She Came from Planet Z

half sunny half rainy

Well, the ups and downs of our remaining two or three weeks of school continue.  I, for some reason, seem to be the only girl capable of producing a glistening layer of sweat on every surface of my body after P.E.  Well, this is after real football on real fields in real humidity.  Oh, the horrors!  Poor, poor us.

Everyone is grouchy at the end of the day.  Linnie comes up and bluntly says, "Why do you sweat SO MUCH?!  You look like a GUY!  And why do you look like that?  Your face is all weird!"  We find her bluntness a breath of fresh air.  Sometimes. 

I had to color this one today as I found it appropriate.  This is one of my main fixations at the end of the day, after waiting those extra minutes in the girl's locker room, waiting for the end-of-school bell to ring.  All of us, sweaty and desperately crowding around the mirrors trying to fix this and that.  I wonder, what does the mirror see?  Well... what we see, I guess.

I took the algebra HSA today.  It was my first really long test.  It was very easy, I am glad to report, but also very long.  We all looked, just as our teacher had predicted, like we had been run over by a train. 

Other strange moments of the day: the weather is just as wonky as us kids.  I looked outside and found it to be sunny and dry on one side, and pouring on the other.  That's just annoying. 

So good news and bad news ahead.  And of the present, I guess.  I can run precisely 3.68 miles!  BUT, finals are coming.  I am not getting worked up about them.  No I am not.  Just wait until next week...  BUT right after finals comes THE END OF THE YEAR!!!

I sold my soul to school

Guess what?  School sucks.  I know I'm not starting out happily.  But today, I wrote down "ZOE'S SOUL" on a sheet of notebook paper and gave it to O as a joke, because she believed you actually could place a soul on a sheet of paper. 

I'm not saying that giving my soul to someone would ruin a day, but I literally felt like Bart Simpson in that old episode where he sold his soul.  Crazed and anxious and evil and desperate all at the same time.  I just want to eat that notebook paper up like he did and feel that warm feeling of goodness as the paper settles in my stomach.

Also, to make matters worse, we played dodge ball in P.E. today.

Dodge ball.

Are they trying to KILL us?

P.E. is my 7th period, so I walked home with a sore chest (target spot for the mega-throwers) and low spirits with a Spanish presentation, exams, and a lost soul on the horizon.  (LOST SOUL -sob- !!!) 

Yes, I DO intend on eating more than my fair share of chocolate chips today. 

why sometimes it's just better to draw

Today was a significant day, because we had our first field trip since 6th grade.  We went to Gettysburg.  And this is my sketch of our tour guide.  This is why I bring a sketchbook instead of a camera, because I could not have photographed this.

warmer weather wardrobe water wednesday? no... it's friday

Well, I'm finally doing something good with my clothing catalog obsession. 

I quickly sketch some of the models on the pages, and leave the outfits blank.  Then, when I feel like coloring, I um... color!  It is amazingly fun and I am just as obsessed with it as I am with clothing catalogs right now.

I only draw girls... and that annoys me.  But then again, I always only draw girls.  I guess, in today's world, they're the only ones wearing pretty much any color or design. 

  Yeah, this one is a little crazy.  As you can see I am yearning for a modest two-piece swim suit (does not exist) 

Weather is warmer.  Much warmer.  Our P.E. flag football unit makes me want to write descriptive sentences of our 7th period:

We, in two teams, form lines.  We squint across at each other on the line of Scrimmage, forgetting the next step as the white light deepens the red of our sweaty foreheads.  When our eyes aren't glued to the coveted football, they hang low, soaking in every neon blade of grass as our tongues become ever more dry. 

my perspective, by me, about me, and probably for me

In our household, we're getting a lot of perspective on different ages and time periods throughout a person's life.  We hear all about grandparents, middle-aged friends, and young go-getters at dad's work and how they are finally reaching their "breaking point" in exhaustion.

And, as my twisted teenage mind rapidly absorbs these tidbits, I think-

I hate my life!  I hate being my age!  I am no go-getter in their 20's nor grandparent!  I get by!  In 8th grade!  And I hate it!

Each day at school has felt like stepping into a hurricane and standing there for ten solid minutes before getting to go back inside.

Instead of doing my homework today, I sat down and filled an entire sheet of notebook paper with tiny, perfect stars.  And then colored them.  And then ate my third bowl of cereal while reading the same clothing catalog for the third time.

I do yoga every wednesday.  And I like it.  I try to find more perspective by thinking about the little 5-year-old girl in our class who seems so focused, instead of on my confusing social life.

I should have drawn some cartoons.  I could have many of them right now, on all the freak-out moments I've had with mom or at school.  Note to self: walks are dangerous.  I open my big mouth every time I agree to go on one.

Me: mom, what's your opinion on dating?

Mom: oh, I think it's fine, I mean... (blah blah blah keeps talking... this is great, I'm happy it was so easy to ask that, OH NO she won't stop talking... )

and then, for some strange reason, it hits me.

I JUST REVEALED AN INCREDIBLY TENDER PART OF MY SOCIAL LIFE TO MOM!

Freak-out time! 

And so, this most often results in me sprinting away at full speed and staying away from the house for an hour or so under the shade of a tree trying to sort out my thoughts (poor me).

Now, for a short explanation, the above question was just one of those "I was just wondering" questions, in case you got any ideas.  I have to cover up my anxieties even on this here blog.

school-boggling

Today was a day of many emotions.  For all.  Because, well, there's this teacher, right?  And  he's really popular and cool, right?  And everyone loves him, right?  And then, he goes and gets arrested for having an innapropriate relationship with a minor.  A minor in high school, of course.  But

It's kind of

school-boggling.

People reacted the way their un-decided adolescent minds react.  Half blubbering, half laughing, crying crying crying all day long, utterly confused.  The event was a trauma. 

I didn't have the guy as a teacher.  So this is all I know.  But, to spend a day in school when everyone is completely confused in their state of being, you find yourself running to the hidden Valentines candy bag.

So this is for you, school, this half-eaten bag of chocolate hearts.  Eat up! 

cram in the fun

Pictures pictures pictures.  I love the rosy shinyness on that one girl's face.  Like being sweaty in the cold...

Girls in kind of horrible swim suits.  I was in it for the body types.  And faces.

Ma took me away from school right before lunch to satisfy the need to speak to a high school counselor, instead of the need for a power muffin*.

We discussed how my schedule would work out if I were to travel from art high school to regular high school during the school day.  See, I could just transfer to this half-an-hour-away art high school, but... it's high school, an experience that I am afraid of sorta-kinda-maybe, and at a school where I know no one.

So we decided my schedule and that I'll travel, blah de blah de blah... my life right now!

*a power muffin is what we lunch bunch call my mum's homemade muffins that contain so much stuff they have to give a person powers.  And are about three times the size of a normal muffin. 

aaahhhhh.....

Hello hello!  First off, let me start by saying -

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......

Hear that?  That is the joyful sound that means... exams are over!  Yaaay!!!  Yes, they ended as quickly as they came, just as the stress and studying and everything that came with them did.  I only know of my social studies (or history, for those of us who feel very special), algebra, and science grades.  B, A, B.  Not too shabby, eh?

And to celebrate...

I am finally using my "pillow curlers".  They sorta look like those little rags that they used back in the "olden days", which only makes me want to go out and get an old-fashioned powder puff and a big hat.  They're also really good to sleep in and easy to put in. 

This photo is actually from last night, but I forgot to take a picture of my springy hair at six o'clock in the morning, and now is is pleasantly wavy.  Oh well... there's always next time.

To celebrate the end of exams and the 2nd quarter, I intend on going off to the mall with my pals to spluge, then going to the thrift store to buy a pair of bland shoes to glitter up.

Ta ta!

Hello

Welcome, welcome exam time!  Yes, for the past couple weeks I have been attempting to study, but I think it's that really depressing novel I began to read at about midnight each night and couldn't put down that has prevented me from doing so.  Nonetheless, three down, two to go.  I swear, studying is an art that takes years to perfect.

Art girls!  Realistic fashionable/artsy/rugged/greasy art girls!  My last two-and-a-half hour exam block happened to be art class, so I got to know these people pretty well.

More about exams, why not?  And life in general?  I have felt more nervous than ever about exams this year.  But, now that we are in the heart of it all, nervousness is thankfully deceased.  I feel fresh and clean.

Rain-snow.  RAIN snow.  We're seriously having spring.  The pollen is flying, the flowers and sprouting, the children are running amok.  Today was the first cold day all year.  Foo.

update

Early this morning I skipped my first two classes to go to the interview.  For Einstein... art high school.  And guess what? 

I got in!!!  YAAAAAYYYY!

Okay, I received a verbal invition to come to Einstein.  Which basically means, if you want to come to this school, it's okay with us.  We're waiting for the paper work to finish up.

Meanwhile, middle school is proving more and more to me how great it will be to get out.  Gossip is flying madly, circulating through me, and then jotting around again.  I think I get asked if I like "like" random people three times a week, and same for everyone else.  Hey, all I did was give him gum.

Our school finally had an art show.  I've got this.

And this block print.  I also had a little clay house that I like to call the "martian out-house", and don't particularly feel like showing it.  I'm not big with clay.  I do feel like showing these, however:

Ha ha!  There were tons of them.  They crack me up.

And finally?  New York!

We focussed on the more subdued side of New York.  This is the high line.

And Chelsea market...