Steamers are sooooooooooo stress-relieving, it's insane

Before I begin with more trivial, of-no-interest tidbits, I just thought I should let the world know that

I'M ON SPRING BREAK!!!!! FOR TWO WEEKS!!

See, this is the great thing about my school. (Aside from everything else I love about it, of course.) We start a hell of a lot earlier than most schools, and sometimes end later, and have longer school days, but we get more breaks in between. And longer spring breaks, thank the divine Parents. I get to party for sixteen days until it's three weeks until Cabaret (what's wrong with THAT picture?!?!?!? *submits to minor spaz attack thinking of how far behind we are on dance numbers*), almost true MN spring, and time for English and Math all over again.

Anywho, anyway, anyhow, anypoo, this past weekend, my first few days of my much deserved break after FINALS (*shudder*), I spent sleeping, going to quartet with only the second violinist and our coach (who just happens to be a cellist), and removing wallpaper. Yes, with steamers, hence this post's title...........I'll let y'all in on a little secret. If you're going to be removing any wallpaper from any room of your home, use steamers. They are a Godsend. And make sure you've got back-up people in case the idiots before you put the paper on wrong and it peels off the wall as easily as that cement-like glue from CD covers. Mine, thankfully, was applied correctly, and therefore we finished not only my room, which is pretty spacious (for those of you who don't know me), but our downstairs bathroom in LESS THAN 24 HOURS. It was amazing. The Pay-Rents were happy, and I was happy I made them do it this break--if we'd done it in the summer like they'd been planning on, we all would have died of heat stroke. (My room is the hottest in the house--that says it all.) And for another secret, taking off that stuff is a wonderful stress/anger-reliever, oh lord. You steam the crap out of it, and it peels off in enormous strips you can rip to shreds, and THEN you take your scraper and scrape the crap out of the rest of the wallboard you just steamed almost clean. Of course, you have to be careful not to actually rip through the plaster or wallboard or whatever you've got, because that would just be inconvenient, but other than that, it's something everyone should do when they're angry at some point. So that was my first weekend of break.

Since then, I've been getting in touch with my retro/vintage side--HAHAHA that was a JOKE for those of you who know me.

(For those readers who do not, I believe my life's purpose is to bring back the bygone eras, specifically the 1860's (Gone With the Wind, anyone???), the 1880's-90's, and the 1940's-60's. Especially the 50's. So really, I'm always in touch with that retro side, because that's practically my ONLY side. In a nutshell, I think the truly good fashions are out the window and far from home. So I guess I'll have to fix that.)

But I did watch Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which is both funny as hell and sobering, and Now and Then, and they together got me in that old-timey-thinking mode that I sometimes get stuck in. So today I wore my jean capris, a red short-sleeved shirt tucked in (don't worry, it would be acceptable to even the harshest fashion police--I do NOT look frumpy), these adorable little red sandals with white polka dots, a blue headscarf to keep in my hair, and my most outrageous red, rhinestoned, cateye sunglasses. And I went to the dentist. HA.

Enjoy life, dahlings. I'll be up north for a few days, so have fun wherever you are! *Muah*

~Josie

Cast Party

So I went to my first cast party two weekends ago (the 31st to Feb. 1st, in case, like me, you are date-challenged). I've been in Upper School shows since seventh grade, but it was never really appropriate for me to go, especially as a seventh-grader in contrast to a bunch of seniors....yea. So this was my first one, and it was AMAZING!!!
Understand that I mean that in not a completely positive nor completely negative way. There were both good and bad aspects to this shindig, but the bad pieces were really trivial. It was definitely worth it.
Bad parts: Me getting pissed off at a sophomore kid who....well, he's quite immature, and doesn't know WHEN to STOP--he makes a huge deal out of things, and then will blame other people for making a mountain out a frickin' molehill. And he was just being especially obnoxious during Blazing Saddles, which made ME upset because A) he would not shut his megaphonic trap as I so kindly asked him to; B) he was directly aiming at me at one point, and C) I LOVE the movie Blazing Saddles, dammit!!! (I left because he brought it to a point where I truly believe from the bottom of my cold-towards-obnoxiousness heart that I would have slapped him had I not left.)
Good parts: Watching Blazing Saddles in the basement of C.'s house; having a venting session with two awesome people, a junior and senior, after the infuriating incident with that sophomore kid; being comfortable in my pajamas and slipper socks for the entire night; eating junk food whenever I wanted; playing Taboo, underclassmen against upperclassmen (we beat the seniors' and juniors' asses!!), and Imaginiff (if you have never played that game, you are seriously missing out on LIFE). And yes. It was just a great time.

So I'm done now. MUCH MUCH more to come today to update y'all on my life (yes, it still is in existence....). There is so much to tell, dahlings!!
~Josie

Don't you just love a good musical??

After school today Pretzel and I (as well as her parents and--lo and behold!--my parents) went to see Valkyrie. Two words: SO GOOD. My family has found that usually if the reviews say it's bad, the flick is pretty good to fantastic. And this is an example. I am a sucker for historical anything in a movie, and this baby was definitely something fascinating: World War 2 plan to take down Hitler  right before the end of the war. Of course, everyone ends up dying (and that doesn't exactly spoil anything for those clueless readers out there--obviously the plan failed because Hitler was suicidal), which makes for a very tragic ending, but I like movies where I cry--OH WAIT that's all of them--and action. Well-balanced action, that is. 

And this calls for...

OOOOH, rant time: Quantum of Solace was a disgrace to the James Bond world. Hide, Daniel Craig, hide far away, back in your dark closet with your soft towels and binkies and never come out again (thks to W.B.E. for the quote!). Don't get me wrong, I like Daniel Craig, and Casino Royale was really quite good--okay, awesome--but THIS? Really?! Really, James Bond?!?! What happened to the gadgets, the talking, the interesting freaking plots (isn't that a crucial part of having an entertaining storyline or did I get lost at dialog??), the gorgeous cars that do in fact last slightly more than  a half a scene before being annihilated by crashes, explosions and the like?!? HONESTLY. Our semi-formal dance was themed James Bond, and I just kept thinking about how the old ones are the ONLY ones to look to if you're going for classic. Classic anything. What happened to the good old days, where the women wore high-waisted bottoms and bullet bras and the guys donned suits in actions flicks and PANTS ABOVE THEIR ASSES?

But anyway.........ha-ha............Valkyrie was quite enjoyable. I'd see it again. The action was good, the acting was pretty good, and it was a true story. Me likey. Oh, and if you're reading this, C.B. (that is to say, if you've gotten this far), you were so right: the flood of tears started when that guy stood in front of Tom Cruise at the end before he got shot...oh lord. What a way to make the ladies lose it. For me, anyway. I'm the ultimate movie crier--seriously, I cried not only at, but BEFORE the end of White Christmas this year. Sadness.

Gotta go to beddy-bye now--OH HEY, I'M HALFWAY DONE WITH NINTH GRADE!!!!! I'M A FULL-FLEDGED FRESHMAN, Y'ALL!!!!!!!!! W00TANG! Can you believe it's already to this point?!? Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana (thks to Schwiegs for that one).

Adieu,

Josie