It Won't Be Long

Freshman orientation was last night, another reminder that school is fast approaching. I'm definitely not looking forward to spending full days in that hot building. Just a few hours last night was enough to drive me crazy. I don't mind heat if I'm outside in it, under the sun, but being inside the sticky, smelly building is hellish. I guess I'll just arm myself with a water bottle and enjoy my one class in the air-conditioned tech wing. Other than the heat and the general disorganization, orientation was pretty fun; I got to hang out with senior friends like Sonya, Steph, April, Laura, Jessica, and Allison, and saw a few freshman buddies: Michael Jiang, Siva Sundaram, and Kendell Coates, the Big Three of West Scholastic Bowl, now coming to Auburn. I've known Kendell for years, since he's Jessica's brother, and I got to know Michael and Siva a little when they tagged along for nationals in June.

My counselor is Ms. (Dr?) Neumann, one of those people who always seems to be around at school, though I never quite know what her job is. Now she's taken Mr. Keating's place as one of the counselors (he retired). I've been lucky with my counselors; the way they're assigned has changed a lot over the years, but I've always had Mr. Keating, a nice guy who knows me by name, until he retired, and Ms. Neumann knows me, too (from quiz bowl). That made it easier to deal with her, although the news she gave me when I tried to drop calc 3-4 for a free hour was bad: "schedule holes" are no longer allowed; free hours have to be at the end of the day. She refused to let me drop calc to be a TA until I had the teacher's signature. Luckily, I saw the Longhenrys in the hall (they were there to vote on the new teachers' contract) and got Mr. L to sign my form; I'm going to TA for him fourth hour. That rounds out my schedule: in order, AP stats, physics, psychology, newspaper, C lunch, TA, Euro, and English. The last half of my day is all Longhenry, which isn't a bad thing by any means. With Mr. L teaching gov/econ and the Missus (as he calls her) covering Latin, there is the possibility this year of having four Longhenry classes. I don't know if anyone actually does, though.

Today is Maureen's and my last day alone at home. We've made enough trips to the library and the mall this summer to last us a while, so today we just hung out and watched Starsky and Hutch, a dumb but entertaining movie. Have you noticed how Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell are always in the same movies? This one starred Stiller and Wilson, and both Vaughn and Ferrell appeared. Anchorman starred Ferrell, and Vaughn and Stiller appeared. Vaughn and Stiller were also in Dodgeball. (I'm rather ashamed to have seen all of these movies; chalk it up to bored Sunday afternoons and the fact that the dollar theatre always has the stupid B-movies, never anything good. For the longest time, Are We There Yet? and The Pacifier and The Perfect Man all played there, and the Colonial Village art films never show up there). I haven't seen Wedding Crashers, which stars Wilson and Vaughn, but I'd bet that Stiller and/or Ferrell shows up.

Yesterday at orientation, Jenny invited me to a party tonight at her house. I'm not sure if I'm going to go yet. I like Jenny a lot, but I don't know her that well, and I don't get along with some of her friends. Plus, I think she was just including me in the general sweep of the invitation, which was originally directed at Joslin, to be nice. I don't know, though; if I stay home, I'll probably just be watching another dumb movie with my dad and sister, which is what I've done every free night for most of the summer.