I don't know how I blogged every single day last year. Between applying to colleges, memorizing lines, studying for the ACTs, working, canvassing for Obama, going to political rallies (AND SHAKING HIS HAND, BITCHES) updating my political blog for AP Gov, keeping up with classwork, and sleeping, I think I'm going to die.

That's all, folks.

So I was taking notes from our AP Gov book (which is actually suprisingly readable) and playing with a tiny bump on my knee. After a while it was kind of bugging me, so I just kind of absentmindedly peeled it off. Suddenly: blood.

I peeled off a tiny little wart on my knee. A wart that I never even knew I had.

WAUGH. SICK.

In other news, play practice is good for my soul even if Repke does want to slice open my soul and roast me on the fires of federalism. Future note: do not talk politics with teachers. But Shakespeare Abridged is damn fun.

"GUISE GUISE LEZ GET SUM PROPS!" ^.^

Going to bed now.

D'aww. Took a break from homework to drive to Petsmart, look for Kate (who's supposedly working today) and get their snake care info packet, and what do you know, they had a baby girl ball python. She was probably about a foot long, maybe a little longer -- she was teeny, about the size of Kate's. So the woman took her out for me and let me play with her.

I don't know why snakes have such bad reps. They have such open, interested faces; I know they smell/taste their environments but it really looks like they're examining you through sight, too, making the same connection eye-to-eye that dogs or cats do, like, Hey, who is this cool person holding and petting me? And they feel so muscular and silky in your hands. NNnnghhh I want a snake. I even decided on names: Mercutio for a boy, and then Cressida or Persephone for a girl (yay mythology. Cressida rules ^.^).

The only thing is, the pamplet said they grow to be about five feet. The woman I spoke to laughed at that. She said her uncle has had a ball python for twenty years, and he's about fifteen feet and still growing. He has his own bedroom and everything. I guess he eats a couple of rabbits or squirrels a month. ;_; Judas Priest. That's kind of.... not something that someone about to go to college should commit to.

Argh argh argh. If only they had short, quaint, tiny lives.

I should call WSU and be like Hayyyyy.... remember me? The chick you should randomly give a full-ride scholarship to, so I can actually attend your school? Is it okay if I bring a python with me?

Begged off work yesterday somehow to go to Kate's and watch two discs of Season One of Friends. Her dad and sister and mom hung out in the living room with us and watched as well - I bet we wasted five hours just chilling out. I ate most of a vat of Mac and Cheese because it was so rainy and blustery yesterday, I was just craving it. Perfect afternoon. I can't believe Jacob volunteered to cover for me. I do not pull enough weight as it is, working weekends only. But who cares? not me. I'm a lazy senior, I can do what I want :P Plus seeing Kate again was fun. We're going to be tight again this year. Wait and see.

Also have decided that I want a snake. Kate works at Petsmart now and her room has turned into a zoo - one red-and-yellow corn snake named Charlie, two baby bull pythons (Nagini and L. Maurice), and a blue-tailed lizard. (Nagini is Shea's, actually, since her parents refuse to let her have a snake... she keeps it at Kate's and buys mice as room and board.) When you consider that they also have a dog, two turtles living in their bathroom, and a bunch of fish, it's kind of mindboggling lol.

Anyway, Kate reached in and took out Nagini and let me play with her and omigod! I never knew snakes were so cuddly. Girls tend to stereotype them as creepy but they're really just like cats [and they have beautiful leopard spots but no fur ;_; SOOOoo pretty]; they snuggle in and nose you when they want attention, and when you stroke them their whole body shivers with happiness. Also the fact that Nagini was a python meant she's a squeezer; she was exploring the sleeve of my pea coat and just about broke my hand making sure she didn't fall. Kate says they're so full of personality that it's ridiculous; Charlie's a snob who can't stand anyone but Kate, Nagini is playful and really inquisitive (she likes to ride in the car, Kate says), and Maurice is shy. She also says she recommends bull pythons for a beginner snake person because they're very low maintenance; one mouse a week, a little heat lamp, and they're perfectly content, although they love people too. The only trouble is, they live like forty years, and by the end of their lives they're ENORMOUS. Pythons get like that.

I was completely sold, but Mom came by to pick me up (she wouldn't let me have the car) and freaked out. Sigh. No bull python for me. (Wonder what I would name a snake? Maybe Kennedy, or something.)

Also earlier yesterday Chris called and talked to me for a while. His ex. is breaking his heart wide open - completely threw him with a night of let's-get-together signals, and then told him it didn't mean anything and she just missed the kissy kissy. He's just devastated. So I drove out to Fruita (eeek!) and met him and Brendyn at City Market, Chocolate Haven of the Southwest, and we bought an enormous Pot of Gold box of Hershey truffles. We were going to eat them at the high school, in the courtyard maybe, but all of a sudden the clouded heavens got that much darker and it started POURING. So we stayed in the parking lot and Brendyn and Chris came over to the van and we curled up in the seats and ate chocolate (I only had two! Go me!) and listened to the rain drumming on the roof and talked.

It probably looked really random from the street, I have to admit. Two college guys and a senior parked in the midst of a huge downpour, balancing a huge crock of truffles between them. Lolz.

Oh, and my engine died while we were there. It sucked. We had to figure out how to use extension cords and everything.

I really do hate driving.

Anyway, today's been pretty dull. I've taken about twelve pages of notes on our AP Gov chapter (16 out of 20 on the quiz on Friday. ARRGH. And I had like the best score in the class.) and I'm doing laundry. Oh yes, my life is so cool.

Someone buy me a snake for Christmas.

I am getting so pumped for this convention. Hillary is speaking right now and Michelle spoke yesterday (she was dynamite! Dynamite! I defy anyone to tell me that is not our next first lady right there :D) and I'm sitting here working on my "BARACK THE HOUSE 2008" tee-shirt to wear on Thursday and my heart is just in my mouth.

Kate says we should be voting for our vice president, not our president, because McCain's going to die while in office and Obama's going to get assassinated BUT THAT IS DARK AND MORBID THINKING and I refuse to listen to her. :P I was running on the treadmill in the gym when that news story about the assassination plot came on those little  TVs, and I actually hit the Emergency Stop button and stopped and hyperventilated (I was already panting, so it wasn't hard) and put my hands over my mouth for five minutes. My mom came walking by and I was like "MOM OMFG" and she was like, Oh yeah, I  heard about that....

Hillary just finished her speech. Go Hillary!

Two dayyyys before I'm in Denver... Can you believe it?

Not much else to report except we finished our readthrough of Shakespeare Abridged and are blocking now. :) I have all the sweetest lines: mostly Adam's in Hamlet (the Ophelia bit with the cup XD) and the bit at the end where I get carried away and go, "Ladies and gentlemen, we shall do it BACKWARDS!" and everyone else gives me a deadpan. Whoot. To Carmel: "Booga booga booga!"

Oh and AP Gov sucks. And I am not an idealistic grade-obsessed democrat, thank you very much. :P 

Oh yeah, and baby!Biology REALLY sucks. I took AP CHEMISTRY last year. Fact: I know what an atom is. Also fact: I could probably teach that class in my sleep. I mean, fuck, one of these days my brain is just going to turn into sludge and ooze out of my eyeballs, I swear, and Mr. C's just going to look up and be like D: !!! 

The worst part is that everybody whines about how hard it is and how they don't understand isotopes, and I want to smush their faces against the desk and be like HARD? PAINFUL? YOU DON'T KNOW THE MEANING OF HARD AND PAINFUL. Try organic chemistry or the hydrolosis of an acid-base titration sometime. Counting the number of neutrons in an element is like roygbiv, guys. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. I poured sweat and blood into this material for eight months and you think a couple class periods gives you the right to complain??

Which makes me sound like a total brat. So I just keep my mouth shut and do my spanish homework and seethe.

I never thought I would say this, but I miss AP Chem.

I actually do.

-

I MISS it.

Isn't that scary?

So somehow I landed an internship (translation: I've been recruited for hardcore boring volunteer work) with the Obama campaign. ^___^ Lots of canvassing, phone banking, and crabby people who do not want to reveal their political affiliation or recieve literature, thank you, they'll decide later. I'm like, "What later?" Grr. I would go into detail but I have to get up early tomorrow to help Mom with her garage sale.

Yesterday: watched all three Bourne movies on AOL video (yay for highly immoral DVD rippers!) and did the Drama Club posters for senior check-in. Repke's excited for the upcoming play (RSC!! OMIGOD!!) and I would be more enthused too if he didn't keep giving me shit for my Obama Facebook activity. Grr to him too.

I can support Obama if I want. He might be a little bit socialist but that's what this country needs right now: stuff like, oh I don't know, AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE for starters. And better foreign relations. Did you know something like 12% of the U.S.'s allied countries have a positive image of the United States? Isn't that creepy? Bush totally killed our public image. The shitty thing is, no one seems to care in this part of the world. Stupid southwestern hicks.

ALSO: Flash flood warnings, Mesa County! Don't drive through the deep puddles, we've seen about five killed engines today. Again I say: stupid southwestern hicks. -_-;

I totally fail at posting right now.  Hopefully this trend kicks off when senior year starts.

Anyway, my day was kind of boring; I woke up from a bizarre Wicked dream with an insatiable hunger for fanfic, and then I googled The Talented Mr. Ripley and watched that while folding laundry. Incredibly freaky movie but with awesome cast and some well-contrived homoerotic subtext that made me snort in several places.

Scene:

Nerdy Matt Damon is playing chess with Jude Law while latter is in a bath. Matt is like, "Dude, I'm cold, can I get in?" and they look at each other for like ten minutes and Jude is like, "Uh, no." Matt fishes for something plausible and the best he can come up with is "I didn't mean with you in it." I was like, Woah you are socially awkward. Matt makes the eeriest sexy repulsive character ever.

Anyway. After that I called up Chris and talked him, Steve and Sarah into coming and seeing the new Batman movie with me. It was freaking awesome. I also brought brownies because I've owed Chris Baine Breakup Brownies for two weeks. Anyway, we sat around in the grass outside the movie theater for two hours afterwards, reliving the movie and laughing hysterically because Heath Ledger was the coolest Joker ever. His final work. Tear.

Best parts:

* "You guys wanna see a magic trick? I'm gonna make this pencil disappear." BAM. "See, it's gone!" (I went "OHSHIT" really loudly and then just started cracking up. The people next to me were pissed off royally by the end of the movie because every time something awesome happened I would swear and then start giggling. Oh, PS, if you haven't seen the movie, BAM is when the Joker slams some poor unsuspecting mobster down on the pencil and it impales him and he falls out of the shot, leaving an empty table. The Joker's all, See? I win.)
* "They're gonna need something bigger than that to break through this. Is that a bazooka?"
* the bit where Batman flips the truck completely and the Joker somehow survives, climbs out, and staggers around holding a machine gun, which goes off and knocks him over again.

I was laughing so hard through the whole thing, even though it's a friggin terrifying movie. What can I say, it's a coping mechanism.

 I don't know why we keep planning reunions with family/friends that only last two or three days--- it's not even enough time to make it feel worthwhile. The lovely ladies leave tomorrow morning and while we've done a lot, it still isn't really enough.

Let's see if I can recap events: Friday night we piled in the car with a real pizza (mmmm grease) and went up to Movie Under the Stars, which was Ratatouille (Jennie hadn't seen it, can you imagine?). Saturday the moms got up early while we sawed logs until eleven or twelve.... then Jennie and I went out for lunch at the Crystal, discussing deep philosophical issues over messy chicken salad (me) and eggs benedict (her). Shopping at Pollux yielded an adorable new navy pea coat with a sailor collar; I'm still guilttripping over it a little, but it was marked down from ninety dollars, which was too good to pass up. Also got a pair of ten-dollar bling shades.

Hello Dolly! served as evening entertainment, followed up by Mamma Mia! today, which was way better than I thought it would be! High recommendations.

I'm too tired to do any of this real justice so good night.

THEY'RE REMAKING MY FAIR LADY.

WITH KIERA KNIGHTLEY.

WHAT THE FUCK.

IS WRONG.

WITH THE WORLD.

The original movie of My Fair Lady is tied with Mona Lisa Smile for my favorite movie of all time. They can't do it better, why can't they just leave it alone????

oh my God. If I lived close enough to the people who came up with this, I would take a kitchen knife and go stab them to death right now. I'm not even lying. Maybe they'll get hit by a semi before this can happen.

I swear to God. I really want them to die. Like, swift-aneurism choking-gasping death and then the madness will end.

I went out with Kate Dusenbury to the Farmer's Market last night -- we had snowcones (banana/coconut for me, Tiger's Blood for Kate) and roamed the streets, catching up on her college trips and my work horror stories. We went into the secondhand bookstore for a moment and ran into - guess who! Joel, our old Diversity Club leader. He's a bleach boy now, with piercings everywhere, and radiated foofiness despite the fact that we only talked to him for like five minutes. XD I love hilarious gay guys who inadvertently pop balloons while they talk. They are magnificent.

After that we were going to a park to randomly look for four-leaf clovers, but on our way over - blasting "96,000," might I add ;) - Kate got a huge blowout flat and so we fled the intersection we were at, miraculously surviving turning out of the wrong turn lane. Her dad eventually came and rescued us but it was an interesting twenty minutes. We got harassed by a couple of Latino guys driving by, who were like, "Heyyyy, watcha doin'?" and Kate got super flustered and was like, "Wandering!!"

When they left I managed to stop laughing long enough to say, "You should have told them that we were looking for four-leaf clovers."

Considering that we were hanging out in the middle of a barren, oil-glossed expanse of concrete, we looked at each other and just lost it. It was great.

On my way to Movie Under the Stars tonight with the other Kate -- it should be fun, even if the movie is "meet the Robinsons." Icky. but anyway. The Atrium tried to call me in to work tonight but I was like, This is the first Friday I've had off all summer, it's not going to happen.

Currently listening to:

Look at the fireworks, fireworks, fire
Light up the night sky...

( I LOVE IN THE HEIGHTS. )

Currently Reading: Fork It Over, the Adventures of a Professional Eater (and salivating heavily)

Ugghhh... I really want my hair to look like this but when we went to Cost Cutters tonight, I freaked and backed out (in my defense, my current hair length suddenly looked really, really cute in the counter mirror). I am such a coward. I compensated by persuading Mom to let me charge a box of hair dye (a warm ebony color: yay!), a new shirt a la Target, and two junky pairs of flip flops to our joint account.

Also cooked a really delicious eggplant dish tonight: simple as hell but wow. Eggplant has to be the most delicious vegetable, although admittedly it requires the companionship of tomatoes in the form of marinara. Also parmesan makes everything yummy. I bought a little, trashy, chintzy notebook and started copying out recipies into it for distant-future sexy single life, where my friends will all know me as the Girl who Cooks Amazingly. So far I have "Eggplant Dish," "Grandma's Banana Nut Muffins," "Four-Cheese Stuffed Shells," and "French Toast." But it got boring. So I'm blogging instead. :)

OMG.

I just checked my grades for the first time since the end of school.

AND I GOT AN A- IN PRECALC.

....

AHHHHH!!!!!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!

this is so. GREAT.

I had totally resigned myself to getting my first B but OMG IT'S AN A!

YES!

And I'm such a dork, I ran down the hall and jumped on my mom until she woke up. (Good thing it's not quite midnight, or anything like that, lol.) She was like... that's great... *snore* --Omigod, I can't believe I got an A in that class. It kicked my ass so hard. I wasn't even fighting by the end. Yay!

I woke up this morning and felt like shopping, no idea why; I am so not a shopper. I drove to Goodwill (well, okay, Mom was in the car, since I fail at life and don't have a license, as every single person around me loves to remind me on a frequent and irritating basis) and went on a spree. Three books and two shirts: yes that is my idea of a spree, ladies and gentlemen: and lo, thanks to the domestic magic of bargain shopping, it was all under ten bucks, so I still have a good portion of my paycheck to fritter away.

Books: 

Next, by Michael Crichton (muaha. I happen to know that Snoopy bought this right when it came out and spent over twenty bucks. I got it for two dollars. Ah well, such is life).
This Side of Paradise, by Scott Fitzgerald (I didn't like The Great Gatsby, but I feel obligated to try again since Fitz. is a famous 1920s writer and I feel like I'm supposed to like him on a matter of principle. Also it's a classy-looking book. Also bonus: it raised the eyebrows of cute guy at checkout XD).
Bridget Jones's Diary (I spent all day reading this. Did absolutely nothing. Am tempted to keep blog in equally cool style but know that self does not have sufficient humor skills. [I should really try the calorie count thing, though]).

Anyway.

Yesterday was pretty fun, despite the fact that until I went to work I'd done nothing but clean, sleep, eat, and read (kind of sounds like today, actually, except Diary was infinitely better than Picture of Dorian Gray, which I was working on yesterday. I am so exciting during the summer, it kills me). I knew that Justin was having a movie party that night, but I really wasn't planning to go, since I'm always dirty and pepperoni!stinky after a shift, and ew hanging out with other human beings like that. But then:

Derick: Hey, Tessa, are you going to Kristin's paperburning party after work?
Me: Oh, wow, that sounds really cool! What, do you just bring all your old school papers from the last year and burn them?
Derick: Oh.... Yeah. But if you weren't invited... then you know... you probably shouldn't go. 

(Side note: All right. Do you SEE what a giant ass he is? I was not about to invite myself, I was showing friendly interest and privately seething, which is different. But whatever.)

Me: *thinking fast* Oh... It's cool. I'm already going to a party.

(He totally didn't believe me, fyi. Which I can actually kind of understand.)

Derick: If it makes you feel better, I'll tell Kristin I brought it up so she can feel awkward and invite you to the next one.

I was so pissed. I mean, I really am invited to parties on a Friday night, I'm not that lame... I just am partially lame and wasn't going to go to this one. (If Derick wasn't a giant asshat, I probably wouldn't have. I never thought I would say this, but I'm really glad he's a douchebag sometimes. Weird.) 

So then I had to stage a phone call where I dialed Mom during one of our lulls, and told her really loudly that I was getting off soon, but not to expect me home, because I was going to Justin's. (I also tried to make it sound like Justin was my boyfriend, [so so tacky!!! Mom was like, Wtf] but it failed: Derick answered a customer phone call halfway through and missed all of it anyway.) And then I actually had to go to Justin's, because no way was I about to sit around at home and feel like a retard after all of that.

But Justin's turned out to be awesome: I got there in time to see the second half of The Mist, which was okay because I read the book and knew what was going on, and then we played Apples to Apples, because duh, we always do that. The Mist was fucking awesome. We were screaming and screaming... The bit with the spiders and that one black guy being a human incubator made everyone, including the guys, go "Auuughhhh" and cover their faces. Sarah was like, "OH mah GAWD! Ohmahhhgawwd!!! AAUUGHH!" and I kept going, "RUN! RUN!" at the people onscreen, and Kate was finally like, "EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" lolz. Fuckin' sweet movie. Stephen King trumps everything in life.

And then Kate had to take me home because no way was I going to walk home after that.

Anna also told me that she actually likes the smell of greasy pepperoni flesh, so not to feel too embarrassed. I was like...  Great.... Thanks.

Well, today was a great day. We finally got our ACTs scores back - I didn't, that is, but when I realized they were up I flipped a switch and ran to the couselor's office and got them to check - and I GOT A 35. WHICH IS SO FUCKIN' GREAT, GUYS.

And I have to retake them in a month. Score, Tessa. -___-;

Anyway, I celebrated by falling asleep in math class (hello, first B, lol) and then I came home and watched Monica/Chandler clips on Youtube all the way up to the proposal episode... and proceded to squee my poor little fangirl heart out (omg. why are real guys nothing like that? Seriously. It pisses me off sometimes).

Also Kristin just made me a mix CD and I'm intending to go on a long powerwalk with it because Kristin makes better mixes than anyone I know, sorry Megan/Jennie/Mary/Marie/Lindsey/Derick.

Squee.

I'm a fuckin' genius, folks. It's so exciting. I was really hoping for a 28 or better but wow.

The irony: I got a 35 in Math and Writing, a 34 in Reading, and a 36 in Science.

*sweats*

What is that? Is that a sign from God? I mean, what the crap is that? Science? Really?

So we all walked into AP chem today full of dread, because we knew we were facing ANOTHER practice test, and really everyone is just sick of that class, and nobody ever wants to look at another Lewis structure ever again. Ms. Bowen was shuffling papers at the front of the class and she looked at all of us, all of our dog-tired numb and apathetic faces, and she was like, "You know what...."

So instead of taking our practice test,  we left class, left campus, and walked all the way to Fruita's downtown, where we went to the Aspen Street Cafe and got Italian sodas and coffees. It was hot outside, and we were laughing and singing and pushing each other into the street and telling stories. It was the single coolest thing a teacher has ever, ever done, in the billions of years that make up the history of this planet. Emily kept going, "Omg. This is the coolest thing ever."

Ms Bowen just kind of shruggled and grinned and was like, "Well, I mean, today is the seniors' last day. And I know all of you are going to pass this test. I just thought..."

And then at the Aspen Cafe she got a little nostalgic and went, "You guys are the best class I've ever had in thirteen years of teaching," and we all ate our cinnamon rolls and our Peaches and Cream sodas and rolled our eyes at each other (no, it was sweet, it really was. God, I love her so much. She is without a doubt the best teacher at that school [Although Emily spoiled the mood by walking in on her in the bathroom later. Go Emily XD]).

But yeah, it was sheer euphoria. To be out of school for an hour and a half at the end of the year, when everyone is so antsy to go, and the weather is so perfect, and all the seniors are checking out anyway..... Bliss.

Although I was wearing wedges, which made the walk kind of too long (the downtown is a long way away!!), and on top of that I didn't have any money. But Cody gave me a lot of his soda, and Emily gave me about half of the raspberry green tea that Frank got for her, so it worked out.

And now I have a choir potluck and concert in about an hour, and I have to go make egg salad. Verdict: awesome day.

Oh, and FYI, I have the coolest schedule for next year.

First Quarter

Orchestra
AP Gov.
AP Lit (block)
Bio A (block) (normal bio!! ahhh! I'm so scared of the incoming froshmores)
Spanish 3A
Monumental Singers

Second Quarter

Orchestra
AP Gov.
Forensics II (block)
AP Lit (block)
Spanish 3A
Monumental Singers

Third Quarter

Orchestra
AP Gov.
AP Lit
Study Hall
Business Law (block)
Spanish 3B
Monumental Singers

Fourth Quarter

Orchestra
AP Gov
AP Lit
Study Hall
Bio B (block)
Spanish 3B
Monumental Singers

Look at that, bitches. That is one full year of nothing but politics, literature, and music. And there's two AP classes in there, so nobody can say I'm slacking (even though I totally am, because this is going to be the lightest course load ever. No chemistry, and NO AP CALC!! BAHAHA ohhh I make good decisions.)

So our AP chemistry final was today.

Which would have been fine, if I hadn't been so overconfident about my grade in that class and kind of sort of blew off studying this week. Turns out my grade was quite jeopardized by that reactions quiz I failed hardcore two days ago, which means I may or may not keep my A after the brutal and terrible final we took today. Balls, right? You know you're screwed when your teacher calls out "ten minutes left" and you've done ten of the multiple choice section. Did I mention we can't use calculators?

Fortunately I got to come home and chill out with my mom, who is debating switching jobs, by the way, and anxiety is making her so neurotic that it's contageous. Way to have a total relaxing day.

However, it's helping that we're renting a bunch of movies about how evil the Soviet Union is (13 Days, Charlie Wilson's War) and political movies have this funny way of totally soothing me. It's like, "Nobody would even care if I failed my chem final, because we could have been nuked in the 60's in a nuclear holocaust." So, you know. Perspective.

Hopefully I didn't do too badly, because I just got a giant propaganda packet in the mail from Caltech University, and I'm still on a "Hey, chemistry might be kind of fun to major in" arc from our last test. But a failed final would shoot that down in a heartbeat, as in: lol. AP chem. What a great decision that was. Which should sound familiar from most of my other blog postings.

I hate this. God, just tell me what I'm supposed to do with my life. You would never hear a word of complaint from me, even if it turns out to be something weird like gynocology. I just want to KNOW. ARGH.