13.

during my daily procrastinations, i finally found something worth procrastinating over: a gem of a musical called 13.

13 is a broadway musical about, well, being 13 years old. it has an all-teenage cast and band, and is about a kid named evan goldman who finds his world turned upside-down when he turns 13. with his parent's divorce, his family moves from new york to indiana, and he is demoted from "cool-new-york-kid" to "reject-in-appleton, indiana." to top it off, no one wants to come to his bar mitzvah. in order to become the cool-new-york-kid again, he tries to force his way into the popular kids group, abandoning his only real friends: his new next-door-neighbor, patrice, and archie, a crippled boy with a terminal illness.

amidst evan's strife are the classic middle school/high school plots: 2 girls fighting over a boy, a boy trying to get "sheezy" with a girl, mean girls starting nasty rumors that ruin people's lives, and just good ole' drama!

it sounds corny. and it is. it's filled with cheesy jokes, not-so-flashy choreography, and screechy pubescent voices.

but i loved it. mixed in with the awkwardness were some truly genius moments, like this one (the climax of the entire thing, in my opinion):

evan has just been kicked out of the cool crowd, at rock-bottom, when archie and patrice assure him that it really isn't rock-bottom. people will always knock you down, but you have to rise above them, and "put one foot in front of the other...and just keep walking on."

and evan, listening to them, just has this great aha! moment:

"...I'm becoming a man
Maybe all that it means is
I face the world for what it is
And not what I wish it could be
I'm becoming a man
Wanting everything to fall into place
I swing, I miss
I'll get through this
I almost guarantee

One day I'll be thirty
One day I'll be fine
One day I'll make fun of this dramatic life of mine..."

he finallyfinallyfinallyFINALLY gets it! the whole musical, he's been pushing and pushing and pushing for the cool kids to come to his party so that he'll be cool, and missing what truly matters and what has been in front of him the whole time: life isn't about being 'cool.' life is about learning how to be yourself. life is about learning from your mistakes. life is knowing that - no matter what you do or how badly you screw up - it goes on.

i really, really, really enjoyed this musical. despite its fluff, it was a poignant portrait of what it means to be a 13-year-old growing up and discovering life for the first time. it reminds us that, whether we're 13 or 35, we all mess up sometimes. and that's ok.

musings of a procrastinator.

thingsIshouldbedoingrightnowbutamnot:

1) calculus homework. it is unbelievable how much i despise this class, and ms. lucas. it literally is her goal in life to humiliate me every chance she gets. literally.

for example (you can click on it to make it bigger):

anyway.

2) studying for AP Psych. I don't remember anything I've learned. Ironically, this chapter is entitled Memory.

3) writing my supplementary essays for Macalester and Northwestern.

...

this has to be the most upsetting, disappointing item on my list. its december 14. really, stephanie? really? pathetic. simply pathetic.

4) practicing irish dance. i'm going to ireland in 2 months. need I say more?

5) writing my reflection paper that was assigned 3 weeks ago and is due in 4 days.



to top this sorry-excuse-of-a-to-do-list off, i skipped school today, with the intention of completing all of this. F. M. L. in the worst way possible.

on the plus side, i updated my blog layout. the pictures are all from my trip to peru during spring break this year. gorgeous, are they not? i must return someday. after i finish my to-do list.

...i'll miss you, south america.

i miss my childhood.

well, i should be writing my write-up on the news hour with jim lehrer for goverment, but i think i'm going to sit here and blog instead.


while creeping on facebook, i saw a girls status that she had just gotten her "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" script in the mail and she was excited about it. i was in that play at the First Stage Children's Theater in 2000 AND 2003, and it has huge sentimental value for me. as a child, i loved going to first stage every summer, and i was so excited to make it into one of the season plays (people PAID to go to these plays!). i loved acting. i loved this funny, heartwarming play. but mostly, i loved the experience i had. i loved going to rehearsals for three hours every night, after school from 5-8 and having dinner with the cast. i LOVED it. it didn't matter to me that i had no lines. when i was an 8-year old baby angel, i just thought it was so cool to have a costume and dressing room and makeup and props and sets and backstage glory. plays are cool, man. and also, at this time, i was juggling irish dance, preparing for the oireachtas. 2000 was a big year for me; my first oireachtas AND my first play.

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i started this post back in october and didn't post it for whatever reason. but since this, i received in the mail....


AN INVITATION TO "THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER" REUNION PARTY!


ha, this is soooooo weird. its like the gods above were listening to my thoughts and answered them. except that i'm an atheist. but that's another story entirely.

so...despite the fact that i really don't remember anyone from the cast at all and i HIGHLY doubt that anyone will remember me...

i'm going. and if it turns out to be awk. and uncomft., i'll just leave. but at least i'll have my old memories.

my ugly layout.

i apologize for its ugliness.
i am working on it.
i promise it will be better soon.
^thats a lotta i's.

p.s. i has a new title :D

Procrastination discoveries.

In my feeble attempts to start my essay on Macbeth, I discovered that I can make direct blog posts from Microsoft word! Whoa now.

So, this is my first Microsoft word blog post.

Suburbia Disturbance

The police just arrested someone at the house across the street.

It's 9 a.m. Really?

My mom has been watching the whole thing from our window and is now screaming about it.

Oh, small town life.

NUMERO UNO, SENOR.

wow. my very own blog.
THIS IS EXCITING.

well. i suppose i don't have much to say right now. i'm a bit overwhelmed with all the possibilities. i could list nondescript facts about me, state my likes and dislikes, or attempt to be different by being the same. i think i just did that with the previous sentence. whoops.

basically, i made a blog because i read an article from the March 2008 edition of CosmoGirl! that was lying around my room that advised me to start a journal to discover who i am. and writing with actual writing utensils makes my hand hurt. typical lazy american, i suppose. whoops, there i go again.

to my credit, i did used to (did used to? is that gramatically correct? i don't think so. oh well.) keep a journal from the time i was 4 and barely able to write. it looked like this:

"TODAYIWENTTOTHEBARNWITHMOLLYANDIRODEAHORSEITWASREALLYGREAT"

i was unable to make lower-case letters or put spaces in between my words. typing without spaces is extremely difficult, by the way. try it. i dare you.

hmm, blogging is delightfully and surprisingly easy.