Golly gee in a pizza box

Every morning I waste 5 hours in a school where the teachers hate me because I can't understand them and wear shades of lipstick that none of the other girls would dare. Instead of listening to the lectures I read fashion magazines and pretend it's only the language barrer that is preventing my comprehension. As long as I can't decipher their words I can keep pretending that the material isn't miles above my black-haired head.

Day before yesterday I went to Alex's house and we went shopping. I bought a 15euro sweatshirt that I adore and 8euro worth of candy. Then we went to the sunglasses store, the reason for our excursion. There was a gigantic picture of David Beckham that I spent a good deal of time oggiling, trying to forget that pretty much every pair of glasses cost a month's worth of money for me. It was actually kind of fun, watching Alex try on a billion pairs. We came in there for Valentino but when it came down to the final choice it was Versace or Bulgari. She ended up buying the latter, though I personally thought she looked better in the Versace; a celluloid princess stepped off the silver screen and into my reality. But, hey, when you're a Serbian from Southern California, I guess looking like a movie star supermodel is just part of the job description. Not to say she looked bad in the Bulgaris, she looked quite nice. She must have thought so, too, because she spent 180euro on them.

In slightly related but different news, I fell in love with the DKNY sunglasses ad they had posted in there, featuring a cute blonde in rad black shades. I asked if they had said occhiali, but was saved the embarrasement of admitting I couldn't afford them by the fact that they weren't in stock. I really like the haircut/colour, and am considering pursuing it, after Hallowe'en (Snow White might be kind of hard to pull off without, you know, black hair).

After we bought Alex her sunglasses, we went to hang out in the piazza in front of her building, and I, once again, spent the majority of my time trying to convince Alex to flirt with her boy of interest. Not that I minded, as it was actually fun. I really think that they're making progress, especially because word on the street this morning is that he's gonna ask her out. Yesss! I can be satisfied with mere glimpses of hot boys as long as my friends are having successes.

Yesterday was a lot less exciting. We didn't have school, and Dani, as usual, had about 3 tons of homework, so I spent about 5-6 hours formatting all my photos for my flickr page....Now, If only I could get them off of StrongBad and onto the Intarwub. I guess putting "(c) bee electric" on them is hardly necessary, but I like to pretend that someone would like my pictures enough to want to steal them. This is my conceit. We're supposedly getting DSL sometime in October, but who knows when that will happen. Even if I could connect Strong-o to the family computer, without a high speed connection the upload time would rival The Once and Future King in the excruciatingosity of length category, as I have something like 340 pictures.

I also watched The Bourne Identity and Supremacy again, and enjoyed them just as much as I did the first time 'round. I think I'll add them to both my Amazon wishlist and my list of movies to download and see which gets me 'em first.

Ierisera (last night) I went to pizza at L'Anfora (The pizzeria across the street from us) with Grazia and Daniela. Well, we went there, got the pizzas, and took them home to eat them. I got the Margherita (tomato sauce and mozzarella) with prosciutto cotto (prosciutto [cured ham] pieces) and mushrooms. It was all of 3euro and it was delicious. Mmm....it was funny, though, because Gra and Dani asked me what the name of the pizza that Alex had last time was, and, as I didn't remember the name of it off the top of my head, I said, "Oh golly..." At first they thought that it was the name of the pizza, and I didn't know how to explain myself. As it turned out, that kind of pizza didn't have a name but they just told the fellow what they wanted on it.

The only kind of cute guy that I see on a somewhat regular basis is the dude who works at the bar where I get my morning caffe. Though today he was wearing one of those ridiculous fake Louis Vuitton baseball caps and his tag was sticking up. So that was lame.

I figured out that if I can keep my spending to 50euro/week (which is about 9euro less than my original budget), plus the money I'm going to get refunded from BEC/ASSE, I'll have almost $200 extra (Paris!) Of course, I also have that extra money I earned, but I'd rather save that for emergencies. I'll also try to save as much as I can, week to week, but that looks to be quite difficult. I'll probably just ask for money for X-mas/my birthday as well. That's also more practical than gifts, as you don't have to pay shipping (it takes about 3 millennia to get anything here, anyway). I can't wait to get the Paris info! Yay!

Listening to the students reading aloud in English class makes me realise just how wonky I must sound in Italian....only probably much worse. Crap.

I think we're finally going to the Irish Pub this weekend for pizza. Alex and I are going to order Guinness's 'cause we're just that cool. I wonder if my Irish accent is good enough to, when used in conjunction with my full name, get them for free. It depends on if they're real Irish people or not, I bet.

I have been trying to eat less lately, in part to lose weight and in part because snacking so much is getting expensive. I have found chewing gum to be a marvellous ally in this quest, as it provides the motion of eating without the calories. If I can cut out snacking during school and in the afternoon (which will be super-hard because I am so damn bored), stop with breakfast (possibly come downstairs too late to mangiare), and eat less at lunch and dinner, I should be in business! Yay!

I've been working on my screenplay, which is good, as a good deal of my time is spent daydreaming about making my movie and winning Oscars and being rich and famous. One thing that I am getting frustrated by is my own inability to put on paper the things I see in my head. But, as that is pretty much the most important thing for a screenwriter (or, really, any kind of writer) to be able to do, it is something I am going to have to overcome. It is easier for me to visualize the Violet parts (in case you didn't know, the book I'm adapting is Violet & Claire, by Francesca Lia Block. It is divided into three sections: the first from Violet's point of view, the second from Claire's, and the third is written in the third person) than the Claire ones. Maybe because I fancy myself to be more like Violet, and also probably because Violet is so film obsessed and her section is written almost like a movie already, in some ways more literally than others. Violet writes in a visual style that will translate almost effortlessly to film. Claire's part will be more difficult, as hers is less narrative action and more memories and thoughts. It will be possible, but must be done in such a way that the audience does not get lost in Claire's memories, does not forget what is happening because of what has happened. It is going to be AWESOME. I really want to get the book and script for The Virgin Suicides and read the script for Lost in Translation, as Sofia Coppola is pretty much my favourite director, and in my perfect fantasy world, would be my mentor for making Violet & Claire. Don't worry, Peter Jackson is still my idol, fer sure, but you must admit that Lord of the Rings and King Kong are kind of in a different genre. Dang, I really want to see Marie Antoinette, but I have no idea when that is going to happen.

Gah, I really want to buy some film and batteries for Betty (my Super-duper 8 camera), but, as of yet, that has not been a financial possibility. Budget problems are one of my main worries here. I keep track of everythign I spend, what is refundable from BEC/ASSE, from insurance, and from my parents. Things like clothes and the gym, which my parents are paying for, I don't count as budget money spent because I'll get that money really soon. Other refundable expenses, such as bus passes and medicines, I won't get back for a long time, so I'm doing the best I can to absorb those costs now. That way I have an accurate Idea of how much I'm spending now, and then later it'll be like, "hey! free money!" I just figured it out (if my math wasn't too wonky...I hope I hope I hope), and, not counting refundable money, I've been about 16euro under budget per week thus far! Sa-weet!

Pretty much proud of herself,
Bee Electric