you can scream and you can shout...
I'm finding it really hard to write in here lately...I think it's cause I've got all these lingering stresses. Mostly related to
my research project. It's making me feel like I weigh 500 pounds. I have a general idea, but I need to narrow it down...and I need to
narrow it down quickly. I'm really having a tough time with it. And it makes me all stressed out.
Yesterday was Michelle's birthday. Of course I had to e-mail her and make fun of her for being an "old fart." Even though she can only be
an "old fart" in relation to me for 11 days. 23 is old. When I think 23, I think of Bowman during the 2000 tour. He was 23. I was 19. He was
old. I was young. LOL. At least I get to be Eddie Vedder's favorite number for 365 days (LOL sooooo kidding in case you couldn't
tell I was). Anyway, I was going to do an entry yesterday and put up an incriminating picture of Michelle...but...well, I got lazy. Plus,
any incriminating picture of Michelle that I have...also hosts an incriminating shot of me. You know what though? There really aren't any
true "incriminating" shots of Michelle because she always looks the same...always has a smile on her face. She's the most optimistic and happy
person I know!
I did find pictures of me with both of our German exchange students. I may have to scan those. In one pic, I'm wearing a pair of my Uncle Bob's
army pants (that had a borken zipper and so they were held up by safety pins, but I loooove those pants) and my Citizen Dick
t-shirt. That's a size XL. I was such a fashionista. In the other picture, two years had passed. Gone were the army pants, but hello to the Dr.
Martens blue jeans. And then I'm wearing a shirt that is the Ticketmaster logo, only it says "Ticketbastard." I hadn't lost that whole XL look, though,
I was wearing my No Code zip hoodie...which was an XL. I rocked. Aw damn, I guess I should scan those pictures now, shouldn't I? Here goes...
The second German exchange student was "my sister's"...meaning when my sister was in 9th grade (1998), she decided she wanted a German exchange student matched up with her (they
"matched" you up according to likes/dislikes). What we got was Julia (pronounced "yule-ia"). I ended up getting along pretty well with Julia...at least compared to how my
sister got along with her. As a matter of fact, I usually went on outings with her with my parents and my sister didn't even go along (such as in the picture to the right of us
at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit). Julia, like Catalina, was boy crazy. We have some pretty funny videos of Julia. Julia was a fun girl who tried hard to understand American humor. I can't
even imagine being an exchange student...even for a month...while in high school. We tried to keep in touch with Julia...but shortly after she returned to Germany, her parents
divorced and things got really messy in her life. By the way...the Hole shirt she's wearing in that picture...I gave her. I scored about five Hole t-shirts for a penny each at
Media Play once. I bought them all. Lucky for me, at the time, I was actually in a Hole phase. But a girl doesn't need 100 Hole t-shirts...and Julia loved Hole, so I had to give her one!
Last night, I was listening to the Dave Matthews Band Central Park cd. I had to, of course, listen to Granny...and Crush is right
after that, so I listened to that, too. The thing that is so amazing about DMB, and Crush in particular, is how it has such a calming
effect on me. DMB is the only band I can really fall asleep to...which is weird, because I like silence when I sleep. I fell asleep to Crush and
then woke up...and it made me happy because I fell asleep to it. Yeah, I'm strange.
I'm not a big fan of candy conversation hearts at all. BUT...BUT...I looooove the white ones. I just ate a box of them (well periodically, throughout the day) and saved all the
whites for last. There's only three. What a rip-off.
The first picture is me in 9th grade (1996) with our first German exchange student, Catalina. Both of our exchange students were only here for a month...
which was a good thing. Anyway, Catalina was nice, but she was an only child and kept to herself a lot. She was a year older than me, and definitely a lot
more sophisticated. Her favorite music was The Offspring and Celine Dion. I looked past that, though, because she brought soooo many gifts from Germany for us.
She gave me like 700 Milka bars. She brought so many chocolates from Germany with her, it was unreal. She also brought a book for us about her hometown (Wiesbaden) and
stationary and the whole nine yeards. I had enough of her when my mom and I went to pick her up from downtown Royal Oak.
She was hanging out with this senior boy that I (and all my friends) thought was really icky. He was all artsy, but I found it to be gross, not attractive. Anyway,
we found her...making out with him on the street corner. They were so into it, we had to circle the block like four times before they finally noticed our car...as well
as the honking.
