Quiet, sort of.

So I haven't updated in almost a month and my last several updates have not been about my parents. That's a good thing. It means that everything is going pretty well. My parents aren't fighting and everything is just pretty calm.

If only every other aspect of my life were that way, everything would be great. My work load at school is piled nearly as high as a mountain, my cheeks seem to favor a new chipmunk look lately (I had my wisdom teeth removed about 25 days ago and it took a little over a week for the swelling to go down and then wednesday this past week my left cheek decided to randomly sweel up again), and I have an AP test less than a month away and the material is so ridiculously specific there is no way I'll be able to take the four hour test without exploding.

So my weekends at the moment are filled with a lot of homework. It's not fun.

But on the plus side, my dad has decided to quit smoking again. It's been five days so far and he's doing pretty well. This time I think he might be able to do it, because his work isn't as stressful as it was the last time he tried to quit.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And that's about all at the moment.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

New songs!

In case you haven't noticed yet, I added a bunch of new songs to my playlist. I couldn't really help myself. These songs aren't songs that you would hear on the radio. All of the new ones I added are from the musicals Rent and Sweeney Todd. I didn't add all of the songs from these musicals but I did add quite a bit. I also added two songs from Wicked.

The songs I most suggest are "La Vie Boheme" because it's hilarious, "Popular" because it's awesome, and either "Johanna" because they are beautifully dark songs. All of them are amazing of course, but those are just a few of my favorites among favorites...if that made sense. :D
Enjoy the new music!

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Birthday

Tomorrow is PI day!! Get it? 3/14 pi=3.14blahblahblah. Yeah it took me until just a couple of year ago to realize that my birthday was on pi day.
And with that being said, yes tomorrow is my birthday. It doesn't feel like it is though. I have no idea why. Tomorrow I'll be old enough to drive. Tomorrow, I'll be over half way to thirty! Random thought there.

I'm not going to get my license tomorrow though. I don't actually like driving that much. As a matter of fact, I'm in no real hurrty to get it. I have my permit and all and i have driven on the highways some, but not a lot. But I plan to get it before summer. I just can't get used to the thought that I can get my license. And I definitely can't get used to the fact that my classmates are starting to drive.

In Geometry wer also tell stories and some of the stories some of these kids tell about when they're driving really scare me. This girl Annie talks abut how she's run into poles, curbs, lawns, her coworker....yes you read that right. It's scary. Another kid Kyle talked about how he fell alseep while he was driving and ending up backwards across the highway. They really scare me.
While turning another year older is exciting it's also scary. In two years, I'll be old enough to vote and I'll be going off to college. I'm not ready for that. I mean, college will be fun and i know I"ll enjoy it, but I love being a kid so much. I don't really want to grow up. I really wish I could stay a kid forever. That would be amazing.

The future holds so many wonderful and so many scary things. But I like the present. I want to stay a kid. Being a kid is a good deal. I don't understand why some kids want to grow up so fast. I just don't get it.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

One Acts

At my school, about two months after the All School Musical, my school does something called "One Acts." One Acts are plays with onl y one act in them. They are usually about 30-40 minutes each. This year my school is doing 3 student directed one acts: "The Velveteen Rabbit", "The Auditioners", and "Man Woman Flower".

For the auditions we had to perform a monolouge. The girls had to learn a monolouge that was a rant about how two minutes was not long enough for an audition. It was great. I memorized the monolouge and I know i rocked auditions on tuesday.

The cast list was posted today and I got the part of the Velveteen Rabbit in "The Velveteen Rabbit." I'm super excited. My friend Luke is playing the kid that owns the Rabbit as well, so that's going to be fun. I can't wait until we start rehearsal two mondays from now (Spring break is next week....). It's gonna rock!

Peace out,
Jay~Jay.

Shadows

So today is Groundhog's Day. Exciting right? I find the concept of this holiday to be quite interesting. I have always been mystified by the story of the groundhog's ability to predict the arrival of spring.

It never made sense to me. You'd think taht if the groundhog saw his shadow it would mean spring would be early. Because him seeing his shadow means that there is sun. By not seeing his shadow, one would think that would mean more winter.

But as the story goes, when the groundhog comes out of his hole and sees his shadow, he gets scared and runs back into this hole to hide for six weeks. I think it's actually a cute story. I just find it funny how big it's become.

Nearly every state has its own groundhog that is pampered for the day.

I just think it's interesting. I kind of like celebrating the small holidays, like today.

So Happy Groundhog's Day everyone!!!

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Are You Ready for Some Football??

Today millions upon millions of Americans will tune in to watch the biggest sporting event of the year. The Superbowl. I forget what number Superbowl this one will be, but I know it's in the forties.

This year's Superbowl comes with a miraculous story because for the first time ever, The Arizona Cardinals have made it there. How? Two words: Kurt Warner. The quaterback who several years ago came out of nowhere, he was a bagger at a grocery store, and led the Rams to a Superbowl victory. And a couple years later led his team to the Superbowl again, was injured and the coaches said he wouldn't be able to play.....but he did.

That's pretty amazing. Especially considering he is pretty old for a football player. He's in his upper thirties. He's not very muscularly built either. He had some trouble a few years ago while he was still playing for the Rams. He was injured, and the Rams let him go. The biggest mistake they've ever made.

This year Warner was signed to the worst team in the league, The Arizona Cardinals. Ironic in a way because this team came from the city he used to play for, his former team, the Rams play there now.

So now Kurt Warner has led this team to victory. All the way up to the Superbowl to face the Pittsburg Steelers.

I don't really know who to cheer for. I want to see Kurt Warner win another Superbowl. He's a great guy and he might not play after this year. It would be great to see him win another one. If he wins this Superbowl, he'll end his career with a phenomenal story.

But I like the Steelers also. They're a good team. After my home team began to suck terribly, I needed a new team to cheer for. The Steelers is the perfect team to cheer for.

So I think this Superbowl will be interesting.

I'm also curious to see what the commercials will be like. Anheuser Busch used to have the best commericals. during the Superbowl, I can't even begin to fathom how much money they put into the Superbowl every year. But now that they have been taken over by Inbev, I don't know if that will necessarily be the case.

That will be interesting to see.

So what team are you rooting for?

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Something New

So today something happened that I've wanted for a few years now.

I got contacts.

Ever since I first had to get glasses I wanted contacts. I had to get glasses when I was 14 which is a time when appearance matters. I had gone for 14 years without having to wear glasses, the thought of wearing them made me cringe. I had perfect vision for 12 years. Neither of my parents wear glasses.

My eyes were damaged when I was sick. The pressure behind my eyes caused the damage. Even with glasses or contacts I don't have perfect vision, but at least I can read things that are a distance away from me.

Wearing the contacts makes me feel like my old self in a way. Before I was sick and I could see clearly without help. Every time I put on glasses, it reminds me of when I was sick. It's a constant reminder of the permnant effect of that illness.

But now I can see without having something on my face. That makes me happy. When I drive I can actually wear sunglasses. That's good because I hate driving and having the sun in my eyes without something shielding my eyes. (The visor doesn't really work for me because I'm kinda short....).

Yesterday I finished my column. I put my picture on it and everything. It looks great. The issue is supposed to come out Feb. 13, we'll see if that actually happens though. This year's staff is not very good at hitting deadlines and getting the newspaper to the printer on time. So we'll see what happens. I'll let you know when it comes out.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

And the Winner is......

So last week I posted the column I wrote for journalism. Yesterday my class found out who's column was chosen to go into this issue of the school paper.

As it turns out, the staff of the newspaper didn't plan very well and they somehow calculated taht they had space for an extra J1 column. Well, they didn't. So only one column out of the seven J1 columns were chosen to go into this issue.

My teacher said that all of the columns were good and that they will all go into the paper sometime this semester. So that's good news for everyone.

But the column that aws chosen to go into Febuary's issue of the paper was.....Mine.

I'm excited. I know that not everyone reads the school newspaper. A lot of people just skim it and skip over a lot of things. But it doesn't matter to me. There will still be some people that read it and that's all that matters to me. l

Well that's all I have for now.

Peace Out,
Jay~Jay

Stalked

As time has gone on, the world has become even more of a scary place. Watching the news, you see some of the craziest stories of things that happen in your city. Sometimes these things are miles away, sometimes they're right at your backdoor.

Everyday, things happen that rarely happened in the past. Granted, a long time ago, the media wasn't what it used to be, but these events are still happening with more frequency.

Today when I was walking my dog around my small neighborhood, I felt like I was being followed.

Now you have to understand that the city I live in is extremely safe. The police in our city are extremely strict on speed. If you speed through my city, you will get caught. But that's because our police force has nothing better to do than look for cars racing down the roads.

My neighborhood is really small and has only one entrance. I walked my dog around my subdivision twice today. The first time, I was turning right on a street and this white car had its blinker on to turn left onto the street I just turned off of.

Well the car was stopped completely and there were no cars coming, I was well out of its way, but the man didn't go. Not until I passed by his car did he turn.

At first I didn't really think anything of it, I figured he was just making sure my dog didn't dart out into the street and he would hit it.

I continued walking.

I was walking down a completely different street as before, away from the entrance of the subdivision when I hear I car approaching. I turn my head to look at the car as I always do and I notice that it's the same car as before.

I watch as the car starts to slow down. It slows down as it passes me. A part of me is screaming that something isn't right, and the other part of me says that he's just slowing down because we're on a hill and the road curves at the bottom of the hill.

So I just stop. The car rolls pass me and reaches the bottom of the hill.....where it stops.

A van drives by me and I turn around and start walking in the other direction. There was no way I was going to continue in the direction the car went. I kept looking over my shoulder and saw that the car had pulled over to the side of the road to let the van through. That scares the stuff out me.

I cut down a road that will take me to my house quicker. It was the same road that i had turned off of when I first saw the car.

When I reached the end of the road, I contemplated turning left instead of right. If I turned left, I could take a road that would loop around to my street. My friend lives on the road that loops around. So i figured if I saw the car again, I could run to my friend's house.

Well as I reached the end of the road there was a woman and a little girl walking a big white dog. They were going in the direction that was the quickest way to get to my house. So I followed near them.

I kept looking over my shoulder. And I saw the car turn onto the street. When I saw the car coming in our direction I walked on the grass, instead of the road. Well the car pulls up onto the curb, right behind me. The car was only a few feet away from me.

It pulls onto the curb and the lights go out.

Well, at that point I guess the bigger dog noticed my dog and they looked at each other and the woman was telling her dog no and to get back.

So I looked up at her and said "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but this car is really starting to freak me out."

She nodded her head and said "Oh, okay. No problem." I was really close to my house. I started to walk a lot faster, and I was looking over my shoulder. One time when I looked back I saw the car pull up further on the curb and stop.

I turned and walked as fast as I could until i reached my house.

When I was telling my brother what had happened he asks me "Was this car white?" (I hadn't told him the color of the car yet). I told him that it was. He then said "I saw that car drive by here."

It was creepy. I really want to go for a walk again tomorrow. Because I like walking, but I definitely don't want that to happen again.

I might ask my friend if he wants to walk with me. He's really good at keeping stalkers away. He kept the Pringle Guy (this creepy stalker senior guy at my school who looks like the Pringle guy) away from my Megan last semester at lunch. We'll see I guess.

I could have just been paranoid. But a car passing by three times in my subdivion is really unusual. Maybe the person was just trying to scare me because he saw that I was a bit weary of him the first time I passed. Who knows?

All I know is that if something like this ever happens to me again, I'm taking a picture of the license plate and sending it to my mom, going straight home and if I am approached, I'm taking a picture of the person and then running to the nearest house screaming "Fire".

The saying "That will never happen to me" should never be uttered. By anyone. Because anything can happen, at anytime to anyone.

So be prepared for anything.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Not So Failed Experience

According to my Journalism teacher, you want your column to make a difference. So for my column I tried to understand how excluded kids nad students feel. My plan failed completely, but I think I ended up with a decent column.



Not So Failed Experience


We’ve all heard the saying “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, but how many of us have actually tried to do it? Well I can say from personal experience, that it’s not as easy as you might think.



Originally, for this column I had planned to spend an entire school day in complete isolation. I wanted to compare my experience and my emotions that day with how kids who are excluded on a daily basis feel.



I talked to all my friends and a few of my teachers and they had agreed to ignore me for that day. It was as simple as that.


When “Ignore Jessica Day” came around, everything went without a hitch. My friends refused to talk to me, my teachers never called on me in class, and a deep loneliness filled me. The experience really allowed me to understand what it felt like to be rejected by my classmates.
Well, that was what I had thought would happen. In reality, my plan had failed almost from the very beginning.


When I arrived at school, I was completely ready to endure my day of isolation,


Okay, I thought to myself, don’t talk to anyone for the entire day….oh, except for the question I need to ask Elise about an assignment. Oh, and I need to get my iPod back from Geri, Megan needs help with the chemistry homework, and maybe I can sneak in a word with Casey about the book I’m reading.


With all these thoughts swirling around in my head, it’s no wonder my “fool-proof” plan was destined to fail. Yet still I tried.


My friends talked among themselves and I pretended like I wasn’t listening. I suppressed my frequent urges to speak and gesture to them. Not being able to talk to my friends was extremely difficult for me.


However, when class started, we had to work in pairs, making “Ignore Jessica Day” that much more challenging.


By the time third hour arrived, my day felt just like any other. “Ignore Jessica Day” had crashed and burned.


In fourth hour, I realized something: you can’t know how someone feels, unless you are in the same situation as they are. My fake simulation of ostracism could never evoke the same emotions as real isolation.


It had been extremely hard for me not to talk to my friends, but that was because they were people I frequently talked to. Kids who are excluded and ignored all the time may not have people they talk to a lot. How do they deal with not having someone to share their thoughts with?


Do they have someone to help them with their homework? To discuss a good book with?


At the end of the 2nd semester, students sign each other’s yearbooks.


“Kim, I can’t imagine not having you as a friend. You’re the best! Love you! Love, Sam.”


Who writes in their yearbooks? And if someone does, how do they sign it? Do they write something special or sincere?


I can only guess at the emotions stirring inside of them. Maybe they don’t mind being left out, maybe they hate it. Maybe they don’t even notice that they’re being excluded.
How do we know?


As I said earlier, it’s extremely difficult to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. We all wear different sizes, the shoes might not fit. But who’s to say we can’t reach out and walk the mile alongside them?

The only bad thing about my column is in order to get the message, you have to read the whole thing though. Not all high schoolers have the attention span to do that. But whatever.

My column might not get picked though. My school's newspaper staff (Journalism II kids) pick the two columns. And my column is a lot different than anything they write. They might not like it. Or maybe they'll like it because it's different. Who knows? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I'll let you guys know what happens with it. Let me know what you think.

Peace out,

Jay~Jay

Welcome...Everything!

It's been a long time since I last updated my blog. Surprisingly, there hasn't been much going on as far as my parents are concerned. There are a few, trivial things that have gone on, but they really aren't worth mentioning. Just the typical bickering.

I find it incredibly ironic how my parents yell at me and my brother because we fight and bicker so much, yet my parents are ten times worse; and they're supposed to be the adults. My parents can't hold a civil conversation with each other. Both of them talk about the other one accusingly. It's all very childish.

I honestly think that parents are the biggest hypocrites around. Take the phrase "Do as I say, not as I do". That phrase is completely hypocritical. You do something, but then tell your kids they can't do it. But most kids look up to their parents, want to be like their parents, and will essentially want to copy everything they do. So the phrase "Do as I say, not as I do" should be erased from every parent's mind, in my opinion.

Yet I know that when I become a parent, I will use that phrase at some time. Do you see what I mean about parents being hypocritical?

Okay enough of that for now. There are a lot of things to talk about. This post is bound to be really long, I might have to break it up.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season. Mine was great, although it never really did feel like the holidays to me. It came and went so quickly, the warm, joyful atmosphere of the season was absent.

Happy New Year to everyone as well. 2009 snuck up on us, not that I'm complaining. New Year's Eve didn't feel like New Year's Eve to me either. To me it just seemed like "Oh, look it's 2009 now." It was nothing like the loud clatter of celebration that normally occurs. Which is surprising because it seemed like so many people were ready for 2008 to be over.

My winter break was longer than it has been in the past. I think it's the longest break I've had since I started school. We had a total of 17 days scheduled for break. We ended up having 18 days of break. The day we were supposed to go back, school got called off for icy road conditions.

So school started and I already have a lot of homework. As of this week, I have an F in my AP European History class. I had planned to take all of my notes for the unit last Sunday, but I got sick so I slept most of the day instead. That week we had a really big quiz almost no one in my class passed.

The class average was 27% yikes! Haha, I got 10%. I was lucky I scored that high, though. But I'm not worried about it. There are only two grades in the grade book. It will be incredibly easy to bring my grade back up.

I got my report card in the mail this week, and I was not very happy. This was my report card:

Honors Chemistry: A 93%
AP European History: A 90%
Journalism I: A 94%
Honors Geometry: B 89%
Honors English: A 90%
Oral Communications: A 97%
Spanish 3: A 90%

I was 1% away from having straight A's. Being a perfectionist, that kills me. We had to do this stupid project in Geom. where we had to build a bridge out of toothpicks and it had to hold at least 20lbs to receive full credit.

Well, me and the two friends I worked with suck at building anything with our hands. We could have had the perfect design for our bridge and when we went to build it, it would have looked nothing like our design and it still would have failed. So I really don't see the relevancy of that project.

We got a B on the project and it was for a test grade. It caused me and my friend Geri to end up with B's for the semester. It was extremely aggravating.

In journalism, we have 7 students in the class. It is amazing. First semester we had like 20 students, now we have 7. It's wonderful.

Speaking of journalism, there are two column spots on the school newspaper and two columns from my class will be picked to go into the paper. I'm really excited about it.

I'll make another post for my column. This one is getting really long.

There are a lot of things happening right now. I've decided to give up softball. I'm not playing this summer for my rec. team and I'm not playing for school.

Softball just isn't fun for me anymore. I don't feel like I really fit in on either team. My rec. team is extremely cliqueish and it's uncomfortable. The girls on my school team just aren't the girls I hang out with.

Another reason for my decision is a bit more complicated. Every year, I try hard and I practice. But I only seem to digress in my skill. Well, that's not completely true. I've become a little better, but only fractionally.

The first year I played, I'm not going to lie when I say that I was amazing. My first year was in fifth grade and I was my team's star short stop. I turned many double plays and just made a lot of good plays.

The next year, I had to move up to an older team. The team I ended up playing on was a team my old team had played against. The whole team moved up because they were all old enough to move up.

The team mom told my coach "That's the short stop from the Rascals!" and he was really excited about that. He told me that when he found out he was like "Yes!"

Well.....I was sick that year. That was the year when I had Hydrocephalus. I sucked at softball. I remember one day when we were doing drills we had to field the ball and then throw it in.

Well I very clumsily fielded the ball, barely managing to scoop it up, and then I went to throw the ball, but I ended up turning 180 degrees to face the oppostite direction. I was looking for the person I had to throw it to. Yeah, it was really bad.

I haven't been able to work my way back up the ladder. I thought I would be able to, but I couldn't. The next two seasons, I wasn't that good either, because I didn't realize that my illness had damaged my eyes. So it was hard for me to follow the ball.

I've only played a few true seasons of softball, and they just haven't been what I thought they would be. So, I'm putting my bat and glove up.

And next year in the fall, I'm going to try out for the school play. I can't wait. Acting is one of the things I love to do. And I'm good at it. The past two years, I played softball instead of auditioning for the play. I miss acting. So this year, I'm auditioning.

If I don't make it, then I can keep myself busy with the Renaissance Club.

I'm excited about 2009. I can't wait to see what this year will bring.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay