Aureole

(Madeleines from the fabulous restaurant Aureole)

Day One: I ask God for hyperboles,
Mixed metaphors, logical adjuncts, plot lines and summaries;
He responds with a idea freeze, a tease, a set of unintelligible characters bleeding out onto the--
Page.

Day Two: We are wise to wonder at the progression of creativity, as we
Tumble back and forth, houseplants in tow,
Baggage in our ears much heavier than under the bus;
Still I lust
For the easy breezy,
The days when words pour forth like passing road signs,
Message out in the blink of an eye,
But I just feel nauseous.

Day Three: Big dirty city presents,
Pigeons screeching on the opposite ledge, a boiling room, few hours of rest, and a
New opportunity for navel gazing.
We watch our doubles stare back at us eye to eye, wall to wall, and get seasickness,
I crave the space to carve words out like stone pillars, like Adonis rising from blank marble--
But sleep deprivation castrates me,
I am half-whole and scrambling,
I worry on pink paper and process my thoughts,
Before slipping into dreamland.

Day Four: When it rains, it ___
Gives me the gift of brief connections,
Teaches me how to stay inside all day,
Astonishes me with the solidarity in windy nights,
And forces me to warm internally.

Day Five: Gratitude on the wings of opportunity;
A morning writer's break, some choking involved,
I string my 'thank you's along for all the small things - summer dresses and handwritten letters,
The independence I feel,
At changing my own skate wheels.

Day Six: I'm full of questions.
Are you a woman or a hockey puck?
Are you going to get her out of dreamland?
Are you going the right direction?
Are you going to try or fail? Try and fail?
I stretch my limbs for purpose and find:
Turkey bacon and three pancakes. A full meal.

Day Seven: Extra vigor with your dessert, ma'am?
Battlefront stance: mow down the competition.
Entry after entry falls to my spray.
I arm myself in gear made for fancier clientele, attack the biting cold with covered hands,
Sink my teeth into each waiting morsel,
Leave no survivors.

Hope you enjoyed this set of Week in Review poems - after novelling for days on end, I felt my prose needed a break!
Also, if you want to visit a more detailed website about the artist Marlene McCarty, here you go.

10,079 words.

Class Act

I have been fading in and out on this blog recently, but not without regret. In the past month or so, I've been trying to keep up with some strangled emotions - when my boyfriend left for Singapore, when I was hospitalized for respiratory problems, and when I (not two weeks later) had to uproot my life once more and move back to New York City. Needless to say, it's been a crazy time.
But I hope to commit myself more fully to my blog this school year, simply because I will be once again doing interesting things that are not so hard to talk about! Creative writing class and basic drawing alone should account for a lot of my miscellaneous adventures.
So enjoy this recap post and look forward to some more au courant posts in the near future!

Week of August 29th to September 4th:
- Moved back to NYC in 2 days. Much hunger and panic over household items ensued, but I love my apartment and I got to move in early so it wasn't totally insane
- Promptly became a Well Woman* at a week long training full of laughter and death by heat exhaustion at the Student Services Fair
- Survived the two biggest milestones of dorm living: getting locked out and killing a cockroach

- Went on a crazy Chinatown search for pho, found it, came back the next day and got TERRIBLE service (so that place is out)

- Had my roommate Liberty move in (yes, now it's official!)

*Well Woman is Barnard's wellness center; it consists of peer educators (like me!) and infinite resources for stress management, sex, and overall health

Week of September 5th to September 11th:
- Went to the Museum of Sex (quite an interesting experience)
- Found another pho place in Chinatown (much better service!), and hung out with Nina and Bradley
- Went back to class (Black lit, French, Perception [psych with lab], Drawing, and Fiction), went back to work (mail room and zine library), went back to having my head explode with buying groceries and expensive textbooks...

- Made a few excellent meals and then ate cauliflower mashed potatoes for the rest of them...

- Submitted my Extemporaneous Speaking Project zines to the Barnard library - check them out when you get a chance!

- Kept up with a continued version of my Outfits Photoshoot project - I call it: the Daily Outfit project!
- Bought art supplies downtown and had the handles of my portfolio break in the subway

- Wrote a draft of my blog post for Refuse the Silence!**

**I will now be blogging for Refuse the Silence, Awaaz, the Well Woman blog, and the Barnard Zine Library blog, so if you're interested in class/race privilege in liberal arts colleges, South Asian art and new, wellness topics, or zines, look me up!

Week in Retrospect

Whoosh! The second week of classes really does give you a headspin. It's not that I had any more work than last week, but my involvement has certainly gone up. We went out looking for jobs, I tried to figure out how to get into some clubs, and I got certified to use the weight room. My brain keeps telling me that we haven't been back two weeks (because that seems so short for all the things I've done) but it's already Sunday and I have the identifying factors of a pile of work (most of it done, fortunately) and a massive desire to sleep in.
Since this was one of my more typical weeks, I think that it would be more interesting to post up something that I have written, so here you go! Keep in mind, however, that this was a rant before I went to bed.

She stretched out her arms and legs - to sky and soil - prayin that the young mists would take her up, envelop her body in the natural sense, and let her decompose there, a mere speck on the span of the earth.
Pain made its way to her fingertips and she questioned whether her reality was anymore true than that of Jacob's, who, in his infinite wisdom, claimed he felt no pain because it was a construction of the human mind. Thus, when he came to her with cuts on his fingers and bruises on his neck, she turned aside and let him return to his play. She was not afraid of those big men who hustled him as long as he could stand to take it - maybe that made her a bad mother, she thought.
Out in the breeze, she felt childlike again in her apprehension of variables - the sky's outward thrust over the high rises and mountainous landscape of skyscrapers and planes, the gentle crest of trees rolling against a grey backdrop like a child's fingerpaints. She could know nothing at all, no language to speak of, and still feel her small magnitude in this world.
Alyson took a deep breath and wandered back down to earth. The sprawling park scene was eclipsed by the pressing matters of grocery and budgets. The chirping of birds pressed into the calls of taxi horns and old men yelling. She was back in the shuffle, just another crack in the wall.

P.S.
My friends and I are starting a craft business so if you ever want to grab some knitted items, jewelry, paper art, and other handmade items, do look for Simplistica crafts!

More writing and stories are also available for your reading pleasure.

Spring Break Bonanza

Jack, my pass, and MarioBoo

I feel as if I have been tossed into the sea of intense social experiences over the past week - starting last Friday until yesterday night, I had been home nary 2 nights out of the 9 we've had. It's amazing! And I have pictures. Since I believe it would be absolutely horrendous to fit in all the little details of this weekend through long paragraphs, I will just share some of my favorite moments and then upload the insane amount of pictures that have aided in this personal journey.
Lord knows the two things I've lacked this week: sleep and work (halfway like pre-college!)

Memories...
Friday 3:
- No practice on a nice day; sitting in my car near the tennis courts, soaking up the sun and writing poetry
- Trekking through the mud and guck of Bridle Trails Park to scout out locations; Catskill actually joining in; harping on people with the calculating vision; being J's "friend" or her "acquaintance" [delete me on FB right now!]
- Getting home at late hours, excited and too happy to work on bio or gov

Saturday 4:
- Waking up early and skittering around the house with the intention to tidy up, to read, to work on art, but having an overload and ultimately just having a spa pamper morning
- Eating wonderful Vietnamese food at a new place and soaking in some rare sun rays
- Getting the call of boredom from Molly (who has gone unseen for months) and picking her up in downtown Bellevue; blasting the bass with her iPod in the car as we cruise for something to do
- Wandering around Ardmore Trails for some more scouting, talking and laughing [Molly and I together are perhaps the most embarrassing couple ever]
- Taking Molly to Victor's coffeehouse for the first time
- Heading back to her apartment for "girl time;" bringing my straightener and cute dress in hopes that we would hang out for Sunday too; watching Pineapple Express and Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo Bay and laughing like idiots on her couch
- Meeting Stella, the little kitty who loves to cuddle and was adopted by Molly last week; sleeping with her lying out on the couch next to me
- Cruising Seattle streets at night just for the randomness and excitement; whipping out our hair and yelling at passersby - man, it's good to be alive

Sunday 5:
- Waking up early unintentionally; the smell of burnt hair as the straighteners come on; changing into my cute dress (forgetting, sadly, that it's strapless and having a bra to cover underneath a coat)
- Having to leave early and heading out
- Meeting up with Joshka and taking a photographic adventure [pictures will be provided!] on a Renton beach with the sun falling over itself but still not making it very warm
- Ka-chan's acceptance to RISD and her overjoyed speech - celebration!
- Celebration on two counts: Peter's reciprocated feelings and Ka-chan's massive texting spree (cuteness!)

Monday 6:
- Waking up just to leave again, but not going home
- Going to the doctors; leaving within 10 minutes of getting there, checked out fine
- Randomly picking up Ka-chan and driving to Northgate (shh!) to find dresses and walk around excitedly; having my first Mexican hot chocolate; buying a really cute dress from Forever 21
- Talking, talking, talking; emptying our souls of their burdens including school and boys and girldom and friends and all that good stuff; figuring it out as we go
- I have a strange blank spot in my memory of this day... I'm really not sure why, but after I took Ka-chan home, I really don't remember what happened. Odd.

Tuesday 7:
- Relax your mind...

Wednesday 8:
- Waking up in my own bed; getting a joyous few hours with the parents gone and the time melting in my hands [I still did not want to do homework - uck]
- Getting a call from 'Manda to hang out randomly; first declining for the alone time, then jumping ship when the mother comes home with friend in tow
- Meeting up and eating ice cream; picking up Cammi from her crazy house (or at least crazy driveway) and bumping along to Bellevue Downtown Park; walking around and taking pictures [also to be provided] and walking aimlessly until we could reach Stephanie, a Chinese sophomore girl who was super excited to go swimming; taking 'Manda home and accommodating this wish
- Making three swimsuit pitstops and then seeing the guys as they filmed; heading over to the lake for an attempted swim, but chickening out of the frigid water; instead jumping in the pool at the Bellevue Aquatic Center and hearing stories of Cammi's lifeguarding class; water slides are frickin' scary at the top!
- Meeting up with Molly and then dropping off Stephanie; eating out at Red Robin, laughing and talking about our respective guy issues, squirreling Cammi some cash before dropping her off; heading up to Molly's place
- Side note: Molly's hurt ankle turned out to be a sprain [joyous.] and she has limped her way around for this week. Ouch.
- Leaving to visit Joshka and watch Fast and the Furious (oh, Vin Diesel...) and coming in late to sleep on yet another couch

Thursday 9:
- Leaving early in the morning to take my car out of the restricted parking spot (psh... apartments)
- Anticipating the Con - Sakuracon, that is; going to Andi's to put together the costume, with fear that it might not be done/would be completely different than the character; leaving and going on a large accessory shopping trip [wig, socks for gloves, ill-fitting shoes and felt? check.]
- A texting storm; getting the call from Kita for pre-reg pickup, then from Megan for the same reason, then from Molly to come hang out, then realizing that I couldn't go to the poetry reading and do all of this at once: woosh.
- Taking buses to Seattle and getting lost finding the convention center; feeling bad for making Molly walk around and listless from having my period show up conveniently before Con; meeting up with Megan and the excited anime lovers, some already in costume, and feeling charged up after drinking a hazelnut cocoa and laughing with college kids
- Being picked up by Da and going home to assemble my costume [as opposed to working on the biology packet] and get more and more pumped for Con

Friday 10:
- Waking up at 6am (ugh!) to get ready; picking up Kita and Anthony [who had to run back and get his badge]; getting my costume and Andi at her house (seeing her awesome homemade kimono and putting on all the little accessories to my Machika costume - which will be pictured!)
- Driving into Seattle with bags aplenty and heading to the Sheraton where a sour-faced bellman took them from our strange costumed forms
- Heading into the Con and waiting for Andi to get her pass; eating an everything bagel and hanging out with Kita and his bro until the time came; realizing that there were a lot of people there...
- Opening ceremonies! The chairman, funny as ever, and the consulate general of Japan, still the cutest old man alive, announcing that we now have April 10th as Sakuracon day [established by the mayor, whoo!] and tiny kimono-ed dancing girls and Taiko drummers and the opening of the festivities [and, as always, starting 15 min late]
- Meeting Gina and Taggzan, our roommates, and heading up to put our bags in the hotel room; changing out of ill-fitting shoes (curses!) and doing some last minute bag check stuff; finding that Cheddar Bunnies and Bunny Grahams are awesome (and in excess due to a Costco run) and extremely addictive - hence, eating a ton of them
- Heading back down to the Con for dealer's room madness; Kita buying a Gundam model and breaking Andi's Con/manga virginity with Chobits; goggling at all the hot guys and girls and being embarrassing while taking pictures; being recognized, actually, as Machika (woot!) and letting the hours drip away
- Watching an epic live action called Reckless and making fun of it throughout
- Eating part of Kita's burrito and going crazy over its great taste [probably one of the few real food items I ate all weekend]
- Watching the girugamesh (ah the inside jokes on this one...) concert and finding out that their Japanese metal ness suited Abby quite well; leaving early to take Kita home and grab shoes from Da
- Making masks for the masquerade [then having them be ruined, gah, but slow-drying glue]; donning a little cocktail dress and heels; trying to learn to tango, but failing in large part; going to the Masquerade Ball and dancing with people (Andi with two men who were quite nice and I with one 23-year-old who reminded me of Grant, just more cocky) and having an overall great time [circle of single girl randomness!!]
- Stepping out to eat a burrito and a brownie before heading to the Anime Dating Game panel (which was run by Sarah and Candice, IHS Anime Dictators of old!) and laughing our way through multiple rounds of Katamari love winning, Hardgay and the pimp hooking up, the lusty God of War, and a woman from Guilty Gear who I just can't remember the name of! I don't heart myself.
- Heading back to the hotel and conking out after showers and bunnies

Saturday 11:
- Waking up relatively early and then going back to sleep for 10 extra minutes; hearing people talking through my half-sleeping haze; getting eye drops because of a bustable eyeball (and then having to figure out how to use them... ehehe); setting ourselves up for another day of cosplay madness - so many girls and so many hair products; trying to tease Taggzan's hair into place, but failing miserably
- Heading out without Gina and Taggzan; getting a cute professional picture taken of ourselves; meeting up with Joshka and Britt after they got out of the registration line to find they had 3-day-passes [haha]; watching the cosplay competition for all its hilarity [royal Shakespearean cosplay theater... Sora the Explorer... Haruhi's Boredom - those were my favorite acts; I didn't really like the walk-ons, except for one: hottest Hellsing woman EVERRR!!]
- Returning to the hotel for womanly matters and hanging out there for just a tadbit before moving out to the dealer's room, where I shuffled through many many volumes and hard decisions before making my final purchases (but they were the best purchases ever, I think! Glomp Me sweatshirt, skully bag named Jack, 3 out of the way mangas and Aria first season box set!)
- Walking around on my own to take pictures and watch some anime and be alone without people; eating expensive cheesecake with Joshka (and being gifted a really really cute MarioBoo! I heart it, a lot); talking to Charlotte on the phone about how happy our lives have been, which seems strange but we're going to ride it till it fades away
- Texting Heathy as I watched comedy AMVs and having her guess that I was watching yaoi (bahahaha!)
- Lurking around before the Hangry Angry concert, just eating and chatting in our room; sneaking in the three boys overnight (shh, again!) to sleep on the floor; finding out that Hangry Angry is really a great band and cheering up Abby as they played; singing Happy Birthday to Hangry!; rocking out with our socks out...
- Returning to the hotel just for a bit before zooming back down to the rave; finding out that Gina and Kita are Gundam model nerds and letting them stay to build and Andi to sleep; going to the line and shouting excitements as we entered the rave and danced to Smile.dk and their para para dancers; feeling the intense excitement of being back there... being free...
- Dropping all of my stuff on the floor during a massive conga line but, fortunately, retrieving it all to stuff into Josh's pants
- Dancing past Abby and Britt's departure; getting into the music and feeling the vibrations; stealing Dota into our brains...
- Leaving the rave into the cold and the hotel; trekking up to the 25th floor and meeting the model-makers as we all hung out; taking a late night shower Andi's picky way of sleeping getting on everyone's nerves; curling up in a cocoon on the floor and breaking both Anthony and Kita's first time being in a hotel; packing up all my stuff to an orderly line
- It was a great day...

Sunday 12:
- The rest day. Waking up to a lack of Andi and Gina as they searched for breakfast; hanging with the guys in an attempt to forage for food; eating 5 granola bars because the bunnies had been demolished; getting another everything bagel and a cookie and milk; wheeling around the dealers room in much more empty halls (still painful that I could not buy the Super Paper Mario handbag... gah!); getting all our stuff ready to check out
- The mass exodus of anime nerds; full elevators and the comedic attempts of trying to get down from the 25th floor; Gina, Taggzan and Andi parting first, then Kita and Anthony, then Josh and I; we dropped him off at Interlake and then I went home, dropping from the sky like a fallen angel
- Grabbed my bio packet with a sigh and headed out to avoid the internet and finish that thing (which did happen! yay)

Miscellaneous:
- Falling in love with Asher Roth - I Love College, KidCudi - Day n' Night, Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow, (again with) Pitbull - Toma, Far - Ride My Pony, (in concert) Hangry Angry
- Seeing people at Con but not really hanging out with them; examples include: Colin, Jessica, Ciera, Nicky, Cindy, Tiffany, Kana, the Sabels, Megan and her friends, Parks...
- I ate terribly this entire week and yet, when I was at the doctors, it said I was at 131.2. What? Really? And then I checked this scale and it says I'm still at that weight even now. Huh!?!
- I talked to Heathy somewhere on one of those nights and we mused about our lives in these respective cities. I think we're going through the same sort of feeling - our friends are not really our friends, they're just people who we hang around with. It's strange, but true. Emotional wreckage comes from left and right with a lot of these people and we're trying to put up with it, but I believe that we might just need to get away. Both of us. Have our own lives for once.
- I hadn't realized how much I missed my old friends until this week. Ka-chan, Molly, people that I haven't seen... they are really who I love and am compatible with and I wouldn't trade them for the world.
- Marco Polo has become a staple of Con [fish out of water! shouts the staff man]. So have conga lines. And, if it wasn't fun already, it's become even better with 19000+ people around. Hahaha... craziness.
- I will have to come back to Con next year - even if the weekend doesn't coincide with spring break or something stupid like that, I can't miss out on the peoples and the fun and the rave and the freedom! It's just too awesome to give up.

So, in conclusion, this turned out to be a really long post even without making it in paragraph form! For the next few posts, everything will be in pictures. Guaranteed. Yet, these are the meaningful moments of my week. I don't know exactly why I'm blocking out Tuesday, but I remember very very little about it. I think I went to Southcenter. Hmm... Other than that, I have been extremely happy just to do nothing and be ok with it. I rarely am able to do that with impunity. Now it is back to the grind and I will have to make up for my choices - but for now, I don't care!

Check out the smattering of SakuraCon photographs that I took on site.
You can also view some more posts featuring my photography.

Speak

The play has officially taken over my life.
Not that I didn't know that was going to happen, but it still comes as an amazing commitment and the excitement and stress go hand in hand. I am pumped to work but have also been shot down this week - regardless, it lends fire to my energy.
On a somewhat strange tangent, I kind of feel like yoga has given me that ability. Defusing the stress and putting it into potential. I need to harness that earlier because, in the moment, I get extremely angry or pent up [and eat emotionally - never put granola bars in front of me!] but then later I make a resolve that will actually lend itself to a betterment. I believe that is the most important part. Anyway...
For the concrete happenings of this week, which seems as if it has been a really long time but has truly been brief, I will give a brief daily overview (brief, haha...)

Monday - First day of tennis: the running made me sore, but it also made me feel really good. I was really exercising - after months and months of low to none. The courts were wet and mucky for some inexplicable reason [Washington... mud... uck.] and so we went inside to do more conditioning (I tripped during grapevines - I guess I am just that coordinated). Overall, however, it was really refreshing to be back on. I love sports, I love exercising, and I have missed it dearly. Sadly, we learned that we have to cut 10-13 girls this year. It makes everyone on JV quake in their boots... I know I'm worried. But it gives me the right to be ruthless during matches! GO J!

Tuesday - Abby and I asked Coach if we could just stay for an hour of tennis on Tuesday because of play practice, but when I had gone that amount of time, I felt that they really needed me there, so I ran up to Perlman and asked him if I could go to that. Thankfully, he was understanding, and I ran back to the theater in a panic. I took over while tech continued to adjust lights and be... techy. We worked through some scenes and then drilled O'Byrne through his 10 Lies [Best. Scene. Ever.]

Wednesday - Every moment of the day and every class, from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to bed at night, I am thinking about Speak. No lie. We were offered to stay in Ms. Bennett's room but were stopped halfway through by the administration and rules. It felt like just one more thing to me and so I got extremely emotional [and unprofessional, eck]. Fortunately, my cast members forgave me for this outburst and Catskill even tried to talk to the office. I believe that the best thing that came out of the entire thing was the fervor it gave people to work collectively and the conviction to work harder and beat out the odds. I knew it galvanized me to work as hard as I can to make this the best production it can be.

Thursday - I know that it sounds horrible, but I prayed for rain. I hoped, prayed, and wished all the night and that morning. And, I believe, my prayers were answered. It started snowing during 3rd period, cementing in stone the fact that the courts would be unuseable that day. The girls tell me that they ran inside for an hour and then were dismissed, so I drew in a deep breath about dodging out to go to practice. We had an all-cast rehearsal from 3-7pm, half in the theater, half in Ms. Pendlebury's room. Melinda (Nicky), unfortunately, had an unexpected sickness and was escorted off campus by the nurse. But we persevered. We went through the entire play [minus the scenes that were unable to be done because of lack of actors] and ate pizza provided by Catskill [thanks!]. I got some great notes down and I believe that we are a little more prepared to get this right. As well, we got parts of our lights done and a Facebook group created to attract viewers. There were some issues with tech, but they were fortunately resolved later in the evening.

Friday - By this point, I have stayed up by an hour extra each night. I was quite tired and not focusing, but I went to tennis and won a match! I was so happy because my greatest frustration on Wednesday practice [where I went after our rehearsal fiasco] was losing on a tie-breaker (6-7, 7-10... gah). I really hope that all the previous people make the team, however, so I felt a twinge of guilt for beating the girl. But, I guess, it's dog eat dog in some ways. I came back to rehearsal and we hotseated Nicole and Ivy. It was intense and absolutely entertaining. I love hotseats, personally.

And that brings us to the now, with exactly one more week to go. We are working tomorrow and Sunday, then drilling it in every day thereafter. I believe in us. We will succeed.
And that is the bottom line.


Want to see the dramatic conclusion? Check out my production of Speak in pictures and its write-up.
Check out some more posts featuring my photography.

Back in a Flash

I've been kind of feeling like I'm missing the forest for the trees when posting this blog lately... more focus on emotion and less on action makes a dull read. So, now that I have time, I am going to return to writing about the week in detail [hmm... maybe I should have a recap day, comme Things I Love Thursday on Galadarling - sounds like a good idea!]
So let's go way way way back....

Monday -
Day off that let me recover (emotionally and physically) from the harrowing past week. Took some deep breaths with a kind substitute instructor at Yoga Centers; realized that the world is not all about me. Decided to wallow in the beauteous white light rather than letting the darkness get to me.

Tuesday -
Complete and utter dejection at returning to school. Though I was sick throughout the week and barely did anything at all, I felt like I had escaped. And then Tuesday happened. There was very little makeup work (thankfully), but by the time I hit drama class, I had tuned out of the world of school once again. Issues with rehearsal plunged me further into a hole that is only four months deep - I will be clawing desperately for the open air until then.

Wednesday -
During school: made up all my work and got a head start on the weekend's.
After school: a mad dash to Sammamish, which proved unnecessary because all I had to do was drop off an order form and meet the guys. Production meeting at TacoTime [worked out surprisingly well - although it was just planning for what we actually have to do].
Went back to Step class; the teacher's mic had gone out however, so it was pretty difficult to hear. I was amazed (again) at how difficult it is! I stayed for an hour and was dying afterward. But it felt really great to be doing exercise intensely again [tennis starts in a week, actually]

Thursday -
Realized that tennis starts in a week; decided to gather up as many people as possible and go play tennis on Friday.
Volleyball for an hour and a half was amazingly fun (I suck at volleyball, so it was quite nice to be playing around and not have people angry at you for messing up).
Rehearsal was mainly hotseats [where you put someone, in character, at the front in a "hotseat" and ask them any questions you like - it's almost like a mini-psychoanalysis of the character, really interesting] However, some cast members were concerned that they were under-rehearsed, so I stayed for another hour and a half to give them some extra time. Thank goodness that I didn't have so much homework that night!

Friday -
Substitutes, substitutes, substitutes. Five out of seven classes were with teachers that were not regulars; it was insane. Finished up a lot of work early on in the day, but then I had my English oral. I think I completely bombed because I got Hamlet - ack, oh well.
Playing tennis after school with the whole gang really cheered me up though; we played for three hours (until the sun went down, basically) and then I drove home and immediately left to hang out with Kita and Mr. Waymon. Fun times, fun times... until some jerks egged my car as I was dropping off Kita. That day really was up and down.

Saturday -
Righting the Craft was an amazing class. It connected English class to creative writing for me in a way that I had never had the vision to think about. Vincent Kovar, the teacher, based his lessons off of the idea that theme was central to whether the piece was well-written; he argued that theme rather than realism was what made you pick up a book and want to keep reading.
From this, I have decided that I will finish and edit my pieces (I feel actually excited to edit rather than in dread - just a little timid that I will do it 'wrong' or some nonsense).
After the class, I returned home and again went out with Kita... and Quinn, and Waymon, and Milan. We went around to Redmond Town Center and TacoBell and other familiar haunts.
Riding home, however, I hit a piece of roadkill and it really shook me up. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I don't know why, but the one thing I keep thinking about is that it was hard. Death sets in and the soft fragile animal turns into a hard mass of... body. I wish I didn't have to think about it.

Today (Sunday) -
I was completely and totally productive today. I had (and have) a lot of busywork that needed to be done and I finished half of it - before launching into my Ultimate House Purge. But that was enough for me!
I realized quite quickly today that people hate to change. I started cleaning out the kitchen and almost immediately got yelled at - for cleaning! And I'm a teenager; I should be anti-work in all forms... Oh well...
But our house is much nicer now; more organized, at least, if not completely finished. Next weekend, Phase Two will commence and we will have our big haul to Goodwill and the dump.

Now that I have finished the Week in Review, I have decided... it makes too long of posts. So, instead, I must just remind myself to write about the action and not just the emotion of the day - no matter how tempting it might be to vent. Well, at least I'll have the memories of this week forever.
[Oh, and my photograph today is a candid cat picture from earlier - this is the cat that hates cameras, mwahahaha]

Check out some more posts featuring my photography.