Recitals, shoes, and sore feet

Today was our very first ever piano recital! It was in a cute little church about a half an hour away. We all got very dressed up (I actually got a new dress for the occasion) and I put on makeup, which is a very rare occurrence for me. I hate taking off makeup, for one thing, and it also makes me feel kind of....artificial, I guess? I mean, I don't mind it, but I wouldn't wear it on an ordinary day to school or anything. 

Ok, I'm going off on a tangent. 

We got to the church and got organized and such. I was seventh, and I was super nervous! Lilian went first (have I mentioned that she and Penguin started piano too? Well, they have) and she went on stage and announced her name and the song she was going to play and then went over to the piano and played like five notes before getting up, bowing and walking back to her seat and I think I died laughing. She was so adorable and didn't freeze up or anything! It was hilarious! She's so cute. 

Then Mary Rose went. We had been able to wrestle her into a skirt and blouse and broke it to her that no, she could not wear her hat on stage (she doesn't go anywhere without it). And she looked nice! She did well on her song too. 

Then Penguin went, then Blaze, then me. I was so nervous, I was shaking the whole time. I was having this mental panic attack as I sat down at the piano: Omigosh I'm going to mess up, my hands are shaking so much, I'm going to forget all the dynamics... 
Then I had another mental panic attack because for a brief second, I forgot what song I was playing! But then I started playing and I calmed down. I played We Three Kings. And naturally, I totally left out the dynamics, but its all over so theres nothing I can do about it now. 

The other kids were great too. There were a few who played songs from the Nutcracker, and that was fun to hear. The very last kid had been playing piano for six years, I learned afterwards. He was amazing! He played The Turkish March by Mozart, and he played it perfectly! is hands were flying, it was so cool! 

There was a couple weird songs. A few from Avatar that were beautiful, actually. Then there was this one kid who got up with a guitar and played Grenade by Bruno Mars. Yeah, we all felt his Christmas spirit XD. He even sang it. *face palm* 

On Friday, we had a rec day at school and we all went ice skating. I haven't been ice skating in five years or so, so naturally I stunk. I only fell once, though. I landed on the ice and threw my hands up triumphantly and shouted, "Falling gracefully!" Now that I think about it, I should have said something like, "Yup, the gravity still works!" XD Anyway, it was fun, a lot of my friends were there and so we all went slightly crazy. Blaze and Penguin were naturals and they haven't been ice skating for like five years either! I wasn't a natural.... When I got home, all I wanted to do was soak my poor, abused feet in hot water until the soreness went away. They're still sore.  

Speaking of feet, I fell in love a few days ago. Click here and I guarantee you'll fall in love too. ;) The thing is, I really like moccasins. I used to wear them all the time before I met Converse and Keds. They're so comfy and they're the kind of shoes that you can wear forever and love forever. I saw some Minnetonkas at a store yesterday and inside I was dying: 
"Oh Minnetonkas, how I wish I could take you home with me!" 
Then why don't you? You love me and I love making you comfortable. Its a win-win! 
"But I can't! Sadly, theres this thing called money that I don't exactly have with me..." 
But you have enough! 
"I KNOW but I'll be near broke if I buy you right now!" 
But look at me... Sitting on this rack waiting for someone to make happy... I'm so lonely! 
"mrkhglvguhirutkrdnhutrhn" 
(That was me struggling inside) 

I'll probably end up buying a pair for myself as a Christmas present (to myself, from myself. Maybe I'll gift-wrap them too...) and maybe I'll get someone else a pair too as a present 'cause I'm generous. x) 
--Abby

A lot of random thoughts

It feels like a while since I've posted, even though it's only been three days. 

So, it RAINED!! FINALLY!!! I woke up Tuesday morning at 7:30 and it was raining in sheets!! Seattle style!! Then it drizzled a lot Wednesday. We played volleyball at school yesterday during our free period, and there is nothing better than playing volleyball in the rain. The ball gets slippery, for one thing, and that adds an extra challenge. Then the basketball court gets all wet (thats where we set up the volleyball net. Have I mentioned I go to a really small school? Theres no room for a separate volleyball court!) It was really fun. I love rain so much. 

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I didn't wake up to my alarm clock. This means, my brothers had to wake up on their own (I wake them up usually) and then wake me up too. But  they don't have and alarm clock, so they would wake me up at 7:30, or on Wednesday, 8:00!! I was quite panicked, yes. Every once in a while, I'll sleep through my alarm clock, but three days in a row? That's weird. Maybe my brain went on a vacation and didn't come back to me in time to say, Abby, your alarm clock's ringing! Wake up! 

Ok, by this time you might be bored of listening to my Christmas traditions, but I PROMISE JUST ONE MORE AND THATS IT!! 

Every year, around Christmas, at random times during school, while we're having class, a class will scream loud enough for the whole school to hear: JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!!! And that starts a riot. Classes start shouting this at random times, not all at once thankfully. That would be complete chaos. But after he first shout, every four seconds you can hear a class shout. 
I was in theology class when this started today and my class shouted it twice. Its a simple, but a really fun tradition and it wouldn't be Christmas without it XD. 

Instead of a science exam, we're doing a HUGE science project about a parakeet that is currently staying in the school lab. We basically have to do a lot of research on this bird and do a lot of printing out papers, doing observations, making one of those foam board things... the list goes on. I'm kind of stressed about it, but I have about one-fifth of it done and it's not due for two more weeks, so if I work on it every night, I should finish. 

I'm at a loss of things to blog about so bye! 
--Abby

Christmas traditions

I know what you're thinking. Yes, it did take me five minutes. 

I kinda like it so I'm posting it. It is my blog, after all... 

Anyway, it's December. 

Abby, you have a keen grasp of the plainly obvious. 

Thank you. 

You didn't let me finish: It's December, which means CHRISTMAS!! Christmas is my favorite time of year. The carols, the baking, the decorations... Oh, don't get me started on the Christmas lights! Driving down our street is like walking in a winter wonderland...Ok, no its not 'cause this is California and when the heck does it ever look like a winter wonderland here. BUT STILL it's pretty magical. All the decorations and the colorful lights are so beautiful, it reminds you that Christmas really is upon us. 

Every year, we get together with our cousins and our grandparents. Usually we go up to our cousins house, but this year they're coming down here. We have a bunch of family traditions we do together, and this post is basically going to be covering those. I love Christmas traditions. XD 

So lets travel back in time to one year ago...

We departed on our six-hour car trip up to our cousin's house (It's Maddie and her family. I'm getting tired of typing "our cousins") on Christmas Eve. We reached their house that evening and got settled. The older kids and the adults went to the midnight service while Maddie, Lanie (Maddie's sister), and I stayed back to babysit the younger kids and watch movies and drink hot chocolate. 

The next morning, we opened our stockings and had a Christmas breakfast. Then Maddie, Lanie, myself, and whoever else hadn't gone to the midnight Mass went. 'Cause we're good Catholics and all...XD. Then we opened presents and had our annual Christmas concert. This is one of our Christmas traditions. All the kids sing Christmas carols for the adults. Its mainly our Christmas present to our grandmother because her birthday is around Christmas (and before you call us cheep, she ASKED for this). The kids in my family do a song, then our cousins do a songs, then we partner up and do songs together. Theres a lot of practicing beforehand, and we do little twists sometimes. One year someone sang Silent Night in German. Another year, Blaze and I sang Silver Bells, him doing melody and me doing high-soprano. It sounded pretty good actually :). 

My cousins live right next to this HUUUUGE reservoir. Its big and brown and amazing (no snow, but the chilly wind and ice-y cold weather make up for it). There are all these hills and trails, and the view from the top of one of those hills is absolutely breath taking. Last year, we all went for a walk around there. We all had our thick sweaters, windbreakers and scarves, and we set off. 

Theres something you should know about me and Maddie: movies. We love watching them and making them. I think I mentioned this before, but we love old movies; Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Audrey Hepburn, etc. Any chance we get we'll whip out a camera and start filming. 

So the others went home after the walk, Maddie, Lanie, and I got inspired and spent Christmas afternoon filming and editing. It was amazing. Being out there, running around the gigantic reservoir, the cold wind biting, coming up with a plot, editing ideas, characters... It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. :) The movie didn't win any academy awards, but I don't care. I loved making it, and that's what matters, right?  

So, that's basically Christmas with my family. We don't have any big reservoirs here, but I'm sure we'll find something XD. What I'm trying to say with this post is: I love Christmas, and I can't wait for it to come. 
Of corse, for Christmas to come I have to survive finals first.... 

--Abby

Post-Thanksgiving post

The day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday, National Leftover Day, National Start-Counting-Down-The-Days-Till-Christmas Day..... The aliases are endless. 

I'm back to writing, though I'm still not sure what to write about. I have a story building up in my mind, but its kind of a "dead-end" story; meaning, I'm not sure where I'm going with it. Its about a really big family who lives in a beach house and theres a mystery or something... I haven't worked out the details. 

Yesterday I wowed some people by telling them that the longest thing I've ever written is almost 9,000 words. Its not crazy impressive compared to some people I know, but I'm proud of it (Its my Claire story that I recently finished). I have a problem with starting a story then getting bored of it, so when I finished Claire's story, I was pretty proud of myself. In fact, I was so proud, I managed to get Blaze to read it, and he never likes reading any of my stuff. At the end, I asked him what he thought and he said, "Really weird." I should have expected that. He thinks everything I write is "strange. weird, but strange." XD Besides, its a love story, so I wouldn't expect him to love it. 

He also doesn't like music, so I can't really trust his opinion. 

Who doesn't like music????? 

I finally put my new watercolor pencils to use: 

Pretty fancy clipboard, huh? 

It's my take on the burning bush story from the Old Testament. Sorry its such a bad photo. I feel like I went overboard. I don't like the background, the weeds shouldn't be there, and I HAD to add Moses's staff and sandals. Why...? *sob* But I like the bush. And the fire's pretty good too. 

I'm going to try and do some writing today, but sadly, I have some history homework I have to finish first. I'll see what I can do... 

--Abby

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sorry it's so blurry

GUESS WHAT! I'M NOT MAKING COOKIES!! Aren't you proud? I made stuffing. Well, yes, I did have a little help, but I've never made stuffing before so cut me some slack. 

Its eighty degrees outside, the sky is blue, you can see the ocean from where I'm sitting, my stuffing's done, and I'm still wearing the clothes I slept in last night. Its so hot. It's like Thanksgiving on the face of the sun, as my dad put it. 

Blaze is playing chess with Mary Rose (who is getting help from my mom). Chess is a big thing in my family. My brothers play my grandpa a lot and they play each other a lot. My mom played it when she was growing up. I don't really have a lot of patience for chess, nor do I have much strategic ability. However, every once in a while I'll play Blaze or my grandpa and loose. Naturally. But it's fun, I simply can't sit still for that long. 

I'm planning out some drawings and Leslie is getting me back into writing (yes you are, Leslie. You may not know that you are, but you are XD). I have an outline for a story and I'm going to start it within the next few days. 

I love Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday where you can eat as much as you want and more without having people look at you weird. Plus you get to eat leftovers for like a week!

Now I'm off to stuff my face help make more food. Hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I have so much to be thankful for. 

--Abby

Pre-Thanksgiving post

Yes, I was going to wait to post tomorrow, but now's a good a time as any, right? 

*crickets* 

Ok then. 

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I'm really excited! Every seven years or so, my birthday is on Thanksgiving. The perks of that: I get an AWEOME birthday dinner! The drawback: I don't get to choose my birthday dinner. I mean, turkey's great and everything, and pies are delicious, and omigoodness, I could live on stuffing. But theres something very satisfying about picking out your dinner and whatnot. 

Anywho. 

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday. Not quite as great as Christmas, but pretty close. (When Christmas rolls around, I'll get to do another post about how amazing Christmas is, but for now I'm sticking to November) My dad usually makes Thanksgiving dinner, but this year I'm helping out. I'm more of a baker than a cook, but I'm also not an amazing baker. The hardest thing I've ever baked is cookies, so that should say something about my lack of baking. But this year, I'm going to do something more! 

(Watch as I end up making cookies XD) 

When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of great food, family, colorful leaves, autumn-y, homemade center pieces for the dining table, cider, fire places blazing... 
Usually, this is where the my writer instincts kick in and I write an impromptu poem/sonnet/story about Thanksgiving, but honestly, I got nothin'. My writers block is gone, I think, but I haven't done a ton of writing of the late and once you get out of the habit, it's hard to get back into it. I feel like drawing more, these days. It might be the watercolor pencils I got for my birthday... I don't have very good drawing paper though... I'll figure something out. 

In other news, I finished reading The Blood of Olympus and have passed it on to Blaze.

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WOULD RATHER NOT HAVE THE BOOK RUINED FOR YOU.

 The ending was both happy and disappointing, like 
*sigh* Oh I'm so glad he didn't die. He really doesn't deserve it. That was such a peaceful ending. 
but also 
SERIOUSLY??? Thats how your going to end it????? They fly of into the sunset, the end???  

Really, for five books they worried and stressed about Gaea and go on this huge quest plus a bunch of mini quests to stop her, and then it turns out that she awakens, does minimal destruction, is only like twenty feet tall (I was expecting her to be bigger than all the giants considering she's, you know, the earth), and they stop her by having a little battle, and all it takes is Piper telling her to go back to sleep and a missile thing and poof: problem solved. They really built it up too much. I was expecting more. 

SPOILERS OVER.

Well, I'll probably post tomorrow. But in the unlikely event that I don't (which is very likely) 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!! 

--Abby

Gala auction

Last night was not only my birthday (I'm a big kid now guys!!!!!) but it was my school's gala. It was at the Ronald Reagan Library, which is a really cool place, if you've never been there. 

So I got there and went upstairs into the little cafeteria where the student volunteers were eating dinner before the guests arrived. Everyone wished me a happy birthday XD. I barely ate anything because I was nervous. I had never done this before and this auction is what keeps my school's doors open , so I had good reason to be nervous. Screwing important stuff up kinda comes naturally to me... 

My first task was... standing. I stood next to the wine raffle table for a looooooong time. Hour and a half, maybe? Basically, if someone comes over and wants to buy a raffle ticket I had to direct them to Erica who was walking around with the tickets. I got really tired of standing there after a while. Finally, all the tickets were sold and I (very happily) put the "sold out" sign on the table and declared, "I'm free!" 

For the rest of the night, I ran around doing other tasks, trying not to trip on my long dress, and congratulating myself for not wearing heels that night. The choir sang beautifully, and the speeches were very moving. 

Every chance I got, I would go back to the greenroom where the students were situated, kinda like a backstage dressing room, and collapse on the ground until I had to go work again. That greenroom was extremely small, especially when all twenty student volunteers were in it. 

The whole thing reminded me of a ballet performance. The greenroom was like the little dressing rooms, the stage, the fancy dresses and makeup, the chaos, running through the halls "backstage", laughing and rehearsing with the other students... It was a lot like performing the Nutcracker. I loved it a lot. It was really fun, even if it was exhausting. 

I can't wait for next year. 

--Abby