Day of Silence

For those of you who don't know, this Friday is Day of Silence. http://www.dayofsilence.org/index.cfm It involves not talking all day to draw attention to the silence forced upon LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people everyday. And, at least the way we've done it in the past, it usually involves duct tape. I like duct tape. It's probably a good thing you can't see my slightly maniacal grin right now. Duct tape. . . 

Anyway, I encourage you to participate if you are able to. It is usually done mostly my students in middle and high schools and colleges. You are, however legally required to speak in class if a teacher asks/tells you to. Free time is all yours, though. Have at it. 

RENFAIRE (again)

Wow. This is really depressing. I miss Faire so much. All the amazing people, and the randomness, and having something to look forward to during school, and . . . well, all of it. Every time I eat anything I ate during Faire it reminds me. Anytime I see any of my renfaire things lying around, or pictures, or get e-mails from someone who was there. I look back at all the random spazzes in my notebook, or lists of things I desperately needed to do before Faire starts and it seems so sad that it's over. And sometimes I remember it for no reason at all. What will I do with my life? I'll have time on week-ends, what a radical idea! I miss the renaissance faire. (Yes, I know I already said this, and I'm saying it again anyway.)

~Vivian

RenFaire and Explosions

RenFaire (which started last weekend) was fascinating and amazing and ridiculously fun and absolutely, utterly, extraordinarily exhausting. I have to get up at around six in the morning to be there in time for the cast call, and it doesn't end until 6.30 in the evening, later if you count the time it takes to change from my costume into street (aka normal) clothes. I am never particularly tired at faire, but as soon as I get into the car, I crash. Or I whoosh like a christmas tree, but in the opposite direction. 

Speaking of whooshing like a christmas tree does when one sets it on fire, that is just about what my life is currently doing. I need to catch up on my homework which I didn't do any of between Faire and sleeping. Script Frenzy starts this Wednesday. I have Faire again next weekend (can't wait!). The monday after the last day of Faire I have to get on a plane for California early in the morning. And a month from Wednesday, my father is getting married (I think. . . seems rather odd that it's on a Friday instead of a Saturday or Sunday). Perhaps I shall tell you all about wedding plans when I actually know anything about them. 

But back to Faire. We met all sorts of fascinating people. Rebecca (how do you spell that?), Spencer, Linda, and of course Mason, as well as others from the dancing and fiber groups whose names I don't know, just to name a few. Ophelia spun and I didn't make candles, but I shall next weekend. We danced and sang and hung out with the pirates, and had hat problems , and we tried to avoid the sketchy chain mail people and had too much fun for our own good. 

Love Always,

VIvian, aka Marian the Chandler

Viva la Notebook!

So I’m sure you’ve heard about those notebooks that high schoolers pass around, ‘slam books’ I believe they’re called? We’ll Viv and I also have 2 notebooks that we trade off, and they’re most definitely not slam books (why would we write about classmates in our free time?) but they’re just as fascinating. They’re already filled with lists and rants and plans and plots and oh my goodness the amusingness and amazingness is unsurpassed! They’re definitely making high school more survivable.

Speaking of making high school more survivable, my high school plans just changed at the speed of light, and my life is taking a dramatic turn for the better. I’ll tell you all, all in time, but for now we’re keeping it low. Sorry you don’t know the details, but can’t you feel my soul glowing with delight all the way from your side of the universe?

love, ophelia

Bonfire

On Saturday I went to a huge bonfire called the Burn. It's an annual event where everyone from a certain neighborhood gets together and burns all the built-up sticks and logs and stuff from the year. We ate yummy food and sat around the fire and talked. It was really fun. But that's not the best part. 

WE SET TWO CHRISTMAS TREES ON FIRE. That's right, people. Have you ever seen a really dry christmas tree thrown on a bonfire? It is amazing. And beautiful. And very hot. The fire flared up to about four times its previous height, and lit up the entire clearing, while we all backed up. You could feel the warmth from at least 20 feet away. And there were a bunch of sparks and they all danced around the top of the flames. It was like magic. It made me happy.

~Vivian

Script Frenzy

I can't wait until Script Frenzy! It will be so easy after NaNo. La-La, are you doing Screnzy? I know Ophelia is, and I certainly am. For those of you who don't know, Script Frenzy is the insanity of writing 100 pages of script in 30 days (the month of April). I'm not sure exactly what we've said about this before and I was too lazy to check more than a couple of posts back. I know we must've mentioned it . . . oh, well. 

Tangent: my cat is sitting on me. She is a darling, but any typos are officially her fault. I have finally forgiven her for waking me up on the one day out of the week that I actually got to sleep is. If only she would do my homework for me. . . yes, that's the homework that I'm supposed to be doing right now. Stupid English project. 

~Vivian

Lame Lit Mag

Lit Mag, or Literary Magazine as it is known to people not 'in the know,' is quite lame at our high school (for reasons other than it is basically a bunch of geeky writers sitting around and discussing active verbs.) At our school the LM club hardly exists. The few meetings we've had this year consisted mainly of 2-4 freshman showing up, sitting around, eventually being greeted by a senior LM person or two, and then getting a writing exercise to do or a poem to critique.

Often though, the meetings don't happen at all. The LM leaders are stupid and lame and don't show up, or send us a cryptic e-mail at around 1 am the day of telling us that: 'we're overloaded with work and will not be able to meet this week.' (Not that WE FRESHMAN, being reletivly decent writers and all, would be able to help with even the most menial tasks.)

Viv and I need to form an alternative LM, for people who are actually dedicated writers, who know how to format text, and who don't accidentally PUT THE SAME TERRIBLE POEM INTO THE LIT MAG TWICE ON ACCIDENT (and therefore are terrible proofreaders as well.)

Sigh, ophelia