College, College, and More College

My classes at the community college are going well. I'm trying for my driver's license next month, so I won't have to depend on my father and brother as much. If a class is cancelled or ends early I have to wait 20 minutes for my ride to pick me up. Since I only go to class for 3 hours 3 days a week, I've been having fun doing things over the weekend. One weekend I went to the Big E in New England and saw my sister. Another weekend I went to the Chesapeake Watershed Forum in West Virginia and learned mostly about maps thanks to the urging of my mom.
One thing my dad made sure I did with my time was college things. I've done some college tours at state universities. I personally hate college tours. They're awkward and they make me feel like I'm being fed overly sweet syrup. One of the schools was medium-sized, which I liked, but the campus seemed cramped and in the middle of nowhere. They loved to talk about how it's so close to Baltimore, but when someone asked if there was a shuttle to go to Baltimore, the tour guides said it's really unreliable. The other school had a huge student population, but had a big campus to balance it out. Unfortunately, it seemed too big, and the surrounding area seemed unattractive and not the type of place I'd like to hang out. The upside their computer science program is supposed to be really good.
My college applications are coming along, although I have to admit my essays still need work. I'm trying to get everything done by November 1st, so I'm cranking out short answers before the "Frankenstorm" hits the East coast and I lose power. I never understand the word limits they have on these things.

Summer's End

Well the first day of school for me this year is in two weeks, and frankly I'm a bit disappointed in how little I've done this summer. I would have liked to explore my home state a bit more, but I think I'll blame my online class for keeping me busy (which I got an A in, by the way). I have done some great things though.

My mom has been dragging me on driving trips throughout my county so I can get driving hours in. I like to see the farmlands around where I live, and we play the game "what are they growing?". The answers range from corn to cows. We've stopped at some parks too, like little hidden beaches and trails. One place we stopped at was like a boat graveyard. There were sunken ships everywhere from World War I.

Some other quintessential mid-Atlantic things I've done include eating crabs and kayaking. Crabs has to be my favorite thing about summer. I've been working on my technique to open them and get all the good stuff out. Kayaking also has a special place in my heart during the summer. Although I've only kayaked once this summer, last summer I kayaked almost every weekend. When I did it this summer, I wasn't as used to the constant paddling and woke up the next morning with pain in my shoulders and elbows.

Speaking of boating, I had loads of fun on the St. Lawrence river in New York in June. I visited Boldt Castle, an unfinished mansion on one of the thousand islands. The next week I visited Ottawa, the capital of Canada. We celebrated Canada Day, which is their independence day. It was a sea of red and white. We tried to eat traditional Canadian things, like beavertail and poutine. We also visited their parliament building and lots of interesting museums.

When I look back I guess I have done more than the average lazy teenager.

Ketchup

I haven't posted in a long long time. It's May, which means the winding down of the school year. I've turned in all my textbooks and taken all my finals. I'm taking the SAT tomorrow and the ACT next week. The seniors have already left and are doing graduation practice until they finally graduate on Tuesday.

One thing that I've done is prepare for next year. I've filled out all my paperwork to go to the community college for my senior year. I'm taking four classes: English, calculus, computer science, and maps and mapping. It seems odd that I would choose a class like that to take, but the admissions adviser recommended it because it would be easier to take a humanities course my first semester there.


Another cool thing I did was go on a trip to Europe for my spring break. I went to Berlin, Munich, and Krakow. It was great to see my cousin in Germany and eat pierogi ruskie to my heart's content in Poland. Krakow was definitely my favorite place. I would love to go back and explore Wawel castle more and see the entire Rynek Główny from the balcony of the Sukiennice.


In other exciting news, my sister and I are trying to convince my dad to take us to Canada sometime over the summer. I suppose I should do more college tours, but colleges are usually dead-looking this time of year and it wouldn't really be fun.

December

Ever since Thanksgiving weekend ended I've been watching holiday-themed rom coms on Lifetime and Hallmark. Right now I'm watching The Santa Clause on ABC Family, which is the first movie in a month long event called The 25 Days of Christmas. I just absolutely love Christmastime movies. It's all we could talk about at school today.

Another thing I love is Christmas songs. I listen to a Christmas music station on Pandora. The only thing I don't like is how every pop singer has to make their own Christmas album. I often skip past songs by Michael Buble and Mariah Carey because I like the classics, like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole.

My favorite Christmas tradition is going around to historical houses in our area with my mom. These places usually have a Christmas event, and I like seeing extravagant Christmas decorations hung up. We also go walking through our neighborhood so see the lights strung up on the houses, and maybe catch Santa Claus on his firetruck and get a candy cane from him.

I know I'm buying into the commercialism of Christmas, but I can't wait to buy Christmas presents for my friends and hang out on New Year's Eve drinking three bottles of sparkling cider between us.

BAM

Sometime in the past month a new bookstore has invaded our town and set itself in the shell of what was Borders: Books A Million. My first impression of Books A Million wasn't great; the only Books A Million I've been to was the one in Dupont Circle. It was a tiny place with not a big selection of books.

The other day I found myself walking into the new bookstore that had roosted itself where my former hang-out spot was. My expectations were low. My friend who I met in there texted me earlier that she could cry from the unfamiliarity of it all.

As I found my friend in the back, I noticed the placing of the different sections. Borders had it's quirks with its design. The college books were right next to the cafe, which was perfect for us. My friends and I would joke about how the romance section was taking over the science fiction section. Here the sci fi was separated from the romance novels. From where the sci fi section is now used the be the World War II section, where we would sit in the chairs and spy on the piano teacher from our school who we would see from time to time perusing the Harlequin novels. Next to the WWII section was the religion section, which were shelves of bibles with one row dedicated to such heathen pursuits as the Kama Sutra.

Our favorite section to hang out in was definitely the psychology section. It was 3 tall shelves set closely together forming a horseshoe. On one side were the self-help books, another side had gender studies, and the third side had books about relationships. They had 2 chairs placed next to each other.

The cafe area was filled with junk had yet to be configured. Instead the college books were in the back. The WWII books were now a single row on a mainly empty bookshelf in the back. The non-Christian texts were replaced by bible covers. The psychology section was no more. The only chairs to be seen were 6 neatly arranged next to the music section.

When I looked for a book that I swore I saw in the sci fi section, I realized sadly that I was thinking of Borders. But this was no Borders. The people here weren't the same people who came to Borders. At Borders I once helped a man with his algebra homework. Another man once trusted my friend with plugging his iPod into her laptop.

I suppose I'll learn to love it as I must in order to keep the memories of Borders alive. But I'll be frank, they better have good chai tea latte once they get their cafe together.

Happy Halloween

This past week was quite eventful with the combination of spirit week, my birthday, and Halloween.

The first day of spirit week was nerd day. I wore a t-shirt with the numbers of pi shaped into the letter pi while everyone else wore suspenders and glasses without lenses. The second day was decade day. I went as the 60's and wore corduroy bell-bottoms that were striped dark green, orange, and brown with a Beatles shirt. Halfway through the day I changed into a blue skirt suit I bought at Goodwill for my Halloween costume. A lot of people went as the 80's. Third day was mix-match day. I didn't do anything for this except not brush my hair in the morning. Meanwhile people went all out with different shoes and layering shorts over pants. A lot of people looked they did for decades day. Thursday was character day. I had no set character in mind but I went as someone out of character as me. I wore a short dress with fishnets and heels. By the end of the day my feet were killing me.

Finally it was spirit day. Freshmen wore white, sophomores wore yellow, juniors wore red, and seniors wore black. Throughout the day you could see girls applying eye black with black eyeliner or writing their graduation year with red lipstick. We dismissed two hours early to attend the pep rally in the stadium. There were floats by the separate classes, different sports and clubs walking with banners, and performances from the cheerleaders, poms team, and marching band. There was beauty pageant between the teachers where male teachers dressed as women and vice versa. There was also a battle between the classes, where the freshmen won against the seniors in the tug-of-war because the seniors celebrated a bit too early so they ran from the rope cheering while the freshmen kept pulling. Although in the end the seniors still won the most spirited.

On Sunday it was my birthday. It wasn't the best birthday I've had since I was suffering through a combination of a bad reaction to something and a sunburn on my face. The day started with a treasure hunt to find my first present, which was My Little Pony toy. Later I got the most awesome sweatshirt ever with a man carrying a Victrola on the back of it. My grandparents came over and gave me a steamboat necklace and a ring of mine they fixed. My mom made lasagna and blueberry pie and I opened more presents. I got a pair of headphones, a new mp3 player, and a card I can insert into it so it will have more space.

On Monday I went to my friend's house after school and put together the final touches of my costume. I was a Pan Am stewardess, and had the blue skirt suit and the heels I bought from Goodwill, nylons I borrowed from my mom, white gloves that were my great-grandmother's, and a paper hat and wings that I printed off of the internet. I even had "Persian Melon", the official lipstick of Pan Am. My friends were the witch from Left4Dead, a lumberjack, a nurse, a soldier, and a creepy jester. After trick-or-treating I tried to watch The Blair Witch Project, but had to stop it once the people heard noises in the woods.

October

October is by far my favorite month. The colors of the leaves changing and crispness of the air that signals the coming of winter is sublime. The other day my dad ordered firewood, which means we'll use our fireplace soon. Here's a list of somethings I love about October

Sweaters

Lately I've been getting into sweaters: pullovers, cardigans, knit tunics. And fall weather is perfect for sweaters. The air has a hint of frost, but not too much that I want to a huge coat.

Corn mazes

I've been trying to get my friends in a corn maze for the past week. Corn mazes are the perfect autumn activity. the more complicated the better. I especially love the maze that are on farms with other activities, such as hay rides, pumpkin patches, and farm stores. I tried to go to a corn maze last week to ring in the season, but it rained too much. I went last night with friends where we got lost and celebrated with apple cider afterwards.

Pumpkin carving

I have fond memories of going through pumpkin patches, choosing the perfect pumpkin (round, but not too short), and being elbow-deep in said pumpkin's guts. I've bent a few knives in my time trying to cut the perfect jack-o-lantern face. And when all the carving was done, my dad would take the pumpkin seeds and toast them in the oven. Although this year there probably won't be any carving going on because of the cost of a perfect pumpkin, my dad bought a small pumpkin yesterday for a pie.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Although not the most appropriate movie, I've been watching this movie every year for as long as I could remember. Hopefully one day I'll get to watch it one day in a theater with other fans. I'm planning on seeing it at a local amphitheater, although I don't know the level of participation they accept there.

Spirit Week

At my school, spirit week is actually pretty fun. There's mix-match day, hat day, character day (which is basically like Halloween), and other cool themed days. It ends on the Friday of the homecoming with a pep rally.

Halloween

The only day a year where you can dress however you want and get free candy from strangers. I always love the hour before my friends and I start trick-or-treating because getting ready is always so much fun. I'm a little worried because Halloween is on a Monday, but hopefully people will feel generous this year.

My birthday!

This will be my sweet 16, the day before Halloween. I'm going to celebrate it in the classiest way I can by going to a tea room with friends. Although my celebration choice may seem sophisticated, I absolutely refuse to grow up.