Meg Becomes Michelangelo

I take it as a good sign that we are painting the apartment. No, really, I do. We have never painted before because we always move. Just as we think, gee, it would be nice to have a salmon bathroom and a green and cream living room, it’s time to get going. So I think it’s actually a good thing that we have the fans on and the windows open and the radio turned up on extra loud. I made a pitcher of awesome iced tea which hits the spot right about mid-afternoon when the desert sun heats the place up like an oven. It’s been kind of fun.

Although I do wonder why we’re not doing it on the weekend when Lucie would be off work. She says she’s taking some vacation days but she didn’t look me in the eye when she said it and it’s not like Lucie to spend vacation time on chores.

Btw, the salmon walls in the bathroom look amazing.

I continue to wonder.

Special Edition Top 3.5 List: Things to do This Summer:

1. Make out with T again
2. See The Simpsons movie
3. Finish reading list
3.5 Paint apartment with Lucie

Although I list it as #3.5, painting is really #1.

What's wrong with this picture?

[Sigh.]

The End is Totally Near

Top 3.5 Signs of the Apocalypse

1. A SoCal hockey team wins the Stanley Cup
2. Paris Hilton actually went to jail
3. Hostel II
3.5 Lucie is already talking about my birthday

Can you believe it? My birthday isn’t until next month and Lucie has started making plans for it! She’s talking about a party or maybe a dinner out where I could invite my friends (yes, plural) or even like, an activity of some kind, something where we have to make reservations.

I don’t think I have ever been to a restaurant or anything where you make reservations! I know that sounds crazy but where would I go? Denny’s doesn’t take them for parties less than fifty and they don’t even answer the phone at the iHop. I’m sure Luce has, when she’s been out with Aaron or her other boyfriends but not me.

Gosh that’s a weird thing to say.

Anyway, I have to give props to the sis for thinking ahead. I don’t even want a present from her. I just want to do something fun and if she plans, that’s gift enough.

And...?

Uh-oh. I have run out of things to do.

I have been to paintball with T and his family.
I have been to the water park in San Dimas with Reggie and Dina and Kathryn.
I have been to Costco with Lucie for the freebies twice.
I have made out with T exactly once.

What else am I going to do this summer?

Act Your Age

Lucie was reading my blog this weekend and she saw my list on Sunday and she got all pissy. Now get this, NOT because I told people she dances around in her underwear singing into a spoon but because I said she listens to 80s pop music!

I’m not sorry. That’s the truth and it’s kind of cute. And Luce, you look totally like a kid doing that, not some grownup who shouldn’t be trying to be cute.

[And I have to say, man do I hate that. Have you ever seen old people trying to do young things, like they wear low riders when they have NO business doing that? Or they put little kid clips in their hair, as if that would distract people from their wrinkles. And hello, could you please put on a top that fits? No one wants to see old people tummies. It’s just gross. You can only get away with this if you still look awesome. My sister may be getting close to the big 3-0 but at least she still looks good so she can pull off the cute look. Well, sometimes. Let’s be real about this.]

Cheer Up, Walkman-Style

Top 3.5 Songs to Listen to When You Can’t Get Rid of Your Bad Mood, Courtesy of Lucie’s Old Cassettes

1. White Wedding by Billy Idol
2. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham
3. Straight Up by Paula Abdul
3.5 I Want a New Drug by Huey Lewis & the News

I could go on and on with the 80s music but these are some of the most-listened to tapes in my sister’s collection. She CLAIMS to be a big U2/REM/Nirvana fan but really, she loves pop music - old pop music. I don’t blame her. Seriously, I make no judgments when it comes to music but I just don’t want her passing herself off (like to Aaron, her crunchy hippie folk music boyfriend) as an FOK (Friend of Kurt) when in reality, she likes to dance around in her underwear, singing George Michael songs into a wooden spoon.

You know, I don’t even have to listen to these songs to feel better. I just have to imagine Lucie listening to these songs…

The Beat Goes On

That’s a Sonny and Cher song and if you don’t know who Sonny and Cher are, then you have to get yourself to iTunes and download some of their craziness.

Lucie has this really old tape which she plays on a really really old Walkman (which you’d think we could get rid of but it’s the only thing we have that plays cassettes and since we can’t afford to replace all of our music on cassettes with CD’s AND buy a CD player, we pretty much have to hang onto it plus Aaron records his shows on CD for me to transcribe so we have to keep it but man, is it a klunker).

Every once in a while she’ll get in a Sonny and Cher mood and she’ll put on the tape and bounce around the house and I can always tell which tape it is because she’ll sing Half-Breed at the top of her lungs which I find hilarious. I never can tell if she thinks she sings well (she does) because she’s always goofing around. One of these days maybe I’ll catch her when she’s not looking and see if she only goofs around when I’m there.

Look, I’m in a bad mood again. I don’t know why, I just am. I’m gonna grab Lucie’s Walkman and throw on Sonny and Cher and hope that puts me in a better mood.

And the grades are in...

And I didn’t do as badly as I thought:

Earth Science: B (thanks T!)
Geometry: B- (thanks R!)
French: C+ (G screwed me on this one)
English: B (I’ll take it)
Media Studies: B- (should be an A)
Phys Ed: C (whatever)

The C’s are in classes I could give a crap about. Gym? Does anyone even take gym seriously? Except for the ath-a-letes? Please. I can’t remember the last time I sweat in a gym class or had any fun at all. Most of the time we get changed into these stupid little outfits: a t-shirt and shorts that say RCHS on them (go team!) and we have to wear sneakers (which I always forget and end up wearing regular shoes or borrowing a pair from the gym’s lost and found when I wear flip-flops to school because we aren’t allowed to wear flip-flops in gym and that is seriously gross). The games are completely lame and our teacher just yells at us when we don’t listen and makes us jog around the track which we don’t really do anyway. We just sort of slump around the track and maybe walk a little faster when she yells at us again. It’s such a waste of time. The fact that I actually got a C and not an F is so shocking to me. I would have failed me.

And French? When am I ever going to France? Or Montreal? Or anywhere else they speak the language? Not anytime soon, unless Lucie loses this job and we have to move again. Oops, don’t want to jinx us. Well, since Luce skipped work this morning to have her hair cut for cheap at the barber school, I guess she’s doing the jinxing for me.

I’m sort of in a bad mood today, if you couldn’t tell. I should be happier that school is ending and I have the whole summer ahead of me but honestly, I just don’t know what I will do with myself.

No more pencils, No more books

Top 3.5 Great Things About Freshman Year Ending

1. In 3 months, there will be a new crop of kids to harass
2. All our classes will have II at the end instead of I
3. The good half of the cafeteria will be open to us
3.5 People will finally forget I’m the new girl

Very soon, freshman year will be over. Can I get a whoo-hoo? I will no longer be a frosh, a newbie, a noob, a plebe, or whatever you want to call us first-years. A new group of freshmen will arrive in a few months and they will be the target of the new seniors’ harassment. They will be picked on in the hallways, shoved against lockers, taunted in gym class…actually, none of that ever happened to me for which I am eternally grateful. I saw it a few times and managed to slip away quietly before anyone realized I was also a freshman.

Beginning next September we will be expected to know more, having gone through the first two semesters of classes. I will be in French II and English II and Geometry II (yuck!). I will also get to pick two electives instead of just one. I haven’t decided yet what I want to take and no, I am not going to see what T is taking. Unless it happens to be something I really, really want to take. And that could happen. I’m not saying it won’t.

The caf is currently divided into the freshman section, which is next to the kitchen and is really loud and smelly and gets steamy and hot, and the rest of the caf, which has windows and the good tables that don’t wobble and air-conditioning. Next year, I can sit with Reg on her side and she doesn’t have to come slumming over to me.

And yes, in 3 months, I will no longer be the new girl. THAT is the best thing of all.

To paraphrase one of my favorite bands, wake me up when September comes…

So graduate already...

Everything around here is about Senior Week. They already went to Magic Mountain and now after finals, they have a picnic and graduation at the Epicenter and then they all go to Disneyland! It’s like this cool overnight trip! They leave late at night and then party and play at Disney all night long and come back early the next morning! They have the park practically to themselves although Reggie told me there will be other schools doing the same thing but still…who cares? There can’t possibly be as many people as there usually are. No screaming kids and no hot sun beating down on you while you wait forty-five minutes to get on the Snow White ride which is lame anyway.

Man, I can’t wait to be a senior. I really hope I’m here for that. I hope Lucie can stick to a job long enough for me to graduate and do all those fun things. Just imagine how many friends I’d have by then.

Gimme Money

How do you ask for money? Especially when it’s for something relatively frivolous? Like a non-school related activity?

Reg just tells her mom that she needs money for something. Sylvie rarely asks what it’s for, unless it’s an obscene amount, like over a hundred bucks. But if she needs fifty bucks to go shopping or to the movies (when she treats me sometimes, thanks, Reg), she gets it. She has a credit card she’s allowed to use for gas and emergencies. Sylvie would probably rather see her use it to buy nice clothes like skirts and dresses and high heels but Reggie doesn’t care about any of that. She’ll go to Rag Top in Upland and buy used Levi’s and overalls and irregular t-shirts with the names of local sports teams and hardware stores. It’s almost like she does it just to piss Sylvie off. It’s a total waste, if you ask me. I mean, what I could do with a credit card at Abercrombie or Gap or Anthropologie. I would finally look awesome.

Anyway, I never ask Lucie for money because, well, she never has any. Every once in a while she’ll have some extra cash and we spend it on Starbucks or a month of movie rentals but it’s so unusual that I can’t ever count on it. Aaron hasn’t asked me to transcribe any of his shows lately either so it’s not like I have any money.

And what do I need it for? What non school related activity do I have to spend my money on?

T and his friends have invited me to go to Laser Quest in Chino. It’s laser tag, which normally would be completely lame and I would probably make fun of the people who play because it’s so…nerdy. But T is going and his family and his buddies and their girlfriends too. But it’s expensive. T said his parents would pay for food and get us there but I have to pay the admission.

And then in July they’re going on their annual trip to Raging Waters in San Dimas, which is a humongous water park made famous by Bill and Ted (a very old movie starring a very young Keanu Reeves, way before he was Neo). While I think that trip would be way more fun, I would have to wear a bathing suit which I am so not into so I’m debating whether to go or not. I can really only ask Lucie for money for one of them, not both and I have to decide which one.

There’s no guarantee she would say yes to either of them anyway.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Top 3.5 Things I Wish I Could Change

1. Our apartment
2. My clothes
3. My lack of cell phone and computer
3.5 Lucie

It’s not that I don’t like our apartment but it’s only one bedroom. Technically we share the bedroom but Lucie falls asleep on the couch most of the time so I get the bedroom to myself which is fine for me but I feel bad for Luce. We have two small dressers, one for each of us, and two closets, only one of which is in the bedroom. The other is in the living room. We mostly shove our shoes under the bed, which means we pretty much wear the same pairs over and over again because it’s a pain in the butt to get under there and find them, especially at 8 in the morning when you have to run out the door.

And it’s not that I don’t have clothes to actually cover my body but they’re pretty old and not the most stylish. No one ever makes fun of me or anything - I’m not Ugly Betty or whatever - but it’s pretty evident that I don’t have disposable cash to spend on clothes. I try to stick to classics: plain skirts and jeans and t-shirts which go with everything so they last but when everyone gets dressed up on special days, like Valentine’s Day or the last day of school, I look like I found my clothes on the street. So I’d like new clothes.

As for the cell and computer, forget about it. It ain’t never gonna happen, not with Lucie’s current income. I would love to have a cell, even one of those pay as you go things but…do I have to say it again? No money. None. Zero.

Lucie gets honorable mention here just because sometimes I wish she was just my sister and we could just do sister stuff together. I wish she didn’t have to worry about providing for me and making sure I have a roof over my head and I wish I didn’t have to nag her about paying the bills and getting to work on time and filing taxes. Sometimes I wish our parents were still around and we could just goof off and be the Shanley girls.

That’s a lot to wish for. Maybe I’ll just get a new pair of jeans.