nelle@envy.nu
http://www.envy.nu/nelle

A Day in the Life of Danielle
August 13, 2000

Age:
17 years, 2 months, 18 days old

Looking forward to:
Book-Buying Day

Required Reading:
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros

Last Movie:
What Lies Beneath

Song of the Moment:
Why Does it Always Rain on Me
Travis

What's Spinning:
No Angel
Dido

Talking to:
Myself

Craving:
Dim Sum

I'm feeling:
Streesed

Sisterly saying:
"Go read your books..."

Sunday, August 13, 2000
I'm back. I've said it once, I'll say it again. This has been the most boring summer I have had since I can remember. We started off the vacation with an overnight stay in Santa Barbara. And after that I lost track of days and hours. We visited UC Berkeley on one of those days, and we took a tour. It's not as wonderful as you'd think it would be. One of my friends, Erica, is going there. She told me that if it was up to her, she wouldn't have gone there. The location is horrible, the campus makes you feel like you're in a forest, and everybody there looks like they've been smoking something. Berkeley, however, does offer a good education and a nice looking name on your resume. To me, it's amazing how many out-of-state people want to go to these wonderful UC schools we have over here. (There's a reason why I can't/won't get into UCLA. Heh.)

I love San Francisco. I don't think my mother would be happy if I went to University of San Francisco, though. It's a party school. She likes Santa Clara University. I like it too.
Posted at 03:24 p.m. by Danielle.

Saturday, August 5, 2000
What am I doing? I know I'm wasting my time. I'm downloading fonts. I go on a font downloading binge perhaps twice a year. What sparked this one? It all started because of a school dance flyer. I'm in charge of planning the Welcome Dance. Because of it, I've been at school three days in a row during the summer. To make a long story short, our ASB moderator thinks it's ridiculous to pay someone $180 to design a flyer that will look tacky in the end anyway. Maybe she's right. Most school dance flyers are pathetic wannabe rave cards (not that mine isn't) that cost an arm and a leg to design and print. Anyway, I designed the flyer, but wasn't happy, so I went on the quest to find the perfect font. I was looking to "imitate" the font used in the '99 Nocturnal Wonderland invitation. I finally settled on something called Funk and used a blue color gradiant. The back looks pretty professional. I even made a map out of lines. Heh. Jerel just had to criticize it though. He's mad that I wouldn't pay him $380. Poo poo on him then. We do have a DJ now. Wonderful.

Textbook buying days are the 14th and the 15th. I'm in charge of that too. It's a shame I won't be here at all next week.

The family is vacationing up the California coast for a week starting this Sunday. Vacation. It sounds nice, but knowing my family, it will be far from it. We're going to find me a college. I know my mother would love for me to stay fifteen minutes from home. UCLA (if I had a chance of getting in) would probably get me a BMW for a graduation gift. USC (if I got a scholarship) would get me a Jetta (and probably an MRS. degree). Occidental College would probably get me a Toyota Corolla. My parents see no shame in bribery. I seriously doubt I'll leave the state of California, but I won't tell them that. The most realistic colleges I see in my future are UC Irvine or UC San Diego. My mom thinks I can get into Berkeley. But hey, the vacation also gets me a trip to San Francisco. San Francisco ranks way up there on my list of favorite cities. Other cities on my list? New Orleans, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Denver, Monterey, Salinas, and Eureka.
Posted at 01:38 a.m. by Danielle.

Tuesday, August 1, 2000
Nineteen days of freedom left. August 21st is the day. The thought of going back to school makes me shudder. Twenty nights and five more books to read for English. What the hell was I thinking signing up for two English classes? I have two more books to read for AP English and three more books to read for Women in Literature. It's amazing how much time the computer takes away from you.
Posted at 10:42 p.m. by Danielle.

Monday, July 31, 2000
I took my senior portraits today. I haven't had that much fun in the longest time. Today was a welcome respite in what has been the most boring summer I have had since I was nine years old.

I had planned to wake up at six o'clock in the morning to do something to my hair, but I overslept. I spent the night organizing my room. I saw a book about Feng Shui at Brentano's at the Beverly Center yesterday, and I was inspired. Anyway, my mother had to wake me up at 7:50 AM. Frantic, I ran to the bathroom becuase I had to take a shower. I did that, and at 8:10 AM, I was blow-drying my hair, and the hot curlers were hot. My sister showed up to help me curl my hair; I attempted to go for the wavy look. I did my make-up, and at 9:10 AM, my mother was honking the horn. Yes, indeed, it took me over an hour to get ready.

Mr. Dlugolecki's photo studio is in Burbank, and my appointment was for 10:00 AM. Because my mother doesn't drive on the freeway, a twenty minute drive on the freeway became a fifty minute drive using side streets. I was amazed that we even made it. (I probably shouldn't be talking. I don't drive the freeway either. It once took me an hour to get from Pasadena to home. But that's another story.)

I had signed up for four different pictures: the required school uniform photo (used in the yearbook and on the IH halls), a personal photo with my sister (how cute), a formal picture that features me in faux fur (Tyra banks in her faux fur photo shown here [yes, she went to my school]), and the cap and gown photo (which I think is ridiculous because we don't even graduate in cap and gown [we graduate in long white dresses]).

Four outfits equals two hours equals sixty-five dollars. It amazed me that he kept on clicking. School photos usually amounted to "click click". Okay that's it. Senior portraits means look at the camara. Click. Click. Smile. Click. Click. Look at my hand over here. Click. Click. Don't smile. Click. Click. Give me a big smile. Click. Click. Show your teeth. Click. Click. Turn your body. Click. Click. Okay, get into your other outfit, etc., etc.

It's almost embarrasing how many rolls of film he used on me. About four of my classmates were there while I was taking pictures. Diana had two poses. Tanya had two. Loujuana had five. Marlena had three. Mr. Dlugolecki said that there was a girl who had signed up for six. That means three hours.

Anyway, we left at noon and decided to have lunch. We went to the California Pizza Kitchen across the street from Ikea. Their Oriental Salad is pretty good; it's crunchy.

So we drove home, and here I am.
Posted at 03:04 p.m. by Danielle.

Saturday, July 29, 2000
My senior portrait session is on Monday. With that picture, I will be immortalized on the hallowed halls of IHHS. I will forever haunt the students whose locker occupies the space below my picture. And I, being a woman of great heart and right conscience, have vowed to do my best to look good.

I went shopping for make-up today. Make-up is such a lucrative business. Beauty means money. Beauty doesn't come cheap, you know. The people behind MAC and Clinique must be millionaires. Anyway, after experimenting with Prescriptives (I didn't like their concealer stick), Estee Lauder (not my style), MAC (the man with the green hair scared me), and Stila (too shimmery), and I went to Nordstroms and got a beauty lesson from the LORAC counter. Carol Shaw, the maker of LORAC, names her lipsticks after the movie stars who use them. For example, the Ashley lipstick I bought in June is named after Ashley Judd. Thanks to Caryn of the LORAC counter, my face actually looks ready to be photographed. Anyway, I did buy some make-up. Luckily, she gave me one of those faces that you color in with make-up so you know exactly what you're doing when you go home. I know I'm going to screw this one up. I love make-up, and I have more than I deserve. I probably have about thirty lipsticks. I never use eighty percent of them, but I like that they're there. My mother tells me that she never wore make-up when she was my age. I tell her it was too hot in the Philippines to wear make-up. Yes, it was.

I think I'm going to go play with make-up now. My mother's worried about me becoming a make-up artist, though. "If you want to be a make-up artist, why do you need to take AP Physics?"
Posted at 08:18 p.m. by Danielle.

Friday, July 28, 2000
I woke up at 11:50 a.m. today. Or shall I say, my mother woke me up. I had had a hard night of downloading. I walked to the computer and my sister was sitting there. She tells me the good news. Napster can stay online -- at least for the time being. So the Napster mania, countdown, etc. was for nothing -- at least for now.

I signed up for the Princeton Review today. It's amazing how much money parents are willing to spend on their children's futures. $895. They guarantee that it will raise my score at least 100 points. If I don't, I get to go to a refresher course. If it didn't work the first time, why would it work the second time around? I'm getting a lot of anxiety from this college thing. My dining room table is flooded with applications. My mother sat me down yesterday and asked me what I wanted to do. I want to do a lot of things. I really have no idea where my life is headed. I don't know where I want to go to college. I have about four majors in mind, and they're completely different. That's the problem with me. I want to do everything, but I don't know where to start. I think my mother will have brain aneurism from the shit I put her through.
Posted at 11:29 p.m. by Danielle.

Thursday, July 27, 2000
It's amazing how many people act and think like me. Hehehe. This morning, Kevin and Bean on KROQ were talking about downloading as many songs as possible before tomorrow night. Anyway, if you're going to get on, get on now. There are so many people online right now, it's great. And everybody's being so nice. It's absolutely wonderful. If you like Metallica, I suggest that you download their songs now. They can't do anything about it.

I disappear
Posted at 10:59 a.m. by Danielle.

Thursday, July 27, 2000
So a federal judge shut down Napster. How horrible. Jed the Fish broke the news to me when I was driving around the neighborhood. Of course my sister was outraged when I told her. Vanessa thinks that everything is a cause for outrage. Now I think her goal is to download as many songs as she can before Napster really shuts down on Friday. I wonder how many other people have that goal. Truly, I think Napster has done wonders for the music business. Have you any idea how many 80s bands I've rediscovered because of Napster? Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Gogos, The Bangles... Not to mention The Cure and Bananarama. Remember Toto and Simple Minds? Okay, I'll stop now. The music of the eighties was great. I can't say as much for the clothing. The hair was pretty bad too...

To Lars Ulrich: Not everyone is downloading your music. Don't flatter yourself.

Don't get me wrong. Metallica is a great band. They've managed to stay around for a long time, and their music gets better as they get older. However, it's sad that they have to ruin Napster for all the other up-and-coming bands who aren't as big as Metallica. Share the fame, Lars, share the fame.
Posted at 12:53 a.m. by Danielle.

Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Jerel finally showed up this afternoon. I'm still pissed off with him. He won't dj our school dance, claiming that we're too cheap. Three-hundred dollars for four and a half hours sounds quite reasonable to me. You'd think that your cousin would give you a great deal. Anyway, that means I have a couple of days to find another guy and get those fliers ready. My ass is grass.
Posted at 11:31 p.m. by Danielle.

Sunday, July 23, 2000
I went to CityWalk with my parents and my sister today. It was hot. I dislike the dry valley heat. Anyway, we watched X-Men and What Lies Beneath. X-Men was an amazing movie. If you haven't seen it, you must. It wasn't just another traditional take on another comic book; it was a story about bigotry and what it's like being different. It was like another trip to the Museum of Tolerance. What Lies Beneath, on the other hand, was a cliche filled summer thriller. The movie seemed to go on and on...and on.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. My mother wants me to get off this bloody computer and finish my summer reading.
Posted at 08:35 p.m. by Danielle.

Sunday, July 23, 2000
Yes, I jumped on the weblog bandwagon. A little late, but it's better than never. Anyway, I've always wanted to have an online diary, but I've always been very lazy. I'm not exactly sure what I want from it. My religion teachers have always told me that keeping a journal is good. I have tons of them. They'll make you laugh when you're a bed-ridden 82 year old with nothing else better to do. Read if you must. Criticize if you will. Judge only if you have walked a mile in my shoes.
Posted at 02:15 a.m. by Danielle.