V Festival; Day One!

Hello!



As mentioned yesterday in my blog, the past weekend I went to something called V Festival, which is a fairly big music festival over in the UK...And, considering this is actually an important event in my life as apposed to my usual topics of school work and bying CDs, I thought at least some of you might want to hear about it, right? Well, if you do or you don't, I must record this for "later reference", so, enjoy...?



We'd expected the traffic to be a problem on Saturday, so we had to leave a little earlier than I would have hoped. But unfortunately the roads turned out to have no problems at all, considering the campers had already set up Friday night. We were lead into the wrong car park for our tickets, and then walked to the first gate, two hours before we'd actually be let inside the arena.



With plenty of time to burn, we thought we'd walk all the way over to red campsite(We had to get camping tickets, though my mom didn't want to camp), mainly so she could complain how unkempt everyone else looked. It was huge, the campsite, and no matter how far back you looked you couldn't really see an end to it, which must've been a problem for the people in the very middle. In typical festival style there was a line of ten or fifteen tents selling, most commonly, boots, stripy socks, gloves, hates, and sunglasses. I got a pair of big green glasses, the ones with the bars across, before we walked to our closest gate, gate Six, and waited in line. As mentioned yesterday, we were there with a few friends--Under the names of C, G, and B, who came with their mom, step-son, and a couple of friends--J, and A--and their mom. (Disregard the names, as I'm guessing they ll be of no use whatsoever.) Deciding to meet up at this point was a huge mistake, and it turns out they were at Gate Three, the exact other end of the park.



For about an hour we stood, squished up around two or three hundred other people. We'd bought a timetable of who was playing where--Several cards on a string, designed to hang around a person's neck, which wasn't a terribly good style. We were eventually let inside at about 11:50, and we walked with the flow of the people, which turned out to be partly towards the bar, and partly towards the main stage.



McFly was the first band playing at the main stage. Surprising, considering the average McFly fan is too young for their parents to let them go to the festival. But our currently un-found friends wanted to see them, and we'd got to the 5th row, which was pretty cool. After setting up all the cameras and things(Some of the festival is aired on TV), they finally came on at 12:15. After the first song, the singer(Tom, I think his name is), thought the best way to open was "Hi. How are you?", and then the guitarist deemed that too boring and said "I think the real question is how many people are going to contract a sexually transmitted disease this weekend".Um.They played a half-hour run of mostly awful pop songs, including Star Girl, Lie, It's All About you, and a Beastie Boys cover(Yes, I can dislike a band and still know nearly all the song titles), before randomly bringing out two giant inflatable balloons, throwing them into the audience, announcing that we're "all touching McFly's balls", and ending with Five Colours In her Hair.



All the fifteen year old McFly fans in way too much mascara backed out and I moved forward to 2nd row. Starsailor were playing next, and I found out I was at least 20 years younger than their rest of their fans that day. Because they were early on in the day it was only a fifteen minute wait to set-up. They were actually fairly good live, and I liked the singer's jacket. They played Tell Me it's Not Over, , Four To The Floor, Alcoholic(Afterwards the singer--Who's name I've forgotten--Looks into the audience, Laughs and says "I never thought I'd see anyone crowd-surfing to Alcoholic. Well done to that girl."), You Never Get What You Deserve, Hurts Too Much, a couple older songs I didn't know, before ending with Good Souls.

During a far too short half hour of them, we'd got a text from our friends' mother explaining where she was located, as she didn't want to go into the crowd, something along the lines of "We're between the main stage and the Union tent". Since 11:50, four or five thousand people were now just sitting down around the main stage, and under her basic instructions there were a few problems. But several panicky texts later, and their mom dragged one of her children--"C"--out of the crowd, and we finally met, and were taken back to their picnic set up few hundred meters way from where we were standing for Starsailor, for cupcakes and orange juice, while watching Taylor Swift play a few songs on the stage(You Belong With Me, Our Song, Love Story, etc.). A man next to us started talking about The Killers, and after their mom offered him a snack we'd presumed it was the step-son we've never actually met. Turns out it was just a random stranger and his girlfriend, who were quite keen on the same music as me.

After Love Song was played and an unhealthy amount of candy was consumed, me, my mom, and my friend walked around some of the stalls before going to check out the 2nd stage. Other than "the God Shop", these were all more or less the same places with different names, selling the same strange rubbish, including a few places selling tutus. We got to the stage to hear the Noisettes play a couple of songs. Other than their singer having an amazing voice, she does have a lot of stage presence, even if we were too far away to experience the full effect of it. They ended with Don't Upset The Rhythm--The only song by them that most people know--and after that we walked back to our picnic set-up, and got to see G for the first time that day.

The Script were about to start when we got in line to about the 15th row. This was a very similar audience to Taylor Swift for the most part. the three band members came on slowly, one at a time, and opened with Talk You Down. They later played Break Even, Rusty Halo, We Cry, The End Where I Begin, and the Man Who Can't Be Moved. Singer Danny O''Something Irish' had by the time of that song regained his confidence from a previous incident of nearly falling over on camera("Sorry", he says "I was just having a drink with our drummer". Good on ya, Danny, that's how we demolish stereotypes!), and gave an absolutely amazing performance. He seemed genuinely awe-struck when he didn't even have to sing, but simply listen to several thousand people sing every single word back to him.


We'd moved up to forth row for Lily Allen, somehow. At this point everyone was pushing against each other a lot and several people backed out. By this time backdrops were getting somewhat more elaborate, and she had giant models of the letters in her name behind her. A huge fuss seems to be made nowadays about what female musicians wear on stage, as if Lady GaGa doesn't keep people occupied enough from that standpoint, so if you're interested; Black tank top, gray short-shorts, black sunglasses, huge black heels. Nothing too fancy. She did take her glasses off, revealing a random blue stripe across her forehead. Between announcing the latest cricket scores and taking out a cigarette(And lighting it. How typically fake and annoying and same as always), she played Littlest Things, The Fear, Not Fair, 22, Every one's At It, He Wasn't There, Fuck You, Smile, and LDN. That's the best thing about pop songs such as hers; You can fit in a lot into a fairly short time-space relative to what these artists normally get.

After this mass chaos ins sued. I thought it was time to finally face those notoriously disgusting festival toilets, so while my friend went to get a snack, I spent 20 minutes in a line. They did of course live up to expectations, but this wasn't the problem. This happened when trying to get back into the crowd. I couldn't see my mom's head from where I was, so blindly maneuvered myself back in.This would not have been a problem any other time in the day, but The Specials were up next, and their fans are late-20s drunk party animals who I simply couldn't work my way into. I tried a couple of times and failed, still looking for my mom. I walked back to our picnic area, thinking she might've just walked out. I got my friend back into the crowd to help look as he's considerably taller than I am. He thought it was a good idea for him to brave the toilet ques, and by this time The Specials were just starting. I was starting to panic, as at this point I had no one to rely on. I kept looking back into the crowd three or four times, before actually seeing her, looking for me. She'd deemed the crowd too unmanageable--It wouldn't be once inside, and we'd just lost our place, so understandably I was rather annoyed at this point.

We somehow made it back to what seemed to be the 20th row to watch the end of their act. I was trying to get a better place in line by waiting through, but let me tell you, they were terrible. Every single song sounded exactly the same, and people were very drunk indeed. Part way through my friend's brother and sister--Previously mentioned as B and G--worked their way through to find us, as they'd just got back from watching N-Dubz on the 2nd stage.

We'd moved forward to the 5th row for the next act; Razorlight. At this time I hadn't properly sat down for about five hours. Maybe it means I'm unfit or something, but my legs and back were really hurting at this point, and that was the longest set-up wait of the night. I wasted time by listening to my friend's stories of mosh pit mayhem during The Wombats, who I'd have loved to had seen, and sending texts into the festival's number(They have two screens on the sides of the stage and sometimes the texts get through. Most of which consist of inside jokes, drunken marriage proposals, and "Scream if you love V"!!). The man next to me said to B he'd seen The Killers five times that year, which made me jealous even though it's not like I've done/own few things when it comes to them. The band themselves were actually quite good live, and I do like them, but I was just eager for them to get off most of the time...But they did play Somewhere Else, In The Morning, America, Wire To Wire, and North London trash, among others I didn't know. Tabloid Lover is so unbelievably underrated. That would have been great live!

I moved up one row for the one and only, The Killers, but I did get the six and a half foot gentlemen in front of me to move out of the way, at least partly. Everyone was really pushed up tightly against each other at this time, all of course desperate to get to the very front, which caused quite a lot of madness during the concert. Said tall person and the girl next to him started arguing, while a couple beside me with strange west country accents basically broke up(Go 'ome then, I warna see tha killerrrrrs" she says repeatedly, almost unbearably), and two people behind me were apparently looking for their friend. One of them looks to the left, the other looks to the right, and then is followed by screams of "Oh my god, I thought I'd lost you". Wow. Strange.

It was such a relief for them to finally come on. It was totally dark by now, so I was looking forward to a good ol' Killers light show. This isn't, of course, my first Killers show, look back to January 27th and May 10th if you want to see the excruciating details of this. It was pretty similar, except for some reason they'd brought on a giant plastic cactus. Boys, it might have worked during Sam's Town, but it looks really cheap and tacky now. Brandon came on in the usual attire, plus the traditional feather-shouldered jacket, looking as marvelous as ever. I guess he'd have worn some 'liner for the camera too, always a bonus. Mark looked exactly the same. He's strange in that, since the beginning of the band, he's neither changed in weight, aged, changed his hair, or shaved or grown the beard very much at all. Ronnie looked the same as always--Terrible. Don't gel your hair back! Get rid of the mustache, it's worse than the My Name Is Earl one from several years back! And Dave, who I'd had the best view of, seemed to be no longer bothering with wearing a shirt under his waistcoat--A bad idea, considering the weight he's quite clearly gained. They played Human, Spaceman, A Dustland Fairytale, The World We Live In, Joy Ride, This is Your Life, Mr Brightside(Unbelievable live!), Jenny Was a Friend Of Mine, All These Things That I've Done, Somebody Told Me, a piano-based Smile Like You Mean it, For reasons Unknown, Read My Mind, Bones, Shadowplay, and closed with When You Were Young("Are you ready to receive this as hard as possible?" screams Brandon beforehand).

So, they ended amazing as always, and we tried to work our way through what had become an ocean of empty beer bottles. Me and my friend got separated from my mom and other friend, and spent a very long time trying to find his mom. In the dark. It took a long time, but we eventually found them, and it was amazing to sit down. Also, one of my favorite conversations in my life took place

Friend; Hey
His Mom; Hey. Where's your brother and Naomi's mom?
Friend; He took his shirt off.
Mom; Why is he naked?!
Friend; He took his shirt off.
Mom; Just wondering, Naomi, but did you mother take off her shirt too?

Well, anything can make you laugh at that point. They did eventually find us, my mother with all her clothes still on her. We parted with them once we finally got through to the cars, waited for half an hour to get out, and were home by one in the morning. It was amazing.

Stay "tuned" tomorrow for part two!

I Waste My Summer On My Grandparent's Computer

Hey guys...So, I actually have some time to do a post today, even if it is rather short and badly written. my mom isn't totally okay with the idea of me wasting my time online. She says I'm only allowed to go on a couple of blogs, my e-mail, and the Victims. Nothing else. But it's better than nothing, right?





The plane ride was good in comparison to some. I had pizza at the airport and watch an AirLingus flight to Ireland go out. my flight had a short delay at first due to some engine problem, but it was good 'cause when we set off it was totally dark and you got to see all the lights of Boston and it looked really cool. And, of course, when we landed we got to see the 'patchwork quilt' of England's fields. I watched The Simpsons, Top Gear, that sort of thing...The TV wasn't that great, to be honest.





We landed at about eight in the morning, local time, on Tuesday. Heathrow is such a cool place, and I don't know why...it's pretty crazy, which is almost certainly why I like it. We got a taxi to my grandparent's house after that. The taxi driver talked to my mom about swine flu, and then turned up the bad pop station for the rest of the journey once he realised we were in no mood to talk.. I slept for most of the day after that, and watched Dave(The world's greatest TV channel) in the evening.





Wednesday morning was rather slow. I finished john Green's Paper Towns, which I read in about four days. It's really good, I guess I'd recommend it. And I read my ten pages of A Connecticut Yankee. I'm having trouble with some bits of it, though I vaguely understand what's going on dome of the time. After lunch we walked to the local store down the road to get some things for my grandparents(And the cashier guy argued with his friend whether the man on the cover of my mom's magazine was Brad Pitt or not, despite his name also being printed on the cover) After that we got the key to my aunt's house. She moved to Switzerland a few months ago, but rents out her house. It's empty at the moment, so we got to stay there. There's this really pretty road we drive down where you're basically in the middle of a field, and you Can see really far up the road and the hill. I'll take a picture sometime. In general my aunt lives in a pretty area. We unpacked our stuff there, went searching for the non-existent computer, found a rowing machine, discovered the TV couldn't get Dave, and went out to Tescos, which is the main supermarket in the UK. So, we went in to the local one. But it was no ordinary Tescos, no, it was...A two-story Tescos. Oh my god, that's so awesome, right?! It was. We got a lot of food, most of which we could probably live without(the idea of me being able to live without Muller Corner yoghurts is questionable to some) and went up them shopping trolley-accessible ramp a few times.



Oh, and one thing, guess what I saw there? Someone in an Abercrombie t-shirt. What is this country coming to?!





Thursday morning we went into the center of town to find my sister a new bathing suit, which was remarkably hard. UK town centers make no sense. And, my sister was rather picky about it. We looked through about ten shops, before finding a suitable style in a suitable color, and suitable shape. Suitable being about one in thousand bathing suits. After lunch we went to the swimming pool in town. it's not exactly the best pool in the world, but going there is sort of a tradition for us. But it has a slide, and a fast-flowing bit where you get pushed around. And, for the record, I had a Slushy there, and the ice-to-juice ratio was totally, completely, utterly wrong! Hehe...I got to see a new episode of my favorite TV show, Mock The Week, that night, and a new episode of my 2nd favorite TV show, Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Both were absolutely hilarious.



As for today, we came to visit my grandparents house in the morning, and in the afternoon went to the center of their town to get some stuff. I got the new Starsailor Cd, the new Lily Allen CD, an Anthony Horowitz book, Guitar Hero On Tour; Decades, and a Killers t-shirt. It's pale blue with a rainbow palm tree on the front and "A Glorious Existence"(From joy Ride)written on the back.

Gotta go now. I hope you're all having a great summer, and if you're a friend, then sorry I can't talk more.

Three Days Until I'm Goin'

Hey guys,



How are we today?





I haven't actual talked about my life since Sunday, if you were to ignore Harry Potter. Unfortunately not much has been going on with me. My sister's friend comes round a lot and I'm stuck in my room, at least until I get the energy to get ready(Which can take an awfully long time). I spend my time listening to new music, guiltily watching shows on Disney Channel(It's not that I find them entertaining, more that I'm bored with most other things), and using my computer...Oh, and let's not forget, promising myself I'll practice piano later, which I keep forgetting to actually do. Yesterday me, my sister, and the friend went shopping for our school stuff. Doing it early is so much better. I quite enjoy the task, for some reason. I always spend too much time over it though. Does it really matter what color my pencil case is? Well, I guess it does to me(It's GREEN!). My sister was worse, however. She spent ten minutes--And forty dollars--On decorations for her new locker. All dark blue. I can't blame her, I too was quite excited at the concept of having my own locker to decorate. After a month or so she too will come to realise that putting pictures up causes people to stare(Particularly the animal pictures she intends to use), you will be carrying a pencil case so a thing for holding pencils there is unnecessary, the locker racks you buy will fall down under the weight of your books causing more chaos then before, and most importantly you don't have much time to make it all pretty anyway. But at least she's excited for school now! O h,and in the line at Staples I saw this little light thing on one of the cheap stands. And, it was called a "MrBrightside"! How awesome is that?



After that my sister and the friend made what they called "Raspberry Lemonade". Doesn't that defeat the purpose of it being lemonade, then? Today--Well, it's only the early afternoon--We went food shopping in the morning. It was my turn to do self-service, I love doing that. Later I think we're going to the center of town, getting more brace elastics from the orthodontist, and from the doctors these patches that are supposed to stop my travel sickness from happening on the plane. Yeah right, I'm too resilient for that--Which is quite unfortunate in situations such as this.



My copy of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee arrived from Amazon yesterday. I've read about thirty pages so far, a lot for my poor reading speed. I ordered another book, Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen also as I couldn't really chose one from the reading list. I skimmed through that but wasn't too impressed. The general plot sounds alright but the writing style isn't too good. Granted, I am finding some of Mark Twain's annoyingly long sentences difficult to understand, but when I do get my head around it it's very interesting. And it has a lot of history in it which is great for me.



I'm in what I've decided to label as a musical slump. By that, I mean I can't find much I like. Well, to be honest, that was a few days ago. I've been listening to a lot of Keane. Go watch the music video for Bedshaped. It's so sad, but also so good. My other favorite songs at the moment are Mayonnaise by Smashing Pumpkins, Zero by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Feel Good Drag by Anberlin, and....um...(Okay, I'll admit it) Poker Face by Lady GaGa. The thing is, I dislike Lady GaGa simply on principle. But Poker Face is good, a couple of days ago I even got the guts to buy it on iTunes. That's hard for me with a song like that. Now don't get any ideas from this! I dislike the other of her songs I've heard. Okay, so Boys Boys Boys mentions my favorite band and that's cool...And the 'I wanna take a ride on your disco stick' thing in Love Game is amusing in a 10-year-old-boy way. Still, I feel my musical tastes dropping by the minute. Maybe I should stop it, I don't know...Anyone got any music suggestions for me? Something underground, preferably, or at least to those I know.

Oh, and has anyone checked out the single of the week on iTunes? I never payed much attention to it, but I was bored this morning. It's Fireflies by Owl City. I liked it. I played it a lot in the car to Stop N Shop this morning. My mother did not like it, at all, but my sister did. She's got a thing for synthpop music. It's really catchy, but just so electronic it's beyond mainstream pop music.

Gah, I leave for England Monday...I don't wanna go yet, oddly. It's something I look forward to the whole year. I need to get a load of music before then, I've realised, as I need to become familiar with the bands at the festival, and I won't be able to buy any songs until the end of August(I need to stop talking about music). And I wanna be able to read, and write, blogs. And I wanna be able to have my own space, something lacking when I'll be there.

Okay, enough of that. I'm gonna end this now, and return to my current universe of pop music, and long Mark Twain phrases I have to re-read to make sense of.

And My Plan Is Shattered(And Confusing Nothingess)

I didn't blog yesterday, and thus my 'Blog Every Day During The Summer When Possible' plan is shattered. It was gonna happen. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. I don't wanna spend 30 minutes to write the same things here every day. And more than that, no one wants to read it. Who wants to read my blog normally, for that matter?





Having to blog every day is almost as annoying as mosquitoes in the summer(Have you seen that Family Guy sketch?). Well, mosquitoes at the moment. Somehow my parents don't consider fixing the mosquito nets so there are no holes to be a top priority so we do have a problem with them. Clearly more importantly, we go out and look at lights and fireplaces and paint colors. That's what we did today. Due to a series of, er, unfortunate events, my sister's best friend and her younger brother had to come round yesterday, and stay the night. I feel I should do the part here of describing how mind-bogglingly annoying they were today, that's what most would do in this situation. But they're actually really easy to deal with. That's good because they have to come around here a lot at the moment.





Yesterday(Flicking between topics here, at this moment, sorry) me and my mom went into town on the hunt for the Mark Twain book I must read. The book store had just about every else he'd ever written. We found my sister's book, though, and now we've ordered the book I need which will hopefully arrive by Wednesday, and if not I'm screwed as far as the possibility of finishing it by September 3rd goes. I'm a slow reader, I know. My sister had spent the afternoon at her other best friend's summer house in New Hampshire, so there was a long couple of hours between picking up the previously mentioned friend and her brother and my sister coming home. I was in a sort of "Should I be entertaining them somehow until my sister gets back?" dilemma. She eventually came back, with half a pizza and three baby mice. They'd found them around their house--They were trying to get rid of the mice via poison, and the babies were all that were left. So they stayed the night, one dead by morning, the other by the afternoon, the third by the evening. They can't survive without their mother, really. They need her for warmth, and mouse milk(Have you ever milked a mouse? It's something I intend to do before I die) instead of the cow milk we were giving them. I got to hold one of them, but now all I can think of is the possibility I caught fleas or some sort of mouse disease .



My sister's friend left early this morning for a synchronised swimming thing. I woke up by the pleasant sound of my dad ripping up the carpets outside my bedroom, and spent the morning in my room, basically. In the afternoon we went out, as I'd said, shopping for stuff around our home. we decided on the light my parents want in their bedroom, among other things. Then we got ice cream--My dad's usual reward for an afternoon spent shopping. The thing with having an accent no one understands is the misunderstandings that come with them can be quite interesting. Unless this place's serving sizing were jaw-droppingly large, the guy must have thought my dad had said something other than the "Small" that he had asked for. I should've brought my camera and taken photos. Damn.

After we came home(And after I washed out the remains of mint chocolate chip ice cream dripped over my hands and wind-swept through my hair) my friend's 2nd friend--The one who gave her the mice--Came over. We had a mouse funeral and under the idea that the friend was upset over the mice, her and her younger sister got to stay. We washed the mouse's old cage and played a rule-less game of badminton(Unfortunately, I got stuck on the team with the youngest child under the idea my age might make me somehow better than everyone else. It doesn't work like that, at least for me). They left at about six. Then at about seven the mother of the first child(Who due to said circumstances had been away from the children for 24 hours) came and had dinner with us. Like parents do, they discussed the Tour De France, the weather, and most things in between. They did talk a lot about school since my sister and her daughter are starting middle school in September. It's weird, when I think about 6th grade...I always think "My sister seems too young for that". I think from being the oldest I just imagine my sister as younger than she is. I can't imagine her doing current events, doing her homework in homeroom, staying up all night finishing(Or, more commonly, starting) projects, or going to dances, or gossiping about the latest dating gossip. Though it's gonna happen. It's weird. Anyway, my mother has some sort of idea that I shall be taking the bus next year, too. It's stupid, yes, but I've always been driven to school by my mom. And now when she stays up all night listening to the songs I bought on iTunes and she's tired by the morning, she thinks she can just send me on the bus. Hm. I don't wake up early, for a start. And, I don't like the idea of sitting on a bumpy bus surrounded by so many annoying middle schoolers, even if it's not for very long. I guess as an 8th grader it's better than being a 6th grader and being slightly intimidated at first, but I just know I'd be up at the front with the little shorties anyway. There'll be a lot more discussion from that with my mother in the near future.

Well, that was ten times as long as it needed to be. Back to nothing. Bye!

July 5th 2009

Okay, prize for the most uncreative blog title in the world goes to me, you know...



To be honest with you, Ive put no thought into what into what I'm gonna write here. And, to be even more honest with you, I'm kinda looking forward to those few weeks in England when I can't blog. I swear I haven't 'gone off' blogging, but I've been doing about every-other-day blogging since...well, I think it was just before Christmas. A break from the things we love reminds us of how much we love them, right?



The weather's finally been getting nice, after days of rain upon rain upon rain. Today was beautiful actually....I think after two years, I'm finally getting used to the weather in this country. I can actually stay outside for more than five minutes now without feeling like I'm dying in the heat. Well, that's one season down; I still hate the winters. The thing about being English is a ground-in dislike of 95% of all the weather you will ever get. We beg for snow and when it comes there's not enough of it, when we get enough snow it's too cold, when it's summer it's too hot, etc. But, let's move on...



Today has been just kind of slow. I'm in the habit of waking up really late(Even if I don't go to bed late) which wastes so much use able time. The morning was spent in a 'heated discussion' with just about every member of my family. It all started over my sister on Animal Crossing, but I actually can't remember what happened after that that caused such an argument. In the afternoon we made smoothies made of pineapple, mango, and passion fruit. wW have a 10-page book of smoothie recipes, and it seems my sister just picked out the first she saw for no reason. Turns out she doesn't like mang at all, or passion fruit that much. I'm also not a big fan of either fruits, but it still tasted alright. And we made Cinnamon buns--Not real ones, my family's too lazy for that, the Pillsbury all-you-have-to-do-is-cook-them ones. Those things taste surprisingly good, most things that are packaged to last normally taste bad. Oh, and I finally found my tennis racket that I've been looking for for weeks. It was way at the back of the basement, by the pieces of wood with nails sticking out of it, broken bags of beans for the beanbags, and plastic pieces of food we had to play with when me and my sister were, like, three.



As far as the last few days have gone, nothing has happened. Again, thanks to me and my whole family waking up far later than we should. Yesterday we went on a wild goose chase for a rug. But, it wasn't anything like Target or Sears , we had to drive an hour to a place, which is both expensive, and has a very limited range. So, it was too bad it was closed for the weekend, right? They could have at least said so on the website. And, yeah, I know it's July 4th weekend, but some shops are open so it's hard to find out. Then we were dragged around Lowe's to look at lights, me and my sister singing Best of You by Foo Fighters most of the time because we were bored. I'll be so over-joyed when the whole house is finally completed. The last people left it in a terrible state, not just falling to bits, but the decoration was awful. I'd heard they had a large family of teenage guys, but the wallpaper was horribly, unbearably feminine...Pink, and frilly, and lacy, and the kitchen even had pears and stuff on the wallpaper. One's decoration does say a lot about about the person(As the furniture commercials claim), and I can imagine the previous family being the creepy, anti-social, unnaturally-intelligent but insane family you tend to avoid just 'cause it feels right. We're fixing that(but I daresay our reputation isn't much better) but it is quite annoying, Knowing my dad however, as soon as the house is complete he'll find something else to do. My father is the sort who comes home to paint the walls, not watch 'the game' like most.

I haven't done much else...Reading blogs, writing, sudoku, and other stuff. I can now say I completely know How To Save A Life on the piano. It's difficult at first, working out which parts the bridge comes into. I tried singing along earlier. I can't sing, but it was fun. I've been thinking what to learn next...Mr. Brightside looks a bit too difficult for me to learn right away, but Sam's Town looks at the right level. Either that, or I'm learning Starlight by Muse, or Yesterday by The Beatles.

Byee,

Lyla! If You Can't Hear Me Call Then I Can't Say, 'Lyla, Heaven'll Help You Catch Me If I Fall'

Title lyrics; Lyla by Oasis.



Sometime yesterday, my sister came up to me out-of-the-blue and asked "Could you do a thing on your blog about Lyla?" Lyla's my sister's hamster, and like any child with an animal she's totally obsessed with it. Though, I agreed, and here she is.

We got Lyla...Er, five or six weeks ago, I think. She's named Lyla because my sister's best friend's dog's name is Mila, so why not(I suppose)? She's a teddy bear hamster, which means she's larger than most other hamsters. She's quite young, from a litter of...four, I believe. I can't say I was paying much attention when we bought her. I have very little interest in animals, unlike most people...Lyla currently lives in her flimsy cage in our spare bedroom...Well, it's not so much a bedroom any more, as simply 'The Hamster Room' due to the space the thing 'needs' and it's terrible smell. It's first cage broke a few weeks ago...Hamsters are nocturnal, so she spends most of her time in a little space at the top of the cage, sleeping. The opening there has to be held down with a book in case she gets out, and she also sleeps under the tissue that's there for reasons I don't know. She's quite hyper for a hamster...Especially when she's in her ball thing. My sister's too scared to pick her up(And I'm sick of her biting me and peeing on the floors), and my sister's annoying baby talk, unconditionally-loving stuff gets really annoying. But, it's nice.

I'm sure my sister would prefer me to be far more complimentary, but I do get creative control on this...And, she doesn't know my blog URL, so she doesn't need to know what I say. xD

And, yeah, I don't really know why she wanted me to write about Lyla if she can't even read it. She probably thinks the hamster's gonna get famous; Right, from like fifteen subscribers who probably lost interest a very long time ago.

My day's been another 'fail'. My sister's friend(Surprisingly, not the one mentioned earlier about the dog) slept round last night. They basically obsessed over Lyla the whole time while I was left on AIM, listening to their relentless giggling. Today my sister had an orthodontist appointment this morning to get spacers before her braces on Wednesday. And later in that day I had to go back. They thought I needed spacers too, realised I didn't, took them out, and gave me new, stronger elastics that won't break after an hour of use. We also got to wander around the center of town after that. There's nothing to do in my town. I'm so far away from the center I can't even walk there(Unlike the two other middle schools in town, lucky them). my sister showed-off to her friend in a toy store by using all the little kids stuff...We spent, literally, half an hour there, half of which was spent by her friend deciding whether the things on her bracelet were gonna be sparkly or not. And we went to a candy store, they got bags of M&Ms and stuff and I got a blue raspberry slush(The sort that makes people go 'Stick out your tongue; It's blue!).

I'm done watching my new Family Guy DVD, writing, playing animal crossing, etc. for the day. I've been spending time using the wonder that is Facebook. Earlier I had a chat with a girl from my school in England. We barely talked then but, hey, it's still nice. Today I collected all my Killers memorabilia together and realised how little of it there is. The only size able part of it is the nine Killers t-shirts I own. I need more random junk(ten, once I go get the new one at Hot Topic this week)...Like, I dunno, I just feel like such a bad fan. Would you say so?

Today I've been listening to Foo Fighters, The Fratellis, The Zutons, and not much else. I haven't been in the mood for music much today.

See you,

1.5 Days Of 7th Grade Remain

Hello,

Ah, just 1.5 days left of 7th grade! Then I'll be *gasp* an 8th grader. Well, I don't know...I wouldn't classify myself as an 8th grader until September 3rd when we go back. But I guess I wouldn't be a 7th grader either. Oh well, at least school will be out for summer. Not that it feels like summer nowadays. Damn it, Massachusetts, can you do nothing right?

This week, of course, has been a very slow week. We had our last official academic classes on Monday, which involved reflections, making clay models, a fun quiz, and working on actual math work. Otherwise we've been moving between various special events, watching The Simpsons, stuff like that. It's been fun...Speaking of which, I kinda love The Simpsons right now. I've watched The Simpsons since before I could speak. I was the kid who'd take The Simpsons--Full of jokes I wouldn't understand for a long time--Over the Teletubbies, Sesame street, etc. Oddly, I haven't entirely become the illiterate, troubled child my relatives feared I'd be. Anyway, now I'm rambling(More than usual). We had our talent show yesterday! Talent shows are amazing, mostly due to the fact that the majority have no talent whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, I know it takes a lot to perform in front of hundreds of people... But, still. Two girls did the commentating between acts, and they were awful at it. First off, they were 6th graders. And while I've meet loads of really amazing 6th graders, the ones at my school at least are just...Unbearable, which is the Best aay for me to describe it. You know how you obsess over the idea of leaving elementary for such a long time, yeah? Well when you eventually get to 6th grade, all that anticipation makes you a bratty, dramatic child that 7th and 8th graders will probably hate. Most of the acts were off-tune singers(Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, The "It's Too Late To Apologize" song, the "Every time we touch I get this feeling" song, a couple of Indian songs, etc.), a few dancers in odd, matching outfits(Star Struck by Lady GaGa, and Just Dance by...yeah, Lady GaGa again), a few bands, and a guy with his Chinese Yoyo(He's in my homeroom, so I'd already seen it every day for a couple of months). Dominique--Her French name, not her real-- Was amazing, though. *applauds*. Yay for someone with actual talent!

Today involved similar, relaxed stuff. Watched The Simpsons first period, and took down my board outside the classroom with my "Year's best work". Second and third periods a girl's dad came in to talk about Islam. It was interesting, but it did you go on...And, he had about 15 slides of his presentation, which goes to show how much talking went on. And we sort of got hit, yet again with the impossible "Don't stereotype" message, which is always worth blogging about. Forth period I had Spanish...Our last 7th grade Spanish class, because I have gym instead tomorrow. Ah, how I'll miss it; The endless student-made speeches about conjugations, the lengthy clap-for-the-teacher sessions to waste time, the guys hiding behind my teacher's desk, the guys throwing tennis balls because the teacher is just that oblivious, the uses of "Fiestas" to waste a class, my teacher's actions showing she was about to have a nervous breakdown. Ah, yes, that's all something to miss. My teacher really isn't much of a party--Or, "Fiesta"--Person, so we drank the Coke and ate the chips left over from the last 8th grade class and watched Toy Story 2 in Spanish, while I sat at the table with a few girls obsessing over a music video on someones pink iTouch. Fun, I suppose. After lunch I had health. We played yet another game of "Relationship Bingo", which I got sick of after five or six plays. Surely, one can only put up with so much of silly games such as bingo. I ended up with a toffee that I literally just remembered I had, and am now licking and hoping it won't pull my braces out. For the last period and a half, we had to watch a 6th grade thing in the auditorium. The music classes had made their own music videos. You had a lot of "A day in the life of *school name" which involved shaky, almost sea sick-inducing camerawork and shots of people walking through hallways. A few made no sense at all. One was an excuse for a few boys to play Star Wars with wooden sticks('cause it's not like Adele has a stick just like it that that she hides behind the bookshelf in homeroom and fences with, right?). A few involved the elementary kids at recess...Mostly staring at the camera the whole time, and one with my neighbor dancing like the possible-ADD child she is. we thankfully got to leave early and have a team meeting because a girl in my grade was leaving today. I barely knew her, but long goodbyes are always emotional for me, and everyone else. Until the speeches go on for far too long.

After school me, my mom, and my sister went to the mall to find my sister a dress for her 5th grade graduation. We were lucky first time in Gap--Don't judge that--and after we got a few clothes for my mom, batteries, a karate outfit for my sister's Build-A-Bear, FunYuns, a Nintendo points card, The Fray's "How To Save A Life" CD that I'm listening to now, and a Killers documentary DVD. Not all found in Gap, of course.

I've spent nearly all afternoon playing on my keyboard. ACC rehab does the weirdest things, you see, including doing stuff actually sort of worthwhile. I used to play piano but stopped after we moved...I was always bad at it anyway. Yesterday I picked up some of those "My first piano and me" books and started playing. Embarrassing, right? After I got sick of those I started learning How To Save A Life off YouTube. I can fluently do the main riff, and separately play the bass and treble of the chorus. I haven't started on the bridge yet. Later I'm gonna try to write it down, which will probably help put the chorus together. I feel so accomplished. I've wanted to play this song on piano since I first heard it...And, okay, it's so easy it's unbelievable, but I'm amazed at myself.

Music this past few days...er, The Fray of course, Weezer, Blink-182, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cage The Elephant, stuff like that. Must listen to The Script soon.

Bye,