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August 7, 2004Yesterday was perfect.Slav and I woke up around 8AM to get ready for his senior photo shoot at 9AM. With mother and father out of the house, the preparation was relatively calm and involved minimal fussing and arguing. Slav slipped on his awesome pink shirt, gave his hair an ickle tussle, and we were off. Seven minutes later we were inside Long Reach HS. I followed Slav around three photo stations, intervening every couple of minutes to alter his hair. I predict the best photo will be of Slav in a purple cap&gown, as his lax-player hair curled out from under the cap gloriously. After the photos, I felt, for some reason, that a celebration was in order. Plus, OPP was on the radio, which made both of us extremely happy. I wanted to blow about $10 on something not completely useless, but not permanent. And I was in the mood for food. We hopped into our friendly neighborhood Giant and bought a loaf of sourdough, a bottle of Dr. Pepper, a dozen doughnuts, a raspberry danish, and a butter croissant for $9.99.
We came home, settled into the couch, and devoured two doughnuts each along with two episodes of Family Guy. When father came home, we received a disparaging look and promptly took 2hr+ naps in each other's rooms. Slav's pillow is awesome. Nikka and I spent all day on the phone planned to do something tonight. With each phone call, the plan morphed into something completely new: the Usher & Kanye West concert in Baltimore, a showing of The Producers, an evening of shopping and dining in Georgetown, a showing of The Notebook at a local cinema. In the end, she decided to accomplish something at home, so after our naps, Slav and I decided to hit up the pool. No Diggity, another fabulous song, was on the radio when we got in the car, making the two of us extremely happy for the second time in one day. The air was cool, and a small wind didn't help, but man was it gorgeous. After half an hour the sky was completely clear of clouds, save for a few fading ones on the fringes. Slav revved up the discman for some music, while I played some more logic games in preparation for the LSAT. After a couple minutes, I became too relaxed to concentrate. I closed the book, dragged a long lawn chair into the sun, and reclined.
Eventually I moved to the concrete sidewalk around the pool to be closer to the water. With grass and trees all around, impressively clear water in front of me, and warm sunlight on my back, I thought I couldn't be happier. When Slav came over to sit by me, I realized I was wrong. We had a small chat about our plans for our respective senior years and decided that they would, indeed, be ridiculously awesome. We also remembered that in one week, we will be on a plane to Hawaii.
Just before we left, I dove off the diving board into the water. I think I haven't used that diving board for... 3 years now? (I'll check with Slav, ha.) It was surprisingly warm. I crossed a couples lanes into the main pool and did a couple handstands & falls on my way out. (I don't think I've done that recently either.) I hopped out, Slav threw me a towel, and I shivered over to the changing room. After I changed we hopped in the car, picked up rented movies at our house, and drove to Blockbuster.
Last week, Slav spotted the box for a movie called Mutant Aliens with stills of stellar animation on the back. He knew it was imperative for us to watch it before our trip to Hawaii. Sadly, there were no copies again. Instead, we rented Spirited Away and Spawn (with the help of the Movie Pass which is responsible for the ridiculous and awesome amount of movies I have seen this summer.) We later found out that the Spawn we rented was not the animated version. (Why doesn't Blockbuster have an "Animated" section? Slav says, "A better question: Why don't they have The Maxx?") On the way home, I noticed the sun was setting, it had gotten colder, and leaves were already starting to fall off trees. I remembered driving around (or being driven around, ha) a lot during my middle and high school years. Ballet class, Pom practice, football games, dances, Jackie's house... I vividly remember coming home after school on many autumn days and being amazed at how beautiful and quiet it was around my house. When we got home, it looked and felt just like one of those autumn days, and I realized that although I love being at home during the summer, I really miss being at home in the fall. The trees, leaves, and raking, waking up to a cold morning, doing homework outside, taking a walk around the lake, trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, playing piano while my parents made dinner in the kitchen... hoo-boy. Good Times.
We fired up the curly fries, some pizza bagels, a small steak, doughuts, and watched Spirited Away. Before the movie, Slav told me he knew exactly which parts I would love, and he was dead on: the boss of the bath house turning into a bird for her flight, the soot balls, and the squishing (especially self-squishing haha) of the soot balls. I was also happy that the movie didn't take the time to explain everything. We, like the main character, just happened to pop into the strange, magical world, and that was that.
Thanks to Slav for a fantastic movie and a totally awesome day. He says we are supposed to have as awesome a day today. It might be hard to pull off :D.
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