A Novel Idea

I've been sucking at blogging lately, mostly because I lost my creativity. So I figured I'd post bits of my short story thing I started, but didn't finish, last semester until the creativity comes back. I know it's not exactly Mark Twain, or even Stephenie Meyer for that matter, but enjoy...

It's called "Tension". And here's the first paragraph.

December 2009

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Tom and Eliza looked back and forth at one another, neither knowing what to do next. Eliza had always been a good, Christian girl, never getting in trouble in high school, but college had changed her. More importantly, meeting Tom had changed her. There was something about Tom, something Eliza liked. From the moment she met him, she was hooked. She knew his reputation, the bad boy, the one who always got in trouble. But she didn’t believe it, until today that is. Today, Eliza and Tom stood over the body of Scott Badtree and both knew that their lives would never be the same again.

Speak Up

I posted this on my facebook notes today, but I thought I should put it here too.

I'm doing a persuasive speech next week and thought I should share my statistics with you.

The topic is Reckless Teenage Driving: How to Prevent Death.

(For the purpose of my speech, reckless driving is defined as using excessive speed, drinking and driving, texting while driving, not wearing a seatbelt, being distracted, etc.)

Did you know that the leading cause of death in teenagers are car accidents? Not drugs, drinking, heart disease or cancer?

Car Accidents account for 1 in 3 teenage deaths yearly.

9 teens aged 16-19 died EVERY DAY in a car accident in the year 2008.

3500 teens are killed annually and another 350,000 are injured.

59% of teenage fatalities from car accidents occur when there are two or more teens in the car.

What can you do to save lives???

SPEAK UP!

Say something when your friend is driving too fast.

Tell them they can't drive home when they're been drinking.

Make them put their seatbelt on before you drive and before you allow them to drive.

Take their cell phone away until you arrive at your destination.

Remind the driver to pay attention to the road.

It's as easy as that.

If you speak up, they will listen.

I know from experience how much it hurts when someone you love loses their life in a car accident. I would have spoken up if I knew it would have saved his life. And I'm sure someone would have spoken up for Chelsea and Morgan if they knew what would happen if they didn't.

It's as easy as saying "stop". Just do it.

Another Awesome Day

Jill and I woke up late and lounged around the house until around 230. Then we went to pick up William and headed to the beach. I'm super glad it was warm enough to go out and actually catch some sun. Keegan, Stephanie, Michael, Mandernack, Ben aka Conrad, Ritza, and Sara met us there. We hung out, walked along the shore, buried Ritza and talked for a few hours and then we headed to Panda Express for dinner.

After Panda we went to Keegans and watched the Princess and the Frog in her theater. It was pretty cool. Then we hung out in her game room and Arianne and Alex brought their Germans over. I'm sad that I won't get to hang out with the new exchange students this year. :( But I'm sure they won't be as cool as Julia and the others were.

My day may seem boring to you, but it was awesome for me. I've really missed hanging out with everyone and it was just what I needed.

Now time to go back to school until summer break.

Practically Perfect, In Every Way

Today was the first full day of Spring Blink 2K10 and let's just say, I couldn't have really asked for a better day.

Jill and I woke up and went to IHOP at 930 to meet up with Sammyantha and Dargan. It was great getting to see the two of them and I really liked catching up. Plus, Eggs Benedict are delicious. After breakfast, Jill and I went up to THS to listen to 2nd block play. They have festival on Saturday so I didn't really get to say hi to Zahnita or say much to Bethany or Hannah or anyone else. But I did get to hug Schwindty.

In case you wanted to know, here's what I thought of second block: I can't give a real review since I didn't have the scores in front of me, but I thought they played really well. The normal problems still existed (rushing, intonation, etc.) but overall they did well. I was surprised at how skilled the horns seemed to be. Especially considering not a single player started on horn.

After second block, we headed up to Pre-k to visit the kids before lunch time. Those kids never fail to put a smile on my face. I love that they all remember me even though I haven't actually taught there since May. We went out on the playground and Joagster attached himself to Jill right away. He wouldn't let go the entire time. J, G, Carty, K, and all the other boys decided that we just HAD to play tag and then decided that that wasn't enough so they needed to attack me. It was tooo much cuteness to handle.

After Pre-K pickup, we went to lunch at Caffe Chocolat with Mom, Rach, Joag, and Gracie. They are such a talkative pair of 5 year olds.

Those are the main events that made my day so practically perfect.

Well that, and... I FINALLY GOT ACCEPTED TO UCF!!!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays

Although nothing can top going to Disney for an entire day with five of your best friends, but today was still pretty great.

I woke up and went to class as usual. Melissa thought it'd be hilarious to embarrass me in front of everyone (I'm pretty sure her motive was to get Dr. B to go off on a tangent though... which worked). After class I went to lunch with Jill and Becca and got a lovely note from Jill, an AWESOMELY ARTISTIC (:P) picture from Becca, and a beautiful Nate Archibald from Katie. After lunch, I just sat around and waited for the parentals to get here.

Once Momma and Dad got here, I walked over to the B&B and got.... A CAR!!!!! I'm super happy because Bentlay (say that with a Southern drawl) is super cute.

Speedy version of the rest of my day, because I'm getting distracted.

Walked around the shoppes, went to Red Lobster, opened a few more presents, went back to the B&B, sat with Momma and laughed and laughed and laughed, walked back to the room, made plans for the next two days. The end.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, if I do say so myself. I'm super glad that my parents got to be here for it. AND Spring Blink is in a few days!!!!
BEACH TIME!

Photo Diary

I started a 365 day photo diary a while back. I stole the idea from Sammyantha and Sara.

I decided to finally share it with someone other than Sam.

The idea is to take a picture everyday of yourself, something you did, or something you were thinking about and then add a caption about it.

I realize that some of my captions are sad, but that's because I was feeling sad those days (obviously).

If there's a picture of you on there, don't fret. It's not visible to anyone that doesn't have my username.

Some of my pictures aren't visible to you simply because everyone needs a little privacy. I said something I didn't feel everyone needed to hear. And I said whatever I said to remind myself where I came from.

But most of the pictures are visible.

So enjoy.

Click HERE.

Comment Moderation

I suppose I should respond to the comments I've gotten since I tend to forget to do that. So I'll respond to the ones that need responding...


"Michael Buble"
Shelby - I know he's freaking fantastic! I'll definitely check out his album. :)

"And With That"

Mrs. W - Thank you sooo much for the support. I really appreciate you (and your sweet tea). You really are an awesome human being and I'm blessed to have you in my life.

Rach - I'm sure you do know, and I super appreciate the support. I can't wait to be back with you and the twins.

"Bye Bye Birdie"

Katie - I'm sorry I didn't mention you. But maybe it was payback for you humming the Fish Song and June, June, June in my ear the whole time!!! GG was fun tonight though. :)

Chrissy - I'll most def call you. My spring break is hella short so if I don't call you then I'll be back mid-April.

Family

Yesterday, my family gathered together to celebrate my Gidow's (Arabic for Grandpa) 80th birthday. It was a pretty amazing sight to see almost all of us together in one room for the first time in ages. Two were missing, Michael, who was in NYC working on an awesome kid's show (3rd and Bird) and Evan, who as most of you know, can't be with us in body anymore, but he was there in spirit.
The gathering was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. Being the only girl in the family, things tend to get boring for me. But my uncles, Mike and Rich, made sure to come over and talk to me instead of watching bball. Mike and my aunt, Millicent, were really supportive when Mom and I were telling them about my transfer. Millicent compared colleges to a dress, you have to keep trying them on until one fits, which made me laugh and feel better about leaving. Ryan, my cousin, was hilarious at the "kids" table. He sucks at coming up with clever comebacks and definitely still acts like a kid even though he's like 24.
All in all, the day was great and I'm glad we all got a chance to be together again. Hopefully it won't take as long for it to happen again....

Dear Evan,
I wish you could have been there to see us all together. We laughed, we talked, we ate, we played pool. You were missed, but I'm sure you were watching us from up above, smiling when we smiled.
Love you.

Bye Bye Birdie

Tonight, I went to see the musical Carousel with Jill and Becca. It was pretty good, but not without its issues. (intonation, mic volumes, lights, etc.) The boy who played the lead reminded me a lot of Ben, Conrad, whatever you wish to call him. In fact, he reminded me so much of Ben that I began to be swept back to my BBB days. Though short, and admittedly not by choice, those days were some of the best of my life. I had the chance to meet so many talented young actors, actresses, singers, and dancers. Tech week was terrible and Sammyantha was the only person who got through but, in the end, putting in 16 hour days at school was worth it.

I don't know what else to say besides that I miss being surrounded by musically and theatrically talented people. I miss the friends I made. And I even miss the pit. Singing every song and mouthing every line without ever even seeing what was going on on the stage. As a matter of fact, I never did get to actually see the play... What was happening above me was left up to my imagination.

Bye Bye Birdie, I'm gonna miss you so. Bye Bye Birdie, why'd you have to go?

And With That

And with that I see what my parents were trying to tell me all along.
Sorry it took me so long, but I'm there now.
Thanks for putting up with me while I figured it out.

Sometimes it's just a single straw that breaks the camel's back. Things are all well and good until that last single piece of straw gets set down and then it all crumbles.
That's exactly what happened here. One seemingly meaningless comment made indirectly at people I actually like and BAM everything crumbles down. Now I don't even want to be friends anymore, not that I thought we were in the first place.

Woo... thank you for letting me get that out. I just had to write it down so I can look back and remember how angry I am at this exact moment.

And don't bother asking what I'm talking about. Because if I wanted you to know, I have already told you.