Lazy Friday

"I'm home!" I shout to my empty house, shutting the front door behind me.  I drop my backpack on the floor and make a beeline for the refrigerator.  Pausing for just a moment to bask in it's calming electric glow, I let out a heavy sigh of relief.  Another week down, just about eighteen more to go.   Grabbing a vitamin water, some cheese, a butterscotch pudding and a hand-full of candy beans, I head to my room, turning on my ipod as I walk inside.  Singing along to REM's Loosing My Religion, flopping onto my bed and flipping open my previously spotless white laptop, my mind begins to search for inspiration.  What to write about today?  

I'm going to be blatantly honest... I've been sitting here for a good ten minutes trying to figure out what to write about.  How come I'm always inspired while doing my history homework, but when I sit down on a Friday afternoon with nothing to do my mind goes blank?  

Thats me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, loosing my religion...

Suddenly, I hear a chugging noise from the corner of my room. After a minute, I realize it's the filter in my fish tank.  Somehow it got clogged again.  I don't even have a fish in there anymore because Finn died this summer, but I bought a plant a while back and it came with some resident snails.  Since the snails are still alive (I think... I dont see them much but you never know), I can't just unplug the tank or they'd probably die.  With a heavy sigh, I get up and open the top.  Sure enough, the filter is covered in algae, or whatever that green stuff is.  I have two options.  Either change the filter or turn the music up louder.  Not surprisingly, I pick the latter.  

Alright... here's an idea.  These are six things that you probably didn't know about me:

6) My favorite comic strip in the whole wide world is Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson (who I have met before.)

5) Every day when I get home from school and on weekends I answer the SAT question of the day.  I've been doing this for about a month, and I've gotten it wrong a total of four times.  Three of those times it was a math question.

4) My current favorite author is Trueman Capote.

3) I can play the Jeopardy theme song on my cello.

2) I think that someone should invent a lava lamp that plays music depending on what kind of vibes it detects.  It could be called the Lala Lamp.  I would buy one for every room in my house.

1) I play guitar hero on expert.

I reach my hand beside me for more candy beans, but all I grab is empty air.  Alas!  Judging by the fact that this post really wouldn't benefit by increasing in length, and the grumbling in my stomach that makes it sound like my digestive system is saying 'Gutzon Borglum' (the carver of Mt. Rushmore), I figure it's best to end this post before it gets any more ramblesome.  

What? Don't look at me like that.  Next time your stomach growls, try giving it a listen.  

Happy Lazy Friday!

Why I'm Afraid For Our Future

There are many things for us to be afraid of in this world, like global warming, Sarah Palin, bears, rabies, bears with rabies, war, food poisoning, hornets, teen pop stars, radon gas, dentists, disease, and whatever actually does happen in Vegas that's so bad people decide it needs to stay there.

But what I'd really like to address today is what is scaring me the most right now- teenage boys.

First off, I want to answer your question by saying no, I'm not going to spend this post ranting about some confusing guy in my history class that I'm in love with (of course, there is no such guy, that sentence was purely fictional).  No, instead I'm going to be addressing what teenage boys talk about with each other, at least a majority of the ones I know.  That, you may or may not be surprised to hear, is violence.

Yes, violence.  Sad, but true.  If you know any teenage boys, it's likely that they enjoy playing Call of Duty, Black Ops or some war-related video game.  Also, a few of my friends that are guys have a frighteningly extensive knowledge about guns, almost like your stereotypical teenage girl might know a little too much about clothing or make up.

Of course, I'm not making a statement that all teenage boys are going to grow up to be violent killers.  I'm just saying some of their habbits scare me...

Well, seeing as there's really not much more I can say on this topic and I'm beat tired, good night!

Motivation

Knowing myself as well as I do, I've found that the best way to get me to do anything is through motivation.  Somewhat sad, but very true.

This evening I had to finish writing a paper for english.  Normally, I'm a very slow writer.  It can take me a few days to finish a blog post, and that's because I'm pretty picky.  So imagine how long it's taken me to write a two to three page essay this week...

Well, thanks to the recent christmas season, I have a nice little stash of candy downstairs in the kitchen cabinet.  So today, before starting work on the essay, I grabbed my brand new Dr. Pepper candy beans (I want to marry whoever came up with the idea to combine my favorite soda and my 3rd favorite candy into one delicious sugary delight!)  and rewarded myself with a two beans for every paragraph I finished.  And I must say, that was the fastest essay I've written in my career.  Three days for 2 and a half pages is really not bad at all... for me. 

Now that I've discovered the best way to get myself to do things, I wonder what I'll accomplish next?  Maybe I'll get an ice cream cone for every piece of sushi I try... or a new song on itunes for each time I attempt to ride a bike... the possibilities are endless!  

Happy Wednesday! :) 

Hey Look! I Caught It!

Second only to math, PE is my worst subject.  My strong aversion to physical activity could come from a number of sources, none of which I feel like exploring right now because that would probably dig up some horrifying memories.  Oh no, here come the flashbacks...

(3 bags of potato chips,  18 marshmallows and an ice cream sundae later...)

Right... gym class.  A place for the buff to show off their superhuman physical ability, the girly to stand around and gossip, and the Rest Of Us to hide in the corner and try not to get hit by dodge balls.

Usually, gym class is a staple torture that comes with the start of each school year, and I've grown used to it.  It wouldn't really be that bad if we got to, say, just play basketball with each other or simply go outside and run around.  But no, obviously it's a better idea for everyone to have to play terrifying organized games like Human Foozeball, where a bunch of kids hold on to a big PBC pipe and run around trying to kick soccer balls at each other.  Please explain to me how that's a good idea.

Anyway, my point is that since I was in kindergarden gym class has always frightened me to death.  In fifth grade we did a bowling unit, and our teacher thought it would be a good idea to have me stand next to the pins and reset them after people hurled 10 pound balls at me.  I had to be carried to the clinic and I had a purple bruise on my leg for a few months following.

So this year, when I found out that not only did I have first period gym, but that my teacher was the scary man I had seen wandering the hallways with a toothpick in his mouth, snarling at children, I nearly had a heart attack.  My fear of my eighth grade gym teacher (who made us do exercise tapes and thought skittles were meant to be swallowed like pills and not chewed) was nothing in comparison.

But surprisingly, this year has probably been my favorite year of gym class of my entire life!  It turns out Mr. Snarly McToothpick is actually just a big softy inside, and guess what else?  For reasons beyond my understanding, he loves me.  I have an embarrassing nickname complete with a theme song, and an affectionate bruise on my forehead from when he tried to give me a knuckle touch and missed!

Also, our current unit in gym class is handball, which is basically soccer except you throw and catch a squishy yellow ball instead of kicking around a soccer ball, and there are smaller nets and no goalies.  In our class, we play six on six, and no mixed gender games, so my only competition is a bunch of girls who would rather squeal and jump out of the way than catch the ball and risk breaking a nail.  It can actually be really fun to run around and own the court, it's a real self esteem boost.

Just an update, I haven't completed any more new years resolutions yet, but I'm getting there!  My enthusiastic father read my sushi resolution and gave me a ten minute lecture about why I should try it...

Resolution #1

Well, I've actually succeeded in one of my new years resolutions so far!  How about that?  Any guess which one it is? (see my previous post.) As of yesterday, I have made a new friend :)  Besides me, there are only two other teenagers that pick up kids at the elementary school every day.  One of them is a much older girl that smells like abercrombie perfume, and seems to be a little bit eyeliner happy.  In other words, she looks and smells like a raccoon... just kidding! Okay, yes, that was mean, sorry.  It was only meant as a joke. (But admit it, you laughed.) 

The other one is a guy who rides my bus that I've never talked to before.  The one previous interaction we had consisted of him sitting next to me on day and stretching his guitar across the seat and accidently whacking me in the face with it.  But this time he came up and talked to me, and we had a very nice conversation about Bill Gates, Ice Age and Lord of the Rings.  Resolution number one completed!  Not bad for the second week of the year.

This is completely unrelated, but really there's not much more that I can say on that topic, so time to change the subject... you know what really scares me?  How you can go into a mall at 1:00 and come out at 5:00, and only feel like about 2 hours have gone by!  Does that ever happen to you?  It's just so weird when you walk outside and it's pretty much dark!  Although Starbucks and new clothes make it worthwhile. (Just not clothes from abercrombie!)

Yet another topic change, sorry.  Well, no, I shouldn't be apologizing.  It's my blog after all.  I guess I'm just used to writing single topic posts.  Oh well, time to expand my horizons!  For christmas this year, I got Sara Bareilles' new CD, Kaleidoscope Heart.  For christmas I asked for CDs because I'm trying to break my habit of only listening to the top 40 radio station, because auto-tuned pop songs are like fish.  After a little while they start to stink.

Anyway, I've spent the past 24 hours pretty much listening to this album non stop, and it is amazing!  My favorite songs are Uncharted, Machine Gun and Gonna Get Over You, but all the other ones are excellent too.  If you're looking for something new to listen to I really recommend giving Kaleidoscope Heart a try.

I said this back a while ago, but I could really use some help getting out of my top 40 radio station addiction.  I would absolutely love it if you wanted to comment and recommend something for me to listen to.  Rap, classical, jazz, pop, metal, I'm totally open to anything.

<3

Happy 2011

Happy new year!  Wow, my first post of 2011.  Funny how that sentence sounds so significant but really makes no difference whatsoever in the world...

I have a few resolutions this year... the first is to learn how to drive while causing little to no damage to the world around me.  Yes, 2011 is learners permit year for me.  I still have a few months, but I've been trying to pay attention while riding in the car to what the driver does.  Actually, I don't think the major problem will be the driving itself, but the navigation.  The fact that I don't know what turn to make to get home from the grocery store is probably good enough evidence to prove that I'm geographically impaired.

Here are the rest of my resolutions:
~Find a new Chinese take out dish that I'll eat
~Watch my way though all nine seasons of Seinfeld
~Find something interesting to do with my hair other than leave it down all the time
~See more old movies
~Find a new restaurant (because I'm tired of all the current ones I go to)
~Do something to help charity
~Make a new friend
~Write a song
~Learn to ride a bike
~Try sushi

We'll see if I'm successful... I mean, I think they all seem to be within reason (except for maybe the bike one!) So what are your new years resolutions?  Any suggestions to help me with one of mine?  Comment! Please!

Just one more thing I want to mention... I find it incredibly cool that people other than my friends who I've told actually read my blog.  Because really, it's not that great, as blogs go.   I don't write about every single gory detail of my personal life (really it's not all that interesting to anyone besides me, and even I get bored of it sometimes), I don't post really cool art that I've created (because I'm a terrible artist), and I don't really excel at anything in particular that I could write multiple posts about (like candy, paper mache, wall street, etc.) Also, if you hadn't figured this out, I don't have a family with cute little kids who do stuff like play in the sprinkler or drink whipped cream out of the can or whatever those random family blogs are about.

My point is, I just like to use this blog to... hmm... I don't actually know how to finish that sentence.  I'll add that to my list of resolutions.
~Figure out why I have this blog

In all honesty, I probably could devote this blog to talking about movies or television, but I don't think that's really creative enough for me.  I do some of that occasionally, but really I just like the idea of expressing myself.  I'm not a big fan of public speaking, and in my English class the fact that we get points for participation isn't doing wonders for my grade.  I guess you could say I'm a little shy, but I prefer to think of it as selectively social.  I'm totally comfortable around my friends and family, but thats about it.  Anyway, just typing stuff out that I want to say, clicking the mouse and putting it out for the whole world to see can be pretty satisfying.

Also the fact that on the internet you can use the delete key :)