Off to Ohio

Yes, today is the day that my mom, Wesley, and I will be departing for our trip to Ohio, which will last until Sunday; tomorrow we will be braving the 17 coasters of Cedar Point amusement park.

Though the air is full of excitement exhaled from all persons involved in this adventure of sorts, there is still a bit of lingering sadness. Because most of our friends own multiple pets, we were forced to leave our three dogs, Bear, Madden, and Squishy (or alternate spelling Skw-ee-shee) in a kennel. However pretty the kennel was, with the surrounding countryside and fields of lethargic cows, there was no way to assure our dogs that we were not deserting them; I was particularly worried about Bear's reaction, as we had rescued him from the humane society, whose fenced-off portions for each dog greatly resembled the ones at the kennel. However, despite my fears, the dogs seemed to like the space that they got inside the kennel, and did react as I predicted they would.

I have packed for our ten-hour journey (for my own entertainment). . .

• a purse, containing my iPod, sunglasses, two journals, and writing utensils
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• One psychology textbook (for pleasure/educational reading)
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
• a battery-operated 20 Questions game

So hopefully this will be enough to keep me busy, though I know that I'll probably sleep the whole time anyway. Anyone who wants to reach me can call me on my mother's cell after 9:00 p.m. For those of you who wish to contact me and do not know my mother's cell #, email somebody who does, though nobody probably has an extreme need to contact me anways, so, all right then.

Tomorrow

I've probably mentioned this in a previous post, but today, my mom is going to pick me up from my dad's so that I can pack for our trip to Ohio tomorrow. While we're there, we'll be going to Cedar Point, which is apparently one of the largest amusement parks in the world; we will also be camping out somewhere in the mountains on the way back.
Anyways, I'm going to try this stream-of-consciousness that my friend told me about, where I just type in all the words that come to my head in chronological order. . .

shot, airplane, front seat, car, vacation, beach, ocean, green, blue, genie, bottle, wine, drunk, sadness, sorrow, mourning, dark, night, starlight, man-on-the-moon, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Alden, Buzz Lightyear, "To infinity and beyond!", space, galaxy, E=mc squared, Einstein, Mr. C, bicycle, Buena Vista, mansion, Scooby Doo, Shaggy, the 1970's, afro, Ryan, guitar, electric guitar, basement, drumset, piano, "Kathleen Mavourneen", "Moonlight Sonata", Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, "Concerto in B Flat Minor", Harold and Maude, Cat Stevens, "Tea for the Tillerman," loss, beautiful, harmony, weather, gone, smile, living, half, time, "The Only Living Boy in New York," Statue of Liberty, spiderman, batman, christian bale, heath ledger, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na spiderman!/tree!/batman!, science class, Florida Keys quizzes, air bazooka, the mall, blue dress, $10.50, deal, make-up, estee lauder, lisa (name of the lady who did our make-up), school, high school, Reynolds, marching band, latin, foreign, hat.

Wow, that was actually really fun. People should do this sort of thing more often; it's good for the soul : )

The Day After Father's Day

These past few days have finally made summer seem somewhat interesting. All last week, I'd been looking forward to having my friends Elizabeth B., Alexis, and Shannon over; so things went by pretty slow; finally, around noon on Saturday, Shannon and Alexis showed up. I gave Alexis the grand tour and we messed around with my Taboo game and ate tacos while we waited for Elizabeth. I had this awesome plan in mind to take them all on a walk across the park to the gelato place that sits in between all these little antique stores. However, a combination of my mistake to tell Elizabeth to come around 2:00 and my dad's purchase of Dipping Dots for the movies prevented this from happening, though Shannon would have gladly eaten both Dipping Dots and gelato. Once Elizabeth arrived, we went to the mall, where I got this really cool blue dress; it was a little big in the back, but it was $10.50, so I couldn't pass up a deal that great. We went to Forever 21 (where I bought the dress), Claire's, and DEB, where Shannon forgot her Claire's bag, creating the necessity of going back before my dad pulled up to JC Penny's with his car to pick us up. That night, while my dad and Heather went on a dinner/movie date, we watched Bride Wars and Taken, both of which were really good. We messed around with the computer between the two movies, and when, out of need for a de-stressing object (I was worried about a poem that I had put into my mom's birthday present: a stack of my poetry), I went to the piano, this funny thing happened. I was playing my favorite piano song, the Moonlight Sonata, when Alexis suggested that it would be hilarious if I learned Kathleen Mavourneen from The Killer Angels (I'm getting tired of using the italics button). So I have set out upon that quest; I found the sheet music for the voice, but I figure I can just take that and add in my own left hand to make it fit into the piano. Anywho, we went up to bed around midnight, and I wished my dad a happy Father's Day before I went up, assuring him that I would present him with his gift when the sun had risen; I had made him a cd of piano tracks that I had performed, including some that involved my singing (which he will most likely laugh at). But it was a good father's day. After my friends left, Heather and I went to buy him some cologne at the mall and some make-up (for us) at Estee-Lauder (I don't know if I spelled that correctly). Then, after giving him our gifts, we took him out to Carabba's, where I ordered manicotti, rather than my usual lobster ravioli. It was very tasty. Then, after making a quick stop by the house, we drove to Hanging Rock, where we swam a bit in the freezing water; to top off the night, we watched Back to the Future, which I had never seen before. There were these parts in the movie that Heather and my dad would argue about, when Bif (that's probably not how you spell it) knocks Mr. McFly on his head and says, "Hello, hello, is anybody home? Hello McFly!" which stirred debate because Heather's vocal impersonation of Bif was very nasally and seemed to suggest that the speaker was a "nerd," which, as my dad said, was more descriptive of the McFly character. Anyways, I have to go now, because we're about to watch the sequel.

Interesting Dreams. . .

Last night I had two weird dreams, and a third that I'm not really going to count, because I think I was technically awake. I'm reading this book now that I got for Valentine's Day, Easy Lessons in Psychoanalysis, and it mentions dream interpretation; according to Andre Tridon, the author, every dream we have is merely symbolic of the repressed desires that are muffled by the restraints of society in waking life. This urge, called the libido by Freud, is apparently manifested through symbols in our unconscious. Even our nightmares are supposed to be manifestations of this wish fulfilment theory. Anyways, to the dreams:

The first one I had was really odd. My mom, Wesley, and I, were vacationing somewhere (most likely in Ohio, where we will be vacationing in a week), and I think we were camping in the woods. Wherever we were, it was really dark, and it was somewhere outside. About halfway through this dream, as it began to take on more clarity, I became aware of the fact that both my mom and I would die the following day. How our deaths would have come about, I was unsure, but most of the dream consisted of my mom and I conversing about the circumstances surrounding our doom. We had put the tent in the car, and Wesley was asleep in the backseat; my mom drove us out of the woods and onto this highway, and I was riding in the passenger seat. She kept apologizing and saying, "I'm so stupid; I shouldn't have let this happen." So, apparently, we had known this was coming for a while, and we had somehow brought it about ourselves. It was a short dream, and it ended there.

The next dream was a bit more detailed and understandable. In the dream, we were out of school, like we are now, and the graduation party was to take place that night. My grandparents (my dad's parents), my dad, and I were eating lunch at this bright, fancy little restaurant near his work. Each table was in a separate room, and all the rooms were connected by a hallway, down which waiters traveled, carrying trays of food on doily-decorated plates and peering in each room to check if they had found the right party.

We were seated by a short, tiny man with a black, walrussy mustache who, for some reason, reminded me of Paul Simon. He took our orders and left. My dad seemed as though he was stressed about something; he kept wringing his napkin in his hands. My grandfather noticed this, but said nothing, gazing up at the ceiling with a peaceful, nonchalant look on his face. My grandmother was talking about the graduation party, which I would be going to after dinner; she kept mentioning the fact that the car we were using wouldn't hold all of us (though, in reality, it would). My dad, whose napkin-wringing had grown steadily more feverish, interrupted my grandmother.

"Why do you keep saying that? Of course there'll be enough room, because I'm not going." he put the napkin down on the table as if the matter were final; however, my grandmother had a look on her face that indicated that she wanted to be stubborn. Her posture upright, her voice firm, she replied, "Don't be silly; it's your daughter's graduation party, you've got to go." In reality, this whole argument was invalid, as most of the adults dropped their kids off at the party and didn't stay anyway.

My grandmother continued: "I'll stay home," she said, looking around at the walls, painted a cheery yellow. "You know, get the dishes done and vacuum upstairs and -"

"Don't be ridiculous!" my dad finally looked up from the table, frustrated. "You and Dad have to go; you only get to see Robyn once or twice a year." I glanced at the opening into the hallway, saw our Paul Simon waiter clutching a tray of our food and gazing nervously in, as if unsure whether or not he should come in during the argument. Then I looked up at the celing and all over the walls, and became aware of the presence of tons of large white spiders that I hadn't noticed before. A panic seized me and I stood up from the table; my dad and grandmother didn't notice as they yelled at each other from opposite ends of the table. My grandfather, who had remained relaxed, observing the ceiling, watched as I stood up from my chair and started to back away towards the door. He stood and followed me out into the hallway, where he tipped our waiter before walking me outside to the car. My dad and grandmother were still inside.
He was driving me towards Clemmons, in the direction of where the party was to be held in the dream; the dream ended as we pulled up to a YMCA-esque place beside the dark highway, whose large windows revealed the entire grade frolicking about a paradise of playground equipment. Just when I was wondering whether I had gone to the wrong place, I woke up.

Cruise Entry Info

I have finished these entries; go back to my May entries, and you shall find a full account of what life was like aboard the Disney Wonder. Oh, and there is a hot guy involved, so that is always good motivation to read (cough, cough, Twilight people).
Other news: Today, my mom, Wesley, and I went on a seven mile bike ride to Stratford Road and back (we passed Mr. Clauset's house! I only know it was his house because one year for Halloween, I was trick-or-treating with Elizabeth Eppley and some other people and we stopped at his house)

Freedom

That is my word for today, as today, my friends, marked the end of our middle school careers. Just think, in two months or so, we'll be going into high school, separated from the people who (in the case of many) we have attended school with for six years. Last night, I found this amazing crossword website where you can make your own crosswords (I added the link to my list of sites) and I made a crossword to give to Alexis, Elizabeth, and Shannon, who has already finished her's, with a little help from me with the sections on song lyrics; after school today, I made my grandfather one for father's day, which is appropriate because he loves them. When I was in Atlanta, I helped him solve one a day from this little book, which has been a ritual for him and my grandmother. Anyways, I'm getting off topic: back to the last day of school. I woke up late this morning, since my mom's alarm went off late - this brought about the necessary deletion of my morning shower from my schedule, and so I went off to school feeling unclean and thinking, "I will be very sad if the rest of my day goes like this."
Halfway to school, I found this brown stuff caked on my shoe that looked like dog crap, but it turned out only to be mud.
At school, I spent first period in Mrs. Browder's class, helping her move books down to Room 108. We ran into Mr. Clauset in the hallway and we all sabotaged him with hugs; it was amazing, as he is going to Peru or South Carolina or something and won't be teaching anymore. I also got to hug him later that day out in the bus lot, and now I don't feel bad about forgetting to write him a letter to put in that anthology. Then, in band, nothing eventful happened except that I got to hug Mr. Talbert and watch him complete Elisabeth's survey (I hugged him in the bus lot again as well) Then we watched the rest of the 1980's presentation, and I won a plastic bag of skittles for naming two popular 80's movies. I got a hug from Mr. Holbrook, but not until later on that day.
Then, in science, we tested our tower and Terry, Duane, and I got an efficiency score of 523.4. Our little tower-that-could.
Lunch was depressing; it was when everyone first started to weep. There were people leaning on each other, sobbing, and one would think that we were all going off to war or something (I was, in fact, reminded of the scene in The Killer Angels in which Armistead remembers the night before he went off to war, the night he spent with Hancock and his wife). Madison suggested that it seemed as though we were going off to different countries or something, and soon after did a loud impersonation of the weeping people with Jenny in the hallway outside the bathroom. After this incident, it was common to see groups of people crying throughout the rest of the day; as hard as Shannon, Alexis, and I tried, as obliged as we felt to contribute to the overall emotion of the day, we could not shed tears (though, as I predicted, I did when I came home).
After science, where I gave Mr. Samora a hug as well, we went to English, where we "roasted" people, or had them go up and listen to embarrassing stories about themselves. It was pretty hilarious, especially this one that Sara told about Mallory having an imaginary dog that supposedly lived in the attic. We hugged Mrs. Allman (who won't be coming back to teach next year) and left, and this was probably the closest I came to crying at school that day.
In math, we just messed around, played a round or two of truth or dare, and ate Ms. Vasili's yogurt, which I must confess was a bit too different for my liking; if my taste buds were more diverse, then, perhaps, I might have enjoyed it slightly more than I did. Then, as it neared time to leave, everyone hugged each other and Ms. Vasili, and we walked through the hallways to the outside world. I tried to pay close attention to every detail of the school I would likely never walk in again, ran my hand over the lockers, looked at the various shades of carpeting and linoleum. Some teachers high-fived us on the way out; then, in the bus lot, most of us sabotaged the teachers standing sentinel in the center with hugs (this was where I gave Mr. Talbert and Clauset my second hug) and then we moved on to the bus.
When I got home, my dad asked me if I could do the dishes and sweep, which I was glad to do, to keep my mind off of the weird sort of sadness that had started to settle in me with the realization of the disruption of three years of routine. Before I did this, though, I went upstairs and took a long bath; I got out a minute or so after I nearly drifted off, for sleeping is the last thing one would want to do in a place where drowning is even a slight possibility.
Then, I went downstairs and pulled up my Myspace music playlist, and blared it while I removed the clean dishes from our dishwasher and inserted the dirty ones from the sink; this was where I first cried. I had added the song, "Shake It," to the playlist because it had been stuck in my head all that day, and I was fine through that song, but something about "Vienna" by Billy Joel saddened me, and so I shed a few tears. Then, "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel played, followed by the "Triple Concerto in C" by Beethoven, and I couldn't really shed too many tears over these.
Soon after this, Hope and Heather arrived home, and the latter retired upstairs for an hour or so; I played with Hope for a while, an activity that typically keeps my mind off things. Eventually, when I felt that I couldn't take another minute of playing with baby dolls, I brought the blocks out in front of the couch (playing with blocks was my favorite childhood pastime), turned on the TV to Hope's channel, and took a break.
My dad came home, we went out to dinner at Fudruckers (where we were waited on by Alice, who is one of the coolest waitresses in the world; if you're ever waited on by her at Fudruckers, you should tip her 150%!), and then we came home. My dad and I went to see Terminator at the Wynsong Theater, and from the commercials, I had thought that it would be pretty awesome, and it turned out even better than I had pictured it. It's the first future-esque war-with-machines movie that I have ever seen that has actually made me ponder how terrifying it would be if machines had independent intelligence. However, I was exhausted from being around crying people all day, and from crying myself, and so I drifted off during one part; I still recommend the movie, though. Then, my dad dropped me off at my mom's house and I went to bed. We will be going to my grandfather's house tomorrow, after a yard sale that will hopefully bring about some money for our planned trip at the end of the month to Ohio.

News! News! News!

Today was the graduation day, and, though it ended well, it did not start nicely.
I arrived at school in my concert dress and dropped by the guidance office feeling excited; I was going to ask at what I would be making up the Algebra EOC that I missed last Wednesday (I assumed that the make-up would take place after the graduation ceremony). I was talking to the nice guidance lady about it when Mr. Dankwardt came in and informed me that I was to be back in the guidance office at 8:00, which was thirty minutes before the graduation began. I didn't protest, but the guidance lady did. "Couldn't she make it up afterwards?" she asked, to which he responded, "No. 8:00." So I went upstairs to Mr. Holbrook's room to wait for 8:00, and I went back down to the guidance office. I had called my dad's house shortly before I left for homeroom to inform my grandparents that I would be missing graduation; apparently my dad called guidance while I was in homeroom and spoke with Mr. Dankwardt, because after a few minutes spent in guidance, Miss Brown and the other nice guidance lady were able to convince him to let me go to the ceremony, which was just as amazing as I thought it would be. We marched in to "Pomp and Circumstance," as the eighth graders last year did, and then we watched a little slide-show of pictures with music, just as the eighth graders last year did. Unfortunately, I didn't have my glasses on me, and so the powerpoint was somewhat unclear, but the music was enough to make one reminisce; they played two Smashmouth songs, including "All that Glitters is Gold," which reminds me of when I was little and "Shrek" came to theaters, which was a hit with me and other young'uns of my sort. Then, after honor roll announcements and perfect attendance announcements, the teachers came up and began delivering their teacher awards; I won one of the English teacher awards, and I was so happy because I didn't think that I would win it. I was so certain that at least two people other than myself would win it. Eric Schoning won the other award. Then, the best part, I won the Haltiwanger Scholarship! I now have $5000 saved up for college! I went up to the front of the room as I wasn't sure if I should stay in my seat or not, and Mr. Bennett looked sort of bewildered and said into the microphone, "Uh, well, I don't have the five grand up here, Robyn." and so I was embarrassed and subsequently sat down (Elizabeth Garcia from the other team also won). After the other recognition ceremony components (during which most of the students bestowed hugs on Ms. Vasili, who was last in the line of the teachers who waited to shake our hands), we were excused to go and get refreshments; I got some juice and was wandering around. Parents were coming up and congratulating me, some that I knew, some that I didn't. Then Mrs. Schoning came up to me and hugged me and told me that "once I become a famous writer and write a beautiful book to write something in there" about her. It was the only part of the whole thing that brought me close to tears. Then I went and made up the EOC, which was really easy (I hope that I get a good grade after saying that), and those were the important parts of today. Most everyone went home after the celebration, and so it was just Sergio, Mathew, and I in Mr. Samora's class working on our projects. Last night was the graduation party at the country club, and that was pretty fun, too; the best part of that was probably dancing with Shannon, Alexis, and others to the song that goes, "Apple-bottom jeans and the boots with the fur, with the fur, the whole club was looking at her, at her - she hit the floor - next thing you know - shorty got low low low low low low low low." I think it's called "Low," but I wanted to supply the lyrics anyways. Short thing: Shannon got a smooch from Will, who is apparently a good kisser, my grandparents are in town, and I just got back yesterday from Georgia.

News and a Dream

Today, in just a few hours, I will be boarding a plane to Atlanta, Georgia, where I will visit with my grandparents; I apologize for my laziness in not supplying my avid readers with my entries from the cruise trip as of yet - I still have to transfer them all from my notebook, which takes longer than it may seem. Unfortunately, my algebra EOC is tomorrow, so I shall have to make that up on Monday, according to Mr. Dankwardt, or Mr. Danforth as Jenny kept calling him.



Anyways, the fun part: my dream last night - it was one of those really long dreams that seem like they last the whole night, and for some reason, whenever I have these, I feel exhausted in the morning when I wake up. At least it was a good dream, though.

In the dream, I was back on the cruise ship (The Disney Wonder), and Hope and I were wearing these flouncy white dresses, walking around barefoot on the 9th deck (there were 11); it was about noon, and the sun beat down overhead, not too bright, but toasty enough to feel very soothing on our bare arms and legs (the best part was that, in the dream, it wasn't toasty enough to be roasty). The ship was a bit different in the dream; the swimming pools were gone, as well as the big screen in the center of the ship that constantly blared with music. Instead, there were three times as many beach chairs (the kind you lay down on to get a tan if you don't roast like I do) and they all faced the railing, beyond which the water could be seen, a crystal blue, for miles.

About halfway down the ship in our progress towards the bow (front), Hope saw her mother framed in the doorway, calling her to come get a slice of pizza from Deck 5 (though there wasn't pizza on deck five on the actual ship) and she was hungry from having a small breakfast that morning. (It is important to add here that in the dream, it was as though we had been on the ship for a few days, gone elsewhere for a while, and then gotten back on) I decided to keep walking, as I wasn't hungry yet, and I had almost made it to the end of the boat, and was really excited about the view I would have of the ocean, when I heard my name called from somewhere to my right. I turned and saw this kid that I had met (in real life) previously (the first night of the cruise at this party they threw for teens). He was lying on his stomach on one of the beach chairs while this elderly, pale woman wearing a pink dress that inflated and deflated as the wind took hold of it massaged some sort of ointment into his back (he was wearing dark red swimming shorts) Eyes closed in pleasure, pain, or some other emotion, he called my name again and I wandered over to converse, kneeling beside the bench.

"Hey," I said, "So you came back on for the second trip as well?"

He smiled, eyes still closed, and said, "Yeah. You going to the party tonight?" I thought about it and realized with dismay that my dad and I had planned to go see a movie tonight at the $2 theater (which didn't make much sense, as the $2 theater is in Winston-Salem, but dreams will be dreams) . So I told him that I would be unable to, and he seemed disappointed about it. At that moment, an old bald man wearing water wings (and swimming shorts) ran past with a wallet in hand, closely pursued by a muscular man in his early thirties who was shouting obscenities at the man and who caused many parental hands to be clamped over curious children's ears. The old, bald man, rather unsteady on his feet, stumbled back into the railing close behind me, trapped, and as the pursuing man made one last advance, he toppled back over the railing. The advancing man dashed up to the railing pointed down, and was yelling, "That man stole my wallet! The sonuvab!*#$ - he stole my wallet and now it's in the ocean somewhere - " Some blue-uniformed guards, the only people not in beach attire, dragged the man away somewhere and everything seemed to be normal again for the time. I was about to tell the boy on the chair that I was going to be going to the party tomorrow night, when Hope appeared again in the doorway, and informed me that there were apple smoothies downstairs, which in real life does not sound appealing to me; however, it did in the dream, so I excused myself and followed her down into the main hall, where Mickey and Minnie Mouse (or people dressed up as them) were singing opera, filling the cavernous lobby with sound. The End (my alarm went off).