There are many things to tell! You've missed a lot over the past couple of unupdated days. Actually, you've missed maybe three things. And whether you care or not -- doubtful. Git ready (riddy?) for some bad narrative -- and caesuras -- (or caesurae?) -- !
I) I met a new person at my school on Wednesday during lunch -- amazing because occurences of THIS sort never, never, never, ever, ever .. um, occur. Denise and I were dining on one (of two) of the splintered, damp (from previous rains, possibly from something else too) picnic tables outside the cafeteria. A girl whom I've seen before but with whom I've never made any sort of contact (nor do I know anyone who does) asks to sit down with us, and we say 'of course' because we're good peoples. Denise and I continue to talk but we're trying to look for opportunities to get involved with a table-wide (three-person) conversation. Luckily for us, a helicopter lands in the school baseball field and the kids at the other picnic table start to say something about someone at school being electrocuted. It is nice when conversation topics just fall out of the sky like that (or run up and down through electrical currents, as it were).
Moving on: the conversation follows a natural progression / ebb&flow of idle chatter topics (electrocution, school salads, living 20 minutes away from school, etc.). Somehow along the way she mentions that she'll be going to college this August, and it so happens to be a university in Kingston. She's going to study astrophysics, and I say "Whooaaa that sounds haaaarrrd" [I do speak like a moron, but .. really, it does sound hard] but she tells me it's just a mashing together of, well, astronomy and physics (which sounds very appealing to me, actually), and you don't need any sort of background in the subject at the university she will attend, "because they have a grade 13 up there and they'll let me in." One of the rusty, dull-toothed gears that makes up my brain suddenly turns, and I exclaim, "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, Kingston ONTARIO!" Then I go into my usual spiel about how I used to live in Ottawa, and she says, "I did too! Well, I lived in Orleans, but --" and I say, "MY FRIEND LIVED IN ORLEANS!" and it turns out that we missed crossing paths by a year (I was from 1996-1998, she from 1989-1995). And her whole family is Canadian.
Then, as lunch ends, we all walk back into the building, and I finally say, "OK, and what is your name?" And -- I found this to be amazing -- her name is Jolene. JOLENE! Like the famed "best friend [Patrick Pentland] ever had" on track 4 of 'Between the Bridges', and it is so silly because I used to sing that song all the time and wish my name was Jolene. I had never known a Jolene before and now I do, somewhat. And she is Canadian, no less. And I had been talking about Sloan at the picnic table in the little interim period after she sat down but before we started talking. As my mother would say absently, "Wahhhow." But this was definitely the best thing that happened on Wednesday.
II) There are history class notes covering up about 100 square feet of floor in my room. I am not good with guesstimating distances, nor am I good at taking AP US History exams, but I DID BOTH TODAY. My studying methods involved shuffling my papers into different piles, attempting (and failing) to record myself reading my notes onto a cassette tape [so I could listen to the tape while I slept .. I love lazy learning], reclaiming my title of "TETRIS QUEEN" [see my brother's latest download aka the ~*~real~*~ death of my ability to study on the computer] and saying to myself, "Screw it, I am getting a goddamn good night's sleep even if it kills me." So I took a practice exam, scored myself while half-asleep (ooh dirty dirty second meaning), then went to sleep. And woke up. And ate a wretched and vomity Hot Pocket, but I was in a mysteriously good mood.
I got there relatively early, so I claimed a seat in the cafeteria that actually had a back to its chair (heh). I stood around and quietly affirmed other's gripes and fears; Nick was really nervous. Haha he is so nice. [I don't know why I 'laughed' just now. Nervousness, I suppose.]
The test itself? .. hm. Well, I'm not supposed to discuss this, so I will only disclose EVERYTHING. Actually, I don't remember too much, but here's a handy overview:
- 80-multiple-choice questions (55 minutes): um. Half-and-half, maybe. Some I had NO idea (you know that era of presidents that no one in America knows about?), so I omitted several, but I tried to answer the ones for which I could eliminate one answer. Usually I get those ones wrong, but ah well. There was also a really unexpected and thankfully easy question regarding "Four Marilyns," but afterward this one kid said, "I thought Andy Warhol was a racecar driver!" and that was quite humorous.
-DBQ essay (15 minutes preparation, 45 minutes writing): I TURNED THIS MOTHER OUT. I was so sure that it would be horrible and end up in flames, but it did not.
-2 Free-Response essays (5 minutes preparation and 35 minutes writing each): complete crap. But who gives a flip, right?
An 'irregularity' *did* occur during the test, however -- midway through a sentence in the middle of my DBQ essay, the fire alarm went off and people screamed. Hah. It was great and possibly-not-great at the same time: in the name of "stickin' it to the AP 'Man'," it was wonderful, but the possibility of having our scores invalidated was kind of shitty. I wasn't freaking out about it as others were, but I still don't want to have to do the thing over again. History belongs in the past, right?
Believe it or not, there are days when I really love history. Then there are other days. Maybe I will take up astrophysics.
III) I forget the third one. What a letdown, eh?