Good Day Sunshine

I love just relaxing and hanging out with friends. I've done it twice now in four days; on Saturday, we all met at Aldeen Park for a picnic, and then today I got Steph and Ellen to come with me to my senior picture sitting, and then we went, along with Laura, to Dairy Queen. It's just nice to be able to hang out with them and talk and laugh at the familiar silliness. I'm really going to miss this closeness after high school. I know I'll make new friends at college (well, I hope so), but there's nothing like having known someone forever and being able to share stories about everything that's happened to you together over the years.

Sometimes I hate myself for not just jumping in and having a good time when I have the chance. But Saturday wasn't one of those times; I'm not mad at myself for not playing Ultimate Frisbee, even though all my friends were. I just don't like running around in the hot sun. Stephanie must be constantly high on endorphins or something, though, because she is just so upbeat. And energetic. Like today, at Dairy Queen, we were discussing possible jobs for Ellen (who has been looking for one for several months, to no avail), and Steph suggested being one of those people at Hilander who puts people's grocery bags in their cars for them. "I love menial work! It's so much fun!" Steph cried. That's like saying, "I just love root canals!" or "Colonoscopies are so much fun!" All right, so I'll admit that sometimes I do like good, clean work, but Steph can be crazily happy about everything.

My senior picture sitting went well, I suppose. I hate to sound braggy, and I know teenage girls are supposed to hate their appearances (or at least they do in books and movies), but I think I looked pretty good, sans glasses. (My parents still won't let me get contacts, and I can see that they are something of a burden, so I just go without my glasses as much as possible when we're not in school. I don't need to read notes off any blackboards anymore, so it's okay.) I felt stupid, though, with everyone watching me. I kept getting confused about what the photographer wanted. She asked me to be serious, and up until that point I actually had been when I wasn't stretching my lips into a smile, but of course when she asked that I burst out laughing. She was really nice about it, though.

Okay, news flash: Donald Taylor, captain of Decatur MacArthur name, has my screen name, and he's been using it. It is the weirdest thing ever to talk to a kid I barely know online, especially one who has made comments to me like, "Oh, you're trying out for Team Illinois? Well, this will be good practice for you." Will did say he was hitting on me that one time at Sterling...creepy. I can't wait to tell Patrick about this, though. Will may have been the one who started the whole thing, but Patrick's the one who took that comment and ran with it, constantly teasing me about Donald and various other guys from other quiz bowl teams.

My summer's been pretty lazy so far, but starting tomorrow my schedule's full through mid-July or so. My mom decided to schedule a visit to the University of Minnesota this week, so tomorrow we're leaving right after my quiz bowl practice; we'll get back late Thursday night and then Friday morning it's off to Nationals in Chicago. At least this stuff keeps me busy, so I'm not lying around the house watching Joan of Arcadia episodes constantly. Actually, today I watched Life As a House, a pretty good movie. Sarah, my friend from newspaper freshman year, always talked about it, and I can see why. Plus, Hayden Christensen (better known as Anakin from the last two Star Wars films) is in it, and he is definitely not hard to look at.