View the archive here and a little who's who on my blog here.
Song of the day: Verivery - Coming Over
Guess who got her first-ever checkmate in chess this weekend? Granted, I was playing PC chess against my five-year-old cousin, but I'm humiliatingly bad at chess anyways, so this is a victory! Anyways, Saturday morning I started working on my mac and cheese pretty early, using the recipe that my Nan (my grandma on my dad's side) has used for ages, as has the rest of that side of the family, and I prepared it exactly as she does. I honestly think it turned out quite well! My dad said that before we even put it in the oven to bake, from what he tasted it was already good! And then we went down to my grannie and grandpapa's house (my mother's parents). All the adults---even my grandpapa, who doesn't normally like mac and cheese (and isn't supposed to be eating cheese whatsoever for his diet)---liked it, at least, but then to make up for that, #2, #3 and #4 all refused to eat it because---guess why. Because it had breadcrumbs! I get kids are picky (Heaven knows I was picky as a child---I once had sweet and sour chicken and didn't like it when I was a toddler, and then held a grudge against the entire realm of Chinese food for a decade) but my feelings were still hurt---but oh well.
Anyways, the rejection of my mac and cheese took a lot out of me, and I was pretty dang tired by the time we left, to the point where I almost fell asleep on the way home. And, of course, we only got home at around 11:00. So I went to sleep late, but I woke up the next morning to SNOW!! Okay, it had already fallen, and the only accumulation was a little bit on the part of our fence that was hidden from the sun, and an ever-so-light dusting here and there on shady bits of our deck, but still, snow is snow! (I may or may not try to put up a photo or two here later.) I am having some more College Confusion and all that jazz, but other than that I think I've had a pretty decent break. I also meant to meet up with Blue to finish watching Lord of the Rings (dreamy Legolas!) but Blue's parents got sick so sadly we had to postpone. But overall, although I could use a bit more of a break (*insert Gimme A Break theme song here), I had a good autumn break! And now we come to finals season. Oy. But I don't have to worry about that just yet, since it's not even 10 AM. I'll talk to all y'all late---toodles!
Published on Monday, November 27, 2023, at 9:44 AM.
Song of the day: Riize - Memories
Well, Google is getting rid of the basic HTML G-mail, and with it their last sensible user interface. Everything's got to look like it was made for cell phones nowadays, and have enough white space to fill Mary Poppins's bag. Oy. But anyways, Thanksgiving!
Yesterday was first Thanksgiving, at my dad's family's house. He and I had helped cook the turkeys and three of the peis the day before, and whilst the turkey turned out pretty dang well, I didn't get to have any pie because I was so stuffed after eating that I lay like a vegetable (which were, of course, absent from our Southern Thanksgiving) on the recliner downstairs for about two hours straight, only getting up for the bathroom, and it was only hours after the meal when, after my mother, aunt and I put together some of the old kids' puzzles that get kept in the living room to see how well they fared after years of (ab)use (of the three we put together out of the four total, none were complete, and we also found at least one piece that didn't go with any of the puzzles at all somehow?), we were about to leave that I discovered the wonder of Tums! I felt absolutely totally fine on the way home, and when we went to the grocery store today I made sure to pick up a big thing of them. How did I never realize their wonder before?
Anyways, speaking of shopping, I'm making the mac and cheese for my mother's side's Thanksgiving tomorrow---my first ever solo culinary contribution to a family meal!---and we went shopping today for all the ingredients. I'm a thirsty person, and so I compulsively bring my water bottle everywhere because I never know when I may need a drink. This was much to my dad's chagrin for some reason, as it is when I have to take a drink when I'm driving---he said that I can survive without a drink for "an hour or two or three" and, whilst an hour may be doable, I doubt that I'd do very well without water for THREE HOURS?!? Yeah, no, I think I prefer to my schedule of drinking nearly constantly. Anyways, he got cross at me for bringing my water into the store---what, are they going to get mad at me for bringing my own free water from home instead of drinking their free water from the drinking fountain? (I think they even have a water bottle refilling station at the drinking fountain!) But yeah---let's hope the cooking goes welL! I've long been wanting to cook more, so this'll be a fun practice exercise.
But honestly, I'm just thankful to be able to spend this time with family eating food and having fun and all and to have a day just to give thanks for all the blessings I've had in my life. Gratitude is really important, y'all! I remember some family member's house always used to have a "count your blessings" sign, and I really love that---I try my best never to take anything for granted and to be grateful for everything and everyone in my life, and I think it's a really great approach. I'm also thankful that you've just taken the time to read my nonsensical, rambling blog. I'm gonna go drink a tonne of water---toodles!
Published on Friday, November 24, 2023, at 9:08 PM.
Song of the day: NCT Dream - Rainbow
So following the car accident three weeks ago (go see my last blog post from last month here if you don't know what happened), my mother's car was totalled, and the insurance company's pick-up fellow came by today to pick it up. I know it may sound silly to be so attached to an inanimate object, and a big bunch of metal at that, but to be totally honest, as he loaded it onto the back of the truck and drove it away, I started crying. Not sobs, but a little more than just tears rolling down my cheek in a calm, dignified manner. My mother, I'm sure, shed a few tears too. I mean, that car was significantly older than me and I'd "known" it, so to speak, all my life, and my mother for a really large part of hers---she bought it fresh off the lot back in '99. It was a pretty melancholy afternoon for both of us, but, as Winnie the Pooh or some Hallmark card or whatever said, "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened".
Anyways, I got some random k-pop albums from the friends of the local library this morning, since my mother volunteers with them sometimes and volunteers get first pick of the loot---I mean, donations. I've already listened to NCT Dream's Hot Sauce album, and I've got another NCT album and a few Stray Kids and Monsta X albums to listen to, and I'll send back whichever ones I don't end up liking. The Hot Sauce album was good enough---all the tracks except the last, which is my favourite, were three to four stars---but it didn't stand out to me as special or anything, and I wasn't a fan of the title track. It was really too 127-y for me---I prefer songs like Hello Future or Chewing Gum, which have Dream's youthful vibe. Anyways, I did really like Rainbow, the last song on the album, which did give off those vibes! So it wasn't all bad. Also, we went to my favourite Chinese place for takeout for lunch and I tried their pork lo mein! It's pretty good, although I think I prefer the beef and especially the chicken lo mein. Anyways, that's all for now. I'll try to update my site beyond just the blog soon. Toodles!
Published on Tuesday, November 21, 2023, at 6:52 PM.
Song of the day: She'z - UU
My dad and I went shopping today for some Christmas gifts for my friends. My friends that I was shopping for all know my site, so I'm not going to say what the gifts were, but I first went to a craft store to find one gift, but only found part of it. Then my dad and I went to Best Buy because I wanted to window shop for laptops (I guess I was Windows shopping, eh? Wocka wocka!) and so I ended up typing on a bunch of the different laptops and we got asked at least twice if we needed help finding anything because my poor dad had to loom about nearby. (In case anyone was wondering, my favourite keyboard out of the bunch was the Samsung GalaxyBook, and my least favourite wasn't a laptop, but was the iPad 9th gen smart keyboard, which was, besides just being cramped, an uncomfortable nightmare to type on.)
Anyways, then we went to the mall. I got some gifts at Hot Topic and then I went to my favourite CD store. I didn't end up buying this, so I feel alright saying that I was thinking of buying Pink a NewJeans album and/or a Gossip Girl DVD set and/or a Destiny's Child CD, except he doesn't have a CD or DVD player!! Which I think should count as a crime against humanity. I also almost bought my dad NCIS on DVD---he loves NCIS---but then he said I shouldn't, because of streaming. Always taking away my good gift ideas!! But I bought my mother a Christmas gift, and then I bought myself a CD by Britt Nicole, my favourite Christian singer, which I was really excited to randomly happen upon! I'm really looking forward to listening to it tomorrow. But yeah, that's about it for today. Now I have to go consider what the heck I'm getting Pink and my father, and where the heck I'm going to find the rest of a certain present. Toodles! (PS did y'all hear Rosalynn Carter passed? I was quite sad to hear that. :( )
Published on Sunday, November 19, 2023, at 8:51 PM.
Song of the day: Momoland - Bboom Bboom
Hey y'all! The Great Day of Fun went pretty well. The French knitting with the children---well, let's just say I didn't foresee that the children would take so long to start, especially since, y'know, there were fifteen to twenty that we all had to individually help, and also third graders don't on average have the dexterity of an average high schooler, and so the only kids who got anything even close to the scarves we had planned to donate were those who gave up and tried finger knitting instead. But it's the fun that counts!
And later today, Blue and I had what was supposed to be crocheting, but the only others that showed up were two middle schoolers---not even the proper teacher showed up, so I taught the others how to French knit and we all chit-chatted with the art teacher. Blue and I also sat in the back French knitting when it wasn't our turn during our Dance Dance Revolution session. I played Lost in Austen during my silent reading session, and the senior class made some cookies to give to first responders, and also gave some to our school security officer! And that's about all that happened today. I'm soready for fall break---I can finally surf the Net! (And get back to e-mails that've been sitting unanswered in my inbox for ages---sorry, Daniel and Sabrin!) I really neex to chillax---apparently in France they get school breaks every seven weeks, and meanwhile we haven't had a week of break since school started!! Oy. Toodles!
Published on Friday, November 17, 2023, at 8:51 PM.
Song of the day: The Wind - We Go
Hey y'all! So our big reading-activities-volunteering extravaganza at school is tomorrow, and my "house" is leading an activity where we're teaching the kids how to French knit. So I got back into French knitting! It's really fun. :) I picked a project I had started ages ago back up---and by project I mean an endless tube with no aim whatsoever. I'm sure I can find some use for it. (Cue Phineas and Ferb theme) Like maybe...
(If anyone knows anything practical to do with the long tube, e-mail me!)
Anyways, I'm going to have to try and get children to start and finish their tubes, which will probably be the hard part, but it should go pretty well, hopefully. I also get to do other activities throughout the day---I'll tell all y'all more about it tomorrow!
Meanwhile, today was pretty chillaxed, being the last normal day before fall break. My double Latin class started with a twenty-minute dance party in the dark with my teacher's colour-changing ceiling LEDs because he wanted us to "be awake". Yeah, we were awake. And then Pink filled up two whiteboards with notes/doodles as our teacher lectured us on the historical context for The Aeneid. Meanwhile, in History we watched some Hamilton---not my favourite in general, but I really liked the Schuyler sisters! Aaron Burr's second song was also pretty good, but in general Lin-Manuel Miranda's style of songwriting just... irks me for some reason, and Hamilton's bros were... bro-y.
We had a sub for English and then in double French, Pink, our teacher and I played French Scrabble together! I'm normally pretty bad at Scrabble (not for lack of vocabulary, I think---I mean, I regularly use the word "hitherto"---but I just really suck) but with the help of a dictionary and some cunning in tile placement I came out victorious somehow! And then for the rest of the school day I sat in the lounge watching YouTube and French knitting.
Tonight was a fundraising supper for my school. My mother and I went for the buffet food (pasta and breadsticks and salad, oh my!), but that was really about all of interest. I'm pretty tired, but I'm ready for tomorrow's fun day, and especially for fall break. I'll talk to all y'all later!
Published on Thursday, November 16, 2023, at 9:06 PM.
Song of the day: Nature - Allegro Cantabille
So I told y'all I was ill, and I wasn't feeling the hottest... well, as I type this, both of my poor parents are lain out on their own couches, absolutely zonked out, as they have been for probably half the day today. Apparently, they've caught whatever I have, and it's hitting them somewhat hard. My poor mum's taken to calling me a typhoid Mary and "my little plague rat" (affectionately, mind you, in case that wasn't clear). And apparently Green's fallen ill with COVID---I definitely hang out with a totally healthy bunch! Thank the Lord, I'm pretty much better, so I don't feel the need to stay home from school or anything, but still---they call it cold and flue season for a reason!
Anyways, in other news, I've been laptop window shopping on the Net once again today. And I really don't want to study for my Latin quiz tomorrow---ugh... Ugh. And that's really about it. I'll talk to all y'all later!
Published on Sunday, November 12, 2023, at 8:18 PM.
Song of the day: Nick Carter - Made For Us
So I'm just kinda feeling "ugh" right now, so I'm gonna keep this short. Firstly, due to a mistake I got free ravioli at supper on Tuesday, which was cool! But second of all, I've had some sort of allergies or cold or something all this week. It was worst Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, when I didn't sleep well, but even though it's better now, it's still really annoying, and I got some aches (not pains) today which have really annoyed me. But I've just been pretty dang tired, and cold from time to time, although I was really hot yesterday morning when I woke up, but I think that's because the weather's changed suddenly, which may be the cause of all this. It was super hot when I woke up yesterday, but it became cold and my shorts and all became too little, and I've still been shivering today despite dressing somewhat warmer. But yeah, I'll talk to all y'all later. Toodles!
Published on Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 8:58 PM.
Song of the day: Girls' Generation - Baby Baby
Context for those of y'all that don't regularly read my blog (which is likely blindingly obvious for those of you who do): the freshmen this year at my school are so coocoo I wouldn't be surprised if someday soon they became the collective spokespeople for Cocoa Puffs. First one ran away from our school retreat into the woods in the middle of the night, then they had drama that lasted over a WEEK with our grade over the freaking whiteboard in the student lounge, then two of them decided to microwave an arm-and-a-leg graphing calculator, and now another one's gotten into some rubbish. I won't say it here because it's so personal I even feel weird hinting about it, but maybe I'll divulge it one day in a tell-all memoir. Anyways, if you know, you know, and if you know, I'm sorry. (Freshmen!!!)
But anyways, I didn't actually have a lot to to today since it was mostly work time in double history, I had double study hall, math was work time, and we went to a local college's theatre department during performing arts, which was super cool! Latin was the only time we did proper work, and that wasn't too bad. I did get super hungry because I didn't have time to have anything else with my cereal for breakfast, and so I had to eat one of my Latin teacher's fig bars, which seemed a little old but were okay. (They're the same brand that I like.) Only five people showed up to D&D initially, as well as another girl who's a friend from my performing arts class, but a couple others showed up eventually but briefly and we ended early. But somehow today's just been long and all---I was part of the way to a nap on the way back from the field trip!---and I'm ready for it to be over, so I'll just go now and talk to all y'all later. Toodles!
Published on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, at 7:10 PM.
Song of the day: ChiRi Girls - Summer Fanfare
I mean to write this earlier (Editor's note: and I meant to post this yesterday, but who gives a feces?), but a) I get distracted too easily, and b) I never have enough free time anymore, so I'm writing this on the way to my family's house.
The college stuff that was aggravating me is perhaps better, although I still don't know how it'll end. I think it's mainly that my family is not on the same page about my college. We were going to hopefully have a talk about it today, but then we found out about a big family dinner, so it'll have to wait. I could probably psychoanalyze us all in relation to this, but sadly, I seem to have misplaced my prior degree from the University of Freud, so you'll have to make do. (Actually, if I had even a degree from the University of Freud, we probably wouldn't be having this problem.)
Meanwhile, I spent almost all of yesterday (Editor's note: Saturday, to be clear) writing a history essay and then an English essay---not helping the free time, and it was Tiring, but I think they turned out well, thank God!
(Editor's note: ...and now my computer won't connect to the school Internet in my normal study hall spot. God help the rest of today to be less annoying!)
That's about all from me---bye for now, y'all!
Published on Monday, November 6, 2023, at 10:56 AM.
Song of the day: BTS - Boy In Luv
So, big news of this week: I was in a car accident! It's not anything terrible---I've referred to it as the Great Fender Bender of 2023---but it was pretty freaky. My mother and I were stopped behind someone turning into a parking lot, on our way to get gas, when suddenly there's a massive crash coming from behind us and we get jolted forward. Yeah, I was screaming. It was a pickup truck, compared to my mother's tiny baby car, so the back got pretty gnarly, but thankfully we were unharmed. (Though my neck was really stiff for a couple of days afterward.)
And then, there's been a bit of drama with college finances that I don't particularly want to get into, but it's left me feeling really frustrated and quite fed-up and upset. And I have to hammer out one whole history essay (it's only a few pages, but still) and the last two or so pages of my English essay draft tomorrow, so I've got an all-day writing job on hand. So yeah, this week's been sunshine and rainbows. I just hope and pray that this coming week is better! I feel like I need that Serenity Prayer right about now---look it up if you've never heard of it! So yeah, let's all hope for a better next week---but we made it through this week in one piece and that's what matters! So yeah, I'm going to talk to all y'all later. Bye!
Published on Friday, November 3, 2023, at 9:21 PM.