Their Compliment of Highs

Now the world can be an unfair place at times
But your lows will have their compliment of highs
And if anyone should cheat you
Take advantage of or beat you raise your head
And wear your wounds with pride

Yeasayer, Ambling Alp

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my British Lit class to see "Henry V" by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. The play was nice - a very good ending that gave the whole thing a lot of meaning that I had been feeling was missing a little. Great scenes where they spoke in French that were really humorous. There was a crazy woman in front of us that clapped during the kissing scene. Also, all these elementary school kids danced in their seats during set-change music (a little odd, haha) and one laughed really loudly at the kiss. It was hilarious.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the trip there and back much more than the play itself. I got to talk to a lot of people in that class who I don't know very well - myself and LFK were appointed the Seattle & Bus experts, so I talked to him for a while. I also actually got to talk to Ms Wolverine, which I've never really done. She is surprisingly fashionable at all times - she had on some amazing rainboots that were really unexpected! Striped in blue and white and red, but they also had some skulls on them. She was nice and asked me about my brother and told some jokes. Plus, after some torrential days, it was really nice and sunny. We didn't transfer buses in the city because it was fantastic weather so we decided to walk from Seattle Center to Westlake (okay, the Seattle & Bus experts decided that we should walk). But it was gorgeous out in the city and over here when I walked home. Truly summer weather!

A lovely shot of LC!'s first Seattle gig, which I was at. My head is probably one of those silhouettes.

On Tuesday I'm going to see Los Campesinos!, which I'm really excited for. I was planning on buying an LC! mug for my tea-drinking pleasure, but I'm trying to save up for a record player with a speaker and adapter built in, so I may just buy some pins/badges/whatever you'd like to call them. Hopefully they've got some because the only LC! ones I have say "WAB" and "WAD" on them, which no one ever understands except actual fans of the band. So I just get asked why I have something that says "wad" on my bag.

I'm working hard on putting together my poetry collection so I can take advantage of my free print copy. It's called "sincerely" and right now I'm trying to come up with a nice cover design for it... which is hard. I can't decide whether I want it to be simple or more detailed... such decisions! It's also hard because for it to sell online there have to be so many pages, which means so many poems...

The Richard Hugo House

I was a finalist in my school's poetry contest so now I'm anxiously waiting for the results of one that the library held - hopefully I win something in that one! Another event I went to recently, in honor of National Poetry Month, was "Dead Poets Society" at the House, where I fell in love with Richard Brautigan - I was bound to, really, because Matt Gano was playing him and I think he's an amazing poet and an even better performer. Other poets there were Frank O'Hara (my all-time favorite), Audre Lorde, and Anne Sexton. It went a bit late and I was the youngest person there (surrounded by martini-downing adults), but it was a nice break from school work. Plus, if I do say so myself, I looked pretty fabulous that day, so it was nice to be in public not looking like a fool. Which is how I usually look...

(taken by my little sister last end of spring/summer)

Here?

Okay, Okay, I'm posting! Since I've last posted, tons of things have happened and I'm pretty sure most all of you are on the up and up since I see C everyday and S and I have seen each other about a bazillion times over the last few weeks (FLORENCE WAS AMAZING JSYK).

Do J or S want to come with me to the French techno dance night on May 7? I'm thinking it will be pretty low key. C can't come and I want to go because one of my friends is president of French Club (who are putting it on) and the last time I was at the Old Firehouse (where it is) there was a really cute guy working there.

And thanks to both C and S for coming to the Night of Noise! It was actually pretty successful, I thought, and the music was surprisingly good (what, there were only like, two bad acts?). Glad your surgery went well, J!

The Arts Commission hasn't gotten back to me yet (or to the other girl I know who applied) but they did send a email to me (and the other girl) saying that they hadn't made their decision and they'd be in touch.

I really, really want new clothes, but I have no money. So I'm going to join C on the job hunt. Wouldn't it be super amazing if we worked at the same place? Although the chances of that aren't very high, (besides the new Metro Market, which C said had a very intimidating app process) I can still hope.

I'll post more with specific stories soon...hopefully.

More to come soon

Hey!
J, I'm so glad to hear everything went well--I'm was thinking about you all morning Friday. I don't have much time tonight, so I'm just saying Hi and will post again soon. Speaking of which, I think it's been two months since A's last post! Get on that!

I tried to upload my video, but I couldn't get it off the DVD (I guess that doesn't work) and it has mine and C's name in it--I'm not sure C is okay with that. You will all get to see it shortly, though.

Much Love,
-S

Wicked Dream

Hello hello!

I survived my surgery!!! I went in on Friday to have the procedure done and it went splendidly, so yay. I was really goofy on drugs for a while (and said some really embarrassing things) and am taking massive amounts of medications, but all is well in J-land!

I wanna say happy b-day to C again, as well :) I had lots and lots of fun seeing everyone at your birthday and am SO bummed I won't be able to go to LC!'s concert coming up because I think it would be a lot of fun. I haven't been to a concert with y'all in such a long time, it's ridiculous. I'm looking forward to Sasquatch with S but I miss going, all three of us.

It is so pretty out today, it makes me want to make plans for this summer! I wanna do something wickedly awesome, I've gotta think up something good for the four of us to do...not sure exactly WHAT though. Maybe go somewhere neat? We'll see, I'm sure we'll come up with something neat.

Whaaaaaat else...I've got lots of homework to get to, which is weighing on my thoughts right now...I really really really should be doing that but I wanted to make a post first, haha. Oh yeah, priorities, mine are so in order, haha :)

OH YEAH, THIS STARTED LAST NIGHT! Did you watch, C? Omg, no spoilers or anything in case you haven't seen yet, but I really loved it. Amy Pond as a little kid sort of annoyed me, but I like her as a teenager and Matt Smith has done a great job of stepping in as the doctor, although I'm not incredibly in love with him yet...Tennet was just so extraordinary, you know? But we'll see ;)

Over and out!

The Seaside

Do you want to go to the seaside?
I'm not trying to say that
everybody wants to go...
The Kooks, Seaside

About a week or so ago my family went on a mini-vacation to the seaside. Well, it wasn't really the sea, it was a bay, but that it pretty much close enough. These are some pictures from one of the only times I went outside during the vacation -- I was very ill and mostly stayed in to watch Harry Potter on television or listen to some podcasts. Or mope around drinking cranberry juice.

The other time I went outside was for an antique fair where I bought a floral pin. I would have bought a pocket watch for a necklace, but the only guy selling real ones (who also had amazing pins) had really high prices for everything. The only affordable one I found was hard to open once you had closed it and wasn't actually an antique of any sort. It wasn't even real.
My parents bought a really cute painting there of a farmhouse (it reminds me of some of the things we had in our third/fourth grade classroom).


(I post this in a fit of completely ignoring what happened with our musical today.
A will probably go into that... so I thought I'd post something happier.)

Why Aren't You in My Bed?

So this weekend I went to Camano Island with Tom, as y'all know. But do you know the back-story? I THINK NOT.

You may or may not have heard of Tom and I's "inappropriate sitting" on the couch at his house during movies. Tom got lectured about it, and thus he lectured me about it. Basically, his mother was upset because we were sitting a little too cuddily.

So when his mom and my mom met (in order to let us go to Camano together or whatever) they, as moms tend to do, exploded a little. By which I mean, they "figured out" that Tom and I are sexually intimate and that I was going to get pregnant and, as I have my bleeding thing, get an abortion and die. Or have the baby and die. Basically, Tom+J=death to J.

Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. That was the result of an afternoon coffee together.

So when Tom and I went to Camano we were put as far apart from each other as possible. I was in the attic and, yes, Tom was in the basement.

It was pretty funny. We were watching Lord of the Rings and his mom came in and told us to be responsible. It was cute. The entire "weekend" was cute, in fact :)

Although I was a little let down by the way we both had to be really well behaved. Falling asleep, I was kinda like hey, where the hell are you right now, Tom? But I guess I'm lucky he's respectful. Or unlucky.

Ah well.

Give Us Your Vote

Oh! Give us your vote,
give us your vote
if you know
what's good for you.
Tokyo Police Club, Your English is Good

Last year at school I entered a poetry contest. The winning poems all had to do with love and peace, as I recall, which I think is okay to write about - but they were also reminiscent of the fourth grade, so I thought they were a little undeserving of first, second, and third place.

Not that my poems were much better - looking back, I like what I wrote, but that is a lot different from being proud of it. Being proud of it means that I could spit it out, memorized from so much work on it, at any moment. That I could read it, myself, over and over and enjoy it every time instead of seeing every flaw.

I see lots of flaws in my work, lots of the time.

But I'm entering again this year, trying to reign in my generally aloof topics to something semi-universal (or at least capable of being universally appreciated). I'd really love if you guys would read some of my more recent things and tell me what you think? Either here or there or in an email. I know people have liked what I've read at open-mics, but the judges of this thing are school librarians, not Seattle teenagers.

There is a big difference. (sla.org.uk and needle+thread)

Plus the librarian told me that there is scholarship money involved, which had better stretch out of state, cos I'm in it to win!