Summer Goals.

Summer goals, guys, cuz apparently it's frowned upon to sleep for three straight months. 

Seriously. Bears do it. 
I want to do it. 
ERGO. I am a bear inside. 

Okay. 

1. GET MY LICENSE 

Honestly, because it's been six months, it was six months in April, and I'm a good ((ish)) driver ((nobody's died okay??)). 
Pssh. I need a license. 
.
.
.Just found out that for the first six months after getting a restricted license I still can't drive unless its with an adult like GEEZ TRUST ISSUES. 
Actually, that's pretty smart... 

2. GET MY BRACES OFF 

Ha, because I have no say in this actually, but I want them off so badly and it's been two years... 

3. WRITE. ALL. THE TIME. 

I have a say in this, it's just a matter of will-power and perseverance. 

4. RE-ORGANIZE MY ROOM 

I have so much crap in my room, it's not even funny. I need to throw out a TON of stuff and then I want to redecorate. 

5. .......GET A JOB.....

Uh, my parents are making me do this one... Again, an example of no one respecting my dream of sleeping all summer. 
But everything costs money these days so maybe having a job wouldn't be a bad idea. 

6. LEARN TO SURF 

I set this goal for myself every summer, because I live in California and I don't know how to surf and that's shameful. I never actually do it, but maybe this year will be the year. 

7. WATCH CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER 

I watched Civil War on Thursday, and I haven't seen Winter Soldier yet. I'm such a little rebel. 

8. START THE SECOND DRAFT OF MIETTE'S STORY 

This is badly needed. I don't usually like doing second drafts of things, especially of something this lengthy, but I'm motivated to do this one, and so I'm gonna give it a shot.

9. SPEND MOST OF MY TIME BY THE OCEAN

Summer was made for the ocean (or maybe vise versa). But this happens most years anyway, so I suppose it's not really a goal...

10. READ THE RANGERS APPRENTICE SERIES 

I've been wanting to read these books since maybe eighth grade. 

Okay, more may come to me throughout the summer. Hopefully I'll be able to meet most of these. The ones I'm most focused on at the moment are getting my license and redoing my room. But I'll definitely try to get most of these down. 

Do you guys have goals this summer?? 

--Abby, who kicked off her summer by eating In N Out, and is pretty happy with that. 

First Day of Summer 2016.

WHAT TIME IS IT???

Summertime! 

its our vacation! 

last day of school 2015
we forgot to take another picture this year, oops...

Am I ready for summer? 

I'm ready to be done with Geometry homework and stress and studying. I ready to be done with groaning as the bell rang for class. I'm ready to be done with the dark circles under our eyes every day and I'm ready to be done with the days when I would come home and flop on my bed out of frustration from the day. 

I'm not ready to be a Junior. I'm not ready to be an "upperclassman". I'm not ready to say goodbye to these wonderful people who I'm lucky enough to spend every day with for the majority of the year. I don't want to say goodbye to the days of hyper laughter or the pranks or singing loudly and off-key in the hallway. 

I guess it's not really goodbye though. It's only for three months. And then we're back to it and wishing summer were still here. 

But guys, I'm done. 

I've got three months to recover from the last nine months of my life x). 

Studying For Finals Without Losing Your Mind: Part 2

It's THAT time of year again. Weekend before finals. I've been studying for Geometry and if I do one more proportion or one more quadratic equation I will lose it. 

Ergo, I am here to take a break from studying (read: I'm procrastinating). 
I'm so good at procrastinating. This morning I got out my white board so I could work on proofs and such for Geometry, and this is what happened instead: 

This song was stuck in my head. All. Morning.

They're lyrics from a sea-faring song called "A'Roving". Last night was our school concert and this was one of the songs sung. And yes, every grammatical error was made purposefully. 
Oh well. 

Okay, so of course, you can just go back to my December post, which had a good five or so tips on studying for finals. I'm just kind of extending it a bit, so here we go. 

Taking Breaks vs Procrastinating

It's okay to take breaks, but you need to know when the break ends and when the procrastinating begins. You have to do it at some point, ya know. 

Make a Schedule

I've devoted today to Geometry and Theology. Tomorrow is Biology and English. Do something like that. Be organized. Tackle one thing at a time. And then, the night before that particular exam, go over the material once or twice more, but don't overwhelm yourself. 

Don't panic!

Panicking won't help, gosh dangit! So breathe. 

Food Never Hurts

Eat a good breakfast the day of the test. Eat a good dinner the night before. Eat good snacks when you're studying. Candy and chocolate are good, but make sure you're eating healthy stuff too, because otherwise you'll just feel gross during the exam and that's no fun.

Tea always helps

This might not apply to everyone, even though it SHOULD.

Find Your Method

Are you a flashcards kinda person? Are you a list kinda person? Are you a read-everything-a-million-times-until-I-have-it-memorized kinda person? Find your most helpful study methods and stick to them.

Reward Yourself :)

Set a goal and if you make your goal, go eat ice cream or go to the beach or watch a movie or something. Whatever gets you there.

I know these tips were not nearly as organized as the ones I gave last December, but maybe just combine them with the other ones and they'll make more sense x). Hope these were helpful, and don't panic; I believe in you ;)

Because I Feel Guilty About Never Posting Anymore...

I've been such an MIA blogger lately, I apologize. I thought that after the play, life would maybe slow down a bit, but no such luck. If anything it's sped up. I've been super stressed, as this is my last "normal" week of school, and finals are next week. I had a bunch of homework this weekend, and I was gone all day Saturday to go to a nearby college graduation and I also spent the day with a bunch of my cousins. 

So I'm here to give you all an update. 

School is almost over and that scares me. Summer is almost here and I can't wait. I started writing again and it feels really good. I just did a little short story to practice description and details, but this summer I want to do draft two of Miette's story. 

"Afire Love" by Ed Sheeran almost made my cry. I listened to the whole song for the first time a few days ago and I literally almost cried. I had the same reaction to "Small Bump" and "The A Team". 
I get emotional so easily. Especially over music. 
Why is Ed Sheeran so wonderful. 

Another good song by him is "Tenerife Sea". In case you're interested. 

But GUYS. I only have five more Geometry classes! What is this??? 
This morning I got to Geometry class and discovered I had done the wrong homework. So that added more stress to my Already Very High Levels of Stress. 
Studies show that your brain doesn't fully wake up until around ten AM, and Geometry is way before then, so therefore, I shouldn't be blamed. 
Also, I had a moment where I was so tired but I was reading and I saw the word "gave" and I was like, wait, that's not a word...... 
I'm so ashamed, why am I sharing this. I really do do well in school. And I do know that "gave" is a word. 
Imma stop talking about this now....
I'm scared for my Biology final, I'm scared for my Geometry final, my English final is just going to be a seminar on Julius Caesar, so all I have to do is prepare for that (lol all I have to do). 

You know what I need?? 
Summer and tea and to chill because I'm so scared for the next two weeks of my life. 

Yes. 
I'm going to eat pizza now. 

I really could've danced all night ;)

That's my director hugging Tom Wilson on the side there...XD

Theater is so wonderful. I'd forgotten that until last weekend. I forgot how much I love performing, I forgot how much I love the preparation, I forgot how much I love the feeling of family it creates. 

Last Friday was opening night of My Fair Lady. I cannot even begin to express how much fun it was. It felt so weird, like we'd been rehearsing for five-ish months and in the past couple weeks we'd done a good 48 hours of rehearsals. And it all led up to last weekend. That afternoon, the main dressing room was a mess and smelled strongly of hairspray and death, according to some, and it was crowded and loud and there was music blasting out our eardrums and our director even came in and sang with us. And everyone was running around singing, "Bed, bed, I couldn't go to bed / my head's too light to try to set it down" or "Then they'll march you, 'enry 'iggins, to the wall / and the king'll say Eliza sound the call." And people were cracking stupid jokes while makeup was being applied by shaking hands and everyone was curling someone else's hair. 

And theater is some people's lives. And I can see why. If last Friday night could be my life.... There aren't enough letters in the alphabet or exclamation points in the world to express my happiness. 

I have such pretty friends. And then there's me.
Seriously. What is that face.
I don't even...

It feels good to become a part of something bigger than yourself. It feels good to go into the audience after the show and see all the smiling faces. And this is why I've been performing half my life, and this is why I never want to stop. 

Rehearsals were long and I'm pretty sure I was hungry for more than half of them. I got rather sick of seeing the same scenes everyday and I wasn't too fond of the shoes I had to wear. Once we finally got to the stage, setting up the mikes and sound checking took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Friday morning, we got to the theater at 8:30 AM ish and started working, again, on the mikes and sound system. Blah. The director told us we could leave at one if we wanted and come back in a few hours, and yes, I wanted. I couldn't be there anymore, I was hungry and tired and needed sleep. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one, because when I got back to the theater a few hours later, some people were sleeping on the stage. 

We'd all been working on the play for months, so many of the jokes weren't funny to us anymore. And then there were also funny things that we didn't even realize were funny until the audience started cracking up. It was so interesting to see that. 

HA she thinks she escaped...

So many hours where everyone just sat in the back...

  

Why is theater so magical? Why do we enjoy watching others play dress-up for three hours? My theory is because everybody likes to escape reality. 

Doing this play was like entering some kind of wonderland for me and I got to work with such amazing people and got to meet amazing people (including Tom Wilson, Kelly Ward, and Leigh-Allyn Baker)(oh the perks of living in SoCal xD) and it was such a great experience.  

---

In other news... 

I've got about two weeks left of school and I have had no time to write (the saddest thing) and I've got a seminar to prepare for and SCHOOL IS ENDING IT'S SO STRESSFUL. 

Seriously, I'm so stressed, and tea isn't helping, and you know you're beyond help when tea isn't helping. HOW DOES TEA NOT HELP? 

I need to chilllllll. 

Hello May.

hello May, please be awesome

Holy. Cow. Why is it May already?? I have four weeks of school left. Four. Including exam week. 
I'm almost half-way done with high school. I'm almost done being a Sophomore, almost done being a "wise idiot". Almost done with school. It went by so quickly. 

APRIL IN REVIEW

It's always hard to look back at the end of the month because I'm forgetful. I honestly don't have any clue what I did this month..... I took the CTBS test, I spent SO MANY HOURS in rehearsal for My Fair Lady, which is happening this weekend (I've got like twenty-four hours of rehearsal this week. Will I survive? Dunno, but my director promises many pizzas, so maybe). I finished the Harry Potter series! My whole class got together one night and we watched Ant Man, which was a lot of fun. These are some of my favorite people, guys. And I ate too many Poptarts this month.... Oh! I had pizza for three straight meals in a row. Like, breakfast, lunch, dinner. That was an excellent accomplishment. (If you put a poached egg on pizza it become breakfast. You're welcome) Yesterday I was at school all afternoon for a full-dress rehearsal and I was forced into wearing more makeup than I could handle. Which is very sad because it was really only foundation, blush, eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick. I'm just not a makeup person (also, eyeliner is a total pain to take off??) But the rehearsal itself was very long and kind of stressful. Everyone was running around in costumes and full makeup, and the girls were all losing things and trying to curl hair and the guys were blasting music from the classroom they had turned into their dressing room and the girls dressing room became a disaster-zone...But it was fun too. 

I think April was a hard month for me, but again I have such a bad memory. I had a harder time at school and just being a teenage human with responsibilities and emotions is kind of difficult. 

But that's life. 

Now I'm gonna go make a thousand cookies because I still owe my friend a bunch from losing a bet and then my brother's going to eat like thirty....