Along the Milky Way

I overslept because I was dreaming about – well, don’t even ask me because it was a weird one – but anyway, the ENTIRE paper came together yesterday in the space of about two hours – with the exception of me slipping out of chemistry to add the last page, which was finished at the very end of lunch period – and also with the exception of two sentences which we have yet to add, consisting of the primary results and what happened to the levy.

AND..at 4:12 pm this afternoon – it was DONE as of fourth hour. Voila!

GAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHA!

No, I haven’t ever actually made that sound, as far as I know. It is 6:45 in the morning and I was editing pages last night and I AM FREAKING OUT BECAUSE NONE OF MY STAFFERS REALIZE HOW TO CORRECTLY FORMAT A PULL QUOTE!

GAHHHHHHHHHH— never mind, I’m not going to try that again. Anyway, we have maybe 1/8 of a 16-page paper done. Remind me never to entrust whole pages to sophomores ever again.

Stuff I’ve Been Reading (that I plucked from Hannah’s backpack). The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I LOVE THIS BOOK (see below post). It is about a girl named Hazel, who has cancer of the thyroid, I believe. She meets a boy named Augustus Waters (great name, right?) who had osteosarcoma and now has about 1.4 legs, as Hazel phrases it. They fall in love, although it’s exponentially more complicated than that. They bond over this book about another girl with cancer. They fly to Amsterdam to visit the author and find out what happens after the book ends. The author turns out to be a total jerkface. So they return to the States after an otherwise-very-lovely Netherlandian vacation. And then…

SPOILER!!!! No, I’m kidding. I would not ruin the book for you that way. But it ends beautifully. And it is fresh and funny and full of awesome observations that I might have made if I were a slightly more star-crossed version of myself, but as it was, I found myself enjoying them more than I might have if I had been a slightly more star-crossed version of myself. Because then I would have cried plagiarism.

Anyway, Hannah loaned it to me after I plucked it out of her backpack and started reading. She is inexpressibly kind like that.

I LOVED IT.

Note: The persona of Will Lindstrom is now composed thusly: 1/3 Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, 1/2 Augustus Waters, and 1/6 the hockey-lovin’, grey-eyed, vaguely defined, romantic Minnesotan that he started out as.

I am halfway through The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and I love it.

I will be rehashing this as soon as I get through it.

Favorite quote so far (even though the whole book has been a scream): “Do you realize how rare it is to come across a hot girl who creates an adjectival version of the word pedophile? You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.”

Well, she didn’t create it, I don’t think, but I LOVE it.

Less than thirty seconds later, I have discovered a new and better favorite quote. “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

Three minutes later. 1:53 PM. “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.”

1:54. “Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.”

1:58. “Yes, absolutely. Not like a heaven where you ride unicorns, play harps and live in a mansion made of clouds. But yes. I believe in Something with a capital S. Always have.”

2:12. (It got a little boring for awhile there…) “Me: ‘It does not taste like God Himself cooked heaven into a series of five dishes which were then served to you accompanied by several luminous balls of fermented, bubbly plasma while actual and literal flower petals floated down all around your canal-side dinner table.’ Gus: ‘Nicely phrased.’ Gus’s father: ‘Our children are weird.’ My dad: ‘Nicely phrased.’”

2:14. “It seemed like forever ago, like we’d had this brief but still infinite forever.” <– This is what has been going on in my head since Monday the 30th of April. I hate change.

2:21. “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” This line was repeated throughout the book. I finally decided to include it.

I have always loved spring.

True, I love all the seasons in their ways, some more than others, but I have always loved spring. At least, ever since I started school. Perhaps because I was busy inside, I realized just how neat it was outside. Every May or so that comes back to haunt me.

The point is, I have never watched spring come and felt just the tiniest bit sad about it. This year I do. It’s weird. I’m wondering if it doesn’t have to do with the fact that this year has been so beautiful, so wonderful, so splendid in all the right places, that I don’t want it to end, or perhaps that I’m afraid next year can’t be even half as good. Perhaps it’s the change coming down the pipe when the seniors of 2012 leave. I’ve never known school without them, you know. And I have a lot of good friends among them. I’m going to miss them. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of that.

I mean, what will German class be without Roadkill and Hannah? Or choir without the multitudes of seniors who are in there, not least of whom is the wonderful Danielle? What will journalism be like without Steph or Brittany or Kenah? What will I do without Keesha to hug me in chemistry? When Sarah isn’t there to make me smile in band what am I gonna do then? And what about when Connor’s not around? Let’s not even go there.

GAH! Perhaps I just don’t understand why change is necessary. I suppose I’ll figure it out.

To wake up at SIX-THIRTY instead of SIX for one day?! I DO!

Tippets was gone today, so nobody met for jazz band at seven in the morning. Tjosan.

If there is anything I have learned, it is that expecting things will often leave you disappointed, while not expecting things will often find you delighted. Makes sense, yes?

I did not expect to find a tributary of the road to Wonderland under my very feet on Saturday night – or Sunday morning to be precise. I believe it was about 12:45, but the time of course is immaterial. Anyway, and there I was on a very small tributary of the road to Wonderland. Whether or not this tributary will actually take me to the road is yet unknown. As Keesha said, I’m hoping it’s a gateway. Of sorts.

I am far from high-maintenance and my appearance on Saturday was not very classic prom, but as I always say, hardly anyone is looking at me anyway, and anyone who is looking but isn’t impressed doesn’t deserve to be looking at all.

I am wandering. I don’t think any of this was what I really meant to say.

Yes, I went to my junior prom; yes, I had a good time. Up until the last five minutes. Which were the most beautiful, idyllic, wonderful, splendid, grand, incredible, unbelievable, spectacular, fantastic, magical, perfect five minutes of my life.

I could tell you why. Maybe.

But would it be half as special? No. Probably not.

Like I said, no one’s looking at me anyway. I just had no idea that five minutes can mean the whole world.

I go outside without my coat

at 6:45 this morning,

and the sunrise over Bennett

is as beautiful as I’ve ever seen it

and the birds

are indeed singing

and I stand there

and throw my arms out

because I am not

wearing

a coat.

*big cheesy grin* Ya wanna know what I did?

I taught myself how to cut out an object in Photoshop. DO YOU KNOW HOW COOL THAT IS? No? You don’t? Do you know how long I’ve been struggling with it, then? No? You don’t? What am I talking to you for then?

IT LOOKS AMAZING. I am quite literally over the moon with the excitement of this achivement. Look at me go! XD

5 Days
Seattle!
I feel like the opening titles of That Girl, running,
happy, full of wonder,
purely in love
with living
It makes me feel
Like singing
and wearing skinny jeans
and turning cartwheels and
putting flowers in my hair
and holding hands
and taking too many pictures
and being
purely
in love.
What can I say?

In Love
Holding hands,
Me watching you
when I think you aren’t
watching
Me back.
You, you are like
a bus ride in the spring evening
hearts swelling, windows open,
happiness, stars over the desert,
that kind of thing.
Can we dance over meadows
and along beaches,
can we stop to kiss under
the light of a smoldering sunset
or a glorious dawn,
can we sing and turn cartwheels
and come up laughing?
Can we swoop down the ski hills
going entirely too fast, and can I
scream I love you as we whisk
down the cattracks?
Can I read my ridiculous poems to you under a flaming autumn tree?
You, darling, remind me
not a little
of, say, the view from the top of
the Space Needle or
watching the fireworks on my
birthday over the miserable desert.
And a hundred other beautiful things.
What do I remind you of?
What will you wish
when we finally meet?