Okay the people on CNN need to learn how to pronounce stuff. The main anchor is mispronouncing Saddam Huisein's name (or maybe the rest of the world has been mispronouncing it for the last 12 years) and now some woman just called Dobby, the little dude from Harry Potter, 'Dobey'. Like, with a long 'O'.

What the hell?

Anyway, the last two days have just been crazy. If you've read Britt's diary, then you know about the car accident. Wow. Talk about scary. For a fraction of a second, I thought that van was going to hit me, but Britt managed to give the car a bit of gas to get us forward and/or the van turned a little so we were hit just above Britt's rear tire.

Okay, computer's slowing down again so...I no longer take responsibility for typos in this entry.

The last two days have been a little...weird at school. Rebecca is acting as though little/nothing has changed between us. I know she said she still wanted to be friends but...gah. Enough angst over that. I'm over it. Really.

Though according to Marion, apparently Rebecca is interested in dating some guy. Well, he's welcome to her.

Wow. That sounds bitterer than I meant it to be. I really have no problem with Rebecca being interested in some guy, at least not as long as I don't know who he is. I find out he's an asshole and I'll question REbecca's sanity (more than I already am. I mean, she gave me up ;-). Anyway, what I mean is...she wants to go date someone else. Fine. She's welcome to. I just wish I'd found out about this from her, rather than Marion five minutes before I needed to perform in my fainl round at forensics.

The Coalitions secret weapon against Iraq: women on the front lines share their war stories. The HEadline News caption? Girl Power! ~sheakes head~ Can I kill them? Please? HOw about hurt them. Just a little?

Okay. Forensics. Wow. The team did great. My highlight of the day is Jake winning first place in DI 9?10!!!! I mean, he didn't have much competition (Marian and one other girl), and I don't know how good either of them are (Marian hasn't performed for me for awhile), but it's so cool that he got 1st. He's the only one on the team that did.

Everybody on the team but Nicole ( :-( ) at least has a possibility of advancing. Jenny and Angel are alternates to be called in if one of the first three people in their category can't make it to regionals for whatever reason.

Somehow I managed to score 3rd place. I really don't get it. I was memorizing my piece as I sat in my rounds and never gave a perfect performance. I was on the right track in my final round...but was so focused on remember a passage I dropped the first two rounds (about love being a man. I wonder why that was giving me a hard time ;-) that I forgot what led up to it. I remembered some of it later but...to this moment the rest of it eludes me.

I was only competing against three other people. Two were from Holland I was performing with them, almost neck and neck, all year last year. Their winning first and second didn't surprise me at all.

the third was some girl from Grandville. I've enver seen her before (she's in Impromptu last year). I don't really know how I beat her. I probably had the better piece, quality of literature wise, and my delivery was better but...she knew her piece. But she also had a thick and inconsistent Russiann accent, making her hard to understand sometimes. ~shrug~ I don't know. But in one round, I somehow beat either Shutavia or Melissa (the HOlland girls), since I got a 2/97. The judge must have hated us all since the lowest 2 score I've ever seen was a 2/98. Still, I don't know how I beat those two, since their performances were flawless. Maybe the judge just didn't like Shakespeare (Melissa is doing Shakespeare's "The RApe of Lucreice", or howeverthehell you spell it). Who knows. Who cares? I"M GOING TO REGIONALS!!!

I was so sure that I was screwed and wasn't going any farther. When they announced that the alternate was from Grandville High School, I about passed out. My brain just couldn't comprehend how someone who'd been almost perfectly memorized (she tripped a couple of times in her intro) lost overall to me.

Bah. I need to get something worked out for Saturday's competition at Kenowa Hills. I don't know if I just want to polish this piece (somebody else is doing it as well) or if I want to work on pulling another piece (this time on a theme) together. I think my theme might be 'freedom' this time around, since I have two fun poems about it, and Ms. Forner wants me to try a more global theme this year, especially with the state of world affairs.

The freedom I'd be talking about wouldn't be huge or deep. One poem is called "Is there Life After Feminism? (Or, how to wear boots and still be politically incorrect)," about a woman who likes to wear boots (she can single handedly bring down a rapist and, if she wants, go to bed in boots). She loves and hugs her husband and son, while she sends her daughter radical feminist literature. She hugs her gay friends without apologizing for being straight; she hugs her friends of color without apologizing for being white. She waers a dress when visiting her mother, and sometimes wears mascara and lipstick, then tells the audience to spare her the lectures 'cause no one can say whose answer is the correct one. The last stanza probably fits me best though: when she's wearing boots, she knows who she is and, more importantly, "Everyone knows who I am. Watch out!" ~giggle~ Anyone who's heard me walk through an empty hallway knows how true that one is.

The other poem is called "Belly Dancer" or "Belly Dancing" and it's about a woman who takes pride in and relishes her belly dancing, and notices how so many other women seem almost afraid of taking up the hobby, because they're not comfortable in their bodies. It sounds cool, and definitely opens up some interesting blocking opportunities (while the first one gives me good costuming opportunities: mini skirts and go-go boots! Oh yeah!)

Okay. Contacts going blurry. Bah. I think I need to go to bed so I can be sure to get up in the morning and tell everyone on the forensics team (that I'll see. A bunch of people left early for the Collage concert. I blatantly skipped ~evil laugh~) the good news about who's going on.

How the Hell do I get to be included in that group?

Tomorrow will be my first play rehearsal. Yea! But Forner's gonna make me miss about the first half hour of the rehearsal 'cause she refuses to let us have our team meeting during Seminar. Gah!!! She keeps saying we (the forensic team members in the play) have to prioritize, but she's not giving us the chance? Josh and I are playing friggin' leads in this show. We have to start showing up to rehearsal! Okay. So we've only missed one so far. But it's still frustrating!

Ooh, I think the bruise on my arm is finally beginning to show. Or maybe it's a weird shadow. Hm... (My arm got bumped yesterday in the accident pretty hard. I was looking forward to a huge nasty bruise there. So far it only hurts if I touch it, but now there's a little dark spot there...stupid bad famil7y room lighting!)

Going to bed now. Really.

Gah! Wait. Okay, for everyone who's read GEOGRAPHY CLUB, go to Brent Hartinger's website. God I hope I spelled that correctly. Anyway, Sharyn hooked me up with that. I haven't actually checked it out yet, but that'd be because when I've been home the last two days, Mom's been hogging the computer.

Oh! And I found out my aunt Laura (the crazy one who's had all the plastic surgery and tattooed makeup) is getting married on Good Friday. I want to know what kind of Catholic gets married on a semi-major church holiday. But the woman is insane so...whatever.

I also know that because she's going on a Honeymoon that's at least a month long she's gonna miss my play ~sigh~. But I need to go see two of my cousins perform in 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' in a few weeks. One is playing Charlie Brown, and the other is Linus. I don't know either of these guys very well, and I don't really want to go see them 'cause niether of their families have ever come to see one of my plays but..gah. I hate families. They're crutches!!!

Really going to bed now.

--Angela

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