I'm Only Sleeping

I'm going through one of those periods in which everything feels nice; I'm at peace with the world. School is still school, of course, and this week has been a lot hotter than last week, so Auburn has been hot and sticky and unpleasant. We still have a ton of homework. Mrs. Longhenry has slammed us with work: highlannotating, a big partner project, the infamous "fractal packet" to take notes on... She started talking today about college recommendations. Of course I need her to write one for me; she's one of my favorite teachers, and since I'm an English person, I need a recommendation from an English teacher. But she wants us to put together folders, basically college application in themselves (including five adjectives to describe yourself, a list of meaningful activities, etc.).

My freshman world history class has been pretty good. I'm starting to get to know the kids. There are the Bosnians (Ivan and Zlatan). Ivan is really quiet and asks crazy questions out of the blue. On Friday, an archaeologist came to talk to the class, and he kept asking how much money you get for finding valuable things. Today Mr. L was lecturing about early hominids, how their skulls differ from one another, and he was like, "How big is an elephant's brain?" Zlatan constantly looks angry, and always yells at me when I try to talk to him. He's pretty smart, though. There's a big group of kids from West who are constantly talking: T.J., Soukoum, Brian, Eric, Albernee, and Brandon. Douglas is the teacher's pet; he has an answer for everything and, for a simple assignment, which most kids had a paragraph on notebook paper for, he typed a full page. He also yelled and waved a pencil at T.J. for talking when he was reading his paper. Ian is Australian and extremely quiet; no one knew he was Australian until the fourth day when he had to talk in front of the class and his accent became obvious. The only problem is sitting through a class I already had; it can be pretty boring. I guess I'll have more to do when the kids have assignments to turn in.

Last Saturday, I went with my youth group, plus April, to Fish Fest, an all-day Christian concert in Waukesha. Aside from a bad sunburn and having to listen to the freshman girls from my youth group gossip about Zach, the token boy-that-everyone-likes, I had a great time. I don't listen much to Christian music much anymore, but two of the bands there, Jars of Clay and Third Day, were old favorites. I also enjoyed some of the newer bands, Superchick and Relient K. When we weren't walking around or getting near the stage for bands we liked, April and I played marathon games of Egyptian Ratscrew with Uno cards (we didn't have regular cards, so we improvised). I asked Ross to burn me some Relient K CDs, so maybe I'll listen to Christian music a bit more.

I can already tell that this whole senior year is going to be a very nostalgic time for me. I'm constantly comparing things to the way they were freshman year, thinking about milestones of senior year, etc. I'm daily irked by the presence of juniors in the commons, which is supposed to be sacrosanct for seniors. I know the cafeteria is horrible: hot, crowded, smelly, messy. And it's not as if the commons is crowded, or as if the juniors are being particularly loud or messy. But it's the principle of the thing; you're supposed to wait for senior year. It makes the privilege that much more special. I hate seeing Brian Patterson, Lea Palmeno, Valerie O'Brien, Amy Sandquist (these are the juniors I've spotted infiltrating the commons) settling onto the carpeted blocks or the tables by the windows as if they belong there. It's just so typical of the class of '07 to assume power and privilege where they don't deserve it. Their presence makes my enjoyment of eating in the commons less pure. I know that's selfish, but I want to enjoy my senior year.