Reflections on the Year 2008

2008 was a really eventful year. So many things happened, including:

*Moved to Michigan

*Got mostly A's in all my classes in the last semester in highschool

*Graduated highschool

*Went to my first semester of college

*Made lots of friends

*Found myself

*Had my first kiss

Overall, a most awesome year. And a non-boring one, which, I don't think, happens too often to me. I'm sad that it's ending, and I'm not all too happy that a new year is beginning, because I don't like the unknown. I hope 2009 will be another good year.

Today, all I did was paint and read. It was a good day. I've been struck with sudden creativity and inspiration, and I hope it lasts a while.

Now, on to the celebration! (I get to welcome in the New Year before anyone else, 'cuz I'm EST! Owned! Besides you, Sis. P)

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

Last night I was challenged by my friend to have a day so fun that he'd be jealous that he wasn't here, and he would try to have a day so fun that I'd be jealous that I wasn't there. He had it easy. But it was a challenge, and I accepted. 

So I woke up at 6-something all of a sudden, for no reason at all. I was just...awake. I was confused right when I woke up about where I was, because I slept on an air mattress in the family room. But I lay there for a minute as my brain slowly woke up, and then I realised where I was. Da came into the family room and did stuff on the laptop, and I read Harry Potter #6. Then I got tired and lay my head down and was half-asleep, and then I was all the way asleep. I woke up again at 10am and just lay there. I didn't want to get up. But I did, and had breakfast, and then got ready, 'cuz we went to see a movie for Giselle's 13th B-day. We saw "Bedtime Story" with Adam Sandler. It was good. Kinda reminded me of "Night At The Museum", but it was cool. Not crude at all. I took a few photos while at the theatre. Then we went home, and I had lunch, and then at 3:30pm went down to the shopping district. On the way there I listened to music from my iPod that I plugged in to the car. I turned it up really loud and sang along sometimes. That's one of the best things in the world, blasting music. Especially in a car, because then you're all enclosed and surrounded by sound. It was way windy outside, and cold. I returned a CD to Target, then went to Hobby Lobby and browsed for a while, and lamented over the high prices and my lack of true artistic talent. No, really. I just do it for fun; I'm not that good. Sure, I may have "potential" or whatever, but potential does not make a great painting. Anyways, I had fun there. As I was checking out (I got a big thing of crimson paint, payne's gray, and a life-sized paper drink-umbrella thing. It's so cool!!), I looked outside, and saw the sun shining its last rays on some buildings, so that the buildings were lit up all orange and the background was dark gray overcasty clouds. That's the best. So I was upset when checking out took a long time. I rushed outside to my car, drove around the stores to the back, where I had a clear view of the sunset, then hurriedly parked the car and jumped out and furiously photographed the last few minutes of the sunset. I wish I had been there earlier; it was spectacular. 

After the sunset fun, I didn't want to go home, but didn't know what else to do, so I drove over to the mall parking lot and listened to my music and read HP6. Then mum called and said that wasn't safe, so I went inside the mall and read. Did that for about 2 hours, then got really hungry and called to see what was up. Nothing, as always, so I invited Aurora out to eat. I picked her up and we didn't know where to go, so eventually I just chose Olive Garden, 'cuz I've only ever been there once. We had fun there. But it was a lot more expensive than I thought it'd be, so we split an entree. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and I got three books- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Piano, Anatomy and Physiology Coloring Workbook, and Theory and Harmony for the Contemporary Musician. I'm really excited about the A&P book, because it looks really informative and helpful. I do have an anatomy coloring book, but that's just anatomy. I like physiology tambien. It was $50 though....but I don't regret buying it. 

So a summary:

*Read a lot

*Got some sweet photos of snow

*Got some sweet photos of a theatre

*Got some sweet photos of my shopping expeditions

*Got some sweet photos of the sunset

*Got some sweet photos of my funtime with Aurora

*Ate at Olive Garden

*Talked to EK- she called me!! I haven't had a friend who calls me just to talk in....forever!! We're officially best friends, by the way, and I haven't had a best friend in forever. I'm so happy!

*Went to Barnes & Noble

*Got some awesome books, an awesome umbrella, and some paint

*Was kept safe

*Had fun listening to music in the car

*Had fun driving

*Saw a beautiful sunset

*The moon looked so cool

*Watched a cool movie

*Helped mum a teensy bit

*Enjoyed the beauty of outside

*Got a letter from one of my missionaries

I'm gonna include some stuff from last night too:

*Watched some of "V for Vendetta" (edited on TV, of course-I'm planning on watching the rest tonight)

*Had good dreams

*Slept with feather blankets

*Talked to a lot of friends on Facebook, and established that one of my friends was indeed my friend and wasn't just pretending to be (both the talking to friends and the establishing a friendship made me really happy; I've been feeling really lonely and this helped a LOT. Heavenly Father answers prayers!!!)

*Watched some of Planet Earth with Mum- This show is WAY cool!

Oh, an incident:

We were driving up the driveway to go into the garage when we saw a little rodent thing that lives with its two other family members in my window area. It was running around the front lawn, and then ran onto the driveway. Mum said, "Run over it with the car!" (Aurora was driving), and I think Mum was only half-serious. Except we moved forward and looked back, and Aurora had run over it a little bit, so when I turned to look around at it, I saw it on its back, legs moving as if it were trying to run, suffering. Mum told Da to go out and kill it, hurry, it's suffering. I screamed a little bit then covered my ears with my hands and leaned forward, putting my head down. I even had some tears. My reaction surprised me. I didn't know I'd do that. But I can't get that image out of my head, the little thing frantically peddling the air. I've  gotten so used to 'em by my window, scratching in the night, and now there will only be two. It's sad.

So yeah. I still need to do my jobs and then watch "V for Vendetta". And Hobby Lobby is hiring, and Aurora said she can get me a job at Hollister. Once again, Heavenly Father answers prayers! I had a good day.

Queer...I don't have a post that starts with "Q"

I like how there's only one person who reads my blog.

But it's rant time. 

Back only two weeks and already the ugly guy in our ward has asked me to a social gathering on New Year's Eve.  None of the guys in our ward here are cute, but this guy is the ugliest and stupidest of 'em all. Same as in MO, also. Fat, ugly, pimply, greasy guy stalked me. Why is it I who attracts the stupid ones? Why can't Aurora have the ugly ones like her? Does this mean that I am ugly and fat and stupid also? Because if you use the reason that "maybe they did like Aurora also but were too scared to approach her" then that means that she was more intimidating than me which means that she was prettier than me which means that I'm ugly, because the ugly girls are always approachable. Someone explain this to me. 

Other than that, today it was freezing again. We got a "light dusting" of snow last night, and it was windy. I went on a walk anyways though. And I stayed after church and played piano for an hour. I've been waiting for two weeks. TOO LONG!! You just can't substitute the sound of a real piano, nor can you substitute playing a real piano, with a keyboard. And one hour was too short. I wish we had one at home; I'd be on it all the time. I need lessons.

I want to go back to college; it's just too crazy here. Too boring. I'm gonna need to get real inventive. I'll write a book: 1001 Ways to Entertain Yourself When You Have No Money and No Friends and No Place to Go. It'll be an instant hit and then I'll have money. 

So I'm gonna die in a couple of weeks. It's cool though; I'm sure there'll be stuff to do Over There.

X(

Consumerism and Fog

There was fog today. Fog and rain and damp and perfect. It's raining right now, actually. The temperature outside is perfect and the snow is melting. I went out for a spontaneous walk with camera in hand and iPod in ear. I hadn't planned on going far, but I did. Which is why it was spontaneous. I didn't tell anyone I was going, I just went. I called later to let them know I was gone. It was really foggy when I first came out, more so around the forest areas. The air was chill. It wasn't raining. I took my iPod out soon after I got outside. The silence was more beautiful. Sometimes there were gaps in the fog, and you could see the clouds gliding across the ground in bunches. It was really windy, because the fog was a lot colder than the air. It was so awesome; I wish I could describe it better. There were times when you could walk from clear air to thick fog, and you could feel and see when you had walked into it, it was so much colder. I got some great pictures.

I'm not describing it well at all. It was perfect. And I'll leave it at that.

Yesterday I went to the mall all by meself. I was kinda scared, but after I got in there, I just ignored everyone. I spend forever in Claire's and got 3 pairs of wicked-sweet earrings and two rings. I then went to Maurices and got an awesome sweater-type thing that I'm wearing now. Then I went to Charlotte Russe and got lots of clothes for cheap. Way cuteness. 

I'm bored with blogging. Going away now.

Christmas Post, in which I do talk about Christmas

A rundown of the day, mmkay?

Woke up at 7am, dawdled in the room a bit, got ready for the day, went up to find Da making breakfast, chilled in the kitchen for about an hour, woke Mum and everyone else up, and had Christmas. I didn't get many presents, but the ones I got were awesome. Mum and Da replaced my camera, I got a cool calendar as per tradition, I got a scarf, two pairs of gloves, lots of candy, mini-ketchup and mini-tobasco that Da brought back from Las Vegas, some beginner piano book thingies (I was SOO excited when I opened these! I have been wanting some beginner's stuff for so long! I think this was my favourite gift, followed closely by the camera) and a few other things that were perfect and really thoughtful, but that weren't mega-expensive or what most people would think are cool. All my gifts this year were perfect, save two, and those two that weren't perfect were the expensive ones that Mum said she didn't care if I returned. She didn't know what to get me, and she said she wouldn't get her feelings hurt if I returned this stuff. I hope I don't sound like a spoiled brat, but I could put the money to better use than what I got. All my gifts were small and not "awesome" in the "normal" sense, but they were perfect and I think this is one of the best Christmases I've had in a long time. We opened gifts person by person, making it last way longer than it would have been. And we got to see what everyone else got, and be happy for them. Ya know, I'm glad that not a lot of money was spent on me. It's the quality (or rather, how "applicable", for lack of a better word, it is to me), not quantity, that I care about. I would be more happy with some "junk" picked out from the Dollar Tree or the Thrift Store than with some generic "here-have-a-Christmas-present" gift. That's not to say that I don't like to get nice things once in a while, but I don't just want something because it's expensive. I want something that is me. And that's why I love my little sibs. They always give gifts that mean something, even if it's just some stuff glued together that they made at cub scouts. Those are the things that mean the most to me, that have memories attached to them, the things that I keep and cherish. Holy wow, that was long. Sorry 'bout that. All my philosiphisyzing on Christmas gifts. Anyways, we had a break in the present-opening to have breakfast, and there was some swing-type Christmas music on, and Mum was in the family room dancing all by her lonesome, so of course I had to go in there and dance with her. It was fun, and funny, 'cuz neither of us really knew what we were doing, as I've only been taught to dance two times, and neither of us knew the guy's part.

After presents an' all that jazz, we cleaned up (and by "we" I mean Da, Mum, and me), people went off to various parts of the house to play with their gifts (I plopped myself down at the little keyboard and enjoyed my beginner's booklets), then we got ready to go to someone-from-our-ward's house. We stayed there for 'bout 5 hours, and it was okay. I read for most of the time, little social butterfly that I am. Came home minus Giselle and Jothan, who are spending the night there, watched "Iron Man" (which wasn't nearly as stupid as I thought it'd be), and now Mum and Aurora are watching "The Dark Knight". The first time I watched that movie, it was cool, the second time, it was cool as long as it was a fighting scene or a scene with the Joker, but this time it was just too slow and I left just before Batman was going to sneak into that Chinese dude's office.

 I'm gonna read and then...I dunno...maybe go to bed. So g'night, my loverlies! Hope you all had a fantasmariffisplendatacularmondocoolheckatightsweenesslikeohmygoshthisisalongword Christmas!

Christmas Eve post #2, in which I still don't really talk about Christmas

The internet can make you smarter. I was on YouTube, searching for a video. I found something that was sort of related, but that wasn't what I was looking for, then that led to another thing, then another thing, and I saw something on the side, and I eventually found what I was looking for, and now I'm on Wikipedia reading about "signing statements", the Free Hugs Campaign, canons, counterpoint, "The Art of Fugue", and chords. And reading on Wikipedia always leads to more reading, with all their links and such. So by the end of tonight, I shall have gained knowledge that I would have otherwise had no clue about because of the internet! Sweet, eh?

Aurora's asleep, Giselle and Jothan are supposed to be in bed, Da's asleep, and Mum's vacuuming. The house is clean, the trees are pretty, and the snow is mounded up outside. It's nice. We watched "Scrooged" and I got all warm-and-fuzzied by Bill Murray's speech at the end. And here I go, looking stuff up again. IMDB this time. Didja know that he's gonna be in "The City of Ember" and will be a voice for "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"? I didn't even know they were making a movie out of the last one. Have you guys read those books? They're good. I love reading. If you're reading the right book, it's a better escape from reality than TV or video games, I found out. I tried playing video games last night for the first time in a LOT of months, and it just wasn't fun anymore, and it didn't shut my brain off like I wanted it to, like they say it does. Liars. But then I read Harry Potter and my mind was totally focused on that. 

Well, Imma go back to my Wikipedia info-gaining. They should come up with a verb for that. "Gaining knowledge by reading Wikipedia." Like "Googling".

Enjoy your Christmas Eves, and your Christmases!!

Christmas Eve post, in which I don't really talk about Christmas

Listening to "Joy to the World", importing Ricky Martin. Can't hate the Ricky Martin. He's so...Spanishlicious. Now try and say that word five times fast. 

I'm still sick, and it's still killing me. It has still been snowing. Earlier today it was really goin' at it, like, almost white-out. Cool to look at, but I don't like living in it.

My hair's all fuzzy. I showered, then sat on the couch to read, then decided I was tired and slept. So when I got up my hair had dried all weird.

TOMORROW IS CHRISTMAS!! I'm excited. My throat hurts. My CD's done importing, and now I'm going to go spend time with the family. Adios, and have a great Christmas!!