Grimm Fairy Tales

I found a ton of the Brother's Grimm fairy tales online. I like them :) If anyone else is interested in reading some, they're here.

They're pretty short, but there's a lot of them. 210, to be specific.

Oh, and P.S. I got a seasonal job at Target :) I work on the Sales Floor, and it's been a pretty even mixture of working in Electronics and Clothes. And the people there are very nice. $8/hour, and I get a 10% discount. 15% if I get a red card.

This story has a happy ending.

So about 2 or 3 weeks ago, now, I went online and I searched for all the classes I want to take next semester. I was being really prepared and I saw which classes I should take so that the time wouldn't overlap or anything. The classes I wanted were: Intro to the Criminal Justice System, Gen Chem II, Gen Chem Lab, Trig, Freshman English II, and Intro to Stats for Behavioral something (that's a psych class). After I got it all figured out I had a week until I registered for classes, which I mentioned earlier.

Then I learned that I had an Immunization Hold on my account. I went down to the Health Center and asked how I get it removed, and they told me. It was a really simple process, all that I really had to do was get a copy of my immunization records and give it to them.

But I had plenty of time to do that, so no rush. I was mostly worried about not getting certain classes. For instance, I want this one Gen Chem Lab class, and I want this one Gen Chem II class. The Lab teacher is my chem teacher now and he's really good. And Chealomen said that the Gen Chem II teacher was pretty good, so I kept checking the availability on those two classes to make sure I'd still be able to get them. They were getting pretty full, but I was going to be able to register soon, so the chances were still decent that I'd get all the classes I picked out.

So, being busy and a pretty bad procrastinator, I waited until the Monday I could sign up for classes to get that in. But that shouldn't have really been a problem. I had a hold on my account last semester, and it took all of 15 seconds to get cleared. I even turned in the papers a good hour before freshmen were allowed to register, just in case. I went to the Health Center and turned in the papers and the lady at the front desk there looked them over then told me I was good to go.

"Cool. How long until the hold is taken off my account?"
"The hold should be released within 72 hours."

Oh. Wow. 72 hours. That's quite a long time to have to wait. I went and looked at the availability of all my classes again. At that point, the trig class I wanted was full, as was the psych class and my gen chem lab. It was pretty upsetting, but I could probably go through and rearrange everything and get the classes I wanted still, even if I didn't have the specific teacher I wanted for lab. And then I spent the next couple days checking my account every couple hours to see if they released the hold yet. And everytime I saw that they hadn't released my account, I had to check to see if I'd still be able to get my classes.

It was Tuesday morning one time when I checked, right before chem was starting, and I looked at the gen chem labs. All full. Not just Ball's, the one I wanted, but every single one of them. There wasn't even one seat open. And I still couldn't register :( I had no idea what to do. It's kinda important to my major that I get into a lab class, since they're only offered in the spring.

I talked to my teacher and he said that I wasn't alone and that they'll probably open up another class because so many kids need to take it. Then he asked if they were to open up a seat for me in any of the classes, which teacher would I want to have it with? I told him that I was really hoping I could take his class, and he said he'd let me know if a new class or anything opened.

After class was over, I went to check and see if they had released my hold yet. They hadn't. So I checked on the Gen Chem Lab classes instead. They had opened a new class (which was at the same time as the gen chem ii class I wanted) and added 6 additional student to each existing class. I was so excited because I would be able to take the chem lab with Ball if they released my account soon enough. So I kept checking in on that.

Later that night, Ball emailed me to let me know that the opened a new class and had a few more students in his class. He said that he can't override my immunization hold, but he'll try to hang on to a seat in his class for me as long as he could. I kept checking in on his class and it was filling up pretty slowly, so that by Wednesday (I still had 24 hour to wait for my account to be released) there was only 1 seat yet.

Now, I'm getting really really anxious. It would make my semester so much easier if I could just get this class, and there's only one seat left. I decided that rather than wait the 24 hours, I would just go to the Health Center and ask them to clear my hold for me. So I went and talked to a different girl than I had talked to before.

"There's a hold on my account, I was just wondering if you could get it taken off for me."
"Did you turn in your paperwork?"
"Yes, I did."
"When?" Oh dear. I'm going to tell her, and she's going to tell me I have to wait another day and then come back if it's not released yet.
"On Monday." Wait for it.
"Oh, it should already be released." Well that was a pleasant surprise. She took my ID number and said she'd give it to her supervisor and get my account released by 5 pm. It was already 4 pm. :)

Then, as I was leaving campus, some guy stopped me and asked if I had a minute to talk. He was with a guy who had a camera. I said sure and he got my name, then showed me some pictures of dead people, or grave yards, or smoker's lungs that they're trying to push to be on cigarette boxes, and he asked if I thought they would be effective for teens and people in their 20's. I said no, because the smoker's don't really think that kinda thing will happen to them, or if they do think it'll happen to them, they don't care because that's pretty far ahead in the future, so no need to worry now. It was weird, but he got what he needed and let me go on my way.

I went home and signed up for classes. I got into Ball's class, and also the other chem class I wanted. My original schedule plan had me going to school every Mon Wed and Thurs from 9:30 to 3:50, and Tues from 9:30 to 10:45. My actual schedule has all the same classes, but instead on Mon and Wed I go from 9:30 to 3:50, on Tues I go 5:00 to 7:45, and on Thurs I go from 12:00 to 7:45. And I've got a break for lunch/ dinner Mon, Wed and Thurs. It'll be cool :)

And, if you were wondering what the little smoker interview has to do with anything, it was apparently a part of a thing they were doing for the Today Show. Guess who was on National TV? :D Although, they don't mention my name so I don't know why he asked, but it was still cool ha. I didn't even know this was for something real, I thought maybe it was for a class. But then my friend told me she saw me on TV. Sweet! If you want to see the clip, it's on my facebook. :)

For such a stressful week, it sure made for a happy ending.

I rock.

Guess how much I rock.

I rock so much, that my grade in algebra up to this point in the semester is a 99.13% with only like 5 more weeks of class.

**Mom and Dad, look away**
(I'm missing the .87 percent because I don't always do all the homework since that only counts for 10% of our total grade and it's SO EASY.)

**Mom and Dad may join us again.**
So, I rock. College is easy haha. At least, math is easy.

Next semester I'm taking 18 credits. I already have my schedule all laid out, and it doesn't look too bad. Assuming the classes don't all fill up in the week I can't register and everyone else can, I'll go from 9:30-2:45 on Mon, Wed and Thursdays. On Tuesdays I'll only have trig from 9:30-10:45, but then I can take the rest of the time to study in the library or something. (HA.)

And, I'm going to start babysitting for the demon children again, but only for 2 1/2 hours in the morning from 5:00-7:30ish, most of which they'll be asleep for, and only 3 or 4 times a week. Shannon said she'd give me 15 per day, which is awesome. :)

Man. Life rocks.

To Understand Confusion

I wrote this paper for my English class this year. It's the 2nd one that was due. I was going to have someone read it, but he got busy and couldn't get back to me in time. Instead, I asked Sara to read it and she liked it a lot. I was just curious what everyone else thought of it :) The prompt was to describe a concept that you've learned recently. I actually took "recently" to mean within the past 6 or 7 years, but whatever! It's a good concept! Haha. Enjoy!


Have you ever noticed how awful everyone is? I mean, think about it. They’re all dumb in everything they do. They try to sing along to songs they don’t know, which is just annoying. They’re all hopelessly slow when they drive, consistently making everyone who happens to be stuck behind them late. They’re inconsiderate and selfish, not taking two seconds to hold a door open and instead letting it slam in people’s faces. And worst of all, they think they’re perfect and they make snap judgments about others without even knowing them. Everyone is just a horrible person, to put it simply. There are a few exceptions: my family, my friends and me. We might do dumb or rude things sometimes, but at least we notice and then try to correct it in the future, unlike the rest of the earth’s people. For them, hope is lost.

I was at my peak of hatred for people in general when I took a leadership training course, and the instructor was a curious case. He was not rude or judgmental like the rest of the world. His name was Josh and he was young, maybe 26 or 27. He had light brown hair, and he was not particularly skinny, but he was understanding and kind. Without ever having met me before, he knew that I had been through experiences in my life that shaped me and made me who I am. He knew that my actions didn’t always necessarily reflect my personality, and that sometimes I offended others, but I never meant to.

That was the key: he understood and wasn't judgmental. He knew all 30 or so of us were good people, and that we didn't go through life trying to offend others. It piqued my curiosity and I just wanted to know how he could understand all of us without having met any of us before. So he explained.

It was only a few years earlier. Josh was in New York. He was on the subway one particular, but ordinary, day. The subway wasn't overly crowded, but there were a decent amount of people there, all silent, as usual. Many were staring off into space, like Josh was, just using the time to catch up with their thoughts. A few people read newspapers or finished their novels. It was quiet with proper subway etiquette being displayed by everyone, until they reached one specific stop.

A man-- let's call him Frank-- got on the subway with his three young children. Frank took a seat just two away from Josh. Then he leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. Meanwhile, his children ran wild. They raced screaming up and down the isles. They climbed the handrails and empty seats like a jungle gym. They displayed absolutely no respect to the rest of the people. The monsters ran around disturbing the passengers. Everybody was ripped and dragged from their quiet solitude, forced to be present in a subway cart that seemed like Hell. The tranquility that had previously existed in this cart vanished. Instead, wild animals replaced it. And their dad just laid there! He dared to get onto a busy subway with such demons, and he lacked the decency to try to keep them in line for the rest of the passengers.

It was ridiculous. Josh was fed up with it, and he was in a convenient position to let Frank know exactly what he thought. He bitterly looked at Frank, oblivious and self-centered, and almost chewed him out for letting his children terrorize all the innocent victims on the subway. That was when Josh realized it. Frank was completely oblivious to everything. He didn't even realize that his kids were running around, let alone that they were angering the other people. Something seemed amiss. Josh took a deep breath and instead of yelling at Frank, he simpling and calmly said, "Sir, excuse me, but do you need help with your children?"

The man looked around, almost woken from a trance, and saw his children going postal and the contempt of all the others on the subway. He just sighed and replied, "Oh I'm really sorry. We're just heading home from the hospital. My wife just died, and I guess I'm having a hard time dealing with it."

Everyone's faces instantly melted with compassion for this poor man who they had misjudged. He was not a bad father or a bad human being, he was just in pain. They all had read him wrong. They didn't know what his situation was, and they judged him anyway. It hit Josh like a brick wall. You can't look at someone else and tell what's going on in their life, thus invalidating any judgment you might make about that person.

For some reason, the story hit home to me. I do dumb things all the time, and I constantly worry that other people are judging me for doing them. I once stopped at a green light. I was lost in an unfamiliar part of the state, and there was snow on the ground. As I came up to the light, I couldn't see where the line was to stop, so I sat there worrying about where I should stop and if I would be too far into the intersection. I was so preoccupied with focusing on where I should be stopped, that I didn't even realize that the light wasn't red. The lane next to me was open, thankfully, so when someone stopped behind me, they couldn't have been too mad, or else they would've gone around.

Now, were the situation reversed, I would have been pissed off at whoever was stopped at the green light. I'd yell at them, from the privacy of my own car, to stop being such an idiot and to get going. I wouldn't even consider that they were lost or confused about where the line was. I wouldn't think that maybe they weren't from that part of Denver. I would just be angry. That's probably why I'm so afraid someone else is angrily judging me when I do something stupid: because I would if I were them. After Josh told his story, it made it easier to realize that people are often very hard to read, and I often don't see the whole picture. I don't have the right to judge someone else since I don't know their story, and I will probably be wrong if I try to guess.

So now, when I come upon someone who seems to be a few fries short of a Happy Meal, all I really need to do is remember that I don't know them. Whatever they're doing on the surface doesn't even begin to show the complexity of their motivation for their actions. By incorporating this into my life, I find that I don't feel so judged when I do dumb things. I notice the people that aren't judging me more, and I feel more comfortable with myself.

That, in and of itself, is its own reward. However, it doesn't end there. My happier disposition will put others in a better mood, and their better mood will have a positive effect on the people they know. It creates a giant positive cycle, so that one person can affect everyone else. Knowing that you can have such a profound effect on all the people you know and come in contact with, would you make the effort to try to understand that others are just lost and confused, leading them to do something "stupid," or would you dare to judge them from just one glimpse?

Hunger Games

Has anyone heard of it? It's a book by Suzanne Collins, and I really like it. I was talking to my friend Wally about it, and he told me I should read it, so I went to the library to check it out. All their copies were checked out, though, so I requested it. Then I decided I didn't want to wait that long to read it, and after school the next day I went to the bookstore to start reading a copy there until the library got mine in. I read to chapter 4 and, ironically, had to go home because I was so hungry. Haha.

It was really good, though. I got some money (thanks Dad) and went back to the store and started reading again. This was on a Friday. I read another chapter, then bought it and went home to read it until I had to leave for a Branch Barbecue, then we had CJ's bachelorette party, and I got home around 10:30. I continued reading until I finished it at 4:30.

But it's a really good book. There's 2 more in the series, but they aren't on paperback yet, so I'm gonna wait before buying them. Maybe I'll stop by B&N tomorrow to start reading the 2nd one, though haha.

And, side note, I had a test today in math. It was pretty easy. I may have missed the question about distance, but I think I'm ok on that one. And I didn't get the bonus, but it doesn't matter because our grades can't go above 100%. I was the first done, and it only took me about 30, 35 minutes, and when I turned it in the teacher asked if she made it too easy. I just smiled and left.

A Monster in My Car.

I went to the bank last week to try to figure out how to get them to stop charging me 3 dollars every month. Something about not having the correct account, because I'm a college student and I had an adult account or something. I don't really know, but I got it all taken care of. Hooray!

The funny thing happened when I was leaving. It was a fairly warm day, and so I had my windows cracked while I was inside. I usually do in the summer. Now, I don't actually know if everyone knows this about me, but I have an awful fear of bees/wasps.

I was trying to think of why I'm so terrified of them, and I'm pretty sure it comes from this one time when I was playing outside with my friends. I might have been in 3rd grade at this point. We had been riding our bikes around, and so we all had our helmets on and we were sitting in the shade. A wasp flew over to us, and Ashley and Tyler jump up out of the way, but I recalled Scooter telling me once that if a bee comes near you, you shouldn't run away, just hold still and it'll go away. So that's what I did. Which, for future reference, is not the thing to do with wasps. Anyway, the wasp was crawling around all over my face and by my mouth and eyes, it was truly one of the scariest experiences of my life. It would crawl into the holes in my helmet, and I've since decided that it was looking for a place to nest. I had to tell Ashley and Tyler what to do, too. I tried having them go get Scooter, but the doors to the house were locked. So Tyler got his mom, and she came out and got the wasp off me. To this day, I still have not been stung, and I do everything I can to ensure it stays that way. I have more scary stories, just ask if you ever want to hear any.

But back to the present. After I was done at the bank, I got into my car and put on my seat belt, and started to drive away. I had just breaked to exit the parking lot, and I heard a buzzing coming from right by where the driver's seat belt feeds into the car. Since I was already stopped, I looked over to see what it was, sorta assuming it was a fly. It wasn't, and you guessed it. It was a wasp.

I flipped out. I was kinda screaming in a hysterical way that wasn't very loud. But I'm proud to say that I had the presence of mind to put my car in park, I put the parking break on, and I took off my seat belt, probably hitting the wasp in that process, and then crawled over to the passenger seat. I turned on the hazard lights, because I was RIGHT THERE, blocking off the exit to the bank, and if someone needed to leave, I wanted them to go around. I tried opening the car door, but it was locked. So I hurried and unlocked it, nothing on my mind except trying to untrap myself and get away from this monster.

I finally made it outside, and I walked around to the driver side of the car. I can see the wasp, it's at the bottom of the window and trying to escape, but my window was only cracked like maybe 2 inches, so it was hopelessly confused. I tried helping by opening my door, but at that point, it had settled in nicely and didn't look like it was trying to leave anymore. So I started tapping the other side of the glass trying to get it to leave. I even yelled at it. "Get out of my car!"

I stopped, clearly that wasn't working, and I looked around. And there's this guy and this lady standing there, they were previously talking while he smoked before going in to the bank, but they had just sorta stopped and were staring at me. They're just staring openly, and I can't blame them when I think about how ridiculous I must have looked, and they don't even see anything in my car from there. So they're both just staring at me open mouthed and confused.

So I called over to them, being pretty friendly. "Hi."

The guy answered. "Are you ok?" haha.

"Yeah, I'm fine... There's just a bee in my car."

The lady starting laughing lightly, and I can't honestly say I blame her. But the guy asked if I wanted help. I told him that would be great, if he wanted to. So he came over and hit the wasp with his glasses until it flew away. I said thanks and told him that I'm just really scared of bees, and he said it was fine.

Let me tell you, that experience really restored my faith in the kindness of strangers. I would have probably stood there for hours waiting for the wasp to fly away on it's own if they hadn't been there.

And, needless to say, my car windows have since been completely rolled up. I'd rather deal with the heat.

Another Year

Now that I've got a few weeks under my belt, so who wants to hear about school? (btw, what a strange expression-- under my belt. Where'd it come from?)

My schedule is really nice. My earliest day starts at 10, and my latest day gets out at 3:45. I'm taking 4 classes, 14 credits, and in between each of my classes, I've got at least an hour break for lunch. And, as a nice bonus, I know someone on the buses to school! On M/W I ride with my friend Jon, and on T/R I ride with my friend Luke! It's pretty awesome.


On Mondays and Wednesday, I have college algebra and then freshmen comp. I don't really like my algebra teacher. She doesn't really understand our questions when we try to ask them, and then she doesn't really know how to answer the questions. So one girl couldn't figure out how to factor something that had a coefficient before the x² (ie 2x²+3+1) and so the teacher tried to explain it a few times. None of the things helped this girl. I told her I would help. Which I did and she was grateful to understand.

But that's another thing. This is college algebra. I learned how to factor in 8th grade. What is the matter with my class?

The math teacher, though, she doesn't go through examples very well. She'll explain something, and we'll do a fairly easy example, so I'm pretty sure I've got it down. Then the next example is something way hard, so now I'm beyond confused. There's no transition. Bleh. I feel like I'll be reading much of the math book this year.

My English class is fine, though. Teacher's nice, a little crazy, and he sometimes seems to have trouble finding his words, which is not usually comforting with an English teacher, but he's nice enough and the class is pretty easy. We read short stories from this one book I have and then we seminar about it for 10 or 15 minutes. Nothing too deep, which is alright. And we write essays. No problem, so far.

And, against the odds, this kid Michael is in the exact same classes I am. We have the exact same schedule Mondays and Wednesdays. It's kinda cool, he's pretty nice.


On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have gen chem and intro to psychology. Man. These days are infinitely better than my other days. Gen chem is really interesting. SO much better than high school. I did not learn one thing in my high school chem class. I didn't actually fail that class, in fact I was only a few points away from an A, but I felt like I was failing, so it wasn't fun. The teacher could've said "ok, figure out how to do this on your own while I try my hardest to distract you and keep you from doing your work." He was interesting and a good guy, but not a good teacher.

So in my first day of gen chem, I learned more than I did all year in high school. It was really neat. I understand these things, so it's not totally overwhelming. It's really interesting, and I'm feeling much more confident with my major choice (chemistry with an emphasis in criminalistics). My teacher is really good. I sat in his lecture the first week, taking notes, and then I read chapter one. It was neat, because he had covered all the material in chapter 1 in class. There was just one thing that the book cleared up a little for me. This is my favorite class so far.

Psychology is pretty cool, too. On the first Tuesday, my friend Luke was telling me about his psychology teacher and how she's some crazy little Asian lady and he doesn't really like her teaching style. So when I get to class I'm just worried that I've got this crazy Asian lady teacher. Some guy walks in, and at this point, I'm just relieved it's not the same person haha. He starts writing on the board "PSY 3240" and I get a little confused, but it's a psychology class and it makes me really skeptical of what people do, so I think it's some kinda experiment to see how long we take to say something. He keeps writing "Adolescent Psychology" and everyone in class is whispering to each other, more than a little concerned-like. I turned around and some girl asks me if I was here for intro to psych, and I told her that I was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose.

He's kinda scanning us looking at our reactions, and some kid shouts out, "Isn't this intro to psychology?" And he looks at us. "Is everyone here for Intro?... Is anyone here for Adolescent?" No one says anything. "Well, we'll go with majority rules. I'll go see where I am, and if I'm here, I'm gonna come back to yell at you." It was pretty sweet. I'm glad students aren't the only ones who get lost. Anyway, so I'm back to worrying that I've got the crazy Asian teacher. But about 5 or 10 min after class was supposed to start, our real teacher walks in. (btw, a few kids were freaking out, wondering where the teacher was, and I thought this was another experiment to see how long it would be before we left.)

He was nice. Didn't really care much about getting the psychology book. There's a paper due in his class, originally it was about some article called "15 Reasons Not to Say 'Good Job'" and it was supposed to be 5 pages. He changed it to being about anything psychology related (ie a paper on Finding Nemo, exploring Nemo's daddy-issues and his gimp fin) and it should only be "a couple of pages." It's due the last day of class and you can turn it in whenever. He's pretty funny, too. I generally like that class.

So, that's how school is going. I love campus, I like hanging out in the Tivoli and watching TV between my classes. I get all caught up on American Chopper, and if I want to stay after class to watch more Discovery Channel, I can watch Dirty Jobs, and then Cash Cab. Awesome. Actually, I was almost late to freshmen comp because I was so into Dirty Jobs haha. Woo.

The Bus Beckoner

My gift is to beckon buses.

I go to the Park-n-Ride to get to school, and for the past few days, I've noticed that whenever I take out my ID (which is my bus pass), the bus shows up. I'll be standing in line waiting for the bus to come, and I just decide to pull out my ID that way I'm prepared when the bus comes, and I look up, and it's coming down the street!

Now, I know this sounds ridiculous, because I'm probably just patient enough to wait the almost 10-15 minutes for a bus, and I know this, so I wanted to disprove this strange coincidence to myself today. As I parked at PnR, I got out my ID then, before I could even see the people waiting in line. Then I make the short walk down to the actual bus stop, and as soon as all the people are in view, I find them not there, and instead the bus is pulling away! The 120-X that I'm supposed to take to school!

At this point, I started freaking out a little in part because I just missed my bus, but also because as I tried to disprove a theory, it turned out being true anyway. I am all-powerful. When it comes to buses.

Don't be confused, though. It's not necessary that I pull out my ID for the bus to come, it can come on it's own anyway, but if I pull it out before it gets there, then it will come.

So I have a theory. On my ID, it has my name, it says STUDENT, and it has my ID number, like all previous IDs have. But the IDs this year have an addition, which is some random way long number underneath the ID number. I think that these number are some kind of secret codes that give the card owners special abilities. Mine obviously beckons buses, which is why I am The Bus Beckoner. I feel like there are probably a few other chosen individuals with this ability, but we are few.

It makes me wonder what everyone else can do... This calls for further inspection...

Oh. And P.S. I didn't miss my bus. I got at the PnR a little early and watched as the bus before the once I catch drove away. I was still on time to class, which is good because it's my favorite class this semester: Gen Chem haha.

They Grow Up So Fast

Today, I told Jack Jack I loved him. He rolled his eyes at me. Haha.

They grow up so fast. It seems like only yesterday Chaelomen and MJ were changing his diapers... Sniff sniff.

Ha but yesterday a bunch of my friends and I were hanging out one last time before college starts, and we went to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It was pretty funny, I would recommend seeing it. But it has a weirdness to it, so that I spent much of the movie looking at the screen with a "wtf" face. I liked it, though. It was funny. I would probably buy it.

And if you do go see it, there's a fun little thing at the end of the credits. Not like a continuation of the movie, just a fun "the end" thing that made me happy I waited.

Do You Feel Safe Yet?

Last year in one of my English classes, modern lit, we had to write about a "hot" issue. I wrote about the school IDs which they now make "mandatory" to wear. And last night or the night before, I was looking through all of my old homework on the computer, and I found it and am particularly proud of it (mostly), so I thought I would share. My dashes represent the school name, btw.

For the safety of the students? Yeah right.

As you walk through the halls of ------- High, what strikes you the most? The well-kept building? No. The school-spirited students? No. The amazing teachers? No again. How about campus security stopping students to demand, "Where's your ID?" Yes, yes I do believe that's it. The students being badgered all day about those little plastic cards with a picture. And why? To keep our school safe, of course.

Because those little IDs really cut down on school violence, don't they?

One Wednesday morning, actually, I was stopped by one of the deans. Where's your ID? In my pocket. Put it on.

Lesson number one: ------- wants you to be miserable. I was in a good mood that day, my morning had gone really well and I was just headed to hang out with friends, so apparently I agreed with a little too much enthusiasm. He immediately turned around, "That's it! Come to the dean's office right now!"

"But I'm putting it on..." Which was probably the first time I'd put it on since school started.

"I don't care, come on!" I went, because the fight wasn't worth it to me, but later when my parents found out, they were pissed. At the school. For punishing me while I was complying. They even came down to talk to the deans and try to fight it, but to avail.

Because according to district policy, students must display ID cards at all times on school grounds and at school activities. If they don't, warning first, then lunch detail, Wednesday school, and finally suspension. But anyone refusing to wear their ID won't care about having to pick up trash during their off hour. And a suspension would be welcomed for a chance to sleep in.

The main problem, however, is this: I wasn't caught for easily a month and a half into school. For that long I had been not wearing my ID. Aren't these supposed to make you safe by preventing strangers from roaming the halls? Granted, I'm not a stranger and I do attend -------, but that's a full month and a half that I would've been free to attack the school. And there are some students who still haven't been caught without IDs.

Do you feel safe yet?

It's not even just those not wearing IDs. Some students simply don't like their picture, so they cover it with stickers, effectively turning the ID to a random piece of plastic. Other students switch IDs with opposite sexes, even with other school's students. A complete stranger could come to the school with a lanyard and a random plastic card, and they're in.

Do you feel safe yet?

The problem doesn't even need to go outside our own school. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't Harris and Klebold students at Columbine? Couldn't they have shot up their school just as easily while wearing their IDs on a school-issued lanyard?

Do you feel safe yet?

If we all wear our IDs, does that honestly make the school a safer place? Maybe our time should be spent learning about not discriminating and accepting others' differences instead of being wasted by wondering where our IDs are. Maybe, for once, the school should focus on winning the war, not the battle.

Happy Friday the 13th

This is me spilling salt on the ground to celebrate. We also broke a mirror, and stepped on many cracks. Unfortunately, we failed to find a ladder to walk under and a black cat to have cross our path. Oh well, there's always May 2011.

And no worries, we made sure we got the glass from the mirror all swept up.

Don't worry, we have a pocket knife. And an Indian.

So, as I'm sitting here reading an awesome new blog, I really want to tell someone about it, but I got the awesome new blog off of MJ's blog, and so pretty much everyone already knows about it.

But then I realized that I've got a few of my own friends, (a whole 1 person comes to mind) and so everyone should check out this new blog :)

And since I stole that from MJ and the majority of the people reading this probably already know about it, I'll tell you about our hike we went on really quick. Last Tuesday, I wanted to hang out with some of my friends and do something awesome and free, so we went hiking in Boulder. It's this random little place, but it was really pretty. It's 3 miles up and 3 back, and it runs along a little river. And we saw a lady on a horse coming down the trail as we were going up. It was really pretty.

We didn't get a chance to get to the top, though, because Ally had to get back home by 2 or something, but we're gonna try to go up again sometime in September or maybe October, so I'll let you know how it turns out. :D

I gave Sara a pine cone, which she later threw into the river.

It looks kinda like we're standing on a green screen or something, but we're actually standing on a little ledge on the side of the mountain.

Looks like someone left an offering for the Gods.

We didn't actually see a mountain lion, no worries.

James Bond meets Matrix

So Inception was really good. It blew my mind on many levels, and I think I wanna go see it again. Just so you all know.

I haven't heard anyone say that they didn't like it, either. Except for Alli, but it was a little over her head.

We went to see it for Sara's birthday, and her parents paid for all of us, which was really cool, but it was a really good movie. There weren't too many "slow parts" and the parts that were less action-y weren't boring. So, I recommend seeing it. There's nothing after the credits, though. So you don't have to wait there all sadly, hoping they'll throw in something else to blow your mind.
Haha.

Shadow of the Game

In case anyone doesn't know, my favorite book ever is Ender's Game. I have read it 6 or 7 times in the past 4 and a half years. We read it for class earlier this year, actually, and I had read it more times that the teacher had. I know the story front to back, and I could probably tell you every detail about it, if you asked. I have a hard back copy of it which I've underlined things in it and boxed off passages of it. It's (probably more than) a little crazy of me.

Regardless, Ender's Game has a parallel novel- Ender's Shadow. And Ender's Shadow has it's own little series, which I've been reading for the past few weeks.

So, that being said, this post will make more sense if you've read the Shadow Series, and if you haven't, there are slight spoilers, because this post is about why I don't really like the series.

I mean, I think the story line is alright, but I wouldn't read any of these books again. I really didn't like how Bean will be sitting there thinking about possible solutions to a problem or something, and he'll get a random and stupid idea that he'll tell himself can't possibly be true, but deep down he knows it's right. And it is. And this all happens fairly instantaneously. I know he's a super-genius and whatever, but it still seems lame.

But I think the thing I like least about this story line is that it was written years after Ender's Game was, and when Card wrote Ender's Game, he didn't really plan to have a parallel novel and series to go with it. So in Ender's Game, Bean is just a little kid, who is also smart. And Peter didn't get into Battle school because he was too dangerous and aggressive. And Ender's parents didn't have any idea that Valentine and Peter were actually Demosthenes and Locke (although I think that's unlikely, that they'd have no idea).

[[these are my slight spoilers]]
That's how the story actually goes, the end. But in the parallel series, Bean is actually genetically altered, and his condition is going to make him a giant someday. And Peter didn't get accepted because he's not lovable. And the Wiggin parents knew everything all along, they just didn't want to hinder the progressions that Peter and Valentine were making with the world.

I think that if you want to write sequels to your books, that's fine and I hope they do well, but I firmly disagree with altering the original story so you can have your sequels still fit in well with the story. Maybe if you had to change it so much, you should've just written a different story.

And you could argue that there's premises that are vital enough to each story, that Card could've have written the both and not have them come from the same original story, so in effect, Ender's Shadow is the "different story" for Ender's Game. But if that's the case, then I think it was stretching it a little too far to say that Peter wasn't too aggressive for Battle school, since that's actually a really important detail in Ender's Game.

Mmm. Maybe it's just me.

Just because I have thoughts.

I was looking at this girl's myspace profile, at her pictures. She probably has about 30, in all these different poses and in all these different clothes. One specifically in these lack of clothes. (Not naked, but wearing a swimming suit. Or maybe underwear. I don't really know.)

Anyway, so I'm just really glad that I don't need that. I don't want that. I don't want to have the attention of my body in all these provocative positions. I don't want the image of me with less and less clothes circling around the internet, and that is something I'm grateful for.

I'm happy with who I am, and I'm glad that I'm interesting enough that people like me anyway.

As was once said by one of my friends from church, "girls who do that to get boys attention are just stupid. At least I know when a guy's talking to me, it's because he actually wants to talk to me, not because he thinks I'm easy."

Hooray 2010!

So graduation was this week. It totally rocked. Chaelomen's was on Sunday, then mine was on Monday.

Chaelomen gave me bunny ears. I didn't notice for the first picture, but I did for this one.


We all look the same, so I circled me. Within a 2-person radius.

I played cymbols for my last concert. Woo haha.

I got my Five Star Diploma :D

(Which means that I:

-earned 23 credits

-had at least a 3.5 GPA

-got proficient or advanced on all my CSAP scores

-got a 23 or more on my ACTs

-met CDHD requirements

-participated in all state-mandated assessments)

He refused to give me a kiss haha. But politely.

It was fun. Definitely a lot better than the ones I'd been to the past few years, playing in the band.

Dear Bishop,

I have recently changed wards. My records were requested out of the Woodglen Ward and into the Single's Branch.

It was also been brought to my attention that last time I tried to change wards, my records were requested right back. Although I'm glad you don't want to lose such a precious gem as me, I would appreciate it if we didn't request my records back again.

I find it important that I actually end up in this directory, in case people need or want to contact me.

Yours Truly,
Samara

P.S. Tell Mom not to cry. I'll go to the Woodglen Ward at least one more time, just for her.

So close...

I had my last band concert last night. :) It was fun haha. Usually mass band concerts are really boring, because they hand out all the awards and everything, which about doubles the time of the concert. But yesterday, everyone in percussion stood around telling jokes. It was fun.

And let me just say that I'm really glad that I don't have any more concerts ever. It's awesome. One of the girls yesterday was crying because she was sad to be leaving band, and that just blows me away. I didn't know anyone liked band that much. I mean, I'll miss all the kids in band and everything, but the joy of not having to be in band anymore totally outweighs all that. Well, actually. I'll miss a few of the kids in band and everything.

I was just never really good friends with most of the kids in band, and I'm glad I got to know all of them, but the only time I've ever defined myself as a band geek was freshman year, when I really enjoyed band a lot, but after that things went downhill. So I don't really mind losing contact with everyone. We still have facebook, too, if I still want to keep tabs on anyone, I can.

I'm really excited to graduate :D I'm getting all the announcements out this week.

Hooray Outdoor Ed!

I know. It's long. I'm sorry. But it's a good one.

I went to Outdoor Ed on Monday, came back today. It was a lot of fun, because I was up there with 10 other High School Leaders, and we were all really close. Or more accurately, we became really close, compared to Outdoor Ed Training, where I didn't feel particularly welcome with most of the cliques that had formed. But this was different, all the Leaders were really cool and nice. I enjoyed be around any of them (except for one, but he wasn't someone I hated, or even particularly disliked, being around, so it was still cool).

Also, the Staff and Teachers were really cool. They treated us like peers and totally respected what we said and they were just really great, compared, again, to Outdoor Ed Training, which is more like Outdoor Ed for high schoolers, and random interjections of "When the 6th graders are here..." or "When you do this with the 6th graders..." They were really the leaders, just showing us what we'd be doing later as leaders ourselves. Which isn't bad, I thought training was fun, but I liked being a peer to the teachers and staff.

And there were, of course, 6th graders! They can be split off into 3 groups. There were the good kids, who never really acted out and followed directions. There were the bad kids who did some really stupid stuff that I had to call them out on, and they probably got in trouble for it. And there were the annoying kids who didn't do anything wrong, necessarily, but got on my nerves. A lot.

So at Outdoor Ed, the 6th graders get split up into 3-4 difficulty levels, based on the hike. We had the Alpine group, who take an 8 hour hike on the 2nd day. We had the Alpine-Light/ Montane-Heavy/ Montane Plus/ Montane 1 (which is the official name)/ Pategonia, who take the short Alpine hike. This is not a real group, but one that this particular group had to make up because they had so many kids who wanted to be in Alpine. The Pategonia group took the hike that usually the Alpine group takes when there's really really bad weather out. It's not as long as the regular hike, but it's steeper. We also had the Montane 2 group, who took a regular 2 hourish hike, and the Foothill group who took a hike that was 15 minutes shorter than Montane.

Usually the HSL's get split up, too, to watch over those kids the whole time they're up there. But while I was up there, I got to balay on the highropes the whole time :D It was more than a little awesome. The kids were really good (mostly. We'll get to the one who wasn't in a minute) and they all tried the high ropes. Most of them went all the way across, and only a few didn't make it past the ladder.

Yesterday, after all the 6th graders went, some of the HSL's wanted to go again, since the last time any of them went was during training. We had Leticia, Val and Nate go, and G balayed for Val and Nate, because they would've had me rise off the ground a little. But I got to balay Leticia, which was cool. She went all the way across, and then when she started going down, we gave her the chance to do a Spiderman, where you flip your legs upside down. She tried a little, and I had breaked her line so she could get it, but it was hard and she decided she didn't want to, so I start letting her come down again.

But, I'm actually going to back track about an hour to one group where there was this one particular kid. Let's call him Donovan. I never really liked that name, anyway. G had told all the kids not to stand on the platform unless you were the rope holder, because that's where the balayers walk and it's kinda annoying to dodge around other kids or to run into them all the time or to have them dodging out of your way. Now Donovan, he kept standing on the platform by where I was, obsessed with being the rope holder, which he had already been once, like all the other kids. "Can you get off please?" "Can you get off?" "Can you stay off?" "Get off." And there was one point where I was joking around a little with my rope holder, telling him I was going to fire him if he didn't pick up the slack (both idiomatically and literally haha). Donovan jumps up right away with "You're fired! Give me the rope!" me- "No. He's fine. Get off my platform."

Now. Back to Leticia. I was letting her down since she didn't want to do the Spiderman. Apparently, though, Donovan was pretty sure that she would have to do it, so he says "No. She has to" and he grabs my rope. Yep. Grabs. My. Rope. I turn to him. "That is not ok ever. I hope you do not think I won't tell your teacher about this." He lets go with an "ok" or a "sorry," I'm not really sure which, and a kinda shocked "oh crap" look on his face. I'm thinking he said "ok," though.

Ooh. That was bad. I told his teacher, and she had me go with him when they talked to him about it. They asked him why I might be upset with him. He knew the answer, as I had told him earlier that I would be telling his teachers, and he owned up to it, at least. "Because I grabbed the rope." They went on about Yeah, and he should know better, especially since he's a boy scout. That's right. A boy scout grabbed my rope while I was balaying. They told him that since that was his 2nd warning that day (he had been throwing pine needles at a girl earlier), he would have to call his parents and if anything else happened, he would be sent home.

Which actually leads me to a short story about one of the good kids, who thought he was in trouble. At night, there are 6 sections that the kids rotate around in. They were set in groups of about 20 and given a name and cycled through 3 stations a night. One of the staff would teach a station-- the Star Lab-- and 5 of the HSL's lead/supervised the rest-- cat eye hike, "Lost in Space," puzzle making, campfire, and group games. Then the remaining 6 HSL's had a specific group they stuck with the whole night to make sure they didn't get lost or anything.

One of the kids in my group, (I cycled with the wolves,) was hanging out with the kids who didn't really want to be participating and so they were sorta messing around, so that's what I figured this kid would do. But no, actually he surprised me and he was really participative (if that's a word) and really enthusiastic about it. He was very good. So I told one of his teachers the next day, that there was this kid named Brandon, but I didn't know his last name, so I just described him, and he was really good and he surprised me. There were other good kids, too, but he didn't look like he'd be good, and he was. She didn't know who I was talking about, so she asked me to point him out. I hadn't seen him all day, though, until we got in line for dinner, and then I saw him standing in line, wearing his name tag, and I was wrong. His name is not Brandon.

So as they all left, the teacher stayed behind until the last 6ish kids were walking off, and so I tagged behind, too, to let her know that his name was actually Dominic. Psh. Brandon, Dominic. They're practically the same.

She knew exactly who I was talking about. "Oh, yeah yeah yeah, Little Dominic! Long, brown hair! I know who you mean! Ok, thanks for letting me know." And then when we had our night groups again, we're walking to the puzzles (which were our first rotation for that night) and Dominic comes up to me "Hey, Bridget. Listen, I'm sorry that I was kinda a jerk last night." Oh yeah, no proble-- wait. He wasn't a jerk. What did the teacher say to him?

So here's what I'm thinking. I think one of the 6ish kids who was behind when I told the teacher that his name was Dominic, not Brandon, was one of his friends, and told him I just got him in trouble. Oops, haha. It was nice, in a sad way though, how he came back to apologize for something he didn't do.

Prom!

So while I've had Elli in town, I haven't really been blogging. In case you couldn't tell. Nor have I been reading blogs. But I'm back, now!

We had a ton of fun with Elli, and she got to stay and extra few days which was fun. :D One day, we went to Barnes and Noble and I read little kid books to her and Alli and Ally, I was sitting on the book reading chair and they were on the benches around me. It was fun. Then we went to Cost Plus World Market and looked around there. We went to Michael's after that, so Alli could get some stuff for graduation (May 17th! 2 pm!) and then we went to Wendy's. We hung out with my friend Allen on his lunch break, and then we went to Ally's house after to play some card games. That night at 10:15 ish, we went to see Alice in Wonderland (again!), then we went back to Ally's house to stay the night. It was awesome.

Also, we had prom while she was here. It was cool.

We had a lot of people, some joined us after this picture was taken.

I went with Talon

We ate at Wendy's

We went mini golfing. I posed like a rockstar. Not on purpose, though. I wish I knew what I was doing here.

We didn't actually dance much, but we did take many pictures. (most are on facebook)

We did afterprom at boondocks

And we had breakfast at IHOP. It rocked :D

Just when you thought it couldn't get better.

I was wrong about the attendance. The rule is that it has to be 95%, and Nora's was just under that.

I'm not really sure if I mentioned it, but the deans refused to look it up for her. They said that wasn't something they could do. Well guess what? Nora gets online the other day-- on scholar's mart-- and she checks out her attendance. Who knew it was that easy? Guess what it was? A 94.8%

That's just .2% away from being able to go to prom. And guess what still wasn't fixed? 5 absences! Who does that?! Who tells a student that they can't go to prom when they are .2% away and they have 5 absences just because they didn't get it fixed before the "deadline"?! Rude rude rude rude.

And as far as what her mom did to fix it-- she called in and excused the absences.


In other news, Elli is here and she's totally awesome. I feel bad for not taking her out to do more stuff. We just sorta sit around and watch a movie or play card games. But she's a lot of fun and doesn't really seem to mind. But we're going to see Alice in Wonderland, I believe, and then on Sunday morning we're going to Red Rocks to see some Easter ceremony thing. I'm not really sure, but it should be cool.

Lame.

So to go to prom, you have to have at least 97% attendance. Nora went in to check her attendance, and she had a 95%, which was fine because there were still about a month until the list was finalized, so she'd have enough if she went to school everyday.

Then a few weeks ago, she went to check her attendance again and it was down to 92.5%, even though she hadn't missed any school. Apparently, while she was there, some of her teachers marked her as absent. So she had to get all of her teachers to sign a paper saying that she was there and everything. She got everyone to sign it, and then gave it to the attendance office.

They didn't get rid of all of her absences, though, because she went to check it again, and it wasn't high enough. She checked it out, and they still had her marked as absent for a few 1st hour classes. Which she wasn't. She was there. THE WHOLE TIME.

She talked to them more about it, they said they'd get it straightened out.

The final was posted yesterday, and guess who was on it? Not Nora. They still didn't fix it. She was still marked absent in her first hour classes when we went to check it out.

So now, Nora can't go to prom. The school screwed up her attendance, and she can't go now. Nora would fight more to be able to go, but the school school already screwed it up, made her do a bunch of work to get it fixed, and then didn't fix it. So, it seems kinda pointless now.

Adventures from French!

So for the past month in French, we've had a sub because our real teacher was in Mexico and Quebec. Our sub was pretty cool because she tried to explain things really thoroughly and she didn't get mad if we didn't understand something, and she also had us do a lot of different things like act out the play we were reading (Le Malade Imaginaire) and some other stuff.

There was this one time that the sub was trying to teach us about pronouns. For the AP test we're taking at the end of the year, there's a section where a bunch of words will be left out, and we just have to know what word would go there. There's no word bank or anything, you just have to know. The possibilities are ALL of the pronouns. Out of the nine of us in that class, only 2 of them barely understand pronouns, and the rest of us are just completely lost.

So I was looking at the sub, trying to pay attention so that maybe I could understand this a little and not be totally screwed over for that part of the test. But everything she was saying was just completely lost on me, so I was zoning out a little. Not so much that I had the glazed-over-eyes thing going, and I was still looking at her, but I wasn't there mentally at all. Instead, I was thinking about roller blading through the school.

(I think about weird things. Once on the bus home from a college campus I was visiting with my friend Sara, we were both lost deep in thought. I had a very serious expression on my face, so when Sara asked what I was thinking about, I just laughed a little. "Really?" "Yes..." "I was thinking about how much it would suck to be able to feel a pea under 47 mattresses.")

Anyway, so I was thinking about roller blading through the school, and particularly into the band room. I was considering how fun it would be, then with my semi-morbid thought patterns, I though about "What if I skated into the band room and on my way in got impaled by a music stand?!" This thought terrified me. More than it should have, because the odds of that happening are slim to none, even under the best (or would you say worst in this case...) circumstances.

This is the best part-- the sub hadn't made eye contact with me since I drifted off. Not that she was avoiding me, but I am only one student who doesn't understand at all. So at the moment that I consider being impaled by a music stand and a look of pure terror fills my eyes, she makes eye contact.

It was really funny-- she gets this look in her eyes like she's concerned for and sorry about what she assumes to be my fear of pronouns.

My Ranting Post.

So I don't really know what this is, but I got the user names and passwords I needed to log onto the site I need so I can write that paper for psychology and guess what? There's a "protocol error communicating with authentication server." It's like I'm not supposed to do this paper.

But on a different note, today for astronomy (which, if I haven't mentioned, is not all it's cracked up to be) we went to the library to do this worksheet. Our teacher told us to bring our stuff because we might not be coming back to the classroom between. So in the library, we were scheduled to be in this one part that only has maybe 20 computers, which is never enough for the whole class. So Nora and I, being the last to get there, decided to go use these computers over here.

We weren't too far off, so I thought she probably saw us, considering she wasn't concerned at all about us. She's over with the rest of the class giving them some answers and stuff, and we were barely in ear shot. You know, when you're just far enough away from someone to be able to hear what they're saying but only if you know they're talking? Otherwise you just write it off as background noise? Yeah, that explains our distance. So she gave the rest of the class another worksheet to do once we finished looking up the answers for the first one. And Nora, having heard this, told me to go get it.

So I went over, and she sees me walking and she's like "Oh there you guys are."

Wait. Hang on. She didn't know where we were? Let me explain the significance-- last week we went to the Meester lab to do something, and someone had gone to the bathroom along the way. Our teacher flipped out. This girl was probably gone for 4 or 5 minutes, and she freaked out because she couldn't find her anywhere. She wasn't in the class room or the Meester lab. For 5 minutes! It was like the world was ending! But with us, she apparently thought we were ditching didn't even care! Rude rude rude.

Anyway, so I got the worksheet, and she gave me enough for the 3 of us who were sitting over there. We did the worksheet. Astronomy is a blocked class, btw, so as the first passing period neared, Nora went to ask the teacher if she could go to the bathroom-- which is the 2nd reason we know she knew we were there. So we kept working, and it got toward the end of the 2nd period, and Nora and I had just finished our 2nd worksheet and I turned around to check out what the rest of the class was doing, and then look back to Nora.

"Uhh. Where's our class?"

Yeah! They left us! Like, without a word! Our teacher knew we were there and I swear, she probably told everyone "Be really quiet. We're going back to class, but I don't want to deal with those girls over there." Ha. Alright, maybe she didn't say that, but we didn't hear anything about going to class, and they did leave REALLY QUIETLY.

So there's only like 5 minutes left of class now, and the other girl who was over with us wasn't done, so she stayed to keep working and Nora and I went down to the classroom so we could at least turn in our papers. When we got there, we turned in our worksheets to the "in" box, and then stood there by the door waiting to go, because they weren't doing anything by the time we showed up. The teacher looks at us and says "Can I help you?"

What is that? Can you help us? Really? That's what you say to someone who isn't actually in your class and has passes or something to deliver! But here we are, YOUR STUDENTS, and you leave us in the library?! We sit right in front of her, so she can't have possibly noticed we didn't come back. RUDE. That's all I have to say.

Well, that and I'm glad there's only 3 more days of this class. Man.

Strike Two!

I tried to do my homework, honest. But the search engine I was going to use is apparently only accessible from school, unless you have a password. Which I don't, so I'll do what I can now then finish really quick during intervention tomorrow morning.

So for the 2nd time, I tried baking macaroons. The first time they turned out way too watery because I had over beaten the eggs, and also I tried using fresh, fine chopped coconut instead of shredded coconut. They turned out... well, less than pretty.




Ha. They don't actually look too bad in this picture, but believe me, they were really runny and seemed to get worse the more I cooked them... mmm...

Anyway, so this time, instead of deciding that "fold the coconut with the egg whites" basically means the same as "beat the coconut in with the egg whites," I beat the eggs until they were stiff, and then beat the sugar in with that, just like the recipe said. But, unfortunately, the recipe is off. You should beat the eggs until they're almost stiff, then add sugar and stiffen them the rest of the way. So again, my batter was quite watery.

I hadn't actually added the coconut, though, so mom pulled up a different macaroon recipe and I tried that. They cookies still turned out less than perfect, but they tasted good. The only problem is that stuck to the wax paper really bad haha. Man. Everyone likes eating wax with their cookies, right?

Bonus, though, because (this being her recipe) Sara's mom said that next time I'm at their house, she'll show me how to make macaroons haha. Yay.

UCCS

Has anyone heard of University of Colorado at Colorado Springs before? Is it like University of Colorado in Denver? Because apparently they want me to consider going there.

They even said-- in a letter to our family-- that "Bridget has goals and ambitions and we can help" and "We know that UCCS can challenge Bridget academically." Which is kinda cool, that they put my name into the letter.

However, I think I'm still going to Metro.

But hooray for noticing that I "scored well about the average" for my ACT scores :)

P.S. I think it's funny that "blogs are dying" and this is the most I've ever blogged before in my life. I'm like a real blogger!

Just because I want to put off my homework more...

This last weekend I went to do med support on a Klondike. It was actually fun. I'm surprised about that, because I thought it would be awful. But everyone was very nice and welcoming, they all learned my name (although I only know the names of 1 or 2 of them) and we weren't very busy. We had a few cold hand, only 2 of which were seriously cold. Like, near frost-bite cold. And then we had an upset stomach after dinner and some kid who, in my humble opinion, just wanted to go home and so he had "chest pains."

I did accidentally steal one of the belt clips for the radios, though, so I'll have to give that back tomorrow.

Also, I got the name of my German exchange kid. For those of you who didn't know, I'm participating in GAPP (German-American Partnership Program) and we're having a girl named Elli come visit us from March 28th to April 18th. It will be fun, and I hope everyone will come visit her :) and be friendly, so she likes Colorado.

Then guess what I found out? This guy-- Tony Horton, inventor of P90X-- guess how old he is??

I was thinking something like... 28-32 ish.

Nope, I was watching a commercial, and he's 51! I was completely shocked. I mean, seriously, 51! In this picture!

I hope I look like that when I'm 51. Well, only more feminine...

Denied!

Guess who got accepted to BYU?

Not me, haha!

Which upset me a little, because I did really well on my ACTs and I have a good GPA, and I can't even know why I wasn't accepted. Oh well, I guess.

But I'm ok with it, because I'm going to Metro which means I'll be more likely to see people I know from highschool since pretty much eveyone is going to Metro, and I want to major in chemisty or criminology, and I hear really good things about Metro's programs for both of those. Plus, now I don't have to deal with the whole "Metro or BYU" thing, so I think this worked out well enough.

Any words of wisdom for the new college student? :)

And its eyes glowed...

Ha, the mechanical bull's eyes.

(And there's pictures that go with this post, but I'll have to upload them later.)

So as I said earlier, some of my friends from crew took me to the Grizzly Rose for my birthday to go mechanical bull riding! Which is so fun, let me just say. I've been once before, but it was at Relay for Life in Greeley. Ladies' Night starts at 8:00, which I'm not actually sure what that means because you could get in earlier than that, and also it wasn't like a "girls only" thing, so I'm not sure why it's "ladies' night," so if anyone wants to explain that to me.

Anyway, we got there at about 6:20ish so we could get a good parking spot, and we walk in and I forgot my stupid ID! You have to be 18 or older to get in, and I changed right before we left., so I forgot my driver's license in the pants I was wearing for most of the day. But it turned out to not be too bad, because apparently they only take cash... So we drove back home, and got my ID and got Dad to pick up 30 dollars for us, and then we left again, to get back there at about 7:20ish.

So while we sat there for a while waiting for the bull to open, and I asked some people who work there when it would open and they said by 8:30, so we waited for a while. It was kinda annoying because when K emailed them to ask what time the opened the mechanical bull riding because she wanted to take her friend for her birthday at 6:30, they said that they would be open when we got there.

It's probably important to mention that Mom and I hadn't eaten yet. Our food was at home waiting in the oven for us. We figured we'd leave at about 9 and have enough time to eat and everything.

Anyway, so at 8:30, I went back and asked some other people who work there what time they would open the bull riding, and they told me that depending on business, they would open anywhere between 8:30 and 9. Which would've been completely fine if that's what they had said in the email, but in the email they said that it would be going when we got there.

So, being hungry, I went back and asked Mom what she wanted to do, because I personally didn't want to wait that long, but I wanted to ride the bull, so I wasn't really sure. She said we could wait 15 more minutes and see what was going on then, and so K took me to go watch some people play pool, and then we danced for a little while. The dancing was fun because neither Anthony nor I can dance well, and so we just sort of stood there looking around trying to figure it out. But this old lady came over and started trying to teach us haha. It was pretty cool.

And at this point, it was 8:50, and they had just started to open up the bull! Hooray :D We were the first ones in line. Or, more correctly, I was the first in line. It's $5 to ride once, $10 to ride 3 times and $20 to ride unlimited until midnight. K and Anthony pitched in to get me 3 rides, which was really fun. Mom recorded me the first time I was on, and I think I stayed on for 30-35 seconds. Then I have no idea how long I stayed on for the other two times. It was a lot of fun, though. Sadly, it was the last two times (the ones not recorded) where I was epically thrown from the bull.

I guess you'll just have to imagine me flying through the air in a pretty little arch, landing so gracefully on my back. Ha. Or something similar to that.

But hey, I did a lot better than the drunk boys. :)

(and just to clarify, no Mom didn't ride the bull. She was just there for pictures)

I'm 18!

Hooray! I'm an adult! Technically.

To celebrate that, some of my friends are going to take me to the Grizzly Rose to go mechanical bull riding :D I'm so excited. It's going to be really fun.

Then on my birthday, I had a few friends (20 or so) over and we played Bigger or Better.

If you've never heard of bigger or better, you break off into groups, we had 4 or 5 in each, and you each get something little, like a tooth pick or a paper clip, or we had clothes pins. Then each group goes around door to door and says, "Hi. We're playing Bigger or Better. Do you have anything bigger or better than this [clothes pin] that you'd be willing to trade us for?" The rules that we set were you have to be able to carry it back to my house and that you can't drive anywhere.

It was cool. There were only a few people who didn't want to trade us anything. And one house who we knocked at the door, and they didn't answer, so we left. Then as we were walking further up the street I see them looking through the window. I thought that they might have wanted to talk to us, but just got to the door too late, so I waved and started walking back up to the door. But no, they did not want to talk to us because everyone left the window except the lady who stares at me and closes the blinds. It was pretty funny actually. I thought that only happened on movies.

Anyway. We traded the clothes pin for a paper towel roll, which we traded for a giant pencil, which we traded for little shoe keychain, which we traded for a pad of paper (which is not bigger or better than the shoe keychain. I mean, come on, it was a little tiny converse!) and then we got to the next house. I'm pretty sure I found another Mormon family in our neighborhood, btw. But I asked if she had anything bigger or better to trade for our pad of paper. And then I suggested broken appliances or things she was planning on giving away to Good Will or something, and so she gave us an old fax machine! Which we traded for a MINI FRIDGE! It worked too! It was not broken!

Obviously, we won. haha It was a lot of fun. If no one has played Bigger or Better ever, I think you should. Right now.

Thanks to Scooter for telling me about it :)

TCH EMS LOL and more TLAs

This past Thursday and Friday I ditched school to go to a TCH EMS Conference. The crew paid for me to go, and it was pretty cool. Basically the entire it was just a bunch of lectures. Most were an hour long, but some on Thursday were only a half hour. And a lot of the presenters had cool information, but were really REALLY boring. Like the lady who spoke about different drugs. I would be lying if I said I was awake the whole time.

But there were a couple of speaker in particular who did an amazing job. Jason Dush (which rhymes with "plush," but I can only imagine the teasing he got for that name) was one and he had a nice way of capturing the audience's attention. He gave personal stories, and had funny little comics or videos he would put up, and he didn't linger on one specific thing too long. He was pretty good at keeping the pace up. He gave 3 lectures. One about stress and 2 more about delivering babies.

Then the girl who was in charge of putting the conference together was really funny (although her name was not really funny, so I don't actually remember it) and very nice. She only had a half hour to go over an hour and a half's worth of material. So she was talking really fast and would freak out periodically about how much time she didn't have, which was kinda awesome. She gave a really cool lecture about special needs children.

It was a good way to spend a few days. I learned some really interesting things. We talked about robots and kids who get strokes or heart attacks and ALTE and autism and pharmacology and terrorists and a lot of NAT stuff and OB stuff and not backboarding patients who you regularly would, and I got presents, so what wouldn't be good about that? That's right, I am now the proud owner of a PEN LIGHT! It's awesome. I love it. And I have my very own pocket knife.

And in case you're wondering, because I was...
TCH- The Children's Hospital
EMS- Emergency Medical Service
NAT- Non Accidental Trauma
LOL- Laugh Out Loud
TLA- Three Letter Acronym
ATLE- Acute Life Threatening Events (although I'm disappointed that's not a TLA)