So! I can be divided by seven now. OH THE PERKS OF BEING 14… After the show Wednesday (which went well / was fun. Hayden broke a string, OF COURSE), we went to Hayden’s house and ate cake, ice cream. I almost dropped a plate of cake on my camera; LUCKILY it only landed riiiight on the edge, so it was pretty lick-off-able. I felt really stupid but had an optimistic reaction, I think. If it had been anybody else… I’d be in jail.
Hayden’s awesome bulletin board. (that’s his dad on the right in probably the 80s. is this a violation of privacy?)
Last night Sammy performed in his class play. It was about “games” and he played the Monopoly man, which was vastly entertaining.
CHYAHAHA
Last night also. I know ‘bokeh’ is super sorta clichéd but, having just gotten manual focus..
Anyway.. one of my extra hanukkah birthday holidaysh presents was a parcel of 6 Dollar Shirts. I got the giraffe one, tiger one, Michael Jackson jacket one, panda one, Bueller, and a few others. I wore the giraffe yesterday, and at some point during the day my nose started squirting out blood, which sprayed a little bit on the animal’s ears. Oh and I had a ‘business meeting’ that afternoon with a school administrator about a class ‘micro-economy’ project. Wonderful.
Lucas (graduate) visiting was redeeming, however. (p.s. observe his hair)
WHOLY PIPPENS, WINTER BREAK.
p.s. thank you so much to everybody for the birthday wishes!
I am turning 14. I’m a little bit excited. Unforch (– grossest sounding bastardized english word) it is on a weekday, so I must attend school. But I don’t know, that might be fun if I get enough sleep and don’t feel like making strange noises to everybody that talks to me. I’ll also be playing the Letters to Santa benefit at Second City, which we (band) have been playing since.. 2004? I think this is our sixth time. Anyway you should come to it if you live in Chicago because there will be a. music b. drunk/slaphappy comedians and c. opportunities to help needy families. So by obvious logical deduction, if you don’t come, you’re bad. *staredown*
Because we’ll be so busy tomorrow with learning and music-ing my parents gave me THE GIFT yesterday. It encompasses Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, Jul, Winter, Spring, Mars, Jupiter, The Beatles, Bacon, and my birthday; and it is awesome.
A Canon EOS Rebel T1i. I was so so so happy and thankful to receive this photographical machine. I’ve already almost lost the lens cap like fifty squillion times.
I am back from Wisconsin! It was an amazing trip. Hayden and I spent most of our time in the woods, making maple syrup and building awesome forts. Well, maybe our forts were not so awesome. This picture should explain something…
FORT BUILDING FAIL.
Hayden fell through our makeshift roof. A classic AFV moment. We even considered sending this to FailBlog.org, but we thought it might be a little to obscure.
When we weren’t in the woods, we watched Netflix movies and made donuts. Yes, made donuts. Also, it was Hayden’s dad’s fiftieth birthday, so that was fun. They bought him an iPod Classic, while MY dad’s iPod was stolen out of his car this weekend. Huh. ~THE CIRCLE OF LIFE~.
Hayden and I chopped up most of that fallen tree. It was very fun.
I love my hat.
I heard that Chicago had a so-called “spring fail” this weekend. In other words, half-solid water particles fell from the sky. It snowed in Wisconsin, too, which was both fun and irritating. You see, Hayden and I had been planning to make a camp and (try to) sleep out in the woods, but it was too cold to do that. Instead, we went sledding for 2 1/2 minutes and then came back inside to play on AddictingGames.com.
The “furnace” we built.
This morning, we woke up and made French toast. But it wasn’t just any french toast. It was DUCK EGG FRENCH TOAST.
Duck egg french toast, deliciously accompanied by our homemade maple syrup.
… and then I had to come back to Chicago for a meeting with my Cantor about my Bar Mitzvah. My mom started bawling just thinking about my Bar Mitzvah, especially when we mentioned all the family honor type stuff, where my relatives come up and say stuff and things like that. Yeah.
Wisconsin sure is beautiful. It would (will) be even better when the leaves come out. Oh, leaves, please come out.
P.S. This car is awesome and I love it and it is amazing.
Yeesterday, I woke up bright and early for another day of Sunday school. For reasons, I will not mention how much my teachers yelled/were intolerant of barely-audible humming.. Oops! Just did. Sorry Gary. Anyway, afterwards we went for some fine dinin’ at Mixteco, a Mexican grill. As a result of a compromise with Sam (he didn’t want to go out to eat), we promised him we’d go to a comic book store after we eat. Of course, it was filled with violent, sexual, disturbing images nine year olds usually wouldn’t – or at least shouldn’t – see. But luckily the guy helping us was very nice and thoughtful, so we ended up with a more kid-appropriate comic. When we were checking out, they gave us a mound of free Marvel promotional stuff. One of the freebies was a Wizard of Oz sketchbook, which I thought was pretty cool. I’m just glad Sam’s innocence is still intact.
Later, a couple of our friends came over. We sung Greg “Happy Birthday” in false Opera voices and make-do harmonies. Then we watched “Toddler & Tiaras” on TLC, a [disgusting] child beauty pageant show. Six year olds dressed like thirty year old strippers is so disturbing, especially when they’re spray tanned and wearing false teeth. But the craziest part is the moms. Mostly ex-Miss [Insert State or Small Town] winners, the mothers on the show are i-n-s-a-n-e. The only mom we saw that was actually bearable was the “natural” girl’s. She was not a beauty queen herself and had a strict “only for fun” policy at the pageants. Her daughter wore no makeup and had a sweet, real smile (as opposed to the uniform troll-ish smirk). She ended up as “first runner-up,” but after a recount it was discovered that she actually won! Go natural girl!
After we had seen enough of the “plastic children” as they’ve come to be known, we headed off to Leonas for dinner. Aside from the ’70’s Sony promo music videos being blasted by eleventy hundred TVs, it was an enjoyable meal. We played TV trivia against people at other tables and totally owned. A lot of the questions were strange (Which doctor wrote blah blah in 1878?) but we somehow attained a national ranking of 111 out of thousands. Interesting.
On Saturday I talked a little about Andrew Bird. It led me to an awesome video of him performing in some basement. That man is veerry talented with a sampler/looping pedal. And the violin. And guitar. And vocal chords. Delicious music. Whatever song it is that he’s playing in the video has a most bittersweet melodies, it will make you joy-cry. Check it out.
I should’ve mentioned this before: Lux Interior, the beloved rock n’ roll frontman, passed away this month. He suffered from an unfortunate heart condition leading to his death at 62. He was – is – undoubtedly one of the most unique and influential icons of punk rock. Too bad this CBGB’s legend had to go so early. In honor of his memory, let’s look at some rather unflattering pictures of him and his bright stage presence, performing with The Cramps.
On an odd note, a couple days ago I discovered a thing called the National Headache Foundation. Okay, what the !@#$? Apparently there is such a thing. On their website, they state “The National Headache Foundation exists to enhance the healthcare of headache sufferers.” Furthermore, “It is a source of help to sufferers’ families, physicians who treat headache sufferers, allied healthcare professionals and to the public. The NHF accomplishes its mission by providing educational and informational resources, supporting headache research and advocating for the understanding of headache as a legitimate neurobiological disease.” Despite it’s ridiculousness, I am kind of interested in joining. In fact, I’ve got a headache right now. Help me NHF! Like Stephen Colbert: I Am A Headache Sufferer (And You Can Too!). Where’s that sign up sheet…
Yes, Sammy and Joey, my two eight-year-old consultants, have aged. They both turned a staggering nine-years-old in December, 2008. When asked about his birthday, Sam replied:
“Spencer, I don’t know! I said I don’t know!!” *snotty tone*
I’d like to say thank you to Sammy and Joey for helping me with this series and being so generous with their words. But really, they have been so helpful (that one wasn’t sarcastic). Thanks.
There will be no more Ask An Eight Year Old. But, maybe some nine-year-olds would be willing to speak up *wink wink*. Maybe they’re more mature now and they won’t be as difficult. No, too good to be true. I guess we’ll leave it to you to beg.
Later, a couple of our friends came over. We sung Greg “Happy Birthday” in false Opera voices and make-do harmonies. Then we watched “Toddler & Tiaras” on TLC, a [disgusting] child beauty pageant show. Six year olds dressed like thirty year old strippers is so disturbing, especially when they’re spray tanned and wearing false teeth. But the craziest part is the moms. Mostly ex-Miss [Insert State or Small Town] winners, the mothers on the show are i-n-s-a-n-e. The only mom we saw that was actually bearable was the “natural” girl’s. She was not a beauty queen herself and had a strict “only for fun” policy at the pageants. Her daughter wore no makeup and had a sweet, real smile (as opposed to the uniform troll-ish smirk). She ended up as “first runner-up,” but after a recount it was discovered that she actually won! Go natural girl!
