Christmas Break

Sadly, Christmas is over. :( I'm pretty sad about that because I love so much about the holiday. But I'm still having fun even if the holiday is over. For one thing, Band Hero is my new favorite Wii game. I'm okay at the guitar, but singing is my favorite. And I like it better than Rock Band because I know more songs on it. It's tons of fun. My favorite songs are "Ocean Avenue", "She Will Be Loved," and "Lips of an Angel."

I also got the "Gallagher Girls" series by Ally Carter. They were really good, so... I kind of read all three that day. They are about a girl named Cameron (Cammie) Morgan. She goes to Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, which seems like a normal boarding school for snobby rich girls. But what it really is, is a school for spies. Instead of PE, they have P&E. (Protection and Enforcement) All of the girls are black belts in karate, know 14 different languages, and are pretty much geniuses. The one problem is that, going to an all-girl school, none of them know how to act around boys. This becomes a problem with Cammie throughout the books. (Yes, there is definitely romance) The one thing that disappointed me was that the third book ended without any resolutions. You have to wait for the fourth book (Only The Good Spy Young) to find out anything. But it is still a favorite series.

I also received a brand new iHome for Christmas and some new headphones! Both are exactly the same shade of purple as my wonderful iPod. Now, instead of waking up to a super-annoying beep, I can wake up to whatever songs I want! I'm excited! I also got a lot of clothes for Christmas. They made up most of my presents. Other people might be disappointed by that, but I love them. I actually already knew which clothes I was getting, since I picked them out myself, but opening them was exciting all the same.

I also have a new favorite movie! Yesterday I saw, "The Princess And The Frog." It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Basically, there are two girls, Charlotte and Tiana. Charlotte gets whatever she wants in life because of her super-rich father, and she is a firm believer in fairy tales. Tiana is poor, but spends all her time working so she can fulfill her and her father's dream of building their own restaurant. When Prince Naveen comes along to marry Charlotte, he messes with a Voodoo man and is turned into a frog. Long story short, he gets Tiana to kiss him, she also becomes a frog, and they have to travel the Bayou to find the Voodoo witch who lives there so they can be human again. Throughout the show there is plenty of music, because, of course, this is Disney. Unlike other princess movies, this one takes place in New Orleans in the 1900's. I loved it!

Anyways, my Christmas was fantastic, and I'm so glad I get another week to sleep in!

Canada

So I'm in Canada right now, and it's not as different as I thought it would be. It's not very much colder than Utah, I've only met one person with an accent (a-boat/about), and I've only heard one "eh". I am so disappointed! I went to my grandpa's church today, but it was a little awkward because I didn't know anyone in my classes. My friends wouldn't believe me, but I'm really not a naturally loud person. So I felt pretty weird the whole time, though these two girls Sarah and Keely were both really nice. Apparently in Canada French is a class that everyone has to take. And, if they want to, they can go on to French immersion. That means that all their classes are in French so they can learn it more fluently. I felt bad for them because they all had these big exams they had to take before Christmas break, except for they get 3 weeks off.

One thing that I really look forward to when we go to Canada is the candy. I promised all my friends to bring back some Smarties for them. Smarties are amazing. Instead of wimpy little powdery things, they are these really good chocolates. You could compare them to M&Ms, but Smarties are bigger and better. I also like the Mackintosh toffee, which is also really good. My dad and brother like "Big Turks", but I'm not a big fan. Basically they're chocolate bars with a purple jelly filling. I don't like them very much. I can't wait for tomorrow when I can stock up on all my favorite sweets.

Usually our family car trips are pretty hectic and involve a lot of kicking and shouting. This time however, we couldn't see each other because there were boxes and/or suit cases in between each of us. I think my parents planned it. It worked though. There was no, "She's touching me!" or "He's breathing my air!", so it probably made the 12-hour ride better for everyone. We left at 4:30 AM and got here at around 4:30 PM. We watched Harry Potter 6, listened to a lot of music, and I even did my math homework to get it out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of my break.

There hasn't been a lot to do today after church ended. My mom and brother went with my grandma to her Baptist church, which I guess was pretty interesting. They had 4 or 5 baptisms today. My brother thought it was kind of cool that there was someone playing a bass guitar at the church. He also said that a lot of the women there got really into the hymns. Some of them were standing up, raising their arms, and swaying. They said that it was definitely a different kind of church then what they were used to, but I think it's cool that they got to see what another religion is like.

Tomorrow we're going to go out and do something, but I'm not really sure what. I'm just so glad that it's finally Christmas break, and Christmas is just 5 days away!

Christmas!

11 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

I'm soooooooooooo excited! I like a lot of things about Christmas. It is my all-time favorite holiday. I like being with family, I'm a tradition freak, baking treats, the music, and of course PRESENTS!

I love both giving and receiving presents. Wrapping them is pretty fun too. This year I think I'm mostly getting lots of new clothes. But I'm happy! Apparently Santa thinks a couple things on my list are a little too pricey and aren't going to work. So I'll have to try for a new phone and a DSI next year. (Santa doesn't want me to have unlimited internet access, so no to the DSI. Plus it's $180.) I'm hoping to get a new iHome for my iPod to charge it, play music, etc. I always get some books on Christmas too. I asked for the Gallagher Girls series and the sequel to Hunger Games.

Mmmm. I love Christmas treats. My mom used to make this really good fudge every Christmas, but she's kind of made that my job. She buys everything you need to make it, and we make it a few times during December. Today my wonderful mother made sugar cookies with yellow frosting and crushed candy canes on top. I like how the neighbors bring you lots of random treats that are really good. We always bring things like fudge and spritz cookies around to people. My mom makes spritz cookies in the shapes of like Christmas trees and other Christmassy objects. Basically, Christmas is just a delicious time of the year.

When I say that I'm a tradition freak, that's kind of an understatement. It drives my mom crazy how I always want things to be exactly the same, and I don't want them to change. Even a week later, it is driving me crazy that our Christmas tree is in our family room instead of in the living room by the window. It just doesn't feel right. It still looks great, we have a bunch of matching ornament sets, random ornaments we've picked up over the years, and ribbons all around it. And of course our twinkling yellow lights. I love Christmas lights. I strongly encourage my parents to buy lights and have my dad climb up on the roof to put them up. This year we have blue icicle lights on our house, reddish ones on our evergreen tree, and clear net lights on the bushes. They even went all out and put lights on the trees around our pond in the backyard. There is also a cute little lit up snow man by our porch. I put up my own lights in my bedroom around my walls. They are red, white, and green.

Another tradition that is important to me is the food on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, my family snacks on cheese balls and crackers, deviled eggs, olives, etc. during the day, and that night my mom makes these really good chicken strips that she rolls around in crushed up Ritz. Then we dip them in homemade honey mustard sauce. On Christmas day, we eat the mini boxes of cereal from our stockings for breakfast. We kind of eat whatever, or leftovers for lunch. Then for dinner we have turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, jell-o, assorted yummy sides, and cranberry juice/Sprite mix as a drink. For dessert we get together with our second cousins for pie. Just thinking about it all makes me hungry.

If I weren't with my family, Christmas wouldn't matter. On Christmas Eve we always get together with the cousins from my mom's family. We have a talent show where we all like sing a song, or play piano, or something. Then we read the Christmas story from Luke out loud. Christmas morning, everyone is excited to show each other what you get whenever you open a present. During the day we relax while each other and enjoy our presents. It's just a great feeling to be together with so many people you love.

Christmas music is a HUGE part over why I love Christmas so much. I listen to it on the radio throughout the whole season and sing it around the house. And right now I love it even more. After my very depressed post last time about not making the musical, I was singing "Where Are You Christmas" as a solo during a choir performance. The director of our school musical and another judge were there watching. Afterward, the director came up to me and told me that if that had been my audition, I would have made it for sure. Soooo, she decided to count it as my audition and put me in the musical! I am SO excited now! Christmas music has a whole new meaning to me, and I watched "The Grinch" twice this weekend.

Christmas is the best holiday ever and I can't wait!

Disappointment

Don't you hate it when you work your absolute hardest on something, give it 100% and it's all for nothing? Just a big load of wasted effort. That's kind of how I feel right now. I practice singing all the time. I'm in Rhapsody. I take singing lessons. I work on it all the time to get better. So when it came to musical tryouts I spent hours practicing the song I was singing for my audition. I came out thinking I did pretty good. Then Friday I looked at the list and I wasn't on it. I read it about 5 times until it actually sank in that I didn't make it, and I was the one person from Rhapsody that tried out and didn't make it. Once that sank in, I couldn't control it. I just started crying. I tried hiding it and finally got myself to stop. But every time someone said something about it for the next like 30 minutes I lost control again. I just thought I had a pretty good chance of making it, and then I look through the list and realize that it's my last year of junior high and I can't be in it. Everything I did was for nothing. It's just really hard realizing that I'm not even good at what I always thought was one of my best things. My favorite thing to do, and I'm not even good at it. My best friends all made it, but I can't do it with them. I was trying to be really happy for them even though I felt terrible. I was trying not to ruin how excited any of them were, but it was really hard seeing all these people getting excited when I felt so bad. I just don't really know what to do now. My friends want me to do stage crew, but I kind of don't want to. It sounds dumb, but I don't want to be one of those people hanging around during practices who wasn't good enough to actually be in it. I did it last year, but that was okay because I didn't try out. I was in it because I just wanted to try stage crew and I was a little too busy to actually be in it. This year I made sure that I'd have time, but it was all for nothing. It doesn't matter anymore. Trying out for it seems kind of pointless. I know people would tell me that it was just a good experience, but I really can't see it that way at all right now. Hopefully I will eventually, but right now I'm just kind of mad at myself for getting myself all excited about something that I wasn't good enough for. I also kind of hope I'll forget it eventually, but right now it's kind of all I can think about. Is that kind of weird? It probably sounds a little stuck up, but I just thought maybe I had a better chance because I made it for Rhapsody and that was really hard to get in to. Now it's just pretty disappointing realizing I'm not really as good as I thought it was. Anyways, now that I've ranted about it, I'm going to go try to get over it more.

Thanksgiving

When a lot of people think of Thanksgiving, they think of turkey, stuffing themselves, getting together with family, etc. Do people really think about what they're thankful for? That's what I've tried to do this year, since I know I'm not always as grateful as I should be. Here are a few things that I'm grateful for:

My Family
This one seems kind of obvious, but what would I do without them? Living alone would depress me to no end. No siblings to fight with and occasionally have fun with, and no parents to get advice from. Mostly, they're the people that you can always count on to love you and be there for you. When everyone's together and just having a great time, it's a great feeling.

My Friends
This is another obvious one, but I absolutely love my friends. I have some of the best friends in the world. I can talk to them about anything, and I know that they'll always stick up for me. I know that they'll always be on my side. And when we laugh at each other, we're laughing together. Basically, I love my friends to death.

My Dog
Yes, I am really going to put him on my list. Even if he can be one of the meanest dogs I know, he's always excited to see me when I get home. He's cute, playful, and cuddly. I love him!

Music
Music is a big part of my life. I sing, play the piano, and listen to my iPod all the time. If I'm stressed, I cool off with music. When I sing, I'm just automatically happy.

I think the list of things I'm grateful for could just keep going. I'm sometimes grateful for school and teachers, I'm grateful for books, food (most importantly chocolate), and the fact that I get to live. As I go into the Christmas season, I want to make it more about giving to others. I don't want to act like it's all about me. I think that holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas were made for a reason, and sometimes things detract from that. When they started Christmas, it wasn't supposed to be about a fat old man in a red suit sliding down chimneys to bring presents. It was to celebrate something a lot more meaningful. Thanksgiving can be meaningful if we really use it as an opportunity to think about how much we have. In our world it seems like all people think about is what they want, and what they already have doesn't mean anything to them.

Don't get me wrong, I love presents, but I also want to get more personal things out of this season. When my youth group does service projects, I feel good because I know that I just did something to help someone else. Because of me, someone else can have a better holiday. I think food drives like what our school just did are great. People get food that they wouldn't have without our food drive. One year my family made scarves and hats to bring to a homeless shelter for people who didn't have things like that.

Anyways...... 25 days until Christmas!

Dinner Theater!!!

So this week I was in our school's Shakespeare Dinner Theater. My scene was Act IV Scene V from Hamlet and I played the part of Ophelia. It was a lot of fun-even if it was tons of work. My scene is basically where Ophelia goes completely insane because Hamlet killed her father. I had to walk around and hand boiled chicken bones to people in the audience because I thought they were flowers. By the next scene I was in, I had drowned myself and was being buried by some grave diggers. Being a dead body was hard beccause a) I was afraid of them dropping me, b) I don't like breathing underneath a sheet, and c) One night they set me down so my neck was hanging off the riser thing which was really uncomfortable!

The weird thing about my scene was that I was supposed to be really creepy. For each line I was supposed to put on my most insane look and look one person right in the eye. Afterwards people kept coming up to me and telling me how creepy I was, which was good, but weird at the same time. The bones kind of grossed people out, I know that they grossed me out a lot. Some people just gave them to the servers when they came by.

I should probably explain exactly what Dinner Theater is. Basically, everyone is in at least one scene where they're a main part. We arrange a bunch of tables in a circle and put up a big tent and perform while everyone eats. Mrs. Loureiro stops us in between scenes and we do things like betrothals, I'm a Little Teapot, the Hokay Pokay, muscle contests, etc. Some of the scenes are funny, like the Wall scene from Midsummers Night Dream and our version of Romeo and Juliet. Others can be scary or sad. In Othello, Othello strangers Desdemona to death because he thinks she loved Casio. That scene was amazing, because everyone is so shocked when she dies. In a scene from King Henry the Sixth (? fourth? I'm not sure) Clifford kills the young prince because his father killed Clifford's father.

I really liked doing dinner theater, but I am really worn out now. We had late practices everyday for the last week to make sure everyone was ready. We had three performances. Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. It was really hard keeping your energy and character going through all of them. Getting into character was one of the hardest things for me. What I started doing was, a couple minutes before my scene, I pretended like my betrothed really did kill my father and I was so upset that I really just got pushed over the edge to insanity. Just doing that helped me get so much more in character and feel like I understood it better.

Pretty much, it was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun with my friends, but I'm glad it's over. Memorizing lines, remembering how to say them, what to do, etc. can be really stressful and it's really nice to just relax-before musical tryouts!

You Are Your Worst Critic

Today at my church we had a lesson on keeping our bodies healthy. One of my teachers read us some statistics which I looked up after I got home. They were things like this:

• 5-10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men have eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, etc.)
• 80% of 10-year olds are worried about getting fat
• From a study of 8-10 year olds, about 50% said that they weren't happy about their size
• 1 in 2 American women are on a weight loss diet
• 40% of 1, 2, and 3rd grade girls want to lose weight
• 10-15% of anorexics and bulimics are men
• 15% of young girls have eating disorders
• The average model 25 years ago had 8% less fat than the average American women. Now it is 23%
  

Okay, so I thought that this was all pretty scary. I think it is just beyond sad that millions of people are unhappy because of their weight. They think that if they look a certain way then they will be happy. Even if it isn't really possible, they're all trying to look just like a model. I couldn't believe how many statistics there were about elementary girls who were worried about their weight. When I was their age, that was the last thing I worried about.

In today's society, people don't think they can be accepted unless they starve themselves. It happens with boys too. It said that 10-15% of anorexics and bulimics are guys. Plenty of men in our country feel the exact same way. They also don't feel like they can be accepted until they get the macho muscley look.

We've all heard about how if Barbie were a real person, then she would be 5'9" and 110 lbs. She would probably have health problems because of being underweight. What many people haven't heard is that GI Joe Extreme would have a 55 inch chest and a 27 inch bicep. That means his bicep would be almost as big as his waist, and he would be more muscular than most body builders.

It just makes me sad that this is what people want to live up to. They all want to look like Barbie or GI Joe. They think, Well once I reach 110 lbs I'll finally be happy. They don't realize that models do a lot of unhealthy and stupid things to look the way they do. Some people think that by skipping breakfast in the morning they will lose some weight. What they don't know is that skipping breakfast can actually make you gain weight. Also, they'll feel sick and cranky during the day without the nutrition they need in the morning.

Another thing I think is sad is addictions. Instead of the If I look like this then I'll be happy idea, it's If I do this then I'll fit in. I met a girl this summer at a camp. She was from California, 14 years old, and getting over a weed addiction. After she realized how bad her life was getting because of the weed, she got help. She said that now she's a completely different person.

Another dangerous addiction is alcohol. Even if they've heard about how bad it is for your body, tons of people do it anyway. Even if they might ruin their liver, it doesn't matter if it means that they fit in. The teacher who taught today told us about how her brother is an alcoholic. He thinks that it only affects himself, but he doesn't realize that his angry, bad mood the alcohol gives him affects his entire family.

She also told us about a man who died of lung cancer. He had smoked most of his life, and it pretty much ruined his lungs. Three years later, his wife died of it too. The difference was that she had never smoked in her life. Just by living with him and breathing in the smoke, she died pretty soon after he did. Once again, he thought that whatever he did could only affect him. He didn't think that second-hand smoking would kill his wife, but it did anyway.

Basically, I think our world would be a much better place if people could be happy with the way they are. If people just ate healthy food and took care of their bodies, then they could really be happy. If people didn't feel like they had to lower to everyone else's standards to fit in, they would be happier, healthier, and more beautiful than if they went on a diet. It would really make our world a better place.

Books That Mean Something

As everyone in Honors English this year knows, one of second term's assignments is to enter a writing contest. One of the options is a contest called Letters About Literature. What you have to do is write a letter to an author (dead or alive) and tell them why you're glad that they wrote that book and what it means to you. I read through a few of the winning essays and thought that their choices of books and what they said was very interesting. One essay was by a girl named Erikka Potts who chose "A Child Called It" by David Pelzer. I haven't read this book, but apparently it's an autobiography about how its author was abused as a child. In this girl's essay, she relates to the story because of experiences she went through with her sister. The Pottses sisters were both abused by their alcoholic mother. After reading this story, the girls realized that they could do something to get out of their situation. The Pottses' aunt helped them and they were both sent to foster homes. Because of this book, they completely turned their life around.

Wow. This definitely made me think about how a book can change someone's life. When you read something, you unconsciously think, What if I were the one in that situation? How would I react? I've felt that way reading a lot of books, so I used that feeling to think about which books would be good to write about.

One that stands out to me is Scott Westerfield's series, "Uglies." At first, I wasn't interested in reading this because I thought it looked dumb. But when I finally did read it, I realized that there was a deeper level to it than I had expected. What if everyone could be made pretty? What if there was a universal standard on exactly what beauty was? And what if anyone who wasn't exactly like that was an ugly outcast? That was Tally Youngblood's world. I could really relate to Tally throughout this whole series. Sometimes you're forced to change against your will. I personally hate change and want everything to stay exactly the same. Like Tally, I've also felt like an outcast. Almost everyone has. His story shows that no matter what you still have your friends and yourself. Even when you go through things that you don't think you can make it out of, you can be stronger than you ever thought. Lots of Uglies's themes made a huge difference to me.

Another book that I read recently was, "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray. That book was definitely a page turner. An important theme I noticed in it was forgiveness. After a huge tragedy in India, Gemma Doyle has to go to a boarding school in London. Someone who she loved and trusted did some things that she can't seem to forgive or forget. I know I have that problem sometimes. I tend to hold on to my grudges and not let them go. Trying to forgive is a huge challenge for me. I'm known for remembering things someone did to me 5+ years after they happen. Watching Gemma learn to let it go made me think of how I could do the same thing in my life. Forgive people no matter what, and then forget it and don't mention it again.

There are a couple other books I'm considering too. "The Diary of Anne Frank," "Pride and Prejudice," "The Outsiders," and a lot of others. I think it's great that this contest makes you think about which of your favorite books means the most to you and why. I appreciate all these authors and their books that can completely change other people's lives. Reading means a lot to me, and I have no idea what people would do without it.

Term 1-It's over!

This term went by so fast. I can't believe half of first semester is gone. When you're in ninth grade, you feel like you're always waiting and getting ready for next year. The counselors are already telling you to set up appointments with them so you can make good decisions for high school. You want to do well in your classes because now they actually count towards your future. If you did well before, then it was because you were an overachiever. You worry about having enough time to be with your friends, because you know that you'll hardly ever see them again after this year when you're at different schools. By now, you have a pretty good idea of what you like and you vaguely know what you want to do when you grow up. It's all different from the earlier grades.

When you were in elementary school, or even seventh or eighth grade, high school seemed far away. It barely even seemed like it was going to happen. Now, everyone keeps asking each other which school they're going to. The conversation goes something like this: "Where are you going next year? ...... What? Why?!....... Well you should go to ... instead!" Even if you really like one school, do you really want to go there if your best friend is going somewhere else?

There's also something about being in ninth grade where you feel really mature....and really immature at the same time. More like you feel mature, but in reality you're actually pretty immature. Maybe it's because you're still in the same school as the seventh and eighth graders. At the moment you feel like the oldest and the most experienced, but you know that in just a year it will be like being a sevvie again. Once again you'll be in a totally new environment with tons of new people. Some of the people you've been with for 3+ years will be there with you, but others will be somewhere completely different having completely different experiences.

The counselors are always making you take those stupid quizzes to find out what jobs you would be good at, or what kind of a person you are. They keep saying that you should figure it out now. But when you hear them say that, all you're thinking is, "Now? Me? I'm still a kid! I can figure that out later! None of this effects me right now." What you don't think is, "In 3 or 4 years I'll be figuring out which classes I want to take in college so I can get the job I'll be doing for a few decades. Maybe I should start thinking about this...." You just haven't gotten used to the idea that what you do now effects the rest of your life.

Not that if you fail ninth grade you'll be a hobo living in a cardboard box with some newspapers for the rest of your life. But if you think about things now, then it will be a lot easier. You'll have more options sooner than if you just go through high school without worrying about anything. You can get where you want to be faster. Even if studying and doing your homework seems too hard and pointless now, it's easier than trying to go back and fix your mistakes ten years from now.

Anyways, there's a random sample of some of the things going through my head right now. Ninth grade really isn't a totally serious thing like this post. It's actually a lot of fun-even if it's a lot harder than seventh and eighth grade. These are just the things I worry about. I don't want to be split up with half my friends next year. It's just a little scary how fast first term went. One minute I'm trying to get used to all the new classes, and the next it's all a routine and I'm just worrying about trying to finish all those assignments the teachers throw at you at the end of the term. Overall, I just want to try and enjoy myself and do the best I can for the rest of junior high before everything changes.

"A person can develop a cold!" (Adelaide's Lament- Guys and Dolls)

Ah-Ahh-ACHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't you hate that feeling where you really need to sneeze and your nose just isn't cooperating? So annoying. I've had a cold coming on for the last few days, and I kept trying to fight it back because of my show choir performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Now that it's over, however, I feel terrible. A cough, stuffy nose, sneezing, sniffling, and an on and off fever. I noticed last night at my performance that everything around me sounded a lot quieter than it really was, except for my nasally, sick voice. My problem is that I can't sit around all day with a blanket and a box of tissues. I get too bored! So no matter how sick I am, I'm still walking around the house, or on Facebook, or playing the piano. It probably isn't really going to help me get better any sooner, but I can't just sit in the same place all day! This is in contrast with my brother, who is also sick, who was either in bed, or on a couch playing on the Wii. All day.

I was REALLY scared last night before my choir performance. My solo is in a song from Grease called, "Those Magic Changes." It is insanely high, and goes up to a really high G. (I think Helena told me the technical musical term for that G, but I can't remember what it was) Anyways, I was not looking forward to attempting that with my cold. When I practiced at home that day, my voice did some pretty scary things. I was very grateful that no one was there to hear them. I definitely didn't want that to happen in front of a room full of people. That would probably make it to the top of my ten most mortifying experiences ever list. To keep that from happening, I made sure I drank plenty of water during the day, and even resorted to taking Tylenol. (Which inevitably triggers a gag reflex every time I drink it) Surprisingly, it ended up being my best night, and my voice didn't squeak or screech or anything. I felt very relieved as I let the next soloist take over and walked back to the risers. The down part of that night, was that my dad couldn't come see it because he was----sick. He had a fever of over 100 degrees and didn't want to give that to whoever was there. But my mom and siblings watched me, and I got ice cream, and went to a pretty awesome party afterward with my friends.

Today wasn't a very productive day. I just felt horrible all day, so I either texted, messed around on the computer, or walked around looking for something to do. I tried reading for a while but felt too tired. I did practice piano for a while and looked at some of the Select Choir music I'm supposed to learn within the next few weeks. I posted a few times on the Discussion Board and am apparently a "Proficient Padowan" now. It's fun reading what other people have to say about different topics. Whether it's the weekly discussion, or recommendations for books, Halloween plans, or random chain games that make no sense. Then I decided to finally do this blog entry. 500 words really isn't that much, but when you're trying to think of a topic to write about, it seems like more than it really is. Anyways, I'm going to go rest my tired, sick body! 'Night everyone!

EEK!!!

I had a pretty scary weekend! I went to Frightmares at Lagoon on Friday with a bunch of other people. The Haunted Houses were so creepy! I went into two of them! There are all these creepy people in each room, or jumping out at you, or chasing you with a chainsaw, or other things like that. My least favorite part was when you had to move a curtain, and you know as soon as you do someone's going to jump out at you. Even when you know none of it is real, you're still freaked out. What is really scary is when you're all by yourself. Most of the time, I was the only one waiting for my friend on crutches, so sometimes I'd be standing all by myself waiting for her to catch up. She and I got confused when we came to the end and saw an "Exit" sign. We thought it was fake, but I checked it anyways and realized it really was the end. I went out to where our other friends were, but then I realized that she just kept going! She came out a couple minutes later, which was really funny!

Another kind of scariness at Lagoon was the roller coasters. I went on one called Wicked for the first time. Before I wouldn't go on it because it goes straight up and then straight down really fast. I went on it anyways, and I actually wasn't scared! I kept waiting for something scary to happen and then it was over. I also went on one called Samurai where you go upside down a lot, and it was way fun! I went on one called Colossus where you go in a loop really fast so you're upside down for part of it. Another fun one was the Spider. It's a roller coaster, but the car thing you're in turns around, so you go down some drops backwards. Usually I'm not a big roller coaster person, but when I went on all of them it was really fun!

Remember last time when I mentioned my super-severe arachnophobia? Just the sight of spiders makes me start hyperventilating, it's horrible. Anyways, last night I was up until around 2 AM reading Fablehaven 4. (Which is a really good book, by the way) Then, all the sudden I saw something on the floor move out of the corner of my eye. It was another spider a couple inches long like the one in my shower a couple weeks ago. AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! After staring at it for a minute, I started looking around for my cell phone so I could have my dad come downstairs and kill it, but I realized I left it upstairs. I thought about running and waking him up to come kill it, but then it might move and I wouldn't know where it was. So I took Breaking Dawn off my shelf, ran over, and smashed the spider. Then I woke up my dad and had him move the body off my floor. After that I still couldn't sleep even though it was so late, or early, so I read until about 4 AM, and the whole time I kept looking around to make sure there weren't any more spiders. I'm pretty tired after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night, and I've tried not to go into my room very much today.

Anyways, that was my scary weekend. October has to be a scary month with Halloween and everything, right?

Obsession

People obsess over a lot of things. For example, they might be obsessive compulsive. I think everyone is like that sometimes. Sometimes, when I do things, I have to do it a certain amount of times every single day. I've heard people say that they can't eat M&Ms unless they arrange them by color. Then they eat them in a certain pattern. On Irish Ninja's blog, she said that she can't stand open doors. I'm the same way. If I'm sitting here at the computer and someone walks by me, opens the door to the backyard, walks out, and doesn't shut it, that drives me nuts! Something else people are sometimes OCD about is grades. I know I am. A minuses are the most horrible thing in the world. You know you were about 3% away from getting an A, but you just barely couldn't. I hate being so close, but not close enough. If I get a bad grade, I can usually see it coming because I know I don't understand it or I didn't work hard enough. But if I look on my grades and see an A-, I work my hardest to raise it that extra bit. Wow. I'm really obsessive compulsive about that.

Another thing people obsess about is what they're afraid of. For instance, I have insane bug phobia, especially when it comes to spiders and earwigs. I cannot stand them. Imagine, you're about to get in the shower. You turn it on, shut the shower door, turn around, and then you notice this 2-inch long wolf spider sitting there on the side of your shower. EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK! I screamed, ran upstairs, woke up my dad, and made him come kill it. I wasn't going anywhere near that thing. I was freaking out and shaking. I still think about it everyday, and it was a few weeks ago. I've been showering upstairs ever since, and it took me over a week to start sleeping in my room again. Even now I have to inspect my room for bugs every single night before I can get in bed. Now about earwigs. Remember all that rain we had in June this year? Do you know how many earwigs there were because of that? They were everywhere! In my sink, on my wall, on my bed. I am traumatized for life.

Wasn't that a good example of people obsessing over phobias? I had to force myself to stop ranting about my fear of bugs. I know that bugs can't hurt me, and my fear is totally irrational, but can I help it? Not really.

Another thing people obsess over is things that they're excited about. If you're getting money that day, and you're super excited about it, you'll probably think about it all day. For me, I get super excited whenever a book comes out. Books like Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, Twilight, and Inheritance, I had to get the day they came out-at midnight if possible! I would be counting down the days until they came out and making sure I had them ASAP! I'm sorry. Things like that just make me happy. But even if it's waiting for a song to come out, or something like that, it's the same feeling. Someone might also be excited because they're going to Lagoon, or the beach, or hiking or something that weekend, and they'll look forward to and think about it all week.

Anyways, there are my random thoughts for the week! I'll try to update earlier next week, I've just been so busy! See ya!

Fall

After this weekend, I officially like fall, even though summer is still my favorite. My family and I went on a hike in Provo Canyon and looked at all the leaves, colors, and waterfalls. There was a lot of orange and red with the occasional green mixed in, and the sky was bright blue. Except for when I got stuck because a sticker thing was caught in my hair (which was freaking me out!) it was tons of fun just to get out and see things change.

I also went to my first corn maze ever! It was way fun and we were totally lost. We were wandering around in this huge maze shaped like Larry H. Miller's head. Every once in awhile we'd find a sign with a number you're supposed to text and then they send you a clue which tells you where to go. What was really funny was when my brother would decide to go a different way and be independent, and then he'd end up in the same place as we did or he came to a dead end. I kind of wish we'd have gone there later when it's dark and people jump out at you, even though I'd be screaming my head off the whole time!

It was also cool looking at all the other aspects of fall there. Like the corn maze, all these AMAZING jack-o-lanterns with pictures that looked way real, (I loved the Snow White and Davy Jones! They were so cool!) the caramel apples, and, of course, hot chocolate and cider. It was just really fun to be out doing something and having fun, even if my brother thought he was too cool for everything. :D We walked around in an inflatable monster thing with all this creepy music and lights and weird things popping out at you.

Even though I hate the cold, I do like this season. I like the colors on the mountains. They’re really pretty and I love watching them. I love how blue the sky is—especially when it’s cloudless. I also like the fun parts of the fall. Getting lost in the corn maze was great. And I love when my family carves jack-o-lanterns and we roast pumpkin seeds. Caramel apples and hot chocolate are absolutely delicious and wonderfully unhealthy. I also refuse to believe that I’m too old to be trick-or-treating, so every year I’m out there running around with my friends dressed up as something weird and screaming at people for candy—and then trying to eat it all in one night. That doesn’t work out so well.

I also like how my mom gets all excited for fall, and she puts up a bunch of decorations. We have jack-o-lantern lights on our porch right now, a ghost thing that keeps falling down no matter where she puts it, a scarecrow thing, a stuffed pumpkin, and other cutesy fall stuff she’s put up. It’s just fun watching her because it’s her absolute favorite season.

Overall, I’m pretty excited about starting October, and I think this fall’s going to be way fun!

Procrastination

Why do today what I could put off until tomorrow?

You know, some people can actually do things a month in advance. My little sister is always working on projects that aren't due until 3rd term! Next semester! This is completely incomprehensible to me. I tend to leave things (such as this blog post) until the very last possible second. Sometimes I get motivated when I first start things (such as last week's blog posts), but then a week later I'm back to procrastinating. For some reason, when I don't procrastinate, it bugs me. Yesterday and today I spent hours working on these projects for one of my classes. Today I called my friend to ask a question about them-and found out that they're due next Monday. I wasted my entire weekend doing that when I could have been doing something fun! In the long-term it will be good, because I can enjoy my UEA weekend without those projects looming over my head, but right now it is just plain annoying.

Maybe I should try being more like my little sister. (Wow, you know something's weird when you're saying that) She always gets everything done AEAP. (As Early As Possible) And then she's in bed by around 9:30. I am almost never in bed by 9:30 because I stay up til 2 in the morning finishing all the homework I could have done a week earlier. Even this year when I have the advantage of having an extra day to do my homework, I still put it off. I'm thinking that I might attempt doing each day's work the day it is assigned. So I do all my B day homework on B days, and my A day homework on A days. Then, if it's almost done, but not quite, I can finish it the next day and it won't be so stressful.

Why does this all the sudden seem to be the place I write down my goals? Oh well. Goals are good. If I write them down on here, I'll actually have proof that I made them and maybe I'll even follow through with them. Well, this is the last thing that I procrastinated for today, so goodbye!

Brain Dead

Wow. These past couple of days have been...not good. There's been a lot of forgetfulness. Yesterday, I walked into my class and totally forgot where I sat, even though we've had the same seats for a couple of weeks. When I got home I tore apart my room looking for my pass to go to this church thing, never found it, and had to get a new one.

When I got to Spanish I realized I forgot to do my assignment, so I had to rush and do it at the beginning of class. Then, this afternoon, I get my brother to drive me to my voice lessons, and as soon as he drives away I realize that it's Wednesday. Voice lessons are on Thursday. Apparently I went through all of today thinking today was Thursday and tomorrow was Friday.

I guess something in my brain is just really scrambled right now. I really hate those days where you can't seem to remember anything. Like someone just turned off that switch in your head. You go to a class, and all of a sudden you're thinking that was due today? And then you pretty much have this permanent rain cloud over your head. On that happy note, I'm going to go now! But my new goal, is to improve my memory over this next few days, and I'm going to be more cheerful! See ya!

By the way, two days until Friday!!!!!!!

Sleep

Why is it that sleep seems so unappealing at night, but in the morning it's all that matters? Maybe it's just me, but at night, all I want to do is stay up later. I'm just not ready to sleep yet. However, in the morning, when I'm supposed to be getting up and getting ready for school, I really don't want to get up! My bed just seems really warm and comfortable, and suddenly I'm tired. I start thinking, Oh, I'll get up in 5 minutes. I'm just going to lay back down for a second... And next thing I know, half an hour has gone by and I'm running late.

I've just never been an early riser. When I first wake up, I'm pretty cranky and in a bad mood until I'm really awake. Nighttime is a different matter. I can just stay up for hours and keep making excuses why I shouldn't go to bed yet. (It usually happens the worst when I'm reading a really good book and I don't want to put it down)

Anyways, I've decided that the resolution to this problem is to start going to bed earlier. In one of my classes we had a lesson about how we should make goals and write them down. I'm writing one of mine on this blog! My new goal is to be in bed, lights out by 11 o' clock. Maybe then waking up at 6:30 won't be so hard. :P I won't be so tired in the morning. I also won't be really rushed, and I'll have more time to get ready for school.

Well now I feel good about myself for setting a goal! I'm going to start it tonight, so I'd better go finish my math homework!

¡Adios, amigos! ¡Tengo que irme!

"All the World's a Stage!"

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven stages."

William Shakespeare
All the World's a Stage

"For all the tears you've made me shed, you'll prick you're finger on something pointy and fall down dead!"

Sleeping Beauty and the Beast

The Wicked Witch

I don't know how memorization is for everyone else, but for me it's pretty difficult. When you're trying to memorize some obscure Shakespeare, or Dickinson, or whatever else, you feel like you're memorizing gibberish. Monologues are tricky, too, because once you know it, you have to add in a character. You have to step out of yourself and into someone different.

Not that it's all as terrible as my first paragraph implies. Sometimes doing things just because they're difficult can be fun. You know, when you're doing it just to test yourself. Sometimes I'm kind of quiet around people I don't know very well. (Although around my friends I'm anything but quiet!) Theater is my opportunity to try to change that. I can pretend to be someone else and escape into their character. Anything that puts me out of my comfort zone helps, no matter how badly I do it!

Mimes, for instance, are definitely not my best area! You have to remember all the invisible things around you that you have to go around. You have to make it look real. In my mimes, I've accidentally created a revolving room, stuck my elbows through a solid surface, and forgotten to get dressed while getting ready for the day. Oops! It's embarrassing, but that embarrassment helps you remember what to work on the next time.

Even though I'm not a natural pro at acting like other people are, it's still something I like and enjoy trying to improve on. No matter how nervous I am, or how badly I mess up, I still keep trying. That's all that matters, right?

Music!

"When you see a guy reach for stars in the sky, you can bet that he's doing it for some doll!"

This song has been stuck in my head for days! Agh! (It's from Guys and Dolls) We've been having a lot of fun in choir these past couple of weeks singing songs from Guys and Dolls, Newsies, and Grease. It's really fun learning new songs-and singing songs I already knew-in four part harmony! We're having our musical revue in October, which will be way fun!

Why do I like music? I guess it would have to be because I like singing so much. My brother gets really frustrated when he tries to show me his music. He always says things like, "Isn't this guitar part so awesome?" and, "Listen to these drums! Don't they sound so cool?" But I just can't really appreciate that when I listen to his music. To me, his songs are all really chaotic, and my favorite part, the singer, is drowned out by all the drums and guitars. I like the music that I can sing along to. That's what makes me enjoy music. I like listening to the words and finding out what they mean. I really like the song, "Fireflies", by Owl City. My brother doesn't like it because he says the background music is too simple. I like it that way. To me, the accompaniment should just enhance the singer's voice-which to me is what really matters! If I can tell what they're saying, I like their voice, and I can sing along, than the song's great!

I went to piano lessons today, but I was pretty much falling asleep the whole time. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to do anything well when you can't stay awake? *sigh* Well, I'm off to bed to catch up on the sleep I didn't realize I was losing! More later this week! Good night!

Blog Post #1

Hello world!