Today McCort hosted the second (and hopefully last) blood drive of the year. While it was fun to help work at, we had to be at school at 5:30 - a little too early after a long week. After school, we had musical practice for Bye Bye Birdie which, needless to say, needs a lot more work.
However, I have only one more day of mid-terms left. Tonight, I am watching movies and sleeping. And tomorrow I can't wait to join my friends for a fancy "let's get together and cook dinner" night.
In the meantime, I love Sofia Coppola. I don't know if I've said that before. But she's a girl who can easily fight the guys, and that's sexy. There's something about her movies that just makes them gorgeous.
Today felt calm compared to the crazy weekend. I went on a trip to DeSales University for a film scholarship audition and helped put on the McCort Prom Fashion Show. I'm going to try to give a little blurb about these two things sometime in the near future.
Until then, I want to talk about the importance of snacks. Today I came home from school ready to chew my arm off from hunger. I dashed to my kitchen cabinet, threw open the door, and there sat a glorious box of Nilla Wafers. Apparently my little brother bought them. Thanks Tyler!
Guess what? I got a scholarship essay typed tonight. It's the snacks. Brain food man. Here's the greatest secret for any high school senior in need: stack up on junk food. College applications and projects will become easy.
Sitting in front of the computer for hours to write essays that decide your future can seem daunting, but not with some snacks! Type. Grab. Munch. Type. Grab. Munch.
Here are some of my personal faves:
Mike and Ikes are God's gift to mankind. I love these things! I buy them for very special occasions/assignments.
Alaina says I'm a freak with pretzels. But beware, not all pretzels are good. I like the little ones.
I have to be careful with Cheez-Its. I usually take one handful at a time. But after making my tenth trip to the kitchen cabinet, I sometimes just take the whole box to my work station. However, then I tend to eat without realizing until half the box is gone.
I guess because I'm a distance runner, I can afford to do these things once in awhile. But seriously, snacks give me a spark. Give me some Mike and Ikes and BANG! - cure for cancer.
So eat snacks. Do work. Just don't put on ten pounds.
Unfortunately, this week is filled with mid-terms, a blood drive, and scholarship essays. So I might not be able to blog again for a little while.
Alright. I wanted to blog last night, but I was exhausted. So as the snow falls outside and yet another possible snow day looms, I sit and type.
My fourth and final Winter Formal was last weekend. Alaina wore a crazy Black Swan-like dress, and I wore my new suit. Out of all four years, this one was my favorite. I had a lot of fun mainly due to my small, tight group of awesome friends for whom I'm super thankful for.
However, another school dance once again brought to my attention a major epidemic that is sweeping the nation (I think). Grinding.
For those of you who live in a cave or are home schooled, grinding is the latest dance craze - if you want to call it dancing.
I was going to use an Urban Dictionary definition, but they were all kind of vulgar. Basically, grinding involves a guy rubbing his junk all over a girl's rear end. Grinding really doesn't involve any dance skill. You just have to be able to move your hips. Let's not kid ourselves - grinding is pretty much sex on the dance floor.
I've included some beautiful, hand-drawn sketches to illustrate the various grinding positions.
Now while engaging in said grinding, one has a few options.
A girl can...
Close her eyes.
Work her body up and down.
Rub her hands through the boy's hair.
Play with the boy's tie.
Gasp.
Moan.
Etc.
A boy can...
Turn into a robot drained of all emotion.
Stare into space and think about things such as flowers and baseball in order to avoid becoming too "excited."
I don't know if it's like this at every school, but no one dances at McCort dances. Everyone grinds. And I mean EVERYONE - jocks, cheerleaders, drama geeks, nerds, goths, religious zealots, the people that don't know where the heck they belong, and the people who you would never expect to see grinding.
You look around, and everyone's going at it with concentration only matched by a roomful of tired teenagers taking the SATs. And they grind to every song. My favorite grind is the "awkward grind." This occurs when a non-rap song begins to play, and everyone tries to adjust their rubbing. They always find a way - even on country songs and pop ballads.
Then these people will try to talk to you. Do they realize they're getting it on while trying to talk to me about the weather outside?
The scariest part is that no one is safe. You don't need permission to grind. Girls will come up to you and just stop rubbing on your crotch without warning. It's like you need to walk around with a sign on your neck. "Please don't grind me."
And all of this leads to the question of the night. I do everything in my power to keep this blog to a PG rating, so please know that I chose the wording of the next sentence with great care.
I don't care if you have the self-control of Ghandi, no guy can handle all that rubbing for an extended period of time without getting a visit from his "special friend".
I asked some anonymous girls at lunch, and they reported that guys have gotten visits from their "special friends" while grinding with them. They further stated, "It was kind of awkward and uncomfortable, but at the same time it was like, wow, I'm really turning him on."
So then what? Are there hundreds of "special friends" out on the dance floor? When did this become socially acceptable? I'm not a prude, but as a beloved french teacher stated, "Why would you want to do that in public?" What memories are you going to take away from that night?
If you must bump and grind, why not later in a dark basement or in the back of a car where no one can see you? And why not with someone special? I personally prefer not to rub my junk all over some stranger.
I'm not telling people what they can and cannot do. But take a step back and look at it. It's sort of awkward, funny, and weird. Dances are becoming chances for teens to let out all of their stored up sexual angst. It should be called Winter Orgy.
Whatever. I'm a nerd and a hopeless romantic. I'm more of the "old fashioned, black and white, kiss me in the rain" type than the "we met in da club and went back to my place" type.
Formal weekend is over, but it was freaking awesome. After catching up with sleep last night, I am now good to go.
Tomorrow marks the last episode of the Voegthly Show, which I'm excited for. However, even more snow and freezing rain are in the forecast. I'm almost sick of snow days.
I have projects and junk to work on tonight, but when I get a chance to blog in the near future, posts will include:
Formal!
Alaina and Black Swan
An exclusive look at grinding
And of course, Forever Voeghtly: The Final Episode.
By the way, my French teacher and various other people told me that I need to shave today. Ka-Ching! I am a man.
Another snow day. This is ridiculous. But I like it.
I might try to do something productive today, but I'm in the mood to take the day off. So I'll probably...
Take down some Christmas decorations (because they're still up).
Watch Inception.
Pick up my suit.
Anyway, I have some news. Rooney Mara is smokin'. She was the girl in the first scene of The Social Network. I started liking her then. I think it's the eyes - like in the scene where she reads Mark's blog about her and looks up with tears welling. Oh, it got me. So sad.
I make myself laugh. Anyway, she will be playing Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And she's on the cover of W magazine.
Apparently Fincher is changing the story a bit - the script is supposed to have a more interesting ending. Lisbeth Salander is probably my literature girlfriend. I'm excited.
Snow has once again struck Johnstown! Yet another snow day is sort of nice. I've forgotten what a full, serious week of school feels like. My week was beginning to feel a little too routine.
Today I'm working on a few projects. I had some essays to finish up, and I've been piecing together clips from black and white movies for the McCort Prom Fashion Show. The final episode of the Voeghtly Show airs tomorrow morning (if we have school). Forever Voeghtly: The Final Episode should be fun.
I am starting to get a little nervous and stressed out about the college situation. I just wish I knew where I was going. You can check your status for Chapman University online. When it changes from "Decision Pending," a decision has been reached. "Admission Accepted" means you're in and "Decision Complete" means you're not. My friend from film camp says that he was accepted a few days ago.
Now I'm nervous. Are they reviewing applications? When will I find out? I thought we wouldn't know until March.
Oh well. I'll stop complaining. Unless Johnstown is buried under 20 feet of snow, I am going to Philadelphia with my peeps on Friday. I want to check out the Temple film building. But apparently, the school is a ghost town because no one is back from break yet.
My french teacher said that everyone wants to be a senior, but the unknowingness of it all becomes killer come January. I know others are in the same boat though. For one scholarship, I wrote a letter to Adam inspired by Dr. Seuss's Oh! The Places You'll Go. It was fun, and helped give me a little hope.
Plus, McCort's Winter Formal is on Saturday, and I'm super excited to get my freak on.
Wow. It's Saturday already. And 1:00 pm! The first week of the new year is over.
This week was pretty fun. Although, I was also slightly stressed. I put off blogging because I really didn't know what to write about.
I've been clingy this week. Alaina and I have been hanging out a lot lately. I had late bedtimes the past two nights. This morning, I had to get up at seven for prom fashion show practice. The theme is old movies, and we had to learn a 50s style type dance. Now, I'm finally getting started on projects. I'll probably take a nap after lunch.
Anyway, I wanted to leave you with two funny things to make you laugh.
First, Ellen talked about the best web videos of the year on her show the other day. This is one that I hadn't seen, but I think that it's super funny. My wisdom teeth experience really wasn't that bad.
Next up is this crazy dude. He's vowed to watch the film Julia & Julia every day for an entire year. And blog about it. I watched Julia & Julia in French class last year. I thought it was fun, but I wouldn't want to watch it for 365 days in a row. However, his blog is really funny. Check it out.
Going back to school wasn't as rough as I expected it to be. Instead it was more like waking up from a really vivid dream. The magic of break vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.
Oh well. Now, I have new projects and such to work on. Except, I can't focus. And I haven't adjusted my sleep pattern yet, so I'm tired.
Now that I'm done applying for college, I have begun the search for scholarships. I found a few with deadlines this month. I've been brainstorming. Later tonight, I am going to attempt to actually write something.
The most exciting things in my life right now are the preparations for my high school's performance of Bye Bye Birdie and my acting class's final talk show episode. Wake Up, It's Voeghtly! I guess that's what I'll talk about in the coming days.
I can't believe it's Sunday. At the start of break, a week off felt like an eternity. Now, it's coming to an end.
When Alaina and I arrived in Pittsburgh, we spent a grand total of 45 minutes in the South Side. I've always liked Pittsburgh, and the South Side was fun. However, H & M had very few suit jackets and none that I liked.
Alaina and I then headed to Urban Outfitters - our hipster store of choice. Alaina purchased two shirts and a hat. Plus she bought me a cozy blue sweater for Christmas.
After a fun drive home, we hung at out my uncle's house with the family and neighbors. We also chilled at our friend Matt's house. Plus, we set off fireworks with Alaina's family. It was a fun way to bring in the new year. I crashed in my warm bed around three.
Anyway, in the course of the night, I made a shocking realization. Girls substitute baby powder for shampoo and water. You read that right.
Whenever chicks can't find the time to shower or decide to go on a sleepover spree, they pour baby powder in their hair to eliminate the grease or something. Alaina's hair looked good on Friday, but she kept pouring baby powder in her hair. And whenever I ran my fingers through her brown locks, my hands were left with a strange feeling - like when you eat some chicken wings and can't wash the grease off. Oh goodness! Not trying to insult you Alaina! I'm sure guys have weird secrets too.
Blah. I don't want to return to school tomorrow. I have to get cracking on scholarship essays and other projects. But it was all fun while it lasted. May the force be with all of you as you return to school tomorrow.
After much arguing and reasoning with my parents, Alaina and I set out for Greensburg, PA yesterday. The drive was super easy and a little under an hour. We shopped around the Westmoreland Mall which was overflowing with bitchy white women and their gift cards.
I discovered the reason I am faced with such difficulty when trying to find a nice-fitting suit: my arms are freakishly long whereas my torso is short. So finding a slim, short suit with long arms is difficult.
However, we discovered a dark gray suit at Macy's. A very busy and flustered cashier kindly helped us pick out the right size and pin it up. I have to pick up the altered jacket in two weeks.
We decided that we still wanted to check out Pittsburgh and H & M just in case a better deal existed. On the way out of the mall, we quickly stopped at Chick-fil-A. Believe it or not, but after eighteen years of living in Western Pennsylvania, I had not eaten at the favored fast food restaurant. We ate our chicken and waffle fries in the car, and I finally understood the delicious awesomeness.
Anyway, Alaina wanted to drive to Pittsburgh. Driving with her is always interesting. We were guided by a TomTom GPS that we borrowed from Adam. Whenever it spoke a direction, Alaina and I would both jump out of our skin. Furthermore, Alaina believed that every direction had to be carried out immediately. The TomTom would say, "Merge left in three miles." Alaina would shriek something along the lines of "Holy ****! Move *******!" Suddenly, every car around us turned into one of Ramona's seven evil exes who would do everything in their power to stop us from turning left.
The route from Greensburg also involved the turnpike. Dun. Dun. Dun.
As we approached the turnpike entrance, we realized that we were too far away from the ticket dispenser. This meant that Alaina would have to open her car door in order to reach out and grab the ticket.
It was sort of like those Visa commercials when someone pays with cash. Alaina was the dude paying with cash.
As she reached out for the ticket, someone shouted "Whoa! Whoa!" Alaina quickly sped off, and I felt like we had just robbed a bank.
Entering the main road, Alaina remarked, "I feel like I'm on a ride at Disney World." Then the evil guy who was behind us - probably the "Whoa!" dude, almost hit us as he impatiently tried to merge from behind us. He was a pedophile in a pickup truck with a bunch of suits. Why? I ask. We should have hijacked the suits.
Seriously, when Alaina opened her door to grab the ticket, what did he think we were going to do? Let's look at the possibilities. This brings me to...
Things to do at a Turnpike Entrance other than Simply Taking a Stupid Ticket:
Steal all of the tickets so that no one else can enter the turnpike. Suckers!
Hold all three turnpike workers at gunpoint.
Rob all of the quarters.
Sit and have a two-hour conversation about the meaning of Inception.
Eat the Ramen noodles that you've been storing in a thermos.
Make love.
Go for a walk.
Commence to ballroom dance.
I'm sure there are many others, but I'm getting sick of typing. I want to talk more about the trip, New Year's Eve, and a shocking revelation about girls, hair, and baby powder, but all that will have to wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned. Happy 2011!
