2:36 p.m. - 2002-04-30
Update for the week of 4/15-4/21. I'm getting closer!
I have a new goal. How about I update all of April, hopefully up to the present, by my birthday! (
We shall see.
4/15: Happy birthday to Dorothy from the writing tutorials, not in touch with anymore. (This should sound familiar.) Actually, Dorothy was cool. There were these two girls, Dorothy and Elissa, and the three of us homeschooled. They were neat to talk to.
Anyway, we didn't have school, because it was Superintendent's Day, which made me very happy. I got to sleep a little late, then got up and had classes with Maggie. Lauren, Kelsey, Alexa and I had a joint eye appointment at 2. We're thinking about getting disposable contacts for the summer. Let me explain...
Alexa has ripped four contacts so far (about $70 each, so Mom and Dad are NOT happy), and while she waits for the replacement, she's been wearing disposables. Mom had the idea that we should each get a bunch -- 30 pairs, to be exact, which is the least they come in -- and wear them in the summer. It doesn't matter if you lose one swimming, you only need a little bit of saline and no disinfectant or soapy-stuff, and you can just throw them out after a day. So we all ordered 30 pairs each. The problem is that they're really hard to put in. We all have soft lenses, but they're not THAT floppy. The disposables are so floppy you can't tell if they're inside or out. They're really hard to deal with. I doubt I'll use all 30 pairs, but I can always wear them during the year for a sleepover or something when I don't want to bring glasses/contact supplies.
I did my whole week's worth of global waiting there (reading). I was so proud of myself. Afterward, we went to CVS, which we really needed. Contact supplies, sunblock (I got the clear kind, yay!), hair stuff, pads, combs, showercaps, lotion, all kinds of stuff for the summer. Then we went to Inspiration Gallery, a Jewish store nearby, and Kelsey picked out a hamsa necklace for her friend Talia. Talia's Bat Mitzvah is May 19th or something. To tell the truth, I really dislike Talia. I hated her older sister Hannah, who was incredibly immature and annoying, and Talia's the same way. But Kelsey was DETERMINED to invite her to her Bat Mitzvah, and so she's coming. Kelsey also invited her friend Lia from music and Emily from school, who is Katie's younger sister. More on that later.
4/16: French quiz. Ms. M gave us a packet of articles for the upcoming issue, and we were divided up into groups and supposed to edit two or three per group, but I took it home and edited the whole thing. :) Haha. It's so much fun though. I did some final touches on the editorial and Olympics article and emailed them to Judy. Did my Hebrew, worked on the book report of "Hitchhiker's Guide," worked on two chemistry outlines... (And no, I'm not pulling this out of thin air, like I said, it's in my agenda book.)
Then classes with Carley. She gave us a packet on rewriting sentences, which she hasn't done since way back in the fall, when we did a bunch of exercises on how to write sentences avoiding the "to be" verb. This one involved using different kinds of sentences for variety, and then we read an excerpt from Mark Twain and had to write two paragraphs about traveling. One had to be inviting someone to visit your town and extolling its virtues (WHAT virtues?), the other was describing a place but using some detail twists so it seems like you're being positive but you're actually being sarcastic... yeah. I did Nantucket.
Then we got dinner from Sal's. Great pizza. I used to think it was the best, but there's this one amazing gourmet pizza place across from the dentist's office... ahhhhhh.
4/17: Happy birthday to Allison, my cousin, who turned twenty. That's pretty scary. It was also Alyce's birthday, Alexis' mom, and she turned sixty. Big birthdays.
I went to ceramics, for the first time in a long long time. I can't really remember what I did. My face didn't turn out well, so we threw it out. I made a little M&M out of a half-eggshell mold with feet :) and I can't remember what else I did. Brett's new house is nice. His old studio is being torn down for a parking lot, so that's sad, but his new house IS really nice. Messy, but nice. I finally met his wife. Kelsey had to stay home to work on her science fair project (testing the effect of sugar on plant growth), so it was just me and Lex. Who cares if that's not grammatically correct?
Then I went to school so I could have some more time to work on my digital media stamp project, described at length in this entry. I didn't get much work done, because I had to print seven pictures for Kelsey's science fair project. She ended up using three. Lauren helped her with the layout on the board, and it looked really nice, but she only got an 88, which I don't think is high enough. She hasn't been doing that well in science. I mean, it's a challenging class, but not THAT challenging -- I went into it after three+ years of SALLY, who taught us the same things over and over again (leaves, the solar system, sex ed, different categories of organisms), and I still had a 94+ average every quarter. She's getting in the 80's, which isn't bad, but I mean, she's smart. She SHOULD be doing better. I don't get it. I haven't mentioned it to her, though, because I know Mom has, and besides, who am I to talk? I got low 80's all year long in Earth Science. At least it taught me something: No one gives a shit if you don't. That doesn't make sense, but if you don't give a shit about the topic, if you don't like the teacher, that's YOU. It's no one else's fault. And yes, I just realized my sentence said something not like that, but oh well.
That was a pretty damn crazy day: went straight from school to ceramics, straight from ceramics back to school, then I had half an hour before leaving again. I had a youth group board meeting at five. We got in the sweatshirts, but I didn't get any, because all the mediums were gone and the larges are huge. I'll probably HAVE to get one, but I don't want to.
4/18: Hebrew class with Joanne. Lauren and I had an appointment to get our teeth cleaned by the same woman as last time. I hate that. I can't remember what we did with Carley. I spent most of the evening studying for a French test on the first act of "Rhinoceros." I tried to reread it, but fell asleep with the book on top of me. Dad had to come in and turn out the lights.
4/19: The French test was actually so much easier than she could have made it. It was just a vocab test, a fill-in-the-blank vocab test, a fill-in-the-blank vocab test WITH A WORD BOX. I got 100; Maya and Petra got 73's or something. Unfortunately, she's not going to use the same format again. :( I definitely prefer that to essays!!! Cassandra came, David's most recent girlfriend. She's very... giggly. David says something, and she giggles. Other than the giggles, the boobs and the butt, there didn't seem to be much there. Oh, I'm sure she's smart -- hell, she's at Bates -- but she wasn't interesting at all, she didn't make an effort, and the giggles got REALLY annoying. Alexis came over for dinner so he could meet her. Speaking of girlfriends, his relationship isn't going so great. They're on somewhat of a "break." I think the long-distance relationship was tough (Boston-New York), and she's a very needy persun.
That night was Pilar's Sweet Sixteen. I had so much fun getting ready -- I got in the shower right after I got home so my hair had time to dry. :) Mom did something weird with it, with a clip and a braid, that I didn't really like, but oh well. I like my hair just straight down, nothing in it, and everyone that I've talked to BUT HER likes it. She won't let me wear it like that. Grrr. But back to getting ready, Lauren was the best. She helped me find tights and lent me her shoes (which are slightly more comfortable than mine) and a bag. Then we tried on like ten different shades of lipstick, which was hilarious, and picked one to wear, and she put sparkly stuff on my eyes. I don't usually wear makeup, but it was fun. And I liked my dress a lot. Almost everyone else had long prom gowns in more springy/summery colors, but that's ok.
The party was fun. Pilar did a good job of inviting everyone who hangs out with each other (even Frances, who no one really likes), not like LAUREN, *cough cough*, more on that later. (Not Lauren my sister.) There was a DJ, but I didn't like most of the music. I danced some, but my feet hurt so bad. Especially my poor oft-broken pinky toes. :( I thought the party kind of went on too long -- toward the end my feet were KILLING me and I was exhausted. But, yeah, it was fun anyways. See, Jewish people usually don't have fancy formal Sweet Sixteens, because they usually have a big party for their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. I didn't do that. I had sixteen people at my Bat Mitzvah on the top of Masada, and then we all went out for dinner at a restaurant that I actually wound up HATING, which was kind of annoying, but eh. Lauren and David did have parties, but not huge extravagant ones, outside under a big tent. Speaking of Bat Mitzvahs, remember in my entry yesterday (not the one with the links to all my fanfics), I mentioned that it was the anniversary of Lauren's Bat Mitzvah? Well, Mom took her out for dinner to celebrate, and Lauren had totally forgotten. The second anniversary of MY Bat Mitzvah was December 23rd. No one remembered.
4/20: I had to go to the FUCKING CONCLAVE at my FUCKING TEMPLE. I mentioned it a little in this entry, and I would rather not go into that much detail. I tried to hide out in the library for a while, and I read some of Harry Potter in French, but then it was locked, and I had nothing to do... The theme was "Let's Talk About Sects," as in denominations. It could have been pretty interesting; the morning service started out Orthodox, conducting it like an Orthodox service with the segregation of the sexes and all, then moved on to Conservative then Reform (that's us) then Reconstructionist. But, oh my God, it was one of THE worst days of my life. See, here's the thing about the spring conclave. It's really near AP's, it's the last one of the year, and it's the one where you get to vote for regional board, so only THE most dedicated members of the regional group go. The ones who go to every single conclave, who all know and love each other and show that with plenty of PDA! God, it was awful. I already dislike my youth group, so I couldn't hang out with them, and everyone else all knew each other, and I flipped out... please, don't make CTY like that for me next year.
I kind of bailed out of most of the conclave. On Friday, there had been a youth group-led congregational service that I was supposed to BE in, but I skipped it for Pilar's party. I had been planning to stay all day Saturday, sleep over at temple, then stay the morning on Sunday (but not for elections), but I was so tired after the party I decided I wanted to come home Friday night and I'd go back Sunday morning. Then I got to the conclave and changed my mind. I decided I'd come back at 8:45, before they left for Sporttime USA. Then they locked the library and I changed my mind again. I decided I'd stay for the second program, then leave before dinner, songs and havdallah, at 7. Rabbi P was pissed, but fuck him, the asshole. If he gives me any shit about it, I'll tell him I had a temperature, which is true. 98.6.
4/21: Slept late, which was SO nice. Did some cleaning and stuff around the house, worked on my journalism profile, had a lot of French homework, some math to do too, read Harry Potter in French, which is so much fun. It takes a long time, but it's great. Did I mention Dad brought them back from France? I don't remember. He got me a boxed set of the four books, and I had only asked for the first one, it was so sweet. So I read a couple paragraphs in French, then read them in English, so I can get the vocabulary. I can understand it in French because I know the plot and all, but when I read it in English, I learn the new words.
We've had a ton of work being done around the house for Kelsey's Bat Mitzvah. Bernie and his guys were here working on the tiling on the porch; Marcelino and his guys were working on landscaping; Paco and his guys were working on painting. All that stuff. Since everything's going to be here, the house has to look nice. I'll never forget David's, in the September of 1995, when we didn't move in until December. We got the kitchen functional and a couple bathrooms, but the rest of the house was still under construction. We had some pretty damn snoopy people, but the rest were good about it. The best was Thanksgiving that year, though. Mom and Dad had been so careful to bring absolutely everything to the kitchen so Mom could cook Thanksgiving there. Pots, pans, spatulas, silverware, all that stuff. So we invite thirty people for dinner, sit down at the kitchen table, and... the lights weren't plugged in. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. It was so funny. And of course, since we hadn't moved yet, we didn't have any candles or anything. Fortunately everyone were good sports.
Now, I COULD catch up the next week and try to get up to today, but Mom, Kelsey, and Alexa are going to be home in half an hour (they're shopping in the city) and I NEED to get some work done. I MIGHT be able to do it tomorrow. But that's already May. Oh well. Amanda, thanks for wishing me luck, but I guess I just couldn't do it :)
Please review my fanfics!
-Jess
