I think I’m enjoying math again. It’s a good feeling, although it gives me headaches. Calculus is pretty sexy, I have to say.

I have so many photos for you! But no time.

28 Days Later is a good movie. Enjoyable, albeit extremely gory, but the social commentary makes up for the zombie-movie logical errors (Why don’t the infected attack each other? If they keep vomiting blood, why don’t they starve faster?). I like the way Jim suddenly realizes that he’s the protagonist and is therefore invincible, and infiltrates the house like the highly-trained professional he isn’t.

Happy turkey day! I celebrate American imperialism via watching the West Wing marathon on Bravo. Yay West Wing! Yay intelligent people who talk fast and wear suits and scarves!

Yesterday, in this pretty, stylish cafe downtown, we were sitting on two couches right next to these two tough-looking Mexican guys with tattoos and a laptop. They were talking fast and passing a notebook back and forth, and I think they were planning to rob a bank.

I need to go do English homework, or Physics, or Calculus, or I will never become a productive member of society. I know this.

So the tournament this weekend went pretty well. I debated novice for the third and last time, and my partner and I won all of our debates (of course). Westwood closed out semifinals, though, so we didn’t get to debate any more, which sucked. I must go varsity next tournament. I wish I knew why debate consumes my life in this strange and unhealthy way.

So today Deepu drives me around for a while after school, because hey, birthday, and then he drops me off at home. My grandmother starts muttering something about tornadoes and my mom starts talking about the amazing properties of tablecloths taped over glass patio doors to stop tornadoes, and I’m slowly questioning the physics, completely suspicion-free, when she opens the door and suddenly there’s all these people with little foofy paper things and balloons.

No words. Just, coolest thing ever, ever, ever, and all thanks to nefarious plotting of Deepu Sudhakar (that much) and it involved sushi and pizza and crack Altoids and a watermelon, which met an untimely demise when tossed off the roof of the local elementary school. I am not sure why this happened.

Cool things:
- Arvind walking away from us in the dark when we were all walking, and then coming back a few minutes later, a dark silhouette holding a knife.
- scarf from Lea, which should do wonders for my personal style. Also, has red A on it. Resemblance to The Scarlet Letter accidental? Or not?!
- Megan (and her midriff)
- so many other cool things! But need to sleep. Immediately, because on verge of collapse. Love everyone a lot, specifically Franzi, Carl, Lea, Brian, Ari, Megan, Ben, Ben, Deepu (!!), Joel, Sam, Arvind, Jason (with cool hat).

Also: twenty-minute birthday mp3 from Bilal, which is just too magnificent for me to handle right now. My entire life is going to have to be dedicated to paying off this good karma. I have good family, I have good friends… Clearly, I was some kind of massively saintly person last life.

Here, have a stupid poem. Since it’s my birthday tomorrow you can’t make fun of it very much.

three haiku about loving people

I don’t think I can ever
justify the things I’ve done
for you and to you

but then neither can
you or anyone. I know
this like I know you,

which is not very
well or thoroughly but the
only way I can.

There was also one about a dead bee, but I already told you about that.

So 16 tomorrow. You know what this means — legal sex! Woo! For most people this would also mean a car, but I am lazy and have done about this. Hey, Fannio in new place! (If my awesome-osity just isn’t enough for you.)

I killed a bee when walking back from lunch today. It was crawling on the sidewalk, jerking and contorted with agony. I watched it a minute and then crushed it into stillness. It was a strange, significant moment, somehow, even though it wasn’t.

Found my debit card! Go me! I’d been using it as a bookmark.

Birthday on the 18th. How exciting is that?

Things are good now. My friends have succeeded in convincing me that my petty teenage angst pales beside AIDS in Africa and other issues that actually, you know, matter. Ben actually called and woke me up today in order to drive me to school, which is not only an awesomely nice thing to do but also the first recorded instance of my dad acknowledging my friends as having positive ramifications for my life. Carl gave me a ride home, and we put down the windows and rocked out to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Going to sleep now. Will wake up at 10:00PM for West Wing.

What a stupid day. I do things wrong a lot. Also, people suck. Someone should poison the water pronto.

It’s oddly cold here. Outside smells like winter, and there’s a faint odor of burning coal that I always associate with cold. It rains often, too. I’m enjoying this weather (it’s my favorite), but it’s surreal to have London weather in Austin.

NaNoWriMo novel is inching along. Don’t tell me what’s wrong with it. Quantity, not quality!

Strange thing I made to illustrate someone else’s short story: happy.jpg.

Remember when I said I definitely was not going to do NaNoWriMo? Yeah, well. (It’s not any good, though.)