(no subject)
So, here comes the huge long entry I've been promising for ages. It's going to be mostly here's-what-I'm doing-with-my-time, so if you're not into that kind of thing, stop here.
School ended for me on assessment day. I had a million (read: nine) assignments with due dates extended until that day, so for me, school most definitely didn't end with exams. Although I learned and grew a lot this year, I am so glad that it's over. I was delivered the year from hell, so I'm relieved it's behind me. When I showed my mum my report card, she said she was generally satisfied, but "disappointed that my average went down considerably", which really pissed me off. Considering that I had close to 50 absences this year, on top of (and in relation to) all the other shit I went through, I think I did pretty well. I am really looking forward to next year, though. When I was younger, because I was so smart, I always told myself that I would go into high school and take all the hardest math courses and every single one of the sciences and never take a spare. I realized this year how ridiculous I was being. I have no desire to go on in math or science, and I don't particularly enjoy them for the most part, so there is no reason for me to continue taking difficult courses that I don't enjoy and am not going to use, just for the sake of looking smart. To risk sounding lazy and unintelligent, I'm sick of using my brain. Does anyone understand that? Next year, I have six arts courses and two spares. I'm so excited.
After accepting defeat at school (it took me a few days to swallow my pride about no longer having a 90+ average), Dana, Yixin, Meg, and I headed over to Oliver's for the day, where he was having a pool party. The four of us, along with Farah, Magenta, Rob B, Rob SP, Dylan T, Tristan, Talbert, Liam, Jae, Sam W, and Oliver spent the day being generally lazy teenagers. We girls had a dance party which the boys rolled their eyes at, and the boys played dumb video games that we girls rolled our eyes at. Although, Oliver set up his Playstation upstairs for me, and I started playing Crash Bandicoot by myself (I was thinking of you, Earl!), but it turned into half the people at his house crowding into the room and everyone wanting to play with me. It was great. We swam in the almost-rain, played on the lame playground of Immaculate Conception, played Guess Who with our yearbooks, ate pizza and wonderful hamburgers that Ollie's mum barbecued for us, and play foosball. By the end of the night, all the girls had left but Farah T and I, and we learned what it was like to have a penis. Sorta. Most of the guys were still there, so we hung out with them for a few hours. Hanging out with a group of boys is so different from hanging out with a group of girls! =P
Friday and most of Saturday, I slept and ate and read and cleaned my room. It was nice to be doing virtually nothing. I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation, Erin!
Saturday night, I was at the Festival with Mal, Jesse, and Tom. We sat in Tom's van for most of the night so Tom could avoid doing work. We did get out to watch the fireworks, though, which Mal was ecstatic about. "Whooooaaaaaaa did you guys see that?! Oh my gosh that was CRAZY!" She was hilarious. After everyone had left, we sat on the stage, where we played Asshole until 1 AM. I have a good story, which most people have heard, but I am going to recount it again for those who haven't. *Ahem* While Tom was cleaning up the stage, three really sketchy, extremely intoxicated guys approached us, staggering and yelling. "Heeeyyyy! This is where the party's at, right here! These kids know how to party!" They asked us if we had any paper or cardboard that they could snort lines on. Me and Mal looked at each other, wide-eyed, and had to run backstage to avoid breaking out laughing. In an attempt to get them to go away before they caused any trouble, Tom pulled a Galaxy ticket out of his pocket and gave it to the guys. One of them, the loudest, most obnoxious one, said, "Ha, haven't you ever snorted lines before, man?! I can't snort lines on that! Gimme something thicker!" Jesse was really annoyed with them, and asked Tom under his breath if they should beat them up. Tom said that his arm was hurting from the accident, but Jesse could do it by himself, if he wanted. Jesse said that he would just get them on the ground, and Tom could use his steel-toed boots to finish them off. Me and Mal stared at each other again in disbelief. Finally Jesse found the key to getting them to stop asking: Theatre in the Community fan mail. He pulled out of his pocket a bright yellow piece of construction paper covered in crayon. "Dear PCVS, I really liked your play. My favourite part was when you hid the puzzle pieces." Jesse handed it to them with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, man, this is the stuff right here! What's your name, man? Jesse! Thanks, Jesse! Jesse knows where it's at!" one of them says will rip it into smaller pieces. Me and Mal were SO angry at Jesse for the next few minutes. "Come on girls, laugh! It's funny! It's ironic!"
Sunday, I resumed nothing-doing.
Monday, Lindsey and I planned to go to the library and then find a really dirty lake and go swimming, but Lindsey's parents wouldn't let her. She had fainted the day before at the Canada Day parade, and they were really hesitant to let her do very much, just in case. So we went to the library and I got out a stack of books consisting of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Fahrenheit 451, Angela's Ashes, and Pride and Prejudice, which were all on my reading list, and Intimacy and Guys and Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon, which jumped off the shelf at me unexpectedly. That evening, I was supposed to go to Lindsey's soccer game, but it was rained out (that was the day of the flash flood), so I came home early. I was really disappointed because I've never seen Lindsey's play soccer, but there at lots of games left this summer.
Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment, and I read The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, which I borrowed from Lindsey. I adored it, but it broke my heart. Upon finishing it, I dove straight into Pride and Prejudice, because I was going to be watching the movie the next day, and I wanted to have some idea of what would happen. I also got my phone call from the Health Unit that day. This is where I would normally go into a tangent about my new job, but considering that I know little nothing about it, I will save it. I work my first shift tomorrow morning, and I start at the Charlotte Pantry Tuesday, so I will write about my new jobs later this week. (Edit: by the time I actually finished this huge entry, I had started both of my jobs, but I will still write about them later.)
Wednesday, I had another doctor's appointment. When I was done at my doctor's appointment, Margaret picked me up, along with Emma D and Hilary, and we went to her house to watch Pride and Prejudice and eat pepperoni pizza. Margaret, upon realizing that I had never been to her house before, gave me the grand tour of my potential home, warning me, as she had before, about how messy it is. I was blown away by the capacity of stuff that is in the Mansell house. I don't picture either Margaret or Emma being disorganized, so the mess in their house really surprised me. Then the five of us (Emma M had joined us) watched the movie, which Hilary and Emma M had already seen. Hilary had to explain a lot to me, and Emma M kept being shushed because of her tendency to say things like "Ohhhhhh this is a really good part!" In the end, Margaret thought it was boring and hated it, and me and Emma D liked it, but spent most of the movie sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for Mr. Darcy to kiss Lizzy Bennet. The suspense was wonderful. After the movie, Marg drove us back into town to the festival, where we met Will, Cole, Jesse, Holly, Graham, Will, Madison, Emily, Rachel and Mike. Don't ask me why I felt the need to name them all off. The music was breathtaking, and the fireworks were good.
Thursday, I don't even remember what I did. There is increasingly more time coming between me and these events as I write this post. I've been working on it for three days. Oh! I remember. I went to Sam's house and picked up my bike from the garage, where it had been all winter, and decided to get some errands done. First, I went to church, where I picked up some music that Giles and Beverly have suggested for me and received a hefty $360 cheque, which I totally wasn't expecting. That was great. I proceeded to Lindsey's house, where I dropped off her copy of The Second Summer of the Sisterhood and picked up Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. Lindsey was in the shower, so I ended up playing with her puppies and talking to her sister for an awful long time waiting for her. After spending a few hours longer than expected at Lindsey's house, I went straight to TD to cash my cheque. That cheque brought my balance to $814.69, which I was ecstatic about. Not only could I afford Driver's Ed, I could pay my mum back the $100 she lent me, and go on a celebratory shopping spree the next day. Hell yes. When she finished work, my mum drove me down to the Community Training and Development Centre to register for Driver's Ed, which I was really happy for. I had saved and saved for approximately a year, and after thefts, trips, and emergencies, I had finally put away enough money. The women at CTDC swiped my card in the debit machine, and after waited patiently, she handed the pin pad back to me and gave me a look. WITHDRAWAL LIMIT REACHED, CONTACT BRANCH, the screen read. I was so embarrassed. I ran out to my mum's car. "Do you have any money? Like... a lot of money?" I asked her. She asked me why, and I told her that the bank wouldn't allow me to take out that much money at once. She asked how much was a lot, and I replied with "five hundred dollars a lot." She laughed and closed the car door. Angrily accepting defeat, I went back inside and told the bitch behind the counter that I would be back after giving my bank branch hell.
Friday, I was feeling in a mood to bike again, although my bum still hurt from the day before. I set out with my very high debit balance and biked around the city spending my money. Wisely, mind you. It was wonderful. I bought a ring and a bracelet and a pair of earrings and a pair of cords and a hat and a pin and two skirts and four shirts. Very satisfying. I also went to TD and got them to up my daily withdrawal limit to $750, went to CIBC and finished the registration of my scholarship, and went to Fantality to ask Mike, my tattoo artist and my mum's good friend, a few questions about the possibility of me getting more work on my tattoo done soon. He said that he's booking appointments into September, damnit. Oh well. Eastland and I will get tattooed together in the fall.
Speaking of tattoos, my mum wants me to design her next one. Crazy, eh? My mum will have SIX tattoos!
Anyway, Friday night, I went to Susan's welcome home party, which was a good time. I knew that I missed Susan a lot, but I didn't really how much until I got to see her again. There was much catching-up, gossiping, eating, some temporary tattooing, piñata whacking, and much being filmed by sketchy intoxicated guys. Will P and Mark were really excited about RibFest, which was going on at Millennium Park, so Madison, Jesse, and me biked with them for the pure novelty of RibFest. I'm glad we did, because it was hilarious. Mark and Will were rather carnivorous with those ribs, the half-rack that they paid $13.00 for, and ended up with ribs sauce up to their elbows and all over their faces. Back at Susan's house, one of Susan's neighbours, a drunk twenty-something, had two of his friends over when the three of them heard our party. They came over with a handheld video camera and decided to videotape us. One of the guys was very nice and the other two were just a little strange, so at first, we found it funny. They stagger around asking us questions and eating the candy from Susan's piñata. The camera man filmed Will's life story of working at a vineyard and Shannon's episode of becoming mute before the three of them got really creepy and started making very sexually suggestive comments towards Heather and Mark. At that point, everyone came in inside. We gossiped and reminisced, and by midnight, most people were ready to head home.
Saturday, I was expecting to be at Aaron's house/the Lakefield Jazz Festival around 2:00, but I didn't get there until 6:00, which I didn't mind. I wasn't at the Jazz Festival very long before we headed off to Aaron's house for the night, which didn't bother me too much, because although the music was good, the festival consisted of a small outdoor platform surrounded by lawn chairs of old people. At Aaron's, we set up tents, talked, and hung for awhile. We also made a trip to Tim Horton’s where close to 20 teenagers (us) took up a large and rowdy part of the restaurant. Upon getting bored at Aaron's, we decided to walk to Ridpath and play on the playground. We went on the swings, taught Madison how to flip over a monkey bar, finger jousted (in me and Mal's case), had races up basketball nets (in Mark and Josh's case), squeezed into the playhouse, san (in me and Margaret's case), and wrecked my Nalgene bottle (in Josh's case). Here comes a good story. I was sitting on a hand railing at the playground drinking out of my Nalgene and didn't want to get off to put it down, so I dropped it. Being a Nalgene, it bounced, unharmed. "Gotta love Nalgene," I said. "They're indestructible, and if you can manage to break it, they'll send you a new one." Josh didn't believe it, and asked me if he could test the truth of my statement. I told him to go right ahead. Josh set the bottle on the ground and commenced stomping on it with his entire body weight. The bottle merely slipped out from under his feet and rolled away. "Damnit! I won't be a man until I can break this damn bottle!" Josh ran over to the wall of the school and threw it at it as hard as he could, multiple times. All that he managed to break was strap on the top, which isn't covered under the warranty, so now I kind of wanted him to break it so that I could get a new one. After hitting on the brick and the pavement numerous times with no luck, Josh said that he wanted to run over it with his car, so we walked back to Aaron's house. Josh turned on some techno (Sandstorm by Da Rude, to be specific), rolled down the windows, and the destruction began. I placed the bottle under his back tire and stood back with Margaret, Hilary, and Mal as we watched Josh back up. The first few times, the bottle just slipped out and rolled down the hill. We were finding it hard to position it under the tire so that it stayed there when the car moved. When we eventually managed to back Josh's car over my water bottle - nothing happened. Josh's whole car passed right on top of my Nalgene bottle multiple times and it didn't leave more than a scratch! I was floored, but I really wanted to see this bottle defeated. So we switched to the front tire and continued. Finally, the bottle got a bit flattened and I was so happy. The mouth was warmed and there was a small hole in the side, but I wanted to see this bottle become practically two-dimensional. So, I put the bottle back under Josh's front tire and he put his car in drive. "Forwaaaard... fooooorwarrrd..... a little more.... okay stop. Actually, a little more. Okay, now stop. I helped Josh position his front end directly on top of my Nalgene bottle, and guess what happened. My Nalgene jacked Josh's car up a good two or three inches. I couldn't believe it. That was as much destruction as we got, but it was well beyond useable and Josh felt like a man.
After wrecking my bottle, I couldn't figure out what I would say to the manufacturer to ask for a replacement. Although they are supposedly indestructible, I couldn't tell them that we tried to crush it with a car. So Madison suggested that I tell them I was walking down the street and dropped it. That is exactly what I did.
Dear Nalgene:
Although I love my Nalgene dearly and it goes everywhere with me, you want
me to be 100% satisfied with your product, and I do, too!
Recently, I was walking with a group of friends down the side of the street
and tripped. My Nalgene bottle, which was on the side of my backpack, fell
out of my backpack pocket when I fell and it rolled onto the road in the
path of an oncoming car. It was far too late to do anything about it as the
car was already really close, but I wasn't too worried, as I have heard that
Nalgene bottles are indestructible. Unfortunately, this was not so. My
bottle is mostly flattened, the mouthpiece is warped so the cap doesn't
screw on, and it has a small hole in the side. I was really upset about it!
One of my friends, present at the time, said not to worry, and that if I
emailed Nalgene, they would send me one to replace it. Is this true? What
can you do for me? I loved my Nalgene dearly, and none of my other water
bottles come remotely close to it.
Thank you very profusely,
Melody
Dear customer:
Thank you for taking the time to write us about your bottle. It's difficult
to tell you why our bottle might have failed and the problem you describe
should not happen to our products when they are used under normal
circumstances. We regret the inconvenience you experienced. NALGENE Outdoor
Products are guaranteed to be leak proof. A replacement will be provided
upon the return and evaluation of your bottle and if the results of our
inspection confirm that a quality defect exists.
Return the clean bottle to the following address:
NNI
Warranty Replacements
75 Panorama Creek Drive
Rochester, New York 14625
Thank you for your support of NALGENE Bottles and Containers.
Dear Nalgene:
I appreciate your response, but I want to make sure you read my email properly. This line prompted me to believe there is a misunderstanding:
"It's difficult to tell you why our bottle might have failed and the problem you describe should not happen to our products when they are used under normal circumstances."
You do realize that my Nalgene was run over by a car, yes?
Melody
Dear customer:
Since your bottle was not intentionally abused, we will replace it.
HA.
Later in the night, once the sun had mostly set, Margaret, Mal, Josh, Matt, and me were at Aaron's when Margaret decided that she wanted to go swimming in Aaron's awesome blow up pool. She wasn't staying the night, so she didn't bring a bathing suit or a change of clothes, and she didn't want to soak her bra and underwear, so she decided to go skinny dipping. Me, Matt, and Josh decided to go swimming with her too, and we changed into our bathing suits. Upon stripping down to her lingerie, she started to hesitate. Matt and Josh, being boys and having no problem being naked, said that they would go skinny dipping with Margaret to convince her to go, and she did. Now, at this point, I decided that I could no longer go swimming. If I went in my bathing suit, I would be self-conscious of being the only one not naked. If I went naked, I would be self-conscious of being naked. Either way, I would be self-conscious, so I gave up and went to lie in the hammock with Mal. After much persuasion from Margaret and a few episodes of a naked Josh standing up in the pool (with the water only reaching the tops of his thighs) trying to get me to come in, I caved. Although I spent the first little while being conscious of the fact that I was wearing a bathing suit and avoiding the naked bodies swimming around me, I eventually joined their ranks, and I was glad I did. Who knew removing a layer of nylon-spandex would be so liberating? The abundance of nudity made for a sexually-charged atmosphere, which led to a sex talk when we got out of the pool. This was the kind of conversation that you had to enter with an open mind and no social taboo, otherwise, you might be shocked or freaked out. Although the conversation lost its intimacy as people began to return from the Jazz Festival and join, it lasted for a large portion of the night. Me, Margaret, Josh, Matt, Rob, Earl, Mike, Aaron, Hilary, PT, and Catherine moved into one of Earl's tents, the giant one, and continued our conversation while setting up sleeping bags and changing into pyjamas. I ended up sleeping between two naked boys, which was amusing, and got driven home the next day around lunch time by Aaron's mom. We had a really long talk about Jared, which was really interesting. He's joining Starfire in the fall, which makes me want to stay!
Sunday afternoon, I went to Yixin's house for Meg's birthday party/to watch the World Cup final. I am completely uninterested in soccer, so me and Farah and Dana spent most of it gossiping and mocking the boys' rowdy outbursts every time a goal was scored. After Italy won and everyone but Lindsey got over their broken-heartedness, Dana expertly barbequed hot dogs and hamburgers for us, and we ate creamsicles and Dana's cauliflower pie. Rob B really wanted to play soccer but didn't have a ball, so he ran down to Wal-Mart and bought one. We then trekked over to the Milroy fields, but there was a game being played on every one. We ended up at R.F. Downey, where we went on the swings and played on the playground equipment. Farah went to public school there and told us how all the cool big kids used to climb to the platform on top of the playground and hang out, but she never had. So, she, Talbert, Dana, Rob, and I climbed to the top to discover the glory of being a cool big kid. What we actually discovered was a bunch of rated R graffiti, drawn in permanent marker by twelve-year-olds. We climbed down and headed into the field for the soccer game that we were originally there for. Lindsey convinced almost everyone to play, which is rare. Usually, all the boys play, getting sweaty and angry and competitive, and the girls sit around and complain about how stupid the boys are, and how they won't stop hitting us with the ball. That day, most of the regular dumb boys weren't there, and the ones that were promised they would go easy on us. So, we all picked teams and started to play. We were a very sorry sight. Meg quit only a minute or two in because she didn't want to ruin the pedicure her mom got her for her birthday. You laugh, but I would have done the same thing. Tessa sat on the sidelines until the ball came within a few feet of our net, and then would stand up, tip the ball in, and sit back down again. Therefore, Dana became our designated goalie. She mostly belly-danced in the net. I ended up quitting so I wouldn't get sunburned, but rushed in at the end of the game pretending to be part of Team Doctor. Lindsey was playing soccer without her knee-brace and it was hurting her, so we went back to Yixin's house. Back at Yixin's, we snacked and talked, and ended up playing Guess-What-Everyone-Is-Going-To-Be-When-They-Grow-Up. This made for much laughter and sadness that "when we grow up" really isn't very far away at all. One by one, people's parents came and we all headed home.
Monday, I worked. Tuesday, I worked. Today, I sung at a funeral with the choral scholars. Right now, I am eating macaroni and cheese. Not the Kraft Dinner kind, though, because I'm supposed to be boycotting Kraft. Tonight, I am going to Will's house in place of going to see the Arrogant Worms. I made Nanaimo bars, and everyone better enjoy them. I will post about my two new jobs later. I'm getting tired of typing. I am also realizing that I did an awful lot of typing on this entry (eight pages worth), and very little of it is actually interesting. I'll do another one soon. It will be a lot shorter, and hopefully more engaging.
Love, love, love.
School ended for me on assessment day. I had a million (read: nine) assignments with due dates extended until that day, so for me, school most definitely didn't end with exams. Although I learned and grew a lot this year, I am so glad that it's over. I was delivered the year from hell, so I'm relieved it's behind me. When I showed my mum my report card, she said she was generally satisfied, but "disappointed that my average went down considerably", which really pissed me off. Considering that I had close to 50 absences this year, on top of (and in relation to) all the other shit I went through, I think I did pretty well. I am really looking forward to next year, though. When I was younger, because I was so smart, I always told myself that I would go into high school and take all the hardest math courses and every single one of the sciences and never take a spare. I realized this year how ridiculous I was being. I have no desire to go on in math or science, and I don't particularly enjoy them for the most part, so there is no reason for me to continue taking difficult courses that I don't enjoy and am not going to use, just for the sake of looking smart. To risk sounding lazy and unintelligent, I'm sick of using my brain. Does anyone understand that? Next year, I have six arts courses and two spares. I'm so excited.
After accepting defeat at school (it took me a few days to swallow my pride about no longer having a 90+ average), Dana, Yixin, Meg, and I headed over to Oliver's for the day, where he was having a pool party. The four of us, along with Farah, Magenta, Rob B, Rob SP, Dylan T, Tristan, Talbert, Liam, Jae, Sam W, and Oliver spent the day being generally lazy teenagers. We girls had a dance party which the boys rolled their eyes at, and the boys played dumb video games that we girls rolled our eyes at. Although, Oliver set up his Playstation upstairs for me, and I started playing Crash Bandicoot by myself (I was thinking of you, Earl!), but it turned into half the people at his house crowding into the room and everyone wanting to play with me. It was great. We swam in the almost-rain, played on the lame playground of Immaculate Conception, played Guess Who with our yearbooks, ate pizza and wonderful hamburgers that Ollie's mum barbecued for us, and play foosball. By the end of the night, all the girls had left but Farah T and I, and we learned what it was like to have a penis. Sorta. Most of the guys were still there, so we hung out with them for a few hours. Hanging out with a group of boys is so different from hanging out with a group of girls! =P
Friday and most of Saturday, I slept and ate and read and cleaned my room. It was nice to be doing virtually nothing. I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation, Erin!
Saturday night, I was at the Festival with Mal, Jesse, and Tom. We sat in Tom's van for most of the night so Tom could avoid doing work. We did get out to watch the fireworks, though, which Mal was ecstatic about. "Whooooaaaaaaa did you guys see that?! Oh my gosh that was CRAZY!" She was hilarious. After everyone had left, we sat on the stage, where we played Asshole until 1 AM. I have a good story, which most people have heard, but I am going to recount it again for those who haven't. *Ahem* While Tom was cleaning up the stage, three really sketchy, extremely intoxicated guys approached us, staggering and yelling. "Heeeyyyy! This is where the party's at, right here! These kids know how to party!" They asked us if we had any paper or cardboard that they could snort lines on. Me and Mal looked at each other, wide-eyed, and had to run backstage to avoid breaking out laughing. In an attempt to get them to go away before they caused any trouble, Tom pulled a Galaxy ticket out of his pocket and gave it to the guys. One of them, the loudest, most obnoxious one, said, "Ha, haven't you ever snorted lines before, man?! I can't snort lines on that! Gimme something thicker!" Jesse was really annoyed with them, and asked Tom under his breath if they should beat them up. Tom said that his arm was hurting from the accident, but Jesse could do it by himself, if he wanted. Jesse said that he would just get them on the ground, and Tom could use his steel-toed boots to finish them off. Me and Mal stared at each other again in disbelief. Finally Jesse found the key to getting them to stop asking: Theatre in the Community fan mail. He pulled out of his pocket a bright yellow piece of construction paper covered in crayon. "Dear PCVS, I really liked your play. My favourite part was when you hid the puzzle pieces." Jesse handed it to them with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, man, this is the stuff right here! What's your name, man? Jesse! Thanks, Jesse! Jesse knows where it's at!" one of them says will rip it into smaller pieces. Me and Mal were SO angry at Jesse for the next few minutes. "Come on girls, laugh! It's funny! It's ironic!"
Sunday, I resumed nothing-doing.
Monday, Lindsey and I planned to go to the library and then find a really dirty lake and go swimming, but Lindsey's parents wouldn't let her. She had fainted the day before at the Canada Day parade, and they were really hesitant to let her do very much, just in case. So we went to the library and I got out a stack of books consisting of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Fahrenheit 451, Angela's Ashes, and Pride and Prejudice, which were all on my reading list, and Intimacy and Guys and Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon, which jumped off the shelf at me unexpectedly. That evening, I was supposed to go to Lindsey's soccer game, but it was rained out (that was the day of the flash flood), so I came home early. I was really disappointed because I've never seen Lindsey's play soccer, but there at lots of games left this summer.
Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment, and I read The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, which I borrowed from Lindsey. I adored it, but it broke my heart. Upon finishing it, I dove straight into Pride and Prejudice, because I was going to be watching the movie the next day, and I wanted to have some idea of what would happen. I also got my phone call from the Health Unit that day. This is where I would normally go into a tangent about my new job, but considering that I know little nothing about it, I will save it. I work my first shift tomorrow morning, and I start at the Charlotte Pantry Tuesday, so I will write about my new jobs later this week. (Edit: by the time I actually finished this huge entry, I had started both of my jobs, but I will still write about them later.)
Wednesday, I had another doctor's appointment. When I was done at my doctor's appointment, Margaret picked me up, along with Emma D and Hilary, and we went to her house to watch Pride and Prejudice and eat pepperoni pizza. Margaret, upon realizing that I had never been to her house before, gave me the grand tour of my potential home, warning me, as she had before, about how messy it is. I was blown away by the capacity of stuff that is in the Mansell house. I don't picture either Margaret or Emma being disorganized, so the mess in their house really surprised me. Then the five of us (Emma M had joined us) watched the movie, which Hilary and Emma M had already seen. Hilary had to explain a lot to me, and Emma M kept being shushed because of her tendency to say things like "Ohhhhhh this is a really good part!" In the end, Margaret thought it was boring and hated it, and me and Emma D liked it, but spent most of the movie sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for Mr. Darcy to kiss Lizzy Bennet. The suspense was wonderful. After the movie, Marg drove us back into town to the festival, where we met Will, Cole, Jesse, Holly, Graham, Will, Madison, Emily, Rachel and Mike. Don't ask me why I felt the need to name them all off. The music was breathtaking, and the fireworks were good.
Thursday, I don't even remember what I did. There is increasingly more time coming between me and these events as I write this post. I've been working on it for three days. Oh! I remember. I went to Sam's house and picked up my bike from the garage, where it had been all winter, and decided to get some errands done. First, I went to church, where I picked up some music that Giles and Beverly have suggested for me and received a hefty $360 cheque, which I totally wasn't expecting. That was great. I proceeded to Lindsey's house, where I dropped off her copy of The Second Summer of the Sisterhood and picked up Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. Lindsey was in the shower, so I ended up playing with her puppies and talking to her sister for an awful long time waiting for her. After spending a few hours longer than expected at Lindsey's house, I went straight to TD to cash my cheque. That cheque brought my balance to $814.69, which I was ecstatic about. Not only could I afford Driver's Ed, I could pay my mum back the $100 she lent me, and go on a celebratory shopping spree the next day. Hell yes. When she finished work, my mum drove me down to the Community Training and Development Centre to register for Driver's Ed, which I was really happy for. I had saved and saved for approximately a year, and after thefts, trips, and emergencies, I had finally put away enough money. The women at CTDC swiped my card in the debit machine, and after waited patiently, she handed the pin pad back to me and gave me a look. WITHDRAWAL LIMIT REACHED, CONTACT BRANCH, the screen read. I was so embarrassed. I ran out to my mum's car. "Do you have any money? Like... a lot of money?" I asked her. She asked me why, and I told her that the bank wouldn't allow me to take out that much money at once. She asked how much was a lot, and I replied with "five hundred dollars a lot." She laughed and closed the car door. Angrily accepting defeat, I went back inside and told the bitch behind the counter that I would be back after giving my bank branch hell.
Friday, I was feeling in a mood to bike again, although my bum still hurt from the day before. I set out with my very high debit balance and biked around the city spending my money. Wisely, mind you. It was wonderful. I bought a ring and a bracelet and a pair of earrings and a pair of cords and a hat and a pin and two skirts and four shirts. Very satisfying. I also went to TD and got them to up my daily withdrawal limit to $750, went to CIBC and finished the registration of my scholarship, and went to Fantality to ask Mike, my tattoo artist and my mum's good friend, a few questions about the possibility of me getting more work on my tattoo done soon. He said that he's booking appointments into September, damnit. Oh well. Eastland and I will get tattooed together in the fall.
Speaking of tattoos, my mum wants me to design her next one. Crazy, eh? My mum will have SIX tattoos!
Anyway, Friday night, I went to Susan's welcome home party, which was a good time. I knew that I missed Susan a lot, but I didn't really how much until I got to see her again. There was much catching-up, gossiping, eating, some temporary tattooing, piñata whacking, and much being filmed by sketchy intoxicated guys. Will P and Mark were really excited about RibFest, which was going on at Millennium Park, so Madison, Jesse, and me biked with them for the pure novelty of RibFest. I'm glad we did, because it was hilarious. Mark and Will were rather carnivorous with those ribs, the half-rack that they paid $13.00 for, and ended up with ribs sauce up to their elbows and all over their faces. Back at Susan's house, one of Susan's neighbours, a drunk twenty-something, had two of his friends over when the three of them heard our party. They came over with a handheld video camera and decided to videotape us. One of the guys was very nice and the other two were just a little strange, so at first, we found it funny. They stagger around asking us questions and eating the candy from Susan's piñata. The camera man filmed Will's life story of working at a vineyard and Shannon's episode of becoming mute before the three of them got really creepy and started making very sexually suggestive comments towards Heather and Mark. At that point, everyone came in inside. We gossiped and reminisced, and by midnight, most people were ready to head home.
Saturday, I was expecting to be at Aaron's house/the Lakefield Jazz Festival around 2:00, but I didn't get there until 6:00, which I didn't mind. I wasn't at the Jazz Festival very long before we headed off to Aaron's house for the night, which didn't bother me too much, because although the music was good, the festival consisted of a small outdoor platform surrounded by lawn chairs of old people. At Aaron's, we set up tents, talked, and hung for awhile. We also made a trip to Tim Horton’s where close to 20 teenagers (us) took up a large and rowdy part of the restaurant. Upon getting bored at Aaron's, we decided to walk to Ridpath and play on the playground. We went on the swings, taught Madison how to flip over a monkey bar, finger jousted (in me and Mal's case), had races up basketball nets (in Mark and Josh's case), squeezed into the playhouse, san (in me and Margaret's case), and wrecked my Nalgene bottle (in Josh's case). Here comes a good story. I was sitting on a hand railing at the playground drinking out of my Nalgene and didn't want to get off to put it down, so I dropped it. Being a Nalgene, it bounced, unharmed. "Gotta love Nalgene," I said. "They're indestructible, and if you can manage to break it, they'll send you a new one." Josh didn't believe it, and asked me if he could test the truth of my statement. I told him to go right ahead. Josh set the bottle on the ground and commenced stomping on it with his entire body weight. The bottle merely slipped out from under his feet and rolled away. "Damnit! I won't be a man until I can break this damn bottle!" Josh ran over to the wall of the school and threw it at it as hard as he could, multiple times. All that he managed to break was strap on the top, which isn't covered under the warranty, so now I kind of wanted him to break it so that I could get a new one. After hitting on the brick and the pavement numerous times with no luck, Josh said that he wanted to run over it with his car, so we walked back to Aaron's house. Josh turned on some techno (Sandstorm by Da Rude, to be specific), rolled down the windows, and the destruction began. I placed the bottle under his back tire and stood back with Margaret, Hilary, and Mal as we watched Josh back up. The first few times, the bottle just slipped out and rolled down the hill. We were finding it hard to position it under the tire so that it stayed there when the car moved. When we eventually managed to back Josh's car over my water bottle - nothing happened. Josh's whole car passed right on top of my Nalgene bottle multiple times and it didn't leave more than a scratch! I was floored, but I really wanted to see this bottle defeated. So we switched to the front tire and continued. Finally, the bottle got a bit flattened and I was so happy. The mouth was warmed and there was a small hole in the side, but I wanted to see this bottle become practically two-dimensional. So, I put the bottle back under Josh's front tire and he put his car in drive. "Forwaaaard... fooooorwarrrd..... a little more.... okay stop. Actually, a little more. Okay, now stop. I helped Josh position his front end directly on top of my Nalgene bottle, and guess what happened. My Nalgene jacked Josh's car up a good two or three inches. I couldn't believe it. That was as much destruction as we got, but it was well beyond useable and Josh felt like a man.
After wrecking my bottle, I couldn't figure out what I would say to the manufacturer to ask for a replacement. Although they are supposedly indestructible, I couldn't tell them that we tried to crush it with a car. So Madison suggested that I tell them I was walking down the street and dropped it. That is exactly what I did.
Dear Nalgene:
Although I love my Nalgene dearly and it goes everywhere with me, you want
me to be 100% satisfied with your product, and I do, too!
Recently, I was walking with a group of friends down the side of the street
and tripped. My Nalgene bottle, which was on the side of my backpack, fell
out of my backpack pocket when I fell and it rolled onto the road in the
path of an oncoming car. It was far too late to do anything about it as the
car was already really close, but I wasn't too worried, as I have heard that
Nalgene bottles are indestructible. Unfortunately, this was not so. My
bottle is mostly flattened, the mouthpiece is warped so the cap doesn't
screw on, and it has a small hole in the side. I was really upset about it!
One of my friends, present at the time, said not to worry, and that if I
emailed Nalgene, they would send me one to replace it. Is this true? What
can you do for me? I loved my Nalgene dearly, and none of my other water
bottles come remotely close to it.
Thank you very profusely,
Melody
Dear customer:
Thank you for taking the time to write us about your bottle. It's difficult
to tell you why our bottle might have failed and the problem you describe
should not happen to our products when they are used under normal
circumstances. We regret the inconvenience you experienced. NALGENE Outdoor
Products are guaranteed to be leak proof. A replacement will be provided
upon the return and evaluation of your bottle and if the results of our
inspection confirm that a quality defect exists.
Return the clean bottle to the following address:
NNI
Warranty Replacements
75 Panorama Creek Drive
Rochester, New York 14625
Thank you for your support of NALGENE Bottles and Containers.
Dear Nalgene:
I appreciate your response, but I want to make sure you read my email properly. This line prompted me to believe there is a misunderstanding:
"It's difficult to tell you why our bottle might have failed and the problem you describe should not happen to our products when they are used under normal circumstances."
You do realize that my Nalgene was run over by a car, yes?
Melody
Dear customer:
Since your bottle was not intentionally abused, we will replace it.
HA.
Later in the night, once the sun had mostly set, Margaret, Mal, Josh, Matt, and me were at Aaron's when Margaret decided that she wanted to go swimming in Aaron's awesome blow up pool. She wasn't staying the night, so she didn't bring a bathing suit or a change of clothes, and she didn't want to soak her bra and underwear, so she decided to go skinny dipping. Me, Matt, and Josh decided to go swimming with her too, and we changed into our bathing suits. Upon stripping down to her lingerie, she started to hesitate. Matt and Josh, being boys and having no problem being naked, said that they would go skinny dipping with Margaret to convince her to go, and she did. Now, at this point, I decided that I could no longer go swimming. If I went in my bathing suit, I would be self-conscious of being the only one not naked. If I went naked, I would be self-conscious of being naked. Either way, I would be self-conscious, so I gave up and went to lie in the hammock with Mal. After much persuasion from Margaret and a few episodes of a naked Josh standing up in the pool (with the water only reaching the tops of his thighs) trying to get me to come in, I caved. Although I spent the first little while being conscious of the fact that I was wearing a bathing suit and avoiding the naked bodies swimming around me, I eventually joined their ranks, and I was glad I did. Who knew removing a layer of nylon-spandex would be so liberating? The abundance of nudity made for a sexually-charged atmosphere, which led to a sex talk when we got out of the pool. This was the kind of conversation that you had to enter with an open mind and no social taboo, otherwise, you might be shocked or freaked out. Although the conversation lost its intimacy as people began to return from the Jazz Festival and join, it lasted for a large portion of the night. Me, Margaret, Josh, Matt, Rob, Earl, Mike, Aaron, Hilary, PT, and Catherine moved into one of Earl's tents, the giant one, and continued our conversation while setting up sleeping bags and changing into pyjamas. I ended up sleeping between two naked boys, which was amusing, and got driven home the next day around lunch time by Aaron's mom. We had a really long talk about Jared, which was really interesting. He's joining Starfire in the fall, which makes me want to stay!
Sunday afternoon, I went to Yixin's house for Meg's birthday party/to watch the World Cup final. I am completely uninterested in soccer, so me and Farah and Dana spent most of it gossiping and mocking the boys' rowdy outbursts every time a goal was scored. After Italy won and everyone but Lindsey got over their broken-heartedness, Dana expertly barbequed hot dogs and hamburgers for us, and we ate creamsicles and Dana's cauliflower pie. Rob B really wanted to play soccer but didn't have a ball, so he ran down to Wal-Mart and bought one. We then trekked over to the Milroy fields, but there was a game being played on every one. We ended up at R.F. Downey, where we went on the swings and played on the playground equipment. Farah went to public school there and told us how all the cool big kids used to climb to the platform on top of the playground and hang out, but she never had. So, she, Talbert, Dana, Rob, and I climbed to the top to discover the glory of being a cool big kid. What we actually discovered was a bunch of rated R graffiti, drawn in permanent marker by twelve-year-olds. We climbed down and headed into the field for the soccer game that we were originally there for. Lindsey convinced almost everyone to play, which is rare. Usually, all the boys play, getting sweaty and angry and competitive, and the girls sit around and complain about how stupid the boys are, and how they won't stop hitting us with the ball. That day, most of the regular dumb boys weren't there, and the ones that were promised they would go easy on us. So, we all picked teams and started to play. We were a very sorry sight. Meg quit only a minute or two in because she didn't want to ruin the pedicure her mom got her for her birthday. You laugh, but I would have done the same thing. Tessa sat on the sidelines until the ball came within a few feet of our net, and then would stand up, tip the ball in, and sit back down again. Therefore, Dana became our designated goalie. She mostly belly-danced in the net. I ended up quitting so I wouldn't get sunburned, but rushed in at the end of the game pretending to be part of Team Doctor. Lindsey was playing soccer without her knee-brace and it was hurting her, so we went back to Yixin's house. Back at Yixin's, we snacked and talked, and ended up playing Guess-What-Everyone-Is-Going-To-Be-When-They-Grow-Up. This made for much laughter and sadness that "when we grow up" really isn't very far away at all. One by one, people's parents came and we all headed home.
Monday, I worked. Tuesday, I worked. Today, I sung at a funeral with the choral scholars. Right now, I am eating macaroni and cheese. Not the Kraft Dinner kind, though, because I'm supposed to be boycotting Kraft. Tonight, I am going to Will's house in place of going to see the Arrogant Worms. I made Nanaimo bars, and everyone better enjoy them. I will post about my two new jobs later. I'm getting tired of typing. I am also realizing that I did an awful lot of typing on this entry (eight pages worth), and very little of it is actually interesting. I'll do another one soon. It will be a lot shorter, and hopefully more engaging.
Love, love, love.