I'm melting in my own sweat

First day of SEP with the kids, tomorrow's my first day teaching writing. I certainly am excited, and now that I've met the kids I'm a little less nervous. I bought 8 composition notebooks today, driving over to OfficeMax after work (all on my own!!). We're gonna decoupage them (because that's a verb) tomorrow, then start writing on Thursday. Exercises, I guess, to start with. I'll post which ones are successful and which ones flop (fingers crossed that as few of them flop as possible!)

IT. IS. ROASTING. When did Southern CA turn into a sauna? I thought it was supposed to be a desert. Didn't people used to come out here for their health, because the dry air was good for their lungs? What with the greenhouse effect, soon there won't be any such place left. The dry plains are slowly being washed over, the continents are shrinking because of rising oceans.... People who drive Hummers SUCK, people who refuse to admit that Global Warming is happening are basically key in helping it to happen, Bush and his oil cronies are selfish bastards who value their immediate wealth over long term worldwide effects. I hate my own car. The first thing I want to do when I've go the money is get a hybrid or an electric car, if they're alive again by the time I'm that rich, seeing as they've been dead since the 90s.

Law & Order SVU, I love you!

Doom awaits

It's going to be Ron. I know it. We love him, I love him, I've told this theory to everyone who'll listen: Ron is going to die in Book 7. I want to believe it's not true, but just think.... who else could it possibly be? In the last two books Sirius and Dumbledore have died, both characters very close to Harry. So obviously someone else close to him is going to have to die in the next book - if no one does, that'll be too cliched-happy-ending for such an increasingly dark series. And it's going to be Ron! Every other character that could potentially die is a pity case, or a heroic girl, or a character that's not insignificant enough to be redshirt-ed, nor significant enough to truly overturn the book like Sirius' and Dumbledore's deaths did.

Hermione: she's the girl, she's the brains behind everything Ron and Harry ever do. If JK Rowling kills Hermione, she's not just killing a character, she's killing a stereotype: smart female sidekick. And Hermione is a muggle. By making her so brilliant, JK Rowling's also making a statement about the prejudice against muggles in the wizarding world, and if Hermione dies that statement is undermined, which makes it unimportant that Harry and Voldemort are both half-blood. So as annoying as Hermione can sometimes be, she's off limits.

Neville: he's too bumbling, too cute, too lovable to just kill off. And look at what happened to his parents! After their tragedy, it would be too cruel to kill off Neville, too. Plus, though on the surface it seems he can't do anything right, he tries so hard, and now and again does something right really well. JK Rowling simply cannot kill off someone who's so bungling, because that's like sending a lamb to the slaughter (no offense, Neville!).

And who else is there? Luna is in the same boat as Neville, McGonagall isn't close enough to Harry, neither are the Weasley twins... actually, now that I think about that... no, they can't die! If one of them dies, the other one will die too. That would be too cruel. Then there's Ginny, but I don't think she'll die. She's so young, she'll only be 16 in the next book; and Harry's already broken up with her, anyway, being the martyr that he his, so she won't be in quite as vulnerable position.

No, it's going to be the person closest to him, the one that he relies on the most. Ron has already shown that he's willing to die for Harry by always going with him into danger.... do you remember when he played the chess game in the first book?!? That was willingness to sacrifice himself for Harry. And now at the end of The Half-Blood Prince he's determined to go with Harry in Book 7 to fight Voldemort. But Harry has to face Voldemort alone - every time he's faced Voldemort so far he's done by himself. If Ron is with him, he'll get eliminated like Cedric did, if he hasn't already been killed earlier in the book.

And of course we can't forget the Christmas Feast in The Prisoner of Azkaban, when there are 13 people at the table, and Trelawney prophesies that the first to rise will be the first to die - Harry and Ron get up at the same time. Obviously it's supposed to look like another one of her death prophesies for Harry, but what if.... what if she's right? Ron's going to die!

But kudos to Rowling, even if she kills Ron. I was watching The Goblet of Fire, and in the battle scene between Harry and Voldemort when their wands connect I remembered how vividly she describes it in the book - I have a better visual from the book than from the movie, honestly. But I was thinking about that and realizing that she's genius. She's created such a complete world, where absolutely everything is explained, and she mentions even the most insignificant things just to give further credibility to this world. Where does that level of pure imaginative, detailed fantasy come from?

I'm so hopelessly addicted to the Harry Potter series. I got HBP at the midnight release at Vroman's (incidentally, that was the same evening that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came out..... basically the best night of my life). It's just that the obsession doesn't really manifest itself till summer, when I at long last have the time to settle down with the series (how many times have I read it now?), read the numerous theories online claiming that Dumbledore isn't really dead or that he asked Snape to kill him, and to come up with my own dire predictions for Book 7.

Licensed!

Yes!! Not too many points lost, and one driver's test successfully passed! This is freedom on a different level than I've ever known. I went to Blockbuster's yesterday. Now that's what I call liberty.

Reed College..... or rather, just college in general

Jean Claude likes Reed a lot, but he might have to wait or settle for a another school because College is too big a concept for me to deal with yet, much less take Jean Claude to his favorite.

I don't want to go! But it's kind of exciting, too. Portland was gorgeous, a little bigger than Pasadena and way bigger than Viterbo - I could live there. Not to mention Powell's books, the largest book store in the Pacific Northwest, and possibly in the world (*drool*). And an indoor ice rink in the mall.... it was really quaint, but in a new sort of way, like Seattle - being there I wanted to go out, be part of it all, because it was so beautiful and charming and un-intimidating.

Though I have this voice in the back of my head telling me I should seek a scary experience to challenge myself, not one that's immediately comfortable. One in which I will feel distinctly uncomfortable but in which I will make wonderful friends and eventually feel completely at home. That's how Italy worked.

Reed, Macalester, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire..... just got a mailing from Colgate with a little personalized note (actually written, not printed in fake handwriting) that says "Hope you have had a great year in school, Holl" - quite a few colleges, now, have called me "Holl"... is that a term of endearment, or do I just not write my y's clearly enough?

Maybe it's a sign.... I can't go to college till I learn to write.

But Jean Claude's ready! And he'll blow them away.

A very happening day

My morning went more or less like this: I got out of bed to turn off my alarm clock, which is now about three feet away from my bed due to room reorganization. I went back to sleep, gumming my retainer which I tried to wear last night (for the first time since November) after noticing a slight gap between my front teeth, concluding by midmorning that trying to force my teeth into a retainer that barely fit 7 months ago was a fruitless undertaking. How to explain this to the orthodontist, Holly wonders.

I rolled out of bed and got myself some cereal around 10:00, called Pat on my soon-to-expire, beloved phone card that was always there for me for the last 9 months (the wonders of Globalphone! I'll miss it so much....*sob*), reminisced about SYA and was once again surprised to find that I HAVE ONLY BEEN HOME 2 WEEKS. It feels like years! I can hardly remember being gone, I can't believe that two and a half weeks ago I had a completely different life, and not only that but I was totally used to it. And now in southern CA I once again feel completely readjusted to this old life (even if it is WAY cloudier than I ever dared remember).

Three episodes of Sex and the City later (Carrie and Aiden just got engaged!!), I wandered back upstairs, wondering if maybe I should go to NYU instead of Macalester (which is my first choice except when I think about how awesome and amazing and alive New York is, and fear that Minneapolis and St. Paul just aren't as happening). Elise called to save me from my pointlessness about then, and we went out to Starbucks, faced by obstacles like parking difficulties (Elise had to crawl out the passenger's side of the car) and who would pay for the coffees when the guy charged us together. Oh well, I'll pay next time.... We idled over to that park to which Westridge took us for our 8th grade All School Day, walked about in the gorgeous sunniness (at last, the fog lifted!!), and then settled down to watch a baseball game between what appeared to be a team of middle schoolers, and a team of high school lowerclassmen, who were still kind of cute. It reminded me of soccer matches in Italy, where our team was always set against younger teams, because Italian soccer kids are just so damn good. Italy! So long ago. I wore the scarf I got at the market in Florence, though (a tad expensive, but sometimes a girl just needs to spoil herself), and it made me feel just a teeny bit Italian.

At the moment I'm curled up in my ginormous papa san chair answering all my fan mail and considering going downstairs to watch the rest of Sex and the City Season 4 (I have a hunch Carrie's and Aiden's breakup is imminent, but maybe if I hope enough they'll work it out!). I'll have to unpack my boxes one of these days, but I figure I'll wait till I trip over them or accidentally drop a cup of coffee on one and have to do an emergency removal of all contents.... It'll happen sooner or later, trust me.

To Deborah

Who reads my blog! (you rock!)

Colleges are killing me, here's my list at the moment: Macalester, NYU, Reed, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire, Goucher, Kalamazoo, Bennington, Richmond University in London.... Not necessarily in that order, my first choice is any one of the first 4 on any given day, but occasionally the other 5. I have spent way too much time on the Princton Review and reading various college books, trying to eliminate one college or another, but I just can't do it. I love them all!

So yeah, excitement abounds in this corner of the world. I was just about to go downstairs and watch Season 4 of Sex and the City, which I had forgotten I owned. party! I'll grab some icecream and curl up with a blanket because *gasp* it is CLOUDY in southern California!! June doom and gloom has surpassed all expectation and the cloud cover hangs overhead till as late as 4 or 5 in the afternoon, if it lifts at all. This is a weather emergency. Sex and the City calls.

Next time I'll blog when I actually have something to talk about....

....Home!

I don't feel like I have anything to write anymore. I'm not in Italy anymore! Will I have to put my blog on hiatus for 15 months till I start my next whirlwind adventure (that is, gap year, followed by college, followed by..... THE REST OF MY LIFE). I mean, obviously this is going to be a great next year, but everyone I was writing for is right here now so I don't need to write posts to keep them updated on my overly-fascinating life. But, because I love to write and because interesting things will continue to happen, and because I haven't written in my journal for a week, since I got home, I'll try to sneak in a post every once in a while.

Taffy had surgery today, and for a while she was licking the stitches, so we had to put one of those giant collars on her. We had a few minutes of laughing hysterically as she tried -attempted- to maneuver with this huge addition to her head, and then we took pity and removed it. So if she chews off her stitches and gets infected and we have to race her back to the vet's, we really shan't take pity again. And anyways, it's hilarious. My mom was the one who finally took it off, not me.

So.... how was Italy? (hint: in three words or fewer)

It was.... big? life-changing. cool. amazing. italian. difficult. extraordinarily real-life. long. pastry-filled. relaxed. scary! the best year of my life.

Too many words.... I fail at the most often-asked question of the last few days! How can I answer that? I guess all I can do is make a broad, sweeping generalization that sort of scoops up the entire roller coaster year in one big heterogeneous fistful, compacts it, and pops it back out in easy, portable form. Everything's portable these days.

But I can't complain - being back is overwhelming, but everyone is wonderful, enthusiastic, welcoming - having to leave Italy is forgivable when you get to come back here.