Applications = finished

Yes. I have done it. And, I am proud to say, two days before most of them were due. How's that for proactive? (sadly, that's not really a joke for me...)
It's sad; I just finished all of my applications, and some people have already learned where they will be attending college next year. Stupid early decision-ers - not really though. I respect their ability to care enough to apply early, and I'm very excited for the few who did get accepted. To be honest, I thought I was going to die from stress if I applied early anywhere, and I had no definite favorites, so it's probably good that I didn't - though it would be wondrous to know (then again, most people just got deferred, so there ya go).
My mom keeps asking me if I checked everything - over and over, so that now I'm starting to get nervous. Do you think they immediately chuck you into the "Reject" bin if you're ungrammatical? I had a momentary heart attack the other day because I went and checked what I've been calling my "diversity" essay, which went on to two or three college apps, and I thought that the horrific ending (which actually didn't make any sense) had been a part of the version I sent colleges. Luckily the Common App lets you view the apps you've sent, though you can't edit them, so I checked and it seems to be something I added later while trying to edit the essay...but still. It was a terrifying thought.

In other news, life chugs on. Between CIS, math and Econ, I'm swamped - though not over break, thank god. Everything that was due was due the week before break, which led to some major stress then, and some major relief now. So it all works out in the end.
Hopefully once the semester ends, and CIS/applications are over I'll have more time to do stuff like blog. I'm considering taking the CIS Writing class, so we'll see...it's possible the craziness will continue.

Hunger Games and Life

So I shouldn't be writing this right now, I should be studying for my math test, BUT:
HUNGER GAMES TRAILER.
So: go look it up. I'll wait.
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Back? Okay. Thoughts:
It looks awesome. I'm happy with pretty much everything in that trailer, from Jennifer Lawrence to Lenny Kravitz. Whoever is writing this score is bomb. The only thing I can come up with as a complaint is Donald Sutherland as President Snow isn't as creepy as I thought it would be; I was, for some unfathomable reason, essentially expecting Voldemort.

Now that that's over: general other stuff
I have some Ideas for blogs I kind of want to write, but I have no time, so those will have to wait. Hopefully I don't just lose interest, like I always do, but...well, it's me. Let's be real here.
Swimming is over, which would be sad, except it's not really. I kind of miss the team, but for the most part, I'm thrilled we're done. I'm also super duper excited for the end-of-the-season banquet, which should be fun - senior gifts! Yes, I am that selfish.
I never mentioned on here, but I got into the pit orchestra for the musical, which would be exciting, except they let in three flutes when they only needed one, maybe two. So I don't get to play that much. On the other hand, that means I get to sit out and not play at all for the first act during tech week, meaning I can actually get stuff done, which is fantastic.
I got a new phone; it's the iPhone 4s. My parents love me.
We're going to Chicago (ish; Hinsdale, which is nearby) for Thanksgiving, and I am massively excited. Have I mentioned I want to go away for college now? No? Well, I do. I want to leave so badly. Oh lord.

When I no longer have homework and college and fifteen billion books to read, I will post again. Don't hold your breath.

Teeeeeeeeth

So I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. I opted for laughing gas and Novocain, instead of general anesthesia, which meant, unfortunately, I was NOT loony and out-of-it after the procedure; it also means I was awake for the whole thing. So: Thoughts1. They actually use words like "suture" and "hemostat"! It was kind of cool.
2. I am a mouth-breather, and the laughing gas thing was on my nose, so I had to concentrate on breathing through my nose the whole time, and sometimes I forgot. Then I'd get more lucid. Then I'd realize I was lucid and start breathing through my nose again. Also, laughing gas makes you feel really, really weird.
3. I will never be able to look at those things they use to suck out your spit at the dentist's the same way ever again. Guess what they used it for in this operation? Yeah, that's right. Sucking out blood.
4. They have to give you Novocain using giant needles. In your mouth. Three shots per tooth, for a total of twelve. I am so proud of myself for not flipping out more than I did; that shit hurts. And those needles are HUGE.
5. The funny thing was, there's a difference between feeling and pressure; I had no feeling in my mouth, because of the Novocain, but for each tooth, they had to do something that involved some intense pressure, and I could feel that, and it's not like it hurt, per se, but....it almost did.
6. I wrote this blog post in my head to distract myself from the fact that they were cutting holes in my mouth and I was completely awake.
7. I can cross Vicodin off my list of potentially addictive substances: it makes me nauseous.

So I sort of dropped off the Earth for a while

Yeah. School started, and it's senior year, and while the first week wasn't all that bad, after that...things spiraled, pretty quick. Part of it was the mystery party a friend and I planned, which meant I was spending pretty much every free moment writing characters so that they would all have motives and goals. The other parts were swimming, English, math, and college essays.
It pretty much all peaked/climaxed that week before our birthday party, plateaued (spelling?) and stayed horrifying stressful until this week. Last week was especially bad; my iPhone was stolen, and on top of that I was extremely hormonal, which magnified ever little thing, until I ended up having a minor breakdown on Thursday.
This week's been better; my outlook's improved, I feel like I'm actually getting things done for college, all that good stuff. So hooray for non-hormonalness (unfortunately, I think it may be my mom's turn as she's been rather...on edge recently)!
Meanwhile, I've been trying to watch things, but Fox is being stupid and not letting people watch their shows until over a week after they've been aired. It's especially annoying to see that there's an episode of Fringe and I just can't watch it because I don't have Dish network or whatever.
(Fringe is the best show ever by the way.)
Anyway though, this was mainly just supposed to be an "I'm back" type announcement! Hopefully I'll get better at keeping up again...

School started

Things I should be doing:
-Writing journals for my college-level English class (2 or 3)
-Writing a research paper for the same class
-Finishing math homework
-Writing my college essay
-Figuring out the rest of my college applications
-Practicing my flute for tomorrow's lesson
-Sleeping

Things I did instead:
-Plan my birthday party for an hour with a friend.
-Discuss the swimming drama going on with another friend
-Type this blog

Yes, I am a productive child! Yes I am a successful child! Bleh.

The Help

I didn't mention before, but I finished the book about half a week ago; I really enjoyed it. I won't discuss the whole thing with the premise being that the black side hadn't been told and yet it was in fact written by a white woman, because I'm still not sure how I feel about that fact. I will, however, say that it is a good book, and if I had to wager, I would guess it's at least decently accurate.Anyway, that's not what I was going to write about. I was going ot write about how I saw the movie with my mother and my sister tonight.
As always, we must first discuss the previews: I won't lie, I wanted to see most of the movies that had previews, including One Day, which I've heard got panned, but I don't even care, I still want to see it. I also really want to see whatever the movie involving Anton Yelchin was, becuase Anton Yelchin is awesome, and I totally managed to correctly identify the girl in the movie as the one girl from Northanger Abbey, which makes me feel proud (god my life is maybe a little pathetic).
On to the movie: for me, the start was rocky. I think there were times when things were edited a bit oddly, and maybe it's just my recent reading of the book that's making me think this, but parts just seemed like they weren't flowing/weren't connecting in a way that made sense. Like, Treelore's story seemed like it didn't quite...fit. And Skeeter's random demand to know what happened to Constantine during dinner was just odd (also, I'm sorry, they should've done something else for that flashback. Emma Stone just looked like she was wearing weird clothes, not like she was truly younger). In addition, I have to say: there were some inconsistencies in characters that really bothered me. Minnie was a big one; she sometimes seemed like the badass/funny woman she was supposed to be, and sometimes she just...wasn't. Mrs. Phelan was another one; the whole, "suddenly not racist" thing was weird. I don't know, it just felt wrong.
To be honest, the Minnie issue, and some of the other ones, sprung from the fact that the movie was weird in how it played the funny-serious line. It didn't feel quite right; the funny parts were funny, and the touching parts were truly touching (definitely cried a couple times), but they were awkwardly put together. Like, I feel like Up did this great job of leading off with the terribly sad and moving, and then getting to funny really successfully, and going back and forth beautifully, and I felt like this movie managed to kind of do this most of the time, but then other times just...lost it. I also think that maybe the other part was that the movie lacked the fear: I didn't ever feel like these characters were truly risking things, not even when Medgar Evans was shot. And that lack of fear really makes the entire thing just a little bit flatter; it lacks that extra oomph.
Anyway, enough complaining: now for things that were done really well: Aibileen. She was amazing, especially in her scenes with Mae Mobley. Elizabeth, who had just enough of that subtle, passive-aggressive racism. The Stuart-Skeeter relationship: it actually felt real, and wrong, and it was kind of wonderful that you could just tell they were wrong, without it being necessary to show all these different moments when there was a disconnect. Celia Foote, and the Benefit were also great, and pretty funny. Um...the soundtrack?? Thomas Newman is AWESOME, and his scores always have this hopeful-yet-sad sound, and their so subtle you don't even realize they're there (I'm a little in love with his Series of Unfortunate Events soundtrack. I can just listen to it and start crying; it's that good.)
So yeah. I would probably recommend reading the book after seeing the movie on this one; I tried to avoid comparing them in this post, because that seldom really goes well, but the book has such a strong voice to it, it's a little like a movie playing in your head - and so seeing the movie afterwards is just really disconcerting. But do see the movie; just make sure you read the book too.

Cheers to the freakin' weekend

...and while I won't drink to that, because I'm a goody-two shoes who doesn't like the taste of alcohol, I will go on a dinner-picnic with friends in celebration.
(okay, so it wasn't actually a "Yay weekend!" celebration, but whatever, I just wanted to mention it so you all know that yes, I actually do have friends. I know, sometimes I sound amazingly addicted to my computer on this little blog, what with all my talk of shows and books and stuff. I dunno, hearing about someone going out with friends usually isn't all that interesting, so I tend to avoid that subject. You understand right?)
SO. Now that we've got that confirmation of my real life existence out of the way, we can move on to the stuff you know you're really interested in: my opinions on television shows.
Oh Pretty Little Liars. How you try my patience sometimes.
First off, we have the whole kidnapped therapist thing, from the previous episode, which I can't get over: she's an adult. An adult who is apparently not an idiot. So explain to me why, exactly, she would reveal that she knew the name of A in her office, which she KNEW was bugged. YOU KNEW IT WAS BUGGED. WHY. EXPLAIN WHY.
However, my biggest issue this episode was the fact that when one of the liars (Emily) was trapped in a barn with a car that is apparently filling the barn with noxious, deadly fumes, she just sort of gave up and passed out. Girl, that barn is big. You'd have at least an hour. Go try and break open the car or something - if it's not running, the fumes won't kill you. That thing has windows. You have shoes. Seriously.
Beyond PLL, I have an embarassing confession: I started watching Glee again. I know, I know. Santana drew me back in (I think it's possible she's slowly becoming one of my favorite characters). I still hate Will most of the time, and Sue has gotten amazingly old, but to be honest, the rest aren't...horrific. Rachel's pining was annoying, but Kurt and Blaine are cute and Brittany is once again hilarious. So's her cat.
So I watched the available episodes on Hulu, and yeah. I mean, Glee is all over really: sometimes it really hits the mark with certain quips or storylines, and other times it is SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS. Since the Prom episode was the most recent one I watched, we'll talk about that first: I was almost happy for about two seconds when Jesse returned, because it meant Rachel would stop pining over Finn for an episode. Except she didn't. Stop. Pining. Which made his return both implausible and useless. You flunked out of UCLA? And then came back to Ohio? And now have this idea that you will advise show choirs? I don't remember your character being this stupid; is your character really this stupid? Also, what is going on with your scarf thing? Also also, what high school allows a non-high school student to go to prom? Oh, apparently one where the principal allows write-ins to determine prom queen, and then proceeds to read out that prom queen, despite the fact that apparently it was yet another attempt to bully/tease the gay student (we must address this too: I didn't realize until the whole awkward-lack-of-applause that it was meant as a hurtful thing; I just assumed, you know, support/breaking the crown thing in Mean Girls. You know. Like, maybe people kind of thought he wanted to get the crown because of how he generally acts around school...I dunno. I mean, I understood in the end that it wasn't that, but at first, that's how it seemed.)

Beyond all this stuff: school starts on Tuesday. My last first day ever. Kinda weird, I won't lie.