4:20 p.m. - 2002-07-13
Randomness, and Zach on CTY
Quote of the Day: "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer." --Douglas Adams
And *I* refuse to do another Goodbye Entry, so this entry can be, um, the Random Entry.
I got new purple sheets on my bed. I've had white sheets for nearly seven years. I feel as if I am drowning in purple.
Four people in the past three days have asked me if I am wearing mascara or fake eyelashes. People, can you picture me putting in fake eyelashes? I would look like I was mysteriously growing hair all around my eye. Perhaps even IN my eye.
I'm trying to work up my courage to write the four thank-you notes: one to the L. family (Hugues, Francoise, Emma, Clemence, even though I didn't see Clemence once because she was staying with her grandparents); one to Emma's grandparents (for dinner, really, since they were moving I barely saw them); one to Elisa and Sergei and cute little baby Marie; and one to the family in Bretagne (Elisabeth, Christian, Dimitri).
What else do I have to do today? All my packing. Weed out some of the twenty-eight shirts that I pulled out last night. Try to find enough underwear that I don't have to do laundry once. Weed out some of the underwear after Mom yells at me. Fill toilet caddies with toilet supplies. Plan outfits for three dances. Choose books and toilet supplies. Decide if I really need to take eight pairs of pants for three weeks. Answer yes since I don't wear shorts. Weed out some of the pants after Mom yells at me.
Gramie and Grumps are coming over in about an hour with Zip, who we're taking care of today, tonight, and part of tomorrow. Yay! Unfortunately, this means I need to get dressed. Later today, if I'm all packed, Mom said she'd take me to get my nails done.
Last night Jane came over for dinner, the 94?95? year old lady. Mom made steak, pesto, and salad, and we had some of the frozen chocolate fudge whipped cream cake from Lauren's graduation party. So much better than fish, zucchini salad, fried eggplant and vanilla yogurt.
I'm sad I'm going to miss all the preparations and all the fun stuff going on with the LOTR sisters site!
Went into a chat with Julie and Jackie and Missy and some other random people last night. Promised to think of good names for Missy's boobs. Any suggestions? Howard is out of the question.
According to Eva's blog, CTY at Saratoga wasn't very good first session. I'm hearing the same thing from a lot of people who belong to this community. (Not technically hearing. Reading. But whatever.) I hope that Siena second session is much better.
I've decided that Sally is my identical twin sister and that we were separated at birth. Everyone go read this. I'm just in awe. I've never been able to describe myself so literately. Plus, we have the exact same birthday. EXACTLY. I suppose it doesn't matter that she has blonde hair and mine is brown. You said it's getting darker, right? :)
Continuing on the random vein. I went back into yesterday's entry and added quick Happy Birthday notes on certain days.
LATER (4:00; the rest was written a little after 8 AM).
Gramie and Grumps did come over and dropped off Zip and a bag of chocolate croissants. They cut Zip's beautiful fur! NOOOOO! She is still soft and cuddly, but I liked her better when she resembled a sheepdog. Oh well. She's sleeping over tonight and they're coming up to get her around 2 tomorrow afternoon.
As soon as they left, Mom and I ran out to the nail place. My nails are now light pink and shaped. They will not be light pink or shaped for long. I give them a week. She got a pedicure too, so I went across the street to Starbucks and Big Top. At Starbucks I tried a chocolate creme frappucino, which was disgusting, way too sweet, don't ever get it. At Big Top I looked for a pen that could write on dark fabric but they didn't have one. I got an extra address book and if I have time I'll make a backup copy of my own, if I lost it I'd be screwed. Oh, and they had the coolest Harry Potter plates, cups, and napkins! I told Kelsey and maybe she'll use it for her birthday (August 19).
Spent the rest of the afternoon packing, in fact, I just finished. Mom, Kelsey, and Alexa went out with Zip to go visit Dr. Pat (who has been out of the hospital from her bone marrow transplant for 77 days now), Brett, their kids Robby and Davey, and their Tibetan terrier Bernie. Bernie's so cute! I think he and Zip should have babies. Neutering doesn't matter.
Just out of curiosity, did anyone besides Ivy and Sally make it through the France entry? I would be most impressed. Damn, that thing was LONG. In case you didn't notice, of course. :) And if Sally is my long-lost twin, then Ivy is my guardian... not my guardian angel, my guardian Elf. She signed the guestbook of every single LOTR sister saying I'd locked my diary and they could have a password if they wanted! Ivy, you're incredible!
Important upcoming dates:
July 14th. Jessica goes to CTY.
July 15th. Jed's birthday, a guy from Pathways that I haven't talked to since Pathways. That was three years ago. Zach turns 18. Cow Appreciation Day. Yay for cows!
July 16th. Amelie comes out on DVD (it's already out in France). Ilana from the writing tutorials turns 17, and Alix from CTY my first summer has a birthday too. Haven't talked to her in a long time, so don't know how long, but Ilana has been with me in every single class in every single tutorial for FOUR YEARS. That's pretty impressive. She's awesome.
July 17th. Grumps turns 73 and Krissy turns 16.
July 25th. Katie's mom's birthday. Katie stole my agenda book and wrote in the birthdays of everyone she knew.
July 27th. Walk Your Houseplant Day. Make sure you all celebrate this with due respect.
July 31st. Amanda turns sixteen. It is also J.K. Rowling's birthday and Harry Potter's birthday! Because I am a dork, I have planned how to celebrate this at CTY. I have my ugly Harry Potter toe socks, my Cowy Potter t-shirt, and glow-in-the-dark Harry Potter bandaids that I plan to stick all over my body. I repeat: I am a dork.
August 2nd. CTY ends.
August 6th. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" comes out on DVD! Hopefully, I get a package that day too. About a month ago I preordered "LOTR:FOTR" and also ordered a book about "Rent" but the stupid people aren't going to send me the "Rent" book until "LOTR:FOTR" comes out. Grrrr. But, hey, I had preordered Harry Potter and the amazon.com package arrived at the house on May 28th exactly, so we'll see.
August 11th. To Nantucket!
August 18th. Lauren turns 18!
August 19th. Kelsey turns 13!
August 27th. "Lady Knight" (the fourth book in Tamora Pierce's series about Keladry) comes out!
September 4th. School begins.
September 5th. David turns 20!
November 12th. The director's cut of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" comes out on DVD!
November 15th. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" comes out in theaters!
December 18th. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" comes out in theaters!
Also in December we will be going to Utah, Dad just bought the plane tickets. We had been considering Mexico, for something different, but now Mexico is a possibility instead for spring break. I, however, was laboring under the illusion that for spring break we were going skiing in Utah and Sarah K. was coming with us because she lives in South Carolina and wouldn't like the cold in December and February. I'm confused. Emma's going to try to make it back to Utah for December break. I wrote about that trip here (that is a locked jessica5787 entry, but your passwords should work there too).
I warn you that I will certainly not have time to write another entry before I leave. Registration is from 10-3, and it's a 3-hour drive; Mom says we need to leave at 3:30. Since we don't have any official activities until after 4, it'll be another of those times where I hang around all day and feel like an idiot. Both times at CTY, my roommates were the last ones to arrive.
I should probably do a whole long reflective pre-CTY entry, but I don't want to. Suffice it to say that I'm a little excited and a lot scared. I hope that you all have a really, really good three weeks. I doubt I'll have Internet access, so if you're not on the notify list, check back sometime after August 2nd.
I'm going to end this entry with an email that Zach sent some of us shortly after CTY. (Unfortunately, I no longer have the exact email, but I know he sent it to me, Eelynn, Deb, Kathy, and Rob. I can't remember if there was anyone else. Little did he know but it became a forward, passed around to other people who went to CTY. I just found it off Amy's site.
Stay smiling and air-conditioned, everyone.
Love, Jessica
"The boy laughed. He was laughing partially at the situation, but mostly he laughed at himself. How ridiculous! Yet again, he had failed to realize the depth and power of human emotions.
For three weeks of his life, he had been thrust into an experience where he met many other people who were just as young and naive and scared as he was. They were young of years, naive of the 'real world', and scared of that which is nameless, but is terrifying nonetheless. The boy was aware of all this. After all, he was 'gifted and talented'! He laughed again. He was also aware of what a friend was, and how friends were made. He was even aware that he would make friends during those particular three weeks of his life, and that he would come to love those friends. You see, the boy also knew what love was. Or, at least, he thought he knew what love was, which certainly was good enough.
And now that it was all over, he had those friends, he loved them, and he missed them terribly! It was this last part which the boy had forgotten about, and which he hated horribly. How unfair it was! For an oh-so-brief period of time, they were all together, and they smiled and laughed. And then it was decided that all this must end, that they must all go their separate ways. So the boy and his friends scattered to their separate corners of the earth again. They had other friends in these places as well, and so they weren't completely alone, which was a good thing. But they were human beings, and so were rather selfish creatures, and so they still missed each other, which was not a good thing. The boy was sad because he missed them, but also for another reason entirely.
In a way, it was good that he missed them, because it meant that he still loved them. He was sad and afraid because he knew that it would not be long before he did not miss them quite so much, and later on, he would miss them even less than that. And that would mean that the love had faded, which was a very bad thing. The boy decided that he would do whatever it took to prevent that from happening, because love was a very good thing. Love brought smiles and laugher. The boy enjoyed smiling and laughing, because it made him happy. And the boy wanted to be happy."
--Zach
