Oh, so I'm supposed to actually write regularly in here? Oops.

Oh, um, hi.

I've been lacking lately, haven't I? Can I give some lame excuses? Like how much cross country has completely taken over every aspect of my life? And how I spend so much time freaking out about school and racing that I basically have no time to do anything normal? Because I think those are some pretty good excuses.

But it's midnight on a Saturday (or I suppose a Sunday) and this is what I tend to do in this time-frame.

The leaves have finally started changing and this is one of those things that I am so completely amazed by that it just gets me every time. I spent most of my life thinking of "fall" as being that time in which the weather is in the 70's for like a week. No leaves changing colors. No cool temperatures. Just the promise of "winter," which, in my case, included temperatures in the 60's. This is my fourth autumn here, and it still surprises me just how vivid everything is. They sky's been dark these past few days and the bright trees against the dark background has been so freaking cool. It's like a storybook or something. And even when I'm upset or stressed out I can't help but appreciate this mysterious season.

Districts was today. I hate life. Congrats to Laura and Molly. My life sucks. I hate myself. The end.

It's late October, and that means that I'm basically in a frenzy and I've spent the past few weeks completely excited and now it's that time where I realize "Oh, shit, what the hell, Amy," and start to freak out. Because NaNoWriMo starts in a week. Seven days. That is so freaking soon. I'm not ready. I don't even have my computer (I finally took it into a repair place. Still not back yet). Although this year is different from the past two because I actually have a legit plot that I am very comfortable with. Why? Because I'm finishing the one I did last year. I'm going to add another 50k to that and then, hopefully, it will be done. It's just sitting there, waiting for me, with a measly 60,000 words and halfway through the story line. It looks so sad and lonely. Who could abandon that? I'm worried about what this will do to my grades and my social life. And sixth grade camp, which might just make the entire plan impossible. Damn it.

Now that you know more about my life than you probably care to, I'll stop.

school blah

I seriously forgot how annoying school is. Sitting in class after class after class is just not fun.

But some comments:

I was a bit skeptical about debate, mostly because I figured that there was no point in taking it, but I kind of like it now.

Math really isn't so bad. Yet.

I'm trying to be upbeat about Trieschmann. Sometimes she says something really funny and I feel like I'm the only person in the room that sees the humor in it, and sometimes she says just really awesome english teacher stuff. I kind of like her.

Mr. Anderson is freaking awesome. I love chemistry.

Chazen scares me a bit. But he doesn't yell at me, which is good. But that might only be because I don't think he knows my name.

Cross country has been supa awesome. I like the new girls and cheering for everyone yesterday made me realize how much I missed it.

I miss summer. So much.

summer

I kicked off my summer with a run in the rain, drops falling all around me and landing on the ground, along with all of the pressures of life.

A few days later, Caroline, Maggie, Molly, and I showed you guys what happens to squares around here.

We all surprised Hope for her 17th birthday, having to say goodbye as she and Megan went off to nerd camp.

Race for the Cure was the biggest crowd of people I have probably ever seen.

I went to camp and reconnected with my friends and performed in what was probably my last play. I climbed rock walls and walked tightropes and ziplined. I ate pie and huge amounts of ice cream and sat on the dock in the blazing sunlight. This was the last time we will ever be on the south side of the lake, and we all cried as we watched the final sunset over the water.

I screamed like a little girl when I pre-ordered Harry Potter tickets, and then was completely overwhelmed by the amount of people there and the feeling of connection between as us we knew we were all nerds. Finally, finally, after four years of loving them together, I saw Harry and Ginny become a couple.

I saw Harry Potter two more times after that, one being a date with Laura and the other being in 3D.

I traced my name in the sky with a sparkler as smoke enveloped me and all I could see were the outlines of my friends' faces.

I went to the zoo, the loop, and the botanical gardens with Katherine, Carrie, and Beth. I liked the penguins.

I played on the playground with my sister and we giggled and felt like little kids again.

We played with puppets and had a fake food fight and made bracelets at Bryan's house.

I went on a walk with my parents along the river.

I rode, squished by you guys, in the backseat of Carrie's car as we sang to "I Gotta Feeling" and Maggie smacked Kyle for stealing shotgun.

I saw Twilight and laughed harder than I did the first time I saw it.

I got snow cones with Megan and Caroline and then played on the playground, riding the raccoon instead of the duck with crazy eyes.

I got in a stuffed animal fight with Katherine and Beth and we threw things at each other, making loud A Very Potter Musical references and laughing.

I went to the loop and ate ice cream with Carrie, Molly, Maggie, and Caroline.

I got attacked by an angry Carrie as she yelled at me and Megan for jumping on her bed and shouted that we will not be getting friendship bracelets. Molly was extremely hyper because of three Red Bulls.

I fell, laughing, down a soapy tarp, chasing after my friends as we all landed in the soaking grass at the bottom in a heap.


It was a good summer.

Wait... what?

I was watching tv and a commercial for an odd mop came on. And I watched because I find infomercials mildly interesting, and then he said something that made me quite confused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6qaG8RlUk
:31

What?

OH YES.

GUESS WHO'S SEEING HARRY POTTER AT THE MIDNIGHT RELEASE?

HELL.
YES.

Home Again

I'm glad to be home, but I have to say that I miss camp like crazy. I love you guys, but I miss it.

This year, I did the high ropes course for the first time (I went a few years ago but then this guy came running up yelling about wasps and spraying everywhere, and I hung around a little bit to see if the wasps would leave, and then I ran away because wasps freak me out) and it was so fucking cool.
Basically, there were a series of platforms sticking out of the ground and wires about them. To get between them, you had to walk on a log, on swings, on floating boxes, and on tightropes. You were suspended from the wires by a rope, but it was still kind of hard. I have horrible balance, but it was still so much fun. It's pretty high up, but I'm not sure how much. At the end, you zipline off. And on most ziplines you hold onto something or sit on something, but you just had your harness connected to the rope connected to the wire, so it was like free falling. Best thing ever; I was screaming and laughing and it was amazing.

We have this odd capture the flag type game on the lake, with two teams and flags on buoys. Everyone gets in a boat or a kayak or a hydrobike and takes off. I don't participate in this, as I find that I get pushed into playing enough capture the flag games at home, but I went out on a pontoon boat and watched. Naturally, there was a hell of a lot of cheating. The red team took their flag as they went to get the other team's flag. Boats were pushed over. People were swimming (totally not allowed), there was some violence. (All at a ymca camp... sigh. But the fact that it was so expected kind of allowed everyone to continue with the outrageous cheating. I found it funny.) Half of the boats tipped over, and there were some rescues. I saw a kid in a mini kayak, and the next time I looked up, the kid was gone and there was an adult trying to make a getaway (without paddles) in the same mini kayak. I don't know if he stole it or if the kid just wanted to get on a different boat, but it was still pretty funny.

These guys tipped twice. Another boat tried to help them, and they ended up tipping over themselves. A lady on the pontoon boat pulled out her camera and said, "If this isn't a photo moment, I don't know what is."

And after the capture the flag game, it was pie night. All afternoon, people made a billion pies and that night we did our best to eat absolutely all of them.


This is the first batch that they set out. Believe me, there were tons more.

One morning, I signed up for a canoe trip. Not gonna lie, I didn't realize that I was going to have to paddle. But after the surprise wore off, I realized that paddling is not that hard and I ended up having a lot of fun. The sun was just rising and the lake was perfectly still, reflecting the pink of the sky and the clouds. There were swans. There were lily pads and flowers on them. It was so pretty and quiet. Normally, you get that many people out on the lake and it's basically like the capture the flag game: someone's trying to push someone out, someone's making a race out of things, someone's yelling something about either the Michigan football team or the Ohio one. But it was so quiet and peaceful, and I was surprised.

It was a really, really good week, and I'm sad and I miss it, and I wanna go back.
But I'm happy to be home.

Camp!

So in 2 days (TWO DAYS!!!) I'm leaving for caaaaamp :D

Like 7 years ago my aunt and uncle's friend finally convinced them to go and try out the family camp that she runs in Michigan, and they loved it. My dad is really close to this brother, and I'm pretty close to this cousin, so they decided to invite us along. My parents declined (though I have come this close to getting them to come, but they never do. They don't want to intrude on something that they feel is my aunt and uncle's thing) but I didn't because it sounded awesome. And now this'll be the 6th year that I go.

Ironically, (is it irony? Or just funny?) it's super close to this town called Troy, which is where both Carrie and Connor were born. But it's really pretty there and it's on this little spring-fed lake called Stoney.
I liked horses when I first started going there. But then one tried to kill me, and now I'm pretty much terrified. My uncle once had a conference call, so he went to his car to get some A/C. He parked his bike behind the car, but then forgot about it and decided he wanted better reception and back up. This resulted in him borrowing a mallet and trying to hammer everything back into place while cursing and having people walk by and start laughing. A year after that, a horse bucked him off (and then a whole bunch of other horses started bucking, and, really, no one was surprised when the 10 year olds held on and he didn't) and the entire camp kept walking by him at dinner and asking if he was ok. When he was trying to load up the car the day after that, at least 10 people stopped by and tried to help him. He was not happy. The rest of us, however, were extremely amused. I fell off my bike in gravel when I was 12 and could barely walk for the entire week, which sucked.

But even though at least one of us gets hurt like every year, it's still the best place ever. I've known these people since I was 11, and therefore makes them my oldest friends, because I've been sucking at keeping in touch with people from the bajillion places I've lived. It's where I jumped off of the 25ft platform over the lake and did a fabulous back flop. That was the first and last time I ever went up that high. It's where I spent two hours laying on the dock in the middle of the night talking and looking at the stars and water with my friend. It's where a scavenger hunt of sorts ended up with me standing in a freezing cold artesian well for several minutes.

There's a "free night" every year when they encourage all of the campers and counselors to go into town and entertain themselves. This means that we go see a movie (5 years ago my aunt had to stand with my friend outside because my friend got totally freaked out over War of the Worlds. Last year we walked into the theater and saw that there were only like 2 people there that weren't from camp) and then to an ice cream place. The ice cream parlor has the biggest ice creams that I have ever seen. Seriously. They have this "Dare to be Great," which is described on a site I found as "a 21 Softball sized scoop ice cream not for the faint of heart." Someone from camp tries it every year, but none of them has ever done it. If my dad would finally agree to come, he totally could. My aunt always points out remembering my dad crashing at her and my uncle's house years and years ago and her looking up to find him eating an entire carton of ice cream.

I promise to take a million pictures! There's no internet access (which I'm kind of scared about. I'm a bit dependent), but I'll have my phone and can text and call tons.

I'll miss you guys!

My bookbag was a mess

So today I decided that I should do something productive.
This led to me cleaning out my bookbag.
This is what I found at the bottom when I took out my folders and notebooks:

1 pack of cherry flavored cough drops
3 crayons
2 semesters worth of spanish notes
1 bazooka bubblegum wrapper
1 bookmark shaped like a ladybug
2 boxes of nerds
11 paperclips
8 rice krispie treats wrappers
7 ziploc bags (one with hearts on it)
2 combination locks
3 race plans
1 fortune cookie fortune ("You will make a fortune with your friend")
1 track meet schedule (conference)
1 research paper from newspaper
1 history essay study guide
1 mysterious clasp attached to nothing
an insane amount of beads from a broken pukka shell necklace

That was literally the most productive thing I have done all summer.

new moon

Ok, so Twilight is totally lame and stupid.
But the trailer for New Moon is out, and, well... it looks awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1vcTr9dguM

It just SHOWS Jacob transforming. Which is cool.
I'm kind of excited.

SUMMAH

finallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinally

Finally, something beautiful has crawled out of the depths of the past few hellacious, out of the finals with hundreds of questions, out of hours and hours of studying, after a year's worth of stress piling up and hovering over me. And that beautiful thing is summer.

I am so happy. Morning runs. Hanging out with friends all day and all night. Swimming. Writing. Reading in my hammock. Freedom.

Also, we are halfway done with high school. How scary is that?

half-blood prince!

to anyone interested:
i've found an account on youtube that has been putting together clips and script leaks and everything to make a kind of mini hbp. don't watch if you expect everything to be the same as the book, there are some spoilers for how the movie will be different:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhuw9ZbJnqc&feature=channel_page

no real point to this

Carrie and Eileen got me to thinking about writing.
And I have concluded that I epically fail when it comes to consistency.
I write like mad crazy in November and let it completely take over my entire life. I don't pay attention in school, I spend all of my time freaked out, I lay awake at night trying to figure out how to keep things going. And then December comes and I breathe a sigh of relief with Carrie and we celebrate the end to something that was absolute hell, but also to something that was absolute magic. And I give myself a week or so off, just because I need to do my homework and finals are impending and I just need a break.
And then, come January, what do I do? Nothing. A page here, a few paragraphs there. Nothing.
It has taken me until APRIL to even begin editing. And I'm not even done yet. I have like 20 notebooks full of unfinished stories.
So, I ask you for help.
Give me story ideas. Short stories, like a few pages, or vignette-length. I'll even post the final result.

I HATE SIXTH GRADE CAMP. I MISS YOU ALL!!!
Track has been sooo weird and quiet. I miss you guys. What am I supposed to do at the meet on Saturday?! COME HOME.

If you were home, or at least responding to my texts, you'd know that I got my license. BOOYAH.

what i do at night

I came across this a few months ago, but I was bored and remembered it. I still don't quite know what to make of this story:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-greedy-hippo.htm
(I suggest that you turn your sound off, or an annoying lady will narrate everything for you, and I am quite sure that you are capable of reading on your own. I also suggest that you do the fun little puzzle while it loads).

and then, after doing that, i poked around a bit on that site. and i am totally ace at knowing about zoo animals:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-quiz-zoo.htm

and then this scared me:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-hangman-sports.htm
I was doing so well (even remember to call soccer football... i am so smart) until I didn't know one and then the monkey... his EYES. my GOD, his EYES. the thing fell on him and the EYES are so scary!

And, of course, I ended up on stumbleupon. It just happens. And now I absolutely need to do this:
http://tinyurl.com/chkywv

So that's a bit of a record of what I did tonight.


And, also, 15 days.

apathetic amy

You know how sometimes you just get in that damn rut and then every single place you go is freaking rut-tastic and nothing seems cool and the only thing that seems as though it could be the slightest bit helpful is taking an iron skillet to your face (because then at least your hospital stay would excuse you from school)?

Yeah. I be there, yo.

Apathy has been chasing me down with a cleaver and now has me in its cold, slimy fingers. Apathy does not know what purell is.

This explanation would be better presented through interview form between 'real amy' (ra) and 'apathetic amy' (aa [alcoholics anonymous, yo. Don't think I didn't miss that]):

ra: So, aa, i realize that you've been kinda pissy lately.
aa: Shove off, sunny mcsunsun
ra: Tsk tsk. testy, huh?
aa: I HATE LIFE.
ra: Well how have you been running lately?
aa: Yeah, thanks, ra. thanks. your reminder of that 800 is so very helpful.
ra: Hey, really?!
aa: NO!
ra: Alright, fine. Schoolwork, how has that been?
aa: I took a math quiz today and I would not be surprised if every single freaking question was wrong. I took a spanish test today and realized that, despite living side by side people from there for basically ever and growing up in the state that I did, I know nothing about Puerto Rico except for Ponce de Leon, some walls, and fish pancakes. I did none of my homework because I just don't care.
ra: Are you just going to sit there and be negative?
aa: YES.
ra: That's not particularly helpful.
aa: Do. Not. Care.
ra: You're hopeless.
aa: That's the point, dummy mcdumbface.
ra: Hey, we have the same face. You just insulted yourself.
aa: *$&@(*!!!
ra: I see.

As ra and aa have just demonstrated so wonderfully for you, I am going to fail because I did literally none of my math homework this week because I just did not care. I did English, because that I do care about. And newspaper, because that was a really big assignment. Everything else? No. What did I use my time in the library for health class for? Certainly not research. I read. A fiction book (better than Carrie and Megan, but not by much).

A cure for this apathy? I have a plan. Big, but not too big. Probably done tomorrow, after Bryan's Easter egg thing.


On another note, 16 days. Just sayin'.

the best day

It's the one question everyone asks when spring break is over:
What did you do?
I did... nothing. I was bored. I can't even make a list like Carrie's, because the only unusual thing that I remember doing is having spicy food settling in my stomach as I went on a frantic search with Laura for my missing purse and having a large amount of Indians attempting to teach me how to dance as I literally almost broke my ankle in a pair of high heels. Though that would definetly top any chart that I would make if I had anything interesting besides that to put on it.

I'm a bit unsure about the track meet on Thursday. I wouldn't say that I'm dreading it, but I wouldn't say that I'm very excited, either. I'm excited to watch other people race. I'm excited to watch the 4x4. I'm excited because I love the energy that seems to be around meets. I'm excited to wear my spikes again. I am not excited because, admist all of this happiness, I have to race.

This song made me kind of cry, it's called "The Best Day," by Taylor Swift:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg40FbXFSWU&feature=channel_page

pictures

i put the pictures from carrie's house two weeks ago on my photobucket

photobucket.com/dftba

spring break

Finally, finally, out of the depths of my apathy that borders on desperation, out of the mounds of homework that constantly threatens to overtake me, out of the sleepy, tired eyes and pessimitic mumbles, out of all of that, is spring break.

It could not have come at a better time. I was ready to kill myself because of all the work I had to do, and I have been so tired that it's just pathetic. I am so happy to have a week in which I don't have to do any work but running and I just don't have to do anything but hang out with my friends and be immature.

And, um, by the way... my birthday is next month, and if this could magically appear, I would probably cry of happiness:

track?

so track starts tomorrow.

i don't know whether to be happy or to go jump off a bridge.

Question Fridays

What's yo favorite aspect of your novel?
I think probably Caylee's musings, because they're so much fun to write and because she thinks differently than I do. I like how they seem so innocent, like she's just thinking, but that they're really not. They're dangerous.


What's yo favorite aspect of MY novel (plz preen my ego)?
I love love love your character development of Novelist. I always skip that part and am like, "BAM! INSERT MC HERE!" and you are smart enough to actually show the reader who she is and what she's doing. You also can muse really well, without slipping into a droning tone, and also making a point. I know you feel like you're droning, but there's always something really really good about your musings. I can always find at least like a hundred really good sentences that just make me... feel something. The way that it's supposed to. This is because you think so well. Like I hear a lot of your voice in your novel, the way you get when you're seriously thinking about something. But you're not restricting yourself and you take the time to make everything work out so well. And I love that. You throw in good vocab in a natural way that doesn't sound like you're trying to sound smart. You just sound like you legitly are smart. Your metaphors work and are stunnnning.


Why do you run? (you must've seen that coming!)
This is what I wrote a week ago, when I hated everything about running and started to quit:
It started because everyone around me ran. You, Laura, and Hope all did it. Hope was probably the straw that broke the camel's back (or should I say broke Amy's knees?), because I knew that you were weird, and Laura just looked like a runner. But when I found out that Hope, who had another sport too, ran, I felt bad about myself. Everyone did something but me. I also felt fat and knew that I could handle losing a few pounds. But I run now because... I don't know. Some days it's out of habit, and these are the days when I ask myself why I do it. These are the days that I hate every aspect of it and I swear to never run again. I think I run because as much as I try to convince myself that running sucks and I would be better off without it, I still keep coming back for more. As much as my run the previous day made me question everything about why I do it and what the freaking point is, I still go out for a quick one. But right now... I run because I should. I am so sick of running. Help me quit.

And this is what I wrote yesterday:
Dean Karnazes says that, really, no one enjoys running, so I guess that I don't. I enjoy parts of it. I do not enjoy other parts of it. I do not enjoy the parts that make me hurt when I am not running, and I do not enjoy the parts that make me look all ugly. I enjoy everything else. I like going slowly for longer runs and I like powering it up for short ones. I love runners' highs. I love races. I love feeling like whatever I do in running, to an extent, is up to me. If I want to be slow, I can go a quarter mile once a month. But if I want to be fast, I can train like Megan. I do not, obviously, have that sort of motivation. But I love struggling up a huge hill and being about to die and then there's a freaking amazing downhill that makes it all worthwhile.
I'm going to stop now.
I think that this represents just how freaking moody I am.


What are some of your favorite lyrics?
"Seaweed and Indiana sawgrass...pale green things." -Pale Green Things (Mountain Goats)

"And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives." -Heretic Pride (Mountain Goats)

"Someone will do something someone else will regret, I speak in smoke signals and you answer in code." -Have to Explode (Mountain Goats)

"You or your memory?" -You or Your Memory (Mountain Goats)

"There will be feasting
and dancing
in Jerusalem next year
I am gonna make it
through this year
if it kills me." -This Year (Mountain Goats)

"There's gonna come a day when you feel better
your eyes are free and easy on that day." -Up the Wolves (Mountain Goats)

"And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
someday burns down
and I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away,
and I never come back to this town." -No Children (Mountain Goats)

"As I pace back and forth all this time cause I honestly believed in you." -White Horse (Taylor Swift)

"And I wouldn't change a thing
I'd walk right back through the rain
Back to every broken heart on the day that it was breaking.
And I'd relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I cried with every stumbled step
that led to you and got me
here." -Here (Rascal Flatts)

"Kick up the leaves and the magic is lost." -Bad Day (Daniel Powter)

"Someday we'll all get started
Someday we'll have what we wanted
Someday we'll want what's better
Someday we'll all live forever
Someday we'll all reach higher
Someday we won't be so tired
Someday we won't say never
Someday we'll all be together" -Someday (Plain White T's)

"These are the times that we'll remember
Breaking the city's heart together
Finally it's out time now" -Our Time Now (Plain White T's)

"Don't be afraid
What your mind conceals
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe" -Invincible (Muse)

EVERYONE THAT IS NOT CARRIE SUCKS.

Hello.

So, I have recently completed the task of reading every single Pearls Before Swine comic ever printed. And, somehow, I found my friends in some of them.


This one reminded me of Maggie. I think that either Carrie or Molly could be Zebra:


This one reminded me of how Laura probably feels sometimes, especially with me around:


if it's fuzzy, deal with it. i can't fix that.

This is not completely Carrie, but it kind of made me think of her:
I see a difference in the fact that Carrie is not dating a pig. And that she is respected.

And this made me miss cross country:


Reminded me of us trying to sing Disturbia. We didn't know the lyrics. At all.:

These are Pearls Before Swine plushes. Must. Have. NOW.:


You would do well to remember this:

The end.



Side note: "Sing for Absolution" and "Invincible" are like the coolest freaking songs to have playing when it's thundering. It sounds so cool.

Side side note: Marat pwns Corday. Just saying.

LAURA DAY!!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAURA!

Amy is a Copycat

So I have decided to be a copycat. I am going to copy Carrie, who copied John, and start doing question Tuesdays. However, these are going to happen on Fridays, because I don't like Tuesdays.

Leave questions in the comments or email me.

And if you ask any question at all, I will not answer it until Friday. Possible example:
Someone: Do you want to go running?
Me: WHY DON'T YOU WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY?!

However, if the questions are urgent:
Someone: Do you want some chocolate?
Me: FRICK YES! You don't have to wait until Friday, dear kind person who has given me chocolate!

I am also going to embark upon another project, one that I will come up with on my own. I just don't know what it is yet.

pooost

Today has been a good day. I woke up and found out that I didn't have to run, which made me happy. Then I went to Barnes and Noble with my parents, and we spent over an hour browsing (I found a GORGEOUS anniversary edition of Lord of the Flies, but didn't get it because I didn't quite like that book as much as I liked Pi. But it was still really really pretty) and ended up with a nice edition of Life of Pi. It's small, which I don't like in paperback books, but the other edition was too big. But it's pretty and the words are still the same, so I don't mind too much. Then we sat at Starbucks for probably 20 minutes and drank coffee and talked about books. My mom also got this record/tape/CD player today, and it's really nice and sounds really good so that made me happy.
I have been loving this break. I really needed it.

New Goals

I've been hanging out at the "Goals" thread on the nanowrimo forums, and I have decided to make a few more goals. These include:

Running:
14:30 3200
7:00 1600
3:15 800
1:10 400
Be able to run 7 miles

School:
Do the work more often...
Make a greater effort to pay attention, instead of zoning out and thinking of the most random things possible
A's in: English, History, Newspaper, Bio, Health, Spanish
A B in math is ok... math sucks.

Other:
Beat Super Mario 64 the legit way, as in 120 stars and beating the last Bowser, not just beating the last Bowser
Pass driving test with an 80%
Read 30 books in the summer
Read at least one classic novel
Take one week and only get on the internet to check email and facebook (this might possibly be my hardest goal...)

These are things that I have been thinking about, but have finally decided to go through with. There are 14 goals, so accomplishing 8 would make me happy.

FeNoAdMo

Today begins a torturous adventure that I have decided to inflict upon myself.
FeNoAdMo.
February Novel Adding Month.
This idea came into my head a few weeks ago, and I knew that I would not do it, no matter how much I wanted to. And what is the only way to keep myself doing a project? Tell someone that I am embarking upon it, because then failing the project would just be embarrassing. So I told Carrie, whom I hope will go with me on this month long addition of 30,000 words to our novels.
30,000 is such a small amount of words that it almost sounds easy (look at that. How will I ever become a good writer if I insist on starting sentences with numbers?). Almost. That is 1,072 words a day. So small, compared to the required 1,667 in a NaNoWriMo day.

But the problem is that I have been away from my novel for so long. I have been re-reading it in an attempt to get the mood of the story back, but that just makes me mad and has caused editing, which is a monumental task that I will, maybe, get around to in March.

I have never finished a novel before, and I've started so many of them that it's just pathetic. But I really hope that FeNoAdMo will get me close to, if not directly to, this point.

Photobucket!

As part of my resolution to take more pictures, I've posted pictures from Carrie's birthday party and the snow last night on my photobucket:
here
coolest username ever!
if it asks for a password, use qwerty1

Such Beautiful Luck!

So Monday night, I was pretty angry. I had a lot of homework and a history test to study for. But I knew, just as everyone else did, that Tuesday would be a snow day. And, surprise surprise, we got the day off. I had planned on hanging out with friends, sledding, and drinking hot chocolate. Sadly, that is not what happened. I was trapped inside all day, with nothing but my computer to entertain me. But then, Tuesday night (which was last night), Carrie asked me to print out her paper for her, and while I was waiting for her to send me her works cited, I got on ksdk.com and looked at the closings (looking for Parkway, Rockwood, or Valley Park, because those three are copycats off of each other), but it didn't say any of them. I refreshed. Scrolled down again. AND HOLY SHIZNITS IT SAID PARKWAY! I did not expect, at all, to have a snow day today. But I am uber happy about it!

My dad had to venture out to go get Emily from work, which involed ten minutes of shoveling his way out of the driveway, and ten minutes of driving there, and ten minutes of driving back (normally, round trip, this would take about 8 minutes or so). They weren't even plowing; he had to drive over four inches of snow (his response: "I wish I had taken the truck. The car has too many controls over it, if I had the truck, I could have done doughnuts." Oh dad.) But when he got back, he tried to shovel the driveway and the sidewalk. My mom told Emily and I that we should go help, because he's old, and I was like "SCORE!" because I love the snow at night. We piled snow on top of Emily's car, because it still has a Florida license plate, so it looks weird. And then we took a walk in the snow, which involved a lot of "My face is about to fall off," and "PICTURE TIME!" because I do like taking pictures of snow. And we were trying to get action shots of us jumping off of this big pile of snow, but that didn't turn out so well. Emily kept getting pictures of my belly button, and I kept getting pictures of her looking like a frog. And then she fell and slid down the pile and got really cold.

I love snow days. And having two snow days in a row is just awesome.

new semester

i was talking to carrie about new years resolutions. now, normally i make ones like "do better and school" and "don't complain" and stuff, but i think that those are kind of pointless. so this year, i have a few ones that i find worthwhile, even if i did copy them from other people.

NUMERO UNO
Write down what's awesome about the day, every day. this is, of course, stolen from the five awesome girls. but i like the idea.

NUMERO DOS
Do at least three new things each week. They can be lame, like adding another mile to a run or trying out a new food, but in the summer when i have more time, i want to go to new places and stuff.

NUMERO TRES
Take more pictures. i like taking pictures, i just never do it. and i have a sad lack of pictures.

NUMERO CUATRO
300 miles this summer. i'll look at that more in a few months.

NUMERO CINCO
Finish my nano! The poor thing is just sitting there, unfinished. I think i'll go help it out.

i think that's all.

and on a side note...
i freaking love the mountain goats.