Is Anyone Sitting There?

Philip and I went to prom earlier this week, as Philip mentioned in his earlier post. I was a little nervous about going to prom—being only a sophomore, I hardly knew anyone there. Even worse, I half knew a lot of people in that awkward "you're in my photo class but I've never talked to you before" kind of way. So it was just a stew of awkwardness at first. Possibly one of the worst set ups was the tables—the prom was held in a giant ballroom with lots of tables in the middle, circular tables with ten chairs each. I guess if you're going to arrange tables this is the way to do it—there was certainly no way to have everyone sit at the same table. But it made for an awkward time of trying to find the people one knows and gather around the same table.

Philip and I wandered around, looking for a friend of his we had seen earlier, but to no avail. We couldn't find her anywhere! We wove in and out of tables, like vultures circling over prey. We got some weird stares. I felt more than a little awkward. "Maybe we can find some other person to sit with?" I ventured, after our third round of hovering and circling tables. Philip agreed, and soon we spotted another one of his friends, a tall curly haired boy. We attempted to greet him and follow him to his table, only to lose track of him. Shoot! "How did we lose him?" I asked Philip. "He's really tall and distinct." Philip had no clue either, but it was back to table hunting for the moment.

We eventually spotted a table with two open seats left that was populated by a group Philip was familiar with. So we sat down and started talking, when the person next to Philip said, "I think these seats are saved for ___ and ___" (I don't remember their names at all.) And it was back to table searching again!

By that time all I wanted to do was find some table that wasn't going to mind if we sat down there, regardless of how friendly we were with them. Anything but the awkward table circling rounds that we were making would be wonderful. Finally, Philip spotted another table, with several open spots. "Can we sit here?" He asked. "If you can find a chair!" They responded, and we noticed that another table had stolen some of the chairs and silverware from our table so that they could fit more than ten people at their table. Well, I thought, one brief moment of awkward chair stealing would be better than more circling, so I stole the chair from another table, and the silverware, too. Success! This would be our refuge from the dance floor and everything else for the rest of the night. We sat down and that ended the long loops of awkward table searching.


Sachi

Anti-logic

This morning Marianne was exhausted. While she was lying on the couch, perhaps not completely conscious, while I was reading, we had this conversation multiple times:

Her: Stop reading that book!
Me: Do you want to read it?
Her: No.
Me: Than why can't I read it?
Her: Because you need to sleep.
Me: Why do I need to sleep?
Her: Because I'm really tired.

Marianne, who later said the only part of that she remembered was not understanding why I kept asking her if she wanted to read the book, asked me to post this. :P

-Rebecca

Boston and Math: No End to Excitement

Today my grade took a field trip to Boston. The idea was that we would walk around Copley Square and do math problems relating to what we saw in a sort of scavenger hunt-like manner.

One of the math problems had to do with Starbucks. Because we knew we wouldn't all fit in there, our group leader sent two or three people to find the numbers. As they looked around, we waited outside.

Soon a man walked up to us and began to speak. "When you get back on my bus, tell the person wearing that Obama shirt so proudly that it's not okay to make jokes about special education and special olympics. I don't like that. It's not okay on my bus."

One of my group members cut the man off. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean," she said.

"Jay Leno hosted the tonight show for seventeen years! He didn't even get fired, because it's not okay to make fun of special education. If Jay Leno sat down with a special ed kid for one day, just one day, what do you think would have happened? It's not okay!"

The girl spoke again. "Excuse me, sir, are you our bus driver?"

"No, I just saw this boy . . ."

"Well I still like Obama."

"Don't get all caught up in the glory. That boy wearing an Obama shirt better know this. When he gets on your bus . . ."

This time my group leader spoke up. "There's another school here. I don't think he was on our bus." That was enough to divert the strange man.

Later, we were going in an elevator in the Prudential building. There was a sign: "Capacity: 4000 lbs." Someone had scratched off parts of the four, so it said: "Capacity: 1000 lbs."

The eleven people in my group crammed into the small elevator. When everybody was in, the group leader pushed the second floor button and the elevator began to emit a high pitched beeping noise. The door didn't close.

Around this time I noticed the sign. If each person in our group weighed 100 pounds (which is a low estimate), than we would be exceeding the capacity.

The elevator continued to screech, so I pointed out the sign and said to everyone: "Some of us have to leave. We're too heavy for the capacity!" I stepped out of the elevator, expecting others to follow.

Just then, the elevator doors closed. I could faintly hear the laughing of my group members and a long, drawn out "WAIT!" from our group leader.

--Marianne

Saying Hello to Simon

On Monday, as you may or may not know, Sachi and I went to the prom together. It was very nice, but of course, we managed to stumble upon some awkward situations. Sachi is going to tell some stories, but I was delegated to tell this one (because I was the main subject of the awkwardness).

We had by this time already managed to find a table at which to sit (this was not an easy task, I assure you--Sachi will get into more detail about that) and we walked towards the line to get our buffet dinner. I thought I ought to say hello to Simon, who I saw near the buffet area, and since Sachi apparently knew him also from orchestra, I thought it would be nice to have a brief salutation.

So I was about to walk up to him and say hello, when someone else nearby went and started talking to him. The trouble was, whenever I tried to get a chance to say hello, something else would catch his attention, and he would be looking away. At one point, Gabe commented on the fact that he had tied his own bow-tie or something like that. "Is it crooked?" he asked, and I, still trying to catch his attention, said, "maybe slightly." But instead of catching his attention, I ended up with him briefly saying, "I can fix it in the bathroom," and then wandering off.

As we were getting on line for the food, I tried one last time. Looking up at him (for he is quite tall) from a strange angle, I said, "Hello." I'm not sure if he noticed, but I immediately regretted my intrusion. Sachi looked at me, smirking. "Well, that was a failure. Now I suppose I have to run far away and hide," I commented embarrassedly.

Later in the evening, when the dancing was taking place, I came across Simon once more. This time I was not trying to start a conversation or anything; I was just dancing. But Simon was dancing especially violently, and his long, pointy elbows kept hitting me. I tried to move out of the way, but I think somehow Sachi got into the position I had been in before. Whatever happened, Sachi soon said to me, "I've had enough jabs from his elbows," and we moved farther away.

-Philip

We're not in Japan . . or are we?

I have Swine Flu.

Well, It's probably not actually Swine Flu, but rather a different strain, although I did have a flu shot so I don't know. Anyway, the doctor perscribed Tamiflu for us - I get a normal dose, and Philip and Rebecca get preventive doses so that they don't get it in time for Philip's graduation and my Bat Mitzvah.

Philip decided to do some internet research (I don't know why he wanted to so much, but he had already looked up flu symptoms and whatnot)and looked up Tamiflu. Soon he rushed into the TV room, laughing a little.

"Aparently Tamiflu has been known to cause hallucinations. And people jump off balconeys because of Tamiflu and run in front of cars."

I was horrified. Three fifths of our family was now on a drug that made people suicidal!

"But mainly in Japan," he added.

Rebecca and I exchanged glances. "What does that mean?" she asked.

Now Philip really began to laugh. "95% of all of these cases were in Japan," he explained.

We burst out laughing. "So we don't have to worry about it, I guess, because we're not in Japan," one of us mentioned."

I butt in: "Unless we really are in Japan, and we're just hallucinating that we're here."

-Marianne

Is this a practical joke!?

I walk into the TV room, 2 sheets of paper stuck to a pink stapler in my right hand.

"Is this a practical joke?" I yell.

My sister Marianne looks at me strangely. "What? What happened?"

"Okay, look at this stapler. Something or someone removed the little metal thing that bends the staple into it's bent shape. The staple went right through the plastic of the stapler. This paper is stapled to the stapler!!"

As I'm pulling the staple out of the stapler in order to free my chemistry homework, Marianne admits, "that was a practical joke, but not an intentional one. The metal thing fell off while I was using it, and I didn't bother to put it back on. You should go look for it."

So I go look for it, and after a few seconds give up in favor of continuing my homework.

Returning to the other room, I tell Marianne, "I couldn't find it, so I made a temporary solution. I put a piece of paper on the stapler that says "DO NOT USE."

"Aww, you should've left it," says Marianne with a smile.

-Rebecca