the bright side of ugly

I've been kind of busy lately. What with high school and the promised load of homework. I worked for two and a half hours when I got home from school today and worked straight through till dinner at 7. Anyway. Here's the point of the post:

Hurricane Katrina came through earlier this week. When it hit land and my grandmother's house (Clearwate, FL) it was a category one. But by the time it hit New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River it was a category five (I think...) and New Orleans was quickly flooded with 16 feet of water (right?) and hit with 95 mph winds (I think) which whipped through the streets and together the two destroyed the only bridge that leads in and out of the city. Watching the "Aftermath" news program on tv its astounding to see this damage and the death toll. And this in the US! The land of Milk and Honey. Things like this aren't supposed to happen here. I mean yeah, natural disasters occur, but we deal with them... don't we? We make sure that everyone is evacuated in time and prepare so that even if everyone isn't able to get out there is enough food and water supplies to go around. And yet here are these people on the news. Their lives and homes have been devastated by this hurricane and they are waiting in the sweltering 90 degree plus weather in gigantic lines that snake behind the super-grocery stores and they're waiting in line for a single plastic bag of groceries handed to them through a tiny, muddy hole in the wall. As they are waiting a fire truck brings "relief"... a huge tarmac filled with dirty water that people are eagerly splashing all over themselves and dipping their babies into it. One man shakes his water bottle, filled one eight of the way up and states in his deep-southern accent "this is all the water I have to my name, right here." It's so surprising that the aftermath could be this bad in the US. It's not a third world country. Though conditions in New Orleans right now are pretty bad.

Mr. Brown, my world history teacher, told us today in class (while we were talking about public works in ancient civilizations) that the people in the hurricane shelters down there have no place for all their waste. It smells so bad and soon they won't be able to stay healthy (as healthy as you can be with scarcities of food and water and no way to practice good hygeine skills) with all the waster surrounding them. My mom says that people are being told to move the dead bodies (dead bodies!! there shouldn't be any dead bodies to begin with!!) away from where they're staying. The stench is so bad. And where is the governor of Mississippi while all this is going on? Washington D.C. is my best guess. And what is he doing about it? About as much as our wonderful president is doing to bring down gas prices, another huge issue. In Chapel Hill gas went up 20 cents just yesterday!! I'm disgusted. ugh.

Posted by hayley at Wednesday, August 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

i've been pretty lazy lately... i haven't posted in a couple days. (but i guess it doesn't matter anyways because no one is reading this... just posting for my own sanity) or at least thats how it feels. i know this time last week i was at the beach and it seems like forever ago already. even orientation seems like a long time ago and it was only wednesday!!

there's a usy pool party tonight that i have to go to. im only really going because i haven't seen amy since she went to vermont. i haven't seen anna ruth since may but she can't come. soccer soccer soccer.

not looking forward to school on monday. meeting new people is hard. it's so weird not knowing everyones name!! but i guess i'll get used to it. so many books to carry. my geometry teacher (piggot) requests that we bring our books everyday. he's seems like a cool teacher but yesterday he actually had us read the first section of the math book instead of teaching it to us. don't know how great of a teacher he is... i mean what kind of math teacher makes you read the book?? i've never been taught that way before.

and then in band there are 13 flutes (counting me). i guess this makes sense because the only people who really continued in band are freaks like me looking to meet people. and most of those people happen to be girls. who play the flute. or at least thats how i see it but i guess thats a little stereotypical. or a lot stereotypical actually but thats ok. most of the people who didn't really like the class but took it for an easy A dropped out. leaving the dregs of the band. the rest of the sections are pretty balanced though. i hope that the band director does't just have half the flutes sit out. that would make me really mad. a waste of my time. i'm taking an extra zero period to fit band in... the least i could do is play. i hope thats not the way things shake out but if it is i will switch classes. probably to being a TA which is not very exciting or productive but even so a better use of my time then watching others play in band while i sit there. we're doing chairs this year too (chairs are when you compete to be "first chair" and the best in your section). that should sufficiently suck. it did for the bried period that we had chairs in sixth grade. but thats ok. whatever.

i don't really know what else to say so i suppose i should finish this rambly post already.

Posted by hayley at Saturday, August 27, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

am i the only one who signed up for band again this year?? g/d it sucks but its too late to change my schedual now. i only signed up because my mom made me. she's scared i wont meet anyone if im not in any "specialty classes" or whatever. grr. we'll just have to see how much the first day sucks lol.

Posted by hayley at Tuesday, August 23, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was at the beach and I only got back yesterday night.

My vacation was too lengthy to recound online but there is one thing I would like to share.

There's not much wildlife at the beach where I go to in Kiawah (SC) but if you wade waist deep during the low tide , and dive under the water and come up with a handful of sand you can get a few hermit crabs each time. If you feel around with your feet you might find a sand dollar or possibly a welk. Lots of sand dollars. Norah found like 6 each day. Anyway here's the point: there was this couple (newlyweds, my Dad said) and for 3 days we saw them go out at low tide and collect sand dollars. The man would pile them up, as many as he could find in his hand. Then when they had "enough" (in quotations because we saw them collecting every day) they would put them up on the sand (hot hot sand) to dry. Killing the sand dollars! Grr, I mean, I know it's just a sand dollar but it was still alive. And they must have found at least 40 sand dollars. 40 sand dollars dead and hanging in somebody's bathroom. Even though they're lives didn't mean much no one deserves to bake on the sand. It was really hot too, peaked at 104 on on Wednesday I believe.

We also went kayaking in a blackwater swamp which was really cool. The water is turned black by the same additives put into tea to give it such a lovely color. The water was a beautiful amber-y brown. Very nice.

Another highlight was all the yummy dinners. I love seafood. She-crab soup is my favorite ever. Back to regular eating is painful.

Highschool orientation is on Wednesday. I'm so excited!!

Posted by hayley at Sunday, August 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

After a recent trip to Blockbuster to rent a movie or two (Chicago and A Walk to Remember in case the nonexistent reader should care) I was reading the receipt in the car and noticed something quite scam-ish. Blockbuster claims to "Life After Late Fees" but upon closer inspection I discovered that it actually says:
"There is no additional rental charge if a member keeps a rental item up to 7 days beyond the pre-paid rental period. After 7 days beyond the due date, Blockbuster will automatically convert the rental to a purchase on the 8th day and will charge the member the selling price for the item in effect at the time of the rental, minus the rental fee paid. Member then has 30 days to return the product and receive a credit for the selling price charged, less a $1.25 restocking fee."
which in effect actually means that if you don't return it within a week they charge you a "restocking fee" i.e. a late fee...
so much for life after late fees.

To the grocery store!

Posted by hayley at Thursday, August 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

Peter Jennings died yesterday. Lung cancer. All the smoking did him in. I can't believe he's dead! I couldn't believe that he was retiring in April and now he's dead its just like wow. It's weird... like it was just such a normal thing to see Peter Jennings on TV giving the nightly news. My parents used to watch it sometimes. I know I didn't even know him or like his show or anything but he was just such a fixture! World News Tonight with Peter Jennings! G/d I just can't believe he's dead. It's like the floor's been yanked out from under me while I was still standing on it. Change is weird. Especially change that involves such normal things as Nightly News. Which aren't supposed to change.

Another really hum-drum day today. Just chilled around the house with Norah. Yesterday was quite exciting however. I hadn't planned to do anything but then my friend Amy called and was like "wanna go see Charlie and the Chocolatte Factory with me?" and I was like "hey sure!" So I called my mom and asked permission and Amy's dad was totally cool about picking me up at my house (which was really nice because its out of their way to the movies) and Norah tagged along and it was just really exciting just doing something different than what was planned. I love being spontaneous! Horay for spontaneousismness lol. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was not so exciting the second time though. Oh well. I got to see Amy which was cool because I hadn't seen her since she went to camp and won't again until she comes back from traipsing around the upper eastern part of the United States a few days before school starts.

My Grandma is coming to visit tomorrow. My mom and I are going to pick her up at the airport while Norah has fun at a friends house. That should be interesting... She's going to drive down to South Carolina with us which makes for a cramped car but its not so bad.

The TV keeps spouting news about remembering Peter Jennings.

Man I still can't believe he's dead! World News Tonight with Peter Jennings!!

Posted by hayley at Tuesday, August 09, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

It's funny how your body always remembers how to rside a bike. No matter how long it's been since you've hopped on and ridden away you just automatically know how to balance yourself and move. It's not like walking where if you lay inbed for 6 weeks and don't get up at all your legs forget and need to be retaught and retoned. I hadn't ridden my bike since last summer but today **in honor of the new bike I got for my birthday (my sister Norah grew out of her old one but wasn't quite ready for an adult size bike so my parent's gave her the bike I got for my birthday last year and got me a new one)** we went for a 'family bike ride' on the American Tobacco Trail. Which is quite long and hot and mostly flat. We rode like 6 1/2 miles which is nothing compared to Lance Armstrong and his 22 mile hikes uphill but enough for me. Especially since I hadn't been on a bike since last summer. But at the end I was so SWEATY and GROSS. I got home, changed out of my grungy disgusting clothes and showered right away. Because I hate feeling all nasty and dirty. dirrrty gurl lol. My mom was also really nice and bought us all milkshakes to share at the end. Because after all, whats the point of bike riding without a milkshake at the end to replace all those calories you just burned? Beats me.

Every summer we go to the beach in South Carolina... Kiawah Island. It's like this golf/tennis/beach resort place (but mostly golf, though the beach is quite nice tennis courts quite clay, and bike trails quite flat...). We always rent a condo and spend a week chilling at the beach (thats right... my family goes to a golf resort even though we don't play golf... whatever.)It's just so relaxed and nice. Last year we went with all my cousins but this year my golf-playing cousins decided to go to Hawaii instead so they could play golf there. My New York family will still be there though. We chilled with them at the beach last year... my little cousing is turning four in November and he is soooo cute! And of course my Grandma who drives down with us usually... she's coming on Wednesday and we're leaving on Saturday. It should be fun... I'm excited.

In Kiawah they have tons of bike trails and most are pretty shady and flat so if you leave early in the morning before the heat really sets in you can have a "nice ride" for two hours before going to crash at the beach for the rest of the day. The nicest (the means most expensive tea-room) golf course is called the Ocean Course and it's really pretty, right on the edge of the beach (but a private beach, not the one with people on it) so you can look at the water while you play and hit your ball into the sand. There's also bike trails that go to it and you have to go through all these residential neighborhoods before you get to it. It's quite a ride, at least an hour there and two and a half hours round trip (always tired-er on the way back so it takes longer...). We did it once last year but this year my parents have got this crazy idea in their heads to bike there everyday before hitting the beach. Ack. I need the excersize though... am so out of shape its not even funny.

I think I'm going to Paint the Earth babysitting camp tomorrow because my mom has a long day at her offfice because she's taking off all next week to go to the beach and the end of this week because my Grandma is coming. it shouldn't be so bad though... you get to paint ceramics and maybe I can convince Amy to tag along because she got home from camp on Saturday and isn't leaving for Vermont until Wednesday. School starts in two weeks... I am very excited!! My birthday is coming up right before that too... these last two weeks of summer should go by really fast.... I hope.

Posted by hayley at Sunday, August 07, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

i hate the world right now so i think i'll just post this nice survery that i got as a fwd yesterday for no one to see:
THINGS I HAVE DONE (not much looking back...)
(x) skipped school

( ) seen someone die

( ) been in love

( ) been dumped

( ) shoplifted

( ) been in a fist fight

( x ) snuck out of your parent's house

( x ) Had feelings for someone who didnt have them back

( ) gone on a blind date

( x ) been to Canada

( ) been to Mexico

( x ) been on a plane

( x ) eaten Sushi

( ) been snowboarding

( ) been moshing at a concert

( X ) taken painkillers

( x ) love someone or miss someone right now

( x ) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by

( x ) made a snow angel

( x ) had a tea party

( x ) flown a kite

( x ) built a sand castle

( x ) gone puddle jumping

( x ) played dress up

( x ) jumped into a pile of leaves

( x ) gone sledding

( x ) cheated while playing a game

( x ) been lonely

( x ) fallen asleep at school

( x ) watched the sun set

( ) felt an earthquake

( x ) touched a snake

( x ) slept beneath the stars

( x ) been tickled

( ) been robbed

( x ) been misunderstood

( x) petted a reindeer/goat

( ) won a contest

( x ) had a parent run a red light

( ) been in a car accident

( x ) had braces

( x ) felt like an outcast

( ) eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night - Does like, half count?

(x ) had deja vu

( x ) hated yourself and the way you look

( x ) witnessed a crime

( x) squished barefoot through the mud

( x ) been lost

( x ) been to the opposite side of the country

( x ) swam in the ocean

( ) played cops and robbers

( X ) recently colored with crayons/colored pencils/markers

( ) sung karaoke

( ) paid for a meal with only coins

( x) made prank phone calls

( x ) laughed until some kind of beverage came out of you

( x ) caught a snowflake on your tongue

( x ) danced in the rain

( ) written a letter to Santa Claus

( ) been kissed under a mistletoe

( ) watched the sun rise with someone you care about

( x ) blown bubbles

( ) made a bonfire on the beach

( ) crashed a party

( x ) gone rollerskating

( ) had a wish come true

( x ) worn pearls

( ) ate dog/cat food

( X ) sang in the shower

( ) have a little black dress

(x ) had a dream that you married someone

( ) glued your hand to something

( ) got your tongue stuck to a flag pole

( ) kissed a fish

( ) been a cheerleader

( ) sat on a roof top

( x ) screamed at the top of your lungs

( ) done a one handed cart-wheel

( ) talked on the phone for more than 6 hours

( X ) stayed up all night

( x ) picked and ate an apple right off the tree

( x ) climbed a tree

( ) had a tree house

( x ) are scared to watch scary movies alone

( ) believe in ghosts

( ) have more then 30 pairs of shoes

( ) worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say

( ) pushed into a pool with all your clothes on

( ) broken a bone

( x ) been easily amused

( ) caught a fish then ate it

( ) caught a butterfly

( x ) laughed so hard you cried

( x ) cried so hard you laughed

( ) cheated on a test

( ) have a Britanty Spears CD

( x ) forgotten someone's name

( ) French braided someone's hair

( ) been to any other countries besides yours

( ) had serious surgery

( ) gone out in public in your pajamas

( ) kissed a stranger

( x ) hugged a stranger

( ) been arrested

( x ) had alcohol

( x) pushed all the buttons on an elevator

( ) swore at your parents

( ) kicked a guy where it hurts

( ) been in love

( ) been close to love

( x) been to a casino

( ) skinny-dipped

( x ) saw a therapist/counsellor

( ) done the splits

( x ) played spin the bottle

( ) gotten stitches

( ) drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour

( x) bitten someone

( x ) been to Niagara Falls

( ) gotten the chicken pox

( ) crashed into a friend's car

( x ) ridden in a taxi

( ) been fired

( x ) lied to a friend

( ) had a crush on a teacher

( x ) celebrated mardi gras

( ) been to Europe

( ) Been to Africa

( x ) Driven interstate

( x ) Been Skiing

( ) Met someone in person from the internet

( ) been to a motor cross show

( ) lost a child

( x ) had a crush on someone you shouldn't

( x ) own an ipod

( ) own an mp3 player

( ) fancy someone on your contact list

( ) kissed a girl

( ) kissed a boy

( ) fainted

( ) purposely set a part of yourself on fire

( )questioned your heart

( x ) been obsessed with post-it notes

( x ) cried yourself to sleep

( x ) done something you told yourself you wouldn't

( ) jumped off a bridge

( ) kissed a mirror

( ) been told you're hot by a complete stranger

Posted by hayley at Friday, August 05, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

Another pretty boting day... I am a terribly vain person. My bangs pop out at me everywhere. I was watching dawsons creek today and on comes the dell commerical... the one with the preppy pink girl and comes into her college dorm and her roomie is this punk-y goth girl with dyed black hair and overdone eyeliner. and the preppy girl puts her pink clothes on their pink hangars next to the black ones already hanging and the heart-embossed picture of her harvard-grad boyfriend next to the punk rocker one of the other girl's bf. and then they sit down at the desk and open up the same dell laptop? you know the one. well the goth girls bangs are the same length as mine. maybe a little shorter. and the blonde girl on dawsons creek who i can never remember her name but she sleeps around a lot? well her bangs are the same length. i wonder if it was like a trend in the 90's or something. I don't know anyone who would get their hair cut like that on purpose but the show is kind of old... I guess that's why it's on at 10:00 am on weekdays lol. Gee that was a terribly shallowly vain paragraph... I'm such a freak.

I think I'm going to dye my hair. I know I was supposed to streak it purple at the beginning of the summer but the only purple dye was permanent... as in totally permanent dye your hair to it's natural hum-drum brown color and I freaked out and didn't do it. But I got my new teenpeople magazine today and they had an ad for this L'Oreal mousse dye stuff and there is one color that is slightly redish-purple-y and it washes out in 8-10 shampoos. Looks kind of cool. Maybe I'll try it. Gotta see how expensive it is first though because I am not blowing more than $15 on a hair dye that washes our in 8-10 shampoos (aka 9 days or less if its extra sweaty outside or the ac breaks...) especially not when the birthday money river is running a bit dry. because my birthday is COMING UP VERY SOON!! like 2 weeks. and with it the beginning of school. exciting exciting!

I was watching my favorite daytime talkshow lady today with my mumsie after she got home from work and today Oprah was interviewing this guy who started out Jim and became Jenny. And I just spent the rest of the hour being really thankful that I was not a transexual and felt at home in my own body (even though sometimes I don't but I never ever want to be a boy or anything). Not that there is anything wrong with people who do want to change their sex. I'm just pretty thankful I'm not one of them. Because I think it would be terribly uncomfortable to be in the wrong body. Euch.

Posted by hayley at Thursday, August 04, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

cut my bangs way too short!!! and not the regular "oh gee i just got my bangs cut and they look weird" gripes...they don't even graze my eyebrows!! i guess he's not to blame because i didn't tell him what i wanted done because i though he would recognize me (he's trimmed them right twice before) but he didn't and now i'm stuck with this g-d awful haircut that just make me wanna stick my head in a bag and never look out again. oh well... at least it will grow out by the time school starts to be normal looking. it's not like i'm doing anything between then and now anyway besides hanging at home and going to the beach (don't know anyone there lol).

my friend amy is coming home from camp on saturday so i'll finally have someone to talk to again and maybe have less time to feel sorry for myself and update this blog which no one is reading. then my other friend barbara gets home on sunday (i think) and ruthie sometime the weekend after that. everyone is trickling back home as the summer draws to a close. YAY. not like my summer totally sucked (which it kind of did but whatever) it just didn't turn out exactly as i had planned. i'm all ready for school to start though. i need to be busy again.

my dad came home early today so he could take me and norah to the pool as we are bored out of our minds chilling at home. but of course the second after we got there and i had jumped into the pool it started thundering. and then as people began to evacute it began to rain. and so we waited it out for 45 minutes wondering if the storm would stop and then finally left. and when we were halfway home? it stopped raining. it didn't even rain at my house!! i feel bad for my dad... he didnt get to finish all his paperwork and so will probably have to go back to work after dinner. all for nothing.

i wish i had something exciting to report to the invisible folk currently reading this...

Posted by hayley at Wednesday, August 03, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

I went to the salon place today to get my hair cut by George the hair cutter guy. Just a bang trim. He didn't have time to do my whole head... my mom said that the salon people squeezed me in last minute. It's ok because I really needed them trimmed but I didn't even get a head wash which is always my favorite part. Though it's always a litttle weird when George cuts my hair because he is not the regular lady that I usually go to. Brandy will be on maternity leave until September. Which is also when my therapist comes back from maternity leave. w00t w00t.

Otherwise it was another painfully boring day. Chilled at home with Norah until my Mom came home and took me to the salon. Life is an endless cycle of watching bad tv, playing sims, and eating. Oh yeah, and drinking LOTS OF WATER. 10 glasses a day.

I tried to mail a letter to Amy at camp because she had written me a letter and I had not replied yet but the mailman had already come when I went to put it out in the mailbox. So I'll jkust have to wait until tomorrow to mail it because it always bothers my dad when you put mail in the mailbox and leave it there overnight. He thinks that it will get stolen. Why anyone would want to steal a gossipy girly letter written on hello kitty stationary is beyond me but whatever.

I can't wait to go to the beach in a few weeks. My Grandma is coming and she'll drive down to South Carolina with us and then we'll have a few days before my uncle, aunt, and cousin come get there from New York. Then after we get home it will be school shopping, and my birthday, and the beginning of HIGH SCHOOL all really quickly. I'm so excited. Ready for this bo-ring summer to be ov-er alread-y!

Posted by hayley at Tuesday, August 02, 2005 | Permalink | Comments

I was flipping through this week's People and came upon this article about dedicated bloggers (**like me** only with 100,000 hits a day... something I clearly do not get as no one really cares about my hum-drum life... I don't work for google or am the head of the beauty department of an exciting magazine like those featured in the article.) who got fired from their jobs for bitching about them online. I don't think I could get in trouble with school for dumping shit about them in the blog but it was still weird. Anyway so I decided to check it out... jolinenyc.blogspot.com and was totally inspired. Being a beauty-editor sounds like so much fun! That's totally what I want to do when I grow up. Before she was fired "Jolie" used to get all sorts of free products, tried them out, and wrote a column about it. Factor in all the other free purses, makeup, gift certificates, spa trips, and celebrity interviews popping through the office etc. and it sounds like the job-for-me. The only problem is that all of the magazines are in New York City and though I love to visit my uncle up there once or twice a year I don't think I could live there. It just smells too bad. Even though "Jolie" lost her job (she came clean to her boss about the blog when she gave 2 weeks notice because she was leaving the Ladies Home Journal (very blah...) for Seventeen (I think I would too...) but got fired instead and when the story got out Seventeen declined the job offer) she still came out pretty good with a book deal.

Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday. It was pretty good except when they got into the whole thing about how Willy Wonka was really such a freak because of his horrible childhood (dad=dentist who burned candy). That was a little weird. The oompa-loompa songs were also a little dissapointing. The same Roald Dahl lyrics but without the catchy tune as featured in the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What bugs me the most is that when I looked up the movie times on aim it said that it was playing at 1:25 so me, my dad, and Norah all rushed through lunch really fast so we could make the movie and when we got there and bought tickets and concessions and went in it was the middle and i was like "huh". Only Mike TV and Charlie were left on the tour. Norah checked the tickets and they were for 2:15! The lady in the box office didn't even bother to say anything when we got them that we were 45 minutes early. We ended up waiting in the lobby while the movie finished up which kind of sucked but there was nothing to do about it. It just made me mad that the movie people didn't even bother to update the website that people count on to get the correct times. Just like when my mom and I went to see a movie at the Chelsea that we had looked up online and they had the incorrect one playing on the site so we went to go see it and it was not the movie that had been advertised. At least the box office lady there was a bit nicer and offered to give us our money back (which we took because the movie that was playing was very dark and creepy and not the romantic-comedy that had been advertised.) grr.

Reality Show du jour on the boob-tube is the Hell's Kitchen series finale. Only 2 chef-guys left... Ralph and Micheal. It is the cream of the crop of tv on tongight because it combines cooking (even though its not on the food channel) and the host guy cussing and screaming at the contesters. Ew. Norah's changed the channel now to mtv... home the original reality show (I think). The Sweet 16 party show is coming back with a new season and so to celebrate the entire old season is on (w00t w00t not). It's the first one where the bratty girls have a double-sweet 16 party and one is currently shaving her legs in the kitchen sink in front of her entire family while trying to talk on the cell phone to her pal-ies. What a freak. Who shaves their legs in the kitchen sink?? Especially when you have a perfectly good tub upstairs...

Posted by hayley at Monday, August 01, 2005 | Permalink | Comments