Running Catch-up (Day 54)

So I just had to catch up on like 15 blogs. Because I had been too lazy to actually do them when it’s required. I have a lot of things to do today. Let’s see…I have to vacuum, play the flute for an hour, finish my blogs, read up to circle 8 in the Inferno, do my laundry, clean my room, change my sheets, and write a college essay. So far, I will have finished my blogs. Ugh, I hate Saturday chore. But at least it’s snowing! Well it was anyway, it’s all rain now. I like being inside on snow days. I mean I like snow, but only when I don’t have to be in it outside. I like being warm when it’s cold outside. It reminds me of Christmas. Except there isn’t enough snow to actually have to shovel. Thankfully.

St. Mary's (Day 53)

St. Mary’s College of Maryland came to our school today. It has been my number one college choice for almost 3 years because of the atmosphere and the water and the majors. Well those are some of the reasons. I mean I can actually see myself there which is something I can’t say for most colleges. My friend Diana is a senior there majoring in Biology and captain of their rugby team, and she has told me so many great things about the college which is another reason why I want to go. We had soccer practice today, too, where we ran the Swedish. It’s a very annoying and painful obstacle course that I do not like in the least bit. I’m going to draw a diagram as the picture for today. If you don’t understand and want me to elaborate, just ask. I hope you like it.

Powder Puff 2 (Day 52)

Today we got our powder puff shirts. I guess they are nice, but they just look TINY. I mean it does fit, but when I raise my arms, it looks like it belongs to a 9 year old. I don’t particularly like or dislike the design, either. Sorry Nick. But it’s going to be a good game next Wednesday, and the seniors are going to win. Of course. Spirit week is my favorite week of the year, though because I like seeing that people actually have school spirit. I mean I don’t have that much Titan pride, but it’s nice that other people do. But we have our first playoff game vs. Perryville on Tuesday and if we win, we stay in the competition, but if we lose, our season is over. Coach Brooks told me that if we win 2 playoff games, we get a banner in the gym, which is something that I really want.

The Inferno (Day 51)

We got a new book in English called the Inferno by Dante. I think I’ve heard of it, but then again that could have been any other book. I’m confused as to why there aren’t chapters, but circles and Cantos. But maybe it will answer itself as I read it. Hopefully. Anyway, I don’t really want to do the project on circle one because I don’t understand it. I mean he is happy that he is going to be led by Virgil, but is unhappy he is in hell. What did he even do to be in hell? I think it was something about everybody born before Jesus was in hell because there was no heaven yet. Maybe that was it. But I just hope that it is a good book because I am tired of reading boring books like ‘The Stranger’ and ‘Waiting for Godot’. Because I don’t understand the meaning of either and they weren’t entertaining to read.

House meeting (Day 50)

Today we had our first Prometheus house meeting. It went pretty well, even though 3 of our 7 house members weren’t there. I kind of took charge, because the other seniors were quiet, and Erica wasn’t there and she had the list of things to talk about. I just told them about how to gain and how to not lose points, about the importance of their grades, and what field trips they would want to go on that would involve our house traits. Mr. O’Connor introduced himself, and then I told the underclassman that they could come and find one of us if they ever needed something or if they were having trouble in one of their classes. Overall I think that it went pretty well, and next time we should probably break into smaller groups and discuss their classes and what they want to do at the meetings, and out of the meetings.

Towson University (Day 49)

Today Towson University came to my school. I always had this school as a backup or safety school because I knew I could get in and I didn’t want to go there. But I learned a lot about the school and they mostly have the majors that I want (Special education and Archaeology) and they have the minor (Computer Science), which is more than a lot of other schools. Plus, they are closer to home which isn’t a requirement for me, but it is something I have been thinking about more often. They have both soccer and tennis, and over 175 clubs and organizations to join. It’s cheaper because I am in state and because it is a public university. It is now in my top 3 schools-St. Mary’s, Towson, and UMBC.

Fair Trade, Fair Talk (Day 48)

Today, my entire family went to church at 8:30, went out to breakfast at Towson Diner, to a ‘Fair Trade Fair Talk’ seminar at the church, and then up to Pennsylvania for my mom’s birthday Dinner. The seminar was about a program designed to spread equality across the globe in trade and consumerism. For example, a woman in El Salvador knits a hat for a sale. She gives it to a company to sell, and it travels to America, to some superstore like Wal-Mart where the consumer and business forgets entirely about the poor people who make the things we need/want. Unfortunately, she gets less than 1% of the profit even though she made the hat. Fair Trade is made to protect the rights of the individual by cutting out the corporation. Things may cost more, but the individual makes up to 40% profit, instead of less than 1%. This is a huge program at my church, and especially in the Presbyterian community.

MDC3 (Day 47)

I went with my Dad and Nick to the Maryland Cyber Crime Challenge (MDC3) at the Convention center in Baltimore City today. It was mostly just watching high school, college, and professional teams try and hack into a server and get to be the first one with all 7 parts unavailable. Sponsors of the convention had small booths set up in the hallway to try and get students to go and work with them. Nick and I mostly went and got the free things that were handed out, like pens and key chains, but also mouse pads and candy, and we got to sign up to win a free I-pad or Xbox. We also got like 13 cards that had 3 free song downloads on them, which was pretty funny because people kept asking us if we had heard of SAIC and we kept saying no, and they gave us 2 free cards. We ended up with 39 free songs. Ironically, my mom works for SAIC, so I really should know about it. And my dad was trying to scold us, but he ended up with 8 cards of his own. Plus, we got a metro day pass.

Becky's bday (Day 46)

Today I went with one of my best friends, Becky. Her birthday was September 22, and we haven’t been able to celebrate until today. Her mom decided to take us to Webber’s farm, where we rode a hay ride, saw the animals, went into a ‘Boo Barn’ and got lost in a corn maze. It was fun because she took Becky there when she was little, and now she was 17, and there again. After that, we went to the Cheesecake factory, which is something that is kind of a tradition now between Becky, Chica, Lara, and I. We went shopping after that and overall, it was great to be able to spend times with her before we both go off to college.

Game vs Chesapeake (Day 45)

Today was our last divisional game. It was against Chesapeake. We lost 4-3 and it was very disappointing because we were ahead 3-1 in the first half. The male referee we had was very unfair to his other referee, a deaf female. He constantly ignored her calls because she had trouble talking, and would override the calls she made that seemed fair. When a girl on Chesapeake made a goal and was clearly off sides, the female ref called it and the male decided it wasn’t right and counted it anyway. After this happened twice, the fathers of a girl on our team made a comment about the male referee and his inability to make fair calls, the ref heard him, and decided to yell back and kick him off the field. When he refused to leave, the ref ended the game 5 minutes early. We were behind 4-3, so the game ended disappointingly. But we are still going to regionals!

Happy Bday Mom (Day 44)

Happy birthday Mom! My mom is unlike other mothers in that I can say she has done more than a lot of other mothers out there. She took in 2 children that didn’t belong to her and was willing to raise them as her own, and be there in the best and worst of times. She always has a great attitude and is always willing to help me out when I need it the most by telling me to do what I have to. She never gives help when she knows I know exactly what I am doing. And before she gives help, she asks me to try it on my own, or look for how to do it in a book. I have always been thankful for this in the end because she has made me independent and helped me rely solely on my own brain. So happy birthday mom. You mean the world to me.

TGIT (Day 43)

We watched a video in class today called TGIT or “Thank God It’s Tuesday” which is something I would never be saying. I have never been happy it has been a Tuesday because by then, I just can’t wait for it to be Friday. I have never celebrated Monday or Tuesday because it means I still have a lot of work to do before I can relax on Saturday (which I rarely get to do anymore) and why would you celebrate a week of work yet to come? But the things I took from this video are important. Like take responsibility for the things you haven’t done so well and make up when you mess up. He also reiterated that “you are in full control of your own destiny” which means that I make the choices that will either help me or hurt me later in life. Start from scratch when you don’t give 100%. A big thing I took from this was “3 weeks isn’t going to change 18 years!” which is something that I really need to think about. Without struggle, there is no progress, and finally, you can have whatever you are willing to struggle for.

Senior Portraits (Day 42)

I took senior portraits today. I honestly never thought this day would come-where I would be able to take senior portraits. It always seemed like a big deal, and now that it’s over, I can’t remember why it was such a big deal. I mean I always saw my sister’s and my cousin Jen’s, and saw them looking so grown up, and thought it would be forever until we got there. I look at the picture of me when I was like 2, and now that I am 17 and there is a big change in 15 years. A big change. A change in family, schools, friends, and a deeper change in myself. So the senior portrait to me, means that I have come a long way and have grown up a lot. It also means that my success in high school has been for a specific reason.

Dancing Bear 2! (Day 41)

I went to church this morning with my mom for the 8:30 service and then we went to Wal-Mart to buy 9 extra coats for the Department of Social Services program called Coats for Kids. My mom is a volunteer shopper and I help her sometimes when she buys like 100 coats or 600 toys or cribs for babies. It’s a nice program that helps thousands of people in the Baltimore area and it’s not even difficult. My favorite thing so far has been shopping for school supplies under a budget because it’s like bargain hunting for a good cause, which is always fun.

Soccer (Day 40)

We had practice today at 9 this morning. Nobody really comes to the Saturday practices anymore. I’m not really sure why, though because we have been winning. I mean we beat Woodlawn 15-0. That should be a boost to our ego which means we should probably come to practice. And because people usually don’t come, we have to do extra hills and do figure eights for longer. The people that come to practice are punished for those who don’t. But since we are going to playoffs, I think people should come and work hard on Saturdays, since the season isn’t over yet.

Pretty Princess (Day 39)

Funny story about this hat. It was for my birthday in July, and my best friends Hannah and Becky always throw me a party at camp since I am there and have always been there for my birthday. This year they begged me to let them throw a princess themed party. And of course I said no-I just wanted a regular day. But they did it anyway. And it started off good because I got to ride one of the horses nobody had ridden yet, down to lunch-Dusty (a trail ride). And little did we know that he was TERRIFIED of water. Of course I had to ride by the lake. But he was fine until I tied him to the tree and girls started coming near him. He freaked out and we had to sit with him in the grass away from the other people. Then after a dance party consisting of nearly 100 girls for my birthday, and I rode him back up. Then, back in the arena, I hopped on the other horse that I love-Monty. He has been there since I was 9 and I always loved him. Probably because he has narcolepsy and doesn’t fight me when I get newer girls on him. Well nobody told me they had loosened the girth (the thing that keeps the saddle from sliding-it hooks around their belly) and I started cantering on him (cantering is the gait above trot. Its walk, trot, canter, and gallop) He took the corner too fast and I slipped right off the side and landed right on my hip. That meant they had to call the ambulance and I was in the emergency room for my birthday. But I was mainly fine, just sore, with a back contusion. But I got back on another horse 2 weeks later (only to be thrown off again) but that’s a story for another day.

Rubix Cube (Day 38)

Ever notice that sometimes you work so hard at something and you are so close to finishing it, but can’t? Yea, me too. This dang on rubix cube has been sitting in my room for almost two years and I can’t seem to get that last square done. I try to get that one, and I end up having two missing the next time and then it takes forever to get back to the one. So I’ve decided that it’s going to sit there until I get it. That may be forever, but I don’t care. My friend Fiona can solve one in 47 seconds. One that has been mixed up a lot. But then again she’s brilliant. She got a 2020 on her SAT and she is only a sophomore at Reservoir High School in Howard County. But that’s Howard County (my friends and I all call it HoCo) and they are said to be one of the top scorers in the State.

Bookshelf (Day 37)

That bookshelf needs a severe dusting. Or something. I swear there are some things from my freshman year. I know I’ve seen something from my sophomore year. A binder for my Decisions in Family Living class. Where we planned out our wedding on a budget. The guys never wanted to do it, but some of the girls were too eager. One girl even had her husband picked out…but it was a nice project. There are even some college things in there that I should probably find and see what they say. But I plan on cleaning my room and this shelf this weekend. There are even some books that I should and am going to donate. I have too much stuff and not enough places to put them. At least that’s what my mom says.

Hacking Harvard (Day 36)

Hacking Harvard…hmmm. But I think you have to be really smart and actually good at hacking to be able to do that. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I’m a techaphobe. And that’s not even a word. I like the old school way of things. I don’t even like when my teachers show me a shortcut way of things because I think it’s cheating. Except sometime in Calculus. I mean who really wants to have 2 pages for each problem? But anyway… It’s cool since we are going off to college to think about other kids trying to get into Harvard criminally. It’s a good book though. There are 4 students trying to see if they have enough skill to get a bum-like student into the top school in the country. Not to the point where they have actually gotten the student in. I haven’t even got to the point where they have chosen the student. I’m on page…56. So needless to say I haven’t really read any yet.

Dancing Bear! (Day 35)

Dancing Bears! Every now and then I’ve decided I am going to post a picture of a dancing bear that I randomly find on my camera. When I was up in Canada during the summer, we went to the Canadian Inuit Museum of Art and they had all of these adorable little things carved out of limestone, or marble, or wood. And I assume they had a thing with dancing bears because there were like 50 all carved out. They were each so cute. I feel like I should play a little game with them, like if you see the special code in each blog that has a dancing bear on it then you win a prize. But then I have to find a suitable prize. And make a code. See how lazy I am? Such a problem. But it’s going to happen. The prize is just going to be my gratification. Code:dancingbear#1 Which is an amazing prize. If I may say so myself. I would want to win that. Game vs Overlea tomorrow! Titans are going to win…maybe.

Pennsylvania (Day 34)

I spent the day today in Manheim, Pennsylvania celebrating my Nana’s birthday. We go up there on her birthday to do the cooking for her so she can sit and relax. My dad made beef stew and rice, my sister and her boyfriend Nick made rolls from scratch, and for dessert we had a trifle that my mom made and chocolate covered strawberries that I made. It seemed kind of like Thanksgiving, with everyone there and talking about politics, (my sister working for a democratic senator and my republican grandparents) the recent fight in Wal-Mart involving bleach and ammonia mixing together, (guess they didn’t take chemistry) or my Nana’s job at the library. It was an overall good day.

SS John W Brown (Day 33)

So I spent the day on the SS John W. Brown which is a World War Two battle ship that is still used for visits and such nowadays. But my dad works on the ship sometimes and they were docked in Baltimore, so we decided to go for the Christmas party. In October. Because apparently it’s too cold in December to do it. But it was fun. There were a lot of WWII vets there that still work on the ship even though they are like 93 years old. There was a lot of food and fun, with the theme being “Keep Her Sailing” to try and promote people to keep volunteering to keep the ship around for people to learn about its history.

Binder! (Day 32)

Ahhhhh! I didn’t have my binder today. I left it at home and this was one of the most disorganized and terrible days of school ever. I was talking to other people about it, and they agreed that today was definitely an off day. Not to mention our lab for AP Chemistry just won’t work. We can’t seem to get the precipitate out of the 2 unknown solutions (one an anion, and the other a cation) so our 3 day lab is turning into 5 day class discussion. Ugh. But I really need my binder all of the time. It is neat and clean and helps me think about the things that I need to do every day.

Study? (Day 31)

I flipped through my 4 AP books and realized that I should start studying now. But then I realized that I have to write college essays, make a list of extra-curricular activities for letters of recommendation, and start filling out applications. Not to mention the homework for each of my AP classes and these blogs for AVID. When May comes, it’ll hopefully be all worth it and I will have a full ride to SOMEWHERE. I don’t really care where at this point. I would like to be at St. Mary’s, but I will go anywhere. In other news, we lost today to Carver 3-4. Trapp didn’t even put me in second half. I’m not sure why. But I think we could have won. They lost to Parkville in overtime 3-4. And we beat Parkville 4-3. So logically…we should have won. Oh well…anyway, I’m off to play Christmas music because it is way better than thinking about the loss we can do nothing about.

Milford Mill (Day 30)

Yesterday, we beat Milford Mill 10-0. Ten. To zero. Pretty bad, even for Milford. But they were as rough as usual-knocking us down, kicking ankles, and pushing. One of our beloved freshmen, Marianna, was pushed into another girl and fell down hard. She got “severe whiplash” and was taken to the hospital via ambulance. She can’t play until next week. This was the second ambulance that has come to our game with Milford (maybe Randallstown?), the last being after Chelsea collided with a girl last year and breaking her PCL, ACL, and tearing her meniscus. But we still won without a single goal being scored. By the way, we got our Calculus tests back today and thankfully I got a 94%. And with the 9 extra credit points, I got a 103%. Which is much better than the previous 68%. And instead of a C in the class, which was on the interim, I now have a B.

AP English (Day 29)

My mom ordered close to 20 books that I plan to read this year. 4 are for my AP classes (the standard 5-steps-to-a-5) and the others are the ones that appeared on the list of books on the AP exam most. I got books like Oedipus Rex, The Invisible Man, The Awakening, All the Pretty Horses, Beloved, and Things Fall Apart. These books all appeared more than 15 times, with Invisible Man appearing like 24 times. So to be able to actually pass the exam while being extremely prepared for May, I decided to read them. I mean it can’t do any harm, right? I decided that the Love wallet that I have would make a prettier image than…well I don’t know what else to put up there.

Powder Puff (Day 28)

So I finally decided to do Powder Puff and the class advisors chose the practice day to be on what day? Tuesday of course…our game days. Powder Puff is fun but I think people get way too serious about a game that happens once. It is fun, don’t get me wrong, but it is also just a game. But seriously, seniors are going to win. It’s kind of funny because none of the freshman on the soccer team understand why they can’t participate-why only the juniors and seniors get to play and how they can’t even come to the game without special permission. But on November, 4^th, seniors are going to win. Just saying.

Nemo! (Day 27)

Can I just say that Nemo is my favorite Disney character ever? That’s why it is my camp name. He is adorable and the whole movie is terrific. So I took a picture of the ribbon that I have with him all over it. Anyway, I am watching the Eagles/49ers game. Eagles are winning 20-3. Pretty good, Michael Vick. So what else is going on? Um…well I finished my re-do on the Waiting for Godot essay, and hopefully I can get higher than a 6, which is what I have now. I’m hoping a 7 or 8. After this blog, I have to do my “Where in the World?” newspaper article for Human Geography. It is a nice break after last year’s terrible presidential outlines where, unlike the juniors, we couldn’t work in groups. Mr. O’Connor is getting soft on them. But I got my fair share of A’s in that class, so it’s all good.

Interim (Day 26)

My interim is ok, I guess. There are 4 A’s, a B, and a C. There shouldn’t be a C. I was very disappointed because I have never gotten a C in math. I do hate it, but people say I am good at it and I usually understand it. But AP Calculus is quite challenging, which means I actually have to study. Which I don’t do. So that means I probably should. But what can I say? I procrastinate like nobody’s business. Anyway, I am really happy that I have an A in AP Human Geography and AP Chemistry. Those classes are my easier classes because I actually like Chemistry and History. They come easy to me. So all in all, I have to work on my Calculus grade and my AP English grade. My goal this year is, for 1 quarter, to have all A’s. More, if I can, but I need at least one quarter to prove I am not slacking my senior year.

Parkville Game (Day 25)

Today we had a game against Parkville, which is somewhere near Overlea. It was a good game I thought, and we won 4-3. One of the girls on my team, Destiny, got a yellow card for elbowing. But it was all good because the other girl was fine after getting up slowly. Oh and Trapp wasn’t there because he is in Indiana. So it was just Sorgho. And Mr. Mustipher and Mr. Waters randomly came. So it was good that we actually won. Now our record is 3-2, which is better than it has been in a really long time. It’s quite sad. But if we win 2 more games than we can go to a special tournament when the season is over. And we still have Milford Mill and Woodlawn to go. I took a picture of this toy because I found it in the grass on the way back to the bus. I think it’s a Pokemon. But I don’t know. It just looks cool.