Christmas and Things

My 6 months are officially up. :) Christmas was interesting this year. We left in the afternoon for California and got there around 1:30 AM. The next day we visited my great grandma, and the day after that I went to San
Francisco with my aunt and Max. It was great! We got back yesterday. School starts back up again on Tuesday. I still have to read most of a book for AP Lang. :( No one has blogged in a little while, including myself so I thought I would.

Honor and Love

My mother (my, that sounds odd) is truly wonderful. I learn an unbelievable number of things from her that have really helped me--to be a civilized, sensible human being, that is. I cannot even put to words how grateful I am for her. I've already talked about boundaries so I'd like to talk about something new I learned today. Really, though, I've known this all along but putting it to words really makes you think about it and it can help. I won't be able to talk about this near as well as her but here's my attempt.


Honor. It's technical definition is honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions or high respect, as for worth, merit, or rank. One needs to both give and receive honor in a relationship. In my opinion, honor goes right alongside love. I find that the best definition, at least for me, of love comes from I Corinthians 13: 4-7. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. I honestly believe that this can help you to see who you really love. Of course, it can be very difficult to follow all of those things at once, but they're good guidelines. Love is a topic that could take hours to talk about. Hours, days, months, etc. So back to honor.


If you are having a conversation with someone and you can feel that either you are not being honored or they are not being honored, you should end the conversation. End it and pick it back up when you are both able to honor one another. You will get no where without it. You may even discover that you are never able to honor one another. In that case, it would be better just to end the relationship. If it is healthy, there should be no tension or trying to make it work. It should come naturally. You have to look out for yourself, and put yourself with people who are good for you. One-sided relationships do not work. It takes two. I could continue but I ought to go to sleep. I've had a full day.

Music music music

On Tuesday this week my family and I went to the Rose Garden in Portland and saw Mumford and Sons live! It was by far the best concert I have been to. SO much fun.
There is only one more week of school before winter break. I am so excited. A lot of great things are going to happen this break. :) I'm also very glad that it hasn't really snowed this year. Hopefully it just won't! The winter choir concert is on Thursday and the band concert is on Tuesday. Good good good!

Thanksgiving Break

I'm leaving for California again, shortly. This time I'll be driving part of the way--to Weed. My dad is in town and we got to show him downtown a bit yesterday. I'll have Thanksgiving down there and then we'll drive back on Friday. I'm excited. My 6 months will be up in one month and 5 days. This is a pitifully short post but I thought I might as well.

Snow

It has begun. It snowed this morning. I'm only glad it melted before I actually planned on going anywhere. Why must my favorite state be winter most of the year? This is a rather silly thing to post about but I was irritated that I couldn't see the "Blogs I Like" as soon as I come to my blog because I have too many posts in October.

Happy Halloween

Hey it's Halloween! On Thursday I packed my bags before going to a choir concert that I will be happy to forget, and got up early the next morning to go to the Portland airport. I had a two hour layover in Pheonix and finally made it to Austin, Texas. Kacie had NO idea I was coming and freaked out when she saw me. :) None of her sisters knew either. I fly back on Wednesday.
Her 16th birthday is tomorrow but we had her party today and I met some of her friends. We went to Main Event, which is kind of like Sun Mountain Fun Center in Bend. We did bowling and tons of arcade games and I actually won things from one of those claw grabbing games. (Kind of amazing.) I didn't have a costume planned but they had one for me. We were dark angels with black wings and halos. I don't think there were many trick-or-treaters here so people didn't seem to mind that we were a bunch of teenagers...
Tomorrow I have to write a research paper and do a bunch of other homework, and Kacie's going to school. However, we'll be going downtown tomorrow as well and I'm going to see North America's largest bat colony. I'm both excited and a little terrified.

Homecoming

Last night was Homecoming. At the last minute (Thursday-Friday), with the help of some troublesome things happening, I decided to go. I bought a red dress at Ross as soon as the store opened yesterday and picked up some black flats for choir. I had dinner at my cousin Koa's birthday party. He's two! Andy drove Jake and his lady, Bailey, and I drove myself. When we got there I parked and hopped in the old, blue truck that takes trips to car shows, and Jake stood up in the back as we pulled up. I'm not talking about Andy's truck, I mean his dad's truck that's from the 50's or something. I'd say I had a good time. I mostly hung out with Christian (C-macho), Max, and Rae. What I really want to do is just move past all of this drama and enjoy myself.

Plans

Luckily the thing with my car window only lasted a day. Andy pulled it back up pretty easily. I'll just have to open my door when I buy gas.

I've been getting very excited because I've pretty much figured out where I want to go to college and what I want to do. I want to go to COCC for the first 2 years and get my general eds out of the way. Then I want to go to Western Oregon University. My plan is to major in American Sign Language/English interpreting and minor in Spanish. They have the best ASL program in the country and I know I could have a very solid career as an interpreter. I'd get to have flexible hours and I'd see all kinds of different areas--anywhere that they need an interpreter. By areas I mean different fields. I could have my own business! I really love sign language and I'm really excited to learn.

I'm taking the PSAT on Saturday at 9. I have to be there at 8:30, though. I've had a pretty fun time recently, teaching my friends how to dance. West-coast swing. I'm no expert but it's so enjoyable to teach them and see them improve. It's in preparation for homecoming. I won't be going but I know they will have such a good time. Next week is spirit week! School is always much more interesting around homecoming or different events. The whole place seems to wake up a little more and it's sort of a different experience.

I'm hoping to connect a bit more with some of my friends...

Wow, I haven't written this much in one month since March!

Schedule '11-12

Why not...

1...Spanish 3....................Gromme-Clark (Profe)
2...Chorale.......................Jacot
3...Pre-Calc.....................Greenwood
4...Vocal Jazz Ensemble...Jacot
5...AP Lang.....................McCormick
6...Chemisty.....................Moehl
7...US History..................Smith

Make-Shift Window

My car is 21 years old... It has a few issues. I can't complain too much though because it's my very own. Plus, some of the issues are my fault. Today I bought gas and, since the driver's window doesn't roll down, I rolled down my back left one. Unfortunately, it wouldn't roll back up. When I got home it occurred to me that things could potentially get stolen from my car so I took everything out. Then I considered the rather high possibility of it raining... No matter what I tried I couldn't get the window to go up, so I decided to just make one. Saran wrap and duct tape. It was very difficult and took almost an hour because it was really windy. I'm actually pretty proud. It's easier to see out from the inside than to see in from the outside.

I've only actually done damage to my car once... You don't actually need hub caps though so whatever. After this happened, it ended up falling off and I decided to just remove all of them.

I'm very grateful to have my little car. I have so much freedom and I consider myself lucky.

Inquiry

How and why do I do the things I do, I wonder... How did I come to be this way? I'm not invincible by any means but shouldn't things bother me more than they do? Shouldn't I get angry and speak my mind? Shouldn't my filter be a little smaller? Am I too forgiving? It's possible. Am I letting things bounce off of me, or absorbing it, or am I just letting people walk all over me? Should I speak up? I know it matters how I feel but I seem to just push it aside for more "important" things. Is that bad? I act almost as though there's nothing to be done and I'm simply enduring as best I can. Sigh... I don't know...

Maybe it's time I stop taking shit.

To whom it may concern:

Does the sight of them make you smile?

Or the sound of their voice?

Or the smell of their embrace?

Do they make you feel better?

When you're sad or already happy?

Do they surprise you?

Wonderfully?

Unintentionally?

Do you think of them often?

At school?

At work?

At home?

Does it sadden you to see them go?

Do you long for them when they're gone?

Do you keep a picture of them in your mind?

Do you worry about them?

...

Do they worry about me?

Do they keep a picture of me in their mind?

Does it sadden them to see me go?

Do they think of me often?

At home?

At work?

At school?

Do I surprise them?

Unintentionally?

Wonderfully?

Do I make them feel better?

When they're sad or already happy?

Does the sight of me make them smile?

Or the sound of my voice?

Or the smell of my embrace?

...

Do any of those things matter?

Absolutely.

Productivity

I have spent almost this entire day by myself. I stayed home from the rest of my family's activities to be productive. They literally just got home. Joe bought two throwing stars. I slept in until about 9, ate a tuna sandwich at about 10, took a shower, slacked off and messed around on the computer a bit, and finally started into my pre-calculus. I spent over an hour singing loudly in the front room going over choir music. I took the trash out from all over the house, bought gas, and got my friend Kate a present for her birthday. In about a half hour I'm going to her party. I'm going to check my oil now...and possibly throw a throwing star...

Love/Hate List 2011

I just realized that I've gone through almost this entire year and I forgot to make a new list. That will not do.

*Same as last year

Hates:

• Spiders *
• Bugs *
• Sharks *
• Scary movies *
• When people don't use their blinker in a roundabout
• Killing the car (especially with an audience)
• Coconut *
• Bad smells
• Rude people *
• Hurting myself
• Being in close proximity to flapping wings
• Mushrooms
• Frustration-induced crying
• People touching my armpits
• Being late
• Forgetting important things
• When things are unorganized

Loves:

• Chocolate *
• Singing *
• Dancing *
• Having money
• Freedom
• Listening to or playing music
• Being with friends
• Hugs *
• Warmth
• Great smells
• Successfully baking something
• Smooth skin
• Laughing *
• Sleeping *
• Peoples' teeth after braces *
• Thunderstorms
• Long conversations
• Delicious food

Independence

For a while now I've been slowly thinking more about what I'm going to do after high school. I've become a much more responsible person and I feel that I've grown up a lot in the past couple years. I'm currently unemployed and I realized how much I depended on being employed. I also discovered how much I hate mooching. It amazes me how much some people do it and how much they depend on their parents. I love being able to do things myself and I consider myself very lucky in some ways. I know that when I'm finished with school I will probably start working a lot more and begin (if I haven't already started, which I probably will have) preparing myself for living on my own. That sounds so weird. Cheesy almost. But I'm finally starting to see how difficult it will be. It's frightening.

Before I'm officially an adult, I'd like to learn how to cook and bake better than I can now. I want to know what to do if my car breaks down in the middle of no where. I want to actually know the names of the things under the hood and what they do and how to fix them if there's something wrong with them. I want to know how to survive... It's sort of incredible to me how some people know so much. Something I really want to do is learn sign language and Spanish. First of all, I find them extremely interesting and I enjoy learning languages. Second, knowing multiple languages will really help when I'm looking for a job. It could possibly even be a career. I want to travel...

Seattle

I've spent the last 5 days in the lovely city of Seattle. It's my first time coming here and I've enjoyed it quite a bit. I was staying with my great aunt and uncle. On the first day we went to the public library which is seriously the coolest building. We also went to Volunteer Park. The next day we went to the zoo, the troll under the bridge, and the locks. My favorite thing at the zoo was the gorilla; it ran past me behind the glass and banged its fists on it. Scared the crap out of me. On Saturday we went to the Seattle Center by the Space Needle and I saw the coolest fountain I've ever seen. Definitely the highlight of the trip. Yesterday we took a water taxi downtown. We went to Pike Place Market and the Seattle Art Museum. I love the modern art. Today we went out to Tacoma to the Museum of Glass. We actually got to see people blowing and molding the glass. Very cool. I'd definitely come back here someday.

Moves Like Jagger

I found this hilarious, and I love this song.

New Places

There are so many things I've been doing, it's incredible. First of all--Philadelphia. The first thing we did was take a tour of Independence Hall. The capital of the US used to be Philadelphia. I had a real Philly cheesesteak sandwich from Pat's King of Steaks and it was literally one of the best things I've ever eaten. After that we saw the Liberty Bell, and unfortunately I learned nothing about it. We saw where Ben Franklin's grave and the place where he worked and ran up the steps from the movie Rocky. :) We were all yelling victoriously at the top. We drove through Amish country in a town called Intercourse... We had a lot of fun toying with that name... I did learn a lot about the Amish but I have too many other things to talk about. Gettysburg was the last place we went to in that area. It was very cool, and again, too many other things to talk about.

After ariving back in DC, my grandpa had to go straight to the hospital for emergency eye surgery. He had a retinal detachment and couldn't even see out of his right eye. He had a cataract surgery abnout 30 years ago which, for some reason (we don't know why), can cause a higher risk for retinal detachment. They put a gas bubble in his eye to push his retina back against the supportive tissue. (He had us research it so we'd know all about it.) We had planned to do a few more things in DC but he couldn't drive. He's doing better now though.

My dad, brothers, and I left for New York on the 5th and met my aunt and uncle there pretty late at night. But time doesn't really matter there, so we were out 'til like 3 in the morning. We went to Times Square and got peanuts and a big pretzel from some carts. It was sort of mesmorizing just to see everything there. I feel like I should be more used to seeing tall buildings. The next day we went to the top of the Rockefeller Center and got a great view of the city. At FAO Schwartz we played the Big Piano and actually got to see a couple of the employees there perform a few songs! We all got animal puppets. We walked a very tiny bit into Central Park just to sort of get the gist of it. While looking for a taxi at the hotel (we needed two for 6 people), my dad got us a LIMO! The driver (Adelson) took us where we could see the Statue of Liberty from a distance and the Bodies Exhibit by the seaport. That was very interesting...There's a bunch of real (dead) people that are all cut open and have no skin. They somehow replaced all the water in the organs and things with silicone...something silicone. They were all just stiff, out in the o[en, in different action poses. There were a bunch of different sections--skeletal, muscular, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, and there was a separate room for fetal development. I couldn't stand to look in any of the bodies' eyes...it made me realize that they were real people. And they just looked pretty weird. After that we went to Ground Zero...It was very emotional. We had dinner in Little Italy. It took us a long time to leave the next day. We took a subway just for the experience and it got delayed. We were going to go up the Empire State Building but we kind of got that experience at the Top of the Rock, so we just hung out at a restaurant at the bottom for a little while.

That night, my aunt and uncle took us up to their house in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. On the way there by brothers stuck their puppets out the window and talked to people with them. They got an elephant and a hippo; mine's an alligator. It only took 35 minutes to drive through Rhode Island. The next morning we went to the beach right next to their house. The Atlantic is way warmer than the Pacific and it's calmer but the beaches are much rockier. We also went down to Rhode Island for some nicer beaches and other things to see. We looked at some big mansions that people use in the summer and it was totally the Great Gatsby setting. We drove out to a (private) beach and enjoyed the waves for a bit. The sand was much nicer there. It started pouring down rain and the waves picked up a lot, plowing me over several times. It was extremely fun though and one of the best times I had on my whole trip. The next day we went to Boston. First thing, we took a Duck Boat tour of the city. After that we got a tour of Fenway Park! Most of the people there were Yankee fans. :P Boo. Red Sox all the way. That evening I slurped an oyster for the first time, and it wasn't bad! I put cocktail sauce on it and it just tasted like the sauce. Why is it you're "not supposed" to chew it? The next day we went to another beach and we swam in the ocean a bunch. This was a very rocky beach and I cut my foot. It hurta a lot more now but hopefully it won't be infected. That salt water burned. We went to Boston again the day after that and walked the Freedom Trail. We saw Paul Revere's house and grave and did a lot of shopping. That evening we went to a restaurant and I had lobster for the first time too! I'm kind of a pro at getting the meat out...no big deal... But I'm pretty sure I prefer crab to lobster. We took a plane back to DC. It was so fun to go there and I'd really love to come back some day. :)

Today in DC we went to the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial. My grandpa was actually in the Vietnam War but he was stationed in Japan. He knew a couple guys that died in the war and we found their names on the wall. While we were there it started DUMPING rain and we all got totally soaked. I'm going home the day after tomorrow! Jake is going to Europe tomorrow with my dad. I'm so jealous. He'll have so much fun! A few days after I get home I'm going to Seattle. This summer is sort of great I think...besides my stupid foot, that is. And now I'm sick.

Back East

I left the lovely Bend, Oregon one week ago. So far I've been to the National Museum of American History, Arlington National Cemetery, the Marine Corps Memorial, Mount Vernon, and Bull Run (Manassas). The cemetery is enormous; thousands of people are buried there. We saw JFK and his family's graves. Mount Vernon is where George Washington lived. They keep his mansion restored and we learned a lot about him...but the main thing I remember is that he didn't have wooden teeth. There were supposed to be reenactments at Bull Run with musket firings and other Civil War stuff but it was all cancelled because of the heat. A heat wave is coming east from the mid-west and every day has been extremely hot. Today it got above 100 degrees. Jake keeps saying how 22 people have already died in the mid-west because of it. But it was like 110 over there. Anyway, hehe...I'm talking about the weather. Tomorrow morning (this morning; it's past 1 AM here) we're going to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. It's not a garden; it's an amusement park. :) On Sunday we're going to Colonial Williamsburg. There are a whole bunch of actors and they're all in character in colonial times and it's all set up that way. It should be cool. Next weekend we're going to Philadelphia, and the weekend after that we're going to NEW YORK!!! I'm so excited!!!! We'll be there for a few days and then we're going to Boston to visit my aunt and uncle for a few days. When I see all of this on a calendar it makes this time I have here seem much shorter. When I get back, I'll be home for a few days and then I'm going to Seattle. It's going to be difficult to just sit down and do those summer reading assignments...Oh well. This will be awesome. :)

Leaving soon...

It was raining at the mountain the last couple of days so I was called off from work. Since I got my food-handler's card, they had me running food to people as well as dish-washing. Now I'm done 'til the winter season. I am leaving for Virginia on Friday and I'm going to miss everyone so dearly. I'm going to write so many letters. Right now I'm just trying to have a positive attitude and to not get worked up about missing everyone. At this point, the only things left on my summer list to do are summer reading and shopping.

I'm kind of melancholy right now and having writer's block...

Licensed Driver!

A lot has happened recently... First of all, about a week and a half ago, my bestliest friend Kacie arrived from Texas!!! Unfortunately no accent, but she's here until next Friday. I'm so happy that she's here. :)

Also, TODAY I GOT MY LICENSE!!!! :D I got marked down a little with the driving but I was pretty proud because none of it was related to my actual driving; it was just a couple little things that I did. Not important. Anyway, I used my own car for the test. I considered using KP's car because it's an automatic but when I tried it out this morning, it was just extremely uncomfortable and weird. I'm better with my stick shift.
We also floated the river today! The weather wasn't incredible, but tomorrow it's going to rain so at least we did it while we could. I'm exhausted. I swam a large chunk of the float and Kacie and I biked home. We've been doing a lot of that since we don't want to stay home and the parental units have work...and they're just tired of driving me around. Not anymore though! ;) I drove to Domino's and picked up pizza this evening. First drive by myself. I'm really excited that I'll be able to know my way around much better.
I'm not really looking forward tomorrow morning...I have to take the 8:15 bus to work for an orientation. I'll be up at the mountain again this summer. I'm hoping to go roller skating soon...

Some Matters of Business

Yesterday Andy and I put new speakers and a new stereo in my car. :) They sound so much better. I learned how to hook up all the wiring and everything. I really like learning how things work like that. I also scheduled my driving test... I know I shouldn't be but I'm still kind of nervous. I know it won't be too bad though. I'm scheduled for June 27th at 9, and I also have to take the 20-question test. I'm surprised it's so simple for something so important. I think it shouldn't be so easy because then a bunch of morons are allowed to drive.
I'll probably start working again in the next week or two. It'll probably be about 4 days a week. If I get my food handler's card, a much wider range of opportunities will open up for me. Until then, I'll be washing dishes and bussing again. But it's good! I have expenses for my car and insurance saved and this will help with that some more. It also just gives me a bit more freedom. I can't wait to get my license...

Sweet Disposition -- The Temper Trap

Yeah...I'm seriously obsessed with this song right now...

SUMMER!

FREEDOM! School is officially out for the summer! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted, and now I can finally relax. Today after school a bunch of friends and I played with a nerf football, went to subway, played basketball and 4-square, got smoothies, and relaxed a bit at Dudley's bookstore. Tonight is our 10th annual last-day-of-school-ice-cream-for-dinner-party. We've had it every first and last day of school ever since we were little. Tomorrow night there will be Black-Tie-Bowling for Jake's birthday. That should be a lot of fun as well.

Things I need to do this summer:

• Yoga
• Get my license
• Continue working
• Get food-handler's card
• Summer reading (BLURGH!)
• Float the river
• ....Shopping

Birthday

16 years old. :) I don't really think it's quite struck me yet... This morning Andy made waffles for breakfast and my mom drove us to school. In Spanish Taylor got the whole class to sing to me and it was really embarrassing. Pretty funny though. We're having crepes for dinner. I have yet to schedule to take my driving test and I'm a bit nervous. I'm extremely relieved to be done with softball, though. I'm meaning to start doing yoga but it'll be easier when school's out--12 more days!

Car

I'm soooo glad. Yesterday we had a movie night with the Fellowship of the Ring (special edition). :) I want to find the special edition of the other two as well... Also, I basically have a car now. Andy's going to use it first for a little while to find out everything that's wrong with it and fix it, but I'll be using it after that! It's a red, manual 1990 Honda Accord. It takes some getting used to but I'll get there.
I'm so glad it's May. 23 days 'til I'm 16! 39 days 'til school's out! It's a beautiful day today. Hopefully it'll stay nice and just be spring/summer for a while. I'm so sick of the snow and cold.

Weekend

I "played" with varsity yesterday. It was a double header at Crook County. They needed me on JV for the first game because a girl got hurt and then for the second game I was with varsity. I literally did nothing, though. I was just glad to get home afterwards. It's a beautiful day today so I might go outside for a little while. It's going to be a rather lonely weekend because a bunch of my friends are in New York and one is in California. And I need to get out of the habit (or at least I think so) of making plans with really short notice. I'm really glad it's the weekend...it was a looonng week. Easter is tomorrow. :) I think I'll make banana bread.

Lately

It's been a while since I've posted, and I really want to, but haven't really had anything to write about. There's only a few more weeks of softball left. This season seems really short. So far JV has only won one game I think. I think I'm okay with it though. The biggest reason for other teams getting runs off of us is that they steal and steal and steal and steal. We don't have very good catchers, so it's easy for them. I've been playing catcher a lot lately and really like it! I'm actually much better than the girl who primarily plays catcher... I'll be with varsity next week. I'll probably be in right field, but whatever, it's varsity. I've been doing a lot of baking lately. Three things in 2 months but that's a lot for me. I made ginger snaps, chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread. I really hope the weather starts getting consistent. It's been cold and warm and snowing and raining and I'm really tired of it. I want to be able to do summer things.

Stranded

On Thursday I flew down to California for my cousin's wedding. My brothers were already there. On the way home yesterday, we met my mom halfway in Dunsmiur at around 2, but then her car wouldn't start. We stayed at the gas station for about 2 hours while they tried to figure out what was wrong with it. It was also cold and raining. Andy was going to come rescue us and tow the car back. It would take him 4 or 5 hours to get there so we went to a shopping center with a movie theater and saw the movie Limitless. I don't recommend it. We tried to take our time and kill the time. We wandered around in Ray's and bought some applesauce for a while. The boys had their pillows with them rather than leaving them in the car so we sort of looked homeless. It was actually very funny. After that we went to the laundromat ("Launderland") and washed the pillows. We rather enjoyed ourselves there for a while and concluded the evening at Round Table Pizza. However we didn't end up leaving until after 9. We got home at about 3 AM this morning. I slept in but went to school at lunch so I could make it to my history class. :P It's a pain to make that class up. I'd rather not go on any more long car rides for a while...

Softball Updates/Injuries

The first softball game of the season is tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. I've never played in a varsity game before. I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I'm expecting second base or right field. The real first game was supposed to be last week but it was postponed to the 30th because of the weather. That was a JV game. There was also supposed to be a varsity game yesterday but it was also postponed to the 30th. It was really nice to have a break from it though this weekend. It was starting to mess up my body. My arms and back were getting really sore but they're fine now. They're going to decide where the game will be tomorrow morning. It should be a lot of fun! The team is really great and we're all very supportive of each other. I'll be in a JV game on Tuesday, too.
At the last practice, I was taking a grounder at shortstop and the ball bounced higher than I expected. It hit me right in the throat. It bounced off and I finished the play before proceeding to cry behind my mitt. :P I seem to be the most injury-prone person on the teams. Both teams for that matter. Early on in the practices, I took a line-drive to the forearm. Recently, I've gotten a bruised knee from sliding and a burn on my elbow from 'diving back to first' in the wrestling room. Gotta love softball.

Phone fail

I had a rather lovely evening tonight! Michael Jackson dance wii game...mini pizzas...the game of Real Life...Cuppa Yo...all very good things. A less good thing is that today at work I dropped my phone in a sink full of water. I took it apart a bit and let it sit in some rice for a few hours. It was still having issues but I let it sit for several more hours when all of the fun things were happening so now it's working fine. I feel like I really need to memorize some numbers now to save me some stress in the future. I've decided that after this season, I don't want to work up at the mountain again. I'd rather be somewhere closer and not so cold. I'm not sure if I'll be working during the summer or not. I'll probably be able to drive myself to a job by then. Summer is probably my favorite season. I'm really tired of the cold.

Boundaries

     Some things I've learned have really helped me understand people better. I've talked a bit about boundaries before but they are awesome. It's hard to get along with people who have different boundaries than you. I really like the analogy that your boundaries are your fence and your yard. Everything in that yard is yours. If someone dumps a bunch of trash over the fence, it's not yours. It's theirs. They may say they did it because you did something else, but it's still their trash. You can throw it back over, you can make the fence bigger and taller, and sometimes those people will no longer be welcome inside them. A lot of people don't like boundaries. Some don't know how to build that kind of fence or it's so tall and thick that they don't let anybody in. I'm sort of annoying myself with this fence analogy now... Slowly, I've been learning how to just let things go and say "whatever." I'm better off being happy with people who appreciate me than with people who don't. I'd rather do what is best for me.

Beiber Fever

I went to see JUSTIN BEIBER in 3D!!! yesterday. :) It took me and Taylor quite a while to convince Max to see it but it finally payed off. I actually quite enjoyed the movie! It was interesting, funny at times, and he's actually talented. There were only 3 guys in the theater--the other guy was someone's dad. I might just have to get the album now...
I asked for a bunch of days off from work today. During spring break I'll be playing a game with the varsity team and another with the JV team. I'm going to be a "swinger" because there aren't enough girls on the JV team. I'm primarily on varsity though. :) I hope more people come try out...I'm a little worried because I think playing on JV might get kind of frustrating... I'm very excited to start practices though. I just wish the snow would LEAVE. I really don't like playing softball in the cold. The other days off are because I'm going to California for my cousin's wedding! I'm so excited! I rather like weddings. :)

Abnormal Enjoyments

These are some things I've done in the past week or two that I don't normally do:

• Played a cowbell with a band
• Had a successful jam sesh
• Snowboarded after work
• Played in a toy store
• Wore a fake mustache as a beard around downtown
• Sat next to the statue on the bench downtown
• Put said mustache on a picture of a kid in Goody's
• Sneaked into a school play
• Played pool
• Had a movie night
• Played in another toy store
• Moved the hands of mannequins in Gap to face the wrong ways
• Had a real ice cream cone

Snow Day!

It's been so long since we've had one. I'm just enjoying the warmth of the house today. I might go to the bank later. Yesterday was Valentine's Day. I'm very happy because my mom is now ENGAGED!!! :D Andy asked us for permission and we all said yes, shortly followed by "Finally!" I'm so excited!
Thanks to the snow day, I don't have driver's ed today either! YES! I now have a lot of chocolate as of yesterday. I think today besides doing some homework, I would like to patch my favorite jeans and clean my room from top to bottom. I'll also need to work out... :) Whether this all happens remains to be seen.

Better post

     I have hereby decided that I need to just blog about interesting things, so I can stop boring anyone that reads this. I bore myself reading things I've written. But it has been a little while and I have a lot on my mind. I want to write something good.
     I've learned a lot this month. A lot about friends, mostly. You need each friend for certain reasons. That could be to make you laugh, let you cry all over them, be angry along with you, listen to everything you're going through, give you advice, call you out when you screw up...and they could need you for these too. Not everything though because that's way too much pressure for someone to bear.
     I've also learned that everyone has different boundaries. Some have many, others have zero. Both are just fine! It's really interesting to me how different people can be and still get along. The hardest part is learning what kind of people we are and reasons why people get along or don't get along. I just hope learning these things can lead to solutions, rather than just dry knowledge. It's hard to learn this stuff though. Sometimes you have to go through some real crap to figure it out and by then you can only hope it's not too late to make it work.
     One of the best things I heard this month was, "It's easy to be there for someone when they don't expect it." Courtesy of KP. That's the best time to help people--when they're hurting or struggling or whatever and it just comes naturally to help them. Otherwise if you try to help them and it's not what was expected, there's no way it'll be satisfactory. If someone was feeling bad and you made them cookies, it would be wonderful! They would be totally grateful. But if someone was feeling bad and said, "Can you make me some cookies?" and you made some but they weren't their favorite kind, it wouldn't be all that great. It would be OK, but it wouldn't really help you feel much better.
     I'm not trying to make a point here or anything, I just want to get all of this out, I guess... I'm not an expert at any of this stuff. I just really like it. I hope all of this will make me better later on because without it, things were frustrating and confusing. Well, more so than now at least. I'm pretty sure something will always be frustrating and confusing as long as there are humans.

Well hey it's February!

I'm procrastinating reading a textbook so I figured I'd blog. Today at driver's ed we saw pictures of people that got all mangled up in car crashes. :P Honestly I think it's their goal to scare us into being good drivers. I'm a little worried my blog is just boring now... If so, I deeply apologize. But I also don't really care because I'm just going to keep posting. Lucky for you, they're generally pretty short and won't take up too much time.
I have all these things that I wish I could do. That I will do when I actually have free time. However that won't be for like 3 months, unfortunately. These are in no particular order.

• Yoga
• Ice/Roller Skating
• Volunteer some more
• Hang out downtown when it's warmer
• Finish another scarf
• Reorganize my room
• Snowboard with friends
• Finish reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid

That's all I can think of at the moment. So I will leave you with this... Snargle blargle. Good night!

The semester is over...

We have no school tomorrow because of it. :) I'm kind of surprised that the year is half over. I start 2 new classes on Monday: Guitar Americana and Intro to Art. I decided that I'm not going to work tomorrow. I'm not on any schedule so it doesn't matter. Winter formal is next Saturday. But it's not a formal, it's just a white-out. Winter non-formal that we wear white to. It's ok though because formals are expensive! Which is why it's not a formal. Anywho, I am just rambling because it's been a little while since I've posted. I have a bunch of Val-o-grams to sell or send. They include a song sung by a group at my school, a box of chocolates, and a rose. They'll be going all over town to deliver them. :) I've been thinking about auditioning for one of those choirs and today I found out that I'll have to do a pretty prestigious audition. I'll have to sing a whole jazz song a cappella. I don't even know any jazz songs. Well, I probably do but didn't realize it. Still. Auditions are in April so if I want to do it I'll have to do some preparing.

MLKJ Day

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Turns out I didn't have to work all weekend! I'm kind of just glad at this point about that. I've had a lot of free time to blog...It's a bit silly how much I'm blogging lately. I have an appointment today for a haircut, and eyebrow wax, and a facial. I'm very excited for it. I want to get layers. My mom is giving me the wax and facial so it'll be more comfortable. School is back tomorrow. I hope this warm weather keeps up. I think I'm just not a fan of the cold, really. Well, I need to get some work done before I go.

Boo.

Well, I don't have to work today. The weather is terrible up there. Dang. Hopefully tomorrow though. I have a bunch of extra time to get some homework done though. I should get going on that... Yay.

Huzzah!

I finished my scarf! I'm so proud! I didn't make any mistakes and I taught myself how to 'bind off' to finish it. I'm so glad it's Friday. We have a three-day weekend. I should get my first paycheck tomorrow at work! It's supposed to be really busy up there. I also had my first behind-the-wheel session at driver's ed. Just in general, I am not a fan of driver's ed. However, it is quite useful. There has been really nice, warmish weather lately and I'll be sad when it's gone. I'm pretty much ready for the snow to leave now. Here I go, talking about the weather. I think it's a sign that I should stop writing. So bye!

Scarf

I've been knitting a scarf! I did a ton today and I'm really proud because I haven't made any mistakes! It's not done yet--there's about a foot to go. :)

Nothing really interesting is going on lately. Behind-the-wheel at driver's ed starts tomorrow after school. Also at school I'm doing a 'challenge day' thing. Right now I'm witnessing Kate tape guitar picks to her wall. We might make a collage from magazines. Not sure what of but let's do it! :)

I realize now that in the picture I wasn't looking at the camera.

Meh.

School's back. I won't get my first paycheck until the 14th. I start driver's ed tomorrow. Every one of my friends that have taken it said they hated it. Basically just meh. I have to go do homework now.

Sorry, this was a short, depressing post.