Brooke's Notes: July 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Harry Potter and The Fug Blog

I am very pumped about Harry Potter this week. My tickets for Wednesday are already purchased. To get ready, I have been watching loads of Potter on t.v. as a refresher. I am also loving the Fug's Blog coverage of HP fashion. Lovely Emma Watson gets most of the press, but that makes sense seeing as girls fashion is much more entertaining. Below is a Fug post from a few days ago. So funny! Also, Daniel Radcliffe is super short, who knew.

JULY 7, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Fug Prince

FUG FILE:

RUPERT GRINT: Dude. Apparently my getting swine flu brought with it a previously unpublicized side effect: I no longer show up to premieres looking like I just rolled out of bed! Now I wish I'd gotten it earlier!

J.K. ROWLING: I'm a gazillionaire. And this color looks great on me. AND I'm not working on a crazy deadline anymore. How awesome are things for me right now? Pretty awesome.

EMMA WATSON: I am ALSO pretty. Tonight is going SO WELL! What a relief!

DAN RADCLIFFE: Oh god. Am I....wearing a suit that closes with a TOGGLE?

RUPERT: I look charming and Dan's suit closes with a toggle! AT LAST RON WEASLEY COMES OUT ON TOP! Come on, everyone! How about a rousing round of "Weasley Is Our King!"

JO: I wonder who talked Dan into that toggle-closure. Was he Confunded in his dressing room? I mean, if that were real.

EMMA: Poor Dan. Someone's going to need to buy that boy a drink. He looks so alarmed. I told him not to go for the toggle. Why doesn't he listen to me? What HAPPENED with him?

DAN: What HAPPENED to me? Is there any way I can blame this on dark magic? Think, Radcliffe! THINK!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Are you there blog world? It's me, Brooke

I think that one of the most unoriginal things a person can say is that they were nerd in middle school/jr. high/high school. News flash, everyone goes through an awkward stage. While I try my best not to roll my eyes when someone says, "Trust me, I was a huge dork in high school," I do I love the stories that follow that line. Over dinner tonight, my friend and I shared some particularly horrible middle school memories. However, I have little sympathy for my friend because she rebounded early and went on to be a cheerleader and homecoming queen in high school. Her suffering was minimal at best. I thought it might be fun to share a dorky junior high story on the blog. Enjoy!

There is so much about my junior high school experience that is comical. I attended John H. Glenn Junior High 7th - 9th grade in San Angelo, TX. The school is now called John H. Glenn Middle School and serves students 6th - 8th grade. The fact that the school isn't named after a Texan or Southern Civil War hero is shocking. However, an astronaut is cool, so I guess the school district thought it was ok to break tradition. The school's space theme boldly goes where no school has gone before. Glenn was built in the 1960s, and San Angelo must have been experimenting with some crazy, new age ideas because the school is shaped like an actual spaceship. It is comprised of three round buildings that resemble the Star Trek Enterprise. I wish I had a good picture to show you, but the best I have this school map. It kind of shows what I am talking about. Also, the mascot: Space Raiders.

August 1994 was a busy time for my family. We were moving from San Angelo, TX to Phoenix, AZ. The move came at such at a terrible time. I spent the first few weeks of school at Glenn and then transferred to a new school in Phoenix. My parents mandatory trip to Phoenix to buy a new house fell during the first week of school in San Angelo. My older brother was starting 11th grade and able to fend for himself for a week. But the thought of getting a 12 year-old ready for her first day of junior high was a bit much. Also, my little sister was only going into the 4th grade. So, Becky and I went to stay with my best friend Jamie, who lived a few blocks over. Planning for the move and everything that entailed made my introduction to junior high a minor event for the family. Oh the woes of being a middle child :)

When I attended Glenn, the vast majority of students were in Athletics. General Physical Ed. was available, but really only weird kids were in PE. Becky and Jamie will back me up on this one. I may have been clueless socially, but I knew enough to know that it was much better to run laps in off season Athletics, than go slumming in PE.

My school required that all girls wear a uniform to Athletics. The uniform consisted of green shorts and a gray t-shirt that said "Glenn Girls Athletics" on the front, and on the back it had your first initial and last name. This shirt could only be purchased from a few stores in town. Well, the night before my parents were to leave for Phoenix and a few days before school started, I realized that I did not have the mandatory gym uniform. I panicked because 7th Grade Girls Athletics was 1st Period. We were required to come to school in our Athletics uniform, even on the first day of class. The thought of facing every girl in school wearing something different was unbearable. At first, when I notified my parents of the problem, my mother said that I would go without for the first week of school and when they returned, the gym uniform would be purchased. Well, I freaked out. Glenn had this crazy policy that if you didn't have the athletics uniform by the 3rd day of school, then you were forced to take PE. My parents did not return until the 2nd week of school, so social suicide loomed on the horizon. My parents were dubious of this policy and didn't see the big deal with being in PE instead of Althletics. After much whining, my father went to the store late at night to buy the goods.

Now readers, if you are ever in the situation where the father of your soon-to-be 13 year-old daughter is sent on a mission to buy her clothes, please give him VERY specific instructions. Sadly for me, my father received no such instructions. My fathered returned with 2 size XL shirts. At 12 years-old, I weighed about 90lbs sopping wet. My father wears an XL shirt. Why he thought that his much smaller daughter could fit into an XL shirt is beyond me. However, my father's error could not be corrected before they left town. It was humiliating walking into school the first day of class wearing a gym uniform two sizes too large. Well, my parents are practical people and they saw no point in buying me a new gym shirt because I attended Glenn for less than a month. When I went to Phoenix, I intentionally left those shirts in my gym locker.

Little did I know that a year later my father would be transferred back to San Angelo. When I returned to Glenn Girls Athletics, I made sure that my parents bought me gym shirts that fit. I never really forgot the 7th grade shirts because if a student forgot their uniform, then they had to borrow a discarded shirt. Well, my old XL shirts ended-up in the bucket of discarded uniforms. All of the discarded shirts were from girls who left their shirts behind when they moved, went onto high school, etc. You knew someone was wearing a discarded uniform because the name on the back of shirts was crossed-out with a permanent marker. Girls rarely wore my shirts because they were enormous.

I almost forgot about this entire disaster, but then I started high school. Somehow one of my old shirts made it's way into the wardrobe of a cool, senior boy. He thought it was ironic and funny to wear a Glenn Girls Athletics t-shirt. I am assuming he chose my shirt because it was big enough to fit him. Needless to say, my name was sprawled across the back of the shirt and this caused everyone to have a good laugh at my expense. Looking back, I think it's kind funny how those drama-filled shirts would just not go away.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

4th of July

Greetings from Long Island! I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. My weekend started off pretty perfect because Friday was a holiday :) My co-worker/friend Lindsye and I ventured into Manhattan for a little shopping. Since I have been to New York a number of times, I took the lead navigating our trip. Disaster. Why is it that when I am alone, I am able to accomplish amazingly difficult trips? But put me in charge of other people, and everything falls apart? Poor Lindsye. I was able to get us to Soho, but that was about it. Google led me astray with a wrong address, I got turned around after exiting the subway...nothing went right. Anyways, shopping was a success and lunch was very tasty (we ate at Jane on Houston Street - good food, mostly reasonable prices). I met up with my friend Melody after shopping. For personal growth, we went to the MOMA (free on Friday's from 4 to 8) and ate dinner at Rosa Mexicana.

The next day I took the train to Washington D.C. to celebrate the 4th of July with my parents and Becky and Troy. Guys, Amtrak is great! The seats are very comfortable and it is so nice not having to mess with TSA. I wish that Texas would invest a high speed rail service. I think that it would do really well. We went to the Mall to watch fireworks and the Capitol delivered. My family tried to get as close to the symphony as possible, but the only thing that we could hear were the cannons during the the 1812 Overture. Becky, Troy, and I took the Bolt Bus back to the city. While the bus was not as spacious as the train, the price was considerably cheaper, $24 vs. $72. Here are a few pics: