I really feel bad that I haven't updated in over a month. I've just run out of words.

Today Decembear looked in the mailbox.

A bunch of us went to the play tonight for extra credit in ToK. I felt really bad for the kids since dr weigel, or "the fraoline," as will says, decided to change the play today. According to the cast there were too many sex and drug references. It was pretty good anyway. I was really impressed with Max, he's a really good actor. *shrug* Umm...what else..

Me and Amanda and some unmentioned junior guys are working setting up for the SATs. We worked for about 40 minutes today, but Mr Burow said he'd give us 3 hours total. It was funny...I wasn't sure that he recognized me, and I knew he'd forgotten my name, but then he told me to write the stuff on the boards in the room and said "You, because I know you and because I'm your favorite teacher..." Then I said "Yeah...best class I ever slept through." To which he responded "I can't tell you how little that means to me." A refreshing dose of sarcasm from Mr. Burow. He also questioned me when I said I love math. Just because I slept through the class doesn't mean I didn't like it. I got straight A's in that course and did all my homework. It was just so excruciatingly easy for me that I finished with like an hour and a half left in the class. If he wanted me to stay awake he should have given me more problems to do. Oh well. I don't really care. I just don't have anything else to write about.

We got a new car on...tuesday? wednesday? I don't remember. Some day this week. It's my favorite car ever. A Lexus RX300 (which is the small SUV for those of you who are illiterate in auto-speak). I'm mixed about it...it's a symbol of something that I'm not too enthused about, but it's a friggin sweet car. Even though my dad hardly ever lets me drive it...

Nothing else is really happening...we start mocks next week. Just english though, not that big of a deal. Then I have my ToK oral wednesday. I'm debating whether to do a modified version of what I did last year or a thing on Emmitt Till. I'm not exactly sure what her opinion is on repeat presentations. I mean, I wouldn't do exactly what I did last year, but pretty much the same thing... It's on the topic of kill vs no-kill animal shelters. It's a really good PoK and it's different, that's why I like it. But I'm afraid she'll be like you're just repeating yourself from last year.. Any opinions? I'm really on the fence about it.

What else....I dont know. I really have to start getting more CAS hours done.. I'm just so busy all the time. I think I'm gonna go tutor 8th graders at SRCS wednesdays after school for some hours. And I can work at the humane society some more. Amanda said she'd hook me up with like a heart-athon or something around march. I don't think I'm in terrible shape as far as these go. I'll just have to get a few done over christmas break.

Whatever. I'm sick of having nothing important to write about. For all the friggin time that I'm spending being busy, nothing is happening. All I'm doing now is school work. They keep telling me that it will be easier after mocks. I hope they're right.

For some odd reason, I was not really compelled to write after festival this year. I dont know why. Anywho, festival was great. It rained, just like last year. We did an AMAZING show, and earned straight superiors. It was an awesome way to cap off my career in the Atlantic High Marching War Eagle Band.

After festival, we had a group of about 15 of us go to Roadhouse (including Krystle!!! XD) It was tons of fun. A little crazy, but fun. There was a lady there making balloon animals/balloon hats, and a few of us got hats. Mine was, appropriately, green orange and white. It was just a really good time. Not too much else to say about it.

http://www.bandorders.com/view_event_photos.asp?EVENTID=5827&CAT=28795&CAT2=0

This week has been a little crazy.

Hmmm....I forget what I was going to write.

At practice thursday, senior girls got to go up in the stands and watch the show. Something I've been looking forward to for 3 years, I dunno about everyone else. I was unsure whether or not Crocco was going to let us do it, but I'm really glad she did. One thing that I really appreciate about her is that she understands how much the tradition means to a lot of us, and she finds a good balance between moving on and keeping tradition. Maybe I'm the only one who cares.

Thursday after practice, me, amalia, and amanda decided that it was up to us to get crowns for Friday. So we took off to Burger King on 441 and robbed them of all their crowns. For some reason, I thought a burger king would have more crowns than they did, but they gave us 14. Then we went to Target to try to get halloween costumes for me and amalia. There were no adult costumes there. Psh. So we decided to go to Party City to see if they had anything better. We took a small detour in the toy section. Before we went to party city, though, we went to rag shop and bought those little fuzzy pom poms for the crowns. So then we took off for party city, and I stole amanda. We got a little hung up trying to make a u-turn on 441 to get back to glades, so Amalia beat us there by a lot. When we were on glades though, she called my cell phone and said I FOUND ANOTHER BURGER KING! You guys go to BK and get more crowns, and I'll go to party city and hold the costumes. So me and amanda went to burger king and got 8 more crowns, then headed over to Party City. On the way there I tried to steal mattresses from this guy and explained to Amanda that I wanted to be a man pirate for halloween instead of a girl pirate. Mostly because I want to draw on a mustache and beard. So we got into party city and found amalia, and she was holding one costume. It was a man pirate! So I made sure she didn't want it, and then I grabbed it up before all the little kids stole it! It was missing the belt and "head sash," which were just 2 strips of red fabric. So I dont really care. We looked around for a bit, got Amalia a really sweet costume, and then went over to check out. When I was buying my costume, which was originally $12.99, (really cheap for a party city costume!) I asked the lady if it was cheaper since it was missing the belt and stuff. So she checked and it was $6.99!! Go me! So I bought it and left to take amanda home. Amalia had to go home to get her other costume since you can't return costumes, only exchange them.

I spent most of thursday night decorating my crown, rather than doing my homework, and it will probably be reflected in my grade from that ToK test. Oh well. So friday morning I went to school with 20 crowns. I left first hour with 5. We went into ToK, and everyone just started decorating either their crowns or themselves. Rae brought body paint and green and orange hair spray, and everyone was getting a little bit of school spirit. So we were all just kind of running around and getting all green and orange-y, and Ms Zap looked around and went "Ok, I guess this is what we're doing today. I'm not going to get you guys to do any work." And that's what we did all class. Ms zap took group pictures of us outside, and then we sent some people to the yearbook room to get someone to take our picture for the yearbook. It was great.

After school we had like 20 people go to McDonalds (ew), but it was fun. Afterwards, me and Kristen went to Party City to see what they had there (different party city) but they still didn't have pirate swords! Oh crap, and I forgot to look at walmart while I was there. Hmm....maybe they'll have one at CVS, they had costumes there. We'll see. Anywho, then we went back to ATL to meet the little people, I mean 8th graders, and get ready for the game. It was tons of fun, we scared all the kids. (*clap clap clap clap* Boocaaaa Boocaaaa Boocaaaa...) A lot of the kids, make that most of the kids, had serious attitude problems. I was like wtf, I wish I was going to be here next year so I could personally put you in your place. You're even lower than freshmen. But I didn't say that, because we were supposed to be nice. There was this one tamborine girl who was really annoying. She kept playing all the time, and I was like dude, don't play during cadences, but she just looked at me funny and kept playing. Anywho...when we were inside getting ready, vinh was yelling at the pit to get all the crap outside, so I was like one second vinh I'm coming! And he gave me this weird look and then said "Oh. Not you. Tonight's your senior night! You have to sit back and relax! Pit!! Half of you attend to Lauren's every need, and the other half get the stuff outside!" It was sooo funny. Then when we were outside in the inspection block and everyone was tuning, the pit kinda circled around me, and vinh told me to give everyone a pep talk. So I said "Guys, as you know, tonight is senior night. They are going to call my name. And when they do, I want to hear each and every one of you. I want you to be louder than the clarinets." And they were! Go pit! XD Senior night was so much fun. There were some, um, unfortunate moments, though. ... ;-; (parentheticals to Amanda for the face) All in all though, it was a great evening. Something we will remember forever.

After the game, a bunch of us went to Docs. It was so fun. I've really been advocating going to Doc's after senior night, just because it's a night so rich with tradition, that the only place fitting to go afterwards would be Docs. And it was. Good times.

Friday was the last game ever to be played at hilltopper stadium. The end of an era. And I'm proud to have been a part of it.

I dunno what's up...I was talking with Kristen about this on Friday, but like a lot of people are all the sudden getting all school spirit-y (myself definitely included). I was thinking back to 8th grade, where the longer you were at the school, the more you despised it. But now...it's not that I don't want to leave ATL, far from it, it's just that I want to enjoy it while I'm here. I thought a lot about it after Mr Lerner was talking about the new school. And like a lot of things are going to be different. No one will ever have the same high school experience we did. And honestly, much as I complain about the campus and about IB, as it sits, I don't think I would change a thing.

Get back to me about that at the beginning of May.

Tonight is Amalia's Birthday/Candy Robbing party! Yay! I'm going to be a man pirate! XD You gotta love trick or treating with a bunch of 18 year olds. I love regressing back to my early childhood. I said I think it was in Target, that I was regressing to when I was 6, and this lady gave me a really weird look. Amanda, you know. It was great.

Ok, really long entry. Glad I got all that written down. Over and out.

Thought for the day: Mr Logan is my hero.

Well, it's the third-ish week of school, and I'm pretty much in the groove. And when I say "the groove," I mean I honestly and truly resent my alarm clock each and every day. But school is not that bad this year. Calc was a HUGE disappointment, because I was really really looking forward to having Mr. Will, but it came down to either getting a really good calc instruction and no ib music instruction, or a decent calc instruction and the full ib music instruction. I'll get over not having Mr Will. And it gives me lots more time to play with my etchasketch pen. English seems ok.. a lot of work, but english usually is. French is French. We've doubled our books, but it doesnt appear to be all too difficult. I'm pretty sure I'm running for french club president. Wish me better luck than last year. Let's see...what other classes are there.. ToK hasnt changed. It's just there. Chem is really good. I like organic soo much better than inorganic. Although, get back to me about that in 5 weeks. History I REALLY like this year. I know a lot of the stuff we're talking about, and there isn't quite as much reading. Plus, the material is much less ...mandatory than AP. You only have to know certain things, so the pace is much more relaxed. Think think... I think that's all, right? Tok, French, English, Chem, Band, Calc, History. Yeah, that's all of them. I heard on the news that they're talking about switching starting times second semester. That's fine with me, I'll have a no class first hour, so I'd go in at 10. Yay me. I think that's about it. More later maybe. I have to do something for NHS then do my english. Peace out.

Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up
These are the best days of our lives

Well, that's it. Band camp is over forever. Oddly enough, it didnt hit me until yesterday that I will never do this again, and oddly, I think I shall miss it a bit. I know band camp is one of the more excruciating experiences of high school, but there is nothing else like it. There's nothing that can form bonds like band camp. When you learn, eat, sometimes sleep, and hang out with the same people more than your own family for a week, strong bonds usually form. If asked to name my closest friends, atleast 3/4 of them would be bandos. It's just how it is. A lot of ex-bandos came back this week. It kinda makes me sad, because I know that I will not stay in touch with many of them. I mean, I just dont have the time and energy to keep up with everyone when I do not see them everyday. It's part of what makes me want to go to uf. IB is so unique in that you meet amazing people and form incredible friendships. That's why I do it. Screw college credits, I could take AP classes at Olympic. But there is not another high school where you could meet people like the people at atlantic. And band just adds to it. No matter how many times you hear it in senior speeches, you have to know that we really are one giant family. I know I could go to a bando with just about anything and they would try to help me out. It's just how it is. Most of the people in band genuinely do care, and that is hard to come by. For all the hours and energy that I have put into band, it's worth it. And it's odd that I say that now, as I still have the wear and tear from band camp, but I don't think I've felt this way after any of the other band camps. I'm pretty optimistic for this year. Although, I did say that last year. But technically we don't have two band directors this year; Ms Crocco is the chorus teacher. So it looks...ok. Other than the fact that the six "Problem Children" (Me, Gabe, Anderson, Adam, Kristen H, and Amalia) are stuck in 6th hour symphonic band. I have a feeling that will work out too. And even if it doesnt, I'm in pretty high spirits about it. This year is stacking up to be my best yet. I dont know why. It's just...it's nice to be a senior. I really didn't think that it was going to be any different, but it really is. Senior priveleges are nice. I have a parking spot, and a good locker. We're having a senior dinner at Ms Crocco's house at the end of August. It's just...it's nice to feel important. We're recognized as the top of the school, and it's nice to feel on the top. I think that, much as I will be happy to move on to the next chapter in my life next year, I will be a little sad to leave ATL behind. And when I say ATL, I do not mean atlantic, I mean the whole thing. It makes sense in my head. It's not the classes or the school. It's all the memories, all the experiences. I'm getting all nostalgic and I don't know why. I guess I'm just bored and have nothing else to write. There will be a different journal on LJ, if you care to read it.

Wow.
I just got home from the best concert ever.

And no, it was not Warped tour. *rolls eyes*

Dave Matthews Band! XD I have been waiting for this concert since April, and it totally lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Our seats were awesome and the show was amazing. I'll do a play by play.

First was some opening act. I dont care who he was. He started about 7:15, and the concert was supposed to start at 8. The point is, as his last song, he brought Dave out and the two of them sang The Maker. That act finished about 7:45, and Dave, Carter, Leroi, Stefan, and Boyd took the stage at about 8:30, but damn was it worth the wait. They played 15 songs, including a 2 song encore, and it was about 2 and a half hours. I wish they were making this show a CD, because I would buy it in a heartbeat. They played almost all of my favorite songs, which is hard to do in just 2 and a half hours. I could recognize and identify almost all of the songs, but there were two or three that I couldn't get. So I will run through the playlist as they did it tonight. I'll put little smiley faces next to some of my favorites. Just cause I can.

-Too Much
-Satelite : )
-What Would You Say ^.^
-Seek Up XD
-
-
-When the World Ends
-Bartender =D
-Rhyme and Reason
-
-Ants Marching =D
-Cry Freedom
-Everyday
Now, I must mention that Everyday is not my favorite song, but this was the most awesome concert experience I have ever had. While Boyd was jamming out on his violin solo he started to play #36 right in the middle (Parentheticals to Tylerbob for the correction), and the entire amphitheater clapped along, and then proceeded to sing the "Honey, honey, come and dance with me" part. After Boyd's part when Dave came in and is supposed to, at that point, sing the part the audience was singing, he let us continue to sing his part, and kind of sang backup vocals to us. It was so cool. So after this song, they wrapped up their show with a "Thank you very very much. I hope you all had an enjoyable evening. (Trademark Dave inaudible sound)" So they left and were gone for their usual short while before they usually come out with a 2 song encore. In past concerts that I have seen/heard/been to though, the audience cheers, or sometimes chants, to get them to come back on. Instead of that, we started singing #36 again. For about 5 minutes, you could hear nothing but thousands of people clapping and singing "Honey, honey, come and dance with me." Writing about it just does not do it justice. It's like that scene in Almost Famous where the entire band starts singing Tiny Dancer on the bus. It was just such a cool moment. So about 20 minutes after having left, Dave and the band came back for their 2 song encore. I had been saying that I wanted Warehouse in the encore, but they started with One Sweet World. I figured at that point that they may not do Warehouse because they tend to do a fast song then a slow song and alternate like that. But sure enough, the last song of the night was Warehouse. And then in the middle of Warehouse when the band was jamming, Dave randomly started to sing "Louie Louie". It was awesome. What a great end for the show. Props to DMB. On our way out, I wanted to buy a t-shirt, and kinda felt bad because those lines can get long and I was holding everyone else up, but I went on the side of the line to look at the shirts so I could see which one I wanted before I got up there, and I kinda just moved over instead of going in line. It was mean, but it worked well, and I got out of there with a shirt in like 5 minutes. Go me. So then we drove to Leah's and I grabbed my car and came home, and here I am. I wanted to write down the highlights before I forgot them all. I'm probably going to regret this tomorrow at band camp, but I do not care.

Best concert ever.

Yesterday I got back from Pittsburgh. I had a really good time. Played a lot of Parcheesi and Texas Hold Em and Uno. Let's see....tons of shopping. We went garage sale-ing too. And it was actually kinda cold, which is odd for July, I guess. Sunday I took everyone to the Pirates (that's baseball for all you living in a sports cave) game, and PNC Park (where the Pirates play) is beautiful! And the Pirates won. It was a great time. And I had a Primanti Bros sandwich, which is apparently a Pittsburgh trademark. They put french fries in the sandwich. Later that day we went to a Fountains of Wayne concert at Hartwood Acres. They were alright, but their opening act sucked. We still had a really good time though. I spent a majority of the time walking around with Karen looking for her friend. I saw Marissa Burdett there. That was very strange. You guys have no idea what I'm talking about, but I don't care. She's 14 now...I didn't even recognize her. She doesnt really remember me, but I would not exactly expect her to. Tuesday night my Aunt Pam held a band parents meeting at their house. Mrs. Burdett was there because Justin is a trumpet player. She wanted to see me, so I made a short appearance in the living room and was introduced by my aunt before the rest of us went out for ice cream. Shortly after we got back, the meeting ended, and Mrs. Burdett came to talk to me a little. It's a weird feeling, hard to describe. It was extremely nice to talk to her again. I tried to find her and her husband at the concert, because I knew they were there, but there were hundreds of people there. It's just weird. Sometimes I feel like I have two lives, because everything in Pittsburgh is the same. No one moves. No one is forgotten. Nothing changes. It's like a time capsule from when I was four, except the children have grown. It's honestly sometimes painful to go back. I was very close to asking my aunt to drive me over to cashley court to see my old house, but I could not bring myself to do it. But it was nice to catch up with Mrs Burdett. She asked me what I was planning on doing after high school, and I told her I was still shooting for veterinary medicine and she was not surprised in the least. She just kinda went oh yes, that's you. That's always been you, since you were three years old. It was nice to have someone so familiar. That family is like the only people outside of my family who have known me for so long that I actually have talked to. It's cool. I still have not seen justin for like 10 years though; he was at Penn State this week. I'm also applying to Penn State I think. I was sort of on the fence about it, but I think I have decided. I only have 4 other schools that I'm applying to, and it will be nice to have one more acceptance letter. That sounds a lot worse than how I meant it, but you know pretty much if you can get into a school or not. I can probably get some money from them too. We'll have to see. My mom says Penn State is a lot like UF except they get a lot of snow. Mrs Burdett told me that Justin was not even considering it until he went up this week for like a computer thing. Now she says he loves it. We'll have to see how the cards play out, but it will atleast be good to keep my options open. Anyway...back to my trip. Saturday was the family reunion, and that was one of my favorite parts of my visit. Not many people came, but we all had a good time. I cannot say that I had ever really had a real conversation with my cousin (sort of) Paul, but he's a cool guy. He's just 8 years older than me, exactly...I found out last weekend that he and I share a birthday, so there has not been much over the years that we have had in common, but now I have grown up, and he has not. He, myself, and Karen went into the kitchen and had about an hour discussion mostly about Harry Potter, as well as spiderman and passion of the christ. It was nice to have a good discussion about Harry Potter, since not many of my friends have read it or are as big fans as I. And others who are....we just dont really talk about it that much. *shrug* But it was really a fun conversation. I'm writing this down now, so that I can get it recorded down as my own idea. I came up, during this conversation, that the reason that Petunia is such a bitch is that she was either rejected or expelled or something of the sort from Hogwarts. We were discussing the origin of the howler to petunia, I forget exactly what it said, it’s been a long time since I’ve read the book. But we sort of came to the consensus that the howler was from dumbledore. But then Paul brought up the point of petunia caring for and protecting harry. Why does she care? She does not seem to care that her sister and brother in law are dead. What connection does she have to harry that she did not share with lily? It’s an interesting query. So I guessed that she has some sort of bribe or something maybe? But I seriously think that she had her shot at magic and screwed it up somehow, which is why she was so infuriated and jealous at her parents’ pride when her sister got her letter. Or maybe she just comes from a magical family, which would explain why her parents even knew enough about hogwarts to be proud, and is a reject since she has no magical abilities? Who knows... Yeah. So anyway... I’m trying to think of other highlights of the trip. We watched a lot of movies. Bennie and Joon, Spiderman 2, Bowling for Columbine (sorry Gary!), Forest Gump, and I think that was it. We never got around to seeing Rounders. We spent a good deal of time watching family guy, though, which is just great. I think we watched When You Wish Upon a Weinstein like 12 times. Hilarious, but soooo politically incorrect. Let’s see....what else...I can’t really think of anything else to write about. It was just generally fun to hang out up there. Hopefully sometime soon they can come down, since they havent been down here since 1994. We’ll see.

I can’t believe that this summer is almost over. Like normally it’s the usual “oh, the summer was too short, I still dont want to go back to school, blah blah blah” but seriously, this was NOT two months!! I am like in denial here or something. I refuse to believe that band came is next week. That’s just rediculous. It’s a cocoustic travesty!! (dont ask) I have one more summer thing left, which is the Dave Matthews concert Saturday, which I am TOTALLY psyched for, but the next day I have to go to band camp. I mean seriously...what the hell. I am going through all the stages of back to school denial though. I ignored its impendingness at first, now I’m just pissed about it.

Oh, and while I am thinking about it, my mom greeted me at the airport with some interesting news. Palm Beach County has passed a new thingy for high schools. The first and third Wednesday of every month, we go in at 10:30. How bout dem apples..

The schedule came today in the mail. It's incorrect, again, because of band. Band, in four years, has never been right on the first draft of my schedule. I have changed my schedule atleast once, probably atleast twice every year. I know it was twice or more the last two years, but freshman year is kinda fuzzy. So anyway, here's the schedule, as it sits now.

Tok -- Zappolo
French IV -- Youngman
English IV -- Timberlake
Chemistry III -- Dalsass
Calculus -- Will
Band -- Lerner
History of the Americas -- Ierace

Honestly, I kinda like a lot of the schedule as it sits. I like having band sixth hour, even though it doesn't exist, because then I could just leave school straight from there since I'm gonna be parking in the band lot. But oh well. I guess it's not really that big. I want to try to move ToK to sixth or seventh hour so that when I have my no class second semester it can just go right into the afternoon without really affecting my schedule. I could have a no class in the morning, but I'd honestly rather leave at 1:00 every other day rather than get there at 8:30 every day. Dont ask me why. I know it's an hour more sleep every morning, but...yeah, I dunno, it'd be nice to leave early instead. So anyway, that's how it stacks up. I would be asking everyone how their schedules match up, but it doesnt really matter since this will not be the schedule I follow on the 11th. Eh, C'est la vie.

Will is still in Europe. He finished up his classes in Avignon, and is now just touring Europe. Today I think he is in Florence, but tomorrow he leaves for Milan. Then he’ll jump around between Italy, France, Spain, and Switzerland before coming home August 9. I know I’ll retract this 2 hours after he gets home, but I kind of can’t wait for him to get back. Our relationship has improved a lot since we dont see each other 9 months out of the year. I recommend to every brother/sister relationship to kick one of them out of the house. It works out rather nicely.

Ok, folks, that’s all for now. I’ll probably post sometime this weekend letting you know how the concert and band meeting go, and then it’s off to senior year. This year better go as fast as they tell me it does. I am so psyched to get out of here. I can’t wait till college decisions come in, which doesnt happen until like april, but still. And I also know for the most part where I will and wont get in, and I havent even started my applications yet. I still also have to finish up the school work. Oops. Oh well, just blame it on senioritis. This is an extremely long post, better end it now. Over and out.