Post Graduation Summer(y)

I did a sort of play on words in the title, I was going to do something like Post Graduation/Summery Stuff but then I realized I could do a play on Post Graduation Summary so, yeah. I feel like I should be writing some epic conclusionary post to our middle school experiences but this blog really has only chronicled (can I say that it really even chronicled due to our sporadic postings?) the later half of our eighth grade year. So I guess all I can really say is that I'm glad it's over but at the same time I wish I could live in a perpetual 7th grade. Everyone's experiences are different so I won't speak for the other writers here at The Crew but at least that's how I feel.
Now that it's summer (it's been summer since June 11th or something but whatevs), I haven't really done much. Had three amazing sleepovers with Nikki, Liza, and my friend Anna who I met through Rookie, Payton and I start camp next week, and Alice and I are having our second date in three days (Wednesday). All in all it's starting off to be a great summer. For camp you're supposed to write a little piece of non fiction to bring in to the creative writing class. I'm still working on mine but here it is so far.
I tell her about another sleepover where I had stuck my head out the window in the rain at 3 am and watched my friends make sundaes in their mouths. She cuts me off, asking if I want to go outside now. Before I can think I’m saying yes and she’s unlocking the sliding door in the kitchen and telling me to wait on the porch. She goes to find her skateboard in the garage.
I follow the sound of her voice and use my cell phone as a flashlight. She says I won’t need it since the streetlights are so bright. She says the neighborhood is safe. Soon I’m running alongside her skateboard as she tells me about all of her neighbors. The street lights illuminate her as she skates ahead of me. I take the camera from her. Click. The flash goes off. Everything is bright for a second before fading back into the early morning darkness.
So far it is sort of shitty. It's about the sleepover I had with Anna. We snuck out of her house at midnight and took photos and she skateboarded around and it was a really sort of cinematic moment. I'm trying to capture that visual in my writing but I hardly ever write outside of school since I always feel stupid doing it. This summer I really hope to improve my writing and also my drawing since I found a ton of really nice markers in our pantry a few days ago. Every summer I also make a 50 things to do list which I'm working on completing fully this year (I never have before). Not sure if I should also put that here since it's super long and boring but if you don't care then just don't read it I guess.
1,) Write (and send) at least 50 letters
2,) Send 5 packages
3,) Make a zine
4,) Go on a date
5,) Follow camp route
6,) Go to camp with Payton
7,) Watch all the movies on my movie list
8,) Read all the books on my reading list
9,) Make/fly a kite
10,) Go to a carnival/fair/board walk
11,) Eat soft serve ice cream in a park
12,) Get film developed
13,) Go to the Renegade Craft Fair
14,) Watch the sun rise on Nikki’s roof
15,) Send a message in a bottle
16,) Spend the afternoon hanging out by the pond at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
17,) Win at the Game of Life
18,) Make a pom pom crown
19,) Reach 200 followers on Tumblr
20,) Make a milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard
21,) Go to Build-A-Bear workshop and build a bear.
22,) Stay up all night
23,) Make homemade ice cream from scratch
24,) Bake a funfetti cake
25,) Set a balloon free
26,) Learn how to make paper boats
27,) Camp out in a living room fort/tent
28,) Press some flowers
29,) Have an anti-social party with party hats and unsalted tears
30,) Make a root beer float
31,) Organize everything in my room by color
32,) Become pen pals with someone (Kaede, Ming, Liza, ect.)
33,) Have a piece published in Rookie
34,) Start keeping a daily calendar
35,) Learn how to paint with water colors
36,) Consistently update the blog
37,) Go to CAKE and have a slumber partay with Kat
38,) Throw a surprise party
39,) Bake lemon squares
40,) Have a garden party
41,) Paint over a photo
42,) Visit the main library
43,) Make collages with Liza
44,) Have a Veggie Tales/Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure/Pocahontas marathon with Nikki
45,) Learn how to embroider
46,) Read at least 25 books
47,) Watch all of Numb3rs
48,) Watch all of Torchwood
49,) Have a picnic
50,) Play with an Ouija board

So far I've gotten four things done. The Ouija board thing has been on my list for as long as I've been making one (three years about?) so I'd really like to get it done. I just don't have a Ouija board or know anyone who has one.

I should probably go to bed since it's midnight and I have to go get my glasses fixed tomorrow and then also get some camp stuff and clean my room and all that fun stuff.

Toodles!

Simone

7/1/13

12:23am

Activity Period

Hi y'all,
I'm writing this post from the last activity period The Crew (I feel sort of silly referring to us like that) will ever experience. Next week we have an assembly, and the week after that we'll have graduated the 8th grade. Wow. It is so weird being an ~almost highschooler~. Activity period is sort of like recess at Lab. We get it once a week for one class period and you can sign up for fun activities like outdoor play or short films or something. Liza's and my French teacher was going to do an impressionist picnic activity period where we all would go and make impressionist foods and she would have 'absinthe' for us to drink (aka green soda). No one really signed up though so we're in iPod socializing. I'm just sort of listening to my iPod, not really socializing. I really wanted this to be some really super fun activity period but I'm blogging and Saskia, Alice, and Liza are looking at Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber. I should just stop moping around and blogging and either finish reading Paper Towns (it's due back at the school library by the end of today!) or join them on the other end of the table. Idk. Whenever I get my hopes up that something will be super fun I feel like it just is super awkward. I'll look back on today and probably remember it as fun and much better as a memory than it actually was in the moment. I'm working on getting everyone to start updating this blog more since it's been inactive for a while. I'm still not really sure if I should elaborate on who exactly I am, instead of sort of barging into this whole blog and whatnot. Um, so I'm Simone. I'm fourteen. I go to school with Liza, Alice, and Saskia at the school that Payton used to go to before she moved. I like reading, photography, Tumblr-ing, watching Doctor Who and Sherlock, cats, glitter, zines, and talking to myself on the internet (blogging). There are only 5 more academic days of school left, 1 test, 2 projects, and I still need to find shoes to go with my graduation dress. I'm sure that there is a better way to end this but jumping from topic to topic just suits my mood right now.
Toodles!
Simone

Changing Up the Layout

Greetings comrades,
I'm Simone. I've never posted here before but I was the one who set up the original layout of the blog and who just changed it again a few minutes ago. I used to have a blog two years ago but Google shut it down when they realized I was 12 and not 13. Please forgive me if this post is super awkward, blogging is sort of weird if you don't do it for a while. I mean, wow, what do I even say? I went to the doctor's office today (physical doctor not therapist/psychiatrist doctor) and I had to get two shots which were like the worst things ever. My arm is still sore from one of them. I really didn't want to cry, especially since beforehand my mom said that my sister hadn't cried a few weeks ago when she had her shots but I cried (only after the nurse left the room). I think my crying made my mom feel guilty about it so she offered to get me a milkshake or something which made me feel even worse that she was offering out of guilt (I declined). We had what I wanted for dinner but it just didn't seem really appetizing. Idk. I have a wee stomach ache now. Today has just been sort of shitty. When I got back to school I was sort of barely holding it together so when Marie* tried to give me a hug in the hallway I almost started crying and when Jenna* was sort of joking around with me in advisory I came pretty close to crying again (*names have been changed. Do I have to change peoples' names? I feel really stupid calling my friends by other names, whatevs). My arms hurt less now but it just made me sort of moody and depressed today. I dunno. I got to sit out in gym but it wasn't that fun because Thomas* (*again with the fake names) was the only other person sitting out and it was super awkward since he had his laptop so I had noone to talk to and no books or anything to read. So I just sat and spaced out for the entire period (which wasn't as great as it sounds). I feel like there is more I should add to this like a 'Get To Know the Blogger!' sort of thing but is a link to my Tumblr sufficient (rhetorical question)? http://sciophobic-shadow.tumblr.com/ I plan on blogging more but usually when I do that I don't end up blogging more. Are posts allowed to be totally off topic for five seconds because holy shit there was just this huuuuge crack of thunder (bolt and lightning, very very frightening me).

Toodles!
Simone
5/28/13
8:34 pm

Productivity and Revelations of a Sunday morning

Dear diary,
After waking up today and mourning the decline in my fish Piexe's health, I decided three things:
1) I don't care what people think of me.
2) Facebook truly is a waste of time, and
3) I shouldn't have to starve myself to feel pretty.
So, I went downstairs and broke my 27 hour fast by eating two slices of pizza and a banana. I felt extremely motivated, so after this I deleted my facebook. This is a big step for me; I only ever got one because "everyone ese has this incredibly useless social media site!" and in deleting my account I think I'm accepting that I'm not simply one of the masses. I am an (odd and perpetually tired) individual! Yes. This is just me ranting, but I do have school tomorrow and I haven't felt this productive in a while, and since the theme of any entries this week was "beginnings" (happy birthday Liza!!) I felt this was suitable. I also decided that I would fill a jar with the good things that happened this year in order to help my lack of self worth.
Lots of Love,
Paytoni

Known as the grouchy old lady who gives out baked goods

Dear Diary,

Today on my bus ride home I was thinking about what life was going to be like for me when I'm old. I think I started to think about it because I had just seen my babushka (russian for grandma) and decided I don't want to spend my old days sitting at home in a wheelchair slowly losing my memory. In a way I want to have a new begining when I became old, instead of a long sad ending.

When I turn about 60 years old or so I am going to move into a village somewhere where it is always fall, so the leaves will always be pretty. The village will be in the mountains where there are lots of trees, hiking paths and fresh air. There will be plenty of children and families, but not a lot of young single people, therefore not a lot of nightlife. The village will be fairly chill and quite besides the children's laughter and the occasional scream, because a bear got into someones yard.

My house will be small and cozy, with pictures and things of all the places I traveled in my vibrant youth. There will be four rooms a kitchen with a little table in it, a bedroom, a bathroom, with a multitude of amazing soaps, made by yours truly and a small library. The library will have one beaten down brown leather armchair, with a lamp beside it and one hundred books sorted alphabetically. The bedroom will be tidy and small, with a closet, a desk and a full size bed. The kitchen will be bright and have all the kitchen appliances a chef could ever dream of except for big bulky things.

I will be known in town as the grouchy old lady who gives out baked goods, because I will leave a batch of baked goods outside my window every morning for kids to take. I will also be known for the stories I tell about the adventures I had when I was young and the people I met. Every saturday I will take kids in the village hiking through the mountains and show them what poison ivy looks like, and what leaves are good for making tea. I'll spend most of my time hiking, drinking tea, baking, making soap, reading and writing about my adventures from back in the day.

Love,
Nikki

Liza on HAPPINESS.

Dear Diary,
So, I turned fourteen last weekend, and I've been having these rushes of motivation that feel strangely like they're not in my control.  I've been feeling a little forced in terms of all these DIY projects I've been attempting, and in terms of the amount of sitting in front of a screen flashing bright lights I've been doing, but last night, while I climbed onto the roof of my friend's house and sang to the night sky and watched Beyonce do the halftime show and stopped feeling sorry for myself (at least temporarily), I felt fantastic.  I felt like I didn't need to MATTER, or whatever--I felt like I could just do my thing and be surrounded by people I really love and everything would turn out OK, and jeez, that's a fantastic feeling. 
Gotta go do last minute homeworky and pre-valentines day-y shit before bed, and sorry for lack of posting, but yeah.  Illinois is close to legalizing same sex marriage (!!).  There are lots of really great people in the world, and I have the privilege of getting to spend time with some of them.  Even if my happiness is hormonal or whatever, a sudden rush of great vibes only my teen angst and pubertay can control, it still countsforsomething.
Much love,
Liza

Liza on LGBT YA lit and romantic tragicomedies.

Dear(est) Diary,

Today, in between various standardized tests, I started The Miseducation of Cameron Post, by Emily M. Danforth.  It's beautifully written--sort of Big Girl Small (Rachel DeWoskin)'s Judy Lohden  infused with a little of how John Green portrays teenagedom and some of Prep (Curtis Sittenfeld)'s Lee Fiora.  The fantastic fearlessness of Liza and Annie, from Annie On My Mind (Nancy Garden), is definitely there too, only the stakes are different-- Miseducation is Miles City, Montana, and Annie On My Mind is New York, New York.  I loved these perfectly thought out vibes Ms. Danforth managed to shape--best friends running around a small town, playing extended games of dare, yielding only for popsicles or swimming or cream pie.  Over the years of junior high and early high school, shit becomes more complicated--quietly dealing with her parents sudden deaths, getting involved with a girl from Seattle one summer and starting to come to terms with herself (in a way that's different from the comin' to terms movie montages set to a Blondie song, more real) and joining the youth group at the local Evangelical church.  I was slightly demoralized when, after establishing a relationship with a new student, a beautiful, effortless homecoming-queen-esque cowgirl, Coley Taylor, everything goes downhill.  It's not a dangerous, beautiful, and infinite American YA romance, not one that makes you (me) feel warm and bubbly and inspired when I read it in the car waiting for my brother to be done with soccer practice.  I want to fall in love on the Staten Island Ferry in New York City like Liza and Annie, going back and forth and back and forth, watching the night fall and the city lights come up.  I want to go out for dimly lit Italian meals and come home later than I was supposed to, because that's what YOUTH IS ABOUT, right?  The love that's not cliche enough to be the cheerleader and the head quarterback, not sad enough to be the two outcasts who band together like they do in movies?  It's by no means EASY for Annie and Liza as young, closeted lesbians in the 80s surrounded by disapproval coming from those closest to them--there's a point there where you think they might not get back together, that in the end it was all too much.  But you don't really think that--you know that in the end Liza and Annie will meet up again in New York over winter break, come out or do whatever they feel they have to do.
In The Miseducation of Cameron Post, though, I as an American born n' bred teenager with a secret affinity for all these romantic tragicomedies where you know they'll get back together but WHAT IF THEY DON'T, I felt almost betrayed as Coley denounced Cam and her sexuality, tells their preacher and Cam's aunt, gets Cam sent off to God's Promise, a "facility" for kids who have experienced "unholy desires".  It sounds melodramatic and YA fictiony and like something that has no meaning, something that would never play out in REAL LIFE, but it still fills me with a rush of doom to hear this inspiring, fantastic hero be trapped in this awful damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't kind of situation, one that makes me feel trapped even though I live in a big city, have a club called Spectrum at my school, parents who I know will support me and love me throughout the choices I make.  I don't know how to conclude this, really, because I don't know whether I have a conclusion.  This book is important.  It sheds light upon so many issues that are still very much present in our society today--no doubt.  But we need Annies and Lizas, too, and we have to hope that there are more and more opportunities for kids to feel as exhuberant as Annie and Liza do that day when they go back and forth on the Staten Island Ferry.  You know?
I was gonna talk about how watching 30 Rock made me feel really empowered, better about m'self, but it's pretty late, I need a warm beverage before I go to sleep, and writing this has strangely helped me feel a lot better.  Hooray for the internet?
Love,
Liza