With every new obsession comes new questions asked by my mother. Every time mom hears me listening to Bob Dylan, she just has to ask what the songs are about. Time after time I have to tell her they have no meaning. Sure, they may have intention, but they have no real meaning. Some songs are obvious what the intention is, like Ballad in Plain D is about his relationship with Suze Rotolo, but not all of them do. In the movie Dont Look Back (and yes, the absence of the apostrophe was intentional), there's a scene where Dylan is being interviewed by a man from Time magazine. His words are , and I quote "...I have nothing to say about the things I write. I just write 'em. I don't have to say anything about them, I don't write them for any reason, there's no great message. If you want to tell other people that, go ahead and tell them." But there are some people who think that Dylan is such a genius that everything he says, and does, has a meaning in there somewhere. On December 3rd, 1965, there was a press conference in San Fransisco. The first question was from the creepiest looking guy ever, who asked if there was a meaning to the cover of the album with Subterranean Homesick Blues on it (that would be Bringing It All Back Home, but by the way they are describing it, I think he was talking about Highway 61 Revisited). He thought that the motorcycle on his shirt was "...an image in [his] songwriting...", where Dylan said that we all like motorcycles and the photo was taken one day when he was sitting on the steps. So there mom, if I have to explain to you one more time that I don't know how Edie Sedgwick has had so many songs written about her, I will throw you under a camel!

Flowers Nerebend Wi' Th' Rainfall

I be havin' a sore throat (that dasn't hurt that much, jus' uncomfortable), I be coughin', an' now sneezin'. Nay fever of yet. I also found a website that will translate words in t' swashbuckler speak.

Today there was a pep rally which was more fun than I expected. I sat with my friends and watched all the people walk by with their clubs. We cheered for the marching band people because we knew three people. They later joined us in the stands because although the step team, poms, and cheerleaders get to perform, they told the marching band that they could play at the end if there was enough time (which there wasn't). The floats were pretty cool and they all had a theme, which was beaches or something. The Freshman float was very intricate, and it had the motto "We put the fresh in freshman." It was a tiki hut with a hammock outside it. They threw Milky Ways at us, but they were only fun size, so when I asked my friend for some because he caught one, it was like the smallest thing ever. The Sophomore one was just a boat with some floral decorations and it had a sign that said "I'm On A Boat!" with a cut-out of T-Pain. I loved the Junior's float. It was a pirate ship! It was big because there was people coming out of it and walking the plank. The Senior's float was stupid, but they won just because they're seniors. Basically it was a small boat, but then they got out a dummy of a Leonardtown football player and proceeded to beat it up and rip the head off. Watching the clubs walk in between the floats was funny, because there were clubs that I never heard of before. I didn't know that we had a golf team, and I wondered why since golf seems so boring, except for put put golf, so my friends suggested we have a mini-golf team. A few people threw candy that they got from the floats at the people walking by. The looks on their faces were priceless. The cheerleaders cartwheeled in the parade, and one football player got out of line, back flipped with them, and ran back.

There was an obstacle course where they picked one person from each grade. The freshman won, but that's because the only person ahead of her was a football player and thus couldn't kick a soccer ball straight. Hanging with nerdy guys was funny when listening to their commentary on the performances. They said that cheerleaders are not as hot as they used to be. The step team was doing Michael Jackson, and asked why they grabbed their crotches. During poms they said that anybody could kick their legs like that. I exclaimed "I could be on the pom squad!", and one of my friends turned around and said "Please don't." One girl on the pom squad obviously had no clue what the choreography was, so it was kind of obvious to point her out.

Although the actual pep rally wasn't that great, it was fun to hang out with my friends for two hours. When a song came on that one of my friend's love, we started singing it out loud and saying stuff like "This is my jam!" People came from Chick-Fil-A and handed out discounts which I thought was funny since I knew a music fundraiser was coming up at Chick-Fil-A. One of my band friends complained about how people were going to use the discount at the fundraiser. People were slingshotting (or attempting to) stuffed cows. We were sitting in the middle, so there was no way that one could possibly reach us, yet my friend tried getting one anyway. I said to him "You'll never get one," when out of nowhere one flies in to the crowd and he caught it. Near the end I stole his shoe and didn't give it back to him. When he was close to taking it, I gave it to another friend and he wouldn't give it back either. When the friend with the stolen shoe looked away, the other friend hid it under my feet and told him that he passed the shoe down the crowd. The only problem with nerds is they figure stuff out fast. One thing that kept on happening throughout the pep rally was people kept touching me. You know when people poke you on your shoulder and you're left really confused? Well when it happened I made a big fuss about someone touching me, so then everyone started doing it. I never found out who was poking me when, except for the friend who was sitting in front of me. He wasn't trying very hard to be sneaky, so I didn't tell him off. He eventually stopped, but I kept on feeling pokes on my shoulder all afternoon. I don't know if I'd go to the actual homecoming game since my friends would either be in marching band or won't be going.

Adorez

Don't you just love it when you find a new song that you absolutely adore? Don't you just love it when you find out you have it on a record? Don't you just love it when the record has a bunch of other songs that you already absolutely adore? Don't you just love the word adore?

Blurg

I got my braces off today, which was not fun. I waited for like five minutes before the lady next to me asked what color I wanted. Instinctively I answered teal even though I knew I would be getting my braces off. After that the lady left. After what felt like forever the actual orthodontist came over and said "Sorry I'm late" and told me I'd be getting my braces off, and then left. The first lady came back after what felt like forever and said "Sorry I'm late" and then told me all the stuff she was going to be doing. She seemed surprised that I wasn't really excited to get them off. First she had to get the brackets off, which she said was a painless process, but it wasn't. After that they had to put this stuff on that either protected my teeth or whatever that tasted like water, smelled like sunscreen, and felt like sand. The lady out floss in between what seemed random teeth for whatever reason she said. Then they had to put this big red thing in my mouth to stretch it so she could put the bond on my teeth for my permanent retainer. It felt like forever, it tasted awful, and my lips were cracked and numb. Meanwhile the whole time my mouth is dry and uncomfortable since they put a thing in my mouth that was running through the whole thing to suck up my saliva. After another eternity went by I heard someone comment that they couldn't believe it was 10:30 already. My appointment was at 9, so think that over a bit. Then they had to use like a laser gun to dry the bond, so the lady put on special glasses and she told me to close my eyes. The warmth was much appreciated since the room was so cold. Then they actually put on the permanent retainer. When they took out the big red thing that was forcing my mouth open and the thing that was sucking up the saliva, I was close to tears. My lips hurt, my mouth was dry and terrible tasting, and I was missing the math quiz in second block. The lady told the orthodontist that she might have messed up the top permanent retainer, so they had to do it all over again. The lady then had to get the dental floss out of my teeth, but one of them was stuck to the bond of the permanent retainer, so she cut it short, thinking that would help it, but it just made it harder to get out. She had to call over another lady which took forever because she had to pull, and scrap, and floss and until finally she got all the little pieces out. Then they had to get the glue from the brackets off of the front of my teeth, so I had to have a cotton ball stuffed under my upper lip and had to put on safety glasses on as they scraped off the glue with like a drill. I was so grateful when they said I could rinse out my mouth and brush. I still couldn't get the glue taste out of my mouth, and the way I looked in the mirror made me want to cry more. The glasses left a mark that made it look like I had a unibrow, I had glue all over my lips which looked like someone punched me in the face, and no matter how hard I brushed behind my teeth, the taste of the bond wouldn't go away. The ladies waited patiently for me while I stared in the mirror and willed myself not to cry. If I'm uncomfortable, like if I'm sick or I'm cold, then I'm miserable. I hated the permanent retainer. Why would I get my braces off just to have more metal in my mouth? My throat burned with unshed tears. The last thing we had to do was make a mold for my retainers, the clear ones I would get later today. When I sat in the chair, I remember the first time I sat in it, when they did the first mold for my teeth. I had my greek fisherman's cap, the one I called my Billy Shears hat when I had to get my first molds, one and a half years ago. I finally cried when I realized that getting braces wasn't worth the whole process of getting them off. During the whole thing the lady kept asking me if I was excited about getting my braces taken off. I kept on giving her the "so-so" hand signal since her hands were always in my mouth. The lady said we could do the molds later, but I said no, do them now. And I wiped off my eyes before the other lady came in to do my molds. Its hard to breathe only through your nose when it's running. When she did the mold for my top teeth I almost felt like gagging since it was oozing so much almost down my throat. When I finally got out of there my dad told me I was in there for 2 hours. When the secretary gave me a school note, I saw she put 9, since that was when my appointment was scheduled for. Before I went to the office at school, I checked the mirror in his car to see if my eyes were red from crying. My dad laughed thinking I was checking my teeth, which I resent. When I handed the note to the school secretary, she asked if I came directly from the orthodontist. I said yes, and I can understand why she said that. The pass she gave back said the time was 11:36.
I passed my theatre arts teacher to go to my locker, and he asked what's wrong. In French my hands were shaking. Definitely not worth it.

Debate

Today was the first meeting of the debate team. Actually it was more of a debate club since there's no competition unless we want to participate in the mock trials. The first debate was pirates vs. ninjas. I chose pirates. Ninjas had better speakers, but pirates had more points. Win.

Last night I went to bed at 8 again and woke up not as tired as I usually am. I haven't been using a pillow lately and I now wonder at what the significance of one is. I should start going to bed earlier regularly. Today was actually quite nice. In Government my friend was talking about all the nerdy clubs we could join, like chess club, debate team, and this republican youth club (as a joke). In Geometry, I was arguing with the same friend about how PCs are better than Macs. We were using laptops and they weren't helping my case since they were sooooo slow and stupid. I asked if she wanted my Moxie, which is a soda I bought in New England. Since I wouldn't be able to get upstairs in enough time if I stopped at my locker, so I gave her my combination. In French I told our conservative friend about joining the republican club and wearing Obama shirts, and he said they would beat us up. In Health it was super easy because all we had to do was watch a movie about drunk driving. After school my friend that I gave the Moxie to stopped by my locker and gave me a juice box that she got from IKEA, a Swedish drink made from elderflower. As soon as I came home, I decided to start on my homework, which if you know me is surprising. But the real reason is Torry left and I wanted to use the record player. Torry won't move me if I'm doing homework.