Life Post: Time Flying By and Writing a Bit Less

I can't believe it's the last day of May. This year is just flying by at an almost scary speed. I especially can't believe that the Birthday Bash concert is in less than two weeks. I printed off mine and Ji's tickets today, and I get giddy every time I look at them. We're so close now!

I've been writing a lot here about how much writing I've been doing since summer break started. I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a day since I got home from school (except the day we went to Nashville and I was gone all day) that I haven't written, usually a bunch. It's starting to wear me down though, and I've decided I'm not writing on the weekends anymore. It is summer break after all, and as much as I love writing, I need a break every so often. I'll even admit that part of the decision was because I really want more time to read City of Heavenly Fire. (It's so, so good so far guys. I need to talk about it, but I don't want to post spoilers everywhere. It's driving me crazy.) Still, I think it's a good idea for the rest of the summer. I'm sure I'll still get a ton of writing done this summer even with only writing five days a week.

The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 6 days
How to Train Your Dragon 2 movie release: 13 days
Birthday Bash/Little Mix concert: 13 days

Life Post: Saying Goodbye to Jenny and Moving Back Into My Room

Yesterday was a rather sad day. Jenny, the Swedish exchange student my family hosted, went home after staying with us for about ten months. There were a lot of tears at the airport, and a lot of reluctance to leave. Things have felt kind of subdued in the twenty-four or so hours since she left, and I know everyone misses her. She hopes to come visit next summer, so here's hoping for that.

The airport was actually an interesting experience. She was flying out of a small airport here, and both of her suitcases were overweight, although one was only nine pounds too heavy. She wanted to empty it, but it was broken, and we couldn't get it open. In a group effort that included members of the airport staff, we ended up tearing the suitcase open, and the airport let Jenny have an old suitcase they had sitting around. The staff there were fantastic. They helped us a lot, and the worker who checked Jenny in was especially helpful considering we were there at least half an hour getting the suitcase open and repacking Jenny's stuff.

Once we got through all that, we went towards security, and after a lot of reluctance, everyone said goodbye. After quite a while, Jenny finally headed towards security because her flight would be leaving soon. We were all crying and it was incredibly emotional. Then, Jenny got up to the first security person, showed them her ticket, and got told that her flight had just been delayed an hour. They said she could wait with us if she wanted. This was just after they all watched the group of us crying and hugging and all of that. So, we got a bit of extra time, and then we all had to say goodbye all over again. We watched as she successfully went through security this time, and the security people were laughing as my sister and some of the friends there were yelling back and forth with Jenny.

Now that Jenny's gone, I have my room back, but it feels so odd. For one thing it's pretty empty. My room was always packed with books and stuff everywhere, but when Jenny moved in, my mom and sister packed all of that stuff up, and now it's in various boxes in places I'm not even aware of. Jenny's stuff took up the space before, but now that's all gone. While I've pretty much moved back in, and my stuff is in here again, none of the boxed up stuff has been replaced. Plus, my mom bought new book shelves, so I'm getting a lot of new furniture that wasn't here before. It just feels like a very different room now, and I don't know how long it'll take to adjust. I mean, I don't even spend much time here anymore, and I may never live here full time again, which makes it harder to adjust back to seeing it as "my" room. I feel like it's going to feel odd for the rest of summer vacation.

The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 7 days
How to Train Your Dragon 2 movie release: 14 days
Birthday Bash/Little Mix concert: 14 days (TWO WEEKS!)

Book Review: Highlights of Rome by Angelina van Kemenade

ASIN: B00HSIAXZ4

Published: January 10th, 2014

Publisher: self-published

Read from May 5th to 8th, 2014

Synopsis from Amazon:

"Rome is a city that has been in my heart the moment it started beating."
That is how the author Angelina van Kemenade describes her passion for Rome. With its long history and astounding architecture, the city is often referred to as an “open air museum.” This book includes a short history of Rome and its hills, and then guides you through the attractions that you should absolutely not miss if you’re headed that way.
With beautiful pictures, detailed descriptions, and even helpful maps to guide you, you’re sure to get the most out of your Rome trip with this book as your companion! The way she wrote the content is perfect for anyone who wants to spend their time in the city visiting the most important places and beautiful places. The best thing is that she also gives you details on the best transportation methods to get to every location without any setbacks. The book is useful from beginning to end and it never wanders outside the important subjects.
As a bonus, this e-book includes tips for traveling with children, walking routes, and even instructions on how to use local public transportation to move yourself and your family from one exhibit to another. Don’t miss out on Rome when you visit – use this book to guide you!
Ciao

Review:

This book is really short, so it's a quick read for anyone interested in that sort of thing. Still, I think if you're planning a trip to Rome, you're going to want a longer, more detailed book to help you plan that trip. This one isn't going to do that. It doesn't give you enough information to really plan any part of your trip at all. It may introduce you to a couple of Rome's sights that you want to see, but you'll probably want to get more information than what this book provides from another source.

There were also a lot of grammar mistakes that made a lot of the book difficult to read. There were misplaced commas and awkward wording throughout the entire book. I can usually let a few mistakes here or there slide, but it reached the point very early on where I was already annoyed. It seemed like I was finding multiple places where there was awkward wording, if not a grammar mistake, on every page.

Overall, this book does present a bit of interesting information but not a lot of it. I think there are countless better books out there that can help you plan a trip to Rome or learn more about its history.

Supernatural Review: Season 1 Second Half

I'm so incredibly behind on doing this. I'm actually so far into season two that I'll probably be doing another review on that in about two weeks or so. I just haven't been doing a good job keeping up on things like this since finals and later summer break started. This is also the first Supernatural review I've done here on the blog because my review of the first half of season one was done on my Youtube channel.

Like last time, these episodes feel a bit hard to review because the show is so episodic. Also, it's been quite a while (about three weeks) since I finished season one. I've gotten far enough into season two already that I feel a bit disconnected from season on, so let's see what I come up with.

Yeah, I'm looking through my notes, and I'm just kind of feeling like "nothing here is worth mentioning in a review anymore." It's been so long since I watched these episodes, and I just don't feel like most of it is worth it anymore.

I did think the story about Dean only having a bit to live and then being healed was interesting, and I liked that it carried over. It was interesting seeing Dean feel guilty for getting to live, and those storylines were probably my favorites from these episodes.

There was another mention of Indiana, which I always think is cool.

The car crash was an interesting cliffhanger to end to season on, but of course, I already know what happens after it. I really jumped when that happened to. It nearly gave me a heart attack because I wasn't expecting it at all. I knew they wouldn't be dead though, so after the initial fear of it happening out of nowhere, I wasn't really bothered.

I know that's pretty much nothing at all, but it's all I can come up with to say about these episodes. I'll try and get my next review done a lot quicker because hopefully that will mean I have more to say in that one. I just can't think of anything significant to say about these episodes.

Life Post: People are Awesome and We Have New Priests

After I wrote my post yesterday, my day took an even more negative turn, and then out of nowhere it really turned up. I'm not going to go into details primarily because none of it is important enough to get into. I did go to bed feeling really happy though, and even this morning, I still feel like I'm on some sort of high from the night I had last night. It was such an insignificant thing in the long run, but I was reminded how absolutely wonderful people can be. I'm not going to lie, from all the crap going down in the news lately, I've been having one of those "the world is just screwed because everyone's horrible" moods for a good two weeks at least now. Last night was good though because someone did the most sweetest thing for me, and I remembered now why people can be so incredibly awesome. I needed that.

Anyway, since it's not even noon yet as I write this my day hasn't consisted of much. Other than writing, which I always talk about to the point of boredom (but guys, I should be done with these edits tomorrow!), the only thing that's happened so far is finding out who our new priests are. I haven't talked about this yet primarily for two reasons: 1. It's personal to someone else. 2. I haven't been home, so the entire issue was disconnected from me.

Basically, our priest was taking a "leave of absence" (at least that's as good of a term as I can come up with). My mom called to tell me about it while I was up at school, but like I said, I was away so it was only this vague information in the back of my head. I don't want to get too personal here, but he left because we was (and is) suffering from depression and needed to get help. The entire church was sad to see him go and has been praying for him to get healthier. He wrote a letter to our entire parish last week saying that he's doing well but that he has a long process to go before he's better. Because of that, he was officially resigning as our priest and taking a year long (at least) break from public ministry.

I'm telling you this all now because it leads into the fact that today we found out we're officially getting two new priests, as opposed to only one. Our parish is actually a joint parish with another church that's fifteen or so minutes away. That means a fair bit of work considering you're running two churches, but both churches are so small that I never dreamed we'd get two priests. Only large churches get two priests.

Anyway, they're both from India and have apparently only been in the United States for about a month. They've been living with the bishop since coming, but they're moving here tomorrow. My dad, for those who don't know, is a deacon (if you don't know what a Catholic deacon is here you go; I know it's different from other Christian denominations; basically they're ordained but below priests and can be married (hence my dad being one)), so he's been doing a lot more recently with there being no priest. These new priests are apparently pretty young too and, as I said, have only been in the US a month, so my dad and our other deacon will probably have to help them a lot at first as they learn how everything works and whatnot. Still, it's nice to finally have a priest/priests again since we've kind of been shuffling through different ones each weekend and a lot of people have been struggling to keep up with parish business during the week. My dad will probably be down there helping them settle in tomorrow, but I don't know when I'll be meeting them, at least by Sunday. I'm excited though, and I look forward to seeing how they settle in here.

Life Post: From Calm to Crazy in No Time at All

Today has been weird, but that's just because it went from being a really boring day to crazy within the past two hours. The majority of my day was spent at home with just my brother while everyone else was at either work or Holiday World (a theme park near here). I pretty much spent most of the day writing. I'm almost done with a draft of my Hunger Games fanfiction, and I think I'll be looking for a beta reader for it soon, which is awesome.

Then about two hours ago, people started coming home and a ton of stuff started happening. None of it's worth getting into, but things in the house were just way more hectic than they had been all day. Plus, the One Direction fandom has now blown up. Usually when things get crazy with my family, I escape to Twitter and Tumblr to calm down. That's been absolutely impossible today since both Twitter and Tumblr are currently both as crazy as everything going on in my house. So, I'm probably just going to go read fanfiction after writing this and hope no one in my family interrupts, since I still don't have my room at the moment. Here's to hoping the rest of the day is a bit calmer.

Oh! I have to mention the two releases today. I haven't gotten City of Heavenly Fire yet, although I'm very excited for everyone who has. I don't want to read it until I have my room back and can read in peace and quiet, so I'm just hoping to avoid spoilers until then. I've downloaded Sorry I'm Late, although I don't know when my physical copy will come because the order still says processing even though it was supposed to ship days ago. Still, the album's awesome, and I love it!

And with both those releases, it's time to add two different countdowns at the end of these posts!

The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 10 days
How to Train Your Dragon movie release: 17 days
Birthday Bash/Little Mix concert: 17 days (Can I cry with happiness and anticipation?)

Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

ISBN: 0525423648
Published: November 30th, 2010
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Read from April 26th to May 5th, 2014
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Review:

I've been dreading writing this review because I had such mixed feelings about this book. I'll start off by saying that I love the concept. I find the idea of being told who your soul mate is incredibly fascinating, and I love seeing anything that explores that topic. That's the reason I wanted to go ahead and read Matched even though I'd heard far more negative things about it than positive.

As far as the story goes, I really wasn't let down. It captured my attention, and I even cried at one point while reading this book. I still want to finish the series because this book made me want to see what happens to the characters.

I also definitely see the comparisons that were made towards The Giver. In some ways the society (or I guess I could say Society) in Matched is more like the society in The Giver than any other dystopian I've read before has been. That being said, Matched was also unique, and if I hadn't seen others make the comparison, I probably wouldn't have thought about it until much later. As it was, I did start thinking about it maybe a bit too much while reading, but I don't think that negatively affected my view of the book.

What really brought down my view of the book was the actual writing. Like I said, I enjoyed the story, but I didn't like the style it was told in very much. Honestly, it kind of reminded me of my own writing quite a bit, and by that I mean that it reminded me of all the things I do when I write that I'm working on fixing because I don't like it. I think the best way to describe what I mean by that is by calling the writing cheesy. The way things were told just seemed too over the top a lot of the time. The author was doing too much of a lot of things, such as metaphor or symbolism, when the story would have benefited from being a little simpler. The way she seemed to pile things like that into the story just didn't really work for me, and I would have enjoyed the book more without it.

Other than that, I'm not so sure how I feel about Cassia and Ky because things with them did seem to move a little fast, despite the synopsis saying "slowly fall in love." Not many of the characters really stood out either, and a few things did seem a little too accidental, such as both Cassia's matches being guys she already knew.

Still, I liked the actual story all things considered, and I'm curious enough about the world and the situation the characters have been placed in to want to read the other books and learn more. I'd say I enjoyed the book more than I disliked it, even if I did have some large problems with it.

Life Post: A Relaxful Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all of the Americans, and happy Monday to everyone else. I suppose I should put something here about honoring veterans or something, since that's what the holiday's all about, but I really have no idea what to say that hasn't been said somewhere already.

My Memorial Day was extremely nice because I got to rest after the crazy week that was last week and all the graduation stuff. I was exhausted by last night, but I felt way better once I woke up this morning. It was nice to just sit around and not have a million people running around the house and all that. Plus, I had an extremely stressful time last night trying to get the video of my sister's graduation up on Youtube, and today I managed to get my last City of Heavenly Fire theories video up much easier, which was nice.

We did go out to eat at Olive Garden tonight though. It was a sort of going away thing for Jenny since she goes back to Sweden this week. That was nice too, and my grandma ate with us too. It was nice, and I actually ate all of the food that I got. That's seriously the first time I can remember doing that.

Here's to hoping that this week is a lot less stressful and tiring than last week. Tomorrow is when City of Heavenly Fire and Sorry I'm Late are both out, which is exciting! I won't be getting City of Heavenly Fire tomorrow though, and I want to wait to start it until I have my room back and can read it without getting disturbed. Hopefully I can avoid spoilers. Sorry I'm Late will be coming in the mail, and I don't know when. I also have it ordered on iTunes though, so I'll be able to download that right at midnight, which is awesome. Since we've already heard the album, I know I'll love it.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: less than one day
Sorry I'm Late album release: less than one day
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 11 days

Naruto Shippuden Review: Episodes 156-165

I usually do Naruto reviews five episodes at a time, but I've gotten a bit behind, which means ten episodes in this one. I've actually watched more than that, but I'm saving the others for later in order to keep with multiples of five. I actually thought I had fifteen to review, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it was only ten. This will probably be all over the place since there's a lot that I'm trying to condense, and I'm wanting to say everything at once. Plus, some of my notes from the earlier episodes make no sense to me now, so there's that. This is why I shouldn't wait so long to review episodes.

I'm really loving the new sage powers Naruto has now. Everything about these episodes has just been perfection for me, and it's been a long time since I've said that about Naruto. It's crazy how much Naruto's grown on me as a character. For the majority of the first series, I was just kind of neutral about him. I didn't hate him. I even liked him and everything, but I wasn't overly fond either. Then, at the end of the first series I felt really sympathetic about Sasuke and everything, and I guess my feelings towards Naruto became stronger. It's like something that sneaked up on me when I wasn't looking. All I know is that during this sage mode storyline, I've been feeling an overwhelming sense of pride towards Naruto, and it's making me feel like a proud mother. It kind of hit me how far he's come from the beginning of the first series. (That also made me very aware that I've spent almost five years on this series so far, and I'm still not caught up on it, but let's not focus on that.)

There's been a lot in these episodes that's made me sentimental, including there still being stuff about Jiraiya and how his death has affected Naruto.

I was really confused about the whole Pain and Madara thing and who was actually in charge of the Akatsuki, so I'm glad that's finally getting explained a bit. I tried looking stuff up (I've long stopped avoiding any sort of spoilers), but none of it really made it clear. I think I get it now though, so I'm glad about that.

I enjoyed how many different characters we got to see in these episodes as well. It's always nice to see some of the people we don't always get to see, and I think a good deal of the cast made at least a short appearance. Getting to see a lot of the characters fight was another kind of sentimental thing when you think about the young characters from the beginning of the series until now. Sakura taking charge at the hospital, for instance, was nice to see.

I wasn't expecting Konoha to get completely leveled to the ground. That really shocked me. I'm sure they'll rebuild and everything, but I wonder how long it'll take. I also wonder how many survivors they are. They were evacuating the village before it happened, but that doesn't mean people didn't die. I wonder how many people are gone now and if that'll affect the village.

Konohamaru talking about Naruto made me a tad emotional. I loved seeing the flashbacks to Naruto teaching him, and I love how much Konohamaru looks up to Naruto. It's sweet.

I think that's all I've got for now. I'd probably have more to say, but I've watched 166-168 already, and they're all I can really think about. I have so much to say about them, but it'll have to wait. Hopefully I watch 169 and 170 soon and get around to the review. I'll definitely try to make it soon because, like I said, I really want to talk about them.

Life Post: The Graduation Stuff Has Finally Ended

This afternoon was my sister's graduation party, and now that it's over, the graduation madness has finally ended. This week should still be a bit crazy though between City of Heavenly Fire and Sorry I'm Late both being released and Jenny moving out and going back to Sweden. There'll be a lot to do.

The party went well, although I didn't stay down there for all of it. I was there more than half the time, and that was enough for me. My brother and I spent a good deal of it playing cards, and I even taught him how to play poker. I got to see some of my family that I haven't seen in a while, so that was nice.

I feel like these posts have been so short lately, and it's not because things aren't happening. It's because there's so much happening that it's just too overwhelming to talk about it in any detail. Plus, I'm usually too tired from whatever's going on to stop and write a long post. Hopefully, things will calm down now for a bit, but we'll see.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 2 days (!!)
Sorry I'm Late album release: 2 days (!!)
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 12 days

Life Post: My Sister's High School Graduation

My little sister graduated from high school this morning. It's so hard to believe that actually happened. Even though I've actually looked at and held her diploma, it doesn't really feel real. It makes me feel old just thinking about it.

I'm kind of glad that both graduations are over because it means less stress, but I can't believe my brother's going into high school and my sister's going into college. Regina's still having a graduation party tomorrow, but after that, we're done with the graduation stuff and she's on to college. That's so insane.

I know my brother will enjoy high school and my sister will enjoy college. I look forward to seeing what they go on to do in the future. I need to focus on that rather than just feeling old because of how old my little siblings are getting.

Life Post: Too Many Graduations

Today feels like the calm between the storm with Matthew's graduation being over and Regina's being tomorrow. Today is actually my brother's last day of school, so I hope he's doing well. I remember my last day of eighth grade being really emotional, but he gets to be at Holiday World (a local theme park) on his. Maybe that'll counteract any sadness.

I just hope tomorrow goes well for everyone. I can see it getting really stressful and crazy. I can't believe that my little sister will have graduated high school after tomorrow and my little brother has already graduated eighth grade. It's insane and makes me feel just a bit old. Here's to hoping I don't get emotional tomorrow like I did at Matthew's graduation.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 4 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 4 days (So close! They're both so close!)
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 14 days (Two weeks!! Insane.)

Life Post: My Brother's Eighth Grade Graduation

I posted early yesterday after coming home from my brother's candle mass and then visiting my old high school, but I hadn't yet been to my brother's graduation, which was later that night. That's probably for the best because that ceremony turned me into even more of an emotional mess than I had expected.

My phone went dead before the ceremony even started, so I wasn't able to tweet until a while after the ceremony when we got back home. I definitely think that was a good thing because if I'd been allowed to tweet no one would have wanted to hear about the emotional mess I was. Even by the time I tweeted, I managed to turn out some overly dramatic stuff. I was just really preoccupied with my own St. Bernard years after graduation, and then I started thinking about high school and all of this stuff from the past. Then I got to the future and how daunting it is and how simple things were when I was younger and at St. Bernard. It was just this vicious emotional mess that I had to sleep off last night.

Anyway, my brother has one more day of school at this point because they had graduation before they actually finished, and I know he's really emotional about it. The first time I started crying last night was after he did. I'm sure he'll do great in high school though, and it'll be a good time, even though he'll look back to these years and remember them fondly too. We're just all getting older and growing up, which is scary sometimes.

That's pretty much shadowed over the rest of my last couple of days. The only thing else I have to say is that all driving sucks, but driving on country backroads is significantly worse. If only I lived in a place with good public transportation.

Book Review: The Destiny Quest Chronicles by Varun Vashist

ASIN: B00B30IW4W
Published: December 24th, 2013
Publisher: self-published
Read from April 24th to 25th, 2014
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Eliska was assigned the task of saving the last hope of her race. A warrior Princess par excellence, she never expected the Dark Forces to be so strong. In the end, she had to do the unthinkable. The world did not know of it, but the destiny of Eric, a normal human gets intertwined with hers. He started to meet people and visit places that he had never known to exist. He had questions but no answers.
Will he get to know the reason behind these happenings? will he get to know who is behind all this? And, Will he ever come to know what happened with Eliska and her people?

Review:

I don't even know how to begin. I absolutely hated this... book? I don't even know if I should call it a book. Let's just start with that fact that I'm confused. That's my biggest takeaway from this. I'm just confused. This thing is really short, and I think it's actually just the beginning of a book that was made separate so people would download it for free and then hopefully buy the entire book? I'm not sure though because that's not really explained well anywhere, so I have no idea what's actually up with that.

At any rate, nothing about this makes me want to read the rest of the book because I had no idea what was even happening in this. Nothing in the story made sense to me, and I was just at a complete loss as to what was happening the entire time. I don't know what the story is supposed to be about. The synopsis tells you more than I could after having read it, and I don't even think I got the majority of that out of what I read. I guess I'll trust that the synopsis is what the story's supposed to be, but I just don't know.

Aside from the story not really making sense, the writing itself was pretty bad as well. The wording of a good deal of it was just awkward and hard to read. A lot of times I would have to read a sentence multiple times to actually get what was trying to be said. It's possible that that's what made the story so confusing to me I suppose. Maybe if the writing wasn't so odd I would have understood it more. I don't know.

I feel like this review is just me saying things like "I don't know" or "I'm confused" or other variations over and over, but that is genuinely my only takeaway from this. I don't even know what I read.

Life Post: Visiting Two Past Schools in One Morning

On the average day of summer break I'd just now be up and getting ready for the day, yet today I've been to both of my previous schools already.

My brother's class had their candle mass today, which is a thing that St. Bernard does every year. Since the eighth graders are the oldest of the school, they're considered the "light" of the school who help guide the other students and whatnot. On the day of their graduation, they have lit candles, and at the end of mass, they light the seventh grader's candles in order to pass on the light of the school to them now that the eighth graders will be gone. I'm not going to lie, I got a bit emotional during it. I think it was mostly because I was remembering both of the candle masses I participated in and all of that. Matthew graduating has really made me remember back to my St. Bernard years, and I still have to get through graduation tonight.

I also went out to the high school with my sister. She's done with high school except for the actual graduation ceremony because seniors finish early, but school's still going on. She needed to go out there to turn in her iPad and talk to the guidance counselor, and she wanted someone to come with her. I actually had to get a visitor's pass from the office, and everyone was looking at me oddly. One of my past teachers saw us in the hall, did a double take, and then said that she realized that I shouldn't have been there. It was just a very strange experience all around.

So, today was both the first time that I'd been to a St. Bernard school mass since my own candle mass in eighth grade and the first time I'd been back to South Spencer during school hours since my graduation rehearsal on the day before my high school graduation. Plus, I did all of that within being awake for less than three hours. Both felt extremely odd, and now I have to go to graduations at both schools this week. It's all so crazy.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 6 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 6 days (less than a week for both!!!)
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 16 days

Life Post: I Get Sentimental About Elementary and Middle School

Yesterday was the academic banquet at my brother's school (and my old school). I wasn't expecting much from it really as it's usually just a meal and then them calling each student forward to get a certificate and medal. The only thing special about it is that it's a chance to visit the school I spent more than a decade in and see some of my old teachers again. This year was a bit different though because it's my brother's last year at the school. Between me, my sister, and my brother, someone in our family has been at that school since I started preschool roughly 18 years ago. Now my brother's graduating on Wednesday, and no one in my family (not even any of my cousins, which if we included cousins who went to the school it would be even more years) will be down there.

That made the night a lot more sentimental than it would have been of course, and I even felt a little sad about it all. I wasn't expecting, however, for the school to actually recognize that as well. At the end of the night, the principal (who is new this year and I don't know him at all) asked if he was forgetting anything, and my brother's current teacher who also taught me and my sister (he taught both my siblings multiple years and I was his first class ever) got up and said that he wanted to say something that wouldn't take too long. My brother was smiling at this point, and I think he'd been warned about what was coming and managed to keep it a secret. Anyway, the teacher said he wanted to acknowledge the families who had sent all of their kids to St. Bernard and who were no longer going to have a student there after this year. I think it was about four families all together. He asked everyone to stand, but my family stayed sitting except for my parents. (Everyone there knows how quiet most of my family is anyway.) It was really unexpected and also really sweet. The teacher thanked our parents for sending all of their children there and supporting the school. It was really nice.

I've been away from St. Bernard for so long now (six years) that I often forget how special and important it was in shaping my entire life. Of course, any school you go to for eleven years will do that, but St. Bernard really did make me into who I am. Sometimes I get dismissive about it, but times like that remind me why St. Bernard is such a special place. I get worried sometimes that the school won't last. There's never been a lot of money, and the amount of students can fluctuate. It makes me worried sometimes that the school will close. There are some great people there though. People who make the best environment they can with really limited resources, and I'm so glad I had those people in my life.

I honestly didn't mean to make this into a post about St. Bernard, but somehow that's what it turned into. I've had this blog since my sophomore year of high school, so I'd already left St. Bernard. Back then I wouldn't have written this post because my St. Bernard years were so sentimental to me that writing about them publicly felt like sharing an intimate part of me. It would have been like posing naked for the world. Now I've become more secure about sharing such things though, and I really think St. Bernard deserves at least one post here because of its importance in my life. I really wish that school all the best now that no one from my family will be down there. I hope it continues providing such an amazing place for kids long into the future.

Life Post: The Week of Graduations

It feels surprisingly like a stereotypical Monday for being on summer break. Maybe it's because my parents are still going to work (obviously), and my brother still has school. Even Regina had to work today even though she doesn't have school. Jenny was here today though, so I wasn't entirely alone like I was a lot of last week. And after this week my brother will be done as well.

The week is going to be pretty busy with my brother's eighth grade graduation on Wednesday and Regina and Jenny's high school graduation this weekend. There's a lot going on, so I guess that makes it even more obvious that today's a Monday.

I'm sure this'll be an exciting week for all three of them graduating though, and I'm looking forward to that, even if it's all stressful. It can't be anywhere near as stressful for me as it is for them.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 8 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 8 days
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 18 days

Life Post: Recovering from Nashville

On Saturday I went to Nashville with my grandma, Jenny, and Matthew. It was a lot of fun but also exhausting considering I got basically no sleep. Still, it was worth it. We walked around the Opryland Hotel and went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It wasn't anything too big, but we had a lot of fun. Although I do wish I hadn't spilled coffee all over my pants. That would have been nice.

Today has pretty much been recovering from yesterday. I slept so well last night, but even now I feel a bit more tired than usual. I've been writing today, but sometimes it's been hard to focus because I just feel tired. I'm looking forward to going to bed again tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel completely awake. We'll see. This week is going to be busy with Matthew graduating eighth grade and Regina and Jenny graduating high school. There's a lot going on, so I'd like to not be tired the entire time.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 9 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 9 days
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 19 days

Life Post: Driving and a Party

I drove for the second time in a while today, and this time it was all the way to Evansville. I hate driving to Evansville for several reasons including how far it is and just the traffic in general, and then today I had to take a detour that made it even worse. Overall, it went well, and it was still a lot better than when I used to drive and stuff. Still, it definitely wasn't enjoyable. My mom and I went to Sears because my mom wanted something, and I'm never a big fan of shopping for clothes either. That was pretty much the extent of my day.

Now people are over at our house because tonight's Jenny's going away party and they can't have it where they were going to. It got switched to our house at the last minute, so now all of their friends will be running around all night. I have to wake up early tomorrow, so here's hoping they at least leave somewhat early. They're mostly staying outside though, so it could be worse.

I still haven't gotten any writing done today, so I'm going to go do that now. I doubt I'll get any done tomorrow, so I don't want to slack off today.

Life Post: Weather, Driving, Dogs, and Writing

I feel like I've been unusually occupied by the weather since January, but it went from being insanely cold to insanely hot. Since 2014 started, there have been very few days that weren't one extreme or the other. I'm happy to say that today the temperature got down to a much more reasonable level, even if we are dealing with some rain still. It's a bit chilly, but nothing unbearable. It's still better than how hot it was before. This is only supposed to last a few days, but I'm hoping the heat won't be quite as horrible later.

I drove today for the first time in at least several months. My mom and I went to the cemetery because my mom wanted to put some flowers by the grandparents' grave. It was a short drive since the cemetery is right outside of town, but I had to drive my sister's car, which I hate anyway. I at least got "warmed up," and hopefully next time I drive it won't be with that car.

I just got interrupted while writing this post because two dogs owned by two different neighbors were staring each other down outside like they were about to fight. One dogs was walking around the fringes of the other dog's "territory." Luckily, nothing came of it. The one dog sniffed around the edges of the yard for a while and then wandered away. Even one of our dogs was staring them down from the window like he was anticipating something happening, but he didn't bark like he usually does at people who pass. This right here is why I would never let a dog run free, or one of quite a few reasons really. You never know what will happen if they come in contact with another dog.

I've been getting a good deal of writing done since summer break started, and I managed to finish a draft of what I was writing. I'm setting it aside for the second time now until I can find beta readers willing to go over it for me. (I've found one who will probably be reading it soon, but I want at least one if not two or three more.)  Now I'm going to start writing the rewrite of the How I Met Your Mother finale that I've been wanting to do since the finale aired. My ideas for it were all vague until I sat down and outlined it earlier today. Now I have a clear idea of what I want to do, and I don't think it'll be that long. Hopefully, I have that done and posted soon.

Reign Review: Season 1 Episode 21: "Long Live the King"

It's another week of me not getting my Reign review up until the day before the next episode airs, and this time I don't have school as an excuse. Whoops. I've been getting a bit on the lazy side since finishing up the semester, but in my defense I have been doing an incredibly amount of writing. It just didn't happen to be this. Anyway, let's get to this episode before the season finale airs tomorrow.

Francis is back at the castle, but we don't get the reunion between Greer and Leith that I was hoping for. Can that please happen in the finale? I'd like to at least have the assurance that they'll see each other again before we have the wait between seasons.

Mary told Elizabeth that she wasn't going to claim the crown, which was a smart move on her part all things considered I think, but it's not exactly making her friends in France.

You can't blame Francis for not being entirely on board with killing his father. I get Catherine's point, of course. An insane ruler isn't exactly the ideal situation. Still, bringing up your plan in front of the guy you're planning to kill's son isn't really advisable. Of course Francis was going to be against it, and all things considered, Catherine probably would have done a better job of killing Henry if she hadn't mentioned it to Francis first and just done it.

It was a bit sad to hear about Henry's upbringing. It makes me a tad sympathetic, but I still strongly dislike him. The fact that his father wasn't the greatest isn't really all that surprising, but the story did make me wonder how Francis ended up the way he is. I mean, if you think about both of his parents, I'm not really sure how baby Francis turned into current Francis. He should be more manipulative and probably more messed up (although Catherine has proven that she's generally pretty capable as a mother, I'll admit). I'd never given it much thought before, but now it's on my mind.

I knew there was something more going on with Julian, although I wasn't expecting him to not really be Julian. I suppose I should start referring to him as Remy, but I bet that'll be getting me mixed up a lot in the future. Lola's husband (who might not technically be her husband? He signed someone else's name on the wedding certificate, so maybe that makes the marriage invalid. I'm not so sure how the law would work there.) is gone, and Lola will be back at the castle. It's the perfect set up for Francis to actually learn he's the kid's father. I do wonder if we'll be seeing Julian/Remy in the future or if he's gone for good though.

Pascal is a bit on the creepy side for me. I figured there was something more with the kid, so I wasn't surprised when we found out that Sebastian killed his parents. That was a nice plot twist and could develop into something interesting in the finale. I think that kid is going to do something though. I'm a bit worried that he'll try to murder Kenna in her sleep or something. No matter what happens, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of intense stuff there in tomorrow's episode.

At this point it's looking like we're going to have a ton of loose ends between this season and next. I'm thinking the finale is going to focus on the darkness and/or Henry's madness, but I don't think either one of those can be tied up completely in one episode, which makes me think they'll carry over next season. We also have Clarissa who hasn't been mentioned in ages, and there are a lot of other storylines including ones that I'm sure I've forgotten about that are in no way all going to be able to be covered in the finale. I just hope this stuff, especially the bigger stuff, is addressed in season two and doesn't end up dropped forever.

LIfe Post: Summer Stress

Today has turned into a rather miserable day in the past hour or so if I'm really being honest. I'm always more stressed when at home than at school for a variety of reasons, and that's really starting right now. This summer is shaping up to be particularly bad, and that's all really obvious today. I'm not at all looking forward to dealing with all of this the entire summer.

In brighter news, we have a release date for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! I already have a countdown set on my phone, and I am really excited about it! Just about two and a half years to go. It should be interesting seeing it all happen. I really do have high hopes for the movie.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 14 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 14 days
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 24 days

Life Post: Visiting Family on Mother's Day

Most of my day has been spent at my grandma's with a bunch of my family in honor of Mother's Day. Some of our relatives from Florida were here visiting as well, so it was really nice to see everyone. We also sat outside for a while after it rained and was feeling really cool, and that was pretty nice.

Almost as soon as we came home, my dad turned on the TV and Breaking Dawn Part 2 was on. My dad turned it on for some reason, and we've been watching it ever since. Even though I own this movie on DVD, I've really only seen it twice (once in the theater and once on DVD).

Other than that my day hasn't been really eventful. Well, I consider spending time with my family eventful, but it doesn't make for a very full sounding day. Anyway, the climax of Breaking Dawn is starting, so I suppose I'll end this now and watch the rest of it.

Book Review: Reflection Pond by Kacey Vanderkarr

ISBN: 0615966233
Published: April 1st, 2014
Publisher: Urban Fey Press
Read from April 16th to 27th, 2014
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Sometimes you find home, sometimes it comes looking for you.
Callie knows a lot more about pain than she does about family. She’s never belonged, at least, not until she falls through a portal into her true home. The beautiful faerie city of Eirensae doesn’t come free. Callie must find her amulet and bind herself to the city, and most importantly, avoid the Fallen fae who seek her life. Seems like a small price to pay for the family she’s always wanted.
Then she meets cynical and gorgeous Rowan, who reads the darkness of her past in her eyes. He becomes Callie’s part-time protector and full-time pain in the ass. He has secrets of his own for Callie to unravel. What they don’t know is that the future of Eirensae lies with them, and the once peaceful city is about to become a battleground for power.

Review:

I've been meaning to read more fae books for a long time now, so when I saw Reflection Pond on Story Cartel, I immediately knew I wanted to check it out. I wasn't disappointed either. I thought it was a great book with a very interesting story, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series.

Since I haven't read other books that revolve around fae (only ones that include them as side characters), I can't make a comparison between Reflection Pond's mythology and that of other fae books, but I can say that I thought the world was very intriguing and also fun. It seemed like just the right mixture of lightheartedness where you wanted to be able to visit Eirensae and then suspicion where you're not really sure what's going on here. You realize fairly early on that there's something up in the city, and I thought that was done really well. It held my attention, and I always felt like I was getting just the right amount of information, never too much or too little.

My biggest complaint against the book is really more of a personal thing than anything else. There is a love triangle, and I'm becoming more and more burn out with love triangles. That being said, I didn't find anything horribly wrong with the love triangle in Reflection Pond. I've read so much worse, and if I didn't already have a somewhat negative opinion on love triangles, I doubt I would have been bothered at all. I did love Rowan and Callie's relationship, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it develop in the future. I just wasn't as thrilled with everything that happened between Callie and Ash, especially since Ash and Rowan were best friends.

I do hope that their families will be explored more in the future. With the fae being raised in foster families, I feel like there's so much potential stories there. That's a large group of people, none of whom grew up in their own family, and I think that's interesting. I also know that your parentage is supposed to stay a secret, but I'm really hoping that's something explored later as well. It could make for some very interesting secrets.

Overall, I really enjoyed Reflection Pond. I think it was a great introduction to fae books for me, and it's made me want to read even more in the future. It's a fun and engaging story that will definitely hold your attention. I would recommend it.

I received this book for free from Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.

Life Post: Summer Break Laziness

I've definitely settled into a laziness that you can only feel during summer break. I can't find the motivation to do anything anymore, especially with the weather seeming summery finally. I did manage to get quite a bit of writing done yesterday, so there's that. I'm hoping I keep that up all summer. That's my biggest goal for the summer other than managing to get my license (I haven't done any driving yet but let's hope).

I was going to write about something here, and I completely blanked on it right as I went to write it down. We'll blame summer for that too. Oh, nevermind. I was going to write about Blogilates and how hard it is to find the motivation to do it now. The main problem there isn't actually summer laziness but the fact that I don't really have a place to do it. I don't have my own room right now, and with all my family around, there's no place to escape to in order to do it. When I have my room back, that won't be as big of a problem, but of course, by then I might be even less motivated to do it. I'm determined though, and when I tell myself I'm going to do something like this, I will. I just need to figure out what I'm doing for the next few weeks when my family's here.

Other than that little problem and not exactly having a room, summer break is going great so far. Let's hope it keeps that up.

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 17 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 17 days
The Fault in Our Stars movie release: 27 days (Less than a month!)

Life Post: Finals are Over and It's Summer Break!

I'm writing this post right after finally making it home. I honestly have no idea how I'm finding the energy. I woke up this morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all, and after all the moving and everything, I don't know how I'm awake. I almost fell asleep in the car multiple times.

The last final went well today, although it was a bit hard to concentrate. There are a few questions where I completely blanked even though I remember studying and going over that exact information multiple times. Still, I feel like I did really well overall. This is the class where I always do worse than I think I did though, so I'm taking that feeling with a grain of salt. I'm just hoping I'm not one or two points away from the next letter grade this time like I was on the last two tests in this class because those grades drive me insane.

After that final, my mom and I packed all of the stuff from my dorm into the car, and it could have been a lot worse. Some of the stuff was a tight fit, but we managed to shove it all in, and it didn't take too long all things considered. The RD showed up really fast after I called to check out too, so that was awesome. I'd managed to chip the paint on one of my walls, and I've been stressed forever about telling them about it. She didn't seem to bothered by it though, and she told me that I wasn't getting charged for anything, which honestly surprised me. So, that went pretty great, and I signed the papers I needed to in order to check out, and then we drove home.

Of course we had to unload everything from the car once we got home too, which is never fun after you've packed it in there and driven 3+ hours. The bags themselves still aren't unpacked, but that's going to happen gradually. I bet some of them won't even be unpacked when I'm getting ready to go back in August. I still don't really have a room right now, since Jenny's still here and doesn't go back to Sweden for a few weeks, so my stuff is all laying around downstairs too. I can't really do anything else with it until I get my room back, which is fine with me since I have no interest in sorting through it right now.

It's nice to be home though, and I'm really looking forward to this summer. My summer break countdown is over now too, which means adding on the next one at the end of these posts. There's so much awesome stuff happening this summer too!

City of Heavenly Fire book release: 19 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 19 days
The Fault in Our Stars movie release 29 days

Life Post: So Close to Summer

Today has felt pretty odd. I didn't actually have any finals today because of the way things fell, so today has mostly been focused on studying for my last final and cleaning up my room. I wish I had made more progress in all of those things.

I still have empty bags and things, but they aren't packed because I dislike the idea of just starting to dump things into them. That's what I'm going to have to do though, and I don't know why I'm putting it off when I know it's not going to be neat or anything like I feel it should be. I also forgot that the fridge even needs to be defrosted until an hour ago or so, so let's hope it's not dripping water or anything when we move it. Also, I had ice pops in the freezer of that fridge that I'd completely forgotten about because it had been cold, and I don't know what to do with those now. There's no way I'm eating them all by tomorrow, and I think that if I checked right now they're already liquid.

Tomorrow's my last final though, and I move out immediately afterwards. I'm just ready to be finished with all of it. The moving out part in particular I am absolutely dreading. It's summer break afterwards though, so there's that.

Summer break: 1 day (!!!)
City of Heavenly Fire book release: 20 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 20 days

Life Post: In the Middle of Finals Week

It's the middle of finals week, and even though I have to be back out the door within the next fifteen minutes or so, I decided to write a quick post here.

Finals have been going pretty well so far. I've taken two exams (just got back from one actually) and given two presentations so far. I have relatively good feelings about them all, and I'm trying not to think about the stuff I know I struggled with.

I also got back a grade on a test in the one class I haven't had my final in yet. (The test was from last week.) And the grade was lower than I'd been expecting, but I was honestly kind of expecting that. I haven't been struggling with the class per se, but my test grades have been slipping slightly as the semester went on. I'd study harder and be so confident. Even after I took the test it felt like I'd done rather well, and then I'd get the test back and it would be a couple of points lower than my last one. It could be much worse, so I'm just hoping for the best when it comes time to take that final. I've been studying really hard for a long time now, and I still have another day of studying. Fingers crossed.

Other than that one exam in a couple of days, all that I have left is to sit through some presentations in another class. I already gave mine on Thursday, but we get pizza today, which I'm very excited about. In fact, the professor should be there already with the pizza, and I have the next half hour to show up whenever before presentations actually start. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much I've been looking forward to this pizza, so it's a miracle I'm not already there.

Finals week is almost over though. Three exams and two presentations have been completed, and all that's left is sitting through presentations and one more exam. I'm already starting to feel relieved. Here's hoping the rest of the week goes well.

Life Post: One Day Until Finals

By this time tomorrow I'll have taken my first final, and I'm actually starting to feel nervous. It's odd, but up until now I hadn't felt overwhelmed or even stressed really. I was studying and had a good pace and all of that. I wasn't entirely sure how well I was retaining some of the information, but I wasn't too worried. Now though I've suddenly realized that finals start tomorrow, and I'm getting a bit nervous.

It's completely irrational because I know I'm just as prepared as I was yesterday, but I guess a part of me just feels like it should be stressed out. It doesn't help that there's also moving out to think about, which most definitely stresses me out to think about.

Just a few more days, and it will be summer break. At least there's that. I think I'll calm down about finals as soon as my first one is out of the way. Then I'll at least only be freaking out about moving out of the dorm.

Summer break: 5 days
City of Heavenly Fire book release: 23 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 23 days

Life Post: Preparing to Move Out and Finals

Not having classes on Friday has thrown my days of the week off, and I keep thinking that this is Sunday instead of Saturday. It doesn't really matter anyway since my schedule isn't the same this coming week with finals. I'm sure that'll just have me feeling off even more going to different classes at different times and whatnot.

I've definitely been studying a lot, but I also don't feel like I'm studying enough. There's just so much from the entire semester, and while I think I have the ideas down (the most important parts I think), I'm not so sure about some of the more technical stuff I'm supposed to know, like connecting authors, artists, and composers with their work. There's just so much of that, and I've been struggling with it all year. I'm hoping for the best though, and the hardest of the exams is the last one I take, which means more time for studying. I still have two days before my first exam too, so I'll have tomorrow to study for it as well. Hopefully I manage to retain the information.

I also got a ton of writing done yesterday, since I used that and reading fanfiction as breaks during studying. It was the most I'd written in months, and I loved it. I haven't done as much today, but I'm hoping to do a bit more later, even if it's not as much as yesterday. I also need to start cleaning up my dorm more, since I didn't do that at all yesterday, so that's not really conducive to writing.

My room's still a complete mess. I haven't even pulled out my suitcases yet to fill them up because I feel like I'll need stuff, even though I'm sure there are at least some things I don't. Even with the suitcases, I'll have a lot more stuff I think, and I don't even want to think about where that's all going to go. I'm a bit paranoid about being checked out and having the dorm inspected though just because that's how I always am about these sorts of things, and that's making me feel anxious every time I start thinking about cleaning or packing.

Needless to say, I'll be happy when this next week is over and it's summer break. Not much longer to go!

Summer break: 6 days
City of Heavenly Fire book release: 24 days
Sorry I'm Late album release: 24 days

Reign Review: Season 1 Episode 20: "Higher Ground"

I'm actually getting my review up the day after the episode aired. When was the last time I managed that? Today's actually reading day, the day my school gives us off before finals to study, and I figured writing this would be a good break between all of that studying.

I feel like this episode had so much that I want to talk about, and almost all of it has to do with the relationships on the show. I'm really happy with how the relationship are at the moment overall, and I'm hopeful that all the couples will end the season on a positive note. I don't want something sad to happen and then have to wait the entire season break to find out if it's resolved.

Funnily enough, Mary and Francis, the main couple of the show, seemed to be the only couple who didn't have something significant happen as a couple in this episode. Instead, they were doing important things as individuals, which is just as great, but it kind of stood out to me amongst everything else. This episode really showed how Mary has changed over the season, and while I don't necessarily think it's for the better, I do think that in many ways she's becoming a stronger ruler who's more sure of herself.

I've also believed for a long time that Catherine really does care about Mary, and this episode cemented that for me. Whenever she reminds people of the fact that she raised Mary for a good part of her life, I feel like that's Catherine getting a bit sentimental and giving in a bit to her fondness for her. Of course Catherine is also a rather hard-hearted person, and she's really good at pushing her own feelings aside to do what she feels needs to be done, which is often terrible things. However, I do think the love for Mary is there. She just tries to suppress it the majority of the time. After all, when she realized that Mary and Francis could marry without Francis dying, she seemed ecstatic. She also seemed a bit upset when she realized that Mary might be starting to become more like her, which I thought was a bit heart-breaking, and I really think that shows that Catherine really does wish she could protect Mary.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, but I have to mention Catherine going to confession. It was one of the best moments in the show. I just love how she starts off with taking the Lord's name in vain and then rushes through a ton of much more horrible sins before eagerly asking for her penance. The priest's face was just fantastic. He looks so exasperated with her, and I wonder how many times this particular priest has had to listen to her confess before. That scene was just great.

Francis, on the other hand, was at war in this episode. I do like that they didn't shy away from showing blood, but also, as a person with a blood phobia, that bit was hard to watch. I did like the bit about soldiers as chess pieces though and how Francis worked to show them that he didn't view them that way. It was nice.

But the crowning moment of all of that was, of course, Leith showing up again! As soon as he saved Francis's life and Francis said he was in his debt, I got a good idea of what's going to happen. Obviously, Francis knows there's a girl now, although he doesn't know it's Greer, and he plans to give Leith a title. That's all good news. However, there's also the problem that Greer is engaged, and while I don't want her married to Lord Castleroy, I will feel bad for the guy if the engagement falls threw. Still, he's been such a good guy to Greer that I could see him allowing her out of the engagement in order to marry Leith. I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops.

I don't think anyone was surprised by Julian in this episode. He was clearly hiding something, and I honestly expected that to go much worse than it did. I had no hopes that he would turn out to be a decent guy, and I really didn't think he loved Lola at all until he started hesitating in front of the carriage. That was nice though, and I'm glad that their marriage seems like it's going to be good. I'm still not sure how he's going to react when he finds out Lola's baby is Francis's because I'm sure he'll find out, and I'm still a bit worried that his greediness will come back and he'll try and use the child to increase his wealth. Still, I'm more optimistic about him than I was in the past, so here's hoping he keeps being a decent human being.

Sebastian and Kenna were also adorable in this episode, and I loved Sebastian looking into Julian for Kenna. I really do love them together, and while neither one of them did anything hugely significant in this episode, I had to throw that in here.

Henry wasn't in this episode, so we didn't get any development as far as his craziness goes. However, it seems like that will play a huge role in next week's episode, and I'm hoping we actually learn something. It looks like it's going to be intense, but I don't know if we're going to actually learn the cause, which is the main thing I want at this point. We'll see I suppose.

Life Post: Classes are Over and Now It's Finals

I haven't posted here on the blog since Monday because this week has just been crazy. It was the last week of classes, which meant a lot of work to get done. This week is over though because tomorrow is reading day, the Friday before finals where our school gives us the day off to study. I really love it because, although I study, it's also a three day weekend before finals, and I think that helps relieve a bit of stress.

Since classes are over except for exams, most of my work is finished. Of my five classes, two were final projects and three are exams. One final project I presented today, and I think the presentation went well. It's over and done with, but I still have to go on Tuesday to listen to more people present. Our professor is bringing us pizza though, so I'm actually looking forward to it.

My other final project isn't done yet. It's hard to explain why that is, but I'll try anyway. Basically, we were given a brief idea of what the project needed to be, but it was really vague in order to make us be creative. I had a lot down that is basically the chunk of the project. I just wasn't sure how I was going to present that information. Today in class we went over different aspects of the project, but we really focused on discussing how each of us are going to present our information creatively. I have an idea now, and although I'm cringing at the thought of my drawing skills, I know what I'm going to do. Since I already have all of my information, the only work I really have is drawing (and then writing out the information neatly alongside the drawing). I'm not saying that won't be somewhat difficult considering my art skills, but it's not as stressful as getting the information all down. I won't be graded on my drawing skills, at least.

Other than that I have the three exams to study for, of course. One of the exams isn't cummulative over the whole semester. We're just being tested over stuff since our last test, and for that reason, I'm least worried about it. The other two exams are over the entire semester, and they're in the two classes that are probably the hardest to study for. I've been struggling with humanities exams more this semester than last semester because I just can't remember artists' and composers' names, and now I have to try and remember some from the entire semester. I feel kind of hopeless. As for the other exam over the entire semester, I've been doing better in that class on exams, but now that it's all of the material, I'm feeling overwhelmed about having to remember it all. Here's hoping for the best though.

Of course I also have to prepare to move out a week from today. I just finished rearranging the furniture in my dorm so that it would be exactly like how it was when I moved in. I had to do it now because 24 hour quiet hours kick in tonight at ten because of reading day tomorrow. I inevitably discovered a ton of dirt after moving furniture (including a dead bug under the printer which was a bit scary), so I also wound up cleaning, which is going to happen even more over the course of the next week.

I have stuff everywhere, and I know I don't have enough bags/suitcases/etc. to pack it all in, so I'm at a bit of a loss how to even begin packing. I think I'm going to wait until Monday to get started on that anyway. I'll have less and less to study as finals happen, so I'll use that time to pack stuff up. I have a feeling that a lot of it will end up thrown in the car with no container though because I'm at a loss. I do have a ton of empty plastic grocery bags if it comes down to it. We'll see.

I'm done studying for the night, but I still have tons to do. As I'm writing this, Little Mix's new music video was just released, which I seriously need to go watch RIGHT NOW! Plus, I have a ton more to do before Reign comes on in a couple of hours. I didn't mean for this post to be so long!