Presentations, Red Velvet Cupcakes, and Interviews

I think this is the fastest a week has gone by for me in a really long time.  The irony is that I spent most of it sick.  I'm usually complaining about how long days are if I'm feeling really bad, but this time it flew by quicker than normal.

I gave a presentation on synesthesia in AP English today.  I was so nervous.  I actually think I did worse than I did on the presentation I gave in current events last Friday.  Two of us presented today, and mine was a lot shorter.  I feel as if I didn't have enough information, and I definitely stumbled over my words while talking.  I'm glad I'm done with presentations for the foreseeable future.

For some reason Ji got cupcakes today.  She cadets in the guidance office and the secretary just gave her two of them.  For some unexplainable reason Ji didn't want them, and she gave both of them today.  I can tell you that having a red velvet cupcake for a mid-morning snack is pretty awesome.  (Red velvet is one of the very few types of cake I like, and I absolutely love it.)

Tomorrow my mom and I are driving up to Indianapolis for an interview with a college.  At least we're supposed to.  It was sleeting a little earlier, and it's supposed to keep up with that all night.  My mom doesn't want to drive up there if the weather's still bad.  There are only two interview days, and we got assigned the date and time, so I don't know what will happen if we can't go up there.  This isn't my top choice school (and this is for a scholar program, not to get into the school), but it's still a really nice school.  It's definitely still an option, and getting into the program would be nice.  Plus, I hate saying I'll go and then not showing up.  I guess we'll just have to see what the weather does...

A Hunger Games Saturday

Today has just been a boring, lazy Saturday.  I listened to an episode of HG Fireside Chat and wrote some Hunger games fanfiction.  That's basically it.  My grandma was over for a bit earlier this morning.  It was nice to see her.  Our Internet has also started going in and out the past hour or two (I think my dad's updating software or something.), so I hope I can get this up without any problems.

I don't think I mentioned this anywhere but Twitter, but I got my second college acceptance the other day!  Now I just need to hear from two more.  I can't wait to finally decide where I'm going and get everything settled.

Primaries and Broken Pencils

It's only been four days since I last blogged, but it feels like forever!

I've had all of my college application stuff done since Christmas break, but a teacher that I asked to write me a recommendation didn't have it done yet and it was worrying me a bit.  She got it finished today though, so I finally have all of the application process done!  Now it's just on to everything else...

For current events we have to record the results of the New Hampshire primary, so I'll be keeping my eye on that all night.  We also had to predict who we thought would win (and second place, third place, and so on) today, and we get extra credit points if we were right.  So far my prediction seems to be fairly accurate.  We'll see if it stays that way.

My mechanical pencil broke in the middle of math class today.  Believe me, it made math class difficult.  No one seems to have extra pencils.  For a little while I was trying to write with a piece of lead in my hand.  (It didn't work too well.)  Then, I asked Ji for a pen, since we weren't really doing any math.  We mainly just filled out surveys.  (Everyone in class is doing a survey of everyone, so there was a lot of passing around various surveys.)

I have to finish reading Beowulf for English, and I plan on posting another blog post tonight (a book review), so I'm going to finish this particular post.  Now I'm off to go read about Beowulf fighting a dragon...

A Sweat Pants Day

Today is the seventh day of Christmas break, and I'm wearing sweat pants during the day for the first time in years.  Normally, I only wear sweat pants to sleep in because I feel lazy when I wear them otherwise.  However, I got senior sweat pants about a month ago and another pair for Christmas, so I decided to wear a pair today.  Actually, I'm wearing senior sweat pants, a senior shirt, and a senior hoodie.  It's a bit rediculous, but I'm not leaving the house anyway.

Tomorrow my cousin is coming over to play with my brother.  Although it's techinically a playdate, it means my sister and I are essentially going to be babysitting him, which means at least one of us has to be up at eight thirty in the morning when he gets here.  I'll have completely good intentions of getting up, but then I'll just stay in bed completely forgetting about it.  One of us (probably Regina, not gonna lie) will probably jump out of bed and run down there when we here someone knocking at the door.

I can't believe it's already past five.  Today went by fast even though I just sat around in my sweat pants all day.  I've actually been reading fanfiction most of the day...  I also edited a video, which will be up in a few minutes.  As soon as that's up I'm going to finish working on the my last college application that I didn't get to work on yesterday thanks to our Internet problems.

Even More Stress

Is it really only Wednesday?  This week has been so long.  Today was a mixture of getting things out of the way that have been bothering me forever and adding even more things to stress me out.

We had an open book test in AP U.S. history today.  It really wasn't hard since it was open book.  If only we could do that for every test...

All we did in AP English today was work on our annotated bibliographies.  I still don't have mine even halfway done.  I'm not looking forward to working on that.  Even though it's not that difficult to write, I feel like it's going to take forever.

Ji and I have one yearbook page that's due this Friday.  The only problem is standardized testing is going on the next couple of the days in the computer lab, so we can't work on them during yearbook class.  That means we have to work on them at home.  I didn't even know we could access the yearbook stuff from home until Ji told me we could today.  I really hope we're able to get that finished.

At the end of computer applications I had to go up to the guidance office.  I've been trying to send my transcripts to colleges through this e-transcript thing for over a month now, but the guidance office wasn't getting my requests through the thing.  I'm not even really sure what was going on, but we have it all sorted out now.  My transcripts have finally been sent!

During lunch Haley and I ended up sitting at the table where Jordan and Bridget were selling dance tickets.  Haley said she sat at our usual table, and some immature boy started throwing food at her, so she moved over there.  I didn't see it happen since I was late to lunch because I'd been in guidance.

Peer tutoring was pretty much the same as usual.  I helped two girls with some worksheets, and in the other class, I really just sat there and watched.

We had a test in economics today.  The thing with econ tests is that I feel like I know it well, and I do perfectly fine on most of it, but there's always at least two problems that I get to and have no idea what the answer is.  It bugs me because I swore I went over everything.  Today, there were still a couple of hard ones, but I thought I remember talking about it, so I may actually be right this time.

I completely forgot that I had a hair appointment after school today until my sister reminded me as we were getting off the bus.  Regina was trying to get me to cut a ton off, but I told her that wasn't happening.  I don't think I've had my hair short since freshmen year.  I like how easy it is to brush my hair when it's short, but other than that I hate when I have short hair.  Instead, I just got it trimmed.

I really need to go work on my annotated bibliography, but I want to get some other stuff (including another blog post) done before I work on that.  It's going to take up my whole day!

I Need a Break

I'm am so ready for Thanksgiving break!  I need these five days off of school.  I'm beginning to get really stressed out, and a break will be nice.  I mean most of the stress is coming from college stuff, and I'm going to spend break applying to two colleges.  Still, no school helps take a bit of the stress off, and I think I could the main college-related thing that was stressing me out sorted out today.  So, hopefully it will be an unstressful break for me.  (If my sister succeeds in getting me to go Black Friday shopping, then I guess we can throw the unstressful break out the window.)

Since it was the last day before break, we didn't do much at school today.  I had an AP U.S. history test first thing this morning, but other than that, I didn't do much today.  We're researching for our trend analysis paper (with an annotated bibliography) in AP English, but I don't really consider researching to be hard work (unless you're having trouble finding information).

Our Jostens yearbook representative was in our yearbook class today to show us how to create the portrait pages, but all that required was us sitting quietly and listening to him talk.

I'm way ahead in computer applications, so our teacher asked Ji, Bethany, and me to help her wrap pennies from Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.  Once we were finished with that, Ji, Alyssa, and I went up to the guidance office since we each had seperate things that we needed to get worked out.  That's when I hopefully got the biggest college-related thing sorted out.  Guys, applying to college can be hard when things don't go right.  I think I go to a great school, but something I didn't learn until this year is that it's sometimes hard to get things figured out because of the small staff.  I've been trying to get this sorted out forever, but our guidance office consists of two people (a guidance counselor and a secretary), and whenever I have time to go in there, they never seem to be in there (hence why I went during class today).  It was starting to get frustrating.  I've never had this problem until this year, since you don't really need to deal with guidance much (except during scehduling times) until senior year.  Hopefully, that's all sorted out though, and as soon as I send in these two applications, I'll be done applying to college.  (Then I just have to be accepted...)

Just like us high schoolers, the middle schoolers weren't doing much today either, so I didn't do much during peer tutoring today.  In the first class I'm in, I helped one girl with math a little bit and helped two boys study for a social studies class.  In the second class, the were watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while working on a math worksheet that they didn't really need help on, so I spend the whole time just watching Charlie Brown.

We did actually do work in econ today, but it was easy and not nearly enough to take up the whole hour and a half we're in there.  Most of the class was spent doing nothing.

Since getting home, I feel like I've accomplished a lot, but it really doesn't seem like much looking back on it.  I managed to get some reading done, which hasn't really happened in a while.  I got half of a college application filled out, which I'm relieved that it's nearing being done.  I also filmed a video that I was currently in the process of editing before I got in the shower and then started writing (first my story and then this).  I have over twenty minutes of footage, so I hope to get it edited down a lot, which probably won't happen since I can't bear to leave out anything when it comes to books.  As soon as I post this I'm going to get back to editing that, and I'll hopefully have it up before I go to bed, which is looking less likely as it's getting late.

My Pencil Got Stolen in the Bathroom

I got the pleasure of beginning my day by standing out in the rain waiting for the bus.  I was also alone because my sister stayed home sick.  I'm so glad that the bus actually came early today.  Normally, I would mind the rain, but being stuck at school with wet clothes and hair isn't fun.

All of the seniors with a certain GPA or above had a meeting this morning about a scholarship.  One person in our county gets it, and the winner recieves full tuition for four years at any college in Indiana.  It's a great scholarship, and I'm going to apply for it.  It's just that I don't want to go to college in Indiana.  There is one college (that I really like) that I applied to that's in Indiana, so I'm still applying for the scholarship.  We'll see what happens if I get it.

This meeting ran into our first class, which meant I had less time than normal to complete my AP U.S. history test.  Thankfully, I got done on time.  I think it's because I knew I had less time, and I made myself focus more than usual.  (I'll admit that I sometimes zone out in the middle of tests.)

We got to peer edit papers in AP English.  Basically every problem that was pointed out in my paper is stuff I already know.  The problem is I'm not sure how to fix those problems.  This paper is proving to be very difficult.  When I'm finished writing this, I'm going to go through it and do some editing myself.

Here's an interesting story:  Whenever I go to the bathroom at school, I always leave my books and things sitting on this ledge thing over the sinks.  I've been doing this since freshmen year, and I've never had a problem.  Today I did the same thing I always do, and when I went to get my books, my pencil was gone.  My eraser, book, and notebook were all still there, but the pencil was gone.  I looked around, thinking maybe I dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found.  I think someone stole it.  I wasn't too bothered by it.  I just went to my locker and got a new one.

I really funny part of the story was during econ.  Some people started complaining about how they'd had bad days, so our teacher started going through every person in the class and asking them how their day went.  When he got to me, I was just going to say that my day had been fine when Jordan mentioning that I did actually have a bad day.  I don't know if she was referring to the pencil thing or what happened while peer tutoring (I'll get to that in a minute.) as I had just told her and Haley both.  I kind of stammered for a bit before just saying, "My day was fine, but my pencil did get stolen in the bathroom."  Everyone in the class, including me, burst into laughter, and I turned bright red, which Haley pointed out to me.  After a few minutes, the teacher said he wasn't even going to ask for that story, and we moved on.  It was interesting though.

As for what happened during peer tutoring over at the middle school, I was put in charge of helping three sixth graders with a math worksheet today.  They were doing really well.  They were each dividing up the problems and doing them on the board.  Then, the boy got frustrated over something and decided he wanted to do them himself, so he went and sit at a desk and worked on them alone.  Then, the two girls got into an argument because one girl didn't think the other was being fair, so they insisted on working the problems alone.  It was kind of dissapointing.  I remember at the beginning of class being really impressed by how well they were working together, and by the end of class that had fallen apart.  At least all three of them had a pretty good idea of what they were doing.  That was the point of the worksheet.

On a bright side, the pouring rain had stopped by the time I went over to the middle school, so I didn't have a problem with that.  I also got a ride home with Ji instead of riding the bus.  That was especially nice since I was lugging home books for my sister Regina, so she could get homework done.  Overall though, it wasn't a bad day.

Sleep Deprived Car Rides and College Visits

Waking up at three a.m. is never fun.  It's even less fun when it's followed by a day of being in the car.  With your younger sister.  Do I need to say anything else about my day today?

My mom, sister, and I drove about four hours today to get up to Indianapolis to visit Marian University.  It was a long car ride that took place mostly in the dark.  I'd hoped to sleep the whole way through, but instead I only managed about an hour of sleep while in the car.  The rest of the time was spent attempting to sleep or trying to find things to do that didn't involve light (which unfortunately meant no reading).  In my sleep deprived mind, I somehow began thinking about the Declaration of Independence at one point and how beautifully it's written.  So, what did I do?  I looked the Declaration of Independence up on my phone and read all of it at about four in the morning.  Fun times.

The actual college visit was very interesting.  I hadn't been very interested in going to Marian before today, but it seems like a really great school.  I'll definitely be applying, and it's up higher on my list of schools I'd like to attend now.  The only bad thing it really has going for it is it's location.  Indianapolis is great, don't get me wrong, but I've really been hoping to go to college out-of-state.  Other than that, it really does seem like it'd be a good school for me.  Their education program seems really good.  I just can't get over the whole in-state thing.  I really want to try living in a different area of the country.  Choosing a college is so difficult!  I'm having the hardest time deciding what my top choice is.

My sister wanted to stop at this outlet mall on the way home.  My mom and I were both extremely tired and stayed in the car while she shopped a couple of hours.  After attempting to do homework (which didn't go too well because of sleep deprivation), I decided it would be a good time to take a nap.  I think I was asleep about ten minutes before my sister woke me up when she was putting bags in the car.

Eventually, we started driving again, but it took us way longer to get home then it should have.  This was primarily because we had a bit of trouble getting out of Louisville.  Technically, we weren't supposed to be in Louisville in the first place.  We were supposed to go around it.  I'm not entirely sure what happened because I was in the back seat half asleep.  The sad thing is I was attempting to pay attention to what was happening the whole time; I just can't remember any of it.

We finally made it home, and I haven't done much since.  I would have loved to take a nap, but I figured it was too late for that by that point.  I'm amazed I haven't already fallen asleep.  I was actually feeling more awake until I started typing this post.  Now I can barely keep my eyes open.  I don't think I'm going to make it much longer.

The Newspaper Article and Stage Crew

I never posted about this on the blog (because I was freaking out about it so much), but I somehow ended up writing a column for the local newspaper.  They wanted a kid from each school in the area to write about stuff happening at that school.  My yearbook teacher and friends thought I should do it.  This all happened a couple of weeks ago, but the issue with the first article in it came out yesterday.  I had several people tell me today that they'd read it and enjoyed it.  The secretary at the middle school even mentioned it when I went over there for peer tutoring.  She'd only asked what my name was a few days ago.  I didn't think she remembered it!  I'm a little embarrassed.  I mean, everyone's said good things about it, but of course the would in front of me.  I'm so paranoid about it.

It's so hard to write posts about just general life stuff now because of play practice.  By the time I get home, I'm worn out and have forgotten most of the day.  I could write about play practice, but there's really nothing to say.  I'm not great at building things, so I'm the one doing the small, random jobs, such as holding something or searching for different props and things.  I'm really happy I joined crew, but it doesn't give me much to blog about.

One random tidbit that might be interesting:  there's apparently a ghost up in the passage way that leads from the costume/prop room to the place where the lights and stuff are controlled.  I haven't actually been past the costume room and I haven't heard the footsteps that everyone else claims to hear (even when I'm in there alone).  I'm not really sure if I should believe everyone or not.  One girl claims she was chased once.  We'll see how I feel in a month.  I can say that that area is creepy, so I can see why people would believe there's a ghost there.

I usually look forward to Saturdays because I get to sleep in, but that's not happening tomorrow.  Why?  At three a.m. my mom and I are leaving to drive up to Indianapolis to visit Marian University.  Marian isn't one of my top choices for a school, but I definitely think I'm applying there.  It should be interesting.  Although, the long car right in the wee hours of the morning may be even more interesting thanks to sleep deprivation.  Here's to hoping I can get some sleep in the car.

Who's Irene?

I love Saturday.  It is by far the best day of the week.  My feelings for it kind of wan in the summer, but as soon as school starts again, I remember how much I love that particular day of the week.

Today was the Drive One 4 Ur School event that I worked at.  One of the local car dealership let people test drive cars for free, and our school got money each time someone test drove.  There was a decent sized group of kids there from school, way more than was needed.  Most of our time was spent just sitting there talking.  A lot of the teachers were there, including our principal, vice principal, and guidance counselor.  It's kind of weird seeing them outside of school.

I was so excited about finally getting to wear my awesome new shirt today.  (I can't wear it to school because it's kind of spoilery for the last Hunger Games book, and Haley and Jordan are still reading them.)  Then, I get there, and they hand me a Drive One 4 Ur School.  I didn't really have to take it, but everyone else was wearing them.  (Plus, I wasn't turning down a free shirt.)  I'm determined to wear that Hunger Games shirt tomorrow.  I don't care that it breaks my rule of not wearing t-shirts to church.  (I'm never dressed up at church anyway, so it's not like it's a big leap or anything.

Ji and I were only supposed to work an hour and a half, but we ended up staying for two and a half hours.  It really wasn't that bad since we were just talking to everyone.  We even played hangman for a while.  Ji and I took some pictures for the yearbook.  (Ji took a lot more than I did.)  We also informed Ji about the hurricane when she asked who Irene was after hearing the name.  I then informed Ji of every single bit of Hurricane Irene news that I say through twitter for the rest of the morning.  We even got some awesome free popcorn.

When I got home, I discovered that my Hoosier Girls State DVD had come in the mail!  That actually reminds me that I need to go make my family watch it with me.  I'm looking forward to all of the memories (and making my family see how awesome it was).

I  have a slight favor to ask you guys today.  As you know, I'll be going off to college next fall, so it shouldn't be surprising that I'm trying to get as much scholarship money as I can.  There's this site called Fastweb that helps you find scholarships.  It's pretty awesome.  Right now, if you refer someone to the site, you're entered into a drawing to win $500 of scholarship money.  If you're also looking for scholarships, please use this link to register.  It'll help you find scholarships, and you can help me out at the same time.  I'd be extremely greatful.

That basically summarizes the more exciting parts of my day.  The rest of it was mainly spent watching Naruto, How I Met Your Mother, vlogbrothers, and The Hillywood Show.  (Isn't that just full of variety?)  I'm going to go convince my parents to watch that HGS DVD with me.  (It's only August, and I'm already reliving the summer.)