Requiem for a dream

Before I begin my blog post, let me offer a huge apology for my lengthy absence. My (metaphorical) fighter jet crashed (metaphorically) in the middle of the (metaphorical) Pacific Ocean. I managed to make it to an uninhabited island (metaphorically) and then proceeded to subsist entirely on (metaphorical) nuts and berries until I was rescued (metaphorically) by a (less metaphorical) hawk, who came to me with cries of "UPDATE THE BLOG, WOMAN".
So, Quail has stopped wallowing in end-of-school lethargy and is now functioning a little better.

I wanted to write this post before we shipped ourselves off to Japan, so here I am writing this 20 minutes before I'm supposed to carpool to the airport. Procrastination is the story of my life...

High school...I'm not sure what I think about it at the moment. There's a haze of disbelief around the whole graduating shebang, so much so that every day just feels like a weekend, rather than A) a day of summer vacation gone by and B) a day of pre-college summer gone by. At this point, it still feels like I'll be showing up to school Monday in a sleepy daze complaining about whatever homework there is to complain about.

The past 4 years certainly did pass by like a warm summer's day. It's been fun, it's been happy, and I've learned to think (I think). It most definitely hasn't been a "High School Musical", although it was high school, and I did burst into song in the middle of school with several of my cohorts.

The things I remember most about the past 4 years would be all the stuff I didn't do at school, like rolling down hills, going to Ikea, loitering in front of the local drug store playing cards, and all manner of stuff that belongs on clichéd lists of lazy summer activities. In retrospect, most of the things we did sound so charming and picturesque, like things that would come out of a sugary sweet, cavity inducing movie or book, though they really were anything but. "Hanging out at the drugstore" doesn't even begin to touch on the weirdness, banter, chocolate, and punching that came with it. (Though "VEGGIES AND CREAM" and "YEEEEUH BOIIIIII" somehow do)

And now the waking dream (or nightmare) that was high school is now over, and the future dreams of college are about to begin in a big way.

Y'all had better prepeare, we're taking the world by storm!






(Addendum: My apologies, I didn't get to finish this post before carting off on the airplane and heading to Japan, so this post is now a week late. Rest assured the main body of it was written before the airplane landed.)

Expect more Japan posts!

On the Job

Lifeguarding's not as boring as they say it is.

I also got a t-shirt, a tank top, AND a sweatshirt. Free t-shirts usually seal the deal for me (if you had seen me at JavaOne, you would understand), but I got SO much more.

Work-wise, I was uncertain and shy. And confused. If someone had had an underwater spinal, I think I would have had a heart attack and just added to the list of problems. But luckily, the patrons were unable to see that. A lifeguard has POWER. Some little kid wasn't minding his mother and getting out of the pool like she was telling him to. She spent five minutes trying to convince him while I looked on from far away in amusement. Finally, because it was in keeping with pool rules that nonswimmer kids can't be in the water without parents, I took one step over and looked him in the eyes. He got out.

Yessss.

I think I also started to appreciate the process of growing up a bit more. I've spent a few days cleaning up my room and throwing out a bunch of old papers, and the phantoms of reminiscence have been hovering over me for a while. Today just served to emphasize, in Mr. Dunbar's words, where I have been and where I am going. I was guarding a parent-child swimming lesson where the kids were TINY and the parents were holding them up and teaching them how to put their faces in the water. Other proud parents were standing on the pool deck and camcording and taking photos and encouraging them. It was kinda sweet.

Still, my sense of humor tends to drown out my sentimental side. I was amused at how the little kids were flailing around in the water, half-drowning. And I wondered--did I ever look like that?

Moving On

What a CRAZY awesome week (with one exception).

It was pretty much fun with the friends EVERY day until Friday. I'll give a brief rundown of the incredible awesomeness before I go on to the more serious things.

On Monday, there was a lot of rockbanding, during which I did what I do best and wailed on the drums, still unable to play past the medium level unless someone else did the footpedal for me :(. I also got a new song addiction: Move Along by the All-American Rejects. I also watched the best Pixar movie ever. Yes, Wall-E was great but Up is just AMAZING. There was no random, magical ending. The physics of it might not have been perfect (if the house could float with them inside, then how could they anchor it to the ground?), and I was slightly dissatisfied that the Asian boy was portayed as chubby and having very little real-life experience (instead, invested in his books and what they taught). However, it must be noticed that his VA was actually Asian. Baby steps, I guess.

Then there was mooching of free food at the school barbeque, and afterwards the Senior Awards Ceremony, during which both Quail and I were regaled with awards. I got a few that I didn't know existed. A bit shocking, and random parents came up to me afterwards to express their congratulations. EGO BOOST X 1000!

On Tuesday morning was graduation practice, which was not notable in any way. However, it also came with a trip to Raging Waters! It wasn't perfect weather--kind of cold and foggy, which sucks when you're spending the whole day dripping. Still, we managed to make fun our own way while standing in long lines, whether it was by singing "Chickenman" or becoming involved in long, completely pointless discussions. We also almost missed the bus, apparently having gotten the departure time wrong, but we made it :).

Wednesday, of course, was graduation. WAHEY--or not. It was a lot less exciting than it sounds, and a lot shorter-feeling than I expected. I spent the entire time worrying that my cap was sliding off my head before I figured out how to use my tassels to maintain it in horizontal equilibrium on my head. Still, I had to walk extremely slowly to shake the board members' hands, which was kind of embarrassing. Note to the next generation: unless you have a large head, clip your hat to your hair to save yourself a lot of worry. I lost my cap in the tossing afterwards, but I didn't mind because I had taken the tassels off (another note to those of you graduating later).

Immediately afterwards was a trip to the USS Hornet. That would require a blog post all by itself, so I'll just say that it was AWESOME. Except for the tour through the boat. Tip: when there's a party on a boat, no matter how bored you are, don't spring for the tour because it's a waste of your time...you also have to spend a lot of time standing up while your elderly tour guide takes a leisurely break in the only chair. That sucked.

We got back to school at about 4 am, then there was a mini-sleepover, during which an all-nighter was attempted and failed. We slept until 12, then had a productive time planning JAPAN. We're leaving in 8 days ^_^ How exciting is that?

Then all the things I need to do hit me in the face. I gotta start being concerned with finances as far as paying for Japan goes. I've sold books on Half.com and made about 20 bucks (even subtracting the amount I paid to ship), but unfortunately I don't have a checking account and all the money was diverted to my parents--so I pretty much just lost a lot of time spent walking to the post office and spent 10 bucks out of my own pocket.

I also really need my license, but haven't gotten the insurance papers today in time for my test tomorrow. I also don't even know if I CAN take the test tomorrow because I may need to work. Lifeguarding, which I planned to do in order to earn the money I need for Japan, turns out not to be as reliable as I had hoped. With the two weeks' leave for Japan, I haven't received constant hours yet, a fact that my dad saw fit to lecture me on last night.

Talk about your pointless lectures. I don't even know what he was trying to tell me. He was pissed about the lack of a definite plan. I get that. But I offered to cancel Japan (did not LIKE it, but if I had really needed to I guess I would have) and he got even madder. When y'all become parents in the future, before giving your kid (or charge, because I am no longer a kid!) a huge lecture, PLEASE have an idea of what the hell you're trying to tell them and don't drag out the lecture while you're trying to figure it out yourself. And especially don't repeat yourself 20 times and keep cutting off the other person when they try to repeat themselves to hammer it through your thick skull. Also, when they stop talking, it's not because you're right (so PLEASE don't feel like you are), but because they are SICK and TIRED of you not listening to what they're trying to say and have just given up on you. Because, seriously, repeating your point does not make it right and will not change the "facts" that you are hung up on.

Sorry about the rant there, but I'm pretty sure a lot of you with occasionally unreasonable parents will understand. But I'm not condoning precociousness and impudence on the Eyrie here, because your parents are your parents, and no matter how much you hate them at times, they did pay about a million bucks to raise you by the time you're 18. That's a million bucks they could have spent on themselves. So...note to self, don't begrudge $20 going to their bank account, earned by selling books that they paid for.

Once again, countdown to Japan: 8 days!

Coincidence? I think not.

This weekend, instead of working on my English project (memorizing a 10-minute scene from Crime and Punishment to perform in front of my classmates, who will undoubtedly be bored and drooling), I decided to read Twilight. Fortuitously enough--or not; it may simply be an augur of unpleased gods--guess what showed up on xkcd today? http://xkcd.com/591/

Before you all kill me (or hug me to death, depending on which of my friends you are), it was a spur-of-the-moment decision that had been haunting me for a while. Ever since catching a snippet of the movie , I've been wondering exactly what made those fangirls scream every time the dude--the dude--appeared on the screen. How could a simple novel incite those teenybopper fangirls to produce high-decible noises outside the pitch of human hearing?

No, I have not become a fangirl. Fampire. Phanpyre (that one actually looks cool. Maybe I'll adopt it for my new username somewhere). I have not randomly fallen in love with Pattinson, nor do I find Taylor Lautner any cuter than I already did. Thus, my experience proves that Twilight is not magical and does not have any subliminal messages encoded into the text, or panels of addictive scents sewn into the bindings. It is nothing more than a teen phenomenon. 

I did read the entire series--3.5 books in 2 days, and 4 in 3. I was...rather unimpressed. Meyer knows how to write, but I do wish that she had picked a different topic. The first book, as many complain about, describes to death (no pun intended) how hot Edward is. Fine. I get it. I don't really care. But I was astonished at how many ways she came up with to reiterate that fact, as there really wasn't anything repeated -- other than "the smooth flat planes of his chest." Unfortunately, that one has been brought up about 20 times. Argh. I'm chugging through the last one (still avoiding memorizing those lines--no one cares about Zametov, anyway :( ) but becoming more and more unimpressed as I continue. I find it a bit predictable--no, very predictable. Then again, at this age, I have been exposed to so many storylines and TV sitcoms that I have a horrible habit of knowing what is going to happen next, rather like a rabbit with well-tuned intuition. Or a freak with wikipedia at her fingertips. There are still some stories out there that shock me, like One Piece. 

Speaking of which, I'd like to display a bit of a conversation between me and Quail last week.

Hawk: "Epic One Piece is epic."

Hawk: "Epic Naruto is...~makes face~"

Quail: "Fail. Epic Naruto is fail."

Come on, Kishi, we know you have it in you >_>.

I never did get around to my half.com story, so I can save that for another time.