Mm, college.
I have so much free time I don't know what to do with myself!
Then again, I'm sort of slacking this semester. I'm sure I'll retract that statement come second semester.

Life is so chill here. The weather is nice, classes are [relatively] easy, people are relaxed and friendly. And the parties are... interesting, to say the least.

I think I may actually have made some friends already, which is rare for me. Orrr, maybe I'm just seeing more friendliness than is actually there. It happens. I'm awkward that way.

Band here is... different, here. Jazz is amazing [but tough!], since Doc is an acclaimed jazz trumpeter [apparently]. However, I'm really not a fan of all the uber-new, uber-contemporary music we're playing in Wind Ensemble. What's wrong with the classics? And there's only one french horn player and I'm the first bass clarinet player they've had in years. WHAT THE HELL. Tiny motherfucking band program.

They also put me in the Clarinet Trio/Quartet on bass. The music for that is painful. I have to practice! It's odd, playing real melodies and complex lines on bass clarinet. It's just not something that happens often.

I also obtained two little girl rats for pets this week. They're cute little beasts. Perhaps photos will ensue when I have the patience to get them to sit still.
It doesn't change the fact that I miss my cat like mad, though. :/.

Yay, J.K.:


I must say, I love Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows the most. Prisoner of Azkaban, however, will always hold a special place in my heart as the book I spent the entirety of third grade reading and re-reading.

I think my particular love of the last two stems from their more complex plots and character development. Harry is distracted, suspicious, and unsure of himself. Dumbledore is MUCH less than perfect. Both books add an entirely new dimension to the Death Eaters.

Of course, it could just be that they are the two Potter books I read most recently. Ahahah.

Other things:

I turned eighteen yesterday. Woohoo. I honestly expected to feel different, though I couldn't say why. I think being away from my friends and potential goofing off has a hand in preventing birthday stupidity.

I've been spending some time with my aunt in Minneapolis, which has been a glorious change of scenery. The weather is lovely here [sunny AND cool], and I love the variety of Uptown, which lacks both the monotony of the suburbs and the hustle of Chicago. Grocery stores here are actually a PLEASURE to shop in, go figure.

If I could move here now, I would in a heartbeat.
Perhaps for grad school. I'm already praying for fellowships!

I had my wisdom teeth pulled this morning. It was not fun.
But thank god for anesthetic.
All the novocaine they shot into my mouth hasn't worn off yet, so I'm drooling like a fool, but at least the pain is minimal.
I get the feeling that after a couple of hours that's not going to be the case... Hello, vicodin!

In other news, I just found out I'm lactose intolerant, after months of slowly associating nausea with cheese. So it looks like we may be going vegan, kiddies. Mo more milk products, anyway.

I'd have pictures of the plants to post, if I weren't holed up in the basement with an ice-pack on my face. Sorry.

Heavens, I love summer.
I love sunshine, and cool breezes, and cleansing rains.
Good, clean earth does wonders for my mood.
Gardening is a rather neat way of packaging all of that happiness into a productive task. With fresh edibles, to boot!
I really hope my windowsill at school gets full sun...

Warning: high-res photo ahead! ( Look at this lovely lettuce! )

Heading over to my grandmother's tomorrow to check on the tomatoes in her planter; if they haven't been entirely chomped by rabbits, I'll take some photos. And her notorious rhubarb deserves some attention as well... It's huge!

I'm typing this from my shiny new laptop, thank you parents. *sloppy kisses*

Anyway. I registered for classes at OWU this week; first semester should be interesting.
I'm taking General Chem I, Early European History, Music Appreciation [ahahah], and Critical Issues in Religion and Ethics.

I'm pretty stoked, for the last one especially. It looks so COOL.
God, I'm a nerd.

Annnd I'm on the fifth floor of my res hall. And the elevators are scary. This'll be fun.

On a completely different note, my lettuce is growing fantastically!
As are my baby scallions. Yayes.

The AP Calculus test just kicked my ass.
Holy crap.
My brain feels like an egg fried on the sidewalk right now.

In jazz band now, trying to recuperate.
Dress rehearsal tonight, I'll probably be here until 11 or midnight.
Then AP Literature & Composition in the morning.
Yayyyy.

My seedlings are doing quite well, however. It's time to transplant the cucumbers, now I just have to buy some pots and trellises [trelli? What the hell is the plural for trellis?].

Now that Calculus is essentially over, I seem to have a lot more time on my hands.
How pleasant.
I probably should be revising for the AP tests, but I can't bring myself to crack a textbook.

In other news, thanks to vegetarianism and the expensive nature of buying organic vegetables all the time, I am starting an organic garden this year. Containers only; my mother can't bear the idea of me breaking ground in the backyard. Which is all for the best, really, considering how I won't be here much longer.

I plan to grow tomatoes, cucumbers [trellis-trained], a mesclun lettuce mix [yummy!] and perhaps some basil and scallions. Any advice on that is definitely welcomed.

To be quite honest, it is one of the most intensely gratifying things in the world to watch my BMI and weight steadily drop just by spending thirty minutes a day playing around on the Wii Fit.
For someone who has never been truly active on a regular basis, I don't think I could have any better motivator.
That being said, my thighs hurt like a beach.

Ever since my father downloaded all of the Electric Light Orchestra albums off of iTunes, I can't get enough of them. It reminds me of when he played them when I was a little kid. ELO, Barenaked Ladies, Dave Matthews Band, and Mussorgsky-- not to mention the 300+ albums we have back in the storage room. Thank god for iPods.

You know, this house has gotten much more stylish since I've taken an active hand in decorating. I'm not trying to be facetious, but seriously. Mum doesn't have much taste or patience for changing colors with the seasons. The all-out wood floors help, of course, as well.
The green tablecloth for the dining room is definitely my favourite.

ETA: Happy 16th birthday, Jane-o.

*deep breath*

So I'm reading Twilight.
Well, re-reading. I read it when it first came out a couple of years ago, but I didn't like it enough to pick up any of the other books or see the movie until I was forced to.

Thanks to dear old Abbey, I got to see the film in all of its bad camera technique, shitty dialogue, and "let's stare at each other to ambient music" glory.
Ugh.
It's saving grace, obviously, would be Robert Pattinson's undeniable hottness.

After seeing the atrocity, I said to myself, "I don't remember the book being this awful... maybe I should go back and see what the movie missed."

And here I am, cringing through stilted first-person narration and descriptions best left to Nora Roberts-style romances and trying to figure out the lack of time transitions.
"I couldn't believe the rush of emotion pulsing through me-- just because he'd happened to look at me for the first time in a half-dozen weeks."
...What? Last I read, it was days after he randomly saves her from being squashed by a van.
And THEN he starts getting in her face as if they've been friends forever.
I don't care that the novel is supposed to be fantasy, relationships with at least one human in them don't work that way.

HOW IS THIS WOMAN MAKING SO MUCH MONEY?!
And don't even get me started on the comparisons to JK Rowling.
Plot? Unoriginal and lacking in movement.
Character development? Nonexistent, unless you count Edward's increasingly stalkerish behaviour.
Subtlety? The entire damn thing is given away by the back cover. Not to mention the overly-obvious foreshadowing.

I never thought I would say this, but the film is better than the book.
That's one hell of a lot coming from me.

You know, it almost makes me think of fanfiction tweens would have written for Anne Rice's vampire novels, had she not specifically requested against it.
And I'm only on page 133.

/rant

So I'm sitting in Panera [yay Panera!] trying and epically failing to finish my power point for AP Biology. I hate power points.

To my mild distraction, Tyler [epic procrastinator and usual partner-in-crime] mentioned something about GreatestJournal, which reminded me of LiveJournal [which is epically superior anyway,] so now I'm here posting instead of working.

And I just used the word "epic" and its derivatives three times in three sentences.
Where the hell did my vocabulary go?

Anyway. I am discovering just how interesting chlorophyta are thanks to this. At least I plan to be a natural sciences major...

Speaking of! I finally decided on Ohio Wesleyan for sure, so Miami University can pretty much suck it. I don't care about the money... I'd rather be in debt than hate four years of my life. Other than the newness and prettiness of campus, it sucked. Entirely.

Which brings me to the point of applying for housing and sending letters of decline everywhere else. How exhilarating. Just kidding.

Stupid hypocritical Tyler. Reading old emails and hating on me for updating my livejournal is unnecessary.

Oh well.

P.S.: I'm going to West Side Story on Friday night, if anyone else is going and would like to meet up?

Ever have one of those weekends where life comes at you at 100 miles per hour?
I just had one of those.
Wow.

You'll have to excuse my subject jumping... I'm a little ADD today.

So, the weather here is fantastical and makes me want to run around barefoot in the grass, even though I would probably sink up to my ankles in muck.
Worth it, I would think.

I've noticed lately, perhaps because of spring, that I'm slightly envious of people who hold hands. I want to hold hands with someone.
/whining.

Also; new Potter trailer = sex on a stick. Just throwing that out there.

On a completely different note, I'm finally playing Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii, and besides the whole "let us please pull you around by the nose so you actually finish the game, you child" thing, it's actually a rather enjoyable game. The graphics kind of suck on my television, but that's to be expected. It is Nintendo.
I can't help feeling like an idiot every time I swing a Wii-mote around, though...

Last weekend, I went to Ohio Wesleyan for some scholars weekend thing, which was neato. I came THIS close to playing with lab rats, but the rest of the neurobiology group was too squeamish. Pshh. I was also invited by the Honors Zoology professor to join him and the Ornithology Lab students for breakfast at 6am. Considering I wasn't even in my sleeping bag until one, I skipped out on that. I rather like it there, altogether.

Oh! And I'm in pit for Peter Pan [probably one of THE lamest shows I have ever seen], which is mildly exciting. . So yay.

What's new?

Sweet Jesus.
October 2007? Hiatus much?

Anyway.
I'm not in the mood to give a run-down of my life in the past year and few months, but I guess everything's going alright.

But I think I'll start using this again, perhaps.
Especially since facebook has been consuming my SOUL recently.
Damn this thing needs a revamp.
*cracks knuckles*

I promise I'll have something nice and interesting for this next time, ahahah.