Bullet Points

• I've been working. A lot. This is good.
• As Germany gets somewhat closer, I get more nervous. I haven't seen my cousin I'm going to visit in like 10 years. He seems nice and I don't doubt him but I'm worried about staying with him and his wife, whom I've never met. I'm determined though.
• David Hockney is my new favorite artist of the month. More on him to follow.
• I called someone at work eye candy and Rae was really amused by this. I'm still trying to figure out why....but not really.
• Man's Search for Meaning is now one of my favorite books. More on this to follow.
• I've been reading a lot.
• I've been playing Sims 3 a lot.
• I've been spending a lot of time alone. Maybe this is a good thing. At least I'm not in want of good company.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was really good. It's my favorite of the Harry Potter movies so far.
• This post was really exciting. But not really.

Ich gehe!

Ich gehe nach Deutschland diesem Sommer! Ich bin sehr aufgeregt! Ich gehe in August.

I'm going to Germany this summer! I'm very excited! I'm going in August.

See? I'm jumping for joy.

This Past Week

This past week was actually really nice. I read The Importance of Being Earnest, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, The Dain Curse, and The Glass Key. The Maltese Falcon is now one of my favorite books (definitely top ten) and The Importance of Being Earnest was really entertaining. Both come highly recommended from myself. The Great Gatsby was actually interesting, especially to see Fitzgerald's interpretation on the jazz age.

I was really productive. Plus I worked a lot. I worked a couple shifts with this girl named Katie and she's nice but we didn't really talk. About anything. Which is horrible because I'm a gauche person and at times the silence was kind of awkward...Everything we said to each other had something to do with the weather. Any time I talked with her, she would say how it's cloudy, windy, sunny, etc. Whenever we had these mini conversations about the weather, I sat there thinking about Gwendolyn Fairfax from The Importance of Being Earnest. Someone mentions the weather to her and she remarks, "I do not like it when people talk about the weather. It always seems as if they have something else to say." It just made me laugh in a weird, nerdy way.

I should probably get started on my summer reading for AP Lang instead of Dashiell Hammett detective novels. We'll see how it goes.

My Fourth of July

Yesterday I...

-worked for ten hours

-finished The Dain Curse and then started The Glass Key

-swam in a freezing pool

-came home, everyone else was across the street

-made a phone call; person wasn't there, went across the street

-ate a cold hamburger with onions, mustard, and cheese

-came home

-played Sims 3

-watched fireworks for a few minutes; went back to playing Sims 3

-went to bed

It was very exciting.

The Trek

The trek is over. I think this is the best part about it.

I was supposed to go on trek to gain a greater appreciation for my ancestors and the difficulties they went through just so they could live and practice their religion freely. Did I walk away with a greater appreciation? Not exactly. I mean, don't get me wrong, but I think that my ancestors didn't know what they were missing out on. For example, internet, bug spray, cars, planes, and other luxuries of the 21st century that I have. They had nothing with which to compare their experience. (That was a hard sentence to not dangle my participle.) I knew what they were missing out on, they didn't. It was their life. Was I grateful that they were willing to sacrifice the comforts of their homes, leave steady employment, and all civilization to do something that was asked of them and that meant a lot to them? Yes. I think this trek really made me more grateful for the everyday luxuries I have at home. The little things I take for granted.

My family (the group of people I was stuck with for three days) was pretty bad...I met some new people but the guys in my family were male chauvinists. It got annoying. I didn't get any scratches or bug bites which was pretty exciting. Other than pulling a handcart and getting a sore back, it was pretty uneventful and I came away unscathed.

1950's

Not only was it a great decade that produced wonderful films noir, it has some great names. ON You Can't Call It "It", the author listed several names, boys and girls, that were popular in the 1950's. Here are my favorites, because you guys really want to know.

Alfred

Beverly

Bruce

Constance

Clarence

Clyde

Dorothy

Edith

Frederick

Gordon

Irene

Jaqueline

Kent

Lawrence

Leon

Lois

Loretta

Marion

Paul

Vivien

Walter

[Pioneer] Trekking

I'm leaving this century. For real and temporarily of course. Oddly enough, I'm somewhat excited. It should be very interesting pulling a handcart, wearing stifling pioneer clothes, and being on food rations.

And for the record, I don't really appreciate it when I tell/told people about this trek and they laugh or they scoff at the idea.