AP World History Video

I expected it to be the "funny" type of video- the kind that makes small, unfunny jokes that make the video quite unbearable to watch because of how extreme the history is. But this video was different. It was about the assassination of an Austria-Hungarian "Prince". The assassins were apart of this group called "The Black Hand"- or something like that. Anyway, the group was ready to kill the "Prince" when the first guy with a hand grenade threw it at the prince- only to remember that it has a 10-second detonation rule. (It didn't even explode near the carriage the prince was in). So the guy swallowed his 'poison' and jumped into a river to die and not be caught. Only the poison was a couple ears old- so it didn't work- and the river was 4 inches deep. (so he got caught). The rest of the group was too stunned to believe what had just happened so they didn't try to kill the prince, but later on the leader decided it was too much stress for him and he went to go get a sandwich.

This video definitely made my day, whether it was because of the guy who thought he could drown himself in a 4 inch river, or the guy that decided to get a sandwich to relieve stress after trying to assassinate someone.

Berkeley Trip

So over break I went to go visit Berkeley with a few friends. We were originally going to go on train and meet our friend at the station, but last minute my parents became really worried, and decided I was not going on the train. They thought the the train station would be in too "dangerous" of an area and I would not be safe, so he drove us. I mean it's nice that he decided to still take me but at the same time I wish I could have been given a little more trust. Oh well there's always next time. But other than that the trip was really fun! The campus was really pretty and I got to see some old friends! I don't think I'll be going back for a while, but if I do I'm taking the train.

Schedules

Only in february and I already have to chose classes for next year. I know it shouldn't be so bad since you can chose a minimum of six classes, but it seems to be much more of a difficult decision for me since I am debating whether chosing regular economics or AP Micro, and what electives would prepare me for college most. Whatever..I think when the time comes I'll make up mind. I think keeping focus on this year is my biggest priorty right now.

My Car is Cute so SHUTUP

Recently my family bought a third car which I have adopted as my own. It is a little red Scion and I find it adorable however two of my friends disagree. Everytime I drive up to one of their houses they make fun of it and call it "gay" and other not-so-friendly terms. Now, I do not mind the harmess teasing every once in awhile. And I knew from the minute my parents bought that car that those two friends would not like it because I have a much more cute, slug-buggish taste in cars whereas they like trucks and big cars.

However, when they are constantly nagging and nagging everytime I take them places, it makes me want to hit them. Plus neither of them have their liscenses and I DRIVE THEM PLACES. Talk about ungrateful right??? From now on, if they start complaining about my "gay" little car I am going to kick them out and laugh at them as they walk to the mall by themselves. HA.

LICENSED

So I finally got my license. I got the girl at Rocklin, and despite everything I've heard about her she was really nice! She was not harsh or mean at all and was in fact encouraging. So I was pleasantly surprised. Well anyways, I'm so excited to have my license! It has given me so much freedom! Tomorrow I get to drive myself to school for the first time and I'm so excited!!! :)

Spring Break!

Only 5 more weeks till spring break!! I cannot wait for the sun, sleep, and sounds. I love the sounds of spring. Birds chirping, bees buzzing! I love the warmth of the sun. I love the refreshing feel of sleep. Spring break includes all of these! After that, we only have 7 weeks of school. I cannot believe that I am almost half ways throughout my high school career!! So exciting!

Tired of Being Tired

I am exhuasted!!!! I don't like how school takes up so much time, even when we are not in school. Hours of homework after the 7 hours day at school. After almost 11 years of sitting in a chair at school for 7 hours,... I hate sitting in a chair now. I want to be up and moving. I have spent about a rough estimate of                   13230 hours sitting in a chair at school. Only 3150 more hours to go!!

Dreams

They are your mind trying to piece together your day through the thoughts and actions and emotions you had. At least, that is the scientific definition. Another definition would be; your mind trying to piece together your imagination combined with scenes of movies, or books, along with day to day life experiences- all rolled up into a one night movie in your head that changes almost everytime you wake up. Dreams are both scientific and mystical because no one knows what goes on in the human mind; only that they know what parts of your mind hold information. So really, dreams can be from a review of your day to a movie in your head of what you want to happen in the future. It can be from remembering an event that horrified you to making you feel like you woke up in heaven. Either way, science cannot prove everything in the world, and I am quite happy that they cannot do experiements in dreams because for me, that is the only place where imagination can still come alive in the subconscious and not be argued about via proof or theory. Yes, I just ranted about how scientists ruin the imagination. But its true because imagination is the process of using your mind to create something new or a mixture of new and old and turn it into something of your creation; science is using the mind to create a hypothesis off of already created reasoning or proof.

Dance Show

So, the Dance 1 Show is coming up next week... it'll be interesting. Especially considering we still need to learn a dance, the first dance we learned is hard to remember, and trying to smile while focusing does not work. The dances should be coming naturally, but really, they're not. I hope I don't mess up, because we are graded on how we do in the show. Next week will be interesting...

Break

I don't know about everyone else, but break went way too fast :/ I went to LA over break, which was really fun, but now it's Sunday, and I'm writing an essay. This essay isn't going too well, and I'm pretty stressed about it because it could make or break my grade. On top of that the Dance show is next week, so I'll be getting home around 6 pm every night, plus homework. I feel like everything is being assigned/happening right now.

Disneyland

Over the February break my family and I went down to Southern California for a few days. We stayed at a condo in Newport Beach but went to Disneyland for a day. It was really fun but not everything I expected it to be. I remember it being so much bigger, like to walk across the park was a long trip, but I realized you can do it in like five minutes or less. All the buildings and rides were seemed a lot smaller as well. While we were there Space Mountain and Indiana Jones broke down while we were in line and some of the rides just didn’t have the thrill they used to. But despite these facts it was still an awesome day. The atmosphere at Disneyland is unlike anywhere else, the park is beautiful and well kept. Their attention to detail is extremely impressive, whether on a ride or in line, something that I don’t think I noticed when I was younger. It is really cool how each section of the park has there own theme with restaurants and even outfits to go with it! Overall it was a great, but exhausting experience, and I can’t wait to go back with my friends in June for Grad Night!

Lately, I've been caught in a triangle between two people who hate each other. I like them both very very much, and so...it's awkward for me. But the two of them don't know that I like both of them a lot. They both think that I like them both just a little bit more than the other, and that's not true! It's just been difficult.

Beyond that, I am very pumped up for my speech tournaments next week! It's the most exciting thing...I really hope I make state, but I've come to this point where I am fine if I don't. Maybe I'm just really tired.

Either way, I'm at a rather content state. I worry a lot about everyone, and that's taxing, but I am at a point where I just don't care.

Speaking of not caring, Junior Prom. Whoa....I don't know how that's going to go. I don't want to go without a date, no matter how shallow that sounds. I guess I will probably ask one of my coworkers who doesn't go to Rocklin.

I know one of the reasons I'm not going to get asked is because I don't hang out with juniors. Therefore, I don't know very many people in my class, and not very many people in my class know me.

Sort of depressing, but if I make it state, then it won't matter.

But in the end, I'm happy. You know? Life could always be worse.

Rant

so basically I'm just going to rant about everything I've had to do and everything i am having to do soon on this blog today. so I'm sorry but here i go... so currently my grades aren't doing too good because i am completely unmotivated to do anything. So now i need to get back on top of everything and its not much fun. it would have been soooo much easier just to do everything right from the beginning.

Yesterday was my last cheer practice with my current squad. And ive never been so sad about losing my team mates. we really are close like a family. I dont even want to start thinking about losing Jen as my base for next year because of how close ive gotten to her and how well she understands me. my stunt group was just that my stunt group. i never got switched they never left me they where mine. and now jen is leaving and its sad :( cheer was the best it has ever been this year from our dancing and water gun fights at cheer camp to crumping to some ghetto music at practice. not to mention how much fun we had at games when someone was sick, fell off the boxes, singing, telling each other pick up lines, and not to mention the thrill of preforming as one organized group making us closer each time we went out. all of the practices that we hated because we where just doing the same thing over and over again or the clinics where we just had to do the same easy stunts that would get tiring are some of the moments i am going to miss the most about this year. i really am going to miss my seniors so much. i love each and everyone of them with all of my heart. i know that they will all be successful and go on to do amazing things with their lives because they are; determined, dedicated, loving, caring, funny, wonderful people. i will truly miss them and i hope to stay in touch with of them once they leave. the best memory from this year for me was when we were performing at a football game half time and we started in stunts and my stunt group started holding hands that only we knew about disobeying our coach which really bonded us.

on to the next topic... with next week being ski week, i want to go to cal poly to visit my cousin and some of my friends that go there but, the problem is talking my parents into letting us go. which means i will need to talk to my cousin to see if i can stay with her and talk to my friends who are there to see if i can see them at some point. organize a tour. talk to taylor about when we would go and who all is going and make sure everyone has some where to stay.

then there is junior prom. where most girls have to worry about being asked is different for me. im asking someone from another school which means i have to ask him (we are doing a scavenger hunt at walmart) and i have to buy his ticket on top of getting my dress, shoes, boutonniere, jewelry, nails, hair, make up taken care of. then i have to worry about him getting his suit and making sure that we match which is soooo much stuff to have to plan. on top of this we have to worry about our group because each of the girls im going with are very opinionated and want things done their way and trying to make everyone happy is impossible. so we know where we are going for pictures but the party bus comes next. we dont want people to bail on not paying for the bus or bail on going with us so we are trying to get the deposits early so that we are locked in but the bus holds 38 people and there is 1 extra person who keeps switching back and forth between going with us so we didnt take her into account for the bus and we are already at 38 people... awkward. then there is the whole table situation. everyone wants to sit with certain people. we have four tables two of them are locked in place now we just have to figure out the other two. joy! then there is the whole fact that with the guy im going with and i are only kind of friends as in we never talk but he wants to go and hes fun to hang out with and everyone loves him and that with the fact that i need a date makes it so im taking him but whatever it should be fun... hopefully

now there is the fact that i have to start studying for ap test SATs and ACTs over break and i just dont see how im going to have time for that on top of visiting colleges, having family time, doing my regular homework, planning what to talk to mrs. cutts about when we get back on Tuesday, looking at all of the college requirements and making sure that i have them all taken care of and cleaning my house and having some time for friends i have no idea how im going to get it all done. so much to do so little time!!! so much stress. sorry for the rant

TIRED

IM TIRED. IM ANGRY. IM SICK. Not much more to it than that. Oh, I also have an AP test to sort of worry about. The thing is I don't really care about the grade I get for tests, as long as I try, ya know? I'd rather fail and stay calm and try again rather than get stressed and have massive headaches. Last night was Mock Trial and I can tell you that sitting in a courtroom for about four hours really does take all your energy out. I just wanted to sleep when I got home at 9:30pm, but I studied instead. It really sucked because I found myself trying to stay awake, but it just didn't work. How am I ever supposed to stay awake?!ACK, I NEED SLEEP:(

Junior Prom...

In previous years as an underclassman going through highschool theres always that time of the year where juniors girls are the most stressed. I had always promised myself after seeing those girls, i would never act like that.
Junior Prom causes girls to freak out about, what I thought, was stupid reasons such as dates, dresses, party busses, tables and what not.
It is now that time of the year again and I am one of the girls that annoyed me so much in previous years. At the beginning of the Junior Prom "season" I had decided to become one of the floaters that kinda just goes with the flow and lets other people be in charge. This I figured would eliminate most of the stress. Little did I know that there are five different groups i could go with. Now i am lost and confused with what to do and what group to go with and i definantely dont even want to think about shoes, dresses, tables, nails and even how white I'm gonna be due to the law banning tanning under 18.
So now, instead of being a floater lost and confused. I am trying to organize a group of random people...

Wish me luck!

Cars

You can tell a lot about someone from the inside of their car. Their taste in music, how clean they are and even, how organized they are. I've received many rides from friends and each ride is distincitly unquie to each driver. Some blast their music, some don't play any at all. Some cars are messy, while others are spotless. You can also tell how nice someone is by how many people they take home and how willing they are to give you a ride. How laid-back they are by how strict they are about traffic laws and rules.

Stressed out.

Last night, after hours of planning out our party bus and about to collect the money from 20 people, my mom found reviews of the company, most of which were all bad. Some people said they never even showed up to get them. Now I'm in a really hard situation trying to find another limo company, at the lowest price, because half of my group doesn't want to spend over $60 a person.
You could say I'm extremely stressed, and really wish I wasn't the one in charge of all of this..

Put to the Test

Today I took what I have learned, and put it to the test.
Literally, I had my Geometry and APWorld test today.
However, what was really tested was my character and my patience.

After my Geometry test, I then had my last dance class before my Dance 1 show and I have improved a lot and I can almost do the splits as well. Then I went to health, where ironically I watch a video about stress, and how bad it is for you and can burn brain cells, cause you to gain weight, and make your immune system weaker. This reminded me, to have fun, and not be stressed out.

APWorld, my following class, had other plans. During plus and lunch I study with some friends in the class, and then the last block bell rings and the test is on. My allergies had been killing me all day, I had sneezed literally close to 50 times(and not little sneezes either, the big ones where snot may or may not come out, aka, the gross kind), my eyes watery, and the worst case of the sniffles known to man. Yup, I just sneezed typing this, and yes I have had allergy medicine, yup, just sneezed again.

I just hardly get through the 70 question test when I start my DBQ essay, for those of you who don't know, it is a document based question where you base your essay off of 10-12 doucments provided for you. Then you say at the end of your essay what document would have helped you answer the question that wasn't provided.

Through all my allergy attacks, frustration, and stress building up by the end of the essay I actually forgot that I had to say what document should have been added to strengthen the essay. So now that I messed that up, I have no time to wallow, because I'm on my way home to get ready for my Mock Trial competition.

I wasn't expecting my ride till about 4 oclock or 4:15 so I took my time, ate, tried to relax...but it wasn't possible. My brother from Seattle just arrived at my doorstep, my teammates and father were calling me, and lets just say my stress wasn't easing up.

So I go to my room, and my boyfriend Patrick and I take turns taking deep breaths trying to calm me down before my first Mock Trial competition. Then I recieve a call from an unknown caller at about 3:38 saying that my ride was on its way. I didn't have my professional dress on yet, and was in no way prepared to leave.

So I rush to get ready, very upset my ride came so much earlier than expected, and then I'm on the road, on my way to the Sacramento Courthouse to perform a trial as a prosecution attourney (sneeze) for which I have (sneeze) been practicing for for about four months now.

It is unprofessional to not wear tights under your skirt in a court room, and of course I couldn't find mine. Thankfully Julie had some I could wear, and when I try to put them on they rip, ruining Julies new tights.

So I go bare legged, and after that, things lighten up. I was dehydrated and my teammate Ben bought me a water and then the trial got started. Things went well and I had to adapt to El Camino's way of running the trial. It was very different than how we practiced, but by end of the trial. I had done something right, even though I had felt not very good about how I did since it was so different then how I practiced it at times.

However, something new in Mock Trial occured at the end of the trial, where each team votes on their opposing teams MVP who they thought did the best. Our team voted and we annouced it and the team member on their side was very happy and she deserved it. In my opinion, I thought for sure Rahul, my Prosecution Attourney partner was going to get it because he did so fantastically, but they called Alina Holtsman.

I was so shocked, I am new at this, I have never been an MVP, and my eyes widened when the applause kicked in.
It is a sublime feeling to be recognized for all your hard work, something I haven't felt in a while.
And on top of everything my friend Megan McCormick has a dad who is a judge and he watched me and congratulated me and it felt great.
Mock Trial boosted my confidence so much, public speaking?
piece. of. cake.


Months ago, I would never thought I could pull all of this out in one day.



I did it.
I have grown so much, learned so much more, and I have made so many accomplishments.
All it takes is patience, understanding, and persistence.
And NEVER give up :)

APW

So, I took an APW test today. It was hard. I took a chem test today. It was hard. It's been an awful week studying for those two, but now I'm done! Although... I do have to write an essay. But I'm not thinking about that! Weeks before break are stressful :/

Break!!!

It's almost break!!! 1 week full of free time!!!

I'm excited. Can you tell?

Stress Free at Sea

After several strenuous tests, multiple mock trials run throughs, and lots of packing and stressing for my cruise I am now whole heartedly ready for my furlough break. I have my AP World History and Geometry test tomorrow, my Chemistry test today, and my first Mock Trial competion tomorrow as well.

Oh and guess what?
I still haven't finished packing for my cruise!
I am an overpacker, I admit, but seriously, I'm scared I will forget something vital!

So after school on Friday I will be off to sea forgetting my stresses and riding on the Flow Rider (surf/boogie board thing on the ship), ice skating on the ship, swimming with dolphins in Mexico, partying in Jamaica, and forgetting all about how when I get back I have my dance 1 show, and more Mock Trial competitions.

Honestly, I love being busy and learning but seriously, there is nothing quite like a week to relax and have fun.
Hints why everyone loves Summer,
and the closer Summer gets,
the happier I get!

I'm a little burned out on Sophomore year, but I know I have to finish strong, ugh...

Junior Prom and lots of speeches.

I don't know if I can go to Junior Prom this year! Mock trial state competition conflicts with it, so it's a blank on whether the juniors on the team can go or not until we know if we are going to state. Quite honestly, I rather go to state, but it's okay if we don't...

NO! It's not okay! I definitely want to go to state!

But I guess going to junior prom instead makes it not so bad :)

The team has worked really hard this year, and I really appreciate that and admire that as one of the attorneys. My defense team is really strong, and I love them a lot. My witness is a freshman, and the amount of effort she puts into making sure she takes on the "character" of her role is awesome. My fellow attorneys are great, guys, and I really am proud to be "one of them".

I worry about next year because we are losing a lot of strong senior talent, but I guess we'll just have to carry on.

And state for speech and debate! ARGH! I gotta work on that! SHOOOOT.
I forgot about that. i better start practicing now.

Grammy's

Im a little bothered with the Grammy's. Both Kanye West's albums; My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne are being called two of the greatest rap albums ever and MBDTF is being called the album of the year by multiple publications including the Rolling Stones. Thumbs up for Adele raking in the awards, but as the grammy's have been correctly criticized for, the fact that Kanye's ablum wasn't nominated is wrong. Just becuase he's obnoxious doesn't mean you can discredit his music and hold him out of every major category he should be in. Based on both critical reviews and chart topping success both of these albums should have been in over some of the other one's. The grammy's need to actualy nominate based on public recpetion, number of albums sold, critical recpetion. If they don't understand hip hop well enough to nominate it, (like they do pop) they get a damn hip hop conniseur on staff. Get it right. Album of the Year-MBDTF

Snapchat!

I am currently obsessed with what may be the best iPhone app ever, Snapchat. It's a super fun way to send your friends ugly pictures that they can only see for however long you set the timer as. After they view the picture, it gets deleted. If you set the timer for any longer than 3 seconds, you risk getting screenshotted. Exhibit A: Nina Casiple.

I DEFINITELY reccomend everyone downloads this free app.

JP

i thought junior prom would be all shits and giggles and all that dramatic crap would be saved for the laides, but i guess not. It's pretty stressful. I have four people who want to go with me and no one wants to let anyone down so that is difficult. On top of that, i had two girls i was really thinking about asking, both who wanted to go with me, but i narrowed it down to one girl only to find that some douche bag friend of mine told the other girl that i was going to ask her. Righteous! Now that other girl bought her damn dress and thinks im going to ask her when I want to ask ask the other girl. Bad situation eh? There's pro's and con's to both, but when it comes down to it i'm just going to ask the girl i want to go with not the one i feel guilty about not going with. (For the record i'd love to go with her too, but i'm talking to this other girl seriously sooo nah). Hate to let people down but for that much moola i better go with someone i want and not be guilt tripped into someone else.

Sick, Allergies, WHAT?!

WHY AM I STARTING TO GET SICK? Like, I was perfectly...almost perfectly healthy on Friday. Then Saturday morning, I felt like crap. My running and blocked nose killed me. I used so many tissues that morning. It was worse when I needed to go to Mock Trial scrimmage just an hour after that. So, I took an allergy pill to help. Well, it didn't. Instead, it was like I didn't even take one! My ride to Ponderosa High was Alina and Patrick. Haha, o my god. Those two are weird, but at least it wasn't an awkward hour. We watched our coach dance in his car and he put his palm to the ceiling of his car at a yellow light, which, according to Patrick, meant that it was like a game where whoever touched the ceiling last would strip? Yeah, I don't know. And there was a mosquito and I smashed it with my paper, which got blood on it.:( And it was my new questions too. I think the body of the mosquito is still in Patrick's car. Oh well. And he also gave me a pill, but it STILL didn't help. And I sat through the trial just dying and using all of the tissues in the room. The opposing attorney made me pissed off because he wouldn't let me talk. So of course I got defensive. My face literally hurt so badly from using so many tissues. Not only that, but I like cried from one eye. Basically, whenever I breathed through my nose, my right eye, not my left, started tearing up. Now, this morning my allergies like evolved into a sickness. I wasn't coughing yesterday and now I am. I didn't have the feeling of throwing up and NOW I AM. The hell?! ARGH.

Homesick

I feel like I am at school constantly. I am homesick. I wish I could spend more time at home and with my family. I want to take advantage of the time I have with them before I leave for college in two years. With sports, ASB, CSF, and other school activities, I feel like school is where I live. From now on, I am going to use my time wisely at home because I don't want to waste the precious time I get to spend with my amazing family.

Bronze All The Way!

On February 4th, I had the opportunity to compete in the Academic Decathlon. I took 11 different test in less than 6 hours including math, science, literature/language, art, music, economics, essay, interview, prepared speech, impromptu speech, and the super quiz. It was a fun day to spend with my fellow decathletes at Granite Bay High School. The Academic Decathlon Banquet was held on Monday the 6th. Medals were awarded to the top 3 places in each category. I earned bronze in math, speech, and essay. As a team, We places third in the Super Quiz earning us all a bronze medal!

Reporting on Life

Science of Snow. Ever heard of it? I know I hadn't until I emailed a student studying it and found out that she didn't even start out college knowing she wanted to be in science. She told me that she had gone to the college for the film and theatre program, but stepped out of her path and tried to do something different that she had grown up doing, but didn't think that she would actually want to continue with. When I asked her if she could go back in time and redo her accomplishments in a different way- go slower and enjoy life and not rush- she said she didn't think of life in "fast or slow" but she just let it "happen".

Speaking to her made me think of everything I've wanted to do in such a short period of time and how I thought I should slow down and enjoy life, but instead let life go and find the ambition I had when I was little and made myself believe that I could be a published author by the age of 20. So even though school is my boundary of day-to-day life and controls that amount of free time of have in each day, I have decided to find my inner ambitions and play on them, using my full potential in every subject, every day, so that I can accomplish more in less time. So yes, I am aware that this new plan of mine might not go into affect immediately, but it will help me get back into the original mindset I had that helped me discover what I wanted to be when I grow up. Hopefully, I'll have luck on my side for the next few years!

Matrix

So this weekend was the first time that I've seen any and all of the Matrix films. I've heard plenty about them, but never seen what they were. Now I understand. It's a mind-bending movie series that makes you think (somewhat) about how dangerous technology can really become. The movie, for me, mixes Jedi, ninja's, and spy's all in one. The series itself is a bit confusing if you don't watch every scene.

But during the first movie, The Matrix, there was one moment in which one of the characters was discussing what horrible thing he had done, why he had done it and how he wishes his life to be after. (To be "unplugged" from The Matrix, one must take either a red pill, which will reveal the truth about life, or a blue pill which will erase your memory of the meeting of the pills and restore you to the fake world in which you perceived to be real). The man said that if he could change the events in his life, he would have taken the blue pill and left because he wanted out of the real life. He'd had enough of the war against Machines.

This led me to place myself in the place of the man and really think of what it would be like. I have always been a curious person; always wanting to know the truth. If I were given the choice of knowing the truth of the world and just living my life, continuing the lie that I would be in if I were in his position, I have contemplated on whether or not I would pick the blue pill or the red one. There are cons and pros on both sides, leading it to be a personal choice. It can either be a fully thought out answer or a simple "yes, I want to know", or "no, I'd rather live in a lie". And yet, I still don't know which one I would choose. I guess I'll have to think a bit more.....

Rahul Verma and Physics

Mr. Clarion has had few Junior Physics C students, and even fewer Physics C students who share a passion of Physics as does Rahul Verma. "He's even sharper than I am," says a surprised Jeffrey Seyfried, an RHS Senior. "He just gets it." Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that Shahriyar Jahanbakhsh received a 97.5% last semester, while Verma fell short by 0.2%. Clarion, understandably, felt highly disappointed at Verma's shortcoming. Verma, a student who had already taken Physics B, was beat by a first yaer Physics student!

TESTS!

So, in the next couple weeks I have a few tests. Well, more than a few.

I have an English test on Monday, Math test on Wednesday (which I really don't like, and I hate having to study for math), APW test, and a Chem test on Thursday.

Just an APW test takes up my whole week, and this is only the second test that I haven't had a weekend to study for it on. Usually mine are on Mondays, because I have it on a silver day.

But, with Math, Chem, and English? It doesn't seem like a lot when I write it down, but between all of them, I have ZERO free time. If only grades didn't matter :/

Musical

So, I have tons of friends in the musical. I'm seeing it tonight, but I've never seen the movie Grease. I'm wondering if I will find it hard to follow along... probably not, and everyone seems to be singing the songs!

I can't wait! The casts have put so much time and effort into it, and I can't wait to see it all put together! Plus, some of my friends have some pretty cool parts!

If you're going tonight, maybe I'll see you there!

Track

Track has started and after the first day i rembered how hard it was. My memory must have repressed the memories of tempo miles and running 20 200's and all of the other track workouts that our coach, coach sam, has thrown at us over the years. Now, being a Jr., i have to do varcity workouts which are even tougher and more intimidating. Although, i fifgure this is all very necessary because, being in mid-distance, i run the hardest events. The 800 meter run and the mile, both races take a comboniation of hardy endurance and raw speed. Despite all of this, i'm also rembering how much i love the hard work and exaustion that comes with it. This track season should be one of the best.

Brain Funk

This is going to be a very honest blog. For the past week and a half, I have been in a serious brain funk. Most of it consisted of meaningless anxiety and worrying about little things. This resulted in a serious lack of motivation and my afternoons being dominated by lazy napping. I'm really not sure as to the cause, but I feel like my confidence seriously faltered and I felt almost borderline OCD about everything.
Tonight I feel like I have finally come out of this fog and I'm so relieved. I ended up deciding that the only time that matters is the present and there's no point in mulling over the past or obsessing over the future. Through this experience, I have learned that presence of mind leads to less judging people and situations and more creativity and motivation. I feel like the thing that rescued me from this fog (beware impending cheese) was going to karate today and teaching my students and seeing how eager they were about life and learning and how silly I was to be worrying over everything. I apologize to those of you who had to put up with my dreary mood for the past couple of days. Now I have an enormous heap of homework to do from the time I spent anxiously sitting around doing nothing. The goal is to keep as busy as possible for the rest of forever in order to prevent myself from slipping into a brain funk again.

MLI-reaffirmed, and other fun news.

MY
LIFE HAS
BEEN REAFFIRMED FINALLY
I AM SO HAPPY
LAST NIGHT I PLACED 3rd AT THE AAUW SPEECH
COMPEITION
AND IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE
TWO OF THE JUDGES CAME UP TO ME AFTER AND SAID
THAT I WOULD HAVE GOT FIRST BUT I WENT OVER TIME
SO ONE JUDGE WANTED DISQUALIFY ME
BUT THE OTHER TWO WANTED TO GIVE ME FIRST
SO THEY GAVE ME THIRD AS A COMPROMISE

I couldn't be happier. For a while, I was wondering if I lost the magic - I hadn't won any speeches in a while. But this....

The judges (the two who wanted to give me 1st) came up to me after, and told me a bunch of nice things about myself, and...

I just couldn't be happier. The hard work you put into life is worth it, and it's moments like this that remind me of that.

Oh, and I won a nice $250 for a 5 minute speech.

The Cutest Photo

I think this picture is so precious.

Senior Ball: A Girl's Worst Nightmare

So last year, after Junior Prom, I was bored in Photo J. So I would look at prom dresses just for fun. One day, I stumbled upon my dream dress. Pink and sequins. Now that was me. It was $300. But I didn't care. It was my last year and I was gonna go with a BANG! So I called my mom and told her about it. That day we went to Nordstrom to try it on and it fit perfectly. So I went home and ordered it. It was an agonizing two weeks. Waiting for that perfect dress. Two weeks later, my dress came. I was super excited! My dress was here! I immediatley ran up the stairs and told my mom. Carefully, I cut the tape to open my box. I opened it...and there it wasn't. MY dress was not there. This was not my pink sequine Sean Collection gown I purchased. Here's the truth, I was crying. I was so sad. My mom called Nordstrom and they said they couldn't do anything about it. We had to return it and I had no dress for future Senior Ball.

I still looked at dresses. I saw the dress again online. I told my mom we had to reorder it again. Just one more time. I looked online and called her. We ordered it right on time. After, I went on the website and realized I got the last version of my dress. It was sold out.

Again, I waited two weeks. And finally, MY DRESS came. And it's amazing and perfect. Like me! Ok now that's a little conceited. Whatever. So BEWARE! This is my dress so don't get it.

Birthdays

February is an amazing month. Why you may ask? Because my birthday is in February! And other birthdays as well! Here's a list of birthdays in February:
February 6- Natalie Pinna
February 7- Ashley Brown
February 14- Elisabeth and Chris Hartman
FEBRUARY 23-NATASHA PINEIRO

Happy Birthday everyone! Enjoy February and bring presents to everyone!

Valentines Day

As you probably know, next Tuesday is Valentine’s Day, but what you may not know is that it is also ELISABETH’S BIRTHDAY!! This is special for three reasons. First of all she is turning 18, meaning her childhood is over and she is now an adult. Second of all, she’s not the only one who has a birthday on Valentine’s Day, her brother also has the same birthday too (they are twins)!! And the third and most important reason why it’s awesome that her birthday is on Valentine’s Day is because her last name is Hartman!! Like HEART MAN!! This is so crazy because hearts represent Valentine’s Day! Anyways I hope she has an amazing birthday and I will definitely be there to help her celebrate!

A phone call every saturday night

What most people usually do during Saturday night? I think they are either hanging out with their friends, watching TV, go to the mall, working or having dinner with their family. But me...I usually just sit around in my room, waiting for a phone call. Yes, a phone call from my mom who lives a thousand miles away from me. She lives in Indonesia and I'm here in the US.

At first, she calls me about 3 to 4 times a week (I don't call her, its mostly her, not that i am a bad kid who forget about their parents but to do international call from here to there is way more expensive than from there to here and she doesn't really understand how to use Skype or Facebook but she is learning how to now). But because of the different time we have, and with her working most of the week with only Sunday off and i have school, we barely have time to talk. So, we decided to have the one time we actually have time, the perfect time that both of us actually still awake and not busy. Its Saturday night around 8-9 pm here and around 10-11 am in there. And when she calls, we can talk on the phone for hours, sometime it can goes for 4 to 6 hours. Mostly we catch up of how we are doing and sometimes about news of what had been going on there and what had been going on here, and sometimes we gossip and laugh at funny things or about our relatives and who had just giving birth or who had just get married. For me, i really enjoy this Saturday night phone call with my mom.

The sweet old ladies you meet at Jo-anns

I went to Jo-ann's today with my mother and my grandmother. We were on a hunt for a fabric that would be used to make a traditional Indian suit. It took us a while to get through all the bolts of fabric that lined the wall but once we found the pattern we needed, I went to the cutting table to get two and a half yards of it.
As many of you may know, Jo-anns has made getting your fabric cut an orderly experience by dispensing numbered tickets to people standing in line. The ticket system is considerably fair, usually easy to comprehend, and efficiently reduces conflict that may arise when people cut in line.
Anyways, there was only one employee at the cutting table helping customer number 33 and no one in line behind them. Despite this, I went to get myself ticket number 34 and stood an appropriate distance away from the counter to create a new line. I had only been standing there for a minute or so when this sweet looking old lady came up to the counter and plucked out ticket number 35.
Noticing that a line was beginning to form a second employee came to the cutting counter. The old lady moved towards the counter and started measuring some lace she had in her hand. I decided to not get upset at her sort of cutting in front of me because I thought she either knew that she wasn't next but wanted to measure some lace or because she may not have noticed that her number was not next.
The employee that had come over and glanced at the t.v., which displayed the number 33, and asked the old lady what number she had. The old lady seemed to shift gears from sweet to cranky quite rapidly as she began to talk loudly.
"I have number 35. Isn't there a line here? Well I'm number 35," said the old lady, who was becoming less and less sweet with every word she spoke.
The employee said that number 34 hasn't been called up yet.
The lady looked back around her and replied, "I don't see number 34 anywhere. I'm number 35 so I should go next. Don't you call numbers in order? You should change the number on the screen because I'm next."
I gave the employee a bit of an incredulous look and held up my number 34 ticket. She gestured for me to move forward and cut the exact measurement of cloth I needed. The whole time I was standing at the counter I could feel the old lady's eyes boring into the back of my head.
I got a receipt for the cloth I had cut and turned around to find my mom. The minute I turned around I saw an unflattering grimace on the once sweet old lady's face. Her irritated eyes reflected her unnecessary impatience.
I felt like making a really snarky comment on the old lady's impatient behavior but I lacked the imagination to come up with one so very last minute. Instead, I gave her the nicest smile I could manage and came out of the situation the better person for showing patience.

gossip

We all do it. We all say something about someone. It has become second nature. Gossip roams around society just waiting to be used and talked about.

I'm not saying I don't do it because trust me, I do it and don't realize sometimes. But we call make the conscious effort to stop. We can try to minimize what we say about those we despise. Or, even take the higher road and not say anything! Vent to your pillow, your dog, or any other pet you have.

You don't have to say hurtful and mean things right at school. Beause honestly, you don't who's listening. Gossip loves to travel. And it travels fast so what you say can come back and bite you back in the butt. hard. Think of what you are doing before anything leaves that big mouth of yours.

Shipwreck Divers

When the Costa Concordia was evacuated last month near Italy, all of the passengers had to leave their belongings behind, from jewelry to money, much of what was left sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Now, there are many divers that are being lured to the sight to dive down and search for treasures. It's kind of clever, that these people are going to try and find this, but it's also kind of bad for the passsengers that will never get their personal belongings back or the antiques that they left on the ship. There were also a lot of shops and casinos on the ship that sold jewelry, which probably all sunk to the bottom too.

Maddie's Stress

The subject of this blog is my good friend (who i am currently sitting next to), Maddie Lowell.

She's sitting there, looking at prom dresses on the computer and stressing out! SHould she get the cheetah print? Or the zebra striped dress? But, what about the hot pink one with so much tulle it practically could drown her??

This is what prom does. It messes with our teenage psyches and causes a good person, like Maddie, to freak out over the prospect of a prom dress. It causes so much anxiety she is practically losing sleep over it.

But, after she finds that perfect dress, that perfect zebra print, that perfect lime green glitter adorned ball gown, it's smooth sailing from there :)

She'll have a great time at prom with her boy and she will dance the night away. Oh prom oh prom.

I'm best friends with Drake

Yes, you just read that right. I am friends with Drake. Drizzy Drake, the Canadian rapper who has won the hearts of a million people. He is pretty chill. He helps me with my homework, walks with me to our classes and he gave me the idea to write this blog. As nice as he is, there are some things that make me mad about him.

He never gets me tickets to his concerts. He never lets me meet his celebrity friends. He never buys me new expensive things (even though he is a millionaire). How selfish, right? I'm not asking for backstage passes, Kanye's phone number or a brand new Bentley. I just thought he would show some appreciation to his real friends. But I guess that is too much to ask for some big time star.

Vermont inmates hide pig in official police car decal

In vermont, an inmate cleverly drew a pig within an official logo on a police car. The officer claimed to have found it within the mountains in the logo, but the inmate said it was in the cow. I looked myself and couldn't find it, but it was very entertaining that an inmate drew something like that in a police logo, especially because I don't like cops. Great article overall.

Tom Brady: Most hated man in Buffalo

Tom Brady, Quarterback of the New England Patriots, is officialy the most hated man in Buffalo. Why? After his comments in a press conference about the support from his dad quote "And even when I started my pro career, he traveled to Buffalo. I don't know if you guys have ever been to the hotels in Buffalo -- they're not the nicest places in the world -- but he would still travel to those". Though he apologized right after and told the writers not to write that down, it was too late and the damage had been done. Really not a cool move from Tom talking trash about Buffalo, and for you non football people, the rival town. I mean he did tell the writers not to write it and apologized and stuff, but really? The overall article was decent, nothing flashy, but hey I enjoyed it.

Tough Love

My family and I have quite the interesting relationship. Being the youngest in the family, I always get picked on. That's understandable. The things my parents and brother say to me can come across to other people as mean, sometimes flat out rude. But deep down, I know it's just their way of saying 'Ash, I love you!'. Here are a few examples of the latest coversations my family has had with me:

Me: "Mom, remember that one guy I was telling you about? Yeah, he likes me..."
Mom: "How do you know?"
Me: "Because I'm obviously like the guy-whisperer."
Mom: "Not based off your past relationships."

Ouch. Okay that one kinda hurt. Yes Mom, I have had a few unsuccessful relationships--even a couple that have left me on the couch eating ice cream for weeks. She doesn't understand that my 'uniqueness' is too much for guys to handle. It's cool, I don't blame them.

Here is another comment my brother made to me the other day:

*my brother and I are watching The Bachelor and one of the girls is crying*
Me: "She still looks pretty while crying. God, I'm such an ugly cryer.."
Kyle: "Hahahahahahahaha! Oh my god, YES you are. I have always thought that but never wanted to say anything. But now that you admitted it, yes you are! You get this like, ugly thizz face goin..."

I have no comment on that one....

Originality Since 1994

I dont know if you have heard of her, but there is this girl named Alexis Nyal who goes to Whitney. She made a Facebook page for all the pictures she takes and it's called "Originality Since 1994". If you haven't seen this page then you should definitely go look at it! Alexis currently has an album called "366" where she posts a photo everyday of the year. As well, she has many other albums from prior years including senior portraits and shoots of her friends with their families. If you haven't been on this page, it's worth looking at!

Sweaters...on Friday

Sweaters are always better on a Friday.

The comfort and warmth of knitted wool is the best, I say.

So come, let's have fun today.

Because I am wearing a sweater on Friday.

Dog/Cat Sitting

So for the past few weeks I have been dog-sitting a lot, its not that hard and it's easy money, but it seems like the lady that I dog sit for is starting to become so reliant on me that it happens once or twice every week Since she is a single mom, she recently found a boyfriend and has been going out of town a lot to see him, as well as go to LA for work. The dog is locked up all day in the backyard and then comes in at night only to be locked up in the kitchen. I really feel that before she decided to get a dog, she should have thought about how much time she was going to be out of town... for the dog's sake.

This weekend, however I am really excited to go and cat-sit my cousin's kittens. They are so funny and have a lot of energy.

The most stressful thing for ALL Junior girls...

Soooooo I'm pretty much freaking out about Junior Prom. I still need a date, a dress, a party bus, and figure who out of all my friends are going; and we don't have much time. There's only 51 days left until March 24. That might seem like a lot, but in reality that is not much time at all!!

Anyway I know everything is going to work out, but just planning everything is stressful and it gives me anxiety thinking about it. I'm not as worried about getting a dress as I am getting a date. I know I'll find a dress and I'm sure the process for the most part will be fun. However the whole date situation makes me so stresses! I really want to go with someone but I just have no idea who I would go with, I would rather just go with one of my guy friends and have a good time and not really worry and be all nervous. The other problem is helping all my other friends find dates because they say they're not going if they don't have dates, and of course I want my friends to go! That's the whole part of prom is to spend time with your friends!

Karma is not a bitch.

So the one thing I believe strongest about in the whole entire world, is Karma. I feel that everything happens for a reason, the energy you put into the world is what you get back out, and most importantly the way you treat others is the way you will be treated.

So I'm just going to start off with how the world works. I truly know that things happen exactly the way they are meant to and in the long run everything is going to be ok. I have found that when I look back on the bad things that have happened in my life, only good came from it. Yes, at the time I might have freaked out and thought my life was over. It just seems that one bad thing has only led to something even better. This outlook on life has taught me a lot. It's helped me stay positive and not give up because I know what ever is going on, is happening for a special reason; so that something even better can show up in my life. My mom is the one who taught me this, ever since I was really little and I think that her teaching me this has definitely effected me only positively in life. My mom has taught me so many amazing lessons. The two other most important things she reminds me on a daily basis are; treat people the way you want to be treated and to always be positive, because when you are you will only get positivity back into your life.

This is why when I see people constantly complaining on Facebook, or whining non stop to their friends it drives me crazy. Of course everyone vents and everyone complains once in a while, its a part of life. But when someone is constantly negative and constantly putting the bad energy into whatever room they are in it really just effects everyone. At the time of dilemmas, I really wish everyone could always breathe, and remember everything is going to be fine. And trust me I know, this can be extremely difficult at times when something upsetting is going on, but after a while you will realize that bad event only happened to better your life. Positive thoughts only make positive outcomes!

My third and favorite lesson my mom really stresses is karma! What goes around, really does come around. This helps me to always treat people the way I want to be treated. This can be hard sometimes, especially when there is someone who doesn't deserve to be treated nicely at all. Maybe they were rude to you or are just overall a bad person. I know a lot of people like that in my life, and all I do is either stick up for myself and say whatever I need to say, to defend myself without being too unnecessarily rude. Or better yet I just ignore them because I know that something will happen to them because of their mean, rude behavior; and they will get treated just as bad one day and they will know how it feels. I encountered a situation today where I tried my hardest not to just blurt all the extremely rude, sassy comments I truly wanted to say to a really rude girl in one of my classes. She just decided to be the nasty girl she is and say really mean things, and called me a pretty unnecessary name. Don't fret because I held my composure stuck up for myself in a non-rude way and walked away calmly knowing she has some bad Karma coming her way. The universe will not let her get away with what she did, I'm positive. People need to know they can't treat people however they want to and not get away with it. That's where Karma comes in. Remember Karma is a bitch, only if you are. :)

Literary Escape

I went to Book-Lovers Paradise for the first time this weekend and it's such a quaint place. It's a family-owned bookstore that runs on donations and there are some excellent books there. The mismatched furniture makes it very homey. I found a Nutrition and Physical Fitness book from 1973 and an Analysis of Human Motion book from 1962 there. I have a French-English dictionary from 1962 as well. There's just something about old books that really gets me excited. It makes me think of all the people way back who must have benefited from that book before me. I love old things, they just feel historic. I would recommend checking it out, they have multiple book clubs that sound like a lot of fun.

Klub Kaoss

Personally, I don't think people realize what they're doing to themselves when they line up for pictures at Kaoss. Anyone can see them because they're posted on an open facebook profile. Girls take this opportunity to "let loose" and "go wild", when in reality they're just using a random teenage boy as a pole. Just saying. Don't get me wrong, im sure it's fun and all. I realize there's no rules at Kaoss, but all classy girls should still have standards.

Mall Frustrations

One of my biggest annoyances in the world are people who do not have common sense and/or do not understand what they are hired to do. It is the most annoying thing in the world when you (a paying customer!) need help and the employees are either too rude or incompatent to help.

To start with at Forever 21 my friend really loved these shoes that were on the mannequinn and for those of you who have been to that store it is very unorganized so she asked an employee for help. Well, the first person did not even know what we were talking about and sent us to the dressing room to ask the girl in there. This prissy little girl treated us like we were a bother to her! What does she think she is getting paid to do? Sit there on her phone and stare at all the clothes? She glared at us and said, "Did you look in the shoe section." Wow you know what, I never thought to look there! You have been such a great help thank you for caring about the people who pay for YOUR paycheck! Ugh they need to train their workers to treat their customers with more respect!

The last store we went to was Charlotte Russe and it was not much better. The line looped around the store, there was one person and the registers and he did not have a clue what he was doing. He spent five minutes on each person taking his sweet time from scanning the shirts multiple times, to folding them at an incredibly slow pace and putting them in each bag gently and pausing for dramatic effect? And he kept asking me all these questions! How should I know do I work here! Plus I was in a hurry because I had somewhere to be in 20 min. and when I got home I realized he had not taken the security tag off the shirt! Stores need to be much more proactive in training their employees

Dress Dilemma

Ohkay so I found the perfect prom dress! Or so I thought... rumor has it that another girl is going to buy the same one! I'm friends with her but I wouldn't be going in the same group... so should I buy it or no? It's only $180... And should I ask her if it's ohkay for me to get it? I really like it a lot and I already have shoes that would match with it... HELP!!!!

Weak To Strong With Bumps Along the Road

I started Physical Therapy on Friday for my back. My back has been in a lot of pain while I sit, stand, lie down, or do any physical activity. The diagnosis was that my right side, my dominant side, is weaker. I was taught some stretches to help ease the pain and strengthen my right side.  I also found out that I cannot run anymore because the up and down movement of my back was to rapid when I run. I am only allowed to walk, swim, and use an elliptical. This really frustrated me because I am used to running a lot and participating in quite a lot of physical activity.I did the stretches 3 times a day Friday through Sunday. Then on Monday I woke up to so my stretches before school. I began them and then back froze up and the severe pain began. I could not move to roll over to get up but I decided to push through the pain. I could barely walk. I laid in bed the whole day and could not move in bed at all. It was the worse pain I have ever been in. I was really frustrated because my back was starting to feel better and now I couldn't even move. The next day my shoulder and neck still really hurt. I took it easy hoping for it to heal fast! Today I had to go to school because I can't miss anymore school. I am still in pain but I did do some stretching today. I am hoping to recover fast and am very excited for my next Physical Therapy appointment.

School start time

So our school start time should definately be changed. I mean 7:45 is waaaaay too early, I still feel asleep and most likely I'm gonna crash at some time during the day. There was even a study at this one school i forgot where that started school and hour later and their test scores went up. The teen body clock starts at 9 and we would be more refreshed and awake in class, so doesn't our school want fresh awake students? Something to ponder about.