I've never done that before. I feel stronger, suddenly.
And a little bit guilty.
But mostly stronger.
Senior year's about to start flying by. It really doesn't feel like it's been over a semester already, but these first four weeks back after Christmas break seem to have not happened at all. I can't figure out where the time has gone. And now, I have Science Olympiad and scholarship weekends and CPW and all kinds of crazy things to keep me more than busy until May.
And, this week, my last NAIMUN. How sad! My last technical IRC meeting (NAIMUN debriefing and officer election don't really count) was Saturday and, though I did get to chair, it was a bit underwhelming. I'm afraid we've left an unmotivated and inept legacy, particularly when compared to what we were thrown into our freshman year - Peter, Sarah Wilson, Elise. But what's done is done, and hopefully someone will whip them back into shape next year. I wish we could have done it, but we honestly were all spread too thin. If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that in fact I CANNOT do everything. I've always thought that, even when I take on way too much, I still make it and everything gets done spectacularly. Untrue. Things fall by the wayside - IRC, Science Olympiad, and Masquers - but I somehow never get called on it. No matter, I feel horrible about it anyway. I can possibly still save SciOly and Masquers, and I'm tutoring again, but IRC is just too far gone. Eh, it was a lesson I, and all of us, needed to learn. And my apologies to all those who suffered because of it.
Still, the International Criminal Court! SO excited, a little scared. My thorough knowledge of parliamentary procedure will not help me here - I've always before been able to retain a little bit of confidence because I understood the system. I don't understand this system, and Luther and NPR can't help me either. But that's okay, I've still got my power suit and my charm (and my modesty), and I'm totally psyched about this. PLUS, I get to see Christopher!! (my other favorite Christopher.)
And then there's other ways the time keeps flying by ... eight months, you say? Amazing. Never expected this, but it's wonderful.
I should get back to my books. They're lonely and crying out for me. And we can't have that.
"Seniors, you have one semester left. Freshmen ... you have seven."
So, I found this out yesterday and squealed for about an hour before calming down, and then I woke up this morning and started squealing again.
I AM A JEFFERSON SCHOLAR FINALIST!!
This means I survived the Interview Of Doom and now I'm on my way to National Selection Weekend!! It's the Wednesday before spring break to that Sunday, so while you guys are on planes to Italy and Greece, I'll be partying it up with Mr. Jefferson and his followers. I'm sorry, Michelangelo, Florence ain't got NOTHING on this. I realize that I likely won't actually end up being one of the lucky lucky 40, but just for coming this far I get $2k, AND I get three days out of school to go to UVa!! For FREE, so Mother can't tell me I'm just taking and taking and taking from this family.
LOVE IT.
Interview of Doom, for those audience members who enjoy cruel and unusual punishment, consisted of:
But I answered. And, thanks to political conversations I've had with everyone from Holly and K eiran to Warren, Grant, Kyle and Chris, I actually had intelligent things to say. And I survived! And they picked me! And actually, my odds that day were a lot worse than my odds will be in March. That's not to say that I'll be chosen in March, but it's 1 of 4 at National Selection Weekend, compared to 2 of 13 at Regional Competition.
Wow. Wow. I can't get over how awesome this is. Lydia told me that if I got chosen from the Regional competition, they'd call me, and if I didn't, they'd send me a letter. So, needless to say, I completely freaked out when I got home yesterday and there was a letter from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. Mother had to make me open it. And now the letter's sitting on top of the piano, with the big MIT acceptance folder, and the USC honors college postcard, and the Emory acceptance (oh! I forgot! I got into Emory and I'm a semifinalist for the Emory Scholars Program. ANOTHER week out of school, if I become a finalist!), and, uh, the letter from the City of Oak Ridge telling me that my library privileges have been revoked because of an outstanding $80 fine on a cd that I Did Not Check Out. My parents are just so proud of me! Steven's not even annoyed that the acceptance letters (and the condemnation letter) are covering up his school picture. He didn't like it anyways. And my grandparents won't ever know that they've been subjugated to Emory. Which is a good thing, because they hate Emory. Too liberal. Hehe.
So, yeah, I love Everything, except the fact that you have to be 18 to see an R-rated movie in a Regal movie theatre in East Tennessee. (Fuck you, Westtown Mall, I didn't want to give you money anyways.) Oh, and I love Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. That was awesome. And so very stupid, at the same time. I mean, clearly, if I had been expecting something artistic and critically brilliant, I would have been dramatically and painfully let down, but how could I not love:
At PrincetonAhh, the Ivy League. Anyways, Neil Patrick Harris was in it as himself and I MET HIM. He sings real pretty. And he's very pretty. I don't know why the hell he did this random movie, but it was awesome. Yeeeeah. So, combine all this with a 91 out of 93 on my bio semester exam and it being a weekend and Holly's birfday dinner and being able to wear my UVa sweatshirt again (I was boycotting it until I knew one way or another) and this shirt (but in pink) (yes, I forced Chris to go shopping last night. What?!?), and I think I have to say that this week went v. well.
Girl: Hey, have you seen a Korean guy?
Guy: Yeah, but only when I open my eyes.
"The universe tends to unfold as it should."
Oh, Roo. You're brilliant and dangerous and cuttingly funny, and you always bring a smile to my face and a slight warmth to my cold black heart. I am one of the lucky few who've ever seen your benevolent side, and it only makes me adore you all the more. I don't know what I'd do without you and our disfunctional Fambly. Happy 23rd, Wonderful. I love you.
"Happy Birthday, old woman. Get back in your shoe."
When she said "Take me home," and she did, she didn't mean for us to take her to where she lived before or to where she was born. Empty apartments in empty buildings; nothing left for her there. But she looked up at us with those pleading wrinkled old eyes, even then bluer than mine ever could be, and begged, take me home, take me home. Meaning, take me back to what I was. Take me back to who I was.
Somewhere in the wilderness we found salvation scratched into the earth like a message.
"Quite simply, the Colts are the It Boys of the NFL. They are NFL Gameday's flavor of the month. They are People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive," and the Colts' season video is expected to win a Golden Globe and an Oscar. The Indianapolis Star will win a Pulitzer for its Colts coverage and the "Tony Dungy Show" is up for a daytime Emmy. The Colts cheerleaders have their own calender, an MTV video, and a made-for-TV movie in the works."Hm. I think this is a game even I might be watching. Sexiest men alive, you say? And Peyton? You had me at This is the Super Bowl.
I don't think you're ready for this jelly.
AND I managed an A in English!! Life is good.
I'm SO excited about NAIMUN. Sarah's finally going - we've wanted to go together since the 10th grade. Nothing could be better than being let loose in DC with Sawah!! SO much more awesome than All-East, guys. That's right, I said it. Though I will be missing the Super Bowl, which I WOULD have watched, swear. I want the Colts to play ... I have surprisingly developed an incredible love and adoration for Peyton. Perhaps it was caused by learning that he goes on tour with Kenny Chesney, stands in the back with a cowboy hat pulled down, and strums a guitar he doesn't know how to play. That's just adorable. Reggie's got a signed UT jersey hanging in his office, and I FINALLY understand how insanely cool that is. But, of course, I get the ICC at NAIMUN, meaning that I do in fact have the best simulation there and that perhaps makes up for missing the Super Bowl ... but I better not miss any boobies. Hehe, last year, Ross's and Ashton's eyes bugged out like whoa (yes, Ben, I said it again! Try and stop me!) and for the entire second half of the game all they could say was, "We just saw Janet Jackson's boobie. FOR FREE!" and then they'd high-five each other, as though they did something to precipitate this. It was really the Free part that got them. So cute.
Hmm, what else is going on ... We got a new student, Dragos. He's really quiet but brilliant and when he talks it's funny and he's a real sweetheart. A girl who was in my class at TiP a couple of years ago goes to his old school and told me how much they all miss him - that must seriously suck to have to move in the middle of senior year. And he was adored like we adore Jing, too. He's in a couple of my classes and his sister, Iliana (sp? I'll never get it right) is too. Heh, I wonder what he thinks of the Luther. That man gets crazier every day. I love it.
Saw Closer on Friday. Um, did anyone else feel like no-one was any closer to anything at the end of that movie? Except perhaps, as Chris pointed out somewhat sarcastically, to hell. It was interesting and I liked it, and I enjoyed keeping track of the total time that had passed between each section, à la Yoakley assignments, except more fun. And to continue the string of drool-worthy boys, I saw In Good Company today. Which, I must say, was a serious let-down. It's truly not as good as it could have been, which I always find to be a much worse crime than simply being a bad movie all-round. Wasted potential ... The ending caught me off-guard though, just because for once a movie didn't go with the obvious and expected way. Usually the only fun is the journey because the end's all the same, but this one tried something new and that was cool.
Ohhh! Ohhh! I am now the proud owner of 4 bootleg recordings of Ben Folds concerts as well as three of his cds, a UVa mug with my name on it (says Ben smugly, "Now you HAVE to come here!"), an I Can't I'm Mormon t-shirt, a mirror that says I Love Me, a Presidential Inauguration 2005 shotglass ("If there is any night this year that you need to be drinking, this is it."), and a shirt that says "Without ME it's just AWESO", among other spectacular things. I Love K eiran And Ben. Ben and I did a late Christmas at Starbucks and completely covered the table and all surrounding areas with piles of presents and wrapping paper - he got an Economists Do It With Models shirt, Mono, and a "Without Me it's just AWESO" bumper sticker ... the scary part is that we did not discuss that slogan at any point before exchanging gifts. Hehe, I know him too well. Dating, fighting, revenge, forgiveness ... I'm telling you, it works!!
I could talk about my Jefferson interview but I really don't want to until I know results. Which, since one girl didn't show up on the interview day, should be a v. long time from now. I'm trying to distract myself with anything and everything else. My parents want to talk about it All The Time. It's now working out.
I've finally given in to Chris's UT obsession ... first the UT hat for Christmas and then yesterday I found out that Hardees is selling orange UT bracelets (like the yellow Livestrong and pink breast cancer and black Hot Topic and red American Eagle and I don't KNOW what they're going to do when they run out of colors! They can just all be cool like Tim McGraw and do patterns - red stitching on white.) and gave in and bought one. Supports some charity or another, I guess. Don't even curr. It's orange and it definitely says TENNESSEE and that's really all that's required. Apparently this is what they're referring to when they talk about compromise. It's not too bad, really.
And, um, I'd just like to say that when the Yoak referred to Cats as the defining rock opera of the 20th century, she was incredibly incorrect. I just can't let that stand. SO overrated. Kyle about had fits. Also, Idina fell through a trapdoor in her third-to-last performance of Wicked and broke and bruised some stuff, but she totally gets to go home to Taye Diggs so I can't work up TOO much sympathy. ... Okay, I lied, I love her. She's amazing. I wish I'd seen her play Elphaba. That concludes this entry's portion of Talking About Theatre, which I've found that I've nearly stopped doing at all ever because I simply don't talk to anyone, besides Kyle, who cares. Too bad, you all just had to read this. Broaden those horizons.
So, in conclusion, I rather like 2005. And, it's amazing how much things change in a year, innit? But, just this once, when I say For Good, I mean For Better.
"I can't say anything; usually I stall AND end up with underwear in my car."
