If you have the time, I strongly encourage you
to look up some of the above words and improve your vocabulary.
After all, you never know when a word might just come in handy.
Such as "diurnal", "equivocal", or ... "manifesto".
Today, I feel like blithering about totally random subjects so if
you can't handle where I'm heading, then you can stop reading now.
Now.
Now.
...and...
Now.
I was thinking about my violin today. I got it
on June 18, and if you know your dates, then you'll know that
June 18 also happens to be Chelsea's birthday and exactly a month
after mine. This is probably the fifth violin I've ever had the
privilege of 'owning'. My first three violins were rentals. I
started out with a half size when I was about 8, then switched to
three-quarters, and I think in 6th or 7th grade, I finally had a
4/4 (full size) violin. All of those violins were nice, but they
were rentals, if you know what I mean. The wood was always a bit
too shiny and plasticky looking and the bow was pretty crappy. No
offense to anyone still owning rentals. I finally bought my first
violin in the summer of 7th grade, or if you want to be
particular, my parents bought it. It was a beautiful dark brown
violin made in 1914 in Dresden, Germany. However, anyone who
knows me will remember my endless comments about wanting to burn
it. Oh, there was nothing wrong with the violin. I liked almost
everything about it, the gilded rose, the way it made my playing
louder, the little sticker inside proudly proclaiming its origin.
The only problem was...it wasn't the violin I had wanted to get.
There was another violin, which was a gorgeous light golden color
and it was pretty much a one-of-a-kind thing with little leaves (maple?)
on the front 4 corners of the violin and the back. I think it was
from the late 1800's and I don't remember who made it or where it
was from, maybe Austria. Anyways, that had been the only violin I
had wanted and the only reason I didn't get it is because my
parents thought it was too expensive. Compared with the other
violin, there was a slight difference. Both played well, and both
were nice to look at. Basically, my teacher told my parents that
either violin would be a nice instrument for me. Only...the one I
ended up getting was $2500 (minus about a thousand in discounts,
ending up about $1500) and the other one was $4000. Eesh?
So that was the first violin I had the pleasure of owning. I like
the one I have now a lot better though, the one I bought on the
18th. I think it was cheaper because it's a mystery violin. No
one knows for sure who made it, and if you don't know the maker,
the value is usually lessened. Haha. The sticker on the inside
has a Latin inscription found on all Stradivari violins. It says
in almost faded black ornate letters, 'Antonius Stradivarius
Cremonentis Faciehat Anno 1732'. And for you un-Latin readers, it
states the owner (Stradivari), the town he made his violins in (Cremona)
and the year which is supposedly 1732. I don't remember what
Faciehat means. If you're dying to find out, go onto Google and
look it up.
Okay, violin-ness done. Let's see...well, about
half an hour ago (it's 8:36 pm according to my computer's clock
now) I was going through my registration forms. Does everything
really have to cost so much? This year, the school jacked up all
sports fees to $125, which is $25 more than last year if you didn't
know. By the time all of us graduate, it'll probably be $200. Or
more. I can see why yearbooks are so expensive ($40) since they're
actually not too horrible. Mmmmm...oh yeah. You have to pay $60
for an 'Orchestra Participation' fee. Why? There's really nothing
to pay for. About 85% of the lockers in the orchestra are easy to
unlock. I remember the second day we got our locks: I think
Kristen showed me how not to spend my time unlocking the lock and
how to do a fancy schmancy twist and pull to get the locker open.
Take about 4 seconds. So I don't see what you have to pay for.
And what the heck is the $25 "activity fee"? It's
required for all students. In CAPS and bold. Ooooooh...what
IS an activity fee? Does that mean we all pay for clubs and such
even if we don't join? Am I missing something? Bah. Why are all
of the prices going up? Are we all getting richer by the minute?
Doesn't seem like it. Except maybe the school. And Bill Gates.
Did you know...never mind. Ask Pat or Quinton about Bill Gates,
they'll fill you in on him.
Oh, and speaking of Bill Gates, did you know that my parents used
to threaten me when I was like 5 or 6 that if I didn't stop
misbehaving, they'd sell me to Bill Gates? Hmmm...now that I
think about it, I think it wouldn't have been too bad if they HAD
somehow managed to sell me to Bill Gates. I'd have lots of money
and a really cool house. And maybe even 24/7 access to the
Internet. *sigh*
And if you still haven't read the last entry,
anyone who's the 500th, 1000th, 1500th (etc etc) visitor, just
tell me and I'll add you to the Hall of Infamy. Let's see...updates
for today include the music page. I'm going to see if I can save
space by linking to websites instead of storing all of the
pictures I've collected online. Yes. We'll see.
:: Posted by
Kat
I just like how that phrase rolls off my tongue.
'...of pure immortal streams...' It paints such a picture in your
head. The line comes from Sonnet 14 (John Milton). I was looking
through the bookcase and a copy of selected poems by him turned
up, so I decided to leaf through it. Most of the book is
dedicated to his work, Paradise Lost, but in the beginning were
some shorter poems, thank goodness. That's about all I can say
about today's heading. Heehee.
Today is rather a quiet day. I'm going to be heading off to
Borders soon, probably, since Kevin and I have a coupon for 20% (almost
everything in the store). Which is pretty cool. I got home today
around 12:16 am from babysitting. I MADE $200!!!!! And it was in
cash too, in two nicely crisp $100 bills. That was pretty cool. I
had also made $30 earlier that day from lessons. They invited me
over to go to their barbecue party, but I told them I had to
babysit late. Wow. I'm already invited to a high socialite
barbecue. LOL. The mom's like, 'You're welcome here whenever you
want to come.'
Sweet.
Starcraft party on Wednesday. Kari and I talked
about it during our very long phone chat. *GREGORY!!!* I'm going
to go over to his house maybe later and ask if he can go. I love
that kid to death. Haha. Kenton. I can't wait to see what happens
when Kirsti finds out that Gregory's coming (hopefully). I
already asked Pat, so I'll probably reconfirm it online or on the
phone. I tried calling Kyle but no one picked up (as usual...sorry?)
and I left a message. Meh. I hate leaving messages on the
answering machine. I feel stupid talking to myself. But oh well.
I wonder how this will turn out. I haven't played since I killed
the copy on my computer. I tried downloading something so I could
play on battlenet but it ruined the copy so now I can't play.
Haha. Oh well. As usual, I'll stick to my Terrans. Maybe Zergs.
Meh. Last time I played as Zergs, it took forever for me to get
anywhere. I think that's when I was playing against Kirsti and
all of her photon cannons so just as I finally figured out how to
beat her with my guardians, I had to go home. Haha. Blizzard
should make another expansion pack instead of Starcraft2. Grrrr.
That would be fun. And maybe there could be like five more races
and then it would be Starcraft Mania.
Good times last year making clay 'creep' with Kari for our
Starcraft analogy thing in Bio.
Yesterday was the last day of babysitting
before my week of relaxing. It was soooo funny. So once again,
Brandon the pottymouth step-cousin came over with Nick and Mac (Jack
invited them over). We played baseball and the teams were me,
Brandon and Nick vs Mac, Jack and Joey. Mac kept tossing me fast
balls and everytime I hit them, he said it was either a foul or
out of play since I hit it across the street. Finally, I smacked
the ball over their heads into a tree, which means automatic home
run, so I got to skip around the plates and do a cartwheel at the
end. Brandon kept looking at me, and finally, he's like, "How
old are you?" And I laughed and was like, "I'm 15."
And he seemed really upset because I was older. Dashed hopes?
That's okay.
Anyways, my team was winning and the others complained so Nick
was like, "Fine. Me and Kathleen vs all. You can have
Brandon." (I was like, "Yay! Me and my little protege!")
So Nick and I started a whole new game and the score was 5-0 when
the other team started to have...difficulties. Mac kept on 'hogging
pitcher', according to Jack. So he quit. And Joey quit because no
one would let him bat. (I tried to convince him it was my team's
turn so he had to wait, but I don't think he grasped the concept)
Finally, they all had to go back since, apparently, they were
making lasagna for dinner. I made 5 hot dogs (2 for Jack), a taco
(for Joey) and more sandwiches for Ali and Maggie. So after
dinner, another little boy came over (Jack W from down the street).
So he joined Joey and Jack in playing their beloved baseball game
on the PS2. I wanted to laugh since I kept hearing the different
Jack's going, "Jaaaaaaack!" at each other. You know the
tone of voice. The really unfair whiny voice. The girls watched
TV in the family room and I made bracelets. I made a hot pink,
red and black one for Nick, hot pink and black for Katie (Brandon's
11 year old sister), a hot pink, light pink and red necklace for
Maggie, and when I went over later, Brandon's like, "Can I
have one too?" So I made him a dark blue, hot pink and black
one.
And that's that. The kids went to sleep around 10 so I just
watched TV until the parents came home.
And if you still haven't read the last entry,
anyone who's the 500th, 1000th, 1500th (etc etc) visitor, just
tell me and I'll add you to the Hall of Infamy. And as for
updates, I added some 'boring facts' to my bio page, and I'm
currently adding lots of anime pictures to the anime obsessions
and picture gallery page.
:: Posted by
Kat
Clouds are really quite wonderful, did you know
that? Today, at exactly 8:16 pm, I looked up while I was walking
home from babysitting and I saw the most b-e-a-utiful clouds I
have ever seen. (copyright Bruce Almighty) The sun was a soft
golden and was partially covered by three masses of fluffiness.
One cloud rose above the rest with slender wisps reaching higher
and was colored a faint pink with streaks of violet and bronze.
It almost looked like cotton candy, or as if it had been drawn in
with pastels. The other clouds were tinged bright yellowish-amber
on the edges where they covered the sun and oh...if only I had a
camera with me then and there. I would have taken a picture. Don't
take clouds for granted. Once it's gone, it's gone. And you can't
ever get a good moment back again. How depressing is that?
Brighter news...Giving more violin lessons tomorrow. They
apparently ordered/bought a violin and it's coming Tuesday. I
suppose I'll be giving more music reading lessons then. The
oldest, Ariyana, is such a sweety. She learns incredibly fast,
listens to me and actually retains whatever info I give her.
Armaan, the younger, doesn't. It's not really his fault though.
He's just really young. I don't think he quite grasps the concept
of every note being its own yet. All of them look alike to him on
a piece of music, which makes sense since they're all "d"
shaped. So tomorrow, I'll teach him "FACE" and "EGBDF",
aka the spaces and lines on the musical staff. You piano people
should know this stuff!
Nothing really too interesting happened today. I babysat. From 2
until around 8. I called Quinton at his dad's apartment (after
getting the number from his mom) for a while. Then while he was
on the other line, Travis got on. I told him I was in Hawaii and
that he should come be Hawaiian with me. That probably scared him
off since he hung up. I didn't feel like calling Quinton so I
went outside and watched the demon childs for a while. When they
all came back, I called Kari. We talked on the phone a little
more than an hour and a half. Haha. That was fun. Then I called
Pat about the Starcraft party. He was playing his guitar. Nice,
Pat. GRRRRRR. Lazy bum. I will talk to your mommy. DO YOU HEAR ME?
DO YOU HEAR MEEEEE????? Ah yes. Anyways...
I saw Mystery Boy again. AKA Brandon from Wisconsin who's 13, Mac's
step-cousin, and owner of really cool hair and a bad pottymouth.
I'm making Nick Caruso a hot pink/black string necklace or
bracelet now. Haha.
Wow, it's gonna rain in a bit. Okay, well, I'm
done for today. Check out the polls on the miscellaneous page. I'm
off to add Kurama pictures to the anime section.
Oh yeah, I'm adding a new section to the Hall of Infamy. If you're
the 500th, 1000th, or any 100th person to visit past 1000, tell
me. And I'll put you in there. 50 more people til 500, so keep on
coming!
Auf Wiedersehen!!!!
:: Posted by
Kat
I wish I was free at last...from babysitting
that is. Sometimes, I find myself trudging down the street
wondering why I've given up such a perfectly lovely day to spend
4-7 hours of my life chasing after demon childs and cleaning up
whatever mess they make, not to mention trying to get them to
read and write in their journals (a new one this year). I could
be doing so much more, like seeing a movie with a bunch of
friends, or hanging out watching amazing TV with amazing people,
or just shopping at the Commons or the mall.
There are so many things I've missed and I wish I could be a part
of it. Like the Anchorman thing. I really wanted to see it with
JJ, Chelsea, Kari, Ashley and Crystal and I missed seeing it by
like 45 minutes just because I was babysitting. And one time,
Crystal called me to see if I could go to the pool with her and
Caran but I couldn't...I heard the message over the phone. *sigh*
So I'm going to try and make the most out of next week when I
have no babysitting to do. As I said, "FREE AT LAST!".
I can't wait. I'm slowly getting depressed because I have to take
care of people nonstop and it would be nicer if they ever
appreciated all of my unseen efforts to keep them happy. About 70%
of the time, it's me distracting them from a fight by making a
joke, or to whip out a bracelet and/or origami thing and ask if
they would like to make it too, or to sit down with the fightees
and mediate the problem. But things could get worse.
If Maggie and Jack weren't so entirely engrossed in the TV, the
house would probably have fallen over by now. And if Maggie wasn't
so into making crafts, the day would be just that much more
boring-er. And inviting people over helps to keep me sane because
I have someone who can talk to me and keep me entertained, as
well as help me out from focusing all of my attention on the
demon childs. Thank you, Quinton and Chelsea. (Ashley, when are
you going to come?!?)
Okay, so babysitting isn't exactly just going
there, sitting for 5 hours and being happy with making money. I
go to Eaglebrook Pool a lot, went downtown once with Rachael (thank
you for paying at Graham's), and we've even biked over to the
park a few times, which is how I got that really nasty bruise on
the back of my heel for a month. Carrying a bunch of golf clubs,
a stuffed animal, a bag of popcorn and a scooter all at once is
pretty hard when no one is there to help you if things fall down.
Or bang against your heel several times, such as that *zut*
scooter.
Okay. Website news, thank you for sticking with me so far. If you've
been a loyal phalanges friend, you might have noticed I took off
the polls and my quiz result. Well, that's just a matter of me
making more space to write in. I've moved all future polls and
quizzes to the miscellaneous section, so please go there a lot.
Polls don't get happy when you leave them alone. (And you're
allowed to vote once a day) And since I love taking quizzes (thank
you Quizilla and Spacefem), I'm going to post a lot of them up.
So check that out when you get the chance.
The archives are always up for you if you've missed a day or two...or
a week. *glares menacingly* So you can always check to see if I've
posted something while you were gone (I aim for every two or
three days, since I don't have too much time because of
babysitting and whatnot) and if you've been to a page before and
noticed that there wasn't really anything up there, it just means
that I'm working on it at home and I haven't gotten to the point
where I feel like putting up the finished thing yet. Sure, you
can go back and keep clicking and hope that your clicking will
bring the page up, but if I don't say I've updated it on here,
then it probably isn't.
I've updated the miscellaneous section of course, the friends
page, recommended and the calendar. I'm going to see if I can
find some website where they can make calendars for you. I'm sure
there is one. The Internet is my friend. (haha geek book) I don't
know what's wrong with the secrets page. I like how the layout
has been working, but it's weird how the center part won't show
up since it's just fine on my own computer. So I might just take
that off and stick to good ol' Scripthost. Who needs secrets when
you've got friends who tell people your secrets for you? *sarcastic
laugh*
Quick news about my day yesterday...well, it
was Davy's birthday so I called him up. He said I was the first
friend who had called him all day, which was nice. I asked him if
he had grown any and he was like, "Yeah!...and I've gained
like 4 pounds too!" It'll be interesting going back to
school in August and seeing that Davy is now like 5 inches taller
than me. Hahaha. Anyways, I felt good talking to him again and
even though I was hit by guilt for all of the tension and hurt
feelings in the past, Davy (in my opinion) is really a sweet
person at heart. I know that some of you complain about him
sometimes. Okay, maybe a lot. So shoot me. Better yet, use
arsenic. (Ashley, I'd love to see the expression on your face
right now)
I babysat from 11:42 to about 4:21, and Chelsea came over around
12:40-ish with her bike and guitar and purse in tow. LOL. We
headed over to the pool, and I had a lot of problems since my
bike tires were flat. I meant to put air in them but I forgot.
And I also had to stop a couple of times since I was the one
stuck carrying the heavy and really clumsy pool bag (yet another
instance of Kathleen the babysitting slave) which kept on sliding
down my shoulder and then when it hit my elbow joint, it made me
go off-balance so I'd try to fix it with my right arm and cross
my mind fingers that I wouldn't fall off and get hurt. So at the
pool, it was okay. I was a little bored and Chelsea wasn't too
into the geek book, the one I had to read for the book club.
Kristen Cella had dropped it off at my house about two days
earlier since it was so hard to find. *wench wench!* I read her
journal, she tried to read the book. And we talked about geeks a
little bit, like what kind of people were at our school and
Chelsea called herself an "artistic geek". Pat's and
Quinton's and JJ's name came up, but in a good way. Well, not
really JJ's name since there was that whole movie incident (not
going to explain here).
Not too much at the pool. Mrs. Feehan (she owns Amy James, a
clothing store downtown) saw me and she was like, "Kathleen!
You're making me hot!" That was really unexpected. Haha.
Anyways, we left around 2:30-ish and when we got back, Chelsea
played her guitar and I listened for a little bit and then called
Sean McClellan on impulse. I wanted to know what his schedule was,
plus he's an interesting person. Sean has the first 3 classes of
the day with me, which are "personal fitness",
Chemistry Honors and AP Euro. We talked about random things, and
we got around to the subject of babysitting and he was talking
about how he hadn't had much experience etc etc and I was like,
"Oh, you should come over sometime." So he was like,
"Okay. You can teach me how to babysit." (I was
thinking...teach?)
So Sean may come over sometime. And Chelsea talked with him a bit
even though she didn't really know him. And then he had to go. We
talked almost half an hour. Afterwards, Chelsea and I just walked
upstairs a bit and even to the infamous guestroom (haha Quinton
and Chelsea...stuffed animals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Then she
made a necklace and drew Maggie, and that was it. Mrs. Bodine
came home and Chelsea and I walked back to my house, and she
balanced her guitar on her bike.
A funny thing happened on the way back. On the corner of Pebble
Beach and Keim, I saw Mac outside his house with some guy that I
didn't know. I yelled, "Hi Mac!" He said hi back and
the guy (it made me laugh) peered under a tree to see who I was.
He kept looking at me. And when Chelsea caught up to me, he kept
staring after both of us. We were laughing. As we neared the
Adelman's house, she yelled down the street,"HI!!!!!!"
But I don't think the guy heard us or maybe he thought we were
talking to someone else. I wonder who he was. He looked to be a
little taller than me, with really light blond straight hair that
came down to like the middle of his neck. I hope it wasn't Joanie's
son (bad lady). So that was that.
At my house, I showed her the good-smelling roses in the rose
garden and the sugar peas/snow peas? and the Chinese chives, of
which she ate some. Then we sat on the grass and talked a bit and
stared at the clouds until her mom came and that was that. There
was an *abrazo* and then she left, driving the mini-van.
By then it was about 4:40 maybe and the Book Club was at 5:30. I
called Kristen (I'll miss her next year), and my mom gave me a
ride. Mrs. Thiese was there and she opened the door for me and I
saw Kristen when I walked in. We sat on those icky metal foldable
chairs by the main office for a bit, just talking, waiting for
Crystal to come. When she did, we discussed what we would do
about dinner. We didn't know if we should go order a pizza, go
downtown for dinner, or what. So in the end, Crystal told Mrs.
Thiese about a few places and we went over to her car. The Flag
Team was out there (...Mike Lencioni...aah!aah! Creepy!) and
Caroline aka Arocaline ran up to Kristen and hugged her, and then
she saw me and was like, "Kathleen!!!" and hugged me
too. Then we all went into Mrs. Thiese's car which had a baby car
seat (she took it out) and an evil seatbelt that was in our way.
It was a little bit scary at first. I mean, c'mon.
I'm in her car. Mrs. Thiese's car. Her. Car. (Oh, Keith, if only
you had been there...) But it was okay. Kristen and Crystal and I
talked to each other as if she wasn't there which was sorta funny.
Crystal gave her directions and soon, we ended up at Pizzeria
Venti. Mrs. Thiese had parked sorta behind The Little Owl and we
walked by Wild Roots and into the pizza place. It was fun talking
to each other (Mrs. Thiese walked right behind us while we
chatted away...she was probably listening in) about random things.
A car drove by and a little boy was in it and he made some weird
hand signal at us, I didn't see and Crystal all of a sudden made
the Spiderman web-slinging hand motion. You know the one. Palm up,
middle and ring fingers flexed in, and...web away! Heehee. Too
bad Chelsea didn't come. But then, one of us would have had to
sit up front with Mrs. Thiese. Hahaha. So we entered Pizzeria
Venti and who should I see there but Matt Milton! Big surprise
for me. I waved to him, and he was like, "Hey Kathleen!"
There were only two people working there, Matt and some other boy
that I didn't know but I thought he looked familiar. He had dark,
sorta curly/wavy brown hair, sorta olivey tan skin and he was so
awkward, it was funny. He explained to us that he normally worked
in the back. I suppose that's why he had problems with the cash
register. He was poking away at it, trying to find the total,
which was $18.50. It had showed up on the little horizontal green
screen in front of us but he didn't know that. Mrs. Thiese,
Kristen, Crystal and I kept turning away and laughing. You see,
every time we ordered something, the boy would go back and ask
Matt if it was available, etc etc. So funny. Finally we got our
orders and we sat down by the window.
While we waited, we talked about the book. But not for long. We
soon started talking about our school, about the Columbine
shooters, about orchestra and band and choir and the field trip,
about popular people, about 8th grade teachers, and a lot of
other topics. These were all things that I had heard a lot - from
my sister, actually, since she would always complain about Geneva
schools and how nothing was right. So I had a lot to say. And
some I didn't want to say in front of Mrs. Thiese. Haha. (The new
dean is Mr. Leden since Mrs. Curry is pregnant, did you know?)
We waited and waited and finally, Mrs. Thiese got up and asked
about our orders. I think the person forgot and he came by and
was really sorry. Mrs. Thiese had two slices of mushroom pizza (she
ate one and took the other home by wrapping it in napkins).
Kristen and Crystal and I all had this stuffed pizza (it started
with a "T" but I don't remember what it was called...something
like Timpanini, I dunno) and we ate and talked.
We saw Scott Cella riding by twice, it was hilarious. We laughed
when he came by because he didn't even notice us! ... Kristen had
to leave around 7 because she was giving a violin lesson so then
it was just me and Crystal left sitting there with Mrs. Thiese. A
little bit later, all of these other girls came in altogehter. It
was Lindsay Stoll, Francisca, Rachel Osburn and Courtney Gossman.
They stared at us so I ignored them even though I felt a little
self-conscious inside. We left eventually and Mrs. Theise offered
to give me a ride home, but Crystal said I could just come back
with her. So that's what happened. Mrs. Thiese dropped us both
off at Crystal's and I hung out for a while.
Her mommy talked to us about royalty (how did we even get into
that?) and other stuff and then she left with Crystal's dad
somewhere. I called my mom, said I'd be home around 8 (I got back
at 8:22) and I'd just hang out at Crystal's for a while, which I
did. She showed me mugs and then we went online, and crazy Andy
from Connecticut was there too. I talked to him once but he
changed his screen name so I guess that explains why I haven't
seen him since. Crystal says he's a senior now and he IMed her a
picture of himself. Wearing a suit and holding a wine glass.
Heehee.
I showed her Geocities, and we browsed a bit through her website,
Mad Biscuits, and then her mommy gave me a ride home. Crystal
wanted me to sleepover but I don't think I could and we discussed
bad influences with her mom, and how we could bribe my mom with a
mini-muffin. Too bad Crystal had eaten them all by then, LOL, so
we'd offer her an imaginary muffin and say that it would honor
the Skipworth family if I could go. But as it turns out, my mom
was out so I couldn't ask. And that was it.
Wow, that was a super long entry! I hope you liked reading it, if you didn't give up. Talk to me when you have the chance ^_^
:: Posted by Kat