Noodles on a Bike

I was feeling a bit ranty after that one.

I guess rice can do that to you.

But seirously.
That is sooo wrong.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother being a Democrat. Or if I even am a Democrat...

Rights group sues youth hall
That's the first thing you read on the front page of the Metro section in today's Sac Bee.

Well, I'm sitting there, happily eating my leftover tilapia and white rice and decide that instead of staring at the refridgerator I'll read this article.
And now I want to punch myself.

This rights group is suing Juvenile hall in Sac County because of neglect and abuse.
Okay, I think well, maybe, yeah. If they aren't getting enough to eat, aren't allowed to read, have to sleep on the floor, I can see this as neglect...
So I read on.

Okay.
They have food.
They have beds.
So, it's a little overcrowded, but hey, so are our schools! And they want money to go into reforming this place?!
I mean, c'mon, sure the food may not be great, but why don't we just stick the criminals in a third world country? Then they don't have any food!
These kids have a place to sleep, without jail maybe some would be sleeping on the streets! Without a mattress, without a pillow.
And yet, the rights group is complaining.

So the neglect.
Pepper spray, sometimes routinely for no apparent reason.
That's not nice, admittedly that should probably be stopped, but when they say no apparent reason, do we really know the exact background and what's happening here?
No.
And this thing called, "dipping" where gaurds twist the arms behind the teens back and push them to the ground.
Mkay. As far as I'm concerned this is a dominance excercise going a little to the extreme.
Sometimes you have to do that kind of thing with a dog that bites or growls at you.
Asserting dominance.
Kids need it too.

What's totally awesome about this article is how they refer to them as "teens," which is funny because they're in jail for a reason. They can be called criminals as far as I'm concerned.
Or how about "teens that have committed crimes terrible enough to get them into some sort of correctional facility"?
But no, just "teens." They even choose to use the quote, "Mommy, I tried to kill myself." for the top of the next page.
Jeez.

So, what's one of the reasons that this suit got started?
A mother who visited her son had her son tell her that he attempted sucide.
The mother wasn't told becaue the son wasn't successful.
HA!
WEll, firstly, yeah, this sounds pretty bad. THe kid tried to kill himself and the mother wasn't informed, but wait... what else do they say about this kid?
He has epilepsy and bi-polar disorder.
Well, I don't know much about those two conditions so I looked them up.
Epilepsy has to do with seizures, caused by brain injuries (can you say, dropped on your head when you were a baby!?), or family tendencies, and bi-polar disorder is a manic-depressive illness.

Okay, so the kid has some problems.
And he's sixteen.
And he's being tried as an adult.
Why?
Five felony charges including burglary, robbery and rape.
Yeah, that's exactly where I want my tax money to go. TO a kid who's raped someone, stolen from someone and robbed, I want him to have better beds and to not have to be shoved around by a few authority figures.
NOT.
I mean, what the fuck?
Rights groups are great, I mean, woman's sufferage, that's huge, but, spend more of state money on teenage criminals when at my high school there were nearly forty kids in a classroom for just one teacher?!

No.
For me, education of kids who didn't choose to fuck up their life is more important than fixing the kids who already messed up.
Maybe if the schools had more money in the first place they could better teach the kids how not to end up in jail.
TEACH THEM NOT TO RAPE.
TEACH THEM HOW ROBBERY IS WRONG.

It's nice to fix something that's broken, but I've got a better idea. Let's just make things stronger in the first place.
Then you won't have to fix something, because it won't be broken.

I'm sorry.

The best conclusion I can come to about my current actions and doings is that I'm afraid of responsibility.
I know I'm afraid of responsibility and this is not the correct way of handling it, but it's what I'm doing for now.
With all the college stuff and money issues arising I am being forced to make a lot of decisions that will actually affect me in the future.
So, in retailiation I'm choosing to not be completely responsible in my "social life."
Instead of making smart choices I'm making different choices, doing things that I wouldn't normally do.
Saying that I'll go places or call people and not. I don't mean to, but it's happening.
And I'm sorry that I'm not doing much to change it.
Hopefully I will be changing my habits so that people don't get hurt.
If I don't, I'm sorry. Know that I don't mean to hurt you, I'm just, an idiot.

Also, stress is easily coming into play upon learning that sucide rates are high among college freshman.
This doesn't really apply to me, but it makes me worried about my friends who are doing really hard college work.
And the fact that a bunch of my friends are gone. And that by the end of September, all of my friends that are scheduled to leave, will be gone.
And of course, the whole college experience. Yeah, I'm not going to a bunch of parties because I'm at home, with my parents, but my friends are out there, away from their parents, away from the old friends, making new friends and doing activities that they normally wouldn't do.

Frankly, I'm sick and tired of the alcohol and drugs.
I don't care how safe you think it is, I'm scared shitless.

Lastly, my worse point.
I'm seventeen.
Just seventeen.
I can't vote, I can't drive after midnight, I can't enlist in the army, I can't gamble.
I'm still a kid and as long as I can swing that point I will.

Sorry to those I've hurt, know that I still love you, I'm just going through a strange period in my life.

And it's really cute, with little rubber duckies and bubbles and waves.

But it's driving me crazy.
Why?

THERE'S NO SET PATTERN!
It's pyschotic! It seems to be okay, but if you look at it long enough it's completely and totally messed up!
No sense at all!

Gawd.


After hearing this my mother declared that I needed a job.
P-shaw.

The sprinklers go off at four in the morning.

Definently a minor detail to not forget.

Will include much blender time.


I'm getting my Wisdom teeth out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

That's okay though, the canned Cranberry sauce is my favorite.
I think I can eat that without using my teeth.

I've lost my mind.

I've been cleaning all day.
AGAIN.

My mother's calling me a housewife.


But I could definently win the Domestic Daughter award, at least, in this family.

... and awake by 12:30.

It's very important to get a solid twelve hours of sleep.

A quite fascinating essay topic.

I do love toasters.

Why the hell is he so popular?

What's all this jazz about him being a revolutionary?
I thought he was a mass murderer...

It's definently different.

I really really do.

... is that I've added anothoer class.

So my happy little noon until ten at night schedule exsists no more.
Instead I'll be doing a happy little eight in the morning until ten at night and traveling between two campuses schedule.

Oh well.
It's only on Monday and Wednesdays, and heck, I don't even go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Apparently my right eye is so bad they don't offer my perscription on 1800contacts.com like, when the numbers get high enough up they stop doing quater powers and just do half.

ERGH!

This can mean one of two things:
1) My doctor is a ninny and Acuvue 2 doesn't make my power
2) I have to order the contacts from my doctor, which means that they're going to cost a lot more.

The amount of classes I want to take...
Is much more than I'm going to able to do.

HAHHAHAAHAHAHAH.

Mkay. I may be at a JC for a while...
:P

Things happen quickly.

Change me to the girl who didn't know.


Stoopid.

... since I've written a poem. But I want to, again.
Gaaaah.





Love is Just a Four Letter Word


I've never done this before is
NOT
justification for what's happening.

Someone's hurt,
and it's
NOT
just me anymore.

What happened to me?
Me left to be replaced with she.
For what?

Nothing.

I’m still me,
DON’T
kid yourself.

You’re just a new me, she.

What you’ve done is
NOT
what you used to do.

You were good.
But he’s good.

But he
DOESN’T
think the same.

There’s no way he
CAN'T
know how me feels.

He knows what she feels,
NOT
what me feels.

He
DOESN’T
because you're a liar.

He
DOESN'T
feel what you feel.

He feels what she feels.

Nothing.

Liars lying together
DOESN'T
make things right.

Hope is just a four letter word.
Useless emotion.
Hope isn't changing lives.

What you're doing
DOESN'T
get you anywhere.

Whore.

The boy and she.
The boy who'd do anything.
The boy who doesn't even know.
The boy who already has a girl.

Four.

Useless.
You're useless, she's useless.
Not getting you anywhere.

Slut.

Love isn't real.

Romeo and Juliet are dead.
Dead.

Love
DIDN'T
save them.

Save yourself the trouble.
Kill she.
Save me.

1) Any sexual activity is secret. No public displays of affection. No air-kisses. No riding the moped in public.

2) Don't discuss your weight with him. Let's face it, you both know it's there, so don't start bemoaning your body and pressure him into lying, i.e., "What are you talking about? You don't look fat at all."

3) Go further than skinny girls. If you can't sell him on your body, you'd better overcompensate with sexual perks.

4)Never, ever, ever, ever, ever push the relationship thing. Everybody knows guys hate discussing relationships, so make it easy on him. Bottom line: Let him get the milk without having to buy the cow.

Hello Chicago!!!

Oh yeah, and California.

Exploded shoe store.


How the heck am I going to fit all these shoes into my suitcase???

That for reference sake, the elevator is the same size as the pizza boxes we brought home the other night.

Not in height of course.

But yeah, apparently they had to hold them over their heads in order to bring them up in the elevator.
LOL.

Nice slow day.

Mom and Gina spent the day at EuroDisney so the rest of us did, whatever we felt like.

So I called early in the morning and got a hair appointment at Toni&Guy.

Then my Aunt Chris, Cristen and I went shopping!

Good stuff good stuff.
Nothing too exciting really.

Until the hair dresser.
A male, and I have never had my hair cut by a male.
Especially not a semi-attractive male.
And he didn't speak English.
But it turned out good.
Super interesting though, they washed my hair and dryed it before cutting it.
Sort of pricey, but worth it!

We came home after shopping a little more.

Now, after lolling around for a while in the appartment we decided to go out for crepes.
Of course.
So my dad and sister get in the elevator and Aunt Chris and I start down the stairs.
Suddenly, we don't hear anything... Odd.
After reaching the bottom of the stairs I hear, "Erika? Can you hear me?"
Apparently the elevator was stopped.
Geeee, I wonder why the elevator would stop? Maybe is it because everytime my dad gets in he jumps up and down???
Yes. And I guess my sister decided to get in with the joke.
Greaaat, broken elevator.
So, we find a number and have dad call.
Of course! Dad has the only cell phone and the only keys to the appartment.
So he tries to call and doesn't have service.
Woohoo!
It was so much fun, standing outside, meeting the neighbors, getting many people to call and bug the company.
Ah, loverly.
I had fun at least, and the trapped seem to as well, they had iTunes and a camera to take pictures of themselves.

Eventually the guy from the company came and lowered the elevator enough for the trapped to escape.

Fun filled day finished with Fantastic Four.
I had so much fun.

I do love elevators, even if I'm never getting into one for as long as I live.
At least, not with my father.

Sorry I didn't get to this yesterday guys!!!

On Day Seventeen we went to Sacre-Coeur.
It's basically a really big church on the top of the highest point in Paris, also known as 425 feet above sea level.
Not very high in my book.

The roads up to Sacre Coeur are very interesting, being completely lined with a combination of clothing stores, souvenir shops and fabric stores.
The clothing stores were full of bargain bin prices that would definently rival Ross.
We're talking Converse knock-offs for one Euro.
An entire bin of stuff for only ten cents!!!

Needless to say two pairs of shoes were bought along with many pieces of jewelry and other such necessities.

At SC we went to the top of the tower, which is not that scary. It obviously has less tourists and less money than Notre Dame however and this is shown by the graffetti and lack of safety netting over walk-ways.
Cristen displayed this wonderfully by having me take a picture of her with her legs dangling off the tower.
Wonderful.

Anyways, we went down and the downwards sprial is much more difficult than the upwards due to the lack of light and improper ratio of height to width (like Pondo, ugh). After having a bit of a panic I made it down the stairs very safetly.

After the SC we tooled around Montmarte (something like that) a sqaure filled with artists and cute little cafés.
My dad bought a really nice picture of a dancer done by an African artist, I personally think it'll look great next to the Picasso.
(Haha)

Luckily once we got this wonderful painting the rain began.
We were able to wait it out in a café, luckily.

We made it back to the Metro and got home for dinner. Take out pizza (so wonderfully delicious) and salad.

It was a good day.

Story time!

So I'm sitting like a good little girl, on a bench watching a series of flashing images, bottles, noses, flowers and the like when my mother comes along and beckons me to follow her to her most favorite piece of art.

So I follow, expecting something completely silly because all morning my mother had been looking at canvases of black and white squares and commenting on her love of the use of color, and also making jokes about various (read: every single one) Baroque paintings by saying, "That looks Baroque, don't you think they'll fix it?"

We get to her favorite art and it's a shelf.
With trash on it.

(Note: I added the blue gum wrapper.)

This is obvious not really part of the museum, but my mother insists that it is and ooohs and aaaahs over it.
People come up and stare at it with her.

It was the most amazingly hilarious display I have ever seen to watch my mother stand there and say something about trash on a shelf every once in a while and watch people stand behind her in awe.
They wanted to see what she saw in it.
Wow some whispered.

:sigh: I do love modern art.


Anyways, Cristen and I decided to use one of the projectors as a finger puppet stage and we drew a crowd.
Totally awesome.


What a fun museum day!!!

This is the main palace from the bottom of the giant lawns:

Now, in my opinion, that's huge, waaay bigger than anyone needs for entertaining and living purposes.

But!
Sometimes all those parties and banquets get to be pretty tiring so you need a place to just, get away from it all:

Also gorgeous, while the interior decorating was... questionable.

But, you know what, even with a nice summer house to get away from it all you need even more time go get away.
You know, return to the simplicities in life:


Maan, it must have been tough to be king.

Eveyone slept in due to the fact that yesterday was huge and extremely tiring.

Had an awesome croissant for breakfast and some very yummy yogurt.
Yogurt theories include that perhaps it is full fat yogurt, something definently not sold in America.

Anyways we went to the Modern Art Museum today.
It's funny that we left it for last because it's about forty steps from our appartment.
Really cool building that sadly is having renovations.
So we only got to see the top floor and bottom floor, the bottom floor being two gift shops.

I must say, Modern Art is so freaking cool.
I was not as impressed with their collection as I was with the MOMA in SanFran, but they have an impressive media portion.

Firstly I thought that Modern Art could be defined as anything that when you look at it long enough you are confused enough to be tricked into actually thinking:


But then I realized what I should have been knowing all along.
All art is about exciting emotion. If something doesn't get your emotions up and going, it isn't art to you.
The modern art caused more excitment in me than the Mona Lisa, so, I do consider slapped on paint more art-ful than the carefully painted Mona.

I love that museum and wish I could have the kind of emotion it takes to create what they create.

For dinner we had our first French McDonald's, it tastes just like American McDonald's.
Only except you can buy beer on draft.
And steak fries.

Soooo not fair.

VERSAILLES

Firstly it's totally amazing.
And it was so nice to get out of the city.
I do love Paris, but after two and a half weeks the city chokes me.
I love my country side much too much.

This is over the top gorgeous.
Everything, perhaps a little too much gold for my taste, but if I lived there I could learn to accept it.
So beautiful.

While the palace is completely and totally over the top showy the garden is simply wonderful.
The fact that there were orginally 1500 fountains amazes me, Louis IVX re-routed an entire river to fuel his fountains.
They are spectacular.

I needed that grass so much and the bushes and dirt.
It felt amazing, and we ended up staying for twelve hours.
Stopping at another crepe restaurant for dinner before coming home, of course!

It was a glorious day and totally lifted my spirits.
I need that every now and again.

Note to future travelers:
DO NOT CHECK IN YOUR BAGS!
Another note:
GO TO THE BATHROOM BEFORE GOING.
There are about four on the entire bajillion and one acres.

But I am so tired tonight.

I will post today's doings tomorrow, promise.

Tomorrow, Modern Art!!!

"I've got AIDS!"

"What does that mean anyways? I don't get it."


Gina has now been added to the list of people who can make me laugh so hard that my nose does it's freaky little thing that it does.

1. Kelly
2. Courtney
3. Gina

THIS MUCH!!!

I felt sick this morning, couldn't eat anything.

I think homesickness might be taking a physical toll on my body.

Anyways, I slept in and then went to see the Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame.
This included fighting off crowds of crazed tourists and sitting through a bit of a ceremony.
Catholism looks sort of cult-ish.
But sweet and faithful none the less.
I got to kiss it.

Anyways, we went home, but not without stopping and getting a lemon and sugar crépe.
Also I found some great pens which I might be buying as presents.

Contemplated what to get for Katie, Emily and 'Cole as presents for their Birthdays, what do you guys want anyways???

And finally finished the day with Lebonise food. Very yummy.
Had my first falafel and thought of Bosnia Man.

Good day.
Tomorrow Versaille and the day after, the Modern Art Museum.
Woohoo!

-One you can talk to.
-One who can fix things.
-One you can dance with.
-One who can pay for things.
-One to have great sex with.

The good news is: All but one of them can be gay.

I owe it publicity.

As much as it made me laugh and as much as I have referenced it I owe to it a link.

You should read it, good readers of this blog (assuming there are any).

All three parts are hilarious.

All deserve reading.

Oh, and I even got my father to read some of it, and he doesn't even know the characters in real life and he still thought it was funny.
It must be good.

Go!
Bryan's FictionPress
www.fictionpress.net/~stellarlunaris

... the Crown of Thorns!!!

Yipee!

And for some reason there's still High School level drama.

we know that deep down, they are still the same friends they were before.

And we've always had hope for the future.



You don't throw away a life because it's a little beat up, you don't throw away a friendship because some little thing changed.

A good start to the day with a Chcolate Croissant.
You can't start a day better than that.

Today we went to Museé D'Orsay which houses the classics such as Degas, Rodin, Monet and Van Gough.

Very impressive collection, totally gorgeous works.

Gina had yet another melt down, it was all my fault.
yeaaaaah.

We made it home and went to Créperie Beaubourg.
SOOO GOOD!
I had an amazing ham, egg, cheese and mushroom crépe for dinner and then a Noir de Chocolat crépe for dessert.
Imagine the most delicious chocolate sauce in the world, with delicious chocolate powder and even more delicious chocolate crépes.
Geez it was orgasmic.

Plus it makes it so much better that I can not distinguish what chocolate maker it is. In the states I can almost always guess where the chocolate came from, but here, it's so foreign and yummy.

It's not even funny.

I feel like I'm going to throw up and I want to go home.
Seven more days.
An entire week before that sweet California air hits me and I get to see my friends again.
I miss it so much.

-Oui. Je t'aime.

-Combien de temps?

-Pour toujours.






:sigh:

The plan for today was climbing the stairs of Notre Dame and that is precisely what we did.

We climbed the 422 stairs, saw the awesome view and saw the bells.
We were also up there when the bells chimed for three PM.

But I'm begining to think either my family hates me or they want met to get over my fear of heights because we keep doing these high things.
I think Friday we're supposed to go to Sacré-Coeur.
AKA another tower in France that is high up.
AKA more stairs.

Jeeeez.

Anyways, the kids are at home filling out heads with Donald Duck cartoons because the parents went to Moulon Rouge.
I was invited but I would have had to pay for my ticket.
Ninety seven Euros.

So I'm at the appartment and feeling a bit homesick.

I miss you guys!

Tall.
Fit.
REDHEADS.

Yes, plural, why plural?
Because they were twins!!!

On had long curly hair and the other had shorter straight hair,
And they were both redheads!!!

OMG it was amazing.

There is a mere week left of our French vacation.

Today we climb Notre Dame!

"I'm going to go find the Sunflowers."

"Um Mom, I'm pretty sure that was Van Gough."

Well after waking up late we got to the Metro.
Upon stepping out of the Metro the rain began. And it came on quite hard.
So we went to a café and had ice cream and coffee.

When the rained slowed we made our way to Les Invalides where Napoleon's tomb is.
His tomb is HUGE. And of course there are a couple of other people burried there.
Plus we got to see rooms and rooms and rooms of armour.
Very very cool.

Then we went down a cute little street lined with various food shops and bought a picnic to eat on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower before that night's boat tour.
Got some great cheese and a bagette.
Wonderful.

Then we walked to the Bateaux-Mouches or something like that.
The boat ride was awesome.
We saw everything from a new perspective and got to view the Eiffel Tower lighting up from the river!

All in all a beautiful day.
Wonderful food.
And I am oddly happy.

Hello tomorrow, I'm going to go find cereal.

No pastry for breakfast today, I went with the Cocoa Puff cereal and milk that doesn't taste like California milk.
French cows probably aren't as happy as Californian cows.

First we went to the Picasso Museum.
Totally amazing. Picasso was most definently crazy though.
Extremely funny too.

We rounded up some grub and ate at a Park where Victor Hugo used to hang out.

Then we went to Bastille.
Bastille is not the fort, it is a little monument in the middle of a street.
It has been said that storming the Bastille was probably easier than crossing the street to get to the monument.
Going there and witnessing tourists attempting to cross the street confirms this saying.

We found a used DVD store that had some interesting looking Anime so I picked up two, most likely one for Anne and one for Emily.
You two will have to fight over them though, one is in English and looks really strange while the other is entirely in French and has really hott men.

We wandered around for a bit before discovering that we were completely and utterly lost.
No worries.
We got ourselves back onto the map without much trouble.

After that was a wonderful dinner and staying up late because we weren't leaving until late the next morning.