MICeniors of JJ Pearce

This is the story of how I met my ex-boyfriend, Happy Valentine's Day.
In high school, I was a rockin' party chick. I had been going to parties since I was a freshman and had never been caught, cheerleaders had been kicked out the squad, athletes had bee cut from their teams, kids were getting suspended, but not me. I was at the top of my game, until one fateful night in October. The ironic thing is, I wasn't even going to go out that night, I was planning on going to see a movie, but was so bummed out that I had gotten the release date confused, I was going to spend a quiet night at home. But my best friend called and she was asking for favors, one of her old goody-goody friends was throwing a party while her parents were out of town and she needed our help to make it a hit. I agreed, my friend picked me up and I left my house with my phone and a 20 dollar bill.
It was about an hour into the party when we walked in the door, a tiny girl who probably weighed about 90 pounds walked up to me and puked all over my jeans. At first I was livid, but then I just felt bad for her. The girl was throwing up all over the place and none of her friends were helping her. Either they really didn't like her, or all these prudes who only recently started drinking didn't know alcohol poisoning when they saw it. I picked her up and carried her to the bathroom so she could vomit in a toilet and not all over the house. Another thing I was helping her with was her drinks. She somehow was still getting them, so to keep her from drinking them, I would drink them. After a while she finally fell asleep so I went out to find all hell had broken loose. The poor girl who was hosting the party came up to me and asked me to help her kick people out. It was getting late and more and more people were showing up and some of them she didn't even know. There were people out on the lawn making it look very suspicious so I told her I'd go out and talk to them, I said, 'Lock the door behind me.'
There were about four angry guys on the lawn telling me they wanted in and little old me saying beat it, when a cop walked right up to me with his flashlight in my face and asked me for my ID. You cannot imagine the amount of adrenline running through my system as this happens. My face was hot, my muscles were tight, and I was ready to cry. I knew I had little to no chance of getting out of this, so I tried to turn his attention away from me. I said, 'Officer, can you please make them leave? I don't know them and they are threatening me.' The cop told his partner to get rid of them and asked me again for my ID. I emptied my pockets to show him all I had was my phone and some money, he said for me to let him in the house. I jiggled the knob and said, sorry it's locked! He told me to call my friends and get him in the house. I flipped open my phone and pretended to call someone, as I did I slowly started walking away. I turned to see if the cop was following me and saw the front door open. Two guys were walking out of the hous with beer cans in their hands. The cop grabbed one guy, he tried to get away and the cop wrestled him to the ground. I took off so fast I lost my shoes.
It was so dark I could barely see where I was going. I had no shoes, I was covered in throw-up, and I had no idea where I was. I ran down an alley then cut into someone's front lawn. My heart was pounding and I thought, I can't believe I'm getting away! Then I tripped on a drive-way, rolled my ankle and cut my bare feet.
Right way, my ankle swelled til I coulnd't bend it, it was impossible to walk. Bleeding, vomity, and drunk, I crawled on my hands and knees to a side yard. I took my phone and called my friends, told them the cops were there and asked them to come pick me up. 'Where are you?' they asked. I had no clue and I couldn't walk or find a street sign. Just then I saw someone creeping in the middle of the street. I could tell right away he had run from the party too.
'Hey!' I said, 'Hey Buddy!' The guy looked over in my general direction and crept into the lawn. 'If you can go look and see what street this is, I can give you a ride out of here!' I promised. He took off and came back to sit with me while we waited. We made some small talk for a while, he looked at my ankle, we laughed about the situation. He said his name was Gibson and we actually went to the same school but had never actually met til that night, then my friends finally showed up. Without a car.
There were seven of us chilling in some random side yard, waiting for one girl to get a car and pick us up. But the cops showed up first. Apparently I hadn't run far enough and we were only about 4 houses away from the house that got busted. They gave us all MIC's and the worst part was, the cop from the house was with the cops that found us in the side yard, he took me aside and asked, 'Why did you run?' Cause I thought he was gonna arrest me! Duh!
After that night me and Gibson started to see more and more of each other at school, not to mention we had to take AA classes together, and I helped him with his community service (part of the ticket) by letting him work with me at my mom's church. A month later we started dating and stopped drinking. A year later he dumped me for no good reason. Happy Valentine's Day.

Hamlet is my Homeboy

So we've been reading Hamlet in class and watching the different film versions of it and I have to say, I guess I totally forgot what a genius Shakespeare was, and I genuinely like Hamlet. (and Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, etc., etc.) I think, in classes at least, if you dissect the work so much and hammer out as much meaning as you can and you just forget you're reading a totally legitimate, interesting piece of work. Hamlet is such an interesting character, especially for the period in which Shakespeare wrote it. I didn't watch the modern version with my class, but I did watch the Kenneth Branagh version (my favorite). He does a lot of the Shakespeare films and I think he's just a genuinely good theatrical actor. Also, Kate Winslet does an amazing job as Ophelia and doesn't get as much credit as I think is due. I really love the difference between Kate Ophelia and Julia Styles Ophelia, one crazy and the other depressed. Both versions are believable, both are sad. I also love the Branagh version for all it's beautiful archetypes. While Hamlet has the best lines in the play (by far), my favorite character is Ophelia, or at least, I pity her the most. Nothing is really her fault and yet she gets the shittiest end of the stick. Shakespeare seems to do that a lot, the good girl always finishes last it seems (Titus). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern I've watched and read before, and while it was witty and amusing, it's not something I wish to revisit.
In other culture, I saw Slumdog Millionaire and I think my life is complete. Usually, I don't like movies with unrealistic endings, but it was so believable, I mean, after all the hardships and getting let down, finally, FINALLY! the good boy got the girl, the money, happily ever after. It definitely deserves the Oscar for all categories. And the Bollywood dance at the end! I cried I was so happy. I haven't done that since I saw Peter Pan five years ago, and never before that. The film was shot wonderfully, the child actors were scary realistic, (plus they all seemed to actually look alike [I hate it when family doesn't look similar or young versions look nothing like the older characters, etc.]) the plot was only predictable in one instance, the soundtrack was wonderful, everything- I just loved everything.
I also saw (my high school's) production of Footloose, the musical. It was good enough to sit through, although the main character Ren (despite the actors best efforts) had spunk at best, and while he could dance probably better than other high school boys his age, was outshone vocally by the whole cast. The best performance would have to go to the man who played the father/Reverend. He played his part convincingly and with passion, which is a big deal for someone who's 16 playing a man with a dead and rebellious child, and in charge of a town's religious morale.
I saw two other movies, Push and He's Just Not That Into You. Push had respectable special effects, though the plot was poorly executed. He's Just Not That Into You was too much back and forth between sappy and dramatic, as life can be. All in all, good week, lots of culture. Woo!