Tuesday, August 18, 2009

MADNESS.

So, yesterday was the kind of "pre-orientation" night thing were the parents came and we were officially registered and got books and schedules and toured the school with our "mentors" and BLAH BLAH McBLAHDOODLE!

Absolute chaos.

Many, many long lines filled with people in an unairconditioned gym. (If you wish to skip my rant, there's a summary at the end of this paragraph.)

First, we entered the "commons"* and there were tables filled with books according to subject. Once we got the books and gym uniforms and the "special lock" (a lock the school can open with a master key... for 15 bucks. It is a frigging COMBINATION LOCK.) We were given a number** and told to wait in another line. Then there was parental paperwork and blah, then we went to the (HOT) gym and stood in another line for 20 minutes or so to get a FOLDER, ONE FOLDER, containing almost no useful information, and a name tag. Then we had to backtrack to the OTHER GYM (THANKFULLY air-conditioned!) and listen to the principal speak about nothing useful (and several attempts at horrible jokes) and learn the school song (UGH. "The noble Duke of York" is MUCH more catchy.) and then the parents were forced to listen to more presentations while we were divided into our "mentor groups"*** and given a "tour". After the "tour" we got our school IDs (my picture is awful) and our planners. (and no cookies, dang.)

It was unnecessarily complicated and frustrating. Okay, enough about my terrible day yesterday, on with the question!

Whatcha reading?

Answer: I'm skimming "The Odyssey" (a book we'll read this year in English that I got yesterday... it's not required over the summer, so maybe I'm just being over prepared. Which isn't a bad thing, but still.) and reading "Me Talk Pretty One Day", which WAS on the list of books we could choose to read over the summer. Actually, only one was required, but I'd already read "Life as We Knew It", and I wanted to feel like I'd done something productive.

It's a collection of essays, and although I'm not a HUGE nonfiction fan, but David Sedaris is pretty funny.

Alex, your letter is awesome. Sure, the second part is a little counterproductive (? Is that the word? Well, it kind of proves a stereotypical adult's point; that we think we're awesome and that they're boring and old. I'm NOT saying that's NOT true, but it seems best not to mention it.) I also LOVE your idea of the monthly classic blog!

Stereotypes suck. But just to play devil's advocate, there's a reason why they're stereotypes. There ARE teenagers like that, maybe they're the ones the adults are more exposed to. I read a couple of "mom blogs", because occasionally the exploits of other people's little kids amuse me, and I noticed a sort of theme; people blog about teenagers when they live up to the stereotype. And to take it further than the blogosphere, maybe they only remember their bad, (unnecessarily) suspicion-causing experiences with said teenagers. Because of the stereotypes, these memories stick. Because of the memorable experiences, the stereotypes strengthen. It's a vicious cycle.

Generally, how long does it take you to write a blog post?

Answer: Well, I guess you could say that it takes days, because I kind of form my blogging ideas days in advance, like, since I blogged about what happened yesterday, that blog STARTED yesterday. But if you mean how long it takes to physically type my ideas out onto the little typey screen, it depends on how long my blog is. Also, I type like a seven year old, only faster. I use 3 fingers, and I look down a LOT, but I can do it pretty darn fast. I've never really timed myself, but I'd say around 20 minutes or so?

My question: If you could only wear ONE color for a month, what would it be?

Footnotes!

* The commons is pretty much the best part about my school. It's like a cafe/food court/huge semi-open seating area type-thing. Not the white, gross, hairnetted lunch ladied cafteria we had in 8th grade. The food is good, too.
** Like the kind at a deli.
*** A group of about 10 freshmen and 4 juniors/seniors. Like the counselors, but not old. They're there to "guide" us and stuff. Go figure.

1 comment:

Vita said...

Mehr. I'm sorry that your orientation wasn't the most exciting experience of your life; hopefully the real deal (i.e. high school) will be better. It should be, introductions to things never seem to achieve anything other than producing previously uncharted levels of boredom. :)

Do you go to a public or private school? I always assumed that you went to a public school (I have no idea why, maybe it's because I go to a public school and I just want everybody to have the same delightful experiences that I have [that's only semi-sarcastic, I must admit]). It seems public school-ish in that it appears to be vaguely similar to my own school, but the school song bit threw me off; I only learned that we HAVE a school song at my sister's graduation. >:-D