The Year In Review

Time to say goodbye to 2009!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Dyed my hair purple. Turned 18.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No! I never do. But that doesn’t really stop me from trying, or coming up with new ones! I never learn, I guess. My big one for the year is:
♥ Whenever I’m sad, to just stop being sad and start being awesome.
Okay, maybe that’s a quote from Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother fame, but it still holds true.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope, but 2009 has been the year of celebrity and character deaths. My favorite bands broke up and I get a little mopey about that, but that’s not really the same thing.

5. What countries did you visit?
None! I’m quite boring. But I moved to Philadelphia for college, and have gone to New York and Boston. It’s been exciting, I’ve never been on the East Coast before!

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A single! No, I’m kidding, I love my roommate, she’s like a perpetual explosion of energy. A jetsetting summer would be ace though.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Oh no, I don’t remember anything! I remember my first day at Bryn Mawr and how completely terrified I was, and how extremely determined I was to not show it. (Caroline, Jess, you were and continue to be lifesavers.) I think I’ll always remember Thanksgiving, that was by far the best holiday I’ve had in years. Thanks, guys, for being awesome.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting into college! Sometimes I think about making it this far and I get a little dizzy. The only thing that makes me feel better is thinking about how much further I have to go. Honestly, I’m not ready to leave the nice, safe arms of academia. (Oh dear.)

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not updating this blog. No, no. I fell behind on health. I’m super unhealthy and it’s making me really unhappy. I can’t wait to get back to college and start walking again.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I was super sick for the beginning of the school year. Not fun!

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?
A new life! I had to do so much shopping for college and with everything I bought it really did feel like I was picking things out for a life of my own. Silly!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Everyone’s!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
No one’s.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Books, makeup, clothes. Same place it always goes, I’m dreadfully shallow. Not to mention: textbooks eat my soul.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Leaving. Returning.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
The cover that Glee did of Don’t Stop Believin’. The pilot for that show aired and the internet exploded (in love or hate, whichever)!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? The former.
b) fatter or skinner? The former.
c) richer or poorer? The latter. Oh no!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Writing! Hanging out with the people I love.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinating. Hanging out with the people I don’t love.

20. How do you plan to spend Christmas?
For 2010? I might spend the winter holiday at Bryn Mawr, I’m not too sure yet. I like being home, but I’m outgrowing the place (literally! there’s no place for me to live here).

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No, not really. But it’s kickstarted what will be an amaing 2010, I am super positive.

22. How many one night stands?
None!

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Castle, definitely. I love Beckett and Castle’s dynamic duo.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope. I’ve learned how to avoid people who I don’t like, and try to hang out with people I DO like! Life is much more pleasant that way.

25. What was the best book you read?
Oh god, I’ve fallen behind on reading. Hmm. Maybe Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Lady Gaga! I’m not too sure if she counts since EVERYONE knows her, but her albums make my head explode with sheer glee. I want to be her one day and assume the title of Queen No Pants!

27. What did you want and get?
Everything, but still not enough. That’s what 2010’s going to be for!

28. What did you want and not get?
Nothing! I’m quite spoiled, haha.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Jennifer’s Body. Gross, I know! But it made me laugh and no other movie has been as fun for me.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 18 and I had two parties! One at college, where I was showered with candy and went out to dinner with my friends. The other was with a good friend at home, where we and a lot of friends ate some delicious Korean BBQ.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Time management for sure!

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Purple. Lots of purple.

33. What kept you sane?
My friends. The internet. Books on people who’re more insane than I am. Certain songs. And a lot of hair dye.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Pshh…what a tawdry question. But I’ll answer it anyway. Lady Gaga, who I didn’t really get until I saw the video for Bad Romance – and then I was gone. She is my very favorite celebrity ever!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Prop 8 and its fallouts and backlashes. I know, it’s a 2008 issue, but there’ve been lots of things going on this year to do with gay rights.

36. Who do you miss?
Oh god, so many people! Now that we’re in college, all my friends have scattered everywhere. I guess it’s good then that we appreciate the time we have together during vacations.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Ooh, what a loaded question. All the people I met at Bryn Mawr! They’ve all been uniformly fabulous and amazing.

38. What was the best thing you ate?
This amazing sushi. But Thanksgiving came pretty close. Some of the foods were weird but it was wonderful to eat with my friends instead of the usually awkward affairs that holiday dinners are with my family.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009?
There are other people who are real. Remember that and you’ll never be alone.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
You’re gonna go far, kid, BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Weekly Resolutions

All right, so this is something new I’m starting for myself, though you are of course welcome to join in. I was sitting around, fiddling with my pens and most pointedly not doing homework, when I realized that 2009 is almost over – and that’s a post in and of itself – and I haven’t kept any of my New Year’s resolutions, to absolutely no one’s surprise. Well, year-long resolutions are hard, especially some of mine, which were, now that I think about it, ridiculous. Lose twenty pounds? Stop procrastinating? I might as well try and fly to the moon, amirite?

But it is nice to have something to work towards. So I’ve decided to start making weekly resolutions, to be posted every Sunday night. I’m a bit of a flake, which is why it’s good for me to have some structure to keep me on task, otherwise I’ll be off chasing jellyfish with a butterfly net.

(Did anyone get that reference?)

(Why yes, I am a complete and total dork.)

Anyway, this is making me really excited – good sign! – so cross your fingers for me, mmk?

♥ Post at least four times a week.
This blog is still relatively new for me, so when anything’s new and just starting, you have to push yourself to stay on top of things! Otherwise, it’ll just fall by the wayside and languish in a corner, gathering dust…kind of like what happened to this blog during senior year.

♥ Wake up at 6:00 AM every day (barring weekends).
I know this sounds crazy – it sounds crazy to me! – since I am, after all, a lazy, lazy college student, but waking up early is important to me because I hate, hate feeling rushed and I like to take my time with things. Plus I work the breakfast shift two days out of the week, and if I want to get to those on time, I need to get into the habit of waking up early.

♥ Go to bed by midnight every day (barring weekends).
Ties into the above, because what’s even more important to me is sleeping enough. It’s no good to wake up early feeling like an extra from Night of the Living Dead.

♥ Dress less like I’m in high school again.
Not to knock high school, but those whole four years, I was enormously lazy about getting dressed and relied on T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. But now that I’m more certain about my own style and attitude towards fashion, I always feel like such a slob in that combination, especially at Bryn Mawr, where so many women dress so gorgeously. I firmly believe that your style should be a reflection of your personality and self, and, well, Threadless T-shirts aren’t me anymore. (What a shame, too – I still think they’re super cute! Maybe I’ll find a way to dress them up a bit…sounds a bit like something I could post.)

♥ NaNoWriMo!!!
I’m definitely doing NaNoWriMo this year and I’m off to a good start (2000 words on my first day!) and I want to stay on top of my word count without falling behind my school work. NaNoWriMo is such a good experience for me, I always feel so amazing when I turn in my word count. For me writing is definitely therapeutic, and I want to make writing a habit, not just a hobby, so NaNo will definitely be a great way to do that.

And, finally…

♥ Be more of a friend.
Like a lot of people, I am incredibly lazy when it comes to long-distance friendships, and while the long distance in question here might just be the distance from my dorm to theirs, effort is definitely needed. I love the people in my hall and my customs group to bits, but next year I won’t be living right next door to them. Plus my dorm doesn’t have all the cool people (just most).

Make some resolutions of your own, lovies, and tell me all about them.

Muchos ♥,
your friendly neighborhood supergoddess

NaNoWriMo

Hello lovies, hopefully everyone had a fun, safe, and scary Halloween! I myself watched The Shining, which was every bit as scary as promised, though I found it somewhat less scary than other people did because I spent about half the movie with a scarf over my head and my hands over my eyes. I have the spine of a jellyfish, guys. Also, I was not expecting frozen Jack Nicholson, but it’s like the Spanish Inquisition – no one ever does.

Heeeere's Johnny!

In any case, Halloween is over, everyone’s packed away their costumes, and everyone’s looking forward to Thanksgiving. I’m going to be traveling (on a bus! for the very first time!) to MIT to stay with some friends. I don’t know what we’re going to do in Boston, but I promise to keep this blog muy muy updated with news.

But what else is going on in November?

As a lot of bloggers, writers, and general Internet people know, November 1^st is when people start the process of GOING CRAZY.

How do I mean that?

Well, November 1^st is the beginning of NaNoWriMo. It’s been around for so long that it doesn’t seem to need much introduction anymore, but the basic rundown is this: people sign up on the website to write 50,000 words of whatever they want. 50,000 words. FIFTY. THOUSAND. WORDS. If they finish by the end of the month, they get a badge. And, all right, some pride in having written a novella of dubious quality. It is a lot of fun, it’s just extremely crazy. About midway through, the writer (aka ME) usually looks something like this:

Image from Writertopia

I really enjoy NaNoWriMo because, all madness aside, it’s a great way to just sit down and write. Like, forget all that nattering on about quality over quantity – if you want to write, you have to be able to write. You can worry about being the great literary genius of your generation once you’ve written The End in an enormous flourish. Usually most major cities have weekly get-togethers where NaNo-ers sit down in a coffee shop somewhere and write in a group. A lot of professional authors – Maureen Johnson, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbastier, to name a few – are giving out tips and advice, since their lives are essentially one long, never-ending NaNoWriMo session.

So scoot on over to the website and sign up!

Muchos ♥,
your friendly neighborhood supergoddess

How To Make A Halloween Costume: Weetzie Bat

Happy Goth Christmas everyone!  The leaves are orange, the pumpkins are being lobotomized, & Jack Skellington might come knocking on your door.

What's this?

I kicked off Halloween last night with Nightmare Before Christmas (directed by Henry Selick of Coraline fame) with a few friends. One girl was working on her costume – she’s ringing in Halloween by going as a Cheshire Cat mental asylum escapee. Purple-striped straitjacket? FABULOUS. I am super envious of her ability to sew. (Tonight I up the scary with The Shining & Silence of the Lambs. If I don’t have nightmares, I will be super disappointed!)

We're all mad here.

I stopped trick-or-treating a few years ago when I got too old to be greeted at doors with anything other than skepticism & frowns. Without the prospect of candy, a lot of my friends are sitting this Halloween out – they’re too busy, too tired, or don’t have anything to go as. Ludicrous!  I used to be one of them – too lazy, too bored, plus it didn’t help that in high school Halloween almost inevitably fell on a Monday night. But it’s easy to throw together a costume with just the contents of your wardrobe, no expense needed – especially in college, where you have access to not only your closet, but the closets of your roommate(s) and friends!

Go as a favorite character. When I was little I loved Francesca Lia Block’s books, in particular I Was A Teenage Fairy, but I always adored Witch Baby & her crazy mother Weetzie Bat. I considered going as Weetzie Bat for some time but realized I was too lazy even for that (whoops), but here’s a quick & easy costume:

Weetzie Bat by neighborhoodsupergoddess featuring Marc by Marc Jacobs accessories

Ingredients:

• One (1) dress. I used my altered prom dress because it’s a deep shade of shimmery blue. Weetzie wears 50’s style taffeta dresses, but this was the closest I could get. I also printed out lines from Francesa Lia Block’s books. Weetzie writes poetry in glitter on her dress but if you don’t want to ruin your dress, consider safety pinning lines into your dress. Get crazy & creative – make designs, get subtle, get awesome.
• One (1) pair of boots. Weetzie wears cowboy boots but since I didn’t have those, I borrowed my friend’s.
• Bleach/dye. This bit is optional, but if you don’t mind dying your hair, head to your nearest CVS & scoop up some cheap bleach. You might want to buy toner too, just in case.
• One (1) pair of Lolita sunglasses.  No one I knew had these, but I borrowed some enormous, red sunglasses from another friend & stuck them on my head.
• White/silver eye shadow. Dust it over your eyelids. On your cheeks. On your lips. EVERYWHERE.
• Accessories. This is totally up to you – Weetzie Bat is a bit crazy, which means you can be as crazy as you want. Things that dangle, jangle, & chime. Things that sparkle. Things you wish you could wear every day – well tonight, you can.

Throw it all together the day of. Zip up your boots, throw your shoulders back & your chin up. Go forth & be awesome, & maybe you’ll find your Secret Agent Lover Man.

Muchos ♥,

your friendly neighborhood supergoddess

Advice for the College Freshman

Oh my, it has been a long time. This blog has faded even further into obscurity, & I’ve forgotten how to write posts.

Catching up on my life: I’ve long since graduated from high school and am happily settled in as a member of the Class of 2013 at Bryn Mawr College. I embarrassed myself in front of my entire graduating class & their parents, went skinny-dipping in the cloisters (but failed, because there was no water), & dyed my hair purple. I’ve slept in my underwear in a pile of girls (the joys of an all-women’s college…) & had my first big embarrassing crush on an upperclassman! Two, actually – I’m ahead of the curve.

What I’m doing now: Getting ready for Halloween, yoga, 6 AM wakeups, making friends, eating ice cream until my stomach bursts.

All of this is fairly unimportant of course – the real purpose of this blog, started only ten posts & a few years ago, was to talk about senior year & hold onto memories. Well, I kind of failed miserably at that, but I don’t want to give up this blog entirely, since I do enjoy talking (& talking & talking…).

So I thought I’d start today by talking about college. Transitioning into college can be a big, scary thing, whether you live a few miles or a few days away. Me, I come from California, so I’ve travelled over 5000 miles to Bryn Mawr &, no lie, it’s been a little freaky.

Most colleges offer free counseling services. Use them. Everyone needs someone to talk to, someone who they don’t see in social situations who they can tell all sorts of embarrassing, personal things. (I’m something of an oversharer myself.) Even if you think you’re totally fine & healthy, it doesn’t matter, because one day you might not be; one day, you might just need someone outside to talk to, & you’re going to need a starting point. If you’re not comfortable with the counselor you’re seeing, find someone else – counseling sessions are a free ticket to focusing completely & totally on yourself. Be as self-centered & indulgent as you want, because it will only help you in the long run.

Freshmen year is super important for making friends. I’m not saying that you’ll meet your platonic lover on the first day, or that who you’re joined with at the hip now is who you’re going to be sharing BFF rings with at the end of the year, but don’t start the year off in your room. Put yourself out there. Smile a lot. Be sincere, even if it’s hard. Be friendly & helpful. Leave your metaphorical & literal doors open*.

But at the same time, if you’re anything like me, getting your own space is a high, high priority. Roommates can make your room louder or busier than you might like, & you’ve gotta find some time to sit back, kick off your fabulous heels, & chill. My roommate has class at 11 AM, so I eat lunch in my room with the door closed while listening to my iPod or watching a movie. Go for long walks – they’ll help you decompress & prevent the horrors of the freshman fifteen (which has recently been upgraded to the freshman fifty!).

Decorate. Part of having your own space is that it has to be about you. Maybe you & your roommate have totally opposite tastes, in which case you can take secret glee in making your respective halves look as different as possible. I have Johnny Depp & Ed Norton; she’s got rainbow-colored ducks & crazy flowers. It doesn’t have to be only your room too – I bought a cute planner from working class studio at the beginning of the summer, & I’ve been drawing in it all year & writing myself quotes that make me smile. Have some fun with yourself.

I leave you all with one of my favorite quotes which I’m trying to apply to the whole of my college experience, not to mention my life:

Be strong; believe in freedom & in God; love yourself; understand your sexuality; have a sense of humor; masturbate; don’t judge people by their religion, color, or sexual habits; love life & your family.

♥, Madonna

Muchos ♥,
your friendly neighborhood supergoddess

* if you’re having trouble with this, you might want to try reading Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends And Influence People. He uses this primarily for business, but it’s incredibly helpful on a daily interaction level too.

A new post? Surely you must be joking!

One day someone tapped my shoulder and said, “Hey, I read your blog, but you haven’t updated in a while. What’s up with that?”

Okay, this never happened. But the point stands! I have been sorely negligent when it comes to updating. I could say that this is because I have been super busy with senior year but, truthfully, senioritis has descended upon me.

Not that it entirely matters, because the next two weeks are APs and, after that, graduation! For those of you who are interested, I will be attending Bryn Mawr as a member of the class of 2013, and may I just say that my college pwns yours?

Yes, I think I will. My college pwns yours.

So I thought I’d wrap up senior year by talking about…myself. What a surprise, right?

To sum up my childhood: I was raised as an only child. As everyone knows, only children get…creative when it comes to entertaining themselves. I made up stories and gained a reputation for being a bit of a liar. (A bit, she says.) I was married to the Sea Ghost and had a swimming pool in the backyard filled with sharks, bears, and tigers. To this day I cannot believe that people actually thought those were true.

To sum up my adolescent years: I wore a lot of eyeliner and shopped at Hot Topic. I only wish I were kidding. I also thought that wearing cat ears to school was “cute” and “edgy” instead of “lame” and “mildly creepy.” Never make that mistake, kids. (There are people in my school still making that mistake, only instead of cat ears they wear bunny ears, and instead of Hot Topic they wear pastel hoop skirts with lace. Sometimes pastel hoop skirts with lace are awesome! The places where they are not awesome, however, include: schools, cafeterias, and malls.)

I suppose I should talk about college and how different it will be, and how many things I’ll miss about high school. I should probably impart tips on how to survive high school, how to manage your time during senior year. The thing is, I don’t really know how to feel about college, I’ve hated high school, and any advice I have to give has to be learned firsthand.

No one knows who they’re going to be in the future – at most we have only a vague glimpse, an idea or desire. The only thing that I really can say is that I believe – truly, honestly believe – that it’s a mistake to go into college wanting to be a doctor, engineer, lawyer, writer, physicist, artist, or whatever. I believe that college is a time for experimentation, where you learn more about who you are and who you want to be. I believe that the only thing people can ever really want to be is to be happy.

I want to write in the future. I want to take pictures and have pictures taken. I want to save a life and hurt someone and be saved and hurt in turn. I want to be a shitty cook and set something on fire by accident and fall in love and get my heart broken and break someone else’s. I want to work at an animal hospital, I want to make my own jewelry, I want to get into fashion one way or another. I want to be in a shitty garage band and talk about finding myself. I want to draw and get paid for being an artist, I want someone to tell me everything I’ve already known about myself. I want to be surprised; I want to be disappointed. I want to open a cafe and run a used book store and be a librarian.

I believe ultimately that we are too young to stop dreaming and that we are old enough to start doing.

Muchos ♥,
your friendly neighborhood supergoddess

The LA Adventures of Crazy Girl and Tall Lady: Day 1

Hey guys! Just came back from a FANTASTIQUE trip to LA filled with a certain amount of craziness and quite a bit of fail on the parts of everyone involved, as every good trip should be.

It all started last Wednesday, when my good friend Kero turned to me and asked oh so innocently if I should like to accompany her to LA.

All right, thought I. This sounds like good fun. How much trouble can two teenage girls get into, all by themselves in a major city?

So I inquired as to when we would be leaving.

Friday, responded she. As soon as school ends.

…all right, I said. I’ll go ask.

To my surprise my mom agreed to have Kero drive me down and back to LA. She asked no questions about where we were going to stay, what we were going to eat, and what we were going to do. She handed me $100 and told me not to spend all of it.

And so it began!

Day 1: There Is A Lot Of Driving

Kero and I set out on our road trip filled with hope, anticipation, and with no idea of how long six hours in a car really was.

Kero was smart, glamorous, and brought a duffle bag and a sleeping bag. I was…less so, and brought a rolling backpack, a backpack, and a sleeping bag. This is because I am not the worldly traveler she is, and am not as accustomed to this phenomenon of “packing light.” (All your things! For three days! In one bag! How is this accomplished?)

We promptly got caught in traffic and Kero got a chance to exercise her road rage. Outside of the car she is a tall, well-mannered, polite 18-year old girl. Inside of the car she is a screaming, foul-mouthed speed freak with her legs scrunched into a too small space. She is still less screaming and foul-mouthed than I am on days when I don’t sleep enough, which explains a good deal about our friendship.

We finally hit I-5. Kero practiced her dodging and weaving skills. I fell asleep and woke up again to her frantically hitting my hand telling me not to sleep.

At some point we were invaded by a foul smell that accompanies Cow Land, which goes by another name but is called Cow Land simply because it is filled with…cows. Lots of them. Standing right next to each other in a giant paddock, with a smell that never goes away.

It was also really dark and Kero and I discovered that two girls with terrible night vision added together does not equal one sensible-minded girl with good night vision. It does, however, equal lots of swerving and squinting and trying to see if there’s a truck up ahead.

I talked a great deal about a blue car that was on the road with us. I called it the Alien Car. I sat in the passenger seat very quietly and thought about how if we ever needed a spaceship, we could just take that car, because that was clearly an Alien Shade of Blue with odd Red Headlights that made it appear as if it had four very shiny red eyes and a certain smugness about its face that smacked of extraterrestrial superiority.

…it was a long drive.

We stopped for dinner at a fast food place. We stretched our legs and surreptitiously checked to see if our butts had somehow taken on the shape of the car seat. I discovered that time spent in a car is not, in fact, real time; it is in fact a separate dimension of its own, where each hour is simultaneously 3 hours longer and half an hour shorter. And it is also a dimension where you cannot move.

We managed to find UCLA. We did not, however, manage to find Justin’s dorm, and ended up calling Alex Jo. Justin gave us directions on where to go; Alex Jo told us not to move on the pain of death.

Clearly there was some conflict.

In any case it was raining so hard in LA that there were little puddles of water going up with every rain drop, and students could be seen with their backpacks under their ponchos, making it appear to my fevered brain that there were neon-colored turtles walking upright on the campus.

It was not one of my shining moments of intellectual prowess.

We looked out the (blurry) window and talked about how bad we felt for Alex Jo, that he had to walk around and find us in the pouring rain! We would have towels, we would have sympathy, we would have undying gratitude.

At this point Alex Jo pulled up in his warm, dry, expensive, tiny little car and told us to follow him.

In the middle of showing us where his parking garage was, he stopped on a hill to talk with a friend. Kero and I, huddled together in her car, did not hear the conversation as they stood out in the pouring rain, but I imagine it went something like this:

ALEX JO: ‘Sup.
FRIEND: There are two crazy girls in that car who are following you.
ALEX JO: Yeah, don’t look them in the eye. They can smell fear; they’re kind of like dogs that way. Dogs that never go away. Do they look really cold?
FRIEND: I think they’re turning blue.
ALEX JO: Great, let’s stand out here a while longer. How’s the weather?
FRIEND: Wet.

Alex Jo showed us to a parking garage.

“Park here,” he said, and pointed to a spot that said in very large letters: TOWAWAY SPOT; ADMINISTRATION ONLY.

“Wait, really?” Kero said.

“Yes,” Alex Jo said.

We parked, got out, and noted that it said, in tiny letters as if someone were hoping for us to miss it: Mon – Fri 6 AM to 5 PM only.

“Oh!” I said. “That would be why.”

“Yeah,” Alex Jo said. “Your parking sucks, Kero.”

“It does not,” Kero said.

I was forced to agree: yes, it in fact did suck. The car was, to be precise, sideways.

Alex Jo reparked Kero’s car for her. There was the implication that every single person he knew who also knew us would hear of this. Kero resigned herself to a lifetime of mocking.

He then took us up to his apartment where we discovered that he had his own bathroom, shower, and not one bed but two.

I thought about how Kero and I were going to be crammed into a tiny dorm room with four other people and resisted the urge to throttle him with my bare hands and move into his apartment.

We sat around and talked. Justin called us at some point asking if we were going to show up; we replied that of course we were! Hedrick Hall, yes?

Alex Jo’s instructions went something like this.

ALEX JO: Turn right, follow the street to its end, and then cross the street.
ME: Got it!
ALEX JO: Then go up Rape Trail.
KERO AND ME: …..
ALEX JO: Oh, don’t worry, no one gets raped anymore there. It’s really well-lit.

Kero immediately demonstrated her directional ability by turning left out of the building instead of the right. I stood there and watched her go in the wrong direction for a bit.

Then we made our way to Justin’s dorm. We did not get raped on Rape Trail, in case anyone was wondering.

At the front desk we signed in. Justin was calm and collected and blase. Kero stood there like a beautiful Amazon with one stylish duffle bag and a sleeping bag. I stood there like a panting, red-faced pug attached to a rolling backpack.

THE LADY’S EXPRESSION: And…why are two teenage girls visiting a college boy? With their overnight bags?
ME: /looks extraordinarily guilty. and red-faced.

Justin’s roommates welcomed us! There were also two other girls on the bed. Kero and I were assigned to the floor.

His roommates did not sleep until 3, which meant that we could not sleep until 3. Then they woke up at 5, and although they tried to be quiet, it also meant that we woke up at 5. At least we got to go back to sleep.

And thus ended the first day of our trip!

Don’t Call It “Stuff”

shoes, fashion bag, eye, and Audrey Hepburn come from Flickr, not me. if you wish for me to remove one of your images, please contact me and i’ll do so. Death (girl on the righthand side) was found through Google, and belongs to Neil Gaiman.

“Melody, what is this?” you ask. “You promised to document senior year with faith, truth, and honesty, yet weeks go by between each post, and those weeks are filled with silence. How can we live without your wonderful witticisms, your scintillating snark, your incredible English?”

That is because, dear reader, when it comes to updates and blogs, senior year is filled with radio silence.

“That’s okay,” you say. “We don’t really need you anyway. You’re not that interesting. No one reads this blog anyway.”

I’m sorry, I can’t quite hear you over the cheering of my loyal fans.

As the first semester of senior year draws to a close, I felt that it was time to share several observations that I’ve made. Everyone loves them.

• Disney lies. High school is not a time of eternal auditions, random outbursts of song, basketball stars, and dancing in the rain. SATs exist and they are deadly. Colleges do not beg for your attendance, unless your name is indeed Troy Bolton, in which case you should probably avoid being photographed in a sex shop.
• Your college counselor is lying to you. You do not have the 4.6 GPA, the sixteen APs, the 400 hours of community service, and the 10 extracurriculars. You will never go to any college except a community college, and you will die alone and friendless, shivering in a box with tame rats all around you.
• Your teachers do not care about how many college apps you need to work on because you should have done them during the summer. They will assign you research essays, they will assign you 60-page readings, they will assign you cumulative tests. And they do not care if you cry.

So in conclusion: do not trust Disney, do not trust your college counselor, and do not trust your teachers.

Trust only in me, your friendly neighborhood supergoddes

Chronicles of a High School Senior

Friday night I tucked myself into bed, planning a day full of productivity and writing the next day. I planned to have all my college applications at least drafted by Monday, which meant that this weekend I had to write 7 to 8 essays on why _____ was my dream college.

“No problem!” I told myself. “I’ll just cancel Art class in the morning and work all day. It’ll be great. It won’t be like last time, when I woke up at noon and spent about six hours reading blogs.”

At this point my mom told me to stop talking to myself and sleep already.

Saturday Morning, 9 AM

I woke up, grabbed my phone, and told my art teacher that I wouldn’t be able to make it that day or on Monday, but would instead come on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to make up for it.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I understand. College is very important.”

“Excellent!” I said. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

I hung up the phone. At this point the dinosaurs came in through the wall, but I turned over and went back to sleep.

At 10, my phone rang.

“Where are you?” my art teacher asked. “You’re late.”

“Didn’t I call?” I mumbled into the phone. “I’m not coming today.”

“No, you didn’t call,” he said. “Why?”

“College applications are eating me alive.”

“No they aren’t,” he said briskly. “But you sound asleep. I guess it’s too late for you to get here. You should have called.”

“I did!” I protested. “I called at 9, I was responsible.”

“No one was in at 9,” he told me. “Go back to sleep. You sound like a crazy person.”

I told him about the phone call. I told him what he had said. I told him about the dinosaurs. It was at this point I realized that dinosaurs do not normally come through the walls of suburban homes, and admitted that maybe I had dreamed it up after all.

I attempted to go back to sleep. Note how there was by now a little bit less than two hours to noon. I could sleep until 11 AM! That completely counted as getting up early.

“Wake up,” my mom said at 10:15 AM. “Go walk the dog. Why are you still asleep?”

I pointed out how it was now vacation, that it was Saturday morning, that I was exercising my rights as a seventeen year old to sleep in.

She pointed out how it was 10:15 AM and I had promised to walk Max, and that it wasn’t her fault that I had chosen to sleep at 3 AM, and that Max needed to pee. When I looked over the foot of my bed, Max was indeed sitting there with his “I need to pee” face on.

Saturday Afternoon, 12:30 PM

I came to the conclusion that what I really needed was a way to organize the notecards for my novel. If I was going to be the next great American novelist by the time I was twenty, then clearly I would need some way to keep track of all my brilliant ideas. Some of these brilliant ideas looked something like this:

D + W’s parents had a TORRID LOVE AFFAIR when they were young! Now Mom is setting off to find Dad’s killer and abandoning her children! Shame, Mom, shame. BANANAS ARE IMPORTANT. BREAKFAST!!!!

Please remember that I wrote some of these at 2 AM. Bananas and breakfast are indeed mentioned in the novel.

I finally managed to get to Office Depot and buy a pretty blue notecard organizer. I then managed to spend about twenty minutes writing up dividers for the sections and organizing my notecards into something logical.

“There!” I declared. “Now I can really get to work on my college applications!”

For the next four hours, I read Maureen Johnson’s blog. Everyone should read her blog; she is witty and clever and hilarious and charming, and she is rapidly becoming my hero. People should not read her blog when they should be writing essays.

Saturday Afternoon, 4:30 PM

“So I’m watching the season finale of Merlin,” said Lily Jones. Her real name is not “Lily Jones” and has very little to do with either lilies or Joneses. “It is great, I want to tell you all about it.”

“Hush your wittering, woman,” I said sternly. “I am working very hard on my college essays! This blog is absolutely fascinating, how did I ever manage to survive without a dose of Maureen Johnson’s wonderful commentary every few weeks. My life was sad and desolate without her, and so is your life. I should link you to it right now.”

“You said that about Merlin,” Lily Jones said.

“Colin Morgan is a fine, fine man,” I said. “I like his ears.”

“Let me rant at you,” Lily Jonesl said. “I need to share my love of Merlin.”

At this point, realization struck.

(a) It was 4:30 PM
(b) I had yet to even open up a blank Word document
(c) I had to write the outline for a research paper
(d) The outline was due yesterday

“I cannot talk now!” I yelped. “I must write! My teacher will cut my head off and bury it ten feet from my body and salt my bones and burn them!”

“What, at the same time?” Lily Jones asked.

“Yes,” I said and signed off of AIM.

Saturday Afternoon, 5:00 PM

I read more of Maureen Johnson’s blog. Neither outlines nor essays were being written.

I wish this were an isolated occurence, but it really, truly, is not. I am a procrastinating fool who is absolutely fascinated by the online phenomenon of the blog, and cannot tear myself away when I find someone who is fantastic and intelligent and funny. It will be my downfall, I am sure.

Will I ever write my college essays? Or will the Procrastinator get me tomorrow! Stay tuned…