The Rather Sour Idea Of Shopping

"Oooh, SONNY, you just HAVE to try on THIS pair!" Ruthie picked up yet another pair of jeans and threw it to me, just for it to land splat on my face. Without noticing, Ruthie chattered on: "And this shirt!" She threw it at me without turning around. It fell onto my outstretched arm.

I sighed slowly as I carefully picked the pair of jeans off of my head and the shirt off of my arm. The jeans were faded to a level of extreme, and the pockets were made to look hand stitched. They reminded me of Taylor Swift. With Gracelynne in mind, I walked to the change rooms and tried them on.

As I slipped my legs into the pants of the jeans, I imagined Gracelynne opening her mouth in shock "oh-mi-gosh" as she saw the jeans, then running and ripping them out of the hands of whoever was holding them, and making a mad dash for the changerooms, pushing aside anybody who was waiting.

I realized that I was standing there in the change room, frozen. I suddenly moved into action and pushed aside the change room door so I could show Ruthie the jeans.

She was going headfirst into a pile of shirts. I had to grab her hand and pull her away from the table of half-off clothing items.
She turned around, and realized it was me, and said, "Oh! Son-ALI! It looks AMAZING on you! You have to wear it on the first day of school."

I nodded. The jeans were very artsy, and made me give off a vibe that I knew it all. I liked them.

Ruthie went into the changeroom I had previously been using with a pile of pleated skirts and shirts.
She came out in an Aeropostale New York tee, with a flower splash design, and a plaid rocker chick skirt. I was envious of her curvy frame, with her brown curls that had the red strands that glinted in the sunlight. Her dark green high tops gave it a private-school edge.

Ruthie was a fashionista.
I was... Sonali.


I looked down at my new faded jeans, Avril Lavigne band tee, and Nikes. I doubted myself.


-Sonali

Quaint

I was originally going to continue my slightly stalker-ish investigation of Pleasant Rowland today, but I was interrupted by a certain 12" doll as I typed away like a maniac about how AG should eat a pie.

"Whatcha doin?" Meg sat on the desk. Her question sounded like, say, the Annoying Orange, or, more so, that little annoying girl who always has her Brownie troops surrounding her in the wink of an eye from Phineas and Ferb.

"I'm writing something, Meg. Go away, please." I sighed impatiently.
"What are you writing about?" She sounded genuinely interested for a second, but then covered her interest with an indignant snort.
"Nothing, Meg. Now GO." I spun around in my chair and pointed to the door.
"No. I want to know." Meg looked me in the eye.
"Not gonna happen." I slammed the laptop shut and walked out of the room.

Meg followed me.
"Have you seen my room yet? Huh? Huh?" Meg poked annoyance at me as we walked down the stairs.
"No." I lied. In truth, I had been stealing peeks at it all week. It was a work in progress. Grace had taken this huge styrofoam box, and filled it with quaint little Pullip-sized furniture and items. There was this quaint little dresser with a mirror, and this quaint little portrait of Meg and her best friend Celsiy, and this quaint little chair with a huge pink and purple butterfly on it, and a quaint hooked rug the size of Meg with lots of little squares of different shades of pink. And there was quaint little yellow walls and a quaint little tea set with its quaint little teapot and quaint little cups and quaint little plates.

And there were even little erasers made to be food, in the shapes of rice with chopsticks, ice cream cones, pieces of cake, chinese food take-out boxes, and even soy sauce. It was sickening.

Meg giggled. "Want to see it?"
"NO." I walked faster, forcing Meg's littler legs to fail to catch up.
I speeded away out the door, out to the backyard.


It was all so.. quaint.

-Sonali

Comments

I got a couple blog comments on my past post that really, really made me think.


Shortly after, I made a trip to the Google webpage. I found myself furiously typing the name Pleasant Rowland into the searchbox.

Before I knew it, I was reading all about Ms. Pleasant.
Turns out, she's totally forgotten all about American Girl, her very own company. Gosh darnit, I bet she doesn't even have a subscription to the catalogs (I knew it..). Pleasant founded AG in 1986. Woah, thats a long time ago. Its almost been 25 years. Next year is the anniversary, for pete's sake. Pleasant made the company in inspiration of the fact that there were no middle-aged dolls around. I'm very glad SOMEONE realized. Barbies and baby dolls are just too.. ick. (But I guess I shouldn't hate on barbies, since Mattel, our 'master', owns the barbie company too?)


Since then, Pleasant has sold the company to Mattel for $770 million, purchased a different company, and made a foundation. My oh my, she has a lot on her plate.

Did you know, that if Mattel hadn't bought the company, American Girl might not have been so... well, American? That was a real disappointment to me, because I wouldn't have minded a more international-based company.

Here it says that Pleasant and her husband Jerome are now major philanthropists in Wisconsin. Does anyone want to tell me what the heck does this long word mean?

WOAH. Pleasant is also in an ongoing debate about preservation and development. My god, what does this woman NOT do?

And some guy named John R. Lennon (not the John Lennon of the Beatles, I know, its disappointing) wrote a book roughly based on what Pleasant Rowland did. About preservation. And her foundations. And her projects.


She probably doesn't even know whats going on..
Which is the real, tragic part.
Would it be too much, to come up to her door, knock on it, and simply say, "Can you come and buy AG back?". I hope not, because I'm intending on doing that.
But then again, I guess she'd be kinda freaked, seeing a talking doll on her doorstep...

I wonder what color her house is? What her life is like? Is her house the color of the AG logo? Is she happy without AG?

-Sonali

Rainy Day, Go Away

"Click faster! CLICK FASTER!" Kit chanted.

I clicked the link.

Suddenly, YouTube filled the page. It was a video by AG2Elizabeths. Elizabeth was walking around with her chin up because she felt proud that her name was in the username.

I sighed.
A video started. I looked at the title and gasped.
"Um, Elizabeth?" I squeaked. She stopped her little graceful walk in its tracks and slowly made her way to the group of sisters crowded around the laptop.

Felicity was making a choking sound. "It can't be.."
Kirsten was looking at Felicity with round, sad eyes. She seemed far away, even though she was standing next to us.
The video kept playing.
To make it worse, the video has sad music playing in the background.
Oh god.

"... Its true, AG confirmed it!" The video was saying, in bold white letters on black. "Felicity and Elizabeth will be RETIRING THIS YEAR!!!"

That was all it took for Elizabeth to burst into tears.
I paused the video and turned to see all my sisters in a big group hug around Lissie & Liz. Lissie still hadn't said anything. She was standing, frozen, in the middle of the hug. Liz was apparently milking it, she was crying and hugging everyone in turn.
But she still was actually sad, of course.

Lissie moved away from the crowd of sisters, and walked up to me, who was still at the front of the laptop.
"Um, Nali?" Lissie whispered. A gave her a brief hug and said, "Yes?".

"Can you click that link?" She said softly. You could hear the pain she was trying to fight in her voice.

I looked to where she was pointing. Below the video, in the description box, was a link to the AG website, which apparently confirmed the facts of the video to be true.

I nodded and clicked the link cautiously.
A new page opened.


There it was.
That sickly little heart that they use everytime they retire a doll, to make it look more "friendly". Yeah, right.

"Soon, we'll say farewell to Felicity" it said.


-Sonali

New Sights (and not the good type)

Grace looked around, satisfied. We sat, frozen, as if time stopped, until Grace's steps faded and no one was around.

Suddenly the room was full of movement.

"Get me off of this STUPID SHELF!" Erin was wiggling around, trying to get a better measure of the length between the shelf to the floor. I sighed. Kit looked sorry not to be living by the candy cabinet anymore. As for Ruthie and Chrissa, I just think they were sad.

"... AND ERIN DOES NOT LIKE WHITE FIBERBOARD!" Erin was finishing.
I looked at her, wondering what she had been talking about.
She stuck out her tongue and glanced down.

".. Holy rubber ducks." She blew a whistle.
I joined her and looked down from the shelf edge.
"Oh my god."

The sight was horrific. We were on a shelf, the top shelf (which I guess is a bonus, since we had started off on the bottom one, but Grace couldn't see our "pretty faces" so she moved us up to the top). The TOP SHELF. Thats a long way down. How were we going to get down to do all our nightly stuff while Grace was asleep? Daaang.
Kirsten, Julia, Elizabeth & Felicity were all chillaxing in the doll furniture, which had been reduced to the huge three-in-one bed, Kirsten's bed, and Kit's desk and chair. It had all been moved to where Grace's old desk had been, and now a desk was located where our ROOM was. Our DOLL ROOM. The desk was made of white fiberboard - which I guess explains what Erin was talking about. It was 4 organizational cubes put together to form two sides. Plus a top. Boom bam, and there's a desk.

Naturally, the newest 5 dolls got put on the shelf, and oldest 4 dolls are with the mini doll room. Eventually we'll switch, and then again, and so on and on.

I'm not feeling happy.

-Sonali

A Lot Can Happen In 7 Days

"Sonali, lets go back-to-school shopping!"

"No, Sonali, we have to work on your model poses!"

"Sonny! You promised that you would teach me how to blog!"

"Nali! We were gonna have a sleepover!

I stood in the middle of the room, like a hermit crab, bunched up inside. All of my sisters had different things to do with me, and I didn't have the energy to do it all. Kit wanted to use the blog, Ruthie wanted to go back-to-school shopping, Julia was going to help me with my model poses, and Chrissa was trying to get a very cheery sleepover in the art room organized.

One word:
Ugh.

Its as if they were trying to keep my mind off Bethie. When all I truly want to do is go to my room, bury my head in my pillow, and wallow.

So much has happened in one week.
I just got back from my overnight trip camping the other night. I shot my AGMA assignment there. It was hard. After the one night of camping, I pretty much just sat there while Grace had the rest of her trip. The assignment was "Favorite Outfits". I got to have a bit of fun with it.

Also, I started receiving real hate mail.
REAL hate mail.
From my best friend.
Or my.. my.. ex-best friend?
I can't think of it.

Annabeth ignored my past 3 emails, as well.

And Ruthie turned 13.

Eek.

-Sonali

Summer's almost over?

Ruthie stood in front of all of us, holding the calendar in front of herself.
"Here we are now," Ruthie pointed to a circled date on the calendar from behind. It was today's date. "And here is the beginning of school." She flipped the page of the calendar and set her finger on another circled date. Her finger made a satisfying 'tap' sound against the firm paper.

Kit sat on the ouch in silence. We all turned towards her, waiting for her to calculate. Ruthie smiled gently.
"Thats only 32 days!" She claimed.
We all gasped.

32 days?
That was fast.
Wow.

Just..wow.
In 32 days, we'd be starting school again.
And me? I'd be starting Glee Club.

"Hello, anyone in there?" Julia poked my side again. "I called your name 5 times." She was sitting next to me on the sofa.
"Oh, sorry." I frowned. "I guess I zoned out."
"Anyway," She said.. "Do you wanna go school supply shopping with me?" A hopeful smile spread across her face.
"Sure!" I grinned. I loved to shop for school supplies. The smell of them, and the excitement that came with them, it was all fun. My stomach always tingles with butterflies of excitement when I shop for school supplies. Well, no, thats an understatement. The butterflies in my stomach are of excitement, yes, but also anxiety, worry, doubt, wonder. A lot of things.

But --
oops.
My butterflies just turned to sadness.
Because I remembered.

*flashback*
Sonali: *on the phone with Bethie* Beth, yknow what?
Beth: What?!
Sonali: We should fly to meet somewhere just to go back to school supply shopping together.
Beth: And pick out new clothes for school, too! OOH, and maybe some pipe cleaners so we can make our own Lady GaGa costumes!
Sonali: ...Um, maybe not that. But back-to-school clothes, for sure!
Beth: Promise?
Sonali: I promise. :)


*end of flashback*

Bethie.
Oh, Bethie.

:(

-Sonali

The Fact Is...

"Um.. we could play darts?" Felicity suggested.

"Too dull." Julia groaned.

"...Uh, how about Monopoly?" Elizabeth said.

"I hate Monopoly." Kit winced.

"Well, what about a lemonade stand?" Kirsten spoke.

"Too classic!" Erin said.

"Fine, fine, FINE! We could watch a movie?" Chrissa gasped, exasperated.

"I can't sit still through movies." Felicity and Kit said in unison.

We were all sitting there, sprawled out in the living room, in the sticky heat. It was a violent heat. Not the sort of heat you could enjoy, or sunbathe in. It was a cruel heat, a harsh warmth, the sort of heat that makes your hair stick together in strands and your layered tanktops melt into ONE tank top.

I know, ick.
And the worst thing is, all we could hear is laughs and squeals of delight from the festival down the road, which Grace had abandoned us to go to.

"We're just as important! Why can't we go, too?!" Chrissa shrieked.
"Because we AREN'T as important, Chris." Erin patted Chrissa's back.

"We should be just as important." Lissie growled.
I watched them all bicker and banter from my spot on the couch. My black-brown hair fell in stringy clumps all around my face. Cheeks flushed, I lay back and groaned.


We all fell silent as we let the reality of it all sink in.


The fact is, Erin was right.
-Sonali

Hate On Me

"Choose a few sisters you would like to watch the movie with, Julia!" Grace cheered Jules on.
"Uhm..." Julia thought deeply. "Kirsten!" She pointed. Kirsten jumped up with a grin. "Ruthie..Erin.." Julia added. "And.. Sonali!" She smiled.

I looked up from my sketch. Julia wanted me to watch her birthday movie with her?

Thats a ...
shocker.
You see, for the people who haven't been following my blog since eternity, Julia and I didn't start off ... beautifully. When I got here, Julia glared and hated and growled. Well, she didn't literally growl at me, but when she spoke to me it was as if she were growling. No more explaination needed.

But I was happy to do something cheery with a few of my sisters on my Saturday night. So I hopped up, grabbed a cream with pink accents nightgown and sprinted off to the couch with Grace, Grace's mom, Grace's brother, and Julia, Kirsten, Erin, and Ruthie. I guess it would be okay to say that I was happy.

We were watching Night At The Museum. Personally, I liked Jedidiah and the roman dude best. They were hilarious!

After the movie, Julia decided we should all hang around in her room. We pigged on dill pickle chips and cream soda. The conversation rolled along nicely until all of a sudden, Julia decided to chirp, "Anyone heard from Kristy lately?".

I gulped.
Dang, I hadn't thought about Kristy in a whiiiile.
Erin gulped louder.
My head whipped around to stare at her.


No way.