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.

Gotta Love Disney

So I have this thing with Disney movies: I'd rather watch them than almost any other movies. I'm not so sure why, but they just seem to have more wholesome story lines most of the time, and there's usually no perverted jokes blantantly in the script. But one of the cool things about the older ones especially, is the extreme talent in the animation. I was watching Sleeping Beauty the other day and granted, it's not very good by today's standards, but when it first debuted in 1959, it was pretty incredible. The expressions on their faces, the music with the drawings, and just everything else was just so cool. I mean, dont get me wrong, technology and animation have come a long way since then, but there's just something about that old time style that really gets me. The music was composed just for the movie, each character's voice was hand picked and beautiful, and it really got the message out to the audience. I don't know, I guess sometimes I wish that the quality of the older movies continued in the newer ones. Oh well, I believe that Disney will always hold a special place in my heart for creating classics like Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella.

Gone with the....Sharpie?

My brother is in seventh grade at the middle school and has this crazy teacher. She made them watch Gone with the Wind and do a huge project with it: 2 songs that dealt with one of the themes from the book, 2 newspaper articles that dealt with a theme, and then a recreation of some part of the movie. Although she gave them a few weeks to do it, she continually handed out daily homework to complete. Naturally, my brother procrastinated until Sunday night before it was due.

This brings us to the fact that my brother wanted to recreate the scene where the little girl dies after her horse fails to make the jump. Of course, they wanted to use my old Barbies and play horses. Well, for some reason, 99.99% of Barbies are blonde. The little girl's hair was a dark brown nearing on black. Instead of doing the normal thing and making people stretch their imaginations, my brother as well as father told me that I was to color the doll's hair black with....a sharpie. Yea. So I sat there with my awesome sharpie and started giving the Barbie a color job. A few problems with this arrangement:

1. Barbies have thick, long hair in like a bajillion layers. So after you color the top, it looks like she's an emo Barbie with a reverse peek-a-boo hairstyle
2. After holding and twisting the doll so many times, the sharpie eventually winds up on hands where it then proceeds to stain any other objects the fingers touch, such as couch, clothes and random body parts of the Barbie.
3. When sharpie gets on a Barbie's face, spit doesn't wash it off so well.
4. Since spit doesn't work, acetone/nail polish remover is the next choice. Too bad it takes ALL of the paint off the doll's face.
5. Barbie winds up with no eyebrows, so then a brown eye pencil is needed to sketch a couple right above her blue eyes

So basically, I spent most of my Sunday giving Barbie a color job. Despite a couple of problems she actually looked really good and you would never be able to tell that she was actually blonde. Maybe that's a new career choice for me!

Match of Wills

Finally, tennis season has started (officially). This week we have three matches in three days, and I'm absolutely exhausted. In the first match against Owensboro, we lost our doubles match, but I pulled out an 8-6 win against the coach's daughter. Then yesterday we went to Hancock County where I won my singles 8-3, and was really excited about that. But the awesome part of yesterday, came from the loss in doubles.

I'm not sure if many people know this about me, but I'm an extremely competitive person. Like really. So as Samantha and I were playing our doubles match, the girls across the net were continuing to smash us and it just really was getting on my nerves. So I start serving a game and announce the score as 30 all, and the chick on the other team said, in the snootiest way possible, "Are you sure? It's 15-40." So then I was really angry, we were losing 0-4 and she was getting all mad because the score I had was different than hers. But I held my ground and we finished the game. As we went to switch sides, she walked up to the net and snarled, "You were wrong about that score, it was 15-40." Of course I had to retaliate (though it wasn't a very good one), "Oh look you won the game anyways, it's not like it matters now." We lost that set 1-6.

But the best part of the whole match was breaking that jerk chicks serve twice! To define the phrase, "break her serve": Usually in a tennis match, the person who is serving has the advantage and wins the game that they serve. Whenever you win the game that your opponent serves, then it is said that you "broke" their serve. Anyways, she was really making me angry because a) she was beating us, b) she was being a snot about it, c) I was not going to let her get away with it. So I was returning a serve and she was at the net, and I absolutely nailed her with the ball. The serve was moderate, so I gathered all the strength I had and hit it as hard as I could at her face. She barely had time to get her racket up, but it was a bad shot and we won the point. While she served she kept choking so it made her mad, but me happy :). Then when I was serving, I missed my first serve so I was going for my second one when I noticed that she had scooted up anticipating an easy ball. So I thought, "Oh you think that's going to help you?" and then I hit my second serve almost as hard as the first, and got her flustered. Then, she served, and usually I need a few seconds to get calm and ready to return the ball so I turned my back on the net. THEN she had the audacity to call the score and start her toss while I was still turned around! I was like really? I'm not ready yet OBVIOUSLY. So I made her wait a few more seconds and she got mad at me. But I mean seriously, the girl was a jerk and I was not going to let her walk all over me.

After the match I started thinking, and I realized something: the match had not been one to see who had the most talent, or who had the best ball control, no. This match was a test of wills, and I had won. So it didn't matter that we'd lost 1-6 3-6, we'd gotten her angry and made her play our game instead of hers. So we had a small victory and took more away than a mere loss.

Ideas Lost

It's so bumming when you cant thing of anything to write about. I love the idea of blogging and spilling my thoughts onto paper (well, onto a website, but paper sounds better), but some stuff I would rather not let in the whole world in on. Like, I could write about some of my deepest darkest secrets, but then they wouldn't be so deep or dark after I let them out. So I guess I'm going to have to continue writing about trifling things.

It seems like I always get my best blogging ideas when I'm out doing something and I have no computer near me to jot them down. Then, after a while once I've finished whatever it is, I've completely forgotten about blogging. After that I usually hop on facebook and talk to some friends until I realize that I have homework that's due first period and convince people to let me get off and get to work and go to bed. So this is how the end of the month creeps up on me and I only have 2 of 10 blogs completed!

Summer Scheduling

So I've been trying to plan out my summer for the past couple of days and my conclusion: I will not have a life. With GSP, Governor's Cup camp, Ace camp, church camp, and my cousin's wedding, there is hardly room left to do, well anything.

I guess most of this depends on the fact of whether I get into GSP or not, which I won't find out for a while. Since it's five weeks long, I would been gone from June 20-July 24, June 26-July 30, or June 27-July 31. My cousin is getting married in South Carolina on August 5th, but my family is going down early. I just learned that we're going down on July 31. So basically, heres how my summer will go.

• June 14-18 Church Camp in Tennesse
• June 20-24 Camp for Academic Team in Missouri
• June 26-July 30 Governor's Scholars Program in Kentucky
• July 31-August 6 Cousin's Wedding in South Carolina
• August 11-First day of School

Can you believe it? If I get into GSP I will literally not have a life. Isn't it sad? Well, anyways, I've been planning this for a while and I've realized that I need to have a blog soon so I don't fail English. I guess I'm just going to be all over the country, and I will hardly be able to get a good tan :(.

Third Wheel Syndrome

So basically, it seems that everywhere I go, I'm the third wheel. I know that sounds really cliche and that you probably don't care, but I just wanted to share this thought. High school, whether everyone will admit it or not, is usually all about finding a boyfriend or girlfriend to prove to the world that you truly are cool, and that there are people out there who like you who are not your mom.

Once you find this person (even though it may only last for a couple of weeks), your whole life seems to be happy and rosy and everything wonderful. Every morning you see them in your classes, talk to them at lunch, and talk on the phone until the wee hours of the morning. Unconciously-or maybe not so unconciously-you leave all of your friends and completely cling to this person.

There is a ton of problems with this, but one major one, or at least the one that I deal with is, being that friend who's hanging out with you that you don't really notice. For instance, I say, "Hey, let's go to the basketball game tonight, " and they say, "Okay, I'll call John and we can all go together." Because that's exactly what I want. You and your boyfriend are going to be talking the entire time to each other and only look at me if you happen to notice that I'm not really into the game. Sorry, but it's just not fun to think that you're going to get to spend time with your friends only to find out that there's someone else coming and you get the boot. :(

So I'm just saying, if anyone was wondering, three is not company. But it's okay, I can make it by myself. I'll be a unicycle!!!!

No More Volleyball

Normally, hearing that phrase would make me sad and almost begin crying, but not anymore. I've decided once and for all that I'm done with volleyball and that I won't play for the school anymore. For the past three years, I've had the priviledge of playing with and developing relationships with a lot of girls that I would never have met or gotten to know if I hadn't played. But now it's over, and I'm kind of happy about it.

I started volleyball as a beginner my freshman year and then played junior varsity my sophomore year. It was a blast and I loved the girls that were on my team, or well, most of the time. Sometimes I would come home crying from practice because they'd been mean to me, but others, especially after tournaments, they were my adopted sisters and we loved each other to death. But this past year, something happened that influence my decision. My parents had been wanting to go to Hawaii for a long time, and they wanted to make sure that we were all old enough to remember the trip, but still young enough to go as a family. Well, the time where all seven of us could come for the lowest price was right before season started, when we were doing two practices a game. I talked to my coaches about it and they realized it was out of my control, but I wasn't going to skip Hawaii for a sport. They said that for a little bit I would play on the JV squad, but then they would move me up after a few games. One problem: they never did. I spent the entire year as the only junior on the JV team. And this year, you've seen my summer schedule, I would be stuck on the JV team forever because I wouldn't make it to one day of conditioning. So, I've decided to let the other senior on the team, have her senior year all to herself. She's devoted her entire life to volleyball and she deserves the chance to celebrate alone. So basically, volleyball's over with and I'm not too sad about it!

No You Can't...Because I Couldn't

There's some point in every person's life, when their parents tell them that they cannot do something because they "aren't old enough". So, after a few minutes of futile begging, we maturely let the matter drop until the appointed age. No harm done, eh? We are being responsible people who respect the boundaries set forth by our parents. We assume that that's how it was for our older siblings (if we have them) as well as that the rules will be the same for the generations beneath us. Right?

You can never be more wrong. For some reason, parents have this thing that says that the farther down you are in the birth order, the more you get to do at a younger age. This drives me absolutely berzerk. See, I'm one of those people who like the fact that you "have to wait until you are x years old before you can do/get something". To me, it makes you feel like you are maturing and that there is some semblance of a plan to it. Like, you can start dating when you're 16. That's a good rule because it makes you wait until you're older, wiser, and more mature about yourself. I got lectured because I tried to date before I was 16, even though I hadn't realized that it was a rule in our house. So I thought, "Okay, I understand their reasoning, even though I don't like it, and I'll try to respect where they're coming from." Then, my little brother, when he was in 7th or 8th grade got a girlfriend. I was completely expecting him to get lectured about how he was too young, but no. In fact, they almost seemed to encourage it! Needless to say it made me very angry. But whenever I bring up the fact that it's not fair, I'm either told, "Life's not fair," or am soundly chastised for having a poor attitude. It's not that I don't want my little brothers to be happy, or receive gifts, it's just that if I asked politely and was refused, what makes them any different than me? If there are rules, we should all be made to follow them.

Put in Your Earphones!

Over the past year, I've discovered something new about myself: I have a lot of pet peeves. Granted, some get on my nerves more than others, and some can be characterized better as an abhorrence. But this particular one happens to me quite often. It's when someone is listening to music either without earphones, or they're singing really loudly. Whenever this happens I'm always tempted to walk over to them and say, "Now, do you see me bothering you by singing what song is stuck in my head? Do you see me playing my music loud so the whole world can hear? No. So WHY ARE YOU?!?!?!"

It's not necessarily that I don't like the song choice (though I often don't), it's more of the lack of respect that gets on my nerves. Just because you like that song doesn't mean that I do, and I should have the right to sit in silence without hearing whatever kind of music you want to hear. Sure it's not a big deal, but it's just one of those things that just really rubs me the wrong way. So please, the next time you think about playing your music out for everyone to hear, put some earphones in. Although I know your taste in music is amazing, not everyone is the same, and we all deserve the chance to listen to our own music uninterrupted, or be in silence, unbothered. Thank you!

Warning: Future Ahead

Right now, life is so crazy. I mean, sometimes I'm struggling just to make it through a class to get through a day, to get through the week. There's just so much to do between sports and practice and academics and volunteer work and clubs, that I don't really have time to think about the great unknown: life after high school.

I mean, I know what I like, and definately what I don't like, but what I'm not sure about is how to mold these things into a life that will suit me. And, until I know how to make it fit my personality, then I can't prepare for it and thus, I can't schedule for next year. Unfortunately, when I try to tell my guidance counselor, he looks at me as if I'd just grown a third arm. Come on, is it really that difficult to understand that as a high school junior, I have no idea what I want to do with my life? Seriously, I've heard so many stories about how people have changed their major three and four times, after they get in college. And then I wonder, if I don't know what major I want to go in, then how can I pick a college that will help me become the best I can be.

So basically, everyone is demanding that I hurry and make a decision about my life when I'm only seventeen. Sure, back in the day, many women were already married or prepared for marriage at my age, but we're not "back in the day". We are in the twenty-first century here and we don't learn near the same things that they did and we're required to learn so much more about a broader spectrum of topics. Oh well, maybe God will show me what I'm supposed to do in a couple of days so I can hurry and make a decision like everybody else. Hopefully, the future's not so scary as it is ambiguous.

Brownies? Really?

Okay so this morning, we had a glorious 2-hour delay after being snowed out of school for two days. As it is a Wednesday, I had an NHS meeting that I needed to attend at 9:45. So, at 9:10 I was sitting in my kitchen waiting for my little brothers to be ready (it takes 15 minutes to drive to town from my house, and then anywhere from five to ten to get through the middle school line). As I looked about me, I noticed that there are BROWNIES in the oven, with the timer set for 22 minutes. In complete disbelief, I yelled,"Who's making brownies???"
and added a second later,
"And why?"


For a few seconds, these questions remained unanswered. But then, my brother walked into the kitchen and said that he was making them. Astonished, I again asked why. To me, an elder, and of course, wiser sister, I knew that it must be for some school function or project that he had forgotten about the night before. Unfortunately, those were not the words I heard, what I heard was, "Oh, I just wanted to make them."


WHAT??? Please tell me I did not just hear that. Please tell me that he's just kidding and that he's not going to make me late to a meeting so he can have brownies just because he wanted to make them.


Nope, he did. And as I continued to yell at him because I was going to miss a meeting he shrugged and said, "Well, you could help me." Angered, I replied, "Do what? The pans are still hot from being in the oven and there is nothing that two people can do to make the process go faster than one." He just laughed, and continued to put all of his brownies in a plastic container. Needless to say, we left the house at 9:35, and I completely missed the NHS meeting. All I can say is that I better get a brownie after school!!!

Lost Art

Lately, I've been watching movies that are set in earlier time periods, generally around the turn of the nineteenth century. (And no, it was not Pride and Prejudice...it was Emma.) Anyways, I couldn't help but notice throughout the films that the characters chose their words carefully, almost as though they held some magical power. Before they spoke, they actually took a second to plan out their thoughts so they could convey them in the most concise way, while still making a valid and relative point. They seemed to coat their words with honey to make them easier to take as well as understand, and their conversations were almost riddles. People had to be very smart and tactful to converse. In addition, conversation seemed to be entertainment in itself, and they didn't need technology to provide an interesting break from monotonous days. In order to keep their audiences entertained, they had to be well versed on a variety of topics.

Even now, a few hours after finishing the movie, it all still seems so strange. Nowadays, people just throw their words around as if they were snowflakes in a blizzard, not caring about the impact they have on people. Rarely do people take the time to think before they speak, and that could very well be a cause of many a misunderstanding. I think that conversation has become a lost art. Through computers and cell phones and texting, people are looking for the fastest way to say something. Now, whether that requires abbreviation or cutting the more "flowery" words, it doesn't matter, but the end result is always the same: the bottom line. Nobody seems to have any time to sit down and chat over tea (maybe coffee is more American, but I'm still in an English mood). Why can't we go back to where people actually took pains not to hurt someone (no pun intended), and if they did by some chance, they hastened to remedy the situation? Perhaps in some ways we have revolutionized the world for the better, but I fear that in this twenty-first century, we have lost something very dear: the beauty and power of repartee (Vocab word!).

Chocolate in Your Pocket?

I know, that sounds a little bit weird, "chocolate in your pocket," but that's exactly what happened to me. Academic team District Governor's Cup was this Tuesday and Wednesday with the final rounds of quick recall played on Wednesday. So we were in the semifinals of the tournament playing Daviess County, who we had just lost to the night before. During one of the time outs, I felt something poking me so I put my hand in my pocket to figure out what it was. What I felt was soft little pieces of something. Confused, I glanced down at my hands and noticed the soft little pieces were brown, and smelled of only one thing: chocolate. Almost instantly I remembered what had happened earlier that day.

Time: 3rd period.
Class: orchestra.
I'd bought a candy bar from one of my best friends to eat during class. Turned out, the chocolate was really rich so I decided to save half of it for later. And, because I didn't want to lose it, I stuck it in my pocket. It was my full intention to eat it for dessert at lunch, but when I didn't eat, I forgot about it. Several hours of being smushed in my pocket allowed it to melt and get all over the inside of my pocket. So, right in the middle of the match, I noticed the chocolate all over my fingers. I asked my coach for a napkin, and he just looked at me really weird. I told/showed him what happened, and then he went through the whole room trying to find tissues and napkins. Naturally, no one had anything, but they all ended up knowing what happened to me.

After we beat Daviess County, I asked if I could go to the bathroom to wash it off, and Paff laughingly obliged. The awkwardness of cleaning out a pocket and proceeding to dry it, I won't explain, but what happened after was quite funny. So it took me a while to get all the chocolate out and get it dry enough to where I could comfortably sit. Then, I went back to the room and waited a few minutes before starting the match against Owensboro. At the half it was pretty close so the coaches were hurrying to get their inquiries in. Well, unfortunately for them, the period is only 3 minutes long and their coach turned it in 30 seconds after the timer went off. So, our coaches wouldn't allow it to count. Of course, she got mad, and sulked until the end of the match for the second inquiry period. There she put in 2 inquiries where one said that our team should forfeit for a "delay of game". The four of us were completely discombobulated as to how we could have delayed the game. You guessed it. It was me and my chocolate pocket. The lady wanted our team to forfeit the match because I had to clean my pocket out.

Good news: The judges didn't agree with her and we won that match.
Bad news: We ended up losing the final match and they got first place anyways :(

Accidental Procrastination

How come it seems that everytime I plan on doing my homework, something more important seems to come up? Like this weekend for example: I was totally going to spend a majority of Saturday working on my homework and practicing my instrument. But then I noticed my mom bought this Matthew McConaughey 3 movie set, and I just had to watch one. And then I had to watch this show I'd recorded before my mom got a hold of the DVR and deleted it because she really hates it. And then, well, my room was a mess so I had to clean it before I got into some major trouble. After that, my computer looked really lonely, and I couldn't be mean and leave it by itself, so I picked it up and checked Facebook, email, Twitter, and every other online account that I have, which took so much more time than I thought. Then it was too dark to see to do my homework, so I watched some more TV and then BANG! it was time to go to sleep.

See! I had a really good plan in the morning and it kinda crumbled as the day went on. I didn't mean not to do my homework, (and now as I'm writing this final blog I wish I'd done it) but it just happens that way. Like, now that it's 6 30 at night, it feels too late to go practice my cello, study for my biology test, and read my history homework. But in all actuality it's not; I have plenty of time. But I was just wondering if that happened to anyone else. Like seriously, I had this amazing plan to get everything done, and then at the end of the day, I hadn't even started. Maybe as I get better at this planning thing, I can progress to the time management thing.

My Buddy v. My Baby

Well, this may sound awkward at first, but once you know what I'm talking about it won't sound so bad. When I was in middle school, I started playing the violin. My teaher taught us to hold it carefully like a baby so that we wouldn't break it. Therefore, I creatively dubbed my violin, my baby. For two years, I played my instrument and loved it like a little child. But then, I switched over to cello my eighth grade year. Since it's pretty much as big as I am, I named it my buddy. So everytime we went to concerts, I would walk in with my buddy, and had fun in the concerts.

As every good orchestral student knows, there is always some good natured teasing between the instruments. Because I've played both instruments, I truly enjoy joining in on the fun. Some people say that violinists have really big heads because they think that they are the most important part of the orchestra. I have to say that that is so totally true. They know that they always have the melody, and that if they weren't there it would sound pretty bad. But they also have that horrible E string. It's so high, and if they can't play really well, then it sounds AWFUL! Like make your ears bleed awful. But I love those guys, they're like my best friends, even if they do get on my nerves. :)

Now cellos, they also have a couple of digs against them. The biggest joke is that cellos always play the loudest, even if it's not necessary. My response to this is that because the violins get the melody, cellos have to play louder to be heard. Another bummer is that they are so big that they're kind of hard to carry and bring places; it's almost like having another person with you. And, if you have small hands it's hard to play and shift right because you have to stretch so far. But I like the cello because it produces a much richer sound. A nice plus is that the cello part is usually not that difficult because it's the base part. So easier AND prettier= the best of both worlds!

The Greatest Tennis Player

As many people know, I am one of Roger Federer's biggest fans. For those who don't, let me tell you about this awesome guy. He is currently the number one tennis player in the world and just won the Australian Open. He's won 16 Grand Slam titles, and is just plain amazing. If you need more detailed information, Google him or something.

But every time I watch him, my jaw just keeps hitting the floor. The man makes the sport look so easy and graceful, even though I know it's not. Almost every time you think someone's going to beat him....BANG!....he brings the awesome shot and hits a winner. I just love it. If I could play half as well as him I'd be the number one Junior tennis player. But I just finished watching the Men's Singles Final of the Australian Open and I'm just in awe. He was playing the British Andy Murray and was up 2 sets to none at the start of the third set. Somehow, Murray breaks his serve and gets up 5 games to 2. [Now, for those who don't understand the scoring in tennis, the professional men play best 3 of 5 sets. A set is won when one of the players wins six games by at least two (so the score could be 6-0, 6-1....6-4). However, if the score is 6-5, the players must play another, and it can end at 7-5, or if it ends up at 6-6 they play a tiebreaker to seven points.] Anyways, in the third set, he is down 2-5, which means that Murray only had to win one more game to win the set. So basically Federer's beat. But somehow, he comes back to win not one, not two, but three games! Later, in this set, the men are tied at 6-6 and they go to the tie breaker. Now, a long tiebreaker is anything past 7 points, and the longest ever was 19-17, but Federer and Murray went to 13-11! It was crazy, every time I thought for sure Federer would lose, he pulled out this amazing shot and I was just like OH MY GOSH! If you didn't see this match, I highly recommend going online and watching just the third set. It's crazy.

But what I like about him, besides his amazing athletic talent, is his focus under pressure.

It didn't matter that the entire stadium was rooting for his opponent for the entirety of the match. He didn't care that he was down 5-2 in the third set. All that mattered to him was keeping his head on straight, not letting the pressure get to him, and playing some good tennis. Sometimes I can get to a state of mind like that, but I have to tell myself to stop thinking and play the game. If I don't I get caught up in all the pressure and all of the expectations instead of putting all of my attention on what's most important. Another cool thing about him is that he's very humble when he wins. In his acceptance speech, he told Murray that he was "too good of a player not to win a grand slam. Don't worry about it." Come on. How many people can say that to their opponent and actually mean it? He's just great. So for anyone who thinks he's stuck up, 1) he's not and 2)if he was, he'd have a pretty good right to be so for being ranked number one in the world for 237 consecutive weeks!.

Yay Rodger Federer!

Fun Fact About Roger Federer #136

• He speaks 4 languages (Swiss German, German, French, and English) fluently, which is what I want to be able to do someday. Just another reason why he's so cool :)

Winter Wonderland

When winter comes rolling along, I'm usually quite happy. Wherefore, you might ask? Well, you see, winter begins the season of Christmas and all of the fun things associated with that holiday. Welcoming the the new holiday season brigns joy to everyone in my family. Whenever I see lights hanging bright on houses and trees, I get this happy feeling inside. Warm hot chocolate sits in my hands as I savor the amazing goodness in my mouth. When comes to an end, as, unfortunately, all good things must do, I try to settle in to the routine of regular winter, which entails fluctuating temperatures, and false hopes of spring as early as January. What sorrow there is in the long cold months of winter! Wherever Ilook, people are bundled against the cold waiting for the warmer temperatures in April. While I am waiting for the ice to melt, I get up to enjoy to awesome goodness of breakfast. Waffles are on the menu, and I cannot believe how excited I am. Wafflehouse makes some pretty good ones, though I do prefer my mother's to anyone's. Which you would choose, I cannot say, but I do know that my mother's are unique. Watermelon is the secret ingredient, and though it sounds gross at first, believe me it's delicious. Wally the Walrus agrees with me so you can just ask him. Well, this is about as many "w" words as I can think of for one day: have fun!

Sisters

There is a certain, unmistakable bond between sisters. I'm not quite sure what it is, but sisters have this innate sense to stick together and create a bond that's almost impossible to break. Well, of course there are some sets of sisters that defy this rule and flat out hate each other. They despise sharing a room or clothes with their sister, and cannot wait for the day when they will finally go their separate ways.

Well, my sister and I aren't like that. She's always been my hero. Being four years older, she was always mature, cool, and stylish, and my only goal was to be just like her. Since we didn't have any neighbors during our younger years, we became each other's playmates when the boys became too rough for us. She didn't care that I was four whole years younger than her, she knew that I was her sister and wanted to help me. When we were in elementary school, I used to get her hand-me-downs and couldn't wait until I got big enough to wear her cool clothes. But soon, I realized that the hand-me-downs were even too small for me, so my mom said that we should start sharing clothes. Now, there are several sets of siblings who absolutely hate this arragement, but not Alissa. She saw it as a chance to double her closet and introduce me to the world of fashion. No matter how many times I refused to stop wearing high waters to school, she perservered (thankfully) until I agreed.

We also shared a room for about the first 15 years of my life. Although we occasionally had fights about who left the room a mess, it was a pretty happy arrangement. There was one time though, she asked me to turn out the lights. And me, being the obliging little sister, agreed. So I got out of bed, hit the switch by the door, and wandered back to my bed in the dark. This would have been fine except for the fact that she had a switch right above her bedside table. When I mentioned this fact to me she said, "Well, I'm already situated in the covers." That response worked for me until after a while I realized that it wasn't fair. So we argued for a little bit, but I eventually won :).

I know you probably don't care about how cool I think my sister is, but I just wanted to commend her for it. Granted, I made it easy being a cool little sister and not one of those evil ones who looks cute and then stabs you in the back, but she did a pretty great job. I mean, how many people can actually say that they would love to hang out with their little sister when they're four years younger than you, wear your clothes, and you share a room. Kudos to you big sissy!

Advice from a Dog

I think that there is some good advice to be heeded from a dog I never met: "Learn the difference between can and can't. See, my uncle had a dog named Jasper at his house in Lexington. Every so often, my dad would go visit his brother and he loved to tease the dog. So my dad would get Jasper all ralled up and then say, "Nope, you can't go," and that dog would go ballistic. He would race up and down their hallways and in every room in the house. Now, my dog does the same thing when we get to playing with her except there's one major difference: my dog is a 10 pound Bichon Frise, and Jasper was a standard poodle. He didn't care what was in his way, he would knock it off and sometimes break it or completely push over furniture. After a minute or so of my uncle screaming, "SCOTT! Make it stop!" my dad would finally concede and tell the dog, "Okay you can go." To a human mind, that would make perfect sense, but this dog didn't get it. So that would start him on his rampage again running through the house. Of course, my uncle still blames my father for driving the dog crazy, and my dad happily takes all of the credit.

Some bad ideas

Okay so at first I didn't that I would have enough to blog about, but then I got to reading everyone else's so I decided to give it a shot.

Top 15 Worst Ideas

1. Running along side a moving golf cart, trying to force your sister to give you a turn. My little brother got ran over and had to get staples in his head.
2. Putting ketchup in the microwave for 99:99. Same little brother by the way.
3. Allowing your brother to stay at your birthday party because one of two things happens: a) he annoys them and you so badly it's miserable, or b) he steals your friends :(.
4. Not telling your mom that you have a boyfriend, and then having her find out from someone else's mom. Not too fun.
5. Joke about being short and using the word "midget".....in front of one.
6. Talking back to your mom. It doesn't matter if you're right because you're never right.
7. Bouncing checks not one, not two, but three times. For some reason, daddy gets very angry (for the record, I didn't do this).
8. Putting lotion on your feet and then walking on hardwood floor.
9. Dusting the hardwood floor with Pledge and then walking over that place with socks.
10. White carpet. 100% a bad idea.
11. Pulling something off a shelf that isn't screwed in. It all comes crashing down on top of you and the wood shelf could scrap your body.
12. When you are eight years old, playing jump seesaw with boys that are thirteen. When they jump on the board, you are flung into the air and break your arm.
13. Wearing a white t-shirt on a rainy day.
14. Trying to freak out your friends by skating towards them really fast and then realizing that you don't know how to stop on ice.
15. Presenting a poster that promotes the Constitution to your class, and saying that "all people are equal, except for black people because no one cares about them anyways." This moment is made even better when your African American principal is sitting in on the class.

These ideas, as previously mentioned, are not the best in the world. Note to self, don't do them. :)

Just a Pet Peeve

So I'm not sure if this bothers anyone else, but I absolutely hate it when people don't know how to use apostrophes. So here's a quick little lesson. Apostrophes are used to either show possession or to take the place of a letter or letters. For instance, the words "do not" are combined to make the contraction "don't". As you can see, the apostrophe takes the place of the letter "o" in "not".

Now let's continue from there to my actual pet peeve. Many people like to abbreviate the year to the final two digits in the number. First off, there is nothing wrong with that, not if it's done correctly. If I was to say, "I'm so excited for the year 10'!" then I would be like almost every person out there who doesn't know how to use these correctly. In this position, what is the apostrophe taking the place of? Nothing. Because, see, it's SUPPOSED TO BE the 20 that's in FRONT of the 10 in the year 2010. But for some reason, people put it behind and mess it all up. I just want to walk over to the computer or take a pen if it's on paper, and cross out the old one, and put it where it's supposed to go.

I know that like nobody cares about this but me, but I just saw it and wanted to vent somewhere. So thanks Blogger for allowing me vent my feelings in a constructive manner. lol

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, the ones that feel like you're on an emotional rollercoaster all day? Well, today was just that. I got in the shower at 6:15 this morning and proceeded to get myself ready for school. My parents have this rule that I need to leave the house by 7:30 in order to get everyone to school on time and not speed. Despite this, I usually leave my house around 7:40 because it just takes a while for my brain to comprehend that time. At 7:15 my younger brother storms in my room demanding that I hurry and get in the car in a mere five minutes. Well that was nigh impossible since I hadn't put my make-up on or chosen the clothes for the day. Five minutes later he storms into my bathroom and yells at me to hurry and get ready; to this I simply replied, "If you don't get out of this room right now, I'm going to go slower and force you to be late." Of course he got mad. When we were a few miles from school he starts the conversation up again in this really irritated voice. I argue for a few minutes until we're both too annoyed to speak.

After that dreadful episode, I walked into biology, where I once again realized that I wasn't allowed to use my backpack and continue my 5 month long tradition. Though slightly aggravated, I tried to learn the topic for the day. It was at this point that I discovered that I actually understood what he was talking about and could follow along and interject intelligent comments along the way as well. Pretty good experience.

On to APUSH, one of the world's worst classes. I love history, but the teacher loves to lecture and that makes it difficult for a visual student. Our quiz was not too difficult and I only missed one so I was pretty proud of myself. Overall, it was an okay period.

Next was orchestra, one of my favorite classes. We didn't do much exept learn about scales and play a few. After that, she dismissed us into our project groups. Since I wasn't in that class for the first semester, I didn't have a project. Luckily, another cello dropped out of the class so I just took his place. It was great how it all worked out, but then I took alook at the composition. The key was difficult as well as the rhythms. By difficult I mean that I couldn't sight it well, that I would have to spend a few hours alone with the piece and a metronome to be sure to get the correct rhythms and fingerings. After I continued to complain to my classmate who composed the piece, he told me that I should just quit if I thought it was so hard. Slightly offended, I grabbed my things and stormed out of the room.

Thinking back, I probably shouldn't have gotten so mad, but I did. My day was a rollercoaster and so were my emotions. Oh well, maybe the rest of the day will go better.

Best Friend Long Gone

The week before my first day of middle school, I met my best friend. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, but it happened none the less. Though we did have a few things in common, being the tallest girls in sixth grade, basketball, and the same classes, it was mainly our differences that drew us to each other. She was everything I wasn't: bold, witty, and able to stand up for herself. Every day, we could survive lunch and school because we helped to balance the other's personality. For instance, when something would irritate her, I would always try to calm her down and let her know that the situation wasn't a big deal. But then she would help to me stand up for myself and not allow people to run over me. Because of her, my middle school experience was pretty great because who wants to mess with a 5'8" no nonsense girl?

So needless to say, one of the the most traumatic things that's ever happened to me was the day I found out that my best friend was moving. No, she didn't choose to leave me alone (her step-dad was offered a really good job out of town), but I still felt like someone had just yanked the rug of my life out from under me, and I had no idea how to proceed. Walking the halls of eighth grade seemed impossible without my best friend. I'd always known that I'd had many friends, but they were more like acquaintances. But, somehow, we both made it through 8th grade and the transition from middle school to high school.

Now, we both have our own lives in different states. Her with her friends, schoolwork, and stories, and me with mine. But, the best part is that at New Year's, she has this party with her friends and I get to go down and see her. This year was a total blast because I got to meet more of her friends that she talls me about. They're all really nice and welcomed us into their homes even though we were perfect strangers. We've promised to come see them more than once a year now, too :).

When we go down, it's funny to see how in some ways we're still exactly the way they were in seventh grade, and others, we almost seem to different to be friends, but we still are. If I need some encouraging, or a pep talk on how to be myself, she's always the first one I call. And I'm always there for her when she needs to talk about some problems. All in all, it makes me happy to know that we can still count on each other after all this time.