Random Thoughts

Multiple things today.

First off: School. Yeah, that started today. Woohoo. (Note the obvious enthusiasm at this prospect...) By now, I honestly just don't care anymore. One good thing was, I was really glad that my schedule all worked out perfectly, because the large majority of my classes are only offered during one period, and they all worked out, no problems. That is, until I went to my math class today, and the teacher kicked me out, saying I had to be cleared for it. The line for the counseling office was halfway down the hall, so I had to go wait in that, only to have some random lady tell me that I can't be cleared at all, and would just have to change math classes. I was looking at when math classes were being offered, and big surprise, none of them fit in with my schedule. Argh! The only ones during times that I could do were either too hard (think concurrent) or stuff I've taken years ago. I was getting horribly frustrated, till my counselor showed up, and said she'd work things out for me. Yay good counselors! So I'm still waiting to hear how that turns out.

But my other classes are good! A days are awful, with all IB classes, but then B days are totally slacker days, so it's great.

Basically, I'm hoping the rest of school ends up being better than the first day.

Second off: Remember how I was so concerned about turning into a hipster? Well, it's official. I have a list of songs that I want to buy, and there are now 3 songs by The Decembrists on that list. You may say, "Only 3 songs, whatever." But that's more than any other artist! And I have a lot of other Indie/hipster music on there, too...Of course, I think all the musicals and Disney kinda cancel it out (songs from Disney movies, NOT Disney Channel.) In other words, I'm turning into a hipster! Except, y'know, I don't really like those cookie-cutter labels. Can't we just realize that everyone is a unique individual? Ahaha, look at me being ironic. I should make a t-shirt about it!

Finally: To end it all off, I'll leave you with a quote that has to do with both school and hipsters.
"My summer was really...what's that word teenagers use for cool? Chill? Yeah, my summer was really chillaxed! I'm woring on my hip-ness." That was my history teacher, so that's the school connection there.

Summer

Well, summer's almost gone. Eight blog posts after I wrote about how weird it was that I'm a senior, I'm now thinking about how weird it is that summer is almost over, and soon I'll be back in school. My carefree summer days are nearly over!

No more waking up at 10:30 after staying up till 2:30 the night before. No more being able to wear gym shorts whenever I feel like it. No more being able to decide my own schedule each day. Sigh.

Things I Have Done This Summer That Were Awesome

• Jumped into a pool with all my clothes on
• Went to Yellowstone
• Read several good books
• Watched the sun rise in a beautiful, secluded spot in the mountains
• Learned to French braid hair
• Hung out with friends all the time
• Got much better at cartwheels (Before this summer, I wasn't able to do one at all. Now I can almost do a good one!)

Things That Weren't So Awesome About This Summer

• One of my friends moved across the country
• I never did learn how to ride a bike
• I had to work on online classes
• One of my friends and I have been planning a great bus-riding adventure for months, but we never got around to it
• It's nearly over!

I guess I'll just have to cram as much awesome-ness into these last couple days as possible!

Roughing It

As you may or may not know, last week I went on an overnight hike. Yep, I'm that hardcore. Anyways, here is the story of this experience. I shall leave it up to you to decide what is fictional and what is not. (Brownie points if you get that reference).

First, we had to pack our huge frame backpacks with sleeping bags, tents, food, water, clothes, camp stoves, etc. All in all, each weighed approximately 76.3 pounds when we were done. After packing, we embarked on our journey at about 3:30 in the afternoon. If only we had known then what a long, arduous, grueling ordeal it would turn out to be... *cue ominous music*

It all started out well; we had bright, smiling faces. We thought, "We're only going 2 miles! How bad could it be?" Our smiles faltered as we trekked up the steepest hill I have ever encountered, battling huge plants falling across the trail, mosquitoes, and stinging nettle. However, things weren't that bad...till we came across the bear. It had just come out of hibernation, and therefore was very hungry, angry, and mean. I believe my mind is suppressing the horrible memory of battling it, because all I remember is stumbling away from it, with a pounding headache, missing a tent from one of our backpacks, and also my left shoe. Luckily, none of our number were badly hurt by it.

We hiked on. Soon the change in altitude was so great that we had to fend our way through a blizzard. My left foot, missing its shoe, didn't fare very well. But don't worry, the doctors say that they'll have a prosthetic foot for me soon, and at least this one won't be susceptible to frostbite.

We finally reached our campsite at 9:30 PM. At first we were disheartened by our bad time, till we remembered all the trials we had gone through on our way. Considering all our adventures on the way, we realized we had actually made quite good time. We were all exhausted, so we set up camp. Since we had lost one of our tents to the bear, we ended up having to cram 5 girls into a 3 man tent. Personally, though, I slept great! But nobody else did. There was some crazy person in the tent who was the worst sleeper ever! They kicked people in the face, and rolled over onto people, and stole people's pillows. Luckily, they didn't affect me at all. I wonder who it could be...

We returned the next morning, wiser and more exhausted campers than we were before.

And that, friends, is the story of my overnight hike.

*some information may be terribly exaggerated and/or entirely false.

I am Hipster

Today I felt like a hipster. Why, you may ask? Well, I shall answer. I was wearing my lovely red, retro sunglasses. With a henna tattoo on my hand. And lots of friendship bracelets on my arm. As I was working on another friendship bracelet. As I was watching a bike race. The only thing I needed was to be listening to The Decembrists or Sufjan Stevens or something. Nooooo!!! I've turned into a hipster! My only consolation is that I'm doing it after it was cool.

Harry Potter

I've decided to read the whole Harry Potter series again. And it's filling me with so many memories! As I read the first one, I kept thinking of my very first memory of Harry Potter. I must have been really little, and I was sitting on the floor as all my siblings and parents were talking about this brand new book-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. They all said it was great. It was on the floor next me, though, and I didn't think it looked all that wonderful. Then I saw the movie in theaters, and decided it actually was amazing, and went home and read the book.

When the 4th book came out, I wasn't allowed to read it. My mom said it was too violent for my young mind, and I had to wait till I was at least...8? 10? 12? One of those. It made me bitter and jaded, especially when as soon as I was done reading it (once I was old enough, of course), my little sister read it right after me. Without having to wait years and years!

The next memory that sticks out in my mind is when the 6th Harry Potter book came out. I was still in primary (holy cow! I was so young!), and I remember talking about it with one of the guys in my class. I hadn't had the chance to read it yet, because it had to trickle down past all my older siblings first. Then this guy told me, "Well, Dumbledore dies." Nooooooo!!! I had to hold on to the hope that he was just making this up to bother me, and that he wasn't actually giving me spoilers. But alas...

When the 5th movie came out, I went to go see it with John. It was the 1st PG-13 movie I ever saw in theaters, because I had just barely turned 13.

Basically, Harry Potter is a part of my childhood! And now all the books are done, all the movies are done, there's nothing else to look forward to. Wow, that's depressing