Ah, the horrors of “finals week” in high school. I think I’m 15 years old here.
JUNE
Day 1
Today is the last official day of school. Just finals – the SUMMER and CAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had the funnest time in last period study.
[I had completely forgotten the below anecdote, until I re-read it this morning. It makes me laugh to remember:]
J. had her flute and we spent the time singing songs from Sesame Street, with J. improvising. “Letter B, Letter B, Letter B, yeah, Letter B …” and “Sunny Days, sweepin’ the — clouds away …” and “Letter ‘n’ it’s not lonely anymore, the wind is very still for the lower case n…” [Does anyone else remember that Letter N song?? SO COOL! But please keep in mind: J. and I are sophomores in high school at this point, and THIS IS HOW WE PASSED THE TIME in study-hall. Hm. And then we wondered why we had no boyfriends. Oh well. It’s funner to sing Sesame Street songs in study-hall than be tied down to some high-school boyfriend. I guess.] We also did: “Swing up high, swing up free – Nobody’s gonna swing as high as me” and “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” The whole thing was hysterical. J. had a hard time keeping up on her flute because she kept bursting into laughter. We both were laughing so hard. People kept saying to us, “Oh, blow it out your ear.” Tough! When people said stuff like that, Mere would turn around and go, “WOOOOOH!” [Mere, you crack me up. You were such a warrior.] When the bell clanged, signifying THE END OF STUPID SCHOOL, everyone started screaming and clapping. I threw back my head and screamed at the top of my lungs: “STELLLAAAAAAAAA!” [Nerdy, yes, but I love myself for bringing a little bit of Tennessee Williams into the end of my school year.]
It’s so hot. Sticky hot. I can’t wait for camp. I have finals tomorrow so I’ll spend the whole day studying. And tonight I’ll spend studying. Friday I have Health and French. Monday I have Latin and English. Tuesday I have Bio and Geometry. The only ones I’m really worried about are the languages. Those’ll be killers. So I’ll really study and Bio’ll be hard because there is so much vocab. I mean, 39 goddamn hard chapters. Filled with VOCAB. You know, since that class isn’t cumulative I think we should have a big mid-term and then a final on the second half. This way, it’s ridiculous. Geometry’ll be easy because we get to take in an index card with as much info that we can fit on it. Isn’t that COOL? I will write very very small. [Good plan, Sheila, good plan.]
Day 2
I didn’t have any finals so I stayed home today. In spite of all my cramming, it was a fun day. I slept until 10:00. It was gorgeous! I got up, took a shower, and for once in my life had time for breakfast. I had the house to myself, so I listened to records and studied French — and studied — and studied. I took a break for Ryan’s Hope and General Hospital [hilarious], but other than that, it was straight French. For six hours.
Yesterday we had a whopper thunderstorm [I wonder if it hit a termite mound?] that broke the heat wave and now it’s cool and nice, but still sunny. After I did my paper route, I came home and studied more. I flipped on the TV and caught the last minute or so of Mork and Mindy. [Oh, more pangs of nostalgia!!] It was so funny I have to write it. Mork is reporting to Orson (this is so juvenile, I know) and I guess the show was on politics because Mork was saying all these things, and then: Orson: Doesn’t America have any leaders that they admire? Mork: Oh, yes, but all of them are dead. Orson: Like who? Mork: Oh, George Washington. Orson: What did he do? Mork: Oh, he slept here, he slept there. That is why politicians honor him by doing the same thing.
ISN’T THAT HYSTERICAL? It really brightened my day. [Thought you were already having a good day, Sheila?]
I swear I have studied French straight for 6 hours. It is 12:45 a.m. right now. I am about to go back and study more. I have passé compose and plus-que-parfait streaming out of my nose right now [Ew.] but I have to keep going.
KEEP YOUR CHIN UP, SHEILA. AFTER THE FINAL, YOU CAN COME HOME, WATCH GENERAL HOSPITAL, HAVE A BIG GLASS OF LEMONADE AND THEN YOU CAN GO TO GRADUATION AND HAVE A BLAST! [Please stop screaming, Sheila.]
I have to go now. Back to les livres!