Clear nailpolish: more dangerous than you would think!

I'm officially addicted to the "Moulin Rouge" soundtrack.
My keyboard isn't working properly. Too irritating.
But seriously.
David Bowie is always great, but I love the song "Nature Boy" and he managed to blow me away twice.
"Because We Can" gets stuck in my head way too often.
I honestly can't remember "Children of the Revolution", and I don't think "Rhythm of the Night" was there, either.
But "Elephant Love Medley" is cheesy goodness.
And "Roxanne" kills me every time.
So does "Hindi Sad Diamonds", come to think of it.
"The Show Must Go On" was really a perfect song choice. It's the perfect song in general.
Besides "Mr. Brightside". And "(If You're Wondering) I Want You To" by Weezer.
I really want the second soundtrack, but there's been a mishap.
I might get it in the mail after Refuel.
"We're creatures of the underworld. We can't afford to fall in love."
:(
Not SUPER looking forward to Refuel tomorrow.
But I am a little bit excited. I mean, it will be fun.
I'll be hanging out with my brother the entire time, but hey!
And the cabin situation will DEFINITELY be better than last year.
Yeah. Just been tired and sick all week. Not much going on.

F my life.

They changed my schedule AGAIN.
So they pretty much eliminated any chance of my having classes with friends.
I won't be seeing at least 6 of my friends all year long.
It's pretty frustrating.
Chemistry, math, and history, which tend to be my worst classes, take up the first three periods.
And the teachers seem pretty nice.
But I kind of wanted to be in a bad mood about this year.
They switched up the band schedule, so I wasn't able to take my first choice of English.
Then, all of a sudden, I'm thrown out of my second choice into Women's Studies.
WOMEN'S STUDIES!!!!!
THAT class, however, seems like it might be pretty entertaining. The teacher is pretty funny and nice, and I've heard stories about her. Funny ones.
And PE is full of other lazy teenage girls who want to do Pilates and yoga. AWESOME.
But STILL!! AAAAARGH!
I don't have classes with practically ANY band kids!
Neither with my best friend, but whatever, I guess I've been replaced. Understandable, but lamentable all the same. And irritating. But whatever.
AAAAAAAAARGH, but for some reason, I have LOTS of classes with an overly amorous male aquaintance.
NOT INTERESTED. THANKS.
It's going to be one of those years.
I was hoping to keep boy drama to a minimum. Looks like that's not going to happen.
But friend drama...I guess I'm safe in that department because I'll HAVE NO FRIENDS.
And grades? Who knows. All the teachers seem fairly reasonable.
But I was kind of depressed walking into history. Because I realized any chance of my EVER having Mr. Walker as a teacher flew out the window.
Unless I fail Chemistry and take it next year.
There is nowhere I can turn, there is no way to go oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!
Darn. Javert is dead. The only thing left to look forward to is Marius' moving solo.
Well, that, and a rousing chorus of "Do You Hear the People Sing?"
I just realized: I HATE the song "Turning". Stupid stupid stupid. Of course they're dead. You could sound a little less happy about it!

How bout 8 pounds of cake?

Ha. Jim Gaffigan.
I know bagels are equivalent to 5 pieces of bread, but they're also delicious.
Well, the one I just ate wasn't. It was a little too...sweet.
And it was a plain bagel, not cinnamon or anything, so it the sweetness seemed out of place. Curse you, Sara Lee!
I can't seem to find cinnamon bagels. Not cinnamon raisin, just plain old cinnamon.
And I know they exist, because Mrs. Hamblet bought us a bunch and I ate at least 4.
But that's okay. They were mini bagels.
My mom and I watched "Once Upon a Mattress".
Too cute.
A mute king discussing the birds and the bees with his 40-year-old son?
All the possibilities...
Zooey Deschanel getting knocked up by the guy from "Glee"?
Oh dear. Can't say she didn't deserve it.
My favorite part was the wizard pretending to be the Nightingale of Samarkand.
"Ka ka ka ka ka, ka ka ka ka ka."
And then he got angry!
"KA KA KA, KA KA, KA KA KA, KA KAAAAAAAA!"
He was so cute, on his little swing!
But not as cute as the king, who was an adorable old man until he got his voice back.
Oh dear, I've spoiled the ending. Rats. Might as well spoil everything else.
It wasn't the pea!
It was jousting equipment!
I'm rereading the Harry Potter series for the millionth times.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to make headway in "Les Miserables" (I should just give up), while revisiting the "Peaches" trio and slogging my way through the new Maximum Ride (I really don't want to...curse you, James Patterson, and your political agenda).
The dog is exhausted. We took a long walk, and she got in a fight with a retriever puppy twice her size. But she won, which is all that matters.

It's obviously Anti-Semitic!

"Jesus Christ Superstar" is better than Godspell.
Sort of.
I mean, it's far superior musically, storywise, and ended becoming more famous.
But it's not wonder other Christians hate it.
And I wasn't crazy about it.
I cried a lot during it, though.
Pilate's dream, Mary Magdalene's solo, The Last Supper, nearly every time Judas sang, you name it.
And yet, not a lot during the crucifixion.
After, yeah. But not during.
The whole thing was...weird, and definitely verging on blasphemous.
But I was reading about some of the stuff religious groups didn't like about the movie, and some of the stuff was inconsequential compared to other BIG things.
Jews didn't like it because it blamed Jesus' death on the Jews.
Um, well, yeah, it was mainly Jewish people that called for his death.
And it was the Jewish high priests that wanted him dead in the first place.
It's not as if Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice are raging Anti-Semites who want you all dead.
Blame Hitler if you need to. He was one.
Or other Christians freaking out because Pilate didn't have the dream about Jesus in the Bible! His wife did!
Wow...you would think those people would object to the fact that the movie states that Jesus WASN'T THE SON OF GOD and that Judas WAS JUSTIFIED.
Anyone who's read this blog for a long time knows I think Judas was a sympathetic character.
But I don't think Judas betrayed Jesus for the good of the people, or that he was right about Jesus being a liar.
And Jesus, for the larger part of the film, was portrayed as a petulant, spoiled, ambitious, hypocritical loser.
Then, later, it showed him doubting.
Both he and Jesus ended up yelling at God and showing him to be a cold God who either doesn't care about us or doesn't exist.
Then the disciples, right before he was crucified, started wondering if all he wanted was attention or perhaps an effective way to prove his point and didn't realize the consequences.
Most of the disciples were shown as misguided punks who deserved better.
Then Jesus is dead.
His disciples do NOT carry him around the city singing, "Long Live God".
Instead, he's dead. They mourn. They scatter. And that's all there is.
Wow. How depressing.
My dad won't admit it, but he loved it. He knows all the songs.
My mom hates it. Probably because it's "Anti-Semitic".
I'm undecided.
I watched "Les Miserables" yesterday, though, and LOVED it.
Mmm, Hans Matheson.
I can't tell if Claire Danes is really pretty or really odd looking.
Maybe both?
Geoffrey Rush was scary. I managed to stop screaming, "Barbossa! Barbossa!" midway through the movie.
The suicide was a little overdramatic.
And Liam Neeson somehow walked away from that encounter unscathed, not emotionally traumatized at all.
But, overall, great movie.
I haven't gotten any farther in the book. There's a large section on Waterloo that keeps mocking me.
Ugggggggh I would love to skip that part, but I'm scared I'll miss something important.
I leave for Colorado tomorrow night. We'll be gone for a week and a half.
WOOOO!!! I'm excited.

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.

Jesus sure looks nice in that Superman T-shirt

Crap. "Les Miserables" is at the library.
All 1438 pages of it.
Aaargh.
I don't want to read that many pages!
I have 8 other series to read this summer!
And I could barely focus while reading LOTR, what with all the fighting and recapping.
The French Revolution is going to be even worse!
I read the abridged version. That should count for something.
William and I watched "Godspell" last night.
An article in A&E stated that there are two kinds of people: Godspell people and Jesus Christ Superstar people.
Not having seen Jesus Christ Superstar, I wouldn't know.
But I'm not really that into Godspell either.
It was pretty trippy.
People follow the magical horn of John/Judas the Baptist/Iscariot, who pops in out and out of windows, ballet dances, and libraries for some odd reason.
Then they all jump into the fountain and dance to "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord".
Then Jesus appears wearing nothing but blue boxers. He wants to get washed up!
After being baptized by John, he pops out of the fountain WEARING CLOTHES!
That part threw me a little, and I stared at the TV with my mouth open for five minutes afterward.
Then they went on to act out parables in strange, unorthodox ways.
Then again, Jesus himself was pretty unorthodox in his day.
But that didn't make the movie any less weird.
The music was great. Alas, alas, you lawyers and Pharisees! "Day by Day" was somewhat ruined for me by the fact that Robin sang like a man.
I really couldn't understand how tying a man's arms to a chainlink fence while he stands on a bucket could ever be fatal. I know that wasn't really the point, but still.
And then it was as if the director ALSO missed the entire point of Jesus' death: he DIDN'T rise from the dead!
And, yeah, whoever wrote the play obviously didn't believe Jesus had, didn't believe he was the Son of God, etc.
But still. Why write a play about Jesus if you leave out one of the most important parts?
And yes, I can think of reasons why.
But it made the ending somewhat of a bummer.
His disciples decide to carry his dead body around town, while they sing merrily.
Which could be interpreted as joy because they know Jesus did good things and now it was their turn to share the good news with other people.
But if Jesus never rose...what good news would they have to share?
I also found it weird that Jesus died but Judas lived.
The other disciples didn't seem mad at all that Judas betrayed and essentially killed their Rabbi.
In the Bible? He killed himself, because he felt so guilty, and maybe (this is speculation) he knew that the other disciples wouldn't be able to forgive him.
In fact, they might even have killed him.
So he beat them to it.
Which makes me sad because he screwed up big time, but he was sorry afterwards.
Yeah, that sounds lame, but it wasn't just, "Oh dear, I regret that decision." His attitude was, "How can I live with myself after what I've done? What a terrible decision!"
So he bought a field and possibly hanged himself. There's a verse that talks about his blood and guts flying everywhere, which didn't sound like a hanging. :O Maybe the other disciples got him after all.
When the high school did "Godspell" last fall, they changed the ending and it was pretty epic. Shafer had commented that the ending seemed kind of hopeless and wanted to include the Resurrection into the script. So, in the play, Judas and another disciple placed Jesus' body in a box. While they were singing "Long Live God", they opened the box and revealed to the audience that Jesus wasn't there (they literally tore that thing apart, so it was pretty obvious he was gone).
Then, when everyone was clapping, Jesus runs out in a white suit onto the stage and joins the other actors as they take their bow.
Genius? You bet.
But carrying around Jesus' corpse works, too.
Next, to torture ourselves, we're going to watch "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Oliver!". Should be fun.

I'm stepping through the door...

I'm sitting in a tin can, far above the world.
Though I'm past 100,000 miles, I'm feeling very skilled....
David Bowie.
Come on. Surely there's an unabridged version of "Les Miserables" out there somewhere.
My mom got the orginal Broadway cast soundtrack of the musical.
Hm. That sentence sounded suspicious.
Anyway...
I loved the book, until I found out it was abridged, and the music was beautiful.
Javert! Nooooooooooooo!
And Eponine.
Why?
She reminded me of Rebecca from "Ivanhoe" (another book I have yet to read, though my dad seems to be enjoying it).
But when we watched the movie, SHE was the one everyone was rooting for.
SHE was the one who actually DID something, rather than sit around pouting and looking Saxon.
SHE was GORGEOUS. Everytime you saw her, it was like, "Helloooooooo, Olivia Hussey!"
But no. He chooses shallow, petty, fugly Rowena.
Of course.
It just ticked me off.
And Eponine had a way better singing voice.
Josh disagrees with me about "Fiddler on the Roof".
He liked Perchyk, and considered him a "cool guy" who "told it like it was".
I thought he was a manipulative, controlling, selfish jerk who was supposedly so "giving" and didn't do anything for himself while he ruined everyone else's lives to suit his.
Grrr...
Gavroche!!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Beet down!!!

Ha ha, that's what my T-shirt says.
With a picture of a dead beet lying on the ground.
No one I know got it.
Which sort of defeats the entire purpose.
The seeds have sprouted! My boobs might actually exist, and are bigger verging on ginormous!
5 years of acne and awkwardness suddenly became worth it.
Probably none of you wanted to know that, and it's not really a thing you would put out on the internet for all the world to see (especially since my grandma reads this), but...yeah, can't really justify.
Still, don't expect any pictures of them any time soon, or anything like that.
"Moulin Rouge" is on Channel 10, so my brother is watching it secretly.
But if it's on a regular channel, they cut out half the movie, so how bad can it be?
Ugh, Nicole Kidman is kind of making me mad.
She has this weird quasi-British accent and her Australian accent keeps popping up, though she pretends it doesn't.
And her voice is nasally when they sing.
It ticks me off.
A lot.
But I just watched the "Elephant Love Medley" scene.
And that's really all I wanted to see.
We had an awesome team meeting today at church.
Following two really good sermons, and fueled by delicious lasagna, we made crafts, roleplayed some scenes regarding recruiting people for VBS, and talked about chivalry and whatnot.
Ben made it clear that he didn't think we were really slutty or "tuned into the culture", but that we should watch what we wear anyway.
And that guys should take the lead, be chivalrous, and watch out for us when we went out and knocked on doors, in case some axe murderer attacks us or something.
It just nice. They seemed to take it pretty seriously.
So now I'm pumped. We're leaving on the 15th. Should be great.

Prostitute? You mean courtesan!

I finally saw "Moulin Rouge", and sort of understood why everyone was (and probably still is) obsessed with it.
Sort of.
The first part of the movie sucks.
It's a blur of crappy camera work, modern music (Nirvana? Really?), and crotch shots.
And John Leguizamo.
After listening to him whine as a semi-retarded sloth and a wannbe drag queen, I never want to see him in another movie ever again.
And yet, there he was, in all his mystical, drug-addicted, midgety glory.
Then Nicole Kidman was rolling around on the floor, pretending to have an orgasm, while Ewan McGregor decided to make the situation better by singing.
But it got a lot better.
Well, after they slogged through a ridiculous performance of "Like A Virgin".
"El Tango de Roxanne" was brilliant, with all the interwoven songs, and Christian's angst, and the Argentinian giving Sting a run for his money. The choreography was great, and the way the Duke shamed Satine was tragic, inevitable, and hard to watch, but also beautiful, in a sick way.
Zidler was hard to figure out. At first, he's sort of a bumbling, stupid pimp, then he's this selfish idiot, but he really cares for Satine and he somewhat selfishly decides not to tell her that she's dying until he needs some really good blackmail, but still loves and wants her happy, even though he knows real life won't let her be.
"The Show Must Go On" killed me. It was really hopeless and all these bohemians, prostitutes, actors, etc., who act as though their jobs and lifestyles are everything, really having nothing to live for and see life as this bleak, pointless thing, but that's how it must be and the show must go on.
One of the other dancers (courtesans, whatever), Chocolat, was my favorite. He saved Satine from being raped, and, throughout the movie, he understood everything she was going through. She fell in love, but of course couldn't afford to; it wasn't part of the job. She became sick with TB; the show must go on. She had to sleep with the Duke in order to finance the show and further her career; it's all part of the job. Through everything, he understood and "The Show Must Go On" also applied to him, because, really, what did he have to live for?
It made me wonder if he was one of the "disgusting" far out of the closet gays back in the day who was so despised that he had to go "underground" to Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge, yet had to sleep with the same people who hated him in order to make a living.
Sad stuff.
My mom compared it a lot to "Rent", because it borrowed themes from "La Boheme", but it also talked about immoral people from "the other side" who take a page from Ecclesiastes and proclaimed everything in life meaningless.
But I felt that "Rent"'s ending had some hope. Mimi had a near-death experience, but survived. She and her group of friends now needed each other more than ever and continued to live in the moment until their last breaths, thankful that they could live just a little bit longer.
"Moulin Rouge" had no hope. Satine dies, leaving the show (and Christian) without a leading lady. Christian chronicles their tale, a year later, and says that their love will last forever, but it doesn't sound as though he believes it, and, seeing as TB was SUPER contagious, he will most likely contract it and die pretty soon anyway. How depressing is that?
But yeah, great movie. Not perfect, but really good.
Emotionally traumatizing, orgasms and all.
Now if only I could figure out which soundtrack to buy.
Surely not both?

CLOSURE CLOSURE CLOSURE

One of the fantastic differences between Judgers and Perceivers: Judgers need closure and if they don't have it they will hyperventilate and die. Perceivers really DON'T CARE.
Which is what happened when my mom asked if I would like to get together with my friend this afternoon, and I mistakenly said yes.
BOOM! Now there are all sorts of decisions to be made! What time should this take place? What are you going to do? Would this require transportation? Do you need money? Do either of you like cheesecake? Would she like to stay for dinner? CALL HER.
I just got home. I'd rather be a good introverted perceiver and recharge from all my socializing while pretending decisions don't need to be made and deadlines don't exist.
Anyway. That was kind of the theme of "Spectacular!":
Selfish ISFP wannabe rockstar is kicked out of his own band, and strikes a deal with desperate ESTJ show choir leader: if he agrees to be their male soloist and helps them win at Nationals, she will give him half the prize money (which he will then use to pay for his own demo).
It was terribly acted and had a cheesy plot riddled with cliches.
And it was a musical.
In other words: fabulous.
Nickelodeon does better movies because, unlike Disney, they don't consider "butt" a cussword and have the female lead make witty comments about the villain's weight.
Tee hee.
The morals weren't all that positive, though. Screw authority! Do what you want to do! Blame corporate America! Judgers are tightwads who always need a schedule! Be a Perceiver and go with the flooooooow!
Fun times.
I finished "Every Young Woman's Battle".
Yay! A Christian book that doesn't shy away from sex or insist on telling stupid allegories about sexual purity!
They got fairly graphic, but only a little bit. And they made good points, but didn't condemn those who'd had sex before. They ALSO (thank God) didn't act all condescending and imply that the "sinners" were forgiven, but God would always remember the nasty, dirty, rotten little tarty things they'd done before.
*cough* Christy Miller *cough*
The author herself had had sort of a bad past, and she said, "I'm telling you this because I wish I'd known." But she's married with two kids and finally happy, and she's trying to show girls that they can be happy, too, rather than sneering self-righteously at them and telling that, even though he SHOULDN'T, God would "forgive" you.
*cough* Pastor Jim *cough*
The last few chapters were cool, too. It talked about marriage, Christian guys' perspective on girls, and true love, which, surprisingly, ISN'T A FEELING. That explains a lot. When I was reading it, I was looking at the things it said about "relationships" (still hate that word) and what you need to have to be ready for one, and I'm not even close, so I'm putting my purity ring to good use and am not going to date. I lost two really good guy friends by trying to rush into Coupledom, so I'm going to spare myself the drama and focus on my relationship with God instead.
Which sounds just as self-righteous and condescending as the people I described.
But I don't mind.
As long as I don't grow up to be Christy Miller.
"God is awesome. OMG TODD! God who?"

You don't have morality; you're a dog!

Ha ha, Michael Medved.
The gay penguins broke up.
One of them moved out.
How sad.
I thought they would last forever.
Athletic shorts!
California was awesome.
True, we only got to see restaraunts and theme parks, but the weather was great, the scenery was beautiful, and the people were...completely fake, but who cares about them?
We were coming back on the plane, and there were clouds and it was just a little bit colder, and everyone went, "NOOOOOOOO, TURN AROUND NOW!"
As Steve so aptly put it, "Why be happy when you could live in Washington?"
The weather here has been great this week, however. 77 degrees today. w00t
"Lagaan" was actually really good.
Or at least enjoyable. And entertaining.
And he picked the right girl. I was so happy.
Now for "Slumdog Millionaire"!
They're making a remake of "Fame"!
I'm pumped.
Grad night is tomorrow.
Ew, dress.

Could I be different, too?

Nobody knows you, nobody knows you like I do.
"Lagaan" sucks. Surprise! Bollywood musical! But everyone who's seen it has apparently loved it.
The dialogue is awful, and the acting isn't much better.
:P
But "La Belle et La Bete" is pretty fantastic, for a 40's fantasy movie.
The special effects are cheesy, but kind of cool.
Except for the faces on the mantle. And the bed covers that pull back by themselves.
Just about peed my pants watching those.
The Beast is kind of a creeper, but not as much as Avenant, who practically rapes Belle in the first 5 minutes.
If she says no, it's rape!
But he apparently doesn't care.
Luckily, Ludovic walked in.
Ludovic is sort of an awful person, but a nice brother. At least to Belle.
But he tells Avenant to slap his other sister (who's crazy), so Avenant does, and then he gets all mad and is like, "HOW COULD YOU SLAP MY SISTER? WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND MY FAMILY!? NEVER TOUCH HER AGAIN! EVEN THOUGH I DON'T LIKE HER AND SORT OF WANT HER TO DIE ANYWAY!!!"
Okay.
A bunch of people are doing Running Start next year, which is a waste of time, but I can't stop them, which I want to, because it's a waste of time and other such things.
But I guess I can't stop them.
But one of my friends keeps asserting that NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE and that we'll still hang out ALL THE TIME and she'll GO TO PROM and everything.
But it won't be the same, and she refuses to see that, but I can't TELL HER THAT.
And she acts like I'm challenging her decision ALL THE TIME, but I haven't said anything, because she's doing it no matter what I say, so why bother?
We have new seats in English, and they suck.
Terribly.
Because all the annoying people gravitated to the same spot.
And just have fascinating conversations.

Hey Jude

We're playing a Beatles piece in band!
And we'll be playing it at California!
It's SWEET! "Hard Day's Night", "Michelle", "Yesterday", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and "Hey Jude".
Trombones get melody quite a bit.
:O
Why are Alvin and the Chipmunks on itunes?
Not iTunes in general...
...MY iTunes!
Dad....
Oh, Randy Travis. Your deep baritone makes me smile.
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet, jingle around the clooooock...
He's only 5'8"!
I'm taller than Randy Travis!
I'm making a birthday mix for Jessica, even though her birthday was weeks ago.
So pack up, go home, you're through.
How could I make a man out of you????
You must be swift as the coursing river, with all the force of the great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
Who doesn't love that song?

What a dreadful prospect

What has poor Armand done to be condemnded to matrimony?
Why did the Day of Silence T-shirts have to be yellow?
The Day of Silence itself was good.
I didn't talk until lunch. And I sort of stopped being silent during 5th period.
But I got the point across. Sort of.
It was so stupid how many people were like, "I talked! I can't stay silent again all day! I'm such a failure!"
They could have always been, "Oh darn. Well, here I go again." There's no rule that says if you break the protest, you can't take part in it again. It's pretty hard to do anyway, keeping completely silent all day long.
Apparently some people got a lot of crap for doing it. I didn't get any, except for my math teacher jokingly saying he couldn't hear me when I gave the answers on my hands.
But I didn't get any homophobic comments, like a couple people did.
One girl got called a fag, which doesn't even make sense.
I met a couple of bisexuals who were like, "Aagh, I hate super religious people who make rude comments! It's not like two men can't be happy."
But he apologized when I was like, "Well...I'm a Christian."
Even though what he's saying is technically true.
But I mentioned what the Bible does say about man + man = happiness.
Because, even though the Bible thumpers aren't exactly nice about the Day of Silence, they're right when they say it's wrong, according to the Bible.
But then we talked about loving your neighbor and such.
And he'd never heard that part before.
Hmmm....
I wasn't the only Christian at the party, or the only one participating, which was nice.
A bunch of my Christian friends were either like, "I tolerate homosexuality, but I can't condone it," so they didn't participate.
And a couple were like, "No one should ever be made to feel worthless. I'm doing this for all people being bullied."
And a couple were like, "I feel REALLY strongly about this, so I'm going to participate."
We ended the day with a delicious cake Ed made, homemade frosting and everything.
And that was that.
"Hello Dolly" is a great movie and all, but I had forgotten how long it is.
Two hours of singing and ten minute dance sequences.
At least there wasn't any trippy ballet interludes with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, or worse: Jud, Laurey, and Curly.
Not that those aren't loads of fun, or anything.
Ew, my dad played Jud in high school. How gross is that?
Pre-nose job Barbra Streisand is somewhat of a babe.
"Out There" reminds me so much of "Wall-E". William and I were singing along, and my dad kept asking, "How do you know this?"
Please. I only watched this movie five times in first grade.
Ew, Walter Matthau is so lame. And sort of tone deaf. And they had no chemistry. She was much too sparkly and fabulous for him.
Tommy Tune is ginormous!!!!
Speaking of music, I got out "Letters to the President" and started listening to it again.
Oh, the memories.
And those fantastic summers where we went to concerts all the time and screamed the lyrics to "Sadie Hawkins Dance".
That might have just been one summer.
And probably not that fantastic.
But the nostalgia made me a little nauseous.

Reality Checks for Lovesick Teenagers

I'm actually in a fairly good mood, not bitter at all.
For the most part.
Just very sarcastic and a little cynical.
But only a little.
Musicals were a great invention. That and 80's music. Seriously, are William and I the only people who thought Huey Lewis was black?
But yeah. This is me trying to be funny.

1. For guys: Everyone has an excretory system.
Meaning the girl you think about day and night takes a dump every now and again. Heck, she's probably taking one right now. And, being perfectly honest, they *gasp* FART, too! I know you didn't want to hear it, but it had to be said. My point is: nobody's perfect. And they sometimes smell gross.

2. For girls: Though all teenage boys play guitar, most of them don't play it that well.
So don't be expecting any Joe Jonas-esque love songs. They're probably still struggling with "Smoke on the Water"...and love songs are the last things on their mind, for various reasons.

3. For guys: Of course she gets moody once a month.
What else did you expect? Here's what I suggest: either run and hide or LEAVE HER ALONE. And just because she's a nightmare now doesn't mean she stopped "loving" you. WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE HER FEEL BETTER. THIS COULD RESULT IN WEEPING, GNASHING OF TEETH, AND/OR DEATH.

4. For girls: He's going to stare at other girls.
There are some cases where he can't help it. If you're really bothered by it, start wearing shorter skirts. (To Christians: Sorry, just kidding!)

5. For girls: Do NOT overanalyze every conversation.
There is NOT a hidden message, spelling either, "I love you," or, "I hate you," behind every sentence of his. He usually just means what he says.

6. For guys: Yes, she really is talking about you in the bathroom
But you already knew that.

7. For guys: She'd rather hear, "You're beautiful," than, "You look hot."
Because the latter makes you sound stupid. And sort of sleazy. Unless you WANT to grow up to be a 40-year-old virgin/lecher.

8. For girls: Be glad that he has guy friends.
Sure, you freak out when he'd rather hang out with his male companions than you, but all that estrogen can be cloying after a little while. And don't be worried that he's really in the closet and is sneaking away to be with his boyfriend: it's not true. If he wants to hang out with other girls, however, then you've got a problem...but I digress.

9. For guys: Sports are boring. So are cars.
Yeah, some girls like them, but for the most part, Nascar and March Madness don't get them excited. So don't dwell on those subjects, please.

10. For both: THIS IS NOT LOVE.
It's mostly just hormones and other things. You will not marry this person. You will break up sooner or later, and may or may not remain friends.

Yep. Exactly. And this is coming from "Dr. Love".
That was super entertaining, though. Immature and fun. But now I have to go to bed.

WE WANT YOU!

Wow. It has been an insane week.
The teachers decided to bombard us with random projects and essays, so I've been really busy.
And I got sick. Again.
The second my teacher mentioned a virus going around the school, I started sneezing my brains out.
Thanks, Mr. Hurd.
Wow. No wonder the "Rent" movie flopped. I saw a recording of the last performance last night and...wow. Coarse, yeah. My parents were flinching at every F-word and put their foot down on watching the "sex scene". (I watched it later and it's a little offensive, but there is no nudity, just sexual dialogue. And I got what Jonathan Larson was trying to show. These three couples' relationships have been strained recently and a night of bad sex is the last straw for all of them. And I'm still the same no-sex-before-marriage person I was before, so while I don't condone that, I understand it. My mom thought it was showing how all the relationships were based only on sex, but I disagree.) And it was so much more powerful, open, and raw than the movie ever could have been (no offense, Chris Columbus. Nice try.). Mark was an actual, 3-dimensional character, not just a background image. Benny seemed like a worthwhile person who'd bought in the system, but still loved his friends more than anything and would have done anything for them. And Roger, my least favorite character from the movie, was less of an arrogant, angsty jerk and more of a human being. You could see that he had trouble opening up, was scared of what the future would bring, and your heart broke when you saw him lose the one thing (or person) that made him so happy.
And, since it was the last performance, the original cast came up on the stage afterward and everyone was bawling through a rendition of "Seasons of Love". That's when I lost it.
And as much as Jonathan Larson hated Christians, the church, and religion, his parents were some of the nicest, most open, and loving "religious" people ever. It was great to see them with all the cast members, regardless of sexuality or whatnot. And they were so proud of their son and it sucks to think he never got to see how many people he reached with his musical.
Dustin Lance Black's acceptance speech for "Milk" last night reminded me of the musical, because he was gay, and had always hoped that he would one day fall in love and get married. But the part that hit me the most was when he gave a shout out to all the gay and lesbian teens and told them that they were beautiful and that God did, in fact, love them. And I just started crying, because it's true, but a lot of Christians don't think that, and even those that do have a hard time showing it, because the media assumes that if we hold our stance on gay marriage, we somehow hate gays, but it's not true.
And, just like it's possible for Christians to love non-Christians, it's possible for Christians (or regular people) to be gay. It's not right, I do think it's a sin, but they're not faking their love.
Just saying.
Phew. Now to rant about something else.
Ugh, like "Twice Upon a Marigold". "Once Upon a Marigold" has been my favorite book for 6 years, and when I saw the sequel at Borders, I just about had a stroke. Then I read it, and while it was okay, it seemed a little pointless. Jean Farris only wrote the book because fans wanted to know what happened next, and I felt like she didn't really answer that question, which was irritating. I never wanted "Once Upon a Marigold" to end; I couldn't wait for "Twice Upon a Marigold" to end.
Oh, and I am in love with Peter Abrahams. His Echo Falls series is the bomb. It's hard for me to put down his books.
Laaaaame two of my best friends started dating. They're a good fit for each other, and they seem really happy, but it is SO awkward to hang out with them as a couple. It was even more awkward when I was the third wheel at a sort-of date. It was like they were more comfortable with me there, but they didn't actually want me there. They didn't want me to leave, but they weren't going to make it easy. So I just left.
And I've noticed a bunch of my girlfriend's think is totally okay behavior, to invite friends along on their dates. WHAT THE HECK?? One of my friends kept avoiding dates with her boyfriend, stating, "It would be too awkward if it was just us."
??????
SO?????? Isn't that the point? "I'd be more comfortable if you were there."
??????
I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND.
Yeah, fun weekend. "Rent" was so worth it, though. Why did it have to close???

Chocolate rain

Someone should write a musical about the U.S. Government, including great songs such as "Lauren, I am the U.S. Government (and I have something to tell you)" and "The Blues (The Terrible Twos)".
My mom's birthday is tomorrow, but we're celebrating today. :)
So my dad bought steak and no-bake cheesecake. His efforts to make a "surprise" dinner failed somewhat, but he got good food and a thoughtful present, so everything's okay.
OUCH. Someone completely dissed the Magic Attic Club.
Crappily written? Yes. Entertaining? Also yes.
"You should buy 'Fable' for the PC. Then you could download custom content like tattoos, and look like Spiderman, or the Hulk, or anything you could ever want. *hits with head*"
YEAAAAAH we won our football game last night!!! And the opposing team was one who'd only lost ONCE!
So while it was great that we won, how did we beat them???
This means we'll win our Homecoming game!
I hope.
Pep band is too great for words. Pretty much everyone in the band wishes they were a drummer, even if they pretend otherwise.

Stop sending me cocky e-mails, John McCain

We'll never get bored cuz we can go boarding.
Let's let the sunshine take us there.
As much as I despise this band, this is a pretty catchy song.
Ugh, John McCain is being obnoxious. He keeps sending us e-mails like, "Good debate last night", and, "2 Weeks to Victory!"
I bet Barack Obama is sending similar e-mails to his friends, but really?
I DON'T think you're going to win, John, and I think you know that.
Mmm, corn chips.
It's hard to type when a dog is LYING ON YOUR ARM.
Thank you, Tie.
Monday??
Flexible??
No complaining??

You Are Monday

Like this day of the week, you are ruled by the moon. More than anything, you are flexible. You are moody and impressionable. You are easily influenced by the world around you. And while you can be temperamental, you eventually adjust. While Mondays tend to be the hardest day for people, you don't mind getting back to regular life. You're the one waking up early and making the coffee while everyone else complains.

What Day of the Week Are You?

"La Boheme" and "Rent" are so similar, it's crazy. You can see things in "La Boheme" that Jonathan Larson took and added to each character from "Rent": Colline's coat, Schuanard's musical abilities, etc.
And Marcello is Mark and Joanne mixed into one character.
Alcindoro also reminded me a lot of both of them.
English was sort of a bummer.
As much as I love my teacher, we do NOT share the same views: morally, ethically, OR politically.
He was going on and on about moral absolutism vs. moral relativism and how moral relativism is how it SHOULD be, or rather, how it IS, and I got really bummed out, because he was completely dissing all my opinions (unwittingly, but still) and I didn't really get a chance to speak up.
It was just like...agh.
Ryan needs to eat.
Hurray for double chocolate Ho-Hos.
The best part is unrolling them and seeing the chocolate syrup. It's great.
But they're a little sticky.
Pajamajams. Pretty comfortable.
It seems like Jonathan Larson related to Mark the most, which is cool, because that's how I feel, especially regarding the song "Halloween".
Emma's little Pekinese attacked me.
But it wasn't very scary.
Don't you hate waking up early and thinking you're on time??
For example, when your alarm is set to 5:30, but you wake up at 1:30?
Sucks, doesn't it?

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.

"Keep sucking on that Twinkie, fatty." "It's a Ho-ho."

Yeah, sadly, nothing much has happened since Friday. Randy Pausch died, though, which made me incredibly sad because I didn't know. He's the kind of person that makes everyone else look awful. Not in bad way. That's actually a terrible thing to say. He was just a really great guy. I watched the special about him on ABC and only cried when his oldest son said that no problem is impossible to solve, because that's both true and untrue in the case of his dad.
Agh, "Rent" sort of changed my life. I watched a 90-minute documentary about Jonathan Larson (who died not of AIDs, as I was first told, but from an aortic aneurysm) and the writing of "Rent".
I think I like the new cast better than the original theater cast. Hate to be agist, but Fredi Walker did seem too old. Rosario Dawson and Daphne Rubin-Vega were both good Mimis, but Rosario Dawson and Adam Pascal had better chemistry.
Agh, "Musetta's Waltz" in my head.
MIMI!!!!
I had a physical on Monday, and my mom and I sort of despise the nurse practitioner, because she's a judgemental hypocrite, and she tried to put me on birth control.
???????
Me?
???????
If I have "trouble" during my menstrual cycle, like mood swings, cramps, or heavy flow, I need to go on the pill.
???????
???????
Doesn't EVERYONE have those kinds of problems???
"The Baby Borrowers" season finale was totally anti-climactic.
They did well with the elderly, and some of the old guys had been married for 67 years!!!
But then, at the end of the experiment, NONE of the couples remained together.
:(
Ooooh...I really thought some of them would be together forever.
And, no, I don't hold the creepy and unrealistic expectation that all high-school couples should only date if they intend to get married, but if you're out of high-school and you're still together...?
I don't know, even though it's probably never going to go anywhere, you still probably want the relationship to last forever.
Like that Chicago song.
At least Kelly and Austin broke up, finally.