The Big One-Seven
Yes, my dear friends, it is true... I am now seventeen years of age. It seems like only yesterday when I looked at a "Seventeen" magazine and thought "Psh, I'll never be that old!" Yeah. Right. Anyway, I turned seventeen today (on the seventeenth... the "golden birthday"?) Anyway, today was just an unusual day. This morning was awful. I won't go into great detail, but everything was exaggerated by the terrible weather and having to walk through the rain back from chorus and becoming COMPLETELY soaked. Someone actually asked if I had taken a shower... yes, I was that wet. Gradually, however, the day became to get better... and while I"m ashamed to say it, my birthday gifts seemed to bring a smile to my face! I am proud to say that I will never have to actually PAY for Starbucks anymore (I have three cards right now, and a fourth one coming tomorrow) so I'm very excited about that! Plus, I got a book from Maggie that I can't wait to read (she's says it's really good) plus tons of candy, and a really cute necklace from Laura so i'm pumped! I just got back from eating at La Zona Rosa's with my mom, and it was really really good! So, although my day started off rough, it gradually got better! But, tomorrow is PSAT day, so maybe that won't be that great, but I will be sure to stop by Starbucks tomorrow morning to start the damage on my Starbucks cards! Who's with me?
Picture Day... Dun dun dun
Let me start out by saying two things. One, I am so sorry for not posting, but I have been so busy lately! And two, I do not know the man in the picture! So... picture day was yesterday. Great, right? Wrong. I have never been a big fan of picture day. I know all of you remember the good ole days of high school photo day. You get all dressed up, ready for the picture day ahead. You stand in line for what seems forever, waiting for the funny looking man with wiggly ears to say those words- "Smile!" or "Say Cheese!" As you sit on the little stool in front of the slightly tacky backdrop, you almost can't help but feel a little helpless. "Scoot up a little bit." "Now, sit up straight." "No, move your head to the right." "No, your other right." "Smile!" Click. All of that manuvering... for one click. Then, the wiggly eared man calls you a name such as "Cinderella" or, my personal favorite, "Ally McBeal". (Really, where did they come up with Ally McBeal? No kid knows who she is anymore), and you go on your merry way back to class. You see, taking the picture isn't the worst part of it... it's the month of waiting before you get your picture back that worries you.
This year was a bittersweet picture year. It was the last year for my picture to be taken by the wiggly ear man, because Seniors get their pictures done somewhere else. I was expecting my last picture day to be spectacular! (Okay... not really) But unfortunately, it was probably the worst I have ever had. First, I sit down. "Come on, and sit down, pretty girl!" says the wiggly ear man. I sit down, and start to smile. "Move right." "Move your head down." "Scoot up." After about five minutes of manuevering, I finally get to a comfy spot. But see, he never told me to stop smiling, so I just kept smiling throughout the moving. Unfortunately, if I smile for great periods of time, my face starts twitching and wiggling, much like the photographer's ears. Soo..... my face starts twitching. Well, that was fun. "Stop moving your face!" I finally just said that I was sorry, he took the picture, and I walked off. No Cinderella or Ally for me! I guess facial wigglers don't get names. Whatever happened to the good ole days??
A Weekend of Lake Martin and Sister Hazel
Ah, I love the lake. This weekend, I spent the weekend at my friend Elyse's lakehouse with a LOT of girls. Thankfully, no drama occured.. amazingly! Nine of us went up on Friday night, and enjoyed some delicious pizza at Chuck's Marina. (Seriously... the pizza was amazing. We got the "Chimney Rock"- it had pretty much everything on it. It was great.) We also played (literally) hours of Apples to Apples and enjoyed sitting out on the dock until midnight (which, apparantly, became a nightly ritual.)
On Saturday, we just enjoyed a day on the lake. Unfortunately, their boat had a missing part (nobody knew this until Sat.) so we rented a pontoon boat from 1:00 on Saturday until 1:00 on Sunday. Yeah, the pontoon didn't go very fast, but it was still fun. Besides, it was big enough to fit all 10 of us! (Elizabeth drove up on Saturday.) We tubed some, went swimming, rode on the boat, ate, and just goofed off. Saturday night, we went to a restaurant called Niffer's. The food was pretty good... the service was terrible, but it was fun anyway. Then we went back to the house, sat outside for hours, again, and then had a crazy experience with the neighbors (the husband and wife were yelling at each other, and then the guy drove off... we thought he had left her, but he was back the next morning.) After that craziness, we just sat around until we went to sleep.
On Sunday, we woke up around 10:00 and went on a boat ride. We passed by Chimney Rock and jammed out to Malone's ipod. Then we had to take our rental boat back, so we did that, and little while later, me, Parker, Elizabeth S, and Lesley thought it would be a "fun" idea to kayak all the way over to Avery's lakehouse. Her lakehouse isn't very far by boat... but quite far by kayak. Besides, there were four of us, two of us to a kayak, and they were both one person kayaks so we had to take turns paddling while the other sat on the back end. We got over there, out of breath, and we talk to Avery some, and then we had to go ALL the way back. Hmm.... not such a pleasant experience. Me and Parker ended up pulling our kayak back because neither of us wanted to paddle. After that, I waterskied for the first time. Also not the most graceful experience. Elyse pulled me on the jetski, and waterskiing is really harder than people let on. So, after about 10 tries, I finally got up. I stayed up for about five seconds... and then I fell. Still, not too bad for my first time ever! At least I got up. Then we all got ready to go over to Elizabeth S's lakehouse to eat hamburgers and hot dogs, and then we went to the Sister Hazel concert at the Ampitheater. It was a pretty fun concert, except for the very sweaty people. Then we went back to the house and just chilled out and sat out on the dock... again.
Overall, it was a really fun weekend. I got to do some stuff that I hadn't done before (waterskied, put two people in a one person kayak). It was a fun group!
Just in case you wanted to know, by the way, the picture was taken before the concert at Elizabeth's lakehouse. Top row: (left to right)- Malone, Elizabeth S, Elyse, Lesley, Caroline, Elizabeth H. Middle Row: Avery, Laura, Abagail. Front Row: Stacy, Parker, and myself.
Pep Rallies and Facebook's Free Music
Today we had our first Pep Rally for our game tonight. (And, no, we don't usually play on Thursdays, but we always play Trinity on the Thursday before Labor Day.) It wasn't the best pep rally, but the Junior High Cheerleaders were in charge of it, so it wasn't terrible. The "Bleacher Creatures" (the new school spirit group) were all psyched up, yelling and such. It was a pretty obnoxious pep rally. But it was still pretty entertaining. The theme was some kind of magic theme. For the first time in a long while, MA actually stands a chance against Trinity. So we're all pretty excited about that. Our mascot is terrible. Marci should be ashamed of it. It tried to dance around behind the Varsity cheerleaders while they were doing their dance, and it was sad. Anyway, because of the big game tonight "el juego grande -- colin", we don't have any homework tonight! And then tomorrow I'm going to the lake! Yes, this will be a good few days.
Okay, so about this free music business. Facebook is giving away 25 free songs on iTunes each week. This was the first week I took this opportunity to get free music. Unfortunately, the genre this week is "Electronica". Out of 25 songs, I kept three. They were terrible. So, if you're thinking about taking advantage of the Facebook music giveaway, wait until next week! Or, if you're Laura, get speakers that don't work. You'll need em with this collection of terrible music.
Stress... and oh, the wonderful site of Pandora!
This weekend could not come fast enough. Honestly. I think all of my teachers got together in one of their little "faculty meetings" and decided to have EVERYTHING due this week. Or, at least, everything that matters. Tomorrow is my make-it or break-it day... two tests, a works cited page due for a history paper, AND a paper due tomorrow. Teachers are just so mean sometimes! Well, the good thing is, labor day weekend is almost here! I'm going with a LOT (and by a lot, i mean about 12) of my friends to Elyse's lake house to spend the weekend. Then, on Sunday, we're going to see Sister Hazel in concert! So I think this weekend should justify all the work I have done this week. At least, I hope so!
Ohh, what is Pandora you ask? Ask no more! And no, I'm not talking about the Greek mythology. (Mythology has never been my thing. Ohh, the memories of standing out in the hot, sticky sun in the 6th grade, Mrs. Quallio yelling "I can't hear in that ear!" and having to practice our 'mythology' skits for our trip to Jasmine Hill/ reenactment of the Greek Olympics. Oh those were the days.) No no... Pandora is a website that was introduced to me about a week ago. Here's how it works, broken down into simplest form.
1. Tell Pandora your favorite music artist / song. (Of course, I chose first... Relient K. No surprise there. Choose your favorite musical artist... for Marci, that's BSB. For Ashley, that's some good-ole Britney Spears.)
2. Pandora will give you a radio station labeled your choice. (my radion station: Relient K radio.)
3. Pandora will play you a song from your new radio station from that artist. Sometimes, it's an unknown song. Sometimes it's just a classic. (Sadie Hawkins Dance... Let it all Out... who knows??)
4. Pandora will then start playing a random mix of songs, selective of what your artist choice was. (For example: my Relient K radio will play other alternative-style songs that Pandora think will interest me. For the most part, Pandora is always right.)
5. Make more radio stations. One... five... who knows?? Right now, I have the following radio stations set up: Relient K, Jimmy Buffett (for my island tunes), Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, and James Taylor. (make fun of my James Taylor all you want, you know you're just jealous.) With my wide variety of different artists, I can choose which radio I want to listen to. For example- late at night, I listen to some relaxing James. If I'm doing homework and need some energy, I go for the Motion City. Get it?
6. Rate the songs... Yay or Nay. If you like the song, rate it as a thumbs up. It'll play more often. If you don't like a song, give it a thumbs down. It won't play anymore, or at least, almost never.
7. Listen to your heart's content! If you don't like a song, you can skip it! Or, you can just change the station.
The best part of Pandora... It's FREE! I love free stuff. It's like the music industry is giving me a big hug. If you're anything like me, you have always wanted a site that would give you hip new music to listen to (mostly music you haven't even heard of) that matches your music needs. Look no further! Let Pandora do all your musical chores for you. Search no more. Oh, how I have a friend in Pandora. I hope someday you will too.
P.S. We sang the New Song in church the other day and it made me extremely happy. :)
Computer Troubles/Friday Night Football
First of all, I apologize for the INSANELY long post that was my last post. I didn't realize it was that long when I typed it, I promise! I just hooked up this blog through facebook, which is sorta weird and I'm not sure if I like it on facebook or not. Anyway, back to my computer problem.
Last Friday, I tried to turn on my laptop...it didn't turn on. Well, I guess it DID turn on, but a big ugly blue screen showed up saying something like "system 32 something something, blah blah, memory dump complete, please contact administrator". AHH! So, I called Colin, he agreed to come over on Sat and help me figure out how to fix it. He helped... but not really... since he said my computer probably bit the dust due to lots-o-viruses. I told my dad about it, and he took it to a guy who fixed it (hooray!). People always say "you never know what you have until it's gone". I know that's true now. Sounds silly, but I really missed my computer while it was broken/being fixed! Take advantage of your electronics that work, because chances are, they will eventually break/get a virus/have to be fixed!
Our first in-town football game is next Thursday against Trinity. I'm really excited. Sounds silly, but I really like football games. Plus, I didn't get to go to many last year because of my job. So, my job-less self is so excited about football! Well, I guess that's about it for this post! I wish I had something more important to blog about... I will definately blog again when I have something more interesting to say!
Not-So-Funny Pranks
Do you ever have those days that end and you think "Wow, I never want a day quite like THAT again!" Well, today was one of those days for me. I realize that it's only the second full day of school and I'm still adjusting, but today was just not a good school day. Except for seeing Critter, who made a surprise visit! (He's going to boarding school next week.)
First Period, due to the rotating schedule, was Spanish IV. My class is terrible, but actually, it was nice to go ahead and get it out of the way. After First Period, I put my backpack in Mr. Richburg's room for safe-keeping since I was going to Chorus (which, unfortunately, is all the way across campus, so I just left my backpack in his room.)
After chorus, I walked back over to Mr. Richburg's room to get my backpack. It was time for homeroom (I know, my school has gone crazy having homeroom in the middle of the day) so I was going to grab my backpack on the way up to Mrs. G's room. I look... where is my backpack? All I see is Caroline's backpack, some random books and a grey-looking backpack. Since my backpack is blue (see the picture above), I immediately started wondering, where my backpack?? I turn around. Of course, I see my usual scapegoat-- Jason. Me: "Jason, WHERE is my backpack??" Him: "Um, isn't that your backpack?" Me: "That gray thing?" Him: "Uh, yeah, it looks like somebody turned it inside out."
I dunno if this is an old or relatively new prank, but it's not so much fun to have your backpack turned inside out (with all the stuff put INSIDE the newly turned insideout backpack!) For starters, the straps are INSIDE the backpack now, so there's no way to carry it unless you carry it in your arms, similar to a baby. Of course, I accuse Jason. Me: "Jason, WHY did you do this???" Him: "I didn't do it!!" (Giggling in the background.) I turn around to the giggling sound.... Parker. Me: "Parker, did you do this???" Her: giggle giggle.
I was already late to homeroom, so I just shrugged and left, carrying my baby-like backpack in my arms. I noticed that my backpack was a little bit lighter than it felt before, but I thought maybe I was mistaken. I fixed my backpack back to its normal not-insideout way, and then I went to Precal.
50 Minutes later, it was time for study hall. I decided I would do my Spanish homework. I look for my workbook... it's not in there. I figure I must have have put my workbook in my locker. I go to my locker to see... it's not in there. So WHERE is my workbook??? I peek in the Spanish room, it doesn't look like it's in there, but I didn't want to interupt her class. I talk to Senora Forster (the other Spanish teacher), and she says she hasn't seen it. Uggh. I go back to study hall, look in Richburg's room, thinking maybe Parker left it in there by mistake in her "backpack fiasco", but it's not in there.
Lunch comes, I eat some mashed potatoes, and Mr Womack (chorus director) asks if I'll meet him in his room for a little bit. Of course I'm thinking, "Oh great. I'm a terrible singer, I'm off key and I don't know it, and he wants me out of his chorus. Lucky Me!" That wasn't the case... I started thinking about it, and I realized, oh no. He wants me to sing for him to place me. That was probably worse than the former... you see, I have this phobia of singing by myself. I HATE solos, I HATE tryouts, and singing by myself is part of the reason why I haven't done chorus since 6th grade. As I start to head to the room, I'm relieved to see Caroline, Elizabeth, and Elyse heading up to his room as well. Phew.
First, we all sang in a group (of course, My Country tis of Thee-- which is funny, because Elyse STILL thinks the words are 'land where my fathers cry'), and that wasn't that bad. But then, he stops. I beg, actually outload, "Please, Mr Womack, please don't make us sing by ourselves. I have this phobia of singing by myself." He shrugs, and says "Okay, Miss Owens, but can you sing with only one person?" "Okay, sure." So I sang with Elizabeth. I was a little nervous so I was a little shaky, but I think he got the idea. Then Caroline and Elyse started singing... bless their hearts. Caroline started laughing, which made Elyse laugh, and then they started over... and did the same thing. So then Mr Womack lets us go back to lunch, but by that time I had absolutely no appetite. Plus, I was worried about my book, so I wanted to go back to the building to look for it.
Before you think I'm a COMPLETE nerd, I wasn't worried about my missing book because of the homework I was going to miss, but never finding it. Last year, somebody took my Chemistry book (WHY would anyone want that book) and I never got it back, and I was fined $85. I looked for my book in Richburg's room again, and in the Spanish room, and I asked Parker if she knew where it would be. Nobody knew where that book was. I sat through 6th period, and then headed to 7th, when my name was called over the intercom to come to the office. I figured it was about my book, so I went downstairs. aquiring for my lost book. Mrs Vainrib smiled, and said "Yeah, here's your book! Mrs Baker brought it to me. Somebody took it as a joke, or something like that." All I have to say about that is, why would someone take my book? And what kind of joke is that?? Oh well, I have it now! :)
