So yesterday was pretty cool.  I think friday was mostly ok, I don't actually remember for some reason.  Aha, it's coming back to me now.  I know I was nauseous basically all day because I had to present in English, and I was very well aware that I hadnt prepared ANYTHING for this presentation.  Worse off, it's a group project and I felt a bit guilty since i was letting Connie down.  Eventually I gave up on cramming, wrote about 4 notecards for three speech topics (when i say 'wrote' I mean put 5 bullets with MAYBE three words next to each one) and decided to stand up and wing it, relying off my rather substantial general cultural knowledge and astronomical bullshitting capabilities; at least my eyecontact score would be good since there was nothing to look at on the cards right?  At tim es like this I thank my father for all the seemingly useless things he's told me, because I actually remember them.  I also thank myself for staying up all night writing that DAMNED paper for this project, because its permanently embedded in my cortex.  Apparently I actually did well, even sounded like I knew what the hell I was talking about.  I didn't even miss time, I had actually wanted to say to say more, but my timer was already at 5:28.  So cool, I didn't screw up, and my food was really good, I had some for breakfast yesterday.  Woot.  So yeah that was friday.

 

Saturday I went to Janes to work on the spanish thing with her, steve, and asef.  I regrettably missed yoga but oh well, I'll just have to do it by myself. Kira's in our group too, but she decided to swan off to Japan, thankfully she'd already taped her part.  We did it while Jane's parents were out so she wouldn't get in trouble.  We checked the window for their car a thousand times, but surprisingly everything went off without a hitch, yay!  I was supposed to go shopping for Lauren's b-day present afterwards, but I fell asleep and got screwed over.  When I woke up, my mom was like "We're here."  "Cooly" I think.  Then I look around and realize we're at Costco.  "FUCK."  See this is what I hate about cars, I ALWAYS fall asleep if I'm in a car, and then I can't enforce previous agreements.   Oh well, I got a chicken bake so it was all cool.

 

Lauren and I had agreed to hang out that night because it was Emily Arthur's (absolutely crazy awesome chick) b-day, so I got my dad to drive me over there after we went home.  We had to wait around for Emily to come pick us up, so I got Olivia to straighten my hair, which is all cool except then I mess with it CONSTANTLY which makes me look slightly vapid.

 

We got to Pointe around 8 but our movie wasnt till 9:25 so we shopped a little and vented about how much people suck and then went to Muvico and watched The Grudge. Actually quite scary, but made abso-freaking-lutely NO SENSE whatsoever.  I think its the most incoherent movie I've seen since Battlefield Earth.  And there were these REALLY annoying stupid kids in front of us that took up the whole freaking row so we couldnt put our feet up. They were all noisy and stupid and kept saying the movie took place in China which pissed me off to no end (you know how I am).  Come on, the fact that they keep saying things like "Tokyo" and "little Japanese boy" and "We have a saying HERE IN JAPAN"  would be a big hint to the stupid.  But apparently not.  Ugh, cretins.

 

Stalin  called me on the way home.  "Blah blah blah  blah why arent you home blah blah blah Lise you suck blah blah blah"  "Yeah ok mom I'll be home really soon ok? Ok. Bye."  Then we decided screw that lets go to wendys because theyre open late (it was already 11:20 or something).  That was probably the most fun part of the night.  The line was really long because everyone loves a Late Night Frosty right?  So we decided to pass the time by doing Chinese Fire Drills.  For anyone who doesn't know what a Chinese Fire Drill is, when youre sitting in traffic going no where, everyone opens their door, gets out, runs around the car as fast as they can, and gets back in.  Not sure why they call them Chinese though.  We did it about three times, a couple people stared, a couple laughed, our goal was to get someone to join in, but no luck.  At least it passed some of the time. Lauren found a penny and kept trying to throw it from the car into a dumpster, she missed everytime and had to get out of the car and get it again. Got the chicken strips and a frosty, drove through Windermere blasting Fuel, Offspring, and Van Halen, came home around 1.  Girls' Night Out rocks.

 

 

 

Today got up for Sunday breakfast (family tradition, 9 weeks out of 10 since the day I was born, compensation for our lack of churchgoing I suppose). I can usually skiv off a couple of dinners a week, but I'm actually REQUIRED to go to breakfast on sunday, usually I have to help with it too, but my dad actually did it this week eventhough my mom is home, or perhaps BECAUSE she's home, maybe he thinks he's proving a point.  We had crepes, but I had to take them with lime and orange which isnt quite as good as just lemon.  That probably sounds a little weird.  I've been eating my crepes the exact same way since I was two feet tall, no jam, no chocolate, no syrup, no bullshit.  You put lemon juice on them, and then you put sugar on them, and then you roll them up and eat them.  When I have to do something different its just odd. 

 

Now I have to finish editing the Spanish Video and then do a ton o Bio and study for history.  My progress report came in and my parents actually didnt attack me about it for a change, they just said it came in.  My mom said "do you want to talk about your progress report?"  "No." "Oh ok then."

I swear to God, my life doesnt make ANY sense anymore, EVERYTHING is inside out-backwards and upside down. 

 

 

Look to me tomorrow and you will see

At my throat a silent plea

All the words I should have said

All the glances you never read

Sorrow and sadness and guilt and regret

The weight of the silver albatross round my neck

I feel like:  the green-eyed monster

Music: Starry Night

You know, when everything is simply handed to you or becomes readily available, two things can happen:
1. You take it for granted
2. Surfeit

I can't determine which is worse. In the case of taking something for granted, as soon as it's no longer there the agony of withdrawal and realization of what's been lost, often irrevocably sets in.  Surfeit is no more enjoyable because the thing in question ceases to have any value. You're glutted yourself on it, you're saturated and sickened. You don't want it anymore.  This would seem the lesser of two evils, but I've found it tends to instill a certain amount of guilt, and I for one find guilt horrendously unenjoyable and frequently all consuming.

Even worse is that one can stem from the other forming a vicious cycle.  Realization of desire, attainment of the formerly unattainable, bingeing and gorging, surfeit, rejection, withdrawal.

What's to be done?  Neither are circumstances where stoicism will fix the problem, but what course of action will?  How is the situation to be remedied?

Pretty good weekend if I do say so myself.  Not what I had planned but still fun.    What did I do?  I hung around with my dad a lot.  Crazy huh?

   On saturday I had yoga in the morning which is obligatory.  I go on tuesday nights with Lauren and Auntie Anita and my mom, but on Saturday it's LISE TIME.  I get to sit around and reflect on life for an hour while learning to contort myself and push the limits of my muscles.  Sometimes its a highly masochostic hour, but the only way to get better is to keep doing it.   

   After yoga my dad picked me up and on the way home asked what I wanted to do with the rest of the day.  In my usual contrary way I said I didn't know, so he suggested walking somewhere.  Cool, says Lise.  So we went home so I could get out of my yoga clothes since it was kinda cold out and I needed something warmer.  I shit you not when I say I had NO clean pants, not even passably clean, so I ended up in a skirt and boots with a suede jacket, and you can bet your ass that none of them were JC Penney caliber. This is only significant because my father took one look at me and decided we were going to Park Avenue (probably one of my absolute favorite places) which works out great for both of us since that's both the best walking and the best shopping district in Orlando, sweet.  See what dressing nicely at all times can get you? 

   So we drove all the way up to winter park, near Rollins, and parked the car and walked.  This is one of the nicest areas in the city, it emulates a little bit of what you see in Europe.  There are trees everywhere and all the restaurants have open fronts (Paris anyone?).  He followed me into Gap and Lucky etc, his misfortune if he couldn't stand it, but we went in and looked at all the galleries and what nots too since we both love those.  A lot of what they sell is absolute junk, but some is very good.  I think my dad should put some stuff in these places.  There was some gift questing going on too, since my mom's birthday is coming up and so is Lauren's.  We took some pictures in the gardens (on park avenue one side of the street has stores and the other has parks and gardens), and then got lunch at panera.  He actually paid me a dollar to NOT eat all my chips.  See how evil my family is?  Urrgh.

   We went to that antique district too.  Where we parked I remember there used to be a comic book store, absolute archetypal nerd-central hangout, it was a really cool store.  But it's gone now.  And what's in it's place?  Something even better, it's a record store.  I said there was no way I wasn't going in there, and since it had sort of become Lise-Day my dad went with it.  It's a very cool place, it absolutely reeks of incense (you can get 100 sticks for $14, some had crazy names like "fizzy pop," and I swear that is EXACTLY what it smelled like.).   They buy, sell, and trade records, 8" and 12",  all types of music from all decades, Puccini and Liszt to stuff that came out last month.  Most of them were catalogged and grouped alphabetically like in all music stores, but then there were just huge random stacks of them everywhere.  They had a lot of old nostalgic toys and relics of pop culture on the walls and shelves for sale too, and tons and tons of old pins and stuff, most of it was really cheap.   It was a VERY nifty place, my dad liked it too.

   We went to Bed Bath and Beyond on the way home because my dad was looking for something, I forget what.  We looked at curtains too because I want to put one in my room, but they didnt really have what I was looking for.  My dad said I should just make them, and I might, but that would cost me more.  I'm told him I wanted to rip up my carpet and tile my floor, he said he'd help.  Probably because it has the potential to piss my mom off, but it's what I want  It fits my lifestyle better, I have a habit of doing things that are not carpet friendly in my room, painting, eatiing, etc, and it shows.  Now I just have to find my floor.  So yeah, it was a good day. 

Today I think I mostly just wrote.  Yes! I have discovered writing!  I cleaned my room a bit, then in the afternoon I found some paper and I started writing and continued doing that intermittently throughout the day.  I've found that writing doesnt suck when it's for fun.   Actually it gets addictive.  i generally got out about a page at a time, I think I did about ten pages on legal size college rule.  Now why can't I do this for essays?  Life is not fair.  So that was sunday, and it was fun too.  I stayed in my pajamas all day.

So for tonight's entry I was going to write about heavier things, but then decided against it.  I hate to be a misinterpreted downer.  So I thought I'd show you some of what my life is like outside of school.  Bear with me, it's the first time I've posted pictures.


FAMILY!!



 


And now, a glimpse into that cruel cruel world.


This is the evil man that makes my life a living hell from time to time.  To understand his evil character all you have to do is look at his name.  His name is Steen. Steen Malte more specifically, my last name comes after that obviously.  You know what that translates to?  The first word means STONE, and the second means MALT.  STONE MALT.  My father is a rock hard beer.  Doesn't he just LOOK like the evil genius he is? Do you people SEE what I have to deal with? Ugh.

 

   

So this is my brother exercising his second amendment rights when he found out my dad took his XBOX:

 



Just kidding.  But that is my brother with a really big gun.


This is a really cool picture of Duncan defending his oreos from my cousin.




And in case any of ya'll bitchez thought I was kidding:
Damn straight I'm a Yoruba.


This is my wonderful mother Carole (though in this picture she is Omowale Fowora, all names in Nigeria have a meaning.  Omowale means, a child has come home, which, if you know the story, is absolutely perfect.) whom I love very very very much. She's absolutely amazing, I have the bestestestestest mommy in the world and don't you dare try to argue because you are WRONG. She's better than YOUR mom, and YOUR mom, and YOUR mom, and she's hotter too.  POW BIATCH! *dragon kick* My mom kicks infinite amounts of ass. Like, imagine how much ass I kick. Now send that to the seven thousand gajillion power times infinity. That's mi madre.  Oh and she's with my uncle Ade and my grandfather, The Otunba Ademola Fowora (there's a bunch more stuff that follows that because of his title but I dont feel like typing it).



 


My mom with Giles.  You all remember Giles right?  I was working on his golf course over the summer?  Got lots of tips from creepy old Freemason dudes?  Maybe not.  Giles is really awesome, he's all about cheating the system and suave anarchy.  This is the picture which I affectionately call "The Shrek and Donkey Picture,"  which fits in more ways than one because the people in the picture have the exact personalities of said characters.  Can you guess who is who? 




I had some others but the damn things wouldn't load.  Next time perhaps.  In the meantime be happy and remember that Lise loves you.

   Okay okay, so its been a while, spare me the flack alright?  Onward hoes.

 

   So this week was homecoming week, (saw some INTERESTING things), and we had PSATs (damn them to hell), and ummm, I don't remember what else. Club fair, we had Club fair, which was interesting, I got hit on by these two gansta thugs, it was kinda funny.

 

   So did I show my spirit?  Well, no not really.  I wore my Pajamas on tuesday, and I can't understand for the life of me why I cant just wear them everyday. I mean I'm ten times as covered as all the mainstream jailbait that infest our campus.  Right? Right.  And I wore my cow suit on thursday, more because I just wanted to wear a cowsuit than because.... Ummm well actually that's all it was really. 

   Didn't go to the game, didnt go to Homecoming.  I just didn't feel like it this year.  Go figure.  I never go to our games though, I could care less.  So what'd I do instead? Well.....

 

   I was under house arrest for the last two weeks so I wasnt supposed to go anywhere.  I got to clean instead.  I didnt even get to go to yoga *sniff*.  But now my room is actually pretty clean, I shifted some stuff around and added a "laundry line" over my desk, only it isn't a line, it's a vine, because it has leaves.  It's not really a laundry line but the same concept applies, I hang my scissors and glue and markers and schtuff from it.  Post-cleaning my mom decided to go to the Oriental Supermarket, and Lise was allowed to come with, which is just great.  Oh and of course before going we had to have the obligatory "Lise looks like crap and needs to go change" battle.  Does she really think anyone in the Asia-Mart will give a crap what I look like?  Does she think I give a crap what I look like?  Cuz I don't.

 

   Anyways, I love ethnic foodstores, especially the Asian ones.  It's incredibly interesting.  You can get three foot long purple beans, or a three-pack of pig spleens.  Or stone fish.  I didn't even know you could eat stone fish, they're astoundingly poisonous.  They're also on of the ugliest mofos of a fish i've ever seen. 

 mofo
    I am an ugly mofo.  Eat me.

Damn, they look so grumpy.  I wouldn’t want that on my plate. So we got stuff for dinner (which was super good, curry with fish and shrimp, coconut rice, cucumber salad, and ginger ice cream w/ mango sorbet).  We, (me and Mussolini), hadn’t cooked in a while so we kinda went crazy. We just sorta walked around the supermarket and said “oh hey why don’t we make this?” “YEAH, and then we can make ice cream to go with it!”  “But I want to make this.”  “Ok fine we’ll do that too.”  It was fun.  And she's leaving on wednesday which is going to  suck.  A lot. No more good food for Lise.  Unless she makes it herself.  HA! That's funny.

   But today was pretty good in some ways.  Lauren came over so we could work on getting more teeth for Group 4, so we had to look at all the bloody raw pig jaws and pick which one we wanted to keep whole and then cut the others in half and boil them.  They had to boil for 3 hours +, so we did some spanish and then didn't know what to do.  Whenever Lauren and I don't know what to do it means it's smoothie time, so we went to kitchen jonesing for smoothie worthy items that would go with lunch (leftover curry, w00t!  And yes the smoothie has to match lunch.  In case you haven't noticed, girls get a kick out of making things match.)  And we ended up with the BEST smoothie of all time which I will not post here because it is a Lauren and Lise thing.  Ha.

   But then it was back to the evil pig parts, which were now cooked and even LESS appetizing not to mention a thousand times harder to deal with.  Ugh.  The things I do for IB.  I smell like pork.  Blagh.

Bah.  Today was............I'm indifferent towards today really.  It was just another day.  Not a bad day at all, it was really quite good, but just not an overly interesting day.  I talked to Jane and Amber on the way to/at lunch, as mundane as that sounds it was actually quite fun and just what I needed.  They're both excruciatingly great people.  I think I hang out with too many boys.  Sorry, you know I absolutely adore all of you, but the fact remains that I'm a girl and somethings need to be kept between girls. 

   You know what's great?  life doesnt altogether suck right now.  I'm not saying it's charmed because it is most decidedly not, but I'm not miserable, and that's cool. But nothing is happening this week.  It's pretty dull. Trying to remember what I did last week..... ummm hokay

I adopted a cute lil' pirate fetus! Argh Mateys!