Overheard on the Bus

I don't mind taking the bus home from school, in fact, it's rather enjoyable. The people on my bus are completely insane, especially the bus driver. I think she must have had some kind of psychological trauma. She is the aunt of my dear friend Dylan, and she spends the whole bus ride screaming at him. On the first day of school, Dylan was saying, "I'm grounded now, but I hope my mom will still let me go to football practice," and the bus driver yelled, "SHUT YOUR FACE!" She also complains loudly about every other driver on the road, and screams at anyone who rolls down their window or isn't completely seated. She says thing like, "YOU THERE! With the winter hat on! Unless you're seven feet tall, you're not sitting down! Sit down, Pumpkin." In a very scary voice, as well.
The freshmen who sit behind me talk about the most pointless things. The other day they were complaining about how "all the juniors think they're seniors." "Oh my God, it's so annoying! They're all like, 'Hey, I'm better than you, I'm a senior.' I should just go up to them and say, 'If you're a senior, I'd be, like, a sophomore. I'm one year older too!'"
Yesterday someone was describing in great detail someone (or something, I'm not sure) blowing up. He was talking very loudly and enthusiastically, which was funny. Soon, the conversation moved on to "how you want to die." One kid wanted to be cremated, and then have his ashes put in cereal boxes, so "people would be, like, eating me when they ate cereal!" Someone else said, "I want my ashes to be put in an active volcano." Still another said, "I don't want to cremated, I want to be put in a cannon and blown up! Then everyone could run around looking for parts of me. They'd be like, 'I found his eye!' or 'I found his tongue!' That would be awesome!"

Love

I love Sigur Ros! If you'd like, go to YouTube and check out their many other wonderful videos.

Schooool...

For some reason, whenever I think the word "school," I think it in the tune of the word "stools" from that song from Waiting For Guffman. (You know: "Working, building, never stopping, never sleeping. Working. Making. Some for selling, some for keeping!")
Yes! So, school has started up again since I last blogged, and it's going okay. I think I have successfully skipped French 2, which is good. Also, science and math have both improved so much from last year. We're studying pandemic flu first, which I am ABSOLUTELY NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO. But after that we're doing the Holocaust, which should be really interesting. This summer, I tried to read a million books about WWII, but I think I only finished... 3 1/2? My favourite book I read this summer was absolutely Persepolis. I loved it. I have so much more respect for graphic novels after reading Persepolis and Maus.
Right now I'm in Cambridge with my mom for the day. I am generally happy, but I have an insane amount of French homework and I haven't even started on it.
I know all this stuff falls into the "no one cares what you had for lunch" category, but thanks for your patience!

The cutest thing ever

This sign was in the lobby (?) of the hostel we stayed in when we were in Quebec City. If you click on the photo, the text will be clearer.

Plagiarism

I think this proves exactly how much time I have on my hands, but it was still a fun project.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: blue.
Howl by Allen Ginsberg: orange.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked,
screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes,
with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies, good to eat a thousand years.
They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!

And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

I have of late -- but wherefore I know not -- lost all my mirth. This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, this brave overhanging firmament. Dreams! illuminations! religions! the whole boatload of sensitive bullshit! It appears nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.
Carl Soloman! I'm with you in Rockland, where we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter.
(You cut your wrists three times successively unsuccessfully, and were forced to open antique stores where you thought you were growing old, and cried.)
I'm with you in Rockland, where you must feel very strange.
I'm with you in Rockland, where your condition has become serious and is reported on the radio.
But who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of disprized love, the law's delay?
To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream -- ay, there's the rub. For in the sleep of death what dreams may come? And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.
Carl Soloman! I'm with you in Rockland, where you're madder than I am.
To die, to sleep! They saw it all! They bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving! carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the street!
'Tis nobler to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them...

The 4-hour detox and other stories (AND A RECIPE!)

Hello, folks! I am back from Quebec City, and I had a fabulous time! It was a little touristy, but still charming, and very, very European. Artemis, her mom, my mom, and I stayed in a hostel, which was so cool. (While I was there, I imagined that I was somewhere in Europe by myself.) Our room was tiny, with two squeaky bunk beds and little else. The free breakfast was very good (they had toast, cereal, bagels, tea, coffee, and juice) and it was right in Old Quebec, which is the really ancient part of the city. Mostly, we just walked around going into shops, and ate. It was fun, although I felt quite guilty about my non-vegan-ness (I ate a crepe, two almond croissants, a cafe au lait, and several cups of tea with milk. Ick.) But! if I never eat another almond croissant in my life, I will be content with the incredibly amazing pastry I had in Quebec! I mean, seriously, you have not had a croissant if you haven't had one at this cafe (which I can't remember the name of, unfortunately.) It was warm, crispy, and buttery, and there was almond filling sandwiched in between two layers of croissant.Yum....
So! after we returned, my mom and I thought, this would be the perfect time to try a detox, and get rid of all the toxins in our bodies left there by the disturbing amount of dairy products we consumed! (There was a plan for a detox in the latest issue of Natural Health, magazine that I, despite the fact that it is aimed at 40-year-olds, read religiously.) We began Wednesday morning by drinking two cups of warm water, and eating a bowl of quinoa oatmeal for breakfast. It was not good; don't try it, but I still finished it. We had to go to the Gap, in the the mall, to return some clothes that my dad bought there (he bought two job interview outfits, and kept one of them) and to Target, to get some hay for April. My mom was quite miserable, actually. She told me that one usually feels like they have the flu at the beginning of a detox. "But I am not in the mood to feel like I have the flu," she added. We both agreed to stop the detox, and on the way home, we stopped at the Udder Place and had coffee. I know, it's sort of pathetic. She felt better immediately.
For our post-detox dinner, we got out the grill for the first time in forever, and made barbecued tempeh (the recipe is also from Natural Health.) It's DELICIOUS! Try it! I am posting the recipe here so that others may enjoy grilling some tempeh before the summer ends:

TEMPEH BARBECUE SANDWICHES

Ingredients:

COLESLAW
4 cups green cabbage, finely grated
2 medium-sized carrots, finely grated
2 tablespoons finely minced onion
1/2 cup vegenaise
1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

SANDWICHES
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon cider or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced red onion
8 ounces soy or mixed-grain tempeh
4 whole wheat Kaiser rolls, split open

1. Prepare the coleslaw: combine cabbage, carrots, onion, vegenaise, soy yogurt, vinegar, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss again. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.
2. Prepare a medium fire in the grill with a well-oiled vegetable-grilling rack in place.
3. To make barbecue sauce, stir together ketchup, vinegar, sugar, chili powder, soy sauce, and onion in a shallow bowl or baking dish. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
4. Cut tempeh in half horizontally to make two thin cakes. Slice cakes into 8 pieces about 1-inch wide, for a total of 16 pieces. Add tempeh strips to barbecue sauce and turn to coat with sauce.
5. Grill tempeh until heated through and crusty, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Lightly toast rolls on the grill, about 2 minutes per side.
6. Brush the inside of the rolls with remaining barbecue sauce. Place about 4 tempeh slices on each roll, and top with a generous dollop of coleslaw. Serve at once.

I am...

reading: NOTHING! I was doing so well books-wise for the first three or so weeks of the summer, and now I have sort of abandoned Schindler's List. I should be reading Brave New World for school.

eating: Many bagels. Yep, white bread, sesame seeds, and processed cream cheese substitute. They sure are healthy, those almost-vegans.

drinking: Tea and root beer floats.

watching: My computer screen and lots of Season 3 O.C. I love The O.C.! It's so comfortably stupid and soap opera-y, and I especially enjoyed the This American Life reference.

working: On nothing!! Nothing at all! (Except pianer and the soap opera and songs I am writing with Flora.) I should be doing French Rosetta Stone... oh well.

dreaming: About future vacations and art projects and band names. Last night I had a long, strange dream, which I won't bore you with the details of. I will only say that it involved dark tunnels, Dumbledore, Jonathan Safran Foer, a Harry Potter Valentine's Day disco party, and a bestselling novel.

contemplating: life, in general. Also, how to best use the remaining month of summer.

Adventures

I'm back from New Jersey, and I had a great time there as well as in Kansas!

I spent the majority of my time in Topeka with Grandma and my cousin Jena.

We went to the K State campus to see the radio station where my other cousin, James, works.

We also visited this cafe, which was quite lovely, actually.

On the fourth of July, there were many, many festivities in Topeka, including a funny parade and a big fourth of July dinner.

Uncle Sam on a tractor!

Kids on bikes.

Poor donkey.

My grandmother at the fourth of July party.

After I left Topeka, I went to Kansas City to stay with Susie and Chuck, which was so much fun! I was very busy, so I didn't get many photos. I spent a lot of time with David and Ellen, visited Lawrence and Broadway Cafe, and ate at some fantastic vegetarian restaurants.

Here is the amazing garden in Susie and Chuck's front yard.

Also...

I will post Kansas pictures as soon as I return home!

The wonders of the world wide web

Well, hello! And welcome to this blog entry! Do you like my outfit? It's very dramatic. There was a time in my career...

Y'all know the rest, so I won't continue the horrors any longer. I am currently in Kansas, the good ol' midwest, visiting my grandparents. They have dial-up (is that one word? Two? Does it have a hyphen? I don't even know) which is kind of slow, but also refreshing in a funny way. I love new things: books, films, music, culture, electronics -- newfangled tecnology, basically, and as wonderful as that is, I sometimes feel like I equire new internet services and smaller cell phones and computers with more memory, I am adjusting more and more to this new, fast-paced lifestyle. I think when things become more efficient, life goes by faster. I like taking a break from a fast-paced life, even if it's only in a really small way, like waiting for the computer to sing its little song and closing all the overwhelming pop-ups. I know this sounds kind of stupid, but I am not the only one who thinks this, correct?

I'm kind of homesick right now, but for some reason, the computer makes me feel, like, 100% better, which is kind of sad. I'm always homesick the first 2 days or so, and then I feel fine. It's strange. To cure my homesickness, I first wrote a letter, then read Harry Potter 4, and then got on the computer, which took a while, because the internet connection wasn't working, for some reason.

Kansas is pretty flat, just as it's rumoured to be, and I like all the fields and the sky, but there are a lot of cars. I love visiting here, but I don't think I could live someplace where one needs a car to get around. I think it's sad how we've become so dependent on them. Also, for some reason, I feel like going to the beach so much right now. I think I will have to make do with a pool.

In my grandparents' house, there is a clock that sings a little tune every fifteen minutes. My dad once told me that when he was a teenager and he was mad at his parents for some reason, that clock would make him angrier every time it rang. It really annoyed him.

I'm sorry to present you with such a long, boring, and rambling blog entry!