Today, my APES class and I were priviledged enough to get to wander around in the mucky-muck of North Georgia, surrounded by pond creatures, spiders, and apparently, being watched by bears. We found a mammoth tadpole named Skippy, and two salamanders to take back to the class to put in our ecocolumns. See how much fun field trips can be?
But the great thing was, no school. I love it. And tonight, Ashleigh and I will be showing up at Drew's Halloween party with our crazy costumes, and it shall be fun. Everyone is going to love our costumes. I mean, they're not all creative or something, considering we just picked them out last night, but even so. We rock.
Well I'm sleepy and I have a bunch to do before going over to Ashleigh's, so...that's all. Oh and if anyone was possibly wondering why I've been blogging so infrequently lately, it's because I'm living with Ash for the week. So I've been rousted out of my natural habitat, and blogging frequently is prohibited in that part of town.

"Rokken like Dokken 'til the party ends."

I'm sure you guys are sick of hearing "Butch Walker this" and "Butch Walker that," but frankly, I don't care. I feel like I should put up a picture from Saturday's show, since when I posted Saturday night I didn't have any to post, so I had to dip into a collection of older photos. So I leave you with THIS:

You shoulda been there.

What can I say. I'm weak. Comments are back, on a trial basis. There are several reasons for this, but comment if you want to; I might take them away again in a couple of weeks if I have the same problems with them that I had before.

*Not from tonight's show--from the 9/16 Birch Hill show in NJ.

"I'm always at your show...I'm on the very back row..."

Only substitute "back" with "front." Man. Man. Just when I thought Butch couldn't get any cooler, louder, or faster, he goes and finds a way. That man is a golden god.
We were standing up for six-and-a-half straight hours, and people were making out in our line of vision, and the opening bands sucked, but I don't want to talk about any of that. It's not important; it's not part of the experience. The experience was amazing. This was the most amazing Butch concert I've ever been to; this was the most amazing concert I've ever been to.
So we started out not too far from the front rail--six or seven people back, which to me, is impressive. We had to wait forever and a day or two for Butch to come on, but finally he did and it was all bells and whistles, but no pyro this time. The band came out and they played the mock-infomercial for "Rock Vocal Power" before the show, and they launched into "My Way" and everybody was having a jolly good time. I can't think of any of you who would like me to list out the entire setlist, so I'll just highlight the highlights.
The piano came out and Butch said something along the lines of, "I'm going to play a new song now, and I don't usually like to play new songs because nobody knows the words," and he started playing the opening chords of "Best Thing You'll Never Have," which happens to be my favorite song EVER MADE (I've heard a couple live recordings of it, is how I know it despite the fact that it's unreleased) and I knew every word and some girls around me were glaring at me because they didn't know the words, and it was amazing because that song is amazing. I swear, I was almost in tears again. I now officially understand those little girls who cry at N*Sync concerts.
When they were preparing to cover Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" like always, they pulled a fan out of the crowd (prearranged, I'm sure) and had him sing instead of Butch. He was so great; after the song, Butch faked walking offstage, and said, "I guess I just lost my job!" It amused me, but the guy (Jared something) was really awesome.
I touched Butch! He kept coming down right next to the crowd, and because about halfway through the show we shoved our way to a place extremely close to the front, I touched Butch! The first time he was to my left, near Jason, and I kind of poked his wrist, but then the second time he was down on my right, and he was reaching out his arm and everybody was grabbing on (because everybody wants a piece of Butch!) and I grabbed his pinky finger and wouldn't let go. Of course, it's not like he was just sitting there saying, "Let go of my pinky, you crazy bitch!" Everybody wouldn't let go. He had to pull pretty hard to get us off his hand. It was seriously one of the highlights of my year.
Something else, and I can officially die happy now: "...we want to bring out some friends!" And out from the wings come...you guessed it--Jayce and Slug!!! (For all of you who either don't know me very well at all, Jayce and Slug are the other ex-members of Marvelous 3, the best band ever made.) So Jayce and Slug get out there, and Toucher comes out, and Butch, Slug, Jayce, JJ, K-Dog, Monkeyboy, and Toucher all are performing "Every Monday" and I thought I was going to just die right there, because I really can't imagine anything else. It was a spiritual experience.
And then after the show, picks were thrown, and some landed in front of the rail where we couldn't reach, so a mean security guard got them and refused to give them to us, but proceeded to wave them out of our reach, because he's evil. So I waited a few minutes with some other fans, begging the guard (I didn't think to flash him, although if I had, he may have run screaming. But maybe he would have thrown the picks in the air in the horror of the situation, and I would have gotten a pick either way. Hmm. Next time.), but he wouldn't budge. But then some roadie popped out from the curtain with some papers to let some fans have, and I shoved some girl out of the way, apparently, and grabbed one, so I officially have the lyrics to "If" and "Take Tomorrow" that were taped to the stage so nobody would forget them. How cool is that? Better than a pick, I think.
I also bought a shirt and some buttons. Shirts and buttons are nice. I'm exhausted; at times during the show I thought I was going to collapse. I didn't faint this time! Score! So we went to Waffle House afterwards, and that was fun. And now Bethany and Laura are in my living room watching "Moulin Rouge," because Bethany's never seen it, and I'm sitting here blogging because I'm still on a high from the most amazing concert of all time, and Butch Walker rocks my world, and all that stuff. Any of yoo fine people who failed to attend this concert with me, catch the next one or you will regret it. Ask Jason, Laura, or Bethany. I de-Butch-virginized Laura! (Meaning, she'd never seen Butch before, but I fixed that.) An impressive feat. But I think I'll go watch me some "Moulin Rouge" now. I'm sleepy.
Oh, by the way, "Elephant Man" got first place in the One Act sub-region. We kind of kicked ass today. So we'll be at region next week at Milton, so wish us luck, or if you're Lindsey, come watch!

Man. So I saw "The Ring" tonight. Beth and I went, since everyone else I'm acquainted with saw it last weekend. I can see why you guys wouldn't stop discussing it all week long, despite my plaintive cries of, "I haven't seen it yet! Don't tell me the ending!" It was damn scary. So I don't remember at what part, but at some point probably half-way through the movie, my phone rings (thanks, Laura. Freak me out, why don't you.) Yeah, yeah, I know, I hate those people too. But I had just forgotten to turn it off or put it on silent at the beginning of the movie, so there was nothing I could do. It took me forever to find it in my tiny purse and turn it off. So then after the movie I'm all shaken up and Beth's egging me on because she likes to frighten me, so it seems. And I start to wonder if she and I are going to die next Friday at 7:37 pm. So I call Laura, but nobody answers. Hmm. Probably a fluke. So I call Sara and nobody answers. Hmm. Probably a coincidence. So I call Jason, but nobody answers. Hmm. ALL MY FRIENDS ARE PROBABLY FREAKING DEAD!!!! There were other people in my phone that saw it that I could have called to verify that my friends had, in fact, truly kicked the bucket, but for various and sundry reasons, I didn't want to. So I just resigned myself to being friendless, and wondered what we would do for the One Act competition tomorrow if a few of the cast members turned up missing.
But leave it to Jason to save the day, with his phone call while Beth and I hunted Barnes & Noble for Wisdom Of The Ages. Yeah, the frantically whispered, "...seven days..." definitely helped calm me down. But yeah, I called him back, and you know, believe it or not, he's not dead. Neither is Laura, apparently, as she left a message on my home machine. Now Sara, I'm not sure about. Sara? Are you still with us?
I saw an old friend at Starbucks after the movie. She used to be blonde and I don't remember her being a smoker when I knew her, nor do I remember her being one of those girls that only hangs out with boys and dresses kind of slutty. But now she's a brunette with a nicotine addiction, lots of male friends, and very few clothes, despite the cool weather. She still seems nice, but it was that sort of, "Hey...how've you been...good? Good...yeah...mmm. So...haha...yeah," conversations that just seems to peter out and end with a little relief. It's hard to keep one of those conversations going.
You know, it's hard to make a good mix. I was working on one before the movie this afternoon, and it's slow going. All of you who have good mixes from me should appreciate them. It's not an easy task to get the right songs in the right order. You might think it would be. Randomly pick a few songs, slap them together in a playlist, hit "Create." But you would be wrong. Take my word for it if you don't know.
I've been alerted that my last few blogs have made me sound "sad." So I won't sound sad anymore, because they weren't really meant to be sad. I'm sorry if they were sad! I haven't been sad! A little irritable, perhaps, but sad? Nah. I'll work it out.

Don't you hate it when you meet someone, and they seem like such a sweet, nice person, and then you get to know them and they turn out to be not-so-nice? It's just really beginning to piss me off. And by the way, it's not just one person, and it's not anyone who reads this blog.
So tonight was the last real performance of 'Elephant Man.' Can't say I'm too broken up about it. We went to Steak & Shake afterwards, though, and it was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. But anyway, we have that whole all-day rehearsal thing tomorrow, and people I want to hang out with are cut from the one act, while I (who really wants to be cut from the one act) am still in it, and those people need to come hang out with me in the dressing room anyway, since I'll just be sitting back there by myself all day. I'm going to try to go to fourth period, partly because I don't want to have to recite a poem, and partly because I just don't want to go to this rehearsal at all.
Man, I'm so depressing nowadays. I suck. Please, come up to me and be like, "Amy, shut the hell up, nobody cares about your stupid inane problems, now leave before I shove it up your ass," because I'm sick of being such a whiny, complaining bitch. Quick, stop me, before I become all-powerful and take over the world. Quick!

Killing time before call for 'Elephant Man'.
You know, I think it's almost as much fun telling people about Ashleigh's pet pig as it would be to own a pet pig myself. Pet pigs are fun.
Does anybody else think that some people go a little bit overboard on the whole Halloween decorations thing? I don't mean all those gaudy decorations, because those I like. The tackier the better, I say. But my next-door-neighbor has a skeleton hanging from the balcony above their front door with a noose tied around its neck, and it looks slightly unsettling. Now I love Halloween as much as the next person (well, maybe not as much if the next person happens to be Drew, from what I hear), but I think maybe when you start murdering poor, innocent skeletons, things have gotten out of hand. And I swear, if I see one more giant decorative spider, I'm going to renounce Halloween and, I don't know, make up a new holiday where there aren't any spiders. Eeeew...shudder.
So who else wants to join the Super Soaker Appreciation Honor Society? So far we've only got three members. C'mon! Oh wait...were we not being serious when we started that club? ...Oh. Sorry.
A few quotes to celebrate the occasion of a cold-weather day:
"Oh, the weather outside is frightful." "'Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart." "It's freaking freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth."
Well I think I'll go see if I can nap some before I have to be back at school. Adios.

Despite the fact that I think tonight's "Elephant Man" went exceptionally well, I still get the vibe that nobody much likes it. I think the acting is actually very good, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not a very interesting play. I still am not sure why Poulos chose it, for one thing, and also why he convinced himself that it would be the "pinnacle of his career." But, you know, none of my business I suppose.
I can just say that although I definitely hate the play a whole lot less, I will be very glad when it's over. I'll have time to sleep again. I can actually do homework again. I won't have to tape "Gilmore Girls" every week. Speaking of which, I think I'll go watch tonight's taped episode.

Well, I've got some spare time. That thing Ash did on her blog, and Sarah copied, well I'm going to copy it too. Here's a breakdown of what I think about on a daily basis:

Guys--30%
Hatred for school/schoolwork--40%
Hatred for drama--4%
Self-pity--2%
Entertainment (TV, movies, etc.)--1%
Blogging--1%
Anger at parents--2%
Funny things (when I'm laughing)--20%

So tonight was fun. I've decided that my new favorite pastime is hanging out with people I don't usually hang out with. I never did it much before, but all this year I've found myself in situations with people that are friends but that I've never really hung out with before, and it's so great. Tonight was a night like that. A few more fun nights and I may never go back to my normal friends. Look out, guys. You should be pretty broken up about that.
So we lost our Homecoming game. That should be illegal. I honestly believe that the school whose Homecoming it is should always win. It should be one of those great, classic traditions that every high school in America adheres to but nobody really knows why. That would be cool. But I guess that just shows what my idea of "cool" can be.
Why is it that every Game Day right after school I have a burning desire to write an enflamed, angry blog about my friends and spirit? Ashleigh understands my pain. Well the game tonight was fun. All of you who missed it (read: all of you) missed out, even if we did leave during the fourth quarter.
Strangely enough, after tonight, my strong desire to play bass guitar is returning. Wonder why that is.

This is my Homecoming dress, in case anyone is interested. You can't really notice anything from this picture, but hey, what can I say, I like to scan.


I think posting pictures should become a common occurrence in our blogs. I like to post pictures. We should all do it more often. Maybe I'll get into a habit of The Picture Of The Week or something like that. That could be cool.

So Laura and I went Homecoming shopping today. Man, I hate to shop. I mean, I like it when I have a lot of money, and I can buy DVDs and books and music. But when I have to buy dresses and shoes (oh, shoes are the worst), it's just all icky. Also, I don't really like North Point Mall. I think I need a new mall. Maybe I'll start going primarily to Perimeter, which is quieter and has couches, or even Mall Of Georgia, which has Hollister and has couches but is far away. Our mall has no couches.
There are some days when you just have to say screw it; you're not going to do your homework, you're not going to work on college applications, you're not going to clean or do any sort of chore-like thing. Today is one of those days. My parents didn't make me go to church this morning because of how exhausted I've been the past week. They think I'm sick. I hope I'm sick. So last night I rented 'Death To Smoochy' but I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to watch it so don't ask me how it was. I was in bed by eleven. I got ten and a half hours of Z's last night and yet still I'm tired.
The SAT II's were yesterday. Gee, nothing like a series of difficult tests to remind me of how dumb I am. The writing test, I think I did well on. The math test was hard, as I suck at math, but that was to be expected. But the final, crushing blow: the Literature test was hard. Not just hard, hard. Bethany, do you agree? I mean, if you expect the Literature SAT II to be like the Verbal part of the SAT I, then you're really wrong. It's a bunch of poems that you have to interpret and answer neat little multiple choice questions about. Did I mention I suck at interpreting poems? Oh, there were passages too, which are easier to interpret, but the makers of the SAT II must be poetry freaks. Does anyone know what the word "enisled" means? Because it was on there. We think he made it up. But anyway, about forty questions in to the Literature test (there were sixty one total on that one), I began to wonder what kind of score I could get if I just quit there and left the remaining twenty questions blank. The test was pretty painful.
But now it's over. One less thing to be concerned about.
I decided that on Tuesday, I'm going to go to Lit, then lunch, then home so I can try and write as many college essays as possible. I'm shooting for at least three, but expecting to get two done, tops. I really hate writing essays about things like "intercultural experiences" and "what I'll be like in twenty years," but hey, what can you do.
Did you ever notice that we never miss first period? Any assemblies we have, anything like that, are never, ever scheduled during first period. They usually schedule them during second or third. Tomorrow, for the drug assembly, they're even going out of their way to reschedule things so that we don't miss first period. You know, I don't really like first period. APES sucks. It was tolerable until she moved our seats, but now it's just a really hard class that I can barely stay awake during. (Of course, I can barely stay awake during any class these days. I feel like Ashleigh, who apparently can fall alseep anywhere.) So I think that they should start to make us miss first period. Poor second period probably feels unloved, because we never go to it because any assembly we might have falls between 9:30ish and 10:30ish. C'mon, administration, make second period feel better!
I really want to go to Athens again to visit Lindsey. Lindsey, when can we come?! Alpharetta is giving me hives; I need to escape.
That's all. I'm making pizza, and it's almost done.

People Who Like David Lynch Movies Are Idiots. Try it out. Not all of you will appreciate it. I know I did.

I just got home from the talent show, I'm seething at my parents, plus my computer just crashed for the fortieth time today in the middle of a good blog I had going, so I'm going to try and write something halfway decent in here without my deep hatred for my parents and my computer showing through.
The talent show was about the exact same as it is every other year. A bunch of singers, a few bands, a few Indian dancers, an Irish dancer, a whole lot of multi-culture. I don't mean to sound racist, but in a school that's 99% plain white, it's a wonder that they can find that many non-white kids who have talent. It's not racist, I think, it's just realistic.
One thing I noticed is that kids will clap to anything with any sort of beat, no matter what it is. I discovered this for the first time at camp a few years ago, when the audience started to clap during some kid's performance of 'Canon In D' on the piano. But I figured, well, camp audiences are notoriously bad. But then tonight, when kids started clapping to the beat of Kris Johnson's rendition of 'Hungarian [Rhapsody? Sonata? One of those.],' I guessed that it's just universal. Maybe it's human nature. Maybe it's because we all have absolutely no rhythm whatsoever, so whenever we can find some someplace, we latch onto it and won't let go until the clapping dies out.
The rest of the show was pretty good. The singers mostly sounded the same to me. Broken Strings was really awesome. The Swahili Boys were great, but it was also fun to laugh and point at Ashleigh's brother, who played the cow bell. I was tired of watching people dance by the middle of the first dance number. I would drift off into daydreams during all the piano. Not that it was bad (it wasn't at all), but because I can't focus on something like that for that long. Josh Wood was hilarious; I'm so glad he did well. I don't know if anybody else thought he was funny, but at least I did. I'm really surprised that the Indian dancers didn't win anything, because they win something every single year. Well, I'm glad the people who won, won. For the most part--I thought Chester should have won over Alastair's band. As for C4...well, didn't they used to play good music? I mean, they were good, I guess, but I seem to remember them playing punky-rocky type music, and now, slap a backwards red cap on John Norris' head and you've got a teenage Limp Bizkit. Or something like that. They basically played stuff like everything else that's contaminating the radio these days. But at least they played it well.
That's all, because my computer will probably crash again before I can get this posted and then steam might start coming out of my ears and my face might turn cartoon red and my fists might ball and the computer might be in a messy heap on the ground outside, with me standing on the deck with a maniacal grin on my face. Yeah, so...that's all.

Funny. Mean, but funny.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Self, I would really love to see a detailed diagram of Butch Walker's many tattoos, complete with photos and descriptions written by the man himself. But alas, it is not to be"? Well, think no longer! Butch Walker Tatts 101. It's an educational experience, and an absolute must for those of you who are accompanying me to the concert on the 26th.

It feels like such a Sunday. Like it's a day in limbo. Nothing gets done, nothing moves forward, but nothing moves backwards either. It's just this day that really has no purpose except to hold the place between Saturday (which moves forward) and Monday (which moves backwards). Sundays could disappear off the calender and I'm not sure anybody would notice.
I've been sitting here for the past half-hour or so listening to Dashboard Confessional and filling out my Virginia application. I'm not so much afraid that I won't get into any college because my grades or SATs aren't good enough as I am afraid that no college will accept me because I won't submit the applications correctly. It seems so complicated and I just know that I'm going to send something in two separate envelopes instead of all together and they'll be like, "she can't even follow the application directions! What good would she be at our school?" and I won't get in anywhere because I don't follow instructions well.
Has anyone else suddenly developed an irrational fear of not even getting into UGA?
I think I'm going to go read now. I should read Cat's Cradle but I'll probably end up reading Catcher In The Rye for the tenth time. It seems like a Catcher day to me. I hope that doesn't mean that, because this day is useless and idle, Catcher is useless and idle, too. I guess I'll go check.

Well, since no one considers me important enough to include in their "future predictions" on their blogs, I'll just do it myself. I, in twenty five or forty years, will be...I don't know, probably sitting on my ass in some dead-end job that I hate, daydreaming about what my life could have been. What a bleak forcast.

Tonight was fun. Well...maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. Tonight definitely didn't suck. I don't know, it seemed like nobody really wanted to be there, and since I tend to think it's my responsibility to make sure everyone has fun, and tend to blame myself when people don't, I think it wasn't really a successful evening. Cold Stone, then the boys played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit while the girls pretended to be on their teams, then 'Just Shoot Me' and 'Friends' before everyone bowed out early. Let's face it, the group of last spring is dead. Dead and buried. Let's lament and move on.
I'm glad I got to see Lindsey, who better come out with us tomorrow night. Lindsey, studying is not as important as hanging out with us! You never get to see us; you can study any old time. C'mon...
I'm going to go. I don't feel much like expressing my thoughts tonight.

From Dictionary.com: One more source proves me right. Sorry, Nick. Hey, maybe you can find some way to prove that Dictionary.com is British or French or Italian or Australian or something.

I just found out from a nun who does the weather that "provaca-whore-itively" is a word. Now that's quality comedy.
My dad got a thick envelope in the mail today marked "Free Gift Enclosed!" from the NRA. Remind me again how I'm related to these people.
That's all I've got for today. Who can blame me, I'm sleepy.

Click me! You know you want to! Don't question it, you wouldn't understand, anyway.

So Daniel did his cat impression for me today in study hall. Only one thing I have to say: "There's nothing like the deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons. It was that great." --The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
So that brightened my otherwise dreadfully dull day. This year, every day seems longer than the last. After every day I think that no day could ever last as long as that one did, only to be proven wrong the next day. It kind of sucks.
When I discover for the first time that I really love a certain song, I'll play it over and over and over again until I'm sick of it, only listening to that one song for hours, days, weeks even. Do any of you do that? Isn't it weird when you find out that something you've done or said all your life is completely strange and abnormal to someone else? Like, that time on 'Friends', when Phoebe was going through a packing checklist and Monica said "check" after every item, and Phoebe thought that was odd. It's like that.
I'm really glad we're reading Cat's Cradle next in Lit. I really love Vonnegut, even if he is (haha) dead. As a doornail, was it? Yes, I believe it was. So this should be interesting. Not that Hamlet wasn't, but...it'll be a nice, refreshing change to go from Shakespeare to satire. And I hear that Wade's classes are reading it next as well. Interesting. We should do big group activities or something. Or at least study for the test together. I don't know.
So plans for Senior Skip Day were tentatively cemented in the car on the way back from Publix during sixth period today (my oh so subtle way of slipping in my 6th period excursion). If you think you're coming with us, ask me about them and I'll tell you where we might go. They were mostly Jason's ideas so far, so we'll discuss.
Juniors, when are PSATs? Nobody will tell me. Find out! I'll give you the honor of a job well done.