Christmastime Is Here

Has everyone had a good Christmas? I know I have because I haven't posted for a week! I've been having just too much fun spending time with my family. That's one of the best parts of the holiday season, I think, because everyone goes out of their way to be with you, and you go out of your way to be with them. I am writing to you from my Grandpa's computer in California where we've been for the past couple of days, along with all of my dad's brothers and sisters and their families. It's been pretty crazy, but we like to think of it as "organized chaos".

One of the best moments of our trip was on Christmas morning when my sister announced suprisedly to my mom after opening her Nintendo DS game system, "Santa's really gone electronic this year, Mommy". That just about made my day, aside from the "You're married!" ornament given to my newly-wed cousin with the names "Daniel and Jessica" inscribed on it when in fact her new hubby's name is David. Her mom was horribly embarrased, but we all laughed and decided it was something my aunt would do anyways!

Santa didn't realize we were away from home, so supposedly there are more presents for us there, but Dad could just be pulling my leg. This has been one of those years where we've had several different Christmas mornings at different houses where different relatives live. We had the actual Christmas morning at Aunt Diane's house, a pre-Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's, another pre-Christmas at our house so we could thank our grandparents for the gifts they sent us*, and then our post-Christmas at home. We haven't had a Christmas away for a while, so it was fun to be with family during this special time of year.

Of course, our Christmas festivities were not complete without the watching of Elf on Christmas Eve night under the Christmas tree in a "mosh pit of cousins". Santa didn't come until late, because all the kids were up until at least one o'clock. Ahhhh, good times! We would not be tamed.

Ten Random Things.

#1. I am madly in love with dark chocolate, but wasn't two and a half months ago. (I don't know how or when it happened, but it did).


#2. Scrapbooking is my calling.


#3. I'm learning how to sing a song in Czech for a Personal Progress (program designed for girls in Young Women's) project.


#4. I own nothing from Hollister which is strange considering my age and my neighborhood. (Wow, that's...shocking!)(Gotta love Elf)


#5. Red is a horrible color on people. In my opinion, anyway.


#6. If ever I'm in a bad mood, show up at my house with a root beer float (two scoops of vanilla!) in one of those plastic, colored, wine glasses.


#7.


*







#8. Ha! My mom just ran into the family room and told my younger bro and sis to change the TV because Spongebob started. Ha! Wow, she looks serious...


#9. The Seer and the Sword is the most wonderful story in the world. I think I like it even more than the Twilight books, only because I read it first.

#10. I play the tenor sax. Amazingly, a lot of people don't know that about me



*I've never actually been to Chick-Fil-A.
**Make sure you read the post that follows this one, too.

3, 4, 5...6?

Part 3 : Favorite Board Game.

I really like to play Life, Connect Four, Sorry, Clue...the usual. Sorry especially. It always makes me laugh when someone says "SORRY" and doesn't mean it. Most of the people I play with say "sorry" sarcastially anyways, so it's not very different from real life, but I still enjoy the fun of it. Mary tells me that I don't know how to play Clue properly since I don't know "the strategy", but I am perfectly fine playing the way every other normal person in the world does. Connect Four is a simple game of optical illusions. If you can get the lighting and shadow in precisely the right spot, you can trick anyone into putting their piece where it will give you an advantage. And it's over quickly. Short and sweet.


Part 4 : Favorite Actor and Band/Singer

Ummmmm, my favorite actor right now is Patrick Dempsey, courtesy of Enchanted. I just love him to pieces! And my favorite singer is Carrie Underwood. I've been out of the country loop since this summer, but I'm back in. Back home. I'm a die-hard country fan, I just needed a vacation. It felt weird, though, listening to popular music and learning lyrics to songs that EVERYBODY knows and not just you because you have your own type of music.


Part 5 : What Movie Are You Dying to See?

Right this red hot minute, or tonight with a couple of friends? For the right now part, ummm, Hairspray. And tonight, I would watch Enchanted with Mary. Because I owe her one. <3.

Part 6: Just kidding. No part 6.

Like the Stars

To answer part two of James' meme, the easiest song to get stuck in my head is a song called Like the Stars (you can listen to part of it here). It is on a CD of songs written by Jenny Phillips, an inspirational singer and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She realeases a new album at the beginning of every year that corresponds to the Young Women's (a program for girls aged 12-18) theme. This coming year's theme is: "Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works" (Mosiah 5:15). Some of the other songs on this CD are very good at getting stuck in my head, but this one especially. That's probably a good thing too, being that it is a song devoted to God and our want to be close to him. Like the stars.

TV Show

I was tagged by Mary, James, and Torie for the Favorite Childhood TV Show meme. Awesome! I love kid's television. Something about it is innocent yet very thought-provoking for both kids and not-so kids. One of my favorite shows (there are many) is Bananas in Pajamas. That was one show that I did watch as a kid, but didn't as I got older. I'm not sure why I fell in love with the singing pair, but I did. Hey, what can you do?

Another classic was Blue's Clues, but when they sacked Steve and added a puppet Blue segment the show lost some of its charm. I am very sure I would still be watching it to this day were it not for the change in characters.

One that I do watch to this day is Arthur. Yes, Mary, I copied you again, but what's not to love about a little family of aardvarks living in a small town, experiencing real life problems faced by real kids. Genius!

Enchanted...again!

I just got back from seeing Enchanted...again! And I loved it (duh)...again! It is so much fun to re-watch movies, because you catch things you didn't notice before or that didn't really make sense. For example, on of the main girls in the story is Idina Menzel aka Elphaba in Wicked. I did not realize this until I saw it...again! It is such a sweet and happy movie. Everything about it is very light and optimistic. I feel very uplifted watching it. As wierd as that sounds, its the truth. So, any time you're feeling down in the dumps of having a bad day, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE!

Traditions

Sorry about that. I had a little nine day break to work on an English project, but now that it's turned in I have time to get to what really matters (just kidding, Mom. School first).
My friend Mary requested that I explain our sacred ritual entitled, as of right now, "Calling the Snow". It works, no mocking.

Let's start at the very beginning, a very fine place to start. Mary said that wearing your pajamas inside out was the #1 step. But, the pajamas must be inside out and backwards in order to ensure a snow day, snow day, a very very snow day.

Concerning the second step (Lick a metal spoon and put it under your pillow), the spoon must be completely under your pillow each time. My brother, Genius Boy *insert heroic music*, made the mistake of sliding his pillow off the spoon during the night. We woke up to a morning of no snow. But Genius Boy *insert heroic music* had a crink in his neck the size of something big from the neck of the spoon which it rested the whole night.

Moral of the story: Make sure that the spoon is completely, perfectly 100% centered under you pillow.

Now, I never have actually done step 3 every time, but I do listen to my weather radio to see what's in the forecast. I'm sure it wouldn't do any harm to check the weather every 5 minutes, but it's not very necessary.

Who, may you ask, came up with all of these mandatory laws for all human beings on this earth to abide by? Umm, Mary and I did. We lived together for a couple (5) months while her house was being remodeled. During that time, the eight of us (our families' combined children) got to know each other and start new inside jokes, family traditions, and do things that should never ever EVER happen when parents are not home (there were a few nights like that). Just to give you an idea, we kept all of the children (down to the then 4-year-old) up until about 11:30 on a Wednesday night while the Moms and Dads were at an opera or something. We had cake for dinner that night. It was horrible. They were off the walls, so we started Jane Austen's Emma with Gwenyth Paltrow to get them to sleep. It was playing for about 7 minutes before every single one of them was out cold. :D

Anyway, follow my lead and yes, indeed, you will have a snow day!


Extra Credit: How many songs did I use in this post?
(sorry Mary, I couldn't resist copying your idea!)

Time

I'm sorry fellow bloggers that I haven't been posting lately, but something has come up with my friend Natalie. Remember her from my Soap Opera last week? Well, her grandfather passed away a few days ago, and she's been having a really rough time. I've been spending a lot of time at her house and she at mine, trying to help her. Her grandpa was a very smart man, who I knew fairly well. He moved in with her about three years ago as he got older, so he's been living at her house.

Natalie, our hopes and prayers are with you. I love you.

Christmas at Alice's House

I'm skipping Soap Opera Sunday today (sorry!) because we set up our Christmas tree last night and I wanted to put pictures up of that instead. I will still read everyone else's and I'll be back in the flow of things next week (or tomorrow. It will be on Monday, Cause I Missed It).

Here's a couple of pics of our holiday preperation. There's no pictures of people on here, dad. I promise. It snowed this morning so there are some great landscape shots too. It's still snowing actually. It stopped for a minute there.

It snowed because our whole family wore our pajamas inside out and backwards. That always makes it snow. Then, if we do it again, we get a day off of school. Works every time. :-)

Beautiful fire, Dad! (He takes pride in his fires)

We have ornaments on that tree from 1992.

Wierd I know. Wait, I stand corrected. '89.

"A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight.

Walking in a winter wonderland."

In winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle-light.

In summer quite the other way

I have to go to bed by day.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

What?! "...bed by day..."? Talk about burning daylight.

:-)

Dad learned that saying, "burning daylight", from my grandpa and it's now his favorite catchphrase. I can remember hearing that yelled across the lake when my brother decided he needed to EAT instead of go waterskiing. Incredible what some people try to get away with.

Happy Birthday Me!!!

One Of My Many Odd Collections

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory

Ummm, I started collecting Binder clips a couple of years ago. I am not obsessed, I just pick them up whenever I see them on the ground or under desks. There are a lot more than it seems, I just lined them up in size order. The smallest one is about 1/2 tall (excluding the metal clip part) and so far the smallest one I've ever found.

Enjoy. Or not.

Kristen Stewart aka Bella Swan

Finally! For all you Twilight fans out there, Summit Entertainment has begun casting the movie (yes!) for pre-production begins in February. Isn't this wonderful news? Kristen has been my favorite nominee, so I am thrilled she has the role. Stephenie Meyer optioned for Danielle Panabaker, but I didn't think that Disney needed to take over yet another part of our world of entertainment. Kristen is awesome and totally deserves it.

You know what this means, right? They're going to have to cast Edward pretty soon if they're starting pre-production in two months. Yay! I can't wait. He might be incredibly horrible and painfully wrong, but also amazingly perfect. I don't know what to expect. : [

Life Lesson

I learned a very valuable life lesson just now, and felt the urge to write it down. The lesson is, don't let anyone inside your house unless you know exactly who it is and why they are there. Let me elaborate.

Just now, a single adultish looking kid rang our dorbell and said, "Hi! I'm looking for Andrew. He's here to pick me up." My dad let him in, thinking that our home teacher (a man who comes to visit the familes once a month in the Mormon faith to discuss family matters, gospel truths, etc.) Andy was meeting someone at our house to teach us with him. He let him in, but the boy said something like "Hold on. He's calling me right now." He walked outside and my mom yelled from the computer, "Who was that?" My dad being my dad said "Oh, I don't know." That not only worried me, but amused me. I thought he was joking or distracted and didn't respond correctly so didn't really think about it. Whenever our home teacher comes, we gather the family and sit in the living room to talk with him about whatever is going on in our lives, and then he shares a lesson he's prepared with us. Dad told me to "gather the troops" so I obediently went upstairs to find my brothers. We were all assembled in the living room waiting for Andy's obscure young friend to return. He came back in to say something to us, but then his phone rang again. He was in and out, eventually walking through our house about three times. He finally came to sit down with us, and looked obviously uncomfortable. My dad started introducing himself, assuming this boy was new to the ward or something, and began to ask what the boy's association with Andy was. He said that he was meeting Andy and Brian (coincidentally the name of our home teacher's son) and that they were driving back up to BU tonight. My mom's maternal instincts had told her from the beginning, as she later explained to me, that this man was not supposed to be in our house. She automatically knew from his last comment that he was in the wrong place, and asked him which Andy he was looking for. He said Andy something. Unintelligable. It was not our Andy though! That's about when I started hyperventilating, and Mom stood up and started cautiously ushering him towards the door. I didn't hear much of the conversation afterwards, but apparently he had typed his friend's address incorrectly into his GPS and was taken to our house. For those who know where I live, my house isn't exactly easy to show up at by ACCIDENT.

This just goes to show how people can get the right names of people who are scheduled to be somewhere at the right time.

I have learned something today, and I hope you do too. (For those of you chortling with amusement now, this is not a laughing matter. :0)

SOS! SOS! SOS! SOS!

Now, many people (ehemm...Mary) find the story ABOUT the story to be more pleasurable than the story itself, but I hope this 100% factual retelling will not fall under that category.

My beautiful, smart, athletic, stunning Arabian princess friend has always been worried that nobody likes her (What?) and that she doesn't fit in with anybody. She has on multiple occasions listed her flaws, like a loud laugh and a crooked nose, that she can't possibly fix, so therefore no one will ever like her. Well...actually, wait. This story begins a couple of weeks ago actually. Let me backtrack for you.



A boy that she, Natalie we'll call her, really likes is on the varsity track team, placed 3rd out of 250 high schoolers down in the city last week (which he had to miss half of the school day for), and is extremely smart, cute, and funny. All the works. Anyways, Natalie had been talking to him, Ben, about a field hockey game she was going to be playing in that afternoon.

He said, "I don't think I can make it today 'cause I have track. I'll try though."

She and I didn't really know what "I'll try" meant to him, because later that day when we were all set up in our positions on the field I saw Ben in my peripheral vision appear from behind the elementary school building, which was a stone's throw away from our field, taking his iPod out of his ears and talking to a couple of his friends who had come too. I literally jumped up in the air and turned around to show Natalie. The two of us were screaming, quietly screaming, and jumping. She suddenly was very embarrassed that he had actually come, and started feeling queasy. I told her she was a great player and not to loose her head. Right then I also realized something. He had had track practice at the high school earlier, right? Our field was about FOUR MILES away. He had ran the whole way!!! The referee blew the whistle so I wasn't able to start quiet screaming again with Natalie, but knowing he was there gave both her AND I surges of energy at sporadic points in the game.
I think thats enough.

To be continued...

Rah Rah!

My uncle and cousins are going to the BYU game today...URGHHH...And i'm stuck at home watching it. Poo. Pretty intense, however. I'm quite enjoying myself...Dressing up in blue and white and wearing blue makeup can really lift one's spirits. Chips and salsa helps too. :0)

Enchanted by Enchanted...

Amy Adams does a superb job as Giselle, an "other wordly princess" dropped into Times Square. I absolutely loved the fresh twist on the Snow White-Sleeping Beauty type classic tale. She is adorably optimistic and kind, so much so that the down-to-earth "dreams don't come true" Manhattan lawyer decides to take her in and help her in her time of need. Patrick Dempsey, who else, sweeps Giselle offs her feet and realizes ________________. Whoops. Just about to spoil it....Sorry! Anyways, Enchanted s' extremely fun, innocent, and optimistic nature has a Hairspray type feel to it and spontaneous musical numbers all over NYC. Anyone who loves the city, true love or both will love Enchanted!

Happy Turkey Day!

The title says it all! I am so thankful for all of my family and good friends. I am blessed to have such support among all the people I love. :0)

SOS

I have a great SOS coming up and I can't wait to share it!!!! It's not sunday yet, and I really am jumping out of my seat right now because I can' t keep it all in. You guys are in for a treat come Sunday.

Meme alert!

Okay. My new meme has just changed. You can have eleven top characters if you want. Because I just thought of another one.

Laurie from Little Women is incredibly awesome and deserves to be on this list. I read Little Women in fourth grade when everyone around me was reading Junie B. Jones and Goosebumps, but I still fell in love with the story. I haven't read it since then (which I should once I'm done with The Fall of A Kingdom another great novel) but seen the movie enough times. Again, love the movie almost as much as the books because it captures the simple magic of growing up without all of the pressures of MY world that I have to grow up in. I envy Jo March. She can spend her time writing and acting and playing in the snow...while I do everything but that. Urghh. Okay, back to Laurie. He's awesome. That pretty much covers it. And incredibly handsome in the movie. WOW! Incredibly awesome and handsome. He's such a good friend too. I am seriously low on really good friends right now so I'm resorting to fictional characters as if they will some how, I don't know, fill that gap.

Oh well.

That's my new rule. So, ya.

Tagged...

So Mary was pretty annoyed that I didn't tag anyone for my meme. I forgot, ok?

So I will tag Mary, Maite, James, and I think thats it. If I forgot anyone else under 18 (not being discriminating ...just like the happily married thing), consider yourself tagged.

Belated Wordless Wednesday

A new MEME

So I had a revelation for a new meme the other day when I was reading the Top Ten Favorite Characters...Were I Not Happily Married thing. This meme, however, is slightly different. I realized that that meme is discriminating those of us not happily married. I mean not marrried...at all. Not necessarily unhappily married....


OK! Anywho, this meme is called My Top Ten Fictional Characters From Novels That I Am Madly In Love With And Would Gladly Meet, Fall In Love With And Live Happily Ever After Were I Not Under 18 And In No Situation Whatsoever To Begin Any Sort Of Romantic Connections; Fictional Or Otherwise.



1. Edward Cullen- I guarrantee that every other girl I send this meme to with have the exact same number one as me. Edward is the unbelievably gorgeous, sensitive, vegetarian vampire that is the star of Stephenie Meyer's genius Twilight. Yes, Jacob is cool, but Edward is........incredible! The whole fictionality of him (is fictionality a word Luisa?) is what makes him so... Do you know that phrase, "You want what you can't have". Well, there you go! Completely fictional and unreachable, even to the main mistress Bella, and completely mysterious and enigmatic.


2. Landen - This the Landen from The Seer and the Sword not A Walk to Remember although I love both. But this Landen is strong and brave and kind and fearless. He is the captured orphan of a conquered land who was taken as a boy to his father's slayer, Kind Kareed's, kingdom. There he meets Kareed's daughter Torina where they fall in love, are secretly seeing each other, all that jazz. Its really a wonderful story and Landen just makes it all the better. He is so understanding about the way Torina lives and helps her through some of the most troubling times of her life. Her father is killed in a plot to steal her kingdom, and her father's throne is taken over...and I'm not spoiling anything, I promise! He helps her ........... oh wait. I was just about to spoil something. Nevermind. Just read it.


3. Link - This character is a favorite of mine because of his simple optimism. He is Melba Patillo's pal in Warriors Don't Cry a memoir of her integration into an all white high school. He is one of the few students who tries to help the nine black students, and tries hard. He risks his life (?)(no not life) by sending them notes about where ambushes are going to be planned and what staircases or hallways to avoid. He wasn't one of the most romantic characters, but his sole bravery is what attracts me to him.


4. Farid - Cornelia Funke writes a great novel, I'll tell you that. Both Inkheart and Inkspell are two of my favorite books. Farid is the teenage boy in these stories that gets read out of his own book and into our world by a powerful reader's voice, and now is trying to convince the reader's daughter, Meggie, to read him back . It's a dangerous business, so she knows she shouldn't try, but all the same she is curious about his world and wants to go with him. Cornelia describes his eyes as "shockingly blue against his dark skin" and as a smart boy with a lot to learn. To watch his transformation from a little boy to a young man is sort of enchanting and intriguing. I like his attitutude and willingness to learn that he portrays through the novels.


5. Harry Potter - I know, I know, he and Ginny are soulmates, BUT a girl can dream can't she? I think Harry is the nicest, smartest, pulled together literary teenager I have ever read about. If any one objects, please let me know. I can't believe everything he did, and at such an early age too. Fiction is still fiction, but Harry is pretty brave. (It seems all of these guys are brave. Go figure, I like a brave guy.)


6. Jesse Tuck - Tuck Everlasting is one of my favorite books, and favorite movies. Only rarely does that work out for me because usually the books rocks my life and the movie sucks. Take Harry Potter...Any way, I love Jesse not because he is BRAVE because there's no real time in the book when theres a need for that, but because he's so romantic and mystical and carefree. I love the serenity and peacefulness that he is. He never worries about being on time to anything or getting anything in on time. I love it.


7. Billy - Now I won't say that I fell in love with him the second I opened Where the Red Fern Grows, because I'm not a liar, but I can say that after I read it a couple of times, he started to grow on me. I like his character, or rather the idea of his character more and more after hearing the story being read to me, reading it myself. This was one of those books that I cried at the end of (just like Twilight) and so when they made the movie, I cried through the whole thing because of how emotionally PAINFUL it was to watch!! Grr.....I hate that move I hate it I hate it.!!


8. I have a question for this one. Does Rich count???? I love him to death!!! Yes...he counts. As of right now.
Rich is a character in the wonderful Luisa's novel-in-progress, The Holly Place. He is so REAL. Not brave, real. Well I guess, given what he's faced he could be considered brave. Oh well. If you haven't read it yet, go check it out. It's pretty much the best unpublished book in the WORLD. WORLD!!! And I love Rich. To death. He's so nice and welcoming and real.

(I just realized that none of these are in order. Just saying)

9. This next one I'm not necessarily in LOVE with, I just like him a lot.
Jonas - The Giver has always been one of my favorite books, actually all of my favorite books are on this list, so the fact that the main character was a boy was just an added plus. I like how different and yet the same (wow that sounds wierd) his world is and our world is. I like how he is the only "normal" one in his alternate universe, and how we can relate to him because he thinks like us.

10. EDWARD (again!) - I just love him to death. Sorry, that should probably be illegal in this meme...wait I invented this meme. haHa! You can repeat characters in this meme. No, actually I can repeat characters, but you can't.

The end has come...

A week...

I'm very sorry I haven't posted in A WEEK, but things have happened, and I never find time to just sit at the computer. In some ways that is sort of a good thing, because believe it or not, blogging has taken over my life. I haven't been outside to run around and have fun in a long time, I haven't read any really good books lately. By the way, any good ideas? Anywho, I decided to go a whole week without posting. To tell you the truth, I caved at about Thursday and checked it, but NO POSTING! Wow, I just realized that I am doing exactly the opposite of the NaBloPolala thing. Wow, that's pretty funny. Ha ha ha.

Mary, this is directed at you.
I was thinking about what you told me, about life changing musical paths...and after tonight's Sound of Music which you should have gone to, I think I might accompany you on your new path. I think. Input, input, input.

Chicken Dumplings

Okay.
On Friday night, my mom made us all these delicious-looking chicken dumplings. They were in a soup sort of thing, and had these rice balls in them and all kinds of vegetables...overall complicated and time consuming loooking. I had just come from a little party of my own, so I was pretty full having already eaten three slices of pizza and a cup of Sprite. I thought they looked perfectly fine, but my brothers and sisters didn't think so. I had no problem with them, and had I been in a hungrier mood would have eaten them in 17 seconds. So my mom was completely discouraged and went through one of those "motherhood crisis" moments where she "hates herself, hates her kids"...all that jazz. She quickly recovered herself (wow) and took that whole pot over to the O-----s, a family in our neighborhood. She gave them the pot, of which they were greatful for, and then came home.
Well,
Today was fast day and testimony meeting in my church, so brother O----- got up and bore his testimony. He talked about all the kind service that goes on in our ward, and made some comment on how he couldn't understand why our family's children rejected the dumplings. He said after that, "No matter. I'm glad that you did."
After the block, I had to answer a tsunami of questions about "What was wrong with them? Why didn't you eat them? In my family, its eat it or don't eat". Ya, well...I just wasn't hungry OK??!!?! was usually my response, but it still made me laugh that our chicken dumplings were the subject of the day at our meetings. Oh, there i go .... Ha Ha Ha

Touch Football Part IV

This is going to be the last installment of my SOS story, I think, so I hope it doesn't dissapoint.

M
OH MY GOSH!!! Who is this kid? He's so hot! I've only known him, what, 3 hours? He's so cool, and I feel all queasy and butterfly-ish around him. Ooooohhh, I love it. I've never felt this way before...



Who was I kidding? She would never be mine. I was a fool, and I think I knew that. She was a totally different person in the days that followed my party. Always smiling, eyes always glossy, and it took her an extra two seconds to understand what you were saying before she answered. I hated seeing her like that, but if it made her happy, i was happy. It was with this attitude that I made my way through high school, knowing she never loved me, but that I was happy when she was loved.
My heart eventually moved on, and I was able to tear the part of me away from her that she took. I'm not sure how much longer they were "together". My mom got remarried, and we moved to Boston the summer that followed. That was another very very difficult part of my life, so I sort of forgot about Melissa. Sort of. Not seeing her everyday led to not thinking about her. That then led to not loving her. I guess it was for the best, and I suppose it made me live my life a little more fully and freely than before. I got over her and moved on.

Grown-up Christmas Lisp

*Disclaimer*
(This post is directed specifically at Mary, but anyone can read it, it just won't make as much sense, but still be funny.)

So, I'm not sure if all of you have heard of Michael Buble, but he is a new-ish easy listening music artist. He's pretty good, and my family likes to listen to a lot of his music. BUT, a couple of months ago, we were blasting some of his music and we discovered he has a lisp. A lisp! Yeah. So Mary knows about this and its always our little inside joke. Well, my mom bought me the Michael Buble Christmas album and on it is a the song "Grown-up Christmas List". Of course, my mom turns on the CD and blasts it all the way up to hear his lisp in all of the words. In that song he sings it, "thith ith my grown-up chrithmath lisp"! Incredibly funny!

Recooperating (Again)

To answer your question, Melissa, no I did not learn my lesson the first time this happened, so yet a again I am stuck at home, wick, from overexhaustion and about 6 1/2 hours of sleep a night. (At least its more than Lauren K's 5). I over did my voice, so naturally I don't have one today. I have that raspy cough that sounds like there's a little pool of goo in the back of your throat....
And sick on Halloween! How lame. Good thing I'm staying in tonight anyway. I hadn't planned on going out at all. I did have the weirdest dream today while I took my 3 hour nap after lunch, though.
It was about me and a couple of friends, and we were in a hotel somewhere and the power kept going out. There was serious construction going on next to us, so the hotel owner thought that was why we were losing electricity. He asked my friends and I to go across the street to this restaurant, and to ask them to flip this switch that would turn the power back on. We went over there, and we got totally lost. This restaurant was five-star, painted completely white with velvet purple couches on skinny black supports, marble stairs...the whole shabang. We walked in and started looking for this lever that we were supposed to pull to get electricity running to the hotel, but we couldn't find it. We were there for hours and hours and hours, just walking around looking for this red switch. We finally got back to the front of the restaurant and asked the owner where it was. He took us over into the middle of the restaurant and flipped the little plastic case up and flipped it. We had passed that spot about 7 times, and never EVER seen it. We were so frustrated with ourselves, but we walked back to the hotel and there was power. A little bit later, the power went out again. We ran back across the street and went back to that spot of the restaurant. But we couldn't find it. ANYWHERE! Aghhh...it was so frustrating and humiliating.

Touch Football INFO

If anyone was at all curious, this story is only about 25% false. I said before that it was completly fictional, but...not really.

Touch Football Part III

It's Sunday again! My new favorite day of the week. (It used to be Thursday...but I'll talk about that another time.) I came up with the next installment of this story on Tuesday, and I've been itching to get it all written down so I don't forget it. All of the other SOS stories sound great, and I love the idea of guest hosts. Here's the link to the wonderful Brillig blog and home of Soap Opera Sunday.





When I was a boy, my family held biannual celebrations on Memorial Day and Labor Day at our second home in Western Massachusetts. This was the first year I was allowed to invite my own guests, along with my parents', to this big party. Naturally, I invited Melissa, and naturally I invited Chase.

Chase was in my small branch, north of Scarsdale where we were the only two boys in our age group, 14-15. He was the only one for a long time, but when I turned 14 last week, we became the largest group in the young men classes. We were getting closer, but before my birthday, I didn't really know him all that well. He was an Aussie, and came to this country only a year ago. I already knew what the powers of his wonderfully accented voice did to girls at church, and I only prayed I could entertain Melissa long enough so she would never need to hear his pleasent croon. He seemed pleased enough that he was invited, and we decided to have a sleepover and carpool to the festival. Melissa also was excited about the next weekend, but preoccupied about the earth science exam we would have the following Monday - It amazed me at how fun-loving, hard-working, bright-smiling she was every day.

The day of the party was quite an interesting one. For me, things turned for the worst the second she asked me,



"Hey who's that guy over there in the corner listenening to his iPod?"



Of course, she was referring to Chase, and of course, I jsut about fell apart right then and there. This was my party and they were both my friends. How come she had to notice what he was doing and what he was wearing, and not my new sweater and jacket I had bought for the occasion. Besides, what did she know about him?



"Wait a minute", I remember thinking. "Maybe I'm overreacting. She was just making a comment." "She could have said that about any other guy in the room though", I argued back. "That doesn't mean she likes him. Does it?" This was another one of those female apprehensions that I was cursed with at birth. I hated being self-concious about what girls thought about me, and worse, what they thought about other boys. I just needed to get control of myself and get my mind off of it.



EUREKA!



I would start a game of football. Football was an all guy sport, and I would get a chance to show Melissa my hidden talent. I was always too small to try out for the school team, but I had loved this sport my whole life.



I jumped out of my seat and started the hunt. I needed at least 5 boys to start a 3 on 3 game, and maybe if I was desperate I could ask my dad to play with us. I told Melissa about our plans, and that I wanted her to be there. She agreed whole-heartedly, sending me into another frenzy of worries. "What if I drop the ball? What if one of the guys I find is better than me? What if Melissa falls for one of them?" I ran into (literally RAN into) Chase on my way to the backyard, so I asked him to join me. He said that he would, and helped me recruite more people. At the end of 30 minutes, we had me, Chase, Chase's dad, Melissa's brother Hank, and her dad. An odd number. Great! This wasn't the greatest group of people to play with anyways. Two dads and someone's little brother. It wasn't exactly my idea of fun until, wouldn't you know it, Melissa walks over and offers herself to be the tird player on her brother and father's team. This was not going at all as planned. I'm playing against her? I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate with ehr watching, but her playing too. I looked up at her face smiling brilliantly against the otherwise cold, dark day, and thought that mayube this would work out.

Our team started (me, Chase, and his dad), and we kicked a long punt out the back end of the "endzone". Melissa bounded over the ball and took it back to the 20 yard line where the next play would begin. She whipped her hair around in the wind till all of it sat on one shoulder and bent down to toss the quarterback the ball. Hank caught it, and ran around Chase, going down the whole length of the field to score the first touchdown of the field. Melissa laughed and ran down to congratulate her brother. As we walked past them to recieve the next kick, Melissa yelled,

"Just couldn't get in front of him fast enough, huh?"

Chase was quite annoyed with himself, so in his irrestistible accent responded, "You see, I haven't started playing yet mate."

I could tell Melissa was not expecting that response from him, and especially not in that accent, because she flushed pink and put her head down supressing a smile and giggle. We countinued the play, and after about 5 minutes, we scored another touchdown. Melissa was quite pleased again, and when Chase passed her on the field, he simply whispered, "No comments, please." She started laughing, and I could tell Chase was laughing too. I remember thinking how lucky Chase was that he didn't even have to try, and he made her laugh at the silliest things.
Chase's team had the ball, and he was the quarterback. Melissa planted herself right in front of him, so when he started running, she was hot on his tail. She was about an arm's distance away when he stuck his foot out behind him and tripped her on to the ground. I could see his wild grin as he continued running down to the endzone, scoring for the first time. I, of course, ran right over to Melissa to see that she was okay. I reached my hand out, and at the same time saw another hand reach out. Melissa looked up and grabbed Chase's fingers, and he wrapped the rest of his palm into her grip. She let out a sigh and brushed herself off.

"Look at that. Good as new."

"I'm glad you're okay," he said, playfully.

"Yup. I'm fine."

"Next time you better watch your feet," he cautioned in that same playful tone.

Melissa laughed her happy laugh and the game begun again.
Our team was winning, 5-3, after playing for about 45 minutes. We weren't really keeping track of time or rules, although Hank and his dad were getting quite caught up in it. Chase and his dad weren't that accustomed to all the rules of "fake rugby" as he called it, so I had to go through alot of it with them. That gave me a sense of control and power, which I liked, and it made Chase seem like the greenie who had to be taught everything, which I liked too.
We were just about to finish up, as it was getting very dark and very cold, when Melissa ran the play that would make her team the victors. Her brother tossed her a side lateral right after she hiked it to him, and she bolted up the sideline. Right after Hank passed it, I could tell that she wasn't going to make it. She was too far back when she started the run, and Chase was making for her at top speed. He was a faster runner than her, but not by much, so laughing wickedly toward her, he reached for the ball that she had a tight grip on. He couldn't wrench it loose from her while they were running, so he swept her into his arms and forced her to run the opposite way. The two struggled with each other, laughing hopelessly. His arm was around her waist trying to fight her to the ground, and she was trying to run, but unable to due to Chase's strong hold on her. He decided to stop trying so hard, to give her a chance I imagined at the time, but when he stopped the down ward momentum, they ended up in a posture close to that of the beginning of a waltz, his hands around her waist and her hands around his neck. Time seemed to freeze for me. There she was, completely engrossed and intoxicated by his very presence, when I was right there watching all of this. Their parents had dissappeared, and all that existed was those two and me. I had never felt so alone in my whole life.

Jam or Jelly?

I know I am new to the cyber world of Radioactive Jam, so please, for my sake explain to me the relationship between RaJam and jelly.
Is ?he/she/he? jelly? Or jam? Hence Radioactive Jam...I am so very confused.
Could someone explain to me the deep complexity of internet blogging. It is all too much for me to handle.
Thank you.

Touch Football Part II

I apologize to everyone for making you wait this long, but i honestly could not find any time yesterday to do my blogging. It was one of those days when I planned everything out, where I was going and when, I even scheduled in time for blogging, but time caught up with me and I wasn't even able to finish things I needed to. Nonetheless, Part II of my SOS story begins now:



If anyone ever wonders, I saw her first. She was my friend before she was anything else to anyone else. From the moment I saw her, I knew. I loved her. Her long beautiful brown hair would bound when she walked and swayed in the wind like amber waves of grain. She was always so happy, optimistic, and kind to those who were more than rude to her. She was the victim of practical jokes in the locker room and was followed constantly through the hallways. I believe it was because all of the other girls in our freshmen year were horribly jealous of her. None of them ever were interested in me, and I was okay with that. I was willing to wait and befriend Melissa. She was gracious, and enjoyed my company. After I began to talk to her and make her a part of my social group, other people began to accept her and stop treating her the way that they did. I distinctly remember asking one of my school friends what their problem with her was. Her answer was something like this. "She just thinks she's so cool. Who does she think she is? Taking over our school like that...". I, to this day, have no idea what she was talking about, but at least I know why Melissa was so poorly mistreated. By the sixth week of school, her story was history. Of course, her radiant presence and brilliant smile never ceased to blow the wind out of me, but I am sure mine was the only case like that. We grew to be best of teamates. Wherever she was, I followed. She would help me with my math while I helped her pass earth science. Her laugh whenever I told a humorless joke would ring in my ears for days. She left me woozy after catching my books when they fell in the hall. She reached down for my social studies binder with one hand, and with the other patted my collar on my shirt down. My stomach fluttered. I remember wondering whether any other guy could be any more lucky than I. I envied my fellow guy friends who always made their girlfriends feel light-headed and weak, and weren't the victims of their powerful spells. I won't say that Melissa and I were a couple, although every one thought that, because she seemed to be the only one who didn't know I was madly in love with her. She hadn't even met Chase, and yet he had more luck than I did in winning her heart.

Touch Football

I've just started playing Soap Opera Sunday, and I am very excited. Creative writing is one of my more strong points in writing, so I my story is going to be fictional (Well, not totally fictional). I am going to steal Luisa's idea and write it in sections. This is my story called "Touch Football".




This is one of my favorite stories to tell. It is a story of love at first sight, a favorite among all my audiences. The main characters in this timeless tale are a young boy and a young girl. About thirteen, they both were outisders in their communities and groups of friends. Both very outspoken and standard-oriented, they were not accepted as easily as others seemed to be. Chase, the boy of whom I speak, loved music. He also loved sports, mind games, and was exceptionally bright. He loved to sing, write songs, and dance. The latter of his talents never gained him any respect. Although a phenomenal performer, his peers never ceased to tease and jeer him about his dancing. He tried to hide it, conceal his extraordinary gift to prevent himself from commiting social suicide. He wasn't a bad person. He still played football, flirted with girls, nothing irregular from all the rest of the boys his age. But for some reason, no one could stop from making his life as miserable of possible. This is why when his father announced the move to America, he was only too eager to accept the new chapter of his life.

Melissa, too was different from the rest of her New York state of mind companions. She adored all of her close friends, but was never quite on the same page as the rest of them. She was born on a Texas ranch, but naturalized in California. She always had this idea that even though she never spent more than 13 months in the Lone Star state, she felt like she belonged in Texas. She belonged where all the girls got up early and did hard, back-breaking work. Where she could come home from school, let her hair down and go ride a horse till dark. California was relatively the same, but she was always so afraid that if she ever were to leave and go somewhere new, she would need to start from scratch, introducing herself in a new way and trying to become a completely different person. So when her father told her she was moving, Melissa just about exploded with fury. This wasn't her idea of fun, moving to a new place with new people to please. New York was going to be harsh.

So now our story can truly begin...

Sydney White

Ok, tonight I went with my friends to go see Sydney White. It is pretty much the most awesome movie ever made by man hands. It is so good! I love it. If you haven't seen it, go see it right now. RIGHT NOW! Trust me, your life will feel complete when you walk out of that theater.

Now I don't want to give it all away, but it's mainly about this girl who gets kicked out of her serority, and decides to get back at them by getting a group of outcasts to run for student body president. There's also a cute boy (duh) who happens to be extra cute. His name is Matt Long and he's so cool. He pretty much made the movie for me. Amanda Bynes has too much makeup on, throughout the whole movie not just in one part, and the fake tan is not working for her. She's supposed to be this laid back, doesn't-care-what-people-think-about-her kind of person, yet she walks around with 12 pounds of makeup on. Other than that, my life is like i said pretty much complete.

MEME!

This is a super fun MEME game. I got tagged by Luisa so now i get to make a list of Eight Random things about me. I gotta think of some really good ones! Here goes:


1). Sometimes when I read books, I imagine myself as the villian of the story, and not neccessarily the heroine.

2). I think the world around me as I know it would disintegrate and completely pulverize if I ever lost my iPod. Pretty lame, I know, but I cannot tell a lie.

3). My brother and I learned the names of all of the states and their capitals on a long, 6 1/2 hour ride to Maine when we were banned from the TV by our parents for being bad, goofing off, and "saying mean words".

4). One of my life aspirations is to visit Egypt, see the Great Pyramids, and find some sort of lost artifact to take home and make millions off of.

5). I enjoy dipping my french fries in chocolate shakes. Especially into Red Rooster shakes. Those are pretty much the best things ever made by human hands.

6). I take pride in going on shopping trips with my dad. His expert fashion advice inspired by none other than Clinton Kelly himself never ceases to baffle my friends. Their faces when I say "I went shopping with my dad this weekend" are priceless.

7). Whenever my friends in band (they are only my friends for those 40 minutes of musical enrichment when we are seated in the back row as far away as possible from the director) and I get bored, we stick things down Andrew's euphonium and see if he can blow them out onto the ground. This like rubber bands, cotton balls, ipods, tympani mallets, and calculators have been shoved into the bell and forced out by air pressure onto the floor on countless occasions.

8). I am still discovering things I never knew about some of my dearest friends to this day. For example, my friend Lee apparently spends his free time composing an untitled piece of music in the back of his binder. He is transposing it into the all of the keys neccesary for our band to play it. Bravo, Lee. Man, I wish I was that talented. Don't we all.


Okay, now that I finished that, i'm gonna tag Parker cause he's the only person I know who hasn't already been tagged. If I did happen to forget you it is not out of neglect, and you can just tag yourself.

Recooperating

I know what Sister Montez was talking about when she said "I would do everything i possibly had time for for about two months, then i would stay home from school for a week to recover." I feel like that right now. I have been totally running around with no time for homework and getting to bed at quarter to 11 since school started. And now, i am taking a sick day because i hurt my arm in a field hockey game and i am in no mood to further stretch my immune system. I seriously am going to drop dead in about 5 seconds and pass out for half an hour. Seeeeeee youuuuuu laaaaaattttttteeeeeeerrrrrr.

Oh Goodness...

My life is so extremely unneccessarily complicated. My day begins at 6:20, and ends sometime around 10. I spend 50% of my day at school which is again, unneccessarily complicated. It's amazing what the game of truth or dare can do to your stress level. I still haven't done a dare from Monday and my friend won't let me forget it. She's practically killing me over it, and i can't seem to think about anything but it (it shall remain unnamed). And then...I have an hour and a half of field hockey practice ( or on Wednesday an hour and 15mins)(or Tuesday where i have barely enough time for homework, a shower and food, before i run out the door for mutual.) I AM DYING!!!

September 27

OMGoodness.! September 27th is the new premiere episode of the office. I soooo plan to watch it. And i can't wait. Me and my friend are gonna talk to each other on the phone during commercial breaks and discuss it. It would do all of you good to watch it. NBC at 9:00. Prepare to be amazed.

Daze

I am in a daze. I can't believe that the summer is over. It seems like it was the last day of school yesterday and that i have the whole summer ahead of me to finally land my heelside toe grab. I can't believe I have to wait 4 or 5 more months until i can go again. I feel sick. I can still feel the shaking in my knees that comes when you have too much energy and need to get it all out by hurting yourself. I keep waiting for it to go away so that i can settle down and "hibernate" for the winter...urghhhh winter! It should be a curse word. No one say the word winter ever again as of right now. K?

...EVER!!

Wow. This weekend is gonna be so good. If you're my immediate friend you probably know I'll be at the lake. If you're not, well you know now. I have a 200Ls 20 foot Stingray that we go wakeboarding behind all of the time. Wakeboarding is my absolute favorite thing to do in the world. Tomorrow I plan to throw myself at the wake and simply see what happens. That's Thomas's and Catilin's plan too. Other friends that go with us every weekend. This is kind of like our end of the year blowout day...so we're gonna make it the best day EVER!!

Dreams of Driving

So for the past three consecutive nights i have dreampt about driving. Quite literally and descriptively. I always pull the emergency break, switch the gears at the right time and step on the break and reverse and everything. I see myself doing it differently each time with different cars and different people in the car. Quite odd.