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"Everybody knows
It hurts to grow up
And everybody does
It's so weird to be back here
Let me tell you what
The years go on and
We're still fighting it, we're still fighting it
And you're so much like me
I'm sorry." --Ben Folds

I can't decide if it's weird because my mom reorganized my room, or if it's weird because I'm here and everyone else isn't, or if it's just because I'm looking at this town and this house with the eyes of a college student, which I've never done before, but it's weird. It feels like there's something hanging in the air here, and I can't figure out what it is. So while I was sort of excited to be coming home when I woke up this morning, I now find myself anxious to get back to Athens and back to normal.

"Exercise makes endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't kill their husbands. They just don't."

Me and Michelle are going to be badmitton champions of the universe. You just watch us. We went down to Ramsey tonight, even though I had a lot of homework to do (yuck), intending to play some badmitton. But the badmitton courts were packed. Who plays badmitton? Nobody, or so we thought. Turns out there are tons of badmittoners out there, and some of them are pretty hardcore. So we decided to go play on some of the machines and then come back in a half hour. We biked on the biking machine for twenty minutes, which was pretty much more than my out-of-shape self could handle. But then we decided to see what Ashleigh's always whining about, so we tried the erg machine. Eh. It was dull.
And then, finally, a badmitton court opened up, so we played badmitton hardcore. I decided that the birdie shouldn't be called a birdie but a badmitton or a badmittonball, because a baseball is a baseball and a basketball is a basketball and a football is a football but a badmitton is a birdie. Not correct. So it's changed officially now. Deal with it.
And yay for the air conditioning being back! It actually came back only a few hours after it went out, but eh well.

The Vent, Part II

The Brumby air conditioner broke earlier tonight and we are mi-hi-hiserable! Have any of you ever gone without air conditioning on an August night in Athens, Georgia? Well don't. You'll be on the verge of slitting your wrists after fifteen minutes of it. An example of just how hot it is in these dorm rooms? I had a bag of Hershey's Milk Chocolate Nuggets on top of my dresser. They are melted. I swear it, this place is cursed.

The Vent

There's one thing that every girl on the ninth floor of Brumby can agree on, one thing that draws us all together: the one phrase that we like to hear the least when getting on the elevator: "Can one of ya'll hit "2" for me, please?"
This is a phrase that I never want to hear again. I don't even understand why the elevator even goes to the second floor. It shouldn't. It should just skip right from the third to the first. No, wait--let's eliminate the third, as well. And you know, while we're at it, let's get rid of the stops on the fourth, fifth, and even sixth. You guys can walk it. While it's a lovely and fun bonding experience to be crammed into a hot elevator that stops--on--every--single--floor, it's one I could live without for the rest of my days. So let's make a deal from now on, shall we? Nobody on the second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth floor uses the elevator ever again. Sounds brilliant, no?
On an unrelated note, I sticky-tacked a whole bunch of photographs to the side of my loft, and one of them is the infamous Daniel Glenn Cat Picture, which my roommate described as one of the scariest sights she had ever seen. Indeed.

Recently

Things get pretty busy here, and yet there's surprisingly not much to do. I suppose that's enough to explain the serious lack of entries on my part. You understand.
So for lack of other things to say, here's a quick run-down of the last few days here in sunny Athens, GA.

I'm in love with two guys in my Astronomy class. Unfortunately, we only had class once this week, because the professor was in Puerto Rico (I know, I know--what?).

I have a conveniently long break every day that just happens to coincide with episodes of "Dawson's Creek" on TBS. Couldn't be more convenient if I'd done it that way on purpose.

My English class makes me feel really dumb. But maybe it's just because I really suck at Greek tragedy.

Thursday night: TEP party. (TEP is one of the Jewish frats.) The rumors are true: the TEP parties may not be incredibly lame, but that house is incredibly dirty. Like, literally. Dirt everywhere. Yuck.

Ashleigh and Catherine came to visit us! We ate at Gumby's, then got ice cream at Cold Stone, which was quite tasty. Later, after hanging out in David Maddox's "love palace" for a bit, we went to the AEPi party (AEPi is the other Jewish frat), where fun was had despite the heat, Annette turned out to be a really funny drunk, and Marla (Brynnlee's roommate) got us lost on the way home driving my car, although it wasn't her fault, because Brynnlee gives bad directions.

Saw Bend It Like Beckham with the roommate, because it's one of her favorite movies. I thought it was cute. The accents were certainly nice to listen to.

I'm currently sitting in my room alone, eating Pokey Stix and watching "Friends," because Jessica is out with her sorority and I didn't want to go to the Dave Matthews Cover Band show downtown. But you know, Pokey Stix and "Friends" doesn't seem like such a bad way to spend an evening to me.

And that just about brings us up to date. You know, this is lame. I'll try and write something good later, but right now it just doesn't matter like it used to.

Maybe We Should Just Stop Using Computers Entirely

Hey guys, big VIRUS getting spread all over the place that I know for a fact a few of you are infected with, because I've gotten virus-emails from a few of you. I'm getting really, really, really sick of having 20-25 infected emails in my mailbox every time I open it, so please, please, please use this tool to find out if your computer is infected and to, um, uninfect it. Here are instructions on how to use said tool if you need them.
If any of you guys have been getting emails of about 100K from mostly unknown addresses but some real ones with subject lines like "Re: Your details" or "Re: Approved" or "Re: That Movie" or "Re: Wicked screensaver!", just for a few examples, then that's the worm. I'm really sick of it! Fix it, please.

Boys, Boys, Boys

It's lovely here; it really is. But there's a problem--we at UGA are suffering from a severe drought of boys. I mean, sure, there are plenty of nice looking guys just walking around campus, minding their own business, but none of them travel in my circles, which is where they are the most needed. Let's start with my living arrangements. Of course there are no boys in Brumby; it's an all girls' dorm. I don't expect boys to be sneaking in left and right (well, there are boys sneaking in left and right--they just mostly don't stop by my room). But then there are classes. I had hoped that I could at least meet some guys in my classes, but apparently not.
First I had English, which was a good class, except there are ten girls and five boys. (And I'm distraught because our class, unlike other sections, doesn't read any novels all semester.) Of the five, only two of them were moderately attractive (not that that's the only characteristic I look for, but when you can't really chat with someone, it's hard to notice anything aside from looks). Next was Italian. The professor seems cool, but other than that the class seems to be lacking in a few key ways. One is the number of guys (very few). Then I had my Honors seminar, which seemed about the same, boy-wise--four boys to ten girls. One of the boys, though--very cute, I might add, with unbelievably pretty eyes--was from Fort Valley, Georgia, where the One Act was. I didn't think anybody actually lived in Fort Valley, Georgia.
After the seminar, I talked to another of the boys from said seminar for a good half-hour, because the bus was running late. I think it was my allotted one (1) conversation with a member of the male species per week--and I think he may have been gay. My luck. He seemed nice, though--perhaps I've made a new friend.
In other, non-boy related news, the Russell Hall bus route is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. It goes to almost all my classes! Yay for learning how to work the buses!

The First Day Of School

Good luck on the first day of classes, everyone!

An Addition To The Family

Roommate!Jessica and I just bought a pet fish! We found a pet store in Athens, and along with her friend Karen we drove over and picked out a red betta fish, and bought all the accessories one requires to be a successful fish owner. Let me tell you, fish aren't nearly as low-maintenence as they might have you believe. So then (after a short stop at Chik Fil A for a late dinner, because the dining hall schedule is a bitch) we trooped back to the dorms, loaded with the fish in a plastic baggie, a plastic bowl, aquarium rocks, fish flakes, tap water conditioner, and instructions from the pet store worker, who seemed rather shifty and didn't appear to know much about fish (US: "Can we just put this water in the bowl with the fish?" HIM: "No, you can't. Well, wait a second. You know what, why not?"). After following all his instructions and looking up a few things on Ask Jeeves, we were set. Now our pretty little red betta fish is swimming happily in his bowl on our bookshelf. We named him Puck, partly after the Real World cast member and partly after the A Midsummer Night's Dream character. I actually took a picture of him to post on here (probably risking sending him to an early grave due to shock from the flash), but my camera is giving me trouble and won't let me transfer photos to my computer, so it'll have to wait. Just take my word for it--our little Puck's a cutie.

Edited to add: I filled in the last of the answers on The Song Lyric Game a few posts down, if you're interested.

Greetings From The 9th Floor Of Whores!

Guys, I'm in Athens! This is so exciting. I told you all I would be fine once I got here. I'm pretty much all settled; my parents are gone, my dorm room is set up. Things are good! All of you who're still in Alpharetta, email me or IM me and we'll chat. Anybody who's already here in Athens, call my cell and we'll get together and do something before classes start!

SLEEP TIGHT, YA MORONS!

Tonight was a night of lasts. Last Trivia (in which we got second place--respectable, but not quite up to par). Last get-together of our little summer group. Last let's-watch-a-chick-flick-and-pig-out-on-ice-cream night. Last goodbyes. It was a good night. It's been a good day. It's been a good summer. In the morning I'll be gone, and I'm going to miss everyone. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone at Pennington's house; it was hard driving in my car listening to the goodbye CD that I made; it was hard saying goodbye to Jason at his house at 12:30 in the morning. It's hard sitting on my computer knowing that this is my last night in town. It'll be hard lying in my bed tonight, waiting for sleep to come, knowing that I won't be sleeping there tomorrow night. It'll be hard loading up the car in the morning. It'll be hard making the hour-and-forty-five-minute drive to Athens tomorrow by myself. It'll be hard dealing with the stress of moving in only to be left alone in a place where I know very few people. It'll be hard getting used to not living in Alpharetta. It'll be hard keeping in touch with everyone that I'd like to stay in touch with. It'll be hard adjusting from high school to college. It's going to be hard.
But I think I'm up for the challenge.

"Keep my light in your eyes; say goodnight, not goodbye." --Beth Nielsen Chapman, "Say Goodnight"

The Alma Mater

Ashleigh, Michelle, and I went to visit teachers today, and we practically had to sneak in the school. It was crazy, like a reversal of all the times we'd had to sneak out to go to lunch or something. Newman told us we weren't allowed to visit teachers, and to go home, so we had to pretend to walk back to our cars and then make a run for the building the minute his golf cart was out of sight. It worked fairly well, but led us even more to the realization that Milton High School is a minimum security prison.
We saw Mr. Jones and Mrs. Angel, Mrs. Burrell, Mrs. Spokes. Mr. Wade and Mrs. Hammack were missing for a good portion of the time we were there, but we ended up talking to them, as they strangely reappeared. We went to Friedman's during his fourth period, which Laura and Sara are in. When I told him I was planning to go to law school after college, he promised me he'd lend me that enormous, shapeless, circus-tent-like pink dress so I could really leave an impression on the jury.
It was so strange being there, because everyone seemed so young and so small, and we seemed so old, and everything seemed so familiar. It was a little sad, but I think necessary. The visit also made me realize that I had some really, really great teachers in high school. I don't know.
Tonight'll be a fun Last Night, I think. And then tomorrow morning, we're gone. That's it.

Going Away To College

Fuck. I had no, no, no idea it was so soon.
Tomorrow is my last day.
So much to do!

The Song Lyrics Game: End Of The Summer Edition

Yes. Again.

1. "A little voice inside my head said, 'Don't look back. You can never look back.'"
--Don Henley, "The Boys Of Summer"

2. "As the kings of boredom, we ruled as we knew how, or at least as long as our curfews would allow."
--Josh Joplin Group, "Dutch Wonderland"

3. "And tonight will go on forever while we walk around this town like we own the streets, and stay awake through summer like we own the heat."
--Brand New, "Soco Amaretto Lime"

4. "All I really wanna say, you're the reason I wanna stay, but destiny is calling and I told them when my time is up, I'm out of here."
--Ben Folds Five, "Don't Change Your Plans"

5. "I was just guessing at numbers and figures, pulling your puzzles apart. Questions of science, science and progress, do not speak as loud as my heart."
--Coldplay, "The Scientist"

6. "All my time is froze in motion, can't I stay an hour or two or more?"
--Eve 6, "Here's To The Night"

7. "Could everyone agree that no one should be left alone?"
--Filter, "Take A Picture"

8. "Into the sky we shine, lighting the way we glide by. Catch me if I get too high, when I come down, I'll be coming home next year."
--Foo Fighters, "Next Year"

9. "I wanna take back everything that I've broken, but the bridges behind me are burnin' and smokin'; I guess this is the end."
--Marvelous 3, "Cigarette Lighter Love Song"

10. "So baby gimme that 'Toot Toot'; let me give ya that 'Beep Beep.'"
--R. Kelly, "Ignition"

11. "September's coming soon. I'm pining for the moon. And what if there were two, side-by-side in orbit, around the fairest sun?"
--REM, "Nightswimming"

12. "I suppose I could collect my books and go on back to school, or steal my daddy's cue and make a living at playing pool."
--Rod Stewart, "Maggie May"

13. "To breathe in the air will be the only thing that we have and all the wasted nights and empty moments in our lives are flushed away as we sway with the rhythm of the waves bobbing us up."
--Saves The Day, "This Is Not An Exit"

14. "It seems no one can help me now, I'm in too deep, there's no way out, this time I've really led myself astray."
--Soul Asylum, "Runaway Train"

And no whining about "obscure music tastes," because a good 75% of these songs are easy. Like, radio-single easy. Mix-CD-standard easy. Away-message-easy. Just give it a shot.
Oh, and I may have used some of these songs before, too. Go with it.

"The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?"

Today it felt strange to know that Milton was going on without us. I wrote about it a long time ago (well, at the end of the school year) and it's still true now--it feels like high school life should have ended once we were through with it. It's kind of hard to acknowledge that classes went on today and life went by without giving us even a moment's thought. It seems as if, as Timoree put it at lunch today, everyone at Milton should be walking the hallways wondering where all the seniors are. It's hard to realize that there are new seniors, and that this feels normal to everyone who's still at Milton. It's just us who feel displaced by the life we had for four years. It feels almost like an insult that Milton High School can stand and exist and function while we aren't there, but of course, that's an extremely self-centered way to think. But I think we all feel a little bit like once we're gone from a place, it sort of stops existing. I think it's normal to feel that way. I would be surprised if we, or I, didn't.
That said, it was very nice to be able to sleep in, go out to lunch, go see a movie (Freaky Friday), and go to the mall today while people were in school. Very nice. Dentist appointment? Not so nice. But lunch, movie, and mall? Quite nice.
My computer has gone haywire and is crashing all the time. One more reason to be glad to be out of here soon--with any luck, my computer at school will work properly, unlike this ornery machine.

As You Wish

Speaking of The Princess Bride, did I lend any of you my VHS copy of the movie? I was packing my movies and realized that I have no idea where it is, so I thought perhaps I'd lent it to someone and they hadn't yet returned it. I'm trying to collect on my old debts, so to speak, so if any of you have it (or have a lead--you heard from a friend of a friend that someone has Amy's copy of The Princess Bride and isn't planning on returning it), let me know.

Quack, Quack

After watching D3: The Mighty Ducks one and a half times on the Disney Channel today, I've come to the realization that Joshua Jackson is arguably the cutest human being to ever grace a television screen. Who dares to disagree?
I leave for Athens in three days and I don't feel like that's enough time. I've lots and lots to do, and I'm not even counting things like packing and getting ready. I promised myself very early in senior year that I would do my best to tie up any and all loose ends before going off to college. I wanted to leave nothing unresolved and nothing undefined, and so far I've both succeeded and failed. Several loose ends were taken care of even during the school year, others during the summer. However, there are some remaining, and those I fear will never be dealt with. That's the point--there's not enough time. Three days is not enough time for me to work up the courage it would take for me to actively pursue the tying of said ends, and to tie said ends, and to pack. Nope, sorry, just not time enough. And as packing is probably the most essential of those three things, it looks like I'm going to be going off to college with very little closure. But you know, maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. If I got all the closure I wanted from this place and everyone in it before leaving, what would be the point of ever coming back? And not that I have some desire to return to Alpharetta post-education, but if everything was resolved it would be like the past was over, and it's not, and I don't really want it to be, either. So some things will remain untouched. At least for the next three days.
Additionally, good luck to all of you kids who're going to be entering the hallowed halls of Milton High tomorrow morning for the last time. Senior year is fun!

Never Mind!

Never mind! Problem solved; crisis averted.

Open Question

Can anyone tell me if there's a way I can transfer all my MP3 and MPGA files from the family computer to my new laptop? I've tried burning MP3s onto a data disc, but there's always an error and it won't work, and I don't even know if that would be a way to transfer them, anyway. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas or can shed some light, I'd be grateful. I mean, c'mon, it'd take forever to rebuild a 2000+ song library at school! Grr technology.

Note To Self:

STOP falling in love with gay guys on television shows.
It is not prudent to develop crushes on said guys for several reasons, including but not limited to the following:
a) they are all roughly ten years older than you are;
b) if they go on reality dating shows to meet romantic partners, there is probably a problem of some sort;
c) they like it up the ass.

Just a little reminder, brought to you by the folks at Bravo's Very, Very Gay Night.

Just Close Your Eyes And Fall

I believe right now that UGA is the hub of my universe, and that I'm being pulled in towards that hub like a rubber band, flying faster and faster past the remnants of summer, and ultimately I will end up in Athens. I don't anticipate much sadness on my part once I get there, but it's getting hard right now to avoid sadness. I have to constantly be doing something, always in motion, in order to prevent myself from considering the inevitable. As it stands this very moment, I don't want to go at all, but I also know in this moment that once I get there I will be glad I am there. It's just these last few days that are going to be difficult, because there are things I have to do that I've been putting off--things I really, really don't want to do. My days here are numbered and that makes me sad, because it feels like I don't really even belong here anymore, like Alpharetta and my house and my life is pushing me out and away, towards something new. Every day that passes makes this environment feel less permanent and more temporary. It all feels a little like I'm just visiting even now. Ten days left.