So, Great Week.

I've had the most amazing few days, it's been brilliant. Though, I have been sleep deprived even by my sleep deprived standards. Urge to resist becoming the 'neurotic sleep deprived coffee-addicted freshman' stereotype fleeting fast.


Let's begin with today. After ten hours of sleep. First things first, amazing weather for the first time in forever. Sometimes lately I wake up and think it's March. Can't wait to wear shorts again soon. Sort of. Was reading for most of the afternoon, staying outside, then went to the mall. There's something so glorious about red shorts. And sort of burned orange shorts, too. Yay, shorts. Plus, I finally found the Sweeney Todd movie soundtrack in FYE, which I've been looking for for ages. I listened to it all afternoon, can't wait to obsessively listen to A Little Priest, there's something so pleasing about the idea of, like, being in public listening to a song about cannibalism, while everyone else around you is none the wiser. Stephen Sondheim is brilliant. I'm trying to learn some of the easy piano versions of some stuff I got for my birthday, particularly Pretty Women. One of my favorites. and I'm listening to more of the Sweeney Todd Broadway stuff...so good. Came home, was reading again, and had a piano recital(which I don't believe I've mentioned very much?) in the evening. Was surprisingly very calm though was struck with a huge headache, but I somehow worked my way through my piece. The place was filled with the usual set of eight year old child prodigies, and kids in Gap dresses with camera-waving over zealous mothers, and me. Apparently I made up for the relative simplicity of my piece with 'dynamics', but who knows. This is questionable. I had to perform in flats--ugh, I might as well perform in flip flops for all the trouble they've caused me. But oh oh oh, some guy played a piece from Amelie. Amelie. Yann Tiersen, fuck yes. He was sososo good, and the piece is gorgeous. On top of this and getting to play in this huge, magnificent, Gothic library, I got to play on an effing Steinway grand piano...I might just have to organize a sort of gang of friends to help me steal that piano, because I simply cannot return to my upright after that amazing experience. Grand pianos make my life. My mom says that maybe in a couple years, we could get a grand...just have to get good at piano first, I suppose. I would do it, for a grand.

Tomorrow is a sleep day, homework, et cetera.

Friday. Get home from school, get to go to said library to practice quickly on aforementioned piano that is the epitome of beauty in musical instruments. Had to practice in the shoes, and there's something entertaining in how they didn't match with old jeans and an Arctic Monkeys t-shirt. A piano teacher I don't know said I played beautifully, so good. Quickly come home, and went to travelling fair thing that comes to my town for two days every year. This is always an interesting, and sometimes fun, experience, though most of it is spent running around looking for lost friends rather than doing anything. I don't go on rides, so this works for me. I was much happier with this year's than I expected. I hung around with the usual groups of people, waited for them in lines, threw around someone's shoe for the hell of it...that experience ended up being almost violent, then had to look for someone's 'favorite lip gloss' in the dark. I always associate big nighttime events, such as this, with a slight feeling of sadness, even when I'm at my happiest. It's hard to describe. For the first time this year, I feel as if my freshman year is about to end...even with a month to go. Do you have any idea just how fast(how...too fast) this year has gone? I have a problem with being scared of the future, thus this is not good. I observed last night, just how many people I talked to who I didn't know in middle school. That kick started this nostalgia thing. So many good people, so many more than last year, wow. It's a weird, contrived sense of unity that probably doesn't exist in reality. No one else senses that. And I'm both shy and introverted, what do I know about the social networks of my grade? Nothing, that's what. So I'm ignorant of it, so what? I hated 6th grade, I wasn't a big fan of 7th grade, I loathed 8th grade, I hated all but about five people, at the best of times, who I was with in middle school. Even with all its separate issues, mainly concerning sleeping patterns, high school is such a step up from that. 'The best four years of my life' I certainly hope it is not, but the worst, it has not been so far. So...in between the loud Katy Perry songs, the friends, texting, people basically attacking one friend, meeting new people, talking to people I haven't talked to in ages, screaming people on rides, being cold, running around, darkness, and watching as two policemen casually ignored the weed-smoking teenagers ten feet off, this is what this night did to me. Why am I such a sentimental mess.

Thursday was good too--Arctic Monkeys concert! It was interesting to note that there was a basebell game beginning and ending at exactly the same time, and as Fenway is right next to the venue, getting in and out was a nightmare. For the first time, I really observed the extent to which some people will go for this. Never a phenomenon I have understood with sports, and never a phenomenon I will understand with the Red Sox in particular. It was me, my family, and some shy indie kids, waiting in line outside the gig while hordes of screaming drunk, red-capped lunatics ran past down the street. One feels truly alienated because this is Massachusetts culture at its most stereotyped(and, er, most true) form, yes? Anyway, it was the usual venue, and the Vaccines were supporting so I got to check out the hype around them. They always blurred into the usual oasis-wannabee bands that crop up on the NME regularly. They were alright. Post Break up Sex is a good song, but everything else...eh. Maybe it would've been cool in 2006. Anyway, 2nd time seeing the Arctics, last time they were less than dynamic, but someone fell on me and I blacked out for a couple of moments. The crowd was, dare I say, even more crazy this time round, and I was further away, so much so that I could barely see Alex(it is crucial that I see Alex. Crucial.) but no matter. They opened with something from Suck It And See(comes out in June.), then did The View From The Afternoon(headbanging, woah), Brianstorm(amaaaaazing), This House Is A Circus, Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair, Teddy Picker, Crying Lightning, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Potion Approaching, Brick by Brick(*eyetwitch*), If You Were There Beware, Do Me A Favour, and Cornerstone. Encore was Pretty Visitors, another Suck It And See song, and the brilliant Fluorescent Adolescent. They were surprisingly more energetic this time, though they were having drum issues and Alex remains both annoyingly and adorably shy. Those were all good songs live. They played a few more new songs, sad to say they all sound fairly tame, and in particular I miss Alex's old lyrical style so much. Listen to Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not, and tell me that those words coming from a seventeen year old aren't brilliant. I dare you. Now it's so, like, bland. Can someone please, please, please, for the love of humanity keep Josh Homme away from all future Arctic Monkeys records? Because I do not want California surf pop on my Arctic Monkeys record. I'm sorry, I just don't. At least Alex had the sense to cut his hair, otherwise all hope would truly be lost. Regardless, I'm still looking forward to the record, and the concert was really good and I'm so excited to see them again in August.

Listening to them and Man Orch and Elbow lately.

So, school.

Art has proved to be beyond frustrating and boring, so I've taken to doing my homework instead of doing any work. my piece looks terrible. Next I have to paint a picture of my house. Fun.

Health, not very interesting, talking about birth control(*yawn*). It's funny how the health teachers here all think they're so liberal because they talk about condoms and whatever, but secretly they're uber conservative and they're actually reluctant to talk about birth control and just want everyone to stay virgins forever. On Thursday we had to design a 'perfect partner'(a bit personal, no?). I don't see any purpose for this. My only input was voting on hair and eye color. it doesn't bare thinking about, the activity that has been planned for this. Also, I totally need to get started on my health project.



Science began the week with an test. An 88, hmmm, better than average so I'm happy enough. I didn't study for as long as some, though, so that's ok. Now we're doing evolution, which I don't know enough about. I got my science project back, I got an 82, because my poster didn't look pretty, but how can you make a poster about 20th century biologists look good? I don't understand. I have to go outside tomorrow.

world Civ, watched videos for most of the week, most of them very dull indeed, talked about colonists, now constructing a sort of English village going into the industrial revolution. A good time for homework.

English, finally finished Tale of Two Cities and I must say, I liked it a lot. We did that and grammar and analysis all week, then watched some of the movie on Thursday...which was average at best. Ah well. Did another couple of fishbowls, finally got 100% on at least one, so I suppose I'm improving. My teacher was out Friday, so we watched the movie the entire time! Bliss.



Doctor Who. Weird but good this week. Had a bad headache so didn't pay as much attention as I would've liked. Interesting idea. My only other comment is this: yay, Rory, congrats on not dying.

Anyway, I've gotta write about whether pre marital sex is okay, so goodnight.

I Got A Day Off.

Hello there.

Thank God for Judaism and its holidays. I needed a break. Not just because school is physically and mentally tough at the moment, but because I've been having difficulties the last couple of days. I really needed a break. I'm not saying the sort of pointless nervousness I experienced in middle school(which was, frankly, extreme) is comparable to high school but like...Tuesday and Wednesday were tough. Well, just Wednesday, but still. it rained in the morning. pretty in the sunrise, but hell, it's rain and I don't want autumn to come. Winter officially terrifies me. It's so miserable. But anyway, we had an essay in the physical science class from the summer reading we did. Question; "Is the main character a hero?". How am I supposed to answer that without diving into some big swimming pool of cliches? answer; I've no idea. So I did the cliched 'a hero can be many things' route, sixty minutes, a page and a half. Crap but not difficult. Geometry my teacher's a narcissistic bitch and had a go at me for doing the wrong side of a worksheet, not that she actually specified which side to do, naturally. I don't know why that got to me, something about the almost public humiliation of it, but whatever way I panicked and couldn't do much else and went my usual route of internal self hatred and anger. This plus a really, really bad Spanish lesson didn't help. I got a C on a quiz. Okay, so that was actually pretty middle of the road, I did hear of Fs, Ds, and Bs, but no As so it's not like a tragic grade, but still, C. And then we played this conjugation game and I suck at Spanish so the public humiliation continued, and then I had to review homework with the girl next to me. I couldn't do half of it. She didn't think much of me, and after my performance in that class, I do not blame her. But it still hurt like hell. it's weird that gym would be some sort of hi light, but so it was--one game I looked like a total fool, and I heard we get graded down for not bringing gym clothes(which I will not be doing, FYI, because the rule is pathetic and because I don't like getting changed), but otherwise it wasn't bad. The whole thing just got a bit much.

Thank Christ for this break. Five days straight will be a nightmare. I keep waking up at four in the morning for no reason. also, homework is too much. I could handle today's, not that we were supposed to get homework, but a whole four days straight is difficult.

One day I need to write something more conclusive about Peep Show. I was getting upset at the silliest things earlier, like my height, which may not be much(five two, if you're interested, not that you are) and I got into this nightmarish loop of miserableness(wannabee emo lyric of the day?), and I was like 'I need Peep Show now'. Not only is Peep Show realistic and genius and clever and possibly the most genuinely witty and funny Sitcom there has ever been in my opinion, it's comforting. Everyone's a bit like Jeremy, a bit like Mark, some more to one than the other. I'm about 5%-95% on the Jeremy-to-Mark scale. Watching Mark makes me laugh and makes me feel better. I am Mark Corrigan. It's okay. He can relate. He can relate about a lot of things. And it's okay Mark is wonderful, not that I am, and you're not on your own, Naomi. I need that quite a lot, just like everyone I suppose. Sometimes Peep Show is all that comforts me. Right now I find it more comforting than music and reading and playing piano and blogging combined. Wednesday I had a bad day and I just had a late-night Peep Show episode. Mark's public humiliation, self hatred, embarrassment, fear, and anxiety is endless; and it's so wonderful to see because our days are so similar. it makes me feel so much better about myself and about the world in general. That is why Peep Show is so brilliant. That is why I watch it so much. That is why I have greatly over exaggerated about a lightweight comedy show.

In other news, today I went to Concord which is one of my favorite places. All quirkiness and history, I love it. I went to one store that was dedicated to stuff that was meant to look antique, largely things centered around birds and eggs and nests. When I look at antiques, first I feel very angry about myself for being overly sentimental, feminine, simple, and easily tricked by stupid things. And then part of me goes 'oh my god. it's an old fashioned weighing machine! I need that!'. Then part of me wonders if I have the money or the means to take something big home. So I go looking for something small. And then I realise I can't pick one small thing that I love more than the others so I pick up the first cutesy thing I find. Then I leave with an expensive notebook with the picture of a worn-out newspaper and a butterfly on top and I wonder what exactly happened in the last twenty minutes. But it's fun, right? Concord is so wonderful and it was so good to relax and do nothing.

Apparently a theme for this blog is choppy paragraphs, so that is the way it will stay. Have you heard of Perfume Genius? He's a music an. I generally avoid the word 'lo-fi' because most lo-fi sucks and I hate the term. But his song Learning is cool and it has quite good lyrics. there are a couple of songs I want but they're not on iTunes USA. Also, I need to add my Pretty Reckless, Editors, National, Skunk Anansie, and Kings of Leon CDs to my iPod but somehow I don't see myself having the time.

Two things, one, 'redundant' is my new favorite word, because I always go for the obvious ones. Two, I have last period Friday study hall which I see as sort of...redundant? That doesn't actually really work, but that's the closest I've got so far. I'm looking forward to it. Shamefully, I haven't been keeping up with reading at all, except in the mornings at school when I've been sitting outside my science class(which happens to be in the freshman hallway) with some other nerd. I need to keep up if I hope to reach fifty books. Also I have a science quiz tomorrow, my first in that class, and the stuff we're doing is more my style than most of the stuff in that class will be, but still, I like my teacher because shes something of an evil genius. Emphasis of evil. I'm expecting another C. Thanks high school; rather than reading fifty books this year, I will get fifty quizzes with C grades. Cheers.*

Well, it's that time of the night where I choose between reading my crap WWII novel, playing Song of India for the millionth time on piano, watching TV, or studying. Oh, it's a tricky one. See you another time, blogsophere.

- Naomi

*that is possibly the first and only time I will ever use that word in that context.