I woke up this morning and realized I have (slightly) less than two weeks left before I leave for Italy. Just... two weeks. I will be gone for about ten months. I know hardly any Italian. I only get to take 44 pounds of stuff in my suitcase. I'm just... I'm really not ready to leave yet. AND I HAVE SO MUCH CRAP TO DO. It's rather distressing, and I'm trying not to start panicking, but it's kind of easy when I'm reading my Italian workbook (yes, finally) and wondering why the hell they won't give me any grammar instruction even though they're making me read and write things, and I can understand most sentences but I have no idea how to go about constructing them, so WHY WON'T THEY GIVE ME GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION.

In other news, my mother got me a bag of apple chips, so that's pretty nice.

My parents came back Sunday night, at which point my mom and I watched the first LotR movie (extended edition) and I barely managed to stay awake for some reason. Monday I had piano (my second to last lesson) and then went over to Andrea's a last time. It would have been nice if her parents had hung around slightly less (or, maybe, a lot less) but what can you do. We watched Hellboy, Olympic diving, and Superbad. It was fun (and sad). Yesterday evening my mom, her coworker Dustin and I went out for dinner at Zao Noodle Bar and then went to see The Dark Knight in IMAX. Very top notch night, obviously. Also, I was thinking - you know the segment at the very beginning with the bank manager, where the Joker says "whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger," and then that gas comes out but then we just kind of leave and nothing huge happens? I really feel like that guy is going to come back (with a much bigger role) in the third movie. I mean... they just left him lying there, with one huge HINT HINT HINT sounding line... I dunno. Thoughts?

Going to try to get various things done today. We'll see how well I succeed.

~Ari

p/s.

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Ari
2. Ariana
3. Ar (as in, the letter R - my parents will call me this, not sure why, I guess two syllables are just too long for our fast paced modern lifestyle)

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Eyes
2. Teeth (I somehow got very straight teeth without ever needing braces)
3. Shoulders

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My tiny wrists vs. my gigantic hands
2. My spottiness
3. The unmanageability of my hair (I like have curly hair, don't get me wrong, I just wish it was more manageable)

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Snakes
2. Falling
3. Being blind

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. iPod
2. chapstick
3. a pen (preferably black)

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING NOW:
1. My favorite brown pants
2. My Information Is Power shirt from The Office (DWIGHT!)
3. My choir jewelry (heart, treble clef, and senior bracelet)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Coldplay
2. Louis XIV
3. The Postal Service

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS (RIGHT NOW):
1. Too Hot To Stop - The Bar-Kays
2. Gotta Take Your Meds - Previously On Lost
3. Boys Don't Cry - The Cure (from my A Tribute to Jears mix!)

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
1. I've read every book ever required for English class.
2. I'm a Sports Racer.
3. I own movies that I've never actually watched my own copy of.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Intelligence
2. An ability to make me laugh
3. Unobtrusive muscle (not like a body builder, but like... a tennis player, or Sawyer)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Singing
2. Fiddling around with graphics in Photoshop
3. Piano

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Suddenly be able to speak Italian really well
2. Eat my bag of apple chips (though I should save them for later)
3. Get a letter from one of my friends

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. Book editor with choir directing and/or voice lessons on the side
2. Musical theater actress (hahaha...)
3. Penguin researcher

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Australia
2. Croatia (again)
3. France

THREE NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Henry (and this is from before I even watched LOST, by the way)
2. Jeremy
3. Tyler

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Be serenaded (even if it would be horribly awkward)
2. Go hang gliding
3. Own a piece of jewelry that costs more than $25 (if that seems odd... well, I'd really like to, okay?)

THREE THINGS YOU ALWAYS NEED HELP WITH:
1. History
2. Foreign languages
3. Parallel parking