Word.

I reread that last post I made a few days ago and maybe I just need to put a few months between posts so I can make each of them good quality posts. I read it and I thought, "That's a good post, I think." Maybe all the time between july and now was just simmering all of the creativity inside me to make that post.
Or maybe I should shut up and post more often.

Tonight I spent the evening at my friend Brent's house, hanging out with a few of our buddies and eating chocolate covered whatever-you-could-find-s and making each other laugh. When thinking about what to make this post on, I figured I should just write about my friends.

**Took a break to watch a YouTube video and realized it quarter after 12. **

My friends have interesting senses of humor. My main group whom I hang out with a lot at gatherings and dinner parties usually entertains themselves by making fun of Eric.
Eric is a tall, fluffy-haired goofball who makes a lot of funny faces and silly gestures that are easily mockable. I guess everyone sees him as an easy target, and frequently I feel like we should take it easy on him, but it's like that train in that movie that came out recently, Unstoppable. Yeah.
Eric is a really great kid and I have no idea why people make fun of him and not maybe me, or I don't know, anyone else in our group. I guess it's because he's just a silly goose.
The main person who fuels the taunting of Eric is Jake. Now that I think about it, it's quite comical because Jake who is around five feet and a few inches tall, most often makes fun of Eric, who towers over him at six feet and three inches. Talk about pick on someone your own size. :D But that's just not how Jake rolls. Eric is easy to beat in free style rap throwdowns (though in some kodak moments Eric's rhymes are pretty fly) and is easily pwnd by Jake's expansive ability to memorize complicated Call of Duty (COD) technicalities.
Jake is a master of many useless talents including, solving Rubik's cubes, making duct-tape wallets, beat boxing, and making percussion beats and rhythms with retractable pens. He always gets excited when he finds a new hobby that he can make Eric look like an idiot with. :D
Jake's useless talent of finger skate boarding is shared by Sydney. Sydney is a small funny person who enjoys chocolate to the point that it makes her extremely outwardly hyperactive. She joins in on Jake's antics and doesn't give up when attempting to land a clean kick flip with her finger board over the net on Jonathan's ping-pong table.
Jonathan, like many enjoys making fun of Eric by making fat jokes (and I'll let you know, Eric is NOT fat at all), talking as if he had a mental illness to him, and "kicking him in the nads." Jonathan is usually the one to encourage a game of "Zombie" whenever we are together. Jennie and I usually stay inside, sit on the stoop and watch as our friends run buy chasing after each other, or help Brent with whatever extensive project he has lined up. Brent is a very ambitious guy who would go further than making a scale replica of his house out of ginger bread, icing, and melted jolly rancher stained glass windows. If you're in Brent's group for any creative school project, you'll definately get a good grade for originality or creativity.
Then, I guess that leaves me and Jennie. We are quite similar people who enjoy melting and swooning over Ben Folds music. Jennie just has a very squeaky laugh which we all giggle at from time to time whenever her laughing fits send her into the next room and into a corner in the fetal position. ;) Overall, she's a good buddy to all of us.
By these descriptions, one should certainly understand the dynamic of our group of friends. Whatever we are doing, all we ever want is to enjoy a good laugh.
At Eric.

Though I have others whom I hang out with, those groups don't have the same perfect mix of completely different personalities that blend together just to have a fun time and make fun of each other.

So this is me, saying hi.
Thanks for listening.

This Wagon Has Three Wheels

Hey remember when I had a blog?
oh wait...
Yes, I know I haven't posted on my blog in an extrememly long time. I'm not going to play catch-up and tell you what has been happening since the last time I posted. I just had ideas for a blog post tonight, so I figured this to be the opportune moment.

Just a quick fun fact before I get started:
I currently, for the first time in a very long time, have no videos in my YouTube subscription box at all. I finally caught up after a few weeks of Christmas bustle.

So, on to the inspiring scenario that I experienced tonight.
My friend, Rachel goes to a different school than I do, so we often talk on the phone, and even more now that we are on break. I called her this evening around 9:00 and caught her right in the middle of Face-time-ing with her boyfriend VIA her iPod/his iPhone. So because Rachel likes to create funny situations, she promptly stuck the phone and her iPod together so we could ALL talk to each other. This was fun at first because I have never talked to her boyfriend before tonight.
It was fun, until Rachel starts muting the phone on my end to say something flirty and lovey-dovey to him leaving me to listen to silence and/or giggles and replies of "Oh nothing" upon the return of the phone from mute.
Also, once her boyfriend stopped Face-time-ing and called Rachel on the phone, I became the secondary conversation. The phone was put on mute more often and funny exhcanges were going down between the two and I would wonder aloud what they were talking about. I was answered by more giggles and fruitless replies.
Finally, I left them to their conversation and went to clean out my formerly address subscription box.
That wagon had three wheels. Can u guess which one I was?
I may sound whiny, but that's just because I was kind of annoyed at the time. I've reflected on this situation since and I've realized that I should accept it because that's just how my best namesake is. I may have been irritated when I was frequently ignored but I just got over it with the help of the thought that I am happy for her. She has a romantic companion who she is happy with and I should be and am glad that she's happy.
One of my other friends described this emotional acceptance as "The Rachel Bond." It's how she is and it may make us mad and it may make us feel bad about ourselves because of the put-aside feeling, but we get over it because we have The Bond and we can't break it.
I'm content with the bond as long as it lets me forgive and forget in situations like these.

I can't promise more posts more often, but I'll know that whenever I want to, I can come to this little blog and say hi.
Thanks for listening.

I Don't Promote Giving Up But...

...I do not find myself making a blog post about travelling across the country every day. Sorry I know you really enjoyed that first post :D.

The other day while driving in the car, I took advantage of the pleasant scenery and the several hours of uneventful traversing by making notes about a potential plot line for a story. I added notes about the characters, changed a few names and wrotelittle memos to myself about improvements. I really think that if anyone else were to read these notes that they would be completely lost and confused. I used some bazaare references that I knew that I would understand, bit may not make sense to anyone else. This could be an advantage for me though. This could potentially a novel to be developed. I never know how far I can take my creativity and I may surprise myself by actually finishing it! I probably won't finish it but here's to hoping. Cheers!

We are staying in Rapid City, South Dakota for a couple of days now and I am really liking the town. There are many Native American-style shops and restaraunts. I bought a nice buffalo nickel necklace at this place called the Sioux Trading Post. They had hundreds of fascinating knick-knacks like this insanely beautiful jewelry and amazing skin paintings.

On our way here we droce through the badlands. They were pretty badass. There were giant hills and cliffs made out of what looked like sandstone. We got some pretty good pictures of them. It was a refreshing change to see rolling hills and cliffs along the side of the road instead of flat farms with the occasional bale of hay and unnecessary amount of billboards for tourist attractions like the Corn Palace ane Senore Wiener's restaraunt.

I will write more about Mt. Rushmore later. The lights are out in the room and I feel my eyes bugging out of their sockeys. Great mental picture I know.
It seems, that you cupcakes are becoming more of imaginary friends than readers. But you still get shout outs! I hope you had a great Fourth of July!

Au revoir!

Truckin': Day 1

Today at 6:30 A.M. me family and I left our home and headed for Illinois.
Our bags were packed and we were ready for our vacation farther west.

My dad made write the time; number of miles on the car; toll, gas, and meal prices; and restaraunts.

I can't really talk about everything in detail (early morning tomorrow).
It was quiet in our car for most of the morning. My mom and my brother slept. I mostly listened to my iPod and stared out the window at the highway wizzing by (I listened to about 6 episodes of Smartmouths).

While looking out of the window, I noticed several peculiar things. I first observed road signs with whimsically amusing names of towns. I then noticed a boat at a gas station that had a very large innertube that had the name "Big Bertha" on which I photographed with my phone. The next was extremely disturbing and made me feel uncomfortable. Obviously there were many large tanker trucks on the turnpikes we were driving on. However, one truck in particular had crude and offensive prases painted on the back by its driver (I assume by the driver). The phrases include things like "flash me," and "show me your hooters." My mom shook her head and the pervert truck driver made a face that I don't really know how to describe. But it was very disturbing.

At one of the rest stops we went to, there were these sections called "Travel Emporium.:" These sections were hardly emporiums. They had things like brochures, sunglasses, lighters, cooling cups, and...lamps with tigers and bears' faces on them? I thought that was completely useless to travellers. How can u imagine a person driving down the parkway, forgetting their tiger lamp and rushing to exit and go to the Travel Emporium! You can see how rediculous it is.

Well, School of Rock just came on TV so, you know, I have to go watch it.
I can't promise a post everyday on our trip but I hope to update a lot!
See ya later, you cupcakes!

Thursday, June 24, 2010: The Day I met John Green and David Levithan

At the moment shown in the picture, John Green was talking about the shirt I was wearing. It featured him with a mustache with the word "PIZZA" under it. He thanked me for wearing his face on my body. It was funny. :D

Below I am going to go through the entire night in which I met John Green and David Levithan.

So we got the book store and went downstairs to the children's section (LOL). There were already about thirty people there and they had their seats and everything. Grace, Alexa, and I hung out in the back until they told us to sit down. Being stuffed with book lovers the place was extremely hot. I was clutching my copies of Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Paper Towns, sweating like a whore in church, craning over all of the beloved nerds to try and catch a glimpse of the entrance in which the two awesome authors would pass through.

When they finally did come out, I was so happy! I was just really happy to see John in person and not just in internet form. David too! I had only see him on one of John's BlogTv shows. I felt kind of bad because Alexa and Grace couldn't see anything. I offered to switch places with them for a little while but they just kept telling me that it was my moment, and looking back now, that was kind of cheesy and funny. :D. But I appreciated it.

The guys first read a scene from WGWG. Obviously, after finding that David was the character Jane, and John was Will, it was hilarious! The scene involved them sort of "professing their love for each other" but in a high school, young adult fiction way. And of course the scene involved kissing which made it even funnier. They did a great job in making everybody laugh. It was a good time.

Next, they let everyone ask some questions. Some people asked about writing processes, for both individual authors and for their collaboration. It was interesting to hear how they designed this novel (in the shape of an X :D) and how they wrote it and shared it with each other. They asked joking questions about how David's chapters don't have any capital letters ("was your shift key just broken or something?" ~funny nerd girl in front of us). Overall the questions were pretty good. I enjoyed them.

Now we are getting up to the climax of the night. They explained the process in which we were to organize ourselves for lining up to get books signed. No one in our area really heard these instructions so we just stood up and faced the front, inching along every so often as people got their copies signed. I was waiting in the burning, steamy hot line, sweating disgustingly, when I look behind me and BOOM! There was Elysa Montfort from the podcast Smartmouths! I craned around someone to see BAM! Penny Gershman from SM too! Two hosts from my favorite podcast at a signing for my favorite author! This remminded me of their episode where they discussed WGWG with John!

The line began to move and then they were right behind me! I heard them talking with apparently another listener. This made me regret not saying hi. I made up for it with a few @replies on Twitter this morning. Anyway, they are talking about NPR or something and they Penny says, "Could you look out there and see if Greg is there? He's wearing a yellow shirt." In my mind I am thinking, "GASP! A third host from SM!" I eventually saw Elysa talking to Greg Gershman, Penny's husband. This put icing on my nerdy fangirl cake.

About forty-five minutes later, we got about thirty feet away and started planning things we were going to say to them. We were going to tell them about a joke that we planned to put on a t-shirt for John but I guess we all just got a little star-struck and froze up. I'll send him an email later explaining it.

Between then and the time we got to the signing table, David made a rest room break and John anounced it standing on his chair. I took a few stalker, paprazzi pictures of him at this time :D. And then, the hallowed moment!

The women at the book store took our names down on post-its, sticking them on the inside flaps of the books so as to prompt John and David on what to sign on the book. Alexa was appointed to take pictures as we got our books signed. Grace stepped up. John told her that Grace was one of his favorite names! They both signed her book and she stepped aside for me. I gave John my big stack of books and he made a few witty comments about the pizza shirt and about how my copy of Looking For Alaska seemed like it had been read a lot. I told them about how I passed the books on to Grace and Alexa. I thanked them and stepped aside for Alexa. She talked to him about how different it was to see him away from the internet. David made a joke saying, "He really does have legs!" We thanked them more and headed out the back door.

And there is the story of steaming hot book signing lines, internet celebrity sightings, and conversing with great authors.

This night really made me happy and I'm really glad I got the opportunity to meet them and talk to them fort a minute or two.

Sorry this is so long. This post was more for me than for you, cupcakes if you're out there somewhere. I don't want to forget this!
Thanks for reading! Talk to you soon!

Hoping Things Turn Out Well.

John Green

Ben Folds

I am not fond of bugs. Any kind of bugs do not please me. I just sat outside with bugs falling from the trees above me. Before I even sat down I had to brush a dead bee off the seat of the lawn chair. Not I feel infested and every little itch or tingle feels like a bug. How grand.

To counteract that negative introduction, I'm very happy to be out of school for the summer. I was tired of that school and I need to move on to, uh...you know bigger and better things and all that stuff. I started summer band at my new school and it is going quite well. I like it there already. I hope I'm going to do well like I said in my last post. But of course I have some apprehension (again see my last post).

I have an eventful week in front of me. Today I went to see Toy Story 3 with a lot of my friends. I thought it was absolutely one of the best movies I've ever seen. The series overall was just awesome and this was a great way to end it. It had some of the best 3D animation I have seen and the storyline was so good. I'm not going to go into too much detail but, yeah, it was very, very good.

On top of that I have to work tomorrow. I started working at the dental office my mom works at and I have been enjoying it so far. I think the impending nine hours of filing and awkwardly calling patients to remind them of their appointments makes me groan on Monday nights (like tonight). But when I get there it isn't really that bad. Plus, I get paid pretty well for someone of my age.

I'm pretty freakin' excited for Wednesday night because I am meeting up with a few of my girlfriends for SUSHI! I love sushi even though I have only ever had it once, and I think eating it with friends will make the experience really fun. After sushi I will go home and prepare for Thursday: the day of all days (line taken from gilmore girls. I'm a fan...yay).

Now I believe that most of the cupcakes on this page are aware of my nerdfighter status and I have surely mentioned John and Hank Green before on my blog. Well, I have planned for Grace, Alexa (I've mentioned them before, too), and I to go to a Will Grayson, Will Grayson event in Washington, D.C. I am more excited then I may appear to others because I don't think it has hit me yet. I don't think I have the "appointment" written into my mental schedule that I am meeting my writing/vlogging/comedic/nerdfighter hero. I am going to have to make small talk with the reason I write this blog you read before you. I am going to have the signature of half of my top subscription on YouTube enscribed onto the title page of my copy of WGWG by that half. I am going to sense before me the wittiest writer I have ever had the deepest honorable privelage to read the writings of. I am going to meet John Green. I have to process all of that and it's not easy.

David Levithan will be there also. I am worried that he will...i don't know...have hurt feelings when we give the planned gifts to John at the gathering. We're going to talk to him about various nerdfighter things I think. I haven't read any of David's books except WGWG so I don't really know what to say to him. I liked his idea for this novel. I liked his characterization with his Will Grayson. But I don't know how to tel him that without him noticing how fangirly we are going to be around John. Yeah well like the title says, I hope it turns out well.

Finishing off on a trivial, girly note: I made my first MAC purchase! I bought the Opulash mascara and the MAC lipglass in "cultured." Ok enough of all this nonsense.

My plans for Friday will be explained in detail in another subsequent post. I want the plans to go through well before I plug it too much :).

*Even though I blab about John Green I put a picture of Ben Folds in this post. Aren't I a silly little tike? (after typing that I put the picture of John in. Ha, ha.)

It All makes Sense at the End

I must write this quickly because my mom needs the laptop and I have algebra homework to do.

I am nearing the end of my eighth grade year at the school I have been attending since age five. It has been the only school environment that I have been directly exposed to. I have met almost all of the best friends I have at this school. I have learned every academic thing that I know from this school. Everything I know about religion I have learned from this school (other than church of course). I know the name of everyone in my eighth grade class. I could probably name all of the teachers (well except the ones that have changed recently and have obscure names), and all of the teachers that I have ever had. So I guess by now you get that I am completely accustomed to the school I go to and I am coming down the home-stretch on a lot of change all at once.

I'm still getting my head around not anticipating which teacher I have for homeroom or knowing exactly what i need for school supplies because it has been the same for nine years. I'm probably going to have the majority of my classes with people that I don't know at all. All I'm saying is that it has been the same thing every year: the same building, people, teachers, rules and everything. This means that I am going to have to undergo a lot of change and I am kind of overwhelmed.

I'm going to have to make new friends! I am excited about it but I'm worried. I'm not as outgoing around people I don't as I am around the people I'm most used to be around. I'm worried that I won't know what to say and they'll watch me stutter and run away snickering! I usually don't care what people think of me, but the only people I've ever interacted with are the people I have been with since kindergarten. They have had time to make their opinions and I don't care what they think about me. But I don't like being judged by strangers and I'm afraid people at school won't get me.

I have really come to know who I am in middle school and my best friends have adjusted. I have adjusted to their changes too and it has taught me a lot about myself as well as interacting with other kids.

I know I have to remember that the other kids are just as embarrassed and nervous and unknowing as I am. I just wish that it could be as easy as filling out one of those Internet profiles where they ask you what kind of music, TV, movies, and books and stuff you're into. I'm definately more confident in writing as I am in real conversation.

And I don't if I'm even ready for the three honors classes I'm taking. I trust that my school has prepared me for the academic challenges of high school because my school is a VERY good school. I think I just need to relax and have confidence in myself. I'll just be myself and try my hardest.

I'm still nervous though.

Thanks for reading my nervous rant, cupcakes!

See you guys later!!!

Rachel

I do the best imitation of myself.

So I had a strange experience today and through the whole thing, I kep thinking that I've got to blog about this.

So today is my brother's 17th birthday. He got car stereo speakers to go with his sub-woofer he got for christmas, but that is beside the point.
My uncle got us a gift certificate to a restaurant called Fogo de Chao. It is a Brazilian steakhouse and it was quite an experience.
First, I think I should explain how you order there. There is a glorious salad bar there and you can go back to it as many times as you want. It was very good. But the interesting part is how you have small flags on your table, one side being green and the other red. When the red side is up, that tells the waiters that you are not ready for any more meat. When the green side is up, the waiters wearing funky pirate esque pants and boots come around with delicious looking scewers of different types of meat. They just come up to you and ask you, "Would you like some special surloin tonight, ma'am?" or "Some filet mignion wrapped in bacon, ma'am?" And you would tell them if you wanted any and how you want it done. Then when the begin to cut, you take the tongs they supply you with at the beginning of the meal to get your mmeat off the scewer.
The service at this restaurant was unbelievably fast. We were in the place at seven and out by thirty-five minutes after seven. They bring you side dishes of mashed potatoes, fried polenta, and fried plantains, and they keep 'em coming. Every time you sample more meat and you have covered you plate with the leftover juices from the succulent entrees, they ask you "Would you like a fresh plate, ma'am?" And they keep your utensils and plates clean and it was just so fabulous!

My favorite meats were the garlic steak and the special sirloin. The quality of the meats were absolutely exquisite. My entire family was full by the end of the meal.

But here's the punch line. My mom put a hold on the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I told my mom at dinner that I was worried that Fogo de Chao would become my favorite restaurant and then I would read the book. The book is here with us and I plan on reading it tomorrow. I saw on the Ellen Degeneres show that the things you learn from this book make up a long list. I'm guessing from the snippets I heard on the show that it's all about eating the healthiest possible and informing the reader about the conditions of meat processing plants and farms and that sort of thing. I am really interested in reading it. I kind of want to become a vegetarian but I don't really have the motivation and attention span to do that on my own. So I'm eager to read this book because i think it might scare me into becoming a veggie.

Two of my friends are for the most part vegetarians (meaning they are as much of vegetarians as eighth graders can be). And I think ti would be cool to do as well. I have been trying to eat healthier lately and possibly get to a healthier weight and do my best in the sports i play. I think this might help a lot. If any of you have read the book please let me know. Let me know what you thought of it. I would like to know what you think.

Now, I thank you for your time and I will spare you any more of my life.
Goodbye, cupcakes!!!

Hot Diggity!

Greetings my fair cupcakes. I really have no idea why I address cupcakes in my blogs, but you know, you have to do what you have to do.

I hope everyone out there had a blessed Good Friday. It was absolutely gorgeous here and it was a very pleasant day. I spent time with my mom while my brother and da went golfing.

I got pictures printed of all of my friends and I was very excited to get them in the mail! Some of them are really hysterical. I made a photo wall a couple weeks back next to my bed in my room and I'm excited to fill it out more. A lot of the pictures I used were from the same event or whatever and I need to change some.

Well, it seems that my friend Jennie is going on vacation the day we are going to the Paramore concert so I have to get people to go.

Um...I don't really have anything else to say.

I promise a better post later.
BYE!!

That Thing Called Happiness

Right at this moment I find myself to be very happy, and it feels amazing.
I think it must be because I'm listening to Ben Folds and no matter what he is singing about, it's always happy music. And music in general makes me happy.

I take a good look at myself and my situation and I realize that I think I'm at a good part of my life. There isn't anything that I have to worry about and I can just hang around and be happy.

I have already taken care of getting into high school so that is out of the way. I'm on spring break and I can relax for a week and a half. And I have about forty days of my middle school career left. Right now I am listening to new, happy music (my two favorite kinds of music in one) so I'm diggin' it. This may be just an overwhelming mental realization that I don't have school tomorrow and I can sleep in as long as I want and read, write, or listen to music as much as I want.

Moving past a long far-fetched discussion of my current mood, I am extremely looking forward to the night of July 31, 2010. Not only is this day Harry Potter and Joann Rowling's birthday it is also the day that my best friend and I are going to see Paramore on the Honda Civic tour! The night should be quite enjoyable. Paramore's music is so fun, meaningful, beautiful, and clever and I am so stoked.

But here's the big one. On August 11, 2010, two of my other best friends and I are going to see the band that pulled us together six years ago. We're going to see Green Day in Washington, D.C. I know that I have mentioned it before (ha, ha maybe a couple of times) that we went last summer and it was amazing. It was the perfect pilgrimage to our friendship's origin. There are only about a million reasons that we should go see them again within a little over a year.
Even though the event was perfect, there was something that I would want to change. Last time I experienced almost the entire thing through medium of a video camera. I hate myself for doing it so this time I'm leaving the camera at home. I am so frickin' excited and I can't wait for April 7th when we order the tickets. We have a big bash, if you will, planned for when we do. AHHH!! Can't wait!!

Well I should get going but before I do I must make a shameless plug.
I made a blog on wordpress.com for creative writing.
it is at www.rachelclev.wordpress.com. I have not posted anything yet but I will as soon as I can get creative juices flowing!
Ok goodbye cupcakes!

Medora!!

HEY!
I'm posting really quickly to tell you about a band that my friends Jennie, Eric, Jake and their friend Alex have started called Medora. I think they are really awesome. Eric is sick on drums, jake wails and melts faces on guitar, Alex busts guts, and Jennie has a rockin' voice.
You can check them out at : www.medora-music.webs.com
And we are working on the facebook fan page.

Our friend Brent and I are helping them out by updating the web pages and stuff.
The websites make me really excited about helping them out because they are awesome.

The band has auditioned for the variety show at our school and they got in!! Everyone's excited about it and we would really appreciate it if you would check the band out.

THANKS!!!

USA! USA!

It’s that time again. The time where the whole world comes together to celebrate union, victory, and athleticism. The time that instills patriotism and enthusiasm for one’s country.

Well that’s what happens to me at least.

I was watching the opening ceremony and I just thought it was so cool that we have the Olympics. It’s a pretty cool thing when you think about the concept. All of the countries (well, 82 of them) coming together to celebrate each nation’s awesome athletes.

I can’t really explain how happy I was watching all of the teams march in. I liked reading the statistics and hearing them introduce the flag bearer and stuff. I just thought it was really awesome how all of the world comes together to kick the other countries’ behinds.

Anyway, I watched the women’s moguls yesterday and it was awesome when Hannah Kearney won gold. I was happy for her. Those mogul skiers go so fast! It’s unbelievable! And so many of them have surgery on their knees all of the time! It makes my legs hurt just thinking about it.

The whole point of this blog post is to talk about how much I like the Olympics.

Ok! See you some time in the future! whether I will see you in the near or distant future I do not know but I will see you!

P.S. High school decision letters are mailed on Tuesday!!!!