So first of all, Leslie is cool. We like Leslie. That is all. Not really though. I am gonna do one of those nice long "let me write a little message to all my wonderful friends" posts here in a couple days. So you'll read more about Leslie then. But because she's commented twice now, we like her.

Things are starting to return to normal. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, normality and routinity (yes, I made that one up myself!) are nice, comforting even. It will be wonderful to get back into the groove of school, to wake up at the same time, go to bed at the same time, stumble into APES first period, leave for lunch, skip and jump into DJ's class, lay around during strings, etc. Ok, to be quite honest, the best part of all that will be DJ's class. But that's besides the point. The point is, that will all be nice. It will be normal. I'll get a job (hopefully at Starbucks), go to concerts, maybe go to class Saturday mornings, go to football games, hopefully dive, etc. I like all that and I like it all in routine. But the fact remains, I had myself a nice little routine at GSW too. It may not have been home, but it was definitely routine. I woke up at the same time, went to class at the same time, ate with the same people, hung out with the same people, stayed up with the same people, went to bed at the same time. I mean, the only non-routine part of GSW for me was where I slept (yeah, the last couple nights, I slept in Hanes, on Emily's floor, on Neda's floor, in the hall twice, once on my bed for 4 hours and then not at all)!

In other news, I went to see Pirates of the Carribean last night with Anna (or as Jess says, Carrots of the Pirrabean. Or Parrots of the Cirrabean). Oh my dearestness! Or as I said to Mego, good-frickin-ness! No, I'm not talking about how incredibly wonderful looking Orlando Bloom was. Yes, that was very much the case. But as so many people have been saying, Johhny Depp was an amazing! Definitely one of the best acting performances I've seen, if not ever, then in a long time. It's so incredibly hard to understand unless you've seen it. So if you haven't, go! Really though, that boy blew me away. I'm gonna have to see it several more times. And I will certainly be owning it too!
Anna and Jess also came over tonight. That was a wonderful surprise! I was in Mike's room talking to my mom about getting my lunch pass taken care of (stupid notary crap) and I heard voices calling my name from the foyer. So, I went into the hallway and there they were! It was especially nice since I wasn't expecting them, and I was sad about having to spend the evening at home and I had been meaning to call Jess all day! Yay! So we walked back to Anna's and Deidra was there. So we did the required "Ice, Ice Baby" dance and Mrs. Wolfe thought we were incredibly silly. And then we played the self-confidence game while laying under Anna's sacred blue blanket. And that somehow turned into our singing "Three Blind Mice". Except that instead of singing it "They all ran after the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife", we sang it "They all ran off with the carver's wife, who cut off their nails with a barbie knife". Sillyness, sillyness. That led to more sillyness and just an overall wonderful time. Yay for that!
- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 12:09 AM

Thursday, July 31, 2003

 

I know that I've been really bad about posting other people's stuff as of late, but I simply can't write. I attempted to write a letter last night and it was awful. Simply horrible. There was NO eloquence or gracefullness, I can assure you of that. Granted, it was on a not so eloquent subject, but that's really never stopped me before. So anyway, I promise you that this is the last time I'll do this. I was reading Will Daniel's (from GSW) blog and read back a couple days and found this. This is absolutely how I feel and my guess is how everyone else from GSW feels. I took 2 or 3 things out, simply because they didn't apply to me (such as missing South dorm, seeing as I wasn't in South). But Will definitely hit the proverbial nail on the head.

i will not miss the refectory food, but i will miss the cake, the fortune cookies, and the time spent around the dinner table with the ppl i love very much. i will not miss mosquitos on the porch, but i will miss the rocking chairs on that porch, and the random evenings when we'd sit and talk for hours, eating food from my room. i will not miss sleep deprivation, but i will miss late nights with friends. i will not miss waking up early, but i will miss the excitement of not being able to wait TO get up, just i can go see ppl again and do it all over again. i will miss walks around old salem in the dark and pouring rain. i will miss chalk on sidewalks. i will miss joey! i will miss borders nights. i will miss window fans. i will miss a capella groups' impromtu performances. i will miss a world of inside jokes. i will miss matthew's most absolutely RANDOM comments. i will miss modern dance concerts. i will miss random quirky and annoying foreign films. i will miss staying up all nite to hear 16 hour long piano pieces. i will miss being on the dance AND orchestra tshirts ("can u hear me now?" "keep going... thank you dr foy"). i will miss trips to mayberry's. i will miss naps in the amphitheatre. i will miss sunday afternoon waffles. i will miss the moravian golfcart. i will miss the winston-salem newspaper (or not), and i will surely miss watery orange (ernge) juice. i will miss these little things, but i will miss big things too. i will miss ppl not giving a shit where i come from and wot my parents do. i will miss ppl not giving a shit about how smart i am, wot i got on the ap, wot i got on the sat. i will miss ppl who dont try to rank themselves among the others. i will miss being seen as i am, nothing more, nothing less, and above all, i will miss vegans.

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 1:14 AM

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

 

Wow. I looked back just a minute ago at my past couple posts and realized that I really haven't posted all summer. I feel badly. Since I went to GSW, I've posted 7 times. And really, only one (arguably 2) have been decent posts. My apologies.

I've been asked a lot in the past 3 days how everything's been since I got back. The transition back to normal life has definitely been hard. I mean, going from living with absolutely amazing people and being with them 24 hours a day, to being at home and sitting around all day and seeing no one but your family is difficult. I mean, I considered today a successful day because I got up at 9, curled my hair, dressed up, put on makeup, took senior portraits, picked up job applications, visited Deidra and turned in a job application. And that's successful? How? How can doing so little be such a good thing? I mean yeah, every once in a while, but I know that's exactly what the rest of my summer's gonna be like. And I don't like that. As much as I like sleeping, I liked the fact that I was awake by at least 8:30 every morning. I was outside everyday. I never go outside at home. I guess I just feel like my life here in unimportant and worthless. Nothing happens, nothing gets done. But that wasn't the case at GSW.

And then there's the whole issue of going back to school. See, I don't feel like I've changed all that much. Maybe I have, but I can't see it so much and no one's been able to tell me how I have. They all say I have, but can't give any examples. But at the same time, I feel so much older and so much more...just different. But when I go back to school, I'll fall into the same trap that all the SV kids did after last summer. Everyone has that notion of who you are. Not in a bad way, it's just who they perceive you to be. And that perception grows and you grow into it. Everyone does. Why do you think I dress the way I do? Why do you think Jasmine and I are so lazy? Why do you think Wendy studies the way she does? It's all part of fitting into other people's perception of ourselves. We don't like to let people down, so we try to fulfill what they think of us. I'm expected to wear jeans and a gray t-shirt, so I do. I'm expected to not do homework or study, so I don't. It's not a bad thing at all. It's simply trying to not let other people down. But then there's a problem when people change. Wendy changed a lot last summer and people had a hard time accepting that. They kept the same perception of her, while she no longer wanted to strive to fulfill that. And that led to problems. The same thing is gonna happen to Natalie (Natalya) when we go back. She won't accept that it will, but it will. THe power of people is way underestimated. And I'm worried that it'll happen to me. I don't know how it would happen, I'm just afraid that it will. And I don't want to waste my senior year trying to be understood.

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 11:49 PM

Monday, July 28, 2003

 

I've been working on college essay's (ok, so just one) and the previous post all day, so I don't much feel like writing. No surprise there, eh? If there's one bad thing about GSW, it's that it not only didn't encourage my writing, I almost feel like it hindered it. My writing was considerably worse during those 6 weeks than it has been in a while. But that's besides the point. The point is, I don't feel like writing, so I'm gonna post one of Charley's poems. I'm sure he won't mind.


Autumn day
In the same New England way
That's kept me bound to this small town
Much longer than I've cared to stay

With leaves of red and trees of gold
This dying town's a sight to hold
Walking down the winding street
The fire hearth air is more than sweet

Waiting with me at the coffee shop corner
Memories keep me oh much warmer
Than I must appear to the passerby
Who turns a head to catch me shiver

And with a tune of forty acres
I try to pass the minutes quicker
Waiting for the only one I care to keep
From passing into thoughts of yester
As only Pearl could do for Hester
You've eased the pain of the burning letter
Brandished on my heart
By this cold New England town

These thoughts wound up in anticipation
Of half an hour to walk and listen
To the depth of silence as we walk
To no particular destination

As I finally see you approaching
The darkness long encroaching
On the edges of my instability
Subsides to give me rest

For the pow'r of friends embracing
Leaves no room for hostile feelings
Or grudges deeply dwelling
In a heart that's long been aching

And as we walk sans hesitations
Built up by time or age or distance
The only thing I care to notice
Is the healing balm of the warmth of closeness

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 1:03 AM

 

So I'm making a GSW soundtrack, to accompany the area 3 soundtrack that Christian made us. It's either songs that I listened to a bunch while there, sang a bunch while there or had some significant meaning. And to give some insight into my experience and such, I thought I'd post the list and explain some of them! Yay fun!

1-Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing)~Aside from being a general theme for GSW, Dirty Dancing was one of the movies that Emily, Neda and I watched during our late-night film series.
2-Mrs. Potter (Counting Crows)~I listened to this song endlessly for the first 2 weeks. I also based a lot of my area 2 truths and falsehoods on this song.
3-Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)~First of all, Emily broke her foot moshing to this song at the formal. Sad, but really funny stuff! Also, Emily and I think Kurt Cobain was one cool guy.
4-Jupiter (Gustav Holst)~Favorite orchestra piece of the summer and Neda programmed the melody part as her ringtone. We hummed it a lot.
5-Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-lot)~It was played at all 3 dances and we also briefly joked about singing it to the Gramley boys.
6-These Three Remain (Eric Peters)~After receiving the cd from Christiana, I played this song endlessly 'til break. It was also my beautiful thing for area 2
7-If I Wrote You (Dar Williams)~Ali and I decided that we love Dar Williams and 3 days later the dancers used this song in their concert.
8-You've Got A Friend (James Taylor)~The first time I talked to Hannah, she asked me to play this song. We sang it a bunch. It's another sorts general GSW theme.
9-Cover Man (Rob Seals)~Rob led a songwriting workshop and talked about how he wrote this song. Then he played it at his concert that night. Rob's another cool guy.
10-Circle of Life (Lion King)~This was the first song sung across dorms (Gramley to Babcock) and was later sung by 2nd floor Gramley both in the refectory and at open mic night, with the monkey mask and all!
11-Devil Went Down to GA (Charlie Daniels)~Rob the violinist played this at the second open mic night, a day or 2 before he had to leave. We missed Rob.
12-Pina Coladas (Jimmy Buffet)~David French's song de la semaine for week 5. There's nothing like watching David sing and dance a Jimmy Buffet song (yes, I do know that Buffet remade it, but the Buffettness is essential to the GSW aspect of it)!
13-Come Away With Me (Norah Jones)~My contribution to the area 3 soundtrack. Neda and I sang it (badly) a lot.
14-I'll Be (Edwin McCain)~Sarah's contribution to the area 3 cd, which I proceeded to sing endlessly for the last 2 days. Also, it's loosely a theme.
15-One Song Glory (Rent)~The song that Christian finally sang for us in area 3 the last day. It was well worth the wait!
16-Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Lion King)~It originated as a possibility to sing to Gramley. It ended up a part of Jacob and Graham and crew's group hug act. The act consisted of a group of 7 or 8 guys running up to a random person (usually a faculty member) and group bear hugging them and swaying as a group and singing CYFTLT without knowing half the words (and thus humming them). Good stuff!
17-Time of Your Life (Green Day)~ The ultimate GSW theme.

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 12:52 AM

Sunday, July 27, 2003

 

Yes, I am home from GSW. It's very odd, but a bit good at the same time. I mean, I do still want to be there with all of my heart. But I know that right now, I'm needed more at home than anywhere else. However, I'm not yet ready to go through everything that goes along with coming home. I'm much too tired right now to do so. So later, I promise. And there'll even be pictures to go along with it! Yay!

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 1:01 AM