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Okay, so there's this certain item. It's white, but not shiny, more pearly. It almost glows. It's very thin. It holds virtually everything amazing ever. What is it?
A MacBook.
This morning, right as I was finishing up 4-H chores, I saw my knight in shiny armor - or at least in a glinting FedEx truck. I virtually skipped from the barn to the end of the driveway, scribbled my signature, and then held in my hands the beautiful cardboard box from Apple.
I came in the house, deftly slit open the packing tape, and gingerly pulled out the box containing the computer and all its paraphernalia. Even the box was indecently spiffy: all the pieces fit in their own little Styrofoam compartment in the briefcase-sized box. It just makes me want to hug all those aesthetics-obsessed designers at Apple. I'm such a nerd for things like packaging and color-coordination. Jeez, you'd think I only got this laptop for it's shipping material, wouldn't you?
Well, in actually, getting a laptop is a right of passage for teenagers going into college. Not only is it a lot of money spent, it's also a lot of responsibility. Now I have to consciously be aware I am lugging around one piece of equipment that will be indispensable next year. I have to use it to check my assignments, my email, my Facebook. I have to write essays and research topics using the internet.
My boyfriend also got a Mac, so he's kind of helping me figure out how to work it - we both had access to Macs in our journalism class the last two years, but he definitely has more experience with them that me. Take, for instance, right-clicking. Right-clicking is not really normal on a Mac. So I had to reprogram the touchpad on the laptop so I could access the little menu that pops up when you right-click.
But, then, of course, there's some fun stuff involved, too. Already I've loaded the hard-drive with about 28 hours worth of iTunes, transferred all my pictures so I can have a screensaver of my prom snapshots, and watched several DVDs with the help of the remote that came with the laptop. Yes. That's right. A remote control for a computer.
Is that not fantastic?
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The actual purpose of a graduation open house is not to socialize, show off, or collect cash - the institution of graduation parties exists merely to raise blood pressure and decrease appetite.
Okay, so mine wasn't actually all that bad. Yeah, there were the tents and the tables and the pork barbecue and the photo albums and scrapbooks and citronella candles to organize, label, heat, paste, light, and assemble, but otherwise - it was pretty fun. I'm blessed to have a large extended family on both sides, not to mention several close friends that might as well be family. Unfortunately, because so many people came, I spent a great deal of Sunday evening just saying, "Hi! Thanks for coming! So glad to see you! Food's inside, please sign the picture frame, try out the snow cone machine my sister found at Walmart, etc etc." I didn't want to be unfriendly, so I made a point to talk to everyone who came. Which, of course, meant I didn't talk long to anyone.
I did, however, manage to snatch a piece of cake inbetween bouts of schmoozing. The cake was chocolate, coated in the good, starchy icing - not that wimpy whipped cream kind. It was also emblazoned with the Notre Dame logo in blue and gold icing, which lead to - you guessed it - a green tongue. Awesome.
After about 9:30, most of the adults and family had left, leaving only my close friends. They ended up playing Guitar Hero in my basement while I recuperated on the couch, swaddled in the quilt my mom made of all my high school t-shirts from plays, clubs, or student council.
Cleaning up - that's the fun part. For me, cleaning up entailed putting away my photo albums and sorting through my graduation gifts. I'm happy to say my newly opened checking account is very obese right now.
"Right now" being the operative word here. I've been wanting to get a digital camera for a while now, and since I still am not entirely sure how to get my student software, I decided to buy the camera before my laptop. It cost nearly the entirety of the money I had saved up from my job, but I think it's worth it. So, I am now the proud owner of an Olympus Stylus. Goodbye, $300. You better safeguard my memories.
And now ... I'm off to one more graduation party. Oy. Full Post »
There's something about summer that changes the nature of time. During the school year, everything is compartmentalized into classes, practice, weekends, and sleep. My days are still structured, but its so random and haphazard I have a hard time keeping track of what day it is.
For example, yesterday I got up at about 7:30 to help my dad with chores, then sat in front of the computer for a few hours, absentmindedly watching VH1 while voraciously searching for dorm room supplies on Zappos.com and Amazon.com. Then I took a shower, ate some lunch, test drove the new Tapawingo extension (so quick and breezy!), deposited my paycheck, wandered around Target for precisely 17 minutes, and then went to work at 3 pm.
But even work loses all sense of structure and immediacy. I just started part-time at a children's resale shop after spring break, when the busy season for children's apparel and Johnny Jump-Ups is in full swing. But now that everyone has stocked up on shorts and sleeveless two-pieces, things have slowed to a fairly sluggish pace. For quite a while last night I surreptitiously searched through the Girls Youth 16 section for some summer clothes, or chatted with my coworkers about college plans. The managers actually got me a graduation present, a laundry bag with towels, toothpaste, and even shower gel! That was about the highlight of the night - everything else has blended together in a nondescript blur.
Today, however, my sense of hours, seconds, and minutes is even more relaxed. I gathered up all my course selection material from Notre Dame and sat outside for about an hour, listening to my iPod while trying to decide if I want to continue in Spanish next year for my language requirement or pick up something exotic like Irish or Arabic. But the fact that I can just enjoy the weather while doing something productive makes summer such a wonderful time - if I had to do all that reading and notetaking in March, I'd most likely be stuck at the table in my basement or in a desk at school, cut off from fresh air, sunlight, and anything fun ever.
I'm embracing this lack of restrictions and constraints now, but I don't know if I'll be able to stand it come August. I'm one of those people who hate sleeping in everyday, who hate being late, who hate to just sit around the house and do nothing - at least when I know there are other things I could be doing. I'm a compulsive list-maker, and I think the only way I could be complacent with just lazing around is if I specified a time and place for it on To-Do itineraries.
I actually have to go and do something organized now (a meeting for the 4-H Queen Contest), but I can provide one of my anal-retentive lists for things I need to get done in the near future:
1. Wake up early to work with 4-H animals before doing a job shadow at the Journal and Courier tomorrow morning.
2. Meet some friends after said job shadow to go to a Fall Out Boy concert at Verizon Wireless Music Center.
3. Finish getting my house cleaned up and my pictures put into albums and a tent set up and hell frozen over, etc, before my graduation party on Sunday.
4. Go to five graduation parties on Saturday.
5. Finish my schedule for Notre Dame.
6. Get my MacBook and figure out how the heck it works.
7. Get a tan.
8. Go see a movie or something equally entertaining.
9. Stop making inane lists.
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Ugh. Talk about a great way to start off my summer. My sister and I got our wisdom teeth taken out yesterday and while my mouth actually feels fine, my stomach is still waging a full-scale revolt. I think I've eaten more applesauce in the last 36 hours than most babies have in their first two years of life. Anyway, besides causing me to lose my mashed potatoes, the anesthetics and sedatives floating through my system yesterday also gave me the weirdest (and lamest) daydreams. Several were about how urgently I needed to upload pictures from graduation to my Facebook, and then the rest involved me missing graduation parties because I was too busy watching Beaches with my sister as we recovered. Speaking of graduation parties, I have several more to attend tomorrow and Sunday. Last weekend, the weekend of McCutcheon's graduation, I went to 23 parties - I had printed itineraries and everything. Several of my good friends at Harrison invited me to their open houses, but there simply wasn't enough time to get up there. And then next Sunday is my graduation open house - and what a production that's turning out to be. Oy vey. So far I've assembled three scrapbooks, including one I started and finished today on my applesauce high. It's so exciting to be done with high school and to have an entire three hour block where it's okay to brag, but getting ready for the darn thing is exhausting.
And, of course, Sunday is my 19th birthday. In this whirlwind of college decisions, graduation preparation, and teeth extractions, I nearly forgot I'm almost done being 18. Nineteen is kind of a sad, forgotten year - 18 is all about getting tattoos and lottery tickets and voting and "freedom," and then 20 is an entire new prefix, but 19? Kind of sad and lost. I don't think I'm much different than I was last June 3rd when I turned 18, but I guess expecting a grand transformation is a bit much to ask. I don't really feel any older, smarter, wiser (haha, teeth jokes), whatever, but then again last year I didn't have nearly as many things vying for my attention - a job, 4-H, graduation, getting ready for college. I suppose I will let it sink in that I am actually 19 when I'm almost ready to turn 20, because that always seems the usual course of things.
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