Section III is the legal part of the Malleus that describes how to prosecute a witch. The arguments are clearly laid for the lay magistrates prosecuting witches. Institoris and Sprenger offer a step-by-step guide to the conduct of a witch trial, from the method of initiating the process and assembling accusations, to the interrogation (including torture) of witnesses, and the formal charging of the accused. Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches.

Via Wikipedia

I read this aloud.

(Long story as to why I was on this wikipedia page)

Me: Oh. I would be believed to be a witch then.

Cath: I believe it.

Fun fact for context: I don't tend to cry when it would make sense to. I don't cry at like, group gatherings. I cry when I can't get my drawers to interact correctly with my dresser.

Love always,
Clara

Cath is my hero

Cath: (Being awesome and enthusiastic)

Me: Did your bill pass or something?

She is having a silly moment and it is funny.

She just described how she intends to introduce herself to a guy she met in a stairwell (oh, connotations). I won't write it though, because out of context it might reflect badly on Cath's character, only if you don't know Cath.

But I do. And take my word for it- she is funny and has marvelous character.

My committee is super awesome... I like it a lot.

Shoutout to Red Senate- Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions! Loves!

Cath: My bill passed! And even the scary intense guys supported me!

Jamila: (implies that they may have been more amenable to supporting her bill due to her attire)

Cath: What? You mean it wasn't my natural charm or intellect?

Me: You're super charming. You just also happen to be incredibly attractive.

Cath: ... it's a burden.

Love always,
Clara

Hope and change

I found this incredibly entertaining.

Love always,
Clara

MoCo

I bought model congress sweatpants. And they say "MOCO" on the ass. I love that.

Thursday something funny happened in math.

Yar: Why do lumberjacks like statistics? Because they get to work with logs!

Sam: (disgruntled) My log joke was better.

Eleni: (in her quiet happy way) No it wasn't.

Sam's log joke was something about logs being natural and the number e. It was sort of roundabout. Katie and I tried to help him save it, but he would not listen.

My bill passed! It was exciting and great. Now I get to argue everyone else's. No more timidity for Clara. I didn't want to offend anyone before they had to vote for me... but not so much anymore.

Not that I'm going to like, tear everyone down. I tend to be in favor of bills, just for the sake of being in favor. I'm an optimist.

I also love amendments.

Today is our long day. I'm more excited for tomorrow. We may see big papa.

Love always,
Clara

We're Here!

Yay! The four lovely juniors' room is actually not ready yet, so we're sharing with the three other girls for now. Seven girls in a room.
It's a little crazy.

I'm nervous... I think my bill is first. Damn my last initial falling early in the alphabet.

Love always,
Clara

About to embark...

on a journey.

A journey that would test the strength of love against the power of death, on this island of two different worlds.

Or rather, to model congress in Philidelphia, but I'm still in musical withdrawal.

Yikes. Excitement. Two hours on a bus.

Currently sitting in english.

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Bird- The bird is the word

Love always,
Clara

The dietary supplement genistein can undermine breast cancer treatment

The dietary supplement genistein can undermine breast cancer treatment
It's model congress time again. Those dietary supplements are going down.

Leaving tomorrow morning. Will blog from there. Yay!

Love always,
Clara

Hilarity courtesy of David

Slightly heartbreaking, mostly hysterical

These are too funny.

Love always,
Clara

Busyness.

Last week: Tech week

This week: Model Congress

Nest week: Junior Retreat

After that: Spring break in Italy and then various colleges in new england.

Then back to school.

Then my birthday and I believe Daphna's coming to visit.

Then... okay, I don't know. But the next two months are kind of packed.

See? I am a very busy person. I felt the need to prove that by posting my schedule.

Regardless, I took a two hour nap today. Not playing softball basically means I can't complain anymore, because it's two hours of each day that I regain. 

Interesting fact: "Horrify" and "Whore-ify" are the same word. So if you say someone horrifies you, you're either feeling shocked or sexual.

Another interesting fact: The population of New York grows at about the same rate as the hypothetical "rat island". What does that imply? Who knows?

Alexandra (a.k.a. Mama Latin) said this today: "I'm going to work at Denny's for 20 years, start chain smoking, dye my hair pink and call myself Betty"

She is positively brilliant and needn't think these things. But her thoughts entertain me.

Love always,
Clara

Studying for latin

Or rather, blogging about it.

And by means of blogging, procrastinating.

I also have to work on a history project... Yikes. And House is on tonight, and I'm not missing it. I'm fairly certain it's about a hermaphrodite.

I read Middlesex last year for school. I'd been meaning to read it anyway. Anyways, it's about a hermaphrodite. And it's really good. I recommend it. 

Now it sounds like I have a thing about hermaphrodites. In the same way I have a thing for propaganda and the Nazi party. I don't like, aspire to participate in any of these things, but I find them fascinating. You know?

Not that hermaphrodites are like Nazis. They're not like, evil. Oh god.

I am digging a hole for myself.

Anyway, here's a funny conversation to distract you from that rambling.

Savannah: Let's move the chairs so they face the TV

Will B: Um, let's move the TV to face the chairs

Savannah: We can't do that. They're all facing different ways

Me: I'll move your TV to face the chairs

Savannah: *giggles*

Will B: Oh god, you're going to blog that, aren't you?

Me: Yep.

Love always,
Clara

Change

... is a good thing. (Obama moment).

Being a terminal creature of habit, I've found I tend to avoid change.

That ends today.

I just quit softball and signed up to tutor kids every monday night.

This is new.

And thus exhilarating. I may become one of those people who does drastic things on a daily basis.

Or not. 

Who am I kidding?

Regardless, this is fun.

Love always,
Clara

Blegh day

Epic sibling drama+post musical depression+sleep deprivation=not such a fantastic day.

But.

Lily Allen's new album is awesome.

And I went to Lohemann's with mom, which is awesome.

And we went to Panera and I had an awesome mango smoothie and had songs about juicy, lovely, poison mangos stuck in my head for about an hour afterwards.

And then we hypothesized about the future, which was both frustrating and exciting. And makes us sound far more philosophical than we were being.

I am so tired I might sleep through Dawson McAllister. I hope I don't. I love that radio show. Anyone in the DC area, tune to 99.5 between 10 and 12 on sunday nights. It's a fantastically amazing advice type show that I listen to ritually. And I missed it last week due to 3-day-weekend confusion. So I want to  hear it.

Not that I intend to stay up until midnight. Madness. No, I set my radio to turn off after two hours, and fall asleep whenever. Which is usually a little before eleven.

But tonight it may be far earlier. I couldn't sleep in this morning because... my brain woke me up (unfair, cruel brain), and I'm exhausted now.

I need a haircut. But I can't figure out when I'll have time to get one.

The next month is about as scheduled as one month can be. 

Love always,
Clara

Some videos.

Feat. Kate, Rebecca, Taylor, Emily, etc.

Feat myself, Ella, and Samantha. In what came to be Lily's headdress.

Feat. Will and Taylor

Love always,
Clara

Once on this Island

I love us.

I miss us already.

We cannot evaporate.

I wanna sing sing sing, I wanna shout shout shout, I wanna sing, I wanna shout, praise the lord

When these gates are open wide, I'll be there right by your side, I wanna sing, I wanna shout, praise the lord.

Those words will be stuck in my head for at least a week.

At this moment I want to

a) sing

b) cry

And I can't sing because it's one in the morning, and my house is sleeping, and I can't cry because I just don't. The only time I can remember crying under rational circumstances in public was at the end of camp this year. And only this year. And there were a lot of reasons for that, all complicated.

I don't like/acknowledge/believe in endings.

That's my problem.

It hasn't occurred to me yet that come tuesday, I won't be singing with my musical buddies after school. I'll be playing some hateful sport that I can't bring myself to take seriously.

Anyways, I'm hyper and have tons of video that I need to edit/upload. So get pumped for that.

Tonight, I'll probably just facebook stalk people for the next hour, and then go to sleep. Or not.

Love always,
Clara

A lovely mango!

The musical was tonight!

I'm high on life.

No joke. The musical=good crack.

We rocked it tonight. Fo rizzle. It was all there. And no major slips.

(Major slips do happen. Last year, I think on opening night, we cut about five minutes out of the end of Act 1. When Act 2 started, there were some characters the audience had never seen before and everyone was using a different name for no discernible reason. That was a major slip.)

If I might ramble about my ego for a moment, I must say I was proud of myself tonight. The love goddess thing suits me, I've decided. 

Then we went to Silver Diner, as superstition dictated, to ensure that our own fortunes would multiply. Or something. We mostly go for the shakes and fries.

I took lots of video, most of which will end up on here at some point. I'm thinking music video/documentary format. Compiled and edited. That'll be my project, once I find an ounce of spare time.

I'm already kind of feeling post-musical depression. I feel like today everything came together, and I'm dreading the moment driving home from the cast party that it falls apart again.

I live on this business.

And softball simply doesn't have the same effect. Sadly.

But alas, sports credits beckon. So I'm stuck.

Real conversation of the night:

*Will C blows at me through a straw. He was trying to fly the paper wrapper thing at me, but failed pretty epically*

Me: I've been blown at!

Lily: I don't think I've ever heard that preposition after that statement.

Me: Oh god, let me rephrase. Will blew at me with a straw!

Lily: *laughs harder*

*we continue in this way, and I begin to observe the fact that the milkshakes come with thicker straws. at this point, straws have developed unsavory connotations*

*I reach for Lily's water straw as an example*

*I suffer anomia*

Me: I'm touching your... thing

Lily: *giggles*

Me: And look, mine's thicker!

It was a long conversation. But worth it for the innuendo.

Oh, and the most notable innuendo of the show:

"Come here then. Stay the night and show me your powers. Make me forget this pain. Who knows, maybe the gods did send me a gift after all"

-Will (as Daniel) to Samantha (as Ti Moune) in a steamy moment right before I make them fall in love.

Love always,
Clara

Perhaps another discussion of civil liberties

So a lot of people are wearing black. For the thing that happened.

Which is great. I look like a secret agent. Which is up there with the tiara look on the list of "things I should wear more often but don't because it's unusual".

Certain teachers are freaking out though. Not all of them. A small minority, actually. But enough to make the entire thing blow completely out of proportion. People have cried. As if the most peaceful of protests makes you a bad person.

It's a mess.

But although one teacher things our class is "going downhill", I think it says good things about us. We stick up for our friends, we are capable of organizing peaceful protest, we have self respect. We're not saying we hate the administration. Really. Most of the teachers are fine with our statement. And most teachers have been at least understanding of our outrage, even if they disagree.

Which is wonderful.

The thing is that it's propagating this 'us vs them' mentality thing of which I am so not a fan, and that's a two way street. Everyone wants to play the victim there, but the fact is that both parties have allowed the notion into their heads.

At which point all I can say is: This time, they started it. 

Love always,
Clara

In which I quote Camus

A thing has happened, involving silliness of teenage boys and subsequent gross overreaction of the administration.

I won't go into it; I learned long ago that school dramas don't belong on the internet.

But it's sparked some interesting discussions.

The student body, collectively, is outraged. The punishment does not fit the crime. And the administration is taking a very defensive position on the whole debacle of decision-making.

(What they're saying, basically, is "Hey people got mad at us for the decision we almost made, and that was inconvenient for us; now shut up")

But there's something thrilling about fighting the system. Suddenly you're the protagonist in the epic of david vs. goliath. And I've felt more connected with people I'm not even that tight with, just from our mutual outrage.

To quote Albert Camus,

"In our daily trials rebellion plays the same role as does the "cogito" in the realm of thought: it is the first piece of evidence. But this evidence lures the individual from his solitude. It founds its first value on the whole human race. I rebel--therefore we exist."

And I've been thinking my school has a lot of problems. I've been writing them down actually. A list. Maybe I'll post it here one day, if I'm in a really bad mood. Most of the points could apply to any school, really. Other schools with problems.

I'm a person who likes to stir things up. I'm generally non-confrontational when it comes to personal relationships, but when I'm fighting das man I relish it.

So every time something 'outrageous' happens, I always nurture this hope that we'll all come together and fight it, so that we can "lure the individual from his solitude".

It's happened before. Freshman year. The dress code was arbitrary and silly. We agreed that some sort of dress code should exist, but didn't like the random details in the rules (i.e. you couldn't have rivets on your pants. Like, those little metal things. Because... they aren't classy?). So some seniors organized a protest. We were all to wear ugly things. Really ugly. And clashing. But in dress code.

And many did, myself included (duh), and we paraded ourselves around looking confused when people gave us weird glances. I even walked through the Intermediate School (our 7th/8th grade division) to see my old teachers, and scolded them for their "tremendously inappropriate attire" (whoa, Ms S is wearing pants with rivets! And Mr A doesn't have a belt!).

Freshman year was fun, but that might have been the best day.

And *we won.

I wear rivets.

So I want that again. And this is a good cause. Really. What has happened is absurd and inconsistent with my school's typical attitude.

I want to fix all of this.

And maybe I'm an idealist too, who thinks that if we just explain what happened, the adults will realize it's all just been a big misunderstanding.

I know I'm an idealist.

Idealist non-confrontational rebel-lover?

Can that exist?

She does, her name is Clara.

Love always,
Clara

*For islanders: Before I typed that, I thought "Students fought against rules, and the hated administration; they fought for their clothing and finally won!"

Here I am.

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Scrip- a small bag or purse.

I'm carrying a scrip around today. To carry my stage makeup/spandex etc, for the show. It's turquoise.

English class is madness.

Mr B is injured. This is not good.

Love always,
Clara

End Suffrage!

In history class. Discussing women's suffrage and WWI

Bam: Don't women already have suffrage at this point?

Ms. M: Maybe in your mind

Everyone: Wait, what?

Yar caused something of a disturbance.

Bam (whispering): Yar, no, don't!

Ms. M: What?

Yar: Apparently i was about to do something that people aren't supposed to do, but eveyone does, and that it's a bad idea ... It's like cigarretes, there is something that you're not supposed to do, but you do do.

Ms. M: Are you selling drugs over there or something? You're not very subtle.

For the record, he was about to eat a stride gum wrapper. I do it too. Only when I'm in the car.

Love always,
Clara

Bagels

Mr D: Ms D isn't here today, so she sent me instead. She told me to bring you bagels, but I think poems are more nourishing than bagels, so I brought you a poem.

This is what happens when English teachers get married.

Love always,
Clara

There is no 'like' in physics... only love

Me: I don't know why I'm on such crack today

Cath: Is it tech week?

Me: Yeah

Cath: That's the problem

Me: It' hasn't even started yet!

Cath: ... oh. Best of luck.

Love always,
Clara

Math Class

Reporting Live from H block Precalc!

Mr H: I've looked this up. Rats are incestuous. They don't care

We were doing a project on rats and their reproduction

Mr H: On week 9, they got pregnant again

Yar: Except they didn't, because it was thanksgiving, and they were feasting with the squaw... pigeons.

I was talking about my profile subject. Sam asked (in some kind of semi-logical context) whether she was going to have children. I said that would probably be unsafe for a woman her age.

Sam: Is she an old menopausal woman... like Katie?

Katie: What?

Everyone: Sam, what?

Shivani hates this class (and she is not alone) and is making brilliant and slightly violent pictures on her laptop now.

We're all supposed to be using Excel. I don't even have excel on this computer. It vanished when my hard drive died.

Which was really frustrating.

Although I do love GoogleDocs.

Love always,
Clara

Propaganda debate

Yar: This is going to sound really liberal, and I'm not sure if I believe it, but...

Drew: Oh, say it anyway, so we can flame you.

I love history class.

Despite what I was saying earlier.

Love always,
Clara

Welcome to Tech Week

Don't expect much power blogging this week. Spare time will be at a minimum, seeing as the musical is this weekend and long-running practices are to be expected.

I'm excited. Despite myself, I love tech week like no other. It's up there with exams.

It seems I relish insanity.

Breakfast club was awesome. We were first talking about how to "fill the hole" of emptiness that is inherently one's life (before they go about filling it).

And then we got on to decisions. And regrets.

I've found it is impossible for me to regret anything. There are things I ought to regret I suppose, but every decision I've made was 

a) all I could have done at that moment

b) an experience making me who I am

And so I seriously have no regrets. Not to say I haven't made mistakes (oh lord no. I have. I swear. Don't worry).

Isabella shares this belief.

People really open up in breakfast club. It's good.

It's interesting and very existential. I like it when Jesus Club takes a turn for the philosophical. Those are the best weeks.

Love always,
Clara

I have a mask on my face

And it feels weird and tingly.

Brilliant link courtesy of Katie

Love it.

I'm all about brevity today.

Today I went to a deli and delis were involved. And at said deli, I bought 8 oz of vegetable soup. Which was really pretty great.

Green tea too.

Love always,
Clara

Another impressive time-waster

For people who find food entertaining.

Deep fried s'more on a stick?

That's either disgusting or brilliant.

Probably both.

But what impresses me mostly is its rapid popularity.

Which I am propagating. 

Clever bastards.

Love always,
Clara

Little to say

I interviewed my profile subject today. She's cool. And knows everything about my town. Which adds to her coolness.

Have been hanging out with my parents today. That sounds incredibly depressing but it's not really.

Or I'm the biggest dork ever.

Or both.

Mom and I just watched Austin Powers.

Mom: (before ordering) Is that the one with the shagalicious guy?

Me: ... yeah.

Oh dear.

Love always,
Clara

Blogs greater than my own

I know what you're thinking.

What? You mean this isn't the greatest blog ever? How can that be?!

But it is true

the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

men who look like old lesbians

cats in sunglasses

Love always,
Clara

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day is an interesting holiday.

Pros:

• It's festive
• Pink is among my favorite colors
• Love is a great thing
• Candy is wonderful
• Cupid is kind of cute
• It's an excuse to be enthusiastic
• If you're in a relationship, you can go out and be romantic and whatnot

Cons:

• Some single people get mopey about it (I talked to a few people yesterday who said they were going to wear all black in spirit of 'singles awareness day')
• It's kind of awkward if you're in a relationship
• It's rather awkward if you're not, but good friends of yours are
• There's nothing to do that night if you're not, because other people are out.
• Red isn't a flattering color
• Ask Daphne and Apollo; Cupid's a vicious little brat

In the end, I like holidays. So yeah, I basically wore head to toe pink today, with cheap CVS beads and everything.

On another note, I've decided tiaras need to be in style. Because I almost wore one today (it was pink). And I didn't, but I decided it was a good look for me.

So I might rock that look in the near future.

Love always,
Clara

My mom is enthusiastic about her closet

Mom: Come on Clara! Come see it! Please? Come on. It'll just be one second. It's so organized! Don't you want boxes too? Please please please please please? Am I going to sit here waiting forever for you? You have to look! Come on! Please? Then you can see how nice it is!

Me: This is like playing with Chili

Mom: I don't appreciate that analogy.

Mom: (continues pleading)

Love always,
Clara

Physics rave

We're playing with tuning forks and strobe lights.

Chanel: Mr C, why does the school have a strobe light to begin with.

Mr C: Mr L and I have raves on weekends. Only the special people get to go. Tori's been invited a few times.

Later (after the experiment)

Mr C: The thing is, this is all we do at the raves. Sometimes we use a few tuning forks, and that's when the police show up.

Now we're testing our hearing...

Mr C: Your great grandparents at your age probably had better hearing at your age, just because you guys have been exposed to urban noise. Back then it was like "hey it's saturday night. Let's stand in a field!"

on Kindergarten marriages...

Hanna: In Pre-K, I wrote a love letter to Eric C.

Anneka: You're the easiest person I know!

Drew: Especially if I were Flemish.

I don't even know where that one came from.

Love always,
Clara

First of the morning

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANN!

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Junket- a feast/banquet

Love always,
Clara

I like Grapes

On an unrelated note...

Sam: Wouldn't it be cool if, in economics there were a formula to account for human irrationality?

Me: Yeah, but you can't like, multiply all your decisions by 54.7

Mr H: Haha, "Oh no, I'm off by a factor of 1.15! If I just divided my life choices by 1.15, I'd be much happier!"

I cracked up.

Me: I like wordplay.

Alexis: Wordplay?

Me: Yeah

Alexis: Okay, I thought you said something else.

That pervert. This is the girl sometimes known as the "pubic touch lady", seeing as she has a tendency to mishear things. Most notably...

Mr B: Are you guys familiar with therapeutic touch?

Alexis: Yeah

Mr B: Okay, well that's what we're going to do.

Alexis: Wait, what? Oh I thought you said pubic touch.

When I start laughing, it's hard for me to stop. Especially in musical practice. I have some theories on that:

1. Musical practice is funny
2. At the end of the day I'm too tired to control myself
3. It's become a thing (i.e. once I realize I'm doing it again, that makes it worse)

Will B has a problem with this. Actually both Wills have a problem with this (we have 4 guys in the musical. Half of them are named Will). It's possible that most people have a problem with this. But they're all haters.

Will B: Clara, when that little demon in your head tells you to start laughing... resist.

Love always,
Clara

She's right, we don't

According to my iTunes, I’m three episodes behind on 24. So that will be my bedtime activity tonight. Most people read, but I’m blonde, so you know, we don’t know how.

-via Mary Rambin

I love her. Embrace the blondeness.

Love always,

Clara

Stress v. Complacency

Mr P says we're complacent. Or rather, that our student body on the whole is generally complacent.

Although I look at my grade and see stress. Everywhere. People freaking out. Nervous. Etc.

Which is curious. I see it hard for the two to exist together.

Not that I'm disagreeing with Mr P. I see the complacency too. Apathy and the like. It's a drag. People will walk into a class and simply not care. At all.

(Not this class. We in AP US History having an engaging debate regarding the stimulus package. Except me. I'm blogging.)

So I think both things are bad. It sometimes looks like the teachers want us to work all the time. I know it's not true, but that's the impression that people get. So we get work, and a lot of it, and we freak out because there are not enough hours in a day to do work and pursue something we like. And that's a shame.

On the other hand there are people who seriously do. not. care. And that's not okay either, because you come to school for a reason besides "I have to".

Mr P supposed that people are complacent because there's nothing we're striving for. Perhaps a drawback of going to private school is that we trust we'll have stable and successful futures (and if not, our parents will cover us for a little while).

But people who have goals, like, dreams, they're not complacent. There was a girl I knew who had decided at 8 years old that she would go to Yale and study journalism. And she was motivated. Fantastically driven.

And with all the stress we have, so much of our consciousness is "okay now I have to write an essay and then I'll take that test and..." it never gets past high school. Or worse, we think "Okay now I'm going to get grades and GET INTO COLLEGE" and that's where the planning stops.

Because we don't have time anymore to realize we really love journalism.

I think what I'm getting at is that a little bit less stress given by teachers would, I hypothesize, eliminate a lot of the complacency they're seeing.

One day I'm going to write a book about Educational Theory.

Love always,
Clara

In the Morning...

We're translating Metamorphoses...

Mr C: Well here's fumabant, something was smoking. And Pygmalion's statue was smokin'!

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Environs- surroundings

Love always,
Clara

More Hilarity

The Onion is definitely my news source of choice.

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Bad language, yes. But it can be forgiven. Because this is amazing.

Love always,
Clara

Oh my god. Too funny.

Funny things have been happening.

Grace showed me this:

IS THAT SERIOUSLY SUCH A COMMON THING?

Five minutes later, she asked me whether I thought humans have souls.

I thought she said "Cubans"

I was like "My god, are you extremely terrified of chinese people too? What assertions based on nationalism are you going to make now?"

I've been mishearing things all day actually. In musical practice today, there was a group line about how the upper class's "hearts yearn forever for France"

For some reason, I thought Mr B replaced the word 'France' with 'sex'

And I cracked up. For like, ten minutes.

Grace: I have a big test tomorrow

Me: You have a big chest tomorrow?

This is my problem. I blame allergies.

Love always,
Clara

Sinusoidal wave form?

My own sinuses are having a hissyfit. It's warm, which is great, but that leads to time outside, which is also great. what's not great is the pollen in the grass, or whatever else it is that makes my allergies freak out.

And I didn't take my singulair last night. Bad choice.

Yesterday...

Me: *is weird and giggly*

Joey: Did you take your pills today?

Me: YES! I DID! I REMEMBERED TO TAKE MY SINGULAIR!

Mr B: That's for like, asthma

Me: Yeah, see, the thing is when I get allergies, they infect my brain

Anyway, the sinusoidal wave forms are in physics. Where I am. Wait, what?

I am in that realm of waves. Mostly sound waves. Or others. And Light.

The speed of light is c. Which stands for celer.

We had chem outside. So obviously my senses are a little... off.

Hanna's last name is Rocks. How cool is that? And the Rocks family is tall, generally.

Just now Mr C was discussing how he buys big clothes for his young and growing son.

Hanna: We tried to do that with my brother...

Mr C: But the Rocks family is freakishly large! A week ago, you were 5' 2"

A moment of serendipity just occurred. Involving myself being a physics dork.

Maybe I'm a curiosity dork. Or a person who was accustomed, in her wee years, to asking complicated questions to try to outsmart teachers. Not that I knew the answers. But they didn't either, and I supposed they'd never thought to ask.

In retrospect, I bet they did.

I was a pretentious little thing.

Mr C on genealogy: You think 'oh, I must be related to all these famous people'... nope, all just alcoholics and criminals

Today in math, I learned that I am the age of the average penny in circulation.

Mr H: So the average penny was minted sometime between 1990 and 1992

(it is realized that that is also the average age of those in our math class, roughly)

Me: That's weird to think about. Like we've all been minted and exchanged and whatnot

Reilley: "how old are you?" "let's just say i'm the age of the average penny..."

Sam: I feel dirty

Me: That was creepy...

Humid air. it's what we're discussing, and it's what's outside.

What crack am I on today?

I was laughing at lunch (not unusual)...

Teddy: You're laughing way too hard

Isabella: (having misheard) WHAT?

Teddy: (repeats). What did you think I said? That her laughing...

Isabella: Makes you hard

Teddy: I'm sorry clara, that laughing will never make anyone hard.

and then...

Teddy: Isabella, your laughing makes me flaccid

Isabella: Good. Let's keep it that way.

Later I found myself in the grass with those guys. Isabella was reluctant.

Isabella: Teddy, if you make one penis joke, I will... (trails off menacingly)

Teddy: Hey isabella, your pink highlighter is... hard.

Maturity in abundance.

Love always,
Clara

Warm day

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Duenna- an elderly woman serving as a governess and companion to younger ladies.

Ms. D: (about yesterday's Word) You knew that one already?

Sam: I like to stay informed about my obscure mammals

Love always,
Clara

Reasons sleep is great

1. It rests your eyes
2. It rests your brain
3. Your brain does things when you're sleeping that get your thoughts in a line
4. Sometimes your brain solves math problems. Or mine does. Sometimes
5. Dreams are great.
6. Beds are cozy
7. If for one reason or another you're not in a bed, there's an exhausting novelty to it and I end up appreciating my sleep more.
8. It's a solid way to differentiate between days. I hate it when you stay up past midnight and you want to say "oh on saturday night" and picky people say "NO that was sunday morning!" thinking they're clever. They're not. If I haven't slept, it's saturday night.
9. When you wake up you forget who you are for a moment.
10. Hitting the snooze button
11. Too many times
12. There's something cuddly about it.
13. I make bad decisions when I'm tired
14. I'm not getting any right now!
15. And by that I mean sleep.

Oh wow. Time for bed, Clara.

Before you say any other stupid things like "sleep is cuddly"

Which didn't make sense, but I'm not erasing it either.

Love always,
Clara

Decisions, decisions

So I had to

a) choose

b) contact

c) schedule interview with

my 'profile subject' today. Nerve wracking much? I procrastinate. That's my problem. So today I was like, sneaking into the bathroom at lunch to try to call potential subjects. 

On the way home there was only a parking spot on the other side of the street, so I intended to drive around the block. And I found myself driving into the heart of town, to the one street where I knew I would find either

a) Those involved with "Ghost Tours" or

b) Those involved with our newly-opened "couple's boutique" (read: sex shop)

The thing was, I was so ready to walk into la tache (i think) and ask for an interview, but concerned my wonderful english teacher wouldn't appreciate the absolutely necessary deviation from what is generally considered 'appropriate'. And the thought of walking into the Ghost Tours HQ with no idea what I was doing there was terrifying.

So I paced the sidewalk for a little bit. And then I went in.

To Ghost Tour HQ.

And I rambled for a bit.

And... SUCCESS! LaQuinta, weekend manager, is going to meet with me on saturday! And she's already told me that my house is probably haunted. This is going to be AWESOME.

Love always,
Clara

Ways to send a message to your friend in Timbuktu

Letter

Email

Telegraph

Candygram

Fax

Telephone

"mental telepathy"

Carrier pigeon/birds

message in bottle/on arrow

make Anneka run there

Smoke signals

Whale

Facebook

Video/tv

...in that order.

As compiled by my physics class.

This is why I love school.

Love always,
Clara

Diners

Diners are great.

When I was little, dad would take Grace and Donny and I out to the silver diner. It was great.

And in high school, after opening night of the musical, we go to the silver diner. Tradition. It's great.

And this morning, for breakfast club, we went to the family diner place. Lots of people and eggs and I had coffee. So great.

Love always,
Clara

P.S. Fun fact: I didn't plan to end every line with the word "great". It just happened. That's how great diners are.

P.P.S. Insight of the day (after the [possibly excessive] coffee): "Caffeine makes me talk. It doesn't make me make sense"

P.P.P.S. The nature of this post may have to do with that possibly excessive coffee.

Techno Language Education?

So Kayla inspired me. She's learning spanish via podcast. Because she's proactive and generally amazing.

I decided to do the same with german; last year I tried to learn a little before our chorus trip to Germany and Austria. I didn't learn as much as I'd have liked to (and had several embarrassing stupid-american moments) but it was fun, and convinced me of the virtues of multilingualism.

Anyways, I downloaded an audiobook on it. I should have known when I saw the name of the publisher, Earworms Learning, that something would be eccentric about it.

It's like, a conversation between two people, but with a techno beat behind it. And they like, speak in rhythm. 

"bitte shun, bitte shun, bitte shun..."

(it trails off in rhythm)

Anyways, I just learned how to order a glass of white wine. In the first eight minutes. They really get down to business.

Love always,
Clara

Twitrage.

Philip wanted me to blog about him. I told him I would and sent out a tweet about it.

Then I forgot or figured a tweet would suffice or something else happened. Whatever.

Today he accosted me in the hallway. He said that I had not blogged about him, I had twittered about him, which doesn't count, or something.

Apparently twitter is for stupid people. With no lives, and who want everyone to know what they're doing at all times.

Um, that's so me. I told him I was horribly offended.

Whatever. Exhibitionist, I am.

I like to tell people what's going on with me at all times, even if they're not listening. People who know me will acknowledge this.

That's why I hate secrets, as I said before. It kills me.

Philip is cool though, because he's among the few people at school who I can talk to about existentialism.

That number is growing, but he's notably interested.

Props to him.

Although in the title, I think I just called him a twit.

Love always,
Clara

"Incest is Creepy"

Sam said this.

Just now.

POE is creepy.

Love always,
Clara

Word of the Day

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Echidna- a burrowing, spiny-coated, toothless, nocturnal, monotreme mammal of Australia.

Suzanna: (talks about the Grammys)

Ms. Dewey: Was that a dream?

Suzanna: It's on the news!

--Proof of how weird the world is.

Love always,

Clara

Hey hey hey!

Didn't blog yesterday. Should have. It was one hell of a day.

But that's beside the point.

Everything is kind of crazy over here. A side effect of having political parents, I suppose.

Went to the basketball game last night for maybe half an hour. It was boring. I'm pretty sure we won.

I used to really like basketball games last year. I think we just picked a kind of empty one to go to. They're only cool when they're crowded.

Note to self: When sleeping over at Isabella's, inform parents.

Love always,
Clara

So here's a thought

I got a letter the other day from this college summer program. And it looked like an interesting one, so I went to the website.

And I realized it was basically independent (i.e. when you're not in class, no one is telling you what to do). At first I thought that would be kind of weird, and then I realized, that's what college is going to be like.

And then, the weirdest thought: That's what real life is like.

High school warps people. We've gotten pretty good at taking orders. But that can be a blessing or a curse.

It's like that book "Ella Enchanted". Or the movie, if you prefer. We're really good at doing what we're told, but what about otherwise?

Ella was something of a free spirit anyways. She was cool. I always liked her.

Yar told a really great joke today:

What did the progressive say to the dinosaur? 

"You should be dead!"

It struck me as really great at the time. Although, at the time, of course, I was writing a history essay. So anything would have struck me as really great.

Love always,
Clara

Sam's Palindrome

Sam, upset/ADD, dates pumas.

He wrote that himself and is very proud of it.

I can't judge. I love palindromes.

Love always,
Clara

English Telepathy

Bam: I just got word from Suzanna that... [redacted]

Ms D: Oh. And how did you get this word?

(It is assumed that she texted him)

Bam: It's sort of like a subconscious thing

Ms D: OH, okay! Let's all send Suzanna a vibe!

Ms D gets into these romanticism lectures and starts to believe in the supernatural occurrences. 

Love always,
Clara

400th post!

David and Paul's Word of the Day:

Zucchetto- a small round skullcap worn by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics.

And this is my 400th post! Love always's tetracentennial. Or something.

Love always,
Clara

Going Crazy

I love advisory dinners. Although being a non-starchy vegetarian at Chicken Out is kind of tricky. Whatever; they have salads and brown rice now, and I'm happy.

But driving home at that hour kind of addles my mind. I listened to "Where is the Love" on full blast the whole drive home, and then, once I was home, decided I didn't want to be home yet, so drove around my town and revisited my childhood. Still pumping the Black Eyed Peas. 

It was great. I saw my old house, the park, my preschool, etc etc. You'd think I'd see those things all the time, but it's all near the river, and I tend to spend more time on the side near the metro station.

Nostalgia gets me.

Then I came home and watched The Office and now I'm just tired.

Love always,
Clara

History class and Mr R's anger

"And this is going to sound weird but like, I thought it was cool that there were only four presidents who were assasinated, and I was one of them. Like, I felt kind of elite"

-Cat on why she loves McKinley

"That light doesn't work. I'm going to come in with a gun and shoot it"

-Mr R. was having a bad day, and taking it out on inanimate objects

Love always,
Clara

At home...

Being sick is boring. It turns out I had a fever all along, but by 3 o clock I was restless. I convinced mom I was well enough to go to Staples for a graph paper notebook (I've been needing one for a while) and proceeded to stumble around like a drunk woman.

I wish I could have let everyone know, I'm not drunk, I'm ill.

At Staples in the checkout line there was the usual assortment of random items. Including something labeled as ".2 LITER REALLY USEFUL BOX"

Which cracked me up, especially in my state. Which is continuing, actually, but I plan to be at school tomorrow. Probably drugged up, but there.

I think I'm especially prone to medicines' side effects. When I take benadryl (which isn't that often, but my allergies sometimes necessitate drastic action), I kind of lose it. Like, rolling on the floor giggling. Occasionally I'll take it on a plane if I know I have to sleep (i.e. changing time zones, flying at night) and it's landed me in some pretty funny situations.

Involving a lot of giggling.

So I'm hoping that doesn't happen tomorrow.

Love always,
Clara

As predicted

I slept for thirteen hours last night.

It was awesome.

Hoping I'm not missing much at school, also relishing the rest.

Love always,
Clara

touching and beautiful

A Three Part

Love Story

By Mr. B.

This is so cute. I want their life.

Love always,
Clara

The Emo/Goth distinction

Youtube makes my life.

I might be closer to the "freaky goths who speak latin and go swimming in leather jackets". I do take latin, after all.

Love always,
Clara

Wow, today was FUNNY

We were all wondering where Ann went yesterday.

Grier: The whole school thinks you're addicted to meth, pregnant, and a christian scientist. At least, that's what I heard...

Mr. C was appalled at Cath's lack of enthusiasm

Mr. C: We have lunar eclipses far more often

Cath: Yeah but no one cares, because it's the moon

Mr C: I care!

I can't even explain this one, except that Shivani said it and it had to do with a math achievement test.

"Do you feel inclined to be a space explorer?"

Love always,
Clara

Breakfast Club and the weather

So this morning I got up and danced my dance and drove to school, early in the morning as I tend to do on particularly spiritual tuesdays, which tends to be almost every tuesday. And it was raining when I left. But when I was almost at school, I realized it was no longer little water droplets falling from the sky, but something more sparkly. And then I realized it was snow and had a moment.

My thoughts were something like this: "Ooh, it's snowing! Sweet! I'm driving in the snow! Can I do that? I don't know! But I am! Yay! Snow!"

I actually probably said it out loud. I talk to myself in the car a lot.

Anyways*. I get to school earlier than necessary but Nikki is there too so we have a lovely little chat before Breakfast club.

Of which the topic this week was predestination. Which I find interesting because it relates to what I was saying yesterday about the "we're all going to die so what's the point?" question.

Here's what I think about that. There is the future. And whatever is in that future, it's going to happen, based on our actions now, which may or may not be decided by whomever you believe in, but which we definitely perceive to be of our own free will. So people say "everything happens for a reason" which is kind of true, but kind of a ridiculous statement. If a "reason" is that it causes something else to happen, (and that something else will cause something else to happen,) saying that everything happens for a reason just means "everything happens and then other things happen" or rather, "things happen".

Yes, yes they do.

I'm kind of rambling now, but you should have heard me at 7:30 this morning. It came out like "The future... is not now... it hasn't happened yet but it will and maybe we change it? And... it will happen in the future"

Or something equally incoherent.

Yikes

So everything was sparkly and snowy and beautiful until about D block when the snow stopped and it became unseasonably warm and melt-provoking.

Not. Cool.

I am feeling very run down and may fall ill in the near future. Just a heads-up as to my health. If you were curious.

Love always,
Clara

*So I learned in math the other day that 'anyways' isn't actually a word. I'd kind of suspected. But if enough people know what it means, who's to say what's a word and what's not? No one. Except that omniscient god dictionary.

Strange dream

I had this dream that I lived next door to my Aunt Ellen and all my cousins. But we never visited them. So my mom put our house on a bus and moved it to knock down the wall between our garden and theirs. So they were all sitting on lounge chairs in their garden which was now attached to ours, and there was a skull and crossbones spraypainted on the ground. Sketch.

Then Prom took place at my house. Which was weird, and I really wanted everyone to leave.

I think Vivian was there. I think I introduced her to my crazy cousins.

Love always,
Clara

St. Panther's School for the Insane

Song is by Spoon and I don't own it.

This is the madness we live through every day

Love always,

Clara

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

... creeps in this petty pace from day to day

to the last syllable of recorded time

and all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

the way to dusty death. out! out, brief candle! 

life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 

that struts and frets his hour upon the stage

and then is heard no more; it is a tale 

told by an idiot full of sound and fury, 

signifying nothing.

Um, random Shakespeare moment.

Don't judge.

Seriously, I've tried to write like, four profound things in this space but keep erasing it because I am horribly cliche. So I decided to turn it over to the master. But that's the only passage I really have memorized.

It's a good one. Although it's hard to go wrong with Shakespeare.

I was thinking about existentialism the other day (long story. Again, don't judge) and remembered why it was awesome. Basically, we're living a paradox. On one hand, we know that we're going to live and then we're going to die and in the end it's meaningless. And on the other hand, we hate that and desire meaning. So how do we reconcile that? Creating meaning.

And Shakespeare reminded me of the first part of that. About life, the poor player, strutting and fretting and signifying nothing.

Macbeth ended up something of a nihilist. Although given the circumstances, I can't really blame him. Corruption will do that.

Wow. Major dork moment there.

Whatever.

In other news, did anyone see that hulu Superbowl ad? The one where he was like "Because we're aliens. And that's how we roll"?

I DIED LAUGHING. NBC IS BRILLIANT.

Love always,
Clara

English Class

David and Paul's Word of the Day

Brachypterous- having rudimentary or abnormally small wings

Quote without context:

"I'm going to name my peacoat Quincy, because he likes jazz"

Wait... what?

Love always,
Clara

Watching the Super Bowl

Go Cardinals!

Go Steelers!

Yay football!

I'm here for the ads and commentary.

Announcer: This is the kind of guy who will get penetration

Mom and I: *stifled giggle*

Um... our minds are in the gutter. It's all these nachos and root beers turning us into real men. Real football watching men.

Love always,
Clara

Hilarious...

Do you ever get randomly angry? I occasionally get randomly angry. Not at people, but at like, stupid inanimate objects like freezer doors and clicky pens.

I think it's stress related.

Anyway, this guy gets angry at cute animals.

And I find it hilarious.

Love always,
Clara