Viva La Vie Campamento

First, can we take a moment to admire that fail of French in the title? Maybe it's some ridiculous combination of Spanish and French. Well...I take Spanish, so the French half just isn't up to the standards of actual language.

Anyways, I can think of at least five friends off the top of my head who are leaving today. On one hand, this makes me happy. Obviously, they're going to have a blast at all of their many camps of fun. But on the other hand, I will miss them all tremendously. I have a full week before any of my summer activities kick in. I've been hastily writing letters to all who'll be going, hoping that they'll arrive early on. Once in a while I get a lonely feeling when everyone else is having that "Old-fashioned-camp-experience" away in the woods, and I'm here before Charles River starts.

In general, camp is fantastic. I know someone who wrote a whole essay on the importance of summer camp. I couldn't agree more. It's an experience where you get to be away from your house and family for long periods of time in an environment that isn't school. And that's a pretty rare occurance. Plus, the friends we make at camp are unlike any others. There's just something about the summery-smelling air and long days that make everything more awesome. You try new activities, wear whatever you feel like, and send and receive letters. I already said this, but I just LOVE letters.

Speaking of camp friends, I just saw some for a full 20 hour block yesterday :). And I tell you, that makes me more happy then basically anything. When I'm around them I'm filterless. People like Katharine make me laugh so hard that my stomach hurts. People like Leanne both impress me and scare me, in a good way of course. People like Erin, Franny, Miranda and Anna remind me that there are hints of CRCAP in Needham every day. And we're all in the same area we're just 100% honest and say whatever we're thinking. Of course, this can be a problem since when I come back from visiting I'm still blurting things out to my normal [is that even true? Probably not] friends. They sort of look at me like I should be put into a quiet room somewhere.

To wrap things up, summer encourages me to be a little more carefree. I splurged on iTunes and bought ten songs without even really thinking about it. All the days sort of blend together, and it puts you in a very relaxed happy mode. My camp (a creative arts day camp, and the best darn thing in the world) is starting last week of July, and that's coming right up. Around this time of year I just get a very positive feeling about things.

Summer and Being Alive in General

Six projects I'd like to accomplish this summer*

*Almost every summer I write down some ideas of things I think would be a good idea. I usually get around to two or three of them, but this time I really want to do them all.

1. Discover new music. It's not like I don't have enough; I have 740 songs on "Maddi's Playlist" on iTunes. But there's always more, and music is one of the things that everyone has some sort of opinion on. I definitely plan on convincing my friends to burn me some CDs.

2. Learn Hebrew. Since I never had a Bat Mitzvah I just never learned how. Actually, I'm sitting in front of me right now with a book called "Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew," so that's off to a pretty good start.

3. Finish a story. I love to write fiction, I guess what you'd call short stories, and I can never seem to finish them.

4. Learn more about graphic design. I'm definitely not an artist, but designing things with photos and easy art applications is something I've always enjoyed.

5. Clean my room. And when I say clean I mean complete and total overhaul, get rid of all the crap that's just been sitting there for ever and ever. Rearrange the furniture. Maybe even repaint it if the parental units will let me.

6. Write a lot of super-awesome letters to all of my camp friends who are away. I love writing and getting letters. I wish people did it more often, even though there's really no need because of the internet and stuff. The excitement of getting a letter is just a really fun thing.

What, no music commentary? Well I'll say this - Rob Thomas. Go check that guy's music out. It might not be the type of music everyone likes, but he's a pretty brilliant songwriter and his songs are addictive. Speaking of addictive, my song recommendation for today is "The Fear" by Lily Allen. I've basically been listening to this on repeat for the past seven days. It's about the complete and udder stupidity of celebs and the media, delivered sarcastically and quite amazingly. Plus, she has a British accent. Awesome.

Is it Summer? Are You Sure?/"Juliet" & "A Bushel and a Peck"

So school let out, apparently. I am in the current sophomore class, apparently. I bet that if I blinked I'd be applying for college. Seriously, it's not like the year was fast, because it wasn't quite, but this week certainly was. I just am in this state of suspended disbelief. Maybe I'll believe it in a few days.

Remember how I was going to be a vegetarian? Well I've been trying my hardest, but I think maybe I'm just not smart enough to be one. For instance, I ate a chicken pot pie last night, doing my very hardest to eat around all the chicken bits. Um...the gravy/sauce/everything? It's cooked with chicken. Duh. Anyways, when I said the year went by slowly I wasn't joking. I think it was because there was just so much STUFF crammed in there. Between numerous productions, dance, projects, and getting used to high-school level tests my days were about 18 hours.

Juliet - LMNT. Well my guilty pleasures include Degrassi: Next Generation, earlier Britney and some boy bands. So this qualifies, I suppose This song just takes me back to Cambridge, 2002. And the harmonies are pretty fun. I have a feeling that if there was a group of really talented singers together this would be great A Capella.

A Bushel and A Peck - Guys and Dolls. Well these were good times. 7th grade play, Guys and Dolls. The whole song and dance was pretty ridiculous but we all had fun doing it. We had these blue cheap cowboy hats, pink T-shirts and cropped pants. Also, I've got a soft spot for this song since my mom used to sing it for me when I was little.

What time is it? Summertime! It's our vacation! ~ HSM. Yeah, not a fan of the movies, but it had to be said.

Finals?

Homework is such a crushing burden sometimes I don't know how we stand it. Why aren't I doing mine, for instance? Well there's the fabulous rock opera RENT and graduation to blame for the delay. But what is annoying me most at the moment has to be finals. All the teachers suddenly pop up and say, "Hey! Let's make those students dig wayyyy back into their notes and find out all this stuff that they're never going to remember ever again!" "Wow, what a great idea!" I'm lucky because some of my finals are only on material we've covered from the midterm on. But seriously, it's getting obnoxious when they ask us to tell them a tiny little detail about, say, Holbein the Younger. I mean, who? I've barely got time to think about music, let alone write about it. I did have a good weekend, and I know once I finish these two weeks it'll be all fun and relaxation. Guess we've got to pull through the last leg of the journey.

Smell of the World/"Work It" & "I Write Sins not Tradgedies"

My house always starts to smell different when it's almost summer and it actually has different scents depending on the seasons. I'm not talking about the smell of the food in it, or the things we associate with the seasons, but the smell of the house itself. I think it might have something to do with the clothes they wear but I've noticed that other people's houses smell too. And they sort of smell like that person...usually in a nice way. But it's not a good or a bad smell...it's just like THAT SMELL.

Anyways, the songs that came up were "Work It" and "I Write Sins not Tradgedies." First of all, "Work it" gets very crude and I do not reccomend it as good music. The only reason I have it on my iTunes is that the chorus is backwards. And in my opinion, music played backwards is supercool.

"I Write Sins not Tradgedies" is pretty darn good music. Although to be honest, I have next to no idea what it's actually about. But the melody is sort of jumbled which is cool, and the story of it makes enough sense to enjoy it. Not to sound like a citizen of Massachusetts, but the guitar is sicknasty. I wonder when Panic at the Disco will be making new music...

My computer, apparently is too slow to run Sims 3. This bothers me a little more then it should. But I get a strange satisfaction from designing clothing out of bricks/making people fat then skinny, then fat then skinny...as Emily and Marion can tell you. In fact, the technology in my house has been lacking in a few ways recently. My iPod also cannot fit all the music on it I'd like to have. And I deleted ALL the photos and videos. So it's just upsetting. Perhaps I'll save up for a new one...but it's doubtful I'll ever amass more then $100 all together in one place. If I could turn in my gift cards to useless places like "The water bottle emporium" (Okay that's an exaggeration, but some places are THAT useless.) in I'm sure I'd have a lot of money. Unfortunately, that's just not possible.

Humidity/"Octopus' Garden" & "I Don't Care"

It may not be above 78 degrees today but it feels like 100. You know why? You know why? The stupid fact that air in new England is infected with warm, moist water. AKA - humidity, the thing that makes our shirts stick to us and our hair just die in frizz against our heads. Not only is it ridiculously humid for the 1st of June, but it's thunderstorming too.

Tomorrow is MCAS! ..yay... Well it's not actually that exciting but it means fewer classes. And although this year it's required to pass MCAS to graduate I really doubt anyone's going to fail. MCAS is known for its simple multiple-choice bit and obnoxious little monologue that appears before the test starts. No, I do not have any missing, blank, or upside-down pages in my test packet or answer booklet. And apparently "the test packets will be destroyed following test administration." Kids always laughed about that but it's obvious why. I always pictured a gigantic fire or paper shredder and people throw in test after test...now that would be an interesting job.

"Octopus' Garden" is a marvel, even though it's Ringo singing and he's not all that fabulous. But back then they didn't have auto-tune, and he just did the best he could. Which personally, I like much better then all the auto-tuned crap you'll hear on the radio. Even Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey, used it in her last song. And she's a great singer so that's just sad. I always associate this song with a Beatles Birthday party one of my friends held when I was about 6. May or may not have been one of the greatest parties ever.

"I Don't Care" ...eh. Not really up there on the greatest songs ever written list. The album artwork always amused me. Incase you're unfamiliar, it's an angry bear riding on top of a happier-looking person in a teddy bear outfit. There's probably some kind of symbolism behind this but I'm too tired to try and figure out what it is. Apparently Folie à Deux, which is the Album title is French for "a madness shared by two.") It is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another."

So...if one person goes crazy another does too. Fabulous.