Thursday, April 23, 2009

4/23/09

I've really given myself over. Musicals rule my life now. It's kind of pathetic.

If you look through my file of documents on Microsoft Word, most of what you see will be school work. But if you click on the file entitled "musicals are amazing" you will find a seven page, one column, single spaced, list of every musical song I know and like, then there will be marks next to each song indicating what I do and do not have on my iPod.

If you go to my tivo and sift through your options, you will mostly see the TV shows I watch, but if you scroll down you will see movie such as Grease and Rocky Horror Picture Show. If you look through my "special DVDs" (a.k.a. DVDs I don't let anyone touch besides me and keep in my room) you will see the entire Harry Potter series, some Disney, along with The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Damn Yankees, The Music Man, and others.

In my spare time I look up musicals on Wikipedia and read the plot synopsis.

Wait, back up. Notice that I was on spring break for a little over a week and had little to do besides eat matzah. And when a PBS special called "Broadway's Lost Treasures" came on, featuring footage from Tony Awards past, the ignition was relite on my always there love for the Broadway play.

That was poetic of me. I'm amazing. :)

Well, in hindsight, I've been more obsessed with other things. (i.e. The Great Twilight Obsession that still inflicts the youth of today. I never told you I'm un-obsessed with Twilight did I? Well yeah, I always new it was a phase. I still love it just because I loved it for so long that it can't completley wear off, but yeah. You should get it. If not feel free to notify me.) And musicals aren't that bad a thing to be obsessed with, in my opinion. I'm writing a magazine about it for langauge arts. Musicals, not obsession! But my articles are too long......

So let's back track once more considering how unorganized my thoughts are today. "Broadway's Lost Treasures" was THEE most amazing public television program I've ever seen in my life. I'd seen a lot of footage from it already on www.bluegobo.com (which by the way is temporarily shut down because the people from SOFA entertainment got mad because of their excessive use of Ed Sullivan Show footage) but a lot I had never seen and was astounded by. The only bad part is that public television is commercial free so they just had really creepy people talk during breaks and interview Broadway legends the likes of Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, and Tommy Tune, which translates to Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, and Tommy Tune saying how great PBS is and why they need to pay $250 for a set of three DVDs.

Well that's all I have to say on the topic. That means it's birthday time!

Happy birthday to Shirley Temple, Valerie Bertinelli, Barry Watson, Kal Penn, and Dev Patel! You are all amazing actors!

BTW, over the break I watched a lot of TV. My new favorite shows are any Samantha Brown travel shows, Say Yes to the Dress, What Not to Wear, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Ace of Cakes, and FoodNetwork Challenge. I don't know what I would do without TV. Wait, I do. Movies. Honestly, I'd be healthier if I was born sixty year earlier....

Friday, April 10, 2009

4/10/09

Well, I haven't updated in a while. I've been rather busy. But now I am on SPRING BREAK. Which means.....

PROJECTS. Three to be exact. To due May the eleventh and another due the twelfth. Because all me teachers had the same ingenious idea that they should assign projects right before we leave for break, because of course no one does anything on our eight days of freedom and they miss school so much that they will spend all their time on homework. AND then, get this, on May THEE fifth, sixth, and seventh we have standardized testing, so we get out of school early. All our teachers think these tests are just the easiest things around (which they are) but they fail to realize that they're really long and for some reason the air conditioner always breaks during it (in sixth grade my teacher let everyone who was finished run through the sprinklers on the P.E. field). So they just assume that if we didn't finish over spring break then we must be itching to get home after a fun filled day of testing and put the final touches on our projects.

SO. NOT. TRUE. I am the biggest procrastinator, I do almost everything the day before. But the projects I have right now are way to humongous to do in one day. In science, I have to do a physics project. I have to make something that applies physics and works. I repel technology, I can't do that! I'm thinking I'll make a diorama of a theatre and show how the flying set pieces apply the pulley system, but I am absolutely not artistic enough and I don't work that hard on anything. My teachers think I devout my life to school just because I'm an honor student. News flash, I don't. I have friends who do, but I don't. I don't devote my life to anything currently. Just self improvement and stuff like that. I'm to busy to be devoted to anything besides myself. My dad actually just gave me a lecture about ego because it's Passover and the matzah resembles humility and stuff like that, but as you can see I haven't absorbed it yet.

So anyhoo, that is my science project. For language artsm we have to write a mati3 gazine. A whole magazine. Which we did last year. Except last year our magazine had to be about ourselves and this year it can be themed how ever you want. I'm doing musicals. You can see a recourring theme here. So anyways I'll probably do that at the last minute because it's pretty simple. But there's all these things I want to do.... I'll deal with it when the time comes.

For social studies, we have to make an ABC Civil War book, like kindergarten. I'm making that with my friend Ilana, which means less work for me, but it also means I can't procrastinate because I've already disappointed..... four maybe five friends by my bad project skills. Sierra got mad at me in 6th grade, Mel, Nicki, Sarah...... probably more they're just not close enough to me to confide. But you know, I am me, take it or leave it. I am working on my procrastination skills because I need to for high school. But not now. I'm lazy.

Well. As you can see I am not spending my first day of spring break wisely because last night after the seder (Passover dinner) I walked over to my neighbor Ashley's house and me, her, and Sophie had a sleepover. And ofcourse they begged me to update my blog. And now Ashley's staring at me and telling me how my brain is whirring. And Sophie is sitting in the corner watching the Weather Channel because she's socially inept like that.

"It's supposed to rain everywhere," Sophie informs us, "In the P.M. and into the night."

You know what is an AMAZING movie? Once Upon a Matress. WATCH IT. Oooo a commercial for The Sound of Music just came on. That is also an amazing movie. I saw it at the Hollywood Bowl for the 40th anniversery. It was a sing-a-long and it was a rather joyous occasion if I do say so myself.

Apple.
Schism.
Muffin.
BOB SAGET.
green beans.

You don't get it do you. Well you know what you weren't there. So you didn't have fun playing the best Pictionary game ever. Sucks for you.

Anyways, todays birthdays, let's see (by the way my brother Max's birthday was on Wednesday! Happpy birthday Max. And my half birthday was yesterday....):

Happy birthday to Mandy Moore, Amanda Michalka, and Haley Joel Osment. Woop de doo.

And before I go, two quick points:

One: The Hannah Montana Movie comes out today!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited.

Two: Full House is on, with BOB SAGET and John Stamos who was also on ER which I watched the season finale for which was so amazing and DEEP. It had emotional depth, dude. And they just quoted Dorothy. :) That show also has the coolest Stephanie on television. Full House not ER.

But anyways, the season finale of ER was great and I can't get into that right now. I'm pooped.

Monday, March 23, 2009

3/23/09

What has our world come to? Honestly, someone as technologically inept as I am is not going to be able to survive.

It's just pathetic.

So if you're wondering why I'm already off on a tangent in the first three sentences of this entry, I will explain now:

My social studies homework tonight was to write a paragraph long argument on either the side of federal government or states rights, which one should have more power. (I said federal government, because I don't want Andrew Jackson to hit me with a cane. And it makes way more sense.) Sounds reasonable enough. BUT we then have to post them on this stupid thing called Moodle where our class has a private discussion room. Tomorrow, in class, we will all go to the computer lab and have ONLINE debates on this topic where we will post our rebuttals to other peoples arguments.

WHAT. THE. FETCH.

All 30 something of us are going to be sitting in one room, together, and instead of letting us be social kitty cats (I hate butterflies. I hate cats too, but it's an inside joke) we are all going to sit staring at screens, chatting with each other! My teacher is ruining our social abilities! WE ARE GOING TO DIE IN THE REAL WORLD! DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate technology. A person like me was not meant to live in the 21st century. Or the 60's. I hate the 60's. I'm very opinionated on hippies and why they lead the lives the live, but I won't get into that now or later unless people really want me too because it's extremely offensive. Let's just say I strongly dislike hippies.

So anyways, it's kind of ironic that I'm writing on a blog about the stupidity of technology, but this is different. I don't use this blog to talk to people I speak to everyday, even though most of the people who read it do.....

But still, I write this to get through to people that I normally wouldn't, and though that hasn't exactly worked yet, it doesn't hurt to try.

And Blogger is so easy to use, it's not even funny. This is where Sars is thinking, "Why would it be funny in the first place?"

Also, I figured out how to work Moodle, which none of my friends could. But it's not my fault I have Windows Vista and they have idiotic Macs. Except Snickers. She has PC it's just old.

I'm a PC and I'm 4 and 1/2 is my favorite commercial ever! That kid is the cutest thing. I love when she clicks the auto adjust button and goes, "I click and make it better. Look, all better!"
I can't get over her cuteness. I squeal every time I see that commercial. I lead a pathetic life.......

You know what else is creepy pathetic? Nebraska (in my opinion, the worst state, no offense Nebraskans) has WAY cooler people then North Carolina! Fred Astaire is from Nebraska, while the coolest person from North Carolina is Dolley Madison. And Fred Astaire is WAY cooler then Dolley Madison. Our world is corrupt. Just corrupt I tell you!

In other news, no one I wish to acknowledge has a birthday today.

It's over now.... bye!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

3/14/09

Well, I haven't updated in two weeks. Aren't I a reliable one? Well anyways, I had a busy week.

Monday I had play rehearsal until seven. But the orientation for the school I'm going to next year started at six. I was going to leave at five thirty but our director got so mad and made everyone who was going to leave stay until at least six, so by the time we got there it was uber crowded and we had missed some of it and it was completely overwhelming so we just left early. We didn't even chat with any of the teachers or anything which is what the point of it was. And then I missed hearing the Megillah on Purim. And I was said.

Tuesday I had another rehearsal until seven, and that was really fun, but sad because it was the last rehearsal ever. Because I'm leaving this school next year... You know what? I'm going to stop trying to disguise my grade, it isn't working, so I'm in 8th grade. If you were smart you would have figured that out already. So this was my last year being in the middle school play.

Anyways, on Wednesday morning we went to the theatre to do our rehearsals there before opening night (which was Wednesday). Here's how it works backstage, in the "Authorized Personnel Only" area. Because I am sooo authorized personnel. Well, there's a place called the green room, which has the couch and a refrigerator and a TV so we can watch what's going on onstage and we don't miss out entrances. Everyone hangs out in the green room and we usually do our hair and makeup in there. At the back of the green room, there are two doors leading to the dressing rooms. I'm assuming normally these would be for guys and girls, but in our case, it's for lead girls (which I was! I got a mirror with my name on it and everything! Look where eight lines gets ya!) and the other for ensemble roles. The guys get dressed in the hallway around the corner from the green room. It's nice, it really is.

So Wednesday night we did the show, and Thursday night we did the show. But on Thursday someone HAD to say Macbeth (which you never EVER say in a theatre!) which forced the guy that played Harold Hill on that night to skip an entire major scene where he introduces Tommy and Zaneeta! He was really upset. Some people are just so stupid.

Then Friday morning was the matinee (my last on show, where I had lines and stuff) and then we all went out to lunch. I went to California Pizza Kitchen, but the thing is, there's this big tradition that all the 8th graders go to BJ's with the director, but none of us showed up. Because we all went to California Pizza Kitchen which was less expensive, less crowded, and a lot more fun. The service was pretty bad though. But it was worth it. A few other kids went to Yamatos. And our director was really upset. I heard the she was near tears because we broke the tradition. I felt really bad about it.

So that night we head back to the theatre and I get ready to be in The Music Man for the last time. My friend Ci Ci, who played Marian the Librarian my cast, so it was her off night, got really emotional right off the bat. She was near tears by the end of the opening number. So as soon as I could get off the stage, I went to give her a pep talk. It went something like this"

"Ci Ci, this could be the last time we all do a show together, but it will not be the last time that we're all together. We all love each other way too much for that. We'll always be able to look back at this show and Damn Yankees and Annie Get Your Gun and remember that they brought us all together, because I wouldn't know any of you if it wasn't for these shows. We're all going to high school together and we'll do shows together there, and if not we'll still be best friends. We'll have reunions like crazy and we'll come see next years show together."

Stuff like that. It really made everyone feel better though. Except the set crew. They got mad at me for leaving the stage before changing the sets. But you know what? My friend needed me and they handled the sets just fine. So screw it.

You know, I love pretty much everyone in the cast, but there are a few people I could do without. Like this one kid who played Tommy in my cast, decided on Friday night to steal the mayor's cane, causing him to miss his entrance and have Harold Hill standing there adlibing until he could find it. When he came offstage though he was really upset. I comforted him during intermission. I just told him he was everyones favorite character and it was completely not his fault. It's over now and there's nothing that can be done except to do the rest of the show his best. I told him that he would get a standing ovation at curtain call. And he did. I am always right.

Oh yeah. And then Evan's (who played Harold Hill) mom brought Peeps. And that made everyone happy.

So we did the rest of the show and it was great. Brennan and Jake, who play Harold and Marcellus in my cast decided to change their facial hair every scene, which was hysterical, and then Brennan put bubble juice in a prop pipe and blew them on stage. It was hysterical.

I'm switching from character names to actual names randomly. It's pretty weird. I bet it's hard to follow.

Well anyhoo, that night at curtain call pretty much all the girls in 8th grade were sobbing. Including me. I couldn't help it. We all cried in the dressing room too. It was really sad leaving the dressing room and our costumes knowing we wouldn't be coming back. But they let me keep one of my headdresses, which was nice. I wore it to the cast party that night and I'll probably wear it to school tomorrow. The cast party was a blast, and I ended up going to be around one in the morning. And then I woke up to six to go to History Day LA. Woop dee doo. I so did not want to be there. But Snickers and I won at school so we had to. Along with a bunch of our friends which was nice, cause they won too. So anyway, we get there do our Lucille Ball thing, which went well in my opinion, and then we had to kill time. So we decided to track down a better place to eat lunch, considering our only option there were In-N-Out. So we leave the campus and find a Subway.

Here's were it gets interesting. We decide we're going to look for a Barnes and Nobles. Note that we are in the middle of no where. So me, my mom, Snickers, her mom, and her sisters set off to find one. In short, we couldn't. But we ended up going to a great store called DD's Discounts where colorful bras haunted Snickers. I was thoroughly entertained, the disgustingness of the store aside. Next door, we went to the Dollar Tree where we bought two Hershey bars, Lemon Heads, two Baby Bottle Pops, Nerds, Red Vines, and Reese's Pieces. We had to stay awake until the awards ceremony, even though we didn't stay for the whole thing. We stayed to find it we lost, and then left. That night I went to Snicker's house with two other friends, Alexandra (who completely deserved to win!) and Sierra (I wouldn't know because I didn't read her paper) who lost like us. We ate quesidillas, Caesar salad, corn, Pirate's Booty, Girl Scout cookies, and brownies while we played Dance Dance Revolution. I had a very healthful day yesterday as you can see. But it was pretty fun. And now I'm writing in this blog to avoid the mountain of makeup homework I have to do for tomorrow because I missed so much school due to the play. It was completely worth it.

Happy birthday to Andrew Jackson, Eva Longoria Parker, and Kellan Lutz! YAY!!!!!

Bye guys! Snackish lunch then homework time. I'm soooo excited...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

2/28/09

OK, I haven't updated in about two weeks. I'm a meanie head. I haven't updated much recently, because nothing really that exciting has happened. I mean, I got sick and slept a lot and then went to Starbucks and got math advice from a guy in a Harley Davidson jacket. But no one wants to hear about that.



But no fear! I am quickly approaching my second busiest point of the year. The "m" months are the two over all busiest points. March and May. They both have the most performing arts related shticks, for me at least, a lot of homework, and a ton of birthdays! I guess the holidays are pretty busy too, but in a more exciting and less stressful way. Well, they're stressful in their own way but, well you get the point!



The major business is basically March 9th to March 17th-ish. March 11th is opening night of The Music Man production I'm in, and so March 9th and March 10th I will have longer rehearsals then usual. Then March 11th through the 13th are the performances, and on the 13th is the cast party that could go really late at night. March 14th Snickers and I have to drive into L.A. to compete in History Day. I'm overjoyed.



March 15th and 16th I get to "relax" but March 17th is the spring choir concert/art show (with the tacky theme of friendship. BLEH. My idea was Around the World. And I am co-president, so shouldn't I get the co-final say?) This concert includes my sister, Abby, and I singing a duet. W00t w00t. And I think I might have to through away my 20's-esque black heels because the strap broke and I'll have to wear flats to the concert and be short. Because we have to wear black shoes and my character shoes are out of the questions. Do you think I could get away with my black rain boots with white polka dots?



So even though it's bound to be really hectic, it will be tons of fun. And it's just dawned on me that I should be glad that I'm sick now, because if I got sick in a week or so I would be dying. Seriously. I'd need all my energy and my voice to be okay. And I'm recovering.



But I'm really behind on my science project which is due Tuesday and I have to finish tomorrow because I have rehearsals on Monday! BLECH! Did I mention all my teachers decided next week would be a great time to give me tests and I could have this past week off? THEY ALL DECIDED THIS! I think once a week all the teachers should have a conference where they split up the days where they can assign projects due and have tests on. Because once in the 6th grade I had four projects due on the same day (day after spring break) and the day before I wasn't done with any of them (because I'm a procrastinator. People say I should work on that. I also know for a fact that four to six of my friends hate working with me on projects because of this. And I complain a lot) so I got a major migraine, threw up, and then took seven Tylenol. I don't remember how late I stayed up that night. But I'm pretty sure I got A's on three out of four of those projects. The other one I got a C on. FOR NO REASON! Seriously. I do not know what was wrong with that project. I know it wasn't insane and grandiose like some of the other projects but I didn't do anything wrong.



So I'm avoiding my science project. Old habits die hard. But at least I'm getting my creative juices flowing.



Speaking of: Did I tell you that my six page story based on the "every kiss begins with Kay" commercial got sent to the school literary magazine by my language arts teacher and now all my friends that are on the staff of the magazine have read the story???????? Wait-did I even tell you I wrote that story? Let's back track a second.



In language arts we read Flowers for Algernon and we made inkblots like they did in the book. We had to write a story based on what we saw in our inkblots. I saw a bench in my inkblot. That was the best I could come up with. And I couldn't think of any story! My teacher said it could be at the least a paragraph; I could easily do that. But no! The "every kiss begins with Kay" commercial had to come on. Well I think it was Kay. It could have been Zales. But it wasn't Jareds. I hate those commericals. So anyways it was the commericial where he proposes to the girl on a park bench. So I kind of used that idea......... and wrote a 6 1/2 page historical piece set in the 1930's and 40's. And it was really corny. And tacky. So of course my teacher loved it. I knew she would when I wrote it. I got an 100% on it.



But she sent it to the Lit. magazine! I was flattered at first, but when my neighbor told me he'd read it, I realized the callaber of diasaster (LOL Music Man refrence, couldn't help it) brought on by this. I hope it doesn't get in. I wish they had put in my Snow White story from last year. It was from Dopey's point of view. I loved it. I got a 95% on that one. And apparently, everyone loved it and wanted it to get in but my teacher said it was fan fiction and couldn't.



Fan fiction. Psh.



Wow. This is long. Shoot. This is a time consumer. Wait! Birthdays:



Happy birthday to Tommy Tune (the Michael Jordan of Broadway, tee hee) and Bernadette Peters (who looks 20 years, or at least 10, younger then she is)!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

2/15/09

Happy Valentine's Day (or as my friends and I call it, Single Awareness Day) yesterday and President's Day tomorrow!!! Yay! Don't you love the holidays?

Ok, so, yeah. It's a three day weekend. I don't have much to do. Tomorrow I have a 5 1/2 hour play rehearsal. Not only is it that, but we are having a "costume parade" (I don't even want to know what that is) and I am going to be required to wear a leotard. And a toga. There's no business like show business.

I love play rehearsal though. I don't know how the people that hate rehearsal stand it. I can't spell rehearsal though. I'm probably spelling it wrong and I don't know how to make Blogger spell check.

Wait a sec. Do you guys think a button that has an AB and C across the top with a check under it means anything?

Wow. I clicked on the button and all the times I wrote rehearsal were highlighted. That's funny. I'm going to go find out how you actually spell it.

I just went back and fixed it all! So now they aren't spelled right!!!! I shall never forget how to spell rehearsal again!

Back to what I was saying, rehearsal is great. You know all that junk about how "it's the journey, not the destination"? Well I've never believed that. For example, I hate most forms of exercise, but the benefits are great.

The only time I can honestly say the journey is just as fun as the destination though, is being in a show. I love all the people involved and the process. I become so close with all these people who I never would have met otherwise and I have a blast with them. The night of the show is amazing too, but that's still technically part of the journey. If we were professionals on Broadway and not some amateur kids, the journey wouldn't be over until we found out if the show was a hit. But I don't really know when the journey's over for us. It kind of just.... ends. Sadly. Closing night is always sad. A few of us cried last year. Yes, I was one of the few. I'm emotional ok! GOSH!

Well. I had an eventful and uneventful day. Yesterday I had a nothing day where I lounged around in pajamas and ate Valentine's Day chocolates and watched High School Musical 2. (I watched the 1st one on Friday afternoon). SO today I had to clean up my act. I took a shower and got dressed and went to Barnes and Nobles and had Mexican food with my mom and my sister at the Promenade. Then I came home and went back to the Promenade with my friend Julia and ate Chinese food and then saw a movie.

Here's the thing about suburbia. We don't have many places to hang out. I normally would not tell you I spend all my time at the Promenade. But seriously, everywhere I go there is a Promenade. People need to think of more origanal names for their shopping centers.

So, I live in a cluster of cities in suburban SoCal. My city is the smallest. And basically, we have nothing. Because none of our citizens want anything. They just want their ponies to remain undisturbed. But I won't bore you with my cities politics. So basically, our closest neighboring city has the Promenade, which mainly consists of Barnes and Nobles and a movie theatre, two places where I spend a lot of time. It's where basically every teenager in town spends their time though. Especially on weekends.

So tonight my friend Julia and I saw He's Just Not That Into You. I didn't like it. At all. It was the kind of thing that would work really well in a book (what it was based on) but didn't transfer well to screen. It's hard to explain, you have to see it to get it. Which sucks, because I read a quote the other day that said, "Good writing is when you don't have to say 'I guess you'd have to have been there.'" So I guess I'm not as good a writer as I thought. Way to burst my bubble you guys.

Well after the suckish movie was over I was taking Julia home, when we drove by two girls. This normally would not be unusual. But the two girls where wearing those head flashlight things. They were also sitting on lawn chairs. Their lawn chairs were on top of skateboard that were rolling down hills. Now that is an unusual sight.

We rolled down the window and asked them what they were doing and they said they were skateboarding with lawn chairs down a hill. They asked if we wanted to try but we politley declined the offer. Maybe I'll take my brothers Spongebob Squarepants skateboard one day and try it.

Happy birthday to Jane Seymour. Awesome....

That's it. Bu bye!


P.S. To appease Snickers if any of you have any questions, you can just ask! I don't want to turn this into a full blown advice column, but apparantley I'm good with advice. So if you ask a question or something, I'll answer, but this isn't going to turn into some stupid Ask Aunt Stephanie thing. You happy now Snickers?

Saturday, February 7, 2009

2/7/09

From the last post: It was Fairly Odd Parents! DUH! I looked for a clip to show you but I cannot seem to find one. I know you're all crying on the inside.

Speaking of crying on the inside, I had to get a book of poetry for a project I'm doing in language arts. I got a book with 100 poems and one of the poets it features is a man by the name of Sir John Suckling. He must have been ridiculed a bit in ye olde sandbox or whatever it was the kids played in back then. I haven't read his poems yet but I hope it doesn't suck as much as his name. Ha ha. That was funny.... Well not really but I bet my dad laughed.

Anyhoo, I unfortunatley don't have anything funny to say. I'll just talk about my poetry project some more to bore you guys. OH! NEVER MIND! I'll talk about the field trip I went on!

On Tuesday, the top readers of my school (me and my friends being included in that group, the geeks that we are) went to a library with a bunch of really old books and original manuscripts. We saw A LOT of interesting stuff. We saw one of the origanal Gutenburg Bibles and Snickers and I forgot to tell our 7th grade social studies teacher about that! Shoot! He was obsessed with the printing press. So we were going to brag about seeing an origanal. Well we'll find a way.

We also saw an original copy of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. And I started laughing hysterically and the docent looked at me weirdly. It's an inside joke with The Music Man cast. I'm in this song.... Well it's hard to explain. Just watch this video. It's kind of my big scene. I'm one of them in the production I'm in. Yeah....

We also saw a bunch of Shakespeare stuff. Including the original manuscript of Hamlet! I started giggling like mad! And all my friends started laughing because they knew why.

Did you know if you turn to the last page of an original manuscript of Hamlet and read the first letter of the last fourteen lines, it will read "I am a homosexual?"

That should cover it. I also saw Jack London's rough draft of one of his books. That made me bang my head against my friends in frustration.

After the guided tour we all went off to do our own thing. My friends and I became particulary attached with some 6th grade boys that I (and one or two others) already knew from the play. But Sophie absolutley feel in love with one of the kids. It was hysterical. And creepy.

But all the older kids (me being an older kid) wanted to go off on their own, without chaperones. But the teachers wouldn't let us take the younger kids (including the 6th grade boys) with us. It was very emotional. I think the teachers thought we were going to corrupt their youthful innocence.

So my friends and I explored on our own. We took a million pictures and they are hysterical! I wish I could post them here. But I won't. Too bad, so sad.

After we spent a good hour and a half exploring we went back to the group and found out we were the only kids that didn't get yelled at by the security guards and dragged back to the teachers! The security guards were nice to us! They even took our pictures when we asked, and gave us directions! If they had known that Sars, Nat, and K.C. had gone into the staff only zone, they might not have. But they never found out. Shh...

Another stupid thing my friends did is that K.C. and Sophie picked up a prickly pear fruit. Isn't that smart of them? They had thorns in their fingers all day.

For some more stupidity they all decided to climb a palm tree. I was about to get in but Mel came to her senses and told everyone to get out so they wouldn't get in trouble.

All in all it was a very nice trip. I had a great time. And it was WAY better then school!

Happy birthday to John Deere, Charles Dickens, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Eddie Izzard, and Chris Rock!

Did you know Charles Dickens was anitsemetic so in Oliver Twist the antagonist Fagin was Jewish? BUT in the play, Oliver! the composer Lionel Bart, who was Jewish, made Fagin a more comical character and not someone you would call evil. The origanal production even featured Ron Moody, Georgia Brown, and Martin Horsey, all of whom were Jewish!

GO JEW CREW!

Now I'm done.