Excited!!!

Tomorrow, my two cousins, who are here to visit from Anchorage, Alaska, my sister, and I are going into New York BY OURSELVES. This is a big deal. I've always been the last kid to be allowed to do anything.

Here's the plan: bus from my town at 11-ish, arrive at Port Authority at noon. WE're going to get lunch at Metro Marche, which is literally part of the bus terminal (it doesn't open to it, though.). At two, we're seeing RENT!!! I've wanted to see it for years, but my super-conservative mom doesn't approve. Since the show closes in September, though, I forced her to buy us tickets.

I am SO excited.

I'm still shaking.

I got an 800.

The End of Sophomore Year.

School ended yesterday, thank god.

Sophomore year was pretty rough. As my mom put it, I completely lost at the teacher lottery. In my favorite subject, history, I had a teacher that I completely hated. He didn't even try to prepare us for the common assessments we had to take, and he's a complete jerk. His goal seemed to be to showcase his masculinity as much as possible. He didn't care about us at all. If I went in with a question, he would often brush me off, saying that he had an email to send or something to grade. I feel like if there were some extenuating circumstance beyond everyone's control that made us do poorly on a test, he would let us all fail. He wouldn't let us retake it or give us extra time or anything like that.

And then I had a bunch of really really boring teachers that made me fall asleep. In some of their classes, I could fall asleep and do perfectly well on the tests and quizzes.

My lit teacher was crazy. Seriously crazy. I don't think I ever saw her frown. That terrified me.

Plus, I had to adjust this year to actually having to study. Even freshman year, I could breeze through most subjects. But this year I really had to sit down and work, especially in math and chem. And history, since I never actually got taught any of the material.

So, let's hope that junior year will be better.

The Great College Search

Today we had a half-day at school, so Dad picked me up at 11:35 and we went to visit Vassar College up in Poughkeepsie. I didn't expect much going in, since it didn't meet two of my criteria. I'm not looking for a liberal arts school AT ALL, and I want a school that is in an area where there's stuff going on. I love being in or near a city.

So here's my list of thoughts:

Pro:

• The campus is pretty, pretty, pretty. I LOVE the campus.
• Academic freedom. I really want to have the time to take a random class that I just feel like taking. Vassar doesn't have a core curriculum and their majors aren't too intense.
• 98% of kids live on campus, and there's no Greek system.
  
• It's a good school. Enough said.

Con:

• It's a liberal arts school. Therefore, I can't get a B.S. if I decide to do a double major in Chemistry.
• It's a little too artsy for me. I'm an engineering kid. I need people who are really down-to-earth around me.
• Poughkeepsie is only pretending to be a city. Seriously. It has a population of 30,000. The town I currently live in--which is technically called a "village"--has 29,000 people.
  
• $$$. My parents say that they'll pay for college, but I don't really want to burden them with the costs of a school I don't like that much.
• Seems very insular.
• Too many women. By the time I leave for college, I will have spent four years in a program with seven girls and 28 guys. I'm too used to being in a male-dominated program to switch to a place with majority females.

And now, the question my dad asks me after each college visit: If I had to choose now, where would I want to go. At this point, definitely Lafayette. (We haven't yet visited the schools that, based on stats alone, would fit the best). They have the programs I want and their campus is pretty and they have an AWESOME government and law library. In the hallway outside, there's a portrait of John Marshall. It's sooo cool.

So far we've been choosing colleges to visit based on convenience. But this summer, we won't have to worry as much about staying within a day trip length. My dad has compiled a stpreadsheet with all the SAT scores and stuff of a bunch of schools. WE're estimating that my scores will be around 2100-2200, but if a school doesn't use writing, then I'll have a better chance, because the writing was my weakest section.

The other colleges I've looked at so far:

• Williams: Remember the part where I said that I want a good location. Well, in the middle of a giant forest doesn't count. If they were actually part of civilization, though, they would be on my list.
• Lehigh: Too many hills. Sorry.

I've also been on the campuses (but not taken tours) of Seton Hall, William Paterson, GW, and Fairleigh Dickinson.Three of the four are not even being considered. One of the criteria that my parents don't approve of is my desire to be at least an hour and a half, two hours away. I don't want to be visited.

Next schools to look at:

• Georgetown
• Boston College
• Brandeis
• Duke
• University of Virginia
• UPenn
• Amherst
• UChicago
• Columbia
• NYU
• Brown
• Dartmouth
  

And, I must admit, some more schools that don't interest me in the least.

Any other suggestions?

I am such a nerd.

The visitor trending graph on my Analytics account looks like a parabola. My first thought: I wonder what its equation is..."

Countdown

Two days left of sophomore year.

Four days until SAT scores come out.

Five or six days until my cousins come back from their college tours.

Eight days until I set foot in Yankee Stadium for the last time.

Twenty days until I leave for vacation.

Sixty-four days until official tennis practice starts.

One hundred five days until the beginning of junior year.

Life is very depressing when you think in terms of a countdown. I don't recommend it.

A Baby.

Don't worry, I'm not pregnant. (And if I were, do you think I would be allowed onto the Internet? I think not.)

My favorite teacher this year had a baby in August (I think...). Since she's the best teacher EVER, my friend and I are going to buy her something together. (Well, he might not if she doesn't give him an A, but then I'll do it by myself) Oh, and her baby's first name is my middle name! And since I love my middle name, I think that's awesome.

My dad said that restaurant gift cards are pretty much out because we would have to spend more money than we have. So we thought we could get something for her baby.

The choices are clothes or toys...what could we pick? I LOVE the idea of buying clothes, because baby clothes (especially baby girl clothes) are SO adorable, but that could be difficult just because of sizing. I don't even know how old the baby is, exactly. I'd rather not create stress for my teacher by forcing her to have to return stuff.

Toys are hard because a lot of them are a lot of $$$. Plus, what if the baby doesn't like it? That would kind of suck.

What do you think? Toys or clothes? And if I bought clothes, what size should I get?

You just made my day.

I can't decide whether I love or hate that one comment on gchat can make me feel better about myself:

Friend: being in the same situation as the great postscript makes me feel better

me: the "great" postscript?

Friend: come on, you got a 4.0 last year

that was darn impressive

me: you mean the overworked, overtired, burnt-out kid?

Friend:: you don't even want to know what my GPA was last year

absolutely hideous

me: who reads books about the supreme court FOR FUN??

you don't want to be me lol

Friend: the great postscript lol*

Thank you for cheering me up for my "omg I might have TWO A-minuses" mood.

Other good news that came today: my math teacher rounds up!!

________
*After this, he said that he plans to live in the bookstore of his summer program's university and read econ books all summer. I love the nerdiness of my school. It makes me feel normal.