I just realized...

That I'm in THREE chats right now. I'm chatting with Hannah on Facebook (though I only just started that one), I'm in the Terminus Squee Chat with gigglingfairy (finally, it's working for me!), and I'm in the Reading Group Chat on Leaky (for the first time in forever). Jeez, the things summer vacation does to me!

Ah, well, I'll go get back to my chats.

(And, eek, I'd forgotten how fast the Leaky chats go! Too many people with too many ideas!)

Blah.

Okay. So, this post has no real point. For a while I was going to just ramble on more about how much I hate being at my mom's house, but ranting about it isn't going to do me any good because...well, that doesn't get me out of here. Instead, I think I'll make a list of the things I'm looking forward to in the next two weeks. Maybe that will make me realize it isn't going to be TOO bad being stuck here. Ahem:

Tonight: A new episode of Adventure camp! Yay! Yes, that makes me a huge nerd, but y'all should know by now that I enjoy being a nerd.
Tomorrow night: Decoding Stonehenge. Squee!!! And...new songsfromahat video!
Tuesday: Possibly cross-country practice, and hopefully gym class with Leslie =]
Monday-Friday: New fiveawesomegirlsvideos!
June 7th: The Wonderful World of Disney's Finding Nemo. And, TWO MONTHS UNTIL TERMINUS!!!
June 8th-10th: Camping with my girl scout troop!
June 10th: Hopefully gym class with Leslie again
June 9-13th: More new fiveawsomegirls videos!!!
At some point: Two new PotterCasts!
June 13th, at 6:00 pm: Dad's house! Squee!!!!! =]

So, none of those things probably seem very big, but I think they'll all help me get through the next two weeks. Of course, the thought that every minute 6:00 on June 13th comes closer will continuously help. But when I'm stuck here, the smallest things make me happy. Now, if only my mom would actually buy some food....

So, I don't mean to sound desperate, but if there's anything you think you could do to cheer me up, let me know! I'm sending happy thoughts y'all's way! =] Cheers!

Random spelling bee rambling

Umm...so these girls were some of my favorites in the competition this year, all of whom are now officially out, because they're too old to compete next year.

Catherine "Cat" Cojocaru of Minnesota
Well, she does share my name, which is awesome! But she was so poised in the competition this year, and she did amazingly well, tying for 8th place. =] The word she got out on was bogatyr, which I didn't know the ending of either. It's Russian...but that didn't seem to help either of us

Cat concentrates on spelling a word during the competition.

Rose Sloan of Illinois
This girl is great. She never managed to hide when she knew a word--she immediately got a humongous smile on her face. And her reactions when she got a word right based merely on educated guesses were priceless. Like her, I'm so happy her sponsor decided to sponsor again this year! She got out in the 11th round on the word sheitel, which she clearly thought she knew. But she tied for 4th grade, an outstanding place. Congratulations, Rose!

Just one of Rose's many priceless reactions to correctly spelling a word during today's competition.

Jahnavi Iyer of Pennsylvania
Well, this girl always managed to make the audience and me laugh, asking at one point, "Are there any alternate words I can spell?" Great personality, very prepared, and very poised. She got out in the 10th round, and her word was another that I knew how to spell because of the French. It was parfleche, and Jahnavi spelled it "sh" at the end, again not making the connection of French. But, she tied for 8th place. Great job, Jahnavi, especially for a first year competitor!

Jahnavi is very happy that she spelled a word correctly. =]

Kaitlyn Johnston of Orlando, Florida
The main reason I enjoyed Kaitlyn was her big smile and how poised she was on stage. She was confident, but not cocky. But, the word she got out on, soutache actually was one I knew how to spell. I don't know if she was nervous or just didn't get the French "sou," but either way she did an amazing job. Oldest speller at 15 years old, tied for 17th place.

Kaitlyn concentrates on spelling a word, writing it out on her hand to make sure she knows the spelling.

Sade Dunbar of Jamaica
Now, Sade was the most polite speller at the bee, always addressing Dr. Bailly by name and asking him the questions in a polite manner. She was very poised, and I would have loved for her to make it to the finals, but she got out in Round 7 on hidradenitis which is very hard to spell, since, as she did, most people would assume it was a "y" instead of an "i." Still, she tied for 13th place and was the longest lasting international speller! Congratulations, Sade. =]

Sade practices spelling with her coach at her junior high school in Jamaica.

And, of course, as I mentioned in the last post, Tia Thomas, placing an outstanding 3rd place in her 5th year of competition. Congratulations, Tia, and keep working on that club helping younger students with spelling!

Tia tries very hard to spell her word in Round 13, but unfortunately spelled an "o" as an "e" and tied for 3rd place tonight.

Updates and stuff....

So, the grade from my health final finally came back!!!
Final test grade: 86% (lowest grade, funnily enough...)
Semester grade: 97.86%

In other news...I'm completely sick and tired of being at my mom's house already and it's only been ONE DAY!!! Eeek! I don't know why it's bothering me more than it has been in the past. I think it's partially the house and my freezing room, but more than that it's how darn annoying and needy and everything my mom has gotten...it's more than it used to be. So...13 days and 20 1/2 hours more. *sigh*

I did watch the spelling bee today. My congrats go out to Sameer Mishra of West Lafayette, Indiana, the champion. =] I was so devastated that my favorite, Tia Thomas, only got third place. I so expected her to win! But...the word she got out on, opificer, tripped me up too. Yes, I am a nerd and I was spelling along with almost every single word today.

Hmm...Well, I hope y'all are happier than I am. Cheers!

The conflicting sides of today.

Today is awesome because:
I don't have any cavities! Yeah, that seems kind of random, but I went to the dentist yesterday afternoon and I didn't have any =]
The semi-finals and finals of the National Spelling Bee are today! So.......go watch them! They start in like one minute so I'm rushing.

Today is not awesome because:
I'm now officially stuck at my mom's house for the next 14 days and 9 hours. *sigh*
Melissa left for Thailand and Zach left for China--I'm never going to see him again, probably! Sad!
The Spurs lost last night, so they're not going to the finals =[ I mean, it's not like my whole life revolves around whether or not my basketball team wins, but it does make today notsome...

Finals report

This is just kind of for fun, me telling y'all what I got on my finals. Yay!

Earth Science
Final test grade: 95.52%
Final exam grade (with the test, lab, and project): 97.31%
Semester grade: 98.85%
French: <br> Final test grade (oral and essay): 98%
Semester grade: 96.24%
English:
Final test grade: 92%
Semester grade: 93.88%
Algebra II:
Final test grade: 101%
Semester grade: 96.52%
Biology:
Final test grade: 88.33%
Final exam grade (with the test and two labs): 90.67%
Journalism:
Final test grade: 100%
Semester grade: 100%

The only one I haven't gotten is my health final, which is the first final I took!!! How hard is it to just run the papers through the scantron machine and post them on IC?! Aaaaaaaargh!!!!!

Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed that. Sorry if you didn't. I'm just really bored.

Summer!!!!!!

Is now officially here! Well, technically it's been summer since 12:07 pm (yes, that IS when we got out of school. Random.) But I only just got home about 45 minutes ago and then I decide to empty my backpack and binders and clean my room and straighten up my bathroom. Yes, weird thing to do when I get home for summer, but I'm going to my mom's house tomorrow (ugh) and I come back here on the 13th and then leave for camp on the 15th. And I really didn't want to spend the one day in between cleaning (I'll be packing). Plus, it's nice to come home to a clean room.

So, I'll go through my day with you! Squee!!! Well, so it was really cold this morning--I wanted to wear shorts to school, but I had to walk and it was 45 degrees and raining and...well, I didn't want to walk into school with freezing legs! I got to school around 6:55, gave Ms. Bieger her cookies, and studied a little for the math final. Then, right at 7:13 we took the free response part of the Algebra II final, which I got 100 percent on! We had a short break and then took the multiple choice part of the final at 8:07 which I got a 94 on...so, overall, with those two grades and the 4 extra credit points I had for the final, I got 101 percent on the Algebra II final!!! =O Geez, that surprised me. Then I went straight from there to Journalism, where I gave Ms. McGuire her cookies as well, we took the final and did a bunch of random ...things. (like Harry Potter hangman!) The final was harder than I thought it would be, but I think I did all right. And considering I can get a 45 on that final and keep an A...I think I'm good!!! Then, like I said, school got out at 12:07. =]

Anyway, once school got out I said last goodbyes to friends (more on that later) and found Joel, Melissa, and Zach. The four of us proceeded to walk to Maggie Moos for ice cream which was about 4 or 5 miles of walking. Lucky for us, it got a lot warmer. I got a kids size of espresso ice cream with Reeses candy mixed in =] After Joel finished his large cone (seriously, the thing was gigantic), we went to California Pizza Kitchen and ordered two things of the Tuscan Hummus and pita appetizer and sat for a fairly long time eating that because...I think it was because we didn't want to leave. Then we finally left the Shops at Briargate (where Maggie Moos and CPK were) and walked up to Mountain Ridge, our middle school that we went to. We got there RIGHT as school was getting out and had the opportunity to talk to old teachers: Ms. Billiard, Ms. Sanders, Ms. Reed, and Ms. Loncar. That was another mile and a half or so. Zach and Melissa had to go home, but I walked with Joel to Academy International, our elementary school. We stayed there for roughly 45 minutes in his mom's kindergarten room, then she drove me home. But the walk to AIES was probably another half mile. So...yeah, I walked 6 to 7 miles today! =] I love walking--I could probably do it forever if I wanted to.

Now y'all have the summary of my day, so I'm going to go into my thoughts about summer being here. (Skip this part if you've gotten tired of my endless ranting) On the one hand, it makes me pretty happy because I'm free from homework and teachers and projects and having to wake up at 5:45 for 2 and a half months. Plus, camp starts in 17 days and Terminus is in only 70 days. But a much larger part of me really doesn't want it to be summer. It's kind of complicated, but mostly it's because I now have to go spend 15 days at my mom's house, which is really boring and aggravating and...well, my feelings and thoughts about my mom and her house could be another entire long entry, but basically I'm not happy there and I really don't want to spend any extra time there. In addition to the disappointment of spending my first two weeks of summer at my mom's house, summer means that I won't see a majority of my friends until August. For one thing, a lot of them are going on vacation. And for another, the ones who aren't probably aren't going to invite me to do anything with them, though Hannah and Malia might. Besides that, several of my friends are moving, including Zach, which just gives me a lot of conflicting feelings. I have so few friends that I hate losing even just the smallest ones. *sigh* So at the moment I think there's more negative feelings I have about summer coming than I do positive. Still, once these next 15 days have passed, I'll be a lot happier and excited about summer, I think and hope. And I will survive the 15 days at my mom's house, since I do it every summer. I just hate it.

Getting away from the negativeness! I'm really happy today, though. I smiled and laughed so much with Joel and Melissa and Zach that my face actually kind of hurts. And I have this tired happiness from walking that 6 to 7 miles.

I'll probably be posting in here a lot up until the 15th when I leave for camp with NO computers, which I don't mind, but just to let y'all know! Oh, and watch the preliminary rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee tomorrow! =]

Random pictures:
Clean room
School stuff
Empty backpack! *gasp*

Wellllll...happy thoughts coming y'alls way, as usual! Cheers!

My life as a nerd

This is what I did instead of studying for my English final. But I hope y'all enjoy learning just how nerdy I am, in case you actually needed proof!

I was born a pretty normal baby, I suppose. Brown hair, blue eyes (that have now become brown), 7 pounds, 1 ounce. Actually, according to my baby book I also had really long eyelashes and was an overall pleasant baby (though, of course, I did the normal annoying waking up in the nights to be fed). I think that my life when I lived in Colorado for…about a year was normal. Little did anyone know the big nerd I would become in my lifetime.

Now, I can’t say when exactly I first became a nerd—I don’t really remember my life much further back than 3 years old, and clear memories only start from the age of 4. I vaguely remember calling my daycare in Ohio, “Dinosaur School” because mostly I played with these plastic dinosaurs that they had. Which, in retrospect, is pretty nerdy. So maybe that’s where it started. But, anyway, I don’t remember much else about life in Ohio other than Dinosaur School. Seriously, I don’t remember any friends I might have had, although playing with dinosaurs probably didn’t make me that many friends. I also don’t remember much of my early days in Texas, either, though my earliest really clear memory comes from me talking to my mom about my 4^th birthday that my Grandpa would be coming four while holding one of those number candles (a 4, obviously).

Anyway, I was a pretty shy and nerdy little kid. I barely talked to anyone, and I was completely obsessed with Blues Clues and Winnie the Pooh. Yes, seriously. I don’t even know what it was, but I made my friends based on the fact that they also liked Winnie the Pooh. I distinctly remember in 1^st grade that a girl in my class said, “Winnie the Pooh is stupid,” and my friend Aliyah and I nearly started crying. Yeah. I’m not even kidding. Basically, I got obsessed with the most random things, and not normal girl things, either. I did have one of those American Girl dolls, named Hannie, that I got pretty attached to for a while. I also did swim team for a long time, which I guess is a pretty normal little kid thing to do. But on to the nerdy things. I was obsessed with those Hot Wheels cars. Seriously—I collected them in this blue container/box thingy, though I actually can’t find any of them anymore. My sister, my friends, and I made these weird mixtures out of grass and dirt and leaves and bugs and toothpaste and random things and tried to make our parents drink them (which they didn’t). And, from an early age, I would rather read than do most anything else. I was reading chapter books by the 1^st grade, I knew how to write by the age of four, and in 1^st grade I was already writing a few really crappy stories.

So, onto moving to Colorado in 2000. Well, as I’ve said so many times, this was when I first became obsessed with Harry Potter. I met my first friend, named Nick, through the combined factors of him being a Harry Potter fan and that our parents knew each other. And I was still really into reading—when we moved, I sat in the empty house reading those Ramona books while my sister was outside talking to the neighbor (who later became my best friend, but only after we were in the same 2^nd grade class). This is a list of the nerdy things I did throughout elementary school:

• For some reason, I became completely obsessed with bears. Black bears, spectacled bears, grizzly bears, polar bears, you name it…I had a bunch of books about them that I read for fun! I’d be at a party with my parents or talking to my grandparents and I’d come out with this really random fact about bears. They all thought it was adorable and genius and all that stuff, but it was really just incredibly…nerdy.
• At one point, my friends and I were obsessed with that Sailor Moon TV show, though I barely remember it anymore. I was also obsessed with the Powder Puff Girls for a short time.
• I did these math contests. Seriously, it was this nationwide thing with five hard math problems called Continental Math League. I hated it, but I still did EVERY year and in 2^nd grade I got 2^nd place in the city
• I also did Battle of the Books from 2^nd grade to 5^th grade. 50 books, and I believe I read about 35 of them—it would’ve been more, but they changed the list slightly a few times and several of the books didn’t appeal to me. We went to the regionals in 5^th grade (because that’s when they were) and my team was only a few points away from making the finals. It was actually a lot of fun, but I realize fully why people regard me with strange looks when I tell them I did a competition answering questions about books when I was in elementary school
• My sister and I made this whole entire kingdom with our stuffed animals and played with them. One of my bears was queen, and another one was a duchess, and we came up with all these weird stories and scenarios. Yeah, nerdy.
• In 3^rd grade, my friends and I played Harry Potter on the playground. I was Parvati Patil and I danced with Chris Acy, who was Harry, at one point during recess. Though, of course, he pretends not to remember
• In 4^th and 5^th grade we progressed to playing a few different things. We’d spend some recesses talking the entire time in Pig Latin because we thought it was oh-so-amusing. Or, we’d run backwards and see who was fastest (ok, that one’s not really nerdy). And progressing on the nerdiness scale, we would also play Lord of the Rings.
• I loved playing these random computer games. I played the Oregon Trail A LOT, and we also did a unit on it in 3^rd grade. (Random fact: Chris Acy, our Harry Potter, also was my wagon leader for the unit and decided that rather than finding water, we’d steal it from Indians. We were “punished” by having to stay behind a few extra days, but we still “arrived in Oregon” second) I also played Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, and Civilization. I’m not kidding—I found it fun to build by own civilization, though I never went to war with anyone.
• My sister and I were obsessed with those Zenon movies. I loved them, and I actually still go watch them when I have the opportunity (aka, the time once a year when they’re on Disney channel). We also watched Smart Guy and those old, really GOOD Disney shows that aren’t on. Oh, and Boy Meets World was a favorite too. I don’t know if any of these are actually nerdy, but I know so few people that did these things that I’m pretty sure they are
• Being repetitive here, but I was still a huge bibliophile. I took books everywhere. I read at breakfast, lunch, dinner, before bed, instead of doing homework, when I finished classwork early (which was nearly always). I read Babysitter’s Club, Animal Ark, and similar stuff when I was younger, but by 5^th grade I had progressed to The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, the Witch of Blackbird Pond, A Wrinkle in Time, Sharon Creech, and other stuff. I remember that my teacher once told me when we did those reading tests that it was hard to find a book I hadn’t read already. But, yeah, in 3^rd grade I was already reading 10^th grade level books. And I read for fun. Yep.
• I was in TAG. I still am, I mean, but in elementary school I had separate Reading, Writing, and Math TAG classes (that’s Talented and Gifted in case you didn’t know). I loved being a nerd, and I still do.
• I did Art Club (not so nerdy) and Science Club (NERDY) in addition to Battle of the Books. I loved my science teacher and I enjoyed doing random experiments. I also became obsessed with Bill Nye.
• I wrote a bunch of random and incredibly crappy stories. One of them was a crime series with my sister that wasn’t half bad, but most of them sucked beyond belief. I’ve deleted most of them, so please don’t ask.
• I collected several nerdy things, the first of which is rocks and minerals. I had several books on rocks and minerals, as well, and my collection never got very big, but I collected them nevertheless. I also had an endless collection of stuffed animals (Beanie Babies). And, I collected postcards from places I went, and asked my parents to get me postcards when they went on vacations.
• I also became obsessed with random historical events. I had a book on the history of the Olympics. In 2^nd grade, my class memorized and performed the Gettysburg Address for our parents. I knew random facts about Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. I made my dad take us to Williamsburg in Virginia on a vacation, and I also made him take us to the Natural and American history museums in Washington DC
• Oh, and I’ll show you pictures of the nerdy clothes that I wore if I can find some, okay?

So, that’s the list of all the nerdy things I did in elementary school that I can think of at the moment. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s an overview. So, let’s move on to middle school, shall we? I’m going to do a list of the various things I became obsessed with, which are not in chronological order or the order of how obsessed I was with them, but rather in random order.

1. Politics. I think it started in 6^th grade, since that was the 2004 presidential elections, and also the time when my dad was in Iraq for four months. I became very opinionated and persuasive on who should win, coming up with my own opinions when most kids still held their parents’ opinions. (And in case you’re wondering, I supported John Kerry). That obsession continues to this day (I’m a huge Obama supporter). But, anyway, I held these very strong political views and in 8^th grade I even went to Legislative Day up at the State Capitol in Denver and talked to a bunch of senators and representatives…
2. History. I love random history facts, and I watch the History Channel for fun. I also keep a notebook of facts, but I can’t seem to find it anymore….
3. Marine Biology. This, still, is the career I most want to have. But in the summer of 2005 I went to this Junior National Student Leadership Conference on Life Sciences. I loved animals and dolphins and everything before then, but JNSLC really opened me up even more to the thought of it as a career. I wouldn’t say I’m exactly obsessed, but it is vaguely nerdy.
4. Charmed. I loved it. Now, this probably isn’t necessarily nerdy on the regular “I watched it and loved it level.” But, as most nerds, I never just LIKE something. I become obsessed with it. And so I did. I had sheets and sheets of funny quotes. I printed out pictures and pasted them on binders and notebooks and around my room. I wrote and read Charmed fanfiction. And I hated when it ended.
5. Newsies. Again, I became obsessed. Mostly with Spot Conlin, but I watched it over and over again and constantly went around singing the music. I also read and wrote Newsies fanfiction (What is it with me and fanfiction?!)
6. Theatre/Choir It started the summer before 6^th grade with a Broadway Show camp in West Lafayette, Indiana. I loved it so much!!! My grandparents also took us to a few plays. Then, it progressed to going to at least one play every two months and doing drama every year (the class). I did a Melodrama Class at the Fine Arts Center in 7^th grade, and in 8^th grade I did Pirates of Penzance with my class. A Theatre/Choir Nerd too.
7. Rwandan Genocide. Okay, so it’s not exactly an obsession, but the simple fact that I actually spend my time researching the genocide in 1994 and that I have about six books on it makes it something nerdy. I find it fascinating—horrible, but fascinating.
8. Battle of the Books. So, it continued into middle school. Yep. There wasn’t much focus in the 6^th and 7^th grades, but in 8^th grade my team went to the district battle and got 4^th place—mostly because we hadn’t really been trying very hard.
9. Spelling Bee. I did it in 8^th grade, and I LOVED it. Yes, I know, the spelling bee is about the nerdiest thing anyone could do, but it was so much fun! I have this weird love of language and words, and I really enjoyed showing off my skills and passion. I got 2^nd place in the regional spelling bee and I was in the top 10% at state. Unfortunately, I did it the last possible year that I could, but I still have a love for words and I still watch the national spelling bee every year.
10. Writing. Well, I’m really into creative writing and that sort of thing. I’ve written novels continuously, as I’ve already said, but the quality greatly improved throughout middle school. Most of them died and didn’t go anywhere, but I’m still working on my historical novel about the Rwandan genocide! (psst, go see http://www.fictionpress.com/~kathleendelmarina and make me happy!)
11. Reading (still!) I’d still rather read than do anything else. I read when I should be doing homework, and it’s kind of sad. I had to get a bigger bookshelf earlier this year for all my books, and the main reason I want a job is so that I can afford all the books I want.
12. The X-Files. Yay! One of the best shows out there…my family has the entire series and we’re slowly watching it. Scully and Mulder are my heroes. J

Other nerdy things:

Well, there’s the fact that I keep a quote book with quotes that I adore, as well as a word notebook of words that I love. And, of course, I don’t really need to mention my Harry Potter nerdiness, since I kind of showed y’all how deep that goes with my “Harry Potter thoughts” post.

But, basically, I’m a nerd. And I’m incredibly proud of being a nerd! Wooo, GO NERDFIGHTERS!

My weekend

This is just a quick update on my Memorial day weekend, and my list of all the nerdy things I've done in my life will follow.

So, Friday night was Kelsey's end of the year party, which Michelle, Emily, and I were sort of co-hosts if you grasp what I mean. It was a lot of fun. I always cherish parties, because it reminds me that I really do have friends who think enough of me to invite me and who actually want to spend time with me outside of school. So, we played volleyball and soccer, as well as charades. And Wii bowling, which was actually really fun. And I'm much better at it than I am at regular bowling! *wink* I watched parts of the Spurs game, but gave up when they were down by 24 in the 3rd quarter. *sigh* And, I went to bed really early because finals are killing me.

Saturday wasn't exciting at all. In the morning I went grocery shopping with my dad. I spent most of the afternoon on my bed with a book using boxes and boxes of tissues because the Aspen seed pods were making my allergies positively dreadful. They let up enough that we were able to eat enchiladas outside and I watched No Reservations with Leslie, but by night I had to take Benadryl to be able to sleep.

Yesterday we went rafting!!!! Squee! Seriously, it was so much fun. I doubt most of you have ever been, but if you ever go to a good rafting river and have the opportunity, you should! Heck, if y'all come visit me, I'll try to make it possible that we can go rafting. The water was really cold, but the sheer joy that you get out of rushing through rapids made it so worth it. We walked around Idaho Springs afterward and got gelato, which was really good. Then, we drove back to Denver and had the most amazing vegetarian dinner at WaterCourse foods. =] I think I ate a bit too much, but it was so good! We got home in time to watch the second half of the Spurs game--they won by 19 this time! Squee!!!!!!!!! They might just have a chance if they keep up their momentum--especially Ginobli.

Today...Well, I spent this morning reading and baking cookies for my teachers--and the cake for Leslie's birthday. I then proceeded to eat the leftovers from dinner last night and waste a bunch of time writing out my nerd list. And about 30 minutes ago my dad and I got back from seeing Prince Caspian, which was surprisingly good! They kept pretty close to the book, though of course they had to add action to make it appealing to people who haven't read the books. And they never attacked Miraz's castle in the book, but it didn't bother me too much that they added that in, because it worked out all right. Overall, it left me smiling and happy by the end, which is always a good sign. Anyway, soon I hope we're going to eat!

Oh, and my thoughts go out to Kristina, Lauren, Kailey, Haley, and Liane of the fiveawesomegirls! I hope you get your channel and your videos back, because y'all rock! To everyone else, I hope your weekend was amazing. Now...maybe I should go actually study for finals! ;)

Finals

Are annoying. Not exactly evil or even particularly hard most of the time, but just obnoxiously tedious. I hate taking long tests, no matter how easy I find them. I'm actually not worried about any of my finals too much--a little worried about English just because I didn't do too well on the tests on The Once and Future King and Oedipus, and worried about Algebra II just because...well, it's math and there's a heck of a lot to remember!

So far, I've taken just Health and Biology. We didn't take a multiple choice final in French, but about a week ago we did an oral and an essay that are being counted as our final. The Health final was the easiest test I've probably ever taken. It only had 43 questions, and for 20 minutes of the test period we were allowed to use our books, so basically you could do the entire test in those 20 minutes. =] I wasn't worried at all and I barely studied for it. Plus, the short answer question was really open-ended: What works best for you to relieve stress? Explain why? Jeez, I mean, you could put anything and have a legitimate reason and get credit. Anyway, the only final I had today was Biology, which wasn't actually hard at all. There were only a handful of multiple choice questions that I wasn't sure on, and out of the five compare and contrasts I did, I'm positive on my answers for four of them and pretty sure about the other one.

So. Earth Science and English on Tuesday. End-of-year-party tonight at Kelsey's. Grocery shopping tomorrow for the first time in what feels like forever...Rafting pretty much all day on Sunday!!! And, hopefully, Prince Caspian on Monday. Somewhere in there I hope to work in time to go to the gym, study for the finals, read more of I Capture the Castle, and fix my Terminus paper.

To all those who are busy with finals, I wish you luck on them! To everyone, I wish y'all happiness and good fortune beyond your wildest dreams, though I still can't promise when they'll get to you because of the postal service! ;] Cheers!

Time for Updates again!

Friday: A surprising amount of stuff happened, actually. It was a kind of funny day with a weird schedule because......WE GOT OUR YEARBOOKS IN THE AFTEROON!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!! :] Yep, I basically spent from 12:30 until 2:30 signing yearbooks of my closest friends, but I couldn't find everyone I wanted to get. After we got kicked out of the library at 3, we sat outside until a little after four to go to the Metro boy's swim meet which was actually really...fun. It lasted forever, though, and didn't finish until seven at which point Haley and I decide to go see Mr. Rampart. O mi god, hilarious!!!!!! Personally, I didn't think the guy who won was the best, but he did manage to balance a kayak on his chin! So, end of story, I spent 14 hours at school! Eeek!

Saturday: Was freakishly, incredibly busy. *sigh* I woke up at 6:45 so I could be ready when my dad picked me up a little bit before eight for my camp physical. Then, we rushed from the hospital over to the chapel for my first driving session =( I didn't enjoy it much, especially because Mr. White scared me out of my mind by making me drive on the highway my first day! Eeek! Well, anyway, it ended at 1:00 so I rushed home to change into my dress and get the gift and all for Sam's quincenara, which started at 2:00 way down in Security. We were a tad bit late, but...it didn't really matter. Anyway, the service in the church was absolutely beautiful--I'm not Christian, but I still appreciated the beauty and the tradition of the celebration. Since the reception didn't start until 4 and the service ended a little before 3, Leslie and I got some onion rings in Security since I hadn't eaten anything but waffles since 7 in the morning--which was hilarious, because we were in these fancy dresses in a diner. We proceeded to travel then over to Fort Carson for the actual reception/dance, which, again, was beautiful. It was great just to simply see Sam again, even though she was surrounded by her FVS friends and we didn't get much alone time. I did dedicate "I hope you dance" to her and we talked a fair amount--she's honestly the most honest, truest friend I have here in Colorado. This is us at some point during the dance part...It ended at 9:00 but I didn't get home until about 10, when I promptly went to bed.

Sunday: Wasn't quite as busy. Driving again from 9 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon. I suppose it was a little bit better, but...I still wasn't very confident in myself. After driving I did homework and watched the Spurs game--they slaughtered the Hornets 100 to 80!!!!

Monday: Gah. Interesting Day. First, I had to go get blood drawn :[ Actually, it didn't hurt very much when it actually happened, because I wasn't looking and trying to focus on Leslie. Apparently, they took three vials of blood!!! Eeek! Sadly, it began to really hurt when I got back to school. Seriously, I couldn't move my arm about an inch both ways from this bent position it was in. And, since we got schedules in the morning (I had to go get mine at lunch), we didn't have Access to prepare for Shakespeare Festival. Gah!!!!!! So, unfortunately, we left a few things back in the classroom--Austin's costume, basically. But, other than that, it went really well because we all remembered our lines and there weren't any awkward pauses. Not sure if we were loud enough, but people seemed to enjoy it. It was really awkward though because I couldn't move my right arm and had purple gauze wrapped around it. Very Shakespearian. *rolls eyes* The day was pretty uneventful at school after that...I got my schedule changed. I had driving AGAIN from 2:30 to 6:30, and it wasn't quite as bad. We drove to and from Woodland Park, which was a highway with a lot of curves, but I happily admit that I needed the practice with that. And, we got smoothies at Maggie Moos! Yay! But, let me just say how much I dislike my driving partner. She's a sophomore, and she's just really rude and thinks she's incredibly cool, but I can't really understand why anyone would want to be friends with her...I got home a little early, ate dinner, did my French oral, and played a really long game of Egyptian Rat Slap with Dad and Leslie that I ended up winning even though at one point I was out for like 20 minutes.

Tuesday: Erm...well, that day at school was really boring. Yeah. I did my French oral, and got a 92 on it, but other than that....yeah. nothing. I had my last driving session from 2:30 to 6:30. Yay! I'm now officially done with driver's ed! This one I felt went really well because I've gotten good at turning, staying in the center of the road, parallel parking, parking in general, and changing lanes. I'm still not good at being aggressive and turning quickly after being stopped and I still really hate turning when there's traffic coming at me. Actually, this session went until 7 to make up for the half hour I missed on Monday, but I didn't mind. Mr. White still isn't my favorite person, but I think that I might like to "work" for him like Megan (the girl who rode with us) because it pays good and...he's not that bad when you aren't making him upset. And I think it'll be better if I'm not the student. Oh, and the Spurs lost badly. *sigh*

Wednesday: I honestly can't remember anything exciting happening. Really. How sad. I went to California Pizza Kitchen with Dad, which was good, but...wow. Boring day, I guess?

Today: Philosopher's Stone Reading Group opened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! :] And I took the Chapter 11 math test. And I've been really tired all day. And the Spurs play again tonight...I'll tell you how they do!

Other points of interest:
-Prince Caspian opens tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'm going to see it.
-The Terminus programming schedule came out finally! (Funny story. I'd been talking to Leslie about how much I wanted it to come out during the quincenera and....it came out that day!) I'm presenting on Sunday, May 1oth at 2:00 pm in the Ontario room on the 8th floor of the Hilton Chicago. So, if you're attending Terminus, you had better be there! (Or I'll send nargles after you)
-I'm going to get all my gym credits done next year and........I actually have classes with Joel and Michelle! Yay!

Anyway, to whoever is reading this: I hope your days are bright, your problems are solved quickly, and that you find happiness in even just the small things in life! Cheers!

The Final Word

Yes, I know this is from July (but did you?!), and I'm posting it for two reasons: One, that I can't believe I've never posted it on here and Two, that it's really bugging me for some reason that there's still an April entry at the bottom of the page and I'm looking to get rid of it. Enjoy!

The Final Word

Dear Jo,

You caught us in your spell
As we all wished Harry well
We boarded the Hogwarts Express
What would happen, we couldn’t guess

Alongside Harry we fought
Thanking him for all he taught
We were for him down with Quirrell
Crossing our fingers through the yells

Then Book Two came
We cheered as we heard Harry’s name
Smiled as he was reunited with friends
Hoped Tom, not Harry, would meet his end

You gave us Book Three
And Harry had the chance to be free
We watched him grow;
Meet his godfather, finally know

Then was Goblet of Fire
The book like nothing prior
Full of death; dark
A new journey for Harry to embark

For three years we waited
Wondered, worried, and debated.
What would be in book five?
Who would die, who would survive?

The fans were for Harry the whole way
Even as the Ministry doubted everyday
We sat in shock as Sirius fell
Like Harry, not wanting to bid him farewell

Jo, you had us hooked
Hastily for clues we looked
Half-Blood Prince was coming…
The anxiety was almost numbing

2005-July Sixteen
We headed to bed, lots of caffeine
Again following Harry, Hermione, and Ron
Their lives, we based ours upon

We wondered about that Horcrux
Jo, this plot line was your deluxe
We cried as Dumbledore fell from that tower
Why him, why now, at this important hour?

In the next years, we read and reread
Always worried about what lay ahead.
Who would die?
What was it that made you cry?

All us avid fans counted hours
Until the final book would be ours
We dressed up and left, excited
For something other than tragedy, united.

Cheers rang out as clocks read 12:01
We headed to bed, not to rest till we were done
Hungrily we read, hanging on your every word
Always shocked at what occurred

Those characters we mourned…
Why, oh why, weren’t we warned?
Fred, Dobby, Tonks, and Lupin
Moody, Hedwig, Snape, and Colin.

One by one, as the sun got higher,
We closed our books: full of all we desired.
We had laughed, we had cried
Now, happy and tired, we set the books aside.

Your books were our lives, for those rejected
They were the only thing with which we connected
Now it was over, what to do?
It was so hard to bid Harry adieu…

Jo, you’ve had your final word, now let us have ours:
There is only one thing to do, after washing the scars
We want to thank you, and Harry too
These words, they are so overdue

We grew up with Harry and his friends
Made the same mistakes, the same amends
Your books united fans throughout the world
We were so alike, our lives unfurled…

Neville and Luna taught us we all belong
No matter who we were, we were all strong
We found our true selves in the Sorting Hat
Nervous, on our own stools we sat

We smiled when you included us in the dedication
Your books were the cause of much celebration
So, Jo, thanks for everything you gave
For teaching us just how to be brave

Farewell, now, Jo, we wish you the best
As first generation readers, we are blessed
We will always love you and Harry
There will be nothing said to the contrary.

Know this, Jo:
You taught us everything we know.
Thank you forever,
For making us so clever =D

Harry Potter thoughts!

At last! Cause I made a mistake in the last post--I actually meant to post this on Monday. *goes to double check* Yeah. MONDAY. Jeez. I'm usually better at doing things like this when I actually mean to do them, but apparently not this time...

Well, as I'm sure pretty much all y'all know by now, I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I'd hazard a guess at the biggest Harry Potter fan in Colorado, but I have zero confirmation on that. So never mind. It's a huge part of my life--the conferences/conventions, the Reading Groups, my friends, Leaky, wizard rock, fanfiction, HP poetry...the majority of things in my life have some connection to Harry Potter. Unfortunately for me, none of my friends are really big into Harry Potter. Most have read it, but think I'm absolutely crazy for my obsession. And maybe I am. I'm a crazy Harry Potter nerd, and just pretty much a nerd in general. Granted, I have a rather small group of friends, but that doesn't change the fact that none of them understand my obsession.

I've written a paper on Connecting Through Harry Potter (SQUEE!!!), I've written several poems, one that people said made them cry, participated in THREE Reading Groups on the Lounge, written a Chapter Summary for Chapter Seventeen of DH, written a thread on the Weasleys, began many topics, listened to PotterCast for a year, bought wizard rock songs, danced alone in my room to said songs, made CDs of filks and songs that make me think of Harry Potter, laughed to myself while listening to PotterCast and dutifully ignoring the strange looks, done a test pack for Terminus, attempted to write fanfic, filmed videos that I can't figure out how to upload, made two and half page long pms to my friends, spent evenings searching the Lexicon for activities that happened on specific dates, opened all but one of the secrets on Jo's website, and searched for days trying to find the exact date of the Battle of Hogwarts.

I am guilty of being a hopeless Neville fangirl, owning an HP backpack, Ravenclaw scarf, tie, HP notebooks, a Gryffindor shirt, a Dumbledore's Army shirt, and of saving my Hogwarts journal for eight years. I am guilty of staying up for hours listening to PotterCast and squeeing when I first heard Jo would be interviewed. I am guilty of spending my Saturday listening to a 12-hour live MuggleCast. I am guilty of, at one point, subscribing to five different Harry Potter podcasts until my laptop couldn't handle it all and I had to settle for the best, PotterCast. I am guilty of shamelessly mourning characters for days. I am guilty of coming up with outrageous theories for Deathly Hallows, sharing them with others, and laughing. I am guilty of bursting into tears when I first held Deathly Hallows in my hands. I am guilty of turning into a human hosepipe during Deathly Hallows and crying when: Ron left, Dobby died, Fred died, Remus and Tonks died, Hedwig died, when Ron came back, when Snape died, and being a sobbing mess during the entire chapter of "The Forest Again." I am guilty of making my own cork necklace and radish earrings from scratch and dressing as Luna for Halloween. And, I am guilty of ripping the paper off of the OotP movie at Yule and watching it that night.

I draw the Deathly Hallows symbol on EVERYTHING. My notes and binders are covered with Harry Potter doodles. I spend nights attempting to draw fanart. I search for hours for funny, sincere, and heartfelt fanart. I cry when I hear some filks, and laugh when I hear others. I watch videos on YouTube by people I've never met just because they are Harry Potter fans. Sadly, the majority of my friends are people I've never actually met in real life but whom are my Leaky friends. And, I confess that I'm closer to all of them than I am to my "real-life" friends. I spend my Saturdays participating in RG chats. I do my RG thoughts before my homework and feel guilty when I am late. When PotterCast is late, my Mondays are automatically worse. I am constantly sad that no wizard rock comes to Colorado Springs. Often, my days of the week are measured by something Harry Potter related, as is my time. I have better conversations online than I do in real life. I share things with my HP friends that I would never share with anyone else. I trust these people more than anything else in my life. I squee during class even though no one understands why. After a year of Sue, I now say that everything yellow is Hufflepuff. I admit to being an emotional wreck the entire month of July with anxiety and anticipation. I connect the most random things to Harry Potter.

I downloaded Skype in an attempt to connect with my international HP friends, and cried when it didn't install properly. I bought a microphone so that I could send messages to PotterCast. I have printed out fanart and pasted it all over my room. I've researched Harry Potter things more thoroughly than I've ever researched a paper for school. I spent three days after first finishing Deathly Hallows making an HP memorial on my wall. I entered in just about every HP contest possible, but have still not met Jo! I dressed up for the OotP movie premiere. I payed for Terminus myself so I could go. I planned my entire summer around Terminus, and spent the past three months writing out my paper. I have hit my friend around the head with my Ravenclaw scarf for saying that Hufflepuffs are lame, and thrown a pen at another friend for not knowing who Luna was. I have read PS at least 30 times, CoS at least 20, PoA at least 30, GoF at least 20, OotP at least 15, HBP 14, and DH seven times already.

I stayed up all night reading Deathly Hallows and then proceeded to cry for days over the deaths. I experienced a horrible case of "Post-Potter Depression" and didn't know how to express that for the longest time. I took out my feelings by spending the rest of my summer on the Lounge, and randomly crying at videos, songs, and anything that reminded me.

There's so much more than that, but, most importantly, I both cry and smile that the books and my journey with Harry are over. I'm eternally thankful of what this journey has taught me and given me: friends, love, ideas, growth, and strength.

Wow. That was long, and if you read all that, THANK YOU!!!!!! But, despite all those things that I just listed, this is my potentially irrational fear: I have absolutely no proof that I'm a big Harry Potter fan.

I fail miserably at making videos on YouTube. I can't draw fanart, and even if I could, I have no clue how to put it anywhere. I've tried writing fanfiction, but it didn't go anywhere and no one commented, so I gave that up too. I don't have the friends, ability, or instruments to do wizard rock and I'm too shy to record filks for anyone. I lack the technological competence to record a podcast and I don't have the friends to do it with anyway. I don't run a website, forum, or even a fan group. My only outlet right now is poetry that no one reads and writing in-depth theses and papers on Harry Potter.

So.......I don't have any public way to prove that I'm a fanatic, and somehow that makes a part of me feel empty. And you know what would make me really happy? If anyone does read this, shoot me a comment or e-mail with either assurance that my fear has no base or ideas on how to publicly show my obsession. Because I feel like I need to get this settled or I'm going to break down completely into a ball of tears. And I hate doing that.

Newfound Obsession

These girls rock my socks! First, Abby, of songsfromahat. Visit her at YouTube! http://youtube.com/user/songsfromahat And this is my favorite so far: Second, Reina. Vist her at YouTube, too! http://www.youtube.com/user/ReinaDelCid (Wow, I've become YouTube obsessed!) I adore this song: Yeah, I've become YouTube obsessed. I just wish I could figure out how to make the videos I take with my camera upload well onto there. But more on that in an upcoming entry...that I meant to write on Tuesday! (oops) So, I really do mean to post that entry tonight. If I forget, send bad thoughts my way and maybe I'll trip or run into a wall. No, wait, I'll probably do that anyway. Just send me an angry comment...But no one reads this anyway.

THREE

months until Terminus!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! :] SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Wow, seriously, that is so amazingly exciting! I can't believe it, honestly! Because once school gets out, it'll be close to just two months, and then the month marker will pass while I'm at camp and.......by the time camp ends on the 11th there'll be less than a month until Terminus! Luckily, I bought the Atonement dress so I'm all set for the ball, and I think my presentation will end up going pretty well. But I'm worried about when I'll do a test pack. The one I did in March worked out great, but now I actually have my dress and...yeah. Just want to know how everything fits!

Other than school, Egyptian Rat Slap, and actually physically getting my permit, nothing...really...happened...today. But.....

ONLY THREE MONTHS UNTIL TERMINUS IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Nerdiness

Hi! So, today was actually quite an amazingly good day. Granted, this morning sucked, since Earth Science was positively brain-numbing, and English was just aggravating because we had an obnoxious sub who didn't know any of the instructions Mrs. Pierce gave us and kept trying to interfere when she shouldn't. And, Austin and Ian were being freakishly argumentative. BUT, the things that followed totally made up to a crappy start to the day.

Well, like I've said, Lunch is always absolutely amazing. I guess there wasn't anything exceptionally amazing today, but it was really nice outside and we had good conversation--very random conversation, but good nevertheless. Biology, however, was phenomenal. For whatever reason, I was really hyper in the afternoon, which is a totally rare occurrence for me because I'm usually way too tired to even attempt being hyper. And I didn't even have any sugar before that. I, personally, think it's the beautiful weather. But anyway, we were supposed to be studying for the test, but I studied last night under the sad realization that the Spurs WERE NOT going to win that game. So, Haley, Hannah, Malia and I were being incredibly random and a lot of the things we said were quite funny, though I can't remember too many specifics. I do know that I kept getting really excited and saying "Yay!" while waving my arms around, and that I once randomly said Hufflepuff while also doing the weird arm waving thing. And, despite the lack of studying that went on, I think I did pretty well on the test.

Anyway, after school Travis, Emily, and I sat around for a while--they were supposed to be working on Shakespeare Fest, but no one else in their group came, so we instead decided to play Clue since none of us had cards. Well, Clue with only three people is really easy because EVERYONE figures it out. After one quick game that we all technically won, we attempted to get Mrs. Bieger to play. Amazingly, she said she would have, but that she had to leave. Sad. :[ But, then Malia and Hannah came with the cards and we proceeded to play a few games of Egyptian Rat Slap, Spoons, and BS. God, we are such nerds! We sat in the library until 4:30 playing Clue and card games. But it was a lot of fun, especially once we were the last students in there and could really be as loud as we liked.

Leslie and I went to cardio interval, which felt absolutely amazing. Exercise is officially the greatest "high" on earth. :] And...........OBAMA WON NORTH CAROLINA!!!!!!!!!! And, Indiana is "too close to call" at the time I'm writing this! SQUEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. Apparently I'm still hyper. Well, I hope anyone who reads this also had a great day! Cheers!

Playlist of CD I was describing in last post

Don't worry. I'll get to the Harry Potter thoughts soon. Just thought I should post this. (Sadly, it is missing "Hour Follows Hour" by Ani Difranco because ProjectPlaylist is stupid and does not have this song. *sigh* I'll try to find it on YouTube, but either way, just FYI, it's supposed to be track number 11)

Ani Difranco's "Hour Follows Hour":

And, the final song on the CD is "Nerdfighter" by Lauren Fairweather of the Moaning Myrtles. This girl rocks my socks, and it's not exactly Harry Potter related, but I feel this way about most of my Harry Potter friends. Video:

Extraordinarly Long Post (Also known as: Kat has too many thoughts and needs to update this more)

Yeah. Cause I last updated this a week ago. And SO much has happened since then. I doubt anyone reads this or cares (shows the great confidence I have in myself, eh?), but I feel I should document my life somehow. I'd write it in my actual journal, but I type so much faster than I write by hand that this just makes a hell of a lot more sense to me.

Hmm...so if I posted on the 28th, that means I have to start with the 29th (wow, I know my dates!) I actually don't think anything happened on that day. *thinks hard* French, RamTime, Algebra II, Health, Lunch, Journalism, Driver's Ed...Yeah, unless that was the day Hannah and Emily tossed a bag full of Ramen back and forth so much that it got a hole and started spilling as it was thrown, nothing exciting. And I'm not sure it was that day. Wait, the Spurs played the Suns that day, too. And they won, winning the series, locking them for semi-finals against the Hornets. More on that later. Well, then on the 30th I took my permit test and passed. SQUEE!!!!!!! Other than that...umm...???(yeah, now you see why I really need to update this journal more often! For all I know, something freakishly exciting happened on that day and I just don't remember. But I sincerely doubt it.) Well, Thursday wasn't exciting school-wise as far as I know, either. It was Beltane, though! And..........IT SNOWED!!!!!!!!!! That's just NOT okay! I hate snow, and it just had to snow on my holiday. Hmmph. I don't have any control over the weather, though, so...We also took our actual Final for Driver's Ed that day and I passed with a 98 percent. :] Amazing, because I didn't think I'd do nearly that well--although, the final doesn't mean anything, really, just money off insurance to make my parents happy. But it was good and it made me happy (hence the smiley face).

Well, now, I actually have stuff to talk about related to Friday. In Earth Science we took our last test before the final, which it turns out I got one hundred percent on. Not surprising, since that is the easiest class (for me). In English we had our CLASS dress rehearsal, which actually went really well. Mrs. Pierce stopped all the other groups a bunch of times to tell them how to do certain things, where to move, how to act, and all that. But she didn't stop my group once!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I've finally memorized all my lines, but I need to get a tad bit better at the timing that I say them (knowing what line by someone else leads into my line). Ian's somersault also went great, but we all need to work on not laughing at him and Austin on the stage, since we're supposed to think Ian's this big, strong, menacing, unbeatable wrestler. I also took a quiz in Biology which I forgot to study for but managed to get one hundred percent on by guessing and eliminating answers I knew weren't true. There's also the fact that I find that class really easy and know the material really well. But, anyway...That evening we had our May Girl Scout sleepover. They're always fun, though I'm definitely the quietest and most reserved of the group, so I feel a little left out sometimes. We watched the Mask of Zorro, which is a great movie, but I've been so tired lately because of driver's ed and the playoffs that I fell asleep halfway through. *sigh*

Okay, now onto Saturday. (Jeez, this is a long post!) Well, in the morning Dad and I went on errands: we finally cashed my checks from my birthday and returned two of the repeat gifts I got for my birthday. I also finally shipped the Girl Scout cookies to Anna and Mary Rose. Granted, two and half months late, but it's better late than never. And, now all their friends can be jealous because they have Girl Scout cookies and their friends have probably eaten all of theirs already. After that, I went hiking with Dad and Leslie. It was actually a really beautiful hike in a canyon by Cave of the Winds. It was the perfect day for walking in a canyon, too--it wasn't hot (but it wasn't cold) so the sun wasn't baking the bottom of the canyon. It was windy, which made it a good day to hike in a canyon where most of the wind was blocked rather than through a field like in the Paint Mines or on a ridge or something. Overall, the hike was just absolutely beautiful--fantastic views of the mountains and the blue Colorado sky. :] Unfortunately, my sister kind of ruined the overall pleasantness of the day by getting into this huge argument just because Dad has been asking her to clean her bathroom for months now and she refuses. She brought in so many things that had absolutely nothing to do with the bathroom--basically every bad emotion she's felt at this house and all the supposed bad things she has to do here (FHI: nearly every kid in the world does chores). And, somehow she worked me into the argument which just totally pissed me off. Going off on a tangent here:

• Okay, so supposedly I'm mean to my friends. I guess I honestly don't know, because that's all in their eyes and opinion, but I sincerely doubt it. I know I get grouchy and annoyed sometimes when I'm stressed or tired or sincerely upset about something, but I don't think I'm truly mean. For one thing, Allie and Mary Rose and Justi and sver/nor have told me how friendly, understanding, and honestly compassionate I am. I've heard it from my school friends, as well. And, for another, there's no point in being mean to my friends: I have so few of them that doing that would honestly be the stupidest thing in the world, way above all the things I mentioned doing in the previous post. I mean, maybe I should ask my friends if I think I'm mean to them, but...
• She got that supposedly because Malia told her that I said, "My sister and I don't really get along that well." Which is completely, honestly, one hundred percent true, whether she realizes it or not. She takes all the attention away from me--her bad things take the focus away from even the biggest good thing I do. Everyone worries about her and discusses her and...well, I feel left out. I've described the true feeling to sver/nor....*goes to search and see if can find the post to her* Yay! found it (well, at least a portion of it: Jaime, the reason for my questions about your siblings, or sibling, was because of your comments about how she is the one that gets the attention. I have two daughters, 14 months apart, and there was a certain amount of sibling rivalry going on there. The younger one was used to seeing the older one getting most of the attention, so she reacted by not wanting anything the older one had, or reading something the other one read first, etc. etc. It was the relatives that gave all this attention to the older one as she was the first baby in both families. However, the younger one was like you, Jaime. She was very diligent in her studies, and she loved books. She was also a perfectionist, so everything she did, she excelled in. She , like you, was friendly and outgoing, and nice to everybody, and didn't take sides. The older one was very smart also, but she was very social, and didn't apply herself as much to her schoolwork. The end result was that the older one got good grades but not outstanding, and the younger one received straight As always, and high SST scores. When the younger of two sisters outshines the older, you cant' praise the younger one too much, in front of the older one. And my mother was very protective over her, and didn't want her hurt. (me)Oh, well thanks. It really does help to feel like I have someone who really understands what I'm going through. Your younger daughter really does seem a lot like me, except for the outgoing part. I really am very shy, which doesn't help the whole my older sister gets more attention thing. The barrier seems to fall away once I start talking about Harry Potter, which is why y'all have probably never noticed. I am very friendly, but shy...someone has to talk to me first; I won't just go up and start a conversation with someone I don't know well. Still, other than that, your daughters are pretty much exactly like my sister and me. She gets good grades I suppose but is more into friends, while I sit at home and read. Maybe you could put me in contact with your younger daughter?
• Umm, I was going to say something else........Ah, right. What right does my sister have to say that I'm mean to my friends and how the hell does she know? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!

Anyway, she apologized for her behavior to Dad and Leslie, but she never said sorry to me. And she knows perfectly well that I heard every f-ing word she said about me. It peeves me that Dad and Leslie just accepted her apology, when she does this all the time. Seriously, this is not the first time she's turned a refusal to do something on her part or a refusal to give her something on Dad's part into World War III inside our house. So that kind of ruined my great Saturday...

On another note, I spent a good part of that night making my mixed CD for Peace46, which I think turned out really good. I went for a Harry Potter theme--a mix of songs from my previous two Harry Potter CDs I made for me and a few new songs. I sincerely hope she likes it anyway. And, the Spurs played the Hornets that night. They actually played real well the whole game, but the last quarter (the last 3 minutes, actually), the game got incredibly out of hand and they, unfortunately, lost. Ooooo, and I baked these amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies during the game! Omigoodness, heaven in a circle of dough :] And they're gone already! Sad...

So. Sunday. Was pretty boring. I kind of wanted to go for a run, but I didn't know how to bring it up last minute with Leslie, so that idea flew out the window to join the robins. I spent the morning retyping my Terminus paper because I couldn't find the file on my computer or the flash drive I saved it to. I've gotten it down to 17:44, which is good, but now I'm really wishing I kept it a 50-minute presentation instead, cause I'd like to include a video. But, if I can shorten it a bit more (by cutting out The Greater Good and psychology, which I might do), then I'll probably make at least a 3-minute video, since there should be time for questions according to Terminus. But I'd have to have someone show me how to make a video. ;] I also made the cover for my CD for Peace46, which took a surprisingly long time. I did a sunset on the ocean since that's what I'm best at drawing and it's kind of a universal theme. And, I went for the title of, "Wash off the Scars." It means a lot to me, since that's a line I included in my poem to Jo; "Jo, you've had your final word, now let us have ours:/There's only one thing left to do, after washing the scars". But, since y'all don't live in my head, I'll explain it to you. It actually kind of has two meanings. One: well, you know all those people who draw lightning bolt scars on themselves for the book releases? Well, that was part of the meaning that went into that line, because those people usually leave their drawn-on scars on while reading the book, and would wash them off after finishing. I originally meant the second line to include the word "off" but it didn't flow as well. Second meaning: Basically, just that all the deaths left scars on our hearts that, while we can't physically wash them, we had to cleanse--you know, cleanse ourselves of the sadness and the hurt we all felt. So, I'm not sure Peace46 will get that, but I'm going to try to include it in the letter I put with the CD. And, at least I'll always know that "Wash off the Scars" means something special Harry Potter-related to me.

Today, though, has been pretty...blah. French, Access, Algebra II, Health, Lunch, Journalism. Well, we got our Algebra II projects back...Ali and I got 100% (wow, is that becoming really redundant, or is it just me?) In Health we used the "drunk goggles" and did a bunch of stuff with them that made for a pretty amusing class. Lunch is always a good time, especially since today has been incredible weather. :]

(Note: This post has officially become too long and I am continuing my thoughts on Harry Potter into another journal entry. Please hold on tightly.)