haven't posted in a while..

I know I haven't posted in a while. I'm sorry. Anyway, there's not a lot to tell, if truth be told. I've just been sitting around and doing nothing, except knitting and watching TV at the same time, and that's basically it. Seriously. Oh, and shoveling. Lots and lots of shoveling. Well, it's only to be expected, when you have about four feet of snow on the ground. More, in fact, where some of the discarded shoveled piles are. Some of the piles are taller than I am. It's very intimidating, to be shorter than a pile of snow. It feels very weird. We need school back. I know that's weird to say, when I have complained about having school for so long and so much, but still. It is better than sitting on my butt and watching TV all day. At least I'd be doing something productive.

I'm going to the library tomorrow. That is, if there is not any more snow on the way to stop me. Which, I hope, isn't going to happen. Please, God?

And by the way, I finished the last book of the "Protector of the Small" series. And the guy that she was in love with in the book before had to get married to someone else because they were apparently already engaged and his duchy or whatever wasn't doing well, so his family apparently really needed the dowry. And the main character doesn't actually seem to fall in love with the guy that Tamora Pierce hints that she likes, but whatever. It's still a really good ending.

You should read it.

And talking of reading, I'm going to go read now.

Goodbye.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it's official: I'm freaking SICK of the snow. I want to go out and walk in the woods with some BROWN and GREEN, DARN IT! Sheesh! But no, apparently God wants us all to suffer a little bit more. This is SO annoying. Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!

In other news, I went to tae kwon do today. My friend and I were the only ones there, except for the instructor. It was actually kind of fun, except for the part where my friend kept falling on me during the throwing one-steps. It was kind of annoying. But that was the only annoing thing about today. Except for the fact that there is still four feet of snow on the ground in some places. And the fact that I'm not allowed to DRIVE anywhere because I don't know HOW because there's too much snow on the ground to LEARN to drive on the roads, and there's too much ice on the driveway to learn to even pull out. This is great, just great. I'm going to be stuck with my mom as a cheuffer until I'm a hundred and two years old.

Brilliant.

1, 2, 3

I like this song. :)

Once opon a time
two, two, hearts felt the same way,
But three, three, three, nights ago
you told me you don't know (wich way)
Wich way ya gonna go
(ohhhh)
Truth ain't easy but please, please,please me
It's time you made up your mind
(I don't wanna cry, don't wanna be treated unfair now)

(Chours)
1,2.3
Your fallin' in love with me
I'm falling into your life
Your life
(Faster than the speed of light)
And 1,2,3 you don't wanna hear from me!
But if it can't be like before!
(tell me what)
Tell me what love is for

So fly just flied away
And don't think I can't take it
(hoohoo)
Cause you, you, you otta know
That if ya let me go
(ya throw)
Your gonnoa throw it all away
(ohhh)
Truth ain't easy but please, please, please me
It's time you made up your mind
(I don't wanna cry don't wanna be treated unfair now)

(Chorus)
"Chorus Repeated"

hahahaha

Well, I don't like snow. It's official. I spent an hour outside this afternoon trying to convert our car from an oversized and snow-covered Smart Car into a normal minivan, but as I couldn't reach the top, I had to leave it with a snow mohawk. It wasn't fun, because only about a quarter of the time was spent on getting the snow OFF, and the rest of it was spent trying to KEEP it off. Seriously, I'd get most of one side clear of snow, and then I'd go and knock snow off the other side, and then I'd come back and the first side would be covered in snow again. It was the most annoying thing ever. It was also hard because my hands were freezing off half the time, and I could barely walk because the snow was up to my knees in a lot of places. My brother was shoveling the driveway, and he made a sort-of snow fort in one of the massive banks of snow. I went in and tried to extend the depth a little bit, and then it collapsed on me. However, I'd already warned him that it would be completly and entirely his fault if I died. But I didn't.
Now I'm going to go either:
1. play scrabble with mom, or
2. kick my mom out of the kitchen so I can make more cookies. I just hope it doesn't turn into a cookie-making addiction.

I LOVE COOKIES!!!

Argh

Well, as we speak, my area is being hit with the second snowpocalypse of the season. It's also a candidate for the Top Three Worst Storms of the Area's History, as was the other one. Don't ask me why. I don't enjoy having endless snow. It was fun at first, but now we have used up all our snow days and soon we are going to have to tack on an extra few days to the end of the year, which won't be fun. Okay, the end of the year typically is a lot of fun, but still. The SOL tests will be harder because school started later this year, and apparently the SOLs are also occuring earlier. This is going to be LOADS of fun... not. It used to be fun to miss school. Now I hate it. I have no idea why, but it just bugs me. I think it's because I am that much of a nerd that I hate missing one potential day of learning something. That and the fact that I actually have friends now. And because I actually LIKE my classes. And because I hate shoveling snow. Especially when there are two friggin feet of it on top of the car, and it's my job to get it off.

GRR!!

one year anniaversary!!!

Well, I have officially have had this blog for one full year. In that time, I have changed my identity four times, changed my bio about five, and changed the format and background of the blog itself about fifty. I'm not kidding. Anyway, it feels weird to have had something for so long that I just started on a whim. At this time last year, the musical was still going on, and tonight would have been opening night. No, tomorrow would be. Never mind. Anyway, I would be in opening-week depression mode, because I was not used to having to be at school longer than I was at home and being at rehearsal until nine pm. At this point last year, I was still in Treble Choir at school (and Treble Choir still existed), and I was a not-exactly-straight-A student.

But now a year has gone by, and now I'm no longer in the smallest choir at school (because it broke up after our year), but the biggest, and the musical has already closed, and the only classes that I never get A's in are Chemistry and Math (but who needs Algebra, really?). However, those are the classes that I always get assigned homework in. And they're the only two classes that I don't fully understand. Oh yeah, and I was starting to stress out about my Race and Culture project for English. It didn't go well.

Anyway, in other news, my English homework has gone into the more enjoyable route of fairy tales- three by the Brothers Grimm, three by Hans Christian Anderson. One of my Hans Christian Anderson ones is The Little Mermaid, and yes, it is the longest one I have. It's longer than all the rest of them put together. It's 12 pages long. There are 19 pages in all.

I was IN "The Little Mermaid." It was the first musical I was ever in. We adapted the story for the stage (and fudge the ending because there were little kids in the audience, and killing to save someone else is apparently not appropriate for kids today, and since we were not making her die, we had to fudge the bit about angels and blessing kids and how that gets them off probation. We just made it simpler and had them get married. It was very Disney.) and parodized Motown songs and it was awesome. That's how I got into musical theater. I still remember that some of our songs were "Through the Grapevine" for when she saved the prince when she wasn't allowed to and "Going to the Chapel" for the marriage bit and "Dancing in the Street" became "brand new feet" for when she got feet. It was awesome.

And I had a crush on the dude who played the prince.

But no, I didn't get to sing to him. Originally I was, but then it got changed to the Older Little Mermaid. I was the Little Little Mermaid.

Ah, good times.

Okay, it might be a good idea if I go and finish my lunch now. We have early release today.

And I might get my learner's permit for driving today. Hooray!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a snow day today!! Hooray!! Now I can actually get some productive stuff done... like my English homework...

Anyway, I went to a meeting with my Gold Award sponsor yesterday. Now I'm actually getting kind of psyched about my project. It's going to be kind of hard to get through it all, but I think it'll all be worth it. I also got to tour the West Wing of the White House yesterday. No, I didn't get to meet any of the Obamas. However, I did learn that the Situation Room is actually more like the Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter- it isn't just the one room, there are several. That's kind of cool. And there's a Pikachu hanging from the ceiling in the back of the Press Room. Overall, it was pretty cool. The Rose Garden was really cool, because it was dark and it was snowing and it was just really pretty. So that's my story. Yay!

And by the way, as of tomorrow, I'll have had this blog for a year. I honestly didn't think I'd have it last this long. But I didn't think I'd stick with Tae Kwon Do for eight years, and here I am. I didn't think I'd knit for seven years, but here I am. Weird, huh?

Hooray!

colleges! slow down!

Well, the grand total just for today (so far) in "you should come to this college because we're awesome and you're awesome, so we should go together" college emails is seven. SEVEN!! And I'm not even a junior yet!! Okay, so I put my email on the PSAT, so it is kind of my fault. But still. This is kind of ridiculous. And they are all colleges that I have never heard of. Except for maybe Roanoake. But still. The colleges that have already emailed me are University of Evansville in Illinois, Roanoake College in Virginia, Champlain College in Vermont, Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Saint Mary's College of Maryland, Hood College in Maryland (again), and Southern Methodist University in Texas, which I had to google because they didn't even say they were Southern Methodist University, they just said they were SMU. I have nothing against Texas. I have nothing against God, either. But I just don't want to go to school in Texas. If it's a fight between the constantly hot weather and the constantly cold weather, then I would choose cold. I just don't like heat. Although cold is uncomfortable, heat is more uncomfortable to me. I don't know why. It just is.

ARGH!

okay i give in

So I know I mentioned a story a couple days ago. One that I had started, I mean. That I wasn't going to post until it was done.

Well, I give up. I really want to post it, so I'm going to. So here it is.



There once was a girl whose name was Makenna. Yes, that's me. Anyway, I was raised on the outskirts of a town, near a forest. I had no friends. I learned my letters and numbers from my dad, because girls weren't allowed to go school. My mom died when I was a kid, but my older sister helped with all the girly stuff when I needed it. She's twelve years older than me. There are four brothers in between us. We're not that close-I'm closer to my brothers than her, so I picked up tactics from them.

I was a very determined explorer when I was a kid, according to my dad. He always had to let Shana, my sister, do the cooking and cleaning because I would only listen to him telling me not to run off, and I would only actually stay put if he kept both eyes on me at all times.

I grew up playacting constantly. When I wasn't pretending to be a Damsel in Distress for my brothers, I was reading about the heroes my brothers portrayed from the many books my mother had left behind. One day, I got fed up with the damsel act and having to wail, "Help! The dragon will eat me!!" for the millionth time, so I picked up a stick shaped like the ones the boys were using as swords, and I jabbed at Kedak, who was the dragon, banged Purcil in the stomach-he was the wizard- and pranced back to the cottage without Prince Jacane and his noble steed Aquan, laughing as I went, with the cries begging for my return in my ears, which I ignored.

That was all years ago.

Now I am sixteen, Kedak is 18, Purcil is 20, Jacane and Aquan, the twins, are both 24, and Shana is 28. I have to help her with the cooking and cleaning, though I hated it. Shana had to threaten me with curses in order to get me to even clean my own room.

But one day, I woke up and everyone- Shana, the twins, Purcil, Kedak, even my dad- they were all gone.

I wandered into the kitchen, but there was no note, no sign, nothing pointing to where they had gone. Just as I had returned from changing into some proper clothes, with every intent to go and rescue my family, I found a note on the table in clean white parchment that definitely hadn't been there before.

*you can't read this part-it's in the Dwarfish Runes. I'm typing it up anyway*

Dear Makenna:

I have your family in the forest. You will come and find them within seven days or risk their death. You will find them in the big castle in the middle of the forest. Do not try to fool me; I know of your powers. I look forward to seeing you.

Tamge the Wizard

I stared at the note. Obviously I couldn't read it, but somehow I knew they were in the forest. I grabbed as much food as my bag could carry and walked out, sturdy boots on my feet. Although I'd never been allowed to enter the forest, I was sure I could handle whatever it threw at me. Somehow, as soon as I entered, it felt like home.

That first morning was when I met one of my travel companions. We walked right into each other, frankly speaking. As I stumbled back, I glared at the tall, handsome stranger. Dark curls were cropped close to his head, and he was glaring down the four-inch gap between our heights with slanted, disdainful yellow-brown eyes.

"Watch where you're going," he barked. "I'm in a hurry.

Growing up with four brothers had taught me the hard way that you could only counter a bark in two ways: another bark, or a snarl. I picked a snarl. It usually took boys off guard to see that a girl could fight.

"Well, so am I," I snapped. "So maybe YOU should look where YOU'RE going. Haven't you ever heard of ladies first?"

"No, and you wouldn't count if I had," he retorted. I noticed he had pointy ears- he was an elf. "You're too poorly dressed to be counted as a noble in any place other than your imagination. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a family to rescue." He began to storm away.
"Well, so do I," I hollered at his retreating back. The elf hesitated, then turned.
"When were they taken?" he demanded urgently.
"Last night, I presume," I said. "They weren't here this morning and they were definitely all there last night. Even the twins.”
"Strange," he muttered.
"Why?" I wondered. "Was that when your family was taken?"
"Yes," he replied. "And did you get a note written in the runes?"
"I don't know what it was written in, but it wasn't normal writing," I said, and showed him the note I'd gotten.
Glancing at it, the elf said, "Yeah, that's just like mine. We have seven days to get our families back."
"So do you want to team up?" I asked. "What is your name, anyway? Or do elves not have names?" I added, with a touch of irritation.
"Chance," he told me gruffly.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "And you're Makenna. I saw it on the note," he added, before I could ask how he'd learned my name.
"So do you want to team up?" I repeated. "You probably know the forest better than I do."
"You were born in the forest," Chance said. "You know it as well as me."
"I wasn't," I contradicted him. "And I was never allowed in here until now." I didn't add that the woods had felt like home the second I'd entered.
"You were," Chance retorted. "Your eyes are slanted and purple. Only fairies have purple eyes, and only forest-born people have slanted eyes. Fairies can only be born in the forest. The human-sized kind, anyway. The kind who-"
"Don't have wings and only have minimal magic, I know," I rattled off. I had seen it in one of my mom's old books. "But I'm not a fairy."
"Yes, you are," Chance argued. "you just haven't shown your powers yet. Most don't until they're about sixteen."
"Right," I said disbelievingly. "But that's off the point. Two heads are better than one, especially in my case. I understand the forest about as well as the reasons why I got my first monthly."
"Excuse me?" Chance said.
"Never mind," said hastily, embarrassed about my slip up. "So what do you say?"
"I work alone," Chance said.
"Well, fine then," I said and began to storm off.
"Oh, all right," Chance sighed, his voice calling me back like I had called him a few moments before. "Just don't get us both killed, all right?"
"Okay," I agreed cheerfully.

So began our journey. Chance seemed to know where everything was, although whenever I tried to start a conversation with him, he remained obstinately close-lipped. On the second morning, the morning after we'd met, my powers began to show. I was woken by the fast-paced chattering of a squirrel.

"Makenna, Makenna, Makenna, Makenna," it said in one breath. As I opened my eyes, it said, "Oh, good. You're awake. You two-legs always sleep like boulders." I stared at the creature in sleepiness, trying to make sense of my surroundings. "Anyway," it jabbered on, "your boyfriend wants me to tell you that he's gone to get food."
"Chance isn't my boyfriend," I told the squirrel.
"Of course he is," the squirrel chattered. "We ARE talking about the same bloke, right? Dark hair, tall, pointy ears? Thought so. Anyway, if you see a female two-legs walking around with a male two-legs, you can guarantee that they’re in love. Always. It's a fact of life, you know."
"How would YOU know?" I demanded. "You're a squirrel!" Then something struck me. "And I've gone mad for understanding what you're saying," I muttered to myself.
The extremely gregarious squirrel had heard, but he didn't seem to mind.
"'Course you're not," it told me. "Plenty of two-legs can. All of 'em have either pointy ears or pointy eyes. Your boy can, for example, and his ears are pointy. Your eyes are pointy, and here you and I are, having a very good conversation. So there you have it."
"He's not my boyfriend," I snapped, and reached for my bag. I guess Chance was right about the whole fairy thing. I didn't like it when someone else was right, unless they were thinking something along the lines of what I was thinking. I liked it less when it was Chance who was the one being right.
"Suit yourself," the squirrel muttered. "You'll fall for him eventually, you mark my words. They always do. That's another fact of life, you know." I rolled my eyes and ignored the squirrel. Obviously, this creature didn't know what real facts of life were.

Then I heard a rustle in the bushes. I glanced up and froze. It was a wolf- big, grey-brown, and snarling at me, its hackles raised and its teeth bared.

there has to be some inter-college telepathy

This is so weird.

My brother got into college a few weeks ago. Yesterday, he got into another one. A little while ago, I logged into my email and I found that I had received my first "Why We Think That Our College Is Right For You" emails. Not only that, there's not only one, but three. Yes, three. Three colleges have emailed me a year and a half before I am even going to consider applying and have tried to recruit me. One is in Virginia, one is in Vermont, and one is in Illinois.

The day after my brother got into college. There has to be some sort of telepathy going on, I swear. They must be like, "oh, that kid's sibling got into their second college, time for us to try to recruit them." I'm not kidding. I don't know what it is, but it scares me.

I'm not ready to start considering colleges. I admit, I have perused some of my brother's "We'll Sound Official And Tell You The Facts About A Lot Of Colleges That You'll Never Go To Because You Do Not Have That Much Time In Your Life" books, but still. I haven't really considered the matter of where I want to go to college. In all honesty, it kind of scares me. I'm totally ready to move out, don't get me wrong. It's just it's a really big decision and I don't want to fudge it, but on the other hand, I don't want to think about it just yet.

I always thought that college was a million years in the future, but suddenly, it isn't. A million years has suddenly managed to shrink itself into two and a half. AIEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

argh

I admit, I'm really lame. I got the fourth book of the "Protectors of the Small" series (It's called "Lady Knight", in case you were wondering), but that's not the lame bit. The lame bit is that I read ahead to the Epilouge and I was NOT happy with the guy that Tamora Pierce hints that Kel ends up with. I LIKED Cleon. He was a bit of a jerkface at some points, yes, but he was COOL. Okay, I admit, I'm not even fifty pages in yet, so I don't know whether Cleon dies or not, or something. But if Cleon dies or cheats on Kel and she finds out, then it's okay for her to start liking the other guy. But ONLY then. And yes, I WILL throw the book across the room or whack my brother over the head with it (or do some other crazy thing like that) if either of those events occur, because Cleon isn't that big of a jerk. He just treats Kel like more of a girl than the rest of the boys. But still. I liked him. Oh, well. I'll just have to read pages 38 through 407 and actually figure out what actually happens.

Wow. I just realized that I've had this blog for almost a year. Is that actually possible? There are very few things that I've continued with for over a year: 1. staying alive 2. acting 3. knitting 4. singing 5. reading 6. talking 7. writing 8. typing 9. tae kwon do 10. wearing hats 11. Girl Scouts

Okay, that's more than I expected. But still. There could be a lot more.

Okay, I have to go now.

FRIDAY!!!!!!

It's FRIDAY! Hooray! I am SUPER psyched about this, because it means the WEEKEND is coming up, which means I can actually sleep. Trust high school to teach you the value of a good sleep.

I'll also be able to talk to my friend on the phone. So what? You say. So I tell you that she lives in Australia and I have not seen her in almost two years. Before that, she was one of my best friends. Yes, I miss her. Yes, I am SUPER psyched about talking to her.

In other news, I am FINALLY going to have a voice lesson today, after two and a half months of not having one. So that is super exciting, except for the part where I can not find the book we usually use during my voice lessons... eep! Anyhoo, it'll be cool to see my voice teacher again. I hope I can actually find the book, because it would really stink if I could not. I will have to work on one of the (multiple) guy's solos in the Shrek book, which won't work, because they're all WAY too high. Okay, not WAY too high. But they're definitely up there. And it's annoying. I love the songs, but the fact that they're all taken up the octave is kind of annoying. And I don't think my voice teacher knows any of the songs from Shrek the Musical anyway.