You're so vain...

Parents.
Yes, the only reason I'm alive is so I can make you mad, Dad.
You see, it's my fault the concert in Keyport ended early.
So I sat in the backseat of the car trying to make him laugh, while he explained to me how my jokes weren't funny because they were innacurate.
Yes, I know Michael Jackson wasn't an albino. That's not the POINT.
But I digress.
I'm 58 pages into Les Miserables! Yes! Only 1410 pages to go!
Crap. I'm trying to find this book I saw about the art of making playlists, but it doesn't seem to exist.
My brother and I got into an argument regarding Les Miserables.
After listening to the CD a billion times, I found it rather depressing. The peasants continued to lead hopeless lives where no one gave a crap, and most of the "good guys" die. Marius is getting married and should be the happiest man alive, but he can't help thinking about all the friends he lost and can't celebrate. He literally lost ALL of his friends. Every single one of them DIED!
But Nathan argued that, later in history, the good guys eventually won, so the musical wasn't sad at all. And Javert, one of the "bad guys" died, so not everything was bad.
Hello? Eponine is dead. Gavroche is dead. Javert wrestles with his conscience and has the chance of becoming a good man, but decides he can't live with himself after all the things he's done and KILLS HIMSELF. Thenardier, one of the villians, ends up on top by robbing people. And Valjean, the hero, a changed man who's lived a full life, DIES.
Sure, of old age, with his daughter by his side, but STILL.
It's not the kind of thing I listen to when I want to be HAPPY.
But no, Nathan berated me for not thinking of the historical context and for even being sad at all.
Ugh. He was sort of joking, but of course he thought was right.
As usual.
We constantly butt heads over stuff like that.
I'll be sad about something, and he'll be all, "Well, logically..."
Irritating.
And yet my mom gets it???
Who knows.

Venting, venting, one, two three

Awesome. So I'm a terrible friend.
Because I get a ride home with my neighbor ONCE IN A WHILE, not every day, but when she does pick me up, it's like I have to race in order to guarantee my spot.
Because my other friend wants a ride.
Even though she lives 10 minutes out of the way, while I live across the street from my neighbor, so she's acting like winner gets a ride home when IT'S MY RIDE. NO ONE SAID YOU COULD GET A RIDE HOME.
But unless they say, "Get out of the car, you moron," she doesn't get out. And they feel bad for making her get out. I mean, it's not her fault....
Ugh. It didn't make me so mad before, because I don't mind walking, but when I'm expecting a ride home from school and all my friends have ALREADY LEFT and I want to play with the BABIES on my nice, restful RIDE HOME, it's frustrating to have my friend go, "So sad. I got here first. Have a nice walk!"
Today, she handed me a stack of CDs she'd borrowed from me (at least 15 of them), and said, "Yeah, it sucks that you'll have to carry those home. While you walk, I mean."
!!!!!!!!!!
And she offered to walk home with me to "help" carry them....
....but she didn't offer to give up her nice, comfy seat in the car, now, did she?
And apparently she's mad at me, so she feels good about taking my seat.
But whenever we hang out she acts like everything's fine.
Whatever. I'll just ride with my mom and/or walk until the end of the school yaer.
Thankfully I won't have to deal with it next year.
Sorry. It's just been irritating me all day, that she's been doing this, but whenever I show up at the car first, she CRIES. Okay, not in front of me, but she feels like crap. And she tells her mom. Who calls my mom.
Which is ridiculous.
So I'm the villain here. It's all my fault. Bad Lauren.
13 more days!
Awards ceremony!
CK graduation?
Can't go to that, even if I wanted to.
Soren's leaving. :(
Rosey's retiring. :(
"Bless Me Ultima" sucks, as does "Swing Kids".
Some stupid kids FREAKED OUT while we were watching "Swing Kids" today, because they commented on Count Basie's music, and how the Count was a "negro".
All 12 of them, NOT ONE OF THEM BLACK, kept saying, "Awwww man, that's JACKED UP!! How could they say that? That is SO MESSED UP! I can't believe they SAID THAT. It's a DISNEY movie!"
Hello? That's what they said back then!
And it's not like they said the other n-word, or "colored", or "coon", or anything like that!
And it was all the Filipino kids saying this. The black kids didn't CARE!
Oversensitive much?
Ha ha ha. I'm going to sign that petition. Because David Bose told me to.
Everything but marriage!

Funny AND sexy

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a very creative movie, and I love Shakespeare, but it was quite...naked.
Having Christian Bale, Rupert Everett, and Dominic West in one movie was wonderful. And none of them wore shirts half the time!
So Christine and I babysat Elyse and Jin for 8 and a half hours.
Yeah. You can tell that went well.
We probably shouldn't be alone together.
We ended up taking the goats on a walk, playing with the Barbies for a long team, and consuming massive amounts of junk food.
Baby Ben and Jerry's!
Church was great. I was super emotional all day, though. I think it was hormones and lack of sleep.
Bad combo.
But we watched a Nooma movie in Primetime and I love those.
Only the woman in it got hit by a truck.
She got HIT by a TRUCK.
Sierra's mom didn't let her go to church today. They're both really hurting and Sierra's sad that her mom thinks she doesn't love her and it's all confusing. :(
Just...everything.
Ugh, I wish Kristine didn't have to move in the summer.
And there's math homework to do. :P

Everything and nothing

Ed officially hates me now.
In my haste to get out the door, I left my permit at home and had to wait 15 minutes for my Dad to drive by with it.
Ooooh yes.
He was not happy.
And I know it's my fault. I completely forgot about my stupid permit, even with plenty of sleep and a good healthy breakfast.
But then he got on my case about acceleration and deceleration and I almost clocked him.
We ended up driving around both my old neighborhood and my current neighborhood, which was fun and oddly comforting, but a little scary at fast speeds (like 50 mph, which is the fastest I've ever gone).
Oh yeah, be afraid. I'm driving a Scion at 50 mph! Someone might get hurt!
Scions turn great, but they have absolutely no power.
"Hunchback of Notre Dame" is NOT a kid's movie. I saw it for the first time last night, it being one of those "adult" Disney movies I never got to see as a child, and it was thoroughly enjoyable, but I wouldn't let my five-year-old watch a movie that featured topics like:
-prejudice
-persecution
-racism
-unrequited love
-Hell
-eternal damnation
-corrupt religious leaders
-violence
-death
-POLE-DANCING
Seriously, Esmerelda pulling out a pole-dancing routine in the middle of the square??
Since when is it okay for a kid to watch that?
Quasimodo had quite a nice singing voice, though.

How appropriate

What Your Driving Says About You

You are generally an easy going, laid back person. However, you can't help but feel a little jealous and competitive sometimes! You are a fairly aware person, but you can't help but make judgment errors from time to time. You'd like to think you're a fair person, but you occasionally think you deserve a special kind of justice. You can be a rather tense, grouchy person - but you try to maintain your dignity. You have mixed feelings about authority figures. You understand their place, but you believe their power needs to be in check. You are somewhat focused, but you are also a bit scatterbrained. Distractions can get you in trouble. You don't feel a responsibility to anyone but yourself. You value your freedom more than anything else. Your ego is a healthy size. You don't think you're more important than anyone else.

What Does Your Driving Say About You?

Itchy, drugged terriers need cream cheese.

We just got Tie back from Courtney and she is thoroughly miserable. Courtney took her to a park and Tie got fleas.
????
We've taken Tie to parks before and she's never gotten fleas.
So she's not acting like herself at all.
She mostly stays in her bed and when, she does get up, flinches and bites herself so much that she runs back to bed.
She still hasn't finished food from dinner.
And she didn't drink for hours, so when she finally did, she drank almost the whole bowl.
I'm really worried about her, but my mom gave her a cream cheese pill and some flower oil, so she said she'd be okay.
I hope.
:(

What Your Playing Cards Tell About Your Future

Right now you are focusing on friendships, relationships, and interpersonal connections. Your emotions are currently tied to a trusted woman in your life. She is just, and she has your best interests at heart. Your closest friend is someone you have a co-dependent relationship with. The two of you desperately need each other to survive. The near future will bring you a long term friendship, children you love, happy family relationships, and prosperity. Beware of a forced change. The circumstances of your life are about to become very different.

The Playing Card Test

Sure....
I had a drive at 11 AM today, but it was fun because it was around town, not just in the older part of town, which SUCKS because there are no stoplights or landmarks. Today, Ed had us drive to the mall, Dairy Queen (we didn't buy anything), and go around a roundabout.
Driver's Ed was sort of fun. Phoebe and I had to plan a road trip from Silverdale to WSU.
Which, funnily enough, is the route I took a couple days ago.
Too, too funny.
But the trip itself had to take at least 5 days, and we had to make 6 recreational stops.
So we went to the Space Needle (or the Space Noodle, in Jeff's words), the EMP, Mount Baker, Soap Lake, some other fantastic lake, and Nathan's best friend's family's house.
Which is where I stayed 2 days ago. Ha.
I'M GETTING MY BRACES OFF TOMORROW!!!!
Toffee for LIFE!
Yes, there will be a retainer, but WHO CARES?

It's not the power of the curse...

...it's the power you give the curse.
Thank you, creepy cross-eyed British boy.
"I don't get it. What does it mean?"
How come half of the kids were American and half were British? It was like London, only not.
Yeah, I'm talking about "Penelope".
Lame, we're leaving for Pullman tomorrow morning to drop Nathan off at WSU, and Tie is with her former owner Courtney until Wednesday.
Courtney's really nice and Tie likes her, but I'm scared Tie won't want to come back home.
:(
I think having inappropriate conversations (on paper) during church is a sin.
"Thriller" is a cool song.
Yeah diehards!!
Do do do do do do do.

What if the "average" Christian, conservative family was a rarity?

It seems like white Christian conservative families aren't the norm, though people sometimes make it seem like it is. Or maybe they don't. It's very possible I don't know what I'm talking about.
I still think they should add more races to the standardized test, though.
Ha, my family fits that stereotype.
Which is scarier, driving places with your mom, or driving around a miniscule town with your driving instructor?
Surprisingly, driving with Ed scares the living daylights out of me. I always make stupid mistakes when I'm driving with him. And he wonders why I'm nervous.
But I drove to and from Driver's Ed last night. It was only sort of scary. Some chick kept tailgating me, though, over speed bumps.
And then I drove too slow up a hill and there was a LONG line of cars behind me.
But it was fun, so that's cool.
Next stop: Wal-mart!
I can't decide whether I want to buy the Rent (movie) soundtrack or the new Classic Crime album.
I can get The Silver Cord off iTunes for $10, and the Rent soundtrack is $17 or so, but I really want to put all the Rent stuff on my ipod and listen to it nonstop. Plus, I haven't listened to The Silver Cord yet and I know what I'm getting if I buy the Rent soundtrack.
Decisions, decisions.
Perceivers suck.

Prose sucks; don't do it.

Well, I survived my first drive today, as you can already tell.
It wasn't as bad as I'd expected. Pheobe went first, so I got to watch what she did before messing up myself.
I messed up too many times to count, so the observation didn't exactly help any. That's okay, though. I backed the car into a parking space without hitting anyone!
I was feeling bored and annoyed with the fact that I have to carry my wallet/coin purse/thing in my pocket, so I went out and bought a purse. At Walmart. For cheap. It's cute, though, and my mom helped pay for it. Now I'm trying to convince my mom to buy me a cellphone to put IN the purse. She was practically crying, something about how I'm growing up. Yeah. I'm on my way to becoming a girl. Woman. Whatever. Something of that sort.
UGH, Sharon M. Draper's "Romiette and Julio" sucked something serious. I got it because it was an ALA best book and I love all things Romeo and Juliet, but this was just BAD. And I know that if I say it's bad, it doesn't prove that it was a badly written book or that she's a bad author, but in my honest opinion? I'm shocked that anyone could stand it for long enough to read all of it. It was sappy, the word choice felt wrong, the characters were annoying, and NO teenager would say ANY of the things that were written in the hideous dialogue. Think I'm being harsh? Read it. Agh, what a waste of time. And it was supposed to be about overcoming racial prejudice, yet the Mexican guy named his dog "Taco"?
Tie has taken to sleeping on my bed whenever I'm not home, or when I'm not looking. She disappeared for an hour and I found her curled on my pillow.
Aw, Paul Foot got kicked off "Last Comic Standing". His prop comedy routine was pretty awful, though. "I'm, uh, the Cat Assassin. This is like China, you see? China, because it's oppressive. There's oppression." Bill Bellamy practically dragged him off stage. Papa CJ's was bad, too. Sean Cullen and Jeff Dye did the best sets, so I no longer hate Jeff Dye. He proved himself worthy, lol. Adam Hunter and Ron G still suck, though. Especially Adam Hunter. They almost put him into elimination, but they didn't. Because they wanted Iliza. And she MURDERED them.
"Barry Bonds' baseball glove! Barry Bonds' testicles! Britney Spears' mind! LOOK HOW IT JIGGLES!"

Don't you hate a dirty mouse?

That could be taken so many different ways.
*sigh* So I finished the Kimberly Kirberger book. It was just a bunch of teenagers being all, "I'm so in love. I was in love with Ryan, too. Oh no, he dumped me and I love him!" Then Kimberly Kirberger would give "wise" advice.
She told the girl who's boyfriend cheated on her NUMEROUS occasions to work it out. Wth?? She did that several other times when the advice should have been, "DUMP THEM, THEY'RE STUPID!" or something to that degree. There was one time (I can't remember exactly what the question was) where she told the person to move on, when THAT was a time they could've worked it out. So I won't be reading anymore "Chicken Soup" for the time being.
Driver's Ed started today. It was kind of boring, but Connor's taking it, too, so that was pretty cool. He's not my driving partner, though, because he wanted to do it at 9:00 A.M. (!!!) TOMORROW. Not only is that way too early, but I'll be in Seattle all day tomorrow, sooooo.... I've been paired with some girl I don't know for Friday, but that's okay.

Love is an overused word...but Kimberly Kirberger believes every teenager has been in love?? The big debate

Aaargh, not in a good mood, thanks to Tie.
Let's just say the neighborhood dogs have had enough of her and my finger has seen better days.
I got my learner's permit today, and I'm starting Driver's Ed tomorrow. Fun. XP It sounds a lot like science class: extremely boring. I mean, fun. Because there's nothing I'd rather do than take notes on what some old guy has to say about turn signals and parking brakes.
I wish they would warn you when they take the photo. The lady just told me to hold that smile. So of course I decide to look to the side and smile over THERE when the camera goes off. Yeah, I'm not stupid or anything. It was so bad, they let me take another picture.
My mom took me to a used bookstore, and we looked through the paltry Christian fiction section. About 11/12 of the bookcase was "Inspirational Christian Romances". "Love's Unending Promise" and all those stupid prairie books were among them. They did have some Judy Baer books, though. Argh, but Frank Peretti? Don't even bother reading his books. 9 times out of 10 the end has to do with angels and demons. "The Oath", however, had to do with a dragon that ate everyone's sin. Sorry I spoiled it. But I read parts of his books aloud to my mom to show her how ridiculous he is, and the old ladies in hats kept glaring at me.
Whatever. That's what they get for blocking the entire row when I wanted to get by to look at the Princess Diaries books.
My mom let me get this Chicken Soup book. I don't know why I picked it up, but I secretly love Chicken Soup, and this one was for Teens (with a capital T) on "Relationships".
It's pretty cheesy. The author means well, because she says in the intro that adults can be condescending and patronizing and that she won't give advice that falls into either category. But every other page has a cheesy crappy love poem on it. One was about falling into the abyss, and I seriously thought it was about hell until the final line of the poem said something about "falling into the arms of love".
Wow. Okay. Thanks, Christy Miller.
And the author truly believes that there is someone out there for everyone.
I'm not trying to sound hopeless or cynical (well, okay, I am trying to sound a little cynical), but I don't agree. Some people never find anyone, and there's nothing physically or emotionally wrong with them. They're just not meant to find anyone, I guess. Which sucks, don't get me wrong, but if there was really someone for everyone, why don't they find anyone? And the author says that if someone doesn't love you back, it's not because there is something wrong with you. But she also says relationships won't work if you don't love yourself, and you have to open yourself to love. So, essentially, if you're not getting any (or you're just eternally single), you're not opening yourself to love. Either that, or you don't love yourself. There have been people that are very self-confident (and not cocky or anything) and open to love that haven't found anyone!! They just don't!! And they're not doing anything wrong, though they feel like they are. No, I'm not an expert on love, but, interestingly enough, the author of the book is SINGLE!! So she can't exactly prove that there is someone for everyone when she has no one.
Argh. It just bugged me.
There's a chapter on unrequited love that I'm sort of looking forward to. Just because that's something everyone goes through, and it's nice to know I'm not the only one.
Wow. That sounded very emo and bitter. Trust me, I try not to dwell on crap like that. I just like being able to relate to people who have had the same experiences as myself.
That still sounded emo and bitter.
I think I need some time alone.

Radda radda radda

Mamma mia, 31 flavors!
Ever been REALLY tired and REALLY PMS-y at the same time?
Yeah, that's a good combo.
I didn't start feeling REALLY tired until science. Oh, how I hate science.
Grades are already supposed to be turned in, but he's making us do a lab and turn in our binders and do boring things.
It's pretty hot outside. It's kind of nice.
So are donuts, which Faxon brought this morning.
MR. VILLIERS CAME BACK! He's visiting for a week, and totally doesn't remember any of our names, but it was so worth it.
But once he's finished visiting, he's going to Korea.
Hello, why don't you come back HERE?
It sucks because I don't want to do driver's ed, but my parents are like, "Well, if you're not doing driver's ed, taking summer school, working, or going to youth group, what WILL you do?"
Um...nothing?
Isn't that the point of summer, since the whole school year was spent doing SOMETHING?
Why not just veg out, chill with my dog, watch summer movies, read billions of books, and socialize with people I already know rather than go out there, make new friends, and LEARN?