Help me decide :)

Which one screams to you "Hey, I'm Olive's senior picture!"?
Just select one if you will :). I have to choose one soon, and I seem to be having a little last minute uncertainty. I won't disclose which ones I was considering the most, I don't want to affect anyone's judgement on them, haha. If you do it, thanks a bunch. If not it's fine, I understand it's a bit of pressure :P. I am just looking for a few more opinions.

It's nearly ten thirty, so I don't have the time I was hoping for to post-- but I will make up for it. Last night we played an epic game of soccer. We beat the team that hasn't lost since it's entrance to the league three years ago. The team that creams just about everyone. Last season we were tickled pink just to tie with them, that stirred up a little dust in itself. But this time, this season, we held our own, and actually won 2-1. It was a great feeling.

I feel a sickness coming on. However, I'm taking Jocelyn's advice, and a method that has worked in the past-- major orange juice comsumption! Plus a little nyquil. I should be able to evade it :).

Does anyone have good tips for studying for the SAT? Mine is October 10th, and I keep lacking the time and motivation to really sit down and absorb the books. I'm kind of getting worried. I might just need to crack down on myself and plow through the reading-- it's just so hard with everything else that's going on.

That reminds me.. Guess who has an orientation at Ralph Lauren? ;D. So basically, I have a job? Horray! Well, I hope that everything is good with everyone.

♥ Olive

You're wearing your skin like it's too tight,

Craig Owens...

Is the man. Friday night I went to a concert with Zack and Derek. Opening was a local band, Travis Gray, and then the lovely Automatic Loveletter, then headliner Craig Owens with The Classy Gents. The venue was awesome in itself, the second story of a small bar, one room with only a practice room off to the side and a bathroom. We were able to get in the second row, no problem. We were actually right in front of the microphone too. The first was a tow man band, who I'm not sure the name of, but I enjoyed them. A boy playing an acoustic and singing while his bandmate sat on a stool next time him shaking the tambourine. The next band, Travis Gray, really surprised me. I had never heard of them before, but damn. They were good. Their sound was realloriginal, the singer had a great voice, they incorporated the keyboard, it was just alltogether great music. Now I need their EP haha. Next was Automatic Loveletter, which I never listened to either, but apparently had a decent fanbase there. It comes to no shock to me after hearing them, the girl has a phenomonalvoice, really soulful when it needs to be, and delicate in all of the right places. She looked like an Indian/hippie too, I loved it, really gorgeous girl. Her brother/bandmate was good too, they were constantly cracking jokes, ragging on eachother. It made the show even more interesting. I made a point of going home and looking up their songs afterwards.

Pretty much the whole show was spectacular. Never was I like "Ugh, I just wish this band would leave." I enjoyed the entire thing. I definitely got the most excited when it was time for Craig Owens though. In case any of you didn't know and are interested, he's the frontman for the band Chiodos, where he's famous for his more "hardcore" side, even though his vocals are higher and more beautiful, I'd say, than most bands of that genre these days. He also has a softer band, Cinematic Sunrise on the side. He hates it when he isn't busy. The performance he gave was awesome, the man knows how to interact with his fans. He made the audience laugh, coaxed us to sing along, and talked directly to certain people in the crowd. Since we were so close, I made a point to take plenty of pictures. His voice was perfect the whole way through, but then he began having problems towards the end of the set because he's been sick lately. He played the accoustic versions of Chiodos songs, one from Cinematic Sunrise, and he had a new group formed to help him that night, The Classy Gents. Partway through the performance, when he was ready to play from his new EP, he asked everyone to take three steps back, and sit on the floor. Then he got rid of his microphone and sat on the edge of the stage in front of us all, and we had a little kumbaiya session ;). Now that's what I call "unplugged". He said he felt like this is the way his songs are supposed to be heard, natural, without all of the fancy equpiment. This is how it sounds when he makes them up in his living room, and this is how he wants his fans to hear it. He encouraged everyone to sing right along too. I just admire how real he is, fame hasn't gotten the best of him. It was adorable how he talked about missing his girlfriend all of the time, too. She was there that night, but I never saw her. He wrote a cute little song for her though :), "Joanna". After the show he had a meet & greet over at the tshirt table for everyone who bought the $5 EP, which was like--everyone, hahah. Definitely worth it. Zack was wicked excited, Craig's his favorite artist ever, and when it was his turn, Craig said Zack was one of the best sing-a-longer's he's ever seen :P. That boy knows like every song by heart. Derek asked him to sign his chest hahah, it was great. He's usually into more heavy, hardcore music, but after the concert he has a new appreciation for Craig Owens and his music. I got to meet him too of course :), I told him it was my first time seeing him, and it was definitely one of the best shows I've ever gone to, and I asked him to sign my cat bag. He gladly did :P. Oh yeah, the singer of Automatic Loveletter did too, she thought it was awesome haha. But anyways, I wish I went in for the hug when I met him like some other people did, but I was too shy. I guess it's probably good I didn't, I bet he gets tired of stinky people leaning in towards him in attempt to swap sweat. But it was an amazing time, I'm so glad I was able to go.

We were close enough to see the set list on the stage floor ;)

Zackie and I :)

Yes, the kumbaiya session :).

Zack's meet and greet.

YES, my catbag is 100x more awesome.

Anyways.

After that crazy evening I fell asleep and hung out with Kindra the next day. I never hung out with her before,
but I figured we ought to change that, she's wicked cool :). We watched television and talked about a bunch of things, then went out to see The Time Traveller's Wife at a dinner and a movie venue. It was a really good movie I thought, cute and sad. Of course I haven't read the book yet--shame on me--, but I didn't want to have to wait until its dvd release. The book is always better, so I kind of like doing it in reverse, so that way the movie doesn't disappoint me, and I have the book to really anticipate. Yeah, I'm weird :). Yesterday morning I also hung out with Amanda for a bit, we took senior pictures again. I'll post whichever one I choose once she sends them to me. I want to keep writing and rambling on, but unfortunately I have homework to do, so I'll leave it off here.

I hope everyone had a great weekend :D,

Olive

And from then on it was turpentine and matches.

From then on it was cold Campbell's from the can

And they were just two jerks playing with matches

Cause that's all they knew how to play

Thanks a bunch Natalie!! :D :D :D.

Okay, so like everyone that follows my blog has been tagged, or there aren't 10 people who have not. But if anyone wants to steal this and do it themselves, feel free to. As long as you're a reader of mine, I dubb you awesome on some level ;). Soo.. now I must give 10 facts about me, let's do this.

1). My hair is naturally this curly. Okay, maybe that's not entirely interesting, but I get asked it a lot :P. I used to hate my hair, and straighten it relentlessly. Now I've grown to accept my "lion's mane", as Amanda lovingly refers to it as.

2). I really want to learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons! Nerdy, nerdy, nerdy, but I definitely want to give it a try. One of my friends, Derek, actually helped me create my own character. I was an Eladrin wizard, it was awesome. But I still haven't begun to play.

3). Cheese is like, my favorite food group. Except I hate foot and goat cheeses. Those taste like mold, I don't care how fancy of a delicacy they are :P. Oh and I really enjoy pigging out on Chinese food.

4). I plan on getting a tattoo when I'm of age. Right now I don't have anything picked out for certain, and I won't get one unless I know I'm sure about it. I'm considering something olive related, like maybe a branch with them dangling, because I've always had this nickname, so it'd have meaning. Also, Julie, Amanda, and I want to get something matching so that's a possibility. If I stumble across a quote that really enthralls me, and I feel it's something I could live by, then maybe I would put that somewhere, in fancy script.

5). I think it would be really badass and cool to have the chance to drive a monster truck. My favorite one used to be Monster Mutt, then it disappeared. Tom says it's because it was the worst one out there, but I always thought it was cool, even if it lost the races.

6). I don't read enough. It's depressing, I wish I could freeze time and be able to read all of the things I want to, then hit play when I feel like paying attention to the rest of my wordly obligations.

7). I'm agnostic, leaning more towards atheist. Except I don't like to call myself one, because they're given a bad rep. I'm tolerant of everyone's beliefs, and I'm certainly more than willing to befriend anyone despite what their views are, because I don't see religion or non-religion as that high of importance, to where it can decide who you associate with. I'll admit that I don't know what happens after life, that's why I can't believe.

8). I want to visit oddball places. Switzerland, Holland, Iceland, ect.

9). I have never crowdsurfed. I'm waiting for a good opportunity :).

10). Basically it's physically impossible for me to frown. I smile like, all of the time. If I'm not smiling, my face is blank or indifferent. It's definitely a rare occasion for me to look truly angry.

LIFE. Has been good. :)

I survived the first week of school, engaging in #2 now, and it's not so bad. I love having two studyhalls at the end of the day, Amanda, Derek and I just hang out in the art room every day for them. I need to start bringing my own lunch though. Answers Please starts this week, I'm super excited for that. Senior photos are due soon, when I choose the one I want, or if I need help deciding, I'll post it on here for you guys :). On Friday we didn't have practice, so I took the opportunity to spend time with my friends. Julie, John, Amanda and I went to town, hitting up the library, the mall, and last but not least---the petstore. I fell in love.

It was the cutest thing. All of the other puppies were up against the little fence, fighting for attention, but that raggamuffin was over in the farthest corner, facing the wall. Eventually it turned to face me, wood shavings stuck in its little dog mustache. When another puppy tried to paw at him and play, he just sat there, all antisocial, I thought it was the funniest thing. I wanted to take it home sso badly.

In other excitement, we surprised Zack after work and brought him to Chinatown for dinner Saturday night. That was fun :), he deserved it after all of the effort he put into my birthday. This Friday we're going to see Craig Owens together in concert, I can't wait. Lately the specials on National Geographic suck me in. Julie and John came over to watch The Girl Who Cries Blood wit h me last night, which was interesting but annoying, since they never came to a conclusion by the end of the show. Then I watched another one about a girl in India who is sixteen years old and only 23 inches tall. It's insane.

Well, now I realize that I'm just rambling. Have a great week folks ;P.
I'll try to keep up with this better :).
♥ Olive

First day back.

It's finally time, I'm a senior.
I remember very distinctly sitting in a classroom at twelve years old, gazing out a window thinking; "Wow, I'm half way through school. Another six years here and I'll be graduating." And here I am, entering seniority. I don't really 'feel it' yet. I don't think I look that old, that mature. I don't know if our generation is shrinking.. or if it's just my school, but we're TINY! We don't look grown up at all. I think back to seniors of years before, even in the yearbook, just to prove it's not my memory being fogged, they looked ready for college, most of us[my class] does not.
Unfortunately, being the upperclassmen doesn't reap many benefits here. We can't leave school early/to go out for lunch. There isn't even a restaurant to go to in town anyways. The only "priviledge" I'm really looking forward to is budging in the lunch line, hahaha. Oh, and we get our own senior mailbox cubbies. Dream big, right? Oh well, I'm pretty content anyways I suppose. I love my first two classes so far, English and Economics. Everyone in those classes is great, Amanda's in my english class, along with other good friends of mine. I actually have a class besides gym with Tom, in economics, for the first time since like ninth grade. Physics might be fun, and I enjoy Spanish. I still have some glitches to fix in my schedule, like where to fit Digital Photography and stuff, but overall, I think it'll be a good year.
Some annoying changes have been made in our school, but I won't get into them unless they really affect me later. Basically, I feel like they are starting to treat us like a big, inner city school, when in fact we're this little facility in the middle of nowhere, with six hundred kids. There's a new annoying buzzer system because all doors will be locked promply after 8:07, student drivers need parking passes because they have limited our space.. I don't know, we'll have to see how it all pans out.
I survived day one. Now I only need to get through tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday--then it's the weekend! You forget how significant those two sacred days are during the summer months :P. Soccer has been keeping me busy, I have a game tomorrow night, and I went to a pasta party tonight. We have this tradition in our team where before certain home games, someone, usually a senior, hosts a dinner for the team where we devour some carbs, talk loudly amongst ourselves, and play plenty of games together. It was pretty fun. Mary's grandma makes some awesome ziti.

So, this post was kind of boring. I promise to write a more exciting one soon :).