I've been helping to plan a GSA convention for kids in the St. Louis area for the past several months, and the convention was held last Saturday. About 200 kids showed up. I achieved one of my life goals at the convention - to meet a transgendered person. I've just always been interested in trans people but never actually met someone who is. Amazingly enough, I met a M2F woman from the St. Louis Gender Foundation who volunteered to speak at my GSA!

You're reading the journal of one of USC's newest line of trustee scholars - I'll receive full tuition at the University of Southern California in LA for four years. =]

...for telling me three weeks ago that I was a semifinalist for your scholarship, then notifying me today that you're rescinding your offer. Really, telling me in an email the day I was supposed to have a phone interview with you that you realized you didn't have enough money to fund all of the applications you accepted was much better than giving me the news a month ago before I got my hopes up.

Is anyone else on here a victim?

LA was freaking amazing. USC was unbelievable. The interview was successful, in my opinion; but I guess you never know with these sorts of things.

So first of all, USC: it's the most gorgeous campus I've ever seen. Palm leaves flutter in the breeze over grass as soft as carpet, and majestic stone building creep up above the trees. Everyone I met was kind, intelligent, and unique. Gay pride banners adorned every lamppost on campus in preparation for their Pride Week; I was so amazed that they could DO that without people throwing bitch-fits all over the place. So refreshing.

20 minutes will determine the rest of my life.

Next Friday I will be in LA, interviewing at USC for a full-tuition scholarship. This is what I've always dreamed of - here's my chance to study screenwriting at USC, the best film school in the world, and fulfill my dream of becoming a great screenwriter.

Swimming Lessons

the lake’s one grey-headed daily attendee
still brings bread crumbs in a chewing tobacco bag.
his massive spectacles droop and wither on his nose.
and one can often hear him muttering
about the morality of the Eisenhower years
to mallards kneeling, slick and wet, on the bank for crumbs,
genuflecting before this rock of the ages
wearing two different socks.

(Yay for Death Cab for Cutie allusions.)

Wow, a new year; a fresh start. Maybe. This year has been a never-ending assault of trials and tribulations, and I don't know if I'm ready yet to completely leave them - and 2008 - completely behind.

It's been a long time since I've written an entry that hasn't been poetry/tidbits. I think I'm due.

Alley Cat

sometimes it still happens, even now.
usually it’s somewhere around midnight,
when only alley cats, groping for a spot of milk,
stalk the silence of asphalt beneath the stars,
and the padding of their sliced-up paws
is a whisper outside my bedroom window.
when my heavy yet sleepless eyes
see them weaving among the parade of
neighborhood garbage cans,

MIA's Paper Planes is playing nonstop for me right now.

I'm nominated for homecoming king. Exciting, no? If my lesbian friend and I both win queen and king, we're going to turn homecoming...

...into homocoming. Bwa haha.

P.S.
Isn't Sarah Palin fucked up?!

...AP Biology. And it was the best decision of my life. =] Some things just aren't worth it, you know? I'd rather be happy and somewhat slacking than miserable and "ahead of the game"--whatever that means.

I think I'm going to go back to focusing on English and its subsidiaries, reading and writing. That shit I actually ENJOY. =]=]=]=]=]

...are utterly ridiculous. Thank you.

The Willow

[This should be pretty relatable for everyone going through HISS (homework induced stress syndrome).]

Wheel

i am a wheel, i go around
and around around and around around and around.
crooked grooves run down my black body
like cattle brands or bar codes;
men with greasy hands tell me i’m efficient,
i’m sorry, but i’m just ugly.

have you ever showered in oil?