Hiatus.

I've been spending far too much time on the internet lately, so I'm going to take a break for a while. I'll probably peek at Facebook once a day, but other than that I'm dropping off the radar. My internet use is going to be limited to school-related browsing. I need this. The internet has been eating up my time. I've forgotten what it feels like to be taken over by a book. I need to rediscover that and rediscover the world outside my screen.

There's more to life than this.

For now, ciao.

Listening to: The Rocketeer
Reading: The Buddha of Suburbia

Week in review.

Monday was fabulous. I put off my Spanish homework to go to FHE, and I'm so glad I did. The activity was a crazy don't-get-tagged dash with swords made out of PVC pipe and pool noodles. Dessert was root beer floats. After the activity, one of the guys made a ball out of his sock and some duct tape and an impromptu, teamless, makeshift baseball game commenced. I actually think it was better than the planned activity. While I didn't play myself, I had a blast watching. Someone even got up and started comedically announcing the plays.

Tuesday I stayed after school, ostensibly to study Latin with a friend. We mostly just ended up chatting. It was wonderful. I don't get enough sophisticated discourse in my life.

Wednesday just continued the goodness. I hung out with the Magnificent after school. We went to her apartment and four of us girls watched How to Train Your Dragon. It felt so good to get thoughts and feelings out that I haven't had the opportunity to express for some time. Sometimes you just need to look a friend in the eye and bare your soul. Of course, the conversation degenerated into us comparing our feet, but that's what's marvelous about friends like her. Anything is fair game.

Today was the first Thursday to officially be just for dad and me. We watched HP6, had root beer floats (I snagged leftover ingredients on Monday), and played a couple games of chess. It was nice. I love spending time with him.

Listening to: "Bohemian Rhapsody" by The Muppets
Reading: Language Awareness

Bum-scooching.

There was no school yesterday in honor of Veterans Day, so I slept in to a ridiculous hour and then whiled away the time until I met my friends for a night of awesome. Fortunately for NaNoWriMo, that whiling away included working on my novel. Unfortunately for the same, I've been neglecting said novel for a good week and my word count is laughably low. As in, it's nearly the end of week two and I just barely topped the word count goal for day one. It's all good. Steady on, men.

At 4 PM I met my friends B. and C., and we went to an antique book store and tried not to drool on some pretty amazing tomes. We all completed an exercise in self-restraint and walked out of there with no more than we'd taken in. Next came Panda Express.

Eventually, we met up with some other people and went to a drive-in theater. We saw a double feature of Shrek Forever After and Megamind. I enjoyed both, though the latter a bit more so. It was tremendous. We completely picked the wrong time of year to go. It was quite cold. Granted, it's better than most parts of the country, but it still wasn't the best weather to be sitting around in lawn chairs.

I spent most of today helping out with the Fall Forum, which was an event for high schoolers hosted by the Classics department (think Latin and ancient Greek). It was nice. I didn't really do much more than set up and take down, but it was relaxing to just chill in the SS Atrium all day. It helped that I had a good friend there to chat with.

This evening B. came over to watch some premieres on Disney Channel because we're both 12 and proud of it. I've been referring to it as Gregg Sulkin Night. Avalon High was spectacular! The names were especially clever and some of the plot twists were admirably twisty. I did not see that coming. It's definitely something I would buy. I suppose since I loved the movie so much, it's time to read the book. Sorry, Meg Cabot. School takes up a lot of time, you know?

After the fabulous movie, the season premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place was a wee bit of a let down. Still, all in all a grand night. I think I made a wise decision in topping it off with rewatching all of Alex Reads Twilight.

Listening to: Alex Reads Twilight

Reading: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

Expecto patronum.

Let me just get this out. This is my blog, and I can rant like a crazy person if I want to.

To the guy who tried to asked me to see HP7 with him tonight: let me tell you a few things.

1. You've admitted that you've never read the books and that you haven't even seen all of the movies. No. Just no.

2. When a I am trying to inform you gently that I don't want to go see HP7 with you, the correct response is not to tell me that I just must not be a big enough Harry Potter fan. For starters, see point one. Then lets take into consideration that I first started reading HP when I was 7. That means I've been involved with it for more than half my life. Heck, I've known Harry, Ron, and Hermione longer than my best friend. My love affair with HP started about 10 minutes after I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I remember what I ate for dinner that night. I loved HP before most of my peers had even heard of it. Don't talk about things you can't even begin to fathom.

3. When I say that I'm funny about movies, the correct response is not, "Oh, yeah, sure." After I see a movie for the first time, I like to be left alone. When I say alone, I mean talk to me and die. I have trouble remembering any movie after which someone hasn't asked me whether something was wrong. After I see a movie, I am lost in a place in my mind where no one can follow. This is a state of mind that should not be disturbed, especially by awkward first date conversation.

4. If you think I'm funny about just any movie, imagine how much worse I am when that movie is one of the last installments in a film franchise based on a book series that has been an integral part of most of my life. If you had trouble wrapping your mind around point two, just try to get it around this one. I dare you.

5. I do not want HP7 to forever be associated with you or any other guy.

6. Even if you didn't see it, I'm sure you heard at some point about the CES fireside in which an apostle of the Lord told the YSAs of the Church that people shouldn't go to the movies on dates until they're, you know, married. Something about it being a horrible situation for conversation, thus for getting to know people, and in a dark and just generally not wise place to be in such a scenario.

So, no. No, I will not go to HP7 with you. Not in this existence.

Listening to: YouTube
Reading: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

Impresario.

Sometimes I'll say to myself, "What am I doing? I'm not trying to impress anyone." Mostly this occurs while I'm deciding what to wear. Well, it's a lie.

True, most of the time I don't really try to impress people with the way I dress, but sometimes I actually do. Why am I lying to myself?

Appearances may not be supreme to me, but that doesn't mean I'm not trying to impress anybody. Although I try to deny it and convince myself otherwise, appearances do matter to me. More than that, though, I'm guilty of trying to impress people on a deeper level. There are times when I say nothing because I am afraid of saying the wrong thing. Other times, I look back on conversations I've just had and wonder whether I totally flubbed the situation.

Why would I care if I wasn't trying to make a good impression? It's time I acknowledged this.

I don't yet know what application admitting this to myself will have, but I think it's important to be honest with myself. I'll figure out what to do with that honesty later.

Listening to: Frank Sinatra
Reading: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

Serious thoughts.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I want to be.

Listening to: Frank Sinatra
Reading: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

Unnormalcy.

I feel I should mention Monday before it slips from my mind into oblivion.

It all started when I stopped by Grandpa's after school to deliver his mail. I had to wait around for a good 20 minutes while his girlfriend showed off her turtle, then as I was trying to leave they invited me out to lunch.

They suggested going to KFC, so I started following them in my own truck, planning on going straight home afterwards. Not far into our journey, it happened that there were two vehicles in front of me that looked pretty much the same, one being my grandpa's and the other being very much, well, not. Eventually one turned and the other didn't. I chose to stick with the wrong one. Also, it turns out that there really is no KFC to be found where Google Maps thought there should be one.

Finally my grandpa got in touch with me. Apparently he had to go all the way back home to get his cellphone because he'd forgotten it. We went to the Big Apple for lunch instead. Grandpa's girlfriend talked pretty much the entire time and kept hitting on the waiter who, at the end of the meal, turned to me and said, "This may be kind of strange, but I think you're really cute and I'd like to take you out sometime. Can I have your phone number?" Wow, dude. You get mad props for being the first guy to straight up ask me for my number. We have a tentative date set for Tuesday.

I went straight from dinner to K.'s so that we could work on our novels for NaNoWriMo together. On the way, a car in front of me plowed right through a flock of pigeons that was sitting in the middle of the road. Most of them flew away in time, but one of them took a major hit. The car just zoomed on through the explosion of feathers, but I was totally unnerved by the poor little body falling back to the road. I seriously considered stopping, but I didn't know what I could do. I just kept going. It was so sad.

FHE that night was a post-Halloween dance. It was totally awesome. There were some great costumes. My favorites were all four Ninja Turtles, Sean Connery, and Quail Boy. There was also a girl dressed like a lemonade stand. My old home teacher gained instant popularity by dressing up as Justin Bieber. I wasn't really a fan.

At last I fell into bed with worn-out shins that were already promising to ache by Tuesday.



Listening to: "I Like It" by Enrique Iglesias
Reading: The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West