let's BACKTRACK

I’m serious. I have come to absolutely hate kids. They’re loud, annoying, and lots and lots of trouble. If they don’t get you with their complaining, they’ll get you with their crying.

So we went to this inside playground thing again today with lots of inflatable castles and courses. The fun I had since the age limit was 12 (Darn, missed it by four years)! Instead of playing, I borrowed Get Smarter by Seymour Schulich from Dominic and finished it (296 pages). That left Vanessa (12), Evan (10), Sharon (9?), Esmond (8), and Denise (6) to play. Like all the little kids in the world, little Denise wanted to play with the older kids, while the older kids (the big four) ran away from her and picked on her. About ever 10 minutes, she would come back to us (Aunt Kelly and I), crying and saying that the big four were picking on her. She could have just played alone or found some other kids to play with (There were like, 100 kids in there…seriously.), yet she insisted on playing with them, even though they didn’t want to. There was a point in time that one of the staff had to step in and help Denise because Esmond and Evan were kicking her head. I’m serious. Kids are just complete trouble.

Some things I found today:
1. People always have a tendency to stick with an “older crowd”. Kids always want to play with the older kids, even though the older kids don’t want to play with the younger kids. It’s a never-ending cycle. XD Like how all the little kids want to play with me, even though I just want to be left with my computer and homework. Like how Denise sticks with the older kids, even though they hate her guts. It’s fun to watch, really.

2. Get Smarter is a very interesting book. Quite a bit of good advice that we already know, but have to be reminded of. Truthfully, half of the stuff did not apply to me. Seriously, I don’t care for business, investments, stocks, or any of that stuff. The stuff on dealing with people and how to keep good relationships and how to be a good leader was pretty good though. I might actually start using some of those tips. Maybe I’ll appear to be less of a “bitch” to some people. Anyways, I should read more stuff like this. (But seriously, are business books the only kind of books Dom has?.. Kind of sad. Not to mention how he has not read any of them after purchasing them for such a high price ($29.95 for a “slightly-less-than-300pages” book with big print?).

And that reminds me:
1. Evan was doing an impression of Dominic and his computer/work obsession yesterday (hair and all!). It was really amusing. Even Dom laughed when we showed him – complaining how he “doesn’t move as much”. I’ll upload on youtube sometime. :]

I jut realized how badly I need another bookshelf. The whole bottom row is filled with folders with my past schoolwork (6th grade onward) and the rest is just any other books and random things I could fit in there. The whole thing is so packed, I had to turn my smaller books sideways so I could make more room. Now I can’t find any books to read. -___________- I’m planning on starting and finishing Jane Eyre this week, if Maplestory permitting. ;D I swear, once I go on Maplestory, I don’t log off unless I need to go eat or sleep – which is just about never. By the way, I’m level 39 already! I outleveled Brandon very badly and I’m just about passing Belle. I logged off two hours early today to let them pass me though. I’m looking forward to Barnes & Nobles tommorrow as well as Viva La Vida!

Oh, now I remember why I was writing a wordpress post. 2B and 3B pencils. Brandon, Brian, Morgen, and Hiro needed them, and I only had two 3B pencils. Brian and Morgen got them, and Brandon couldn’t find one. Poor Brandon. DD: I’ll let you borrow my 6B, H, or B pencil. D

Today, something else was stolen from me! My only pair of PE shorts! I’m so glad I didn’t leave my shoes in there like yesterday, or else that would have probably been stolen too. I have a feeling that whoever took it probably threw my stuff away or something. The only place I haven’t checked is the guard room, so I’ll go check there tommorrow. If this person really threw my stuff away, I’ll be pissed off. In other news, I’ve come up with a plan. I’ll need to talk to michelle later. Oh, and I have to thank chellechelle for letting me borrow her shorts while I go and buy another pair. :[ That’s all for today! More theft news is most likely coming soon..

Ahh, perhaps the worst week of my life. Or at least the one filled with the most drama. I don’t care if any of the people mentioned read this, because these are my true feelings, so if you read this Jackie, now you know what I’m feeling.

Starting with band drama. This of course, started all on the worst day of the week, Tuesday. What happened was, Sheila had some family business to take care of and told me that she would not be able to make it to district practice that night. So of course, I told Jackie so that we wouldn’t take Sheila’s instrument, the timpanis, to distirct field. I assumed that Jackie was going to help load, but I assumed wrong. She again, had another tennis game, and was unable to help load. Therefore, they took the timpanis to district. You weren’t there, but Mr. Franco was pretty mad about it. I was pretty mad too, seeing how badly we needed to organize pit’s structure. However, I was even more at the fact that Jackie had NOT told the people loading before hand that she was going to be late and that Sheila was not going to be at practice, even though I told her BEFORE SCHOOL. She would have had all day to warn someone about it. What made me even more mad? During third movement, she moved to Kevin’s instrument, the marimbas, and played there the rest of practice. When I asked her, she told me she had a headache. How childish was that? She does not even know how big of a headache I get when I play on my instrument. The bells are so much more annoying than that damned xylophone. Even I stayed on my instrument and didn’t complain. Besides, this was a serious rehersal. What if she had a headache during a tournament? Would she kick that siren off and play on Kevin’s again? I wanted to tell her to suck it up, but I was way too pissed off. Oh, and here’s the final blow. After dinner, Josh told Jackie that she owed a lap for throwing food in the stands (childish much?). Jack agreed that she would run it, but guess what. SHE DIDN’T. I was yelling so much with Kevin that night on how childish and stupid she was acting. Not to mention how irresponsible! I’ve put up with this freshman being our captain, but I’m just done with it now. I talked to her the day after, hoping she would just quietly run her lap (now two, since she didn’t run it the night) but she told us that she DID run it after everyone left. I asked for a witness, since that’s a rule in pit, but she said she had none. How big of a lie is that?! I told her to just run one since she had to witness, but she just rolled her eyes and left. That’s pretty much the end of that for now. Kevin and I are going to talk to her tommorrow, so wish us luck or something..

Book theft. So today, I forgot there was practice, and didn’t come, so I had to run a lap, and Michelle watched me run! So I’m off the hook on that one. Anyways, because the bell had rung, I didn’t take the time to put my book away properly, so I put my sports bag and math book next to Josiah’s and Jackie’s next to the pit stuff. When I went back there to get my book and bag during lunch, I found that my math book was missing and someone had rolled a Vibraphone over my stuff. I seriously searched for my math book, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I was almost panicking, but good thing I didn’t freak out too much. At the end of the day, I went back and looked around the bandroom. I was told that they had cleaned the bandroom during first and second period, and that all the books and stuff were in the Saxophone cubies. I checked, but guess what, my book wasn’t there! So I looked around the pit stuff again, hoping to find it and I had the crazy idea to look BEHIND the pit shelf, and guess what. There it was! However, there was one thing different from how I left it. Someone had ripped off my book cover then slid my book under the cabinet. I really have no idea who had the nerve and stupidity to steal a book cover, but once I find the person, they are getting a yelling. I’m not mad about them stealing my book cover, because really, it was only what, 2 dollars? 5 dollars? Maybe less. I could care less about it. What made me mad was that the person tried to hide my book, and that would have cost me a lot of money. How about the worrying and my asking other people to help me? It was a total waste of time.

Today, I went to the library to get my non-fiction book for Silent Sustained Reading. I ended up getting this book called I have Lived a Thousand Years (yes, another Holocaust book). This is going to be another boring SSR project, that’s for sure. But that’s not the funny encounter!! So I went to check out my book, and as always, I had with me my mom’s library card (Covina Library in case anyone wants to know) because I lost mine.. years ago. Anyways, so I went up to the circulation desk, and this is what happened:

Librarian: Okay, we need you to confirm some information
Me: Sure~
Librarian: Umm,
-pause for about 3 seconds-
This is your mom’s card, isn’t it?
Me: Yeah, haha.
Librarian: I thought so. You don’t look like you were born in 1962.

I guess it’s not that funny once I write it down, but it was really funny when it happened. I don’t know why.

Oh, and in track, we were watching a movie called Without Limits. It’s a track movie about a long distance runner named Steve Prefontaine. I’ll let you read up more on it, since I’m not really sure what happened ’cause the room was so loud and I don’t feel like spoiling it for you. The librarian looked like Steve Prefontaine! I was tempted to ask if he was from Oregon as well. He had the same build, height, hair, moustache as him. Seriously, it was a bit scary. Back to the movie, it was pretty good. I feel like actually renting the movie and watching it again.

So today is my third day of track! It’s really not that bad, running and excercizing in 100 degree weather. It’s gotten cooler these last two days, so at least it wasn’t as bad as Thursday. We did A LOT of lunges today. When I finished (I barely finished) my thighs and leg were jelly. I kept falling over because I couldn’t keep myself up. It was that tiring. We also did a few strides today, nothing big, but I found myself to be the last girl, once again, but at least I wasn’t dead last. Did I mention, I’m still very sore from track? I can’t feel my upper thigh anymore.

When I got home, with my back all sweaty, I found that four blocks around us had no power! We drove by 7-11, and the lights weren’t even blinking! So then Joe, the mechanic guy had to open the gates and everything. There were so many people in the pool, just trying to keep cool, because nothing was working. It’s times like this I can fully appreciate the power of electricity. So I got home (continueing with my story), and I went to take a shower. The shower room was pitch-black. I couldn’t even see my hands in front of me! The weirdos that we are, we didn’t have a flashlight, but we did have several thousand candles, so I took one with me. It was so scary taking a shower by candlelight. It was like being in an episode of BONES, or something scary like that. There were shadows everywhere, and the candle kept flickering. The good part is, at about 5:00, the power came back on after 2 hours of being off! I finally got the chance to post this, so I’m happy. There was a good side to this blackout though. I got to work very quickly on my homework, although I’m still not done yet, but at least most of it is done.

Oh, and my first history test? 34/38! It’s a 89.4%, which is pretty good, but I’m mad I didn’t get an A. I’m sure I’ll do better on the next test, time to study more!

We also started on our Silent Sustained Reading books today. Mine of course, is The Left Hand of Darkness. I got to the 4th page and am confused. Okay, so I don’t know who the main character is, only that there’s a parade going on, where the king does some mortar work with animal blood on this arc? I know the planet is called Winter and that there is a sun, but it’s usually cold, and that the people are very nicely dressed. Almost like Medieval times, but then they have cars, so it’s a very futuristic society. I’ll post summaries and more once I read more.

I forgot to post this before, but after watching episode 9 of Hana-kimi, I decided to boot my Gackt AIM profile layout in turn for an Oguri Shun one! I was going for a summer look, but it ended up being more of a spring look. Oh well, I guess I’m just early, or super late. Either way, it makes sense I guess. If you’d like the icon yourself, ask me by posting a comment. I can make you ones too, so just post any questions. :]

Click to View (PS. Don’t stalk me)

Hmm, it seems that a new AIM version has also come out. I’m telling you, if you’re not good at adapting to new things, DON’T GET IT. The layout and everything is about the same as the other recent one, but then there’s this status thing you can change, like on MSN, where there’s a bar at the top for you to type whatever. There’s still profiles though. The new look also seems a lot more trendier to me, but it’s too much like MSN. I actually prefer the other versions, but I’ll be sticking with this new one for now. Might as well give it a try! Did I mention, the ads are now at the bottom of the window? I love it. I also tend to hover over it when I don’t mean to and it annoys me how I can’t close it. That’s one upside to this new AIM I suppose.

Episode 10 of Hana-Kimi was out yesterday, once I get my hands on the subs, I’ll post some summaries and such.

Okay, so today, I went to the West Covina Library to borrow The Left Hand of Darkness for my silent sustained reading book. (In case anyone forgot, it’s supposed to be a fiction, 150 pages) Unfortunately, they didn’t have the book. They had everything else by Ursula K. LeGuin though. How ironic is that? Instead of going back to the Covina library, that I knew had it, I went over to Barnes and Noble to just get my own copy. I was planning to do that from the start anyway. Before I left, I picked up Angels and Demons for Brandon, since he couldn’t go to the library himself. It’s a good book, and he told me he didn’t want any girly book, so it fits perfectly well. But now that I think about it, he’s not that sort of a religious story person either. Oh well, he can find his own book. This is just to save his hide on Monday. So we drove back home, my mom and I, and I found my Christmas giftcard of 20 dollars. I couldn’t find the one michelle gave me, but I’m sure it’s somewhere in a stack of letters I kept. So we went to the book store, and got my dream book, and also picked up my paperback copy of Angels and Demons. All together, $31. I probably spent more money on two books today than I do for clothes in.. 2 months. Weird, huh? But totally worth it. I love these two books.

I started reading The Left Hand of Darkness and am having second thoughts about reading this for my ssr. This book is so confusing. :[ I’m going to perservere though! I must finish reading this, no matter how confusing! That reminds me, I was talking to the cashier lady, and she was talking to me about getting a Barnes and Nobles card. It’s mostly for hardcover books, really, and I don’t buy hardcover books. She was also talking to me about how the left hand is usually considered evil (referring to the book title). She’s such a kooky old woman. Best conversation I’ve ever had with a cashier woman, ever.

Did I express how much I hate the new Angels and Demons cover? It’s so ugly. It’s about the same as the old one but looks a lot more photoshopped (if that makes sense). The old one was a lot more simple and featured that wonderful ambigram of the title. I wish I had that version, but unfortunately, that cover is now out of print. I would pay up to $30 to get a version with that old cover.

Was pretty good. We finally got to doing something PRODUCTIVE in class. All classes were good except for English. I think Bryant is just trying to prevent the inevitable of us actually doing some work. We’ll probably start work Tuesday, because we don’t have school for Friday and Monday. Umm, we didn’t have much homework today. Only German and Math, but both were so easy. I don’t know how people could not finish unless they were lazy like me. I only had two left though! I finished during 6th period because we didn’t have anything. That reminds me, we added 6th period Pre-Season Track today. Michelle didn’t though, ’cause it was too hot. I think I’m going to look forward to doing track, but I need new spikes, for real now. Remind me to ask Starkey if he’s selling some tommorrow!

I can’t believe I actually woke up to zero today. I woke up on my own, so yay me! We didn’t do much though. I really have to thank Gladis for doing my part in 3rd. I’m still having trouble with our solo. I keep counting, but I always get off. I was only 3 measures off this time though, so not too bad! I’m getting better, I think.

So afterschool today, I had nothing to do. I didn’t feel like doing my German yet, ’cause it was easy, so I took a nap. Then someone knocked on our door. It was a neighbor kid who needed help on his math. He’s in 7th grade doing Alg. I. It was easy, though, I think I confused him. Cube is to the 3rd power, right? I hope that’s what I told him, or else I would feel bad for giving him the wrong answer. Such a nice kid, too bad he goes to Las Palmas.

For my fiction book, I think I’m going to do The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, one of the greatest authors of ALL TIME! I heard it was a pretty good book and is a very dark book (pay no attention to the title), so I’m definitely looking forward to it. I hope Chase finds his copy, but if not, I had him look for Tales of Earthsea or The Other Wind as backup. I read the predescessing books, so I should be all right. I heard they’re kind of boring though, so I hope not!

Countdown to Dominic’s birthday: 2 days