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What is a henge, anyway?
Jun. 8th, 2003 01:52 amYohoho! Finally home, finally LJing! Here I am, here I am! (said Sam of the Green Eggs and Ham!) Hmm, strange, I have no reason to be hyper in the least. And I'm only amused slightly by all these random IM convos on NBoR. To be honest, I'm not much in the mood to do the big long ranty entry about graduation and all that... it might turn into one by accident, but I'm trying to keep it simple.
( official bonfire invite )
Wow, Thursday was graduation and I still couldn't believe it. I had this big plan to wake up early and get to school early-- to find J.Po and make SURE he got the letter, as in IN HIS HANDS. Wednesday, as everyone knows, I was pretty upset and stayed up late to begin with... but that's all in the past. Hehe. The Big Day finally arrives and I'm still pretty nervous about forgetting something, or J.Po not getting the letter, or not wanting to come with me after graduation. That and a lot of my friends went off and did their own thing, so I was wondering if my plans were going to fall through or not.
Well after all the hoo-hah, here's what happened-- I left home and got to school later than I thought I would. It was a half-day, with everyone getting out at 12, so my plans to get teacher's signatures was kind of difficult. I still managed to get most of them though: Ms. Kitchell, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Murphy-Thomas, Mr. Diesel, Mrs. K, Ms. Kassler, Mr. Zegart, and Mrs. Thompson-- though some of those I got on Friday when I went back to school in the afternoon.
So I went down to the ROTC room to see if J.Po was there-- he wasn't. I was hoping that Sheila would be there to make my life in getting the letter back easier. It wasn't as if I could just walk right into the office with both Colonel and SMAJ there and take a letter from the S5 box and walk out. I mean, I'm not IN ROTC anymore, let alone the S5! >_> So I turned to the only other person I know in there that's been pretty nice to me throughout my high school career-- Synia, Battalion Queen '02. She didn't really get why I was asking her to get the letter from the office, but she did-- successfully, and without asking me too many questions, so I got out of there like a bat out of hell.
Turns out that Jonathan was in Band, but I had absolutely NO guts to just go right in there and give it to him. With over an hour left before I needed to be in the auditorium, I was pacing around the choir and band rooms in the M(ezzanine) area, wondering what to do. I was getting some pretty weird looks from people too, wondering what the hell a red-robed girl was doing muttering to a letter. There were these two girls that started heading downstairs to the band room though, so I asked them if they were in band-- and did they know J.Po? Yeah, tall guy, right? I was satisfied by that answer and asked them to give the letter to him for me, as I was "graduatin' and stuff, gotta run, thanks bye!" ^^;; Now that I think about it, it was probably silly and I should have just swallowed my pride and walked in there and given it to him. But I was so freaked out that I'd klutz-- I'd trip on my gown, fall onto a music stand, cause some terrible domino reaction-- when I'm nervous, I'm a terrible klutz.
Well anyway, after that I wandered around looking for people-- I had to go give my stuff to my mom, since she'd arrived on campus and was waiting for me in the bleachers. I didn't see my Dad or Dave and Arlene (who I didn't even know were coming until later) yet, so I went to give her my stuff. We took a dorky pic-- and I had to run all the way back down to the bleachers when I discovered I dropped my tassel down there. Apparently your tassel is a big deal and such, but no ones' was really secure. I managed to keep mine throughout the ceremony and everything, even though I was playing with it (braiding it, separating the colors) most of the time. @_@;
Time actually ended up flying as I walked around after that-- I couldn't figure out how to put my collar on with those dumb sticky tabs, and so I did what most other people did and just ditched the idea altogether, throwing the thing out. I didn't have my wallet with me, so I couldn't buy a lei (darn, no getting 'leid' on graduation!) but it's no big loss-- the flower ones were a huge rip off, and I doubt ALL the proceeds went to the school. Mom kept saying she felt bad abotu not getting me flowers, but she'd given me $60! And with my grandparents, Kara, and now Jill, I've gotten $230 total! I spent some today and such, deposited the $100 into my bank account and took out $20 for food with Erwin and Aaron... I still have enough for my hair dye job next week, and hopefully some more for Fanime. People need to start telling me that they're coming, and paying up.
Anyway, so I had to rush into the auditorium after that-- we were running behind schedule, and even at 1:15, when we were all supposed to be seated, people were still messing around. It bugged me that so many people with great grades and such weren't graduating because of stupid BLUE SLIPS! And then people that are total butts graduated! GAUGH! Well it doesn't matter anymore, it's all over with and we won't see those jerkwads for another 10 years! WAHOO!
When we finally got started, my homeroom was passing tortillas (yes, you read right) to throw in place of our mortarboards ("it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!"). It was pretty cool, but I figured that if I was singing and I needed to mark my seat, I'd use my tortilla-- so I folded it up and everything, and so it was practically falling apart... I was pretty hungry too, but they'd been all over the floor, so I didn't eat it. -.- There were snacks and candies getting passed around during the actual graduation ceremony (boooooring speakers... but some were cool, and the students were just being rude) but Aiman was being a jerk and hogging it all. -.- Paul told me the Reese's Bites that stupid Aiman finished off weren't that great anyway...
Well the homerooms were finally moving through the auditorium-- as I'd gone inside, I saw J.Po coming out with a music stand, so I dashed inside before he could see me. ^///^ I'm a dork, I know... Some people had so many leis and stuff they were leaving bits and pieces in the auditorium... Vince Tom (the guy in my homeroom with the killer MR2) had a candy lei with two condoms in it. Hehe... he really got 'leid!' *snicker*
After a slight holdup, we finally got moving-- it was pretty terrifying. More than anything, I really wanted to have a voice worthy of singing-- of course, when it finally came time to sing, I was so freaked about everything with J.Po, Dave, and my dad... and there was still the whole actual OMG I'M ACTUALLY GRADUATING thing going on. I didn't mess up really-- I was a bit slow, and my voice wasn't perfect. It was just hard to sing when my stupid classmates were tossing around BEACHBALLS! ;_; Five of them total, all confiscated by teachers and counselors. To be frank, I'm not upset. And to think they still call us the most well-behaved class that's graduated! HAH!
Eugene kept asking me how much longer it was, how much longer it was... and Aiman annoying me was bad enough. Not to mention Eugene kept yelling to Cindy (on the far end of the row behind us) that he LOOOOOOVED her. Mush. I was thankful for the few times that Mom and Dave called-- I was pretty glad that Dave came, though I didn't know what I was supposed to say or do after graduation, and I didn't know who the "we" he kept referring to was. It turned out that it was Arlene, his and Mike's mom, who's very nice (she gave me liquor chocolate and dentyne gum!) and reminds me, for some strange reason, of Mrs. K.
Hey, can we fast forward? Let's fast forward. Okay, so my homeroom FINALLY gets called up-- 2nd to last one to do it, and I'm just glad I'm not singing or anything anymore, 'coz my throat's tired from yelling for my friends as they graduate. But they don't really 'graduate' since all we're getting is a blank booklet of sorts. Shake hands with Ishibashi, smile for the camera-- it was the first graduation in 4 years when it wasn't sunny and super hot! The stadium was packed, as predicted though-- I feel sorry for all those people that had to sit on the crappy benches that are all broken up...
GRADUATION! YAY! Okay, have to go get my REAL diploma now, and thank god I can take off the stupid Mortarboard, 'coz it itches! The crowd is ridiculous, but the GSS and ESS are helping out by acting as security to contain the mobs. There's some stupid idiot from Vector trying to 'congratulate' everyone by offering those ridiculous knife-selling jobs (you know, if it hadn't been for Will, I might have turned into one of those pathetic door-to-door girls. Thank you Will!). But Ms. Chong, the assistant principal, and Tammy, one of the security guards, took the envelopes from people that got them even before we got to the auditorum. I hope some poor kid isn't disillusioned by them (or the ad in the student paper... ^^;) and turns into some knife salesperson!
I saw Dave and Arlene in line, but I didn't know them-- he recognized ME though, from the senior pic Mike left at his house. =P My hair looked terrible in that! I'm so glad I'm getting it dyed next week... aah! It was funny seeing him and being all shy, because he could have been any random person if he hadn't been Dave, Mike's brother... does that make any sense? I was just freaked out meeting someone and having them be at my graduation all in the same day. I got my diploma and tried to get inside- I wanted to see if J.Po was in the band room, or if Cunningham was in the ROTC room, like Sheila said. It took forever to get inside, and I ended up meeting Joe and Mom first. Major awkwardness, btw.
I knew Joe was going to be at graduation, and it did mean something to me, but other people I wanted to be there weren't. My fault, I suppose. Still, having an ex-boyfriend there = major uncomfortableness, especially where school friends that a) don't know him or b) dislike him are concerned. Luckily that whole shebang never really came up- he was just being very quiet and somewhat frumpy. My plans to have a bunch of friends go with me to CPK for dinner and Karaoke kind of fell through-- in the end, it was me, Dave, Arlene, Joe, and Mom. Eva, Rochelle, Katia, Crystal and most of my other friends were doing stuff with their family. Amber didn't come because I forgot to give her all the details (I was sure I did...! AUGH!!). But we all went to CPK anyway, leaving Joe's car over on 38th or whatnot, while Arlene and Dave drove us to CPK on Van Ness.
I'd seen dad first afetr Graduation-- barrelled into him and nearly broke his nose with the way I suddenly move my head. But you have no idea how unbelievably happy I was to see my dad. While we were picking up diplomas, I was telling Cassie how incredibly happy I was. I mean it was just mindblowing, it felt like for once, I had a real dad! I didn't introduce him to anyone, since finding people was so hard and it was ubercrowded to begin with... but... ^_^ I'm happy all the same. He had to do some MAUG related thing and couldn't stick around, but I'll be seeing him this Friday for Brooke's graduation anyhow.
Vince'd had to leave early to pick up his Dad, but he was going to meet us at CPK, and he came at the perfect time, when conversations were sort of stagnant and awkward, except between my mom and Arlene, who seemed to be having the time of their lives talking to one another. I don't whether it was just me, or my mom too, but when Arlene kept calling Ron her "mate" it kinda freaked me out. It's just not a common term I guess, but it is a pretty good way to describe their relationship... blah, it's none of my business, just something I observed.
I had my usual traditional cheese pizza, and this YUMMY AS HECK Field Greens salad with yummy, sweet pecans in them. Mm, tasted sorta like Mashuga Nuts! I miss Mashuga nuts! I was getting pretty stuffed, especially since I'd polished off an entire huge bottle of Arizona Raspberry tea (yum!) and Vince (when he came at 6:00ish) gave me most of his, too! But I tried the key lime pie anyway, splitting it with Arlene! It tastes like tart cheesecake, and I had the feeling I'd had it before... >_> Who knows? It's good though!
Afterwards, I didn't know what to do- I didn't really want the moms to come karaokeing, as was the original plan, and that idea sort of fell through with our number of people (and lack of other girls) anyway. It was a better idea in the end, I didn't -DON'T- need to be reminded of Lonnie in any size, shape, or form at this point. ANYWAY, I was sort of planning on a movie-- maybe Identity, Bruce Almighty, or The Italian Job. But everyone decided a movie would be kind of boring, so instead Vince suggested that we go to CVGL! Dave was invited too, of course, and Joe would drive-- so we had to cram into Arlene's Focus (rented) and head to Joe's car...
Which we did. Arlene dropped my mom off and home and we stopped by their place near the beach to get a graduation present-- liquor chocolate! She explained to me the story of Mike getting caught back in NJ with his bar, his wanting to be a bartender, and how that wasn't exactly what she hoped for him. There's a whole story that's somewhat sad about how he first got into drinks and stuff in the first place... but that's his business. In any case, she gave me the chocolate because she said she didn't want Mike to have it! *smirk* Now I have some leverage over him for when he comes back...!
When we finally got to CVGL it was 10 to closing time, so I just watched people play DDR-- I tried to play a game of Gem Fighter, but got horribly beaten in my first round. Dave played after me, and of course 0wn3d. -.- Well, I got 7 tickets from SkeeBall and got myself a 10 ticket candy or something. I forgot. And I found myself a token container in the shape of a coke bottle! It's so cool!
Oh oh... and Joe showed me his Ein plushie-- it's so CUUUTE and soft-- but guess what? On my way to school on Friday, I saw a REAL EIN! That is, a real Welsh Corgi! It was so cute and nice and sweet-- it was just this big fluffy, happy, walking sausage! The lady walking it was Irish too, and very nice. =) But a real Corgi! *giggles* KAWAAAAAAAAAI~
Well, we headed bowling in Hayward, at Holiday Bowl, after that. Joe had some friends in a separate car that he'd met up with at CVGL, so that made things even more awkward than they already were. Vince being there definitely helped things out some, but... yeah. Well, I sucked majorly my first try at bowling, so I think maybe I should get back into it by going to Presidio Bowl more often. I did much better my 2nd and 3rd games-- in the 2nd game we actually beat Joe's friends! It was mostly Vince though, he's really great and bowling, and at one point got himself 4 strikes and a spare-- all in a row!
They had a Korean ripoff of DDR there too, called 'Stepping Stage,' with crappy songs, 3 screens, and 5 pads-- it was a bit weird since I'm used to be able to plant my feet on the pads on either side of me, but they had two diagonally in front of me, two diagonally in back, and two off to the side. The dancers on the screen (mostly white and black, oddly enough, instead of cute Korean girls) were really lame, to be blunt, and so were the songs. But hey, it was only 50 cents, so no big waste! After 3 games of bowling (including the one where the desk clerks had 'SARS IS SCARY' and 'FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS GET SARS' on the top of our screens) we finally retired-- Joe, Dave, Vince and I crammed into the "Alice's Stickerland" machine, another NeoPrint rip-off which produced some pretty funny pictures. Weird thing was, the pictures were only available in weird numbers-- 7, 10, and 13! We got the 13 set one and divided it up 3/each, but with 4 for me since I paid for it. Very funny pics. ^.^v
After that I was zonked so I fell asleep in the back of the car until we all got dropped off at home... and that was the end of that.
Friday I went to school to get those last yearbooks signed, and maybe see Potter-- I saw his brother in the RO room and asked him (after a second of mustering some courage) where his brother was-- Great America. So I smirked and told Potter's brother to tell his brother to call me-- he had my number. Or I hoped so, anyway. For some reason I have the insane urge to call J.Po's brother 'Bobby,' even though I strongly doubt that's his name. If it is, I'll be freaked. o_O Anyway, both of them have such cute, wonderful smiles-- when they DO actually smile! ^_^
I ran into Katia also getting signatures-- she stuck with me while I got 'lectured' to go to UC Berkley by Mrs. Thompson. After that we went out to the esplanade to see if Ms. Victoire was in UC1 (she wasn't, unfortunately! ;_;) and we saw this poor little bird trapped in a ribbon that someone had tied to a tree! Katia was the humanitarian (is that what you call it?) and the quick thinker and told me to get scissors from Mrs. Thompson-- but she'd left and I had to get them from Ms. Lange, who, to be honest, didn't seem to see the urgency of the situation. Her daughter kept getting in the way as she tried to open up the cabinet with the scissors in it, but by the time I finally got them out, Katia had managed to use her pencil and her l33t art-induced detangling skills to set the poor bird, hanging by its wing, free. And off it flew into the sky... it was quite moving.
It put me in the mood to get writing on fics again-- and those two (formerly one, but Katia's actions inspired me for another) children's stories I'd one day like to publish. ^.^ Hehe, since Katia was my inspiration, maybe I should get her to illustrate it! That'd be cooooool. After we wandered around getting signatures and such, we dropped off our cameras at Walgreen's; I got my Prom Pictures and dropped off my Grad Week cam, which should be ready by Tuesday. I still have the other camera mom bought to use at the Bonfire tomorrow... so yay. We went to the Legion of Honor after I grabbed two bagels and an orange juice (I almost typed 'organ juice' Hmm... yummy!) at Donut World.
WOW-- I don't think I ever went in there before. Glanced inside with Amy, since she worked there and all, but really inside-- they have some gorgeous stuff. A lot of the art made me think of certain people... and for the record, the gift store downstairs is a death trap! Too much cool stuff, too expensive! ;_; I still have to get my Dad something, but I'm torn between those cool Leonardo Da Vinci cards I saw at the museum, or those Father/Daughter books from the Border's Recommends list.
I want to go back and get some of the books-- Deciphering Heiroglyphs, and Dictionary of Symbols. They had cool jewelry and tins too-- and a fiction piece based off a famous art painting, "Girl with a Pearl Earring." All very cool. And you know, I might want to start writing horror stories and such again-- I always liked Art and History, since you can write such fascinating, involved, detailed stories. Twilight-Zoney and all, with mannequins coming to life! I remember reading this book when I was younger about these kids that ran away from home and stayed in the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. And they ended up solving some mystery about a statue supposedly by Michaelangeo. Anyone know what I mean? That was a good book.
Okay, now the good stuff-- I sort of skimmed over already RTA and all that stuff, and staying at Erwin's house. But on our way to get lunch (after Stonestown; Hot Topic's finally open and they have COOOOL STUFF! They were a bit annoying, asking me to buy stickers and postcards and the like-- I still spent over $10, as I got myself some glittery red shoelaces for my Converse, and a new bag to replace my broken ones with faulty zippers and straps. It's gor Amy Brown artwork on it!) GUESS WHO CALLED! GUESS!!
*grin grin*
JONATHAN! J.PO!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!! I didn't know what to say, but I wasn't speechless-- unfortunately, I spent most of the conversation yelling at Aaron for interrupting me. He does that a lot... *sigh* He doesn't like it when I lecture him, but he begs for attention and then goes off and says or does stupid or rude things. I'm the kind of person that is brutally honest-- I don't like annoying people, and I usually tell them as much. But he's a good kid... most of the time. He did help me sort out all that music confusion.
Anyway, so I was really glad to talk to Jonathan, and it turns out that, while he sounded very unemotional, he actually had to work up some courage to call! ^.^v WOW! The reception sucked though, and since we were just getting to Westlake, I told J.Po I'd call him later-- which I did, after Erwin dropped Aaron and I off at my house (he drove his BLACK, LEATHER INTERIOR, RSX! SWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET RIDE!). I invited him to the bonfire tomorrow, and now I'm all nervous because I don't want to make a bad impression on him outside of school and all that. @_@... What to do at a bonfire besides BURN STUFF? Well, walk along the beach... ~_~ One of my two favorite pasttimes, the other being HOT SHOWERS! ^.^v
Augh, I better go and take a shower soon. I said I wouldn't rant, but here I've done and done it. And I'm just typing all this while listening to some comedian perform over AIM Talk with Mike's mic doing all the talking... I wish my mics worked. Why do Mike's mics work and mine don't? HAH... Okay, going now.
( official bonfire invite )
Wow, Thursday was graduation and I still couldn't believe it. I had this big plan to wake up early and get to school early-- to find J.Po and make SURE he got the letter, as in IN HIS HANDS. Wednesday, as everyone knows, I was pretty upset and stayed up late to begin with... but that's all in the past. Hehe. The Big Day finally arrives and I'm still pretty nervous about forgetting something, or J.Po not getting the letter, or not wanting to come with me after graduation. That and a lot of my friends went off and did their own thing, so I was wondering if my plans were going to fall through or not.
Well after all the hoo-hah, here's what happened-- I left home and got to school later than I thought I would. It was a half-day, with everyone getting out at 12, so my plans to get teacher's signatures was kind of difficult. I still managed to get most of them though: Ms. Kitchell, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Murphy-Thomas, Mr. Diesel, Mrs. K, Ms. Kassler, Mr. Zegart, and Mrs. Thompson-- though some of those I got on Friday when I went back to school in the afternoon.
So I went down to the ROTC room to see if J.Po was there-- he wasn't. I was hoping that Sheila would be there to make my life in getting the letter back easier. It wasn't as if I could just walk right into the office with both Colonel and SMAJ there and take a letter from the S5 box and walk out. I mean, I'm not IN ROTC anymore, let alone the S5! >_> So I turned to the only other person I know in there that's been pretty nice to me throughout my high school career-- Synia, Battalion Queen '02. She didn't really get why I was asking her to get the letter from the office, but she did-- successfully, and without asking me too many questions, so I got out of there like a bat out of hell.
Turns out that Jonathan was in Band, but I had absolutely NO guts to just go right in there and give it to him. With over an hour left before I needed to be in the auditorium, I was pacing around the choir and band rooms in the M(ezzanine) area, wondering what to do. I was getting some pretty weird looks from people too, wondering what the hell a red-robed girl was doing muttering to a letter. There were these two girls that started heading downstairs to the band room though, so I asked them if they were in band-- and did they know J.Po? Yeah, tall guy, right? I was satisfied by that answer and asked them to give the letter to him for me, as I was "graduatin' and stuff, gotta run, thanks bye!" ^^;; Now that I think about it, it was probably silly and I should have just swallowed my pride and walked in there and given it to him. But I was so freaked out that I'd klutz-- I'd trip on my gown, fall onto a music stand, cause some terrible domino reaction-- when I'm nervous, I'm a terrible klutz.
Well anyway, after that I wandered around looking for people-- I had to go give my stuff to my mom, since she'd arrived on campus and was waiting for me in the bleachers. I didn't see my Dad or Dave and Arlene (who I didn't even know were coming until later) yet, so I went to give her my stuff. We took a dorky pic-- and I had to run all the way back down to the bleachers when I discovered I dropped my tassel down there. Apparently your tassel is a big deal and such, but no ones' was really secure. I managed to keep mine throughout the ceremony and everything, even though I was playing with it (braiding it, separating the colors) most of the time. @_@;
Time actually ended up flying as I walked around after that-- I couldn't figure out how to put my collar on with those dumb sticky tabs, and so I did what most other people did and just ditched the idea altogether, throwing the thing out. I didn't have my wallet with me, so I couldn't buy a lei (darn, no getting 'leid' on graduation!) but it's no big loss-- the flower ones were a huge rip off, and I doubt ALL the proceeds went to the school. Mom kept saying she felt bad abotu not getting me flowers, but she'd given me $60! And with my grandparents, Kara, and now Jill, I've gotten $230 total! I spent some today and such, deposited the $100 into my bank account and took out $20 for food with Erwin and Aaron... I still have enough for my hair dye job next week, and hopefully some more for Fanime. People need to start telling me that they're coming, and paying up.
Anyway, so I had to rush into the auditorium after that-- we were running behind schedule, and even at 1:15, when we were all supposed to be seated, people were still messing around. It bugged me that so many people with great grades and such weren't graduating because of stupid BLUE SLIPS! And then people that are total butts graduated! GAUGH! Well it doesn't matter anymore, it's all over with and we won't see those jerkwads for another 10 years! WAHOO!
When we finally got started, my homeroom was passing tortillas (yes, you read right) to throw in place of our mortarboards ("it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!"). It was pretty cool, but I figured that if I was singing and I needed to mark my seat, I'd use my tortilla-- so I folded it up and everything, and so it was practically falling apart... I was pretty hungry too, but they'd been all over the floor, so I didn't eat it. -.- There were snacks and candies getting passed around during the actual graduation ceremony (boooooring speakers... but some were cool, and the students were just being rude) but Aiman was being a jerk and hogging it all. -.- Paul told me the Reese's Bites that stupid Aiman finished off weren't that great anyway...
Well the homerooms were finally moving through the auditorium-- as I'd gone inside, I saw J.Po coming out with a music stand, so I dashed inside before he could see me. ^///^ I'm a dork, I know... Some people had so many leis and stuff they were leaving bits and pieces in the auditorium... Vince Tom (the guy in my homeroom with the killer MR2) had a candy lei with two condoms in it. Hehe... he really got 'leid!' *snicker*
After a slight holdup, we finally got moving-- it was pretty terrifying. More than anything, I really wanted to have a voice worthy of singing-- of course, when it finally came time to sing, I was so freaked about everything with J.Po, Dave, and my dad... and there was still the whole actual OMG I'M ACTUALLY GRADUATING thing going on. I didn't mess up really-- I was a bit slow, and my voice wasn't perfect. It was just hard to sing when my stupid classmates were tossing around BEACHBALLS! ;_; Five of them total, all confiscated by teachers and counselors. To be frank, I'm not upset. And to think they still call us the most well-behaved class that's graduated! HAH!
Eugene kept asking me how much longer it was, how much longer it was... and Aiman annoying me was bad enough. Not to mention Eugene kept yelling to Cindy (on the far end of the row behind us) that he LOOOOOOVED her. Mush. I was thankful for the few times that Mom and Dave called-- I was pretty glad that Dave came, though I didn't know what I was supposed to say or do after graduation, and I didn't know who the "we" he kept referring to was. It turned out that it was Arlene, his and Mike's mom, who's very nice (she gave me liquor chocolate and dentyne gum!) and reminds me, for some strange reason, of Mrs. K.
Hey, can we fast forward? Let's fast forward. Okay, so my homeroom FINALLY gets called up-- 2nd to last one to do it, and I'm just glad I'm not singing or anything anymore, 'coz my throat's tired from yelling for my friends as they graduate. But they don't really 'graduate' since all we're getting is a blank booklet of sorts. Shake hands with Ishibashi, smile for the camera-- it was the first graduation in 4 years when it wasn't sunny and super hot! The stadium was packed, as predicted though-- I feel sorry for all those people that had to sit on the crappy benches that are all broken up...
GRADUATION! YAY! Okay, have to go get my REAL diploma now, and thank god I can take off the stupid Mortarboard, 'coz it itches! The crowd is ridiculous, but the GSS and ESS are helping out by acting as security to contain the mobs. There's some stupid idiot from Vector trying to 'congratulate' everyone by offering those ridiculous knife-selling jobs (you know, if it hadn't been for Will, I might have turned into one of those pathetic door-to-door girls. Thank you Will!). But Ms. Chong, the assistant principal, and Tammy, one of the security guards, took the envelopes from people that got them even before we got to the auditorum. I hope some poor kid isn't disillusioned by them (or the ad in the student paper... ^^;) and turns into some knife salesperson!
I saw Dave and Arlene in line, but I didn't know them-- he recognized ME though, from the senior pic Mike left at his house. =P My hair looked terrible in that! I'm so glad I'm getting it dyed next week... aah! It was funny seeing him and being all shy, because he could have been any random person if he hadn't been Dave, Mike's brother... does that make any sense? I was just freaked out meeting someone and having them be at my graduation all in the same day. I got my diploma and tried to get inside- I wanted to see if J.Po was in the band room, or if Cunningham was in the ROTC room, like Sheila said. It took forever to get inside, and I ended up meeting Joe and Mom first. Major awkwardness, btw.
I knew Joe was going to be at graduation, and it did mean something to me, but other people I wanted to be there weren't. My fault, I suppose. Still, having an ex-boyfriend there = major uncomfortableness, especially where school friends that a) don't know him or b) dislike him are concerned. Luckily that whole shebang never really came up- he was just being very quiet and somewhat frumpy. My plans to have a bunch of friends go with me to CPK for dinner and Karaoke kind of fell through-- in the end, it was me, Dave, Arlene, Joe, and Mom. Eva, Rochelle, Katia, Crystal and most of my other friends were doing stuff with their family. Amber didn't come because I forgot to give her all the details (I was sure I did...! AUGH!!). But we all went to CPK anyway, leaving Joe's car over on 38th or whatnot, while Arlene and Dave drove us to CPK on Van Ness.
I'd seen dad first afetr Graduation-- barrelled into him and nearly broke his nose with the way I suddenly move my head. But you have no idea how unbelievably happy I was to see my dad. While we were picking up diplomas, I was telling Cassie how incredibly happy I was. I mean it was just mindblowing, it felt like for once, I had a real dad! I didn't introduce him to anyone, since finding people was so hard and it was ubercrowded to begin with... but... ^_^ I'm happy all the same. He had to do some MAUG related thing and couldn't stick around, but I'll be seeing him this Friday for Brooke's graduation anyhow.
Vince'd had to leave early to pick up his Dad, but he was going to meet us at CPK, and he came at the perfect time, when conversations were sort of stagnant and awkward, except between my mom and Arlene, who seemed to be having the time of their lives talking to one another. I don't whether it was just me, or my mom too, but when Arlene kept calling Ron her "mate" it kinda freaked me out. It's just not a common term I guess, but it is a pretty good way to describe their relationship... blah, it's none of my business, just something I observed.
I had my usual traditional cheese pizza, and this YUMMY AS HECK Field Greens salad with yummy, sweet pecans in them. Mm, tasted sorta like Mashuga Nuts! I miss Mashuga nuts! I was getting pretty stuffed, especially since I'd polished off an entire huge bottle of Arizona Raspberry tea (yum!) and Vince (when he came at 6:00ish) gave me most of his, too! But I tried the key lime pie anyway, splitting it with Arlene! It tastes like tart cheesecake, and I had the feeling I'd had it before... >_> Who knows? It's good though!
Afterwards, I didn't know what to do- I didn't really want the moms to come karaokeing, as was the original plan, and that idea sort of fell through with our number of people (and lack of other girls) anyway. It was a better idea in the end, I didn't -DON'T- need to be reminded of Lonnie in any size, shape, or form at this point. ANYWAY, I was sort of planning on a movie-- maybe Identity, Bruce Almighty, or The Italian Job. But everyone decided a movie would be kind of boring, so instead Vince suggested that we go to CVGL! Dave was invited too, of course, and Joe would drive-- so we had to cram into Arlene's Focus (rented) and head to Joe's car...
Which we did. Arlene dropped my mom off and home and we stopped by their place near the beach to get a graduation present-- liquor chocolate! She explained to me the story of Mike getting caught back in NJ with his bar, his wanting to be a bartender, and how that wasn't exactly what she hoped for him. There's a whole story that's somewhat sad about how he first got into drinks and stuff in the first place... but that's his business. In any case, she gave me the chocolate because she said she didn't want Mike to have it! *smirk* Now I have some leverage over him for when he comes back...!
When we finally got to CVGL it was 10 to closing time, so I just watched people play DDR-- I tried to play a game of Gem Fighter, but got horribly beaten in my first round. Dave played after me, and of course 0wn3d. -.- Well, I got 7 tickets from SkeeBall and got myself a 10 ticket candy or something. I forgot. And I found myself a token container in the shape of a coke bottle! It's so cool!
Oh oh... and Joe showed me his Ein plushie-- it's so CUUUTE and soft-- but guess what? On my way to school on Friday, I saw a REAL EIN! That is, a real Welsh Corgi! It was so cute and nice and sweet-- it was just this big fluffy, happy, walking sausage! The lady walking it was Irish too, and very nice. =) But a real Corgi! *giggles* KAWAAAAAAAAAI~
Well, we headed bowling in Hayward, at Holiday Bowl, after that. Joe had some friends in a separate car that he'd met up with at CVGL, so that made things even more awkward than they already were. Vince being there definitely helped things out some, but... yeah. Well, I sucked majorly my first try at bowling, so I think maybe I should get back into it by going to Presidio Bowl more often. I did much better my 2nd and 3rd games-- in the 2nd game we actually beat Joe's friends! It was mostly Vince though, he's really great and bowling, and at one point got himself 4 strikes and a spare-- all in a row!
They had a Korean ripoff of DDR there too, called 'Stepping Stage,' with crappy songs, 3 screens, and 5 pads-- it was a bit weird since I'm used to be able to plant my feet on the pads on either side of me, but they had two diagonally in front of me, two diagonally in back, and two off to the side. The dancers on the screen (mostly white and black, oddly enough, instead of cute Korean girls) were really lame, to be blunt, and so were the songs. But hey, it was only 50 cents, so no big waste! After 3 games of bowling (including the one where the desk clerks had 'SARS IS SCARY' and 'FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS GET SARS' on the top of our screens) we finally retired-- Joe, Dave, Vince and I crammed into the "Alice's Stickerland" machine, another NeoPrint rip-off which produced some pretty funny pictures. Weird thing was, the pictures were only available in weird numbers-- 7, 10, and 13! We got the 13 set one and divided it up 3/each, but with 4 for me since I paid for it. Very funny pics. ^.^v
After that I was zonked so I fell asleep in the back of the car until we all got dropped off at home... and that was the end of that.
Friday I went to school to get those last yearbooks signed, and maybe see Potter-- I saw his brother in the RO room and asked him (after a second of mustering some courage) where his brother was-- Great America. So I smirked and told Potter's brother to tell his brother to call me-- he had my number. Or I hoped so, anyway. For some reason I have the insane urge to call J.Po's brother 'Bobby,' even though I strongly doubt that's his name. If it is, I'll be freaked. o_O Anyway, both of them have such cute, wonderful smiles-- when they DO actually smile! ^_^
I ran into Katia also getting signatures-- she stuck with me while I got 'lectured' to go to UC Berkley by Mrs. Thompson. After that we went out to the esplanade to see if Ms. Victoire was in UC1 (she wasn't, unfortunately! ;_;) and we saw this poor little bird trapped in a ribbon that someone had tied to a tree! Katia was the humanitarian (is that what you call it?) and the quick thinker and told me to get scissors from Mrs. Thompson-- but she'd left and I had to get them from Ms. Lange, who, to be honest, didn't seem to see the urgency of the situation. Her daughter kept getting in the way as she tried to open up the cabinet with the scissors in it, but by the time I finally got them out, Katia had managed to use her pencil and her l33t art-induced detangling skills to set the poor bird, hanging by its wing, free. And off it flew into the sky... it was quite moving.
It put me in the mood to get writing on fics again-- and those two (formerly one, but Katia's actions inspired me for another) children's stories I'd one day like to publish. ^.^ Hehe, since Katia was my inspiration, maybe I should get her to illustrate it! That'd be cooooool. After we wandered around getting signatures and such, we dropped off our cameras at Walgreen's; I got my Prom Pictures and dropped off my Grad Week cam, which should be ready by Tuesday. I still have the other camera mom bought to use at the Bonfire tomorrow... so yay. We went to the Legion of Honor after I grabbed two bagels and an orange juice (I almost typed 'organ juice' Hmm... yummy!) at Donut World.
WOW-- I don't think I ever went in there before. Glanced inside with Amy, since she worked there and all, but really inside-- they have some gorgeous stuff. A lot of the art made me think of certain people... and for the record, the gift store downstairs is a death trap! Too much cool stuff, too expensive! ;_; I still have to get my Dad something, but I'm torn between those cool Leonardo Da Vinci cards I saw at the museum, or those Father/Daughter books from the Border's Recommends list.
I want to go back and get some of the books-- Deciphering Heiroglyphs, and Dictionary of Symbols. They had cool jewelry and tins too-- and a fiction piece based off a famous art painting, "Girl with a Pearl Earring." All very cool. And you know, I might want to start writing horror stories and such again-- I always liked Art and History, since you can write such fascinating, involved, detailed stories. Twilight-Zoney and all, with mannequins coming to life! I remember reading this book when I was younger about these kids that ran away from home and stayed in the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. And they ended up solving some mystery about a statue supposedly by Michaelangeo. Anyone know what I mean? That was a good book.
Okay, now the good stuff-- I sort of skimmed over already RTA and all that stuff, and staying at Erwin's house. But on our way to get lunch (after Stonestown; Hot Topic's finally open and they have COOOOL STUFF! They were a bit annoying, asking me to buy stickers and postcards and the like-- I still spent over $10, as I got myself some glittery red shoelaces for my Converse, and a new bag to replace my broken ones with faulty zippers and straps. It's gor Amy Brown artwork on it!) GUESS WHO CALLED! GUESS!!
*grin grin*
JONATHAN! J.PO!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!! I didn't know what to say, but I wasn't speechless-- unfortunately, I spent most of the conversation yelling at Aaron for interrupting me. He does that a lot... *sigh* He doesn't like it when I lecture him, but he begs for attention and then goes off and says or does stupid or rude things. I'm the kind of person that is brutally honest-- I don't like annoying people, and I usually tell them as much. But he's a good kid... most of the time. He did help me sort out all that music confusion.
Anyway, so I was really glad to talk to Jonathan, and it turns out that, while he sounded very unemotional, he actually had to work up some courage to call! ^.^v WOW! The reception sucked though, and since we were just getting to Westlake, I told J.Po I'd call him later-- which I did, after Erwin dropped Aaron and I off at my house (he drove his BLACK, LEATHER INTERIOR, RSX! SWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET RIDE!). I invited him to the bonfire tomorrow, and now I'm all nervous because I don't want to make a bad impression on him outside of school and all that. @_@... What to do at a bonfire besides BURN STUFF? Well, walk along the beach... ~_~ One of my two favorite pasttimes, the other being HOT SHOWERS! ^.^v
Augh, I better go and take a shower soon. I said I wouldn't rant, but here I've done and done it. And I'm just typing all this while listening to some comedian perform over AIM Talk with Mike's mic doing all the talking... I wish my mics worked. Why do Mike's mics work and mine don't? HAH... Okay, going now.
