Family

I love the families I've come to know.


The Nerds

When registering for HA back in 7th grade, I hated my mom for forcing me into it. She told me I'd thank her in the end, and I responded with typical denial and more resentment. I began, 6 years ago, a string of classes that created a family.

Since few students actually took HA classes in middle school, there were only two alternating classes. Throw these into different schedules, and one was bound to end up getting to know every HA student. For two years, these people became your friends because you had nearly every academic class with them.

Once high school started, HA turned to honors. The honors system ran the same way with alternating classes, but there were different people trickling in from different middle schools. Some HA friends had gone to another high school, some had decided honors wasn't for them. But freshman year started the friendship cycle all over again, for some - it only continued.

Now here I am in my senior year, and I'm in AP classes. Classes full of the people who have chosen to stick it out all 4 (even 6 for some) years, and work their way through AP. The friends I know now, I can't even remember whether they're the 4 year since honors friends, or the 6 year since HA friends because I feel like they're all part of my own little family. 

And in this family, we've all grown. The one I can think of off the top of my head would be my friend Shadi. I met Shadi in 7th grade in Alg. 1. She was in HA, and a bit of a spaz, but so was I. I hated sitting in my desk and I couldn't help but show off my love, well, addiction for squirrels. Shadi had her ups and downs with me. Some days she could tolerate me, some days she couldn't. And the thoughts were returned right back at her. I'm trying not to go too much into detail now, because I plan on writing blog posts about everyone at some point, but Shadi never ceases to amaze me. Be it with her brilliance and talent, or her all out stupidity (this girl locked herself in a bathroom for two hours...). 

The Yerds

The other family of mine, I've only discovered recently, but it's had one of the biggest impacts on me. My junior year I joined my school's yearbook. You can ask anyone I hang out with, I walked around before school, during passing periods, and at lunch... like a velociraptor.

Velociraptor is my freak out mode.

Needless to say, as soon as the bell rang, I rather reluctantly dragged my feet towards Austin's classroom. I suppose I should mention that Mr. Austin was my freshman Honors English 1 teacher, and though I went from C's to A's on my papers because of him, (literally, you can look at my portfolio and watch the C's turn to B's, and then to A's because this man taught me how to write... which I throw away when I work on this blog... :D) I was terrified of him. Talking to him had never gone well for me my freshman year. So two years later, I velociraptored my way through my day. Dreading reconfrontation. 

I kind of slid into the empty seat next to my friends. Coming in halfway through the year and starting a new semester, seats were already assigned and I hoped that the owner of the seat I had stolen wouldn't mind because I might just cry in the fetal position in the corner if I hadn't been able to sit by people I knew.

Day one - nothing went wrong. My body relaxed itself a little, and I used my friends as a mechanism to forget my fears and velociraptorisms. Days went on and spreads were assigned. A friend partnered up with me to keep from provoking unnecessary raptor spells, and the days went on. Assignments, deadlines, side packages, stories. Eventually... the realization hit me. The people in there are kiiiinda weird. Why was I afraid again?

Coming into my senior year, I know every EIC and every editor. On a close, awkward, or tolerated basis. I work on yearbook 2 periods a day, and I love doing it. Work done on time and everything saved correctly means a little extra time for me to mess around. In all seriousness though, I don't really like the thought of where I might be without yearbook. I'm definitely more outgoing; I'm sure I've made every member feel awkward at some point in time, and I'm not quite as afraid of Austin anymore. And it's an entirely hidden life that we have. Kind of like this wonderful little secret.

Stephanie mentioned the other day, "What do you think other schools would do if they knew our amazing book came out of this ghetto little pressroom?" A few comments later, we ended up with "We love our pressroom!" We do. Blue tape, fire hazard christmas lights, funny candid shots, great shots, spreads and copy blocks that make my day, computers to fight for, chairs to steal, magazines to search in. The pressroom itself is kind of homey.Yearbook all trickles down to the weirdest, most random, hard working kids you can think of - and together, we make it happen.

*****************

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself next year... No more honors, no more AP, no more yearbook. These are hard earned friends, the kind that don't just come and go. These groups we've been sorted into, it's not just a mistake; we get along for a reason. I'm going to miss these people. I don't know what got me thinking about all of this, but I did. And this is what I came to. I love my families. Without them, I'd be nowhere; with them, I'm whole. They complete me :)

DJ: Friend or Enemy...

This is DJ. Somehow, I can trace all my problems back to DJ. In fact, I'm sure there are more reasons to hate DJ that I'm not thinking of. But for now, we'll stick to the ones I can remember. Starting with Junior year. Physics.


DJ and I had half of our first semester of our Junior year together. Pre-Calculus in second period and AP Economics fourth. But DJ and I hated being in AP Econ. It was too much for DJ! I don't really know why he didn't like it, it just gave me migraines everyday. So DJ and I sought out schedule changes. I wanted to switch my third period Physics class to fourth period, and then take Yearbook in third. DJ wanted fourth period Physics too. I stealthily ran off to my counselor and asked to make the schedule change. She told me that there was a waiting list, but I could be second on it. I was pleased. But this isn't a story about my pleasure, this is a story of my pain and woe. Due to DJ.

You see, while I had been sneaking away trying to make my own schedule magic happen, DJ had been lurking around his own counselor. The next day in 4th period I noticed the absence of DJ. I frantically tried to obtain his whereabouts out of his desk neighbors. No good. DJ was missing.

Now, I'm a nice person. I was genuinely concerned about DJ because he'd been in PreCal that same day. So the next day, I interrogated him about it.

Me: DJ. Where were you last fourth period?

DJ: I switched into Physics.

Me: .... You were the first person on the waiting list...?

DJ: Waiting list? What waiting list?

I refused to acknowledge his existence any further until I could get down to the bottom of things. If DJ could bypass the list, so could I. I made another appointment with my counselor.

Me: WHY DID DJ GET INTO PHYSICS AND I DIDN'T?!?!?!

Counselor: Was he on the list?

Me: He said he wasn't..

Counselor: Huh.. well it looks like he took the last available spot. I'm sorry.

I sulked out of the counseling office and returned to class. And this was only DJ's beginning.

MORE TO COME:
DJ being ridiculous in yearbook! 8D

Hectic Week!!!

Does anyone recognize this? This is the beauty that is the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Something I have tickets to go see on Saturday, November 20th. :) TSO is the only Christmas music I will tolerate any time of the year. Of course the yearbook staff has been harassing me by playing other Christmas music in the pressroom since the first of November...


Which brings me to the fact that I haven't blogged since then either. This week has been so crazy busy it's ridiculous. Tuesday was the start of Yearbook worknights. That means school from 7:30am until 6pm. I left a little earlier, around 5pm, because I had my work done completely and had no reason to be there anymore, but regardless it was a long day. As soon as the bell rang to end school, Shelby and I booked it to my car to go pick my sister up, drop her off at my house, and then go pick up the sushi we had ordered for ourselves and about 8 other yerds. The entire order was nearly $100. After already being exhausted from the long day, I had to come home and work on homework and it was already 6pm by the time I was done with dinner and all settled. Of course somehow I wasn't tired enough to not watch Inception with ShawnSteve.


Wednesday morning was hard. I really really didn't want to wake up. But with such a full day the day before, why not just sleep a little more? Yeah well I almost slept over my alarm... It was one of those loopy days, where you're not really paying full attention to your classes because you're so tired. Somehow I'm not tired in the classes that I don't need to pay attention to, but come AP English, I'm fighting myself to keep my head up. But while I'm sitting there not absorbing anything school related, I think of other things that are only important to me RIGHT THEN. This time, it was the matter of telling Marina, my friend that sits next to me in English, this story about my 13th birthday.


At 13, the Jewish tradition says you're officially a man or woman. At 15, the Mexican tradition says you're officially a woman. For some reason I decided to participate in the 13th birthday tradition. My celebration consisted of me bursting out of my room that morning, sprinting down the hallway, and shouting, "WOO! I AM OFFICIALLY A MAN!" I didn't quite get at the time that I could have also been a woman.


As I told this story to Marina, I realized that this cursed me for 3 years later. When I got my license in the mail, I passed it to my mom. I was super proud of myself, I didn't need to look at it. My sister glanced over her shoulder says, "Why does it say you're a guy?" That was the curse fulfilling itself... I've been a man for over a year now...


When I got home from my loopy day at school, the first thing I did was turn on my computer and flop down on the bed. I noticed an email from my mom saying "Don't make plans on November 20" and I opened the email but got distracted with facebook. Eventually when I actually looked at the email, I realized that it was a copy of the tickets my mom bought for the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert on the 20th! Every time over the last few years that I've wanted to go to this, I've been out of state. I'm stoked :)


Then I went to SteveShawn's for a while, came home. And ate the most amazing invention ever. Individual sized Haagen-Dazs containers of mango sorbet. I was quite pleased.


Now, my week has already been packed full of deadline and random other things. But here was Friday. Fridays are like "OMG I'M GONNA WAKE UP BECAUSE I CAN SLEEP IN TOMORROW!" Except for when you have to wake up earlier than normal that Friday because you're being awarded for doing well in school. This is how I ended up with about 30 minutes less of sleep and actually eating breakfast food at the Renaissance breakfast.


Of course, Friday couldn't be that simple. I also had an AP Bio test last period. So I used my first period TA to study. Then I skipped the rally to study as well, and had to obtain my Academic Block later. Next was AP English which I actually researched for my research paper. But then was lunch, which I used to study. And then yearbook... also used to study. Then the test.


About 12 questions in to the 65 question test, I was tired. I've only actually fallen asleep during a test once, but I don't think this would have been a good time to do that. I finished the test with 10 minutes to spare.


After school was out, Shelby and Chris got in the car for rides home and Shelby was like "I'M ANGRY!!!!" So Chris and I listened to her be angry.

And then apologize for it.

I love Shelby :)

And today I had a massive tickle war with SteveShawn. I'm pretty sure I won. Even though I have like 50 bruises on me now.

ALSO! It's Daylight Savings Time in 1 hour. So we get to "Fall" back an hour :) I'm super excited. I like being deceived by time to think that I actually have an hour more to sleep. It's a good feeling. It's of course ripped away from me in the Spring, but it's Fall right now. I'm okay with sneaky deception.

Good night! :)

EDIT: Michaela reminded me that I scared her tonight. When I got home, I saw that her computer room light was on. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to scare her. I walked up to it and lightly with my fingertips tapped on the glass. Her cat noticed and immediately went O_O at me. I made the tapping noise louder bit by bit and eventually Michaela noticed that Stinky was looking at something, saw me, and made a strange squeak/scream noise. This made Stinky jump off the chair and run into the hallway. THEN he took the "I WILL FIGHT OFF ANYTHING IN YOUR WAY OWNER" stance. Michaela was not pleased. I was amused.

Good night for real this time :)

November Is Here!!!

It's finally November. October is my favorite because it smells like Fall, but November looks it. The trees change colors and lose their leaves, and the ground starts becoming saturated with rain.

It's wonderful.

Happy November!!!


The start of the new month to me means: 

• Refreshed Pandora hours on my laptop and in the pressroom
• Refreshed texts outside of Verizon
• One month closer to graduation
• Deadlines!!!!!!! 

This particular month is the last month for most college applications... No pressure or anything, but I still haven't gotten past page one on the first application.
We also have a deadline this week for yearbook, and a deadline after Thanksgiving. So School until 6pm, then home for homework.

This post is again being written around midnight. I'm not sure why I keep doing this. I'm always super regretful in the morning. This morning I was semi-delusional. I thought my alarm was some annoying object that was not meant to wake me up. Then I told my cat to wake me up in 10 minutes because I was convinced he'd be done cleaning himself by then. He started meowing 15 minutes later. And my day began 5 minutes late.

And these "I'm tired" spells don't end well... I start nodding off in AP English, which isn't too bad considering it's just learning writing skills that we have to practice later anyway. But this nodding off leads to this weird mood/state that I don't... really remember later. So the next day in AP English when I'm not feeling so weird, we pull our research packets out and there are little tornadoes drawn all over it...

Research packet: I'll have to scan it later and post it... But it has tornadoes, friends in said tornadoes, cows, angry people, sad faces, lots of ".com"'s on the page saying "don't use .com's". It's... pretty ridiculous. There are also a few spiels at my teacher about how he makes us turn the page too often. It made for bad drawings.

And now I really should go to bed. If you're reading this and you haven't seen Jeff Dunham, go visit youtube right now. ShawnSteve and I watched a Jeff Dunham movie type thing, and it's just really funny. 

Now to sleep for me.

Happy Halloween :)

This morning I slowly became aware of the dog next door barking incessantly, the toilet switching on and off every 5 minutes to fill its imaginary lost liquid, and my cat pitifully mewing outside my room. So finally in my frustrated state, I put my glasses on and went to check if my friend who had crashed on the couch was awake yet. She wasn't. I turned my computer on and messed around for a while, and my mom came into my room and sat next to me, asking for a pumpkin pancake recipe. At this point I was really into my mindless game, so her request displeased me, but I did it anyway. And then my sister came in. At that point there were too many people in my room, and I wanted them out. Of course mom took this offensively. 

Now angry, I starting writing dear ***** rants at people. Some are from a few days ago, some from today. One not even really ranting.

Dear *****,
You are not allowed to be the excuse for my faults, and you are not allowed to cause me pain or frustration or sadness, because you are not even worth the anger.
Yours Bitterly,
Simone

Dear *****,
You are the only freaking person I know that can think of some reason to be mad at me at any given time. I'm never given a fair chance out of you, everyone around us notices that.
The Spare, 
Simone

Dear *****,
You tell me all the wrong things. You leave out all of the important info in your life, and give me all of the stuff that's not necessary. I always find out from someone else who you're dating or "going to marry." I thought I was a little more important than that.
Not A Priority,
Simone

Dear Peanut Butter M&Ms,
Do you even understand how fantastically amazing you are? You could totally crush Peanut M&Ms in a popularity contest. You are everything I love about peanuts, without the peanuts. You make me happy.
Love,
Simone

That was pretty much how those went. So last night I said Christine and I went to get Sushi. We ended up at the Blue Nami further away from us due to the closer one closing at 10... We also ended up with 4 rolls. 1 Jaguar, 1 Yellow-Belly, 1 California, and 1 Honeydew. I didn't try the jaguar, but the rest were really good. And this is coming from someone that doesn't like fish. (Disregard the fact that the Yellow-Belly is a roll of deep fried chicken and cream cheese...) 

Happy Halloween!

Normally, I wouldn't expect anything out of my Halloween. In fact, everybody was busy this year. Busy at my ex-boyfriends party. Or trick-or-treating. So I deemed my day terrible. However, ShawnSteve invited me over to hang out until he had to go to the party. As I was getting ready to leave, ExBoyfriend texts me. Out of nowhere. Asking what I was doing tonight. So I said nothing, after suspiciously verifying that it was in fact him texting me. After getting to Shawn's house, ExBoyfriend replied back inviting me to his party.

Somehow ShawnSteve got me to watch Legions... I no longer trust nice looking old ladies. It's not going to happen. They're evil and they trick you with their old smell and their nice looking old look. It's deceiving. Don't fall for it. They'll bite you.

When I went home, I had to seriously think about the party I'd been invited to. After some minor talking to myself, I decided I missed hanging out with a lot of the people that were going. ShawnSteve said I should go. Ricky said I should go, or he'd come pick me up and take me there... Loving threats. So finally I went. I was every bit aware that my decision of going was not final until I walked through that door... But I parked my car at the bottom of the court and saw a swaying figure standing in the middle of it and decided to see who it was.

Sterling. Silly man. Swaying. While talking on his phone. By the time I'd gotten to him, he was off his phone and smiling with his arms out to hug me. He's one of the friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Sterling: How are you doing?

Me: I'm alright.

Sterling: You look like you're about to walk on fire...

Me: Do I? Huh...

Sterling: Want to go for a walk? We've got time.

Me: I... Uh.. Y.. Sure.

After walking around the entire block, because we're weird apparently, we finally went inside. I looked in the hallway and saw ShawnSteve in ExBoyfriend's room holding a kitty, so I figured everyone was in there. I walked in and said hi to ShawnSteve, hi to Ricky, hi to Erik, and then jumped a little at Ashley dressed as the Joker...

Eventually everyone, and I'm talking 15-18 people here, crowded into the living room to watch, AND SING ALONG WITH, Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Now, this is what I've eaten today:
1 banana
3 packets or so of peanut butter M&Ms
and a cookie (because ExBoyfriend's sister threatened me otherwise)

This is not good!

Well, now it's 12:30am... I have to wake up in 6 hours for school. Don't mind my lack of organization over my blog. It'll get better, I promise. I just need a few tries. :)

Intro/Rant Post

I hate it when people talk about you because they are under the impression that you are not nearby. Not only that, but when you decide to be dramatic and get up to walk away, they get angry at you. Because somehow this whole thing is now your fault. This was pretty much my morning. I woke up and my dad was visiting, so I went and sat on the recliner in the living room. The recliner is pretty creaky, so I figured they'd get that I was there. But apparently not because then my mom started complaining about how I don't have a job, and she's not going to bug me about it because I must be torn up about my recent ex boyfriend still. To my mom, I don't have two feet.

In reality, I've been applying for jobs but not keeping close track on them because I'm kind of working on my senior year of high school including 2 AP classes and yearbook. Not to mention the 60 hours of community service and the senior project we have to have done. It's just slightly stressful.

Recently I've been becoming more associated with the friends I've always had, but may not have talked to as much for whatever reason. Now I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with everyone. It sucks to trust, but it's a false sense of security I always fall for. Obviously I'm not planning for the whole "Trust me, I care about you" and then "Yeah by the way I lied? Don't talk to me." thing to happen, but apparently it does. Again, it sucks.

This is what I'm calling my rant post. From here on out I'll have a few of there every here and there just because I need a place to throw absolutely everything I can out. There are so few people I can talk to, and more and more decide to turn on me as I move through my life. So I've resorted to telling whoever decides to read these posts.

Hyperbole and a Half is my favorite blog of all. So a lot of what I say is influenced by Allie. I do not intend to steal her work.

Tonight, hopefully I can get my mind off of everything. One of my friends and I are going to go see a play, Murder on the Nile, and then we're going out to get sushi. I'm not a huge fish fan... so we'll see how that goes. :)

And now I'll end the angry wall of text post.