This is just a few mini-rants, similar to my rants on Facebook. Basically, there are several phrases that we use a lot that annoy me. When I say "we," mostly, I mean my generation, and not the older ones. The rest of you can sit back and laugh at what this world has come to.
You're welcome.
And for those of you in the younger generation who are reading this, take this as a big fat hint to stop saying these phrases.
"I know right?!"
What the heck. This is the most (girly-girl) obnoxious way of agreeing with someone ever. You could just say, "Oh yeah, definitely." Or something along those lines. You don't have to squeak like every other teenage girl on the planet and say this phrase. Do us all a favor.
"One thing led to another..."
Yes? Go on? What happened? What exactly led to another thing? This is just lazy when people say this. Elaboration, people. If you're one of those people who try to make long stories short stories, then I suppose that's the only excuse. I feel like the person is skipping a lot of important events by saying this instead whenever they say it.
"We'll see."
This is an answer that has bothered me and my dad for years. It's another way of saying "maybe." If you say "we'll see," it just confuses everybody. We'll see what? If you ask to see a movie, and your parents say "we'll see," it just gets confusing, because you don't know if they'll see the movie, or what.
Guys, just say maybe. It's so much better. Maybe is the new we'll see.
"...or whatever."
I started hearing this in sixth grade. Ex~ce~use me? Or whatever?! You sound like you couldn't care less about what you're talking about when you say this. A lot of people seem to not notice that they say it, yet they do. If you say "or whatever" at the end of your sentence, it just makes the rest of what you said sound useless, like it could be whatever. Like it was no big deal.
Maybe it wasn't a big deal, but don't add "or whatever." Just don't.
"A whole 'nother"
Can someone explain this to me? I say this on occasion, but it doesn't make sense to me. I don't even know if I typed it correctly above. Another is a word all by itself, but someone decided it would be a good idea to just plop a whole in the middle of that word, making it two awkward words. "Nother" isn't a word, according to me.
Something to think about.
"_____'s the bomb."
When I was in elementary school, people would always say things like "Ooh, Soan Dso is the bomb," meaning they're really cool. WHAT?! Last time I checked, bombs = bad. If someone's "the bomb" wouldn't that make them a bad thing? I didn't get the memo in elementary school that bombs were cool.
"BFFL"
This is an acronym for "Best Friends For Life." I'm fine with that part, but what bothers me is when people walk around and say things such as, "Hey BFFL!!" They pronounce "BFFL" as if it's actually a word, instead of saying "Bee Ef Ef El." They pronounce it like it's spelled like this: "Biffle."
NO.
"Totes [my goats]"
I discovered this slang this year in eighth grade. It's supposed to be a one syllable way of saying "totally." Is it really that much work to pronounce all three syllables of totally? Honestly. If it's come down to this much laziness, I'm disappointed in our generation. In fact, I already am. My disappointment will just increase by a significant amount.
No, the rest of my generation doesn't care if my disappointment grows significantly. They'll look at this and go,
"This rant just sucks."
"Totes my goats."
And walk away.
Wondering what the goats was for? I've heard that too. I'm not surprised.
"Like, for seriously."
Do you really need to add those first two words? You could just say seriously, and get on with your day, instead of making a big dramatic snobby scene about how serious you are. Maybe if you didn't say the first two words, people actually would take you seriously.
Overusing "Literally" and "Legit"
If anyone out there is familiar with the show Mind Freak, starring Criss Angel, you'll notice how much he says "literally" before his demonstration. It'll go something like this.
Chris says, "Aw man here's what's gonna go down. I'm going to walk straight through this door. Literally, folks. Here's what I want you to. I want you to literally knock on this door and tell me that this is totally fair, I want you to literally feel it to see that it is completely steel. Literally. Now, I'm going to literally walk right through. Literally. This is totally legit, no bull sh*t."
Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but you see what I'm saying.
Text Talking
This is the art of speaking letter for letter each acronym that we use to text. Many teenagers, especially girls, have mastered the art of speaking as if they were texting.
They'll say "BRB" when saying "Be right back" doesn't take any more effort, since all three words already have one syllable each. The only reason we type "BRB" for texting is to make it a little easier on our thumbs. That's it. Same goes with "IKR." They could easily say "I know right" without any extra effort. Now, I know I ranted on earlier about all the things that are so wrong with saying "I know right" in the first place, but if you're not ready to take that big of a transition to stop saying it, just try to stop text talking it first.
Text talking also goes for "TTYL." This one, however, is actually one syllable shorter than the actual phrase, "Talk to you later." It still bothers me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'
That's the end of that. Speak English, please and thanks.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
My Crawling Episode
This will be a short and sweet one.
During gym class on Monday, we were playing volleyball. There are twelve teams of eight or so people on each team. We've been playing a tournament of volleyball for several weeks now. Monday was our last day of volleyball, so the last game was the championships between two high scoring teams. Everybody else could sit on the bleachers.
Here's where things got interesting.
You see, my friends Colin, Sarah, Sam, and I were sitting close to the door. I got very bored quite quickly, since the game was on the other end of the gym and we couldn't even see what was going on. So I decided to create my own entertainment and go crab walking in the hallways.
Crab walking? Indeed! It's very unattractive, but it's fun. I went back and forth the gym / 7 Green hallway a couple times, then I stopped at the water fountain to get a drink. Walking on your hands and knees with your stomach to the ceiling is a very odd position, and it's not the most efficient transportation. I got my drink, and crab walked back to the gym.
No harm.
My friends cracked up at the fact that I actually went through with my plan. Of course, things went back to normal, and we still had several minutes left of gym class. I got very bored very fast all over again. Solution? Crab walking! I noticed my hands had gotten very dusty and dirty, so I decided to crab walk to the bathroom and walk back (normally) to the gym when I was done.
On my way out, the second time, I catch one of my fingers under the door. The result was a purple bruise and a bit of blood. I was fine. I'm crab walking and bleeding at the same time, waddling down to the girl's bathroom. It's not very long for a crab walker, when someone very official looking walks down the hallway, facing me. I get very startled, and I stand up.
She asks me in a very awkward tone, "Are you... okay?"
I act as casual as a bored thirteen-year-old-crab-walker could. "Oh... yeah, you know... I was just crawling. No big deal."
She gives me a really weird look and turns around.
How embarrassing. I'm cracking up on the inside.
I finally reach the girl's bathroom, where I wash my hands in peace. Until my old math teacher from 7th grade pops out of one of the bathroom stalls and washes her hands next to me.
She's got sort of a southern accent, so imagine this. "You know, I saw you crab walking in the hallways. We do that kind of pose in my yoga class, except we don't move anywhere, we just stay stationary. It's quite fascinating." I don't really care about your yoga class. At all. As awkward as it was, I just kept saying, "Yeah... uh huh... yeah..." until I got all the dirt off my hands.
I speed walked right out of there, back in the safety of gym class, when finally, everybody's leaving to the locker rooms.
That was fun. It was much better than sitting in that dull gym watching two teams play volleyball. I didn't get in any trouble, so it's just something to laugh about right about now.
I'm going to start doing things like that more often. =] Heck yeah.
During gym class on Monday, we were playing volleyball. There are twelve teams of eight or so people on each team. We've been playing a tournament of volleyball for several weeks now. Monday was our last day of volleyball, so the last game was the championships between two high scoring teams. Everybody else could sit on the bleachers.
Here's where things got interesting.
You see, my friends Colin, Sarah, Sam, and I were sitting close to the door. I got very bored quite quickly, since the game was on the other end of the gym and we couldn't even see what was going on. So I decided to create my own entertainment and go crab walking in the hallways.
Crab walking? Indeed! It's very unattractive, but it's fun. I went back and forth the gym / 7 Green hallway a couple times, then I stopped at the water fountain to get a drink. Walking on your hands and knees with your stomach to the ceiling is a very odd position, and it's not the most efficient transportation. I got my drink, and crab walked back to the gym.
No harm.
My friends cracked up at the fact that I actually went through with my plan. Of course, things went back to normal, and we still had several minutes left of gym class. I got very bored very fast all over again. Solution? Crab walking! I noticed my hands had gotten very dusty and dirty, so I decided to crab walk to the bathroom and walk back (normally) to the gym when I was done.
On my way out, the second time, I catch one of my fingers under the door. The result was a purple bruise and a bit of blood. I was fine. I'm crab walking and bleeding at the same time, waddling down to the girl's bathroom. It's not very long for a crab walker, when someone very official looking walks down the hallway, facing me. I get very startled, and I stand up.
She asks me in a very awkward tone, "Are you... okay?"
I act as casual as a bored thirteen-year-old-crab-walker could. "Oh... yeah, you know... I was just crawling. No big deal."
She gives me a really weird look and turns around.
How embarrassing. I'm cracking up on the inside.
I finally reach the girl's bathroom, where I wash my hands in peace. Until my old math teacher from 7th grade pops out of one of the bathroom stalls and washes her hands next to me.
She's got sort of a southern accent, so imagine this. "You know, I saw you crab walking in the hallways. We do that kind of pose in my yoga class, except we don't move anywhere, we just stay stationary. It's quite fascinating." I don't really care about your yoga class. At all. As awkward as it was, I just kept saying, "Yeah... uh huh... yeah..." until I got all the dirt off my hands.
I speed walked right out of there, back in the safety of gym class, when finally, everybody's leaving to the locker rooms.
That was fun. It was much better than sitting in that dull gym watching two teams play volleyball. I didn't get in any trouble, so it's just something to laugh about right about now.
I'm going to start doing things like that more often. =] Heck yeah.
PIPPIN!
As you may have noticed, I've been mentioning in bits and pieces throughout other posts on the site how much I absolutely love Pippin. Of course, during a snow day when I actually don't have writer's block, is when I figured out that I should blog about Pippin itself.
So here we go.
Basically, the story of Pippin is this. Pippin is a prince, and he can't find any meaning in his life, and he can't figure out what to do with his life. Also, he has a step-brother and a step-mother. Louis, the step-brother, is the perfect soldier, and is completely in love with himself. Fastrada, Pippin's step-mother, is absolutely ridiculous. She's overenthusiastic about Louis's achievements, and couldn't really care less about what happens to Pippin. Pippin's father, King Charlemagne, is making some bad decisions to rule the kingdom and fight the war. At least, in Pippin's opinion.
I won't spoil anything, but that's just a little overview.
The MUSIC, however, is the best part. After my obsession began, we got the entire Pippin original Broadway cast album. As you might have read in my post "This Past Week," the song "Glory" is my all-time favorite. Second favorite is the finale, third is "Morning Glow," and fourth is "War is a Science."
Listen to the whole thing! I've memorized it word for word.
(Please ignore the pictures... it's just random images of war, and this is the only video I could find with the full song of Glory.)
The Proscenium Circus of ABRHS performed Pippin in February. After I saw it several times, I became a drama kid. (Now I'm a double whammy... band geek and drama kid. Woah there.) I even found a video that was taken during a rehearsal, just to give you an idea of just how amazing it was, in case you missed it.
Watch it, I say, watch it! It's part of the beginning, not very long. =]
Speaking of the PROSCENIUM CIRCUS, also known as PC, I've just figured out that many of my peers don't even have a clue what PC is, even when I tell them that it stands for Proscenium Circus. My friend Colin and I are very obsessed with everything to do with PC, so he and I were very heartbroken to find out that very few people knew what PC was. When we get to High School, we're planning on being "PC Kids."
So, now you know. The Proscenium Circus is the most amazing High School Drama Program in the history of High School Drama Programs; your mind should already be blown away. If it's not, go see for yourself a production of PC. Soon enough, you'll be a drama kid just like Colin and I. =]
...That, my dear friends, was my finale for you.
Tah-dah!! Commencing jazz hands.
The Past Week
So the last few days have been pretty interesting. Without further ado, here goes the summary of the past week for me. I meant to publish this sooner, but better later than never. This was the week before February vacation.
Sunday, February 12th
My bet is that the majority of you readers sleep in on Sunday mornings. For me, the Sunday morning sleeping in never goes past 8:00, and that's at the latest. I wake up at 8:00 if we're going to church, and I wake up at 7:00 if I have a swim meet that morning. Guess what time Sonja got to wake up last Sunday?
7:00 sharp. She certainly does not like swimming when she would rather be sleeping.
Now, why on Earth, you ask, do swim meets have to start so dang early? Don't ask me. That's just the time they start, and if you're on the team, you will never sleep in on a Sunday ever again. (At least during the season.) This particular meet had warm-ups at 8:30 and start time at 9:00.
What joy. Jumping into cold chlorinated pool water bright and early, on Sunday morning; there's just nothing like it. The good part, and one of the only good parts that I could find about this trip, was that my mom packed some girl scout cookies.
Another good part was that my brothers friend, Ben, was there, and he makes me happy. Not necessarily in "that way," for all you lovie-dovie girly gooses out there, but he's just a chill guy who knows my brothers in High School. And so I share my cookies with him. Ben's younger brother is on the team, so he was there as well. We were all sitting down, bored out of our minds and socializing by my little camping set up with my towel and swim bag, and Ben was eating an orange. At least, it looked like an orange. When I ate a wedge of it, I wasn't so sure anymore. Ben was eating some form of citrus, while I took the peels and formed them over my flip flop. Hey, I was bored. What am I gonna do?
Then coach walks in. To create a good picture for you guys, coach is big. Coach is a large, old, man who waddles around everywhere, and in my opinion, I think he gets angry very easily. Maybe that's just me. I'm not saying he's a bad person. He's a great coach, but he's very intimidating.
Anyway, coach strolls in the commons of the high school where the whole team is camping out, waiting for their events to be called. He snaps at everybody for making such a mess. A few minutes earlier, Ben's little brother tries on my orange peel flip-flop sculpture. Of course, he ends up making himself look ridiculous, and his right foot smelled of citrus. I had to throw out the citrus peels, though, because of coach.
If I were a stubborn old person right about now, I would yell at the computer screen, "Youngsters these days are such delinquents!!" Just saying.
So that was an interesting swim meet. We lost, but I had fun. Keep in mind, Ben's little brother is about my age. Yeah, we're all real mature.
Monday, February 13th
I bet about half of you readers just sighed by realizing that my post isn't near finished, considering this is the part where I talk about Monday. Do not worry, fellow readers. I am a blogger. Bloggers do not bore their readers.
So. Monday. The day where nobody on Earth wishes to wake up, one of the reasons being because it is Monday. That's just the way it works. And if you do wake up, unfortunately, there's a likely chance you'll have a case of the Mondays. That's right, folks.
I think I had a case of the "Mondays." But, then again, so did the rest of the world. (I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. I had to post the video!)
After school was just a mess for me. I forgot my tap clothes, so I went home. I loafed for an hour or two, went to dance class, then directly to swim, and then I came back home, defeated and deflated. And wet.
I was especially deflated after tap class, because I had missed a couple weeks of it because of my knees. Catching up with tap is not easy, and I hate being that one dancer in the middle of the room who has no idea what the heck she's doing and where she's supposed to go. Everyone else is watching their footing, and they totally know what they're doing, that's for sure. I just looked pathetic.
Swim practice that evening wasn't too bad. My all time least favorite drill is the one where we do butterfly kick on our back. It's just wrong. Humans are not meant to do butterfly kick on their back in streamline, swim coaches, it's just not natural. Let me catch all you non-swimmers up on what exactly this is. Butterfly kick is also known as the dolphin kick. You keep your legs "glued" together, and basically do a floppy worm movement, like a dolphin. It's a bit hard to describe, but essentially, that's it.
Now, while reading this, I want you to take both of your arms and reach them to the ceiling, covering your ears. You read me. Make sure your palms are pressed together and your fingers are pointed. That is streamline. NOW, imagine streamline on your back and flopping the lower half of your body around. It ain't fun, it ain't pretty, and it's hard to breathe when you keep accidentally swallowing the chlorinated water.
The next part of my day was the best and worst part of my day, all in one. It was the worst because this scared the absolute fudge out of me. Not literally, but you know what I mean. It was the best because it was different than my usual routine, and you know me, I LOVE when things go different than usual. It just brightens up everyone's day. Sprinkles a little more fun into their day, even if it's by scaring the fudge out of them.
So what did happen that was the best/worst part of my day? It was in the girl's locker rooms after swim practice. There are four of us in the 13 & 14 year old girl's section of the team. One of them is my friend Issy. Issy is just... well, interesting. She's a great friend, but she can be really crazy sometimes.
The thing is, there's a small door in the wall by the showers where you open it up, and there are the controls to turn on the water for the showers. On the shelf inside the little closet in the wall is a fake tongue. All four of us know about the tongue, and every one of them know that I'm totally grossed out by it. Why am I so grossed out by it? Mostly because it looks real and it feels real. It's real enough for me, and I didn't want anything to do with it.
So today, I was changing in the area by the showers. The place has curtains, so it's private. Suddenly, when I'm bending over to get my bra off of the floor, the fake tongue hits me in the... rear. You're lucky I didn't use a different word. Then again, I was lucky that I was still wearing that part of my bathing suit, yet I was still disgusted. This kind of "tongue war" continued. I threw it in a completely different direction, Issy would go and find it, and then throw it back at me again. During this chaos, I was screaming my head off like a little girl. All I can say is, I really wanted to know what somebody who was listening to all of this outside of the locker rooms would think. We are girls, after all. I'm sure things are going just dandy in the boy's locker rooms.
I found this on the internet. Got the idea now?
Tuesday, February 14th (Valentine's Day)
I'm not going to go on and on (like everybody on Facebook) and complain about how awful Valentine's Day is when you are single. Or how lovely it is when you are in a relationship. Today didn't feel like Valentine's Day at all for me. It was just a normal school day, sort of.
Sort of. This is where things get interesting, and therefore, blog worthy.
I walk in school, feeling exhausted for some reason. It wasn't Monday, so I had no reasonable excuse. Love sick? I don't think the nurses accept that. I was feeling pretty gross, though. A few people are handing out the basics. Cheap red lollipops, cookies, small candy bags. Someone even gave me a teeny tiny model magic cat. Now that was definitely different.
Unfortunately, that gross feeling of mine didn't go away, and it wasn't love sickness either, even though I do hate watching all the couples hold hands in the hallways, acting all mushy-gushy. I started to lose my voice about five minutes before homeroom. Perfect. Just perfect.
I had science first period, and during the entire 52 minute period, I felt awful. And I mean awful. It's like someone stole my vocal chords, beat me up, and sucked all the sunshine and love out of me forever. I had math next, but at the end of science class, which was boring as it is, I was in absolutely no condition to be graphing any inequalities. I managed to get a pass to the nurse.
The nurse said that I had a fever. As an added bonus, I had huge headaches and no voice. Trust me, it's worse than you think. It was a very bad combination, indeed. I gathered my things, and my mom picked me up about twenty minutes later.
While I was lying on that blue bed in the nurses office, waiting for my mom and staring at the ceiling, I had time to think. Gee. This sucks. It's Valentine's Day, and I'm going home sick after first period. I wonder what Sarah is learning in math class right about now.
I'm sure a few of you are thinking, "Lucky! You don't have to go to school on Valentine's Day, and you're single!" Sure, I might have escaped some of the love sickness through the hallways of Junior High, but I would rather be in school than home sick. Honestly, I like school. Maybe not every class, but in general, I really care about my education. A lot. To prove it, my dream college is UPenn. (University of Pennsylvania.) If you ask most eighth graders what their dream college is, they won't have a clue.
After my mom drove me home, I did the usual. I took a nap on the couch, had some ginger ale for my throat, and my mom helped with the bath. I won't go into detail of course, because nothing extraordinary happened, except for the fact that I was obsessed with Pippin during this week.
Pippin? Excusez-moi? Pippin is a musical that was recently playing at the high school. Ever since it played, I've been all over it. I saw the show twice, and bought all the songs on iTunes. So I have my iPod with me in the tub, and I put the song "Glory" on repeat. It's my all time favorite. What's kind of funny is that I'm a mess in the tub, and then I play the finale to Pippin, and I start whispering along. I start to get some of my voice back, but that might have been a coincidence. Pippin music cheered me up throughout this entire week.
The rest of the day was kind of boring. I will tell you, however, after my mom went back to work for a few hours, I had a weird hour of healthiness and energy. I changed into yoga pants and a loose t-shirt, and I was full of energy. My guess was the soda's magic did it. Whatever did it, I'm glad it happened. I put my magical energy to good use. I remembered: it's Valentine's Day. That morning, mom made us wonderful breakfast and didn't get much sleep because of that. So, to thank her, I went all over the house, including the kitchen, and tidied up like there was no tomorrow. Right as she was coming home, right as I was finishing up, I felt gross again. It was the weirdest thing ever. Sugar rush? Possibly.
It was one of the nicest things I've done for someone on Valentine's Day. Considering the situation, I was very pleased with myself. :)
Wednesday, February 15th
I missed school today. Last night was just awful. I kept getting wicked sweaty, and then once all the covers were off, I got chills. Once the covers were back on, I got sweaty. There was no happy medium whatsoever! It was all one big comforter, so it was either on or off.
Normally, mom has shorter hours today, but she managed to get the whole day off.
Nothing amazing happened. No burst of energy. Not even enough to care about my school work, and that doesn't take much energy for me. I kept thinking of SISU, which is the Finnish word for perseverance, but as much as I wanted to do something useful and purposeful, I was a fat slug on the couch almost all day. The only energy was in my fingertips, barely. I could've been blogging, but the creative part of my brain was on sleep mode. Of course. When I have the time for blogging, I get writers block and that magical touch of voice to my writing is lost.
Oh well. Ho hum. It was a slow, painful day.
I missed le club de francais at school. Sad face! I like speaking French. This video from Flight of the Conchords is also why I love speaking French. I know it's a silly video, but it gets me in a Frenchy mood to speak French and do French things. (Caution: This will be a bit more funny to those who actually speak French.)
I couldn't get it to show directly on here, sorry. Just follow the link and listen. Hope this brightens up your day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVDP3Lc1Uhs&feature=player_embedded
Thursday, February 16th
I did not want to miss school today for several reasons.
1. Creative writing club was after school, and I love creative writing club. It's the only time where I'm allowed to crawl around in the junior high and not get yelled at. It's also the only time where I can creatively write for more than a minute in the junior high and not get yelled at. It's where the creative writers go, and that's where I belong. I hate missing creative writing club. =(
2. I had three tests/quizzes today, and I don't like making up things like this. There was a vocab quiz in English, a test in science, and a quiz in French.
I was quite lonely all day, same as yesterday. In terms of sickness, I was getting a bit better, but not by much. Ho hum, really not much to say.
Pippin music was still making Sonja happy.
And Sonja still enjoys talking in third person.
Friday, February 17th
I did not want to miss school today for several more reasons.
1. It was blue and gold day. Sure, it has it's highs and lows as it is, but I'd rather be there than miss it. Even though I'm in the band. Being in the band on blue and gold day is just down right embarrassing, because everybody gets the wrong idea of the band. We play this ridiculous song called "The Hey Song" twice in a row, a couple other cheesy songs, and that's it. Attention, attention, we're not in elementary school anymore! We don't like playing dumb songs like this! No one in the band likes playing them! If you really want to see what the band puts together, come to one of our real concerts. We have a song in 12/8 time, and one that's three pages long. No joke.
2. If I missed today, then I would have to make up the tests after break, and that's even more stressful. I'd rather get them out of the way before break.
3. I already sent out an e-mail to my teachers of the classes where I missed a test or quiz, to figure out when I could make them up if I came to school today. Now I have to disappoint them again by not coming to school- again.
My brother went to the junior high to fetch the rest of my binders for vacation, so that was nice of him.
Saturday, February 18th
I'm feeling fine, and the only thing I'm left with is a nasty cough. Magic! About halfway through the day, around 2:00, I got my voice back right after finishing "The Running Dream." Excellent book. I'll write a review for it in the future.
So that was my week. The week after this is vacation, as you might have figured out already, so missing school on Friday really wasn't a great move. But I hadn't recovered fully at that time, so I don't blame myself.
One of my friends told me that during the blue and gold day assembly, the teachers did "olympics." Good lord. I'm almost glad I got to miss that, not to mention all the cheering and screaming. I spent my blue and gold day at home with blue and gold painted nails, sitting on the couch with ginger ale and a good book.
Think about the sun, Pippin. :) I'm obsessed! I love it!
Also, I've found a new hobby: Hula hooping while blasting Pippin music. This is living.
Sunday, February 12th
My bet is that the majority of you readers sleep in on Sunday mornings. For me, the Sunday morning sleeping in never goes past 8:00, and that's at the latest. I wake up at 8:00 if we're going to church, and I wake up at 7:00 if I have a swim meet that morning. Guess what time Sonja got to wake up last Sunday?
7:00 sharp. She certainly does not like swimming when she would rather be sleeping.
Now, why on Earth, you ask, do swim meets have to start so dang early? Don't ask me. That's just the time they start, and if you're on the team, you will never sleep in on a Sunday ever again. (At least during the season.) This particular meet had warm-ups at 8:30 and start time at 9:00.
What joy. Jumping into cold chlorinated pool water bright and early, on Sunday morning; there's just nothing like it. The good part, and one of the only good parts that I could find about this trip, was that my mom packed some girl scout cookies.
Another good part was that my brothers friend, Ben, was there, and he makes me happy. Not necessarily in "that way," for all you lovie-dovie girly gooses out there, but he's just a chill guy who knows my brothers in High School. And so I share my cookies with him. Ben's younger brother is on the team, so he was there as well. We were all sitting down, bored out of our minds and socializing by my little camping set up with my towel and swim bag, and Ben was eating an orange. At least, it looked like an orange. When I ate a wedge of it, I wasn't so sure anymore. Ben was eating some form of citrus, while I took the peels and formed them over my flip flop. Hey, I was bored. What am I gonna do?
Then coach walks in. To create a good picture for you guys, coach is big. Coach is a large, old, man who waddles around everywhere, and in my opinion, I think he gets angry very easily. Maybe that's just me. I'm not saying he's a bad person. He's a great coach, but he's very intimidating.
Anyway, coach strolls in the commons of the high school where the whole team is camping out, waiting for their events to be called. He snaps at everybody for making such a mess. A few minutes earlier, Ben's little brother tries on my orange peel flip-flop sculpture. Of course, he ends up making himself look ridiculous, and his right foot smelled of citrus. I had to throw out the citrus peels, though, because of coach.
If I were a stubborn old person right about now, I would yell at the computer screen, "Youngsters these days are such delinquents!!" Just saying.
So that was an interesting swim meet. We lost, but I had fun. Keep in mind, Ben's little brother is about my age. Yeah, we're all real mature.
Monday, February 13th
I bet about half of you readers just sighed by realizing that my post isn't near finished, considering this is the part where I talk about Monday. Do not worry, fellow readers. I am a blogger. Bloggers do not bore their readers.
So. Monday. The day where nobody on Earth wishes to wake up, one of the reasons being because it is Monday. That's just the way it works. And if you do wake up, unfortunately, there's a likely chance you'll have a case of the Mondays. That's right, folks.
I think I had a case of the "Mondays." But, then again, so did the rest of the world. (I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. I had to post the video!)
After school was just a mess for me. I forgot my tap clothes, so I went home. I loafed for an hour or two, went to dance class, then directly to swim, and then I came back home, defeated and deflated. And wet.
I was especially deflated after tap class, because I had missed a couple weeks of it because of my knees. Catching up with tap is not easy, and I hate being that one dancer in the middle of the room who has no idea what the heck she's doing and where she's supposed to go. Everyone else is watching their footing, and they totally know what they're doing, that's for sure. I just looked pathetic.
Swim practice that evening wasn't too bad. My all time least favorite drill is the one where we do butterfly kick on our back. It's just wrong. Humans are not meant to do butterfly kick on their back in streamline, swim coaches, it's just not natural. Let me catch all you non-swimmers up on what exactly this is. Butterfly kick is also known as the dolphin kick. You keep your legs "glued" together, and basically do a floppy worm movement, like a dolphin. It's a bit hard to describe, but essentially, that's it.
Now, while reading this, I want you to take both of your arms and reach them to the ceiling, covering your ears. You read me. Make sure your palms are pressed together and your fingers are pointed. That is streamline. NOW, imagine streamline on your back and flopping the lower half of your body around. It ain't fun, it ain't pretty, and it's hard to breathe when you keep accidentally swallowing the chlorinated water.
The next part of my day was the best and worst part of my day, all in one. It was the worst because this scared the absolute fudge out of me. Not literally, but you know what I mean. It was the best because it was different than my usual routine, and you know me, I LOVE when things go different than usual. It just brightens up everyone's day. Sprinkles a little more fun into their day, even if it's by scaring the fudge out of them.
So what did happen that was the best/worst part of my day? It was in the girl's locker rooms after swim practice. There are four of us in the 13 & 14 year old girl's section of the team. One of them is my friend Issy. Issy is just... well, interesting. She's a great friend, but she can be really crazy sometimes.
The thing is, there's a small door in the wall by the showers where you open it up, and there are the controls to turn on the water for the showers. On the shelf inside the little closet in the wall is a fake tongue. All four of us know about the tongue, and every one of them know that I'm totally grossed out by it. Why am I so grossed out by it? Mostly because it looks real and it feels real. It's real enough for me, and I didn't want anything to do with it.
So today, I was changing in the area by the showers. The place has curtains, so it's private. Suddenly, when I'm bending over to get my bra off of the floor, the fake tongue hits me in the... rear. You're lucky I didn't use a different word. Then again, I was lucky that I was still wearing that part of my bathing suit, yet I was still disgusted. This kind of "tongue war" continued. I threw it in a completely different direction, Issy would go and find it, and then throw it back at me again. During this chaos, I was screaming my head off like a little girl. All I can say is, I really wanted to know what somebody who was listening to all of this outside of the locker rooms would think. We are girls, after all. I'm sure things are going just dandy in the boy's locker rooms.
I found this on the internet. Got the idea now?
Tuesday, February 14th (Valentine's Day)
I'm not going to go on and on (like everybody on Facebook) and complain about how awful Valentine's Day is when you are single. Or how lovely it is when you are in a relationship. Today didn't feel like Valentine's Day at all for me. It was just a normal school day, sort of.
Sort of. This is where things get interesting, and therefore, blog worthy.
I walk in school, feeling exhausted for some reason. It wasn't Monday, so I had no reasonable excuse. Love sick? I don't think the nurses accept that. I was feeling pretty gross, though. A few people are handing out the basics. Cheap red lollipops, cookies, small candy bags. Someone even gave me a teeny tiny model magic cat. Now that was definitely different.
Unfortunately, that gross feeling of mine didn't go away, and it wasn't love sickness either, even though I do hate watching all the couples hold hands in the hallways, acting all mushy-gushy. I started to lose my voice about five minutes before homeroom. Perfect. Just perfect.
I had science first period, and during the entire 52 minute period, I felt awful. And I mean awful. It's like someone stole my vocal chords, beat me up, and sucked all the sunshine and love out of me forever. I had math next, but at the end of science class, which was boring as it is, I was in absolutely no condition to be graphing any inequalities. I managed to get a pass to the nurse.
The nurse said that I had a fever. As an added bonus, I had huge headaches and no voice. Trust me, it's worse than you think. It was a very bad combination, indeed. I gathered my things, and my mom picked me up about twenty minutes later.
While I was lying on that blue bed in the nurses office, waiting for my mom and staring at the ceiling, I had time to think. Gee. This sucks. It's Valentine's Day, and I'm going home sick after first period. I wonder what Sarah is learning in math class right about now.
I'm sure a few of you are thinking, "Lucky! You don't have to go to school on Valentine's Day, and you're single!" Sure, I might have escaped some of the love sickness through the hallways of Junior High, but I would rather be in school than home sick. Honestly, I like school. Maybe not every class, but in general, I really care about my education. A lot. To prove it, my dream college is UPenn. (University of Pennsylvania.) If you ask most eighth graders what their dream college is, they won't have a clue.
After my mom drove me home, I did the usual. I took a nap on the couch, had some ginger ale for my throat, and my mom helped with the bath. I won't go into detail of course, because nothing extraordinary happened, except for the fact that I was obsessed with Pippin during this week.
Pippin? Excusez-moi? Pippin is a musical that was recently playing at the high school. Ever since it played, I've been all over it. I saw the show twice, and bought all the songs on iTunes. So I have my iPod with me in the tub, and I put the song "Glory" on repeat. It's my all time favorite. What's kind of funny is that I'm a mess in the tub, and then I play the finale to Pippin, and I start whispering along. I start to get some of my voice back, but that might have been a coincidence. Pippin music cheered me up throughout this entire week.
The rest of the day was kind of boring. I will tell you, however, after my mom went back to work for a few hours, I had a weird hour of healthiness and energy. I changed into yoga pants and a loose t-shirt, and I was full of energy. My guess was the soda's magic did it. Whatever did it, I'm glad it happened. I put my magical energy to good use. I remembered: it's Valentine's Day. That morning, mom made us wonderful breakfast and didn't get much sleep because of that. So, to thank her, I went all over the house, including the kitchen, and tidied up like there was no tomorrow. Right as she was coming home, right as I was finishing up, I felt gross again. It was the weirdest thing ever. Sugar rush? Possibly.
It was one of the nicest things I've done for someone on Valentine's Day. Considering the situation, I was very pleased with myself. :)
Wednesday, February 15th
I missed school today. Last night was just awful. I kept getting wicked sweaty, and then once all the covers were off, I got chills. Once the covers were back on, I got sweaty. There was no happy medium whatsoever! It was all one big comforter, so it was either on or off.
Normally, mom has shorter hours today, but she managed to get the whole day off.
Nothing amazing happened. No burst of energy. Not even enough to care about my school work, and that doesn't take much energy for me. I kept thinking of SISU, which is the Finnish word for perseverance, but as much as I wanted to do something useful and purposeful, I was a fat slug on the couch almost all day. The only energy was in my fingertips, barely. I could've been blogging, but the creative part of my brain was on sleep mode. Of course. When I have the time for blogging, I get writers block and that magical touch of voice to my writing is lost.
Oh well. Ho hum. It was a slow, painful day.
I missed le club de francais at school. Sad face! I like speaking French. This video from Flight of the Conchords is also why I love speaking French. I know it's a silly video, but it gets me in a Frenchy mood to speak French and do French things. (Caution: This will be a bit more funny to those who actually speak French.)
I couldn't get it to show directly on here, sorry. Just follow the link and listen. Hope this brightens up your day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVDP3Lc1Uhs&feature=player_embedded
Thursday, February 16th
I did not want to miss school today for several reasons.
1. Creative writing club was after school, and I love creative writing club. It's the only time where I'm allowed to crawl around in the junior high and not get yelled at. It's also the only time where I can creatively write for more than a minute in the junior high and not get yelled at. It's where the creative writers go, and that's where I belong. I hate missing creative writing club. =(
2. I had three tests/quizzes today, and I don't like making up things like this. There was a vocab quiz in English, a test in science, and a quiz in French.
I was quite lonely all day, same as yesterday. In terms of sickness, I was getting a bit better, but not by much. Ho hum, really not much to say.
Pippin music was still making Sonja happy.
And Sonja still enjoys talking in third person.
Friday, February 17th
I did not want to miss school today for several more reasons.
1. It was blue and gold day. Sure, it has it's highs and lows as it is, but I'd rather be there than miss it. Even though I'm in the band. Being in the band on blue and gold day is just down right embarrassing, because everybody gets the wrong idea of the band. We play this ridiculous song called "The Hey Song" twice in a row, a couple other cheesy songs, and that's it. Attention, attention, we're not in elementary school anymore! We don't like playing dumb songs like this! No one in the band likes playing them! If you really want to see what the band puts together, come to one of our real concerts. We have a song in 12/8 time, and one that's three pages long. No joke.
2. If I missed today, then I would have to make up the tests after break, and that's even more stressful. I'd rather get them out of the way before break.
3. I already sent out an e-mail to my teachers of the classes where I missed a test or quiz, to figure out when I could make them up if I came to school today. Now I have to disappoint them again by not coming to school- again.
My brother went to the junior high to fetch the rest of my binders for vacation, so that was nice of him.
Saturday, February 18th
I'm feeling fine, and the only thing I'm left with is a nasty cough. Magic! About halfway through the day, around 2:00, I got my voice back right after finishing "The Running Dream." Excellent book. I'll write a review for it in the future.
So that was my week. The week after this is vacation, as you might have figured out already, so missing school on Friday really wasn't a great move. But I hadn't recovered fully at that time, so I don't blame myself.
One of my friends told me that during the blue and gold day assembly, the teachers did "olympics." Good lord. I'm almost glad I got to miss that, not to mention all the cheering and screaming. I spent my blue and gold day at home with blue and gold painted nails, sitting on the couch with ginger ale and a good book.
Think about the sun, Pippin. :) I'm obsessed! I love it!
Also, I've found a new hobby: Hula hooping while blasting Pippin music. This is living.
Friday, March 02, 2012
April Cards Design Survey: YOU DECIDE The New April Cards Family!
You only have until MARCH 17 to take the survey! Your input is VERY important to April Cards! Read below on exactly what to do.
Reminder: PLEASE CHECK ALL 20 BOXES ON THE SURVEY! You're votes WILL be counted if you check LESS than 20, but they will NOT be counted if you check MORE than 20!! We need accurate data, so please, eliminate your 9 least favorite.
More info below...
Reminder: PLEASE CHECK ALL 20 BOXES ON THE SURVEY! You're votes WILL be counted if you check LESS than 20, but they will NOT be counted if you check MORE than 20!! We need accurate data, so please, eliminate your 9 least favorite.
More info below...
Remember? There are the 10 current designs, the 8 ones I promised to be coming to April Cards soon, and also, 11 photos. We were going to have a photo collection, but with all of these together, we can't sell all of them at once. We're only able to sell 20 products at a time on AprilCards.com, unfortunately. That's just the way it works.
HERE'S THE DEAL. There are 29 designs TOTAL. 10 current, and 19 new. It's up to you to decide which of the 29 get to stay. Pick the top 20 out of 29!
HERE'S WHAT YOU DO. Follow this link to a new tab on your computer, and set these two windows next to each other so you can have the survey and the designs side by side. It will be MUCH easier to take the survey with both tabs open at the same time.
[If this doesn't work, go to our Facebook page, April Cards, and the same designs are in a photo album. You can just open a new tab to Facebook.]
[If this doesn't work, go to our Facebook page, April Cards, and the same designs are in a photo album. You can just open a new tab to Facebook.]
If you can't take it now, take the survey ASAP!!!
Remember, you only have until March 17 to take this important survey!!
Thank you for taking this survey, and thank you for your input!!! We appreciate your time!
The designs below are in order of the names on the survey:
Classic Ice Cream
Doodle Heart
Flying Angel
Ice Skates
Life Plant
Peace Candle
Starry Night
Toasty Fire
Wild Flower
Winter Cocoa
Sunset by the Lake
Franklin Bridge
Happy Jelly Beans
Winter Tire Swing
Vintage Lamp
Finnish Fence
Black Tea
Sand Play
Heaven
Kitty Love (Please ignore the black lines on the bottom and top, we'll fix that if this gets into the new April Cards family.)
Bright and Blue
Cherry Love
Doodle Berry
Sunset Flip Flop
Happy Hour (Please ignore the black line on the right, that will be fixed if this is a part of the new April Cards family.)
Endless Life
Beach
Teamwork
Sail Boat
3 Mini-Rants on Facebook
There are a lot of things that really annoy me about Facebook, yet somehow, I waste hours online all the time. Here are just a few mini-rants for you. If you don't have a Facebook, please read this anyway so if you every do get a Facebook, you don't make these mistakes
People who "Like" everything
I "like" a lot of things on Facebook, whether it's a cute photo or a status that states an opinion that I totally agree with. It's a bit irritating when a friend of yours "likes" practically everything you post, including photos. It fills up your notifications, so if you log on an hour after uploading an album of pictures to your profile, you get 30 new notifications. They all say "Soan Dso likes your photo." Even if you like someone (yes, in that way,) you shouldn't be stalking their page and liking everything they post.
Just a little shout out, my grandpa does this. If you're reading this, grandpa, this mini-rant doesn't apply to you. I know you "like" things on Facebook to mark that you've read it, not that you necessarily like it. :)
When someone posts song lyrics as a status
Unless you've actually written the lyrics yourself, I don't see the point to this. A lot of my friends do this, and honestly, I did it a couple times. I understand that those lyrics mean something to you, but maybe you should be a blogger instead of posting song lyrics on Facebook. OK, maybe not a blog, because I wouldn't want to read about emotional lovey-dovey issues or feelings. That's the kind of thing you talk about at an all-girls sleepover. Either have a sleepover with girls to talk about those song lyrics, or get a journal to write it down, but don't post it on Facebook. All I do when I see those posts is read it, and try to figure out what song it's from. That's it.
Facebook is not an all-girls sleepover.
When someone offers any sort of "LMS" all the time
For you adults, or those of you who don't have a Facebook, LMS stands for "Like my status." Now why would someone beg you to like their status? It's usually for a rate, a "truth is," or one of those long lists with check boxes. It's kind of like a never-ending truth game.
Examples of statuses:
"Truth is...?"
A truth is is when someone basically hands out compliments. That's the way I think of it as. Don't ask me why people do it, they just love being "honest" with people. I put quotes around honest because a lot of the time, the person handing out "truth is's" will exaggerate. So a "truth is" looks like this:
"Truth is, you're in my homeroom and you're AWESOME. We should totally talk more!"
Sometimes I will "like" a status for a "truth is," and the person handing them out doesn't really know me that well. It's kinda fun to see what they come up with, and to see if they're straight-forward and honest, or they almost lie because they still want to be nice. Most of the time, it looks like this:
"Truth is, um, I don't really know you but you're in my math class."
Don't ask me the point. Even I hand them out occasionally, when I'm feeling really nice. =) The rant is basically about people who hand them out more than a couple times a month. Then it gets repetitive and annoying.
Here's another example:
"LMS 4 a rate"
A rate is when someone rates you from 1-10. I don't know if people do it based on looks, attitude, overall, or what. I don't like rates, because it's like a grade in school. It's a straight forward answer, and someone can be higher than someone else. In "truth is," there are basically 3 levels of love. The "I don't really know you..." level, the basic level like the example above, and the kind you would send to your best friend with a million hearts on it. With rate, there are 10 levels. I've figured out that 7 is the lowest a girl can rate another girl without being offended.
I never hand out rates, because I don't like to rate people. I don't walk around the halls and look at people and go, "Woah, she's such a 9." Or "Dang, look at that 4!" No. I don't rate people, period.
The last example is the long list with check boxes. Here's one I found on Facebook. I didn't write this, just writing it as I found it. It's a very good example.
"LMS 4...
You are my:
[]Friend
[]Very very good friend
[]Enemy
[]Best friend
[]Everything
[]Relative like a sis/bro/ma/pa
[]Don't really know u
Would I date you?
[]YES
[]Nope
[]Maybe
[]Probably
[]Dunno
If you stayed the night:
[]Give you half the bed
[]Make you sleep on the floor :)
[]Make you sleep in another room
[]Let you have the bed and I'll sleep on the floor
[]Ummmmmmmmmmm you wouldn't!
[]Make you sleep outside
[]Cuddle
[]Doubt you ever would
If you kissed me:
[]Awkward...
[]You wouldn't :)
[]Kiss you back :*
[]Dunno :\
[]Stare at you like WTH 0_o
You should:
[]Meet me
[]Inbox me
[]Talk to me more
[]Keep away from me!
[]Put this as your status so I can like it!"
This is basically a "truth is," except WAY over the top. One of the reasons I don't do long lists like this is because they bring up weird topics, like dating, sleeping over, friendship labels, kissing, etc. I especially hate the "you should" section. If you think the person should talk to you more, maybe you should talk to them more instead of wait for them. Ever think of that one? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Sorry, that was an awfully long mini-rant, it doesn't even deserve the title of mini-rant anymore. That was a full-sized, full blown out rant.
Now you all know how to Facebook. You're welcome.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
IKEA Shopping
For those of you who haven't heard of IKEA, it's a swedish Home Furnishings adventure store. There are many ups and downs to shopping at IKEA, but while you're there for the first time, it feels like heaven, and you're asking yourself why you didn't come any sooner. As you keep visiting time after time, you slowly start to, one by one, figure out all the down sides to IKEA.
I'm not saying it's a bad place, it's wonderful. I remember how giddy I was when I first visited. Those were the days where my dream was to be an interior designer, and I think that dream of mine is still very much alive. All I'm saying is that there are in fact reasons why it's not for everybody, and why they haven't taken over the world, like Disney and Walmart have.
As I occasionally offer on the site, here are my wonderful words of wisdom for shopping at IKEA:
1. Know what you want.
This is a very crucial part of shopping there. If you go just to browse, or just to see what they have to offer, don't go to the store itself. Go to their website instead, or get a hold of a catalog. Their website doesn't have every single product ready to order online. Most of the time, you'll get a little message telling you to go to your nearest IKEA adventure store. This, in my opinion, is a good thing, because you can browse all you want through the catalog and website, but you don't get too carried away to make the purchase right away, because you can't.
You need to have at least a good idea of what you want. We went there just last Thursday, (coming up in a future post called "This Past Week,") with the idea of getting a reading chair for me, a lamp for my room, a new bed and mattress for Sam, and several new bookcases for the living room. We knew exactly which bookcase we were looking for, but we were just looking for the rest. Don't go to IKEA with more vague ideas, trust me.
2. Measure, measure, measure!
Trust me. Let's say you have a new low-ceiling bedroom, and you want to get some new funky lighting for it. Here's what you don't do: You don't measure the hight of the room, and you go out to IKEA and buy a floor lamp that's too tall to fit. Here's what you do: the exact opposite of what you just read! Make sure you look at a few lamps online, too, because they include the measurements of the product on the website. This is very crucial.
I actually made this mistake of not measuring the under side of my loft before leaving for IKEA, since the lamp was meant to go under my loft. Now it's next to the loft in the corner. It's a compromise, but my lesson is learned.
3. Set aside enough time.
A trip to the IKEA adventure store is a day trip, or at least I consider it to be one. Even if you're not buying much, it still takes a long time to walk through the entire pathway of the whole store, and longer if you keep pausing to sit down in comfy chairs and fooling around and looking at Foofyploofpoofs. (I'll explain foofyploofpoofs in a moment.)
The reason I call it an "adventure store" is because it truly is an adventure. It's all one big maze, and you'll have fun looking for exactly what you want.
4. Avoid foofyploofpoofs!!!
This magical word was invented by my Aunt Laurie. I'll give you a definition:
Foofyploofpoof: An item commonly found in IKEA stores that are characterized as cute and fun.
This is your typical foofyploofpoof. I'll bet a lot of you are looking at that and admiring how cute it looks and how amazing that would look in your kitchen. Before you pay $20 for this, consider the following. Why are there only four pears on the bowl in the picture? THey're very small pears, and they positioned them so it looks like they're actually filling the bowl when they aren't. My bet is that they couldn't fit any more than four small pears in there without having the whole thing just fall over. It's impractical, is what I'm trying to say.
5. Have some building skills, or know someone who does.
This was a comic of a job interview at IKEA I found.
At IKEA, it's all very DIY. (Do it yourself.) When you're done shopping, you go get the boxes all by yourself, you can check it out yourself, you drive it home yourself, and you build it yourself.
Of course, IKEA does offer services for those who need help building, or maybe they own a smart car and just bought a queen size bed. If you want to save money, you do it yourself. So unless you feel confident with tools and wordless instruction pages that come with each product, or you have a relative who does, I recommend letting them do it for you. =)
So that's all I have to say about IKEA shopping. Good luck. I realize my words of wisdom posts aren't nearly as amusing as the other posts, but the point is to help you at IKEA so you don't wind up all sad. Smiles make the world go round. If you're successful with you shopping, maybe your home will look a little something like this.
Oh, and here's my last words of wisdom on this topic:
6. Never leave IKEA without the swedish meatballs and their sticky buns. It's what they're known for, no joke.
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