I wish they could all be California girls

You're California!

In many ways, you are larger than life and almost defy description. You
certainly love to shake, rattle, and roll with the best of them. You have a generally
sunny disposition, but are capable of resorting to harsh extremes when pressed. You are
more likely than most to become rich, or famous, or perhaps both. While you have the
golden touch in so many regards, your respect for actors is a little over-zealous. This
endless faith in actors needs to be terminated.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

un mariage a la francaise (or, why don't PCs have accent marks on the keyboard?!)

My old French teacher is engaged! I'm starting to feel...old. And Kerstin sent me a horrendously long Kerstin-like e-mail, no surprise. Oy vey.

In Kerstin's words:

"Oh yes, and Ms. Bordet is engaged! She came over to Mdm. (my insertion: smelly perfume; sorry, this is the nickname that Rekha and I share for her! But she's quite nice, and she's laid off on the perfume lately) during my lessons and starting talking. Apparently it’s very American to have the whole ‘nicecandlelitdinnersurpriseproposalacceptanceringarrangemarriage’ deal. You talk about getting married and…get married. It is kind of American though, while Europe perches atop Stonehenge coyly sipping tea we put on our war paint and feathers and howl around the fire and indulge in other such cheerful barbarisms."

I'm definitely happy for AB; I'm sure that she'll be really happy living with him. I wonder when they're actually getting married. I'm pretty sure that the man in question is her longtime boyfriend, Ram. Baaah. And he's Canadian. Baaah.

Why are all of the younger teachers suddenly marrying and having kids (if they're female) or their wives are having kids (if they're male)? Maybe the admin has been doing funny things to the water in the cafeteria again...

I'm starting to sound like a little old gossiping lady who bakes good cookies and swaps gardening tips with her neighbors. I know of at least two other people who claim that they will share my fate with me so that we can set up a community of gossiping little old ladies. You know who you are

why has summer gone so quickly; was it something that I said

"Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space..."

Summer is strange like that; time remains a mystery as a day drags out to months or hours are condensed into seeming seconds. I was rereading a conversation I had with Shirin about time and organized religion, and I miss talking about those things with her even though I'm incredibly stupid about such matters. It doesn't feel to me that two months have passed; I wish that they could continue. The past week has been mysteriously wonderful in a quiet fashion. I was over at Sophia's, and we got to talk about people, and I haven't been able to do that with anyone with whom I feel comfortable enough for ages. And we did all sorts of crazy things like play Simpsons monopoly twice, and sneak out of the house at 3:10 in the morning to go to Safeway to see what it was like, and that walk at twilight. It wasn't as magical as the first spotaneous one by my house, but there still was that element of fanastical dizzying dreaming that was worth every moment. And I got to to go 7-11 and get my first package of chewing gum in literally years. I've been craving it for so long, yet I'm too scared to open the shiny freshly minted pristine package. Rather pathetic, but I don't mind. I think I'll have some on the first day of school and see what happens.

I want to start school again in another month, but I don't really feel prepared at all for being a junior. I'm too irresponsible and small and nowhere near being what I picture a junior or a senior to be. I have to start thinking seriously about what I'll be doing in the future and where I'll be going. I'm still really tempted to go to university...well, I won't say where for now, as I talk about that too much. Well, I don't, but I'm afraid that I'll turn into one of those annoying geeks who are obsessed about being accepted into places with pretentious reputations. And there's so much that I want to do this year without talking to people I'd like to talk to, but I also don't want to disappoint the parents with grades. Eeek. And there's ringer-ringee stuff. I've schemed about what I'm going to do, and I've worked out some of the details. I'm just afraid that no seniors know me well enough or will know me well enough to figure it out, and that they're not going to really like me. I don't know of anyone who probably would want to be rung (ringed?) by me. Funnily enough I think it's going to be easier for me to find someone who will ring me when I'm a senior than the other way around. Baaah. The freshmen are really amusing when they want to be. Overall, I guess that at this point I'm most looking forward to my schedule, music history, and the Return of the Moose movie. I'm pretty sure about what piece of music I'm using, but that's top secret for now unless you ask :P

And then I look at people younger than me and feel old. How is it that I can be sixteen already? I'm positively ancient, even if most of the people I know and talk to are older. I don't really know people who are pretty much the same age as me. Funnily enough I tend to give recommendations and advice to people slightly (or not so slightly in some cases, depending on your conceptions of age) older than me, as if I knew more than them! But they're all lovely.

Today was the last day of my internship, and I want to go back already to the CHC. I really love my co-workers; I honestly can't imagine any other office where I'd like to work. We had a Summer Symphony wrap-up meeting/goodbye me breakfast in the conference room, and they gave me stuff other than my paycheck. Literally, I couldn't speak for about ten seconds. Chocolates, some wilted sweet peas bought at the Farmer's Market last Sunday, three bucks from Linda for each swear word I heard her say (actually, she shorted me a dollar, but I don't really care), a SS tote bag, and the best thing of all: a posterboard. The posterboard has a SS promo poster autographed by Kenny Loggins, yearbook-type messages from each person in the office, a Kenny Loggins onstage photo, two promo postcards, a mini-bio of Kenny Loggins, and two candid pictures of me. In the top one I'm putting on a pair of sunglasses at Command Central, and it's probably the best picture of me taken at least within the last four years, seriously. The expression on my face is rather amusing as I look rather confused. And the bottom one I'm talking to Amber and Hillary, and we're all staring at the back of a golf cart containing staff dinners the night of th concert. Hee hee. I was afraid that someone got a picture of me nearly falling off of the golf cart with Todd driving, but apparently nobody did.

Even Christina was more cordial than her usual icy self. I've learned to multitask better; I've discovered that I'm capable of tying ribbons, filing away papers in a binder, using a hole puncher, laminating things, entering information into a spreadsheet, answering a phone, and flirting in French pretty much at the same time. I can file 200 pieces of paper alphabetically in about twenty minutes max. And this Friday is my last internship meeting, and then it's officially all over. If I'm lucky the office will use me as a volunteer throughout the school year, but it doesn't look like that it will be very often.