School...and I'm in pain

So, 3rd day of school.  I'm awake!  I'm alive!  Now I know what I believe inside! Sorry, have been listening to too much Skillet this morning.

So, I had my first day working yesterday- I'm a writing tutor at my community college, and I tutored my first student!  I think it went really well.  And that's all you'll get out of me because I have to keep confidentiality, so yeah.

I'm taking Intro to Theater, Nutrition, Ancient and Medieval World History, and Environmental Ethics and Career Development online.  Spent an hour and a half outlining yesterday for History and only got through 5 of the 20 pages in chapter 1. yikes.  Haven't even looked at Ethics or Career Development yet, but I did finish Nutrition.

I went riding for the first time in a very long time on Sunday.  Horseback riding.  It was fun, though the horse I usually ride, Angel, is limping, so that's sad.  My neighbor has horses and she lets me ride them sometimes.  Anyway, the saddle I usually used when I rode more was broken, so I had to use a different saddle.  Well, the reason why I used the one particular saddle was because it was the only one with the stirrups shortened enough for me.  Well, the saddle I used Sunday had one of the stirrups (the right one) short enough, but the left one hadn't been shortened enough.  I could still reach it, but it was harder and I could only get my toes in.  So whenever we galloped, I lost my left stirrup and ended up holding on for dear life, bouncing all over the saddle.  I've also been having issues with gripping things-I played one song on the guitar and my hand just about killed me it hurt so bad.  I also had an issue writing half a page of Calista's character profile.  Yeah.  I don't know why.  So, I'm gripping the pommel or horn of the saddle and my hand is protesting in pain.  I knew I was going to get saddle sore, but because of all the bouncing, I bruised my legs and may or may not have done something to my lower back.

That pain may have more to do with my 23 pound backpack. (Yes, I weighed it)  So now just about every part of me hurts.  I feel like an old lady.

In good news, I finished Twice Upon a Time!  You can like my facebook page, www.facebook.com/3kingdoms2girls1fate My mom was visiting her mom last weekend and my grandma had just finished When the Stars Fall.  So my mom told her about me finishing my screenplay, and she was really impressed.  She says to me, "You know, my friend knows Dan Disney.  When you get it edited, I could see if he'll take a look at it"
ME: OoO or something like that.  Trying to keep myself from screaming in excitment.  Hello, DREAM. COME. TRUE.
Everything's extremely iffy so I'm not getting my hopes up too far, but still- MY GRANDMA'S FRIEND KNOWS DAN DISNEY!!! What?????


Yeah.

I got a laptop.  I found a mac (I need one for the music program at Concordia if I go there) for less than $500, so yeah.  It was about $370, but my dad wanted to get a warranty, so we got a 2 year warranty for $105.  It's coming Tuesday and I'm so excited.

Oh, am Disneybounding as Flounder today.  Having too much fun with this.  Tried to get Elli to be Ariel, but she was too lazy to figured it out.  Thinking I'll be Terence tomorrow and Marie (from Aristocats) Friday.  I have a flourecent yellow and aquamarine striped tank top on right now with a blue shirt thing over it.  Two of the three items I own from Aeropostale.  My mom decided I needed to get them.  Didn't realize at the time how perfectly they'd work for a Flounder Disneybound.

OK, gotta go.  Class in an hour and I need to read through some history.

My random project of the weekend: a mock-up cover of Beauty is Blind:

I love the black background- it really shows her living in darkness.  And the purple text is perfect-am not a fan of the font, but Createspace doesn't offer much for fonts.  And the painting is one by Diego Velázquez so it's now public domain since he's been dead for a long time.  I'm still going to credit him.  It's called "Portrait of a Blind Woman" and it looks EXACTLY like I imagine Calista.  The only thing I don't like is the fact that her eyes are closed so you can't see that they're purple, but still. It's perfect.

I'm back

I've survived the week.  Yay for me!  Let me tell you how my week went
MONDAY:
-blogged
-edited "Changes" my original song I'm performing at MacPhail on Sunday
-took two music quizzes (aced them both)
-started studying for Astronomy test
-started music paper
-enjoyed the one peaceful night of my week

TUESDAY:
-started working on plot outline for a play for my writing class
-started thinking about what to do for 3 points of view scene for writing class
-visited with Mia and Lindsey after Astronomy- had to get coffee from the college's coffee shop because I was nodding off in class!
-reached the level of "Word Dynamo" on Dictionary.com during lunch
-wrote two poems for a poetry contest: "Storm Child" and "The Color of Sound" (I will post them in a separate post for organization's sake
-acted out my first scene (Act 1, Scene 1) at play practice.  Was chased by a wolf, thought to be crazy, frightened by a beast and a magic looking glass, tempted to take a rose, and then nearly killed by said beast.  The Beast and I have to work out a "dance move" (or something inspired by a dance move, anyway) to throw me across the stage safely.  Should be interesting
-raced to dress rehearsal for Stations; stayed there till 9
-took notes for writing quiz while waiting for my turn to go on stage
-planned out 3 point of view scene
-studied for Astronomy test

WEDNESDAY
-studied like a madwoman for astronomy test ((even during the youth group performance of Stations, but I was backstage))
-aced writing quiz, even though I studied only half the chapters (I thought it was 2 & 3, but it was also 5-7.  Luckily, it was a short online quiz with a longer time limit and I knew how to use my book's glossary)
-studied even more for test- could not grasp the concept of Hydrogen fusion
-practiced a short scene'
-raced to Stations performance

THURSDAY
-walked a long way through the rain (I love rain and storms- see "Storm Child")
-took my astronomy test *crosses fingers*
-finally settled on a plot outline- Letters from If (after going through several, well, two.  Back Row Band and Shadow Stories.  Got discouraged and ended up writing an outline for a 3 act play... took all day and was 3 pages long)
-started working on 3 points of view- Back Row Band
-did piano lessons in the morning and started a Beethoven Sonata
-stayed for play practice, but they were doing my scene last, so I spent most of it doing my plot outline.
-found out that we might be doing The Secret Garden musical from pioneer drama next year, along with their version of Rapunzel, which is supposed to be really funny, or The Importance of Being Earnest.  Was just chatting with our director and all of us juniors are begging her to do a musical next year for our last senior performance... wow, I feel old.
-ate at McDonalds for dinner (chicken sandwich and a parfait.  Yum.  now I'm hungry.  Darn it)
-first "real" performance of Stations.  went very well
-got home at 9:30 and stayed up till 11:30 writing my 3 points of view scene, since it was due at midnight.   Another kid in my writing class who played Peter in the Stations posted his stuff at 11:15.  Made me smile.
-went to bed

FRIDAY
-got up at 6:00 am (crying because it was so early and I was so tired and stressed, literally)
-dragged myself out the door with a tuna and cheese sandwich for dinner, two granola bars, a can of Sunkist (the only caffeine I could find in the house- my mom didn't make coffee and I didn't have time to. It's orange juice, right?  That was my reasoning for having it for breakfast) and a toast, cheese and egg sandwich for breakfast.
-studied for communications quiz
-took said quiz
-received my take home sociology test
-received a in class discussion sheet for sociology class
-also was assigned half a book to read and a paper to write on it- not thinking about that right now.
-wrote my music paper
-stayed after for vocal practice and got to leave early!
-went to the library and picked up my movies and the last Song of the Lioness book on audiobook (they didn't have the regular book).  Not sure how I like the Song of the Lioness. I liked the first two books,  but I'm not sure about the last two yet.
-did the last performance of Living Stations and it was PACKED!
-Got home at a quarter to ten, my sister at a cast party, and finished my paper for music.  It was supposed to be 4 pages, but I only got 3 and a half.  I'll take the points off, and I turned it in at 11:30.  My teacher was kind enough to extend the due date for me from St. Patrick's day to March 23 since I didn't realize it was due on Mar 17 until the 19th.  oops.  (a week after the concert I was supposed to see, which was March 10th.  Didn't get that little detail)  I got it in with 30 minutes to spare.
-got into bed crying I was so tired- midnight

SATURDAY
-slept in until about 9 or 9:30- my siblings woke me up
-showered for the first time since Tuesday (gross, I know, but I had NO TIME at all and felt really nasty.  I'm clean now though)
-ate breakfast (toasted maple brown sugar pop tarts and chai tea... I'm weird, I know...)
-blogged
-tried to go on webkinz since my sister dragged me to Justice and they had the lil kinz on sale for $3, and this adorable husky caught my eye.  His name is Sterling.

THINGS I STILL NEED TO DO
-reading response 3 for writing
-all said sociology stuff
-watch movies :) (Juno and Beastly)
-eat lunch
-take a nap
-practice piano
-practice french horn (We're learning the music from How to Train Your Dragon in band- it's pretty epic.  If that link doesn't work, try this one.  Still have to keep practicing Nocturne)
-learn to sing "Pie Jesu"
-learn to sing "Last Rose of Summer"
-post me singing "Home" to youtube
-ditto with Journey to the past... wait, should record that again...with Sadie as Pooka!

*am listening to How to Train Your Dragon and it's making me happy because it's waking me up.  Seriously, this song can't not make you smile or wake up.  If you haven't seen the movie yet, you HAVE TO.  It's got enough adventure for boys to like, and it's cute and cool enough for girls.  Seriously, I really like this movie.*

Oh, and I heard a version of The Polar Express for band and it's so epic, I want to play it for Christmas! (actually, several versions)

Bye peoples.  Will post poems in a sec.

Hey, how's it going?

Well, the only time I'll be blogging will be when I'm at my college.  I'm extremely tired and sad that spring break is over.  It was a good time.  Anyway, I'm much to tired to write about Chicago, so let me tell you a few things so that you don't go crazy (like I am this week)

1.   I lost the privilege of internet access at home, so no blogging there or my high school, only here
2.   I am EXTREMELY busy this week and will not be getting home before 9:00/9:30 pm Tues.-Fri. due to the fact I have Living Stations at my church
3.   I also have play practice every night this week and will have to go straight from play to stations...
4.   It's raining (or at least feels like it's about to) outside and it smells amazing and I love it, but is making me very drowsy and I want to go to sleep
5.   I just signed up for Script Frenzy.  I am insane.
6.   I have two music quizzes, a music paper, and a writing quiz to take
7.   I'm pretty sure I have a quiz Friday in small group communications
8.   I need a to do list
9.   I have one, but I need to find it.
10. I can't think
11. I need to clean my room, BADLY

Updates on me:
*I got a hair cut, same length, more layers
*my brothers messed up my bed (which I am extremely particular about) while I was in Chicago, so when I got home at 12:30 am I had to make my bed before I could fall asleep (I had to sleep next to a snorer- and I mean, a really bad snorer, in Chicago, so believe me when I say I was tired.)
*my dad is having issues and I don't know what or why, he's just acting like he's PMSing or something.  I don't get it
*I'm checking out three movies from the library, The Invisible, Juno, and Beastly.  I'm excited, but will not watch them until Saturday.  I shouldn't even be on my blog right now, so after this I'm done.  I'm doing a media fast for Stations.

K, I gotta go.  Talk to you Saturday (if I get internet back...)
bye
-Haili
or Lira (my servant girl name in Stations)

Just my luck...

At my high school, we don't usually have school on Fridays.  However, at my college, we do.  This week is a rare week where we had yesterday off (president's day...yay!) and we get this Friday off.  THREE DAY WEEK!!!! Yay!  (I'm excited, can't you tell?)  Unfortunately, this week is also one of those rare weeks where we have Friday school at my high school.  It was like this on veteran's day as well.  College got off, but not high school... that was 11-11-11, the day my jump drive died and took with it a fully formatted MLA style works cited page for my big research paper AND 2,000 words of my NaNo novel...

My brothers became boy scouts last Friday...so, good for them.  They got their Arrow of Light (Arrows of Light?)
Went shopping at Khol's over the weekend, went to downtown [mycity] and hung out by the river.  it was fun.  We went to this great shop called Truffles and Tortes and it's like a diabetic's nightmare (as Elli puts it- she's diabetic, she would know)  Chocolates... chocolates... oh...*swooning* I'm really hungry right now so this isn't helping.  and they're hiring... I should apply ;)

Anyway, I've got to get to class.  If you're bored (adding on to my list of ways to waste time online) check out some of my work on TeenInk- I'd really appreciate it
Made- about genetic engineering
9-1-1 I Need Your Help- a funny little story about stage fright
Conversation on a Bridge - serious story about suicide and high school
The Difference- a story about making a difference and high school drama
Changing Definitions - an essay about how definitions change, mostly the word 'gay'

My user page - if you want more... Piano Girl, The Wish Girl, and Tradgedy are also good

Irish stuff!

Finished my music project this weekend- you can take a look here.  Enjoy.  I made all the videos (except the one at the end) and only had to record the 16 second Irish jig.  The rest I had from last spring... it was weird.
Anyway, in case you're too lazy to look at my project, I'll post the videos I uploaded on here. 

Irish Jig

It's like 16 seconds... it's short

Evening Reels

From my recital last spring

Be Thou My Vision

recorded this for a project last spring...never used it...

 and last but certainly not least

Loch Lomond

Did this in honor band in 10th grade...it was amazing!!! this video's long, but watch the whole thing, because it's totally worth it to hear the french horns (my instrument of choice) play at the end... I did all the videoing on this but did not do the music.  I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!

Other things I'm working on/excitited about

• French horn solo, the Nocturne from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Mendelssohn
• Piano solo, Grieg's Puck (it's so fun!!! I've got it memorized...)
• The musical!!! I got the music and script to read and practice... need to get my voice up to the high f, and auditions are coming up at the end of the month.  Plus my friend just told me the other day that she wants to play Helen... so at least we're not going to be competeing for the same part.  That's nice since she's really competitive.  I'm not going to be mean about it, but it's just the way she is.
• Passed my astronomy test with an A
• am working on several screenplays, "Twice Upon a Time" and "Night at the Library" a short film my siblings and friends and I are doing or the library movie competition this summer.  It's kind of a mix between Inkheart and Night at the Museum. Who knows what happens after the library closes at night?  Libby Akona is about to find out...
• Am going to see 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee this Friday
• am going to Feed My Starving Children on Friday and get to spend the day with my friend...
• My idea for an awareness campaign in my small group communications class (our big project is running a campus awareness campaign this semester) will probably get picked.  It's how to use campus technology... and how not to save your stuff in a place where they'll be deleted...
• I lost 7 pounds...

I need to go now... I've got class in 15 minutes... adios!

-Haili



sooo... nothing much exciting- Big surprise, I know

It is officially December 5th, and my life is now average.
I made my cheesecake yesterday.  It was pretty much an all- day project.  Cutting up the apples took forever... and then it had to cook for an hour, cool an hour in the oven, and spend quite a lot of time in the fridge cooling down.  The middle wasn't quite cooked and is a little mushy, but it tastes really good.

I spent a lot of time reading out loud yesterday, and now I have no voice.  Kinda stinks.  I also have a cold and my head hurts and I'm exhausted because I stayed up until 10:30 last night reading "PART THE SECOND: KEIDREIY" to Elli.
I didn't even hear my alarm go off at 5:45 this morning.  I got woke up by the snooze.  Okay, so a little trivia about my room.  I share it with Elli, and I have a lofted bed.  I have a little square alarm clock thing on a shelf above my head.  When I rotate it, it goes from showing the time, to the temp, my alarm, and a timer.  It's pretty cool.  So, anyway, I usually set my timer for 5 minutes and use that as my snooze, because I usually rotate it to where the timer is when I turn it to turn my alarm off.
Apparently, I turned off my alarm without realizing it because it was the snooze that woke me...

I have to go work on my paper now, so until later peoples!

-Haili

Already looking forward to next NaNo.... *sigh*

Okay, I'm really sad that NaNoWriMo is officially over... I mean, I'm not, because now I can actually do my homework and clean my room... but noveling was so much fun!  Way more fun than working on my term paper for English... which is what I should be doing now...

My favorite part of my novel is this: (Narrator has been missing for two years and now his family thinks he is dead and he's at his own funeral)

            We came in the musician’s door and went up to the choir loft.  I used to do praise and worship for mass and youth group, so I knew this area pretty well.  There were all these pictures of me from two years ago up on the altar with a lot of candles and flowers.  I cannot even begin to describe how surreal it is to be at your own funeral – even if it really is more of a memorial service.

            “Eternal rest grant unto him, Oh Lord,” our priest, Father Timothy, intoned.

            “And let perpetual light shine upon him,” the congregation responded.

            “May he rest in peace.”

            I couldn’t help it.  I mean, how many times does a guy get to go to his own funeral in his lifetime?  Not many, I’ll tell you that.  I’m sorry.  I pulled a Tom Sawyer.  From my position in the choir loft, I yelled, interrupted the ceremony.  “Hey, guys?”  Everyone turned around and strained to see.  “I’m not dead!”

I'm a dork, but I already know what I'm doing for next NaNoWriMo: The Heart Inside (working title)
a retelling of Beauty and the Beast where "Beauty" (named Calista- "Callie") sees beauty as how we look on the inside.... makes the tale of the Beast much more interesting... just bits and pieces of ideas, but I know Callie is a daddy's girl, and has two older sisters named Aurelia and Briony (sp?) and loves reading.  Like me- minus older sisters...


Speaking of sisters, mine won the YWP NaNo!  She did 6,376 words of a long short story called The Magic Skates.  It's actually really good and follows a nice, simple, easy to follow plot about a girl named Caroline Pattinare who finds a pair of skates that once belonged to a famous skater that make her an amazing skater, but then Kristal steals them... in the middle of a show... It's really cute!

I shall post a summary of my novel later when I actually figure out how to explain my complicated novel in a few paragraphs, and then I will need help naming it... and onto National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo) Just made that up =D