Summer Summary

Summer Summary

In honor of the last Friday of summer (sad, I know), I'm making a list to chronicle everything I've done this summer. So here is the good, the bad, and the .

In the past 9 weeks, I:

- Met Sarah Dessen, whom I believe to be one of the most grounded, realistic people out there.
- Met Chris Pine, whom I believe to basically smell better than any human being.
- Dyed my hair and was only slightly disappointed when no one noticed.
- Packed two gigantic suitcases and flew across the country, where I stuffed all that stuff into a room the size of a shoebox
- Made some amazing new friends, visited Harvard and Brown and New York City, and took a picture with a wax figure of Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Mourned the fact that I couldn't be at the Half-Blood Prince premier by sporting a nifty Potter scar on my forehead for the evening.
- Greatly extended my text messaging limit.
- Said goodbye to my awesome new friends and flew home.
- Finally saw Half-Blood Prince with all of my friends. Liked it.
- Saw Half-Blood Prince again with my mom. Better the first time.
- Went to a live PotterCast and my first ever Wrock show, which was a lot of fun.
- Saw The Fray and Jack's Mannequin in concert and fell in love with the whole concert atmosphere.
- Bought tickets for my friends and I to see Jason Mraz in concert in October.
- Got a pair of gladiator sandals I'd been eyeing for a while at a discount because my mom told the sales guy they were cheaper elsewhere and convinced him to mark the price down.
- Attended a 24-hour Relay for Life event to support the American Cancer Society. Didn't stay all 24 hours.
- Hung out with my friends at the park, where I took some pictures I'm really proud of.
- Made the conscious decision (I've always been interested) to learn more about photography.
- Spent 5 very painful days in San Francisco, during which time I was constantly annoyed at my sister for not at least pretending to enjoy the trip, bugged that my mom let my sister come in the first place, and stressed about the college application process after visiting two schools, neither of which I want to attend.
- Played with my little cousins and informed my aunt that I've never seen "Sixteen Candles."
- Wrote a lot of letters to my faraway friends.
- Procrastinated my summer homework.
- Attempted to begin my summer homework. Realized it would take longer than an hour. Recommenced procrastinating.
- Buckled down to actually work on my summer homework. Complained about it a lot.
- Saw "(500) Days of Summer" and loved it. A lot.
- Developed a love for Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams."
- Saw "(500) Days of Summer" again and loved it still.
- Bought 3 SAT books. Worked on them for about 10 minutes. Left them open on the dining room table.
- Worked a bit on my "novel." Brainstormed. Took a very long and indefinite break.
- Conferred with my mother about colleges. Fifteen books did not help very much.
- Received a copy of "Sixteen Candles" in the mail.
- Registered for school, at which time I received my class schedule and locker.
- Ate way too much ice cream, although not all in one sitting.
- Realized just how much time differences suck.
- Read not nearly enough.
- Bought way too many t-shirts.
- Got into a faux-argument with a friend on facebook over the merits of Led Zepplin, including the hairstyles of the band members and Robert Plant's thing for JRR Tolkien.
- Listened to "Vanilla Twilight" by Owl City 14 times in a 14-hour period.
- Waited patiently for the mailman. Was disappointed when he didn't bring me any mail.
- Watched the Wizards of Waverly Place movie. Possibly teared up at the end.
- Made a very long list to explain how much fun I had this summer and convey just how much I do not want this school year to begin.

I'd like 6 more weeks of summer, Mr. Groundhog. Are you guys ready for the school year to begin? Hope you all enjoy your last weekend, if you haven't gone back already. And tell me, how was your summer?

(:

Write Right?

Write Right?

I just clicked the "write a new note" on facebook, and out of the corner of my eye I swear it looked like "write a new novel." And then I panicked for a second. Does it know? I thought. How does it know I haven't worked on my story lately? I am so paranoid.

But really. Is my subconscious trying to make me feel bad for sleeping in, playing battleship and pig for hours over skype, spending way too much time on farmville, doing my english homework, and basically altogether neglecting writing? My subconscious should know that I will write when I want to write. Right?

I honestly don't know how someone who's unpublished and has no motivation (well not no motivation, but you know what I mean) to move forward can get themselves to finish a book. I've never been so dedicated to characters or a plotline that I want to spend hours a day writing it out. How did JK Rowling finish Harry Potter when she could barely keep a job? And that's not a rhetorical question. Have you ever felt so committed to what you're writing that you HAVE to finish it at whatever costs?

And one more question: Have you ever had angel food cake, and how much do you LOVE it? I'm really craving some right now.

Friends

Friends

I'm getting totally out of the habit. I need to fix that.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about friends lately, new ones and old ones and in between. I've never really been successful with long-term friendships. I still talk occasionally with some of the girls I've known since kindergarten, and I carried a lot of my elementary school friendships with me to middle school, but only a few of those still stand today. Eighth grade was basically a craptastic year for me friend-wise, which is pretty much why I started out hating school so much.

And now everything's changed a lot. I have a steady group of friends, and within that group, a few girls who I feel like I really connect with. But my mom said something to me recently about how hard it is to balance three-way friendships, and lately I've been seeing how true that is. The two girls I'm close with are also close with each other, which you'd think would be perfect, but it doesn't always work out perfectly. Just like sometimes a three-way call doesn't go through the first time.

So I had this really great group of friends here at home, and then school ended and I went across the country for three weeks. And while I was there I met another group of amazing people. My issue right now is balancing those. I have a bunch of people who leave right near me that I love a lot but are impossible to get a hold of, and a bunch of people who live across the country that I love a lot but can never see. Sometimes I think everything would be simpler if I was over 18 and had a car. Then I could drive to see my nearby friends and have an easier time seeing my far away ones.

And now I'm basically rambling. Ah well, that's what happens when I think too hard.

(:

Lots of Thoughts

Lots of Thoughts

I have a zillion things running around in my head right now, so I think I'll make a list to at least feign organization. How's that sound?

1. Writing
Kate blogged about writing yesterday, specifically about how tough it is to come up with a character that's more than just an image of yourself. Then she said that she's a plot writer. I thought about that, and I've decided I'm more of a character writer. But what I have trouble with is creating imperfect characters. I think when I write the world I create is somewhat of my dream world, and I want all the characters to be the perfect friends I wish I had, the perfect guys I wish I could date. The problem with that, though, is that I end up with these insanely unrealistic robots.

The thing (story? I can't really call it a novel yet) that I'm working on right now is made up of memories of the main character and I'm trying to use them to piece together who she is in the present. But I haven't mapped out a plot yet (and I actually don't know if I will) so it's just kind of wandering. And I can't commit myself to it enough to want to spend hours a day working on it. I don't know how professional contracted published writers get up enough momentum to work so consistently everyday.

2. Miley Cyrus
A stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards? Really? God, really? Actually that kind of relates to internet etiquette (okay no it doesn't but go with me here), which is something I've been thinking about. Is it invasion of privacy to read wall conversations when they come up in my Facebook newsfeed? And is it weird to comment on someone's picture if you're not in it or weren't at the event that the pictures are from? How many times can you update your status a day before it gets annoying? Does it bug other people when they get tagged in notes? Does anyone else worry about any of this?

3. Cross-Country Friends
I miss my Yale friends. We've been texting and talking on Facebook and actually sending snail-mail letters, but I don't think anything is as good as really seeing someone everyday. And I keep talking about them or about an inside joke or about something funny that's happened. I'm sure my mom and my sister are tired of that. And my in-town friends probably don't want to hear about them repeatedly either.

4. Books
I just finished This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper, and it was really good. It was funny and touching and it had a nice cover. I haven't been reading a lot this summer, which makes me sad because usually I read book after book after book. I have a pile on my dresser that's remained basically untouched since I got home three weeks ago. Hopefully I'll start making my way through them eventually. Although there is that summer assignment to get through...

Decent sized blog post? I think so.

:]

Why I Fail As A Blogger

Why I Fail As A Blogger

I haven't blogged lately. I almost blogged last night - I started typing a few sentences, and then I was like, no, that's lame, and I backspaced a lot. So here's another go.

Maybe I haven't been into blogging because I haven't been doing anything interesting? That's possible. I've been home from Yale for two weeks and in that time I:
- saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince twice
- subscribed to several more youtubers and caught up on all the videos I missed while I was away
- procrastinated my summer homework, college research, SAT prep work, and driver's ed
- attended a live Pottercast and wrock show
- went to a concert featuring the Fray and Jack's Mannequin
- bought several new pairs of shoes
- went to a Bat Mitzvah
- checked out several books from the library
- watched some very bad Disney channel shows
- answered an a-z survey on facebook and took many stupid quizzes such as "what 2009 song are you?" (I'm "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus, in case you were wondering. Also, "what do people first notice about you?" (My smile.)
- stared jealously at beautiful pictures on flickr
- blew bubbles at the park with my friends
- made several people very bored by tricking them into believing my life was interesting even though I clearly stated that it isn't

Asleep yet? Oh, I did that too - slept, that is. Lots of sleep in the past few weeks.

I am going to San Francisco this week; that's slightly interesting, at least to me. We have plans to go to the King Tut exhibit and visit UC Santa Cruz and Stanford. Oh, college. :|

When I was at the park with my friends, I took this picture of Ellie:


It's one of my favorites and I decided maybe it was worth sharing. :)

So here's to a good week, I suppose. I hope it's not too foggy and gross when I'm in the Bay Area.

:]