Confessions of a Slacker

I'm supposed to be finished with Crime and Punishment by tomorrow, but I'm not even half way through. I've been behind for a while now. It's funny, there are people who haven't even started the book and are doing better than me on quizzes. They read cliff notes. If I were smart, I'd read them too, but I didn't want to spoil the book for myself. I want to experience Crime and Punishment the way Dostoevsky intended. Unfortunately reading the actual book, though more rewarding, takes a lot more of my time. Time I don't have. Every time I'm assigned a book for school and I fall behind I vow to never again slack off and to, in the future, do whatever it takes to stay on top of my assignments. Hopefully forcing myself to read the cliff-notes version of such a good book is enough punishment for me to have learned my lesson. College is going to be difficult.

Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving. I know it was yesterday, but better late than never.

You couldn't pay me to go shopping on Black Friday. Seriously. People are nuts. Hopefully I won't need to buy anything like clothes or electronics until after the holidays. As for Christmas gifts, I plan on purchasing those online. Sometimes I think it would be interesting to go people watching on Black Friday, but not shopping. Shopping's suicidal.

I got a job. My first job, to be exact. I'm working at the Jet's Pizza in my neighboorhood. As of today, I've only worked once. I love it.

Senioritis

Wikipedia had surprisingly elaborate definition of Senioritus:

"Senioritis is a colloquial term used in the United States and Canada to describe the decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school careers. By definition, Senioritis is not due to the direct physiological effects of a general medical condition such as hypothyroidism or insomnia but is typically said to include: slowness, procrastination, apathy regarding school work, a feeling of entitlement or privilege and a tendency toward truancy, malingering or feigning illness in order to avoid presence in a school setting, cognitive impairments, and changes in sleep patterns. Many high school students find themselves in a type of lame duck situation: their plans are made and a new chapter in their life is about to begin, so finishing the current chapter (the current term separating them from graduation) becomes just a formality or "holding pattern." Even though high school seniors tend to be the bulk of the victims, high school juniors and sophomores are also known to have it."

I'm pretty sure I was diagnosed with Senoiritus about half way through my freshman year. No joke. I guess school's not that bad, but I've been looking forward to graduation for a long time now. High school's frustrating. But that's not really why I'm writing this post. My motivation came more from the realization that I'll be graduating in half a year. I suppose I've always known high school would be over, but I feel like it's really snuck up on me.

My Senior Project presentation was after school Tuesday. I passed. It's done, all over, terminated, ended, compassed, completed, whatever; it's out of my life and I never have to think about it again. Why's a four to six minute presentation about your education, community service, and career plans such a big deal? Senior Project is one of few graduation requirements. Currently, I'm good to go minus credit in Economics, which I take next semester. I also need to finish out English and Government, but that's it.

On a more sentimental note, my last marching band competition was last weekend in Indianapolis. Unexpectedly, Page made semifinals. We left Wednesday after practicing two hours. Thursday we rehearsed all day, and Friday we performed for prelims at 4:30. Semifinals was the Saturday. I got home at about 4:30 this morning with a cold. It was a very emotional weekend. I, along with the other seniors, was consistently on the edge of tears. We cried a lot. I'm still suffering from the grief of it all being over. We're a really close group and I know I'll never be a part of anything quite like that ever again. I haven't graduated yet, but it sure feels like it.

Our band has this habit of writing something motivational on themselves before performances. Typically, I don't enjoy sharpie-ing all over my arm, but this performance was different.

Page High Marching Patriots

Class of 2008:

I love you guys.

Acceptance

Another lame diary post:

I got my first two acceptance letters. The first was from MTSU and the other from WKU. I guess I should be excited. I'm still waiting to hear back from UTK and ETSU. What I'm really curious about, though, isn't acceptance. I want to know how much scholarship money all these schools are willing to give me.

Driving is sort of Scary

It's kind of pathetic when my first November post is being made a whole week after the month started. What's even more pathetic is that this post will be a whopping 4.5 lines long (aside from this nifty little intro) and will be labeled diary. Oh well. I'm over it.

I got my driver's license yesterday. Being seventeen, I'm a little late. Over a year late actually, but looking back, I'm really glad I put it off for so long. Driving is sort of scary. I'm glad I have the freedom and stuff, but seriously, driving is sort of scary.

The Office

I've never really enjoyed watching TV. I like movies, but TV's just so loud and just looking at it makes me feel like I should be doing something more productive (like blogging). Recently, however, I've become progressively more and more addicted to The Office. Stevie owns the DVDs of seasons one, two and three and I've been borrowing them. I'm completely hooked. I've seen every episode up to season four, which I'm catching up on with the help of the NBC's handy dandy website which has select episodes available to watch online. I only just discovered the website tonight. It's lots of fun. The fictional character blogs are perhaps the coolest television website thing ever: Shrute-Space (hilarious) and Creed Thoughts. So what's so great about The Office? It's difficult to say exactly. Maybe it's lines like this:

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject so you know you are getting the best possible information."

Said by Michael Scott in the episode entitled, "The Negotiation."

Fall Break Fell Over

I go back to school tomorrow. Fall break went by far too fast this year. It was a busy few days. I visited a potential college, attended a bonfire where I ate my first vegetarian hot dog (not bad), decided what I'm going to be for Halloween, watched all of season two from The Office (my favorite show ever, not that I've ever watched much TV), went to a small party (separate get together from the bonfire), cut my best friend's hair (looks great) and had a haircut of my own, survived a full day of marching band (8a-5p), had an audition for Williamson County Youth Orchestra (and made it), finally saw Little Miss Sunshine and laughed till I died, and made progress on my college applications.

College Applications

As of this morning, I have applied to four schools: UT Knoxville, MTSU, East Tennessee, and Western Kentucky. I still need to send my transcript and ACT scores to three of those schools (the exception being UTK), but I can't do that until fall break is over because all that information is at school in the guidance office. I've registered for housing and have started my scholarship application at UTK, my number one choice right now. It feels good to make progress on this college thing. It's exciting.

The whole application process is sort of annoying though because every school asks the same exact questions. I wish I could just fill out one form and send it to whatever schools I wanted instead of filling out four different versions of the same exact thing. It's irritating. I got pretty fast by the time I applied to Western Kentucky.

Senior Portraits

I got my portraits done by McCaffrey Photography.

Birthdays

Happy twelfth birthday Molly! You're my favorite sister ever!

My birthday was last Thursday, the 23rd. Coolest thing about being seventeen: I can buy R rated movies now. Whoot!

Thank You's

Mom and dad bought me this really handy ipod docking station. It's called iHome. I really love having music playing in the morning as I get ready. When I first got my iPod, I tried putting using headphones, but that makes getting dressed and showering really difficult. iHome's so much more practical. Thanks guys.

Stevie () knows me so well. I've been trying to collect framed stuff to put on my walls. The harry potter photo is perfect. I've been wanting Ulysses by James Joyce for a long time. It'll probably take me till my next birthday to finish though.

I still haven't figured out how I'm going to spend the money my grandparents and other extended family gave me. More than likely it'll fund my expensive habit of eating out. If I were smart, I'd save it for my trip to Germany next summer... we'll see how that goes.

First Day of School

Today was my last first day of school (excluding college) ever!

My schedule:

1. Wind Ensemble
2. English IV AP
3. Government/Economics Honors
4. Directed Study
5. Journalism
6. Lunch/Homeroom
7. Statistics AP
8. Theatre IV

I think it's going to be a good year.

Summer Reading Procrastination

For a long time I looked forward to summer reading. Rarely, in my high school career, have I been assigned a book not worthy of my time (the exceptions being Lance Armstrong's Every Second Counts and the cheese-ball 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens). Though every year, towards the closing days of summer, I begin to realize I still haven't made much progress in my assignments. Summer reading is a very stressful ritual. The intentions, of coarse, are admirable, but the project itself is the source of so much unnecessary worrying. I shouldn't complain because I did sign up for A.P. English 4 knowing that I'd have an easier time in the honors or standard classes, but this is my blog and I say what I want(!), even if my unhappiness is self imposed. If you think that finishing only two books in an entire summer vacation would not be very challenging, you'd be wrong. With mission trips, summer camps, and all the opportunity to spend this newly acquired leisure time to read books you've been meaning to get to for ages (along with the release of the long awaited Harry Potter 7), summer reading becomes very unappealing. With only a day and a half until school starts, I'm still not even close to being through. It's strange that a person who is so addicted to books waited to the last minute to complete her dream homework assignment: reading and journaling about truly amazing literature. Mrs. Sniderman's A.P. English students were instructed to read A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and write a journal as well as reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster and responding to some questions that help us apply what we learned. I'm only half way through A Prayer for Owen Meany, a book that's quickly working it's way up in my favorites list (this list is in my head; I have no actual recorded favorites list). As much as I love the book, I'm having a hard time motivating myself to read. There's hardly any time left before homework takes over my life again so it's difficult to sit down and work on something with such a strong stench of school. It's also an incredibly long book. How to Read Literature Like a Professor was stimulating and even managed to be mildly entertaining. I can tell it'll be a very useful reference in my future English classes, but I could have skipped over half of the book because the questions I've been given only apply to about eight chapters. I know I'd be better off reading the whole book because, in concept, summer reading is not about the grade, it's about the learning. Grades often can get in the way of learning, but that's really not the point I'm trying to make here. I could have done half the work and still completed the questions with the same quality as I will not having skipped chapters. Maybe I'll be lucky and we'll have a pop quiz with the unassigned chapters on it and I'll know exactly how to respond while the kids who skipped those parts will be caught off guard and, therefore, not do as well as their fellow classmates who actually read every page. MWAH HA HA (my interpretation of an evil laugh). We were also assigned to read both Genesis, Exodus, and one of the Gospels in order to pick out symbolism in literature. I'm ashamed to admit I blew this part of my summer reading off completely--well maybe not completely, but for the most part. I feel confident in my knowledge of Exodus having staffed at a camp for elementary students where the Exodus was the week's main focus as well as having been a member of the 'Exodus' unit at Affirm (an ELCA week long camp). Genesis, I've read, but I have to admit it's been a while. As for the Gospels, although I've never read Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in their entirety, I'm fairly certain that I've read or came across all the stories at some point in my life. I'm not one to sit down and read the bible chapter by chapter. I like to skip around a lot--find stories that inspire me. Not to mention, five years of volunteering at Vacation Bible School can teach you a lot.

Summer reading that was fun for me:

1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (11th grade Great Books) For this book I just had to write an essay about my personal response to the book. I actually enjoy writing essays so this assignment was a dream: a classic novel and a chance to express my opinion about it creatively.
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (11th grade English) This has been my favorite summer assignment yet. I don't remember doing a project on it. I think we just had a quiz day one at school. I love this book and if it weren't for stupid summer reading it probably would have taken me a lot longer to discover it.
3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (11th grade English) The second half of our English III summer reading was to read a nonfiction book and keep an analytical journal. This book was slow, but mesmerizing because every word is so articulate. I had a lot of fun picking at the language.
4. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (12th grade English) I love it; too bad I'm only half way through.
5. Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella (10th grade English) Our teacher set up this online discussion board for this book where we could all post our responses to the book while in the process of reading. It reminded me a lot of the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribean, and Star Wars fandom because it was so similar to the discussion boards that exist for these books/movies. It was a really cool set up because you were interacting with your classmates and it wasn't the typical quiz/essay.
6. Esperanza Rising by (7th grade English) I really don't remember much about my assignment or the book. I think I made a children's alphabet book with words I didn't know in the novel. I enjoy doing artistically demanding projects so this one was fun for me. The book was good too.

Summer reading I hated:

1. Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong (10th grade English) Luckily my English teacher hated this book too so we didn't have to do a project or anything. The book was assigned to all Williamson County students. I'm still not sure why. What a waste. They could have us reading Shakespeare or Dickens or John Irving, instead the school board assigns us a pile of profanities, shameless boasts and some trivial information about the Tour de France. I found myself to think a lot less of Mr. Armstrong after reading Every Second Counts.
2. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey (9th grade English) This one was assigned by the school board too. It was extremely dull advise: do your homework, don't do drugs, be nice to the dorky kids. We've only heard all that about 65136813132 times before.
3. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (6th grade English) I hated reading when I was younger. I know it's hard to believe. Reading any book at age 10 or 11 would have been torture for me when I could be playing outside. The book may have been very good--I wouldn't know. Back then all books were boring.
4. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (7th grade English) I never finished this book. It was bad enough to compel me to buy something more less likely to make me fall asleep. The replacement turned out to be Esperanza Rising, which I've mentioned above.

That was a nice little break, but I should probably get back to work now. I don't think it's a coincidence this is significantly longer than my average post. I can't avoid finishing forever. Feel free to express your inevitable frustration with summer reading in the comments. There's no way I'm alone in this.

Senior Tee Shirts

I've been waiting for this day for a long time. Every year the band seniors make matching tee shirts to wear on what we call 'Senior Day' at band camp. (I know what you're thinking; I've heard it a million times. "This one time at band camp...") Only eight of our fifteen seniors showed up, but we managed to have fun anyway. I forgot to get a picture of the finished shirts, but here are some photos of the creative process: Nicolle, Robin and I went to Wal Mart to get supplies. We sort of over estimated on how much paint we'd need, so I suppose we'll be making some returns. Better to be safe then sorry.

Our shirt design was really cool. On the front we painted a magic eight ball because we're the class of 2008.

On the back we drew the blue triangle revealing your fortune with a list of all the shows each senior performed in.

Normally waiting for paint to dry is considered boring, but not with this group. Making shirts was a really great opportunity for all of us to reflect on the past week at band camp, as well as the last three years and discuss what's ahead for us too (namely college).

This is Robin and I discussing the correct technique for articulating on the clarinet. I was trying to show her that I play with the sides of my tongue touching my top teeth and it's the tip that hits the reed, but it was difficult to show her exactly what I meant because I typically don't play with my mouth open wide enough for her to examine the position of my tongue.

Josh is sort of new at this whole marching band thing. Last fall, he filled in for a trumpet player who quit. I think he's happy with his spontaneous decision. I know the rest of us are glad to have him.

This is Morgun demonstrating his Taekwondo skills. Not really, he just uses his hands a lot when he tells stories. Although, I did learn today that he and Rachel did take Taekwondo when they were younger.

Here's one of my favorite people ever, Rachel, wondering if she should pursue revenge on Robin and I after our pathetic attempt to tackle her. We wouldn't stand a chance, even two against one.

Lucky for us, she managed to stay benevolent.

Auggie

This is Auggie, short for August, the newest edition to our family. That's a grape he's eating. Isn't he gorgeous?

College Visit II: ETSU

This was actually more like College Visit V, but it's only my second post about it so II seems fair. I'd written this very lame synopsis about my visit to East Tennessee University earlier this evening, but after coming back and reading it a few hours after I'd published, I realized how pointless the post was. To sum up the important parts, I loved ETSU. After our tour, mom and I spent a few hours getting lost (intentionally) so we could see the area. Johnson City was a really cool place. I'm sort of high maintenance when it comes to entertainment. There seemed to be a lot to do. The residential part of town was adorable. All the houses looked something like this:



As you can see, it's perfect for me. There were lots of flowers and yard decorations. It was very easy to imagine myself reading and writing as much as I pleased in these little homes. I want one so bad, but I'll be living on campus if I end up going to school there.

I'm looking forward to college. Shopping for schools makes me really excited to finally go. When we got to our hotel in Johnson City I created a hypothetical schedule and everything. =) It'll be interesting to learn about a particular topic (my major) in such depth instead of the basic education we get in all subjects at high school. I learn a lot in all my high school classes, but I have to take everything (math, history, science) and when I go to college I'll be able to focus on what I enjoy most (English/Journalism?).

Just because I'm a complete goof, here are the classes I'm most looking forward to: Literature of the South, Descriptive Linguistics, History of Jazz, and Photo Journalism. We'll see if I don't end up changing my mind.

In case you didn't notice, I changed WRINKLED THOUGHT's layout again. Farewell juicy green blog that hurt my eyes.

Grand Hallows Ball

Originally I was planning on going to the Barnes and Noble Harry Potter party because that's where all my friends were going, but luckily the got some sense knocked into them and agreed to go to Borders (like we always do). As much I was wishing I had more time being an ignorant fan not knowing what's going to happen next, I went to the party because there was no way I was going to miss out on the fun.My buddy Robin drove. She looks a lot like Luna Lovegood if you ask me.

We got there early, but we still were some of the last to get the wrist bands that indicated the order of which people would be receiving the book. We were going to have to wait a while.

It was hard to believe in a few hours we'd be holding the book we've been waiting for for so many years. All of us reminisced about how when we read Sorcerers Stone, book seven seemed so far away.

There were lots of our friends there.

And the Borders staff gave us free glow sticks.


We met lots of fun characters from the books; this is Professor Trelawny...

and the Whomping Willow (does the Whomping Willow count as a character?)...

and a young Ron Weasley.

(Wanna know a secret? These release parties aren't really all that fun. We just go because we want to be able to get the book at midnight. We had to keep ourselves busy.) Mark worked on his summer reading.
Cassie tried to catch up on all the things she'd fogotten about in book six.

Ben and Corey discovered this... erm... interesting synopsis of the old testament.

We started to get pretty tired.

But soon enough, the sound of a drum echoed through the store. It was time.

The books were here!

Waiting in line got very boring so Robin and I decided to go pick up our copies at Wal Mart. We imagined the line would be much shorter there. We were right.

And then we got lost in the parking lot.

Eight Hours, Thirty Two Minutes, and Twenty Six Seconds

Okay, so maybe I'm being melodramatic, but I'm seriously dreading the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's strange; I've been waiting for this day for a long time, but now that it's here I'm sort of freaking out. I even had nightmares last night that they sold out of copies before I had a chance to buy it. It's so hard to believe in a few hours I'm going to know how my favorite story ends. I've been reading these books since age nine, and the concept that after won't be anymore sequels is very difficult for me to grasp because I've spent the last eight years continually wondering 'What will happen next?' and after Deathly Hallows there won't be a 'next'. I feel like my childhood is coming to a very abrupt halt. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I can't help but associate Harry Potter with my childhood and now that one's ending so is the other. It's very depressing. The nights I spent laying in bed contemplating if Snape is good or evil, praying Harry and Hermione will get married, and wondering if Harry will survive book 7 are officially over. By tomorrow I'll know exactly how this story ends and right now I'm not quite sure I'm ready for it. I'd almost rather wait a couple years before reading Deathly Hallows, but then I'd be risking hearing about the end through somebody who's not the author. (I hate spoilers!) And as much as I'd like to savor the book, I know I'm going to devour it in one night. In case any of you were wondering how I was going to spend the eve of the release, I'll be at Barnes and Noble celebrating (?) with other fans, and probably crying my eyes out on the way home. There's been rumors a sorting hat will be at the bookstore. I hope I get Gryffindor, but in the words of Hermione, "I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad."

Mission Trip

Here are some photos (courtesy of Laura Stancher's Facebook) from the mission trip I went on last week to inner city Knoxville TN. We had about 10 youth from our church, St. Andrew, along with 50 or so other ELCA Lutherans stay at St. Johns for about a week and help out serving various ministries in the area.

This is Aaron painting the Volunteer Ministry Center. We also painted the hallway. I wish I would have got a picture of that awful blue color the upstairs used to be.

This is Preston and his biggest fan. This photo was taken at the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission (aka KARM), a homeless shelter. A group went there and babysat the kiddos so the adults could have a meeting. Preston had the pleasure of being the only male coming from St. Andrew. I don't think he minded.

This is my friend Kaleigh and baby Heather at KARM. Heather is two monthes old. Kaleigh is seventeen years. =)

This is Kristen, a resident at KARM, and I. I've spent a lot of time with kids this summer so I left the babysitting up to my fellow mission workers and chatted with Kristen instead. We had fun.

The group did a scavenger hunt and part of our assignment was to take a picture representing a transformation. Our team did baptism, represented by our playing in the fountain. During the race, I had the interesting experience of being held hostage in a bathroom. I took a potty break towards the end of our little competition and found that the door wouldn't open. Another team was holding it from the other side demanding me to give them answers. You'd expect me to be angry, but I actually found the whole event to be hilarious! I about died laughing on the bathroom floor.

Elizabeth (blue shirt) and I met these two lovely ladies at Guy. B. Love, a sort of nursing home. We put on a Christmas in July pageant and then sat down with the residents for cookies. Valarie and Mary were hilarious. They told us all about their favorite Christmas memories and they even sang us their favorite song. I don't remember what it was called. They also asked us to pray that all the demons haunting Guy. B. Love go away.

Here's Emily B. trying on some of the kid ties while we hung up the baby clothes at Angelic Ministries. AM is a place where people can get clothes (for job interviews as well as pajamas), beds, toasters, shoes, strollers and other necessities. They pair each shopper with a guide who helps you find what you need and serves as a sort of spiritual mentor.

This is my youth leader, Sarah, cringing while we go through a series of trust falls.

This one was called "the wind and the willow". Elizabeth looks like she's enjoying these trust falls a lot more than Sarah.

This is me and my new buddy Gavin. He's quite a handful. I met him at the Wesley House, a summer camp for kids from lower income families.

This is a group of us and the Water Wagon.

What's a Water Wagon?

The Water Wagon crew walks around down town Knoxville and serves water to whoever is in need of a cool drink.

The Water Wagon was definitely a high point of my week.

Saint Andrew Lutheran Youth (plus Elizabeth).

WOW week 3.