Hit Me Baby One More Time

One of the big stories in the news today has to do with a teen from Bethesda basically plotting to kill lots of people, perhaps even POTUS (that’s the President of the US, for the non-Washingtonians).

Apparently, this teen and a friend have been testing pipe bombs, stock piling guns and ammunition, devising lists of teachers to be killed, learning about how to kill someone from 200 meters away, and obtaining and marking a map of Camp David. Interesting, huh?

The kid at the center of it all is an 18-year old, just graduated from high school. The friend is a year younger and still in high school. Those are two lives that are lost right there. I am not sure of the entire back story, but apparently the two were being investigated for bomb-making and all the rest of the goods were discovered when they searched the home of the older boy. It’s really scary.

The story made me think about my high school, good old Newfield High School, and how, while I was there, it had the reputation of being “homicide high” because of a couple of incidents that occurred. The most notable incident was the Cheryl Pierson story. Cheryl claimed she was sexually abused by her father, and was afraid he would start in on her little sister. So, she hired a classmate to kill her father. Which he did. This was big, huge news and they even made a TV movie about it. There were some other incidents that occurred regarding Newfield students doing hideous things, but since I don’t have all the specifics, I won’t mention them.

While I was writing this blog post, I was doing a little bit of research into Newfield since it’s been a while since I was a student there. Apparently, it’s now an up-and-coming school. It’s completely revamped, with new facilities and amenities. Must be nice. And, I found out that one of the finalists on the last season of Project Runway was from freaking Selden (my home town) and graduated from Newfield. How about that? And, can you believe Newfield has a Wikipedia article? That’s just crazy.

I’m a little peeved that the school got all revamped and great after I graduated. We got stuck with all the homicide, crumbling building, and resentful teachers, and the kids today get new classrooms and stuff. I bet the teachers actually want to be there too. So not fair.

Oh You Silly Thing

As I'm driving into work this morning, I have a flood of thoughts. For instance, I realized that I could never be a gang member because I can't make gang signs with my hands.

This troubles me because I feel like a whole part of society is off limits to me simply because I can't do stupid things with my hands. I've never been able to make stupid hand signals, like for Star Trek or something. The most I can do is the NaNu NaNu sign from Mork and Mindy. And that's an easy one.

I just feel a little left out. What if I really wanted to be in a gang and was an awesome gang member but couldn't hang with the gang signs. Life just isn't fair sometimes. The local gangs are SO missing out on me.

I also started thinking about the crazy things people do with their hair. For instance, there is this girl I see on Rock Creek Trail, where we run, that has a really strange haircut. Her head is completely shaved except for this tuft on the side that's long enough that it hangs down to her ear. What is the point of that? I saw her for the first time a few weeks ago and then I saw her again yesterday. The tuft seems to have grown a little. I just don't get it. I mean, I understand that our hair and what we do with it is a form of expression and blah blah blah. But the tuft? What does that even mean?

I watched the premier of Project Runway last night (I had taped it from Wednesday). The challenge was a revisit from the first season where the designers had to make an outfit out of products they bought from the grocery store. For the most part, it was boring with everyone making dresses out of table cloths. But this one guy, who apparently already is a fairly successful designer, made this ridiculous rain coat out of a shower curtain. And then had his model wear yellow Playtex dish washing gloves. WTF? Like I would wear that. Seriously, his poor model looked so terrible. As one of the judges said, it looks like something someone would wear to kill someone. As the judges were berating the designer, his model was trying so hard not to laugh. It was hysterical. The guy was ultimately booted, so that's good. And it was so good to see Tim! I love him! I wonder if it would be weird if I incorporated his catch phrase into my regular vocabulary. Make it work, people! Do you think that when I give my work to my editor and he tells me he's swamped and I say, "Make it work!" he'd get mad? I don't know. I'll give it a try later.

Happy Friday everyone!

Supermodel (You Better Work)

Make it work, people!

Ah, Tim Gunn makes his triumphant return to TV tonight in the latest edition of Project Runway. I didn't really become a fan of the show until I caught reruns of Season 2. There was one designer, Santino, that was a jerk. But he did this impression of Tim Gunn that was spot on and hysterical. I don't know, it hooked me on the show.

Anyway, finally there is something to watch this summer. It has been pretty boring TV-wise.

You know, I really want to hate Heidi Klum. She's gorgeous and thin and lost all her baby weight like the day after she gave birth to all 15 of her children. But she's so cute and nice. Well, she at least plays a cute and nice person on TV. It just makes it difficult to hate a cute, nice person. Damn you, Heidi!!

In other news, I took Keller into work with me for a little while this morning. I forgot some things at the office, and I was working from home today, so I figured I'd take him with me. He was so cute! He was just walking through the suite and looking into everyone's office. Here he is being especially cute, writing some things up for me. See, that's why I do such a good job at work: Keller writes for me!