Day One in a Long Year of Tenth Grade.

Okay, where did I leave off... 

Oh yeah. Jalapeno poppers. 
So, day before school, right? I was making jalapeno poppers with Penguin, and of course, I was singing while I was de-seeding the jalapenos and Penguin was tolerating my singing. Well, until he burned himself. His hands burned, then he burned his eyes, then his nose! How do you burn your hands from jalapenos? I mean, I understand the eyes and the nose, but he was just holding them! How did his hands get burned?
He probably wont appreciate me sharing his sufferings, but I just ate some Chinese food and some Oreos, so there's really no stopping me at this point. xDDD
Well, I pretty much continued them on my own, and they turned out pretty good. 

Getting ready for school was a lot of work. For one thing, Penguin and I needed new shoes because the school changed the shoe dress code (again) and we didn't have the appropriate shoes, so we went to the mall and got new ones. While Penguin was trying on his shoes, I put on some high heels and waltzed around for a bit for the heck of it. I have never been in heels that high. Well, I have now... 

Last night, I kind of had a panic attack. I was watching TV and when I turned it off, I remembered that I had school the next day and my brain went into panic attack mode. Then this morning, I had an even bigger panic attack. I felt nauseous, like I was going to throw up, and I kept having to sit down. 

So THEN, I get to school, and of course, I have a bottom locker for the fourth freaking year in a row. But so does Blaze, so he can't make fun of me. So then naturally, we have the usual first-day-of-school Mass. In the main hall. Where there is no air conditioning. I literally almost fainted. I was still feeling nauseous too, so that was a great way to start off the year. 

Then was the annual doughnut social they have every year. Basically, we eat doughnuts and socialize with the new people and get to know the new teachers and stuff. Then the headmaster gave his usual speech about the basic rules and dress code and virtues and such. 

Then started classes. Since it was the first day, we only had twenty minute classes. I have geometry, theology, english, history, latin, and biology, in that order. It varies a couple days, like on Fridays we have PE instead of theology, among a few other things. 
After school, I only had a little bit of homework, I helped Blaze cover his history book and his vocab book with contact paper in exchange for him helping me cover my biology book tomorrow, and I finished off the day with aerial and orange chicken. 
Anyway, I have no idea whats going to happen this year, and who knows if I'll still be sane by the end of it. It already feels like I've been doing this for a month, at least. It certainly didn't feel like the first day of school. But I feel more ready for it now. 
So. I'm in tenth grade. 
I'm gonna brace myself. 
--Abby, the tenth grader

Last Day of Summer

I'm back from the beach and now I suppose it's time to face the reality. Unless there's another option...? 
No? Kay. 

School starts in exactly.....*tries to math*..... 17.5 hours. Yeah, that sounds about right. 

Anyway, on the fence about whether I'm excited or not. I guess I'm excited to see everyone and such, but I wish I could have another month. Suddenly there's a lot I need to do and school would make it a lot more stressful than it could be. I'm not just talking about stuff I wanted to do for my own enjoyment, either. For one thing, I need to take six hours of in-car driving lessons with an instructor, which I have to schedule still, and with school, that's going to be rather difficult. Then of course, I want to write more. I made 30K yesterday, but I so wish I could put off the start of school and keep writing. And then there's editing too, and call me crazy, but I'm looking forward to that. 

Why does learning have to be so time consuming? I like learning, I do, I even like school if I'm not pulling my hair out from stress, but gosh dang it, I want to write!! 

Alright, we have a tradition to eat jalapeno poppers on the last day of summer, so I'm going to go help Penguin make those now. Or schedule my driving lessons. Or shower. 
Okay, just thinking about the things I have to do today is stressing me out. I want to forget about school for a bit...

Wish me loads of luck for tomorrow! I wish you luck in whatever grade you're entering into. 

*17 hours and counting...*

Good bye, summer

--Me

Results...

Quick post to tell you guys my results on the exam.... 

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I PASSED!!! FIRST TRY!!! 

Holy cow that was stressful. A lot of the questions were What does this sign mean? but then there were harder questions about left-hand turns and railroad tracks and stuff. The whole time, Blaze was looking over my shoulder and saying stuff like, "Oh I know that one" "I could pass this test without even doing the lessons" "That's so easy!" and I basically wanted to slap him the whole time. Even my dad looked over my shoulder and said, "Ooh, Abs, you're screwed." 
Thanks a lot, family. 
I hope they were kidding... 

BUT I PASSED SO ITS OKAY!! At the end, when I saw the words, "You passed!" in green at the top of my screen, I was kind of confused because I had been so wrapped up in the quiz I had forgotten to keep track of what question I was on, but then my brain turned on and I was so happy! 

So thank you so much to all you who prayed for me, because it really worked!! 
Penguin is kicking me off the computer. 
--Abby, who is too happy to listen to her angry brother xDD 

Quick Post in which I Freak Out (nothing new)

*clears throat nervously* 

School starts on Wednesday. Five days and counting. 

But no, that's not why I'm freaking out. 

Tomorrow: Saturday, August 22, 2015. Nothing special, right? 
WRONG. SO WRONG. 

I'm taking my driving permit exam tomorrow!!!!!!!! I'm sooooo scared, omigosh omigosh omigosh..... 
Cuz the thing is, I took multiple quizzes throughout the lessons, and yeah, I did okay, but not... outstanding. I got to retake all of the ones I didn't do so well on, so thats good, but I mean, this is the final exam. What if I fail?? I'm pretty sure I could retake if I totally bomb, but what if there's like a limited amount of times you can retake or something?? What if I fail so miserably that I have to go through all the lessons again??? 

I CAN'T CONCENTRATE ON ANYTHING YOU GUYS I'M A MESS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! 

Seriously, I can't think about anything else. This feels so much bigger than a school exam for some reason. 
Whenever I talk to Blaze about how many freaking lessons I had to do and how much harder this is than I thought, he's like, "Pssh, it's driving. What's so hard about it? What could they possibly teach you that takes so long? I mean, you turn on the car and try to get to your destination without dying; it's not rocket science!" 
Oh Blaze. You would be sooo surprised. 
I think I would prefer rocket science. 
(No I wouldn't, but let me have my moment.) 

I don't know why I'm so stressed. I thought it was because I want to drive so badly, but really, I don't think that's it. I do want to drive, but after hearing about all the car crashes and how every sixteen seconds a teen is involved in a car accident, makes me kind of scared for it. 

Sometimes I'm like: Driving! Yes! Total freedom! 
And other times I'm like: Freedom? I don't think so. Who wants to drive when you can sit shotgun and text till your thumbs fall off? 

(I actually don't text that much, but I'm trying to make a point.) 

So yeah, prayers would definitely be appreciated! I'll try not to faint tomorrow. 
OH you know what makes it even worse?? Before the final, they have a section titled, Are You Ready for your Final? 

NO, OF COURSE NOT, WHO EVER FEELS READY FOR A FINAL. STOP PSYCHING ME OUT AND GIVE ME THE STUPID TEST ALREADY. 

I'm gonna go hyperventilate try to calm down now. 
--Me, possibly California's soon-to-be newest sort-of driver... 

Last Week of Summer.

One week. 

Is it possible that for nine months, all I looked forward to was summer break, and now it's over?? Is it possible that on the first day of summer, tenth grade seemed far away? Well it still seems far away, sort of. That days have been marching by at a painfully slow pace, but at the same time, I feel like it's going so fast that I need to hit a pause button and breathe for a minute. Once school starts, I'll definitely need a pause button. 

Some schools have already started, and hearing my friends who go to different schools talk about it makes me feel a little more ready for summer to end. I only have a week... 

Once again, I failed to learn surfing this year. Like I always do. But I did do a lot of other things: paddle board (which I really hope to do again before school starts), visited lots of family on the EC, visited with Maddie twice, went to the beach a lot, wrote an inordinate amount of... words... (I dunno, I wrote a lot, okay?) 

I actually met 27K today, so I'm happy. I'll definitely make 30K by next week. 

In a way, I'm looking forward to the busyness. I kind of like the challenge of high school, and it gives me something to do, other than re-read all the books on my shelves and watch Kid Snippets with Penguin. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and getting a rhythm back into my life. Although waking up at seven and doing geometry first thing in the morning still doesn't appeal to me, and I doubt it ever will. (I recently learned that math is first period this year and I'm rather bitter about it.) 

I'm not looking forward to stressful studying, the never-ending feeling of unfinished work hanging over your head, and the horrible sensation of your heart falling into your stomach when you enter a classroom and finding out that yes, you DID have a test today. 

I have to get straight A's on my report card at least once this year. Blaze got straight A's last year and will never let me hear the end of it if I don't get it this year. Oh, and sure, because it looks good on college applications, of course, but mostly because I can't let Blaze best me at everything. I think it's a pride thing. I'm working on fixing it. 

I should sign off and do drivers ed. I've got two or three more online lessons before the exam *screams into pillow*. 

--Abby

Hello, have some art.

PEOPLE, PEOPLE--or those who read this blog, anyways. 

I DREW A PICTURE. 

Wow, it's light.

OMG ITS SO LIGHT

I like drawing feet. But they're SO LIGHT

Okay, so I can't really get a full shot of it (I need a scanner). So there, have bits and pieces of it. 

Today I did a lot of organizing in my room since Rosie moved out of it and its officially mine now. I'm going to keep up with the decorating and organizing and possibly some painting in it and hopefully it'll look pretty in the final results. 

I've also come to the conclusion that I need to pay off this ridiculous fine in the library so I can check out books again because OMIGOSH I HAVE NOTHING TO READ!! 

So I'm gonna go now. 

--Me, that weird girl with a blog 

Lot o' Little Updates.

Two weeks. 

How'd this happen. 

School starts on the twenty-sixth, and I'm already having stress-dreams about it. Well actually, it wasn't really a stress-dream... There was only one top locker left and Hannah and I were competing for it.... Super weird, I know, but I've never ever had a top locker before, so I hope I get one this year. I mean, I don't really mind bottom lockers, but I'd like to not have to crouch all the time and get stepped on by those fancy people with top lockers for a change. 

I've been writing, but not as much as I'd like. I have about 8K words to go until I reach 30K, which is my summer goal, but with two weeks left and me being this lazy about writing, it'll be really something if I can make it. 

Around here, fireworks only go off twice a year: Independence day and when the county fair arrives. 
When I was watching Doctor Who with Maddie one night, it was like ten o'clock or ten-thirty, and suddenly there were these big explosions and I was like, HOLY COW WE'RE BEING SHELLED!! Rosie screamed in the next room, I think. But then we looked out the window and saw the tops of the fireworks over the trees. 
We never really go to the fair, but we can see the fireworks every night, which is cool. 

The boys and Rosie are doing a sailing camp down at the harbor. So they've been waking me up with their running around at eight in the morning, and then when I get out of bed, nobody's home. Which is kind of nice, I suppose. The sailing camp looks cool, but I'm not big on camps, so I didn't do it. Actually, each of us were supposed to pick a sort of camp to do this summer, and I turned everything down. I think I said I'd rather rent a paddle board a couple days than do an organized, five-day-a-week camp. I'm not a camp person. 

Drivers ed is going pretty well. I'm almost half-way done with the online lessons. A couple of my friends recently got their permits and have told me that the exam is pretty easy, but I think they're all liars xD. I really want to be over and done with these lessons so I can start driving practice already. 


Well, thats really all I've got. Sorry if this was a bit boring, I tend to be that way sometimes if I haven't had any tea yet. I'll try to blog again sometime this week, but who knows if I will. I've got all this writing to do, plus getting ready for school to start. 
(Saddest half of a sentence ever spoken...) 
--Your friendly neighborhood dork extraordinaire 

One Heck of a Week: Special Cousins Edition

Maddie and her family came down this week. They got here early Tuesday morning. Like, 12:30 AM early Tuesday morning. It was super fun, we spent pretty much all of Tuesday at the hotel pool. It was really good to see my cousins again. 

On Wednesday, Maddie, my cousin Max, who's a little older then me, Blaze, and I went to the beach. That was a lot of fun. Maddie and I got there first and went swimming before the boys got there. 

Beach hair.

The beach that day was super relaxing and awesome. We went swimming and then Blaze and Max showed up and we went swimming again. Then Maddie and I laid on our beach towels and listened to music while Blaze buried Max. We tried to play ultimate frisbee, but the sand burned our feet. 

We both look weird in this one.

Wednesday night, Maddie and I watched Doctor Who, or more specifically, the episode entitled, Blink. Super creepy!! The good news is, I wasn't alone when watching it; Maddie was there, secretly laughing whenever I would gasp or scream. 

Actually, I don't think I screamed. I don't really scream when I'm watching something creepy. More like, my eyes get glued to the screen and I gasp a little or swallow or something. When I get scared by something I'm watching, I get hypnotized kinda. 

We also watched the two-parter in season five, The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone last night. That was even creepier than Blink. Heck, it was creepier than the episode with the gas mask kid. 

I think thats what scared me more. The quiet, mysterious episode where you don't know where the monster is going to come from or whether its around the corner, as opposed to the action-packed, fast-paced, running-from-the-monster episodes, where there isn't really any mystery. You know what the monster is and where it is, what its purpose is and what it can do to you. The ghosts and weeping angels scare me more than the daleks or the slitheens. 

But UGH the weeping angels!! Holy cow, they're so scary! When Amy was left alone in the forest surrounded by angels and she couldn't open her eyes, THAT was FREAKY!!! I didn't want to watch the two-parter, but Maddie dragged me into it. Afterwards, she was like, "Huh, I remember it being scarier," and I thought, SCARIER??? 

Before watching The Time of Angels. See the fearlessness and confidence in our eyes?
Yeah. That lasted about five minutes. 

Today, me, Maddie, Max, Blaze, Penguin, and my ten-year-old cousin Phil went and saw Ant-Man. It was such a great movie! I loved it, I loved how funny it was and how awesome it was, and the plot was great! Kept my interest the whole time. Scott was hilarious, Hank was pretty boss, Darren was an idiot, and Hope was awesome. I knew she'd become Wasp. I knew it... (That was a spoiler, sorry). When Hank is telling Scott about the suit and saying, "I hid it from the world..." That sort of got me thinking. How can you hide something from the world? There are like six or seven billion people out there, and he hid it from all of them? How can anyone hide anything from the world? At least for very long. I mean, I'm sure we all have something nobody else knows about, so I guess its not that big of a deal to "hide something from the world." Its not impossible. Some people are very deep (XD). I guess it was the aspiring-writer in me, getting me to over-think the little words and such. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

We swam a lot, Maddie and I went for multiple walks and ate a lot of sugar, and we freaked ourselves out by looking into the stone-dead eyes of weeping angel statues... That which holds the image of an angel is itself an angel... and basically becoming very very alarmed whenever we got something in our eyes. 

Most of this post probably didn't make sense to a lot of you. Thats okay. Nobody on this earth is normal, and this minor obsession with this show is simply my way of being abnormal. 

So, I should go eat dinner. Maddie, if you're reading this, I miss you tons and tons and tons, and I hope I get to see you before Christmas ;). 

And to all my readers, remember: 

don't blink 

--Abby, who has weirded you all out enough for today. 

Happy Birthday, dear Quills (and to a lesser extent, Rosie)!

Mary Rose had her birthday yesterday. She had her moment. Now it's this blogs turn. 

One year. One year ago today, I asked my dad if I could start a blog when we were driving home from going to confession. I honestly didn't expect him to say yes. 
That's kind of crazy. I guess I should get all sentimental now. 
*Ahem* 
First I'd like to thank you. Yes, you, my readers, for actually reading my rants, my updates, my stress, and the occasional crappy poem or two. Thank you for putting up with my moods and school worries and unpredictable posting patterns. Please keep it up with the comments--I love to hear from you ;). 

Second, I'd like to invite you all to my fantabulous fabulous office for ice cream cake and tea and confetti. Directions to said office: 
Go three miles west of Middle Earth
Take a left at 221B Baker Street 
When you pass the TARDIS, follow the second star to the right and go straight on till morning. 
I invited Captain America and Sherlock, though both have some sort of mystery to solve or bad guy to capture, so who knows if they'll actually show. 

Yesterday was Rosie's birthday and we went to see Inside Out!! It was sooo cute! Though the Pixar short before it, Lava, was incredibly cheesy, and the song's been stuck in my head all morning. I loved the message in the movie, that sadness is a part of life and you can't have happiness without sadness. A lot of our society is telling us to keep sadness in a circle and always be happy, but we all need some sadness. It was such a cute, hilarious, family movie, and I recommend it for all ages. 
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. 
Favorite quote(s): 
Fear: Maybe it was a bear? 
Disgust: There are no bears in San Francisco. 
Anger: I saw a really hairy guy, he looked like a bear. 

Also: 

Sadness: Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems. 
(My favorite character was Disgust xDD)

Rosie also got a tortoise for her birthday. A tortoise. It's hanging out in our backyard. 
Wow. 
Oh, guess what she named it--Otis. Otis the tortoise. I might need to get used to this. 

Well, we have family over now, and Maddie and her family are coming down for a few days this week, so prepare for a lack of posting. 
I expect to see you all in my office this afternoon, and if you can, maybe bring a drink or a dessert? If you can. I recommend going by dragon to avoid traffic. 
*throws confetti* heres to another year of school stress posts and incoherent fangirling!! Happy birthday, Quills!! 
--Abby