A digital camera for Lia

After 18 years of disposable cameras (and 35mm cameras I’d like to dispose of), I am now in the market to get a digital camera (an early graduation present [assuming I graduate]).

I have absolutely no idea what I’m looking for in a digital camera except that I want it to be able to take videos, and I want it to be digital.

If any of you have a digital camera (and I know you all do), please post here with its brand, model, special features (if any), and how satisfied you are with it. Thanks!

College update

I got into Emory!

Spring break…so far

A sampling of some cool/interesting things that have already happened over break:

Purim services
-Read Megillah for the first time
-Someone stole my jacket from the coat room. It has my name in it. If you took it, please give it back. I’m cold.

Heschel Convention in Connecticut!!
-I’ve never flown alone before
-I don’t think I’ve ever been to CT before
-It was soooo fun!
-I got to see lots of my super cool out-of-town (and Chicago, too) friends, and made some new ones too
-I saw The Incredibles
-A lot of funny, Livejournal-able stuff happened, but I can’t think of any of that now. Maybe later.

I got into Northwestern!

A <i>really</i> late night

MONDAY
Woke up: alarm at 5:30 a.m., got out of bed at 6:30 a.m
Arrived at school: 7:05 a.m.
School ended: 2:25 p.m.
Left West Word: 2:30 a.m.
Arrived at home: 2:45 a.m.
Went to bed: 3 a.m.

TUESDAY
Woke up: alarm at 10 a.m., out of bed at 10:30 a.m.
Arrived at school: 11:25 a.m.
School ended: 2:25 p.m.
Arrived at home: 3 p.m.
Took a nap: ASAP.

Yeah. There was no WAY I’d be able to survive a full day of school today with getting home at 2:45 a.m. from newspaper.

Sleeping late today was amaaaaaaaaazing!! I highly recommend it.

What day is it?

I failed to purchase a 2005 calendar at the beginning of the year.

I guess I always figured that I’d just do it later.

Well. Yesterday, I happened to be at Barnes and Noble, and I figured that I might as well buy a calendar. I searched everywhere for the array of nice calendars, but alas, it did not exist. I asked the lady there if they had any, and she said, “No, [stupid girl], we haven’t sold calendars since January.”

Maybe I’ll never know what day it is.

The best 15 minutes of the day

With only four sporadic free mods (15-minute slots of time) during my day, it is important to make the best use of each minute.

Mod 5 is great for snacks and last-minute Bio work, mod 17 is for lunch / counselor visits, and mod 22 is for last-minute English work (all of these breaks take place in the cafe).

Mod 10 has always been an issue. We’ve tried:
-Hanging out by our hallway area (closed halls…got in trouble)
-Going to the Writing Center (boring; too far away)
-Hanging on that bench by the drafting rooms (also closed halls)
-Sitting in our “corner” against the walls (that works, but it takes a while to get there from the third floor)
-And, most recently: the colorful area in the middle of the science wing hallway. It works pretty nicely, especially for Euro and math homework, and socializing and snacking.

But now, Syema and I have found the ultimate solution to the question of what to do with mod 10.

We take a 15-minute nap.

Yes. A 15-minute nap. We’re already exhausted from the day, especially when we stayed up late the night before (which is always). We get in a mini nap during bio lectures, and later in the day, during a Euro movie.

But this mod 10 nap is incredibly refreshing. We lay down on the big yellow funny-shaped bench/chair, and just sleep. People walking down the halls give us weird looks, but we don’t care. It’s relatively quiet, and after a nice nap, the bell serves as our alarm clock.

If this is possible for any of you, I highly recommend it.

English Award!

I got the English Department Award!!

Instead of submitting a normal “cover letter” that we needed to turn in to the English teachers (so they can rank the applicants), I decided to be a little creative.

Here it is.

E-mail Log: English Department, Niles West High School
Printout of e-mails received 2/22/05

______________________________________________________________________
From: chaucer48@hotmail.uk
Re: The English Award Recipient’s Tale

Awarded to an English student who
Has demonstrated what she’s learned to do,
This honor recognizes one’s success
In high school English, more so than the rest.
Her classes in this language prepped her for
A writing form she did not have before
She walked into this building and began
To realize that she’s an English fan.
The reading, writing, speaking all have been
Quite entertaining, not to her chagrin.
Each teacher’s taught her skills she can apply
To all components of her life—no lie!
I hope, between you all, you’ll find accord,
And you’ll consider her for this award.

______________________________________________________________________
From: MeursaultMan@yahoo.fr
Re: English

Lia applied for the English Award today. Or yesterday, maybe, I don’t know. I got an e-mail from a friend: “Lia applied. Decision to be made soon. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

What is this “English Award,” anyway? I don’t care about it. It seems like a meaningless honor given to an English nerd with too much time on her hands. Like Lia. I don’t really care about her. She spends too much time writing those silly papers for class. Every week, it’s a new essay. I mean, don’t get me wrong. She’s a great writer. But it just seems like she puts too much passion into something that’s just a high school class. I saw her report card, though. She’s quite the overachiever in this department. All Honors and AP classes? Who does she think she is?

Okay. I guess she sort of deserves the award. She is a pretty good kid, now that I think about it. I actually just re-read one of her papers—I had been happy the first time I read it, and now I’m happy again. I only wish that there be a large crowd of English teachers the day of the vote and they greet her with cries of appreciation.

______________________________________________________________________
From: holden214@netzero.com
Re: (no subject)

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is how Lia started writing, and what her lousy childhood was like, and how she was always occupied with English, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. I’m not going to give you Lia’s whole goddam biography or anything. That stuff bores me.

Especially that whole newspaper stuff. I don’t read those damn things. They’re all full of b.s., I tell ya. But Lia seems pretty into that journalism stuff. I don’t know how she got to be West Word editor in chief, though. I mean, she started off as a lowly staff writer and photographer sophomore year. All of a sudden, she becomes copy editor, news editor, and editor in chief? For Chrissake.

Let me tell you about this one night. It was still pretty early. I’m not sure what time it was, but it wasn’t too late. The one thing I hate to do is go to bed when I’m not even tired. So I opened my copy of West Word. What I thought I’d do, I thought I’d read it and see what all the hype was about.

You should see Lia. You never saw a kid so pretty and smart in your whole life. She’s a really talented writer. I mean she’s had mostly As ever since she started school. You’d like her. She writes so that anyone can understand her. Boy, that prose is clear. And I can tell that she went to a lot of trouble to interview those people for those damn articles. Like that one about the potential teacher strike. For Chrissake did she interview a lot of people. She had this way of writing that article that I couldn’t even tell what her opinion was—which was good, being a news article.

Boy, do I hear good things from her fellow staff writers. I hear she not only writes a lot of articles, but comes up with killer ideas. And she’s their layout guru, solving everyone’s problems, and she knows grammar like none other.

For Chrissake, she stays so late after school. Sometimes ‘til midnight or later—and all for that English stuff. I wouldn’t do it. I’d rather be out drinking, or having a good time.

But that Lia, you could tell she really likes what she does.

______________________________________________________________________
From: RaftinHuck@aol.com
Re: That editin’ gal Lia

Hey ya’ll, it’s ol’ Huckleberry Finn ‘ere, an’ I ain’ the best student in no grammar. No siree, I don’ read o’ write that good. I din’ have time fo’ education when I’s a kid, no. I’s busy hidin’ from my pap, and helpin’ that fella Jim.

But I din’ worry much. Once, raftin’ up the river, I met that girl from Linc’wood. Lia. She had such a knack fo’ grammar and spelling. And fo’ commas, and periods, and those other dots on the pages. I’d asked her fo’ help ev’ry time I had to write somethin’ down.

I don’ know how she got to be so talented. Maybe it’s that newspap’r bus’ness. She seems to be a pretty good edit’r. I mean, I don’ see too many typos in those West Word papers. I bet she learn’d some stuff from her Engl’sh teachers, too.

I didn’ get to see Lia ver’ often. She’s always busy writin’ papers, writin’ articles, readin’ books. Editin’ other people’s stuff. I found one of her friends while I was raftin’—he said that people always ask Lia to edit their Engl’sh papers because they know that she’ll make ‘em sound better.

Even outside o’ school, Lia’s friends want her to edit their stuff. She had some friends runnin’ for political positions in their youth group, an’ she helped ‘em make sure that their speeches were good enough. An’ you know what? All the friends she helped won their elections.

But no matter. I still rely on Lia for helpin’ me edit my writin’. I don’ know what I’d do without her. Where is that girl now? I need her help writin’ this ‘ere e-mail.

______________________________________________________________________
From: Hamlet105@elsinore.rr.com
Re: The Question

To award Lia the English Award,
Or not to award Lia the English Award:
That is the question.

I am not one for long speeches,
But I know Lia is.
Lia has taken the skills
That she learned in her English classes
And really applied them to what matters in life.
She’s written speeches that were
Delivered at synagogue and youth group functions
In front of hundreds of people.

She’s written articles outside of those for West Word
That have been distributed to thousands.
Even at home, she keeps an online journal
Of her thoughts and observations,
And a written journal of her summer travels
(I can only imagine that she’d have a lot to say
About her trips to Poland, Israel,
And a community service trip across America).

To grant Lia this honor would be,
In my humble opinion,
A consummation devoutly to be wished.

Issue 5!

I know that West Word’s Issue 5 has been on newsstands for a while, but it only recently became available on the Internet.

Here it is.

Be sure to check out my column here (scroll down a little).

Summer!

My job situation for this summer has been finalized. I will be working at the Council for Jewish Elderly (at the JCC in Rogers Park), doing clerical stuff (filing, faxing, organizing, etc = mindless jobs).

The attire is “business casual.” I don’t know if I can handle dressing up every day of the week! Hmm, maybe this will make me like fashion again.

I’ll be working 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, so I’ll get to sleep late(ish), and then I have the rest of the night to enjoy my first summer home in seven years.

Plans for after 3:00, anyone? (And the weekend?) Movies? Dinners? Beach? Shopping? Downtown? Shows? Sitting around doing nothing?

People who don’t live here…any plans to visit the Windy City?

At this rate, I’ll soon be barefoot.

Every time I do laundry, the washing machine eats one of my socks.

Without fail.

I wouldn’t mind (or wouldn’t notice) it stole two of my socks. But no. The washing machine is only hungry enough for one sock.

What IS that?