Cue 'Pomp and Circumstance': I've finished serving my time in Californian Public Education! Hoorah!

I still have to figure out how I'm going to get the floppy disk with my work on it back from my English teacher... But other than that - I have officially escaped from high school! Now I have to get ready to go off to Virginia and Christendom - but not just yet. Now it is summer in California and that is all that matters. The other day I went outside to look at the plum tree... I touched one of the plums with the tip of my finger and it fell to the ground. My pet rabbit came out onto the lawn, casting a long afternoon shadow, and then went behind the glossy leaves of the grapevine to nibble on twigs. I picked seven plums and went back inside. They are delicious plums, much better than the ones from the store. They almost justify that stupid poem by William Carlos Williams.

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After graduation, my friends and I had a party. My best friend's mom gave me an iron and a tabletop ironing board for college, which made me insanely happy for some reason: I like ironing. What can I say, I'm easily amused. We went swimming and listened to the Two Towers soundtrack... It was great.

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Just remembered this: My brother had to perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet for his English final last week, and my mom thought it would be good for him to watch the Zeffirelli film version. It is a beautiful movie, but it gave me a start when I realized that the famous love theme was actually the tune to the Salve Regina! It sounds nice, but it seems irreverent somehow. I didn't notice a lot of the detail the first time I saw it... back in 9th grade. Sigh. The sets are so gorgeous, and Olivia Hussey is the perfect Juliet. Not so sure about Leonard Whiting as Romeo. Though to be fair, I always thought that Juliet was marginally more sensible and gutsy than Romeo. Anyway, this is a great adaptation. (If you ever come across that thing with DiCaprio in it, run like hell. It is too bizarre for words.)

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And to wrap up this unusually freeform post...

For any fellow violinists out there, here are some useful links:

All About Violin Strings - This is a great page comparing string brands, with good tips on maintenance. I use Obligato myself; she's right about the quality of the E-string. (And that rosin she uses sounds like it's worth trying.) The Casa del Sol link is broken, but I found it: String Tips.

And here's a useful article on rosin: Rosin Decoded. Some of the things they put in rosin are really amazing: gold, tin, silver, meteoric iron (!)... Ifshin Violins sells a formidable range of the stuff. How is anyone supposed to choose? A lot of people say that Jade rosin is good; maybe I'll get that. Right now I'm using an ancient lump of Hildersine. By the way, Ifshin Violins has great prices; I always buy my strings from them. Jade rosin is only ten bucks there. (If you have no qualms about buying French rosin from a store in Berkley...)

This website sells tons of sheet music. Looks useful. I must have found six versions of Mozart's 3rd violin concerto alone.

And just because: the El Camino Youth Symphony, which I just graduated from. (Now there's something I regret having to leave...) Nota bene the pics from our Italy Tour.

That's all for tonight.