Kendall: The Legend

Edited by: Kendall Mantoani

Kendall is the most wise little 10 year old you have ever met in your life. She's always been like that too. When she asked how long my boyfriend and I have been going out and I said "four months", I aksed her how long her and her boyfriend had been going out. She told me "Well, when we are together, we are so happy that we don't need to keep track of foolish things like numbers and months." Oh goodness.

Today we were chillin' at my pool and talking about how she had murdered her wife Sweet Cream and how she got into a fight with Sour Cream way back in '87. This discussion went on for 10 minutes. She also said many of her little wise sayings. When music came on, we started dancing as if it was the last chance to dance. Disco, the robot, hip hop, anything you can think of.

Kendall is the self declared "Picture Perfect Gorgeous Girl of the Century", as you can see from the pictures above. Once she put on my glasses, I ran up stairs to get my camera and once I got them, she wanted all pictures to be of her. I have about a million pictures of her now.

Her final words? "I'm sexy, I'm hot, I'm just a girl you like a lot." Oh Kendall.

"Let's dance to joy and division,

Let's celebrate the irony,

Everything is going wrong,

But we're so happy."

Call + Response

After watching the movie in school and having a dream in which I lived in a brothel, I have become very interested in an organization called Call + Response (http://callandresponse.com/) who fight to end global slavery. The organization made a "rockumentary" where Justin Dillon got other artists who cared about the cause and just recorded and made a movie about the rising cause. 27 million people are enslaved today.

One thing that absolutely broke my heart while watching the "rockumentary" was when two little girls were talking about "boom boom" (sex) and "yum yum" (oral sex). They were talking about how "boom boom" was okay and how one of them could do "yum yum" well.

Also, one woman in the film said that since these sex slaves have been developing STDs so quickly, the clients start to go for younger girls. It started at 15, to 14, to 12, to 7, to 3.

Living so close to San Francisco, when I learned that San Francisco is the worst city for human trafficking/slavery in the country, I was terrified and wondered what has been happening in my back yard that I don't even know about. What have I been secretly supporting and allowing?

I'd recommend checking out the Call and Response website, which has a ton of links to other websites fighting the same cause, and joining the cause if you're interested.

"Justice is what love looks like in public." - Dr. Cornel West

Take A Shower, Shine Your Shoes

You've got no time to lose,

you are young and you must be living,

go now you are forgiven.

What is left is not called Life, but Death Alive.

Try telling lies to

these beautiful blue

eyes.

Tans Will Fade, But The Memories Are Forever

Where to start.

Yesterday, I woke up at 7:45 to go to a swim meet. By 8:30, I was driving away from my house. I was driving. It was an amazing feeling to be able to grab the keys, tell him it's time to go, and then just drive away. I love having a permit. The only downside is that my dad made me drive his little car, a Jetta, and that is much easier to drive than the Expedition. It was a completely different feel and view. I had to adjust for the first 5 minutes, but we made it to the pool in one piece and for most of the part, my dad was proud, and it's usually hard to make him proud.

When I got there, every one was oiling up on tanning oil and eating muffins, Froot Loops, or donuts. I checked what I was swimming and I was so happy it was just 2 25's of butter fly. The meet was amazing and we got 1st and 2nd in the relays. The meet, again, was amazing because of the company and the bright sun that smiled down on us. With two friends, we went to a door at the school to see if it would be open. When I kicked the button to make the doors open automatically and they didn't, Jordan attempted to open the doors, and he did. He walked inside and then went somewhere Rachele and I decided not to go. We saw a security camera and thought it might be considered trespassing or breaking and entering if we did. So we sat outside while Jordan went somewhere. We then got crazy ideas that we could do in the halls until Jordan started singing "Umpa, Lumpa, doopidy do" while walking back to the pool. Overall, it was fun and I was happy :]

After that, I got to spend 20 minutes with Justin and then go home to do nothing. I went driving with my step mom and as nervous as she was, she was proud when she said "she came a little close to other cars on the right, but otherwise she was a great driver."

I then went across the street to my mom's house and talked/vented/ranted to her about life and what's up with our lives. When I came back, my aunts were over and it was time for me to go babysit. My aunt let me drive to the house and we'd be talking and every 5 minutes she'd say in the middle of a sentence "-and you are a kick-ass driver by the way". When we finally got the the house and I parallel parked perfectly, she told the woman I was babysitting for that at no point of the ride was she scared and she said I did everything perfectly. I was ecstatic.

While babysitting, Kendall (10) and I took their dogs, Bailey and Tilden, to the field near by at my middle school. It was so hilarious and entertaining to watch their dogs be so happy right as the sun is setting. After about an hour of playing, we decided to head home before it got too dark.

The rest of the night, we watched "Everyone Hates Chris" and "Malcom in the Middle".

When I got home, my aunt, sister, and I wached South Park until my dad and step mom got home. My aunt raved to my dad about how good of a driver I am and how she is going to take me driving when I walked into my room and passed out.

Good day. Good memories.

Amazing Night With Amazing Company

Just a quick shout out to all the amazing Sequoia High School dancers. They were all amazing last night at the dance show. :]

Two nights ago I spent my evening into midnight with the love of my life and two amazing friends. One friend (Anja) was in the dance show, another (Jordan) was to support Anja, and Justin and I went to see pretty much every dancer. As every dance was performed, I realized how many people I've met recently and how many friends I've made. It was kind of a magical moment.

After seeing the amazing dancers, Anja, Jordan, Justin and I all strolled across the street to a resturant called Little Madfish. It was a sushi resturant and it was amazing! I tried some new things that I fell in love with like their tempura rolls. So delicious. But it wasn't the food that made the night. It was the people I was with. The conversations that were made. The laughs. The stronger connections. The weightless feeling of pure love. The complete happiness.

Fortunatley, the night didn't end there. I got to spend 20 more minutes with Justin and I was so happy I can't even explain. I didn't get home until midnight and I'm so happy I got to spend the night in Justin's arms rather than my bed asleep.

This isn't the one I went to, but it's in Fremont and has the same delicious menu.

Better Together - Jack Johnson

There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard,
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,
Like a shoebox of photographs,
With sepiatone loving,
Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart ,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together

MMM, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone,
When the morning light sings
And brings new things,
But tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too,
Too many things I have to do,
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'll be under the impression,
I was somewhere in-between
With only two,
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do,
Or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeah, it's always better when we're together
MMM, We're somewhere in-between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

MmMMmm MmMMm MmMMm
I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing,
We're better together.

isn't it a beautiful song? [:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u57d4_b_YgI

I Am Psychologically Disturbed

Yay for Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes

I love when things are so much better than anticipated. The weather is more beautiful. The laughs are much fuller. The friendships are stronger.

Recently, I've realized that I wish I could take my camera everywhere with me to document the beauty in different perspectives of every day life. One little angle can change the way you see or interpret something. Yesterday I had my camera in the wonderful city of San Francisco for the beautiful Annie Evans' birthday and I got some amazing pictures I never thought my little Cannon could capture. Unfortunately, the camera did not capture the best point of the night. I had an amazing conversation with the lovely Casey Kuhlow and I felt so much closer to her than I have in a while. I also met two fantastic people I probably would have never talked to before if it wasn't for Annie. I love how one little thing can change so much.

I also learned that 7 eleven is possibly the best "mini- mart" ever. Their stuff is so cheap and you can buy 2 Arizona iced teas, 2 packs of skittles, 3 bags of gummy worms, 1 bag of swedish fish, peanut m&ms, and a Hershey's bar all for around $17. Best midnight run ever.

So here are some pictures I love. Enjoi!

4/9/2010:

Photo Credit: Casey Marie Kuhlow (http://urbancaseymarie.blogspot.com/)