2007-Shizzle

My experiences in 2007....Geez, where to start? It feels like the time before June was so long ago it couldn't have possibly even been this same year! I think this year has been mostly good. I'm basing that on the fact that the events that come to mind right now are mostly good, but maybe that's just because the past couple of months have been good...But whatever. All's well that ends well, right? So by that logic, this year has been good.

I'm finding it very hard to remember what happened early this year. Well, let's go from the very beginning. What was the first thing that happened this year? Oh, right, of course. We had hosted a New Year's Party, and the McFadden family was the only clan that had not yet departed. We were in the living room, watching the ball drop on the television. The ball dropped. The McFaddens left. The year began.

This may sound weird, but the song I'd choose for that moment would be "Happy Xmas " by John Lennon. It's not just a Christmas song, and it's more of a reflective song than your typical "Hooray, jingle jingle, golly gee I do love this time of year" number. This reason I'm picking this song is because of its lyrics, which include, "So this is Christmas/and what have you done?/Another year over/A new one just begun." To me, this says that it's not enough to live survive a year, you need to contribute to it, which I agree with. Towards the end, this song features a children's choir singing the words "Happy Christmas, war is over." So it has a message of hoping for peace and rejoicing that peace seems to have been found. Besides these aspects, I really like the mood and the feel and the sound of the song.

Hm. January. February. March. Our dog, Joe, was hit by the 102 school bus. I don't think there would be a song for this event. I'd never really experienced a death before, save for the deaths of friends or family of people I knew, but didn't know the deceased, and a beloved pet chameleon when I was little. I was sad, of course -- not as sad as if a person I knew had died, or as lonely as I'd have felt if we had had Joe for more than 10 months, but sad. In addition to being sad, I was surprised. Wow. Things you love really can go, just like that. Sometimes it doesn't happen to "somebody else" like it always seems. So this is what it's like to miss somebody who won't come back. Imagine that.

A day or two or three after Joe's last stand with The Enemy (moving vehicles), most of the 8th grade Art Club, including myself, went to the Olympics of the Visual Arts. Then in April was the spring musical, inventively titled "The Nifty Fifties" (I know, nauseating, right?). The title song, "The Nifty Fifties," is basically a lot of nerdily-dressed people commanding the audience to "come-a come-a come on along, come-a come-a to the Nifty Fifties" because they "Wanna be there every now and then." Take them right back to the Nifty Fifties! They want to live it all a-gaiiiin! Oooooh!

But seriously. I reallly would choose this song for that event, because the psychopathic singers in the song seem to observe the 50s as a fantastic, wonderful, dreamlike (though that sounds more like the late 60s or 70s to be honest) good-ol'-days time period. For me, the time leading up to the play was fantastic and wonderful -- it was the first time I've ever had a substantial part in a play (Katie Mac, Emily, and I were the rebel beatnik characters and had singing solos!), I made a lot of friends, my drawing skillshizzles were in demand, yo, and it was generally just such a good time. So it fits in with the dreamlike quality of the title song.

Two down, eight more to go. Oh boy. Well...April. Nothing comes to mind. May. We got a new puppy, whom I named Mobley! Mobley is a chocolate lab. He is six months old at the moment but I don't think he will every grow up. I think Mobley's song would be "Food, Glorious Food," from the musical "Oliver!", because food is the basis of his entire universe. His life gravitates around it, completely and totally. He even likes broccoli salad, and that's disgusting. I like to think he loves me more than he loves food, but I think I'm kidding myself. Oh, well, I've got enough love for the two of us :-).

In June, several significant things happened. Well, more like two. We took the Earth Science Regents, and we graduated! I got a score I was very happy with on the Regents and I was awarded the Earth Science award at graduation, so I was, in a word, ecstatic; Earth Science was one of my very favorite classes, ever. Graduation itself was a blast, and Jazz Band performed, in which I co-drummed with now-eighth-grader Nate Chin. This wild and crazy event was followed by a wilder and crazier party shindig. The song for this awesome time would be "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, for towards the end of aforemented party we were blasting that song is McFadden's basement and dancing and singing along. I also chose this song because I think this song is very emotional, and I felt very emotional at the close of the very first public-school experience of my entire life, and because I was tired.

June, July, and part of August passed uneventfully; for this reason, I will assign the song "Comfortably Numb" to them. I'm still sort of ashamed by my lack of activity this summer -- for so much of it, I really and truly didn't do anything, besides reading a lot and drawing and those kinds of time-killing activities. But I guess that was good, because now I will never waste a summer like that again.

The later part of August -- now, that was exciting. Me, my dad, my older brother, fellow freshmen Alison Schaefershizzle and Dakota Ziegler, Sensei (Ms. Graziano), and about fifteen others traveled to...(cue exciting music)...JAPAN!!! This was a really, really cool, exciting, fun, and foreign experience for me, but I'm having trouble thinking up a song to go along with it. Maybe "A Whole New World," but probably not, because I love Japan and hate that song. Huh. Well, I guess I really can't think up a song, so I will further describe my experience with Japan: I found the intracountry clash of cultures -- the radicals with the conformists, the older generation and the young, the goth and the girly, the fashion-centered Harajuku-loving teens and twenty-somethings and the work-obsessed professionals -- fascinating. I would describe further, but that is another post entirely. In general -- Watashi wa Nihon ga tottemo daisuki desu nee!! (Lit., I really, really love Japan!)

In September, school started! (Shocker!) I was a little nervous for school starting, but mostly excited, so "ex-psyched-ed." I got into the swing of things pretty quickly, and now I absolutely j'adore high school. Perhaps the song for this occurrence would be "Wake Me Up When September Ends," by Green Day, because after all, it does have the word "September" in the title.

October passed fairly uneventfully, and before I knew it, it was November; sixteen days later, it was my birthday. I turned 14, and the song for my birthday will be "Pretty in Pink." This song is the opening number for the movie "Pretty in Pink," starring Molly Ringwald, which is fitting because I like both Molly Ringwald and pink Molly Ringwald also starred in my all-time favorite movie ever, "Sixteen Candles," also in which she wears pink.

A bunch of really happy things happened in December, so I will mention the song "Happiness is a Warm Gun" by the Beatles. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what they mean by happiness being a warm gun, but I like the song, and it has many references to happiness, so there you go. Firstly, the Holly Ball was in December, and that was absolutely fantastic. It was, actually, the most fun I've ever had at a school dance. The song makes particular sense for the dance, because, as all who were there will know, it kept getting hotter and hotter until suddenly the fire alarm went off! This gave all the dancers a terrific opportunity to step outside, most with no shoes on, and cool off in the frigid December air.

Chanukah started in mid-December this year, and Chanukah is my second favorite Jewish holiday (the first being Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew). "The Chanukah Song," by Adam Sandler, also goes for these "Eight Crazy Nights" (ha ha), as it was my favorite song overall for this time period, and it's funny, and it's one of the only Jewish holiday songs in existence (besides "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel," which everyone knows but very few actually enjoy, "Oy Chanukah," which only people who are actually Jewish know, and a bunch of other Chanukah songs, sung at middle school chorus recitals, that have pretty much nothing to do with the actual holiday, which makes sense as they were mostly written by non-Jews). I mean, just think of the lyrics!: "Put on your yamacha/here comes Hanukkah/don't forget a harmonica/on this lovely, lovely Hanukkah..." Also, December is a wonderful time of the year when the ideas of "love," "harmony," "joy," "brotherhood," "vacation," and "commercial consumerism" are dancing like sugarplums upon people's minds.

Oh right -- and Audrey, Sara, myself, and a few others totally stomped several male members of our Molec Bio class in P.E. in December. I'm telling you, this basketball game was inequivocally epic. It should go down in history. We totally crushed them. "We Are the Champions" by Queen all the way!

Stealing the idea from Melissa Roff, I would conclude this post with the song "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty, because the title alone makes perfect sense. In general 2007 was awesome and totally great and 2008 will be even better!!