Editing...

The speech is done...

And now I'm editing...

And then my edits do not result in shortening the speech, even though I've cut pretty ruthlessly...

WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT?

That Oratory I'm talking about

Well, funny thing.

So I was doing Camp NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo: noun.
1. Intense masochism.
2. National Novel Writing Month, November; one must set a word count and reach it by the end of the month. For adults, the target word count is always 50,000.
Camp NaNoWriMo: noun.
NaNoWriMo during other months, generally April and either July or August. Everyone can set their own word count goal.

Anyway, so I did Camp NaNoWriMo, with a goal of 40,000 words - I reached it, at 40,089 words on 2 pm on July 31st. My prize? Bragging rights! Which I'm obviously using.

And then I realized that I did actually sign up for the Yale speech tournament and it is on September 22nd and I do have to get my original oratory done. And guess when it was originally due? August 1st.

Anyhow, I tried to get typing but frankly, I had just come out of a three-day word marathon. I had practically lived on the living room couch with my laptop. I had written 20,000 words in three days. I didn't particularly want to do it.

I ended up sending my coach an email asking for more time. She let me have a week. But I was still in a post-NaNo haze for much of that time, so it didn't get done then either.

By now I was pretty sure this wasn't going to happen, so I told my coach I wasn't going to go. Then my other coach jumped in and said he did want me to go to this tournament as originally planned and was willing to give me five more days.

Therefore, I am writing again now.

Photos, etc.

I was looking through old photos to see what I might put on my iPod for nostalgia, etcetera. The thing about that is - it gives me nostalgia, etcetera.

So I look at these photos. And obviously iPhoto organizes them in chronological order, so looking at the "last 12 months" section is quite literally like seeing the past year scroll before me.

I'm not really that sad about it, for a change. Well, I am. But I'm also not.

I look at them and the way things were, how wonderfully carefree and simply unlike real life they were. In a way I'm glad my friends were here and I was there, because that gave me a reason to document my life, and thus to now look back.

It feels strange, but it's helpful. I think I should do this more often - look at that year. Yeah, it was hard and horrible sometimes, but at least I can look and remember and probably sugarcoat it to a certain extent. And yeah, I miss it. But how could I not?

One of the things I learned last year was to use what you have. I could have moped for the entire six months. I could have disregarded everything good around me. But I didn't, and it got better, because as it turns out, life is pretty nice when you use it. I think sometimes I need a reminder.

Nerdfighters, Nerdfighters everywhere

On Sunday, I went to a Nerdfighter gathering at the Prudential Center in Boston.

I arrived shortly after 2 with my ukulele, etc. and some Nerdfighters had already taken over one corner of the food court. They had already hijacked a lot of tables and made them into an L-shape. I helped more people (because more and more were arriving) make a little island in the middle of the L. We talked about fandoms and ages and things we'd done, tried to play Munchkin Space, tried to play Bang, and then I migrated to another corner. Then my girlfriend and her friends arrived and then we played a game with a beach ball covered with questions that somebody had ingeniously created. Then we took a group photo and thoroughly freaked out the rest of the food court by shouting, "DFTBA!"

Then we migrated to Barnes & Noble and played the "In Your Pants" game. If you're not familiar with it, it's the theory that if you add "In Your Pants" to any book title, it instantly becomes hilarious. Some of the best selections include:

That's the Way I Blow

Justin Bieber

Katy Perry

The Dust Bowl

Fire

World War II

The Casual Vacancy

You've Gotta Have Balls

and more, which I can't remember just now. We looked around for a while before finding "Must-Read Books by John Green."

Worship at the altar, worship at the altar.

And Harry Potter.

Worship at the altar, worship at the altar.

Then we went and looked at books and the rack of hand puppets which included a Hedwig-style snowy owl and a puffy hedgehog and a dog and a squirrel.

After the Barnes and Noble people were well and thoroughly freaked-out (and a lot of Nerdfighters had started to leave), we went and sat in a corner and played more beach ball question game. Then I had to leave, and everyone exchanged hugs.

I think it was one of the best days I've had lately. I've been told how lucky I am to have Nerdfighteria, and I really am. I think the whole world is lucky to have such a beautiful community. There are so many bad things in the world, so many people who say that we're only getting worse, that we're getting more and more apathetic. But then there's Nerdfighteria. And just as one lamp can light a room, Nerdfighteria gives hope where there might not be as much.

DFTBA!

Awesomeness of Life

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I think my life is awesome.

I'm really happy with where I am today, right now. Before Thanksgiving, at high school, maybe not exactly at the perfectly ideal balance between what I like to do, what I need to do, and what is good for me, but pretty close. I have textbooks I can read so I can learn more about our vast universe. I have a speech cutting to do so that I can share the beauty of speaking with the world. I have friends. I have a girlfriend. I love the people I know. I have a vacation coming up. I can do what I like.

And who knows, maybe tomorrow I won't like where I am. But today, I really like it. And really, I'm happy with where I am now, it's just the future that sometimes distorts my view.

I've decided that I will stay in the school I am now, because I like the people and I like the freedom and I like being able to find out random things from other people's textbooks and I like theater and I like speech and I like having not too much ballet and I like being able to read books that aren't assigned to me and I like being able to choose to read old classical literature and I like writing essays of my choice and I like getting the best grades in the class (sorry, that is a bit conceited, but I am arrogant, so oh well). The uncertainty of schools was making me really unhappy, so I have decided, and I am taking the path which will cause me less stress and cause my friends less pain, even if I will not study Latin in school or read endless amounts of ancient Greek literature. I am happy. And I am here.

Friday

I haven't updated in a while...hmm...

Friday was One School One Book. Guess what it was, and what made my summer infinitely more awesome?

The Fault in Our Stars. Which I finished in January. And loved.

So I got to talk about it the whole morning. And then I got to go to a panel called "Humor and Irony: Can Irony Save Us?" which I enjoyed quite a lot even though some were disappointed. There were two professors on comedy and one stand-up comedian on the panel. They talked about the ways irony can help us, but they also talked about how it sometimes hides us and hides our opinions, which can be dangerous.

Then there was a wrap-up video, which included part of this Vlogbrothers video. I was so, so excited after that. People were looking at me funny. Did I care? Not at all.

Then of course there was math and wellness, which felt rather boring after the morning, but you know, what can you do.

Then there was play practice. My practice was from 4:15-5:15, so I had two hours to sit around in the hallway. In the first hour, a pretty-much-friend of mine and I lay on the floor and looked at the ceiling and discussed random stuff while the rest of the group talked about weight and body image. She was picking at the linoleum tiling when -

Her: Oh, I picked up the floor.
Me: What? You mean it feels like you picked up the floor?
Her: Look. (She held up a green linoleum tile)
Me: Oh. Well then.

She was going to put it back when I stopped her, tore a piece of paper out of my notebook, and got out a pen. My side of the paper said something like

DFTBA!

Shira Abramovich, Class of 2016
September 21, 2012

And her side said

Hi!
F*ck

I don't remember what else she wrote, but in her words, "I enjoy writing curse words on random stuff." Then we stuck the paper in and squished the linoleum back into place.

So that's that. I went to my friend's house for dinner later and borrowed two books from her dad's enormous comic book collection.

And it was a lovely Friday.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

1: Let's start our being animals club meeting! I'm gonna be a monkey!
2: I'm gonna be an...elephant!
3: And I'm gonna be a lioness! Look at mah hair glow like a lioness, I'm so scary! You're scared of me, you're scared of me! Rarr!
1: It's gonna be hard to drive like this. I'm a monkey, I'm a monkey! Look! Bananas! Let's veer off the road and attack them!
3: Look at me, I'm scary! Rarr, rarr, I'm scary! Aw yeah, you are so scared!

---

1: You're ruining the innocence! So young! So young!
2: It's a chair!
1: It can't say no, how does that make you feel, huh, the chair can't say no! It doesn't have a choice!

---

1: Want to have a look at my toenail collection?

---

1: I have a seizure every time anyone says "um." * seizure *

---

1: My pet turtle died and you're laughing! You're not supposed to laugh at that!
2: Well, you have to admit, it is a funny story...
1: How can you SAY that?!
2: Um, your friend fed it sulfuric acid instead of water! That just doesn't happen!

---

1: I'M TERRIFIED OF SHOES! AHHHH!

---

Girl: You know that time when...umm...we were at your house and your brother was there?
Boy: Um, um...yeah?
Girl: I, well, I, um, may or may not have made out with him...
Boy: ...
Boy: You're SIX YEARS OLD!
Girl: He started it!

---

You see, my friends, I have found the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It is not forty-two, oh no. The answer is - get ready for it - IMPROV.

Why is anyone impersonating animals? Improv. Why did someone's friend feed a turtle sulfuric acid? Improv. Why did a six-year-old make out with someone? Improv...or something really, REALLY, wrong.

Retainersh: the follow-up

If you didn't know, I have retainers, which is why my teeth are still straight.

I haven't been wearing it 24/7 like I should, so I have been absolutely terrified of this appointment.

So we get there. My brother goes first. He's fine. I am getting more and more nervous.

I go and sit in the chair and she comes and looks and says "Oh, looking good! It would have looked better if you could have seen an orthodontist in the past six months, but it's very good."

At which point I sighed with relief. I had been so incredibly scared that she would speak to me in the way that makes you want to cry and scream "I'm sorry! I have failed you! I shall never fail you again!"

So she made some adjustments and now it fits perfectly and I am very happy.

Today was a good day.

Change

Right, so.

I was reading some of my old blog posts and I can just feel how much I've changed. Yeah, I knew it would happen back then, but it's kind of wonderful to see now.

Six months ago a change like this might have made me sad. But today? Oh, no. I'm at the top of the world and yet it can only go up from here.

Because I'm not depressed and I learned to cartwheel and I had recess and I started liking the theater and people tell me I look like I'm from Tel Aviv and I know how to get around here and I have amazing new friends and they're very very sad I'm leaving and I started liking myself and I let myself branch out and I finished three notebooks and I learned to do a handstand and I can cope with a high school and I am crazy and I'm fine with the messed-up world and I have CHANGED within.

This doesn't mean I might not be crying when I get back, no it doesn't. I can still be sad. But I'm happy I had this opportunity. I am very, very glad.

"I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend."

~ Augustus Waters

I love the world.

Silence and the End of Some Things

Ballet teachers will yell, some more than others. It is simply a fact of life.

However, today my teacher lost her voice. The class was literally silent between exercises. No one spoke at all. We communicated via hand gestures.

It's strange, but when someone in the room doesn't speak and uses hand gestures to communicate, we often feel the need to stay quiet. And today, there was no yelling, and barely any speaking. Just music and concentration. I came out of the class feeling relaxed and with a huge grin on my face. There's nothing like silence to help you get centered. It was almost like yoga.

---

Earlier today, I had my last geometry class of the year. And as usual, I was being loud and calling out and screaming answers. Of course, my math genius friend got everything first, but I got it shortly afterwards. Then, the teacher handed out the class placements for next year. If I were to stay, I'd still be in the highest math class - א'1 or I guess A1. You see? Calling out does pay.

---

I think I'm going to watch an episode of Doctor Who now and eat some ice cream. What a wonderful evening.

(By the way, see The Vampires of Venice - Season 5 Ep 6 – as well as The Big Bang - Season 5 Ep 13 – for the Doctor Who reference in the title.)

Computerless Saturday (well, up to now)

My parents were in Jerusalem today and yesterday, so we (my brother and I) slept over at my grandma's. This means:

1. No internet
2. Good food (not that ours is normally bad)
3. Better sleep (see number 1)
4. More time to do stuff (see number 1)

So, I got up after a much better night's sleep than I have had in a while, ate breakfast, and generally prepared myself pour le jour. My aunt came over with a backpack full of cameras (!) and, since she had promised me a few months ago, we were going outside to take photos. She was teaching me to use an analog camera - do stuff the good ol'-fashioned way.

We walked by the Yarkon (the muddy strip of water that we call a river) and took photos of the park around it. Since it's Saturday, the park was full of people. I had a great deal of fun playing with the zoom and focus. We went all the way to the port, which isn't really that long, taking photos of things and windows and stuff, and then took a taxi to meet my brother and then went for hamburgers at a place called Wolfnights. They were delicious. There's not much more to say.

We then went back to my grandma's and sat around for a few hours. My brother practiced his violin. I took more pictures on the cameras. I now have two full rolls of film (36 photos each), which doesn't sound like a lot but it is when you're selective with the photos as we were.

Then, my uncle and cousin came over with a basketball and we went to the park to play. First we were just shooting hoops, then we played a few games that included shooting hoops, then we played an actual basketball game. Kids versus grownups - my uncle and his sister (my photographing aunt) versus my cousin, my brother, and me. And we won - twice.

The best thing? I didn't feel like I needed the computer at all.

Fresh Bread

I went to a bakery today and bought a baguette.

It tastes SO MUCH BETTER than supermarket bread. Now, I suppose that would go without saying, but I sort of forgot how good a fresh bakery baguette is. Last time I ate one of these was a few months ago at least. Perhaps not since Boston.

So, here are a few steps to the location of one subspecies of Afternoonus Awesomus:

1. Go to a bakery.

2. Buy a fresh baguette.

3. Eat it while wasting time on YouTube and Facebook or watching Doctor Who.

Cheers!

Leaf Crunching

On the way to my house from practically everywhere, I pass this tree.

Now, this tree is no ordinary tree. Each leaf is twenty centimeters (about eight inches) long at least. And when they're just dry and crumpled enough, they make the most wonderful crunching sound.

I love crunching leaves here because they don't come in mounds like they do in Massachusetts. Plus I love the sound. It's so satisfying.

Today I was walking home from the bus-thing (it's a monit kav hamesh, but never mind) from Dizengoff Center, and I realized that the tree had shed an extra-lot of leaves and they were awesomely dry and crumpled. So I crunched them.

It was awesome. Perhaps the highlight of my day.

(I should remind you that I am over five years old. But who cares?)

Wednesday

Normally I hate Wednesdays. They're the longest school days of the week - 8:45-2:45 - and it's annoying, even though in America I was at school for longer each day. The main reason of my dislike of Wednesdays is that I have three double classes - three classes of ninety minutes each, plus a forty-five minute class. It's tedious.

However, today seemed to be more okay than usual. I mean, obviously Grammar class was boring as ever, but we always have recess between the two classes and the teacher generally arrives at least ten minutes late for the second class. Israeli Heritage is an alright class anyway, and it was forty-five minutes. Besides which, it was quite an interesting conversation-class to listen to (sometimes I like listening to debates more than participating in them).

Then came English.

Now, obviously I'll be the first of my class to say that English is awesome, for obvious reasons. It's nice to have an opportunity to speak English to a teacher because you have to. Although I suppose the thing I like best is that I can make a total mess of the languages and every person in the room will understand. Unless I use really big words, like sesquipedalian. Which is an awesome word which means "a person fond of long words."

But today's first English class was one of the awesomest ones ever. Why? Because there was no class. Later (in the second class) we found out that our teacher had been with a student in the library and had forgotten entirely that she was supposed to teach our first class (a variation of this has happened before). I had hilarious conversations with my friends who are boys (NOT boyfriends, just to be clear, and I am not a polyandrist). Over the course of these conversations I realized that (1) I have had more ease in making friends with boys here than girls and (2) my friends who are boys have exceedingly perverted views of the world. I also swore a few times, at which they kind of stared at me for a few moments before going back to their own (and rather more heavily-loaded with profanity) points to make.

In the second class, the teacher came in, which was a sad end to our hilarity, because we had to complete a quiz. It was okay in the end, though.

After that we had math, which is usually the boringest of borings. (And yes, I know "boringest" is not a word!) But today another of my friends who are boys sat next to me. He's a math genius, so half of the lesson was us sniggering in the back of the class, laughing at the "leaning tower of Pisa"s we'd made by sticking our pens in holes in the desk (apparently, someone in a class before us was really, really bored and in possession of something sharp), and the other half was him answering questions intelligently and going through the class/homework faster than anyone else.

It was a good day. At least until I re-injured my back in ballet class (I injured it on Sunday and I thought it had healed). What will I tell the PE teacher tomorrow? I had to sit out last class too...sigh...