dance of the Cucumber", which we sped to the proper point in Rack, Shack, and Benny so that he could see it (ignoring the rest of the movie due to time constraints).
We would have watched more, but we wanted to get to Midnight Breakfast (which really starts at 10:30) before it got too crowded--and it was already crowded enough. Oh my word, it's as though the entire college tried to cram into that dining hall. Food and music and decibels untold. But it was fun.
Last night was caroling with choir--dinner at Luanne's house and standing on top of the carillon. Lovely all round. We actually sang the Hallelujah Chorus up there, holy cow.
My finals've been pretty easy so far; last one is today, essay, and that should be pretty simple, too. Tonight is dinner with Lily and song practice with John. And tomorrow...
...home.
-Laurel
12.14.2003
Honors party was decent, though I was at the honors house preparing (we made the yule-log glorified-Ho-Ho thing) for so long that the actual party was sort of anticlimactic, plus a bit sparse, as all the snow all over made it hard for lots of people to want to trek over to honors house.
Only three finals, one on each day, and then home. Hurrah!
So there was other stuff I was going to say, but I'm having fun listening to DDR music and talking to 'Nanda, and I don't think I will. Yay for Nate's site being updated. Yay for Saddam being captured so we don't have to keep hearing about how he wasn't. Yay for VeggieTales marathon tomorrow night. Yay for the holidays.
-Laurel
Only three finals, one on each day, and then home. Hurrah!
So there was other stuff I was going to say, but I'm having fun listening to DDR music and talking to 'Nanda, and I don't think I will. Yay for Nate's site being updated. Yay for Saddam being captured so we don't have to keep hearing about how he wasn't. Yay for VeggieTales marathon tomorrow night. Yay for the holidays.
-Laurel
Oh my goodness, I've been so busy this week. Here're the highlights:
Tuesday night was craziness: Simon and John and I had singing practice late. At 1 or so Simon invited John and me back to theater house, where he lives with Drew-from-the-play, for pasta with the sauce he made himself. This, at one in the morning, sounded absolutely wonderful, so we did so.
It was absolutely wonderful. Pay no attention to the philistenic critique of John (and if "philistenic" wasn't a word before, it is now), whose taste buds cannot handle any pasta sauce more complex than Chef Boyardee. Simon's sauce was a work of art, I tell you. The memory floors me still. He had me crush up the fennel with an improvised mortar and pestle (read: bowl and flat side of a cup), which was interesting to me, 'cause it smells so much like anise but doesn't taste as much like it (which's good, 'cause I don't like it). I don't know what-all else he threw in there, but I now aspire to make pasta sauce like Simon's. Oh my ruddy gracious.
So I ate lots of pasta and sauce, did some Spanish homework, and listened to Simon and John have at it in an epic two-and-a-half-hour playing of Dr. Mario (both are experts and took turns kicking each other's butts), followed by some Life Force--as you can tell, Simon and Drew are big into original and Super Nintendo.
Thursday was our Babette's Feast dinner for honors. "Babette's Feast" is this short story about an incredible dinner party (like okay, it's more complex than that, but for purposes of this entry...), and we as a food-in-literature class decided to have a dinner of our own, cooking dishes in pairs or small groups. Having read about it in Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone, Lauren-next-door and I decided to try making coconut bread.
I'm not sure whether anyone noticed that at 8:30 in the morning I was in the third-floor kitchen opening a coconut with a (clean) hammer and a (clean) screwdriver, but it was easier than I'd expected. The milk didn't taste as good as the one from the coconut I had at Aneya's last year, but it wasn't bad.
What impressed Lauren and me is that the bread turned out just like it was supposed to. In terms of being bread, anyway. Neither of us had ever made bread before, nor yet used yeast, so we breathed a major sigh of relief when it actually rose. It was really sticky when we tried to knead it, so we worked a lot of flour into it, but it came out perfectly texture-wise and color-wise.
The only problem was that it didn't taste much like coconut. If I ever make it again, I'm using shredded coconut or something with that kind of stronger flavor, 'cause real coconut, like it asked for, was too mild. Also too difficult to chop up.
That dinner party was wonderful, too. Susan (our professor) made Persian chicken with pomegranates, and that was excellent. The bruschetta was excellent; maybe I will come to like tomato slices yet. John and Fenna made Vietnamese vegetables with peanut sauce, and that was a bit spicy but otherwise very good. The pear salad that the seniors made was very good (they threw the pears in at John's request, but he never got any; somehow they were all taken by the time he got there, which amuses me even though I also pity him). The apple cake was very good. The only thing I didn't like was the German shortbread-type thing, the one said coo'-kin. It had too much of some random spice. But it was worth a taste.
...It was funny, though: when John and I made things together for the class, everyone would refer to them as John's: "that thing John made". But suddenly with the coconut bread, even though Lauren had helped, everyone referred to it as mine, especially Susan. I felt kind of weird about that, though pleased that finally something was mine, too.
Friday was the soda taste-testing for microbio, and we cleaned up, winning fully half of the awards, including best-tasting and overall favorite. Strawberry-banana-mint: get ready, world.
Friday was also Simon and John and me singing at the coffeehouse for real this time. We managed to fill up an hour and a half, some seventeen songs and a short break for Simon to replace a guitar string he'd snapped. We were okay. We were a little inconsistent: either very good or rather sucky. John and I could have done great things with the song Simon let us sing by ourselves, but we had some problems with the words and it wasn't good. ...I realize that it was only a Beatles cover like most of them, but he could have given us more than fifteen minutes to learn it. ::laughs::
...Kate and Jaimie and Gabe came for a while, and Kate asked me why Simon and John didn't let me sing more. That was very nice of her and made me happy.
Had a grilled cheese focaccia while I was there, another thing that tasted very good.
::laughs:: I haven't gotten any heavier yet, though. Score one for metabolism.
Score one also for sleep, which I'm going to get shortly.
Chorus concert was good. Tomorrow: honors Christmas party. Excellent as well.
::sighs contentedly:: Am going to listen to Coldplay and then fall into dreams, what short ones I can get before church service tomorrow.
-Laurel
Tuesday night was craziness: Simon and John and I had singing practice late. At 1 or so Simon invited John and me back to theater house, where he lives with Drew-from-the-play, for pasta with the sauce he made himself. This, at one in the morning, sounded absolutely wonderful, so we did so.
It was absolutely wonderful. Pay no attention to the philistenic critique of John (and if "philistenic" wasn't a word before, it is now), whose taste buds cannot handle any pasta sauce more complex than Chef Boyardee. Simon's sauce was a work of art, I tell you. The memory floors me still. He had me crush up the fennel with an improvised mortar and pestle (read: bowl and flat side of a cup), which was interesting to me, 'cause it smells so much like anise but doesn't taste as much like it (which's good, 'cause I don't like it). I don't know what-all else he threw in there, but I now aspire to make pasta sauce like Simon's. Oh my ruddy gracious.
So I ate lots of pasta and sauce, did some Spanish homework, and listened to Simon and John have at it in an epic two-and-a-half-hour playing of Dr. Mario (both are experts and took turns kicking each other's butts), followed by some Life Force--as you can tell, Simon and Drew are big into original and Super Nintendo.
Thursday was our Babette's Feast dinner for honors. "Babette's Feast" is this short story about an incredible dinner party (like okay, it's more complex than that, but for purposes of this entry...), and we as a food-in-literature class decided to have a dinner of our own, cooking dishes in pairs or small groups. Having read about it in Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone, Lauren-next-door and I decided to try making coconut bread.
I'm not sure whether anyone noticed that at 8:30 in the morning I was in the third-floor kitchen opening a coconut with a (clean) hammer and a (clean) screwdriver, but it was easier than I'd expected. The milk didn't taste as good as the one from the coconut I had at Aneya's last year, but it wasn't bad.
What impressed Lauren and me is that the bread turned out just like it was supposed to. In terms of being bread, anyway. Neither of us had ever made bread before, nor yet used yeast, so we breathed a major sigh of relief when it actually rose. It was really sticky when we tried to knead it, so we worked a lot of flour into it, but it came out perfectly texture-wise and color-wise.
The only problem was that it didn't taste much like coconut. If I ever make it again, I'm using shredded coconut or something with that kind of stronger flavor, 'cause real coconut, like it asked for, was too mild. Also too difficult to chop up.
That dinner party was wonderful, too. Susan (our professor) made Persian chicken with pomegranates, and that was excellent. The bruschetta was excellent; maybe I will come to like tomato slices yet. John and Fenna made Vietnamese vegetables with peanut sauce, and that was a bit spicy but otherwise very good. The pear salad that the seniors made was very good (they threw the pears in at John's request, but he never got any; somehow they were all taken by the time he got there, which amuses me even though I also pity him). The apple cake was very good. The only thing I didn't like was the German shortbread-type thing, the one said coo'-kin. It had too much of some random spice. But it was worth a taste.
...It was funny, though: when John and I made things together for the class, everyone would refer to them as John's: "that thing John made". But suddenly with the coconut bread, even though Lauren had helped, everyone referred to it as mine, especially Susan. I felt kind of weird about that, though pleased that finally something was mine, too.
Friday was the soda taste-testing for microbio, and we cleaned up, winning fully half of the awards, including best-tasting and overall favorite. Strawberry-banana-mint: get ready, world.
Friday was also Simon and John and me singing at the coffeehouse for real this time. We managed to fill up an hour and a half, some seventeen songs and a short break for Simon to replace a guitar string he'd snapped. We were okay. We were a little inconsistent: either very good or rather sucky. John and I could have done great things with the song Simon let us sing by ourselves, but we had some problems with the words and it wasn't good. ...I realize that it was only a Beatles cover like most of them, but he could have given us more than fifteen minutes to learn it. ::laughs::
...Kate and Jaimie and Gabe came for a while, and Kate asked me why Simon and John didn't let me sing more. That was very nice of her and made me happy.
Had a grilled cheese focaccia while I was there, another thing that tasted very good.
::laughs:: I haven't gotten any heavier yet, though. Score one for metabolism.
Score one also for sleep, which I'm going to get shortly.
Chorus concert was good. Tomorrow: honors Christmas party. Excellent as well.
::sighs contentedly:: Am going to listen to Coldplay and then fall into dreams, what short ones I can get before church service tomorrow.
-Laurel
12.09.2003
Randomness all round. Gig this weekend (not that we've practiced since Saturday night), concert this weekend for chorus/choir, essay-class project stuff, microbio taste-testing on Friday for the sodas we're making, two cooking things for honors...oh, and I forgot, learning something for musical tryouts.
...But hey, at least on Sunday night I got some Christmas shopping done.
Today I have to scrape off my car so I can take several friends to Wegmans so they and I can buy all sorts of wonderful nonsense for various cooking things. And I'm getting a new computer mouse, 'cause this one's on crack. ...The trips are always a good time. The car-scraping tends not to be. But whatever.
But I don't have microbio, so that means that all I have today is Spanish, which--here I confess a crime of the deepest dye, I'm sure--I skipped yesterday to work on my essay-class paper rough draft. ...Which I did wrong, as it turns out, but it also turns out that it really doesn't matter, inasmuch as my professor is really proud of me for picking Loren Eiseley, who she says is not an easy person to do a project on, and though I was never sitting there thinking oh no I'm going to fail, in some ways I certainly know what she means. It was, as I've said before, Mrs. W's idea, and when I told my professor this, she said to thank her for her.
...that last part of the sentence made sense, right? You get it, anyway.
Gave me a laugh this morning to read merani's lj, as reading said lj usually does. What especially amused me, actually, was that her band director looked like he was going to prom, 'cause for choir, when our dresses come in, we're gonna look like that, too, 'cause the guys have to be in tuxes.
Tux. It's a weird term, always makes me think of tusk, except it really doesn't, it makes me think of walrus, and I wonder why when I hear the word I get this mental image of a walrus.
Oh, but hey, the schedules for next semester went up online yesterday. I got cut out of one class that it really would help my major if I could take, and Lily got cut out of it, too, but I suppose it's better than Evan, who only got into two classes he wanted out of five. ...So far, I've got linguistics, acting, honors seminar, and choir, and I'm gonna try to get into the general American Lit class if that works out best with everything, and Irish Lit if it doesn't.
...Dang it, you know what? There needs to be a new Teen Girl Squad episode.
This has been the morning report.
-Laurel
...But hey, at least on Sunday night I got some Christmas shopping done.
Today I have to scrape off my car so I can take several friends to Wegmans so they and I can buy all sorts of wonderful nonsense for various cooking things. And I'm getting a new computer mouse, 'cause this one's on crack. ...The trips are always a good time. The car-scraping tends not to be. But whatever.
But I don't have microbio, so that means that all I have today is Spanish, which--here I confess a crime of the deepest dye, I'm sure--I skipped yesterday to work on my essay-class paper rough draft. ...Which I did wrong, as it turns out, but it also turns out that it really doesn't matter, inasmuch as my professor is really proud of me for picking Loren Eiseley, who she says is not an easy person to do a project on, and though I was never sitting there thinking oh no I'm going to fail, in some ways I certainly know what she means. It was, as I've said before, Mrs. W's idea, and when I told my professor this, she said to thank her for her.
...that last part of the sentence made sense, right? You get it, anyway.
Gave me a laugh this morning to read merani's lj, as reading said lj usually does. What especially amused me, actually, was that her band director looked like he was going to prom, 'cause for choir, when our dresses come in, we're gonna look like that, too, 'cause the guys have to be in tuxes.
Tux. It's a weird term, always makes me think of tusk, except it really doesn't, it makes me think of walrus, and I wonder why when I hear the word I get this mental image of a walrus.
Oh, but hey, the schedules for next semester went up online yesterday. I got cut out of one class that it really would help my major if I could take, and Lily got cut out of it, too, but I suppose it's better than Evan, who only got into two classes he wanted out of five. ...So far, I've got linguistics, acting, honors seminar, and choir, and I'm gonna try to get into the general American Lit class if that works out best with everything, and Irish Lit if it doesn't.
...Dang it, you know what? There needs to be a new Teen Girl Squad episode.
This has been the morning report.
-Laurel
12.07.2003
::sighs:: Well, that was different.
We didn't get a full gig.
Today we met at three o'clock and practiced pretty much straight through, 'cept for a dinner break, the hours flying, until 8:45, when we left the performing arts center on the theory that, since we were starting at nine, we might want to get to the coffeehouse. This wasn't so bad; it's just the next street over, and we took Ryan's minivan. Ryan joined up as our second guitarist, playing on a few songs.
We got there...and the owner-guy was nowhere to be found, and the guy who we were supposed to be opening for was finishing his soundcheck and was not about to wait for us to open for him. Simon tried, but no dice: he started at nine. Which's when we were supposed to be starting.
Which didn't bode so well for all our friends who'd come to hear us. John's girlfriend Libby ended up staying as long as we did, but around 9:45, Chris and Krystal and Tom had to go, and Maggie and Claire and their other friend did likewise.
John and Libby played cards after that, and Simon and I played Battleship. I almost won. When that was finished, John and Simon started a game of Battleship (Libby watched John over his shoulder) and I started one of solitaire, and we were doing that when the guy took a break for a while.
We got his permission to sing while he was having his coffee and sandwich, but by then there were only about five people listening to us, and that's counting Libby. The people in the back playing checkers and talking didn't even glance over at us.
We got through eight songs. We were...
...well...
...okay, so our sound was all right, but our words kinda sucked. Like that was a problem all day, John would blank out sometimes, and I was blanking out too on "Helplessly Hoping", which thanks to Daffy I have seen the words to like five dozen times, so what the heck is up with me? So we got to the performance and after John kinda squinched out a couple times on the first song, Simon made him get the words and keep them there to look at, which helped some, but, you know, didn't look professional.
Neither did our singing only cover songs, but the thing is, Simon's songs're so darn complex. He's tried to teach us two or three of them already, but it was going to take more than the three days we've had since we got the gig to learn any of his.
The singer-guy came back with his coffee and later his sandwich and watched us for a bit. Well, okay, he watched on the songs where it was just John and Simon; he didn't seem interested in hearing us when I was up there with them. The ruddy freak. I could hear him talking to this guy we met at the tryout who'd come tonight to see us (not random-Josh from my dorm, but another guy), and both were impressed with the duo numbers. As well they might be: John and Simon are very good, and they're both guy voices on guy parts.
But I hadn't expected to feel stupid up there, and neither had John, but comparing notes later, we both had.
So, to put it bluntly, it really kind of sucked. But we've got Friday, at least: when the owner-guy finally showed up, he and Simon had what Simon said was a long conversation, and we've got the 12th. All to ourselves this time. We'll get more people to come, and we'll have lots more practice time in between. It'll be better that way.
::sighs:: Had this freaky-weird-kinda-bad dream last night, so I'm hoping tonight will be better, or at least more oblivious. More another day.
-Laurel
We didn't get a full gig.
Today we met at three o'clock and practiced pretty much straight through, 'cept for a dinner break, the hours flying, until 8:45, when we left the performing arts center on the theory that, since we were starting at nine, we might want to get to the coffeehouse. This wasn't so bad; it's just the next street over, and we took Ryan's minivan. Ryan joined up as our second guitarist, playing on a few songs.
We got there...and the owner-guy was nowhere to be found, and the guy who we were supposed to be opening for was finishing his soundcheck and was not about to wait for us to open for him. Simon tried, but no dice: he started at nine. Which's when we were supposed to be starting.
Which didn't bode so well for all our friends who'd come to hear us. John's girlfriend Libby ended up staying as long as we did, but around 9:45, Chris and Krystal and Tom had to go, and Maggie and Claire and their other friend did likewise.
John and Libby played cards after that, and Simon and I played Battleship. I almost won. When that was finished, John and Simon started a game of Battleship (Libby watched John over his shoulder) and I started one of solitaire, and we were doing that when the guy took a break for a while.
We got his permission to sing while he was having his coffee and sandwich, but by then there were only about five people listening to us, and that's counting Libby. The people in the back playing checkers and talking didn't even glance over at us.
We got through eight songs. We were...
...well...
...okay, so our sound was all right, but our words kinda sucked. Like that was a problem all day, John would blank out sometimes, and I was blanking out too on "Helplessly Hoping", which thanks to Daffy I have seen the words to like five dozen times, so what the heck is up with me? So we got to the performance and after John kinda squinched out a couple times on the first song, Simon made him get the words and keep them there to look at, which helped some, but, you know, didn't look professional.
Neither did our singing only cover songs, but the thing is, Simon's songs're so darn complex. He's tried to teach us two or three of them already, but it was going to take more than the three days we've had since we got the gig to learn any of his.
The singer-guy came back with his coffee and later his sandwich and watched us for a bit. Well, okay, he watched on the songs where it was just John and Simon; he didn't seem interested in hearing us when I was up there with them. The ruddy freak. I could hear him talking to this guy we met at the tryout who'd come tonight to see us (not random-Josh from my dorm, but another guy), and both were impressed with the duo numbers. As well they might be: John and Simon are very good, and they're both guy voices on guy parts.
But I hadn't expected to feel stupid up there, and neither had John, but comparing notes later, we both had.
So, to put it bluntly, it really kind of sucked. But we've got Friday, at least: when the owner-guy finally showed up, he and Simon had what Simon said was a long conversation, and we've got the 12th. All to ourselves this time. We'll get more people to come, and we'll have lots more practice time in between. It'll be better that way.
::sighs:: Had this freaky-weird-kinda-bad dream last night, so I'm hoping tonight will be better, or at least more oblivious. More another day.
-Laurel
12.04.2003
Oh my word. Oh ruddy crud and oh my word and oh my goodness gracious.
Simon, John, and I've been singing; I've talked about it in entries past, about how after play practice we'd get together. Mostly it was Simon and John, Simon playing and taking turns with John for lead, teaching us the songs. I was in sometimes, always backup, Beatles songs I knew, CSN ones I didn't.
We've got a gig, the three of us, this Saturday, at the coffeehouse.
Like okay, the coffeehouse is not the big time. We were told that we didn't even have to try out, we were allowed to show up randomly and play some night if no one else was there. But Simon, ever the professional, insisted on our trying out. Besides, we were dying to show off.
We didn't know, John and I, that our tryout was tonight. I got a call around 11:30 from John, thinking he was asking me sledding with him and his friends--which's what he'd been scheduled to do, and he'd wanted to invite me. But instead when I got the phone to my ear, I heard that he was on my dorm's ground floor, with Simon, singing, and did I want to come and join them? I most certainly did.
We sang in the lounge for a while, and gradually I learned that the tryout for the coffeehouse, which Simon had been talking about for weeks, was finally happening. I never doubted that it would eventually, but I didn't think that I'd be invited along. I mean, it's really John and Simon's act; I'm there for a few songs only.
But the best song of the group is "This Boy", and that's the one I sing the melody for. I got invited. I came.
So we walked in the cold to the coffeehouse and went upstairs where the bands perform. The manager was really pretty amused, John and I could tell, by our wide-eyed let's-play-professional-singers vibe, 'cause Simon took it so darn seriously. ::grins:: But he looked at us differently when Simon started playing and John started singing. We tried out with Beatles songs, three of them--and then threw in a fourth when the manager said, "Play more."
We were offered a choice--a night to ourselves on the 12th...or forty-five minutes this Saturday night, opening for another band. We chose to go sooner; Simon said we had 30 songs, but only half're anywhere near performable at this point. We want to go soon, anyway; we're dying to perform.
We might even end up with a drummer: a guy named Josh from my dorm followed us there out of curiosity; Simon "hired" him, so to speak, once we were in.
So tomorrow, after microbio lab, we meet to practice. We've got work to do.
We've got a concert Saturday night.
-Laurel
Simon, John, and I've been singing; I've talked about it in entries past, about how after play practice we'd get together. Mostly it was Simon and John, Simon playing and taking turns with John for lead, teaching us the songs. I was in sometimes, always backup, Beatles songs I knew, CSN ones I didn't.
We've got a gig, the three of us, this Saturday, at the coffeehouse.
Like okay, the coffeehouse is not the big time. We were told that we didn't even have to try out, we were allowed to show up randomly and play some night if no one else was there. But Simon, ever the professional, insisted on our trying out. Besides, we were dying to show off.
We didn't know, John and I, that our tryout was tonight. I got a call around 11:30 from John, thinking he was asking me sledding with him and his friends--which's what he'd been scheduled to do, and he'd wanted to invite me. But instead when I got the phone to my ear, I heard that he was on my dorm's ground floor, with Simon, singing, and did I want to come and join them? I most certainly did.
We sang in the lounge for a while, and gradually I learned that the tryout for the coffeehouse, which Simon had been talking about for weeks, was finally happening. I never doubted that it would eventually, but I didn't think that I'd be invited along. I mean, it's really John and Simon's act; I'm there for a few songs only.
But the best song of the group is "This Boy", and that's the one I sing the melody for. I got invited. I came.
So we walked in the cold to the coffeehouse and went upstairs where the bands perform. The manager was really pretty amused, John and I could tell, by our wide-eyed let's-play-professional-singers vibe, 'cause Simon took it so darn seriously. ::grins:: But he looked at us differently when Simon started playing and John started singing. We tried out with Beatles songs, three of them--and then threw in a fourth when the manager said, "Play more."
We were offered a choice--a night to ourselves on the 12th...or forty-five minutes this Saturday night, opening for another band. We chose to go sooner; Simon said we had 30 songs, but only half're anywhere near performable at this point. We want to go soon, anyway; we're dying to perform.
We might even end up with a drummer: a guy named Josh from my dorm followed us there out of curiosity; Simon "hired" him, so to speak, once we were in.
So tomorrow, after microbio lab, we meet to practice. We've got work to do.
We've got a concert Saturday night.
-Laurel
12.03.2003
So we had the post-play dinner, finally. It was tasty to a high degree. Like, you don't understand, I am a person who has never liked chili, and I ate two bowls of Becky's and would have started on a third had I not also been full of her punch and lemon squares and key lime squares. Dang, but she knows how to cook stuff. See previous entry dealing with her lasagna, wherever said entry is.
Yesterday's adventure was scraping off my car so I could take it to Wal-Mart to get things like, say, toothpaste, which I believe I left at home. ...Of course, I thought I'd left my shampoo at home and after I bought some new shampoo I found the old bottle, but that's not the point. The point is that when every surface on your car is coated with between four and five inches of snow, it takes a while to brush and scrape your car off, 'cause you start brushing into places you've already brushed. I was glad I had two pairs of gloves. I wore them both at once. They kept my hands warm.
I would, actually, like to make the following comments on the shampoo I bought though it turns out I didn't need to: It is coconut-scented, and I am so much happier about that than I have any right to be, 'cause c'mon, it's only coconut shampoo. I should not be this happy about smelling like Hook's Lagoon in Darien Lake. 'Cause that is exactly what this stuff smells like. But I am, for some unfathomable reason, ecstatic.
Plus Lily helped me get my hair into pigtails. So I am having a massively good hair day, which happens like once bimonthly, so I imagine my hair will be crap from now until Ocean Bowl, but whatever. ::laughs::
For honors we are making a Christmas log, which is basically a glorified Ho-Ho. ::shrugs:: Hey, why not?
The department is taking a trip to **my home city** tomorrow, and I cannot go because I cannot afford to miss honors class again. So I miss A Christmas Carol and Thai food and Krispy Kreme. Then again, I get to be in choir and honors, and it will be John's birthday. These are happy things.
...I have to sing a song, solo, when I try out for Fiddler. I have never sung a solo song in all my life. I mean, okay, I've done solos within songs, chorus songs, but I have never had a solo lasting more than ten seconds. And now I need one that's like two minutes, accompanied. I am the child who was never even in All-County, much less SoloFest.
So I appealed to John for help: I have never sung a solo and I need to make it look to Luanne and Steve like I've done dozens of them, and I need to learn this by mid-January so that I can convince them that I make a better Chava than all the people who really *have* sung dozens of solos. I need help. I need a Finch.
A major hurrah for John, who replied, I'll help you. Like, c'mon, he's already helped Terra out on stuff; he must at least sort of know how to teach. ...So I wonder if I get to cite him as voice lessons from now until I graduate. ::laughs::
Goodness knows we'll have to do it soon, though: I get out of here on the 17th and I have tryouts basically the day after I come back.
But yeah. Randomness, as always. Time for some honors homework.
-Laurel
Yesterday's adventure was scraping off my car so I could take it to Wal-Mart to get things like, say, toothpaste, which I believe I left at home. ...Of course, I thought I'd left my shampoo at home and after I bought some new shampoo I found the old bottle, but that's not the point. The point is that when every surface on your car is coated with between four and five inches of snow, it takes a while to brush and scrape your car off, 'cause you start brushing into places you've already brushed. I was glad I had two pairs of gloves. I wore them both at once. They kept my hands warm.
I would, actually, like to make the following comments on the shampoo I bought though it turns out I didn't need to: It is coconut-scented, and I am so much happier about that than I have any right to be, 'cause c'mon, it's only coconut shampoo. I should not be this happy about smelling like Hook's Lagoon in Darien Lake. 'Cause that is exactly what this stuff smells like. But I am, for some unfathomable reason, ecstatic.
Plus Lily helped me get my hair into pigtails. So I am having a massively good hair day, which happens like once bimonthly, so I imagine my hair will be crap from now until Ocean Bowl, but whatever. ::laughs::
For honors we are making a Christmas log, which is basically a glorified Ho-Ho. ::shrugs:: Hey, why not?
The department is taking a trip to **my home city** tomorrow, and I cannot go because I cannot afford to miss honors class again. So I miss A Christmas Carol and Thai food and Krispy Kreme. Then again, I get to be in choir and honors, and it will be John's birthday. These are happy things.
...I have to sing a song, solo, when I try out for Fiddler. I have never sung a solo song in all my life. I mean, okay, I've done solos within songs, chorus songs, but I have never had a solo lasting more than ten seconds. And now I need one that's like two minutes, accompanied. I am the child who was never even in All-County, much less SoloFest.
So I appealed to John for help: I have never sung a solo and I need to make it look to Luanne and Steve like I've done dozens of them, and I need to learn this by mid-January so that I can convince them that I make a better Chava than all the people who really *have* sung dozens of solos. I need help. I need a Finch.
A major hurrah for John, who replied, I'll help you. Like, c'mon, he's already helped Terra out on stuff; he must at least sort of know how to teach. ...So I wonder if I get to cite him as voice lessons from now until I graduate. ::laughs::
Goodness knows we'll have to do it soon, though: I get out of here on the 17th and I have tryouts basically the day after I come back.
But yeah. Randomness, as always. Time for some honors homework.
-Laurel