#election2012

I'm not much of a tweeter but on presidential debate nights and especially tonight, I love twitter!!! Most of what I enjoy are the jokes (I had a good time scrolling through "binders full of women" comments) but it's also really useful when your parents send you up to your bedroom to do homework but statistics isn't as interesting as the leader of the free world.

On top of all that twitter, this is the first election when I really know what's going on. In 2008, I was an 8th grader, vague about issues and taking in all of my information from The Daily Show. Now, I'm 5 months away from being an adult (GAHHHH!!!! I want to vote!!) and because I drive myself to school, I got a dose of NPR almost every morning. I really care this time about the issues and the outcome of the election.

I'm not sure what time this will post as but it's 10:35 PM and I am getting really anxious about the Congressional campaigns. People always wonder why voting matters because there are 300+ million people in this country and one vote won't make Obama or Romney win but WHAT ABOUT THE LOCAL ELECTIONS!?! Those are so important for deciding how Congress votes, state legislature, state Supreme Court, gerrymander, and so much more!! Voting shows candidates the proportion of how many citizens believe in certain causes— why else would someone vote for a third party candidate? Do they really think that Jill Stein will be come president? No! They vote for her to show that they care about the environment, social causes, and peace!

Anyway.... I actually do have to get that statistics done so I'll have to leave but there will definitely be an election reaction post. Maybe not definitely. I'll at least write it in my head.

Yay Elizabeth Warren!

It's Halloween (but not yet)

I felt the need to share the most hilarious video in the world...

I love Molly and Shamikah (the two girls in the video) so much and I'm fairly certain I've seen all of them but this one has to be my favorite. The relevance! The honesty! The costumes! It's 100% fantastic and necessary for everyone to watch and share.

Also, I'm having a Halloween problem! I usually decide my costume during the first week of November of the previous year (because I'm that into costumes) and last year, I decided that I would be Frida Kahlo because I already have the dark hair and I could have the unibrow and mustache if I let everything grow out but now I'm seeing that costume everywhere! While I don't want my Halloween plans to be destroyed by blogs and videos, I also don't want to go the easy way out and pick such as obvious costume.

Another thing, my plan B was a Cluelessesque outfit decked with plaid, crop tops, and knee socks but now that's all over R29 and TMR too! (girl problems) And I can't just have a boring costume... I've gone so long without buying a costume and there is absolutely no chance that I'm going to start now.

The Most Hilarious Thing That Happened to Me Today

As you may be able to guess, high school isn't very funny. It can be fun and interesting, as I think a lot of my classes are, but I don't find myself laughing out loud on a daily basis. Today after school, I had one of those rare hilarious moments when I was working on graphics for my school's newspaper. I was in the newspaper room (a glorified closet lined with computers on one side and a whiteboard on the other) when my friend and I, the paper's Managing Editor, decided that the keyboards are too gross for use. To give a bit of context, we use iMacs meaning that the keys are supposed to be pure white but after years of grubby fingers clacking away at them, the keys are more or less all turned a grayish beige. Ew.

We told a junior who was in the room to go into a teacher's room (not some random room, she is the paper's teacher advisor) and get some disinfectant wipes. So he did and my friend and I started cleaning each keyboard, key by key. The results were amazing— pure white and clean in minutes!

But that wasn't what made me laugh. The funny part happened after we were done.

Upon seeing the newly cleaned devices, my friend proclaimed, "they look like new!" and in response, as a wiped down one last remaining smudge, I sang "And it's like the sky is new!" from a song in the spectacular movie Tangled. As I finished the line and wiped down the last key, that song, the very song whose line I sang, started playing!!

We were both shocked. And laughing— falling over each other in disbelief. After some investigating, I saw that on the computer attached to the keyboard that I was wiping, only one song was saved onto iTunes and it happened to be "I See the Light".

It was amazing and while I sometimes blame that paper for taking up my free periods, complicating my class schedule, and giving me more stress, I cannot deny that it has gifted me with some pretty fantastic memories.... like listening to a guy at a local Blues Fest this past weekend talk about why he's a "Romney birther" while I was just trying to get people to donate money to the paper (and trying not to laugh with my fellow designer by chewing on ice while he spoke).




If you aren't obsessed with Tangled, it's because you haven't seen it. 

Cobwebs...

I don't like to mention how long it's been since I've posted something on this blog every time I do but you have to admit, it's been quite a while. Four months to be exact. One third of a year. That's insane.

In these past four months, I have spent an amazing three weeks at the Carnegie Mellon Pre-College program (which I very highly recommend), visited a few colleges, went to New Hampshire and Maine, started my senior year of high school, worked on college essays, and officially grew out my pixie cut.

A few other things have happened too but lists that are too long can get annoying. Also, I have (obviously) stopped posting my nail art on here (up until now, I've stopped posting everything!) but I have good news!! I got a nail art Tumblr and it's wonderful. I'm also still posting my nails on Instagram and that username can be found on the right side of the screen.

It feels really good to be dusting off these cobwebs and it seems fitting that this should happen in October... because of Halloween... which I am almost too excited about. Any time to dress up in a costume is a good time to me!

On a side note, I am taking Art History this year to take it and see if it might be something that I want to study in college and I love it! We've going through three chapter so far (Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Ancient Aegean) and everything that we've studied is interesting and wonderful! Eek... this reminds me that I'm going to college which will require me to plan the rest of my life to an extent. I have an idea of what I want to do but I have such a wide array of interests that I'm afraid of choosing just one or two.

Happy trails and I'm going to try to make this a regular thing.

Why Do I Do These Things to Myself?

It's (almost) funny to me that I (almost) go out of my way to alienate myself from my classmates. To give one example...

In my U.S. history class, we've finished learning everything new and my teacher loves useless assignments so we were told to create a postage stamp that features an image that represents 2000-2010. We were all assigned a letter (A, B, C, or D) and each letter corresponded with a few topics. I was given D— sports, trendsetters. or fashion. Obviously, I choose fashion because I know nothing about sports and "trendsetters" is vague.

To cut out details, I draw this picture of Karlie Kloss in Alexander McQueen from fall '09 and when I hang it up on the board with the other Ds, at least 5 people ask me what it is. And none of them know the name "Alexander McQueen".

I awkwardly present the reasoning behind my image and I make sure to keep it short because my class already thinks I'm crazy. 

The best part, someone else did fashion. And they drew the logos for Hollister, Abercrombie, and Uggs. I'm glad to see we're all on the same page (sarcasm). 

Promblem Solved!

I feel like I should have written this a while ago because things have been fine for over a week. Well, long story short, I ended up asking a sophomore who I have a couple of classes with to prom and I think it's going to be a fun night. All of my friends have dates so I didn't want to go without one and I'm glad that I didn't let one of my friends set me up with a stranger. The only downside to prom is that now, I'm organizing the limo and the pre-prom pictures.

Problems with the limo: I had to have long conversations with multiple limo companies, people keep going back and forth between wanting and not wanting the limo, some people are still complaining about the limo price even though one of my friends and I negotiated the price to about 50% of the price listed on the website, I have to bother people about paying their share because the entire thing was purchased on my dad's credit cart and there is no way they're getting out of paying!

Problems with pictures: there are going to be about 30 kids at my house, not all of whom I really know, at my house on Saturday. Now, I really don't care that friends have asked to invite their friends that have nowhere to go but I do care that some people are complaining about the size of the crowd. My philosophy: no one is gluing you to the people you don't know so there's no harm in letting a few more couples come for pictures.

Photos from Huffingtonpost.com

And one more thing, how amazing is it that so many people wore orange to the Met Gala!?! While my dress isn't very crazy, it is quite bold to show up to prom in a color that most high school girls don't go for so it really validates my superiority dress choice to see all of these ladies in that color! 

Promblems.

Woah. I have heard people talk about how stressful prom is but now that I'm a junior, I finally understand.

My dress and shoes were easy to find. I got my dress online fairly quickly and despite buying a different dress and going dress shopping with my mom about three times, that step was moderately stress free. To get my shoes, I brought my dress to the shoe department at Bloomingdale's and bought the first pair that I tried on.

These are them! I haven't finalized my accessories but I know that they will be gold and simple.

The only problem is that these are the only things that have been planned. For example, I don't have a date (and I've more or less given up on that hope) and tickets are only on sale next week. You want to know the saddest thing? I almost feel guilty about wanting a date. Maybe guilty isn't the best word... I feel like I'm betraying some false perception that people have of me. To give an example of that, a good friend of mine was shocked to hear that I want a date because I'm a feminist or something. Wow, really? 1. caring about gender equality doesn't make someone an aspiring cat lady or freak  and 2. I'm 17, it's prom, do the math. The way I wrote that brings up another problem— I'm too harsh. I am fully aware that I come off that way but I almost can't help it! ...Almost. Yes, I could stop sharing my opinions but what fun would that be? Maybe I won't get a date to prom because I like substantive discussion and I'm not afraid to stand up for what I believe in (or maybe that's totally not the reason) but at least I'm going to look great unique. I don't know where this is supposed to be going.

Also, no duh, I did my nails. I'm boring. Maybe that's why I don't have a date. And mom, if you're reading this, I don't want to go with one of your friends' sons.

Wondering why this picture is so much better than the other ones? It's because I got an iPhone!