Quid pro quo

It was a good day. The week was going by slowly, but the knowledge that tomorrow is Thursday sends a shiver down my spine. Maybe it’s not been going by so slowly after all! It’s supposed to snow tonight, but I hope if it does that it’s only enough to warrant a delay- the first (I guess you could say) official meeting of stage crew is tomorrow, and I don’t want it to be canceled, especially since I won’t be able to go to set build on Saturday because of work (3- 8 pm).

Today was Wednesday Club, an extended version. Rachel had musical rehearsal so she wasn’t able to come until the very end (we stayed until 6:15 pm), but Wallie and I had a great time nonetheless. We finished our schedules outside (I’m actually going to take Independent Living instead of Parenting- I wanted to take a class that Wallie wouldn’t mind taking as well, and it seems like it would be more useful), and then it got even colder, it seemed, so we went inside. I felt bad because this guy with a laptop (Wallie calls him “the guy with a laptop and an attitude”) sat near us, as it was the only available place to sit, and we were kind of loud… I felt like we were distracting him. We did homework, anyway, though we both kept getting distracted and talking more instead.

At 5:20 ish, we went over to Giant for the second time and bought our dinners. Wallie and I each bought hot chicken sandwiches, as well as Odwalla drinks (Wallie had Orange Honey something, I believe, and I had Pomegranate Limeade) and a piece of fruit each (Wallie a banana, I an Asian pear, which I had never had before and was very good). We ate at the picnic table outside the library.

As soon as we finished our dinners and stood up to go back inside, Michael called, as per Rachel’s request, because Rachel had been looking for us. I told Michael that we were currently at the picnic table but were heading inside, for him to relay this information back to Rachel. I guess he didn’t hear the second part, though, because Rachel trekked through the snow on the hill to get to the picnic table to find us! I felt horrid about this, as Wallie and I were sitting down inside when Rachel came in, snow in her shoes, and finally found us. We then all headed back over to Giant for a third time in order for Rachel to buy something for dinner. It was a little after six at this time. I bought a package of cheese rolls for another day, and as we were just heading out of Giant my sister Emma sent me a text message to let me know that my father was there to pick me up. I gathered my things and headed back out. Then I went home.

I was greeted by another thick stack of college letters as well as a package, which turned out to be “Possible Side Effects,” another Augusten Burroughs memoir I had ordered. I actually ended up being more excited, however, by the 30+ paged booklet from American University! It’s really a wonderful thing. Is it bad that I’m basing my college choices mostly on how interesting the mail is that they send me? Runner-ups are one that looks very artsy, the brochure, I mean, and one that has my name spelled out in fireworks on the front. It’s beautiful enough to hang on my wall. In fact, I think I shall do so.

“Who are you? Why are you looking at me with that grin? I am pretty sure you are an evil genius.”

I am going to type this post up in unequal parts, simply because everybody awesome I have ever heard of has once divided something up into parts, including Laura who I saw doing this most recently and reminded me of this in doing this, so I kinda most recently stole that idea from her.  Anyway, here goes nothing.

Part One: What Lydia Just Did
Lydia has recently become increasingly adorable, what with talking a lot more than she used to.  All of a sudden, she understands what we are saying and can actually hold a conversation pretty well.  All of a sudden, she can make up her own songs!  All of a sudden, she has unique ideas!  All of a sudden, we discovered that she is stubborn as a mule!  Hooray!

An example of her cuteness: Just a second ago, she was wearing her chicken costume and singing/playing a song about tater tots on her xylophone.  The lyrics were basically, “Tater tots, tater tots, tater tots, tater tots,” to the tune of “Spiderman.”

Part Two: Ice Cream
I knew it all along, but I really really like ice cream.  I just thought I would let you all know in case you were for some reason wondering.

I think we may be going out for ice cream tonight, which is great because, as I just mentioned, I love ice cream.

Part Three: Wednesday Club
I bet every single one of you knew this was coming.  Today was of course Wednesday Club, and it was a blast.

Things we did:
[1]Went on a scavenger hunt at Giant.  We did not get through even half of it, but it was great fun.  We stopped mid-item for the next thing on the list-
[2]We had an ice cream party!  We bought miniature ice creams from Giant and then went to various benches and tables outside to eat them.  They came with tiny spoons that were awesome.
[3]We played Extreme Guess Who!  Tyler Oakley of the YouTube channel ‘tyleroakley’ brought this idea to our lives, but Laura thought of playing it at Wednesday Club.  It is basically the same thing as regular Guess Who except with personality traits.  You come up with traits and things about your person and then the other person asks questions.  For example, “Does your person like the summer?” or “Is your person satisfied with his or her job?”  It gets pretty subjective, as Laura mentioned, but it is amazingly fun.
[4]We played Hide and Seek!  We only played it once, but it was a lot of fun and therefore still gets mentioned here.  Have you ever played Hide and Seek in a library?  Well, if you have not then you most definitely should.
[5]The ‘In My Pants’ with book titles game.  Provided, it was only played for a few minutes between Daniel and I while we waited for Laura and Valerie to arrive, but it was fun.  One of the best?  Strange Brew… in my pants.

Part Four: My Summer Moods
Summer is still rather boring, but I have still been happy for pretty much the entire summer so far.  Still, I will be very excited when school starts up again.

Speaking of school, I received my report card in the mail today!  I received a ninety-four on my math final, which was pretty exciting.  My GPA is currently 3.75… it was brought down because of my Chemistry grade, of course… rotten Chemistry…

After Wednesday Clubs, though, I am always in a better mood.  It lasts for basically the entire night until I become bored out of my mind once again.  Then I go to bed.

Part Five: An Idea That Just Occurred to Me
Okay, how cool would it be to write a book that is purposely full of clichés?  I mean, as many as can be fit in… there are so many clichés in life, and if a book were purposely (rather than accidentally) jam-packed with them then that would make my life.

Part Six: Knitting
I knit more on my scarf and I think Emma and I are actually for real going to have the knitting sleepover tonight.  Last night I was ditched while Emma and Clara had a non-knitting sleepover.

I cannot wait until this scarf is done with and I can start on a new, simpler, quicker project.

The end.

Gee, now I really feel like I copied Laura, seeing as my parts post ended up being six parts just like hers.  Sorry, Laura.  You are a genius.

MY HUNDREDTH STRAIGHT POST!: On Books, Scavenger Hunts, More Books, and Gourmet Jelly Beans Mixed With Peach Rings

Yeah, my day was marvelously excellent. I woke up at about 9 am (sorry, obligatory wake-up time reference) and then proceeded to do nothing very remarkable until around 10:30, when Emma and I made peanut butter play dough. The rest of my family members were either at work (Jake, who started today, and my dad, who started a long, long time ago) or visiting my great aunt Jennifer who is here for our cousin Joey’s eye operation (they were basically going to be sitting in a tiny hotel room in Frederick and talking, and that did not sound like much fun to me so I opted to stay home). Later, for lunch, we had couscous and they were delicious. Then came time for Wednesday Club and the adventures that took place during it, which will take up the vast majority of the rest of this post.

So. Wednesday Club. It began at 2 pm. Only Laura and I were there because apparently everybody else either did not know about it or was not able to come. Scratch that- Brittany was there for a little bit, but then she left.

After accumulating a ridiculous amount of books (about fifty, I think, between the two of us), we were trying to think of something to do other than just read. Though, that was nice as well- but I wanted to do something I could not do at home.

In the end, I thought of something- a scavenger hunt at the grocery store, which lies about thirty feet away from the library. Okay, maybe not thirty feet. Maybe a lot more, maybe a lot less- I am not a very good judge of distances.

Anyway, the point is that we went on a scavenger hunt at Giant. It was tremendously fun. The things on our list were things such as ‘somebody with a funny shirt,’ ‘something with more than thirty ingredients,’ and ‘onion rings.’ There were thirteen items in all. It was really, really fun.

Once we finished with the scavenger hunt, we came across a random package of ‘gourmet jelly beans.’ The jelly beans came in forty-one lovely flavors, including wow! chocolate, blue Hawaiian, and verry blue (yeah, with two r’s and all), so of course we had to get them. We also got a package of gummy peach rings, because they sounded as if they would go nicely with jelly beans. After buying them, we went back to the library and sat on the benches outside. We played ‘guess that flavor’ with the jelly beans and it was loads of fun, even if the jelly bean company totally conned us our of a bunch of flavors that were not included in the package, such as the elusive verry blue.

Basically, it was a lot of fun. Plus, I found tons of good books at the library, including a few that were on my Amazon book wishlist, which was neat.

Once I got home, after dinner was over (surprisingly, Laura, it was macaroni and cheese like we were talking about at Giant!), I decided to take pictures of some things, mainly my books. It actually took a really long time to do so, because it was nearly impossible to show the titles of each of the books in one shot. I ended up dividing them up into five groups of five (amazingly, I checked out exactly twenty-five books, which happens to be my lucky number; that was purely accidental) before photographing them.

So, now, for your viewing pleasure, I give you the books I checked out at the libary! I included a complimentary picture of the typography poster I made that is hanging on my wall, just because I thought the picture looked neat.

Now, farewell!

EDIT: OH MY GOODNESS, this is my hundredth post!!!  HOORAY, HURRAH, HUZZAH!!!

I am in a blender, according to my facebook status. You know, because I have mixed feelings and all.

It is Wednesday and my second-to-last day of school. You all probably know that if you have ever read anything recently that I have written, considering I speak of those facts constantly, but I felt the need to mention it nonetheless.

Alright, today. Hmm… (cue numerals)

[1]Wednesday Club, our last one of the school year, was marvelous. We hope to continue it over the summer, though I am thinking it would be nice to go someplace else such as bowling or people watching or something.

There was this guy at Wednesday Club, this guy pretty much everyone else I know knows. I simply had not struck up a conversation with him before, though I had heard a lot about him from friends and such. The conversation we had was about me looking familiar to him. Actually, it was not really a conversation, more of a sort of greeting or… whatever… it got me thinking.

Am I a familiar face? I cannot really ask people that know me whether I am familiar to them, considering that would be pointless. So, hmm… unless I speak to perfect strangers and ask them whether I look familiar, then I guess I will not get an answer. Much like many things in life.

Other than that, we did not stray far from our usual Wednesday routine. I did get handed a free local newspaper at Giant, so that was pretty neat. I have not yet had much of a chance to look at it, but most definitely will after this post.

[2]Tomorrow is the last day of school… my goodness, this year sure heeded my beginning-of-the-year warning to, ‘hit the road, Jack.’

[3]Fantastically, I received my new Threadless shirts in the mail today. They are even more marvelous than I had thought they would be. I think I will wear Training for Utopia tomorrow. It is a nice end-of-the-year shirt, I think.

[4]This morning, I realized while on the bus to school that I had forgotten the yogurt and measuring cups needed for a Child Development project. I frantically phoned and text messaged both of my parents to see whether one of them could bring them in. My father ended up doing it, kind soul that he is. I must find a way to be less forgetful, seen by the next snippet-

I forgot both my yearbook and a book Daniel borrowed from me (The Princess Bride– despite being far overrated, it is one of the best books ever) at the library in the hands of friends. They will bring them to me at school tomorrow. In the meantime, does anybody have any ideas for remembering things? Preferably not relating to writing on hands- I did that for a while with writing the holidays and numbers and words of the day on my right hand, and whenever I leaned on my hand (which I do quite frequently) ink marks were left on the side of my face. Not that I minded so much, but my parents did not like that so much.

[5]And, as I was speaking of my father bringing things to school for me, listen to this- he was able to walk into the school right among the students, and nobody even stopped him. This worries me terribly- if he was able to walk in undetected, then would strangers be able to walk right in and leave a bomb in a bathroom or something? Perhaps school is not as safe as I once thought.

[6]Speaking of school, as I was quite a lot (considering, without school, I would not have much to do), there was a fire drill today. Nothing eventful happened, we just left the school and then came back in a few minutes later, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

[7]I took a final in both Child Development and Albegra II today. Both were quite easy, and I am hoping they will bring my grades up. My English grade went up to an A (despite what is being mentioned in the next section), my Child Development grade is an 88%, and my Math grade is hopeless (at 82%), so there is a sort of kind of slim chance I will get straight A’s. The Math final counts for 20% of my grade, so mayhaps that will help.

[8]We took our last vocabulary quiz in English today. I was so excited to finish my 100% streak that I finished it quickly, convinced that I got every one correct. Unfortunately, in my excitement I accidentally skipped a problem, making another one incorrect as well. Meaning I received a 92% on it. I was so upset.

[9]I finished reading The Death of Vishnu today. It was horribly sad, at least a lot of it was. The next book on my list is The Nazi Officer’s Wife, an equally sad book. I am thinking I will read a different book instead, one that is much happier so that my summer does not start off on a grievous foot. So, with this I ask you- does anoybody have any happy (or at least mostly) book recommendations? Thank you in advance.

[10]We received our schedules today. Mine is pretty much amazing. I got into all of the classes I wanted to be in. Unfortunately, I got a teacher for Math that everybody says is a bad teacher- must I be cursed with bad Math teachers when I am already not so good at Math? Also, I received an amazing teacher for AP Euro but, apparently, he is no longer going to be teaching that class so that will change. On top of that, a ton of people’s schedules are all messed up, with the same class but different teachers in one semester and other such mistakes. So, perhaps everybody’s schedules will be changed up.

Luckily, I have one of my favorite teachers for Latin II. So, all in all, it is great and I am looking forward to next year. I do not have many friends in my classes, but I never do so that will be fine.

In my schedule, I am signed up for Photography I and Guitar I in the same semester, meaning that I will have to carry around a camera and a guitar throughout the whole day. At least, providing that I do have to do that for those classes. I am not exactly sure.

[11]The number of the day is 3393 (chosen by Wallie- something to do with his birthdate), the word of the day is zazzy (flashy or stylish), and the holiday is Hug Holiday. I actually received more hugs than usual today, so that is good.

Anyway, (boy, I use that word often) I am off to do something. I am not sure what yet, but I will find something.

Farewell. (Wow, when I write again my freshman year will be over!)

It is a little bit after seven and

I have no idea how to finish this sentence. Never mind, I just did.

I have been reading pretty much since I got home from school. Beethoven’s Hair is done, Betwixt is nearly finished, Typhoid Mary is done, and No Two Alike is near the end as well. Other than that, I have I think one more book to read before tomorrow’s Wednesday Club.

It was raining for a spell earlier, but it seems to have dried up and now the day is as sunny as can be. Alright, not exactly sunny, but stereotypically nicer than before. Not in my opinion, though… then again, there is really no need for me to mention that particular opinion, seeing as I have already made my weather feelings known countless times.

My ants have not started tunneling yet. Well, it looks as if they have a tiny bit, but not enough to notice unless you were looking. So, nope, nothing remarkable yet; I am hoping that, after all of that ant-hunting work, I did not capture a type that will not dig in the gel.

We took a vocabulary quiz today and, surprise, surprise, I am still on my hundred percent winning streak- now up to nine in a row! I feel tremendously accomplished- if only my math quiz scores were that constantly perfect.

HSAs have been going on this week. I have not had any to take- my Government one was last semester, and there are none to take for the classes I am currently in.

My Child Development teacher was sick today- I am hoping that does not mean she will be sick tomorrow, causing me to have to go to my classes rather than the Wednesday off like I hoped. Nevertheless, I will have to bring my terribly heavy backpack to school in case she does not show and I must go to all of my classes. Unfortunately, this means that I will have to carry my books and all to Wednesday Club- not a light load for walking all the way to Giant.

Today’s holiday is Be a Millionaire Day, which only got me thinking again about how much I would hate being a millionaire. Nothing would be the same- people would treat me differently and I would probably treat them differently. If I were a millionaire, I would become a cocky, even more stubborn, disgustingly rich jerkface.

The number of the day is seven hundred twenty-three. An excellent number, if I do say so. The color of the day was once again not chosen, so I suggested cerulean. I do not know about what it is actually like, but I have always liked the Crayola crayon version of it.

The word of the day is (and I am extraordinarily excited about this one) kelemenopy. It is a noun defined as ‘a sequential straight line through the middle of everything, leading nowhere.’ I have not paid much attention to the definition, but I just love to say it. Perhaps I am not pronouncing it correctly (kel-ih-men-oh-pee), but it sounds lovely in the way that I am. Like the ‘K-L-M-N-O-P’ section of the alphabet. It rolls off the tongue quite delightfully.

Well, I am going to finish Betwixt and hopefully get the rest (or most of) my reading done now. Goodbye, munchenhausers. (I do not believe that is an actual word, but it is fun to say nonetheless [I am pronouncing it as ‘munch-in-how-zer’].)

A Sunday Out Of The House

I woke up quite a bit later than usual- around 11 am, whereas I normally wake up around 9 am on Sundays. A small amount of time after I woke up, I found out that my parents, Lydia, and Abie were going to go out for a few errands. I had not been out of the house for a while and decided I wanted to go as well.

Our first stop was Costco. There are a few interesting tales to tell from that trip- a.) some woman said Lydia looked very familiar and b.) an old man said he liked my neon green socks. He laughed after telling me that, so perhaps he was mocking me, in a way… I told my parents each separately and they asked whether he was blind.

Also at Costco, (well, actually, on the sidewalk right near Costco) was a homeless man holding one of those signs that ask for money. I would have given him all of the money in my wallet (not very much- only around five dollars or so), but my parents drove away before I could say something. Someday, when I actually have a car and such, I am going to stop and give money to every homeless person I come across. Seriously.

Speaking of cars, I keep seeing these fantastic-looking cars around town. My mother says they are called ‘Smart Cars.’ She said that, although they get many miles to the gallon and are also a lot cheaper than normal cars, they are very dangerous and would not be safe if they were to crash. Apparently, she is wrong about that. I just looked them up, and they have the highest safety rating available for front seat and passenger seat collisions. I would really like to get one once I save up enough money and, of course, am old enough to get my driver’s license. The yellow one looks amazing.

The next stop was Common Market, an organic/healthy foods store. We went there mainly to find things to buy for Jake to eat, seeing as he is vegan and does not have much to choose from in the ways of vegan food from the normal grocery store. In the end, we got him vegan hot dogs, some sort of grain, and a few other things.

The last place to go was Giant, the very same one my friends and I visit before our weekly library trips. The highlights of that place were getting honey wheat twist pretzels, gummy fruit slices, and smiley face potatoes. Another nice thing was this little girl wearing a flannel, button-up shirt and a sparkly bow tie. I kind of hope my own kids are like that when I am older.

I am still searching for rain boots. At Costco, they had a few pairs, but they were in drab navy, grey, and black shades and nothing like what I want to get.

I found two perfectly lovely pairs online- one that is red with black spots and a ladybug face (either that or the similar froggish pair) and another on Ebay that are these short, bright yellow “rain sliders,” whatever that means.

I actually really wanted to go into the Goodwill place and see if they had any interesting clothing, but Lydia was becoming fussy and my parents did not want to go in to it. My father claimed the place ‘smelled.’ I mean, honestly, what does he expect, the used clothing and such to smell like a field of daisies?

Hmm, it seems that I actually have quite a bit to write about on Sundays- none of that random jabberwocky of the uneventful week days.

My mother said she would think about purchasing some fake snow from Amazon for our family to play with- would that not be the most spectacular thing ever? I mean, that would seriously thrill me to no end.

Ooh, luckily, it was drizzling a bit today. Unfortunately, it has since then stopped, but it was nice while it lasted.

Well, I am off to read (I finished The Snows in the car on the way to Costco) and eat a gummy fruit slice- that is my favorite candy of all time (the second favorite being those sour Lifesaver gummies I believe I mentioned buying from Giant during Wednesday Club). I hope the rest of your weekends are fabulous, just as I am sure you all are.

Farewell.

“Correct papers at my window. I need them by tomorrow. *Hums Pachelbel’s Cannon*”

Well, what do you know, it is Wednesday again already. The year is flying by like there is no tomorrow.

I went to Giant twice today: once during the Wednesday Club where I purchased dragon fruit vitamin water. It was delicious. The other time was after, when my father called me and said he was at the Giant, which is right next to the library where we were, and that I should walk over there. I did so, after depositing my backpack, bag, and bag stuffed with books in the car. I checked out twenty-five books, you know. Instead of returning them in two weeks, I am probably going to take the full three weeks to read them. During the second time to Giant, I bought four bottles of SoBe Life Water, because I love flavored waters very much. These flavored waters are made with vitamins and herbs, which is pretty jokes. I bought it in Blackberry Grape, Pomegranate Cherry, Orange Tangerine, and Passionfruit Citrus. I drank some of the Orange Tangerine flavor and it is quite delicious.

Oh yeah, before returning my books I finished reading Hitler Youth. It was as depressing as one would expect it to be.

I continued my one hundred percent streak on vocabulary quizzes and we received the new list of words. They are simpler than ever before.

The first book I started on, which I am already about halfway through with, is titled Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and is all about mnemonic devices. There are a few for the names of the presidents and I am going to be paying very close attention (and reading, and rereading) those ones.

Unfortunately, Valerie was not able to come to the Wednesday Club. Well, she was going to come late, but she was not able to follow Danya’s hand-drawn map to the library and ended up getting lost and just walking back to the school, where she had band practice soon anyway.

The word of the day is craven, meaning ‘cowardly.’ The holidays, which are devastatingly similar to yesterday’s, are School Nurses Day and National Tourism Day.

The color of the day is a shade of black (grey?) called Davy’s grey and is a greeny grey color.

Hey, did you know that the ‘dragon fruit’ is an actual fruit? I just looked it up.

Oh man, I also just looked up whether it is legal to drive golf carts on streets and, unfortunately, it is not. Where the speed limit is under thirty-five, it is legal, and neighborhoods may be okay- however, I do not really live in a neighborhood. It is more of a highway. There goes my dream of owning a forest green golf cart and driving it to the library whenever I want.

Oh bah, I felt so tired this morning. Luckily I no longer was once Wednesday Club arrived.

My second day of no contractions failed even more so than yesterday, the first. I think it would be best to try my hardest over the weekend so that I am used to it come Monday and school and all.

My good friend Laura, creator of storiesfromahat.wordpress.com, has started updating again after a brief hiatus. Her stories are extremely good- very funny and full of excellent lines- you really should read them.

Well, that is all I have to say. I am off to either read or get started on a wooly scarf I am knitting, made up of many stripes of various lovely colors. Plus I need to take out the trash and recycling and bring the laundry up.

Good night, everybody.

Oh, Stop Being Such A Drama Villain (This Title Goes Out to You, Daniel)

Happy Pig in a Blanket Day! The letter of the day is Z, the word being zanyism (meaning ‘buffoonery’). Both are marvelous words.

I finished the Kevin Clash autobiography and am now almost done with If Harry Potter Ran General Electric as well.

I got a one hundred percent on my vocabulary quiz! That is exciting, especially considering I am on a one hundred percent streak for those quizzes. Words entice me.

Tomorrow, I, along with many others across the world, will be participating in a Day of Silence. I have scanned and posted the card we must show to our teachers if given any grief for not speaking. It is below:

 

There are only five more days until my birthday. I am extremely excited, seeing as I comprised a list this year, something I have not done since I was much, much younger. Because I made a list, I will be receiving things that I actually want and will use. Thrilling, eh?

Oh, books, you never cease to amaze me.

I am still keeping an eye out for job opportunities. I still really want to work at a grocery store. I love them. The best place to work at, I guess, would be Giant. Because it is right next to the library and all. The only problem is that it is about fifteen minutes or so away from my house. More money would end up being spent on gas than I would actually earn.

My mother got the family cellphone bill today and, whoopee, I spent the least out of anybody! I only spent about $2.65 on text messages, about important things, a few months ago. So, hooray, I do not have to pay off anything (unlike my older brother Jake and my sister Clara- they both have to pay around thirty dollars)! I am such a good kid.

Conformity, marketing, consumerism, I dislike you all. And society, for causing all of these to exist.

Blasted world, messing up my sense of time. I keep getting mixed up on the date, time of day, and day of the week. Ironic, considering I have a pocket watch hanging around my neck at all times.

Wallie was absent today. I am wondering what will happen when he (if he) gets back tomorrow, considering so many people will not be speaking.

Friends, I love you. Family, I love you. Strangers, I love you. Baby Hitler, I love you. Adult Hitler, I despise you. Dead Hitler, I wish you had experienced a regular life and gotten some help. Sad people, I hope you become happy soon.

Best wishes, global beings.