the girl

S's dad drove me home from R's house (it was Movie Night - we watched Disturbia) and S's dad always makes him get out of the car to walk girls to their door, even though we're just friends. So we got to my house, and S walked me up. I rang the doorbell a couple times, but no one answered and the inside was totally dark. So I had to go in through the garage, while his dad drove beside me.

I feel like the girl in the movies, the girl who comes from the wrong side of the tracks with an unsatisfactory homelife, and the boy is the one with the good family. Mikayla from Transformers and MJ from Spiderman are good examples of this girl.

I know that this isn't an accurate description of my life at all. My parents are at a bat mitzvah, V is at a football game, and N is at a party. But still, with S's dad there, that's what it felt like. I dunno. Everyone will be home in an hour or so, but for now, I'm MJ.

what summer '07 was made of

Listening to: Nothing, this subject line comes from my own head, for once.

Summer '07 was the best summer I've had in all 14 years of my life. I bring you a list of what it was for me:

Baseball games, jeans on hot days, Nutrigrain bars, Harry Potter Party Hopping, Mitchell's, wandering, Boobsketballers, manicures, tan lines, summer gym, Linda Atwood, dinosaur sprinkles, surprise parties, everyone else's love lives, lots of playgrounds, Legacy, ice cream sandwiches, all roads lead to Mitchell's/Border's, the Once and Future King, the Shins, "I want Harry to die", the Office, stalking, stray cats, Golem!, band tee shirts, long walks, boy's houses, What Ori Thinks, the Bunch Up Bandit, Bloody Mary, "It was a double date, but I didn't have a date", staved fingers, limited correspondence, late nights, AIM, Double D, the Handbag Queen, subtle hints, not so subtle hints, I Was Drugged and Left For Dead In Mexico and All I Got Was This Stupid Tee Shirt, DIY, adventuring, avoiding work in the garden, sleeping in late, no breakfast, Vitamin Water, new obsessions, my haircut, V left for college, couting coins, Hot Rod, stale popcorn, A's my slave, we're not cut out for the great outdoors, Papa John's, oh it's so gloomy, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity", Butt-Lien, trampolines, barbeques, the great travelling iPod, soccer camps, the Date Babysitter, Seven Days and a Morning, free Chipotle, money!, "pause...not", Keane, School Spirit Isn't That Great, we're pathetic, spin it, Bedazzling: the Craft of Cults, kickass, shiny/masterly/killin'/pinin'/of polish descent, clubbing French kids, second base before first, lawlz, "I don't value their opinions", I Am McLovin', Keep The Powder Dry and Suffer No Fools, running into teachers is majorly awkward, Pink Floyd Is Deep, does anyone really care?, Pip, waterguns, book parties, cutting it close, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, She's Not Moving, "why is that weird smoker kid following us?", Shoeman, Willis, our one stomping routine, Cupcake Escape, actually forgetting what people look like, why some people REALLY need haircuts...

I'll finish this up later. I don't expect anyone to get it, and I don't think my friends will get all of it. It's mostly for me, anyways. Feel free to make guess, though.

are you a believer?

Listening to: Gimme Some Motivation by Delta Spirit

Well, I'm supposed to be reading the last chapter in The Once and Future King, but my iPod was acting weird and I was going to post here, asking for help.

But apparently someone wants me to finish my reading (and then the chapter summaries), so when I plugged my iPod in, it actually responded. So my iPod problems are fixed. Damn. I wanted to pretend to be looking stuff up online and then get distracted by my blog and Facebook.

I finished the third chapter and read about three of the minichapters of chapter four, so I'm making progress. I need to finish chapter four by the end of the day, and then the summary for book four. See, I planned it all out in my trusty red notebook. Everyday leading up to Tuesday, the first day of school, has an activity for me to do.

I'm not nervous for high school. I'm mostly just excited, or at least happy that I'm out of the middle school. Oh, and it turns out that I'm going to the football game on Friday. J wanted me to go so she wouldn't be alone, and A2 and S2 (new character!) are going too. Bleh.

in the town and all around it's gloomy

Listening to: Gloomy by Matt Costa

I only just discovered Matt Costa, and what should be the iTunes Exclusive song but Gloomy? It fits perfectly.

Life in B Wood is terribly gloomy. It started on Saturday night, the night of the infamous School Spirit! pool party. The party wasn't all that great. It was freezing, there was no food (?), and only a few of my friends came. We left early to go to my friend K's house, since K is back from camp and her home has been redone.

DANG, is that girl lucky. Her room is so gorgeous. It was done of green, white, and black, and her closets are covered by black velvet curtains. She has a big screen TV with a green couch and a zebra print armchair. Soooo jealous. We watched High School Musical 2. Everyone yelled at me because I was laughing so much at Troy's song on the golf course. The reflection in the pond was a bit overdone, I think.

On Sunday, I went school shopping with my Dad. I had him take me all the way to Crocker Park, a big shopping center, because they have an Abercrombie Kids and that was the only place that fits me in jeans. (Well, jeans that are under 50 dollars.) I am now, sadly, too big for Abercrombie Kids. I went to Urban Outfitters, where their jeans are too long, but I came away with a black cord mini skirt and a tank top with blue, black, and pink stars in varying sizes. In a last ditch attempt for jeans, I went across the street to PacSun. I tried on 00 Short jeans and YESSSS they fit. I bought two, one dark wash, and the other a lighter color.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up my textbooks. Me and A2 counted, and I'll have three textbooks, and she'll have four. Haha, that sucker is taking Spanish. I got out of that, thank God.

the sky is falling down

Listening to: Colder by Travis

Blech. These past two days have been beyond boring. My friends should not have joined sports teams, because they leave me for two-a-days, while I sit and contemplate burning the Once and Future King. (My fantasy includes all my friend's copies, a bonfire, and primitive dancing.) Honestly, we should be burning that instead of Harry Potter. It's so much more dangerous. Has anyone ever felt the urge to stick sharp objects in their eyes while reading HP? I didn't think so.

I'm not entirely sure when school starts, which is not a good thing. I thought it was in a week, but apparently it's in two? I don't know. We have a freshman orientation next week, followed by a barbeque, followed by a football game, where we watch them get creamed. Again. (Last season's record was 0-10. We are quite pathetic.) Um, I don't love my school that much. I might just end up ditching after the barbeque if it's too hot or rainy or something. I'm not going to suffer for B Wood.

Also planned for school spirit activities: a pool party planned by the upperclassmen. Also not looking forward to this too much. I'm not going swimming, and I'll probably end up moving the party (at least my friends) over to my house, away from all that. I'm not one of those weird, antisocial outcasts (God, J is the class president), it's just that me and my friends have our own thing. Which does not include awkward pool parties.

the secrets that we keep

Listening to: Diane by Guster

cinderella, cinderella, she's my very kind of fella

Listening to: Cuntry Boys and City Girls by the Fratellis

Today was E's birthday. I had to go to Border's beforehand to get his present (Casino Royale, the James Bond movie), then my dad drove me over. The party was a ton of fun. E's mom was taking a few pictures with his camera, then I got it and took literally about 200 pictures. I told people that this was what I would be like when I had my own camera: Any time we went out, their every move would be documented. Doesn't that sound fun?!

In other news, all my friends are a bunch of superstitious wusses. A was telling us about something his friends at camp did, where you say "bloody mary" three times into a dark mirror, and a woman's face would appear. If you didn't turn on the lights, she would reach out through the mirror and grab you.

Right.

I said I would do it, and recruited S to do it with me. S and I stood in the bathroom with everyone else standing by the door, ready to flick on the lights if the woman reached out towards us. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, BLOODY MARY!" Nothing happened.

"In...your...face!" I cried, triumphant. A walked away, grumbling.

Later, A, E, and another friend A2 (her name also starts with A, so I guess I have to differentiate) shuffled into the same bathroom. Someone turned the lights off and A2 locked the door. We were all quiet for a second, until I screamed, "BLOODY MARY, BLOODY MARY, BLOODY MARY!" All of them screamed like little girls and fell all over themselves trying to unlock the door in the dark. On the way out, A told me that I was no longer a "decent person".

All in all, a good party.

it's all up in the air and we stand still to see what comes down

Listening to: She Is by the Fray

Another day of wandering in B Wood. I went to my friend J's house today. I can probably count the times I've seen her this summer on one hand - first she was at camp, then in South Africa, and now she's leaving for Vail. I filled her in on my adventure yesterday. R and S came over and we sat at the edge of her pool, just dipping our feet and avoiding getting splashed by her yellow Lab.

When J finally kicked us out to go catch her plane ride, R and I got a ride to Mitchell's, the ice cream place near my house. We were stopped by a woman who wanted to know if there were other ice cream places near there. I rambled off a list, listing two shopping centers where I knew you could get ice cream. We sat down with our ice cream (mint chocolate chunk for R, vanilla with hot fudge for me), and I saw the same woman in line. I later complained about it to R:

"That was kind of rude. She asked us for other ice cream places and then she just stayed at Mitchell's."

R: "No, I was kind of eavesdropping. She was meeting someone, I heard her say 'I thought we had the wrong place!'"

Oh. That makes more sense. It got me thinking though, about how you can just talk to someone or hear just one thing someone says and completely form an opinion about them. Me and my other friend S went on vacation together, and we did A LOT of eavesdropping, learning a lot. Like the blonde boy who always sat in front of us at the beach? His name was Michael and his mom's friend's name was Kathy. It's kind of creepy to be someone who listens in on conversations like that, but I have such an active imagination, I'm always forming reasons behind one sentence. Curse of being a writer, possibly?

i'm gonna love me, for the rest of my days

Listening to: Young Hearts Run Free by Easyworld

Fun day! V and I went to lunch at McDonald's, and I got a call from E. He told me that he was going to S's house with R, and if I wanted to go. Heck yes! V dropped me off. R couldn't come, but E, S and I had a fun time playing Guitar Hero and E and S had a water fight. (I declared myself Switzerland and neutral.) Then our friend A called and he came to pick us up to go to his house.

I hadn't seen A in a long time, since we only hang out when we have mutual friend about. A is hilarious, though, even if he does have freaky reflexes. He has a pool, but I couldn't go swimming because I had my period. Try telling that to three teenage boys if you're the only girl there, though. I clung to my cell phone the entire time because I knew they wouldn't throw me in if I had a fancy electronic in my hand. (All are in awe of my cool phone.)

R called later and we decided to all go see Rush Hour 3. A, S, R, and I squeezed in the back seat of E's mom's SUV. Then there was the ultimate decision: Who would get in free? The rules at V's work say all family but only one friend. A won me over, saying he would do "anything". I don't need anything from him yet, but I said I would call in my favor anytime I wanted.

Rush Hour 3 sucked ass. There was one woman who wanted to kill Lee for some reason, and then she got caught in the spokes of the Eiffel Tower? We never learned her name. She's in the credits as Dragon Lady. I feel sorry for her.

two can be complete without the rest of the world

Listening to: Red Light by the Strokes

V and my dad went to go see the Bourne Ultimatum. V works at the movie theater and gets in free, plus he gets family in free too. Score! I didn't want to see the Bourne movie because it looked like complete crap, but on the other hand, I was really craving that stale, sickening movie popcorn. I found out that Hot Rod was out, so I lassoed N into coming and away we went.

We were there like an hour early, so me and N stepped into Who's Your Caddy, and then once that ended, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. When we got into theater 6, no one was there. N and I proceeded to run around the theater screaming and jumping on the seats, settling in only when another older couple came in. (I didn't like them that much, they declared Hot Rod "ridiculous". Bitch, Hot Rod was flipping AMAZING. Shut up.)

A couple of the previews looked good. Mr. Woodcock, for one. Also, the one with Owen Wilson as those kid's mentor/bodyguard? I think it was like Niblet Goodwrench or some weird name like that. I don't really remember. It just looked hilarious.

Hot Rod is now one of my most favorite movies ever. It had horrible 80's montauges, punch dancing, and the most hilarious script. Plus, Andy Samberg is hott.

"Real men have mustaches."
"Real men GROW mustaches!"
"Shut up, you know I have a hormone problem!"

And that weird Asian kid who threw fliers everywhere, then started humping? I laughed so hard I almost peed. I had to take a break (thus missing the riot scene) and go to the bathroom.

wake up in water, you know where you've been

Listening to: The Summer is Coming by Matt Pond PA

I think I'm in love.

I was looking at a bunch of WikiHow articles - they are the most hilarious things ever. They have articles with titles such as "How To Have A Secret Locker" and "How To Dress Like the Cool Hannah Montana". Anyways, they had something about broadening your musical tastes, with a bunch of external links. Most I had heard of, like PureVolume. But they had something else: www.pandora.com

Basically, you give it a couple artists or songs you like, and it'll give you more music based on the samples you've given them. This is why they picked The Summer is Coming: "it features a subtle use of vocal harmony, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, major key tonality, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified by the music genome project."

I'm not entirely sure what that all means, but it sounds about right. Omigod, they just started playing We Looked Like Giants, by Death Cab. And best of all, it's all free. You can pay for it on the go, or something like that. I'm going to seriously consider that because I'm kind of obsessed with this now.

you have to set yourself on fire

Listening to: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars

I made my second trip to Barnes & Noble in two days today, where I got Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer. I had tried to get it yesterday, playing the same trick that had gotten me the Clique books a couple days early the past two times. The bookstores have to get the shipments of the book in early, and they have it in the back. If you ask in a convincing way, they'll give you a copy before the official release date.

But anyways, that didn't happen this time. In cases where the book might get a release party that the author does not attend (Harry Potter is another example), they won't give a copy to you early. Damn them. I went back again today, with my other brother, V. I was so engrossed in reading Eclipse in Barnes & Nobles' comfy armchairs in the back that I almost missed my dentist appointment.

I've also decided I do not like my dentist. I know most people don't like their dentists, but I honestly don't like her. She's so fake and smile-y. I have nothing against perky people, me being one in general, but GOD she is annoying. And she keeps on trying to force the Waterpik on me. My dentist gave my mom a brochure about it and everything, babbling on and on about how you can purchase them at Bed Bath and Beyond for 30 bucks. Mom nodded along, promising to go get one as soon as possible. Then we got in the car and never spoke of it again.

I'm not going to give anything away about Eclipse, but I will say this: Edward. Is. So. The. Better. Choice. But the epilogue sucked.

how can we win when fools can be kings?

Listening to: Knights of Cydonia by Muse.

I finally got my hands on a copy of Spark Notes for my summer reading, The Once and Future King, by TH White. For those of you who haven't read it (and I envy you), it's basically TH's take on the famous legend of King Arthur. There are four books, all published in one volume. I have only read the first book, and am in the middle of the second. This is not going to go well.

I saw my cousin, B, last week while in Jersey. He just graduated college and is joining the Israeli army - in fact, he left today. We were talking with him about our summer assignments, and he gave us some reassurance about the reading:

"Whatever, Cliff Notes are fine. I never read anything in college except those and bullshitted my way through the rest."

My brother, N: "You're a role model."