oh, potomac kids.

Merritt: Sorry about my brother.

Me: Oh, don't worry about it. I was there when your mom was pregnant with this kid.

Wyatt: Really?

Me: Yep! The world did exist before you were born, hard as that is to believe.

Wyatt: Well it must have been awful...

Me: Spoken like a true Potomac student.

Keep in mind, this kid is ten. Maybe.

The rest of the senior project presentations were today. It was phenomenal. I was going to say, who knew Potomac kids were so talented? and then I realize that oh, wait, we all did.

I love our hubris though. I really do.

Senior project presentations, in general, were pretty great. Or, at least, they led to some pretty awesome quotes with minimal context:

Matthew (having worked on a vineyard): I'll be there this summer. I know none of us are of age but.... If any of you guys want to come out and... have a glass of water... it's a great place for a glass of water.

Brian did his project on squash training. It seems he basically worked out and stretched and ate all the time. Cool? (Athleticism in other people will never cease to astound me)

Taylor: Was that like, fun?

Brian: Well, I mean, sitting on the foam roller for like, an hour got boring after a while...

David: You mean the massage was the not fun part?!

My thoughts exactly, David.

Some of the people in my group blogged about their projects! If you want to see the stunning diversity in senior projects, check out these links (and a video!)-

Taylor's Blog

Cat and Amelia's Blog

My Book Blog

Love always,

Clara

interview #1

I interviewed Percy tonight. It was enlightening. I plan to ask other people this question as well, just by the way. And this all took place over msn.

clara

oh hey can i interview you briefly?
Percy
Yea alright
Go ahead
clara
okay
this is for the blog btw
Percy
Alright
I like sex
Its nice:P
clara
hahaha okay
that's not the question though

Although it's an interesting point to note.

clara

what's been your most embarrassing/stupid moment?
Percy
Hmmm def yesterday when Tessa told me she has a lil crush on me
clara
okay yeah that was hilarious/awkward. ummm okay did that make you feel connected to the larger world?
(I guess that follow-up question fits better with other people's embarrassing moments)
but if you ahve any insights, feel free to share
Percy
No... actually not
Wait
Thats a lie
Now i know how it feels to be liked be tessa. Whne other guys told me they were traumatized i laughed at them. Yesterday was traumatizing for me as well
Haha

So there you have it. Percy likes sex, unless it's with Tessa, in which case the mere thought is traumatizing.

None of these revelations are especially surprising. But in our next installment, maybe we will find more nuggets of wisdom.

Love always,
Clara

new thing!

I am feeling a little bit uninspired. It's probably all of this sitting-around-at-home that I've been doing (mostly against my will, for the record. I jump at any opportunity to leave the house).

Anyway, I have an idea! I am going to interview people about things.

I just don't know what things.

This is where you come in, blog-readers. Strangers, friends, whoever you are, comment below. What are you interested in? What would be a good interview topic? What question do you think would be really awkward (and thusly hilarious) for me to ask someone?

This is your opportunity to make me look like a lunatic!

As if I don't do enough of that on my own.

Oh, on that note, yesterday I went to go see Avatar with the gang. I need a name for the group of 11th grade boys. They're definitely name-worthy. During intermission (because movies have intermissions here), they were all telling jokes.

Danny: ... And so the blonde goes "T. G. I.F. ... thank god it's friday?" and the guy goes "S. H. I. T. ... sorry honey, it's thursday"

Matt: That's so stupid.

Me: Yeah... Oh something like that happened to me once!

Everyone else: [uncontrollable laughter]

They wouldn't let me explain either. It wasn't really me!

This was at camp. There was a weird tension between us nerds and the ballerinas that we shared the camp with already, but that tension escalates on Drag day and Goth/Emo day.

I could ramble on about the intricacies of Nerd/Rina relations at CTY, but the point of the story is that a little dancer was wearing a shirt that said "happy fourth of july!" everywhere... on July 3rd.

Of course, they did not listen to this story. Thomas heard the middle part though.

Thomas: Wait, what was that? I just heard something about goths and ballet. What are you talking to yourself about?

Love always,
Clara

crowdsourcing my college applications

Hey there, blogworld. I have a favor to ask you.
I'm trying to fill out college supplements.
Unfortunately, as soon as they ask me a question about myself, I become the most boring person on the planet and cannot think of a vaguely interesting answer.
Want to help me remember what I'm like?

The questions I really need inspiration for (that I think y'all might be able to help with)
What are three important-but-not-immediately-obvious things about me?
Also, do I take risks? Ever?
Are there five words (probably adjectives, just saying) that describe me?

I don't know the answers to these questions!

I would laugh pretty hard if some college application reader found my blog and realized all of my essays were based on the comments on this post.

Please! Comment! Help me get into college!

In other news, I had a dream last night that I got deferred from mystery college x. I woke up feel like like "okay, at least I know now," and then realized that no, I didn't know, I had almost a week to be tortured by uncertainty!

I am definitely not losing my mind.

Love always,
Clara

Lightsabers and the like

Someone asks me a question-

Dear Clara,

I have a problem. I seem to be obsessed with my new lightsaber, and I'm not entirely sure how I should handle it. My brother and I have considered making a short Star Wars film using said lightsaber. I would like CTY children to be in this film, but it appears as though they're all FUCKING LEAVING ME. What do I do?

Dear Vivian,

I understand your obsession with this lightsaber for many reasons. The first is that lightsabers are cool, and the second is that I have lived with a person who has been completely and totally obsessed with star wars. I don't know who this CTY child thinks she is, abandoning you when there are clearly star wars things to be done, but she does not know what she is missing.

Or perhaps she does. In which case, she thinks that you two should also write a song about light sabers, right after you write a song about naked romps.

But this is all made more complicated by the fact that she is, in fact, leaving on friday.

Not that I know who she is or anything.

Love always,
Clara

Ask me things!

People have problems and they want me to fix them! Sweet!

Here we go:

Hi Clara! I randomly came upon your blog this one time (ok that sounds totally sketch, but you know how it goes), and you were really funny. So I keep up with you. :)

Um I was hoping you could give me some advice. Ok so I have my guy best friend, right? His name's Ryan. Which isn't really important but whatevs. He's kinda rich, and his older brother (who has no job and lives in there basement...) is this like totally ridic star wars addict. Ok so Ry and I made this bet, and I lost. So now I have to wear his brother's star wars metal bikini...thing to this party. Um...what do I do??? Especially since my crush (whose name I'm not gonna say) is gonna be there?

Haha you were probably thinking you'd get no feedback/normal questions...but I just have weird friends I guess. How am I getting out of this one?

Love Always,
Sidney

PS: Seriously, your blog is amazing. And your dog seems just as amazing. Tell him I say hi :)

Dear Sidney,

My first reaction to this email was 'OH MY GOD I HAVE A READER WHO IS NOT MY FRIEND IN REAL LIFE! THIS IS COOL!'

My second was 'That bikini exists in real life?'

I googled it and found that there is even a website dedicated to the thing, www.leiasmetalbikini.com. So... you learn something new every day.

I suppose because you lost the bet you have to do it, but it depends on the weight of the bet. Like, earlier this year Isabella lost a bet regarding grades on a spanish test, and she had to bake Brendan a cake. It wasn't that serious a bet, but Isabella likes to bake anyways, and when she makes cakes she goes all out with decorations and the like. It's pretty awesome.

So if it was a non-legit bet, just don't deal with it I guess. But if it's serious... I guess you might as well just rock the Princess Leia look. If anything, it proves you're brave?

I tend to have no shame, so... I'm probably not the person to ask.

Although I'd probably bring a change of clothes to said party, if only because you'll probably get cold.

And I'm still baffled that your friend's brother has said metal bikini thing. The website I found like, custom makes them, and they're pretty expensive. I wouldn't buy one unless I intended to wear it. I don't know, maybe Ryan's brother is into that kind of thing.

I'm going to stop thinking about that because I don't know this kid and I feel kind of sketchy wondering about it.

Love Always,

Clara

P.S. Chili says hi!

That was fun! Let's do another!

One of my best friends is moving far far away, but not to fairytale land. Since she is stupid, she is not visiting me in Mass, and apparently has better things to do. How should I make fun/punish her for her insolence?

Hi Sam.

Katie's mom lobbied my mom. I may be sleeping on your front porch pretty soon.

Be excited.

Love always,
Clara

What silliness.

This is the fate you've carved on me

the law of gravity

I have this song that I hadn't listened to in years but then felt randomly compelled to put on my driving mix stuck in my head.

That sentence was vague. Had I written it in latin, you would have known what I was talking about.

Except you don't know latin, and I don't know it well enough to just speak/write fluidly.

I did just write a letter to Mr C. in latin though. It's pretty cool if I do say so myself. Which I do. The one issue may be that I've totally forgotten how gerunds work... that's okay. It's the thought that counts.

Well, that's a lie. In this case it's the writing that counts. It's school.

Oh well.

You know what makes me really truly thoroughly excited about life when I hear it? The cover of "Don't stop Believing" from Glee.

That too is on my driving mix. And it is phenomenal and I get excited just thinking about it... right now, for instance.

So I set my computer's clock to 24 hour time, so right now it says that it's 22:22. Make a wish! I've decided that 10:22 PM is officially added to the list of times at which you can wish things.

Question: Where is that awesome video of David wearing my sunglasses?

Answer: On my camera, which takes too long to upload to youtube. It's coming. Don't worry.

Love always,
Clara

So I have this harmonica...

And I'm so excited about it.

No irony or sarcasm is in that statement.

I love the little thing.

So today I was walking to the photo place to pick up my holgapics (they're on facebook, if you're curious. The ones from this weekend came out pretty nicely, although the second roll didn't turn out at all. I guess I didn't realize it was too dark out. Shame) and I decided to bring the harmonica with me. I take a shortcut so I'm not on the main street for long, and I figured why not?

I'm walking around with my harmonica trying to play "Love is little" (Shaker song, butt of a 'littleness' joke a while ago) or "You set me free" (Michelle Branch, I'm actually 12 years old by the way) or "Just Dance" (Lady Gaga of course, and I totally did succeed at kind of playing that the other day and it was so cool, just so you know) and I begin to feel maybe I'm disturbing the peace or something.

So.

Is there a code of conduct for harmonica players?

Should there be?

In exchange for that question, I'll answer one that has been burning inside of me for years.

The Question: When/Where do bagpipe players practice? (seeing as they are very loud)

The Answer: On grassy areas outside elementary schools

The Backstory: I was in the car driving up to the metro station (I think I was on the way to pick up Vivian [who has now been mentioned. Happy?]) and I drove by a local elementary school. There were two guys standing outside of it, on the grass. One was playing a bagpipe. The other was conducting, I suppose. And I thought to myself, "So that's how they do it!"

Pleased to be able to enlighten you.

Love always,
Clara