Sparkly, Magic, Crazy, Golden Friendship

You ever loved somebody so infinitely much that it makes you smile and cry at the same time?

I do. Yeah, you're jealous.

De-Facto Mongolian Sweetheart, Suspicious Water Bottle, I Love George, and I had a last hurrah with my dearest dearest Lil' Newton. On Wednesday she makes a six hour drive to Saint Olaf in Minnesota so she can be all smart and get a degree in Biology. I admire her for her willingness to even go near that subject with a ten-foot pole. But then again, I admire her for a lot of things. And I could go into very thorough detail about all of them...but my fingers would probably fall off. Anyway, what you really need to know is that she is the smartest, sweetest, most magical, twirly, warm, kind, and utterly wonderful and magical frolicking buddy I have ever had the pleasure of skipping through the hallways with. And the best part is that I can pick her up and spin her around. It's quite a thrill, let me tell you.

So, Lil' Newton, thank you for one whole wonderful year of being my dearest friend. I cannot possibly use enough superlatives to accurately describe you. I hope that you have the time of your life in The World, and that you remember to come see me. I promise that I won't let your parents get too lonely-I will talk about cows with your dad and go produce shopping with your mother. I love you so much-and thanks for the cupcakes.

Journal Entry #467...Because There's Nothing New

I read Atonement once. A month or so ago. I thought it would be so interesting because of the previews, but I was reading and kept thinking it would get better...and it didn't. Just stayed long and descriptive. When the real story ended and there were still fifty pages to go, I didn't know what to do. I enjoyed and hated those last fifty pages more than another part of the book. But I didn't have a whole lot of options.

I wish I could dance on a single prayer/wish could be strong without the Scheisse yeah

Got a whole lotta money but we still pay rent/'cause you can't buy a house in Heaven.

I am looking & realizing that maybe I don't not believe in heaven...how does death work? Energy is not created or destroyed...so where does it go?


-original journal entry written on July 10, 2011

Goal 6, or Keeping The Dream Alive

Here at my dear school, we have five official Goals and Criteria that all of us learn freshman year and then promptly forget (well, I remembered, I guess). These goals can be summarized with the following words and phrases:

Goal One: God/Jesus
Goal Two: Homework
Goal Three: Service hours
Goal Four: Friends
Goal Five: Ground Floor, aww yeah!

But, dear readers, there is one more unspoken goal: Goal Six. This is the one that causes all the small creatures to appear. Goal Six, my friends, is "food".

Last year, in an attempt to fulfill this goal, some friends and I decided to have a dessert potluck at lunch on Fridays. Thus Fatty Friday was born.

And then we forgot about it. Until today, that is, when Heeners arrived with a large container of Reese's-filled brownies, The One That's Really Blond brought M&M bars, and The Nicknamer showed up with a lovely box full of pumpkin cupcakes. With cream cheese frosting, y'all. I love that girl. I do feel bad, though, because Save Yourself and I forgot stuff. But maybe that was a good thing-we didn't manage to totally finish anything off.

After a test run, I concur that maybe Fatty Friday should be a once-a-month thing. Food babies should only be conceived sparingly, you know.

The One With The Bat

No, I am not talking about the Friends episode. And no, I am not talking about a long wooden stick used in baseball. I am talking about a small flying rodent which passed directly over my head yesterday.

Little critters LOVE Hogwarts. Think about it:dark, cool corners in the summer, radiators in the winter, and an abundance of crumbs and forgotten food all year round. Because of all that we get a lot of furry friends in the building. Usually they're mice (like the giant ones that lived in a couch on Ground Floor last year), and there are always some friendly roaches hanging around, but occasionally we're visited by a bat or two. And yesterday happened to be one of those occasions.

A friend and I were walking to our lockers before the last bell rang. We were the only two on Ground Floor at throne, save two other freshmen. For some reason, we stopped to stare down the other end of the hallway, and before we knew it something had flown between our heads. Only when it got about thirty feet in front of us did We realize it was a bat. But those poor little freshmen didn't notice a thing until the little guy came flying back towards them-and us. There was a whole lot of screaming going down.

These are the kind of situations that tell you who your real friends are. Your sort-of friends are the ones that awkwardly wait for you to decide what to do. But your real friends get right to the point-they drop everything and save themselves. Luckily for me (I guess) I've got some true friends of my own-they go beyond the normal expectation. The dear girl I was in the hallway with promptly dropped her backpack, threw me in front of her, and slammed us both into the closest wall. For this incident, I will nickname her Save Yourself.

We sprinted into our locker room to avoid the bat, and then were joined by Baby Carrot. You probably don't remember her...go to For Good on this blog. Anyway, as we all stood in the doorway, Baby Carrot caught sight of the bat, and both she and Save Yourself ducked behind me. As if I had some sort of Anti-Rabies Force Field. Now there's an idea...

The memory of this day will fade from the minds of those that weren't there, but I know that it will go down as the day I realized...

If my friends and I were stranded on a desert island with no food,
I would most definitely be the one getting eaten.

Yucky Stuff.

Never mind how much I love going to Hogwarts, going back after a lovely and lengthy break is positively icky. Blech. Yuckfest. Gag me with a spoon. No matter that my fellow sophomores and I have just been thrust into what is commonly known among the student body as the most difficult year, both academic and otherwise. Yay. I am positively bursting with anticipation as to what the next nine months will bring. This must be how sarcastic women feel when they are pregnant. Hmm...

But actually, there are a few bright spots that have emerged from the load of seemingly endless crap I have experienced in the past five days:

A. My Greek-fluent, suspenders-wearing, big-word-using, fast-talking English teacher is just that. So along with notes, I am recording what will soon be known as The Daily Daly Podcast. (note to self: should the opportunity arise, nickname this guy the Daly Prophet)

2. I have to give up Wednesday's eighty minute study hall for an evil class called Computer Essentials. But since it is basically one unconstitutionally long troubleshooting program, it allows me to wander aimlessly with Gerard (my iPad2) and looks up pictures of narwhals and study the art of rainbow hair-streaking. Summer 2012, here I come!

D. MEH. Okay, so maybe there isn't an upside to that one. Never mind.

However, I think the biggest issue that I'm having with the start of school is that in less than three years I will not be attending Hogwarts-I will be off on another great adventure to another mysterious school. I say mysterious because I have absolutely no idea where that would be. I keep telling myself that it's okay that I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but I know that soon there will actually be some sense of urgency. Honestly, who needs college? I'd sooner go back to kindergarten anyway-I've always considered myself with more of a six year-old's personality anyway.

Long live the finger paints.

Never In My Life

...have I read a book as horribly time-consuming as this.

...has it taken me days to will myself to read.

...have the trials and tribulations of gods and Greek men interested me.

...will I ever read this book again.

Sorry about that, everybody. Just wanted to share the love.