[diary] beautiful strangers and people alike

Today was a...very... I-can't-describe-it-in-words sort of day. In a very good way.

I laughed more than usual today. I mean, a lot. I was laughing at everything, every little thing, every random thing. We were doing high knees in gym for warm up and I thought it was funny that I misheard and started jogging. I laughed so hard when Mr. Williams barked at us to skip. I felt light headed--the feeling you get after laughing too much, I guess, in a sense, I was high. And what caused that?

Probably newspaper. It was absolutely wonderful today--issue 5 hit the stands. Ah, that's right, I have to post my story/column online, too. And write something for online. But anyhoo, today was fantastic, simply said.

This morning started out terribly. For one thing, I didn't sleep until 4:30 a.m. (which has been the case for the past two weeks). And I woke up feeling terrible, couldn't concentrate in Algebra and absentmindedly took notes while the teacher drilled forward in her lesson as my head bobbed up and down, my eyelids fluttering every other waking moment. Chemistry wasn't much better, as we had a quiz which I totally BS'ed the first five problems on. I think there were fifteen in total. Oh well. I could really care less seeing what happened to me afterward--newspaper and andromeda.

Cutting to after school, I was a bit anxious about going ad selling with Andromeda. I mean, it's selling ads, but psh, I can hold my own (or so I somehow half-convinced myself). So we split into two groups after my EIC made references to this movie about a guy named Hal, and my group consisted of C, K, and my EIC. (It sounds so shady to just use abbreviations, but whatever, I don't know if they'd like having their names here). C is a cool junior, K is one of my best friends, and my EIC is, well, crazy amazing.

I would love to elaborate about every little thing, but I suppose that would bore you, so let's just cut to the chase...

We went to Reston Town Center (with some of my internal-GPS skills) and parked across from Obi sushi, which happened to be on the other end of Potbelly, which is where my life took a turn, and yeah. So let's just fastforward about 45 minutes after walking in the bitter cold around the town center, still unsuccessful in completing our business transactions (ad selling), and we found ourselves in Potbelly ordering subs/sandwiches. I ordered a Meatball, just saying.

And somehow, as we were leaving, and my EIC took note of two women diagonal from us, who seemed to be sketching, she suggested/stated that I should approach them. It was absolutely bogus, and I of course tried to decline though I inwardly really wanted [to approach the two strangers], and with a little figurative and literal nudge from my EIC, I found myself talking to the two women, who were conversing with each other in a language I didn't understand (yet I found it mesmerizing), and I find that they are sisters and apparently meet with friends from time to time to just sketch and doodle!

It was beautiful; the sketches, the two sisters (yes, they're sisters!), art, a shared interest...passion. And just meeting and seriously approaching the two perfect strangers was very beautiful. Something I've seriously always told myself that I ought to do whenever I go out but never managed. And with a push and the influence of my [amazing] EIC, things happened. Wow.

What can I say, how can I say enough to convey my delight?

I sound like some writer from the Victorian age or something--the gaiety in their speaking (unabashed and expressive happiness, not homosexuality.)

Well, whatever. I hope that you all realize how much of an inquisitive person I am, and how much I crave meeting people, beautiful people (either literally or figuratively). It sounds totally weird, and you probably think I'm weird, but I don't really care because right now, I still haven't recovered from disbelief at what happened today/what I did today:

1) Approach two strangers and exchanged contact info after being invited to sketch with them even though we had only talked for less than five minutes.
2) Tromping in the bitter cold with K, C, and my EIC at Reston Town Center and learning about life. Living the life.
3) Newspaper, newspaper, newspaper, issue 5, issue 5, issue 5.
4) While waiting for my aunt to pick me up around 5 p.m., as I was still in the gym lobby, I didn't speak to these people, but for the first time, it occurred to me that soccer is very fascinating. There was this person who I didn't recognize that was very gracefully maneuvering the ball through the hallway and was joking with a bunch of what I thought were her friends about how she didn't make the team :( and all the while continually keeping control of her soccer ball. >_>" It sounds so freaky of me, but I just really take notice of little details and little things and I really find them absolutely fascinating. And after a while, perhaps half an hour of just sitting there listening to the people chattering about soccer this and the prejudice Latinos faced, the girl with the soccer ball left, all the while still kicking the ball. She never picked it up once, it was amazing. But while she was on her way out the door, she turned around and asked one of the guys, "What's your name?" and I don't even remember what he said but, wow. It's amazing how strangers can connect over something and disregard that they don't even know each other.

If only the world were like that.

But really, today was a very happy day for me, and although my aunt just hissed to me that I should drop newspaper since it doesn't mean a thing and that I should concentrate on SATs instead, I suppose I will have to log off before she can say anything else about it.

I can't give up newspaper, not on my life. I can't give up anything in this life, and I'm going to keep what I've gotten, and this day is a day to be remembered.