Flo Rida

Tomorrow. The day. I'm going to Florida.

Fun.

I'm actually (surprise!) very exciting. EXTREMELY excited. CANNOT CONTAIN EXCITEMENT ANY LONGER: WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AWESOME FUN CLASS TRIP OF AMAZINGNES!!

...I'm ok now :)

...Well, as ok as I ever was ;)

I'll be back in touch [hopefully] when I get back. On Friday. FROM FLORIDA. YES. Oh yeah and Vaughn's in town. Good times :D

It's Been...Except

It's been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry
Five days since you laughed at me saying
"Get that together come back and see me"
Three days since the living room
I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you
Yesterday you'd forgiven me
but it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry

Hold it now and watch the hoodwink
As I make you stop, think
You'll think you're looking at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss
I like the sushi
'cause it's never touched a frying pan
Hot like wasabe when I bust rhymes
Big like LeAnn Rimes
Because I'm all about value
Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits
You try to match wits, you try to hold me but I bust through
Gonna make a break and take a fake
I'd like a stinkin achin shake
I like vanilla, it's the finest of the flavours
Gotta see the show, cause then you'll know
The vertigo is gonna grow
Cause it's so dangerous,
you'll have to sign a waiver

How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean?
Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of taking off my shirt

It's been one week since you looked at me
Threw your arms in the air
and said "You're crazy"
Five days since you tackled me
I've still got the rug burns on both my knees
It's been three days since the afternoon
You realized it's not my fault
not a moment too soon
Yesterday you'd forgiven me
And now I sit back and wait til you say you're sorry

Chickity China the Chinese chicken
You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'
Watchin' X-Files with no lights on
We're dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Man's in this one
Like Harrison Ford I'm getting frantic
Like Sting I'm tantric
Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy

Like Kurasawa I make mad films
Okay, I don't make films
But if I did they'd have a Samurai
Gonna get a set a' better clubs
Gonna find the kind with tiny nubs
Just so my irons aren't always flying off the back-swing
Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon
'Cause the cartoon has got the boom anime babes
That make me think the wrong thing

How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad
Tryin' hard not to smile though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean?
Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of losing my shirt

It's been one week since you looked at me
Dropped your arms to your sides
and said "I'm sorry"
Five days since I laughed at you and said
"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"
Three days since the living room
We realized we're both to blame,
but what could we do?
Yesterday you just smiled at me
Cause it'll still be two days till we say we're sorry

It'll still be two days till we say we're sorry
It'll still be two days till we say we're sorry
Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie

--

I love that song (One Week by Barenaked Ladies)! Except...it's been 12 days.
Spring break started! WOOOO! Except...I've been sick.
Andrew and Vicki are in DC! Except...I haven't seen them yet.
I finally updated! Except...it's a huge post.
Life's good!

...Bet ya thought I was gonna say Except... ;)

Alice

I saw my school's play last night, Alice. It's a creepy version of Alice in Wonderland with some comedy. It was so awesome to see my friends, who have been rehearsing for hours a day for the past month or two, finally perform. IT WAS AMAZING. I think I'm going back tonight to see it again. Everything really was that good: script, acting, costumes, makeup, set, casting, EVERYTHING. Pure magical genius.


UPDATE: I walked over a mile in the rain to see Alice again. I was too late, so I had to kill time outside for 45 minutes alone. I missed the first act, but the second was amazing. The actors, some of them my good friends, are really good! :)

Reality is Fear

No Country For Old Men
Scariest movie I have ever seen
It's reality is what is scary:
There is no music. You can hear every sound. The plot is slow, like life. He will get you.

Terrifying, amazing.
No Country For Old Men

FREE HUGS, Christmas, Huge Life Dump!

Ok so my last post didn't go so well...it was boring. So here's an interesting one! AFTER SO LONG @_@

So anyway Vaughn is probably like the coolest person on Earth. He had the best idea ever on a boring Saturday!

Part 1 - Give this stuff out:



They're "Happy Holidays" cards with money inside :)

Part 2 - GIVE FREE HUGS DOWNTOWN ON THE MALL






Vaughn told me he got well over 80 hugs from complete strangers and ended up in quite a few pictures. At one point a group came and got a picture, and then some other guy gave him a hug. The guy then proceeded to move toward one of the tourist group members, so Vaughn quickly called out "HUGS ALL AROUND!" and so then everyone nearby, about 20 or 30 people, hugged each other. Simply amazing.

Later that night, while he was in Dupont Circle, a teenager approached him. He came up and introduced himself as Zack. Vaughn described him as looking nice and about 15 or 16. He told him that he'd had a big fight with his parents so he was running away. Zack asked about Dupont Circle at night. Vaughn told me he was thinking "No, not at all. It's cold, lonely, and dangerous." Zack asked if he knew a place where he could stay; Vaughn said he didn't. So he bought Zack dinner from Subway and called the St. Luke's Homeless Shelter to pick him up and take him somewhere warm.
SUCH A KIND, AWESOME BROTHER!


Let's see, how about now I talk about Christmas-ITWASAMAZING!

Christmas Eve:
Spanish family came over for most of the day, and my grandparents from Florida came up :)
I completely forgot how FUN AND COOL they are! So we spent most of the day with them. Then we went to a service at the church that Chloe (cousin, 14), Nicole (cousin, 6), and I all participated in a little. That was kind of fun...but the real fun was AFTER!

After the church service, all our family came back home and the cousins, Vaughn, and I played Rock Band for a little while. Then a nice young lady from church came and joined us for dinner. Then the church's master (lol, she knows everything and it's like her second home) came and joined us too! So we had 10 family members and 2 church members over for our EXCELLENT DINNER OF PANCAKES, my favorite food!! :D


CHRISTMAS:
Ah, Christmas. We (all family minus Spaniards, who are staying in my other gparents' house) all woke up and quickly wrapped all our gifts (heh, we fail, especially me :P). Then we went down and did our stockings, which is a big deal for my mother's side of the family. That was really fun. Then we had a light breakfast and proceeded to gifts. Originally, the Spaniards were going to join us but decided not to. So the 8 of us opened all our gifts. Here's a list of the wonderful things I got:

AN ELECTRIC GUITAR AND AN AMP! YEEEEEEEEEEES AMAZING AND UNEXPECTED
A nice shirt and pants
6 pairs of awesome socks
Portable iPod speakers
The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS game)
Electric razor :P
Assorted food/candy in stocking

Really good loot this year! (Heh..I love using the word loot - thanks to Calvin and Hobbes!) After presents, the Spaniards came, and we had our Christmas lunch (not dinner lol) with another church friend. Then we all went on a short walk! AFTER alll that, everyone went home except for the gparents, and I went upstairs and tuned my guitar and played around...

Today (well now it's yesterday):
Today my Uncle Mark, Chloe, Vaughn, and I went downtown to the National Geographic building (museum?). We went through a really cool whale exhibit and then took some NICE pictures in the courtyard-area. Check out my Facebook for those pictures and more. Then we went into Georgetown to let Chloe look in all the shops and plan for her trip down there with her mother (who has the shopping $$). THEN we all went to see Marley & Me, which was really good. But it was SAAAAD. So many people were crying, especially little Nicole. She just couldn't stop. Honestly, I almost did. Marley and Major are both labs, just Marley is white. But they looked alike! So it was VERY SAD to watch near the end. I had to bite down hard on my tongue. And I know anyone who doesn't know me would be tempted to say I'm soft, or weak, or whatever else, but you're wrong. If you've ever had a dog, or still have one, this will get you. I swear, you'd have to be heartless not to react at all. But anyway...good movie, even better book. Read the book then see the movie!


SO THAT'S BEEN MY LIFE FOR THE PAST TIME :D
I really don't have much to say except I really need to learn Spanish! I want to understand and speak to my family in Spanish! I REALLY DO! :)


MERRY TIME AFTER CHRISTMAS AND
HAPPY ALMOST SORT OF NEW YEAR!

Hooooo boy

Oh my. I think I've done it again. I just don't have time to post as often...

So what have I been up to? Uh...well...Oh!
I came up to Pittsburgh as you all know! That was fun. Let's do that again sometime :)

I'm trying to convince my parents to take me up to Sewickley for Semi, but, sadly, I don't really think that will happen.


I went to a sweet 16 on Friday from 7:30 to midnight. It was this awesome dance party - lots of fun! Some of you have already been Facebook stalking me and have seen the pictures...*shudder* It was really cool though because it was a Devils/Angels themed party, so I went out and got this slick white tie. I'll put pictures up as soon as I get them from my brother...


In other news, my personal project is going pretty well. For those of you who have forgotten (like I would have), the personal project is a long-term interest-based project. For example, mine is learning to paint, and I've been working on it for the past three months. Most of the other students have been working on theirs through the summer.
I've gotten a decent amount of work done, so I'm happy. Would you like to see pictures of what I've done, or is that unimportant?


Hm...Oh. Well, I got a new iPod too. I had birthday money that I felt I should spend. Considering that everything else I wanted to buy, my mom told me "Your relatives are going to be asking about Christmas soon. What should I tell them", a new Nano was the only logical choice (Wow, I've successfully made it sound like I HAD to buy something and that there was this long drawn-out process!)...I really like it. It's shiny and red and it plays music! Haha, that's good enough for me ;)
But yeah, you can read about the new Nanos on Apple's website or Wikipedia. I really don't feel like writing it, heh...

And speaking of Apple and music, I found an iTunes gift card in a pile of already used cards that I for some reason kept. Lucky me! Haha...


Uh, let's see. What else is there...Heh, I really love being able to write in colloquial (everyday) language here. It makes life so much more enjoyable.

[GARRET used Colloquial Language!]
[GARRET's Quality of Life rose greatly!]

Haha...yeah...now I feel lame.
...Too bad :)


Ah. I'm back to the age-old question: What instrument do I want to play?
For a while I've thought the guitar, or preferably the bass guitar, would be that magic instrument. Now I'm having second thoughts...maybe I should pick the piano back up? Or how about I learn something completely CRAZY! But that would mess with my logic: the reason why I'm unsure about the bass guitar is because the kind of people who play it do not equal my persona. But I still think I should play it!

H'ok, moving on. Tomorrow is our last day of school! Then we have break which means...THANKSGIVING! I think this is the first time I've ever been EXCITED for Thanksgiving - and it has nothing to do with no school!...well, maybe partly...
I think it's because I keep seeing ads on TV with good Thanksgiving turkey, and now I want some OM NOM NOM


Hm...Haha, I watched the second half of The Santa Clause on the Disney Channel the other day. Then when it ended I watched last 2/3rds of The Karate Kid, Part II. Very good movie. Lemme give a quick rundown on why it's such a great movie:
It's not cheesy.
The fighting may not seem so real, but it's definitely serious. (i.e. people actually appear hurt, no one's a superhuman, etc.)
No one is all good or all bad.
It's set in Okinawa, Japan.
The music for the calmer scenes is well-composed.

The movie portrays love in a way lost to our society: in the 2/3rds I watched, there was one kiss (I think it may have been interrupted just before, though). Romance did not mean physical attraction or sex. It meant wanting to spend time with that person and wanting to protect them.

That's what I call a quality movie. That's just my opinion; to each his own.


What else is there to talk about...hm. Well. Here's a message for each of you who reads this.

Tom: Keep talking to me. It's fun and it keeps me away from homework.

Krista: I haven't talked to you in so long! We should totally have a late night/early morning chat while I'm supposed to be doing a project! Haha...do we dare try to name all 150 Pokemon again? HAHAHA YES

Alex: ALEX YOUR HAIR IS AWESOME

Chrissy: I'm still in shock that you read my WHOLE BLOG in one night! Haha we hardly talk...ah well, we will sometime. :P

Timmy: Are you still in Spain? How is it? Hope you're having an awesome year.



Have a nice day. - Bon Jovi

HOLY XIZOR!

It's been over two weeks! I'm so sorry I've put you all to tears from boredom! I know you count on this blog to actually enjoy life, so I'M SORRY! YOUR POOR PEOPLE!
Well, thank goodness! I have come to resuscitate you with my lovely, exciting life! And it has been indeed exciting...

PSAT
Too easy.

HOMECOMING

Amazing. After school there were 3 games: Varsity Volleyball and the Varsity soccer teams. That was really exciting. If you check Facebook soon (Krista, GET A FACEBOOK FOR ME!), I *may* change my picture to one from after the games. So I've discovered it's actually very fun and entertaining to go to soccer games after school. Here, people actually want to go to games. At Sewickley I never got that feeling, but whatever, I don't like comparing.

After the games there was a free dance at 7:00. It was lots of fun, too! I was one of the earliest people there (most people didn't come till after 7:30 or 8:00, poop on them), and at first it was kind of boring. As people started to arrive, all the guys (except me and the other new guys X[) clumped together against a back wall. Every five minutes you would look over and see them at the other side of the wall. Then another five minutes and they were back to their starting place. In short: they wouldn't dance. I'm just too cool to clump and not dance ;)

After a while about 85% of the 10th graders made a giant, amoeba-like blob and slowly began dancing. The other 15% either didn't dance or was cool - the cool group was where I was. We were the ones who legit enjoyed ourselves and had a lot of fun. Too bad about the other guys... >)_>)

Anyway, to wrap this up, Homecoming was really great. I gave up on having no life and did something with myself. And to think I wasn't going to go ;)

SCHOOL

School's been going pretty well. Last week was pretty rough, though. Monday was a major history test that I needed to do well on (and sort of did...better than last time). Tuesday I had two English projects due and I was supposed to have a math test. Our math teacher is so cool, though, that he postponed the test because (he's the coach) the Girls Varsity soccer team won! SO that was pushed back until Thursday or Friday. On the topic of test dates, I've found a lot of teachers, if there's a test date issue with part of the class, will give you a choice between two days. That means that each one of us can pick when we want to take the test, not just as a whole class. Pretty cool, pretty cool. :) So I took that math test Friday, Halloween, and I'm 99% sure I got EVERYTHING RIGHT. I checked my work, plugged things back in, all that. I think I got a perfect. But that was just part of my Halloween... ;}


THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER

Friday. Friday Friday Friday. Haaaaalloween. Costume and candy day. Friday, Halloween.


I painted my costume Thursday night. Friday was showtime. As my mother drove the van up the drive to the school, I saw that no one was dressed up - I was. Crap. Crap crap crap. Hooooly Xizor. What do I do if I'm somehow mistaken? What if no one dressed up?
But they had to. People were telling me what they were going to dress up as. But-But maybe they meant for tonight! Crap, what do I do?
Oh wait! Someone said she wasn't wearing her costume to school so I wouldn't see it. It sounded like she meant too bad I can't! Oh...maybe she didn't mean that! Maybe...maybe she meant she wasn't GOING to! CRAAAAAP!

We arrived at the top of the drive. Still no one dressed up. SHIZZZNNIIIT. WHAT DO I DO. I had a change of clothes, but I still wasn't sure. I get out of the car and the traffic guy (or whatever he is) kind of half-smiled, half-laughed. OH MY GOODNESS WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! Well, my mom had told me earlier "Rock that costume!", so I guess that's all I can do!...right?

As I walked to the building with our lockers (the Carriage House), STILL no one had a costume on. I should have known...I turned toward the door nervous as heck to be the only one who dressed up. As I got closer, I could see through the glass - people had costumes! I opened the door and saw down the hallway on either side people who had dressed up. Hooray! Immediately people reacted to my costume too: "Cool!" "Wow Wally! Nice costume!" "Wallace, that's so cool!" "Dude, he's got some comic book action going on!"

SWEET. TOTAL SUCCESS. I really did rock that costume! Not once for the rest of the day did I feel self-conscious about wearing it - skillzzzz. Now one sec, lemme go get my dad's camera and take those pictures off of it...brb

Here they are!






I AM TWO-FACE.

If you're wondering how I did that, I painted an old suit ;)
So I totally rocked the costume. Then I rocked out.


COLDPLAY

I went to the Coldplay concert on Halloween. It was amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, and all I can really say is that it was so much fun. You know, it's kind of hard to describe concerts, isn't it? What can you say? You really just had to be there...



So as you can see, life really is interesting. Worth living, isn't it. ;)

Oh, and look up Xizor, why don't you. :]

Thank you all for your lovely comments!


When Plans Fall Down.
--It was 12:30, or 1:00, or later, or something. I don't know the time, but it was late. The door opened, but I remained still. My vision was hazy at best, and it was dark. A figure appeared in the doorway. A strained, tired, eerily cheerful voice softly called out, "Garret. Garret." What do they want? What could they possibly want to do now? Please just leave me alone!
But that's not how they work. They get what they want - there are almost no conditions.
"Look who's here for you."
A new silhouette appears, close to the cold bed. It isn't one of the regulars, not like the old man who sometimes comes. Who is it?
As I look up, something strikes me about his head, and it clicks in mine.
Curly hair - Vaughn!
Vaughn came down to visit! YES! I thought Mom was waking me up so dad could say goodnight, but this is much better.
I had talked to Vaughn a couple hours before, and he told me how he has almost a week of no classes. When I asked what he was going to do, he said he'd be biking and crap. I found out the next morning he meant biking in DC.--

Vaughn drove 4 hours on Friday starting at like 9:00 to come down to DC. Pure awesomeness. He stayed through Wednesday, which was great. It was even better because it was a surprise visit!
And then my grandparents came too! So everyone was in DC! Tons of fun.


Quand il pleut la musique sort and quand il pleut la musique vient aussi

Je trouve que quand il pleut, je ne pense plus de la musique. Il n y'en a plus. Il sort. J'entends beaucoup la pluie et je l'aime. C'est presque impossible, ou peut-être vraiment impossible d'écouter mon iPod. Quand il pleut, il y a une autre musique dans le ciel. Vous le savez? Cette musique vous arrive aussi? Je vient de trouver ce phénomène...


DC

DC is one of the best cities and one of the worst cities. You can understand partly why DC is great; there's so much to do! There are monuments, museums, the Metro, buses to ride, places to go! But there's more. There's diversity, culture, places to eat, small shops to visit, livability, there's life.

But DC has a bad side. I'm not talking about the crime or the homeless. I'm talking about what some people have to do to live here. Children start going to daycare at outrageously young ages. Both parents have to work so much. There are more people with nannies than with dogs. There are probably a large number of people, foreigners especially, who do not fully understand how everything works in DC. Life in DC for many people is very stressful and full of work, and their children are raised by teachers and nannies. I find that kind of sad.


Pens-Caps at Pittsburgh

So I actually watched the Penguins-Capitals game the other night. The Pens were destroying the Caps 3-0 for most of the game, but then what happened? The Caps totally came back and tied the score. Then, as the game was nearing its end, there was a tricky shot made by the Caps. It went toward the net but shot back out so quickly it was unclear what happened. The shot went into review. It turns out it didn't hit the outer post (like some were hoping), but that it actually hit the post in the middle of the goal. Tricky. It counted, and the Caps won 4-3. Hmm.

What I can't decide is if that's good or bad. I live in DC, but I used to live in Pittsburgh. I never really got excited about the Pens until the end, but then again I'm not really thrilled by the Caps yet either...Who do I like?

PSAT & Homecoming

I take the practice PSAT tomorrow morning at 8:15. Three hours of testing. UGH. But that then leads to...homecoming! I wasn't originally going to go, but now I am. Should be pretty fun, but the last dance I went to (Semi) sucked. So we'll see. Although a dance at this school might actually be ok.


Aiyaaah! One mooore thing!

Last thing, I promise. Well, no I don't. Uh...nevermind then.
So I stayed after school and watched a WIS soccer (I actually prefer calling it football though) match. I actually ended up enjoying it. Good for me, right? The reason why I bothered writing this is because I don't think I've EVER gone to a school game at any school, unless I was in it or it was my brother's. What I mean is I've never been to a game just to go to it and have fun. I'm so lame...it's kind of sad. But I've discovered that *gasp* they're actually quite fun. I want to go to the next one! Hooray...


Well, that's all folks! I'll have more after the practice PSAT and homecoming tomorrow, but it might be Sunday. We'll see what happens.
Goodbye, world.

New, Second Blog; ETC

I'm thinking about creating a secondary blog for "Where Plans Fall Down". How does that sound? I may also start putting up other things too. It might just turn into literary arts blog, or whatever the hell it would be called without sounding too uptight and crappy.

My thoughts on this:
1) I'm often unsure whether I want to update WPFD or write a normal blog post. This solves that.
2) Distinguishes types of posts more easily.
3) Allows for more creativity and other mediums.
4) Motivates me to update both and continue drawing?
5) I don't have to update WPFD as much if it's secondary. (I'm a lazy ass)

Sound good? Lemme know.


I got a really low grade on my history test. Maybe I should have studied...

I'm watching Iron Man again tonight! Turns out Giant (note: not Giant Eagle) has the RedBox DVD stuff too. I have a strange feeling the companies are related.


I need a direction in my life SORTA! I need to find an instrument, a sport, a club, an activity, a something that I actually do with my life. Lemme play some of my ideas off of my lovely audience of 3 people +/- 1 person (uncertainty).

Instrument: I could always pick up the piano again, we'll see.
Guitar
BASS guitar

Sport: This is going to be much more difficult; not because I can't play sports, but because I haven't in a couple years. Dammit SciOly and SA!
I'm thinking basketball, preferably JV. And that's it.

EDIT: NOT QUITE! Some martial art would be great too! :)

Club: I'm already in the lit. arts magazine club, Page. Good enough.

Activity: Seriously, what the f- else is there besides these? If you can think of something, hoorah for you. I guess a hobby would count, but it seems I have enough of those, especially those that don't go anywhere (drawing, blogging, thinking of ideas I never go through with)


Damn I suddenly want something with duck sauce. Why does this happen to hungry, growing children?!

Well anyway, I hope no one minds if I start saying damn or dammit some now. This post was a little damn-heavy, sorry. I'm just saying for general use (I feel so b-b-b-b-b-bad now)...


Well I really should move on with my life...oh wait. Blogging IS my life. Crap. Time to get married? That would really give me a life fast...O_O

Whatevs, screw it. G'night world, g'day Australia.

(Baa Neigh [Yaweh {Yeah}])

You learned your native language from its home country. You were born and raised there, but you've come here. Will you always be better? Will I never be as good as you?
Doesn't anybody know?...


Anyway...Moving on from disheartening questions about language...Here's another question, and it has a preamble to it.

I thought of something randomly the other day; Marked Invasion. There currently is no definition for "marked invasion" other than a possibly-existing medical def'n. Now, I want it to mean something. So tell me, what do YOU think a "marked invasion" is/means? I'm curious to hear your thoughts!

POO. So Sports Day was postponed until spring due to "construction" or some load of Xizor like that. We can't have Sports Day on the field, no, but every PE class can have class out there! STUPID SPORTS DAY POSTPONEMENT DECIDERS! Gah! And I even bought a pink shirt for it (I think I'll put it on and take a picture for you all since "krista" [if that is his real name] wants me to...)! But whatever. Spring *might* be better. Might.


So would more "Where Plans Fall Down" be welcome? If it would be, I'll write more. I've already got ideas churning at the hands of the Amish boy in my head. Just say the word.