Ok, so maybe my template looks kinda like SEG's, but hey. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or something like that...

Hello all! Welcome to summer. I got sunburnt today by the pool, I've become too lazy for my own good, I went on a date (weirdness), and now I'm staying up late. Those last two rhymed. It's almost too much to handle all at once. I got sunburnt to initiate myself into the summer club. Or, at least, my own summer club. Summer doesn't really start until my first real burn. My upper thighs are bright red. As well as some of my shoulder. Hopefully some will dissipate, and I will be left with peeling skin and then whiteness. All I'm aiming for is to neutralize the blue.

Ok, ok. John Varnier, you win. I'll leave it at that.

So I have to drive to Winston on Tuesday to turn in my Governers School forms. I procrastinated, and the forms that are due Tuesday will have to be mailed Tuesday. The post office is closed on Monday, so I'm up a creek. And I am a terrible driver. I have no navigation skills. Darn it. I hope that they will let me just send it on June 1st and then it gets there like June 2nd (or 3rd). Maybe that will work. I'll give them a call.

Good movie alert: The Day After Tomorrow. Jake Gyllenhal: hot. Movie: full of action and good messages.

Something to look forward to: I Love The 90's on VH1. Yessssssssss.

I love the summer. I really love productive summer days. I organized the bookshelves in my room, slowly and steadily. If I try to totally re-organize my room all at once, I end up becoming really stressed out, I don't finish, and I end up watching random junk television all day. Then I get tired and dehydrated and irritable. No good. So today I felt nice and hydrated, and productive. I threw out a bunch of stuff that was just collecting dust on my bookshelves. It was very cleansing. I'm really excited, because I'll clean out my room and it will be so fresh and so clean (clean) when I come back from Governer's School. Yay! That will make me feel relaxed and happy so that I can soak in the last few days of summer before my ridiculous Senior year.

There is a certain smell and feeling to summer. Something to do with the mixture of my air-drying hair, the air conditioning, outside, and laziness. So maybe they aren't all smells, but it is just a general feeling. It feels nice. I was feeling just regular-school-day-ish yesterday, although it was the last day of my Junior year. So I thought today would feel a bit teacher-workday-ish. But it didn't! It felt totally summery. I think it also has something to do with my flip flops. I only wear them in the summer, for some odd reason, so when I wore them today, it brought me back to good old summer ways.

Tomorrow the pool opens! The (almost) last sign that summer is truly here. Graduation is the true last sign, but it isn't until 7:00 tomorrow night. I have to be up early tomorrow to take Jill and Charlotte to school and Dad to work, and also for Graduation practice at 9:00. Oh, the joys of being a Junior Marshal. I think I also have to fix the J.M. sashes. They are totally weird. Anyway, I'm gonna go watch CSI after Law and Order. Two awesomely great shows.

Hello, all. Welcome to my new and improved blog. I've decided that it's time for a change. The only thing good about my last template was that it changed colors, and that can kinda get old after a year or so. Now I wish I knew some html stuff so I could put links and stuff on here, but I just didn't have any time to take App 2. Summer is bringing a lot of changes, and it's exciting. I am now a Senior, and that means that there's only one more year until I am out of this place we like to call Mount Airy High School. I'm really looking forward to my 6 week respite from Mount Airy. Governers School, here I come.

So tell me how you like the changes and stuff. I'm gonna go extreme clean my room. I'll post later on today.

Driving is a curse if you have younger siblings. I love being able to drive, because I can go places and it isn't an inconvenience. I can go pick up something at the store at the last minute. I have the freedom to drive myself to a movie. It is great. The thing I hate more than anything is having to drive my sisters. I have to drive them to school every morning, and the other day I had to turn around and go back home to get something Charlotte forgot when we were all the way at Ridgecrest, and we were already like 10 minutes late. And Charlotte acted like I was being weird. I definitely parked in teacher parking, because it was my Dad's car. When I drop them off somewhere, and they have something in the trunk, rather than asking me to open the trunk, they just hit it. That works when I'm in the car, but it's not quite as effective when I'm not in it. I had already gotten out of the car, and Charlotte hit the trunk like twice. I told her that the trunk usually opens when somebody pulls the latch, and she said she was just reminding me that it was my duty to open the trunk at all times. I drive them to Pilot every single day after school for swim practice. My mom originally said that I would have to drive them there and either Dad or She would go to pick them up when they were done. Mom has had selective amnesia and now claims that she said that I have to go pick them up afterwards too. "It is your responsibility both ways unless it is impossible." That is just a little annoying, seeing as how she doesn't do anything at the picking up time. Or, at least, either She or Dad is free at the time. Yeah, so today was an exception. Charlotte had voice lessons so I had to drive her to voice, then drive Jill to Pilot (which is 25 or so minutes away for those who dont know), then drive home, then drive to pick Charlotte up from voice (like 10 minutes across town), then drive her to Reeves (for alternate swim practice), then drive home, and then Mom expected me to drive back to Pilot to pick Jill up, then back to Reeves to pick Charlotte up and then home again. Holy freaking cow. It is exhausting just typing all that. Dad ended up going to pick them up. Good thing.

I hate driving. I get road rage when people go slow on the highway. I can't stand to be behind someone who is going slower than I want to go. I hate it. So already today I have driven 46 unwanted miles, and about 6 of those were for myself. Ugh. I would gladly give up my driving privaleges and bum rides all the time, as long as I didn't have to do all that. When Mom threatens to take away my license, she soon realizes that she would have to do all that driving if I didn't have a car. So I get to keep my keys. The only bad thing about this whole situation is that I have no bargaining ground. I don't pay for my own gas, or my insurance, and "my other siblings had to do it too." At least that's what Will says. He likes to point out that he had to drive all of us girls around way back when. So whenever I try to point out the ridiculousness of it all, I am reminded that I could always have to pay for gas and insurance. Basically, I am a teen slave. That's what my mom even said to me one time. If she makes me drive all the time like this next year, when I have all my AP classes, I'm going to go off. Seriously. She's the one that wants me to do good in all of these classes, which is darn near impossible when there are only a couple minutes free in the day. Homework is not productive in the in-between times of the driving. And I have volleyball and stuff. I wish it would all just go away. Next year is gonna be stressful.

Sorry about my ranting and stuff. I'm kinda tired and annoyed, partly because of driving, and partly because people were giving me a hard time in third period. About my boobs. Just cut it out girls, that's just not something you talk about with guys present. Actually, I don't like talking about it ever. Something good that came out of today was my rediscovery of how to play Rook. I'm remembering it, and I'm gonna get some way cool games started this summer. It's gonna rock. Well, I'm off to go sleep or something. Actually, I'm gonna go watch old cartoons or something. Charlotte is trying to read over my shoulder right now, but I kicked her out.

It creeps me out when old people have scrapes and stuff. Like George Bush. Creepy. I love how it is huge news that he fell on his bike. Welcome to the real world, George. We all get scrapes sometimes. Granted, we usually fall down on our bikes when we are first learning, but I feel ya. I fell down while pseudo-mountain biking the other day. Dad said it was easy, and to stand up and go relatively fast. I fell over after like 1 second. And I scraped my leg and got briars in my hair. I just laughed. It was funny. So George, I understand. I just don't like lookin' at ya. Plus, your nose is kinda weird looking. I would never go on TV or anything, because people would always be criticising me. I love to hate people on TV. It is so much fun to make fun of them. Like Erskine Bowles. How hillarious does he look. His facial features are squeezed into the middle of his long face, and then he wears HUGE glasses. Haha. He gets my vote. I bet he's a nice guy. Maybe.

I wish I was in boy scouts instead of girl scouts. Girl scouts is so typically girly. There are badges for shopping, going to the movies, cleaning, cooking, and fasion. It is our big service project to clean up the scout hut. Boy scouts, on the other hand, get to mess up the scout hut. They get badges for pocket knives and fire and camping. Girl scout camping shouldn't even count as camping. We made foil packs at home, then went to a 'campsite.' This sorry imitation of a camp site had platform tents with bunks and a picnic shelter and running water. The only thing that was barely 'roughing it' was the bathroom. A hole in the ground, but there were still stalls over it. My idea of camping is going out into the woods on a trail, setting up an L.L. Bean tent, rolling out the sleeping bag and roasting hot dogs over a camp fire. Going to bed early and waking up early with the morning light. We tried camping like this one time with girl scouts. One group's tent fell down in the middle of the night because it was really fancy and they didn't know how to set it up correctly. They slept in cars that night. Another group lined their luggage around the outside of their tent and it rained in the middle of the night, so it all got soaked. My tent, however, was perfectly set up (thanks to instructions from my dad). Neither our luggage nor our sleeping bags (or our selves for that matter) touched the edge of the tent. I had a great night sleep. It was awesome, but it was never going to happen again with this troop. Girl scouts just aren't that fun. I wish they would get rid of that stereotype. Girls selling cookies and having names like "Daisies" and "Brownies." The boys get to be cubs and stuff. Man, this makes me really want to go camping. And to start some fires. And to break some glass. Typical boy stuff.

As I sit here in front of my computer screen, I am overcome with lack of ideas. What shall I write about? My last day of school is Wednesday. My shoes that I must wear for graduation hurt like heck. I need to read in Catcher in the Rye. This blog is pointless. Since there is nothing to write about, I'll just save my energy and blog tomorrow.

Life is life. School is school and, thankfully, almost over. I am tired, and Joan of Arcadia was thought provoking. Summer is almost here, and I couldn't be more glad. Yearbooks are everywhere, and it is getting kinda old. I'm no good at writing in yearbooks. Only when I absolutely have to write a lot will I even do it. I've been very productive today. After school, I was very productive. I drove to Pilot, went to see Shrek 2 by myself (matinee price... i don't go to full priced movies), came home and worked on my Englilsh paper (Emma "The Yellow Dart" Refvem), then watched Joan of Arcadia. Shrek 2 was absolutely great. Maybe even greater than the first one. Holy cow, I need that soundtrack. I was very impressed with Shrek 1's soundtrack, and from what I heard Shrek 2's should be just as good. Now I am anxiously awaiting a couple things: my cell phone cover's arrival in the mail (yay!), Will's arrival, the last day of school (yay yay yay), and lots and lots of sleep. Oh, and Governer's school. Looking forward to the fun times awaiting me. Right now I think I am too tired and slightly paranoid to produce a good blog. I become insecure and paranoid at night. And really really tired. But I'll just go have some caffeine and get over the tired part. Nighty night, folks!

whoa there, that was a pretty long post!

So I'm done with my AP Stats project. Now all I need to do is finish my english paper.

ooh ooh ooooh! It stormed today! And I was at home to enjoy it. Usually the storms are in 4th period, but today 4th period was at a different time, so I was at home doing my Stats. The only bad thing about the storm was that I had to walk through the rain and get my pants wet (there was a line so you could see where my rain coat stopped... haha).

The awards ceremony was today. Or should I say the Alexander Preston Tilley awards. Yep, he racked up 5. Whatever. I mean, could we brag a little more Alex? Seriously. Show some modesty. Nobody likes a cocky guy. Nobody. I know I don't. He even tried to tell me that my Pre-Cal award was kinda sketchy because he had it with Coach Hayes, so he might have gotten it. As if 5 wasn't enough. Uggh.

Yeah, so summer is approaching, and I couldn't be more dang happy. I'm so excited, I just can't hide it. That's another thing that's been happening to me a lot lately. I have song lyrics for everything I say. A lot of times when it is a regular conversation, The topic will remind me of a song and I'll start singing it. And then, of course, I get it stuck in everybody's head. Haha.

Tomorrow are the elections. I'm nervous. There are 4 levels of nervousness/apprehension in my mind. (from the most superficial on down) Level 1: Hey, maybe I'll win! Level 2: No, then again I probably won't Level 3: But there is still a chance Level 4: Definitely not. No chance at all, because I've never won anything before. Why start now? I get kind of confused. I start feeling one level and then it switches and I start getting that mixed-up-feelings knot in my stomach and I desperately try to change the subject in my brain. So I start singing songs, only it doesn't usually work. Then tomorrow in 4th period or whenever they announce the winners, I get that knot in my stomach and I get really nervous and then they announce the winner and I get really sad. I get over it the next day. It really depressed me one year when Jill and I were both running for secretary (at our different schools). We both lost, but Mom sent Jill a teddy bear and a balloon or something in class. All I got was this random comment: "oh Emma, I didn't think you'd be too dissapointed because you never win." Ok, maybe it was not exactly that, but I'm pretty sure it was close. Whatever.

Happy Weekend everybody! I'm going to go see Shrek 2 on Friday and then work all day at Church on Saturday. (Bingo, baby!!) Adios!

Sorry about that, guys. Life's going back to its old hectic ways. Right now, though, I'm feeling a little ditched. And sad. I'm supposed to be at Sami's birthday party in Winston, but a)I don't know how to get there, b)The people that said they would call me haven't called me and we were supposed to leave at 4:30, and c)I just don't know why. It makes me kind of mad, but whatever. And I'm kind of depressed because elections depress me. Oh well. I was in love with the 80's again today. "you threw it away... to fall in love with the 80's" -Relient K. Maybe that was a random quote, but whatever. Yearbooks cheer me up. I like having people sign my yearbooks, and this is the first year where they have been whole pages. Ahh! I guess it's because there is more room. That's probably why. I like memories, and my signings have been pretty high quality this year. Good job, people.

So I've had Vanilla Ice stuck in my head all day. I have some of it memorized: "alright stop. collaborate and listen. ice is back with my brand new invention. something grabs a hold of me tightly. flow like a harpoon daily and nightly. will it ever stop? i don't know. turn of the lights... and i glow. to the extreme i rock the mike like a vandall. light up the stage and wax the chump like a candle... [...] if there's a problem, yo, i'll solve it. check out the hook while my d.j. revolves it" Whoa there. I cannot believe that I just wrote the lyrics for Ice Ice Iroquois... i mean Ice Ice Baby. Weirdness. Well now I'm going to go read The Catcher in the Rye. I love it more and more each time I read it. Oh Holden Caulfield. Gotta love the kid. I wish I could date him, because he isn't a 'phony.' I got a t-shirt at the Goodwill today. It says "Don't Mess with Texas" on the back. And some lonestar steakhouse or something on the front. I was born in Texas, in case you didn't know. This blog is a random stream of thoughts coming from my head. aaaaaaaah random. I think I'm just putting off my stats project. putting it off, putting it off... Ok this is all one paragraph and I'm sorry if it's hard to read. There, I just fixed it. But I won't go back and erase that sentence because I think it is better that way. Peace out, dudes.

Sorry about the delay in posting. The last two nights I've tried to post, but blogger was being weird. Anyway, I had a pretty good day yesterday. I had lunch at my Dad's office, because a Vioxx rep. bought them lunch. It was by far the best barbeque I've ever had. The potato salad and ridiculously greasy hush puppies were great too. Quite a successful lunch, if you ask me. And it was free! Score! Then in 4th period, we went to see the prison prevention program. Whoa there. It was an old southern guy with a power point presentation and a ridiculous accent. He told us one time that the inmates had an 'aer' to take a 'shaer.' I cracked up. Babs Merritt cracked up too, she was sitting right beside me. His jokes made us laugh even more. He was talking about what the inmates eat, and when he said something about a mystery meat that could have been roadkill. "Have you ever heard of a himalayan possum?" "no..." "when you're drivin', you se him-a-layin on the road." Quite hillarious. Poor guy. Right. So after school I went to see 13 going on 30 with Emmy and Kristin and Jill and Ashley Case and Anne Lamm. Fun times. I loved that movie. It made me so happy. Afterwards, Emmy and I went to Goody's and Wal Mart where I bought the soundtrack. It once again confirms my love of the 80's. I can't wait till that comes out on video so I can buy it and watch it a lot. Yay!!!

Right now, I'm going to go shopping and then later I'm going to go work at Build-A-Dream. Shopping is not always my favorite thing, but I think it will be this time. Oh yeah! Great news! I found my old Wal Mart hippie skirt! I'm in love with that skirt. I'm going to wear it to church or to school or both.

P.S.- Tell all your friends to vote for Emma and Taylor. Because we probably won't win. We need all the help we can get.

My life is weird lately. I never have any homework, I don't have a third period, people are in bad moods all over the place, I'm running for an office again, volleyball is starting up again, and the one constant relationship in my life (actually not in my life) is no longer a relationship. It's been almost four years! It is so weird for it to be over. Not as if we didn't already have enough drama at MAHS. So now I have to deal with everything that goes along with that. Friends are forming their opinions etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

My sisters were in bad moods today. It was really weird. They totally flipped out over the randomest things. For a second I thought it was my fault, but when I looked back on it, the whole situation was really random. They are all in bad moods now because they have papers to write or people to talk to, and I'm taking up the use of one computer with my seemingly meaningless blogs. Oh you guys. Just cut it out.

Happy 200th blog, everybody! It's exciting to know that I've been blogging for over a year now. I know some of these blogs have been really short, and some have been really boring. Some may have been pointless, but nonetheless, I've been blogging somewhat consistenly for 200 blogs. I'm proud of myself. Since I got 5 minutes on the computer for this blog, and I only have one minute left, I guess this is goodbye. I'm going to go brush my dog, Lucy. She sheds a lot. "are you shedding me?" Adios!

Whoa there, blogger has some changes!!! Weirdness. I was tempted to change my template, but I'm satisfied with my color changing madness. Breaking news: I'm running for student body prez. w/ Taylor Clark. If you go to MA, vote for us. If not, tell anybody you know who does go to MA to vote for us. I'm pretty pumped. It is interesting to me that I run every year, yet I haven't won even once. Maybe my time has come. If not, than haha it is hillarious. My mom is really excited that big airplanes came in and saved the day on 24 today. I love watching Tony and Jack, two melodramatic, intense characters, face off. It was the battle for the overly-dramatic voiced male costars. Quite funny. I think 24 should stop trying to be known for its acting. Stick to action scenes and bomb threats and terrorism. Thanks. Okey dokey, ta ta for now folks!

Who knew Hanson would make a comeback? Certainly not me. That little drummer boy (hah) has grown up. Kinda cute. Cuter than the middle one with the long hair. The long haired one's married anyway. Today was the laziest Saturday I've had in a while. I loved it. I sat around, went to see a movie, then sat around some more, went on a bike ride, then watched another movie. It feels good to sit around. I can't wait for summer, where I can chill out all day. Chilling is fun. Oh yeah, and I have a 'battle wound' from our bike ride. I tried off-roading, but I just fell over into the grass and my bike pedal scraped my leg. It was funny because nobody saw it. And life is good right about now, I don't have schoolwork to do! I just need to do my Stats project. I think I'm going to do some research on death rates and stuff. Hanging out at the cemetary should boost my social life. Hah. Well I'm going to go to bed. I love sleep. Adios, and I hope you have a good night sleep too!

So I got to babysit today. And I did say "got to" because it was really easy. I played some video games, then he and his friend went and played outside. I sat on my knockoff crazy creek and read Gatsby for English class. Then we watched the cartoon version of The King and I. It was muy mal. Since it was a cartoon, they had to add some really creepy evil guy who looks through a looking glass like Ursula did in The Little Mermaid. I thought it was too much of a digression from the original, so I didn't really watch it. It was too kid-ifyed. That isn't a word, sorry. So after earning $20, I went with Ashley and Casey to the secret spot. What a place. That's all I can really say. It was fun times.

I'm so excited that it is warm now. I'm going to sleep on my hammock all day tomorrow until I go see Mean Girls and then I'm going to sleep on it some more. I don't have anything to do on Sunday except maybe go buy some baby stuff for extra credit and then have lunch and/or dinner with my mom. It is mother's day, after all. I'm going to go sleep in for the first time in a loooooong time. Thank goodness. Tata!

Hello, all. I'm about to go watch the Finale of Friends. A sad event for some, but I don't watch it religiously, so I'm not that dissapointed. I'm really excited that I don't have a 3rd period anymore. I went home and did my English research online. It was awesome. I loved it. Tomorrow, I might nap. Yes, sounds good. Or watch the Joan of Arcadia I taped last week. Well I'll be going now, sorry for the shortness. Oh well.

Hey folks. I have some good news. I have switched email providers! I have been seriously frustrated with hotmail for a good while now, so I finally switched to this Gmail offered by google. Sounds like fun. so here it is: refvemma@gmail.com. Original, I know. What can I say? It never gets old. So email me please so I know your address and so I get some emails. You don't even have to say hey. Just send me an email. That's it. Do it. Now.

oh yeah, I think this is the first time that I actually posted when I thought I wasn't going to. Usually, I just forget to post when I said I was going to. yay!

You weren't expecting a post, were you? Haha, fooled you!!! I just got back from my AP Stats Cram Session. Fun times with Coach Hayes. He is so much more hillarious than Sarah Gammons because he says funny little things, and Sarah isn't that funny. Now I am going to study for AP Stats while watching 10.5 on NBC. It was recommended to me by Jordan Pike and Andrew Snyder, who say it is hillarious. I can't wait.

So the weekend is over. Finally. I have to say that Saturday was quite possibly the longest day of my life. It was exhausting. I'm sure glad that's behind me.

SAT: hard, but understandibly so. I think I improved in Math but either stayed the same or got lower in Verbal.

Prom: stressful, akward at times, somewhat overrated, generally a good time. I looked pretty but pale. I looked like a ghost standing next to Audra and Ashley. Oh well. My hair was comfortable and my shoes were not. The steak was awesome but the Hummer situation was not. The socializing at the actual dance was great, the dancing, not so great. After party? What after party. We made an appearance at the FBC breakfast but I decided I was just trying to keep myself awake at that point, so we went home. I'm somewhat glad.

Church: Quest was good, but there wasn't a point to my being in the service. I just led the seniors in and didn't even get recognized. But it was worth it because we sang 'rise and shine and give God the glory glory'. It made me campsick, but it also made me happy because I'm going to make more friends this summer.

Piano Recital: I only messed up a little bit on my third piece, but I think I recovered nicely. Nicer than Jill and Charlotte. The duet was fun times.

Youth: Hillarious. When I showed up, Rebs was in the midst of being 'pulled over' in the Neighbor's parking lot. I called her and got the scoop with Taylor and John cracking up and yelling across the street. Hillariousness. At actual youth it was funny because we were talking about sex and middle schoolers were there. It was fun times. The whole thing.

Now: I want to go to sleep, because I am muy tired. Oh yeah, and I didn't finish my Stats practice test because I think I left my calculator at the SAT. Oh no. Good think it has my name on it and it's at MAHS.

AP Stats Exam: You can bet I'll be cramming tomorrow night, so don't expect a post. Just wish me luck.

Shoutout to Shmimmy. One word: repulsive.

and so it begins.

I'm sad because the seemingly enjoyable event of Prom has been overshadowed by the SAT, my AP Stats exam, and fretting over my future. I hate fretting over my future. Who cares about the SAT? I wish I didn't, but I do. Now my separation from my friends is becoming more evident in that I refuse to squander my money and hurt the environment and I am not going to their party after Prom. That's what I get for standing my ground, I guess. I wish that this school year was over, and I can get on with my senior year. Hopefully, I will have absolutely no life and won't go anywhere because of my rigorous academic schedule. I won't even have to try to go places. It will just be a given that I am always studying. Oh well. I'm really tired, and really stressed about the SAT. I need to stop it. So what if I don't go up. I'm just going to let it be. And if I totally bomb the AP stats exam, well then ok. Why not. I'll just take it again in college. And, no matter how well I do on the SAT, I'll still get in to a lot of colleges with my previous score. See, I'm already feeling better about myself. Good for me. And I have the summer to look forward to. Six weeks of new people and new experiences and fun without unneccesary drama. I cannot wait. I just have to make it through next Tuesday. Once again I'm sad that Prom's excitement factor has been extremely dampened. I'm looking forward to it. Really.

I seem to be under a lot of stress lately. It is evident in this pimple that is in the middle of my nose and makes me look like Rudolph. Ahh, the power of concealer. Hopefully all the stress will go away after May 4th, the dreaded day of my AP Stats Exam. On Saturday, I have to do a number of unfamiliar things, which are bound to be exhausting. I have to take the SAT. It tires my brain and makes me think about college, which I don't want to face until I have to. It also is just really hard and stressful. Then I have to get my hair done, something that I've never done before and that I don't plan on doing all that much. I also have to get my makeup done, and I never wear makeup. I will have to wear makeup from around 3 PM to really really late at night/early in the morning. It is a new experience. Also, I will have to wear a formal, strapless dress and high heels for a long time, also something I have never done. After all this Prom business, the next morning I actually have to go to church and lead in the Seniors because I'm the only Junior Marshall that goes to our church. Then I have a piano recital, and then I'm going to a pool party. The piano recital is stressful because I haven't mastered one of my songs and haven't practiced the others enough. I have no idea when any of my homework for the weekend will get done. And to top it all off, I have the AP Stats Exam. Holy freaking cow. Well, I'm going to go do my Pre-Cal homework, just another load on my back. Whatever. Carpe Diem. The weekend is almost here, which means it's almost over.

ahhh once again no updates. oh, here's one: i'm not paying $100 and my date isn't paying a separate $100 to ride in a gas-guzzling, stretch, white hummer limo for my junior prom. sorry!

nothing to post about. long day, long week ahead, holy cow saturday is going to be really long, bye.

Just got back from a day of college touring. Fun times. I had to wake up at 6 AM to be at Carolina by 8 for this 'Carolina 101' thing. Very informational. My tour guide wasn't the best in the world, there were probably many better ones we could have recieved. Darn. After the day at Carolina, we stopped by Duke and had a peek at the West Campus. Pretty. As we were driving in, it reminded me of Stanford's drive in, only totally easternized. When you drive in at Stanford, it is a straight road lined with palm trees leading up to the mission-style chapel, the Hoover Tower right behind, and rolling hills behind all that. At Duke, the road was lined with oaks and stuff, and the road led up to a huge, gothic-style chapel/tower. It was funny to see the similarities. After Duke, we went to Four Seasons mall to get Prom soes, then to Carrabbas for Dinner. Apparently it is somebody in the Greensboro area's Prom, because there were tons of limos and girls in Prom dresses. I wouldn't have chosen Carrabba's, but whatever floats your boat. Now I'm sitting here, lamenting the fact that: a) I'm not at college; b) I don't have a 'best friend'; and c) Stats stinks. So instead of staying awake, I'm going to sleep for a long time. Me gusta dormir.

yesssssssssss it's storming. i love storms.

Today I worked at the YL spaghetti supper. It was fun, I guess. I liked hanging with the people, and I like waitressing, but I had no other motives. I don't need money for camp or anything, I just donated my time. What fun. Now I'm sad because I have to wake up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday. Yeah, I'm going to Chapel Hill for a tour. 'Carolina 101'. Whatever. I guess I'm excited. I'm kind of in a bad mood because I'm so tired. I can't stop myself from saying whatever. This is turning out to be one of those forced blogs where I have to think after almost every sentence. I don't like continuing with those types. So I won't.

oh, and I didn't go rollerblading because of my aching back. It doesn't really ache, just kind of sharp pains when I put pressure on my left leg. But I'm sure you all really wanted to know that. Whatever.

My day was so average today. It really makes me kind of sad. I went to school, did some hard stuff, drove to pilot, came home, and did some homework. The only really exciting thing was watching CSI. And It wasn't that exciting. My back hurts too. It depresses me. All I want is to sleep. Forever. And be done with AP Stats. Forever. I wish that we knew what we were doing in that class. It helps if the teacher teaches, but whatever works. When she threatens to make us copy down notes from the book instead of listening to her, it almost sounds better. I would probably get more out of the section if I did it that way. I think I did good on our tests today, but just because I think that, I will not do good. And I'm really hoping that Mrs. George will let us not come to 3rd period for 2 weeks so we can 'work on our projects' at home. I wish. Just because I really want that to happen, it won't. I can honestly not think of one time when I've wanted something really bad and actually gotten it. Whatever. I'm not saying good things don't happen, because they do. I think I have too high expectations. Maybe being a pessimist is more fun. You are never dissapointed. But I really don't think an optimist can switch over to a pessimist of their own conscious thought. I would always be optimistic, deep down inside, and still be dissapointed if it didn't go my way. Maybe everybody is like that. I bet pessimism is just for people to cover up their true feelings, as if it makes it any better when they don't get what they really want. Oh well. I'm going to go to sleep now. I heart sleep.

Is a bad attitude contagious? It seems that way. Today was full of bad attitudes. First it was Jill because she didn't get enough sleep, then it was Mom, then it was Ms. Sarah Gammons at the HS regarding our AP Stats seating assignments. I mean come on. It has got to be some kind of illegal to stop me from asking Alex for help. He and I are on the same level. If I ask Ms. G a question, she sets me back like 27 steps to explain it to me, and she doesn't really ever understand what I'm asking. You know what they say... 'those who can't do, teach. those who can't teach, teach gym.' So true. Then Mom was in a bad mood again, then Jill about band or something, and finally it was Dad. Dad's was really random. He asked me to move t.v.'s in the middle of the OC and I asked if I could wait for a commercial break. I thought he said yes, so I kept on watching. After like 5 minutes he got really hostile and mean. Weird. Whatever. I only got in a bad mood because of the contagious bad moods. Now my hip hurts and I have to take an AP Stats test tomorrow. Uggh. But tomorrow, after school and pilot taxiing, I plan on rollerblading on the walking trail. Just me, my CD player, and some rollerblades. Ahh the joys of solitude. And endorphins from exercising. Ok, now I'm going to sleep for 8.5 hours. Halleluia.

example of my 'song sticking':

sbscheerqueen: i've had that freaking "i wish i was in the land of cotton" song in my head all day long!

I am slightly alarmed by events in my life lately. The first is my obsession with driving my mom's car. It is a Yukon XL. In case you don't know, it rivals the Ford Excursion in size. Huge. Massive. Ridiculous. I feel like I take up 2 lanes when I drive it. I can barely park it. When we went to Kyoto the other day, my attempt to park in just one spot failed and I ended up right smack dab in the middle of two spots. Why am I obsessed with it? Probably for the same reason my mom is. It is a power trip. I feel bigger than all of the cars on the road. Quite a change from my Corolla (who i have named billy). Billy is so small, he could probably fit underneath the Yukon. If it had an open back, I could probably park Billy in the trunk of the Yukon. I feel very powerful in Mom's car. I get to drive it tomorrow, and I'm really excited. The second alarming thing is my recent 'infatuation' with rap songs. Just the funny ones. I was exposed to a couple yesterday while listening to the XM radio in Mom's car. "Ladies is pimps too, go on brush your shoulders off." "You wanna be a wanksta but you aint got none" or something like that. They are funny. It is also funny to say it in 'white language' in front of people who have heard it before. They find it hillarious. Like today, I said to Audra: "Hey, I think I've got something on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me?" So tomorrow when I drive the tanker, I'll be sure to listen to some more rap. And then get it stuck in everybody's head.

I'm blogging right now because I promised Leash I'd post every day this week, and I probably won't have time to do a late night post. Too much homework and chores and stuff. My room is really messy because I have been trying to find some shorts and summery clothes. I guess I'll have to do some rearranging. And some laundry.

My grandparents made a visit this weekend. I didn't know my Dad's parents would be arriving on Thursday until it was already Wednesday night. Oops! I guess I'm out of the loop. They left yesterday... it was a fun visit. Now my grandma from England (la madre de mi madre) is here. She brought back some British candy. I much prefer chocolate from Britain to chocolate here. It's much sweeter. Her arrival is bittersweet, though, because I have to give up driving whenever I want. She gets to use my car while she's here. That whole thing is bittersweet because although I won't be able to sleep in late and drive myself places, I won't have to drive Jill and Charlotte everywhere. That is really nice.

I think I'll go do some laundry or something. And some homework. Yeah... that sounds good.

Hello All... I write to you in shorts and a t-shirt and I am still burning up. How the heck is it 88 degrees? I don't know. But it's annoying. I also write to you with a farmers-sunburn. Yesterday was a heck of a busy day for me. First I woke up at 7:30 to go to the March of Dimes, where I walked 6 miles around town. I am really sore and I walk like a grandma after I've been sitting down for a while. After MOD I had Rocka Fest where I worked all day at the Interact booth which was ridiculously underwhelming. We were sitting on the football field which has absolutely no shade. Needless to say, I'm sunburnt. Only, it's probably going to go away by Monday and I'll only have freckles as proof that I was out in the sun. Story of my life. After eating dinner with my Grandparents, I went to Mo' Rocka. It was good, though I'm sad I missed the bands from our school. I showed up in the middle of "Only on Sunday." They were pretty good. So now I'm really glad all of that is over, I was becoming a little bit stressed. Now I'm off to Church and stuff. Au revoir.

Holy Cow, guys!! We missed the 1st birthday of my blog! It turned 1 on March 6. Happy Belated Birthday, blog! And thanks to Brad for reminding me...

I am (fortunately or unfortunately... you choose) the queen of getting songs stuck in people's heads. All you have to do is start singing a catchy tune and people will sing along. I do it all the time. Example 1- I started singing "I can't see me lovin nobody but you for all my life..." before class. Later on, I heard a couple people singing it. My work was a success! Example 2- I heard Avril Lavigne ("did you think that I was gonna give it up to you this time") on the way to school, so I sang it at lunch and got Audra singing it. Then I wrote her a note with the lyrics. Definitely stuck. The thing is, I don't mind having songs stuck in my head, because I can either relish it or replace it with a new one, because I am the one who started it. When somebody else gets one stuck in my head, it is annoying and never goes away. That's what I do to people. Annoying, maybe... but I am enriching their daily musical experience. I sang the Sesame Street song in Spanish, very timidly, and got a chuckle out of Ms. Ucinska. I didn't sing it enough for it to catch on, though. Too bad. I often find myself singing about random things. I'll just sing my hello to somebody instead of saying it. Or maybe I'll sing some part of something I say. It randomly happens. My day becomes more and more like a musical and less and less boring. Whatever it takes, I say. For all of you dying to get a song stuck in your head (and I know a lot of you are...) I'll give you some suggestions. "I just died in your arms tonight... it must have been something you said" (Journey, I think...) or "Don't waste your time on me, you're already the voice inside my head" (Blink 182). I can't think of any more right now. Have fun!

There's nothing quite like being serenaded by my slightly tone-deaf mother singing along to a dog food commercial on a Sunday night. Gotta love it. I love weekends. If only they happened more often. And if only my next three weren't jam packed with things to do. But next weekend will end up well... hopefully. I hope these bands don't suck after a long day of march-of-diming and rock-a-festing. Fun times. Hopefully it will be warm and I can get a farmers tan. Hey... at least it's a tan, right? Hah. So I apologize for my lack of subject matter on which to comment. I have to start exercising again to work off those Cadbury Eggs. Those are good. So maybe tomorrow I'll have some good things to comment on. For now, I must go finish The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I like English class. Mrs. Carson is so... thoughtful. Okey dokey... off to Jim and Huck and Tom.

I went to Hickory (h-k-weeezy) this weekend to have a Shmimmy reunion. It was much fun indeed. Now I'm sad to be back in Mayberry. I went to see Jerry Chapman and the Evil Herbivores along with Joel Calloway at the Good Life tonight, and it was also a lot of fun. I was there for a substantial amount of time, where I sat with Leash and roasted marshmallows (fun times!), sat on the couch with mi padre, and sang along. They really got into it, and had a great jam session on the last song. 'Takin Care of Business'. Tons of fun. I'm proud of myself for sitting on the couch with my dad and not in that loud room of boys my age. Sometimes I just like listening to the music, not having a social gathering. Back to Hickory. It was tons-o-fun! I had some great experiences. A Shabat (sp?) dinner with Shmimmy's Jewish friends, Lazer Tag with some more of her friends, watching The Prince and Me, shopping, sleeping for 12 hours, watching Wet Hot American Summer. Total fun times to the max. Okey dokey, it's now bedtime. Happy Easter, folks!

P.S.- I got yet another CD on Saturday after my CD post. Howie Day. Quite good. Oh, and on Sunday night, I had my first 'gig,' at the Church. Fun times!

Life is kinda funny. More specifically, high school is kinda funny. Everyone is worried about what people think or who is saying what or who likes who and why and stupid stuff like that. Things are akward a lot of the time, and people are totally immature. Sometimes I wish I could just tune out the rest of high school and fast forward to college or something. College will probably be just like high school, but at least a higher percentage of people will be mature- at least that's what I'm hoping. Maybe I should sit everybody in the high school down and tell them that life is a whole heck of a lot easier if you don't take everything so seriously. Have a little fun, people! Not the kind of fun that is only funny until the wrong person finds out about it, but the fun that lasts forever, and then you remember it later and it still makes you happy. This is the way I've lived my life so far, and I don't really have enemies. Some people may not like me, but I don't dwell on it, and it goes away. It can be so easy, yet most people make it so hard. Instead of dwelling on what look somebody gave somebody else and all the possible meanings, why not just think about funny things? High school is mainly annoying because nobody has self-esteem or self-worth. People only have self-preservation. What will make them the happiest in the long run. What friends will get them the right connections. Who cares?

Whoa... blogging at nigt is a whole other experience, and I like it. I seem to have the same theme when this happens, though. I guess that shows that it really is some sort of problem. Right now I'm concentrating on how fun the Biltmore trip is gonna be, and how great it is that I'm going to Hickory this weekend. My escape! I love it!! Oh now I guess it's time for bed. Life is funny. Sometimes comically funny, other times the odd kind of funny.

Lately I've been buying a lot of CD's. I got over the whole burning thing because by the time I got them on CD I was already sick of them and I never listened to it. Now I get a whole lot more songs that I wouldn't have gotten on a mix. I like this way a whole lot better. I used to have a bad CD collection, and now I'm building on it. I have some really good stuff. Every time I listen to a CD, I remember how I felt when I first listened to it. For example: Right now I'm listening to Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers, and I'm remembering how I felt and what I was doing when I got it. I was babysitting and I went with the kid to go get some donuts at Krispy Kreme, but when we got there he said he didn't want any so I went and got this CD and then we went to the Talent Show @ MAHS. Cool. Another CD that brings back memories like that is my Paul Simon: on my way... compilation CD. I got it after YLS one time and then that weekend I went to YL Windy Gap and had "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" in my head all weekend. It is like a domino effect, because I start thinking about memories a long time ago. Who needs pictures?? not me... just give me CD's.

Today I had a slight out of body experience in Youth Leadership Surry. I was writing my name and I was wondering if my name fit w/ my personality, because I didn't feel very 'emma' today. I looked at it and got the weirdest feeling that I wasn't me and what I would think of someone named Emma if I didn't know me. You know, if I would match what people think an 'Emma' would be like. It was really weird. It was so weird that I tried to savor it for a long time so I would be able to write about it. Just when I was getting a pretty good grasp on it, I lost the feeling. Then I wrote on my hand to remember to blog about it. It was an awesomely weird feeling. I get those every once and a while and I like to write abou them. Okey dokey, I must go read Huck Finn... I feel bad because I think this blog would have been better if I wasn't rushing to go read. Whatever. Okey dokey folkey's... au revoir!

I'm trying to build callouses. Wish me luck.

bohemian rhapsody... in pictures

Things that make me happy:

- playing bass guitar
- that 6-flags commercial
- reminiscing about good ol' refvem/menear quality fun times on Grandview
- thinking about governer's school
- typing with semi-formed callouses on my fingers
- getting out of spanish class to help Nancy w/ her Pre-Cal while she's in Journalism
- wearing glow-in-the-dark shoes
- finishing my homework early
- sleep

woot woot i'm gonna learn the bass guitar

Holy Cow spring is almost here. It makes me bastante happy. I love wearing shorts and not feeling overly hot, and I like wearing pants and a short sleeved t-shirt at night, and not needing a jacket. I hate winter. Yay!!!

Right, so last night I went to see SNL. Fun times to the max. Highlights of the evening included Deep Thoughts with Brad Clifton... totally cracking me up, Coach Belton playing Coach Price... yet again cracking me up, and some great political humor. Gotta love it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't wait till next year's... maybe I'll be in it, if I don't die from all these AP classes I'm gonna take. I might just die. It is quite possible.

News flash: I've just discovered what my wardrobe lacks- dresses. I have all the shorts and t-shirts I could ever want, and so spring shopping would be merely trivial and possibly useless if I just looked for these things. In the past, I have never needed dresses for the summer because I've been going to Cheerio, where one can get by with maybe a skirt or two. When I'm at home in the summer, I just wear a jean skirt or my white linnen pants with various t-shirts. This summer, however, I'll be needing some dresses for Gov's School. Fun times. I guess that means I'll have to do some dress shopping soon. I like getting clothes shopping done all at one time. Otherwise I get really tired and headachey and it loses its fun... fast. So I guess some random free saturday I'll go buy some dresses. Sounds like fun.

Quote of the Day:

"I have no professional training. I already gave my best. I have no regrets at all." -William Hung

Sometimes I think that I want to stay up late and watch Law and Orders and have fun like that. Then days like today happen, and I am quickly brought back to reality. I must sleep now. For a long time.

Sometimes I like being a girl. Other times I despise my fellow females, porque they give us bad reputations. When I think about things like Prom, I initially think: "Yay! I get to get dressed up in a pretty dress with pretty makeup and pretty shoes and dance and have a date!!" and other fun things like that. Then I talk to my friends, and I forget about the fun parts and start thinking about who will be mad if we go here with them, or why this person is going with this person, and on and on and on like that. It ruins it. I think from now on, I want to concentrate on the fun aspects of Prom, and stop talking about the messy stuff. If it gets messy, I'll just start thinking about other fun things. My life doesn't revolve around the drama involved with Prom. Sometimes I just can't wait for summer, where I will be away from it all. I'll meet new friends and have fun and then there won't be any drama. Oh, there might be... but I'll just ignore it like I'll do now. See? It's easy. I'll just think about fun things, like the fact that it's getting warmer and I can break out my T-shirts. Or the fact that my hair is getting longer and more fun to play with. Or going to see SNL this Saturday. That's fun! See, I'm getting over it already. Thanks for listening, guys!!!

Today it's Saturday, but it feels like Sunday. Yesterday was Friday, but it felt like Saturday. Weird how that works. If it keeps going on that trend, will tomorrow feel like Monday? Or will tomorrow feel like a 'regular' Sunday, and today just feels like a 'blast from the past' Sunday... back when Dad was on the computer all the time and I had nowhere to go but home. These days, Sundays are hecka crowded. This week has been interesting. Full of thought and introspection. Do I want to go to Stanford when Davidson is really nice too just a little cheaper and closer? Do I want to make up a major at Davidson and have to write a 100 page thesis as a senior? What is Governers School gonna be like? Why don't any prom dress stores ever have a size 11/12? Why did two freshman get to go up on quiz bowl when I've been here for 3 years? Why can't Mrs. Stanley ever make any decisions? Oh, and Why did the two freshman she chose happen to be the ones that just flirt in practice and never get anything done, while others of us (yes US) answer questions? These are some questions that I will have to think about for a while. Which is why there is one more day of spring break. Halleluia. I have one more day to relax before the chaos we like to call school commences. Halleluia.

So on Thursday I toured Davidson. Nice and small and cute. Very cute. It cracks me up that they assign roomates using the Myers-Briggs. Ha, ha, ha and ha. Will and I have decided that Myers's wife was an INFP and his overbearing mom was an ESTJ. Silly man. I can't wait to see what my real results are. Mom thinks that the version I took was biased because it was abbreviated and will read it to me. Hah.

Today I hiked Stone Mtn. I like hiking after I have hiked, because I forget about the terrible pain I went through on the way up. Oxygen decreases as the need for it increases. Hiking up the rock is the worst part. Then it becomes all fun and games and stuff. And then I remember the part of hiking that I like. From the top I could see Camp Cheerio and it made me sad. Very sad. I wish I was there. Pooey. Now I'm going to Governer's School West at Salem College instead of my favorite place in the world with my favorite people in the world. But now I'm excited to meet new people an have tons of fun this summer. Wow I'm sounding like a totally cheezy person trying to apply to get to go to Governers School or something. Whatever. Ok, nothing else to say. Adios.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm back. The bad news is that I'm not in California, and it's cold. I'll get over it. We got a new computer- a Dell. Of course I'm going to say it- "Dude, You're gettin' a Dell". Too bad that guy got fired or something... doobies will do that to ya. This computer rocks. Now I can get on the computer without it randomly dying or anything.

So it's spring break, and nobody around here is doing anything. A lot of Juniors are visiting college campuses, myself included. Tomorrow I'll go tour Davidson... and then go shopping. (there's always an ulterior motive) Spring Break really sucks when it's in the 40's or 50's. It ruins the whole atmosphere. Soon the sun will start shining, and the temperature will start rising, and the school administration will keep cracking down on short skirts/shorts. I'm seriosly thinking of converting to capri's from here on out. Ok, maybe not. I'll still wear my long shorts. Ok who am I kidding? My shorts aren't that short, my arms are just ridiculously long. I haven't been called out in the past two years for anything of that nature, so as long as I don't make any drastic wardrobe changes, I'll be alright.

On another note... Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you are not wearing green, consider yourself pinched by me. I could probably fool a few people into thinking that I'm Irish, but I can't really back that up. Just the red hair. Ok, it's time for me to depart. If you see any leprochauns (whoa i don't know how to spell that)... tell them I said "Top o' the mornin to ya".

I never want to leave this place. It is 80 degrees. There are palm trees. It is beautiful. I visited Stanford today. Holy cow that place is huge. There are a moderate amount of people there (14,000 - 6500 undergrad, 7500 grad) and the campus is about 8,000 acres. whoa there. Most of it is wildlife preserve, so the actual buildings cover about 2,500 acres. My feet and my brain hurt. So much to take in. I don't want to go back to 50 degree weather. Darn it. I'll savor it while I can. Ok... I must depart for dinner at Chevy's. You probably don't know what that is... it's a CA thing. hah. Oh yeah, and on Sunday I got to go to In-N-Out. Just one of the many things I love about this state.

Greetings to you all from a computer that works. Too bad I had to travel all the way to California to get it. That's right, I'm in California. I haven't posted for the past 8 days because our computer has finally decided to stop working. It was inevitable. I am here in 80 degree weather in the Bay Area of California. My spring break started by leaving Stats early to drive to Greensboro, where I took a 40 minute flight to Charlotte. I then waited in Charlotte from 4:45 to 6:35. Holy Cow. Then I flew from Charlotte to San Fransisco, where I met my Dad (who had been at conferences here all week). I then proceeded to spend the night in San Carlos a la casa de mis tios. I woke up thinking it was probably noon or something, when in all reality it was only 7:30. That's Jet Lag for ya. I ate some Honey Nut Cheerios, watched some Tivo'd Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, then scooted on over here to Burlingame (5 minutes outside of San Fran). I have most recently taken a break from watching basketball games to come and blog... something that has become unfortunately unfamiliar to me. I miss blogging. I miss having a computer that works. Darn it. I'm excited about this trip, though. Tomorrow I am going back to my "hometown", I guess you could say, of Vacaville for church. Then it's off to my cousin's house in Livermore for some fun-filled Family times. On Monday I'm going to visit Stanford. I am totally pumped about that. In the mean time, I'll just have to watch Stanford on TV- in the Pacific 10 tournament. Stanford vs. Washington. Exciting. Hasta manana, folks!

Sorry about the lack of posting. Our computer is muy estupido and always cuts off. It must have a virus. Or it is probably just too old. So I can't post a long thing for two reasons. reason numero uno- I don't have anything to say. and reason numero dos- I don't know how long I have to say it. So maybe there will be one tomorrow. Wish me luck at the play. Adios, amigos!

Jeans are funny kinds of things. Back when I was about 7 till I was about 11 I never wore jeans. ever. I went through a "white phase" where I wore all white. A typical outfit would be white Keds, white socks, white stretch pants, a white turtle neck, and a white headband. It cracks me up. I hated jeans. Despised them. Swore I would never wear them. When I was 12, I had a slight identity crisis and never dressed up. Ok, I dressed up once, but it was stirrup stretch pants with cool (at least I thougth they were cool at the time) platform-ish shoes, an old navy sweater with a striped turtle neck underneath. Hah. Every other day I wore sweatpants and sweatshirts with turtlenecks and a scrunchie in my hair. And keds.

In 7th grade, I graduated to nike shoes and "flare" jeans. It was crazy. It just so happened that 7th grade was my extreme growing year, and the cute jeans soon became high waters. Me not being the fashion savvy chick I am today, I never noticed. Great. In 8th Grade I discovered looser jeans. There's not so much to talk about there. 8th grade was weird for me a little bit. Kinda fuzzy. Right, back to business.

I first fell in love with a pair of jeans in 9th grade. Kate passed them down to me. I still think of them fondly. They fit me so well, and I felt so nice when I wore them. Then, tragedy struck- in the form of a humongus hole right below the left-back pocket. I had to retire them. The rip was too high up to make them into shorts, and they were becoming a tad small.

The next pair of jeans I fell in love with was in 10th grade. They were Kate's also. I'm wearing them right now. There are some small holes, that I have just discovered are getting bigger. The only problem with that is that the holes I wear into my jeans are never in cool places, like the knees. They are in places like the butt and on the belt loops and akward places like that. The holes are getting bigger, and it is time for me to move on. Don't get me wrong, I wear other jeans, these just make me feel the best.

I'm excited about this next pair of jeans I'm going to adopt. Yet again, they are from Kate. They are really long and fit really nicely and make my legs look long and skinny. The only problem is that they have stains on the knees. Stain stains. Stains from stain. Kate stained a deck in them at Bear Trap. Anyway, I've worn them, and I like them a lot. A lot a lot. I'm looking forward to the time I will spend with them.

I never knew I could write so much about jeans. Whaddya know. Fun times.

High school is weird. A lot of people are fake and superficial. It's weird being surrounded by people who are ok with just skating by as long as they are cool. I wish it wasn't like that. I like having intelligent conversations sometimes. I like having conversations if they mean something, not just for the sake of having a conversation. Otherwise, it's pointless. Just words filling up space. I want it to be spring. I have been overwhelmed with winter, and I think I can return to my normal self when I can spend some time outside. Commune with nature. Get back in touch with my romantic self. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of people talking about other people. It really doesn't help anything but the instigation of more talking. I can't wait until summer when I don't have to face the fakeness all day. I'm tired of akwardness. I'm tired of being tired. All I really want to do is sit on a hammock in the spring air and think about things until I fall asleep. If only. I like sitting and doing nothing except listen to good music. I like reading good books. I like being sincere and real. I like talking to the imaginary person reading this blog. I like looking at the stars. I like reading good books. I like silence sometimes. I like sleeping without having to wake up to an alarm. I like using my brain. I like talking about what I like. It makes me happy. Thanks for listening.

The warm front is gone. It's becoming more like February now. I don't like it. On to toher things, I have to play for the Orchestra for Cinderella today. My lips are totally shot and I sound like crap... hopefully this will go away sooner rather than later. I'll just try to play as softly as is humanly possible on the oboe, and hope for the best. I only have to last from 6:30-7:15. Wish me luck. Ok, nothink left to talk about... adios.

Babysitting sucked last night. They were supposed to get home at 11:00 and they got back at 1:45. And the kid stayed up the whole entire time. I, however, fell asleep for about 2 whole hours. Holy cow. I got 60 bucks, though, so it wasn't totally worthless. Oh, and I'm allergic to their cats...

So I didn't post for the past couple of days. The end of this week has been really kinda weird: Thursday felt like Friday, Friday felt like Thursday, and Saturday felt like crap. Saturday school is unfortunately becoming some kind of routine. I'll be pleasantly surprised to have two whole days off of school. One thing that has made it slightly bearable is the warm front that has seemed to move through. I actually wore a short sleeve shirt and went walking! The short sleeve shirt might have been a little over the top. I couldn't resist. I won't, however, wear shorts until there is no chance of cold weather. And until it isn't February. This weekend is also weird because my family isn't here. They are all in Raleigh at a swim meet. I'm home alone. I've been watching TV for a long time, probably because there has been nobody to stop me. I have to babysit at six tonight. Great fun. This is a night of firsts in the babysitting department. First A) the kid actually asked for me to babysit her... whoa... and first B) I might actually feel like doing something other than watch TV. I'm gonna get a lot of money, too. Babysitting is the best job ever.

P.S.- people that pee in bottles in class and then cuss at the vice principal about it and then try to get out of their 3 days of OSS crack me up. It would have been worth fighting for, and they probably would have won, if they hadn't have cussed at the v.p. So Mrs. Mendez isn't the nicest person in the world, and you really had to pee. All that needed to be done was some simple negotiating, and explaining the situation. Silly boys.

So basically that Asset Test was ridiculous. It started of with a writing test. Whoa. That was the easiest dang thing that I have ever taken. It would underline this ridiculously stupid part of the sentence that was way wrong and then give a "no change" choice, two other ridiculous choices, and the obviously right answer. I wish I could think of an example for you. I guess you just had to be there. Then the reading comprehension was basically just about details from the reading that you had to go back and look for. I haven't done that since about 7th grade. Then there was "numerical skills" where we couldn't use our calculators. I was way rusty on multiplying and dividing decimals, but the way I see it, I'll always have my trusty TI-83. It's weird how simple math can be so hard after doing semi-advanced math for so long. And then there was the calculator part that was Algebra 1 all over again. Including the sleeping. So it wasn't that fun, but I got out of a reading check in 1st period and I got a little nap in between sections. Hopefully I will place out of the "0" level courses at Surry. Boy, I sure hope so.

nope. still not gone. and I have to take an asset test tomorrow. great.

Whoa. I just lost my post. Weird. It didn't say anything important, though. Just that I have writer's block. Still do. Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow. Guess that's all.

Yay for our Quiz Bowl Team!!! We won, for the 3rd year in a row. It was a fun day. After taking about 7 questions of a reading check in English, we got to go on a bus (that smelled like football players) to the AGP. The questions were really great. There was even one about blogs!!! 'what is the term for an online journal?' Sarah, Brad, and I totally had that one covered. During the refreshment break, Sarah and I talked to a guy she knew from Governer's school and some of his friends, one of whom recognized me from band. It was fun times. I got to be on the panel for the middle round, missing my hecka easy individual question on alternating current. It was swimming around in my brain, but it just didn't come together in 10 seconds. Then we got the best set of questions ever for the final round. They (Brad, Johnathan, Sarah, and Holden) collectively knew most of the answers. It was great fun. After the competition and the tons of pictures, we were waiting for the bus where we had a great conversation on the difference between geeks and nerds. I think we concluded that geeks know the difference between geeks and nerds, and nerds didn't. Oh the conversations of a Quiz Bowl team. So now we will advance to the District Competition, to be held also at the AGP on March 20th. I'm excited. Anyway, so now I'm gonna babysit. On Valentines Day. How romantic. Hasta luego.

In the words of Sarah Gitt, SAD (single awareness day) is coming up this Saturday, and we have to go to school. I wish we got out of school every time it rained. I, however, will not be at school because of the Quiz Bowl "meet." This year seems to be a good one, and I hope we will be victorious yet again. I'll be there supporting from the audience, as usual, getting some random questions right. Fun times await me. This weekend is going to be quite jam-packed for me, and I'm looking forward to it. Except for the makeup work that I'll have to do for missing Saturday. That won't be fun. Right-o, now I must go read The Scarlet Letter... great fun...

Never get your kitchen remodeled and/or your cabinets stained. If you do, be sure to invest in some serious gas masks and air fresheners. Whoa. I have the worst headache right now. Ahh. Just wanted to share that with you guys.

Happy Valentines Week. and always remember...
"Love lifts us up where we belong"

Prom is a curse on everybody without boyfriends. I hate it. I actually hate talking about it. It gives me a headache. All of my friends act like it's the easiest thing in the world to have a date. That is probably because it probably is the easiest thing in the world for them to do. It might not be hard for everyone to do, but not everybody centers their lives around boys. Me, for example. I pay attention to more concrete things. Like: getting good grades; sleeping a lot; enjoying life; doing other things besides obsessing over the opposite sex. My life has been quite great without boys in main roles in my life. Don't get me wrong, I like boys plenty. I just don't make it my objective in life to be constantly with one. I need alone time, and spending time with friends is much more fun than the heartaches of high school dating. That's another thing. High school dating is RIDICULOUS and pointless. It is constant drama, and nothing good ever comes of it. I'm sure that the bad outweighs the good in that situation. I mean, I have a more enjoyable life than most people that move on to the next boyfriend within hours. It's silly. I like having intelligent conversations about events or ideas or books or something, while a lot of my friends enjoy having conversations about prom dresses and each other. I guess I'm just noticing that I am quite an individual. I don't really need a significant other to feel significant.

So there is a romance story for you. Sorry for my ranting. It needed to be done. I've heard that psychologists say that it is good to have an outlet for your thoughts and feelings. Welcome to my outlet for today. Adios.

Whoa there, I can't even make up a story. I'll need some help with this. How about you guys send me "topic sentences" and I write a story to go along with it. That would be peachy keen. We'll keep this up, so if you happen to think of a random one after Valentines day, I will still make up a story to go along with it. This sounds like fun. I'm looking forward to it, as should you. e-mail: refvemma@hotmail.com; aim: emmarefvem

Valentines Day is coming up. I would write about love stories or how much I'm looking forward to V-Day, but it just isn't happening. I mean, I don't have any personal love stories to tell you. None whatsoever. So I guess this is time to make up a love story. I will make it a continuing story, and you will have to stay tuned for the whole thing. Sounds like fun. I guess to make it legit, I should start another post. Consider it done.

So, our girls swim team won 1st place in 1a/2a states in the 200 Medley Relay this past weekend. I'm expecting rings, a picture and a plaque in the gym, and new bleachers... in Reeves. Oh, and a parade. But swim team doesn't get that much recognition. I swam in prelims and got 31st place in my 50 free and 27th place in my 100 breast. Yay! I'm really tired right now. Tired of life, tired of boys, tired of girls, tired of driving, tired of school, and tired of being tired. I'm going to go do homework now... to add to my good mood.

p.s.- i like movies based on previous works of literature. that's what we watched on the way to and from and around raleigh. these included 10 things I hate about you (taming of the shrew), o brother where art thou (the odyssey), and clueless (emma).

I am exhausted from school today. My brain is killing me. I just want to go to sleep for a couple of days. On another note, I tricked myself into thinking it was summer today. I was sitting in AP Stats reading the Scarlet Letter when it happened. I get lost in books, and forget where I am. It was hot in the room, so I opened the window and took off my sweatshirt, to leave only the short sleeve shirt underneath. It felt like spring, and I heard a car outside and people talking and remembered spring. Then I looked back in the room and saw all the winter coats and winter dropped it's heavy load on my back once again. I don't like winter. It lasts too long. It is dreadful. I can't wait until summer, or spring at the least. I can't wait to wear birkenstocks without socks and cool t-shirts. Man, I miss those days. Alas, the groundhog says we'll have more winter. Darn him. I guess I'll just have to survive wintry mixes and freezing rains for a few more months. Tengo dolor de cabeza. (holla back spanish 2) I'm gonna go sleep or something. Tootles!

The super bowl isn't such a big deal. I don't like football and that halftime show was not very exciting. There were some good commercials, but that was it. I ate way too much food at Erin's. There was a lot of secret talking and people going to and fro at that party. I just sat there and watched the football that was kinda boring even to people that liked football. I don't like football probably because I don't understand it, and because I don't want to understand it. Whatever. Right now I'm trying not to think about going back to school tomorrow.

Happy February everyone! 2004 is a leap year, so get excited about February 29th! February is such a great month. It goes by so fast. And every once in a while you get an extra day. Woo hoo. Anyway. So today is Super Bowl Sunday. NC is getting really pumped up about our Carolina Panthers. Krispy Kreme is showing their support by making the sprinkles on the donuts black and blue. Gotta love the South. Ok so I just got writers block. I might blog later on. Chao!

The superbowl is coming up, and apparently NC is getting hyped up b/c of our good friends, the Panthers. I never really pay attention to football, and (regretfully) my motivations for the past superbowls have been the parties and commercials. Commercials are fun to watch sometimes. Especially during the superbowl, where they spend a lot of time and money on them. I'm looking forward to some high quality advertising on Sunday. My grandfather is a big fan and supporter of the San Fransisco 49ers, so I always cheer for them. Unfortunately, they haven't made it very far lately. I think because of his love for the SF49ers, I have always had an underlying hate for the Dallas Cowboys. And the Greenbay Packers. I don't know why, but I just don't like them. It confused me that there is like a basketball team or something that are the 49ers, but like Charlotte or something. It kinda weirded me out. Anyways, I will go into this superbowl with my hopes up that the Panthers will pull through. And that there will be some cool commercials. Hah.

Thank you Dr. Church (birdman) for letting us out of school for a grand total of 9 glorious days (including weekends). I hear a rumor that we may even get a wintry mix on this Sunday and Monday. Seriously. What is a wintry mix? Do they just make that one up so that they won't be wrong? Probably. I really love the weather channel people. It seems like the women meteorologists are always pregnant. Seriously. They have this one meteorologist named Jennifer Lopez. Hah. A good weather guy is Jim Cantore. He is the guy that is always out in the hurricanes. Here's an example of his weather reports: "I'm out in Hurricane Floyd right now, where they have issued a curfew telling everybody to be inside their houses. I am still here, and I think I just saw a mailbox fly by. These are some strong winds, guys..." And then the connection breaks off... I love those. But my favorite weather guy is Paul Kocin. As I'm writing this, I'm getting the strangest sense of deja-vu. Forgive me if I've posted on this before. Anyways, Paul Kocin has a funny voice, and he's the winter weather expert. Gotta love ol' Paul. Anyways... I'm going to go watch some more random TV... one of the joys of snow days.

Ahhh snow. I've lost track of the days. I went over to Montclaire after sunday's blog and stayed there until this morning. Snow is a glorious thing. It is fun playing in the snow, but only when there are people to play with. Now it's time to stay at my house for a while. Hopefully there will not be school tomorrow. Hopefully.

Yay! It finally snowed big enough to play in! Too bad i'm not playing in it... maybe I'll go do that now.

Alas, I've missed blogging. I love writing down my random thoughts. To make up for the lapse, I will now write some random thoughts that have been going through my head that I haven't gotten to voice in a while.

-I burned my finger today. It hurt. A lot. Making pancakes is all fun and games until someone burns their hand. Seriously.

-The John S. Clark "convention" was held at Cross Creek a couple of days ago. I love it when they come to Cross Creek. They all have white trucks, so both parking lots are packed with seemingly identical white trucks. It makes me smile, because it looks so cool!

-I realize that I become extremely paranoid at night. It is really rather weird. Just ask Shmimmy. Hah.

-For some strange reason, my friends have started talking about Prom. I know you must be thinking... "isn't prom may 1st? and isn't this january?". Exactly my point. What's worse is that they've sucked everybody into it. See, I'm even talking about it. darn. Yesterday was the worst. It was everywhere. We decided to go to the movies because our friends were either sick, with their boyfriends, or prom dress shopping. At the movies, the girls behind us were talking about prom during the previews. ahhhh! Then, Erin's mom called her during the movie. I'll give you three guesses as to what she wanted to talk about, and the first two don't count. Hopefully this will die down and we can get back to our normal lives.

-My math classes are fun. Not the actual classes, but the people in them. I have Coach Hayes for 2 periods in a row, and Nancy, Sami, McKenzie, and I have them together. Coach Hayes says the randomest things. Some of his sayings include: "riddle me this, pre calculus students..." and "historically, this graph will be linear" and "you'll probably never get such a rinkydink problem like this on the AP exam". Whoa there. We get off topic sometimes, which is the fun part. I'm glad it is enjoyable, because otherwise I don't know if I could stand it.

Whoa. That felt good. I'm officially back. Yay!!!

I was thinking about the phrase "cat and mouse game" the other day, because my cat was chasing a mouse around our basement. You're probably thinking why does she have mice in her basement?... so I'll explain. We are getting our kitchen remodeled, so we had to move all of our food to the basement where there is this little kitchen area, so we would have a place to eat. Food naturally attracts mice. Anyway. So while watching 24 on Fox on Tuesday, a mouse scampered past me and my cat, Pooky, was not far behind. He would kind of hit the mouse around a little, then the mouse would roll over and play dead, and then Pooky would look away and the mouse would roll back over and start to run away. Then Pooky would once again hit it around a little bit, and so it went. I understand the "cat and mouse game" better now because it makes a lot of sense. Sometimes you don' t know where people come up with those phrases, but this one is legitimate. Oh yeah, Pooky chased the mouse into a camera bag and we released it into the wild. Not the camera bag, but the mouse.

Sad news. I quit band. I know you're torn up about it, but try to deal. I will continue to play the oboe, but not in the MAHS band. I switched classes to take AP Statistics. It has a scary name, but will be quite easy. I'm excited about what the year will offer with this new schedule change. Another AP credit, but also another AP test. I don't like those. Well, I shouldn't say that because I have only taken one that I didn't like. I've only taken one. Well whatever, I'm assuming that none of them are fun. I don't know of any test at all can be considered fun. Unless it was a test on fun, but then it would have to be fun. Ok that's enough. And I apologize, I should have spelled the previous "fun"s "phun". I apologize. Adios, amigos!

School started today. It totally sucked. I'm suffering from vacation withdrawl. If this was any other day and I didn't have a puffy, sore face and wasn't so hungry, I think it would have been just fine. Things are looking up. Soon I won't have an after school responsibility (swimming), and I will be able to come directly home and relax. Soon.... very soon.... but I still have to deal with Pre-Cal, which isn't really that hard but will be my biggest challenge. I'm getting prepared for next year, where I will be working out the wazoo. Alrighty, enough complaining. I can't think of any decent topics to ramble on about, so I will say my goodbyes. "My goodbyes."

Hello, all. I got my wisdom teeth out on New Years Eve, and today I look like a chipmunk! If it didn't hurt so much to do so, I would laugh at the sight of my chubby cheeks. One good thing that has come out of this experience is the discovery that I like cottage cheese. It is really good. Really, really, really good. Also, chocolate pudding livens up the spirits and gives energy. I also found out that too much I love the 80's can be a bad thing. I watched it all day yesterday. Whoa there.

I'm gonna go watch the television and ice my cheeks with frozen peas. Fun times to the max.

If something is on ESPN, does that make it a sport? And if so, does that make spelling and scrabbling a sport? That would rock if it did.

My new favorite channel is ESPN2. They cover the more important sports, if you can call them sports. First off, we have the 2003 National Spelling Bee. Those were some high-quality spellers. The commentators were my favorite. "So, Jan, this one is another homeschooler who is also a scrabble championship." "That's right, Bob, and she's an 8th grader, so this is her last year to compete." Hah. Another of my favorites: "So, Bob, when they lose, where do they go?" "It's called the comfort room and, let me tell you, there are many tears cried in that room. A lot of the kids have already gotten over it and are now in the hallway playing video chess and scrabble." Silly. Secondly, there is the adult Scrabble championship. The biggest move was the word "roquet", which got a tripple word score and added up to a whopping 75 points. Whoa. Finally there was the World's Strongest Man competition. My favorites are Yanni Virtanin, Magnus Samuelsson, and Hugo Girard. Boy, those guys can lift some really heavy stuff.

Oh yeah, I didn't fail my physics exam. Phew. And I got a car wash... after driving around MA pointlessly. Fun times. Christmas break is so much fun. I haven't slept in my house in 2 nights. I would tell you how much I enjoy sleeping in, but so far I haven't done much of that. I've been a "teen slave" as my mother puts it, driving my sisters around all the time. I also do some chaufferring (sp?) for the Tilleys. It pays well, I must say. And I babysat for 5 hours for one kid while everyone was just sitting around, and I got 50 dollars for doing it. And I did about as much stuff as everyone. Ah... the life of a teenage, babysitting driver.

Will and Kate come home tomorrow! Yay!

oh yeah, i also got 2 free car washes because of my trouble. yay for friendly mt. airy businessmen!

snow, snow, go away. come again some other day. so i can fail my physics exam today and not in 3 weeks.

Today has been a day of injustice. During Swimming, someone decided to pour their drink on my car. Great. Then, I went to the School Board Meeting to stand up and say that I didn't want a new calendar that would take time off of AP courses before the exams. Dr. Church was being rude by talking while we were talking. We don't care, Dr. Church, you look like a bird! Hah. Then, I went to the laser Car Wash and put in 6 dollars and it didn't do anything. It just sat there. So I have to call the guy and get it straightened out. So now my car is dirty from driving in the slushy gross ice on the highway, and from some stupid person's drink. Cut it out people! But it's all good because they decided to keep the old calendar. Yay. One bright spot. But other than that, it was a good day. Positive surroundings, positive people, and no school on Thursday for me! Hurrah!

Snow day. Again. I've done lots of driving in the past few days. On Saturday I drove >300 miles, because I had to drive Charlotte to a swim meet. Whoa there. Then I went to the mall today. There I go again. Driving like it's my job or something. I am so glad this semester is almost over. Hecka glad. New classes, new classmates, new semester, halfway through, prom is coming up, spring break is coming up, then the summer will be here. Lots of things to look forward to. The most exciting thing is that I will be done with Physics and Anatomy. Halleluiah. I can't really think of anything else to write. Ok then, ttfn!

The only thing on my mind right about now: failing the physics exam. Don't expect many posts.

So I had a little respite from blogging. Hmm... exams must be the reason. This should be relatively stress free except I might blow it on the Physics EOC. Time will tell. Not much to say. Adios hermanos, adios.

So this bizarre weekend is finally overwith. It was 4 days long! How strange... Too bad I was sick. But now I am on my way to recovery. I watched Honey with the girls last night. Fun times to the max. It makes me wish that I could dance, and then that I could dance like Jessica Alba and her stunt (dance) double in that movie. I'm just a white girl that aint got no beat. I had to hold the cross at the front of the church this morning for about 20 minutes. That thing is dang heavy. Now I am preparing myself to go back to MAHS for about 2 more weeks of school. The end is in sight!!!

For the last 2 days I have been sick. It all started Thursday morning, which also happened to be a snow day. So I sat around all day watching mindless t.v. and staring at the winter wonderland. Then on Friday I was worse, but we still didn't have school so once again I watched t.v. and stared at the winter wonderland. As well as rubbing my nose raw with tissues. I missed the basketball game but we lost again, so what the heck. Now I am getting over my cold and getting on with the after-cold symptoms. Gotta love it. It was probably from walking out to my car from swim practice with wet hair, in a wet bathing suit, wrapped in a wet towel with wet chaco's on. Yeah, that's probably why. Not doing that again. At this point in time, I'm going on 62 hours straight of being in my house. The furthest I've been out was the mailbox. Whoa there. So now I'm going to hang around the house some more. Yay.

oh yeah, about that tackling... it was made possible because the guys had to be on their knees. otherwise, it would have been quite impossible.

Yeah... so today I realized how truly sketchy the Wal*Mart hunting section really is. I was buying stuffing for Charlotte and, while walking back, I passed the hunting section. These three guys were standing in their camo and boots etc., and when I walked by one guy said, quite loudly, "Hooters". Ok. That is total sketch. I ignored it and kept on walking, and I think I heard one guy mutter something like, "I can't believe you did that" or something. Anyways, that renews my faith in the total wierdness of hicks at Wal*Mart. Just so you know.

On a lighter note, I went to a basketball game today! It was tons o' fun. And, I made it from the HS to Wal*Mart to home in record time. It took me 5 minutes to get from the HS to Wal*Mart, then about 7.5 minutes to get the stuffing, then approximately 12.5 minutes to get home from Wal*Mart. Holy cow! All this just because of my driving limitations. But my worries will be over on December 18th. Yay!!! I can drive any time of the day I want!!! What freedom!

Thanksgiving was a blast, but my tummy is, shall we say rounder than it was before I went to California. Between dark meat, jello salad and in-n-out, I don't know how it couldn't have been. Yummmmmy!

On a side note, I've found my niche in football. Tackling. With a big coat on. It is so much fun, it is almost unexplainable. I was a madman tonight, because I would just tackle and tackle without thinking about it. Turkey Bowl 2003 was hecka cool. Yay!