Slacking Off

I'm sorry.

There, I'm done. I refuse to dwell on the fact that I am horrible at keeping up with BEDA, and have already missed several days. I feel bad. I really do.

That being said, I really don't have anything to talk about. This weekend has sort of been slouch-ish for me. I did have a cross meet today, but after that I basically just took a nap. I haven't done anything productive. So here's my question: Is that okay? I know that every once in a while it's good to just chill out, kick back, and refuse to do anything that might benefit society. But let's say you have a deadline (maybe something along the lines of a week to finish up summer work), and honoring that deadline is pretty important. It sort of projects your future work ethic. If you've got stuff to do, is it okay to relax a little, especially if you're having a weird weekend? I don't know where I'm going with this. Forget it, I'm going to bed. See what I mean?

Alright, I'll apologize again, but this time it's for this really weird blog post. I'll think of something better eventually.

All the Other Kids With the Pumped Up Kicks run faster than me anyways.

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it." --Oprah Winfrey

That's right, I just nailed you with an opening quote. From Oprah, nonetheless. So anyways, to make up for my crappy blogging of late, as in, y'know, slacking off and not even doing it, I'm going try and make today's good. I think that was a run-on sentence. Whatever. I shall be talking about running today, and we'll sorta see how this goes, because I haven't really thought of an organization yet. Here we go.

Unless you're completely oblivious to what goes on here at The Happenings, you know that I'm running cross country this year. I have yet to go as far as to say that I'm a cross country runner, because I'm still getting there. As of right now, my 5K time is 41 and a half minutes, which sucks if you know about long distance running, and I am consistently the slowest person on my team. Trust me, it gets freaking old being the slow one. Today I felt it a lot, because we did a lot of starting and then stopping to do something like stretch or hill sprints, so I was always behind while my team was already at the next location. It got really frustrating for me, because I knew they were all waiting on me, and I really don't know what I can do to be faster. When I start out slow, I just get behind right away. But when I start out fast I just get tired more quickly and then drop back later. Either way, I end up dropping back. I haven't yet figured out if it's my stride or my turn over, but some combination of the two constantly leaves me in the dust. That's not to say I don't work as hard as everyone else. Today especially I almost felt like I was working harder, just because it comes so much more easily to some of the other girls. On top of all this, running really sucks. You get tired as hell, your muscles ache and cramp up, you get cramps in your sides and you feel like you can't breathe. When the run is over, your spit kind of congeals on your lips and forms this weird gel stuff, which I know is beyond disgusting for those of you imagining what that's like. Then there's the whole "Oh my goodness, I can't freaking move anymore" feeling after the run is over, and you feel sort of dazed and trippy. Oh, and the sweat. Sometimes when you sweat, it's not a big deal and it sort of drips, and it's only in a few areas. On a run, you sweat frickin' everywhere, and it doesn't drip. It's just sort of a general uncomfortable wetness. Then you go to wipe your forehead with your hand, and your hands are sweaty, so you just make it worse. See how much fun cross country is? So why don't I quit? Why don't I just stop? For me, it's always about proving a point. Once I'm in, I'm all in, because I know that a lot of people don't think I can do it. It's why I did Tae Kwon Do for almost four years, and why I was on the wrestling team in 8th grade. Sometimes I just have to prove that even though I'm not athletic or strong, I can still kick ass. Another reason is being in shape, which is always good. I don't necessarily struggle with my weight. It's not like a serious issue, but I am a teenage girl, and you know how that goes. I'm not running to lose weight at all, but I like it because I know that it's keeping me healthy and active. I think the biggest reason, which I didn't even realize until the season started, is the team. I know I couldn't quit if I wanted to just because I'd miss the time I spend with those ladies. They're some of the most supportive and awesome people ever. Never once when I come in last do they chastise me for not being fast enough. I doubt they even think it. Almost every single time I'm running in, there's someone waiting for me and cheering me on to the finish. It's the best feeling in the world when the whole team comes back and runs with  you for the last couple of blocks, because you know that they've got your back. All of them are totally awesome, and totally funny and fantastic to be around. My coach is pretty fabulous herself, because she always runs with me at the end. I'm really glad I made the decision to run, because even though it's hard, it's so worth it. As my coach said today, "It hurts so bad it's good, right?". Exactly.

Baby Sloths and...what was that other thing?

Ready for your daily dose of adorable?

D'AAAWWWWWWW.

If you didn't have a reaction similar to the above statement, you are clearly a soulless, heartless, horrible human being. That there is a baby sloth, one of the most adorable baby animals on the entire planet. When they grow up they kind of look like stoners, mostly because they don't really move around a whole lot and they have really shaggy hair. We have one at the zoo. Here's the link to the Google image search of baby sloths, because I couldn't pick just one and thought I'd share the adorable with you. 

Wait, what? Oh, sorry, I had to go back to the image page to copy the URL, and I almost had a cuteness overload. They're in boxes! AAAWWWW. Gah, they're just so darn cute!

Alright, so I have to fess up and admit that I haven't blogged for like two straight days. Yesterday I was just really busy, and as most of you know I usually blog at the end of the day in case I miss something awesome, so by the time I finally went to bed it was midnight, so I'd already failed. The day before that I was just dead tired. Anyways, this blog post comes by request from Liz, who really loves baby sloths. There was something else, but I forgot, so I'll post about whatever it was tomorrow. Also, for those of you who know the author John Green, his new book is coming out in January and I pre-ordered mine yesterday. I am so excited. Mostly because every single pre-ordered copy will be signed by John Green himself, 5% or which will have an Anglerfish drawn on them by Hank Green. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, go here and/or here, you're welcome.

No other news here, so I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow!

Guys, Am I a Loser?

For those of you that know me, you know I like to start some of my sentences with "Kay, so", and it sounds like "queso", which is Spanish for cheese, and then whoever I'm talking to is like "Ha ha, queso". Yeah, yeah, I know, cool story bro. But still, I was going to start this with a Kay-so, and then I decided to just explain it, and yeah. So here we are, with what is officially an awkwardly started blog post.
My mom gave me the idea, through blog comment, to write a novel through blog posts. That's not a bad idea. I might do that eventually. It just sounds kind of daunting right now, because I know you internet people will be able to read it and stuff. Anyways, at least it's an idea to play around with, and she was the only one who followed my instructions yesterday! So there. One of these days, one of you guys will actually comment with a topic you want me to talk about in my next blog post. Remember infomercials? That Wall Street Journal article that got my panties in a twist? That sounds so weird when you type it out. Anyway, on to today's subject.
Please view title.
I know that some of you Gleeks out there (myself included, I guess) are like "But being a loser is fantabulous! Every one you wanna be probly started off like me!". So yeah, I understand that being a loser has its benefits. Guys, I was on the Quiz Bowl team. That is the frakking epitome of loserness. That's not the point. The point is that boys are effing stupid. Nothing else in the world turns me into a giggling, melty pile of teenage girl than a stupid boy. I'm one of those people that doesn't really like being plugged in to everyone's life all the time. That's why I haven't stooped to the level of Twitter yet. But heck, get me texting some boy I like and I babysit my phone like it's a newborn. I seriously do not take my eyes off the thing. And then I'll get a text from one of my friends and be like, "YESSSSS!!!! oh wait...awwww...". So I'm brought back to something my dad told me a couple months ago about not ignoring people. At the time, I was ignoring a text from a boy who was annoying me, and he was like "I hate being ignored! Don't ignore him, just tell him you can't talk or something." And so I told him that in teenage girl world (where I, unfortunately, live), if you just ignore people you could pass it off as not getting the message right away, or not hearing your phone go off, or your phone was dead (Some of you people are going YOU. BITCH. right now, I swear. Of course I've used these lines). But if you were to say you didn't want to talk to someone, you'd also be written off as bitchy. I mean, you can't always just lie to someone and tell them you're busy or you can't talk. That's just as bad as ignoring and then lying. So you're stuck with telling that person that you actually don't feel like talking to him or her, and that person feels like crap about him or herself. Now I try and text people back as much as possible, because it avoids either scenario. Just know that if you're texting me, I may not actually want to talk to you. This fits into my topic, because, as it turns out, I also hate being ignored. Especially when it's by a freaking boy. A freaking boy that hasn't freaking texted me all day, then texts me once, and I text him back and he still hasn't texted me back and that was like two freaking hours ago. Do you see what my life is right now? Do you see what I mean about melty pile of teenage girl? That's me right now. I might as well just start using terms like OMG and totes innapropes. Yeah, still not happening.

One of these days, I'll actually practice what I preach

So, I keep saying that I'm going to pick a topic and write up a nice, shiny, thought provoking blog for you guys, but I guess you'll just have to wait for inspiration to strike. Or you could actually listen to me and comment with what you'd like to hear my views on, which I've mentioned twice now. Just throwing that out there. Instead, I'm forced to search the internet for one of those silly little forwarded message/facebook note games that my dad loves just soooo much. So there! Seriously, I need better ideas than...

100 (I just picked the first 25 to spare you the suffering) Random Questions.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4. "I'd ask Ali where Baba was, when I knew full well he was at the construction site, overlooking this, supervising that."
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can, What can you touch? My decoy book.
3. Before you started this survey, what were you doing? Blogging. Not wasting my time.
4. What is the last thing you watched on TV? Psych.
5. Without looking, guess what time it is. 10:42
6. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time? 10:34. I am a superhero with super time telling skill.
7. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? My fan. And my computer isn't actually making any noises, so I don't know what you're listening to.
8. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? About a half hour ago. I was looking for the moon. I couldn't find it. My mom asked if I checked the sky. 
9. Did you dream last night? Everybody dreams every night, sometimes you just don't remember. I happen to just not remember.
10. Do you remember your dreams? What did I just say?
11. When did you last laugh? Watching the latest Vlogbrothers video. Pretend I linked that, then look it up on Youtube yourself.
12. Do you remember why / at what? Again, what did I just say? Are my answers supposed to be some boring one worded crap?
13. What is on the walls of the room you are in? Paint. Posters. A mirror, a whiteboard. Blood. What?
14. Seen anything weird lately? Yeah, this piece of crap.
15. What do you think of this quiz? It's a piece of crap.
16. What is the last film you saw? I'm assuming you count Glee the 3D Movie/Concert Experience a film, right?
17. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? In a box under a bridge in Chicago.
18. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy? A better house than my box in Chicago.
19. Tell me something about you that most people don't know. This is creeping me out now. Saying "me" implies that you're a person that can actually read my answers. WHO ARE YOU? PLEASE DON'T MURDER MY FAMILY.
20. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? I'd make sure all my homeless box neighbors have food and shelter. I know that sounded silly, but seriously.
21. Do you like to dance? Only if nobody's watching.
22. Would you ever consider living abroad? No, I don't do well with language barriers, especially since the only one I know well is dead.
23. Does your name make any interesting anagrams? Yen Liar Wren, NLK. What, you think that after reading An Abundance of Katherines I haven't already tried this? My name sucks for anagramming. Sun Drop, however, becomes Porn Sud, which is hilarious for no apparent reason.
24. Who made the last incoming call on your phone? Mr. Kapenga, my driver's ed instructor.
25. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? iTunes, maybe. And whatever happens when my computer randomly restarts and says it installed important updates.

I am so sorry, my faithful readers. You know how to fix this.

Babies and Writing

So, I got the opportunity to watch my neighbor's young 'un for a little while today, and it was quite the interesting experience. Babies really only have two emotions. One of them is "Alright, I guess this is cool" and the other is "This could be infinitely better". They express these emotions by crying. Basically anything can change the mood of a baby from one to the other, whether it be shifting positions or standing up, as I learned today. My neighbor's baby was cool when I was standing up, swaying a little, and talking to him, but uncool if I dared to sit down or shift him around a little. There was one instance where I sat in his rocking chair and either made up songs or sang him my renditions of classic rock, seeing as those are really the only things I have memorized and he was perfectly cool, staring right at me. It kind of made me feel a little less self conscious about my singing voice, but he was the calmest when I made any kind of constant noise, so maybe he couldn't really tell the difference.
Now on to my second topic of the day. I know I said I'd pick a legitimate topic to express my views on, but maybe I'll put that off for another day. I don't feel like being deep. Also, since I get most of my topic ideas from things I find on the internet, like a Cracked article or a Vlogbrothers video, I could blame it on lack of inspiration from my various sources. Anyways, my second thing to discuss is writing. Technically, this idea did come from a Vlogbrothers video, but it's not really a topic and it's a really old video and stuff. Basically, it was about how you have to suck at writing a lot and for a really long time before you get good. Most of you probably know that I am gearing up for NaNoWriMo, and that's kind of a terrifying prospect. I only kind of know what I want to write about, and I'm afraid that what I do write will suck a lot. But now I know that it's okay to suck before you're actually good. Mostly I'm kind of scared of people actually reading my sucky work. I guess that doesn't really matter. I have to put it out there at some point. Okay! Comment with topic ideas. Seriously, I know you're getting bored of my daily spiel. Only a couple more weeks! I want to get some good blogs in before the end of the month.

I Think This is a Stage of Acceptance...

I don't know which one, though. All I can think of right now is denial and anger, maybe blame. This might be anger. I'd go more with exasperation. It's just that there are days like today where nothing of note happened, and yet I still have to blog in order to keep my streak up. Plus, I've already missed one day, so it's not like I'm letting that happen again. But I just don't want to make you guys read the crappy recountings (not a word, apparently. Eff you, spell check.) of my boring and crappy day. I think the biggest challenge of BEDA is making it all 30 days without giving up due to lack of inspiration. Blogging is a good exercise for writing, and blogging every day is good practice for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It's going to be hard to strap down and write part of an actual novel everyday, especially when you're not supposed to go back and edit yourself until it's done. I guess we'll just have to see where this one goes. I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. See,  blogging at night is hard, but if you blog during the day then you might miss being able to blog about something awesome that happened after your blog for the day was already up. I just used blog three times in one sentence. Sometimes I tell myself to just write down my thoughts, but somehow whenever I do that I think "monkey monkey underpants" because of this one Gilmore Girls episode. It just doesn't go well. I have to go read The Kite Runner, which is really good and really refreshing after Sophie's World. I promise that tomorrow, I'm going to pick a topic and blog about that topic, because those seem to generate the best response. 

Drunken Party Apologies

This is the point at the figurative party in my head where I get fall-down drunk and start apologizing to people for everything under the sun. Including you, my faithful Blogians, who I failed last night by not submitting a post. I'll even be the first to admit that I have no good excuses besides that it completely slipped my mind. It was, however, the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. I wasn't even that tired last night, nor was I going to bed that late. As a matter of fact, I had plenty of time to blog, but I just didn't. I remember something vaguely gnawing at the back of my mind as the Glee Project ended on Hulu and I closed my browser, but instead of thinking about any other important things I had to do, I just climbed right in to bed and fell asleep.

Translated into Drunk Girl At Party, I believe it's something along the lines of, "I am soooooo sorry, but I just (makes I-Don't-Know gesture and rasberries) FORgot to blog last night. And then, I 'member, I woke up this mornin', and I was like, (gesture/rasberry) WOOOPS, forgot to blOOOOg! An' I wasn't even tired or anything, but, nope, juuuust forgot! (gesture/rasberry)".

I find it funny how you could substitute Drunk Girl At Party for Five Year Old Boy Making Excuses. Both are reasonably similar, I suppose. I've seen more five year olds than drunks, so there you go. Well, tonight I actually am tired, so I'm going to bed before I fall asleep at the keyboard. Good night, my Blogians!

(On that note, I was thinking to day, why are ArgentinIans from ArgentinA, but AmericAns are from AmericA? That didn't translate as well into text as I thought it would. If you're curious and you know me, I'll do the emphasis in person for you.)

Oh Crap Moments

Everyone has them. Mine today happened when I realized I only had ten minutes left to blog. I refuse to lose, you guys. So today I went out to dinner with my friends, and we had an epic time as usual. I'm currently not trying to shed sparkles from my dress everywhere, but it's not really working. I am also completely exhausted, so coming up with a topic right now, or even a coherent sentence, is really working my brain. I also have to get up in less than 7 hours for cross country, where we'll be doing hill work, ab workouts, and lots of stretching. Ab workouts freaking suck. I imagine hill work does too, but I've never done it before. I think we're doing barefoot sprints, too. Driver's training is still boring, I still have a crap ton of homework to do before summer's up. I'm actually thoroughly enjoying The Kite Runner, as opposed to the previous Sophie's World, which I'm taking a break from. I did learn tonight that a couple of my other friends are also behind on summer work, so I feel better about myself. Well, I'm going to bed now. See you tomorrow with a better blog post!

I Like My Women Like I Like My Trivial Pursuit Questions

In categories. Here we go.

Type Number One: Typical Teen Girl.
Watch This. TTG is blonde. She's dumb. She has a crush on every boy. Typical Teen Girl likes her Starbucks ridiculously expensive and frothy. She's dating a quaterback and has 700 Facebook friends. This is the girl who (if you were ((well...are)) a guy) hated yet also were in love with in high school. If you're a girl, you hate her guts while simultaneously hanging on to her every word. She thinks she's the cat's pajamas. She's basically that one internet meme, Annoying Facebook Girl.

Type Number Two: The Power Mom.
Now, if you're my dad (which you might be), you might remember back to some of my earliest rants about power moms. Power Moms are the ones who take yoga and pilates and brag about how in shape they are. They sign their kids up for all kinds of crap their kids don't want to do in hopes of them becoming "well rounded". They have some sort of job that keeps them away from their kids long enough to develop abandonment issues, and they're usually single. Power Moms are the older version of Annoying Facebook Girl, because they're the ones who post statuses like "OMG vacay with the fam!!!". Power Moms are the target audience for infomercials, because they'll show all their friends The Thing With The Ridiculous Name and how they absolutely can't live without it.

Type Number Three: Unfortunately Stereotypical Asian/African American Woman
I won't go into too much detail here, because who knows who's going to get offended, but you all know who I'm talking about. There's always that one person you meet somewhere, whether it be at the drive through or on a plane or just while you're both out shopping who meets every single stereotype about their race. And these people are usually women, because women have even more stereotypes to live up to.

There are, of course, more types of women out there in the world, most that are normal and fall into none of these categories. I figured this would be entertaining, so here you go. I apologize for the long and awkward title, but it's too late to turn back now. See you tomorrow, when my post will hopefully be about something important.

QUICK!

YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO POUND OUT A BLOG POST BEFORE YOU LOSE!!! GO GO GO!!!!

Remember my internal monologue? She's still here.

Speaking of which, I suppose I'll just recap my day, because it was really quite interesting. This morning on my team run, I fell back (as usual) but then I decided that I didn't want to walk at all. I just kept going. Usually I set little goals for myself (One more hill! Good job!), and I'll give myself a walk break after some of the bigger ones. But today, after I broke each goal, I just kept setting new ones. I seriously don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I was seriously impressed with myself, especially when I kept going after I knew how far we'd already gone. I'll break down a 3 mile run for you. The first mile is okay, because it's still early and you've still got your lungs and legs all synchronized and you're pretty sure you're not going to die. The second mile sucks. So badly. It sucks more than a shop vac. It's the mile where you get tired and you know you've still got one more to go, and you start to realize that either your legs or your lungs aren't going to hold out too much longer. On mile three, you've made it to the point of no return. Stopping now would just make you feel like crap about yourself, so you might as well just power it through to the end. What's one more mile? The last block is the best, because your body completely takes over and goes "I'M ALMOST DONE!" and breaks into a dead on sprint so you'll stop making it do things. My body hates doing things.
Then, when we were finished running (still came in last, but only by two blocks!), I found 10 bucks in the parking lot. I choose to think of it as a reward from God, like he's up there going "Excellent job making yourself want to hurl this morning, Erin. Here's ten dollars." (God sounds like Doug, by the way).
I got a chance to hang out with one of my friends later, which was great. I discovered the addiction to Keeping Up With the Kardashians and the Tyra Show, and it was nice to just talk and eat junk.
And of course, because God forbid I have a perfect day, my fish dies. I've decided that it's a rite of passage to have to scoop a little dead fish out of the bottom of the bowl and carry him on that long, sad journey to the toilet. It's good for a kid to see it lying helplessly in the toilet bowl, then appear to almost swim again as the swirling water flushes it down into the sewer system.
Then I had Driver's Ed. Blahh. Boring.
Done! Five minutes to spare!

Thoughts from Places: South Bend, Indiana

When my dad told me we were going to the high school band reunion for one of his first teaching jobs, I was a little dubious as to how much fun I would have. I mean, seriously, what kid wants to go have a picnic with old people she's never met before that have embarrassing stories about her father? Well, aside from the latter, it didn't sound completely appealing to me. So today, when my family made the two hour trek, I didn't have very high expectations. It rained almost the whole way there, at one point so hard that cars were pulling over on the highway to wait it out. My brother was grumpy because we'd left at an awkward time so he hadn't eaten anything yet. It was frustrating and nerve wracking, but we made it to our destination at last. It's funny to be driven through a city you haven't been to since you were too young to remember anything by people who remember it from "back in the day". My parents commented on how this or that was still there, and my dad navigated the streets like he'd never left. We finally came to the high school where my dad worked, and he told us how much was added on and where the band practice field used to be. Across from the school was the park where the reunion was being held, and we were greeted amicably and enthusiastically. I shook hands with my dad's former students, band parents, and friends. I heard stories of beer in Happy Meals and bets on when my mom would wise up and break it off with my dad. There were pictures of my dad with actual hair and a mustache, wearing a trench coat or looking slightly high in the school hallway. I was really enjoying myself for a couple of hours, but eventually I got tired and bored of talk that I wasn't really involved in. Like the teenager I am, I found myself attached to my cell phone. I wondered briefly if this would be me in 20 years, talking with my orchestra director and old friends about where we'd been for the past few years and recalling old memories of Mackinac Island trips and concerts gone wrong. After another couple of hours, we left and drove past my dad's old apartment in a rundown looking building and my parent's first house, complete with a new porch the current owners had built. I thought about how strange it is that while I saw a small, red house with a porch and a truck parked out front, my parents saw their first little blue house just down the street from the Notre Dame campus. We then drove around the campus, stopping in at the bookstore and buying the first sweatshirts of the season. I discovered how big Touchdown Jesus actually is, and how a sculpture might make a good place for doing homework. After we'd had our fill of the campus, we went across the street to an Irish Pub, and I was again taken aback by how things can appear to different people. While I saw a modern city street with a Chipoltle and an Urban Outfitters, my dad saw what used to be old houses that students rented out that had become this new University controlled business opportunity. When we were fed, we hopped back in the minivan and headed back home. I again wondered if someday I'd be driving through my hometown or the first place I settled with my kids in the backseat, seeing something different than what I was seeing. Now, I can't imagine anyone else living in my house or the downtown area changing its layout, but someday I'll be driving a minivan painfully slowly down my street, pointing out what used to be mine to my kids who will have a new and different definition of home.

Apology Day...

I'm really tired. So much so that my fingers are all fumbly and I keep messing up my typing. So I'm not going to write a ton today. I appreciate your appreciation of my last blog post. It was fun to write and such. I went to a wedding today, and it was lovely. Weddings are fun. Y'know what else is fun? Bean bag chairs. Okay, list time, for lack of a better subject.

Ridiculous things:

1. Glow sticks.

2. Weddings with no funny drunks.

3. The fact that I can go from an awesome post to crap post in a 24 hours.

4. That guy from Fired Up is in Final Destination 5.

5. There are 5 Final Destination movies. Hello? It's called FINAL Destination.

Yep, that's it. I just did that to make this look longer. I'm sorry, I'll think of something better tomorrow.

Consider Yourself Amazed. But wait til the end.

In Which Erin compares Infomercials, Romantic Comedies, and (briefly) Car Accidents.
Now, I've seen my fair share of the first two, but I can't say that I've seen all too many car crashes. But I'm told that it's one of those things where it's really bad, but you just can't look away. I believe the same is true for romantic comedies and infomercials. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good romantic comedy. A GOOD one. Generally one that was not mass-produced in the Nicholas Sparks Recycled Plotline Factory. 500 Days of Summer was a good one. It was different, funny, light on the drama, with a happy ending that doesn't appear happy. The Last Song? A freaking terrible movie. Terrible! Who wants to listen to Miley Cyrus croak her way through crappy sappy dialogue with perhaps one of the most unattractive male actors ever? BUT WHY CAN'T I STOP WATCHING?? It's like when you're on commercial break, and all of a sudden you hear the deep, male voice going: "HATE doing things that are really easy? WANT to use a complicated device that doesn't really work to do those really easy things? THEN YOU NEED THE THING WITH THE RIDICULOUS NAME!!" All of this happens in the background of some video of a housewife in black and white struggling to do something that she could easily just use a nice brawny man arm for, and then the deep male voice (we'll call him Doug) announces The Thing With The Ridiculous Name, and everything springs to life in full-color, and you just think: "Oh, I get it. It's either describing an acid trip, or turning us into Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz". (Acid trip either way, really). All of a sudden this housewife can do everything she ever possibly dreamed of with this one ridiculously named device. Then Doug starts naming all the random crap you can do with TTWTRN, half of which you've never heard of before (Julienne fries, anyone?), the other half of which you never would've made in the first place. And while you're slicing and dicing and making Julienne Fries, all while keeping your family happy and healthy, Doug is throwing in a second TTWTRN for FREE! (Just pay seperate shipping and handling). Then they cut to the blue screen, read the phone number a bunch of times, and you can go back to your regularly scheduled programming and wonder when all those infomercial actors are going to turn into serial killers. The Last Song is exactly the same, except it's a romantic comedy. It follows Nicholas Sparks' favorite plot ever: Here we have Girl. Girl is in some way angsty or troubled. Girl meets Boy. Boy likes Girl, Girl is less than enthusiastic about Boy. Boy eventually makes Girl fall in love with him, even though she's been hurt before and is all troubled and angsty. Turns out Boy is unnaturally wealthy, This is a problem for Girl, who is not unnaturally wealthy. Boy's parents don't like Girl. Some random person dies, making Girl seem more tender hearted. Girl opens up. Something horrible happens. Girl and Boy have a big fight about nothing that important. Girl shuts Boy out. Eventually, Boy and Girl reconcile and make out somewhere cliche where nobody ever actually makes out in real life. If you switch the roles for Boy and Girl, change the order, and adjust the ages and/or era of Boy and Girl, you have pretty much every single Nicholas Sparks movie ever created. And yet they are as addicting as those stupid infomercials. You know how idiotic they are, and yet you can't look away. In the end, you're left confused and wondering why life doesn't happen that way. Why don't things immediately pop to color and we're handed a device that makes everything easier? Why are we not set to a specific storyline that matches those before us? This is freakin' real, right here. Nobody ever falls in love the way Boy and Girl do in Nicholas Sparks fashion. Sometimes we have to open jars with our bare hands and suck it up if our spoons roll around in the drawer.
I bet you didn't see a life lesson in this, now did you? Oh, I'm good.
See you tomorrow.

One of those days...

This is going to be one of those posts where I only have 51 minutes left before I officially fail BEDA, and I really don't have anything to write about other than complaints because I've had a long day and I'm tired and kind of grumpy. So I apologize in advance for my pissyness, and you don't really have to read this if you don't want to. Actually, it would make me feel better if you read it.
My summer life pretty much ends for me next week, because I've got official cross country practice starting and driver's ed in the evenings, and I've got so much homework. I'm really hoping that having a schedule and keeping busy will help me power through that summer work, because I have been procrastinating like a sixth grader with a science project.
Tomorrow, I'm zoo working and for the first time all summer, I'm really not looking forward to it. I've sort of developed this little crew with two other people, and neither of them are going to be there, so I have to actually talk to other people and try really hard not to feel awkward. Don't get me wrong, the people that work my day are completely awesome, but it's difficult to like people and actually carry on conversations with them at the same time. There are some pretty cool people I plan on hanging out with though, it's just a bummer that my usuals aren't gonna be with me.
Lastly, I'm over-analyzing. Because this is a public internet site, I won't go into too much detail with that one. Feel free, for those of you that know me well enough, to interpret what you think that means.
I'm sorry for such a craptastic post, my dear followers. I'll do something cool tomorrow. Comment with something you want me to write about! (my Most Faithful Liz is definitely on top of this).

Uncomfortable and Loving It

So, I was thinking a little bit today about what I was going to blog about, and I thought about discomfort. I had just talked on the phone with a friend, which I swear I never do because I hate talking on the phone, and I thought that sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone a little to open yourself up to new things. Then I logged on to Youtube, was relieved to find a new Vlogbrothers video after a four day dead period, and discovered it was Esther Day. Now, this just so happens to go along pretty well with my topic for today. For those of you who didn't feel like watching the video, it's about an awesome person named Esther who wanted people to talk about love and family on her birthday. She had cancer and died sometime last year. So today is her birthday, so I am going to talk about family and love and discomfort.

It can be so hard to tell a person you love her or him, but it has to be done. I'll throw up a common example. I have a seventeen year old brother who I don't have the most fantabulous relationship with, but that doesn't mean I don't love him. Even though I do love him, I never say it to his face because that's just not what you do when you're a little sister with a big brother. It's not something you do when you're a big brother with a little sister. There is no combination that makes it something you do.
So here it is, even though I doubt he'll ever read this:
I love you Nathan.
Whew. That wasn't so hard. But see, I wrote it on a blog that I'm not a hundred percent sure he'll even read, which makes it easier. Saying it to his face would be so much harder, especially in the context of, "Hey Nathan, this girl I've never met ever before died of cancer last year and wanted me to tell you I love you today, cuz it's her birthday. Sooo...yeah."
There are other people I love who I love in that way that they're amazing friends and I enjoy every second I'm with them, but it would just be weird to say I love you. Yes, I'm talking about my guy friends. Girls tell each other "I love you" an uncanny amount. But girls rarely ever tell their guy friends that they're loved. This brings me back to my "Girls Have it Easy" post (at least, I think that's what it was called...), in that guys never seem to be reassured that they're loved enough. So to all my guy friends out there, who I would name by name except I fear leaving one of you out, I love you.
And now comes the family part. I love everyone in my family so much. They are amazing people, and I'm proud to share a bloodline with them. (That sounds weird-ish). Anyways, it's easy to tell them I love them. So to Mom, Dad, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins, Baylee (because I'm not sure how we're related), Grandparents, and the like, I love you.
All my ladies, you know how it is. I love you so much.
That last sentence sounded kinda funny. Oh well. On to the discomfort!
Love is not something that should be uncomfortable to share. It shouldn't be as hard as it is to tell my brother or my guy friends that I love them. There's just a fear of being rejected or the whole "Wooooow that's really weird that you said that..." thing.
And because it's uncomfortable not only for me to share this love but also to let people read what I write, I'm posting this on Facebook. (I know right, big woop. Leave me alone, I'm a cyber child).

I LOVE YOU. THAT IS ALL.

SPARE THE HALFLINGS!!!!

I watched The Fellowship of the Ring today. That is one pretty fantastic movie.

I also noticed some similarities between Harry Potter and LOTR, which I will point out to you in this very convenient list. (Shut up, Dad, I know you hate my lists.)

1. Horcruxes are a lot like The Ring, in that Sauron basically lives within The Ring. At least, I think that's how it works. For those of you who don't know Horcruxes, they're the objects Voldemort hides pieces of his soul so he'll never die.

2. Gandalf and Dumbledore are basically the same person. They're both really old with really epic beards, and they're also the wisdom figures who guide everybody. Also, it really sucks when they die.

3. Frodo is kind of like Harry. Neither of them are the kind of people you expect to be leading battles and stuff, but they are both in some way "the chosen one".

4. Ring Wraiths. Dementors. Think about it.

So, JK Rowling clearly got a few ideas from JRR Tolkien, possibly even the presentation of her name. Don't get me wrong, I'm still Die-Hard-Potter, but the fact that I've been exposed to both recently has sort of opened my mind a little.
I have to go read a mega stupid book about a 14 year old who corresponds with a philosopher about philosophy. Kill me. It's required for my AP Euro class, and I really can't stand it. I guess it's getting a little more tolerable now that I'm more into it, but it's just not as enjoyable to have to read something.
Well, I've procrastinated enough. See ya'll tomorrow.

It's another "A" month!!

You know what that means! Well, maybe not. That means it's time for Blog Every Day in August! BEDA yeah! Okay, so anyways, all excitement aside. I'm actually having a pretty decent day today, despite the fact that I was out in the hot all day. Today was Zeeland Band Camp day one, and it was lovely. I got to meet some cool new people and hung out with one of my friends for a while. Tomorrow I'm going to watch Lord of the Rings with another friend, so it's shaping up to be a pretty good week.
I'm not totally sure what to write about, but I figured if I missed BEDA day one I'd be off to a pretty horrible start. I've been thinking a lot lately about school starting and stuff. I have a ton of summer work that I have, of course, been putting off, but I'll probably get it all done in time for school. I've also been thinking about NaNoWriMo, or for you non-lingo-savvy folks, National Novel Writing Month. It's in November, and I officially have no clue what to write my novel on. I've been playing around with a few ideas, but nothing has really struck me as a fantastic idea. I was sort of working on a novel this summer, but my files didn't transfer to my new computer, so I'd have to use the old one and that's always in use by someone or other. I have writer's block on this college draft essay I'm supposed to write for my AP Lit class. There are a bunch of topics, and I have a few ideas, but they don't fit well together. Mostly because I have no fracking idea how to write a college essay, and if it's any different than a personal narrative, or what. I'm just a little frustrated. Plus, I'll be starting driver's training next week, so stay off the roads or something. I'm actually kind of excited about it. I just hope I know someone in my class. Well, I will enter again tomorrow, and for those of you who are e-mail subscribed to me, I will clog your inbox this month. Aren't you lucky?