Goats

I have been dreadfully sick lately. I have nasty cold and a cough and I feel quite awful. I stayed home from school today. But on a good note I received word today that I earned a renewable scholarship. It's my first one. I still have to apply for more but it's nice to hear about one. Not much else is really new... This video pretty much was the best part of my day.

Moments of Pride

I learned how to play Mad World on the piano (Gary Jules), and it's very easy to play but still--great song. Also I'm drinking tea. I don't like tea. This stuff is good. I made myself drink it 'cause I'm sick and have junk in my throat and I have to have a clear throat so I can sing in Fiddler on the Roof and tea's good for that. It's almost 1 AM...I'm really just rambling right now. Today I helped Kate set up her basement for her party on Friday. We painted the walls black, or at least added another coat, and splattered neon paint everywhere. Also there are black lights and strobes, and we hung sheets and Christmas lights all over the place. It looks amazing. I'm excited. Also, I finished my homework for AP Calculus today (reading the first chapter) so now I just have to make a chart of political issues and write a paper on who I'd vote for and why. :P Blurgh. I don't even care about politics. I have 11 days to write that, clean my room, clean the bathrooms (because I'm weird and am getting OCD about them), and wash/clean my car. It's been gathering filth all summer. Darn...I'm out of tea. I want more. :( Maybe I'll clean my room tonight. I often feel jealous towards other blog-writers. They all seem so intellectual. I don't even try very hard to have exceptional writing so it just sounds like me talking. In other news, I asked a cute guy for directions today. I know him from school and I saw him on the way to drop a friend off at her friend's house. He smiled at me as I passed him. Then on the way back I stopped for directions because I actually needed them. I never talk about guys on here. I don't see why I shouldn't, at least little things like that. It's just something in my life, and here I go rambling again. I think I'm really tired. I have a lot of laundry to put away and some is in the dryer. At least tomorrow I can sleep in. Oh! It's Keala's birthday! She's 7! Gah these kids are getting so old. And geez, so am I. I've heard that the last year of high school is loads of fun and it goes by fast. It's a bit frightening, but I'm mostly just extremely stoked for it. I can't wait to see what happens to all of our lives, even if I'll be sad to say goodbye to people. I'm gonna be so sad next fall... But that's over a year away. Wow this is a random one! I'm gonna make more tea. At least now I can bring it to rehearsal and stuff since I know I like it. Well, this kind anyway. By the way, rehearsals are SO much fun. We rotate dancing, singing, and acting the last 2 hours of the day. Dancing is my favorite. It's going to be so great! I've invited a bunch of family to come see the show in October. I can't wait to get totally done with all the songs so we can practice with the band/orchestra in the pit. My, my I say I've written enough for one post, especially since this is so all over the place. If anyone still reads my blog, please feel free to comment so I know you're there... Even if no one does, I'm not going to stop posting! :)

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.

Thanksgiving Break

Virginia was wonderful! On the flight there we stopped in Denver and then went on the Dulles. The hot tub is working now so that was fun to use. We had ping pong and darts tournaments and played lots of games in the yard including bear in the woods. In the city we went to an old train station, an old post office with a big tower, the FBI building, and the museum of natural history. We didn't stay at the museum for long but we saw some really cool stuff. Thanksgiving was incredibly lovely. The food was amazing. The only really bad thing was the flight back and that I was sick most of the time. We didn't switch planes so we stopped in 3 cities: Chicago, Minneapolis, Pheonix, and finally we got to Portland. It took 12 hours. Miserable. And then of course there's the 3 hour drive home. Sitting for that long is not healthy. Oh, by the way, the lost our luggage. Of course. So now I'm just trying to recover from the cold and wait for my bag to arrive, probably on Tuesday.

Summer Stuff

We got back from camping yesterday. Kate came so that was fun. We went to a spot that was totally out in the wilderness besides a bunch of cattle that belong to a person somewhere. The first morning we woke up to a cow mooing really loud close to our site. Joe ate some bad potato salad though and had food poisoning the next day and felt horrible. :( But we had a lot of fun and made our own fire pit thing and I ate 4 s'mores one night. We drove past a bunch of creepy houses on the way back and a shoe-tree. I also learned to knit! I love it! I made 3 head band/ear-warmer thingies. I'm pretty proud. Kate made one mitten. :)

Tomorrow I'm gonna hang out with Kate. I really want to float the river soon!

Annie's getting back tomorrow! I haven't seen her since like the day before I left to California! We were in Target and I got a swimsuit and saw her there also getting a swimsuit. But anyway, I need hang with my wonder twin! And soon!

Moving

I haven't written in a while. It's been a couple weeks since I've been in California. I drove my dad's truck a few times and we went to Water World and went to some parties. It's been fun! We play Guitar Hero World Tour like every day. My permit came in the mail so I've showed it off to my family. :P Lol. I'm sick right now. Conjested and coughing a lot. I took a ni-quil for the first time last night. That thing kicks butt!! I was knocked out cold! I went to bed at like 1:30 and woke up at 12:06!
Right now we're in the process of packing up the house. We're moving to Washington DC soon! I'm not actually moving, just my dad and them. It'll be awesome to see the sights and stuff! When I was little we moved from Georgia to the west coast but I don't remember any of the drive. So I'm excited to actually remember it. And take a million pictures. :) I've also never been to the east coast so that'll be cool too! I'll have to ask my dad for the route and put it on here or something. This roadtrip will take a few days. My dad wants to go about 600 miles each day. That's so far!! I'll have to do a lot of reading in the car. I have stupid summer reading. :P Ugh... it's like having to do tons of homework on the plane to Ireland. (I really did do that.) I'll keep track of all the states we go into and the stuff we see. I'm excited. :)

Ear Infection

A lot has happened this weekend. It was a 3-day weekend because of...Presidents Day, I think. On Saturday I went to the mountain with Annie. It was really fun and I can tell I've improved a lot. I've had a cold for a while and I'm really congested, though. :P On the way back from the mountain the elevation and pressure and stuff made my ears "clogged" and I tried to pop them. My right ear was fine but my left ear wouldn't pop for the whole ride. I got home and it still wouldn't pop. It was really bugging me because it made my hearing muffled on one side. I tried everything. I chewed extra and even when I didn't have food, trying to pop my ear. I Q-tipped the crap out of my ear. Nothing. My jaw got a little sore from all the chewing.

On Sunday I chewed some gum with no success. I went to my school to an 'open gym' for softball that I could get some practice in before tryouts. Tryouts are next Monday. I hope they go well... Anyway that night my ear felt as if there was an ear plug in it. It was so muffled it felt like there was something blocking it!

Yesterday morning, my mom told me to get up and get ready to go to the doctor. My ear felt a lot less muffled. There weren't many people there so we didn't have to wait long. We got me a physical for softball at the same time. So, the doctor looked in my ear with the otoscope. My mom got to look, too. The doctor and my mom said my right ear (the good one) looked normal and grayish or flesh-colored. My left ear, however, is really red and liquid-looking inside. :P EW. I have an ear infection. He prescribed me some big, yellow pills that I have to take twice a day. Two at breakfast and two at dinner. For 10 days. They taste bad. And they're big! Still, my other options were pills that I chew (ack!) or liquid. I'm not at all excited about either of those. So I have the swallow kind.

Today I felt okay but my ear was still muffled and I had to take big pills. Later tonight we're going to watch American Idol. I hope we're not missing anything too amazing on the Olympics...

:)