From Sleep Unbound

Okay so I finished reading this book yesterday morning, and I have to say that I don't get it. Like, throughout the entire book I just kept waiting to see the point. Soon, I noticed that the number of pages I had left to read was less than the number I had already read. Unfortunately, I was no closer to figuring out what this book was about. When I finally reached the drawn out end, I thought, "Seriously?" because I couldn't find any closure. Samya kills Boutros, Ammal is sad, and then she takes off running? And somehow, that makes everything better? Okay, that's cool. Not really but whatever. Now my only problem is trying to answer these reader's journal questions. However, I have no idea how to...

Silly Boys

So we were watching this movie in Biology, called Gattaca or somthing. It's about how learning the entire human genome could cause like a million problems. In this movie, children are born invitro, and their parents get to choose every aspect of their genes. Well, there's this one family who has one child born normally, Vincent, and one child born through this genetic stuff, Anton. Well, the genetically superior child always picked on his older brother because everyone believed that he was this weak little thing who wouldn't amount to anything. Sometimes, the two boys would play chicken and see who could swim the farthest out into open water before turning back. For the first few times the genetically better child would win, but after working for years and gaining muscles and endurance, Vincent beat all odds and swam farther than Anton. Then, after Vincent gets into Gattaca with the help of some people, his brother challenges him again to a game of chicken to redeem himself.

This is where I get confused. See, this scene is late at night when the sea is tossing and turning and you can't see the shore when you get far enough out. I think it's safe to say that this competition was more than a little dangerous. It was just weird, if Vincent was strong enough to beat Anton before and get into Gattaca, then why did Anton feel the need to challenge him again in those awful conditions? Why couldn't he just let it go and say yes, in this one area, you are better than me? I don't know, I think it's a boy thing. They have to go out and do something dangerous in order to feel like they've accomplished something and truely won. For girls, it's like, oh hey that's dangerous and I could lose my life? Well, forget it then.

In reflection, boys are just silly and I have no idea why they feel like they have to prove themselves in the weirdest ways.

Tick...Tock

It's really kind of crazy actually. My junior year of high school is almost gone. I'm not quite sure how it happened. I was certain that yesterday was my trip to Hawaii, my first day of school, or even Sadie Hawkins, but I look at my calendar and I realize, it's all gone. Prom was last week. Last week! Can you believe it? I spent all that time preparing for it, and it's over. This upcoming weekend I have two pretty big school trips planned, and it's just going to be a little bit crazy. But seriously, where did all the time go?

It doesn't seem right that this is one of my last blogs to ever have to write for a grade as a junior. There's no way that I've already (almost) completed 11 years of schooling, and by the end of the next one, I'll be well on my way to college and the big world out there. Kind of a scary thought.

Now, I know that for the entirety of this year I've been saying, this year has gone by SOOOO SLOW! But now that I'm at the end, the race doesn't seem like it was that long. I've made so many new friends this year, especially seniors, that I wish I would have gotten to know last year so we could become better friends. But I didn't. And now, they're going to be gone in a matter of weeks, and I may never, ever see them again. We won't have any more matches together, no more helpful hints at school, and no more therapy sessions after a long day. It will all be over, and I won't ever get these days back. It's a little depressing. In some ways, change is good, even needed, but just now, I don't want my life to change. I want to stay in my little bubble and not have to leave my friends, family, and security. But things are changing, and too quickly I might add. Even though I still have one more long year of high school ahead of me, I'm sure that, when I walk down the aisle to get my diploma, in my mind's eye I'll be walking the halls of high school for the first time.

Poe

Okay so today we were in history and it was the last day before the big test. Where I sit, I'm near some people who like to talk during the class. Well, somehow, these guys brought up how this one time during quick recall I made a really stupid answer to a question. The question said, "This man shaved his mustache..." and I thought, "Oh hey we just talked about a guy shaving his mustache to avoid the army" so I buzzed in and said, "Poe." (Of course it was wrong....way wrong). In my defense, I was tired and on edge and when I heard something that rang a bell I reacted too quickly for my mind. Anyways, so we're talking about it in our small circle and I keep telling them to be quiet because it was embarrassing. Because that of course could not have been humiliating enough, one of them decided to bring it up in front of the whole class. So fun. The whole freaking class got to hear about how stupid I was.

Now for me, I'm always a perfectionist, and obviously, criticism is something I don't deal with very well. So when these boys brought up something that I'd spent two years trying to forget, it really made me angry. I couldn't think of a good enough comeback so I just kind of sulked all period and refused to talk to them. It was so bad that the teacher called me up to his desk after he'd finished teaching and made sure that I was okay. Yeah. I guess if looks can kill, he was going to have an EMT on call or something, haha. Anyways, I had to get this out of my system because I was so angry. But I'm okay now.

Guess What?

PROM IS TOMORROW!

Okay, so you probably knew that already, but you just heard it again, from me. This is my first prom and I'm really excited for it. Our theme is really elegant and pretty and I'm pretty sure that it's going to look absolutely gorgeous. We're having a dinner at my house before and we're having 13 people which is kind of big for any house, but I'm sure we'll all fit. There are only two problems that come with this prom. The first is that I have to clean my house to perfection, and the weather may not cooperate.

The cleaning thing is not fun. My mom is about to go crazy because she thinks she has to have the house absolutely spotless. No matter how many times I tell her that my friends don't care, she just comes back and says, "I don't care what your friends say, I'm going to have my house clean." So that means that I get to go home today, and get up tomorrow to make sure all the final preparations are done. Oh its going to look so good and be so fun!

Well, the other problem that comes with this is the weather. Storms are supposed to come in tonight and have it rain all the way through the weekend. It's so bumming because we were going to take pictures outside and spend lots of time outside so it wouldn't be so crazy inside. Oh well, maybe it will just rain in the morning and go away for prom and then rain sunday if it has to. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm ready for a good time and it's only a daaaaaay aaaaaaawaaaaaaaay!!! (Sorry I had an Annie moment)

KOM Training

Today we had our day of KOM training, and it was so much fun. Last year, I didn't really have a clue of what I was doing and what I needed to do in order to be the best mentor that I could possibly be. Now, after being a mentor for a year, I kind of know what to expect now.

Well, today was really pretty fun. Besides getting out of an entire day's worth of classes, we got to play games, learn a new dance, and meet many new friends. The people who are on my "team" are really nice and we love to tease each other and get the others to come out of their shell. Trisha was one of the new people I met. She's a sophomore and really sweet, and I can't wait to get to know her. Another girl on my team is Kaitlyn. Come to find out, we're both going to be gone on the actual Kick Off day, so we kept trying to find a way to be there without actually being there. I think we've decided that we're going to get together before school's out and run through all the things we're supposed to do on that day. I think we can get it done.

I just have to say, though, that my favorite part of the day was learning the dance. I had my buddies all around me, and we were being as stupid as we possibly could. Screaming things like, "Knee, knee, heel, heel, snake, snake, LOOOOOWWWWW!" we seriously looked like we had gone of the deep end. Oh well, this is to make the freshmen comfortable with us while having a fun time so it doesn't matter how silly we look. :) Now I just can't wait for next year so I can meet my new freshmen and help them get accustomed to high school life.

You Can't Dance

So, at my church we have this thing called Children's Church. Because many times the older adult service goes over children's heads, some people decided to make another service geared to help them understand the message of Jesus. They allow the older youth to help during services once or twice a month, and that's what I get to do.

I've been working with Kid's Church since I was in fifth grade and I've loved it. The little kids are so cute and they get so excited for church. What's really fun is that I get to be a team captain most of the time so I get to act as silly as I want, and they just love it. One day, I was trying to get these kids to practice the dance they were supposed to perform in front of the church and I started dancing crazy to get them to smile. Well, one of the kids started laughing his head off, so I was like, yes! my life is complete. Then, after the dance he came up to me and said, "Oh my gosh! You looked so silly up there. You really can't dance can you?" All I could do was laugh. Yeah, I'm just that good.

Prom's almost here!

So I know that right about now everyone is blogging about prom and everything that comes with it. Now I'll join the fun :).

For a while, prom didn't seem to be so exciting. I've been to high school dances before, and some (if not most) of them are pretty boring. I ususally don't know the music, and the dancing....well, let's just say that it's not 1950 anymore. But now that it's getting closer to the date, I'm actually getting pretty excited. A pretty large group is coming to my house before, and even more to the after. We're all close friends so it's going to be a night of laughing, playing, and music....and looking gorgeous of course!

Well, with this whole prom party thing comes a whole bunch of cleaning. With a family of seven and a dog, we can get our house messy in no time. But for parents, teens, and pictures it's got to be amazing after we're done. Over the years I've noticed that my family doesn't really do the whole "spring cleaning" thing, we do "prom cleaning" instead. If we don't have a reason to clean then we probably won't do it. However, prom is the perfect excuse to get everything in tip-top shape before summer kicks in. And with that I'm off, gotta make sure this house is clean before my mom gets home!

Drama Drama Drama

A couple of my last blogs have been about some of my experiences on the tennis court. Mostly, they're about how the other team is snooty and whatever, right? Well, I just realized today that all of the teams that I've played in doubles are DRAMA QUEENS. So seriously. I mean, sure I can be a little dramatic, but it's not because I'm mad at the other team, but it's because I'm angry at the way I'm playing. So my doubles partner and I have many favorite teams. Here are some of them:

• Catholic: Raye and Stephanie
• Hancock: Blondie and Curly (don't know their names)
• Butler: Blondie and the Beast

Our most recent match was against Butler County. And I promise, Sam and I thought we were going to get jumped after the match. Like, I'd already played the girl in singles, and I'd beaten her. So basically, she's angry that I whooped her butt. Oh well :). Anyways, so we go to play her in doubles with her partner, who was a beast at tennis. So we were just like whatever. Well, we were losing pretty bad, like 2-7 i think, and we just said, "Screw it, let's just play." So we started slowly coming back, and Blondie started getting really angry. She thought that I was calling the balls out when they were in (which I was sooo not doing), and she kept trying to make calls when she was the furthest from the ball! Yeah, it was crazy. And once, I got a killer net shot and she goes, "Um, your racket crossed the net!!" and I said, "No, it didn't." Because of course I would know if my own racket had crossed the net, but for some reason she thought that I was too stupid to realize that. Well, it ended up that we came back to make it 6-7. and I swear, the girls were SOOOO angry. I was quite scared. We ended up losing that game so they won the match. I was kind of happy because I didn't want to die that day.

Anyways, I just wanted to say that we do not start the drama. It just like hits us in the face at every match. I was actually trying to calm my partner down so I felt pretty proud of myself at that one :). Oh well, maybe the second go around we will have our revenge and beast everyone! :)

Talking With Josh

Today was the last of three matches in three day's time. Needless to say, I'm pretty much exhausted. I lost both singles and doubles today, but I'm okay with it. I actually like stopped caring in the middle and I think I made the other team mad, but it's okay because i was having a crappy tennis day anyways. But finally after the longest, ugliest match I've ever played, I got to come home. After talking with my mom about some life issues, I got a text from my friend asking for a blog idea. And then it hit me, OH MY GOSH! I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH BLOGS YET!. Yea, just like that too in case you were wondering haha.

Almost as soon as I got on Blogger, I got on Facebook as well. After becoming a fan of a few random things, I started talking to one of my friends who's gone off to college. And we start talking about how much homework we have but that we don't want to start because we'd rather talk to each other. Once I told him that my homework was to finish up my blogs for English, he told me to blog about talking to him, so here I am. Usually our conversations are extremely deep with the rare, "hey" and the unique "what's up?". But it's okay because we're really cool. He tells me that college is not what it's made out to be, and I tell him, well, to suck it up! But other than that, we're just good friends who have this need to vent on the other via chat. It's always kinda cool because I'll be online and the little box will come up with a "hey kay" to which I must respond "hey josh". I know, we're probably the two most creative people in the entire world, but we're still pretty darn amazing. Anyhoo, I think that's enough blogging/venting/pondering for one month. Stay tuned next time to read about something probably slightly more exciting.