blog.big-woop.com

I almost killed somebody.

Coming home from dropping off my girlfriend at her house in Almost Woodbury, I took 35 to St. Clair. About 1:30 in the morning, there was little traffic on the road. I didn't encounter another car on St. Clair until after I had crossed Ayd Mill, which is where a (presumably) drunken man darted in front of my car, which was headed west at about 37 miles per hour. I swerved into oncoming traffic, then whipped back into the right lane, avoiding as narrowly as humanly possible a head-on collision with the Oldsmobile headed east. When I came to a stop at the light at Hamline, I fully realized what had just happened. From there, my (15-20 miles per hour) trip home was a blur. I began hyperventilating around Pascal Street and nearly passed out. I didn't notice how bad it was getting (or how slowly I was driving) until I had passed Prior. I threw it into park in front of Groveland Elementary and vomited on the boulevard. I was, to say the least, a fucking mess.

Other than that, my day was a fucking brilliant one. It was the last day of school. At 2:00 the entire class walked out together. It was pretty amazing. I think I might miss (parts of) it. We'll see.

Afterwards, John and I drove off to Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, honking the horn and just going nuts in general. We went to Erin's, where we grilled and laughed and signed yearbooks.

Joe and Geoff came over. We watched X-Men. Anna and David came over. We went to Eclipse to see Look Down play. Radical Decadence opened. They stole the show. Charlie and Geoff came back to my house with us afterward. We had rented Final Destination, for the end of which we were joined by Nick, Devin, Lily, Joe, Max and someone else, whom I can't remember.

The near killing of some anonymous drunkard occured on my way back home to see Femme Fatale with Geoff and Charlie. It took my mind off the near miss, because for most of the film I was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

I'm glad I didn't kill anybody.

Peace.
-Todd

Bad day.

I woke up just before 10:00 AM. Good, right? No. Bad. My alarm was set for 8:05, but because of some electrical oddity, which I attribute to those goddamned Van Allen Radiation Belts, there was a power outage, resetting my alarm clock, causing me to -involuntarily- sleep in well past my second hour, a class whose last three instances I was attempting to attend. Arriving with just over ten minutes left of third hour, I learned that the work I had been doing of late in my graphic arts class will prove fruitless, perhaps dropping my grade to below that with which I can bring myself to be pleased.

You:	Hey, Todd, isn't your graphic arts class an unneccessary elective?
Me:	Yes.
You:	Then why do you even care what...
Me:	Shut up.
You:	But if you're just...
Me:	I said shut up.

It's all my fault. I have 31 absences in the class (at last count). What concerns me, though, is whether or not Grinnell frowns upon this.

You:	I've never heard of a college not honoring acceptance because of a poor grade in an unneccessary elective.
Me:	So?
You:	I'm just saying, there's only slightest possibility...
Me:	Oh... God...
You:	Don't worry. You'd definitely be the first...
Me:	Oh, fuck! I'm going to be the first!

...but I've fooled my instructor into thinking that I have a sense of humor, which I believe he likes, and because I know how messed up the school is, I may just squeak by.

Actually, that wasn't as bad a day as I thought. Big deal. Except I was up until 4:00 in the morning last night. That was the capper. It kind of made everything slightly more irritating and unnaturally hard to deal with, like speaking. At one point today, someone may have overheard me saying "Sagguhmuh'earback?" only to correct myself, louder, "Would you sign my yearbook? Please?" Wow.

Peace.
-Todd

My website is really, really boring. GodDAMN!

Geoff, Emily, Andy, Ben, John and I joined Tom at his place in the hot tub. We watched Insomniac and played Sega Genesis. We went to Villa Roma again (The late-night pizza place). We smoked cigars and sang karaoke.

Peace.
-Todd

I can't sleep.

No wonder, though: I'm graduating from high school in something like nine days. That means it's time for me to get nostalgic about the past four years, or even more than that, my life to date. I've spent a lot of the past week working on my graduation announcements, looking at pictures of myself when I was younger. I'm remembering things I hadn't ever thought about before, or at least hearing about them in stories and seeing them on videos and in pictures. I guess high school didn't jade me enough though, because now I'm feeling feelings. I'm excited. I'm happy. I'm sad. I'm terrified. All the makings of one big ball of indifference, really.

Tonight was Senior Honors Night. I got a golden rope, which means I'm graduating with a grade-point average above 4.0, a recognition for Drama Club and for Newspaper. My friends and I, clad chiefly in blue, celebrated by eating ice cream and playing pool. John and I found a pizza place open 'til three. There, John attempted to finish the crossword. I attempted to finish John's calzone. Only one of us succeeded. I did the Jumble upside-down and across the table, but still got the first four words immediately (CHAFFSWAMPFLIMSYBUBBLE). I toiled for a good ten minutes on the final puzzle, though (What the soldiers on KP considered the garbage).

A MESS "HAUL."
-Todd

It used to be that, when I stopped updating for a while, people would bitch me out and tell me to 'update my goddamned site.' It's good to know that now things are different. Now, they just give up and find something better to do. I also blame Jacob and his potty mouth for the lack of recent hits. He said, excuse me, repeated, something so vulgar and disgusting that people no longer feel comfortable reading, relaxed viewing, safe in the confines of, or welcome at my site. That, or maybe just because I fell off the trolley and am only now getting back on, almost a week later.

The SPIFF was on Friday night. It was pretty effing rad. More than eighty people showed up. Pretty amazing, seeing as every Film Society event prior, combined, totalled about half that much.

After the film festival I went to Perkin's, where I ordered a coke instead of a shake again, marvelled at Lucy's laugh, and ordered a Buffalo chicken sandwich. Said sandwich made me sick. Charlie, Geoff and I watched Road To Perdition at my house.

The Wild got clobbered. That sucks. A little.

The Twins are winning again. That's cool.

Today I went to Anna's in Stillwater. We didn't go canoeing. Not even briefly. I caught a fish, though. It was pretty cool, and only the second time I'd ever been fishing. I may have to do it more frequently. I realized later, that I used to be able to -but no longer can- find Cassiopeia in the stars at night.

Peace.
-Todd

Prom rocked.

...you know, like, my world. It was the best. We watched the Wild lose 1-0 in double overtime, then cooked our own dinner, got dressed, rained on and the hell out of there (in the Eclipse). We went to the dance, then came back home, changed, got ice cream (the best damned ice cream in the world) and went to Adam's. Pretty standard. But by the time we got back to my house after trying (unsuccessfully) to get Anna back to her's, the sun had come up and it was past six in the morning. I got to feel all gentlemanly because I let her take my bed while I slept on the couch. We got back to Anna's around one and got to hang out with real, honest-to-god activists. The kind that have been arrested. Multiple times. And with celebrities. Like Martin Sheen. See? It rocked.

...you know, like, my world.
-Todd

The Wild won. That's pretty unbelievable. Wow.

Peace.
-Todd

It's not blonde.

It's kind of brown.

And red.

...a little.

...but not blonde.

I kind of like it.

...a little.

...maybe.

Peace.
-Todd

I have an appointment at 2:30 (yesterday's tomorrow / now's today) to get my hair fixed. We'll see what happens. They said it might not work out so well. At that, I yanked at my collar.

It's going to be weird to have blonde hair again (at some point, if not after 2:30). I've gotten entirely used to it over the past two weeks. Anna says it looks normal to her now. I think she's just being nice. Hell, I can barely remember what it used to look like. I know it was blonde, but what kind of blonde?

I didn't go to school (now's yesterday / yesterday's today). Instead, I joined Joe at his house to watch Freddy Got Fingered. He joined me at mine to watch Requiem For A Dream. They're both fucked up movies, but for entirely different reasons. Needless to say, I don't ever want to (be a 28 year-old man living with my parents / do hard drugs).

I kind of wish I had made a really edgy art movie with my black hair, though. It'd've been called Joyless, and I'd've play the tormented heroin addict with an underground newsletter to which only my tormented heroin addict friends subscribe. Anna'd've played my muse, or something. It'd've been great. I'd've submitted it to the SPIFF.

Peace.
-Todd

Tartuffe was awesome. And not like surfer-speak. I mean in the strictly Oddyssey-esque 'something to behold' manner. It was about as brilliant as something could ever get. I was amazed by everything the production entailed. GodDAMN. And even though I'm glad to once again have free time, I am definitely going to miss it. Greatest experience. Ever. Seriously.

Prom is on Saturday, though.

Jeez! What am I going to do with all this free time?

Probably mess with this stupid website.

Peace.
-Todd

Opening night was effing rad. I'm too jazzed now to sleep, so I'm writing about it.

I got back just recently from Matt's house, where he, Tom, Joe, Ben and I watched Story of Ricky, which was a really effed-up, bloody movie.

My hair is still black, but at least my car is working again.

Tech week was less exhausting than usual, but still altogether exhausting, and I realized just now that, at the top of this post, I said, "I'm writing about [Tartuffe]," but then failed to bring it up again, really.

For lack of anything better to say, and rather than dwell on the lines I biffed (because that's the kind of thing that I do), I probably ought to leave it at "You need to see it yourself."

So if you haven't yet, there are still two shows left: Saturday at 7:00 and Sunday at 2:00. Central. Six bucks for adults. Four bucks for students. Mention this website and nothing will happen. Actually, something might happen, but I sincerely doubt it. Even so, it's worth a shot, right?

Wow. That was the failed-est joke I've ever made. I guess I am kind of tired.

Peace.
-Todd