Again,

I wrote a very long entry

and Xanga malfunctioned and deleted it.

So I'm now on a brief hiatus.

Will return when I'm sane again.

Currently Listening The Way We Talk By The Maine see related

Cath...

DC's best view! Here we are on an elevated hunk of concrete in front of Lincoln Memorial, with the National Mall sparkling behind us, and the Washington Monument not far off. While my family are not exactly city folk, I was thoroughly excited to be in DC, although I suffered a massive sunburn across the face and decolletage by the end of this day. DC photos will be spread throughout this post, so forgive me if I interrupt a train of thought with a new photo description. It was just such a good trip.

So, this morning, I went to observe and interview at a local church's special needs camp to write a press release for the town newspaper, an opportunity which I relish, as I always fear my journalism skills will have diminished by the end of the summer [speaking of which, I desperately need to coordinate a meeting with The Editors soon.. JAMES, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, REMIND ME!!]. Visiting the camp was a happy surprise-- everyone seemed to be having so much fun, and everything was super-organized. As I interviewed kids my age who were working as counselors, I felt a real sense of admiration for their competence, generosity, and willingness-- these certainly weren't kids working at camp because their parents made them. It's amazing that we have so many people willing to invest their time and talents in the special needs community-- what they've created for kids in the summer is really special. I can't wait to write it all down.

Here, the best part of the trip, in my mind: my trip to George Washington U, potential future home. Even though it wasn't anything drastically different from what I expected, I loved it just the same, and am very excited about the possibility of going there. I seem to have this syndrome where my "favorite college" is the one I've most recently visited ["Avery, which one do you want to go to most?" "______ College!" Fill in the last school where I toured and photographed]. Still, I'm pretty enamored with GW, the compromise between urban and suburban campuses [campi?], stellar internship opportunities, school of communications, White House proximity. It's in the middle of the action. Walking the campus with my camera, I can already see myself baking cookies in the dorm kitchen, decorating my bedroom walls, reading at the bus stop, and walking the short distance from Mount Vernon campus down to Georgetown, where Alex will be conveniently located. My parents also seem more into it than any other school, which is a good sign. I'm actually wearing the t-shirt above, in one of the school's colors ["Buff;" the other is blue], again today as I write. It feels good, knowing that I'm just a year or so away from being a college kid, and only several months away from knowing which college's kid I'll be.

OH NO. Haha. So here we are, c l o w n i n g  in our room. I picked out our place of residence, a gorgeous boutique hotel called Hotel Madera on New Hampshire Ave. Other than the fact that the showers were wonky, it was paradise, with one perk being that these animal-print terrycloth robes were hanging in our closet when we arrived. After Talbot and I wore them down to floor 3 to get ice, I decided we should go down to the lobby in them. Well, we strutted into the lobby in our Rainbows and robes, looking like some kind of

 zoo-themed wise men,

with the occupants of the indoor restaurant and the waiting area unable to look away. We tried to keep straight faces as we inquired about vending machines at the front desk. "No, we don't have any. Did someone dare you to come downstairs in those robes?"

We were making our best attempts not to crack up as we re-boarded the elevator. A stream of hotel guests returning from a night on the town waited to get on the elevator, and while I held the door open for them, they awkwardly backed away and refused to get on with my sister and I. They were probably afraid we were going to flash them or something, haha! So we laughed our way back to our room, feeling quite accomplished.

ACT Scores are back... gulp. I checked them online a few days ago, the first day they were available, and IMed friends for   moral support  while I logged into the page, haha... I'm logging in right now, as I type, to find out my writing score..

31.

Hm. Not quite as high as I had hoped. Then again, while I took three PSATS and prepped extensively with books and a course for the SAT, I went into the ACT with zero knowledge of the material or types of questions I'd see. I got a 29 overall, which made me pretty happy, since it was my first take. I'm going to find an ACT study book [any recommendations?] and prep before taking it again in fall, hopefully to attain something over a 30 [I scored 34 and 35 on English and Writing, respectively, but only 23 and 24 on Math and then Science. Science was hard! It required some physics knowledge, which seemed a bit unfair.]

I still realllllly want my tragus pierced. I'm going to find some place to do that safely soon. No more of this self-ear-piercing business; I had enough of that last year when I did my third piercing on my left ear with sterilization but no ice [I have very high pain tolerance!], and made it last a good six months before my ear rejected it. While it's not on the top of my career list, being a piercing artist is one of those colorful occupations, like being a hairdresser or makeup artist, that holds a strong and strange appeal to me. I find the modification and decoration of the body-- be it eyes, skin, hair, ears-- fascinating.

 I usually orchestrate playlists for my blog, but since I'm feeling a bit more spontaneous today, I figured I'd just set it on Shuffle and give the first ten songs played. This might give you an idea of just how eclectic my music taste is, haha.

> The Dangling Conversation [Simon and Garfunkel]

> She'll Still Cry Tonight [Blink-182 ft. Good Charlotte]

> Once Again [Girl Talk]

> Raindrops [Regina Spektor]

> Hollaback Boy [Cobra Starship]

> Distance [Karsh Kale]

> Kill the Lights [the Birthday Massacre]

> You and I are a Gang of Losers [the Dears]

> The Receiving End of it All [Streetlight Manifesto]

> Science vs. Romance [Rilo Kiley]

I'm spinning in my chair, feeling distractable and only halfway motivated to do all the things that need to be done today. I'm sucking on a sour peach with a banana lying in wait on my desk, enjoying the natural goodness of devouring fresh summer fruits. I feel like I haven't been to school in years.

Yes, this is pretty much my morning face.

[strolling down New Hampshire ave. in the A.M.]

OH! I have some new photography from May/the end of the school year that I've just recently scanned up. Rushing to turn in the last of my many photo assignments, I was staying after in the darkroom for hours and hours, kind of lost in a haze of processing chemicals and sleeplessness. However, I got everything done and finished with a good grade, and here's some of what I have to show for the month of May:

I have laundry to do.

Currently Listening Secret Diary By Girl Talk see related

talking bird

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord
After the crowds have ceased
Each night when the lights go out
It can be found on the ground all around
Oh, what a ratly feast!

Melon rinds and bits of hotdogs
Cookie crumbs and rotton cotton candy
Melted ice cream, mustard dripplings
Moldy goodies everywhere

Lots of popcorn, apple cores
Bananna peels and soggy sadwiches
And gobs of gorgeous gook to gobble at the fair

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord
After the gates are shut
Each night when the lights go out
It can be found on the ground all around
That's where a rat can glut, glut, glut, glut!

-Templeton the Rat (Charlotte's Web)

I AM HAVING A MELTDOWN. It is 1:45 a.m. and I am experiencing Captain D's cravings like you would not believe. It's fascinating that a person who rarely even visits our incarnation of the shady fish-frying institution on Independence Boulevard can feel such a relentless and sudden need for greasily fried fish and pineapple cheesecake. However, this is me at this point in time, my tummy is grumbling and I feel my throat heart-burning just at the thought of it. Also, the above song has been cycling through my head uncontrollably for the past half-hour; the tune, more or less, as I do not recall the exact lyrics, but only the image of Templeton dancing about as assorted foods rain around him in a sort of Fourthmeal dream sequence. In my vision, these falling delicacies are said cheesecakes and fish slabs. I shall distract myself and write of other things.

A boy was killed by a rollercoaster at the Six Flags in closest proximity to me either yesterday or the day before. By a rollercoaster, not on a rollercoaster, mind you. Upon hearing the storyline initially, I was sickened and felt horribly sad. And while I still do, it made me raise my eyebrows to hear the extent to which this boy went to come within proximity of the rollercoaster. He apparently lost his hat or some such item, and instead of opting to purchase a new hat, he and his friend scaled the fence surrounding the coaster, climbed inside, and approached the tracks to fetch it. This is devastating and I have no intention of coming off as insensitive... but what do you say to that? The fence is there... for a reason?

I spoke to my father about this later, at which time he told me that at his theme park as a child [he grew up mostly in Cincinnati, so I'm assuming this was King's Island], a popular rollercoaster routinely wiped out several people yearly. And this was considered an expected event for a rollercoaster. Whereas now, that rollercoaster would obviously be closed?! It's crazy. [Though I hear that because this incident was obviously no foul play on the coaster's part, it will be re-tested and then remain open.] Once again, I intend to cast no blame on this boy or anyone. Just a reminder to THINK.

A rose from my garden!

Ironically, this is the one thing in my garden I did not plant myself. These rosebushes have been in my garden bed for a very long time and I now have a solitary summer rose, this beautiful one depicted above, in the center of my arrangement. Plants blossoming in my garden that I do claim as my c o l l a b o r a t i o n with Mother Nature include an assortment of wildflowers about to bloom, a couple tomato plants, a canteloupe vine and some dill.

Lately I have felt that my blog has become a bit static. I win upwards of 150, often over 200, readers weekly, a respectable sum for a young writer, in my opinion. Still, I receive very little feedback via comments, and I want to expand my writing into areas that will interest more readers in more ways so that I might grow. Alex was telling me about how Charles de Lint's [a famous science fiction author whom Alex loves; I've read one of his books thus far, Trader, and found it wonderful. de Lint plays music and meets fans once weekly in Toronto, it seems, and sometime this fall Alex and I are planning a pilgrimage.] wife, who's big into vintage clothing, appeared for an interview for some girls who run a vintage clothing blog in Canada. The thought of such interviews excited me a bit, and I realized that contacting interesting figures [not Mariah Carey-kind of famous, mind you; I'm thinking more up-and-coming, a la Diablo Cody before Juno made her famous] would make my blog noteworthy and more interesting. And it'd be a great opportunity for me to talk to new people. So I'm in the process of brainstorming for that, but if anyone has any ideas for a great e-interview, please don't hesitate to let me know.

1:45 (well, scratch that, now 2:13) is my chosen hour of blog this week because I am currently caught in a whirlwind busy spell. Along with Honors French online [going pretty well], required summer reading [going kind of well, could be moving along faster], recreational summer reading [not so hot, I've only done about 80 pages of this], suntanning, trying to get in shape, trying to keep my room clean and laundry done, and hoping to start organizing college stuff, I've had social plans every day of the week from last Tuesday through this Tuesday, with a break for my DC trip, then MORE when I return for the weekend. This is what I thought would slow down once summer started, not speed up! Haha. But I'm loving it, actually, getting to spend tons more time with my friends and less focused on AP tests and SATs...

I did go swimming for the first time this summer today! Here's me on the way to Kevin's pool. This is the only picture I have of me, looking fly in my shades and holding my towel. However, Kevin's mom took a few photographs of us sitting on a float in the water, which should be cute, and I'll upload those as soon as I find them.

I'm back to taking my focus pills [I shamelessly neglected them for a few weeks] and my sleeping aid, which should help prevent me from pulling the repeated all-nighters I have been lately. I'm also drinking more water, moisturizing daily, trying to UV-protect my lips... and I've resolved that once summer ends, I will switch completely to natural tanning in the sun as opposed to UV coffins. I don't know if that's really preferable, although I will be getting Vitamin D, and being out in the sun just feels more natural to the body than a tanning bed. So.

With the new school year approaching at a painfully rapid rate, I have the urge to become addicted to a new TV show, seeing as I'm not much of a TV watcher anyways and haven't watched much that I liked in a long time. "Big Love" is looking like a prime candidate right now. This becomes problematic with my parents' frail holding-on attempt to shelter my sister and I by perpetually insisting, no matter what else they let us do, that we are denied access to HBO. I plan to purchase myself a Netflix subscription [it's much cheaper than I thought!] come August, so that provides a solution. However, as much as I only wanted to become attached to one show [I'm kind of systematic about these things], I've added myself as a fan on Facebook of "The Secret Life Of The American Teenager," and am fairly sure that I will become attached to this new series as well. The girl on the ad for it looks exactly like a girl I know. It looks like I will be at Dave Matthews Band when the premiere debuts, but I'll have someone record it and watch later to decide if I want to continue watching.

OHH!
AND LOOK!
DEATH CAB HAS A NEW ALBUM

It's mad that this is their 7th release.

Currently Listening Into the Blue Again By The Album Leaf "Writings On The Wall" see related

Lion Rip

 This is new. This was fun.

It's two sapphires and I'm now in love with my right ear (don't tell Leftie..). I went to get my tragus pierced, actually, and I guess that's not really Piercing Pagoda territory. "Maybe you should try a tattoo parlor for that, honey." Hm. Well, I was already there and wasn't about to leave without being stapled up somewhere, so they fixed me up. I keep forgetting it's there and brushing my hair back and it gets caught. Ouch.

So I'm back from Chapel Hill, readjusting to a slightly more mundane and routine existence. Come to think of it, though, it really isn't mundane, at least not right now. This summer, so far, has been amazing. Perfect, really. I won't go into detail. But I've been so busy. I've been with so many people I  lve, 

and it's only the first two weeks. And I have dozens and dozens of amazing photographs already, which is a good sign. Alex, unfortunately, has been gone to a national debate tournament since last Saturday and has not been present for the summer fun. He placed in  finals, apparently (GO MAN!), and will be home tomorrow afternoon.

Since I've been dwelling predominantly on personal issues lately (this is a product of having avoided news and podcasts since summer began; I'll admit that I've been kind of caught up in my own world lately), let's see what's happening that's interesting outside of AVERY..

THE BOX!

SEMI-ANNUAL SALES!

CONCERTS!

I'll tackle these in order

I was pleasantly surprised to return home from my trip to see my Vogue / Allure stack on my collected mail pile

(they always come together on the same

 day of the month).

I grabbed Allure first and as I pored over the pages, I came upon a spread of images of beautiful, sparkling women; blondes and brunettes, fair-skinned and exotic, all clad in rich, elaborate costuming. The picture above, which was one of the few that I could find online, does no justice to the glamour that is The Box, and the dancers inside. This was the first time I had heard of The Box, even though it's been around about a year in NYC; essentially a glorified and extremely exclusive vaudeville-show-cum-strip-club, The Box is becoming a celebrity mecca. The dancers range from lanky to voluptuous, though all are beautiful (and most are female, though it looks like we may have a drag in the mix somewhere). Tables here are upwards of five hundred dollars. The atmosphere: Vegas, where audience antics are encouraged, money is flying and dances and costumes are hyper-thematic (think slumber party, 80's punk, and strappy-black-lacy, for starters). The dancers, however, never strip completely; whether it's a bra and underwear left on or tiny decorative pasties, this club is actually free of technical nudity.

..And where is the outcry? I'm sure there are dozens of reasons why I should be wildly offended by this. How unholy. How sexist. How slutty. How degrading. How trashy and grotesque and hedonistic and indulgent. Right? And as much as I'm not planning on heading down the stripper path (although I found it quite interesting for a while when I was waitressing and some of the waitresses had previously been strippers, one notably at an upscale Charlotte club called The Paper Doll. The stories they told, especially of the excessive money they made, were always intriguing.), I am in love with these girls, their acceptance of themselves as not only sexy, but sexual creatures (as men are, and have always been, allowed to do without reprimand). They're talented. They're immaculate and glittered and utterly, quintessentially girlish, and yet womanly and seductive in a way that women are so rarely allowed to be. And while I don't claim to be any sort of moral authority on this topic, I feel nothing but inner applause for these ladies, their entrepreneurship, their physiques, their skill, their courage in the face of heavy criticism. My parents would spit if they heard this, but it's frustrating to feel conflicted over this time and time again. If there can be a Chippendales, there can most certainly be a Box. Keep on

 dancing.

I just realized the irony of my placing Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale next on the list. Eh. So if you're looking for a post that exemplifies my exceptional adherence to societal mores, this might not be the one. But here we are, and I'm being honest, so...

IT STARTED TODAY

Haha. I'm wildly scrolling through the website to make a mental list of exactly what my first paycheck will be purchasing here. I'm not really feeling the sticky-candy variety of body product (I got a little excited two Semi-Annual Sales ago and loaded up on Chocolate, Caramel and Key Lime. Chocolate actually smells incredibly attractive, but Caramel's a bit overbearing, and Key Lime makes me smell like a ridiculous and cheap dessert. It was a Mistake with a capital M), but I'm liking the Luminous Shadow, the Supermodel lotion (scented like the new-ish perfume, which smells pear-ish and wonderful) and some amazing little tops to wear.

And as far as concerts go...

I'm going to a show with a friend on Friday (I think? Let me find some cash..?)

, then hopefully Dave Matthews (S C O R E) with another friend July 1st,

Warped Tour July 14th,

and I already have John Mayer tickets for August

That is a face that I like.

French III Honors is kicking my butt... almost. Haha. I'm taking a condensed class online (if I haven't mentioned this, which I'm sure I have) so I can hit French IV by the fall. Condensed meaning lots of work in little time, haha. But my score looks pretty good, and I'm actually enjoying it a little. It'll be nice to be able to call myself fluent one day in the near future .

An artistic composition by Kevin,

of my playing badminton with my sister.

I'm about to serve.

Currently Listening Canon By Ani DiFranco see related

Twenty-Two Fourteen

Live, From Chapel Hill!

Here I am, in one of the many locations on my nerdy "J o u r n a l i s t i c   D e s t i n a t i o n s" mental list. Not that I haven't been to Chapel Hill before; but as I type this, I'm reclining in the Daily Tar Heel office, taking advantage of the last few minutes of my lunch break before returning to work on The Rush, the publication we dozen or so selected students are producing here at the four-day institute for the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association. I'm surrounded by papers, giant white iMacs, college kids, posters, newspapers, leftover food, and staffers. It feels very comfortable. I can see myself ending up here (perhaps. I have quite a few college newspaper offices I'd be happy to inhabit). There's a tinge of sadness upon entering the room, when one passes posters and papers devoted to the death of Eve Carson; knowing that she was likely attacked upon leaving this very building gives me chills, and yet gives me more inspiration to join the greatness found here. I'm bordering on ridiculously corny, so I'll stop now. But I'm happy to be here.  

Not to mention that I have an interview with the Dean of Admissions at the J-school in an hour... no, not for my own admission, just for an article I'm writing. Still, can't hurt to get to know people, right? And tomorrow's the state awards night, where I'll find out exactly how well our paper did this year. We always win some great awards, so I'm feeling the pressure for my staff.

I just got back from a break walk over to the Student Bookstore for a bottle of tea. As I left the building for one of the few times I have today, I felt as if I had entered some utopian biome, though it was only a sunny student patio between buildings. I stopped, inhaled. Thought about being alive and about living, about the differences and similarities. Heard an anthem in my mind, pulled off my shoes and padded across the warm bricks, surrounded by people but also by quiet. Felt the sun dim and grow again, warming me deep into the bare parts of my skin. Serene, insulated and clear of mind, I breezed past each person without thinking or speaking, past paint-splattered signs advertising feminist rallies and church harvests and movie showings. And I felt better than I have felt in what feels not like several months or dozens of weeks or hundreds of days,

but countless thousands of hours.

And now I'm stuck in this goosebumpity-freezing room, eyes glazed from the screen (though I have a very pretty tree-trunk desktop that I added today).

I haven't put up a soundtrack in a while, have I?

JUNELIST

"Levon" [Elton John]

"Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old" [Broken Social Scene]

"Strip My Mind" [Red Hot Chili Peppers]

"Where Is My Mind?" [The Pixies]

"Corduroy Boy" [The Dears]

"New Slang" [The Shins]

"Tiny Ocean of Tears" [Jason Collett]

"When You Were Young (Victoria's Secret Runway Remix)" [The Killers]

"I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" [Norah Jones ft. Bob Dylan]

Outside of the swarm of (summertime?!) academia here in the office, I've not wasted my chances to have some extracurricular fun. There's been a fair share of Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's involved. I've walked SO much on Franklin Street... talked on the phone in my bed when curfew had past, tattooed up my hand in a lecture, spent way too much on shirts and bumper stickers and a poster and ah... considered getting a tragus piercing, which I've been wanting for a while, but was a bit put off by the fact that the piercing place was called Illusions, was essentially a basement, and charged five dollars. Talbot talked me into leaving. I suppose I can wait until I get home.

"Ancient Egyptians believed the "vein of love" ran from the third finger on the left hand to the heart."

Snapple "Real Fact" #309.