academic and other accomplishments

i'm feeling an incredible sense of accomplishment right now. i have just completed my first real thesis paper. it is 6 pages long. my first paper with no working on it during class. i had to do it all on my own. and it feels great. 
uh oh. i can't get rid of the underline!! i keep clicking on it, but it won't go away. oh well. anywho, life seems full of accomplishments lately. some i haven't actually accomplished, but am planning. like singing the national anthem at a basketball game. a silent gym. hundreds of fans, most of whom i see every day. silence. then my voice. it's quite intimidating. but i think i can do it. 


 oh there it went away! still can't get rid of the rest...


i am a member of my school's show choir and we received the most wonderful news last night at rehearsal! not only will we be performing rockin robin in january, but we will also be competing in Solo and Ensemble (a musical/theater competition where we are judged) (it's being hosted at my school) with knock on wood and another song tbd. we have never been in solo and ensemble before! and we're singing awesome songs. 


all in all, a good couple of days :)

A Study on Research

what sort of sick, twisted mind invented the concept of a thesis paper?? whoever it was, they're messing up my weekend. i have been charged with the task of writing a 6-7 page thesis paper on how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is seen in his work of the Hound of the Baskervilles. it is turning out to be a bit more time intensive than i thought. not only do i have to actually write 6-7 pages, i have to quote sources, do web site evaluations, write a works cited page *shudder*, and all of this must be done by wednesday.

last night i managed to power through 130 pages in one sitting to finish the actual book. it's pretty hard to write intelligently about this sort of thing without reading the book :/

you may say that i have brought this upon myself by procrastinating. i suppose you're right. although i don't think this would be any easier 2 weeks ago. on the contrary it would've been more difficult because i spent the first two weekends of november out of state. therefore proving very difficult to write a paper.
so here i am. i have made my bed now i must lie in it. er... write in it.

farewell, as i have writing of a more academic nature to return to.

the blackest day of the year

today is a weird not-quite-holiday that stems from greed, insanity, and just plain american-ness. this day is known as black friday. a day when much of our lovely nation gets up waaay before the crack of dawn to stand out in (at least where i am) below zero temperature for hours so that they can shove someone out of the way for a cheap tv, laptop, coffee maker, toy, you name it. it is on this lovely day that all of the employees at my wonderful retail job are called upon to serve these sale-crazed masses. that is how i spent the first 8 hours of my day today.
it wasn't so bad this year. i've seen worse customers on regular days of the year. i got mostly cheerful shoppers and the store was steadily busy for my entire shift. there were subs, cookies, and free sodas in the break room and i got 2 breaks and a lunch because my shift was so long (this is the only day of the year that ever happens). the one fly in the ointment of my day was location. my store has 13 registers (including self-checkouts). only one of them is in the vicinity of the door that leads to the frigid outdoors. that is where i spent my 7 1/2 hour shift today. i at least had the good sense to wear long sleeves just in case. during my first break, i went and bought a pair of gloves ($0.88 for 2 pairs = score!!) which i proceeded to wear, despite the ridicule from coworkers and customers, for the rest of the morning. they were purple :)
overall, it was a successful day. no one was trampled to death (not even the managers who unlocked the doors), everyone got through the line safely and soundly, and most of the cashiers were in high spirits. what more can you ask from the busiest day of the year?

why doesn't thanksgiving have an eve?

so i wrote this yesterday but didn't have time to finish/post it. so here you go, a little late...

so, i'm pretty sure that christmas eve is an official holiday. why not thanksgiving eve? or easter eve? christmas gets away with it because it's a holiday where people get stuff so they want to prolong it as long as possible. of course i know that is not the true meaning of christmas (that being Jesus coming to earth to live a perfect life and die for the sins of the world). but that's discussion for another post.
it is snowing buckets outside. but that cannot bother me tonight because i'm going rollerblading!! rollerblading is probably my most favorite past time ever. i've been doing it since i was a child and is one of the few forms of exercise that doesn't aggravate my asthma. to top it off, i'm going to go have a blast with my best friends!
anyway tomorrow is thanksgiving so i think it's time for a thankful list...how about the abc's??
Amie my favorite pen pal
Bagels
Cats!
Dogs!
Español
Faith
God
Hannah!
Ipod touch
Jammer the hammer :)
Krispy Kreme
Lily (my cat :)
Money
Necklaces
Okra
Piggies
Quiet
Ring, class ;)
Sculpture
Television
United States of America
Violet (purple)
Waterbottles
Xmen movies
You!
Zebra striped shoes

Things that grow

everything grows, everything changes. and somehow the more things change the more they stay the same. lots of silly things grow that shouldn't (like snow on the ground) and some odd things that don't grow but probably should (like me.) i'm not very good at growing things. i am currently endeavoring to grow a tiny christmas tree on my window sill. it's been a few weeks, and still no progress. i'm watering it. that's what you're supposed to do, right? i, myself, stopped growing somewhere around 7th grade. at 5'4" i was average sized for a seventh grader. now i can count on one hand the number or people i know who look me in the face at my own eye level. i don't mind though, i like being short. it's the roundness i have a problem with :P
my hair is growing. i have had short hair all my life. i always wanted it that way. i'm not sure if it was because that makes it easier to care for or if it was the fact that my sister had long curly brown hair that made people stop us in grocery stores and ask if she was the little girl from the pepsi commercials. but i've decided it might look good long so we're going to give it a go!

just another monochromatic monday

today (as you may well know) is monday. for many, myself included, the most dreaded day of the week. although, these days there's a few bright spots in my mondays.

like snack in spanish! for someone who's trying to lose weight, i know i shouldn't be this excited about eating during class, but let me tell you, my spanish class makes delicious foods! we've had everything from snickerdoodles to oreo truffles to fruit pizza. i have yet to eat a snack in spanish that i didn't like.

another bit i look forward to is sculpture. of course, i look forward to this every day, but it's particularly joyous on mondays, having not been there for two days. today i started work on my sculpture of a pig, which is my final (and most important--double grade!!!) project of the semester. i will definitely miss sculpture  come january. but then i shall have sewing to entertain me :)

and last but not least is choraliers. choraliers = glee but way less cool. it's still fun. our choir has 18 people in it: 8 guys, 10 girls (there's one girl partnership). it works out pretty well though. my partner is nice and catches me when i fall over (which is pretty often). we wear silly character shoes that are slipperier than ice in march (thus the falling). for our last performance (choralfest :D) we even wore poodle skirts. mine was way too big so we had to safety pin it but there were no other ones left. ah choralfest. i should post about that. maybe next time :)

at this point you probably have that nagging curiosity sensation that wants to comment and ask why it is monochromatic monday. today technically wasn't, but one is in the works. it came up today in gym class when i noticed my friend Hannah was wearing all black and white. we decided that it was alliterate and awesome and we should plan another.

so there you have it. your day brightened and your questions answered! :)

i'm back

hello to anyone who has been reading this.

i'm here to tell you that i did not reach my goal of becoming a runner yet... not sure how i feel about this. now i'll have to wait until next summer to run, as the winter where i live is rather harsh. Plus the fact that it's the school year makes me insanely busy. such is life.

anyways! while i'm here, might as well talk, as i have a feeling that someone will be reading this now :) my weight loss journey continues. rather slowly. but i'm still trying and that's what counts.

it's been awhile so i don't even know where to start. while i was out, i had a birthday. now i can buy lottery tickets :) my senior class ordered our caps, gowns, and graduation announcements already. (which seems insanely early if you ask me) i'm excited for college so what do i care?

i'm considering changing the name of this blog. since the whole running thing is kind of out of the picture. how does one condense their life into one little sentence or two? my life can be stressful and confusing and hard sometimes. but it can also be happy and crazy and wonderful. how to jam all this into a phrase...i'll get back to you on that one.

wow it's alot easier to talk about my life than it is to talk about running. maybe because i hate running and i'm not very good at it. everyone thinks that it's super easy for teenagers to lose weight because "they're young" and "they bounce back so quickly". but let me tell you, it's harder than it looks!

gotta go! life beckons once again.