Dear Blog,
What an eventful week!!

Monday was the fabulous dinner party. Eva, Casey, Anya, and I got together and made a Caesar salad, Bruchetta, and Fettucini Alfredo...all from scratch! Anya, of couse, topped of our fine meal with a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling apple cider. Then we went into Eva's room and watched Hmm...what did we watch? Well, I forget, but it was a movie. Then we played some Dance Dance Revolution and talked online (I think I might've scared Pierre...lol) and then we went to bed and tried to think of things that we didn't know about each other (secrets...Oooo..Ahh...lol) So that was Monday.

Tuesday. I spent the day getting ready for school, packing my lunch, and practicing my french horn. I guess Tuesday wasn't that eventful.

Wednesday. Ah, yes, the dreaded first day of school. Actually, I was pretty excited, as you can tell from my previous entry. (Hmm...right now I feel like eating some granola...ok...back to Wednesday...) I woke up bright and early (around 6 o' clock), took a bath (with my new Strawberry shampoo that smells really sugary..Mmm...), got dressed, ate breakfast, and spent half an hour blow drying my hair (why?). Then Jared's (my brother's friend) mom picked us up for school and we went to school. When I got to schol I went to check my schedule and I found that I had Ms. Calahan (B.C. Calculus) first period. (yay!) SO I went to class and got my schedule and for once it was completely correct! = ) I have BC calc 1st period, AP english 2nd period, Economics 3rd period, wind ensemble/symphony orchestra 4th period, french 5th period (yay!!!), and water polo 6th period. That night I started my SMC Piano 1 class as well.

Thursday Bonjour! Je m'appelle Geneviéve. (grr...I can't find the stupid grave accent key on the keyboard.) Yes, it is true, I am FINALLY taking francais. (I'm not even going to look for the accent that goes under the c). On Thursday we had a quiz on the colors: vert, violet, jaune, marron (which some would consider brun ;) ), bleu, rouge, et orange. = ) I got an A = ) yay! (hey!) lol...it rhymes! okay, okay...thursday wasn't that exciting...I took an AP english practice multiple choice, got 28/56 right, learned about opportunity costs in Econ, and played a little bit in wind ensemble (grr...my section sucks.)

Friday-day okay, before I start writing about Friday, I would just like to say, Anya you're so cool. = ) okay, now back to Friday. Let's see, in BC calc we learned how to do some cool things on our graphing calculator, in AP english we talked about the Age of Enlightenment, in Econ we discussed current events and more Opportunity cost stuff. In WInd Ensemble, I taught my section how to transpose from F to Eb for a Sousa march, then we played a REALLY cool piece by Bach-Grainger (just for those of you who are confused because these composers weren't alive at the same time....Bach wrote the theme and Grainger, a big fan of Bach's, arranged it for band)...this piece had one of the prettiest french horn solos...and I got to play it!! = ) The best part about it was, since I've been practicing a lot lately, I could actually play it well! = ) Anyways, that made my day a lot better. Then I went to lunch, which has been weird lately since it's only Casey, Eva, Anya, and me eating together. James Pavis is going to join us soon I think...he seems lonely (but it's weird since I always thought he hated me from 9th grade humanities class where everyone teased us and I was kind of a bitch to him....jeez, I was a bitch to a lot of people in 9th grade...). In water polo I ran greeks and did 100 sit-ups (whoop-de-do) and 100 push ups (teehee). But all in all, it was the biggest joke of a workout. Alie Ibarra was the "leader" and she didn't really make us do anything, and all the freshmen stood around and complained about how the grass is itchy.
Friday night after school, I came home, took a bath to get off all of the day's dirt and sweat and I felt so much more alive. Then Pierre came over and we watched some TV and waited for 6:30 to come so we could go to the Planetarium show at SMC. Our first choice was to walk there after dinner (which I was going to make...but my mom made me rake the leaves and mow the back yard so she ended up making it) Since my mom made dinner it ended up taking a while, so Pierre and I just got a ride from my dad. We got to the show, paid our money, and walked around the hall of the tech building. 7 o' clock came and we went into the show. The lady who was the lecturer/speaker was really goofy, and turned out to be an ex-circus performer. She had on some really cool earings that glowed in the dark...lol, I'd never wear them in public but it would be fun to have...you never know when they will come in handy. The first show we saw was mostly geared towards the little kids. It had lots of funny "space songs". The second show, however, was more serious and geared towards people who had some knowledge of astronomy. I liked the second show more...but I had forgotten how tired school can make me and I nearly fell asleep (Pierre tickled me and woke me up). After the second show we talked to her for a few seconds and she gave us our card so we can volunteer there. As it turns out there's an amateur astronomy club that meets the second friday of every month over at New Roads high school (on olympic and stewart...right by my house). I think I'd rather hang out at the planetarium and help out there than go to the astronomy club (since I feel like I don't really know that much and I'm not nearly as interested in it as a lot of them will be....I'm finding that my interest in astronomy is diminishing...but who knows maybe it's a phase). Then my dad picked us up and I fell asleep on the couch.

SaturdayI began the morning by practicing my horn, expecting a horn lesson. Well, about half an hour after it was supposed to start, I called my teacher and found out that she forgot about my lesson....again. So, I put away my horn stuff and went over to Pierre's house. At Pierre's house we went swimming in his pool. This one's a lot bigger and deeper than his previous one. The funniest thing that happened was this: Pierre sat between the pool and the jacussi (sp?) and made the jacussi overflow onto the deck. Haha...I guess you had to be there. Then he taught me some things about the internet...that page names that end in "z" are illegal programs and stuff that you can get for free (I think...) for example, filez (sorry, I'm taking one of your examples...lol) is a place that has copies of illegal files that you don't have to pay for. grr..I don't think I'm explaining this right. Oh well..it doesn't really matter. So, then we left for Laura Murillo's sister's belated birthday party (what a mouthful!) . Since Pierre hasn't had his license for more than 6 months, and I have, his parents let my drive us to the party in his car. (they must really not like driving us places, lol). We got to the party and played in the moonbounce for a while, then went to play Dance Dance Revolution, then ate (Mmmm...there were some tastey chicken egg rolls there..) , then we played truth or dare where Eva was dared to flash a car (and she actually did it!!!!) and we harassed Matteo and Pierre (but mostly Matteo) about playing and telling us his most embarrasing moment (which I shall not repeat because that would be breaking the truth or dare code...lol..plus I want to stay on Matteo's good side...he sits behind me in English class...). Then we had some cake, eva had some beer (which Pierre and I tasted...but it wasn't anything special, although I must say it tasted better than some other beer I've tried), and we all marched down to the Park. At the park we played on some of the equipment and continued to try to play truth or dare. Oh WAIT!! Before I go on ... Laura M. told a joke last night about panda's...it's kinda gross and can't apply to me since I'm straight...but ok...here it is:

A panda walks into a bar and orders a drink. he sits next to a whore who asks him if he wants to go to the back and have some fun. The panda says of course and is led to the back to have some fun. When it's all finished the panda starts walking out of the bar. The whore, who happens to be carrying a dictionary, yells at the panda and says, "Don't you know what the definition of a whore is? It says, has sex for money." The panda replies, "Don't you know what the definition of a Panda is? Eats bushes and leaves."

Haha!! Ok, ok, maybe it's too early for this kind of joke, but hey, I had to tell it....it's about Pandas!! lol. So, we then went to jack in the Box so Laura could get a strawberry shake (theirs are almost as good as Johnny Rocket's), then back to the park to play truth or dare some more. Laura and Eva dared me to do some things, and I'm sure I destoyed the game...but I just could NOT bring myself to do it...believe it or not I do have some dignity. Then Eva stared at a tennis player and they (the tennis players) got really sick and perverted and scary...then Eva screamed at them and I got scared someone would call the cops. We went back to Laura's house and watched Scary Movie 2 (which is only good the first time as I now know...) and then lit off some fireworks. At around 11 I could tell Laura's mom wanted everyone to leave so Pierre and I left. I drove us back to my house, and since Pierre was hungry, fed him a doughnut, watched a little bit of Saturday Night Live, and he left. I watched some more of that show and fell asleep on the couch again (this time I was on the uncomfortable one and had a cat sleeping on me).

Sunday...today! I woke up really early because I was uncomfortable on the couch and I made myself some egg whites for breakfast (I feel like I should start eating a little bit healthier since I want to lose some weight/pudge). Then I practiced and started to write this long ass entry...lol. I played Dance Dance Revolution for a while and my mom asked if I wanted to go to Disneyland today...YES!!! I haven't been there since January, when I went with Jessica and only had $3 lol...it's a long story, and since you've made it this far...I don't think you want to read another book...;). So, at about 1 o'clock, Anya and I are going to go to Disneyland!! yay!! whoo hoo!! Well, I'll get back to everyone later!! love you!

Love, (XXX)
Laura

September 3, 2002

Dear Blog,
Egads! My first day of school as a senior in high school starts tomorrow!! I'm excited, yet at the same time very disappointed that summer is ending. This past weekend I had so much fun. It must have started on Wednesday...on Wednesday I went to the beach and taught myself how to surf. At first I was just floundering around...but after a bit of determination, I stood up on the board and rode the whitewater. Some guys on the beach asked me if I wanted some surf lessons (but they cost $50 per hour with a 2 hour minimum first lesson) so I said I couldn't b/c I didn't have any money...so they just taught me how to wax my board. how nice = )

Then on Thursday I had my french horn lesson (it lasted 2 hours!). I talked to Christine Limb (my teacher) about schools and about what I need to do to get into those schools (USC, UCLA, Columbia, Juilliard, Pomona College, etc...) and it's going to be a tough year. She suggested that I quit water polo, something you know I had wanted to do earlier. But, my parents had infected me with the idea that that might prevent me from getting into college, so I decided to email my middle school music teacher, Ms. Woo (she's what I would call my mentor) and she urged me to stay in polo. So, I think I'll stay.

Friday, I went to see Feardotcom with Eva, Sophie, Artie, and Pierre. LoL, during the whole movie Pierre was telling me that we should go see something else because it was really creeping him out (since his nose bleeds and he's into computers...). Then at one point when the white little girl's face suddenly appeared next to the man in the car, we both jumped and Pierre squeezed my hand so hard, that when he finally relaxed, I had to shake it out. = ) teehee...a little scared pierre? ;)

Well, it's getting late and I need to go to bed and finish reading some parts of the bible for school...I'll elaborate on the rest of the weekend later. Goodnight!!!

Love,
Laura

September 1, 2002

Dear Blog,
Thank you SO much Pierre for saving my blog = ). Last night I accidentally deleted this file, and Pierre rescued it for me!! Thank you!!

Love,
Laura

August 29, 2002

Dear Blog,
Wow...I haven't updating in 10 days!! A lot's happened since then...I rescued a little girl, Pierre and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary =), I learned how to surf, I got a really bad sunburn, somehow my mom decided to make me take a Piano class at SMC, I've been going crazy with college apps, got my schedule for the school year, took my senior portaits...and that's about it. lol. Well, here are some pics that I just feel like showing everyone!

August 19, 2002

Dear Blog,
Hello! Well, things are still not great around my house, but at least my mom's coming back home!! Today she had a few tests and now the hospital has released her, so that's good. Hmm...I got a postcard from Eva today =) that made me happy. One of these days soon I need to go hang out with Ivy, Christine, and Anya. Yay!! Pierre gave me the pictures!! =) now I have prom pics!! Yesterday I felt so good. Today too...I mean, I was worried about my mom and dad, but the rest of my life was working out ok. And I'm just so happy to have all of my friends and to have Pierre, and everything.

Love,
Laura

August 17, 2002

Dear Blog,
I took some rather interesting quizzes today, here are my results:

find your element at mutedfaith.com. <º>

What Type of Villain are You?
mutedfaith.com / <º>

Take the What Type of Friend are You? quiz, and visit mutedfaith.com. [Me.]

Find your Role-Playing Stereotype at mutedfaith.com. [Angel.]

Well, that's all folks!

Love,
Laura

P.S. go give your parents a hug!

August 17, 2002

Dear Blog,
these last two days have been weird...make that this whole last week. Every since that guy came to our house saying that he wanted to sell it, my world has been shifting. Last night was pretty cool. I slept over at Sophie's house with Sophie and Emily. I learned all about their summer...and it seems like it was everything that they had dreamed a high school summer would be like. I didn't really have much to say...I didn't really know any of the groups they were listening to or the bands whose concerts they had gone to...so that left me a little bit out of the loop....but you know what? it felt good to be with them. After reminicing about summer, we watched some episodes of Sex in the City (which is an amazing show!) and then The Godfather Part 1. WOW! I loved the Godfather (as sophie says, "the old man likes his canolli ;) ). The movie really reminded me of Danny Osowsky, probably b/c he's always talking about how great it is and quoting from it. Then I went to sleep and had a weird dream.

Casey picked me up at around 1 pm this afternoon and we headed over to her house but stopped at Kai's along the way. Kai got a new puppy!! It's so cute! Then we went to casey's and talked about all the things we have to do senior year. That includes an all out formal dinner party (yes, we are dorks). I'm so excited...I was nominated chef! =) Then we talked some more and her mom dropped me off at the bus stop b/c she had (casey had) batting practice in Long Beach.

I got home and saw my uncle John carrying tomatoes out of my backyard with my dad and then my dad told me to call Pierre. With I was on hold, my dad told me that my mom is in the hospital and had been there since last night. Right now I'm still recovering from the shock. For some reason I'm going out to dinenr with Pierre and his family, partly b/c there's nothing I can do and partly because...I don't know...just because that's what I doing...I want to see Pierre, since I can't really see my mom, but I'm afraid I'm going to start crying during dinner or something, and I don't want to do that, but it's too late now, and oh gosh, I don't know. I don't know what i'm doing, where I'm going, what's happening around me in my life...everything is just completely out of my control. I should just stop writing right now so I don't work myself up into a frenzy.

-Laura

August 13, 2002

Dear Blog,
Hello my friends!! Today I went to Cal Poly in Pomona with Stephanie. It was an....interesting experience. I liked the campus and some of the programs were pretty interesting to me. For example, they have a "hospitality" department, where they have their own restaurant and everybody that "works" there switches jobs every couple days so nobody ends up being the dishwasher for a whole quarter. I've decided that when I go to college I'm going to take a culinary arts class, because I like to cook (and we're not talking about Mac & cheese here folks). Another cool thing about the school was the agricultural setting. There are all different types of havesting fields as well as horse, pig, sheep, and cow stables. These are things that you don't normally find in Los Angeles...and, it was almost a welcome change in atmosphere. On the 2 hour tour, we went over a lot of the school's history and boring things like that. We walked around the dorms and peered into the fitness center, where outside there was a duck pond. = ) I liked the duckies...a lot. After walking around there we went inside our tour guide's dorm. Since she works for the college she has a single room, although most people have doubles. Her room was a bit messy, so it looked a lot smaller than the "prop" double room. Overall, the dorms were ok, even though the guy's hall smelled like dirty socks.

After the tour, Steph and I looked at the different colleges for our major. She went to the college of Architechture, and I went to the college of music. Now, this was probably the thing that turned me off to the school the most. The department is really small, which can be nice because that gives me more individual attention (which they emphasized). The thing is, they haven't had a french horn major in over 2 years, 80% of the band is non-majors. there is no orchestra, the only prerequisite to be a music major is that you read music, and the french horn teacher is only in some inland empire orchestra. Considering the other offers I've had from placed like UCLA, where the horn teacher is an active studio musician, and USC, where the horn teacher is one of the leading solo horn players in LA...so why would I settle for something less than the best? I won't....so that crosses Cal Poly off my list...even though the more we walked around, the more I could picture myself on that campus. Plus if Pierre goes to Harvey Mudd, Cal Poly is only about 10 minutes away...but yes, I'll aim as high as I can, it's the only way I'll get ahead.

Speaking of getting ahead....tonight my SAT class split up for the verbal section: the sophmores and juniors were with Hoyland (my teacher) and the seniors were with Randall (the other teacher). I am SO glad I'm in Hoyland's class...all the girls in Randall's class are such ditzes!! When we were going over the sentence completions I couldn't even think because none of them would shut up. Ugh...so annoying. The last half hour of class was so pointless...we played movie/vocab jeopardy....basically pointless. I'm so glad kimberly was there!! She's the only reason I didn't go crazy.

So class ends and my dad comes to pick me up and I find out that my mom's in the hospital because of her blood pressure. I think she's freaking out a little too much from all the crazy shit thats going on with our house. It sucks. I wish there was some way to make things better for my family. Just when things start looking up for us, something happens to make it so our (my parents) lives are miserable. Right now, the kick in the crotch is that the owner of our house wants to sell the property...and quick. SInce my parents don't have that much money, this kinda thing is really hard on them. Most likely we won't be able to afford to buy our house and we'll have to move. But where? Obviously no where else in Santa Monica, unless we want to live in some rundown flop house, so probably in West LA or Culver City....my mom even suggested Palmdale, but there's no way I'm moving out there...nope, not in my last year of high school...not away from all my friends. So, basically, we're stuck. I'm stuck...I don't know what to do...there isn't that much that I can do...but I want to help them, somehow. I wish I could magically make money appear so that their lives would be better. For some reason I don't even feel like it will affect me....I just feel sad for my parents because they try so hard to give me and my brother a good life, but so much of life is based on money...and it kills them that they can't give us everything, or even half the things that they'd like to. And I can tell how much it hurts them that this house is being taken away from us, just by the look in their eyes...and now my mom's getting sick from her blood pressure....I just want it all to stop, and give them what they deserve...which is a lot more than what they're getting.

Love,
Laura

August 11, 2002

Dear Blog,
Ahh...I feel so good today. Also a little mischievious...I'm doing my secret little craft..mwahhahahaha!! lol...don't worry if you don't understand at all...you're not supposed to (no one is supposed to). But yes, I am leaving everyone out of the loop, I know. A little cryptic today, aren't I? Je suis le fou.

WEll, I suppose this week should be devoted to enrolling in my physics class at SMC (I have to repeat it b/c I got a C =( ) and doing college research...hopefully I'll have enough determination to actually start on a few of my essays...lord knows I'll need the time I have right now to complete them. Oh and I NEED to improve my SAT score...my last test was pathetic. So, maybe I should use the motivation that I have right now to go and work on SAT's...also I need to exercise!! My pudge is getting to be a little too much to handle...there's a limit to the amount that even I can stand to see on myself...lol, and I know starving myself isn't an option (b/c I know that I would break that faster than you can say "diet"). I've been thinking about the Slim fast diet thingy...but I have a feeling my parents wouldn't even consider buying me the stuff or letting me do it. But whatever...maybe water polo practice will start up soon...or maybe pigs will fly and the earth will stop spinning and I will magically lose 20 pounds. Now that will be the day ;).

Okily dokily my friends...it's time for me to go...I love you all!!

Love
Laura PS. For anyone planning on taking AP Biology next year, here's a website for you! I wish I had had it when I was taking the class : http://www.froguts.com/index.htm

August 9, 2002

Dear Blog,
I think there are people out there who truly believe that music makes a person, that fashion and style make a person and, worse yet, announcing it to the world will make people love them. I don’t know why this makes me so upset. Why should I care what they think or do with their time. Perhaps it’s because, in a way, these are people that I used to look up to – people who I respected. Now, I don’t think their opinions can be trusted, especially when they are just trying to be cool. I’m not going to go into the whole, “people make music, not the other way around” because I think that’s a whole lot of bullshit. However, I do want to say that I think it’s stupid for people to change who they are to accommodate the ideals of other people. I don’t think they realize that the people who they were once friends with loved them for the people they used to be, before they felt like they had to be cool.

Maybe I’m wrong about all this. If these people are happier the way that they are, then good for them. And I don’t mean that to be sarcastic. Hmm, this probably just sounds like someone spewing out a whole bunch of BS. And I’m getting tired of writing about this.

Let’s see…today I finished “False Memories,” by Dean Koontz. It wasn’t amazing, but I’d definitely recommend reading it. Kinda reminds me of my John Grisham days…apparently he’s now using ghost writers, which reflects in his writing. I recently read “Runaway Jury” (Grisham) and, while it was entertaining, it wasn’t nearly as good as his earlier novels like, “A Time to Kill” and “Pelican Brief.”

Summer is beginning to have its effects on me. I went to the beach yesterday with Casey and the water felt so good. We walked cautiously from the boardwalk down to the beach after Casey’s Mom had warned us that she had seen hypodermic needles in the sand. When we were about 100 feet from the water, we forgot all about the needles, threw off our sandals, stripped off our clothes, and bolted to the water. Even though it was a warm 69ºF, the first few splashes of Pacific salt water sent shivers down our spine and goosebumps up our arms. Loving it, we dove under the next approaching wave. Now our body temperature was evenly distributed throughout all of our limbs. Laughing, while making futile attempts to “catch a wave” and body surf, the hour passed by quickly. Eventually we washed up on the shore and proceeded to sunbathe. At last, a chance to purge myself of my forever lingering water polo/swim team swim suit tan – I make my millionth attempt to tan my blindingly white tummy.

Because both of us lead busy lives even in the midst of summer, Casey and I headed back up to her house at around 4 so we could shower and go to our scheduled appointments. Her mom, Thanks Jasmine!!, gave me a ride over to SAMOHI where I had to take a practice SAT for my Princeton Review class. Ugh. That dumb test made me feel like such an idiot. In the first section I didn’t get to the last 10 or so problems because the techniques take so damn long. But the most idiodic thing that I ended up doing was, in section 5, I thought I was finished with the 30 questions early. Only after time was called and I began flipping to the next section did I realize that there were 36 questions! Grrr…dumb SAT.

Well, I don’t have much more to say….I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Love,
Laura

August 8, 2002

Dear Blog,
Sorry for the delay in posting. I've just been so immersed in summertime =) Actually, last week I was immersed in studying for physics. And it paid off a bit in my last midterm for sure! I got 64...which was about 20 points higher than the average. Wow!! I just calculated what I got...it was an 80% without the curve!!! That's my highest grade! ::hugs herself::

Well, let's see, what else is new...well, there was that whole Kale thing at the promanade, PIerre's in Norway talking to lots of cool scientists and astronauts.

I'm gonna finish this later because I'm going to go to Casey's and then to the beach and enjoy my freedom of summer!!

I love you all!!
Laura

July 30, 2002

Dear Blog,
Hello. Well, it looks like all of my blog entries from July 20 until now have been erased by some mysterious being.

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