Today, I was eating some chinese food, when I got a mysterious fortune cookie message:

Your secret desire to completely change your life will manifest.

It could be a coincidence, but of late I have been wanting to change myself for the better: get prettier, smarter, thinner, more confident, popular, etc. etc. Hopefully this fortune cookie is a good omen.

Summer has officially started for me, and so far it has been fairly productive. I have started reading a couple of books, worked on a scrapbook, hung out with friends, and started knitting a poncho.

Today I went into the city with an old cousin of mine. I had on my liquid black eyeliner, so I was feeling extra special and Edie Sedgewick-ish. We went to see Get Smart, starring the awesome and awkward Steve Carrell and the sleek and sexy Anne Hathaway. It was just so nice to get out of the dying heat, even if I did need to suffer a 2 hour movie in the 65 degree chill.

We later went to this chic pizza restaurant in downtown. I absolutely adore this place, mainly because of the extremely handsome waiter that works there. I swoon every time he asks me what I want to drink.

XX,
Adele

So, I just wanted to update you guys on how summer has been going for me. I knitted myself a scarf a couple of days ago, so now I'm moving on to knitting a poncho! I've taken up drawing, which I am actually fairly good at. I still need to upload lots of new music onto my ipod, but I have been listening to new artists such as Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. I've read Twilight a lot, but I also want to read The Picture of Dorian ray nad Wuthering Heights. I've been practicing the pride and prejudice piano soundtrack a lot. I'm starting to exercise more, and I'm going to get an Audrey Hepburn poster for my room.

I'm alos going to create a savings account, start a scrapbook, interpret a dream, and create a photo album.

xx,
zoe

Today, I met a girl who is the perfect example of a teenage social climber. Lets call her A. A is the type of girl that gets along with everybody and anybody. She loves to talk and converse with people from all different walks of life. She can strike up an indepth, meaningful conversation with anybody, whether they are goth, prep, punk, nerd, geek, etc. She is involved in lots of different and unique activities. She is always happy and bubbly, and makes the people around her feel happy and good about themselves, too. She brings out the best in everybody. Just seeing her gives my self esteem a boost. Everybody feels comfortable and at ease when around A. She always seems genuinely interested in what you have to say, even if you're going on about how your cat barfed all over you last night. In fact, A is not a social climber-- she is already a star, an it-girl, a fashin forward it girl, and a hard worker. Meeting A. has inspired me to be just like her.

***

On a different note, we can cross something off my "To do" list: make a tasty dessert! Do you remember those brownies I made a couple of days ago. They are now delicious! I feel so proud of myself :)

I want to go out tonight. To the boardwalk. I'm all dressed up for it.

But my friend isn't calling me back :(. Boo. I really want her to call me soon!

xx, zoe

MY BAKING ADVENTURE


Today I made a poor attempt to bake a tasty, delicious dessert. I decided to do something very easy, very straightforward: brownies. Simple enough, right?

Of course, only I could have problems baking something as simple as brownies.

For starters, I used too much olive oil while greasing the baking pan. So much that, when I peered into the oven to see how the brownies were baking, all I could make out were little fizzing bubbles of extra virgin olive oil

While making the brownie mix, I spilled hot melted chocolate all over myself, creating large, swelling burns on my fingers. This wasn't pleasant, especially since all the directions after that required me to "stir vigorously".

While pouring the egg yokes into the batter, little bits of egg shell fell in too. I then needed to spend a good 15 minutes fishing out all the little white chips using my pink leopard patterned tweezers.

Ten minutes after I put the brownies into the oven, I realized that I had forgotten to add the sugar into the batter. I then unsuccessfully attempted to mix two cups of granulated sugar into half-baked, hard brownies.

And what were the fruits of my efforts? Crumby, bitter, dry brownies.

Of course, my sister and mom both professed that they absolutely loved them. Personally, I hated them. By the time I had finished baking them, I was so fed up with the baking fiasco that any thought of chocolate made me want to gag.

I'm hoping I'll have more success with cupcakes...

Isn't it just lovely...


When you need to wake up at 6:30 on a summer day?


When your brat of a sister wakes you up from a nap to tell you that you need to walk with her to her little league baseball park, which is a 30 minute walk, so that she can pick up her trophy?


And then, on getting there, having her little sister realize that she actually needed to come down tomorrow, not today?

And I still need to bring her down tomorrow as well?

So other than those lovely frustrations, today went pretty swimmingly. I needed to go to school today for student council, but C. was there, so we talked about boys and friends and potheads and such.

For amusement, we went through the surveys the freshman class needed to fill out a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to laugh at the stupidity of our fellow classmates. There were some amusing answers for the question "If you have any other concerns, write them down here":

"Only God knows"

"I want an AP swimming, AP lunch, and an AP gym."

For the question, "Did you go to any school dances, and if not, why did you not attend?":

"Gay gay gay gay."

"Penis".

Don't you just love the subtle humor of 14 and 15 year olds?

TEEN COOKING

To be a successful social climber, you must be adept in all skills, whether global or domestic. Cooking is one of them. Cooking is one of those skills that will come in handy throughout your whole life.



Unfortunately, the only meals I can cook are microwavable or leftovers. So just in case I'm throwing a party and need to quickly whip up a fabulous meal for one of my guests, I need to find some cooking skills. Another thing to add to my list of "things to do before completing high school"



$13 at Amazon. Not bad for lifelong skill.

Today I worked on #14 on my "30 things to do before completing high school" list. And no, not detox as in drugs. Detox as in food.



I am a total food druggie: carbs, sugar, fats, salt... You name it, I will eat it. Recently, my food binges have caused me to gain a couple of pounds and become rather sluggish.



Today, I resisted the snack stands, the deli, the latte at Dunkin Donuts, the leftover donuts, and the leftover chinese food. Instead, I've been downing water like theres no tomorrow. So far, I feel pretty good. If I can last two weeks without submitting to a food binge, I will consider myself officially detoxed, and will ahve completed #14.

SUMMER is here!



A time for tanning, beaching, relaxing, vacationing...

and volunteering at the zoo, college now, and SAT prep.

Summer is no longer a time to kick back and relax. Its a time to show the colleges that you're not only a fabulous student, you work, volunteer, and do extracurricular activities in your free time, too!

Of course, summer is also the time to do the things that I never have time to do in the school year. Its time to cross off some of the things off my bucket list, no?

Such as:
exercising
knitting
reading
sleeping
getting highlights
meditating
practicing the piano
tredmill
yoga


Of course, I'll start all this...tomorrow!

I saw these two in SoHO today!



Check them out at Fred Flare. They're from Staten Island!

It's nice to know that somebody of quasi-celeb status came from the forgotten borough, excluding Christina Aguilera.

My Bucket List:

1. Redo my bedroom
2. Create a journal COMPLETED
3. Start a blog COMPLETED
4. Assemble a photo album
5. Listen to new music COMPLETED
6. Give technology a break
7. Look closely at a work of art COMPLETED
8. Develop the art of conversation
9. Interpret a dream
10. Make a gift
11. Start a book club
12. Sing karaoke
13. Establish an excercise routine
14. Detox my body
15. Plant an herb garden
16. Keep a scrapbook
17. Take an art class
18. Paint my room
19. Write a manifesto
20. Make my own halloween costume
21. Design a t-shift
22. Write a letter to my future self
23. Create a tasty dessert
24. Make and follow a budget
25. Open a savings account
26. Take care of a houseplant
27. Try a new hairstyle
28. Get an astrology reading
29. Watch the sunrise
30. Spend a day in silence
31. Meditate