Camp Wightman, Camp Wightman, our dear summer home...

As of yesterday, I am home from camp!

What a fun week! Of course, it's impossible to talk about EVERYTHING that happened in just one blog post, so I'm gonna try to hit the highlights.

Sunday: The first night there was a blast! Some kids brought their iPods (blatantly against the rules, but our coordinator, Harlan, didn't care. He mostly just let us do what we wanted), so we stuck them in an iHome and had a random dance party, which was fun. Then we found a bunch of New Year's Eve noise-makers, which we played loudly and obnoxiously until Harlan said "That's it! If you guys are gonna play those things, you're gonna play them along to something." He then put in "Don't Stop Believing" and we kazoo-ed along to it. Which was freaking amazing.

Monday: Since this is a Baptist camp, we had Bible study with Pastor Greg, who is pretty darn awesome. He went around asking our names and what church we were from. Since I'm a Pagan, I replied "I'm not affiliated with any church. Nature is my church!" He grinned and said "Ok, so First Baptist of Leaf." It was so funny! I then impressed him with my knowledge of the Old Testament, leading him to dub me "The Leaf-Worshipping Bible Queen". I bear this title with pride. Another fun thing about Monday was the ropes course. Mo and Mel, the girls who run the ropes course, taught us the rules by having us raise our hands and explaining that each finger represented a quality you needed for ropes. Ironically, the middle finger was the "Positivity Finger". We all got a good laugh out of that, and for the rest of the week yelled "Positivity Finger!" at one another in lieu of flipping each other off.

Tuesday: Near the lake, we have these huge rocks that form some interesting caves. A bunch of us went spelunking. That's a fun word, spelunking... Anywho. It took some difficult climbing over big rocks and crawling through small spaces and running into spider webs, but it was still a lot of fun. The caves are amazing! Two guys even saw a bobcat in one of them! Also for xkcd readers, the caves provided something VERY funny: I heard one kid yell in the caves "I almost fell down the big-ass hole!" :D Other things that happened on Tuesday was playing volleyball on the beach to Beatles' tunes and making tie-dye shirts. One guy, Texas (his real name's Tim, but he's from Texas) couldn't find a white shirt big enough, so he just tie-dyed a tank top that came out looking so gay it was hilarious, but Texas wore it well and proudly.

Wednesday: We had a cook-out on this day and played a game of "Wax Museum". This game involves all of the "statues" to assume various poses and try to move when the "curator" isn't looking. If the curator sees you, you're out. While playing, two girls who'd seen the Doctor Who episode "Blink" decided to be Weeping Angels. Unfortunately, I was the curator this game, and the entire group decided to slowly converge on me, reaching out with their arms Weeping Angel-style and frightening the hell out of me. Fun, but scary.

Thursday: Two days before, Pastor Greg asked me to write and perform a monologue about the Biblical figure of Sarah, Abraham's wife who was told she would have a baby at 75. So Thursday morning at chapel, I got up, nervous as hell, in front of the whole camp and performed the monologue I'd written. It actually came out really good. No one really cared about it, but the camp director, Greg, and Greg's wife all said that I did really amazingly. So that made me happy. It is a camp tradition to always have a square dance on Thursday. The square dance is basically an excuse to dress up as crazily as possible, and do fun line dances like the Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Macarena, Montego Bay, and the Camp Wightman dance. Since I always forget to bring crazy clothes, I just put on a black t-shirt and shorts, put a blue skirt over it, wore my sarong like a cape, rested my sunglasses on my forehead, wore a bunch of blue eyeshadow and drew swirly lines on my face with eyeliner. I asked my Doctor Who-obsessed roommate how I looked and her immediate response was "Time Lord. You look just crazy and mystical enough to be a Time Lord." It was the best compliment I ever recieved! After the square dance, we built a campfire and made banana boats, which involves stuffing marshmellows and chocolate chips into bananas, wrapping them in foil, and cooking them over the coals. Best. Dessert. Ever.

Friday: The last real day at camp involved a luau (We heart Hawaii). While helping set up, my friend Zac and I were carrying a big thing of whipped cream down to the beach. I tried to take it from him, and he wouldn't me. I said to him "What do you think I'll do? Run out into the woods with it and eat it all myself?" He replyed "I wouldn't put it past you." My indignant response was "I wouldn't do that.... often!' Thus an inside joke was born....

Saturday: On Saturday, we cleaned up our cabins, got packed, and prepared to be picked up. My Dad brought one of my best friend's Kevin/Kelsey (who I hadn't seen in years, she lives in Washington) to pick me up. Kevin/Kelsey is a male-to-female transexual and is thus extremely feminine. When I saw her, she had long hair, pierced ears, and a hat and glasses covering part of her face. One of the stupider kids at camp mistook her for my mother. We had a good laugh about that... Anywho, Dad brought us home and me and Kevin/Kelsey spent some time catching up, hung out, went to Paul's Pasta, and she set up Skype for me, so now I can chat with people via webcam. Which I broke in with a two hour conversation with Katherine from midnight to 2 in the morning.

Wow. All in all, it's been an amazing week. Camp was great and so was seeing Kevin/Kelsey and talking to Katherine. I can't wait to see the rest of my friends, I've missed them!

~Laura

Going to Camp!!

Okay, so I know I've been pretty terrible with regular posts, but here's a warning that I will not be posting AT ALL for the next week because I am GOING TO CAMP!!!

Every summer, I spend a week at Camp Wightman. This will be my third year doing this.

I love camp! Yeah, sure, it's a Baptist camp so it's pretty Jesus-y, but they're actually really tolerant of heathens like me. Plus the grounds are gorgeous and there is SO much fun stuff to do (swimming, sailing, kayaking, ropes, campfires, singing...), and the food is AMAZING!

When I return, I shall do a post solely concerned with the amazingness that is Camp Wightman.

~Laura

P.S. In honor of mandachan, I will be forcing my cabin-mates to learn/sing "The Campfire Song Song" Every. Single. Campfire.

Haven't... posted... in so... LONG!

Sorry! Very sorry! Very sorry for not posting in so long!

It's just that, well, nothing's been happening with me. I've been spending all my days mostly alone in the house either watching Doctor Who or reading fanfiction.

I didn't do much today either. Slept until 1. Started the impossible task of going through all my clothes to see which ones are going to Goodwill. Began the preparations for going to camp (love camp!). Made some tentative plans for tomorrow.

And yeah. Not much interesting stuff going on in my life. I'll try to post more though... as soon as I get home from camp. I leave on Sunday. Whoo!

~Laura

Because I'm Five....

Ho-Hum. It's a rainy day. All my friends are busy or have vanished off the face of the planet. I'm bored and lonely. I guess there's only one thing for me to do...

DISNEY MOVIE MARATHON!!!!

....Because I'm five....

In the lineup for the marathon we have some classics: "The Lion King", "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride" (only Disney sequel that was ever good...), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (personal favorite), "Hercules" (spawned my mythology obsession), "Mulan" (I heart Chinese culture), "Pocahontas" (my Dad's favorite, oddly enough), and "Tarzan" (for the following quote: "Are you sure this water's sanitary?! It looks QUESTIONABLE to meeee!!").

I may decide to watch some more later, but these seven are my favorites so they get priority.

Going to go watch Disney, sing along to cute songs, and generally act like a child now...

Ta!

~Laura

Another One Bites the Dust

MUAHAHAHAHA!!! Yet another of my friends has been initiated into the cult of Firefly!!

Yesterday, I went over to Tara's house with Hannah. After being mobbed by her puppies, we sat down to watch the first episode of Firefly. Hannah LOVED it! We're going to try to get together to watch more of the series soon. Hannah is the seventh person I've indoctrinated in Firefly (Laurel, Tang, the EGE, mandachan, Tara, and Matt).

It makes me happy to bring another person into the Firefly fold. :)

...Yeah, I'm weird.

Hannah and Tara also showed me a funny script for a mumblecore movie (an extremely low-budget movie starring the writer's/director's friends) that they're making. They apparently created a character specifically with me in mind: The Not-So-Fair Maiden. I am actually very amused by it.

Anywho, an awesome fun day with my buddies.

~Laura

Beach Day of Amazingness!

Yesterday, I jumped off a bridge because my friends were doing it.

No, seriously! That's what I did!

My mom took me, Kyla, and the EGE to Esker Point Beach. It was amazingly fun!! We sat on the EGE's "Thomas the Tank Engine" blanket and had a nice lunch, built a causeway out of rocks (well, the EGE built it, me and Kyla just threw rocks), swam through this little channel, and most fun of all, we jumped off of the bridge over the channel!

This bridge carries Groton Long Point Road over the Esker Point channel. It's about an 11 foot drop into the channel (14 feet, if you're jumping from the ledge). When we saw some kids jump in, the EGE and I immediately wanted to try. So we climbed up onto the bridge and... well, jumped.

It was amazing! Normally, I hate being in free-fall, but this was just FUN! It was made even more hilarious by the fact that, right before I jumped, Kyla started whispering Edward's lines from "New Moon" to me. Wacky fun.

So, me and the EGE jumped off a bridge about a dozen or more times. We even got Kyla to jump once. Kyla and I both got horrendously sunburned and I sliced up my foot on some rocks, but all in all... It was an utterly AMAZING day. I can't wait to go bridge-jumping again! Next time I'll hopefully have Tang, Katherine, and mandachan to convince to jump with me! The EGE even had this funny idea of "let's convince passer-bys that one of us is a suicidal jumper and the other is trying to talk them down"

Lots of fun death-defying stuff!

And now I go to nurse my sunburn...

~Laura

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

Watching the Boston Pops on TV. Going to the beach tomorrow!

:D

~Laura

Not much doing...

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Just sitting around. In my pj's. Dad says there are no good movies playing. All my friends are busy.

Not doing anything for the the 4th of July, either. Blah.

It's why I haven't been posting recently. Haven't done anything of interest. Except for Thursday, which mandachan covered in her blog.

Had some odd dreams last night involving humanoid puppies, the 9th Doctor, and Taylor Lautner. Don't even ask. Last time I eat peaches after midnight...

~Laura

OW! OW! OW!

I slept on my neck wrong, so I can't move my head without it hurting.... Ow....

Going to the library in an hour or two to work with Tara, then coming home and hanging out all by my lonesome... with a busted neck... :(

Or I might call Kyla and hang out with her with a busted neck... Whatever works.

EGE, congrats on the license.

And now for a completely random quote from the Reduced Shakespeare Company that has been bouncing around in my head: "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than dreamt of in your philosophies... so piss off."

~Laura

Meh, Haven't posted in a while...

I've decided to be supremely lazy today. I'm just going to lie in bed all day, watch Doctor Who, perhaps a bit of TrueBlood, and read fanfiction. I'll tell you a bit about the party that I went to yesterday, and then I'm going back to my laziness.

So, my amazing friend Hannah had her graduation party yesterday. And there was silliness and "What do you mean I'm supposed to act like a grown up?!" all around. We had a confetti poppers (loud), Apples to Apples: Jewish Edition (the one Jewish girl in attendence kicked all our asses, surprise surprise), dinosaur cake (supposedly the only reason Kyla came to the party), Reduced Shakespeare Company (hilarious), Scattergories (I suck at it), fireworks bought by Hannah's older brother ("Aren't those illegal in the state of Connecticut?" "SHH! Keep it down! ...Yes, they are.") and Candy Land (Because we're five).

It was amazingly fun! Another "Happy Graduation" to Hannah, she's amazing, and I'll try to see you again sometime this summer!

...And now I go back to my laziness....

~Laura

New Obsession

Yesterday, Mom dragged me and Katherine to the Esker Point Beach Concert. She's been trying to get me to go for weeks, but I never wanted to. Finally, I went because it was an excuse to hang out with Katherine.

We did not listen to the band. We did not dance. We talked about Doctor Who for two hours.

I had never seen it. Katherine is a Doctor Who aficionado. She told me to look up episodes on youtube, gave me a list of the first season's episodes (First season with the Ninth Doctor, that is), and then we talked about how cool and funny the show is. Then, after bringing her home, I went online looked up the first episode, watched it, and was hooked.

Thank you Katherine, now I'm obsessed with another Sci-Fi show because of you. Thank you, EVER so much!

Ah, but it's okay. I love this show. The Doctor kicks ass.

~Laura

Libraries and Monopoly

Today was a lot of fun. Tang came over for a few hours. We hung out, played Monopoly and such. I couldn't tell you who won though, we couldn't finish the game because I had to leave. All I know is, in the end, he had more money but I had more property. And I didn't get as badly ass-raped as I do when I play against Kyla.

At two-thirty, Tara came and picked me up because we had to go do volunteer work at the Library. Which was... okay, I guess. Two hours of explaining the summer reading program to little kids. And lots of waiting for kids to come in to explain to. We only really got two or three. That's about it. Giggling madly over a funny book was the highlight of it all. And then at six o'clock, we went home.

And here I am....

~Laura

I Love My Family

So, yesterday was Father's Day. Tradition in our family is to have a HUGE picnic with everyone on my father's side of the family. This year it was hosted at my uncle's house. Most of the day was spent with my amazing cousins: Jessica (who is 13 and so bloody cool for her age) and Stephanie (who is 11 and adorable).

We hung out, talked about boys (Steph has a boyfriend... at 11... wow. And Jessica's already had two at 13 years old!), and randomly watched the Disney Channel all day. It was great fun. An amazing bonding experience. They love me because I sassed their older sister Lauren into oblivion with my great powers of sarcasm. :D

And I adore them because they're the funniest little things! When I told Jessica about the guy I'm seeing, she said "Okay, but he has to share you!" I love that girl.... God made us cousins because he knew our mothers couldn't handle us as sisters....

Well, yeah.... That's what I have to say about Jess and Steph.

Ta!

~Laura

Short Post of Doom

At Dad's. Not much to report. Missing everyone. Father's Day picnic tomorrow. Will post about that at some later date. Incapable of typing complete sentences.

~Laura

SUMMER!!!

AHHH!!! It's summer vacation! No more school! YAY!!

Damn, I'm in a good mood... this is gonna be one great summer! I can feel it. I can stay up late and sleep in, go to the beach and other swimming places, hang out with my friends, and even just sit around the house and do nothing!

I've got some library volunteer work with Tara lined up, and I have a week of camp in July. All stuff I'm looking forward to!!

In other news, some of you probably follow the webcomic that me, mandachan, and the EGE started, Drowning in Turtles. In the past, me and the EGE would contribute ideas, and mandachan would draw them up and post them. But now, mandachan is retiring from DiT because she's so busy this summer. She has appointed me her successor in maintaining the site. I am both honored by this and in a fit of "OMG! How the CRAP am I going to manage this as well as she did?!" Thanks, manda.

So... yeah. Those are my plans for the summer. Looks like it's gonna be one awesome vacation!

~Laura

Anticipating Summer

One more day. Two more blocks. Two more exams. Four more hours.

And then...

SUMMER!!!

Ah, summer... I just can't wait! It's gonna be amazing! Going to camp... to the beach... tubing... hanging out with my friends... hanging out with this guy I'm seeing ;) ...

I have so many plans for the summer! Starting with tomorrow: Music picnic at Harkness Park with mandachan and the EGE. I LOVE the music picnic! It's always a blast. I do believe I shall continue the tradition started by Katherine and bring Apples to Apples... and if the EGE decides to climb a tree and pelt me with pinecones/tree bark/twigs, I shall have swift retribution.

Ah, I'm just loving my summery life right now!

~Laura

Because I'm Lazy...

...And it's bloody hilarious! Especially to music nerds...

I present to you...

The Pachelbel Rant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

That is all.

~Laura

Smiles all Around

Short-ish post today because I'm lazy.

I had an awesome time hanging out with Tang today (as we've been planning all week). Lots of fun and laughter. And now, I'm waiting for 9 o'clock to roll around so that I can watch the season premier of TrueBlood. Yay! Smiles all around!

~Laura

:D

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I was busy hanging out with Katherine! We decided to go to the Galaxy Roller Rink for Late Skate. It was hella fun!

We got there around 7:30 and after some slight problems with Katherine's skates, we had a blast skating around. And then we got bored, sat down, and started talking about an amazing idea for a story that I had. Turned out that we did very little skating after that. Just got into an epic discussion of the story, character traits, and science stuff that we'll need to know. We're all excited for this. It's a thrilling tale of technology crashes, seduction, a futuristic dystopia, evil plots, and badass librarians. T'will be a fun summer project.

And then at 11, when late skate ended, Mom attempted to drive us home, got lost, and we didn't get home til midnight... oh, well. Gave me and Katherine more time to discuss.

Anybody interested in this story is welcome to ask about it.

~Laura

Off I am to the Emo Corner...

Well, I'm feeling pretty down today....

I went job-hunting today. No one's hiring. So it's looking like all my friends will have summer jobs except me, meaning that they'll be busy all summer and I'll have nothing to do.

The EGE is getting his driver's license, reminding me what a lazy idiot for not even having my permit yet (even though I've been sixteen for nine months).

Mandachan and the EGE are talking about the AP classes they are taking/have taken. Meanwhile, I've taken/plan to take exactly none, showing that they're the fucking intelligent ones where I'm the useless, stupid deadbeat who's never going to go anywhere in life. I'm stressing over exams because I'm just barely keeping up in algebra, and worrying about college because I've never fucking DONE anything in my high school career other than drama (and didn't even do it well).

Plus there's some other shit going on in my life that I REALLY don't wanna talk about.

Sigh. I'm gonna go shut myself in my dark bedroom and listen to depressing music.

Later.

~Laura

Yeah, no...

I'm in one of those moods today, so no post for you. I'm not terribly happy right now. I was really angry earlier, but I've since mellowed. In lieu of a proper post, I'm suggesting a song instead. Go listen to "So What" by P!nk. Basically sums up what's going through my head at the moment.

~Laura

Cheering up post

Mandachan didn't have a very good day, and I hate seeing her unhappy. So I'm making her a cheering-up post so that she'll feel better. It will be all about her favorite thing: baseball!!

I've attempted to do some research on her favorite players and get some news about them (all of which she probably already knows, but I'll remind her of the good stuff). Followed by pictures!

So here is my first ever baseball post:

Manda's favorites are Alex Gordon (Royals), Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox), Timmy (!) Lincecum (Giants), Jarrod Saltalamaccia AKA "Salty" (Rangers), and Dan Haren (Diamondbacks).

None of them are on the Disabled List except for Ellsbury, who is having problems with his ribs. The rest of them, however, are just fine and dandy. Not giving Manda the inconvenience of getting injured and winding up on the DL so she can't watch them play.

Ellsbury's on the 15-day Disabled List, so I assumed that this means that after 15 days he can play again. On the Red Sox game schedule, there doesn't seem to be any must-see games in the next 15 days (keep in mind that I don't normally follow baseball so I have a loose definition of "must-see games), so maybe he'll be ok by the time the Sox play the Royals or the Yankees. I read that he was planning to go to a batting cage and do some other baseball related stuff on Satuday, so he should be feeling better soon.

In other news... um... I'm really not sure what constitutes important news other than who's on the DL....

According to... some website (espn, I think, not really doing a works cited here), Lincecum made an improvement over his last three uncharacteristically bad starts on Sunday against the Pirates. I don't know what that means but it sounds good, right? If he improved, it must have been good. :)

Alex Gordan is apparently hitting really, REALLY well! I didn't really understand it because I don't understand the stats, but I was able to figure out that he's a damn awesome hitter. And the Royals have a game tomorrow. I'm not sure who it's against.... Minnesota, I think? Anyway, good luck to Alex because he's Manda's favorite!

As for Salty, he's apparently doing well, making progress getting over problems. Playing a game tonight. Go Salty!

....

And now, because I'm not sure what else to say about Manda's guys, PICTURES:

Dan Haren

Salty

Timmy (!) Lincecum

Ellsbury

And finally... Alex!

Lazy...

Pops night 2 was great. Not much else to report. Being lazy.

AHHHH!!!!

Good LORD, it's been a while since I posted!

I apologize for that. I've just been so busy working on my 80's project and the POPS CONCERT!!!

Yesterday was dress rehearsal and today was the first night of the concert!!! YAY!!!!

Twas most awesome. I didn't miss a single one of my entrances despite having exactly no time to change costumes for certain songs.

I was in the following songs (in this order):

• "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Sung by Concert Choir.
• "Halo/Walking on Sunshine" from Glee. Sung by Premier.
• "Will You be There?" from Free Willy. Sung by Premier and VoiceMale.
• "Out Here on My Own" from Fame. Sung by Concert Choir.
• "Lot of Living to Do" from Bye Bye Birdie. Sung by Concert Choir.
• "Finale B" from Rent. Sung by... everyone.

It was amazing! So much fun! Lots and singing and dancing! It was sweltering on that stage but I still loved it so much!

And best of all, my very best friend, my non-blood sister Katherine, who has been away at college for so long, came to the show! I was so happy to see her! Sooo much happiness! With singing and dancing and Katherine... :D

And now I'm crashing, so I'm going to sleep now. Still happy.

~Laura

Sorry...

I really haven't been posting regularly. Really, not much of interest has happened. The Pops concert is coming up... Tara and I found two maggots on our decaying chicken named Jubal (the maggots have been named Fred and George, after my favorite Harry Potter characters).... me and three other girls are doing a video project in history about the 80's... promises to be spectacular.

Yeah, really not much else. I'll try to have a more interesting post soon. Sorry.

~Laura

Everyone is effing busy!

So I basically just screwed around on the computer all day because everyone I called was busy. No one has time for little old me.... :/

Ah, well. What can you do? Still, I'd better get to see SOMEONE this weekend...

Three more weeks of school!

~Laura

Fun Forensics Project

We are currently studying entomology in forensics. AKA, bugs. Lots of yucky bugs. We're studying how rotting meat under different conditions (buried, wrapped in plastic, etc) attracts flies. Lovely.

So my lab partner is Tara, which means we're going to act silly all through it. We've been making endless Firefly references with the blue gloves they give us, and we've named our test subject (a piece of chicken) "Jubal". We buried it in a paper bag (which is slowly disintigrating) out in the courtyard of the school. Every other day, we dig it up, see how gross it is, count the eggs/larvae, and re-bury it. Yesterday, we had a less gross chicken, a mushy paper bag, and no sign of bugs. but once we do get some maggots, we're going to name them! ...Yeah, we're pretty loony.

Yeah, so that's my yucky fun forensics lab.

TTYL

~Laura

Holy BEJEESUS It's HOT!!

It is effing BAKING today! I'm slowly shedding cl0thes in this heat... Mom says it'll cool down later but right now it feels like a sauna. School was torturous. The bus ride home was MURDER. I hate it when it's hot. I love summer but this heat is ridiculous. Haha, this heat could make a certain poorly-written novel with a main character named Heat seem good... eh, that wasn't funny... blame it on the heat-stroke. My brains are all addled.

On a slightly better note, my buddy Adam just asked me how I was. I replyed "hot". And he said "We know that, but what's the weather like?"

Made my day.

~Laura

Meh...

Nothing new to report. My laptop's being wonky. Insisting that it's got a virus and I need to install new anti-virus software. Except I know that the software I have works fine and it's just a scam to get me to buy new software. Blah. Sucks. So I'm posting from the computer in the spare room. Which is fine with me because all my games are on this one. Yeah. Nothing really new to report.

~Laura

My Nerd Credentials

Proof of my geekery:

• My prized possession's include a model of the fictional spaceship "Serenity" and a wooden katana named "Vera".
• I have five songs on my ipod that are in some way related to Joss Whedon. These are: the main theme from Firefly, the main theme from Angel, a filk about the main character from Firefly (using the main theme as the chorus), a song from the Firefly soundtrack entitled "River's Dance", and another song from Firefly (NOT on the soundtrack) called "The Hero of Canton" (which is what going mad feels like).
• I intend to add even MORE Joss-related songs to my ipod.
• I can swear in Chinese.
• I am an avid reader of fanfiction and occasionally dabble in writing my own.
• I watched Saving Private Ryan solely for a short scene with Nathan Fillion in it.
• I watched all three Matrix movies because the last two each have two second clips of Gina Torres.
• Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" helped me understand my own religion.
• Almost all of my friends are flans (aka Browncoats, aka fans of Firefly).
• I quote. All the time.
• Almost all of my free time is spent on the Internet.
• The EGE can attest to how hard it is to stump me in Firefly trivia.
• I intend to put as many Joss Whedon references as possible into my video for my final History project.
• I rabidly follow five webcomics.
• I know how amazing Anthony Stewart Head's voice is.
• I will admit to a passing interest in anime... but don't tell Cela.
• On Halloween, I love to go as characters from my favorite movies. I have not gone in a "conventional" costume in years.
• I own three figurines of Serenity characters (Jayne, River, and Mal) and two figurines from Labyrinth ( Jareth the Goblin King and Hoggle).

And... that's about all I can think of right now. Doubtless I'll come up with more and post them at a later date.

~Laura

I'm a sucker for love stories...

Yesterday, I went with Laurel/Eliz and her sister to see the new movie "Letters to Juliet".

Wow.

What an amazing, beautiful, romantic story! It was only the second movie ever to make me cry.

I've heard that it got crap reviews, but I honestly don't care. I'm a sucker for true love stories and this one was one of the best I've ever seen.

This is definitly a movie I'd see again. With my parents, with my other friends, with the person I love...

Yeah, I'm a hopeless romantic. Sorry 'bout that.

~Laura

P.S. On an unrelated note, my best friend and non-biological sister comes home from college today!! Yay!!! I can only hope she manages to have time to contact me or even visit!

I'm odd...

I kicked off my weekend by doing two things that totally contradict each other. I listened to Gothic Metal music... and played Neopets... Yeah, I'm a living paradox.

~Laura

I Hate Obscenely Difficult Logic Puzzles...

Mostly because I'm not very logical...

I found a bunch on the xkcd wiki. Here's the link: http://wiki.xkcd.com/irc/Puzzles#Blue_Eyes_Puzzle

These are insane! Some of 'em you'd have to be a rutting genius to understand! (not a single word, EGE...) A lot of them require a metric fuckton (phrase stolen from the EGE) of math to solve.

Ugh...

I solved exactly none of them. I'm not really surprised but come on! There has to be one that even someone of average intelligence could solve!

Sigh.

Here are two that I really like just because they make no sense:

1. A mathematician enters a bar and starts chatting with the bartender. The bartender tells him about his three daughters, and when he is asked about their age, he decides to make it a bit more interesting, as he is interested in mathematics as well. He says, “The product of their ages is 72.” The mathematician answers, “OK, but that didn’t help a lot.” — “Then I should tell you that the sum of their ages is equal to the street number of this bar.” The mathematician leaves the bar, returns, and says, “Great, but I still don’t know their age.” The bartender smiles and says, “My youngest daughter really likes strawberry ice cream.” Now the mathematician knows their ages.

How old are the three daughters? (Think of age as an integer of the number of years.)

2. A mother is 21 years older than her child. The mother's age in six years will be exactly five times the child's age in six years. Where is the father?


I can't figure them out, and if you can... well, good for fricken you! Gorram smartass...

That's my rant of the day...

~Laura

Fun fun fun...

Interesting things happening in chorus.

Pops is coming up. Biggest concert of the year. Concert Choir is singing three songs, plus the finale, PLUS the senior song.

We're singing "Comedy Tonight" from "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum" (which has odd choreography), "Lot of Living to Do" from "Bye Bye Birdie" (which has awkward choreography), and "Out Here on My Own" from "Fame" (which has BORING choreography).

"Lot of Living" is... well, fun... but kinda awkward, as it involves a girl and a boy partnered and doing what was considered "romantic dancing" in the 50's.

Laurel/Eliz's partner towers over her, which I find hilarious.

My partner is trying to touch me as little as possible, which SHE finds hilarious.

This song has the most complicated dance moves, plus I'm in the front row so... lots of pressure on me. I'm also hoping that my partner is at least-semi convincing on the "romantic" front. But as long as I wear a skirt that swirls when I spin, it'll be ok since the audience will be watching the twirly skirt instead of my partner holding my hand with only two fingers...

Til the next post...

~Laura

**Random sound effect**

Rawr. Hi.

I didn't do much yesterday. Probably won't do much today.

Yesterday was nice though. I had Kyla over. Which was fun. We played "The Sims 2", hung out and did nothing, ate junk food, and took a walk down to the creek in the woods a mile from my house. It was nice.

Yeah, not much else to report.

~Laura

Boring Saturday...

It's a beautiful day and I have nothing to do...

Yesterday I saw the new movie "Robin Hood" with my Dad. It was totally awesome. Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett are both amazing! Then I went over to the EGE's house and hung out with him and mandachan. We watched a couple episodes of the Big Bang Theory (hilarious) and played Twister in the dark (which was pretty fun).

I think today I'll call Kyla, mandachan, and the EGE and invite them all over. Should be fun.

~Laura

I WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER!!

Yesterday, the Thames River Times ran an article on the drama show. Front page for the win! I am proud to say that this is the third time I've ever made the front page of a newspaper! I managed to find a link to an online version of the article here: http://www.theday.com/article/20100513/NWS08/305139480/-1/zip06&town=Ledyard&template=zip06art

It does, however have some typos. Should be Kato McNickle. Not "Kata". Should be David Tang. Not "Tand". Oh, well... Anywho...

This particular link will give you the article, and two pictures featured in it, but not the front page pic. That particular pic was taken while we were singing the opening number of the show and features (left to right) Nathan, Tori, me, Kyla, and Tang, and is captioned " 'Star Wars' Stories: At LHS, drama students tap their inner Jedis".

It's shiny... you can bet that I'm saving this article, and hanging it on my wall...

~Laura

Rawr.

Today I:

Reorganized my bookcase. I have an insane amount of books.

At spaghetti out of a cereal bowl.

Procrastinated on my thesis paper.

Made one of those little paper fortune-tellers (I was bored...).

Had the following song get randomly stuck in my head: "My turtle swims sideways... Your turtle swims upside-down... My turtle swims sideways... your turtle is dead!" Thank you obnoxious band geeks for teaching me that...

Nothing much else of importance happened. There was school... but like I said, nothing of importance.

~Laura

Geez...

Today I did... absolutely nothing. I went to school. Came home. Worried about the latest trauma-drama in my life. Was on the computer for a bit. Watched some "Seinfeld" with Dad. Really didn't do much.

Sigh...

Life is so boring now that the drama show is over...

~Laura

Blah...

Not much to report. My shoulder is sore from whacking the pell. Gonna watch House, then Castle.

~Laura

Very nice...

So my friend Adam is a member of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and I bugged him into letting me go to one of his combat practices today. You know, just to check it out.

It was pretty cool. Watched Adam get the crap kicked out of him by guys in home-made armor. Froze my ass off. They even let me take a few whacks at the pell (practice dummy). I broke it.

Decided that, fun as it is to watch, fighting isn't for me. When I do get more into the SCA, I'll prolly go more into the Arts & Sciences field then into the combat.

~Laura

THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!!

I'm sorry I haven't posted since Thursday, I've just been so busy and having so much fun!!

Friday was the final performance of the drama show and we all did totally AWESOME!!! We all chipped in to by flowers and cards for the adults that helped out with the show, and a plastic lightsaber that we all signed for Kato. After the show, we had the cast party!! For the first time, I was the host of the cast party, and it was SO much fun! Food, and silliness, and cuddling (Tori glomped onto Nate, and me, Kyla, and Hannah formed a cuddle group).

Then tonight was... MY FIRST JUNIOR PROM!!! It was AMAZING! The time of my life! My dress was so beautiful! I looked and felt more lovely than I have in a while. Hung out with the EGE and mandachan and Tang. Tang was kind enough to be my dance partner for most of the songs and he's pretty good! Lots of fun. SO much fun. So many amazing memories made!! I'll never forget any of it.

And now, I must go, as it is midnight, and I have some interesting new developements in my life that I must mull over.

~Laura

Heh...

I just wanted to make an apology for being all whiny and emo yesterday about prom. I was just having one of my angst days and I needed something to bitch about.

Today, I'm much more excited because it is the OPENING NIGHT OF THE SHOW!!!!

I'm totally excited! It's gonna be awesome!!

In addition, for the first time ever, I am hosting the cast party! I'm also in charge of getting cards and the cast gift to Kato! I'm basically just going to walk around Wal-Mart until I find something....

ANYWHO!!

Come to the show! It's at 7:00... or possibly 7:30... I can never remember. But come either today or tomorrow.

~Laura

My Impending Doom...

AKA Prom.

I already know how this is gonna go:

No one's gonna dance with me. I'm going to dance with myself because none of my friends like to dance. I'm going to want to go dance, but not be able to because my friends don't dance and I'll have to choose between being alone and dancing, or hanging out with my friends and missing it.

I don't have a date. I'm the type of girl that boys don't ask, and I don't have the balls to ask the guy that I want to.

While mandachan and the EGE go off and do couple-y things and ignore me, I'm going to get emo, sit in a corner and watch jealously, and then end up texting Tara asking her to tell me a story because I'm lonely.

My normally well-hidden inferiority complex is going to pop up, due to seeing the other girls all dolled up in pretty dresses, while I stand there in my utter plainness.

I'm prolly going to have a mediocre night, made happy only by isolated incidents of my awesome friends pulling me into the awesomeness.

I know what you're thinking: If I don't expect to have a great time, why am I going? Simple. I like the idea of prom. I like dressing up. I like dancing. Only problem is, I'm alone in it all. Prom is not a friendly concept to a girl like me. But I hope, I always hope, that this time it might be better than every other dance I've gone to. I always hope, even though I know I'll inevitably be disapointed every time.

Prom is this Saturday. Can't wait.

~Laura

Bad Pun

Today is the first dress rehearsal for the drama show, a Star Wars cabaret. I find this humorous because today, May 4th, is official Star Wars day. Why? May the Fourth be with you. Terrible, terrible pun. But it amuses me. What's more amusing is that Kato did not plan for the first dress rehearsal to be on Star Wars day.

:)

~Laura

Music Trip Amazingness

On Friday: Spent three hours on a bus watching "Avatar" with Laurel/Eliz and Cela. Went to the Museum of Natural History and spent forever in the Gemstone Room just for fun, hanging out with Laurel/Eliz, Cela, mandachan, and the EGE. Loads of random fun. Then dinner at some pizza place with very tasty garlic bread. AND THEN WE ALL SAW "WICKED"!!! Which is, of course, the best play ever. Twas my third time seeing it, mandachan's second, and the EGE's, Laurel's/Eliz's and Cela's first. Amazing as usual. Loved it. The guy who played the Wizard came on our bus to say "Thank you for coming to the show!" Awesome. Then we all went to the hotel. And dropped into bed.

On Saturday: Woke up and had a tasty breakfast. Then went and sang at this school. "I Want to Be Ready", this spiritual-type song, and "Finale B", the finale from "Rent". We did pretty awesomely. Won first place in the competition. Then we went to Six Flags! I even tried to conquer my fears of big scary rides... by riding what mandachan calls "roller coasters with training wheels" which are smallish coasters for kids. I even rode one of those spinny, centrifugal force thingies. I also held everybody's stuff while they rode the big coasters because I'm a huge wuss. I also rode my favorite rides: the tame ones. The Ferris Wheel, the cable cars... yeah, I'm a total scaredy-cat. Then we all headed back to the hotel and had tons of fun and randomness.

On Sunday: Woke up and had an even tastier breakfast than the day before. Piled on the bus. Got a little emo, got a little happy, the usual. Then got home and did my thesis paper.

All in all, the most amazing trip I've ever had!!! Would kill to do it all again.

~Laura

Feels... wow

Just back from the awesome-est trip ever!!!

... and dead tired. After 3 days of awesomeness, music, Broadway shows, theme parks, bus rides, and tons of fun with the EGE, mandachan, and Laurel/Eliz, I'm about to drop.

(Plus as soon as I got home, I had to work on my thesis paper which is due tomorrow...)

Anywho, my apologies. I'm just too damn tired for a proper post. I'll tell you all about the trip tomorrow.

Nightnight!

~Laura

Some Special Upcoming Dates

What I'm looking forward to in my life:

• Tonight - A benefit chorus concert raising money for the Matt Buriak and Lauren Candler Scholarship fund. I have to wear that awful dress shirt/cummerbund/bow tie and sing three songs.
• Friday - Leaving for the Music Trip!! Lots of fun in New York/New Jersey. Museum of Natural History, seeing "Wicked" on Broadway (for the third time), Six Flags, singing, acting like an idiot with my friends....
• May 7 and 8 - The Star Wars cabaret in drama. Loads of fun.
• May 23 - KATHERINE COMES HOME!! My very very best friend and non-blood sister returns from college for the summer. Will be spending as much time as possible with her.
• Some time early June that I'm not positive about - POPS Concert. Biggest chorus concert of the year. Awesome songs.
• Some time later in June that I'm not positive about - SUMMER VACATION!!!!!

And those, my dearies, are the events that I am counting the days til....

~Laura

Well, I didn't do much today...

After school and drama, I did some homework (le gasp!), watched a couple episodes of "Law & Order: SVU" (I was bored...), listened to Amy Winehouse's version of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" about five thousand times, and contemplated some songs to put on my iPod.

Yeah... that's about it... God, do I have an interesting life or what....

~Laura

P.S. Music trip on Friday!!!!

Busy...

Went to school. went to drama (Kyla got roped into it, now she's in our show!). Came home. Ate. Gonna chill. Maybe work on my thesis paper. Then go to Premier. Then watch House. Then shower. Then watch Castle with the EGE.

~Laura

"Your lips say 'no'..."

"But your eyes say 'NO! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!!"

Thus spoke Kyla. In all of her awesomeness. To celebrate the fact that "Avatar" has just come out on dvd, I bought it and Kyla slept over the other night to watch it! This is probably my new favorite movie. Some people didn't like it plot-wise, but I really did. It had a message. A message I could understand. And really fucking awesome blue people. (I want to be a Na'vi in my next life if you couldn't tell...).

So me and Kyla watched "Avatar" (still as awesome as I remember it), and after that we played "The Sims 2" for a while. It was awesome. We made Lady Gaga fall in love with Alice Cullen. And we're gonna make Edward get knocked up with an alien baby (We hope it's a girl so we can name her Trudy), then he'll die tragically, leaving Trudy to be raised by Alice and Lady Gaga.... Yeah, I'm not sure what we were on when we played this, but it was fun!

Then Kyla kicked my ass up and down the street at Monopoly. Kicked it after fucking me over by owning the properties I kept landing on (plus like 3 houses on each...). I really need to get better at this game.... It was fun though, we hurled insults and terrible names at each other for the duration of the game, but we meant it in the "best friends, i hate you = i love you" way, so it was awesome.

Then we went to sleep. And then we woke up. And went to the Tech call for drama which was today. Where we painted stuff...

All in all, lots of awesome fun with Kyla!

~Laura

Drama Pics!!

Some awesome pics from yesterday's rehearsal of the drama department's Star Wars cabaret! Awesome pics for an awesome show! I may put up some more tomorrow...



The girls of the show! Left to Right: Tori, Hannah (with a Princess Leia figurine...) and Me!

Me in my Princess Leia costume with a random stuffed cat (don't ask).

Me with a fuzzy pink journal which I will read from for "The Princess Leia Diaries".

Cast pic! (Well, minus James...) Clockwise from top left: Tori, Hannah, Tang, Me, Nate.

Nate (left) and James (right) practicing their scene from "Clerks"

Tori (left) and Hannah (right) dueling.

Me in my Luke Skywalker costume (yes, I play both Luke AND Leia) dueling Tang while Nate (the Emperor) watches....

James practicing for the "Clerks" scene.

Nate doing his "Papa Palpatine" skit... VERY amusing!

I love group shots! Left to right: Hannah, Tori, Tang, Me, and Nate.

Cast plus our director Kato! Left to right: Tori (with an odd blue plushie on her head), Kato, Hannah, Tang, Me, and Nate shoved out of frame.

Another group shot! Hannah (with Darth Vader and Leia figurines), Me, Tang, Nate, and Tori!

And that are all the pics I'm posting for the night! Bask in their amazingness!

~Laura

My Latest Project.

So, for a long time now, I've been really wanting to get a deck of Tarot cards. Why? They interest me. I want to learn to do readings both for myself and for others (I could even charge people other than my friends for it and make a bit of extra cash!)

Now, I've looked at a few decks, but there were very few that really drew my fancy. One or two was really nice, but I either couldn't afford them or they just weren't right.

Finally, I just decided that it would be easier to just MAKE a deck! I've looked up all 78 of the cards, wrote the names on index cards, and I'm in the process of sketching borders around each of them. Once I've finished with that, I'll be the drawing pictures on them with watercolor pencils. It's altogether a painstaking progress in that I am very OCD and if the pictures don't come out to my satisfaction I'll freak out and redo them... well, I'll keep you posted!

If anyone who cares enough to read this (very few) wants me to do a reading for them (fewer) when I'm done, just let me know!

~Laura

Post...

Posting for the sake of posting. Nothing new in my life. I'm just posting so that I don't fall into the habit of NOT posting.

Long day...

After staying up until three in the morning (I couldn't sleep because of the muppets!), I woke up today at eight o'clock to go to a bloody tech call for drama at the school.

I got there at nine because my mom needed to be at work by 9:30 and I had no other way to get there. Of course, I was locked out until Mrs Gwin (the nurse that helps out with drama a lot) let me in... blah.

Once we got in, it was three hours of hauling big pieces of wood that were once sets that have really piled up backstage. Like, seventeen years worth. Ugh. That's pretty much what I did. Since I can't be trusted with power tools (some sets needed to be dismantled), my job was basically to try to rearrange what we were keeping so that we'd have more space. I also went on several "dumpster runs". Those were actually really fun. Me and my friend Tang (who is also involved in drama) loaded up all the pieces of wood that we were throwing away onto this cart-type-thing that the janitors gave us (it's called a "dolly" I think...) and dragged them all out to the dumpster, where I threw them all in javelin style. And when we had room on the dolly, Tang and I took turns riding on it... because we're so very mature.

After all this work, my dad came and picked us up and took Tang and I out to lunch at Valentino's.... (their garlic bread is AMAZING, but there isn't much else there that I like.) and then on the way home, Tang completely astounded me in that he could identify the song "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones just by hearing the first two notes! But anywho...

Very long and tiring day but also lots of fun with Tang and other awesome people!

~Laura

What I Did Today:

Watched "Star Wars" and played with playdoh. That's it. Great day. "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back". Pink and green playdoh. So much fun! And no, that's not sarcasm. I actually did have a great day.

~Laura

What a day....

Today, as a sort of last minute thing, I went with my friends Cela and Tara (who is my oldest and bestest buddy. Seriously. We've known each other since we were like, eight) to find some shoes to go with my prom dress. It turned into an epic drive around Mystic full of fun and randomness.

First we went to Bass Outlet, where we found these gorgeous dark brown sandals that strap around the ankle. They are probably the highest heels I've successfully walked in. They look absolutely AMAZING with my prom dress and I cannot wait to go to prom all dolled up and show those dumb boys who rejected me what they missed out on!

Next, we checked out this awesome consignment shop that was just FULL of these really awesome dresses. Some of them looked really old-fashioned, but most of them were still really pretty. So, just for the hell of it, the three of us decide to try to climb into these monstrosities that would take a dozen slaves a dozen days to get us into. There was this really beautiful giant gold dress with this ridiculous petticoat and train, and I loved it, but it didn't fit me. But that's ok because I already have a really pretty prom dress!

After that, we went to Angie's Resturant, ate ridiculous amounts of food, and me and Tara danced around like drunkards while Cela pretended she didn't know us.

Then, we went to my mom's boyfriend's apartment to scout out if it would be a good place to have a party (since he generously offered it for both the Cast Party for the drama show and my "End of the Year" party). It passed inspection, and me and the girls acted like little kids for a bit (I tried to eat Cela a couple times...) and then we went for ice cream at the Drawbridge. Because Drawbridge Ice Cream kicks ass. I had a Caramel Lover's sundae. Once you get down the bottom of it, you're just eating straight caramel.... yum!

Finally, we went to drop off Tara, but my mom got caught up in a conversation with Tara's mom and we wound up staying there for like an hour, but that was ok, because we got to play with Tara's puppies. (Puppies = smiles). When we finally got around to leaving, we dropped Cela off, came home, and now here I am...

And that was my day! Which was awesome. Happy. :D

~Laura

Eh...

I'm not gonna give a proper post tonight... Because I really don't feel like it... sorry. I've been lazy all day. Slept til 1:30 in the afternoon. Stayed in my pj's all day. Watching "Troy" now. Gonna do basically nothing for the rest of the night.

Ta!

~Laura

That was fun...

So I went with mandachan and Kyla to see "How to Train Your Dragon" (Because we're little kids. Seriously, we sang the Campfire Song Song in the car on the way there).

CUTEST MOVIE EVER!!

Just really adorable. Full of historical inaccuracies regarding Vikings, but still awesome. This is the first kid's movie I've seen in a while and definitely one of my new favorites! The main character, Hiccup (great name for a Viking kid...), is awkward, clumsy, and full of deadpan snark. Very lovable. Actually, he reminds a lot of the EGE! He's even an engineer! A Viking engineer...

And of course, Hiccup's dragon (His name is Toothless...) is amazing. He's very cute and his antics caused much loud squealing from me and Kyla, to the ire of the other theater patrons (Yeah, me and Kyla are going to the special hell for people who talk in the theater, we had a whispered argument about Death Note in the middle of the movie).

I really love this movie. If you couldn't tell. I certainly recommend it for people who like cute kid's movies. The music was awesome too! Very Scottish sounding. Plus the fact that there were Scottish accents.... I love Scottish accents... Even though the Vikings were not Scottish... like I said, historical innacuracies.

But yeah. Getting this movie when it comes out on video. Love it! I love dragons. I want a dragon of my very own.

~Laura

Injury update

I have come to the conclusion that I am a superhero.

I went to the hospital yesterday to x-ray my arm, and the verdict is: I have no broken bones! Just some slight muscle bruising.

Can you believe that? I got hit by a bloody CAR and didn't break any bones! The side-mirror that hit me broke, but I didn't! Not to mention that my arm is healing much faster than I thought it would. The doctor told me that it would take two weeks to heal, be very stiff and sore and swollen, and turn some funky colors from the bruising. It barely hurts, no pain unless I touch it, and just the slightest bit of bruising and redness on the skin.

I must have invulnerability and super-fast healing powers. I'm expecting to be contacted by the Xavier Institute very soon.

~Laura

(P.S. I'm really hoping that someone gets the X-Men joke...)

An Interesting way to start Spring Break...

So Friday night, I had the EGE, mandachan, and Laurel/Eliz over for some fun and Firefly.

We watched the episode "The Train Job" and watched the scene where Jayne goes crazy and falls asleep in slow motion... frame by frame... which was HILARIOUS! There was also some random teen stuff... like the EGE trying to pick up me and mandachan (and failing) and me grabbing Laurel/Eliz and trying to pull her into the pig-pile and accidentally pushing her into a lit candle... don't worry! she's ok, she just got wax on her socks! But it was a lot of fun! We also got on omegle and talked to strangers... (by "talked" I mean, "messed with their heads") It was a great time...

Laurel/Eliz slept over. She has a softball game today, and while I was walking her up to the high school I kinda.... got hit by a car...

No worries folks! I am shiny! I am a-ok! All that happened was that I was walking too close to the middle and the car was driving too close to the edge and I got clipped by the side mirror. The driver was this really nice old man who knows my mom. He drove Laurel/Eliz up to the school, and then drove me back home (he offered to take me to the hospital but I didn't think that was necessary). He was really sweet, he came back to the house twice to check on me. Poor mom's freaking out though, Laurel/Eliz too at first. Personally, I'm totally fine about it! Worst damage was that the mirror broke off the guy's truck and some pain in my right upper-arm. I also experienced "shock" for the first time in my life. I couldn't talk or remember my mom's number for a few minutes...

Really though, I'm ok. It'll make an awesome story to tell later! Mom wants me to go to the hospital just to check, but I think I'll be ok (I wouldn't go to the hospital if I was bleeding out my eyeballs...) I'll keep you posted if anything relevent happens.

Luckily Yours,

~Laura

Doing Nothing...

Not much to tell. Had a great day. Worked on my stuff for drama (Kato said to me "You must have been raised by flower-children...." huge compliment to me!). Fun. Finished my thesis outline in one hour (huge accomplishment). Watching Bones now. Big episode. Watch Fringe episode. Another big episode. Going away now. Apologies for short post. More apologies for failure to speak in complete sentences.

~Laura

Post-Concert

So sorry I didn't post the other day! But everything was kinda hectic because of the CONCERT!

Yesterday was the annual after-school groups concert. Premier performed two songs: "Danny Boy" and "My Heart Will Go On". I was so excited (and nervous!) because had a solo in the latter. Well... not so much a solo as being one of only two girls to sing the melody while everyone else sang the harmony. But we (me and the other girl, Tori) sounded AMAZING!! It was awesome... We also sounded kick-ass on our other song! So all in all, Premier did fantastic in this concert!

The other groups in the concert.... aren't that important to me. Except for Jazz Band. Jazz Band is made of win. The EGE had a trumpet solo (which he neglected to tell me about until the performance!) and totally kicked ass on it. This is why he's my friend. Because he kicks ass. Less ass than he thinks, but still a modest amount of ass. (Don't let it go to your head, EGE, or I'll have mandachan hit you.)

So yeah. That's the post-concert report. I should... do my homework. Blah.

Talk to you tomorrow my ducklings!

~Laura

What I'm Listening To...

Some of the songs stuck on repeat on my internal iPod...

• The Sappy Love Song: "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. Otherwise known as the love theme from the movie "Titanic". We're singing it in Premier, and I have a solo, so I've been singing it a lot for that reason. It's a very beautiful song, and one of my father's favorites. It made me cry the first time I heard it, and it takes a lot to do that! I think a lot on this song....
• The Weird Song: "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. Wow, this is one song that I never thought I'd be listening to over and over... My friend Kyla insisted that I listen to it, and now... I can't... stop! It's definitely... interesting, lyric wise. And it has a great beat for dancing. This is one of those songs that I listen to when I'm in a sexy psycho mood.
• The Emo Song: "Learn to be Lonely" written by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the movie adaptation of "The Phantom of the Opera"."No One Would Listen" was cut from the final script of the movie, and would have taken place sometime between "Masquerade" and "Past the Point of No Return" and is sung by Gerard Butler (The Phantom). The song details the Phantom's sorrow that Christine was the only one who truly understood him, but even she left him, and he's alone once more. I listen to this song when I'm feeling really down and lonely.
• The Awesome Love Song: "Hero/Heroine" by Boys Like Girls. This is perhaps one of my new favorite songs! Laurel/Eliz had me listen to it and it's awesome! This is one song that I would hope that any boyfriends I have in the future would relate to me ("I feel like a hero / and you're my heroine..." heroine pronounced like "heroin"... haha!). This song makes me think of my big damn heroes (you know who you all are...) and it makes me happy to have them.

So yeah! That's what I've been listening to! Kinda gives you an idea about what I've been thinking and feeling lately. I wouldn't really suggest them for you unless you already know and love them... except for "Hero/Heroine"!!! It's a great song and I highly recommend it for you all!

Peace out!

~Laura

Finally home...

I have returned from the land of cousins and food and sweet old italian ladies!

AKA, my dad's house.

Easter was ok. I woke up, texted Eliz/Laurel that Jesus was only MOSTLY dead (I watched "The Princess Bride" with my Nani last night...), took a shower, put on a pretty dress, and spent the better part of an hour trying to untangle the chain of a necklace that Nani gave me until my cousins arrived.

I have awesome cousins (even though my favorite of the three is getting far too grown up at thirteen...). We discussed books we'd read, played several intense games of Egyptian Ratscrew, and watched some cartoons until the food was ready.

On the subject of food, I declined the main meat dish of lamb as I don't fancy eating baby sheep and discovered the amazingness of Irish Potatoes, of which I had three helpings.

Now I am home, relaxing and hoping that one of my awesome friends will be online and decide to talk to me. Not a bad day.

~Laura

So yeah...

I'm at my Dad's house for Easter. Not much is really happening today. I'm in my pj's. I had IHOP on the way up (IHOP = win). Now I'm in Dad's basement and will likely not leave all day (this is where the computer is...)

Yesterday... yeah. Again, apologies for not being in a very good frame of mind... Cramps plus allergy attacks plus teenage angst equals a not very happy me...

On the upside however.... I GOT A PROM DRESS!!!!

It's soooo pretty! It's a slinky and silky and a lovely bronze color with pink undertones. Shiny as all get out!

Now all I need is a date... My prom woes are the exact opposite of mandachan's: she has a date but needs a dress. I have a dress but need a date. But mandachan HAS been awesome enough to insist that she and the EGE will keep me company (never mind me feeling like a third wheel... but hell, better than nothing...)

Well... yeah... I'm gonna retreat into my little emo corner now...

~Laura

An apology

I'm sorry. I just can't post right now. Some good stuff happened today... but so did a lot of a bad stuff and I'm just not in a very good emotional place right now. I may be able to post tomorrow or the day after. Just not right now.

I'm sorry.

~Laura

Weekend's Here! Good God Almighty!

"Let's get drunk and be somebody!"

No, not really. I'm just quoting a song. I have no idea who sings it, but it's a country song...

Anyway.... THREE-DAY WEEKEND!!

As tomorrow is Good Friday (still don't know why the kooky Christians named the day their savior perished in a gruesome and painful manner "good"...), we have no school! I will be using that day to go shopping with my mom and grandmom. Fun!

On a totally unrelated note, the weather is bloody GORGEOUS! After all that rain too... well, you know what us New Englanders say: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change." I may go out and read in the sunshine for a bit before it turns nasty again.

Today, we were SUPPOSED to have drama rehearsal, but I was the only one who showed up. So I read over my monologue and some other stuff, and then the school nurse, Mrs. Gwin, was nice enough to give me a ride home.

Yeah, this post is kinda random and vague and weird but I'm in a weird mood. Hyper and tired all at once. Kinda like someone slipped me some Nyquil... oh well. I'll wrap up this post now 'cause I'm too lazy to type more and there isn't much else to tell...

Ta!

~Laura

ugh...

Not much to report. Had a not-so-awesome day. (Except for drama... drama makes me happy...)
I'll post something cooler when I'm in a better mood.

~Laura

We ought to build an ark... just in case

Ah rain! I love rain. I really do. The sound... the smell... the feel of raindrops on my skin... the fact that it got us out of school at ten in the morning!!

Really. I'm not kidding.

It's been raining for the past three days (and should continue for the next two...). EVERYTHING is flooded! There are ponds in my front AND back yards. Rivers flow through yards and streets. Because so many roads are washed out, they let us out of school early. Which I am totally THRILLED about!! We may not even have to got tomorrow! They also postponed the chorus concert that was supposed to be tonight. Which, while not necessarily the best thing, does get me out of having to wear that bloody uncomfortable tuxedo shirt and that thrice-damned choking necktie... so there's an up!

Yeah. Gotta love rain.

~Laura

Not much to report

Today was basically normal. Really nothing new. Here are some highlights:

• I FINALLY finished my watercolor painting for Drawing class. Bloody thing took me WEEKS of study halls to get done.
• In Premier, I'm sharing a solo with a gal named Tori (not the one from Drama). The irony: I got the solo my friend Cela wanted, and she got the one that I wanted.
• In Drama today, we went over the final light saber battle from "Return of the Jedi". I was apparently not reading the part of Luke dramatically enough, so Kato said "Laura! The fate of the galaxy is in your hands!" My response: "That is so... sad..."
• I decided that, for shits and giggles, I'd change all the names of the contacts in my phone to names of characters from movies, TV shows, books, etc; that I think correspond to them. Thus, the EGE is now Mr. Universe (from the movie "Serenity"), mandachan is Faye (from the webcomic "Questionable Content", highly recommended by the way), and Laurel/Eliz is Haruhi (from the anima/manga "Ouran High School Host Club"). I do not yet have Matt's (from "Fencing Insanity") number, but when I do, he will be either Inigo Montoya or Wesley (both from "The Princess Bride").

And that's everything I have to say for today!

~Laura

I May be Getting Cynical in My Old Age, but that Doesn't Mean I'm Getting more Mature!

So today, I went with my Grandmother and my cousins to Dave & Buster's (the greatest arcade in the history of ever). I quickly decided to forgo all the games that didn't give me tickets to redeem for prizes (there's the cynicism). My younger cousin, Ethan (I really love that kid...) showed me a game that requires you to simply drop coins in a slot and you can get a lot of tickets for it. Since this was a game which would give a large number of tickets for minimal effort, this was the game I decided to play for the rest of the time I was there (evidence of my total laziness...). I also became so paranoid that someone would steal my tickets that I was constantly moving my four cups of tickets around so they'd constantly be in my field of vision as i played this game. Even as I bent down to take the new tickets, I had to pull all the old ones down with me... Yeah, I'm lame.

Anywho.

I spent all thirty-three hundred of the tickets I won at this little kiosk where you trade the tickets for songs that they burn to a cd for you. I bought a bunch of Celtic Woman songs, which makes me happy 'cause now I don't have to buy them at $1.99 apiece on iTunes!! Yay!

So yeah, that's what I did today... and now I go to put my new music on my iPod. Happy face.

~Laura

I had a good day...

Understatement, actually. My day was AWESOME. Today me and and my oldest and dearest friend Tara decided to hang out with our friend Hannah, as it was her birthday.

WHAT a day! We followed her to a robotics meeting, as she is a member of our school's robotics club. Tara and I... well, we're more like mascots than actual members as we're friends with a lot of the members. So we were trying to entertain ourselves... as you can imagine, hijinks ensued. While the members were discussing and watching videos of a robot doing stuff, we played some games of hang-man and tic tac toe on the schedule for the next robotics competition, scribbled firefly quotes all over said schedule, started dancing when "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" just started randomly playing, acted all ninja and secret agent down the hall, engaged in random group hugs, sang "Happy Birthday" to Hannah, ate cake (the first of two we'd eat), and just generally acted silly! It was so much fun!!

After the meeting, me and Tara went back to Hannah's house. Where there was still MORE fun and silliness!!! We gave her her gifts (well, TARA gave her her gift, I just recited the quote from Firefly that excuses not having a gift: "Day is a vestigial mode of time measurement, based on solar cycles. It's not applicable. I didn't get you anything."), we watched the hilariousness that is Eddie Izzard (a British, transvestite comedian, I highly suggest looking him up) on Youtube for a few hours, took a break for dinner, watched MORE Eddie Izzard, ate dessert (ice cream cake!!), and watched STILL MORE Eddie Izzard, laughing until our sides were sore the whole time! Then Hannah's mom drove us home.

All in all, it was an amazing, fun, full-of-kookiness day!

Ta!

~Laura

(PS: President Kennedy once announced to a bunch of Berlin, "Ich bin ein Berliner!", which means "I am a jelly donut!"

Tired...

Ugh. It's kinda late and I'm to brain-dead for a proper post. Basically: it was a Friday, it was awesome. I went to an awesome concert at a local church for some sweet Celtic music. It was a lot of fun. I love Celtic music. I also hung out with my buddy Adam. May talk about it more tomorrow.

Night.

~Laura

These Things are Beautiful to Me...

I feel compelled to write a list of ten things that I find beautiful. Some may be odd, others obvious, but they are things that I love...

1. The sight of butter melting in a hot pan
2. A library full of books and hours of spare time on my hands
3. That little green dot that means that my friend is online
4. New, untouched clay
5. A baby, or small child
6. Lines of india ink
7. My warm, soft, fuzzy, blue blanket
8. The sound of my best friends' laughter
9. Flowers in my loved ones' hands after I've given a performance
10. Pure, untouched white paper

There are more. Loads more. But these ten are enough for now.

Oh, la!

First off, I apologize for not posting yesterday (not that many people care...) but some shit was happening and I was in a bad mood and didn't feel like posting so there!

Anywho.

Today was musically amazing! In addition to some sunshiny weather (even if the temperature is a bit low...), I had Concert Choir today! Which is always fun. We're really coming together on our three pieces that we're performing for our next concert (A benefit concert for the Matt Buriak Scholarship Fund). We're working on "O Whistle and I'll Come to Ye" an old Scottish folksong, "I Want to Be Ready" a Gospel/Spiritual piece, and "Alleluia" which... really can't be described in words (other than "amazing"). But, most exciting of all, we began working on a song that we will sing in both a competition (that I'll talk about later...) and as the finale to the Pops concert in May: "Finale B" from RENT!!! I LOVE RENT! And I LOVE "Finale B" (which is funny cuz I've never heard any "Finale A") It's such an amazing song. I highly suggest listening to it, if not watching all of RENT.

In other musical news, for the drama show, the opening will be a song medley comprised of various John Williams themes ("Indiana Jones", "Jaws", "Jurassic Park", etc.) with lyrics all about Star Wars. (even more than I suggest listening to "Finale B", I suggest listening to this song! It's hilarious! Youtube "John Williams is the Man") As the only soprano in the show, I get a lot of awesomeness in this song! I get to sing the high part of the chorus (The "Indiana Jones" theme), while the other girl, Tori, harmonizes. I also get to vocalize the "E.T" theme while this guy Nate sings some really funny lyrics about Luke Skywalker whining... it's great. I'm really liking the way this is coming together! It's a lot of fun! I'm in the spotlight musically (which almost NEVER happens!), I get to sing quirky songs, and we all sound GREAT together!

Yep, music = happiness.

And that is my word spew for the day!

Musically yours,

~Laura

The Monday Ritual (and new books!)

Today is Monday. We had no school today because of professional developement thingy, but that's totally fine with me because Mom took me to Borders for new books!! Now I'm already reading "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson at the behest of the EGE, and attempting to reread the "Heralds of Valdemar" series by Mercedes Lackey. So one might think that I've bit off more than I can chew in terms of reading material... NAH!

I love to read. I read anything that interests me. And that's a lot...

Anywho. Today I purchased: "Need" by Carrie Jones, "Immortal" by Gillian Sheilds, and "Fallen" by Lauren Kate. What these books have in common: they're all paranormal/supernatural romances. Yes, I know, I admit it. I'm addicted to the bloody things... at least I have the sense, decency, and good taste to pretend that "Twilight" never happened!

Yeah. I'll attempt to post a little report about each book as I finish it.

Now. The Monday Ritual. Every Monday I do the same thing. Go to school (unless for some reason it's canceled like today). Go to Premier at six (I skipped last week 'cause I was about to drop from exhaustion). Come home at seven-thirty. Watch "House" at eight. And finally, sign on to google chat, and talk to the EGE until "Castle" comes on at ten. At which point, we watch the show starring the ever-amazing and talented Nathan Fillion (of "Firefly" fame), laugh at the hilarity ensuing, and point out the "Firefly" references. This is our Monday Ritual. We do it every week, and it never fails to be great fun for two geeky friends who love crime dramas and Nathan Fillion... and Stana Katic ('cause she's awesome). I'm pretty sure that the EGE has done a blog post about "Castle" so I'll spare you the details (translation: too lazy to tell you about the show myself...)

And that, my fine followers, is my Monday.

~Laura

(P.S. Manda! Stop worrying about softball tryouts or I will BEAT you to within an inch of your life! Although... I'm pretty sure that beating your friends to within an inch of their lives is not an accepted social practice...)

Boring... and Lonely

Meh... boring Sunday. Even boring-er than Saturday. Worked on the thesis paper from hell. Played "Civilization" on the computer and won for the first time yay! Went out to dinner with Dad. Now, because Dad was awesome and got HBO for me, I'm watching "True Blood" which is an awesome vampire show. One of the few that ain't ridiculous.

But yeah... hung out by myself all weekend. 'Cause Eliz/Laurel is at a church thing all weekend and the EGE is up in Boston visiting his sister. So I'm all by my lonesome. And I've got Monday off from school for... whatever reason, so I won't even see any of my friends until the day after tomorrow. Sadness.

Meh.

~Laura

Saturday....

Ah... the weekend. Not much to report. Today was like any other Saturday. Slept til noon. Hung out. Poked around on the Internet. Played some computer games. Ate junk food. Really not much to tell. The highlight of the day was that the weather was so nice that I set out a blanket in the backyard and read for a bit.

Oh well. May or may not have something interesting to say tomorrow.

~Laura

"Bye Mom! Promise I won't do TOO many psychedelics!"

... is what I said to Mom as she dropped me off at Blackout, the techno dance my school hosted this evening.

What a night...

I actually did not wear the outfit I had planned to. Instead, mom bought me this weird yet awesome halter top and skirt set (I'll put pics up... at some point). Painted my nails neon green for the occaision too!

It wasn't too bad as far as school dances go. I danced with some girlfriends, danced both in the middle of a crowd (I have reverse claustrophobia! I feel better when closed in...) and just with the aforementioned girlfriends away from the crowd. The best part: minimal trauma-drama (a word coined by my 8th grade english teacher)! I have a bad track record of getting involved with some sort of trauma-drama at dances...

Matt from "Fencing Insanity" showed up. Which actually surprised me because I figured dances weren't his thing (I was right). Anyway, I hung out with him for a bit until he left. It got pretty boring after that. I didn't have the energy left to dance as wildly as before, so me and Kyla (the only person I knew there, but it was ok 'cause I made friends with her friends) and company just stood around, bobbed to the beat a bit, hoped that a certain song would play (it didn't).

I'm glad to be home, I'm exhausted. All in all, it wasn't a bad dance.

I go beddy-bye now.

~Laura

It's the little things...

Not much to report except that the weather is fucking amazing!!! For the past two days it was warm enough to get away with wearing only a very light sweatshirt. I love it! Spring and Summer are always my best months... beautiful weather and lots of fun stuff happening! Pops concert, spring drama show, music trip, April vacation, SUMMER VACATION (!!!), camp, and possibly a trip up to Maine with Laurel/Eliz to visit her mom and Maine friends (one of which I have a mini-crush on...). But yeah, love this season!

And that's about all I have to say, I think I might get out and enjoy the sunshine instead of being cooped up inside all afternoon.

Peace out, loves!

~Laura

Shopping Madness... or Attempting to Rediscover Polychromatic Clothing

I had a good day... mostly because it was an A day (I love A days...) and because rehearsal went swimmingly (Yay for being the only soprano and thus getting awesome parts in the opening number!), but also because of the outing with my parents.

Today was a Wednesday, so Mom had off from work and we all went shopping (and Mom and Dad sang "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins in the car... scarring me for life...). The shopping went... pretty well... ish. I was looking for an outfit for the techno dance my school is having on Friday. Shopping is really difficult for me, because it's hard to find outfits that really suit my style and because I hate my body type.

My style is really difficult to discribe... kinda like the bastard love child of a hippie and a goth. In the summer I tend to lean to the former, and in the winter to the latter. Anyway, most of my clothing is black, with some dark greens, reds, a handful of blues. But predominantly black. Not very well suited to a techno dance, hence the shopping trip.

Now, I have trouble finding clothes that really flatter me. While not really fat, I am not the skinniest of girls either... curvy is the word. Now don't get me wrong, I love my curves. My hips and ass are awesome, but I also have some excess mush around my stomach and thighs. This mush makes shorter skirts and fitted shirts a definite no. Throw in the fact that I have no chest to speak of, and you've got a handful of self-image issues that I hide with confidence and smartassery. I have exactly one fitted shirt that I like. Clothes that actually do flatter me are uncomfortable as hell. Clothes that are really comfy are also quite unflattering. You get my drift: shopping is hell.

Anyway, after wandering around Kohls, frustratedly trying to find florescents that I liked that looked suitably techno and being emo in the dressing room, I managed to find a lime green tank top that will be paired with black capri pants and some shiny green makeup. Yay! I finally have a decent outfit for this dance! In addition, I found an amazing top and vest based on the new "Alice in Wonderland" movie! While I won't be wearing these to the dance, I adore them, and will find them most pleasing additions to my collection of gothier clothes.

In short, my mission to find clothing falling somewhere actually on the color spectrum was not a complete failure, but I did undo my own work by buying the black top and gray vest... oh well, I like 'em!

In other news! One of my non-blood sisters has got a blog! It can be found at www.insert-the-title-here.com. Basically, she's only using it to put down ideas for stories, and background, and hopefully soon even stories themselves! Yay!

On a slightly sadder note: Today was Matty B's birthday. Matty B was a classmate who died back in November. I didn't know him well, but I still miss him. Happy Birthday, Matt. I won't forget you...

Happy Days, all.

~Laura

Grrr. Argh.

I hate idiocy. HATE IT.

I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy", "Firefly", etc). I had heard him referred to as a feminist, and as my thesis paper is on feminism, I went to the all-powerful Google. And I found an essay that someone posted on their blog.

What. A load. Of BULLSHIT!

The author obviously went into "Firefly" (my absolute FAVORITE show) looking for evidence of sexism (racism too, but we'll get to that...)

This person took the actions and dialogue of the characters, twisted them up all ass-backwards, and tried to claim that Joss is a misogynist rapist. That female characters are oppressed, silenced, and abused. That the black woman married to a white man cannot POSSIBLY be loved. That a high-class, intelligent woman could not POSSIBLY be happy with her life because her job entails having sex with her clients. Despite claiming to have done their research, they missed important key elements of the series that make it obviously contrary to what the author claims.

I just... UGH!

I get so frustrated by the utter wrongness of these statements that I can't even think! When I've cooled down and my head is clearer, I'll write a post dissecting and disproving what this misandrist racist says. Hopefully, I can get the EGE to co-author, as he's just as displeased with this as I am.

Later.

~Laura

Update

Correction: Not going to Premier because I feel like crap. What I'll be missing: attempts to harmonize to a song I memorized the melody of ("Danny Boy") and what is supposed to be the theme from "Titanic", but sounds more like "Pirates of the Carribean" until you add in the descant...

Love to perform, hate to rehearse. It's a fatal flaw.

~Laura

School, Stress, and Star Wars

Today was... ugh, a Monday.


School was the usual. First block Forensics, in which I acted like a loon because I was operating on less than three hours of sleep (cruelty, thy name is insomnia); then Homeroom, where the exhaustion hit; Concert Choir, lots of fun as always; Algebra, which is slowly sucking out my soul; and finally History, where I fretted and worried about my thesis paper (I don't have the best track record with thesis papers) and attempted to read about JFK without falling asleep.


After school, I had Drama rehearsal, which was, in a word, amazing. Our spring show is a cabaret-style performance consisting of skits, musical numbers, and reading interviews we've collected. The theme: Star Wars. Specifically, "Star Wars changes lives, man!" in the words of my fellow actor Nate (hard to convey his inflections in blog form, but if you hear it... just the way he says it is really funny!). Today we practiced some light saber choreography, and cold read a couple of skits we'll be using (homages to "Clerks" and "Robot Chicken"). Lots of fun. Will probably have a blog post dedicated entirely to it sometime in the future.


Now I'm home... for a little while. Having eaten an entire tupperware container of risotto (Thank you Mommy....), I will be heading off later to an after school a cappella group called Premier. I'm gonna be miserable because rehearsals for Premier tend to drag... and I'm already dead tired. But upon my return, I shall curl up in bed (preferably with some comfort food), watch "House", and get some sleep.


And that is a day in the life of me! Hope it wasn't too boring for you... Oh yeah! And thank you to the wonderful mandachan for sending people over here from her blog! Love you manda!

~Laura

Hey You

First blog post.

...

No, I have no idea what to write about. I was peer pressured into making a blog to tell you the truth. It's all the EGE's fault. *pout*

Ok, so I'm a teenaged girl. I go to school. I'm in the Drama Department (we don't call it "Drama club". The Drama club is what we beat you with if you call it the Drama Club). I follow my favorite tv shows rabidly. I read. I watch movies. I hang out with my buddies. I'm lazy. I'm crazy. I'm a geek.

That's... pretty much it.

So, yeah. I'll post sporadically. I'll rant. I'll be odd. You'll like it... maybe. My friends who are following me because I follow their blogs will at least.

Peace Out.

~Laura

(P.S. Happy Pi Day!)