To Northwestern or not to Northwestern

Should I apply to Northwestern? I need to decide ASAP.

Reasons to apply:
-Great school
-I have a fair chance of getting in solely based on legacy
-Though I don’t want to go there now, I might want to go there later.

Reasons not to apply:
-I don’t want to go there!
-It’s too close to home
-It’s too familiar to me
-My brother goes there (so did my dad and grandmother), so it’s nothing new
-I can name all the buildings and I know my way around the campus already
-The application is the most annoying thing ever and I won’t be able to recycle any essays for it
-I don’t want to be in Medill journalism (too rigorous), but if I’m not then I won’t be able to work on the paper.
-I sort of don’t want to know if I would have gotten in or not. If I did get in, I’d feel obligated to go there since it’s such a great school. If I didn’t get in, I’d get made fun of (maybe not to my face)
-I might ruin the chances for all my friends getting in who actually do want to go there

Please vote here ASAP. Leave reasons if you can.

TiVo…what next??

Life in the Lehrer household will no longer be the same.

We used to watch TV fairly often. We would make a point of watching our collective or individual shows: the West Wing, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, HGTV, Countdown, or whatever. If they were on TV and the TV was on, we’d watch.

Occasionally, the TV would be on but none of our favorite shows would be. We would use this time to go online, read a book, do the dishes, or–heaven forbid–talk to each other.

Now, after months of my dad researching, we finally bought a TiVo. I still don’t fully understand it, but supposedly, we’ll be able to pause live TV, skip live commercials, and tape shows with greater ease.

So now it will be easier for us to watch those shows that we never get to watch because a) we forgot to tape them or b) the tape is just laying around the house somewhere unlabeled.

This is a huge problem. My schedule is pretty packed right now as it is. Currently, I don’t watch TV (yes, I know that’s a problem also). But with this new TiVo, I just might have to make time for TV. Something will have to give.

Webmaster Lia?

I made a website! I’m really excited. Now I (more or less) know (the rudiments of) FrontPage, and it is SO much fun. I think I might have a new hobby.

I had to make a website for bio about a chromosome. Everyone else in my class had to use stupid sites like freeservers.com and tripod.com, but I’m cool enough to be able to use my very own (my dad’s) lehrercommunications.com–so everyone else had annoying pop-up ads, and they were complaining that they didn’t know how to change the format. Well, they all have advantages when we’re doing trials and their lawyer dads can help them, or when their doctor moms can treat their sicknesses. For me, I get a marketing dad who can make websites like none other. And now it has finally come in handy.

If you’d like to visit my beautiful website devoted to the ever-exciting fifth chromosome, visit http://www.lehrercommunications.com/chrom5.

Now THIS is will power

The past few nights, I’ve been sort of completely wasting my nights chatting online. Of course, the time is not REALLY wasted–I do love talking to all of you. Reading people’s away messages and profiles also enhances my life, and I do feel especially witty when I come up with some good ones.

Last night, my only real homework was math, and I decided that it would be much more enjoyable to do it while being online. As you might guess, it took me about four hours to do that one math assignment.

So I decided that tonight I would not go online at all and see how much I can get done. I couldn’t prevent myself from checking e-mail, though (I’ve probably refreshed my aol.com e-mail 30 times tonight). But I did manage to not sign on to AOL or AIM for an entire night, and hopefully I’ll go to bed soon.

Without AIM for the night, here’s what I was able to accomplish:
-Israeli club party after school (watched “Mean Girls”)
-Went to Barnes and Noble to buy book for Euro
-Researched for Bio project
-Wrote an article for USY
-Microwaved leftovers for dinner (mmmm, kosher fried chicken)
-Called Elena (from Florida–Wheels)
-Watched ER (when was the last time I sat down and watched TV???)
-Talked to Josh Goldberg (another Wheelnik, from Canada) on the phone for an hour and a half
-Update Livejournal
-Hopefully continue on my path to learning Front Page and how to make a website

WOW.

I sort of miss my IMs though.

8th graders

I spent Friday and Saturday with 100 8th graders. Quite a Shabbat.

It was Schechter’s 8th Grade Shabbaton, and the USY regional board was there to help out, plan and lead sessions, and really push USY. The 8th graders didn’t seem to know why we were there, and really, neither did we. We felt sort of out of place.

Some of the 8th graders were cool. Some of them–not so much. Here are a few things I learned about 8th graders after this weekend:

1. No matter how hard people try, nobody is as cool as you are.
2. 8th graders do not appreciate authority. Ever.
3. Social status is everything. Your success in middle school depends on what group of people you sit with in the cafeteria.
4. If an adult tells you to be quiet, keep talking. If they make you move to another seat, roll your eyes at them.
5. Girls may not sit with boys, unless you’re part of the cool clique of 8th graders that participates in mixed seating.
6. If someone says something stupid, make fun of them.
7. Eat as much junk food as possible.
8. When the teachers tell you that bed time is 12:30 a.m., they really mean 4:30 a.m.
9. Singing and praying for Shabbat are NOT cool.
10. You must straighten your hair for Shabbat.
11. If you like someone, do not tell them directly. Tell a friend to talk to them for you.
12. Life is not about having fun. Life is about having fun while still giving off the appearance that you are cool.

Backpack

Have you ever weighed your backpack?

I have. Today, it weighed 24 pounds.

I heard that your backpack isn’t supposed to weigh more than 10% of your weight. I’m pretty sure I don’t weigh 240 pounds.

It’s really only this heavy going to and from school when I need to bring back textbooks, or in the first half of the day when I need to be studying from the textbooks. My friends make fun of me because it looks like I’m driving a truck or something.

No wonder my back hurts.

My new look!

Well. I finally got around to cutting my hair. It was REALLY long. Now, not so much–instead, 10 inches of my hair were donated to Locks of Love. Yay!

Here’s the “before” pic:

Me holding my newly cut hair to be donated:

And, after:

I feel like a burden was lifted!!

I’m going to college!

It’s official…I really am going to college.

I got into University of Illinois (not that I didn’t think that I would, but it is nice to see that “Decision: Admit” on the website). They’re reviewing my application at Madison, I sent in my Emory app, and Wash U got my letter of nomination for this scholarship that I probably won’t get. The other applications might be sent in sometime within the next few months.