Busy... (and other excuses)

Yeah, I've been super busy for the past month or so. I mean, usually I just have church Sundays and Wednesdays, and that's it unless we have some rare plans another day. But lately, I've had writing club every Wednesday and physical therapy every Tuesday and Thursday (which, thankfully, is over). Add in family get-togethers, piano lessons (me teaching, not me taking the lesson), and random, short babysitting jobs, and you have one very tired yet content teenager (me).

Last week, however, I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday, and that caused me to miss writing club. I feel kind of bad about it, and hope the others don't mind. I started feeling better Thursday, which is good since we ended up having to pick up some friends' of ours daughter from school and watch her a little while. Friday, I went to my first high school football game ever. It was... interesting, but only because of the people I was with. We had really bad seats, so we couldn't see what was happening unless they were right in front of us in the end zone. So, for the most part, I read Dracula and ended up talking with this one guy about it and other creepy books. I spent the night at my grandmother's house that night and the dogs literally barked all night long. No kidding. I was up until 3:30 a.m. trying (and failing) to drown out the noise.

Today was pretty good, although we had to rush home to feed our new kitten. Well, he's not ours technically, since we're just raising him as of right now. But, we may end up keeping him, it depends on how things work out.

I probably should be going to sleep, but I think I'm going to listen to some music for a while and possibly try to write, so that's it for this blog.

Writing Club

I went to a writing club thing today, started by another homeschooler. I was the only one (I think) who didn't really know anyone, because they all used the same cover school. It was pretty fun though. We're supposed to be meeting every week, and today was just a meet and greet. We also came up with some ideas (well, just two people came up with the ideas out of the seven of us), including stories about Zombies, a detective going back in time to solve a case and thus erasing his existence, and Moprah the depressed panda bear going on a quest to find the meaning of life. Yeah, it was pretty fun.

Afterwards, my mom took me to Barnes & Noble and I got:

School's Out - Forever - the second book in The Fugitives (Maximum Ride) series
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports - the third book in The Fugitives series
Dracula - Yup, the original Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe - Yay! is all I have to say
The Complete Sherlock Homes - Volume I

So it was a pretty successful trip. After that, we were going to go to Yogurt Mountain, but then once we pulled up we realized it said "coming soon!" so we headed to Dippin' Dots. They were closed, unfortunately, and my mom ended up getting a birthday shake from Zaxby's and I got a jamocha shake from Arby's. Mm.

Tomorrow, I have physical therapy for my wrist. It's only my second session (or whatever you want to call it), so I'm not going to say anything for certain right now. I've been trying to do the exercises they gave me... but I've forgotten. Besides, I've only really had one day to do them anyways. *sigh* Oh well.

Yesterday...Natural Bridge

The Natural Bridge

Okay, so, yesterday I went on a field trip to Natural Bridge (World's longest natural bridge east of the Rockies apparently), and I would have blogged about it last night but... I totally crashed when I got home. Let's just that staying up late until 3:30 A.M. and then getting up at 6:45 to hike through woods and caves for a couple of hours isn't that good of idea.

Anyways, it was about a three hour ride there, and we had a little picnic before starting the hike. It was really nice, and I took quite a few pictures. But, silly old me forgot to take water to drink, and all I had was a can of Dr. Pepper for lunch. So, I was pretty dehydrated (probably...I self-diagnosed myself) and felt kind of crappy after the trip.

When I got home, like I said, I crashed. I took a nap for two hours, ate supper, watched the Psych Summer Season finale (because I missed it Wednesday night) and then went to bed around 9:30. And I'm thinking, "Hey, this is record for me...going to bed at a decent time." I ended up tossing and turning for two hours until I got on the computer for another half hour.

That was my day...yesterday. Today, all I've done is school and work on my essay for an early college program thing. Oh, the fun I've had (sarcasm).

The view inside the cave, looking across at the people on the other side.

Labor Day

I love having Mondays off. It just really brightens up my week.

Today was, of course, Labor Day, and we went over to a some friends of our's house and had some barbecue ribs, hamburgers, hotdogs, all that. Plus some very delicious cookies, which I enjoyed. We hung out a little while, watched some of The Sandlot, watched some Star Wars (if I'm correct, we watched some of Empire Strikes Back and then the beginning of Return of the Jedi), and then Scooby Doo (Abracadabra-doo or something like that). It was pretty fun.

Tomorrow... won't be as fun as this weekend was. All I have on my agenda for tomorrow is school. Ew. But, Thursday we'll have a field trip, so at least I have something to look forward to.

Game Day

Today was a day of football games, which I loved. This morning we went to Judson's first football game of the season, and let me tell you, those Peewee games or whatever they're called are pretty fun. It's just so exciting. Unfortunately, I did get a little sun burnt, even if I was only out their for half of the game. Judson's dad looks like a raccoon, so it's okay.

Tonight, we went over to Judson's family's house to watch the Alabama game. I'm not going to give the score (Adrian... have you watched it yet?) but it was fun. Mostly because Judson's dad gets a little over-excited, and very, very loud, and there also eight kids running around with Nerf guns and and costumes on. I even got a mini-makeover by a seven-year-old and two-year-old. The two-year-old did my hair, and pulled it a lot. It wasn't that fun, but she was just too cute and I couldn't say no.

Tomorrow will be just as exciting, and, since Monday's Labor Day, we'll be heading over to Judson's house again for some ribs and burgers. Yum.

Now, for some much needed sleep before I have to get up at 6:45 in the morning.

Confession (I know, I haven't done one of these in a while, but I felt like it tonight): I really, really want some spaghetti. Really.

*Yawn*

I'm tired. I've had a long day. I'm ready to go to sleep. I have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning. I'm not happy about that.

Okay, enough with the choppy sentences.

Today was pretty good. I got up (at 6:45 A.M.) went to church, went to Pizza Hut (yum!), then came home. Got on the computer for a little while, and then I help my mom make Mexican Chicken Lasagna. Well, sort of. I dropping a lid in the enchilada sauce, and then dropped that same lid, covered in sauce, on the floor. So, yeah.

Even though I haven't really blogged in a while, this is it for today. Nothing much has been going on anyway.

Mario Kart is Beast

I don't really get the adjective "beast", but it's pretty common... on Facebook, at least.

Anyways, it's one of the most awesome games ever, Mario Kart. I used to play it a lot with my dad, but then we just sort of... stopped. But, today, Judson, a little boy from my church called and reminded me of it by asking if we could race, since we used to race together through the Wi-Fi channel. Unfortunately, my stupid Internet wouldn't connect, so I couldn't race with him. I raced by myself, though, for a little while, which brings me to my frustration of the day..

My wrist. It got so bad that it was hurting to even hold the steering wheel and press a button with my thumb. This is really aggravating for me, because I've been trying super hard to get back into piano. I had to take a long break just because of my wrist. But, I played piano last night, and it felt really good, and my wrist only hurt a tiny bit afterwards. I should be starting back piano lessons in September, which isn't too far away anymore. Where has the time gone?

Also, if nothing else comes up, I'll be teaching piano tomorrow, too, to Judson. It's pretty easy for me, since I don't have to play much, and when I do it's pretty simple stuff. So, that, and school, is probably all I'll be doing tomorrow. But I guess I shouldn't be talking about that, because then what I blog about tomorrow? Well, technically Friday is today... since it's 1:49 a.m. and all.

Mockingjay

Well, I just finished Mockingjay... at 3:30 a.m. And, honestly, I have mixed feelings about it. Yes, I cried more while reading that book than I have with any other. Yes, I feel that it brought closure, thus a good ending for the trilogy. But, I don't know. Maybe it was because half of my favorite characters were killed just to get to the aforementioned closure. Or the fact that it just wasn't what I was expecting, although I don't really know what I expected, anyways. For everyone to live happily ever after... maybe that would have been a little satisfying, but not believable.

I guess I loved the book anyways, for its realness. And, deep down, I don't like really like happy endings. So, I'm content, and will be able to sleep tonight without wondering what's going to happen next.
That's it for my incredibly short blog post. But I'm tired, and have a lot of school to catch up on. Yeah, I've managed to get behind in the short time since school's started back up. Looks like this is going to be a good year.

La Bamba, Mystery Diagnosis, and The Hunger Games

Tomorrow is Tuesday, August 24th. That means that Mockingjay is coming out, which also means I'll be (hopefully) going to the bookstore tomorrow. So far, that's my plan, unless something comes up. And, I know it doesn't really transfer well over the Internet, but I'm super excited. I practically go into giggling fan girl mode every time I think about it. Still, I'm actually a little sad, because once I read Mockingjay, the series will be over. No more books left. I'll probably cry at the end just for that reason. And then go and get School's Out - Forever of the Maximum Ride novels so I can obsess over that series.

In other news, I have rekindled some old obsessions of mine. The first one: La Bamba by Ritchie Valens. It's a song. In Spanish. I barely know Spanish. But, despite that, I love the song, and can actually sing along to it. Even though I took a year of Spanish, I only know the English translation thanks to Google, but, hey, it was just one year. I did have the satisfaction of telling my mom that "caliente" actually means "hot" and not "good".

Okay, so the second older obsession is Mystery Diagnosis. I sort of go through phases with this one, liking it some days and not really caring about it on others. But it's really good, and I like it.

Alright, well, that's it for today. Tomorrow night, I'll probably be blogging about Mockingjay. Yay.

And I'm Back

Yup. Hiatus over. Woo.

It's only 1 a.m., and, well, I was itching to see what was going on on the world wide web. Basically, nothing much. Also, I know I had said I wouldn't get on the Internet for anything, but I did. The majority of the time it was for school purposes, such as research and having to get on dictionary.com because I don't feel like digging around our guest bedroom which serves as a storage room for the dictionary that is already falling apart. That, and to work out some prior commitments made before my hiatus.

Without the Internet, I've noticed I don't spend as much time on the computer, and that, when I am on the computer, I get a lot more writing done without so many distractions like Facebook or Twitter or something. Yeah, I know, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. But I'm still pretty happy with myself with all the writing I got done. Insert big smile here.

I also spent a LOT of time reading. I read some of Adam by Ted Dekker, but then I took a trip to the wonderful place that is Barnes & Noble (seriously, my mom was dragging me out of there as I kept stopping to pick up a book or rave over the Hunger Games Trilogy (more on that later) with a person who works there who even game me two Hunger Games tattoos) and bought Catching Fire, book two in the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I absolutely loved it. I laughed, I cried, and then cried some more. Now, I have to wait until August 24th (Tuesday can NOT get here fast enough) to find out what happens. Ugh.

The other book I got was Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. It's book one in the Fugitives serious, but since there's some other books pertaining to Maximum Ride, I just call them the Maximum Ride series. I'm pretty sure that's incorrect, but whatever. So far, the book is amazing. I just started reading it today because I just finished Catching Fire, and that book has made me laugh. That's kind of bad thing when I'm trying to be quiet, on account of it being midnight and my parents are sleeping.

Adam, well, it was put on the back burner. I will finish that book one day, I just don't know when. It'll most likely be once I finish Mockingjay (third book of the Hunger Games Trilogy!) and before I get School's Out - Forever (second book in Fugitives series/Maximum Ride series). At least, I hope so.

Hiatus

I have decided to go an Internet-hiatus. I guess that's what you can call it anyway. The reason why is this: I feel I've been seriously neglecting my relationship with God, and constantly putting things like Facebook and whatnot ahead of them. Basically, making idols out of them. When I listened to these lyrics of the rap song Go Hard by Lecrae, it just really hit me hard...

Took my wife on a mission trip - Central America

Shared her testimony, forty people stood and stared at her

When she said Jesus, should've seen, it was insane

Because forty out forty never of Jesus name

We aren't focused on the war, we're just kickin' it

Worried about our image and our space up on the Internet

Take me out of the game, coach, I don't want to play no more

If I can't give it all I got and leave it out there on the court

Thank you for the grace, for the will and the desire

Got me living for you glory instead of living to retire

But I pray I'll never tire of going hard for the Messiah

I don't need no inspiration

You're the reason I'm inspired

So, to sum it all up, I won't be doing anything Internet related for a week, and instead I will either be spending time reading my bible and devotion or spending time with family. Of course, I'll also have school, and studying for my permit. But, I think that's it. At least, no e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, The Writer's Internet Guild, YouTube, or even Picnik. I don't see any reason to completely rid my life of these; there's nothing wrong with keeping up with friends, listening to good, clean music, or even editing pictures. Unless, of course, these trivial things get in the way of what's really important like they did with me.

Anyways, this is the last blog post, so farewell until next week.

Playday/Co-op

Today we had playday. Or maybe it was co-op. I'm not sure; I've heard it both ways.

Anyways, it was pretty good. Art class went... meh. As good as art class can go, I guess. Everyone complained about their own work and complimented others. I drew a pretty epic river, but other than, my drawing was very bad. My dinosaur looks so twisted up, and my tree looks like it came from Mars. No joke. Oh, and my grass? Well, that was okay. It could have been better, honestly. (That is my picture above. Feel free to make fun of it.)

I have also been recruited to try and help some friends with web designing. Okay, so I volunteered. Technically speaking, I volunteered my dad. But then everybody was all "And Elizabeth's doing the web design..." and I'm pretty sure I said "I'll try" at least five times in reply. But I'm not too worried. It shouldn't be that hard, with my dad's help of course. He has designed shampoo and conditioner bottles before. *nods*

I almost forgot! I had TCBY today. Frozen yogurt parfaits (chocolate with mini M&M's because that's how I like it) are always better on those hot summer days when your car's air conditioner is struggling just to get lukewarm air out of the vents. At least, it was lukewarm once it reached our faces, thanks to the sun's super hot rays through the windshield. Needless to say, the frozen yogurt was devoured by my mom and I, since we had taken about forty minutes to get the bank, and ten minutes sitting in the drive-thru area of the bank (although, the college band/drum line/whatever it was was playing in front of us... so we had some form of entertainment). And we just really love TCBY.

The Life of a Perfectionist

I'm a complete perfectionist, something which annoys my mom greatly. She gave me directions to "have fun" and "don't worry if it's not perfect", talking about art class that's starting tomorrow. Psh. Yeah right. I'm going to criticize my artwork like no tomorrow and, most likely, erase like my life depended on it.

See, this is what everyday life is like for a perfectionist. Today, I did my very best to line up my spaghetti sandwich. I hate when there's spaghetti noodles hanging out of the side of the toast. Usually, this doesn't bother me too much, because I'm hungry and want to eat it right away. (For your information, spaghetti sandwiches are the BEST. People think its weird, but that's their loss. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them.)

I'm also a BIG perfectionist when it comes to my writing. That is why things like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) are very hard for me. You're supposed to "let go of your inner editor". Please, me and my "inner editor" aren't exactly separate people. I'm pretty sure it's impossible for me to just let go when I'm writing. If it doesn't reach my standards of perfection, more often than not, it gets erased. There are times when I'm like "forget it" and then just keep on writing. That is very rare, though.

Another thing? Piano. I've been told by both my piano teacher and mother (and others I'm sure) that nothing is ever perfect. So? I want it as close to perfect as possible. I used to be able to practice hours on end until I got the song absolutely perfect for once. Not a single thing wrong. Of course, I'd play it again and mess up thirty times, and I was so worn out mentally after being frustrated for who knows how long, but it was worth it.

But maybe I'm just being weird. Consider this surprisingly long blog post as my "venting" (that's been long overdue).

Psych A.K.A. Best Show Ever

My dad purchased Psych: Season Three today, and I'm pretty happy about that. Tonight, we watched Murder?....Anyone?....Anyone?....Bueller? and, honestly, my dad had to explain some of the movie references for me to get every joke. I still loved it though.

Other news: School is... meh. I haven't received my actual schoolwork for the year, but I've been doing a lot of review work. Some slightly brighter news concerning school, I get to start taking art classes, which, though I'm not entirely sure, count as some sort of credit. And I only have one science class, which is Chemistry Lab, and then, if it's still available, I'll take the Creation and Evolution class next year. So, thankfully, I don't have as much as I expected on my plate this year.

Hey, look! A blog post that doesn't mention Inception or the Inception soundtrack!

Oh wait...

Well, since I've already brought it up... I've been listening to the Inception soundtrack (or at least the half that I bought...) all day today, with a little bit of "Davy Jones" from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest every now and then. Thank you, Hans Zimmer.

Fun Facts

The only thing I did today was listen to the Inception soundtrack some more and stay absolutely freezing (I think my parents want to recreate Antarctica in our house), so there's nothing really to say. But, since I wanted to keep up with my "daily blog posting" I have going on, I decided to just post some 'favorites' of mine.

My favorite animal used to be a monkey, but I'm seriously considering changing it to owls. They're awesome, and so is their name. Owl. Heh.

My favorite color is teal. Second runner-up is purple. Third runner-up is yellow.

My favorite season is winter because I love the snow. Unfortunately, we don't get very much snow where I live.

My favorite holiday is Christmas, second is 4th of July.

My favorite music genre is Christian Rock. I also really like 50s/60s music (examples: Buddy Holly, The Beatles), and I'm starting to get into 70s/80s stuff (examples: Queen, Bon Jovi).

My favorite TV show is Psych. Me and my dad love watching it, and we've even gotten my mom into it (it only took a year).

And that's it, for now at least.

Insomnia is my Stalker

It's true. I dozed off around 5:00 a.m., only to be woken up by my dad starting his truck at 5:30. So, I wasn't able to go to church this morning because I only had one-hour of sleep and most likely would have fallen asleep during both Sunday School and the service. The only good side is that I got to watch The Cosby Show, which is on from 3:00 until 5:00 o'clock in the morning, and even one of my favorite episodes came on. This made me a little happy, but I was still pretty upset about missing church, though I did get to go to evening service.

Anyways, I'm still obsessing over Inception. Currently, I'm listening to "Time" off of the Inception soundtrack. It's pretty epic. I've been looking up all kinds of trivia on the movie, and I'm constantly replaying my favorite scenes in my head. Yeah, I really want to see it again.

Time to get off... of blogger at least. Hopefully I'll be able to go to sleep pretty soon, tonight.

Inception!

Inception. Is. Amazing.

I went to see it today with my parents and we all loved it. Our conversation as we're leaving the theatre?

Mom: That's so true... dreams are so real, it's hard to tell if you're dreaming or not!
Dad: Are we dreaming now?
Me: Could be...

Yeah, it was an awesome movie. I really want to see it again. So does my grandmother; we're actually talking about it over Facebook right now. Heh.

Anyways, that was my day. Oh! And I saw Ransom starring Mel Gibson on TV. It was pretty good, a whole lot more cussing than my parents expected I think, and every time I saw Gary Sinise's character, all I could think was "Mac Taylor", so that kind of messed with my view of the movie a bit.

Now, time to get off the computer (or maybe thirty more minutes will be good...) so I'll be able to get up early tomorrow morning. Looking forward to church, but not looking forward to waking up at 6:45 a.m. Yay...

My Stupid Act of the Day

I'm losing it. I really think I'm losing it.

Example: Tonight, we have some friends coming over, so I was getting ready (just minutes ago). I straighten my hair because if I don't I, according to my loving dad, look like Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. It's true. (See picture above for reference!)


Anyways, I'm straightening my hair and realize that it's not working. This frustrates me, and I get mad at both my hair and the hair straightener. Then I realize, 'Hey, maybe turning it on will help.'

Yeah. I had been straightening my hair for about five minutes with the hair straightener turned off.

I blame my stupidity on lack of sleep because I didn't go to bed until about 4:00 in the morning. Woo.

Why, Internet, Why?

Twitter is 'over capacity' and a whale is being carried by a bunch of abnormal-colored birds.

Twig (The Writers Internet Guild) is currently being updated and is unavailable as of right now.

Not that I'm a big Twitter fan, but it does annoy me a little bit, and I really miss Twig. Now all I'm left with is Facebook and, honestly, I'm starting to get bored with it. If friends aren't constantly updating their statuses with something interesting, there's just nothing to do. Yeah, okay, there are some games, but I'm bored with them, too. I can't help it, I just get bored with things so easily.

Anyways, I suppose that leaves me more time for school (ick) and writing (yay).

Ugh

I've had kind of a rotten day. First of all, I didn't go to sleep until 6:30 in the morning. Good things came out of that, though, such as studying for my permit, and getting some biology out of the way.

Second, when I woke up, I felt horrible. I had a stomach ache and just felt so drained. Unfortunately, I still feel that way even at 10:25 p.m.

Third, my piano lessons have been put off another month due to my wrist. Like I said, I'm having a rotten day.

So now, I'm tired, I have a headache, and I want to go to bed but I can't because I have too much to do and my brain just won't stop.

Ugh.

Of Milky Ways and Tattered Notebooks

There's nothing better than thinking there are no more of your favorite candy bars left (Milky Ways, in my case) and then suddenly stumbling upon one hidden way back in the cabinet. Just saying. It made me pretty dang happy after a long day full of conversations revolving around school and my screwed up wrist that doesn't want to cooperate. Insert big sigh and aggravated face here.

In other news, I'm doing pretty good when it comes to writing. I'm having random bursts of inspiration at some of the most inopportune times, meaning I'm not by my computer and there's either absolutely no paper, pens, or anything. But, hey, I'm not complaining. I either whip out my cell phone and start the agonizing process of trying to hurriedly type up my idea on the incredibly tiny keyboard (okay, that was exaggerating a little... typing on my cell phone keyboard isn't that bad) or rush whatever I'm doing and dive for my notebook and a pencil as soon as I get the chance. That is why my notebook is becoming a little tattered and is full of sloppy bits of stories and notes that probably only I understand. Heh.

Confession: I exaggerate a lot, in case you haven't noticed. Mhmm.

Dear August

Dear August,

I don't like you very much.

Love, Elizabeth

-----

August is my least favorite month. Why? It's the beginning of school, of course. The beginning of an absolute nightmare. As an upcoming junior in high school, I have a lot on my plate already. I have two science classes planned that I actually have to get up and get dressed for (the horror! Dx). Okay, so that's not really much of a problem, but I still don't like the fact that I'll be waking up early for these classes.

Confession: I'm a night owl. Early birds completely baffle me. No offense to early birds, though. I sometimes wish I was one when I have to wake up early one morning, but crash in the middle of the day because I stayed up until three a.m.