An Ode To My Hair

It hit me at lunch today. Tomorrow, I'm going to cut off my hair. 12 whole inches of it (maybe more if I'm in a good mood). And I started to freak out, quite honestly. I finally realized what I had gotten myself into, and that there was inded no way out. I'm can't let that little girl down. Tonight, I'm going to stand in front of my mirror and prepare for this mentally. I'm going to take several deep breaths, and tell myself that I can do this. It may sound silly, but Kelly did it before she got her hair cut last night and it worked for her.

I must say that parting with my hair is harder than I thought it would be. The last time I cut my hair was December 10, 2000, the day after my grandmother died. It was Chinese superstition, or tradition to cut your hair the day after someone's death, and then not to cut it again for 3 months afterwards or 11 days or something like that. Something about scissors and the whole cutting motion being bad lcuk or bad karma or some jive like that. Well, it's been two and a half years since I took a pair of scissors to my hair...and now that I'm finally going to do it, I feel that there's some sort of symbolic re-birth here. Re-brith of me, of my grandma...who knows. There's sentimental attachment, that's for sure. And...I just love my hair. For the last few days, I've been noticing all the little nuances and appreciating everything about my tresses.

Every time I pass by a reflective surface, I look in it and check out the length of my hair/ponytail. I love the way it flows down my back and how it swishes from side to side when I walk. When I'm standing around and feeling bored, I put my hands behind my back and play with the ends. They tickle my fingers. People say I will save tons of money on shampoo, but I bet for the next couple of weeks I'll still use a palm-sized dollop of the stuff, forgetting that I don't have all that much hair to wash anymore. In the winter, when I get chilly, I wrap my hair around my neck (it goes around twice) to warm up. I love how it keeps my shoulders and the sides of my arms warm too. It tickles my elbows. I will miss my Operation Putting on Backpack (move hair to left shoulder, put right strap on, move hair to right shoulder, put left strap on, move hair to back, ta-da! backpack on). I caress it a lot, bring it to my nose and take a good whiff of Herbal Essences. It tickles my face. Braiding my hair give my arms a good workout. Flipping it behind my shoulder may cause pain to someone's eye nearby, and if you sat behind me in class, you shouldn't have been too surprised to find it lying on your desk. Although I've never tried it, I know I could totally pull off the Princess Leia look. When I lie down, it fans out around my head, it flows in the wind, it makes me feel like a girl. I love being a girl. And even though it gets caught (and consequently pulled out) in chairs, buttons, sleeves, zippers, locker doors, car doors, seatbelts, backpacks, purses, hands, earrings, hairclips, you-name-it-my-hair-gets-caught-in-it, I still love my hair. I tucked it into my pants once.

*sigh*

Think of the little girl Shirley, think of the little girl....


4:03 pm

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

My Sunburn Started To Peel

From now until Friday I will remind you of the Locks of Love fundraiser. Hair-raiser? FUN-raiser! That's right, I want YOU to be there. Stacy said that she'd let me borrow the sound system too, so there'll be MUSIC!!! 150 inches of hair, music..what more could you ask for?
Note to all hair donators: Please wash your hair the night before, bring two elastics and a ziploc bag. And maybe a hanky or something. Thanks.
If you're in Grade 10 or 11 this year, I also want you to pick up a 9or form from me.

Summer's so close I can smell it. I've never been happier to see school end.

7:53 pm

Monday, May 26, 2003

Tidbits

I won't say anything about prom because everyone already has. Well, except for this: the food sucked. Ass.

Locks of Love fundraiser this Friday May 30th! Both lunches in the Girls' Gym. Come one, come all! Please? It's a super great cause guys, think of all the little children who have no hair and want hair....

I don't mean to sound like Little Miss Charity or anything, but I think it's worth just a bit of your time. I'm no saint, maybe a fool-saint. I recently discovered that I've become really attached to this hair-donating thing. I keep eyeing all these long-haired lassies in the halls and drool over their tresses, not for me but for the little girls. Won't someone please think of the little girls?! (No, not like that Jason and Mike.) I sigh with disppointment and slight notes of sadness everytime someone says no to cutting their hair. It's just hair people, it grows back. Yeesh, get over yourself and think of the kids who are getting made fun of at school because of something they can't help. It's sad, it really is. Anyhoo, if you don't care to donate your hair, try donating some money to our cause. Anything is greatly appreciated. And if you don't feel like donating anything, you can come just to see me cry when I get my hair chopped off.
Note to self: No mascara on Friday


LEAD BBQ tonight. Yay for no Chinese food.

Application forms are available for next year's 9or Program. We're looking for both Grade 11 and Grade 12 students. Wanna be a Peer Mentor? Ask me or Ms. Stankiewicz.

I don't think I was meant to win any sort of high school election.

4:32 pm

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Letters

Dear Person Who Returned My Jacket,
Thank you for picking it up off the ground and bringing it to the office as opposed to wearing it home. You have restored my faith in humanity and because of you, I will start writing my name inside my clothes. My parents were onto something after all.

Dear Vending Machine,
You suck for eating my money. I will never understand why you gave me a dollar in change when I gave you my toonie. All I wanted was a cookie. You'd better be thanking your lucky stars that Mr. Ellis was there to lend me that extra quarter otherwise I would have kicked your butt.

Dear Vending Machine Cookie,
Although you cost me $2 and also cost Mr. Ellis $0.25, you were good. Damn good. With all that double chocolate and nuts and softness...sweet, sweet cookie. And you were big. No wonder they call you Big Daddy. Size does matter after all. You rocked my world.

6:39 pm

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

I Have 7 Tubs Of Ice Cream In My Freezer

Why, you ask? Well, Chris, they were on sale! C'mon, $1.88 for a tub of ice cream...who can resist? Definitely not my family. But I must, for prom is in 4 days! I'm currently wearing my dress. My mother thinks I'm crazy. Hey, I'm just trying it on, wearing it around to make sure it fits and doesn't fall off or anything when I sit down.

Best hair day ever. Ever. I looked good today. Did I mention that I'm slightly narcissistic? But then rugby practice in the rain happened and my perfect, absolutely perfect hair day went wet and frizzy. And then my mascara started to run. Oy. After practice, I decided to screw looking pretty, plugged into some Cranberries and (without an umbrella, mind you) walked in the rain. Splashed in the rain. Ran and jumped and sang and danced and delighted in the rain. Can the word 'delight' be made into a verb? Too bad if it can't, because I just did it! I delighted in it good! I had no shoes, just my sandals and the rain feels so good between your toes. It's best when you walk through the grass and it splashes up from the blades.

But ever since I met you on a cloudy Monday, I can't believe how much I love the rain
I stole these lyrics from Chantal Kreviazuk, and although I don't remember who I met on what Monday, I still love the rain.

Did I mention that I'm in a good mood?

6:52 pm

Monday, May 19, 2003

Fun Burn In The Sun

A day at Ontario Place. 7 hours. Line up. Enter. Line up. Mini golf. Line up. Lunch. Line up. Yell at lady for cutting in front of us. Keep lining up. Alas, no paddle boating. No log ride. Boo that. Line up. Mega Maze. Boring!

A day at Ontario Place = one hell of a sun burn.
Who knew the sun was that strong? I wore this V-necked top and guess what, that whole exposed V-necked area is now a nice, glowing red. Unfortunately for me, this means bad things. No, I do not peel, but I do have prom coming up in 4 days. Peel or no peel, I will have a giant red V shape on my chest...ew. And right now, I can think of no remedy. Can you? Oh well, this will just divert attention away from my rugby bruises.

Hi Mikey.

7:35 pm

Thursday, May 15, 2003

A La Raina

During lunch today I heard some pretty good jokes from Little Miss Douris herself. They were entertaining at the time, maybe not so much now, but there wasn't much going on while we were outside so they seemed hilarious. Chris and I chewed on blades of grass, we popped dandelion heads off, saw Stephan moon us, all in the name of good lunchtime fun. Here's two of the jokes that Raina told, the other one is a long and involved one about two twins from Stouffville. If you're interested, just ask.

What's the difference between an apple and your mom?
An apple's a fruit and your mom's a whore.

What the difference between a miscarriage and a train carriage?
You can't eat a train cariage.

Still, nothing can beat the stick joke that I got from Atlanta last summer.
What's brown and sticky?
A stick.
I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.

1:46 pm

Monday, May 12, 2003

Hey, I Don't Remember That Being There

Our rugby game today left me wet, muddy and in pain. Overall, it was a good game! I actually felt good afterwards; so good that I just started laughing by myself while walking down the hall. And then later on when I was in the shower too. For some reason, I started giggling like a little school girl. My favourite part of rugby is showering afterwards; you get to wash off all the dirt and see what bruises you have! I swear, it's like Christmas, except you don't get papercuts from ripping the wrapping paper too fast. Yay!

I've found a few bruises, but I made a new game in the shower today. Bump Finder. How to play? Run your hand up and down your legs and feel all the bumps that are there that aren't naturally supposed to be there! So far, I'm at about 4 or 5 new ones. And I am currently in the state of waiting for my right knee to finish swelling up, and for those broken capillaries in my right shoulder to heal themselves.

Owee. How I love this game.

7:09 pm

Currently Wearing

- Red rubber boots/galoshes with pointed toes
- Spandex-y tights/leggings; one leg is purple, the other is white with red polka dots
- A large, extremely large oversized magenta sweater
- A blue plastic lei
- A purple wig
- A multi-coloured polyester cabby hat
- Lots of purple eyeshadow
- Bright pink zinc lipstick

Why?
Rugby initiation.
I wish I had a camera.

8:57 am

Sunday, May 11, 2003

Contest

Wanna see the Matrix? Reloaded?
Click here to read more and enter Jason's contest.

9:20 pm

Saturday, May 10, 2003

Fairweather and Club Monaco and Jacob, Oh My!

My mother has been going on and on for weeks about buying me more clothes for next year. I'm a girl; as if my closet isn't already overflowing, but I'm not one to complain about shopping.
And so we did. For three whole hours.
My Auntie T came along and also my cousins, Victor and Michael. They are 12 and 10 year old boys. Suffice to say, they did not enjoy this morning at all. Victor even said that he wanted to go home and do math homework so we could leave. My closet is now one sweater, one tank top and one coat larger. Pants to come next week.

Nikhil and I ventured downtown last night to Malabar, the coolest costume shop around. As he tried on his morning coat outfit, I busied myself with Baroque, Grecian , Empire and Medieval dresses. I felt like such a princess in some of them. One Grecian dress made me look Elvish, like Arwen from Lord of the Rings. I tired out the sales girl by making her carry numerous dresses back and forth to the dressing room, but she'll have my business soon enough. I sooooo want to dress up for prom. We'll see how impractical and wasteful I feel in a few days. Does anyone want to head down with me next Friday and try on funky things? And then, someone else can hold a masquerade so I can wear my super cool costume!

8:07 pm

Friday, May 09, 2003

Chris Is On The Computer Next To Me

I lost my jacket at school. I think that someone stealing a jacket off the ground is the dumbest thing ever. I wish stupidity was painful.

I don't really have much more to say, but I wanted to un-scare some of you since my last post was...scary and sweary.

1:12 pm

Thursday, May 08, 2003

Teenage Politics Are Too Stupid

In the words of Jess, but not. They still are confusing, but I think stupid is a better word for it. Or dumb. Dumb is good too.
No, no...I'm not bitter.

It's funny, a year has passed and yet I can't stop thinking about the fact that I lost last year's elections. Not that I think I should've won...but it would've been nice. Recently, with election talk buzzing around the school, several people have brought up the fact that they voted for me last year or the fact that they still have my Hug Coupons. Well, that's nice...I'm glad you guys had faith in me, but there just weren't enough of you around. You probably shouldn't bring the topic up unless you want to get me into bitter, reminiscent, rant-y mode.

Here's one of the many "Election Entries" in my journal/diary last year. This was written after someone told me that losing was a learning experience. Do you know who you are?
"So I lost. Do I want-no, do I need a lesson of loss?
Lessons of pain?
Learning experience my ass
Fuck you
I want success stories
You would have been bitter too"

So, to those who lost the election, I understand your need to cry and swear and drink and stay away from school for a few days, because I did.

I'll get over it...eventually, I swear. I'm on my way, I've forgiven, but not forgotten. Not yet. Congratulations to the winners, I'm happy that you're happy. To those who didn't taste sweet, sweet victory, you will one day, trust me.

11:06 pm

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

My Last Conference

As a student.
Oh, you bet you'll be seeing me next year. There's no way that I'm going to miss that 1st place finish in Chariot race! 4 years in a row boys, 4 years in a row. They're crazy and I love them. They're loud and obnoxious, rude and fail their tests, but they win that race for us. That's why I keep coming back. That, and for the little girls. Blonde girls.

I won some, I lost some, overall, it was pretty good. I'm happy that we redeemed ourselves this year, after last year's disappointing 4th place finish. Woo hoo 2nd place! It's as good as 1st place for us, since UTS pretty much doubles our points. We say that we'll beat them next year; honestly boys, we won't. Just face it, 2nd place is wonderful enough for anyone.

And so the skit didn't go to hell in a handbasket, fashion show didn't get disqualified, but Daniel and I also didn't win our so-deserved ribbons in oral reading. And yes, how we deserved them. How disappointing. I won't go into how stupid those judges are...even though they are, and I just hope that her performance in the room was a lot better than it was on stage. Boo me and my competitiveness.

I'm still in tired mode, and I found out this morning that we have a rugby game today in Aurora. OY.

12:33 pm

Saturday, May 03, 2003

Crunch Time

I have to be at school the next morning for Classics Conference 2003. It's nearly 10 pm right now and I have two oral readings to practice, a gazillion pages of Greek history to study, a book of Greek derivatives know, a poster board on ancient philosophy to make, and a few hundred pages on a bunch of other Roman things to read. Yaaaaaaay! Why am I here again?

When Jason asked me today if I had any other things to do, I said, "No, not really."
I lied.

I spent the whole day with none other than Mr. Shim Shimma himself. We had some breakfast, drove around a lot, blared music, walked barefoot in the grass, sat on a swing set, ate Bernie Botts Every Flavour Beans, drove some more, saw a wedding and generally hung out. We chatted and joked and talked and discussed; we laughed and yelled and snorted and embarrased ourselves; we had a good time. It was 6:30 pm before I knew it. So they were right, time really does fly.

Three more days with him? Consecutively? Alright, I'm up for that. But just how much Shirley can he take? Mwahaha!

10:05 pm

Friday Night

Gregory surprised me indeed...he showed up to school all dressed up. Like his father. I appreciated him trying to be all fancy, but...ew.

Dinner at Jump, an extremely high class dining experience. It was so amazing that we were still raving about it on our way home later that night. After dinner, he surprised me with tickets to The National Ballet of Canada! Can you believe the boy got us tickets to the ballet? I could barely. We saw their production of Tristan and Isolde, and it was opening night too. Oy, all the clapping drove me nuts. Regardless, our first ballet was wonderful and it will certainly not be my last.

P.S.: As lovely as dinner was, I ended up throwing it all back up when I got home. I suppose that when I said, "Wow, I've never tasted anything like this before", it wasn't a good thing.

11:07 am

Thursday, May 01, 2003

The Worst Best Birthday

English test on King Lear.
Calculus test on trig derivatives.
Lecture on the battles of World War II.
Go home early to write essay and prepare presentation on Stoicism and Epicureans.

Chienopher actually bought me a Classics T-shirt! How I adore him. And then Winnie and Eileen gave me a pair of sweat pants. My first ever pair of sweat pants! Moreover, it's got "THE MANH" written across the back. That's right people, my ass is THE MANH. I laughed so hard. I love them girls!

Greg promised me the "best birthday present ever" tomorrow. According to him, we have to be downtown by 6pm, but if I tell him early enough, he can still change that. And I have to dress a certain way, but I don't know what way yet, because he still has to tell me. Tellmetellmetellmenow!

I love surprises.
I hate suspense.

1:05 pm