Lillian

Ahh, my last blog. Like many of my fellow staffers, I’ve complained about writing these all year, but now I’m a little reluctant to sign off for good. The topic choices for this month were exercise, summer plans, Speed Racer, and something else that I can’t remember. BUT I just won’t feel right ending with a rant about sit-ups. What I want to say is this: Thank you to Coach and thank you to the two wonderful staffs that I’ve been a part of. It’s truly been a privilege to be have able to get to know all of you. I think you all know that I wasn’t the happiest person at school (sorry for being scary). This was because I did not care for school. What I did care about was HTV. Third block has been my favorite part of the day for a reason. I’m thankful for my experiences that involved producing a monthly show, but what really makes me sad to say goodbye is the group of people that I won’t be able to see everyday anymore. Whether I was sneaking in outside food, searching frantically for a lost tape, arranging a set for anchors, witnessing a heated argument, participating in a heated argument, or proudly watching a month’s procrastination turn into a decent show, I was happy to be doing it along with all of you. I’ll miss you all more than you’ll ever know.

My spring break could not have been more wonderful; I spent a blissful week in Paris with my mom. We arrived on Sunday just in time for a lovely lunch in a little cafe. Over the week we did all of the things one should do when in Paris. We visited the Eiffel Tower (obviously), climbed to the top of Napoleon’s Arc d’ Triomph, which had the most spectacular view, and of course we stopped by Notre Dame to admire the cathedral’s beauty. We saw the Mona Lisa when we visited the Louvre and then later saw works from great impressionists like Redon, Monet, and Renior at the Musee d’Orsay (this was a favorite). One day we ventured to Versailles, which is one of the largest castles in the world, with more than 700 rooms. Of course in between all of these splendid experiences we had time to eat french cuisine at wonderful restaurants, drink tea and eat delightful little tea-cakes at tiny tea shops, and just to explore the charming city.

Actually I was in Springfield all week. It rained the entire time. Bleh.

The set up for the Buzzathon was a jolly ol’ time:
First there was no cable. Then we didn’t have enough sponsors. Then the audio from the anchors wouldn’t work. We got cable. Not enough people showed up to move heavy stuff. The toaster (whatever that is) broke. Lost cable. Lost the sponsor list. No graphics. There were thousands of cords to untangle. We didn’t have a set. The cable came back. Didn’t have aluminum foil to cover windows. Audio still didn’t work. A projection screen was rented for our set. We got foil. The screen was impossible to set up. We ran out of foil. The screen was too big. Got some more foil. Audio was working! Roving was not. And of course, Coach was in the most wonderful mood during all of this.

The actual show was fun and full of play time. Well worth the torture!

Ah, New Years; a time to look back and reflect on what the past year brought to our lives. It’s also a time to look ahead, which is a lot more fun if you ask me. I don’t want to be one of those old ladies that bores people with my stories of “When I was a girl…” ANYWAY this time next year, I will have disappeared from the planet. No one will be able to track me down, although I’m sure many will try. I will be underground working on a top secret mission that the President himself gave me. I shouldn’t be sharing this, but I trust you. After graduation I will begin my work which is to raise and train and army of ventriloquist dolls. I can’t say much now, except that this army will be a force to be reckoned with. You see, there is nothing more terrifying than a gun-wielding ventriloquist dummy. And let me tell you, those dolls can shoot. Not only that, but their race has a history of combat. Long, long ago when the Nutella Empire stretched across the lands, taking away the freewill of the world, it was the puppets that rose up, and defeated the evil, chocolaty spread. Once again, man must call upon the dolls, ask them to leave their respected ventriloquists, and ask them to report for duty! I will be the commander-in-chief of this mighty force a year from now, and I promise I won’t fail you, free world!

In elementary school I remember the teacher going around and asking each kid what their favorite holiday was. Most of the children would say Christmas. Why, you might ask? Oh well little Bobby would say because of family being together and little Sally would say because of the time of year. Well little Bobby and little Sally were little lying brats. The reason Christmas was their favorite holiday was because of presents. Believe me, a seven year old kid doesn’t care that Granny’s in town unless she has presents in tow; and good presents, meaning no ugly sweaters or frog pajamas. Anyway my point is that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year because of presents. So a new holiday should just be another day where everyone gets presents. Whether it’s a fat man who delivers them via flying sled or a giant ferret that carries the presents inside his stomach and then regurgitates in the family living room, no one cares. ALSO whoever would deliver these gifts and delights would NOT be watching children all year to see if they were naughty or nice because that causes a lot of extra stress on kids. I remember feeling guilty for throwing a snowball before Christmas because I thought that Santa would bring me a lump of coal. To be honest, I was probably throwing a snowball at the perfect child and therefore they deserved it. Little good-doer children are annoying and should be smacked in the face with a snowball for making the rest of the NORMAL kids looks bad to Santa. Anyway so my new holiday consists of a giant ferret who doesn’t discriminate against naughty children.

I just wanted to make sure that whoever reads this knows that all of the above is a joke. I adore Christmas and not just for the presents; I love Christmas songs, snow, hot chocolate, candy canes, Christmas trees, holly, mistletoe, I love it ALL! And I can’t wait for it to be here!

Before my freshmen year I was scared out of my mind to enter big bad high school. I remember being afraid of the upperclassmen, being afraid of getting lost, being afraid of too much homework, pretty much any fear I could have had, I had. Anyway when freshmen orientation rolled around I was already nervous for all of those reasons. I took too much time getting ready and as a result I came in late, which was just awful. I hated showing up late to events like that because then I would have to walk in in front of everyone when it had already started and everyone would be staring. So I tried to creep in as quietly as I could so I could go in unnoticed. Well this was working out just fine until I reached the stairs of the bleachers. After two steps I lost my footing and fell down the stairs in front of the ENTIRE WORLD. Or so it felt like it. Of course the area erupted with laughter. I could feel my face getting flushed and turning very red. Anyway it was embarrassing, but I lived through it, and actually not as many people noticed as I thought. So bah.

The first story that came to my mind when I was told this topic was “The Lonely Doll”. For some reason, I loved this book when I was little. It’s about a doll who’s lonely (obviously). Anyway she meets a little teddy bear and his dad (a big teddy bear) and they kind of adopt her. Well she’s happy to have found a family, but of course she messes it up, this might explain why she has no friends, she screws everything up. She and the little teddy bear play dress up and then the father bear get mad at them for making a mess and for wearing too much makeup. Well, this did NOT sit well with that doll. She’s so upset with the father bear that she writes something mean about him on a mirror in lipstick. I wish I could remember what she wrote, but I can’t, I’m terribly sorry. Anyway he is outraged at this so he spanks her. I remember just hating that stupid father bear. I thought it was weird that he spanked her when she wasn’t his to spank. He should have just taken out his anger on the little bear and beat him. They all made up and became a happy little family after that. Yay! Anyway the good thing about the book was the pictures. Instead of a hand drawn illustration, they were black and white photographs taken of a doll and two bears. You should try and find the book to look at the pictures. Don’t read the story though, unless you want to read about a cruel teddy bear who beats dolls that don’t have friends in the first place.

I think that some changes are in order for HTV next year. The first thing we ought to do is get rid of the blogs. No one likes writing them, unless you’re Tyler or Lauren. And if those two really want to write blogs, let them write their little bloggedy blogs, but Coach, don’t make anyone else do them. They’re stupid. They’re also a huge waste of time. For example, I’m sitting in a stupid edit bay using up valuable class time when I could be watching TV. Right now, the majority of the staff is watching an old movie, that apparently is hilarious. I guess it’s better than watching other schools’ bad music videos (we did that for at least a two weeks). Another change I would like to see is… that’s it, really. The seniors are leaving and new kids are coming in. That’s enough change. I am excited for the new staff, but I am going to miss all of the seniors. We all got along really well this year and it’s going to be sad. That’s all.

Okay…write a blog about the trip…

It was really fun, we won some awards, went to Disneyland, and then came home.

Believe it or not, Coach read that and won’t take it for a grade. More detail..blah blah blah. The first day we got there early so we could actually see LA before being locked up at Disneyland. Our first stop was Venice Beach, which was exciting, because an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm was being shot down there and we saw Larry David! That was the highlight of that day so I’ll stop there. Then the Sweet 16 was the next day, but that’s no fun to talk about. On our third day there most of us didn’t have a contest so we just ran around and found a way to entertain ourselves. Andrew took one for the team and let us shave his head which gave everybody about an hour of amusement. The day after that, I don’t know what happened with everyone. I was supposed to be in the Spot Feature contest, but instead I was locked in my hotel room the whole day. I had strep throat and wasn’t allowed to leave, and no one was allowed to come in. I watched Martha Stuart make pork chops. After a day of quarantine, Disneyland was nice. I got a plastic sword that I’m rather proud of.

Okay well, I’m running for Student Body President right now and it’s been interesting so far. My older brother ran for the same position two years ago and no one ran against him so he got it automatically. Now I HATE it when it’s said that I follow in his foot steps, because I want to make my own stupid footsteps (they’d be better too, because I have better shoes). Anyway I really wanted to be President so I decided not to let that bother me. Then I find out that no one was running against me. Now that’s just irritating. I’ll have the same position and I will have gotten it in the exact way. Well, I couldn’t stand for that! I couldn’t find anybody to volunteer to run against me, so I made someone up. Burgdorf Mopsy has entered the race! And what tough competition he is! The thing is, he really is a threat. Think about it; you read the ballot and it’s between someone named Lillian Olive, and someone named BURGDORF MOPSY! I don’t know about you, but I’d go for Mopsy, just because of the name. So it will be interesting to see who gets the job. If I get it, I’ll do a good job, this I know. I wonder how a made up person would be….