How to be fancy in flannel

This evening there was a trivia contest at our school to raise money for scholarships. I wasn't going to go even though I love trivia as I went last year and got in a fight with one of my team members. But at the end of the day I was asked to join a team of mostly teachers and I decided to do it. What the hell, right?

We came in second even though I danced/strutted my way to turn in the answer "Jim Lovell" but that's not the important part. The important part is that our team of 5 adults and 3 students won a $25 gift card that we could use, we were told, two restaurants. The adults left Molly, Brooke, and I with the gift card. We knew that one of the restaurants was really fancy and expensive and across the river so we decided to go to the other one then.

This is when the adventure really starts. We weren't sure exactly where the restaurant was. We discovered that we had driven past it so Molly pulled over to the side of the road to look it up on her GPS. While Molly was doing that, I noticed that a man in the house we were outside of was brushing his hands over the blinds so we couldn't see through the window, peeking out at us, and dragging his friend over to watch. I pointed this out and we drove around the block to a safer location.

So we now knew where we were going but still missed the restaurant a bit because we were distracted by "Badger Street". We parked in a convenience store parking lot which may have been considered loitering. The people in the car next to us seemed to be having a really good time (nudge nudge, wink wink.) The streets weren't that busy so Molly decided to run across the crosswalk when the glowing red hand was telling us to stop. I ran after her. Brooke got stuck on the other side. Panting and laughing and out of breath we entered. . . an extremely fancy Mediterranean restaurant. Molly and I were in flannel and Brooke was in a loose t-shirt. I also happened to be wearing an 8 year-old hunting jacket. The hostess was a little flustered but with excellent grace she led 3 laughing and under-dressed teenagers into a room filled with couples and fancy people.

We were a little awkward in our disarray and everything at first but we had a lovely time. Brooke got kind of stuck in the  bathroom but got out quickly. We had dessert and it was delicious. Brooke's rich aunt had taught her proper etiquette so she bestowed her wisdom upon Molly and I. We had lovely conversation which included me asking "Wait, can I say 'bitch' in a fancy restaurant?" and "Can I say 'litter box' here?" We had plenty of water as a very cute boy kept filling our glasses. When Brooke told us to put our napkins on the table to show we were done, our waitress came over and took our check. She noticed that the name of the other restaurant (which was owned by the same people who owned the one we were in) was on the gift card. And as it turned out they wouldn't accept the gift card.

At this point the waitress' maternal instincts took over and she asked us if we had money and was very apologetic and understanding. We had enough to pay for the 3 desserts we had ($22.68!!!!!!!!!!) and didn't have to pay off our debt in the kitchen but it was close. While we were sorting out the money I filled out the "tell us about your experience" card. I said that the food was great and it was very nice of them to not turn us away because of our flannel. I suggested that they make the gift cards usable at either restaurant or get envelopes that don't have both the names on them. I said that the staff was very kind and the water-boy extremely attractive. Then I wrote my name and phone number on the card with a smiley face and casually dropped it on the floor as we walked out the door. I'll tell you if anything comes of it.

And that, my friends, is how I wound up in flannel and a hunting jacket eating crème brûlée that I thought was paid for with two very good friends while rich people were romantic all around us in a room full of wine and dim candlelight and my name and number on a scrap of paper under a table in a Mediterranean restaurant.

How have you been?

I have decided that I am going to blog at least once a week for the next month or so. This is a thing I have just decided. And I hope I don't regret it. I'm just in such a blogging mood tonight! Tonight being the 15th. I won't post this tonight as I just posted something I wrote in biology earlier today. And I learned from doing VEDA last year the woes of over-saturating the market. (Because there is such a high demand for me. That makes me an inelastic good. I also just finished an economics class last month.)

Here's a brief list of what has happened since I've last blogged:

• I made a video of how I spent my New Year's Eve.

• I went to Albany for Governor Cuomo's State of the State Address. I meant to right a blog post about this but I didn't. Then I meant to write another on Jan 20th because that was the 3rd anniversary of one of the most mad-cap days of my life, being in D.C. for Barak Obama's inauguration. But again, I forgot/was too lazy. Now I'm just going to write a book of memoirs called "Capitol Adventures". Much easier, right?
• I made some awesome new friends on tumblr who have rekindled my love of Nic Cage.
• Got accepted to some colleges.
• Science

So yeah that's pretty much it. Oh and I finished Buffy the Vampire Slayer last night. Holy cow. I'm still processing it. But my god that was good.

 I also remembered an agreement I made with my friend Etco. If he posted slam poetry videos on youtube then I would post some writing on my blog. Etco has done just that so now I have to hold up my end of the bargain so you'll have that to look forward to.

I spend my time wisely (I wrote this in AP Bio)

I want to live in a perpetual state of Summer. I want to always have a good book and the sun in which to read it. I want something big to look forward to or something good to remember. I want the lush green and the cool moist earth and the hard, hot pavement and the warm, smooth stones and the dry and brittle grass dying outside of the shade of a tree, parched while waiting patiently for the August rains. And I want you to be only a phone call away.

I want the sun on headstones and fresh wildflowers laid beside them. I want the gravel between my bare toes and scraps of dandelion roots beneath my fingernails from weeding. And I want to see you again.

I want warm berries, pregnant with the juice that dribbles down my chin and stains my fingers and the paving stones below. I want to lay my head down in the dust of the last years leaves and watch the jets trace contrails through the deep blue.

I want chicken wire fences and lazy mornings in bed and bare foot soccer in the rain. I want dripping ice cream cones and still days for rocket launching, alternating with winds to catch in the sail of a Sunfish. I want the water dripping on my legs and lap as I pull an oar out of on Lake Teedyuskung and to stand on the jagged rocks of Canandaigua and watch Squaw Island sink lower and lower into the blue-green glass.

I want to stay up late and only realize the time when I hear the birds begin to sing. I want to walk through the morning fog after a bonfire and feel safe wrapped in a borrowed blanket and my father's old fatigues.

And I want to lie down on a dock at night and stare at the stars and do abso-

lutely

nothing

...

This is basically an amalgamation of various Summers in my life. See if you can spot yourself.

Defintely Not: The Tales of My Winter Break

So it's winter break for me hear in my little irl life. So naturally that means a lot of parties and talking to people and things that generally require me to go outside. I mean, the other day I was outside for so long that I saw, like, seven clouds. Woo boy that is a lot of social interaction.

What do you mean that there's evidence on my tumblr and twitter accounts showing that I've spent the majority of the break watching Sherlock, Lost, The Office, and How I Met Your Mother? That's ridiculous. You can't do these things outside. Where I've been. What, do you think I'm so attached to my bed that I feel lonely without it? Me? Noooooo....

Hahaha. I could barely even type those outrageous lies. I mean, come on. Clouds? Doesn't that require me to leave the house, a thing I'm unfamiliar with?

Actually, that's also a lie. I have left the house a few times. I went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game (Gay) of Shadows with Dan, Kate, Chris, and Elana for Dan's birthday. It was really, really good and got me to watch the BBC's Sherlock series the following day. If you ever talked about Doctor Who with me for an extensive period of time last summer you'll know that that is a miraculous feat for me as I refused to for months and months on the ground that I was angry at Steven Moffat for abandoning the Whovians with half a series to go and cheat on us with Sherlock. But I am so glad I caved. Sherlock is amazing. I think Moff is better suited for this type of writing than Doctor Who anyway, to be honest. I particularly enjoyed the first episode, A Study in Pink. That was excellent. So was the pool scene in the third episode. I'm so excited to find out how that's resolved. I'll find out soon! Also, I've always had a thing for the John Watsons of the world and seeing the movie with Downey and Law really renewed my love for all things Watson.

The next time I left the house was on Christmas Day. I went to the American Legion to work at their Christmas dinner. I worked desserts for the vast majority of the day and I was pretty good at it too. By the time I left I was giving orders. It was a bit like working behind a bar which I've done before, also for charity, and I'm good at it. Besides the fact that I'm still not sure what the American Legion does and a woman I was volunteering with who hid cheesecake for herself and my nearly passing out towards the end because I hadn't had anything to drink, it was a good time. The highlight of that event probably happened before the dinner actually started. One woman kept coming up to my family and asking all of these questions. Did we sing? Were we a church group? Were we the carolers? Are you registered to minister to people? Can you say a prayer? Have you seen our minister? Are any of you musical? It's like she thought we were the von Trapps or something. After she asked if we could say prayer for everyone I started muttering the Chanukah prayer in Hebrew but I don't think she noticed.

So I guess I've been out more than I originally thought. Besides these two days, I went to a friend's house to work on a Hamlet scrapbook a couple times for our English project. The first time disintegrated into us watching HIMYM and the second time ended in bagels.

And today, well, yesterday now, I had a five hour tea party with Elana, Kate, Dan, and Chris where I managed to break the house a little bit. You see, in my excitement at the fact that Elana and I were trouncing the boys in a game of Befudiom, I fist pumped a chandelier and the brass cover attached to the ceiling kind of fell off. As Elana said, "So much win it was a fail."

At this tea party I also realized that even when I'm being social, I'm basically still on the internet. You see, the people in this group of friends are all huge nerds. We talked Harry Potter, Doctor Who, gaming, SOPA, etc. While I was doing the dishes I distinctly heard the phrase "But you're already a werewolf!" from the other room. It was kind of incredible, as if my dining room table had been transformed into the internet. I'm always a bit in awe of the fact that these are my irl friends and at one point I came in to collect for dishes and said "How did I find you people!?" My replies were "Science Olympiad." "Science Olympiad." "Drama Club." "Challenge Team. No, playing with the hamsters in third grade." Of course. :)

And now I'm definitely not writing this while waiting for my sixth episode of Torchwood tonight to load while eating Doritos, hot chocolate, and chocolate cauldrons that Chris left. Definitely not. That stuff's for losers. I'm cool. Like a fez.

Oh deer lawd. I'll just end this blog post in shame, shall I?

Oh. And it's definitely not nearly four in the morning.

The thing about Thanksgiving....

So the think about Thanksgiving is that it's awkward. It just is. Suddenly all of these people who you see a few times a year at most start flooding into your house. And even though they may be related to you, a lot of them are still basically strangers to you. Having similar genetics doesn't actually mean you know them or have anything substantial in common. And yeah, you love them in all but it's still weird, there's no getting around that. And yes, this is true for pretty much any holiday but Thanksgiving has an extra oddness about it.

For starters, it's kind of just shoved in the year. Here you are, going along and having a nice autumn, watching the trees change and whatnot when suddenly, a wild holiday appears in the tall grass! and really, what is it even doing here? I'm just trying to enjoy my November, the Holden Caulfield of months, but now I can't because of this random holiday that just decided to show up, catapulting us forward into winter before the tree I stare at everyday in biology class has even lost all of its leaves.

Second, what exactly are we celebrating? If you ask ten people, you will get ten different answers. And that's fine, really, it is. But isn't it strange how we have this national holiday that is supposed to bring people together that means a different thing for every person? And shouldn't we be thankful for things all year long and not just on one day a year? Which brings me to number three.

Every person has those two friends who see Thanksgiving completely differently. One is the all-American, I-just-shot-my-own-turkey-in-the-frozen-food-section, good old boy. And then there's the politically correct, never-shuts-up-about-how-we-shot-Indians, disillusioned cynic. And every year, you listen to the "I'm thankful America is the best" speech and read the "Hypocrites! You're all hypocrites! Eat nothing! Buy nothing! Trust no one over 30!" facebook status. And don't you just want to introduce them to each other so they can preach and yell at the other while you eat mashed potatoes?

The fourth reason Thanksgiving is weird is more personal for me. My birthday falls a few days before Thanksgiving every year and I can't really enjoy it because it marks the start of the most awkward holiday of all. And I feel awful that my mom goes through so much trouble for my birthday and then for Thanksgiving.

Fifth on the list is all of the food. Food is great, yeah? I personally love it, but after 18 years of eating turkey for a month each year I'm kind of sick of it. Literally. I don't know what it is but for the past few years the smell of cooking poultry just makes me ill. Oh and then when the left over turkey is put in a soup I get really confused because the house smells like apples from the pies or apple crisp so I start to think that it's Passover.

And lastly, when exactly does Thanksgiving begin and when does it end? In other words, when can I stop feeling like a stranger in my own house? When do people go home? It sounds rude, and it is, but I just want to have the house to myself for one night. The view from my bedroom window gets a little boring after long enough. And I want to film videos but I feel so awkward and nervous about doing it with a full house.

So now you know why Thanksgiving is so damn awkward and why this may have been my last "traditional" Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I'll come home for it next year. Honestly, I would be so happy just spending the holiday on the floor with some cartons of leftover Chinese food, a good friend, and plenty of Doctor Who episodes. Is anyone free next year?



Also, I'm officially dropping out of NaNoWriMo. I got sick last week and had too much schoolwork so I couldn't write and I haven't caught up. I just don't want to. Next year, maybe I'll finish. But for now, I'm ending it with 28,169 words.

Turning back months of mutual avoidance

I should really be writing my novel write now (I'm doing NaNoWriMo) but I wrote nearly 5000 words last night and got caught up after being days behind. Or I should be doing homework but I've got six hours in a car tomorrow as I'm going to visit my brother for the evening so I'll have plenty of time to study on the trip. And with my word count at 16739 and still another two days to get my schoolwork done, I've decided to write a blogpost on this thing that is currently happening to me.

Over in the Summer of 2010 I met this boy at a theatre workshop who I really fell for. From the end of July to the beginning of January he was basically the most important person in my life. I'm not going to go into details but basically things ended pretty badly and awkwardly a couple times during those five months. Finally in the middle of December we began to drift for good.

Now I have a history of depending too much on certain people. "Anchors" you might say. This kid was one of them. I told him pretty much everything about my life and he did the same with me. But we never actually dated. *cue Forever Alone music* So there were all of these text messages passed between us carrying the story of two lives. And then when the awkwardness came they dried up, were eventually deleted, and replaced by new phones. The only contact we've had for months and months now was the occasional joke on a facebook status.

But today is Veteran's Day. This guy's brother was (or maybe still is) a Marine. So I texted this guy asking him to wish his brother a nice day and to thank him for me. And from there a very tentative and short conversation sprouted up about colleges. I think the conversation has ended now. I sent the last message ten minutes ago so the balls in his court at any rate. But it's weird. Here's this guy who used to mean the world to me, who I used to tell everything to automatically. And now if we were standing in the same room we'd be staring at our shoes or out the window, talking about the weather.

I don't mean to make this blog into a diary- I couldn't never keep those, anyway- but it's just interesting and strange to me how just a year ago this guy had my entire life story in his phone and now we can't even carry on a polite and superficial conversation. It's really too bad. I miss him. I don't think it's possible not to miss someone who was as important to me as this man once was. But after this much time and this much distance I don't think we can start again. I've been thinking about it lately, though, and I think I'd like to try. So, not that you're reading this, but if you are, Anthony, do you want to be friends?

Sue from Catering's Halloween Adventures

If you're a Doctor Who fan and haven't seen this video yet, then watch it now.

Yeah. So after this video went live or was leaked or whatever it hit tumblr like the Oncoming Storm himself. I had seen the clip of David and the Proclaimers before when the BBC was doing their countdown to the Christmas Special back in 2009 and the image of David, John Simm, and Timothy Dalton all in a line but I had no idea where it had come from. It came from that brilliant masterpiece that you just watched.

The entire video was great as you would of course expect when you look at the people who made it. Every single part is flawless and laughable and meme-able. But Sue from Catering seems to have stuck out the most for the Whovians of tumblr and so a bit after 9 last night I decided to be Sue from Catering for Halloween.

Lately I've just used Halloween as an excuse to wear hats to school. This year I was thinking of going with a garrison cap but at the urging of my friend Sophie I asked my dad for a ride to the grocery store to get an apron.

So there I am.

(The scene is Wegman's. Nighttime. The aisles are emptying and the night shift has clocked in but the bakeries still open and the donuts haven't reached their late night cheap prices yet. A girl appears in a long, black, slightly ripped trench coat over pajama pants and green Chuck Taylor's with a bit of masking tape on the toe. A knitted hat that started its life as a sweater sits upon her head. A man in sweatpants and a fleece is with her. They roam the aisles looking for a black apron, but none can be found.)

I had called ahead to make sure they had black aprons but I couldn't find any with the rest. So I went to the customer service desk to ask where they were. The man working there went behind the counter and came back with an employee apron. He took it out of the packaging and gave it to me. Perfect! But then came the problem of whether or not I had to pay for it. The cashier was just as perplexed on the matter as my dad and I were. Was I about to steal an apron? Is it company policy to give away parts of staff uniforms to any girl wearing a trench coat?

It turned out that the apron was free. Yeah! That's right! Wegman's gives out free aprons. I encourage anyone reading this to get to a Wegman's as soon as they can and ask for an apron, a hat, a shirt, a vest, anything. Let's see what the limit is on gifts from the customer service desk. Will they give us a fleet of shopping carts? There's only one way to find out.

Right. So I suppose I digressed about there but back to Sue. I wrote "Sue" on a bit of duct tape and put it over the Wegman's emblem on my lovely, new apron. Dressed in black and armed with two wooden spoons and a sonic screwdriver I went to school. I really only did this to amuse the internet and myself and I knew that of the people at my school only my best friend, Brooke, would get it, but my god it was worth it!

By the end of the day my friends Christina and Kelly had me carrying a banana in the pocket of my apron and said that if I heard anyone say they were hungry I was to whip out a banana, say "Hi! I'm Sue from catering!", and hand them the fruit. Unfortunately it never came to this despite the fact that I had them planted in my biology class to complain about their hunger.

I've got plans to go get the on-sale candy tomorrow with Kelly so I have to finish my homework. I'll just leave you with this picture.

Sue from Catering, Neil Young/Brooke, and Tori the Mushroom

(note the sonic screwdriver, wooden spoon, and banana)