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February 28, 2002 on 9:21 pm | In Blogger | No Comments

I’m rather tired today but thought I might make just this post, because today was kind of full, and I saw a lot.

Econ and math were the usual (though I’m still glad about our calc test getting cancelled until Monday). Well, Thatcher left during Econ to save his wife, who was stranded because she ran a flat tire. When he came back at the end of the period, he said, “Aren’t you ladies glad you have men to call when your tire gets a flat?” Someone called in the back, “yeh, that’s why we ladies just call AAA.” Then Thatcher got upset and told us that AAA just steals money, but people sitting around me disagreed wholeheartedly.

During journalism Mrs Madden asked me about the Gemma thing….I told her about it and what happened….then Jeff got some strange look on his face and immediately walked out the room, saying, “I’ll be back.” Mrs Madden got this look of terror on her face (I never saw her look so scared), and shouted, “No! Jeff! Wait!” and followed him outside. Everyone was staring and wondering what was happening, but I just told the rest of the class to drop it…she headed him off and I saw her talk to him through the classroom door’s barred window…I am still wondering what that was about, but I think I’ll just follow my own advice and drop it.

What a lovely afternoon! Jessie started this job at Allan’s, and Ms Caples wanted to help out with orientating her, and she and Jessie let me tag along. I rode along near downtown, to his office, which was fun.

Allan works in this big brown building past 22 Street for the largest metallurgy office in the US, probably the world. Have you ever been in one of those buildings where you have trouble believing that what you see outside can contain all that is inside? It is this sort of building in which Allan works. You walk inside and are in sort of this lobby, and you can see a staircase that leads to this semi-loft, semi-second story. You keep walking and go to this set-up of white leather couches, which is very comfortable indeed. Glass doors, one which leads to Allan’s office, one which leads to a conference room with a giant oak conference table, are on either side of the lobby.

If you choose Allan’s office you will find it is below the semi-loft, and though Ms Caples says is usually a mess, today it was pristine, by her standards. There were various binders and files sprawled along shelves and floors, and a giant desk toward the center. In the corner of Allan’s office is a chair almost exactly like Ms Caples’s (you know the teal leather chair next to her desk?), except this one was red. But I wasn’t really looking at the furniture or files—what I noticed were the photos, along the walls. Behind the chair was an adorable photo of Ms Caples, sitting in an armchair, holding a cat named Max, who she said she just loves. Max did look like a very amiable cat. Along the walls were also three or four photos of what seemed a small town by the sea…the town looked a little like a New England town, only it looked more set up on an island…the place was Britain, and Mrs Caples pointed out a particular house…why, it was their sea-house in the UK!

Allan’s secretary, Shannon, after showing us around the front area, brought us to this warehouse. “These are the murderers,” Ms Caples proclaimed as we walked in, and I looked at shelves upon shelves of what looked like ripped apart, blown up, dead tires. I noticed they all had the name “Firestone” inscribed on them, and I remembered how Ms Caples once said that Allan had something to do with Firestone. Jessie explained later that Allan was testifying as an expert witness on the whole Firestone thing…so, yeh, that actually explained quite a bit, about that entire warehouse. Can you imagine? All those exploded tires harming people in that matter…I don’t think I’ll ever quite forget those tires…some were more severe than others, but all looked like they hurt their owners, and I think that was what mattered.

The rest of the tour looked like any regular office, with file rooms and computers…a random office here and there…it was all the usual office-stuff. A man from Kentucky worked in one office; and the man upstairs seemed nice too; his brother was one of Ms Caples’s students.

When we came downstairs we ran into Allan. He was short and refined and very polite—a typical British man. He said little and spoke softly, but whenever he did say anything, it had meaning. He seemed very loose about Jessie’s job, seeming to be happy with whatever made the rest of the office happy—as a boss should be. I thought he and Ms Caples acted really cute together, too.

We had to stop at Ms Caples’ house, and she invited us in for a few minutes. Her home is lovely; the neighborhood is from the 1930s. It’s actually rather close to where Allan works, so I imagine Ms Caples must make quite a drive each morning/afternoon. The house itself looks a little small from the outside, but it’s a charming kind of small, like something out of a fairy tale. And, again, it was much larger from the inside. The entire set-up has a very English tint to it, with fluffy rugs and handsome furniture throughout the entire house. I’m not sure if I can quite explain the interior—let’s just say it is beautiful, charming, and full of love. There are cats throughout the house—one is very shy, another is very friendly, and the third we could not find. Also throughout the house are bookshelves—in that aspect it reminded me a bit of my own house, because we’re big readers here, too. Ms Caples apologized about the mess, but honestly I couldn’t even tell.

Well, I’d type more but so far I’m sure I’ve bored you all, so I will leave now. Later.

The dust storm has cleared up, somewhat. Reluctantly, the dust storm is slowly leaving the valley and moving back the the wretches of the great desert it has come from.

The other night I had a dream. I do not remember anything about the dream, not a thing visually, not a thing even in terms of taste, touch, smell. All I remember was, I was dreaming. I dreamed I was perfectly happy~

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February 27, 2002 on 2:58 pm | In Blogger | No Comments

Today we were supposed to have a fire drill during second period. Of course, nothing came of it, but what can you expect from a school like ours?

I dedicated most of journalism to fixing Pagemaker on one of the Macs…poor thing, it couldn’t open up the program! But, we called this 800-number for Pagemaker, and some guy who happened to be from Tucson, too, helped us out (and there was much rejoicing “yay!”). In the meantime Jenn and I worked on Entertainment, and Jennifer worked on some Photoshop stuff, too. We made popcorn (yum!) and got Cameo’s page started. I love Jenn and Jennifer….they’re probably some of the few people in journalism I genuinely like and enjoy being around with. Well, that’s not totally true, that they’re the “few” people I like—most of the juniors are really sweet, and I’m sure given that, next year when they’re seniors is going to be a blast, even if it will be a “rebuilding” year, since so many of us are graduating from CDO.

Well I’m off to the post office. More later~

***LATER***

Yay! I think I’m getting a little obssessed with this blog, but really, how cool is this thing? Posting random thoughts…lol it’s a dream come true!

Sean’s BACK online. Heheeedles, he was out all this week….and the week before, because of the band trip. Well, here he be. Welcome back, Sean!

YAY I’m happy because On With the Muffins is reinstating the message board! XD we had sooo much fun on our other message board, which we called Harry Potter and the Riddle’s Curse after our :sniff: very first work together, Harry Potter and the Riddle’s Curse (I’ll bet you guys didn’t see that title coming :P).

On With the Muffins has come a long way since then…ever since Coolboard crashed and lost parts of Harry Potter and the Riddle’s Curse (I’m still not 100 percent certain how much we have rescued). We (well, Jill and Virginia, mostly, because my different time zone from them makes it difficult for all three of us to work together) have been vigorously working on HPRC, as well as another original work, Shards of Fantasy, which is awesome, again, thanks mostly to Jill and Virginia.

I’m hoping that whatever we create on our message board is, it’ll be really good…but I’ll be really happy to be working on it, because this means that I’ll be able to work more on my own time, and we won’t have to haunt AIM all day long (though I imagine that last part won’t change much ~_*).

I talked to Mrs Caples after school today…she’s such a dear…lolz we got some good “informal-male bashing” in, which was fun, and she wanted to know if I talked to my parents about the whole Gemma “smack the girl” thing…I told her of course I told my parents….lol she hates Gemma. Then again, I do, too (Gemma’s our principal, btw).

I think most of CDO hates Gemma, by now. In Econ we had this giant discussion about why CDO is no longer any good, and Ryan Lilly said it was mostly due to one little man, and frankly, I can’t help but nod my head. Gemma has done so much to deteriorate our school….we can no longer have our bon-fires, the marching band had that big thing where they essentially can’t practice on Mondays, no more assemblies, early outs are dead (not to say the latter two are a bad thing….), he wants priority review on the Palantir (and pretty much gets it), his AIMS testing incentitive is senseless/unorganized (not to mention unfair to the teachers), I hate that AIMS thing and Prop 301 he’s issued, the graduation lock-in party he wants sounds just dumb, and the thing with Johnny last fall made me ashamed of our school.

I know he’s loosing popularity among not just the students, but the faculty as well. Let’s just hope he’s on his way out.

I started Final Fantasy X today…yay! It’s really good so far, though admitedly, I’m only an hour into it…lolz Doug will be so proud tomorrow…he likes to talk Final Fantasy with me during math, but I haven’t played either IX or X, though I have mastered VII and VIII on several occasions (even though I’ve never beaten VIII…there’s a scratch on Disc IV, so dammit, I’ll never smack the sorceress!!!). Yeh, so the point to that poorly structured sentence is, Doug will be proud because he’s in the middle of X and really likes to talk about it…Jessie’s in the middle of X, too, and was she ever proud to see I started it…so was the Squid, too, when he came home from soccer. Yeh, so I rule! haha

Ooooh the full moon just came out again…it’s rather dusty outside, today. I was driving down the hills of La Ca�ada and noticed that the mountains, usually purple, were a kind of hazy tan, and the entire city looked like L.A., polluted with smog. But don’t worry, only a small part of it is the usual city smog—I think a dust storm is passing over the city. What Tucson needs is a good rain.

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February 26, 2002 on 6:29 pm | In Blogger | No Comments

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There’s a full moon out tonight. I can see it from my window as I type here, in my room, as it rises over the mountaintop, blushing, slightly, as it shows its pallid face at me. I went outside, to get a better look, and the entire night sky greeted me. A few stars poked their faces at me, laughing as they twinkled merrily, and straight above me was a planet…I’m not certain which, but my guess would be, it’s either Jupiter or Saturn, as it was so high. Ribbons of whispy clouds draped over the navy background, like white satin over a bridal gown.

I love the sky. I think that’s the first thing anyone should know about me, is that I am a star-gazer, a skywatcher, the astronomer that I am, and if I ever need time to do anything, it’s to watch the sky. Night is so impartial to our problems; I feel as though I can shout out at it, and in some ways, it understands. Like an old, wise person enlightened by life’s virtues, the sky advises, and listens to, the young, inexperienced romantic teenager that I am. But, I suppose in a way we are all young~