I'm Returning to the Flaming Dungeons of High School

I just realized that tomorrow is August 1st. How did this happen? It seems like just yesterday I was lounging in my room trying to beat the June heat wave and gorging on mac n cheese (Easy Mac was my drug of choice this summer). What I find especially distressing about all of this is the fact that I will have to make a big decision about whether or not to use a back pack again this school year. Last year for a majority of second semester I had to roam the halls back pack-less. In a school where you're allowed to carry back packs, I was making a major fashion faux pas. It wasn't even my decision to get rid of my back pack, it was the doctor's orders! If you'll recall, I actually wrote an entire post about the trials and tribulations of being without a book bag, crappily illustrated and all. 

My back is actually much better than it was when I wrote that post (I'd really rather not go into my actual injury, mostly because the doctors still have no clue what's wrong). Even though I'm in much less pain, I don't know if I want to take the risk of the back pack again. I experience enough self loathing because of my back pain, and the decision to make myself more unlike everyone else by not carrying a back pack again would probably send me into another state of spiraling depression, much like the one I was in before I started this blog (okay, I probably shouldn't call it "spiraling depression", but I was not doing too well for a few months there).

If I do choose to go the route of the book bag, I do have one type of pack in mind. They're called Dakine back packs, and I heard from a girl, who I am no longer friends with, that they are just the best. I probably shouldn't trust her, considering by this point I have cut off most all ties with her, but she could be on to something. I was told that they come with a case for a laptop to slip into, and since I have to accept the school issued laptop, I could stick that in the book bag, and hold everything else! That is the best option I've come up with thus far. It would at least be better than carrying everything around like I used to. It actually made my upper back start hurting, because I was carrying an entire accordion folder plus a laptop. So I pretty much got to choose between lower back pain with a book bag, or upper back pain by lugging around all my school crap. I think that by getting one of these Dakine packs I could create a happy medium?

Now this is where you come in, dear reader. Yes, you! I know that a lot of you who read this never comment, and I suppose I'm okay with that. But I would LOVE AND APPRECIATE any input I can get at this point. So if you're a regular commenter or not, I would be so grateful if you could give me any ideas.

School starts in less than a month, I need to figure this out fast. 

Driver's Education

Driver's Ed, more like rip out my brain and drag it across molten concrete because that is how I have felt all week having to learn to drive. Most unfortunately for me, though, the class lasts two weeks, so I'm only half way done with the torture. The first day wasn't actually half bad! I went to the Health and Safety council building where the class was, and pretty much just filled in a worksheet from 8 am to 1 pm. Very low stress, low key (if not incredibly boring). No, the fun really started on Tuesday, when I actually had to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. I was tasked with driving around in a white Pontiac, my driving instructor sitting in the passenger seat, and all I had to do was not get both of us plus the other student sitting in the backseat killed. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong. 

Very, very wrong. Despite the fact that I have had my learner's permit since February, and have been practicing driving a lot since then, I still did a miserable job driving the first day (and the days to follow, might I add). I would like to blame children's television partly for my faults, though I really know that's a bit of a stretch. Really, though, didn't we all think we learned a little something from all the episode's of Spongebob where he was in Ms.Puff's class? And I'll be damned if you try and tell me that The Suite Life of Zack and Cody didn't teach me that the technical term for the "PRNDL" is 'gearshift'. What stinks though is if I try and explain all this to my driving instructor, I doubt he would take me seriously. 

"But... I'm really not a bad driver! I'll have you know I watched the episode of Spongebob where he wrote an essay about What Not to Do At a Stoplight!"

"What, that doesn't even make any... DEAR LORD, EYES ON THE ROAD HANNAH!!"

If that conversation went any other way than this, I would be completely and utterly shocked. 

Luckily on Wednesday, I got a day to recover. Back in the classroom from 8 to 1 again, I was able to sit back and relax as the teacher played movie after movie about proper driving techniques. A guest speaker also came and talked to us about organ donation, and I quite liked her. She had nice spunk. 

But like all good things, they must come to and end eventually, and on Thursday I was back on the road. Pretty much what happened was instead of driving around residential areas like we had on Tuesday, my instructor made me go out on the highway, and believe me when I say I was NOT ready for that. It sort of came like a punch in the gut, with me happily driving along neighborhood streets when all of a sudden we were on the merge ramp leading up to the highway and the instructor was yelling "FOOT ON THE GAS, HANNAH, YOU GOTTA SPEED IT UP". I think I more stressed then than I had been in a long time. I felt like I had reached the level 'Moonview Highway' on Mario Kart, and cars were coming at me from all different directions. I managed to hold back my tears as the instructor kept yelling, and I am unsure whether or not the other student sitting in the back seat was snickering at my distress, or horking snot back into his nose. 

I really could go on about Thursday, but I'll just leave it at that. Friday was my day off, so Josalyn and I spent some quality time together (which I actually plan on posting about later because it was amazingly fun?!?). But last night I was really upset about having to drive again today. It turns out driving today wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be, but I had to drive on the interstate, which was even worse than the highway and I probably almost peed myself about four times. After the interstate we headed to downtown, and that was especially terrible because of all the construction, and we had to parallel park. 

There was so much more to my week than this, but I think I'll be done writing about it for now. I cringed just bringing back these fresh memories to write about. Maybe I'll write a reflection post for week two? Maybe not? All I know is that if I fail my driving test next Saturday I am going to go insane. 

Goodbye for now, my lovelies. 

I'M BACK AND MORE FABULOUS THAN EVER

I suppose it is high time I explain my extended absence of posting. It's not that I wanted to let good 'ol Infinitely Pi grow dusty, but I didn't have much of a choice. What is even more distressing for me is the fact that the post that was front and center on my blog during my absence was about my journaling blunders of long ago. I'm quite positive that is going to be a post I will not be able to live down for a long time.

Now, the actual reason I was gone for so long was because, drum roll please, I was at a baton competition. I believe I've alluded to the fact that I twirl batons in my free time, but I've never actually written a whole post about it. Basically from Sunday through Thursday of this past week I was three states away from my home at the biggest competition of the year: Nationals. There were probably well over a thousand other guys and gals who were all participating, and I met a lot of amazing and extremely talented individuals. Not only that, but I also learned a lot about myself on this trip, such as the fact that I can eat a jumbo pretzel in under two minutes. A few other things I learned on my journey of self discovery include:

• I can only play the card game "Trash" so many times before I start to lose it.
• That sitting in a gym all day allows you to see people's dark sides.
• Drinking three bottles of water in a two hour time span is a terrible idea.
• "Hannah, you can't possibly eat that entire thing of fries."

           "Just you try and stop me".

These, really, are just the highlights of my week spent away from home. There is so much more I could talk about, but I'd really rather not bore you all with a long and drawn out explanation of the ins and outs of my whole week. I will say, though, that the worst part of the entire trip was the car ride. It was ten hours there, and another ten hours on the return trip. My father refused to travel by air plane, so we got to spend twenty some hours in our Ford Escape together. And for anyone who has ever had to travel a long distance with another family member, they'll know it can be a little bit maddening. About four hours in on the way home, I tried to get my dad to play a game with me. The rules went that we played the song "Revolution Nine" by The Beatles and time ourselves to see how long we could last before changing the song. Most unfortunately, as with most other games of my own creation, my father was unwilling to participate. In retrospect, it was probably a good idea we didn't follow through with it. 

All I can say is that I am extremely glad that I am home now. I missed my family, my dog, my friends, and of course I missed blogging ;) 

Edit: I realized I might not be posting again for a week or two, so I thought I would post something to help tide you all over for the next drought. Here's some songs I listened to constantly during my trip. I hope y'all enjoy them as much as I do.

Modest Mouse: The World At Large

Weezer: Keep Fishin'

Alex Day: Forever Yours

The Kooks: Junk of the Heart

Journal Entries From Beyond the Beyond

I have a confession. I used to have a journal that I wrote in daily from when I was in about fifth grade through the end of seventh grade. This journal is an extremely touchy subject for me because of multiple reasons, the first and foremost reason being that I was a complete idiot when I was younger and used phrases like "various peeps" to describe my companions. When I'm by myself going through my journal, it can be a pretty fun, albeit cringe-worthy experience. I created a lot of my own words in my entries, and I addressed myself on multiple occasions (Things like "OMG can you BELIEVE IT? I KNOW I can't either!" were most common). After I had a falling out with one of my close friends, I made an angry journal entry, and I quote,

"OMG! E- Is such a dingle berry pot luck dinner poo-face!"

 I actually remember writing that sentence and feeling pretty smug about it. Yes, that'll show him! He won't mess with me ever again! I had thought. My logic was not only extremely flawed in this situation, but I'm actually a little bit concerned that I thought calling him a ridiculously idiotic name would "stick it" to him. The rest of that journal entry was not only laced with rage, I even went as far as to say,

"He is such a (pardon my language) Crap head!"

I have no comment on this one besides I question the fact that I capitalized "crap" in that sentence.

Another topic that is prevalent in my journal is a boy I had a MAJOR crush on for about two years. Let's call him "Bob". It all started because I met Bob at a party, and after talking to him I realized that I liked the way his face looked. A lot. I also recall thinking he was pretty funny. For the first few months I liked him I wrote sappy journal entries about how cute his face looked and how he told jokes that made me "LOL" and things of that nature. Things went on in this fashion for quite some time, until the fateful day that I found out he liked another girl. I was royally pissed off. Mostly because I thought he'd liked me back, and that he even entertained the thought of liking someone besides me was absolutely ridiculous. I wrote multiple entries bashing the other girl and I am almost certain I called her a few names that could rival "dingle berry pot luck dinner poo-face". I think one of the last entries I wrote about Bob was short and I throughout the entry I placed exactly 10 sad faces. The really sad kind. They didn't even have noses. I ended my entry with a very middle-school-unrequited-love cliche,

"I'm going to go sweep up my broken heart now."

So deep, right? I not only showed that I was going to let myself be completely defeated by being rejected by a boy, but I was going to wallow in my self pity, goddammit.

On a lighter note, I can proudly say that my entire journal was not completely  comprised of my musings on what it meant to be a love-lorn middle schooler. I think that quite possibly one of the best things to ever come out of my mind to date is P.J. Coolstar. A fictitious being of my own creation, P.J. Coolstar was a star shaped mega celebrity that made music and, on multiple occasions, was accused of various wrong doings. What these allegations were, I don't exactly remember, but I found a scene I drew of P.J. holding a press conference and stating "NO comment!" to a group of paparazzi.

While I am sure that you have quite a riveting mental image of what exactly you think good 'ol P.J. looks like, let me enlighten you with my rendition of him from way back when:

Yes, that is P.J. Coolstar in all of his glory. Sunglasses to keep away the blinding light of his fan's adoration. A watch, permanently stuck at 3:15*. From his lips, a message to encourage the youth of the galaxy. I had a rule that I adhered to very strictly, and it was that I would never, ever draw P.J. Coolstar unless I was using a purple pen. It's just how it worked out, really. His words could be whatever the hell color I wanted them to be, but P.J. himself was always purple. 

*I wanted this watch to be reminiscent of Flavor Flav for reasons that I cannot quite remember and I'm still a little bit upset about the fact that I ever wanted anything in my life to be reminiscent of Flavor Falv. 

Sprinkled throughout my notebook are multiple "scenes" involving P.J. Coolstar, but I think that my favorite back then (and still now), has always been P.J.'s "rapper" photo shoot:

Nothing says "I'm an adventurous rapper" quite like a star who's leaning against a brick wall with crossed arms. Really, what else could capture that essence like this? You can't tell, but I actually drew in painstakingly tiny hands on P.J.'s watch, so it would still be stuck at 3:15. I was one dedicated artist. 

Another favorite aspect of this whole P.J. Coolstar thing is that I would actually write up advertisements for P.J. Coolstar's brand. I drew guitars and wrote about how completely and utterly necessary it was for you to buy one of P.J.'s coveted musical instruments. I think the best one was where I tried to write a little quip at the bottom of a poster I made about P.J.

"P.J. Coolstar is taking Europe and the America's by storm! Buy his newest single "My love never fizzles out" on sale now at Target and on Itunes!

You really know that you've made it when your music is on sale at Target. 

Finally, I would just like to leave you with some words to remember P.J. by...

"This isn't your average Proximus Centari"

Side note: I'm still not entirely sure if a Proximus Centari is actually a type of star...

Happy Sunday!

I have no explanation for this sorry guys.