Nicknames and Guinea Pigs

Aloha!

That's hawaiian for hello. I know. You are now astounded at my foreign language expertise.

No, I am not in nor am I going to Hawaii in the distant future (as far as I know). So why would I start off my entry like that?

Here's why: I've never really had a nickname.. my brothers have and stuff but I just never did. I was just Lauren or insert-sweetie-or-some-other-nicety-here. But recently my mom has taken to calling me Lo-lo. I don't know where she got the idea or even why. But I've started responding to it so now my dad calls me it too. Where am I going with this? Well, I used to watch Lilo and Stitch the series on ABC Saturday Mornings. And I distinctly remember Lilo's older sister Nani calling her lo-lo pretty often. But it was used like this, "Are you lo-lo? That's such a bad idea!" or "Lilo! No! What are you, lo-lo?" That's right. My parents have been calling me the Hawaiian word for crazy. How lovely. I have actually told them this but they have either a) ignored it or b) that may have been why they've been calling me that all along. Even lovelier.

Anyways.

It's been a pretty lo-lo month.

My little brother Daniel went off to Jr High camp and while he was gone both of our guinea pigs, Penelope (mine) and Ginger (his) died from being left outside (in their cage) and suffering from heatstroke. It didn't seem like such a hot day or anything, and there was a breeze, but the dumb little things stayed in their little plastic igloos and basically baked.... Needless to say that was a pretty miserable day in The West family home. I got a new guinea pig, a little brownish red baby we named Nutella or Ella for short a few days later. And when Daniel got home and after we told him the news of our old pig's deaths and of their burial in the backyard he got a new baby too. (Btw, he was sad but he took it pretty well, unlike me. I most def. cried.) His baby looks like it could be related to Nutella but is gray instead with goldish yellow streaks. Her name is Ashley. (Get it? Ash-ley? Cause she's the color of...oh nevermind.) Our guinea pigs are pretty cute together. They love our bunny Roxanne and act like she's their mom which is pretty freaking adorable. She, however, tolerates them.

More later...

Theater, brothers and HEROES!

Hey y'all!

Last night was the opening night/auditions for the theater company I'm in (Alethia Christian Theater) and I admit I wasn't that excited until it was time to go, and even until after I arrived. All I gotta say is we've got some great new directors. Crazy, insane ones. That's good. Very good. Well, we're going to be split up into two casts (noooo!) so we'll see who gets the saner female director (Becky) or the crazy male one (Ryan) either way we get Lauren (another Lauren!) for the assistant director. Speaking of other Laurens, another Lauren auditioned too. So now there's three of us.... not cool man, not cool. "Oh yeah, let's name her Lauren Elizabeth, that'll be original!" Maybe in Scotland mom and dad, maybe in Scotland. (Twas born there fyi)

Annnywayyyy... we learned some crazy-fun games with the newbies, which are fun to do, but look retarded as heck to any on-lookers (good thing we don't allow people to watch rehearsals)

We also got to take turns reading monologues with the other actors on stage for them to see who has good chemistry together and etc, and I admit, I was pumped.

Next Monday is the official auditions, where we have to memorize one of the silly monologues they put on the website and perform it in front of the directors. After that we just have to wait for the cast list to see who gets what, and who's in what cast... I wonder if I'll get a good part this time. Oh and my brothers auditioned. I wonder if we'll be in the same cast...

Speaking of brothers, it's not easy being the oldest sometimes. Especially when you're homeschooled and live with them pretty much 24/7.... And your parents go to work and you're alone with them during the day. They can be quite the pain sometimes, and they argue ALL the time now. Now that Daniel (the youngest) has begun to reach teenagehood he suddenly finds injustice in everything Jonathan does, and Jonathan being an over-teasing kinda guy well, it just doesn't work out that well.... maybe it's good for them, and that when they go out into the world they will be able to deal with this kind of thing better... but it sure isn't helpful to me, or my ears.

Oh and omg, Heroes is back!!! I didn't get to see it last night obviously, but I saw it today. Looks good!

Gotta love Sylar! ;P And Hiro and Ando :D The whole carnie thing was cool too, but I don't wanta give anything away...

That's all for now, oh! except that the whole family has an optometry appointment tomorrow, so I'm getting new glasses (Finally! I broke my old ones..) and who knows, my bros might too :P

Ttfn! (Ta ta for now!)