Prioritizing My Future Finances

Once I was at Barnes and Noble, and I saw a tote for sale. On this tote, there was a quote (that rhyme was completley unintentional) that said something along the lines of, "I spend the little money I earn on books first, and then the rest on food and clothing." But obviously the quote was in more sophisticated language. Anyway, I've always associated myself wait that quote. Considering I prefer to buy books over going to libraries, I expect to accumulate many volumes over my lifetime, and eventually I will have quite a bit of money spent on books. I bet I currently have a least $2000 worth of books in my room, probably more than $2500. Basically, buying new books is more important than buying things like new clothes (don't get me wrong, I LOVE new clothes) or health food or gas or things like that.

But the thing is, it's not just books. Let's say, hypothetically, I'm living in New York as a young adult. I assume my job wouldn't be the best paying, and rent would be killer in addition to starting to pay off student loans. Oh, and food. But besides my weekly trips to Barnes and Noble, I'll also have access to the nearly fifty Broadway theatres, countless off and off-off Broadway shows, concerts, ballets, operas, symphonies, museums, and all the other amazing things the city has to offer. How will I be able to resist spending an insane amount of money appreciating these things and contributing to feeding the mouths of struggling artists? Obviously I will take advantage of the many wonderful free displays of art, and I'll enter the lottos for Broadway shows, but I just don't see myself getting around being an avid patron of the arts when living in a city like New York or LA or anywhere along those lines.

If you're wondering what brought this one, I have three reasons.
1: Seeing Arielle and Lyla dance in The Nutcracker with my sister; I have a great appreciation for ballet, among other forms of dance.
2: Spending time at the Music Center Plaze, due to my new position on the Center Theatre Group's Student Advisory Committee. I'll give you more details on that later, but I'm spending a lot of time around other artists and performance centers and it's all just great. And CULTURED.
3. The lack of culture in a certain city in a certain Midwestern sate I am currently staying in. No offense to my best friend Jordan, but she has a lack of understanding of the arts. I love the girl like no other, but I need my theatre kids. Or at least my kids with an appreciation of theatre.

The only reason I'm even awake right now is because there's supposed to be a lunar eclipse tonight. Everyone else went to bed and set their alarms. Come on? Don't people know how to stay up late anymore?

Happy birthday on December 21 to Thomas Becket (we literally just turned in our Canterbury Tales essays in English...), Jane Fonda (I'm helping CTG promote a play she's in), Samuel Jackson (I'm running out of things worthy of being put in parentheses), Jeffery Katzenberg, Ray Romano, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jackson Rathbone.

Please ignore any spelling or grammatical errors in this post. I hate writing on other peoples computers, so I have no desire to go back and check anything over. Thanks!

My Favorite Pen

I have this pen. I've had it forever, at least two years. It's one of those twist-y pens but it looks like there's a cap stuck on the end. It's green and has the logo of the musical Wicked all over it. It's the best pen ever. And today I thought about what would happen if it ran out of ink. I don't know what I'd do with myself. Maybe I could find a picture to get you to understand...

Isn't it beautiful? I've never posted a picture on my blog. I should do it more often.

Okay, back on topic. I hate pencils and pens that don't write smoothly suck. This pen is perfect. It doesn't give my hand cramps and it isn't too dark or too light. I use it for everything. So I decided, if it ever runs out of ink I will have to either buy a new one, or if that isn't possible find one just as awesome. But hopefully it just never runs out of ink.

*NON-SEQUITUR*

I get to visit my best friend Jordan tomorrow. She lives in the Midwest, but was born in California. I don't understand the motive behind that one either. But anyway, she lives there now and we only see each other about once a year. So I am one excited girl. I'm all jumpy and I've been dancing around all day.

DANCING. That reminds me, I saw two of my best friends, Arielle and Lyla, perform in The Nutcracker ballet. They were both amazing, and I feel like you people of the interweb should know that.

I'm too frazzled to write comprehensively. I just needed to get at least a couple of my thoughts into words. Trust me, if you found this blog post confusing and irrelevant, imagine what having my brain feels like.

Before I go into birthdays, I'd like to let you know that as I was researching people born today, I came across the name Charles Wesley. I thought it said Charles Weasley and I got really excited. It didn't say Charles Weasley.... okay then.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Franz Ferdinand, Joseph Stalin, Gladys Cooper, Betty Grable, Keith Richards, Steven Speilberg, Leonard Maltin, Brad Pitt, Rachel Griffiths, Katie Holmes, Christina Aguilera, and Bridget Mendler.

And always remember, communism is funny. Happy holidays everyone!

A Jewish Girl's View on Christmas

Through the years, my thoughts on the annual celebration of Jesus's birth have varied. I've never been in the kind of family that celebrated Christmas in a secular manner in order to prevent me from feeling left out. And yes, those families sadly exist. But not mine. Chanukah is very important to my entire extended family and many traditions are followed consistently.

And Christmas was always just that holiday some of my friends celebrated. I knew from a young age that Santa Claus wasn't real, but that wasn't something I could ever bring up to my Christian friends. So I didn't. However, once I did witness a friend finding out from her step-mom that Santa was in fact fictional. It was slightly awkward for my nine-year-old-self. Especially since at that age my thoughts on the holiday were slightly bitter.

My main issue with Christmas wasn't that it got too much attention, but simply that Chanukah didn't get any. Especially since I live in a very Jewish community, you would think Chanukah would be represented by more then just an electric menorah over-shadowed by a giant, completely decorated Christmas tree. The concept of Judaism as a minority religion didn't really make sense to me, considering that obviously my family and a good majority of my friends were of the same religion. Not for any discriminatory reasons, but simply because I do live in a very Jewish area, and between Hebrew School, Jewish summer camp, and activities at temple, I do encounter a lot of Jews. SO, the fact that Christmas was such a huge deal blew my mind.

The worst of my anti-Christmas cheer was always experienced at Disneyland. I go to Disneyland almost every single year on Christmas Day, and to put it plainly, it looks like Santa Claus threw up all over the happiest freakin' place on Earth. I love Disneyland, more than almost anywhere, but Chanukah is important and deserves recognition.

So you see, my early relationship with Christmas wasn't the best. Another reason I think I lacked a good mood around the holidays was due to the absence of white Christmases in Los Angeles. In New York, I've heard from eye witnesses that people actually change over the holidays, like in the movies. In LA nothing is different. And if it is I want to know where.

I assure you, however, that my present day view on Christmas is much more mature. I have come to accept the holiday as extremely secularized, and the thousands of advertisements and decorations are in no way attempts for me to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but to get me to buy stuff. Oh, and Jesus was born in the spring, the holiday was moved to December 25th to coincide with Winter Solstice and avoid persecution from Pagans.

Due to this mature outlook on the holiday season, I have been able to pin point my favorite thing about Christmas: the resulting fiction! Every year I cry during It's a Wonderful Life, some of the greatest scenes in Harry Potter are over Christmas, so many romantic comedies come out in December, and I totally got teary-eyed during tonight's episode of Glee when Santa made Artie able to walk! I also love Christmas music, especially considering "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...)" and "White Christmas" were both written by Jews. And even Barbra Streisand has come out with a Christmas CD. It's understandable, not that many people would be a Barbra Streisand Chanukah CD. My favorite Christmas songs, however, are the non-denominational classics "Let It Snow" and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." Nothing like some good non-religious winter cheer.

Happy birthday to Theodor Schwann, Louis Prima, Eli Wallach, Ted Knight, Sara Bareilles, Jennifer Carpenter, Aaron Carter, and Emily Browning.

On a final note, this blog is in honor of the victims on the attack of Pearl Harbor and my dog Shayna, who died today four years ago. She was the best dog ever.

The Woes of Money in the Holiday Season

I have a lot of friends. A lot of friends who buy me presents and I buy presents for in return. This is a problem when my debit card gets declined thanks to the fact that someone (that means you, Dad) has been neglecting to keep up with my weekly transactions and I couldn't afford to buy a month late birthday present for Sammy. And this present (which I won't mention in case she reads this) was really cool and took me FOREVER to custom make. But my card got declined. Thanks, Dad.

My money problems don't stop here. Usually what I do for presents is go to Cost Plus and buy tons of different tzotchkes on tiny things and come home and put them in bags with candy or something cute. But when you're buying for 15 to 20 people, even more sometimes, it all adds up.

I have a steady income from babysitting, but I've been haven't had a job in a couple weeks and I need more cash. And I'm a great babysitter too! Kids love me! Hire me! Please! But I'm not desperate or anything.

I just realized House was on tonight. I need to go watch that and then continue watching Bones Season 5 on Netflix. So much TV, so little time.

I won't do birthdays because I did December 6th birthdays this morning which was sort of last night since I hadn't gone to bed yet. So everyone I said happy birthday to, happy birthday again!

Scratch what I said two paragraphs ago... House isn't back until January. More Bones for me then. I love this show so much. I watched nine episode in a 36 hour time frame.

I have no life.

I need to post more often.

Being in a contemplative state isn't healthy. In the immortal words of Gaston, "Lefou, you know I've been thinking. [A dangerous pastime] I know."

Thinking, albeit important and necessary to live a valuable existence, only leads to problems. When ever I think to much I either sink into a tearful depression or get really pissed off about something. And any of my friends would testify to the fact that I over think and over analyze absolutely everything. But hey, that's what a five year and running career in the English Honors world will do to a girl. That, and watching one to many chick flicks.

In case you were wondering, the topic I have been thinking too much about is college. And I know that isn't unusual, but it's extremely stressful. I don't exactly know what I want to major in (or for that matter what I want to do with my life), so I have been trying to plan my high school career accordingly by taking as many challenging courses as possible (except in the science and math areas), and this is causing many scheduling conflicts in the future. Next year I might even take a zero period, which means getting to school a full hour and forty minutes before the rest of the student body. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm running out of options if I want to get nine classes out of the way next year. Most students take six in a year, but I'm planning on taking one over the summer, one after school, and one before school.

I'm going to die. That's it. If the Mayans are correct I'm not making it past winter vacation of my senior year anyway. What's the point in trying?

Oh yeah. I don't believe anything the Mayans said.

It's funny how belief and disbelief are both used in the same manner. (WARNING: You are entering a random tangent zone.) I mean, don't people use religion and lack thereof to accomplish the same thing, justification? When something bad happens, a religious person says, "Well, God must have a plan," when a non-religious person would say, "Well, there is no plan." That didn't make as much sense as it did in my head. And in case you didn't know, I'm Jewish.

Religion is another thing that thinking too much about can end destructively. That sounded bad too. I'm all for the questioning of one's faith, I've been encouraged to do so as far as Judaism goes, but I feel like people, especially my age, get so worked up about things. People get so angry at each other and speak without thinking and say things that are really offensive. My opinion is that if you're religion makes you happy and you aren't hurting anyone, go for it. But I've heard some pretty hurtful things said over this topic. Friends telling friends they're going to burn in hell, making fun of a culture, denying someone's sexuality, and all sorts of other things that were just completely out of line. High school is not a place to preach. It is a place to discuss, and maybe even argue, but one of my biggest pet peeves is having a belief forced on me. I never bring up religion in a secular setting, but I try to speak politely and with tact when other's do. I don't really understand why religious and non-religious people don't do the same.

Rant over. I honestly don't know what brought that on. That's just how my brain works, I jump subjects much quicker then most people. It's really funny actually, sometimes I have to explain to people how I got on a topic. We could be talking about what to eat for dinner, and then I think about food, and then I think about Italian food, and then I think about this cute little Italian restaurant I went to in New York, and then I think about the creepy guy with a video camera who was acting suspiciously by their bathroom, and then I think about suspicious behavior in general, which reminds me of creepy things, which reminds of the trailer I saw for The Black Swan, which reminds me of ballet, which reminds me of my friend Arielle who is currently in rehearsals for The Nutcracker, which causes me to inquire whether we have purchased tickets or not. Except this all happens in less then one second. And in my brain. So I get weird stares a lot. I started talking about Tina Fey once during a Socratic seminar on women in The Renaissance. I'm a strange person sometimes. Or all the time. What ever.

Happy birthday to Ira Gershwin, Judd Apatow, and quite a few other people. It is also my cousin Yoav's birthday, whom I miss very much due to his current residency in Israel and the fact that I haven't seen him in almost a year. And Happy fifth day of Chanukah. I hope you've all been enjoying the holiday. Shalom Aleichem.

It is past midnight. I've done all my homework that I can't do tomorrow at lunch. I'm tired.

I am so tired. Last night was homecoming. And I don't really want to get into the details about the dance and the before and after parties. I just want to let you all know that I had a ton of fun and I'm mad that we didn't go to In-N-Out, but overall the night was extremely fun, I'm glad I went, and now I'm tired as hell due to the fact that I got 5 or 6 hours of sleep last night after an evening of partying. And then today I went to Sunday Circle, a program I volunteer for, and I am very tired.

I've spent a large portion of my day venting to at least... six different confidantes about different areas of my life. My consensus is I am having a repeat of freshman year, in all the worst possible ways. Everything that was supposed to make 10th grade better than 9th didn't end up happening, and now I (and everyone else) am extremely disappointed. I won't get into details about why.

So I talked to Sydney about it and we decided that we are going to cleanse our body of toxins (not really). We each changed the other's Facebook password so neither of use will be ever to access our accounts until next Sunday evening. We are going to communicate with people via phone in case of an emergency. Otherwise we are just going to take time to work on ourselves and our school work (and our super awesome video blog that was started working on; I'll tell you more about it when we finish our first episode).

Then, we are going to spend the weekend at Syd's grandmother's home in order to have some time away from the stresses of reality. How horrible is that? That two 15-year-old girls need to have a weekend away from it all? The world is out to get me, for real.

In other news, tomorrow... well technically today, but whatever... we are going to start reading Macbeth in my English class. I. Am. So. Excited.

Let me begin by telling you that my English class (period 3, English II Honors) is one of the most amazing groups of people I have ever met. We all are total nerds and we laugh at each other's grammar and vocabulary related jokes. We relate Latin roots to biology, discuss incorrect adverb usage in street signs, ridicule those who cannot read analog clocks, and have intense Socratic seminars. So now that I get to read AND THUS ACT OUT William Shakespeare's Macbeth, I am filled to the brim with joy. I can't wait for our teacher (who is a total theatre geek, which makes me happy) to make casting decisions, and considering my role as Juliet in my freshman Honors English course, I think it is only appropriate that I play Lady Macbeth this year. But remember, there are no small parts, only small actors. I will be happy with which ever role I get (ha ha, right....).

So that's what I have to look forward to in my life. Sunday Circle every other weekend, reading Macbeth in English, and going to visit Sydney's grandmother. Hopefully things will start to look up soon. I mean, they haven't yet, but without hope, what's the point, right? So maybe soon, sophomore year will change for the better. Maybe. Hopefully.

Happy birthday to Edmond Halley, Milton Bradley, Bram Stoker, Margaret Mitchell, June Havoc, Bonnie Raitt, Mary Hart, John Musker, and Matthew Rhys. But most importantly, I would like to wish a very special birthday to one of my best friends in the entire world, Sammy. I love you so much!

Go listen to the song "Brand New Key" by Melanie. It fills me with a happiness I cannot express in words. Buh bye now.

Sydney and I are making a Vlog. That's right, a Vlog.

I know I have expressed interest in creating a video-blog, commonly known as a vlog, before. But this time, it's going to happen.

But before I get into that, I need to back track a bit to catch you all up. The other day I decided to make a list of movies. Movies from all different genres and walks of life, the criteria was that they made one of AFI's top 100 lists. You know how the American Film Institute has all these lists of the best movies in any given genre? Well, they do. So I combined all their lists into one giant list (483 movies, to be precise), put them in order by the year the premiered, and then color coated them by genre. Yes, I am that OCD.

But to make an already long story slightly shorter, Sydney and I decided during dance today to watch all of these movies and film our responses in a spectacular video blog of wonderful. It's going to take a long time, but it will be worth it. Seeing as Sydney and I both have intense interests in film for a possible career and just in general, we want to be well versed in the subject. This way, we can talk about movies in snobby-I-am-so-much-smarter-than-you kind of way and actually mean it.

Happy birthday to Roseanne Barr and many other people I haven't actually heard of.

So.... that's all I really have to update you on today. I got my handwriting analyzed on Monday. That was cool. I'm not done with my homework yet. That's not cool.

So that's pretty much all I had to update you on today.

Be a Belle, not an Ariel.

I just took a quiz on Facebook entitled, "What Disney Princess are You?"

Anyone that knows me could tell you I'm Belle. Let us reference her character description, as found on Wikipedia, to support my claim:

"A bookish young woman who falls in love with the Beast and finds the kind-hearted human inside him. In their effort to enhance the character from the original story, the filmmakers felt that Belle should be 'unaware' of her own beauty and made her 'a little eccentric'."

Well, I think you can see that we're practically the same person. I'm bookish, I read all the time. I haven't exactly fallen in love with a Beast yet, but I'm not out-ruling the possibility. I am COMPLETELY unaware of my own beauty. And I'm eccentric. Ask anyone in my choir.

So you see, that any quiz designed by someone with an ounce of intelligence would have realized that I'm Belle. Or maybe Meg from Hercules. I would settle for Meg, even though she's technically not a princess.

But this quiz had the audacity to tell me that I am like.... Ariel. I cannot stand Ariel. Let us reference her character description:

As depicted in the 1989 film, Ariel is the youngest of King Triton's seven daughters. She is shown as being adventurous and curious about the world of humans, a fascination which angers her father as merfolk are forbidden from making contact with the human world. [. . .] Ariel salvages human items and keeps them in a secret grotto as part of her collection. Unfortunately for her, most of her knowledge of humans is through her collection, and her information regarding these names and functions of the items she has is almost wholly inaccurate thanks to her well meaning but thoroughly misinformed friend Scuttle, a seagull she visits on the surface from time to time when she finds new human "artifacts." Her confusion regarding human objects works to win her the friendship and favor of the humans she later comes in contact with during the film, as they find her antics amusing."

First things first, I am the oldest of three children, not the youngest of seven. And, although I guess I do have an adventurous and curious spirit somewhere in me, I am in no way an ungrateful little brat like Ariel is. This girl can't just understand that her father gives her everything she needs, and that going to the shore is an unnecessary danger. She should be content where she is. And I would never use a lack of intelligence as a flirting device, I want to be admired for my brains, not the fact that I showed up on a beach naked and couldn't figure out how to use a fork.

So CLEARLY, I am nothing like this princess. All she wants to do is go and be with the humans, because her own family isn't good enough for her-

Oh no. We have something in common. She's not happy at home. And I can't wait to go to college.

But that's completely different. College is going to be an educational, parent-sanctioned adventure. Ariel becoming a human involved her going to see Ursula the sea-witch, who then preceded to take away her voice, the only thing that makes her unique and sets her aside from the other mermaids, just so she can impress some guy. She is a horrible role model for young girls everywhere.

So be a Belle. Not an Ariel.

Happy birthday to Bill Gates, Julia Roberts, Brad Paisley, Joaquin Phoenix, and my friends Michael, Nitzan, and Skye. I hope you've all enjoyed your day.

Once I took a quiz about my "flirting style" and it told me I was a slut and that no one should be my friend. Can't quizzes get anything right these days?

I'm a teenager and nobody understands me. And I don't like Halloween.

Adolescence is awful. It really is. And adults don't understand. They really don't.

Was that not the most stereotypical thing you've ever read? Well it's a stereotype because it's true. Teenagers today have it SO much harder then teenagers ten years ago and exponentially harder than our parents! Getting into college is more difficult then it ever was and with the added social pressures and need to succeed in absolutely everything, how is anyone supposed to handle it?

The night before last I was crying, I was nauseous, and I kept getting headaches because I was so stressed out. Between history, English, and math I had so much homework there was no way I could finish. I was up until 1:00 AM doing history and then I woke up at 5:30 to do my English. I ended up coming home from school at lunch crying because I hadn't done my math homework and I was too scared to go to class. School shouldn't be like this! Teachers have no right to pile on so much work outside of class that students can't even have the weekend to enjoy themselves.

And parents are just as bad. One of my best friends just got grounded for grades that aren't up to par, and it would not be the first time. Even professional psychologists say that punishment does not work. Incentives work.
EXAMPLE:
Wrong: If you get bad grades, you will be grounded.
Right: If you get good grades, I will take you out to dinner.
I'm not saying people should get bribed into working hard, but people should be working hard because they want something, not to avoid pain and punishment. And parents need to be there for their kids when things get hard.

I hate people. And I hate when people try to inflict their opinions on others.
EXAMPLE:
I dislike Halloween. I guess dressing up is fun, but I don't really like being scared and I don't like walking around in the dark asking strangers for candy. Even though I live in a suburb. ANYWAY, I am surrounded by people who love this holiday and want to celebrate with me. When I tell them I am reluctant to trick-or-treat, people get all insulted and treat me like I can't be a child-at-heart and that I'm stuck up and obnoxious. But I am a child-at-heart (even though I never really had a childhood, but that's a story for another day), I love Disneyland and princesses and blankets and everything like that. I just don't really like Halloween, and I didn't when I was little. And feeling stressed like this just makes everything worse, because every little issue becomes a big issue in my head, and then I decide that no one understands me and what I say isn't worth talking to my friends about, even they tell me their problems all the time. I'm just messed up.

Happy birthday to Pablo Picasso, Adam Pascal, and Katy Perry.

My friend's Facebook status was "Stressed is just dessert spelled backwards." I admire her optimism.

Movies Make Me Happy (that alliteration was awesome until I had to put in an indirect object... is that even the correct part of speech?)

I love to be entertained. I know everyone loves to be entertained, and to entertain for that matter, which I also love to do. (<- sentence structure at it's best) But I really love quality entertainment. Movies, television, theatre, sometimes concerts, and reading, and anything else really.

I always say my two favorite things are reading and watching (movies, tv, shows, etc.). But the thing is, books have been around for thousands of years and movies have only been around for 100 or so. It's much easier for me to cover my bases and see all the best movies then it is to read all the best books. I have read a lot of great books and I plan to read many more, but with films it's just easier to find a reliable source to tell you which ones are the important ones to see.

For example, go to the American Film Institute's website and they have lists upon lists of the best American movies. I know there are good movies in other countries too, but if we are being honest here, when it comes to film, we Americans know what we're doing... it's actually one of the few areas where we know what we are doing.

And then there's literature. And I love books more than almost anything, but they've been around for thousands of years and some of the best of them are written in languages I can't and never will understand. Life's short, and even though I've spent and will in the future spend a great deal of time reading, I'm never going to have read nearly as many books as I need to in order to be well versed in literature. Movies on the other hand, I already know much more about them than most people my own age. And due to websites like Netflix my knowledge is only growing and I continue to watch more and more good movies.

I've been debating on my approach on how to watch movies though. I've just been random up until now, watching what I want when I want to. But if I really want to understand what I'm seeing, I really should watch things more chronologically. I was thinking of looking at AFI's 100 years, 100 movies list and starting from 100 and working my way up to one, but that's in order of quality, deemed by the voters, so I don't think it's really appropriate. Then I was thinking of just going through Academy Award winners, but then you miss the first ten or twenty years of really good movies. This is all so confusing.

So up to this point I've been going through a lot of phases. I'll obsess over a particular actor, decade, genre, or whatever. And I'm enjoying myself. That's why on this lovely, foggy, freezing Saturday, (after taking the extremely easy PSAT that I probably aced [I hope]) I have been lying at home watching movies. While all my friends are out having fun and being teenager-y I've been home. Partially because I wasn't invited to go out with any of them, but on the other hand, I'm enjoying myself. Maybe tonight I'll do some of my homework. Maybe I won't. I should. But that doesn't mean much.

I don't need friends to have fun. As long as I have my Netflix subscription and my personal library of 300+ books, I can be entertained in my own room for hours upon end. Facebook helps too.

Happy birthday to Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill, Angela Lansbury, Suzanne Somers, Tim Robbins, and John Mayer.

A surprise party, a funeral, and a Ron Weasley cardboard cutout later...

So I bet you all have been waiting on the edge of your seats to find out how my birthday went, and I have to say the day itself was pretty successful. Even though three days prior, my grandmother passed away (this day was also her 83rd birthday, and it was raining), the day itself wasn't bad in the least.

OK, I realize how awful that sounds, but know that my grandma was really sick and it wasn't surprising. I'm just glad she's no longer in pain. Obviously the whole event was horrible and everyone was crying. I've never been to a funeral before and it was a lot worse then I thought it would be. Just knowing the fact that my grandmother was in a simple pine box unmoving a few feet away from me was a little bit too much for me. And I watch Bones, so that's saying something.

Moving on from the sad, my birthday was wonderful. Nicki slept over at my house on Friday night and we had a great Shabbat dinner and stayed up late being completely crazy and hyper and deciding that Draco likes Hugh Laurie and the Silk Road. And then we went to sleep and Nicki sleep walked and sprayed Febreze all over my blankets. I don't really like the smell of Febreze, but I didn't mind because the fact that Nicki sprayed it around in her sleep made me laugh.

Anyway, later that day, as I was sitting on the couch watching Back to the Future with my sister, one of my friends came from behind me and blindfolded me for a kidnapping. (NOTE: I knew I was getting a kidnapping/surprise party for two weeks before hand. No one can hide anything from me.) I suddenly heard Sammy, Ashley, and Sydney yelling at me in British accents and saying things like, "Get on the broom, Neville!" and, "It's time to go to Diagon Alley!" It was all very overwhelming, especially when they threw branches at me and said it was the Whomping Willow. When we got to Diagon Alley (Costco) we got off the broom (car) while I was still blindfolded and went to pick up the cake. They ran me through Diagon Alley and spun me around and made total fools of themselves. I kept hearing people making comments about how there were crazy people dressed as Harry Potter running around.

Next, we went to the Forbidden Forest (the park). At the Forest they took off my blindfold, where I finally saw Sammy, Sydney, and Ashley dressed as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, respectively, wigs and all. They told me I had to find the clue that would help me find the final horcrux. The clue was a note from Voldemort telling me to find the horcrux at his favorite restaurant and to get him some guacamole. So we were off to find some horcruxes and Mexican cuisine, and at the restaurant all my friends were waiting with their arms open. It was a wonderful party. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anything better. And I got a pair of Toms shoes. Be jealous.

After the party, Sophie, Julia, Sarah and I drove all the way to Santa Barbara to drop off Nicki and her sister, Iliana, at their dad's house. The drive was long, and we got lost many times, but their house was SO COOL. The outside looked very 70s, with round windows and the burnt orange paint, and the inside was gorgeous and open with a view of the mountains and the ocean. And their backyard was huge and had all these secret areas... basically I am going to be spending as much time there as possible from now on. End of story.

The car ride home was spent bonding over deep Miley Cyrus songs. Enough said.

After I came home and packed, I was "kidnapped" again for a sleepover with Sydney and Ashley and Sammy at Sammy's house. There they gave me their gifts, including my new Ron Weasley cutout, which were all amazing and so well thought out and original. We had a great sleepover and today I was exhausted as I babysat for 8 hours and then came home and did most of my homework. I have to wake up early to do the little I have left. I feel like I'll never be well rested again. Especially with the impending doom of the school week, who knows when I'll ever get more than five hours of sleep in a night. And I mean, five hours is a lot for me. It's just not sufficient for the hours I'm supposed to be working.

Happy birthday to Eleanor Roosevelt, Jerome Robbins, Daryl Hall, Joan Cusack, Jane Krakowski, Emily Deschanel, Matthew Bomer, Michelle Trachtenberg, and the fictional twins from The Parent Trap ("I was born on October 11th, and YOU were born on October 11th!) It's a good day in historical/pop-cultural births.

I apologize for the lack of insight in this post. My best insight is when I'm complaining, and I've been complaining about the state mandated educational system all day, and I'm simply too tired to put it all into writing.

The First Blog with a Creative Title

Today I stayed home sick from school. I am sick physically (runny nose, sore throat, cough, the whole nine yards), mentally, emotionally, anyway you slice it, I just needed to stay home. The day without public school education made me decide I want to blog again. That and the fact that my friend Carlie asked me to in English yesterday. And then my friend Charlie made fun of me. And then I noticed that Charlie sits behind Carlie in English class. Weird, huh?

I guess I'm kind of different since the last time I wrote. I'm a sophomore now. And rather then the super-awesome-beautiful-at-least-better-than-freshman-year I had hoped for, my (approximately) four weeks spent in this grade haven't been the best. That's an understatement. They've been horrible.

The interesting thing is this year I LOVE three of my teachers. That's 50%. The other three aren't even horrible, just annoying. Last year I disliked all of my teachers at least once over the course of the year. But this year, I guess things haven't been going my way. I've become a B student. In honors classes, but that makes it all the more frustrating. Every endeavour in the performing arts (grand total-4) has resulted in nothing, and therefore a horrible depression and low self-esteem complex (I know it's hard for you to believe my insecurity issues could reach new lows, but they can). I don't really get along with anyone anymore. And everyday it seems like life decides to kick me in the ass one more time.

Have I managed to thoroughly depress you yet? My pet peeve is when people use Facebook to elicit pity from others. And now I realize I'm using my blog to do the same thing. Facebook is a narcissistic institution. And so is this blog. I don't write about anything besides myself. My triumphs, my problems, my obsessions. But you can't write what you can't know, and what do I know more about then myself? And I guess I write this blog on the hair-brained notion that someone else out there wants to know about me too and know what I have to say.

I think it was Thomas Edison or someone who said something about how an idiot is someone who tries the same things over and over again and expects different results. But isn't that what I'm doing? I procrastinate on all my assignments and I still don't always understand why my grades aren't up to par. I go on all these auditions and I can't fathom why no one wants me. And I write in this blog and think people will read it.

When I get in one of these moods (otherwise known as every night around this time) I listen to music, usually Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson over and over again, and I try to establish something to look forward to. My birthday is in less then two weeks, but that's going to be a total bomb. I'm not having a party. And that also happens to be the night of my school's improv team's first show. I didn't make the improv team. A good deal of my friends are on it.

So my birthday isn't really important to me this year. Did I mention my birthday is cursed? Here is a list of prior events that have occurred in my fourteen birthdays celebrated thus far:

• I moved
• my mom got pneumonia
• Yom Kippur (everyone's favorite fast day)
• my brother was sent to a hospital

And this year I will be painfully reminded of my lack of talent. That makes five of fifteen birthdays being shitty. One third. That's a lot. I'm like Chandler from Friends. He always has horrible Thanksgivings, I always have horrible birthdays.

So basically, I really hope things start looking up. I mean, they haven't since the end of 8th grade. Two things made the end of 8th grade great. One was that I did the culmination speech. I was the center of attention. Good stuff. Two was that I was leaving 8th grade, the biggest hell-hole of a year I had ever experienced. I had this idea that high school would be better. I needed a change.

I need a change now too. I need something really great to happen to outweigh the bad. I need to fast-forward to December when I can hop on a plane to Cincinnati and be with my best friend and go hang out in Chicago and do what ever we want. Until then I have school. Ugh.

Happy birthday to Confucius, Nicolas Flamel, Ed Sullivan, Brigette Bardot, Maria Canals Barerra, Naomi Watts, Hilary Duff, and Frankie Jonas.

That is an extremely eclectic group of people. I hope Ashley appreciates it.

Post-script: I'm sorry I'm not myself. Hopefully I will return to my usual witticisms in a blog or two. Thanks for reading all the way through.

8/13/10

I have never been this tired in my life.

Or since that one time in biology when the entire class pulled all nighters finishing our micro-organism lab.

Anyway, the reason I am so drained of energy is because I spent the entire week volunteering at a camp for special needs children. I've been involved with the organization, the Friendship Circle, since I was about eight years old, but I have to say this summer camp was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had with them.

My friend Sarah and I were paired with an adorable eight-year-old named Emma. Every day we had so many activities; arts-and-crafts, music, swimming, field trips, and everything else we did was such a blast.

Besides playing with all the adorable kids (and releasing my inner child in the process, I mean seriously, who can resist making sock puppets?), I really enjoyed spending time with the other volunteers. In a strange way it gave me hope for the future generation. Everyone there was so mature and was completely engaged with the kids, no one gave a have-stitch effort.

I really hope that attempt at a colloquialism was correct.

So like I said, all the teenagers there were mature and responsible, but also completely crazy, as was exhibited in an extremely competitive game of lazar-tag after camp on Wednesday. This lazar-tagging session was followed by a bus ride home which included a football game. Now stop and think for a second. A football game, in a moving vehicle, with the windows open. Can this end well? For the football, it didn't.

Oh wow I just got really distracted for a good 15 minutes.

Happy birthday to Annie Oakley and Alfred Hitchock.

Awesome.

8/6/10

Well. Tomorrow, Sammy and Ashley are leaving for New York. On Sunday, Sydney and Shannon are leaving for performing arts camp. On Wednesday, Bret is going to San Francisco. Arielle is currently in Hawaii. Sophie is somewhere in Northern California. All my other friends have done something or other somewhere else this summer.

I would estimate that 95% of my summer has been spent in my bedroom. I know I have so much to be grateful for. Even though money's tight right now so many people have it worse. I understand how truly lucky I am. But that doesn't mean I don't wish I was somewhere else. I watch the Travel Channel constantly. Just the other day I went to William Shakespeare's childhood home and a floating village in Vietnam in the same day. But meanwhile my friends are having experiences. Real ones. And I'm really, really jealous. And I miss my friends. I miss talking to them every single day. When they're on vacation they aren't very quick to reply to my text messages or Facebook wall posts. They all have better things to do. And I guess I would be the same way if I wasn't stuck here.

And just yesterday I was thinking how lucky I was to live in a nice area. And I am lucky to live in a nice area. It would just be luckier if I had the option to leave whenever I wanted. In Arkansas you can get your learners permit at age 14. If only California were that awesome.

But I do have to say our state has gotten slightly more awesome since the repeal of proposition 8. Weddings have been a favorite topic of mine since I was a little girl, and I am so glad that now everyone in my state will be able to have one of their own.

Anyway. I just needed to do some complaining. Happy birthday to Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edith Roosevelt, Lucille Ball [the amazing and hysterical], and M. Night Shyamalan.

Reading a good book would help me relax right now bad. Too bad I'm going to go read my AP Euro text book.

7/31/10

Many of you know that I am soon going to enter my sophomore year of high school. It has recently come to the attention of my friends and I that there is little to nothing important that happens sophomore year. Freshman year is exciting and awkward; you're at a new school with new friends and new teachers and a lot of other new stuff. Junior year is a big deal because everyone is turning sixteen and learning how to drive and getting jobs and thinking about college (if you aren't already). And senior year is important for obvious reasons.

So this realization has given me a brilliant idea. I am going to make a documentary called Sophisticated Morons in order to chronicle the events of an average suburban high school's 10th grade. And then I realized that I am not that great with film, so I might as well change the concept from documentary to weekly updated YouTube series. I don't know if anyone will watch it, but I think it's a good idea.

This just reminded me of the Suckumentary from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Tibby makes a documentary about losers and people with lame lives and things like that. But my "film" isn't a tribute to losers. My friends and I aren't losers... all of the time. My "documentary" isn't a tribute to school or high school or sophomore year. It's more an ode to the students and everything we have to put up with. Especially nowadays, with our entire public school system falling apart around us.

Well. I think this is a good idea. I don't know how it will work out, but we'll see. OH I HAVE A FUNNY STORY I FORGOT TO TELL.

Last night I saw a production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It was an absolutely amazing show and a fabulous production. My best friend Ashley was the pianist in their orchestra, and she is absolutely phenomenal. Everyone involved in the show was so talented and I would give anything to be in a production of that caliber. After the show Ashley's sister Sheila picked us up and we decided we wanted frozen yogurt, but the frozen yogurt place was closed. So then we decided we wanted gelato, but that store was closed too. We ended up going through the drive through at Jack in the Box to get shakes and smoothies. We didn't know what we wanted and there was no one behind us in line, so the guy that worked there told us to take our time. Sheila said something along the lines of, "You know they can see us right? I wonder where the cameras are," as she stuck her head out the window and began to look around. The drive through guy, who we did not know was listening, piped in by saying, "There are no cameras. But I can see you nonetheless." We laughed so hard it was ridiculous. Best drive through experience ever? I think so.

Happy birthday to the amazing, fantastic, best-person-to-have-ever-lived, I don't have words to express how much this person matters to me, J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter series has brought me so much joy since it first became a part of my life in the 2nd grade; and to this day whenever something is wrong I can open any of the seven books or pop any of the DVDs into the TV and I will instantly feel relieved. I can honestly say that my life would be different without this series, and your existence is the primary factor in its existence. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and once again, happy birthday.

In addition, today is the birthday of two of the most important fictional characters in history. Happy birthday to Harry James Potter and Juliet Capulet. And Neville Longbottom. So make that three of the most important fictional characters.

I used more semi-colons then usual in this post.

7/17/10

Do you ever have such a good day that you bask in the glory of said day for as long as you possibly can? Well, I had a day like that Thursday.

My mom woke me up around 11:30 since I had a make up piano lesson at 12:15. The lesson itself was nothing special, but my teacher and I talked about Harry Potter for a few minutes, which put me in a good mood for what I was about to accomplish.

After my lesson I went to pick up Sydney from her house so that she could help me face my fears. I had decided to get my ears pierced.

Some of you may recall that I am deathly afraid of needles. That's my only explanation for why I waited until I was 14 and 3/4 to get my ears pierced, which really didn't hurt at all. I'm glad I did it, because not only can I wear earrings now, but because I proved to myself that I can control my phobias. It is kind of strange to have two little heavy (well, not really heavy) things in my ears. I can feel their presence but I can't see them without looking in a mirror. Like my nose. It's so weird.

After I returned from getting holes punctured through my earlobes, I quickly changed into nicer clothes and went to pick up my friend Shannon so we could drive into Hollywood and see the 2008 Tony award winning musical, In the Heights. Well, our seats were fantastic, the show was fantastic, and I really loved everything about it. There is nothing I would have changed or fixed at all. Everyone should see this show while it's on national tour, it has something for everyone to enjoy.

And because this is Los Angeles and I was seeing a critically acclaimed show, there were bound to be a few curious celebrities. Directly before the show started I saw Jason Alexander from Seinfeld, among other things, enter the theatre. He was being approached by fans nonstop and I chose not to go up to him. Then intermission happened.

Fortunately, I did not have to go to the bathroom during intermission so I was able to people watch as hundreds of patrons filed out of the theatre. One person in particular caught my mind. Apparently, TJ Thyne, who plays Dr. Jack Hodgins on my favorite TV show Bones, had decided to see In the Heights also. I was in too much shock to approach him as he walked out of the theatre (ask Shannon, I was practically having a panic attack), but I decided I would politely bombard him on his way back. And I did. And I got his autograph. He was very nice. I appreciated it greatly. As you can see, I'm still kind of in shock.

After the show I made the traditional stop by the stage door where I got autographs and pictures from almost the entire cast, including Lin Manuel-Miranda, who wrote the music and lyrics, created the original concept, and starred in the show. The entire cast was so gracious and kind. And I have to say actors in New York are very to the point, sign the playbill and leave kind of people. In LA they stop and have a chat, pose for all the pictures you want, the whole nine yards. Even though I love New York, I am grateful at times for the laid back Californian attitude. But only at times.

Yesterday and today have not lived up to the magnificence that was Thursday. Maybe tomorrow will, since I am heading to the Hollywood Bowl to see She & Him in concert. And considering the "she" is Zooey Deschanel, sister to Emily (who plays the title character in Bones), maybe I'll have a run in with a few more of my favorite actors.

7/11/10

One of the worst feelings in the world is forgetting something you really should know. For example, earlier this afternoon, as I was sitting with a few friends in a jacuzzi surrounded by bees, I forgot who wrote Three Theban Plays. I knew his name ended in "es," but that's the majority of Greek playwrights for you.

One of the best feelings in the world is remembering something you had previously forgotten. For example, earlier this evening, as I was listening to music, I recalled that Sophocles wrote Three Theban Plays.

*awkward transition to next topic*

Considering how many summer assignments I've been avoiding recently, I have had many opportunities to watch movies. And I've watched quite a few. But my two of my new favorites are Pretty in Pink and (500) Days of Summer.

Many of you probably already know that Pretty in Pink is the 1986 John Hughes classic starring Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy, you know, the standard brat pack assortment. All of whom are fantastic. Even though Pretty in Pink was not my favorite 1980's coming of age hit, it's still a 1980's coming of age hit. The perms, vintage clothing, spontaneous dancing, and usage of bicycles are among my favorite quirks in this genre of film.

Then there's (500) Days of Summer. This movie was not like any other movie I have ever seen in my life. I rented it due to the fact that I am seeing She & Him (lead singer-Zooey Deschanel, one of the stars of (500) Days)) in concert, and because I had watched a Travel Channel special on Sundance, so I was in the mood for an independent film. Anyway, I am genuinely glad I chose to watch this movie. It was ridiculously funny and intelligent and unique and if I wasn't in the mood for a Judy Garland movie I wouldn't return it to Netflix right now. In short, this movie was really good. Go watch it.

Well, I guess I should be getting to sleep. I'm going to see fireworks tomorrow night because my city is a week behind the rest of the United States. It's a Pacific Standard Time thing.

7/8/10

Today many of my friends and I received the scores from our AP biology exams in the mail. Some of my extremely smart and brilliant friends got rather high scores. And then there's people like me that didn't do well at all. And then there's people whose parents are unhappy with their scores. I have a message to all of those kind of parents out there:

I don't understand what's wrong with failure. If your kid isn't trying, that's a problem. But when your son or daughter is taking a hard course, or a course that's challenging to them personally, what's wrong with doing their absolute best? Even if it isn't up to par to your standards. Some people just don't have an aptitude for science or English, or what ever subject it is. As long as your kid is trying their best, they should get praise, not punishment because they didn't get an 105% on what ever it is.

Students today are under more pressure then ever to be the best. Not everyone is going to get into Harvard or Stanford. Some kids are just happy getting their GED. So here is my mission for all you parents out there.

Embrace failure. It's just a part of learning isn't it? What I learned from taking honors biology is that I'm never going to be a doctor or a scientist and that I need a break from science to focus on aspects of my life that I can actually make a living out of. And I bet every other student in that course learned something about themselves, whether they got an A+ or an F- (if that grade even exists). I just want parents to realize that everything is a learning experience, and the grade is simply not an appropriate measure of intelligence.

This is going to sound cliche, but what if Thomas Edison's parents had told him he was a failure after his first light bulb design didn't work? Maybe they did, but clearly he didn't listen. Because if Thomas Edison, or Alexander Graham Bell, or anyone else that did something important had considered their first screw up a failure, where would we be? Because in truth, it wasn't a failure, it was just something they could improve. When Walt Disney was kicked out of art school, he didn't say, "Well, I guess I'm never going to be an artist now." He just realized that that institution wasn't the place for him, and he could go and be important somewhere else.

So biology was just my first screw up. Scratch that, Algebra I was my first screw up. But that doesn't mean I listen to the people pulling the disappointed card on me. Because I'm not disappointed in myself. That class was the hardest class I've ever taken and I know it was for many of my friends. I know I didn't do as well as I could have. I'm just happy I didn't go crazy and shoot someone. And everybody else should just be proud of themselves too. And so should their parents. Because I know how upset my friends are, when they have no reason to be!

In the scope of it all, 9th grade bio is just a minuscule part of my life. And in twenty years when I'm hopefully settled in doing what ever I've decided to do with my life, I'm not going to think to myself, "I wish I had done better on my AP bio exam." Because essentially, it doesn't matter. There are some tests that do matter, for certain things. And I have the potential of putting a really bad metaphor about how high school is just a drop of water in the ocean that is life, but I think it would be better if I didn't at this moment.

So, I hope this has put somethings into perspective for you. And I apologize if it's jumbled and ramble-y, but I really had to speak my mind. Thanks for reading.

6/28/10

For some reason, everything I have recently become obsessed with has started with the letter. It was suggested by my friend that I have a subconscious connection to the letter. I just think it's interesting.

There are three main things I've obsessed over: The Battery's Down, Bones,and Ray Bradbury's Fahreinheit 451The Battery's down is a musical-comedy web series on YouTube about the life of Broadway actor, Jake Wilson, struggling to make it big. Wow, that sounded oddly official and review-esque. Anyway, The Battery's Down is hysterical, and all together just a very good show. It is starring and written by Jake Wilson, along with many of his talented, also young actor, friends. The musical numbers are composed by a variety of talented musicians and the series is directed and choreographed by Connor Gallagher. And I'm not talking stupid but funny choreography like in A Very Potter Musical, I'm actual choreography.

What I also love about The Battery's Down is their menagerie (new favorite word) of guest stars. So many prominent players in musical theatre have been in this show! Some of my favorites included Sutton Foster, Alice Ripley, Jonathon Groff, John Gallagher Jr., Susan Blackwell, Allison Janney, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Shoshana Bean, the cast of 13, Bernie Telsey, Tituss Burgess, Matthew Morrison, Whoopi Goldberg, Nikki Snelson, Deidre Goodwin, Perez Hilton, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Caissie Levy, Kyle Dean Massey, Andrea McArdle, Kelli O'Hara, and Annelise van der Pol. As I typed that I felt like I was the announcer that lists the performers in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But anyways, that's not even everyone they've gotten on the show. Some of them are portraying characters, others play exaggerated] versions of themselves, and some make quick cameo appearances. And I am rambling on about this topic. On to the next obsession.

Bones. For years a few of my closest friends have been utterly obsessed with this show. Being in their presence has required me to watch a few episodes here and there, and when I found out that the entire series was available on NetflixInstant I decided to watch from the beginning. I'm hooked. Completely 100% hooked. And after doing some researching/stalking, I discovered that the majority of the principal cast has a training or background in musical theatre. This kind of made my life.

What I really like about Bones is that it is an extremely intelligent show. And I like the characters a lot. But the show is like a cross between a doctor show and a cop show, so it takes all the adventurous aspects of a murder mystery and pairs them with the science of a show like House. I love House also but I don't have to get into that now. Anyway, I love Bones so much and I'm bothering everyone because I talk about it so much

My last "B" oriented obsession is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury starts with a B, in case you didn't catch that. So basically, I can't explain many of the principles of the book, because my words will not do Mr. Bradbury's any justice. But I just felt so weird after I finished the book, because when I went to put it back on my shelf I realized that this extremely small (only 189 pages in my edition) book was surrounded by a lot of books of a significantly greater size. But this difference is, this book is so much larger in meaning. And that was my tacky philosophical like bit for today.

Happy birthday to the fantastic, multi-Tony-Award-winner, Mr. Richard Rogers, the equally as fantastic but more hilarious Mel Brooks, the wonderful Kathy Bates, the amazing John Cusack, and the adorable Kellie Pickler. I'm into adjectives today.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my obsessions as much as I enjoyed writing about them. You probably didn't, but then again they're my obsessions.

6/22/10

Today, for the first time this year, it felt like summer.And I hate to say it, but the only reason is because I was taking pleasure in the misfortunes of my friends.
I know that sounds bad. But the only reason this is true is because today, for the second time this summer, I went to the beach. However, this time I went with my friend Lyla while the majority of my other close friends were sitting in a class room enjoying their first day of summer school. No, my friends aren't stupid, they're taking summer courses. I was planning on taking one with them but there was a change of plans. So, due to this twist of fate, I was lying on the beach completely relaxed while my friends were diligently studying, or something along those lines.

And the weird part is, I don't really like the beach. I don't like sand. Or salt water. Or the sun. Or unnecessary human interaction.

Just kidding, unnecessary human interaction isn't a problem. But I do like school. I like books and I like learning about things I care about (a.k.a. not science). I like good teachers (a.k.a. not my science teacher) and I like having something to do every single day. Short term goals are the best!

But it took a whole week of summer vacation for me to realize these things. I will admit that in freshman year I kind of failed at the whole self motivation thing. I was satisfied by a solid B, and once I got there I stopped trying because I knew my grade wouldn't move. But I feel like I can really work harder next year. I'm taking a break from science and I can really focus on the areas that hold my interest, English and history. And I have to do math, but math isn't really that bad. At least it makes sense.

In addition I also have all my performing stuff, Hebrew High, and Friendship Circle. So maybe next year will be better. Just by detracting one negative aspect of my life I could change a lot. And I like that idea.

But for now I don't want to think about going back. Even though right now I kind of want too (especially since my school district postponed the first day of school to September 1, the same day Hogwarts starts school), I know that once I get there I'll live for breaks. Once the school year starts, I'll try to remember the feeling I have right now.

Today I wish to honor a very special man. Today is Joseph Papp's birthday. I can honestly say if Joe Papp hadn't revolutionized the Broadway stage, I would probably be really depressed. Considering I wouldn't have my A Chorus Line and HAIR soundtracks to listen (and belt) to on a day to day basis, my life would be empty. When I first got my ACL soundtrack I listened to it six times straight. I recall doing the same with HAIR. Sorry about my obsessive rant.

In addition, it is Meryl Streep's birthday. Otherwise known as the greatest actress who ever lived. Enough said.

Cyndi Lauper was also born today. She's pretty cool.

And Freddie Prinze. He was in the live action Scooby-Doo movies.

Oh, Erin Brocovich was born today too. I saw the movie of her life once.

There's also Dan Brown. I see his books on the shelves of Barnes and Nobles.

Now it's time for bed. It's been nice chatting with you!

6/18/10

It's been over a month since I've last written. Fortunately, now school is out for summer. I wish I could say school was out forever (tacky song reference). But unfortunately, I have three more years in the corrupt public school system.

So far summer has been exactly as summer should be. I've been to the beach, had a sleepover on a week night, been to the movies, and used grammatically incorrect sentence structure in every day conversation. But there is a storm cloud drifting over my bright summer days. The looming presence of the dreaded summer assignments.

See, I'm taking three honors classes next year. I was going to take an additional regular class but due to lack of monetary income in the family I had to re-prioritize. So I guess dropping science is a new way of saving money. Well technically I didn't have to drop a science. I could have dropped a performing arts class. But honestly, I would much rather develop my right brained, performing aspects and become an all together happier and more confident individual then take a chemistry class with a bunch of juniors and learn about elements and that stuff.

So for the rest of the summer I am pretty much planless except for summer homework and working diligently with Sammy and Sydney on the musical. Considering the majority of my friends are abandoning me in suburbia for vacations to far off lands, I'll probably write a lot. I'll take the opportunity to comment on everything trivial in a quite cynical manner. I'm excited.

Happy birthday to Roger Ebert and SIR Paul McCartney.

P.S. Toy Story 3 was absolutely brilliant. I cried twice. Go see it now. Drop everything, get off your butt, and see this movie. That is all.

5/17/10

Today, STAR testing came to it's unfortunate but inevitable end. Tomorrow it's back to the old grind, staying at school until 3:00 each day and going to all my regular classes... *dramatic sigh*

In addition it's going to rain tomorrow. In the middle of May in SoCal it is going to rain. And it was freezing today (yes 68 degrees is freezing), but in true Californian fashion I wore a skirt and my new sandals anyway. Maybe if I refuse to believe that the weather is taking a turn for the worst, it won't. Like fairies. If you don't believe in them, they die.

Currently, I have an urge to watch both Juno and Zoolander due to their respective incredibly catchy soundtracks. They're both really good movies too.

That was my short spaz for the day. Happy birthday to Howard Ashman, Bob Saget, Craig Ferguson, Tahj Mowry, Nikki Reed, Daniel Curtis Lee, and my friend Sierra! May is just chock full of birthdays isn't it?

Now go clap if you believe in fairies and enjoy an orange mocha frappuchino.

5/10/10

Well today was my AP bio test. My father had to wake me up at 6:00 in the morning so I could get ready for my ride to pick me up at 7:00 so I could get to school and start taking my test at 7:30 and finish around 12:00. So when the test was over I called my mom and left school. I was done for the day.

Technically, I'm not supposed to discuss the multiple choice portion of the test with anyone at any time for any reason. Ha ha, right. And I'm not supposed to discuss the essays for at least 48 hours. Once again: ha ha, right. Just so you know, I wrote the best essay ever written. And by best I mean wittiest. And by wittiest I mean... well, you'll see in 48 hours. I'm afraid if someone reads this and I've written my answer and a person from the test finds out I will have "compromised my test score."

All in all, I'm just really glad this test is over and I'm one day closer to spring break the sequel/summer. This test was the cause of so much stress and multiple mental breakdowns. And now I'm almost completely worry free. Starting Thursday I have STAR tests (they're these stupid standardized tests mandated by the state 2nd-11th graders in California have to take) which are SO easy, plus I get to get out of school early.

OH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU GUYS!

I'm getting inducted into the International Thespian Society. I'm so excited it's ridiculous. At my school they make a really big deal about the inductions and it's all top secret, but all my friends who are already part of the troupe keep saying weird things like, "You need to let us know if you're allergic to any animal hair or foods," and, "Unless you're extremely comfortable with your body, I suggest you wear a bathing suit under your clothes," and, "Make sure to get a haircut afterwards." So I'm scared, but I'm really excited to. It's a right of passage.

Because today's almost over, May is going to be a really good month. Every year May is extremely busy and somewhat stressful, but now that the stress is over I just get to do all sorts of fun activities.

Happy birthday to Fred Astaire, Bono, Kenan Thompson, and last but most definitely not least, my daddy!

OK now I have to go to Hebrew High. BYE.