black sheep and chickens

so yesterday for the first time since december 31st i actually got dressed and got out of the house.

and went to school.

not for class, though. school is back in session, but my first day isn't until january 24th, which now that i think of it is the day right after pat goes back to california. he's coming on the 17th - less than 2 weeks away! i can't believe it.

ANYWAY. the reason i went to school was so i could sign up to talk to a counselor about my schedule. i had my fingers crossed that i'd be able to see her today even though the chances of that are one in a million, but of course it didn't work out.

oh yeah, and i parked by the tennis courts and was hurrying towards the building because holy shit what was i thinking when i decided to wear a skirt today when i heard something. i looked up and 2 kids up on the 3rd floor were pounding on the window and waving at me trying to get my attention. nobody i knew, so i ignored them. then they started hitting the window even harder and i couldn't help but smile a little because it was like, welcome back to s!bley, kate. sarcasm.

long story short, i stuck around for awhile. at one point jackie and i cut through the cafeteria, where we were going isn't important, past table after table after table, and nobody said anything to me, but i could feel their eyes on me. i could hear them thinking, "hey, is that kate?" or, "don't i know that girl?"

later matt was calling this kid i'd never met before cuban even though he's not. and then matt and jackie were having a conversation about... god, i don't even know. killing babies and eating them, i think. and i didn't do a good job of hiding the look of horror from my face. i never do. and i said, "people in japan don't talk like that."

and jackie said, "people here don't either."

i talked to my japanese teacher, who is japanese, for 2 hours about anything and everything. in japanese, of course.

as i told pat once, half the fun in being fluent in japanese is the bragging rights. there were 4 or 5 japanese students staying after school studying for japan bowl and all hell broke loose when i started speaking japanese fluently. i didn't really pay attention though.

david said, "she [sensei] speaks to you in japanese, and not only do you understand her, but you respond! in japanese!"

well, i'm glad they think it's cool, because for me it's a huge turn-off to see a white person speak japanese. don't ask me why.

working backwards... di had a new year's eve party at her house on the 31st. her parents were out of town, vacationing in mexico. di's brother matt and his wife were supposed to come check on us but they never did because they had "better things to do." but even though we had the perfect opportunity to do so there wasn't any drinking, or anything illegal for that matter, except for whatever jackie and carl did in the bathroom because jackie is still a minor.

there wasn't anything planned for the night, so everyone pretty much did whatever they wanted, and i took pictures of them doing it.

i'm not quite sure what's going on here. steph (bottom) was on the phone with her dad, probably asking if she could spend the night at di's, when jackie, carl, and resa jumped on, in that order.

okay, so. jackie and carl were talking and for some reason i was listening in, and i don't remember how it came up but someone got the bright idea of drawing a black sheep on carl's ass. jackie said, "would you really let me do it?"

and carl said, "yeah!"

and i said, "can i watch?"

and then the 3 of us ran into the kitchen to find a permanent marker and then made a beeline for the bathroom. after carl had dropped his pants he said over his shoulder, "kate, you're the last person i thought would ever see my ass," and i said, "yeah." that could've been before or after i took his picture, i don't know.

i have another picture of a close-up of carl's ass after jackie was done, but i won't post it unless i get permission from jackie or carl. in case you were wondering, on his left ass cheek was a black sheep and on his right was "BAA HOT SEXXX."

this is why i don't drink.

this is a picture of di drinking sparkling grape juice right before midnight. you can see james in the background, also drinking sparkling grape juice. it's hard to see in the picture but di's wine glass, a present from jackie, is about the size of her face.

i just liked the contrast of red and green.

this is pretty self-explanatory, just one of jackie trying to tune a wine glass. carl is on her right and judging by his reflection in the window behind him i don't think he's wearing a shirt.

with pat 2 timezones away in california i had no one to kiss when the ball dropped, so i convinced di and jackie to do a 3-way kiss with me at midnight instead. i'm in the middle.

20 seconds before the ball dropped steph was trying to get her cellphone ready to take the picture and i was trying to get someone, anyone to take a picture with my phone, and jackie was having second thoughts because she wanted to kiss carl first, and it was chaos, but somehow it worked out okay.

ditto. this time i'm in the lower left-hand corner.

not pictured: matt and feeney glued to the computer all night, me playing doubledash with di, and people making out left and right and me not being able to help feeling a little jealous.

i went home early that night, around 1, even though the other girls (and feeney) were sleeping over at di's. i was catching a cold and didn't want it to snowball like my mom's had. but instead of getting to bed early i called pat after he got off work and we talked until 7 a.m., when his phone ran out of batteries. i woke up at 4 in the afternoon and felt like shit, but it was worth it. pat and i used to talk on the phone for hours all the time before i left for japan, but since i've gotten back it's like he never has enough time. well, he does, just not during the day.

and now it's 2005, the year i've been hearing about since i was 5. i remember getting "the smoke-free class of 2005" t-shirts in kindergarten and years later there were girls who bragged that they could still fit into theirs.

it's the year of the chicken according to the chinese zodiac calendar and i've always liked chickens. since i met pat, at least. so goodbye 2004, and happy new year!

p.s. today is de-lurking day (and so is tomorrow, because i posted this kind of late) - "a special day celebrating lurkers, and exhorting you to muster the strength and bravery to click on that comment button and end the deafening silence." so come on, leave a comment.

p.p.s. japan entry next time, i promise.