Another Year of Change

As I read over the post I wrote on this blog one year ago and the one that I wrote two years ago there are so many thoughts going through my head. Another year is coming to an end. This blog is two and a half years worth of my thoughts. It may not be a complete selection or an accurate representation, but it is a lot more than I ever thought it would be. My posts are becoming farther and farther apart and more and more... Lame? But at least I am still writing. This is the longest project I have ever done.

More than that, however, is that while reading those two posts I can see how much I have changed. I can see how different I am now from the girl I was in 9th grade. I know I've said this all before, but tonight just seems like a good time to say it all again. I mean, at the end of 2007 my dad still lived in Utah. At the end of 2007 I was not at all sure just who I was. I have learned a lot about my own beliefs about the world and the Universe since 2007. At the end of 2008 I believed that I had changed into more of a base of the person I would be for the rest of my life. Now I know that wasn't true. I also believed at 2008 that I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I had decided that I wanted to go to SUU and major in English and while that is still true.. I am not as sure, now, that I want to become an English teacher. More and more I see myself going in a different direction.

So, at the end of 2009, as at the end of 2007 and 2008, I am a new person.

What happened this year that made that happen? Well, 2009 has been a year of great (and when I say great I mean more in amount than in quality) changes for me. Some were big and some were... Not so big. There were some changes that were profound and others that won't matter to me ten or even two years down the road. This year has also been a year of loss and the changes that came with that(My great grandma and one of my friends passed away, my best friend moved, my new best friend ignored me until we were no longer friends, I got in my first car accident.) I also believe (and some would probably say otherwise) that I learned a lot about responsibility this year.

If there is one thing that 2009 has been it is eventful. My littlest sisters turned thirteen this year; my oldest sister turned 19. I became FBLA Reporter and Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper.

So anyway, my New Year's resolution this year writing a journal. On paper. Which means that I won't be writing on here as much... Though I will still write at least once a month. I have my reasons. Mostly, I don't want to have to be careful with my thoughts and I want to have an actual record of my life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAKE 2010 A GREAT YEAR!!!

Sadness

Ok, so I don't know if very many people even read my blog or have noticed that I have not posted anything in over a month, but either way it's true. For the first time in two years I have gone over a month without posting anything to this website... :( Bad Madi!

It hasn't even been that busy, really. I mean, yes, a LOT has happened. But nothing really is going on... And that is a lot of the reason I haven't written anything. There just isn't a lot to write about... I started writing something the other night about Rachel... However, I just couldn't find the words that I would feel appropriate for this blog.

I promise, however, that I will write something good soon. I have had a lot of ideas lately. I just have to actually follow them through. I know, it's my biggest flaw. I never finish anything.

Is anyone else as happy as I am that it is December? Because I am freakishly happy about it. I LOVE the snow. I mean, I hate the cold and the wet, but I love looking outside my window and seeing the snowflakes falling to the ground. I love the crunch of the snow under my feet as I walk. I love the cold air when I open my window. I love how the snow glows at night.

I just added another idea to my list: Reason I love winter. Maybe I could write a poem about it... I haven't written poetry in a very, very long time... In fact, the last poem I wrote was one about playing the guitar or something for Mr. T's class in 9th grade. I just have a hard time writing poety... I don't know why, but I think that takes a different kind of mind than mine.

So, I will finish this off with a promise to write a better blog with an actual topic within the next week. Definitely within the next week. Believe it or not, I've been doing a lot of writing lately. I started writing a personal journal two nights ago and with two days of writing I filled the first 6 pages of my notebook. My point here is that I have a lot of thoughts going on in my head that could use some expansion and expression.

I'll get right on that.

A Year Without

For the last half hour I have been reading recent blogs written by my mom, my friends, an old teacher, etc. I find myself wondering when exactly it was that I stopped being a writer. When did I lose the inspiration? How did I turn from someone who used to come up with stories or blog ideas by the hundreds to someone who has to force herself to log in and write something more or less once a month?

All I can say is that I don't really know. Maybe life got busy. Maybe I simply changed.

But how could I have just changed? I have been a writer for as long as I can remember. I used to get into trouble because I would write things that I shouldn't have when I was angry. This first time I ever really remember being in trouble was because of something I had written after I had gotten in trouble. How is it that I have just changed into someone who doesn't write?

My first thought is that it all started with yearbook in 9th grade. That was the first time that I started writing things that were not fiction. I had to write about the boys on the basketball team and how we should never forget the year we had. Somewhere in that time frame I noticed that I had stopped writing fiction. The stacks of random notebooks filled with barely-started stories began to get smaller and smaller... Until they faded away. When I noticed this, however, I started writing again. This was just shortly after I had broken up with my fist boyfriend and my life was getting crazier and I was stressed. It was when Mrs. B told that my work as copy editor was done for the year and that I should finish up the year in her Creative Writing class.

I was appreciative of it because, as much as I loved yearbook, I was tired of skipping lunches and staying after school. I was also tired of trying to get the rest of the staff to actually do what needed to get done in a timely manner the right way.

Since I had taken the class the previous year there was no reason for me to do the same poems and the same multi-genre paper again. So Mrs. B gave me, along with two others, the choice to spend the class time writing a novel.

The inspiration was back.

I decided to write a collection of short stories about the twisted and interconnected lives of a boy and a girl starting from when they met as little kids to her death. It was something that I had started in the class the previous year. It was good. I had a plot. I had characters. I had a time line. And by the end of the year I had Chapter 2.

I stopped writing again. The inspiration just was not there. I knew what was supposed to happen in Chapter 3 of my book but I couldn't seem to decide on the format that it should happen in. So I walked away from it. I knew that by doing so a couple of things could happen. I could leave it alone for a while and then come back to it with new found determination or I could leave it and forget about it and come back to it a long time later and find that I still had no idea how to write Chapter 3.

It just so happened that the second scenario was the one that played out. I set it aside and I came back to it... Well, I haven't really gone back to it yet. But as I sit here thinking about Gryffin and Andy and wondering where the next chapter of there story should lead them I am drawing a blank.

That was not the last time I had inspiration though.

There is this program called NaNoWriMo that my older sister introduced me to years ago. It stands for Nation Novel Writing Month. It's a website where tons of people come together every year in November and start writing novels. Across the country people get involved. Some have writing parties and get togethers. Well, last year I tried to do that. I had a semi-new idea for a story that had been in my head for a long time and I started writing it.

The idea came from a role play/story that Morgan and I started writing together in 8th grade. We got pretty far into it before we came to a point where we just couldn't continue. Part of the reason was because we could not seriously write the romance our story had come to and part of it was because we were beginning to drift apart.

Anyway, the story was about these two guys who find this portal to another world. One is from New York and one is from a town in the other world called Uleanda (I know it's dumb, we just threw a bunch of letters together). They are professional assassins who live in New York but travel to Uleanda sometimes. The major conflict is that there are men in Uleanda who want to bring the weapons from New York and combine them with the ones they have in Uleanda to take over the universe. We even had a super evil bad guy and background stories for every character. We had sequels planned out and we knew just what was going happen. But life happened. We stopped writing and we stopped being best friends.

So when November and NaNoWriMo came along last year I figured I would try to use the same plot line for a novel of my own. I changed the characters and I changed the plot around a little. I even wrote and introduction which I showed to some of my friends. They were all very intrigued. The problem was that my inspiration was not coming in order. I would write a scene in the beginning of the book and then I would write one from the middle. It was still coming along... It just wasn't very organized.

Then... Well, let's just say that I had some problems come up. I stopped writing because I was no longer in the mood to write. I didn't think about what would happen to the story. I didn't think about what it meant for my writing. A switch just flipped in my brain and I guess I just stopped writing.

I didn't stop completely. I was on the school newspaper staff and was therefore graded on the writing I did for the monthly issues. It wasn't fiction though. I have always been able to write nonfiction easily. I love writing essays. I'm very good at writing essays. And I'm good at writing for the newspaper too... Not that I really do much of that anymore either... At least not frequently.

But that was the last time I wrote anything fictional. It's been almost a year and I haven't actually written anything for myself or for an audience outside of school since. I wrote on this blog... But I doubt anything I've written in the last year has been any good. In fact, I think a lot of it was just me talking about how I didn't have time to write or how I didn't know what to write about.

So as I was reading these blogs I realized that I miss really writing. I miss losing myself in worlds that no one else knows but me because I created them. I know that I never have finished anything fictional that I've written. I know that I'm not very good at it and that my plots are too closely related to books I have read and movies I have seen. But I miss writing that stuff all the same. I don't really even know why the blogs made me think about that. Maybe it's because I feel that my best writing is when I'm describing a character's thoughts or actions, however unoriginal they may be. Maybe I don't just miss writing fiction. Because I am definitely enjoying writing this blog. It has an actual topic that is not what I have been doing lately or why I haven't been writing. It is a decent length. It is probably better than a lot of the stuff that I have written in the past year.

I've always wanted to become an author. I don't have to be too famous. I just want to write a good piece of fiction that some people will read and like. I want to create a world that more than just my closest friends and I see. I want to feel like I've actually finished something. Carley wrote something on my blog once after I had posted that first short story that was once complete but is now part of an incomplete collection. She said that I should continue it. That I should finish writing the story of Andy and Gryffin because I didn't know how great a feeling it was to finish a story. She said this because she does know that feeling. She has completed a story before even though the only people that read it, to my knowledge, were her and the person she wrote it with.

Maybe the reason I don't write anymore is because I know longer write just because I have the inspiration, because I have a story, but because I want to finish something. I write because I want the accomplishment... And not the story. Or maybe it is because I search too hard for the inspiration. I have sat down more than a few times in the past year and tried to write something... Unsuccessfully.

I am making a goal for myself to start writing again. Maybe I'll try to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I can find a new plot and new characters... Or maybe I could try to finish Andy and Gryffin's story or the one that Morgan and I tried to write in 8th grade. Either way, by the end of this year I wouldn't mind to see the mostly empty notebooks with half started story ideas start stacking up again. In fact, I want the notebooks to start stacking up again. That's my goal. I want to go back to being the writer I am. I want my inspiration and my creativity back.

The Crucible and Other Events

This year I am taking AP English Language. So far it is a really good class. I am actually learning things, unlike last year. We do vocabulary and rhetorical device quizzes pretty much every class period. Sometimes it is hard, and I only have a B+, but I am really liking the class.

So, for about a week we have been reading a play called The Crucible. It is about the Salem witch trials, but was written much later. It is very interesting and is very thought provoking. I just finished reading the last act twenty minutes ago. That is one thing I love about English classes, sometimes they force you to read something that you would have missed out on if you hadn't been in the class.

In other news, our first newspaper came out a week ago. It was definitely a good product for the first issue of the year. I was very excited for it to come out... Though I doubt that many people actually appreciate the work we put into it as a staff. It's ok. I just have fun putting it together and seeing the final product.

Other than that...

I think that it is about time for me to change my theme again. I need something new... Also, I'm going to try to take a lot more pictures with my camera and get them up on this blog... Lately my stuff on here has been really boring.

I have a trip next week that I am going on for FBLA. I will take lots of pictures and then come back and write a GREAT post on it.

Hope life is good for all of you who read this!

LIFE

Madi Randquist: It's better to give up and move on than to continue to hope for something that is just hurting you... Right?

Madi Randquist: I am not dramatic. I am not emo. I do not act like I'm emo. I'm not depressed. I am just having a bad week. Alright?

Madi Randquist: So... Week 5 of Junior year coming up... Busy busy. Shades meeting and AP Psych test monday, FBLA tuesday, AP Language vocab test Wednesday, FBLA opening social Thursday, FBLA officer meeting Friday...

These are a few of my Facebook statuses over the last little while that kind of describe my life lately. Two of them describe my mood and the other describes the craziness of my it all. My mood is more related to people. Specifically one of my best friends. (And I know that this could be breaking a deal with my mom... She told me to get him completely out of my life for two weeks... But I can't get it out of my head, and maybe writing about it will help.) The thing is, he isn't really a very social person. Or at least... That's what he says... And so, even though he and I hung out at least once a week every week since school got out, every time I have tried to get him to do something since school has started nothing has happened. Once I got really close to doing something with him and in the middle of a phone call he made plans with someone else...

And all of this just really hurts. He went a week without talking to me, forgot we had plans, and then got upset with me when I couldn't help him with his physics lab because I had to be at something he told me he would go to with me. And I've tried talking to him about it. 'It doesn't matter.' He said 'You shouldn't care. I don't.' Well thanks. I'm very glad that something that has come to mean a lot to me over the past six months means absolutely nothing to you. I'm glad to know how much our friendship is worth.

The first Facebook status post is what I said when I decided that it was no longer worth the drama. He commented on it saying: "Lol. Emo." It is something that he has been saying a lot about me... Or was saying, I haven't actually talked to him in a while. And, as you can see by the middle Facebook status, I got tired of it. I was not happy and I was spending more time trying to get him to talk to me and do things with me than actually saying a word to him. So, I'm done with that drama. I am no longer trying to get him to do things with me or trying to talk to me. If he doesn't want to be my best friend anymore... So be it. I'm done fighting it. I'm done with letting it hurt me. I'm trying not to care...

A friend should not be a bad thing. Friends shouldn't cause you to be in a bad mood pretty much constantly and they shouldn't cause you to pull away from your family. Especially when they don't even care. So, for now, I'm not doing anything. I'm not texting him, I'm not looking at his Facebook, I'm not calling him. And if he were to text me or to try to get my attention, I'm not going to do anything about it... For now. That will change. I'm done talking to him everyday... Because he's done talking to me everyday. We haven't had a meaningful conversation since school started.

I'm determined to bring myself back to who I am: a happy person who loves to write and who loves to be with people.

Anyway, that's only part of my life as of late. I'm also incredibly involved in school. As you can probably tell from the last of my Facebook status updates at the top of this post. I'm involved in a lot of different clubs this year and I am taking hard classes. However, I think I can handle it. I know I said before that I thought I was in over my head, but by eliminating the major drama from my life I have simplified things a lot.

FBLA, Newspaper, Shades, Science Olympiad, Key Club. Five different time consuming things that I am involved in. Newspaper is the most important, because I get a grade for it and because I am co-Editor in Chief. FBLA is next because I am an officer who has not been in the club before and therefore there is a lot for me to learn and I need to spend as much time in doing so as possible. Next is Shades because I am also an editor for the magazine, though it doesn't take as much of my time or nearly as much effort. Science Olympiad come after that, because I hadn't even thought I was going to do Science Olympiad this year until last week. This came along because Abby and Linzie tried out for the team at Fairfield Junior High and if they make the team they have to have coaches. I offered to coach Disease Detectives for Abby. Then, as I was talking to Layton's Olympiad coach, I mentioned that I was coaching, and then that, since I was coaching, I might as well do Desease Detectives for Layton High. So there you go, I'm back to being a nerd. Key Club is last because it doesn't take hardly any time at all and I am only really doing it because Carley, Emily, Hillary, Kara, and Julissa are.

Other than that I have my classes 1) AP Calculus, which at times seems ridiculously hard and at others ridiculously easy. 2) Editors is pretty awesome. I love having the time just to work on the paper. 3) US History 2 Honors... I don't like the homework in this class... However, I love the class itself. There are so many awesome people in there. 4) Newspaper is pretty awesome. Our first issue is finally coming together.and I am excited to see how it comes together. 5) AP Psychology is pretty stressful, though I love it. We have a lot of reading to do, and if I could actually get myself to do the work then I would be set. 6) AP Language is awesome. It is such a great group of people combined with a really great teacher. And I LOVE it. 7) AVID is the only class that I don't really like this year and it is probably only because it could never compare to how awesome it was last year. 8) Calculus Lab is a great class because I never have homework in Caluculus. Kara and I work together and make sure that we are getting the right answers and getting our assignments done in class.

So anyway, that's my life right now. Lots of school. Lots of trying to get rid of drama. Lots of trying to force myself to feel like myself again. I'm pretty off lately, but I'll be better soon... I don't know why I am feeling so weird lately, but it's getting better.

Bolding Not-So-Random Things is Fun

Time is a crazy thing. It just keeps going faster and faster and there is not one thing that anyone on this planet could do to stop that. The moments that seem the most important, the most significant, are the ones that go by the fastest. I have noticed that a lot more lately. The more you want to hold on to a moment, the faster it passes. Is that just me? I do not think so.

In May I went to Ohio to see my oldest sister graduate from high school. The whole weekend I kept thinking about how crazy it was that Wendy was graduating. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were walking down the street from Dad's house to the bakery? Weren't we just with dad, playing games and watching movies in grandma's basement? It was very bizarre to me. My dad kept saying that we would blink and the weekend would be gone, we would blink and I would be the one graduating. We would blink and time would have flown by again.

Earlier this summer I invited Kara to come boating with my family and I. We were sitting up in the front of the boat, my favorite place to relax in the world, and we started talking about how crazy it is that we are now juniors. So many of our friends are graduating from high school this year. Isn't it crazy that we've known each other for four years? I think it is. I know Kara laughs at me when I start talking about things like this. As you can tell from reading my blog, time and change are my favorite things to rant about.

Time has flown by faster than ever in the last four months. A lot of things have changed... Part of that is my ability to create a decent blog post. All of them seem to be the same now... I can't believe that I'm running out of things to talk about. I always have something to talk about.

Maybe it isn't so much that I have run out of things to talk about... But that I just don't have a lot of things to blog about. Obviously, there are many things in my life that I can't or won't talk about on this blog... It would feel good to write these things out and possibly talk to someone about them... But I am not so sure that the consequences would be worth it. Believe it or not, my life is pretty crazy right now. There's a lot going on in my mind and Kara could tell you that when we are together I hardly ever run out of things to say.

One thing that I do not mind talking about is my mood as of late. If you have been around me then perhaps you have noticed that I am irritated a lot lately. I don't like it. In fact, I hate it and I am trying to get myself out of it. As I said though, there is a lot going on in my mind lately. Most of it isn't really happy... Though it isn't incredibly bad. I'm not overly angry at anyone or anything like that. I'm just... Annoyed.

And... I don't know. I could go into greater detail... But I don't think I will on here. There are a lot of contributing factors... School, family, friends. I think I'm in a little over my head this year... My classes are good and I love all but one of them, but I got involved in too many extra things. I've also got friends from different groups who I want desperately to hang out with... But when I bring them together... Let's just say that it isn't the party of the century. They don't fight or anything. They just get quiet and I get bored. They complain... Not to point any fingers.

I don't know. I'm working on it. My mood. My obnoxious and pointless blog posts. My over-active brain. All of it.

In the meantime life is still good. I still have friends. No matter how irritating they are at times.

:D

Everything is Bigger in Texas...

Or so I have heard. Today, about two minutes after I had woken up, I got a call from none other than mL. I have been trying to get her to call me for some time now and I was really glad to finally hear from her. She left Utah for the last time as a resident about two months ago and, while we have been emailing each other, I have not actually talked to her since the day before she left. That day was really weird to me. How do you say goodbye to someone who has been one of the best friends you have ever had? How do you let go of that? You do not, really. We said goodbye that day as we had many times. There was no crying... Though I was in tears the second I got into my sister's car. We hugged and I left... It lacked finality. Maybe that is a good thing, because, while that may have been the last time I would see her for a while, I will see her again. I am sure of it. Anyway, I talked to mL for about 2 hours today. It was really good to hear what she has been up to in Texas and I am glad that she is making friends.

In other news (ha ha), the first week of school went pretty well, if not insanely crazy. It was busy and it felt weird but it made me happy to have something to do everyday and it was great to hang out with my friends everyday. I like all but one of my classes and I think that this year is going to be a really good one.

I do not really have a whole lot to say today... I just felt like I should write something. Today has been a fairly slow day for me... I have not really done anything. Now my family is at the store and I am blasting a playlist of my favorite female singers and singing along really badly. I should be starting my reading for AP Psychology, but you know me. I will get to it later tonight, I think.

Other than that... Not much going on. I picked up my van from my grandparents house on Friday and now it is sitting in front of my house. I do not see it going anywhere for a while. That is perfectly fine with me, though. I have an issue with driving. Not that I can not drive. I am afraid of it until I am actually behind the wheel and going.

Oh! I need to get one of those things that connects to your iPod and can go into a tape player. Once I can drive my van, it would be really cool to be able to listen to my music while I am driving.

Anyway... This blog is pretty much random and very pointless. Whatever. Sometime soon I will update on the craziness that is my life. There is a lot to be told.

Anyone Know Where I Can Get an Off Switch for My Brain?

I have been thinking a lot lately. It is a result of summer coming to a close and school starting in a couple of days and me still trying to find ways to procrastinate on all of the work I have to get done before Monday. Thinking is hardly ever a completely good thing for me. Sometimes when I think I come up with interesting or fun things. However, lately my mind is stuck on a couple of topics that put me in a bad mood. It is a problem, and I know this, but I can not help it.

It is no surprise that this summer did not go the way I planned. What in life ever does? Maybe I should stop having expectations about how things are going to be so that I am no longer disappointed. Then again, if I stopped having expectations then the really good things would not seem really good because I did not expect anything of it anyway. . . Does that make sense? I do not know if it does.

Anyway, whenever anything related to my failed summer (which has not been absolutely horrible, I have done some fun things) is brought up I kind of shrink back from conversation. My mom has started noticing this, I guess, and has started asking me what is wrong. Talking about it does not make it better. At least, not anymore. Two months after my accident, I just want things to be good. I want the reminder of it to go away. I want people to trust my driving. I want to stop being afraid every single time I get into a car. It was not that bad. No one was hurt. However, one thing about me is that when something bad happens (crashing a car, a 4-wheeler, or anything like that) and I do not get right back out there and keep going I become afraid.

This has happened to me twice before with 4-wheelers. A couple years ago (2? I do not remember.) I was going up a hill on a 4-wheeler at Bear Lake with my cousin, Hailee. I must not have been going fast enough, or something. I think I tried to change gears while we were going up and all of the sudden we were falling back. My cousin and I went into instinct mode and we moved together to get the 4-wheeler back on all fours. However, after we got back to camp I did not go back on the 4-wheelers for the rest of the trip. I think that was the last trip we went on that year. I do not really remember what the next chance I got to ride a 4-wheeler was, but I remember I was scared.

My last accident on a 4-wheeler pretty much ruined it for me. Emily and I were going up a dune and she braked before we got to the top. She used the back brakes and so the bike flipped. Emily got out of the way, but the bike landed on me. I was perfectly fine, but I no longer have the courage to ride 4-wheelers. If I was given a chance to go out without anyone else on it and mess around for a while I could probably be fine again, but It has been a long time since then and I have not really gotten that chance.

I think the same thing has happened with the car accident. I have driven a car a total of two times in the last two months, both within the first couple weeks after the accident. Since then I have grown increasingly aware of every single thing that could go wrong while in a car, and within the last few weeks I have found myself actually physically cringing every single time I see anything that could go wrong. It does not matter who is driving. I know I am one hundred percent safe when I am in a car my mom or step dad are driving but now I find myself freaked out. I have found that the best way to avoid this is to just close my eyes and ignore everything around me. However, when Carley is driving me somewhere she often needs me to tell her directions. So I have to pay attention to where we are.

I am hoping that when I eventually have another car and can start driving again I will not be afraid. I know for the first little while it will not be fun at all, but, hopefully, I will only be driving to and from school for a little while. I do not really know. It is thoughts about this and about how much I need a job along with other things like how much I miss my dad and my sister that have got me in a bad mood lately. I am trying to get past it all, but it is hard when I do not really have a lot going on during the day. This is why I absolutely can not wait for school to start. This year is going to be so busy for me, that hopefully it will be a distraction from all of this other stuff. I have found that hanging out with friends also distracts me a lot.

In 7th and 8th grades my best friends were Manda and Darcie (and Morgan but I am not talking about her right now.) Lately, I have started talking to them and hanging out with them more (along with Ian.) It is awesome that I have more people to hang out with than my typical group of friends. I absolutely love my other friends, but a little bit of change is good sometimes.

Anyway, this blog was going to be about my sister, Wendy. I guess I got a little caught up in talking about other things. Whoops. Sorry, Wendy. I will write about you another time.

Best Friends

Tonight I thought I would write a little bit about my best friends. I just read one of their blogs and I haven't really written anything of real substance lately. So I figured he was a good topic that I could write a little bit of meaningful words about... Hopefully.

On television it seems to me that a lot of the time (at least on shows aimed at teens/preteens) the main character always has two best friends. One guy and one girl to be specific. I'm a lot like that. My two best friends, Ian and Kara, are the people in my life who probably know the most about me, other than my mom. I've known them both for around four years. However, neither of them were my best friends until long after I met them.

Kara and I met through a mutual friend of ours in the beginning of 7th grade. Hillary introduced us at a Science Olympiad meeting, and, at the time, both of us were shy and did not really talk to each other much. This continued on through all of 7th grade and well into 8th. In fact, I think I can attribute our friendship to my mom's silliness when we were at the national Science Olympiad competition. We had developed a little bit of a friendship at team meetings over the past two years, but it was not until my mom gave us an inside joke (chicken) that we really became friends.

After we got back from Kansas, Kara and I started talking more, specifically in our U.S. History class with Mr. Carter (it is ironic that it was also in this class that I started to become friends with Ian (more on him later).) At first we mostly talked about silly things. Though I can't remember exactly the topics, many inside jokes came from these conversations. Over the past two years Kara and I have become more than the casual acquaintances we were when Hillary first introduced us.

Our conversations now consist of long pauses where neither of us know quite what to say. However, Kara is a great listener. Throughout the passed two years she has helped me get through so much. Earlier this year I might have said that she probably does not know how much, but I think she does now.

I could talk about what a great friend Kara is to me for hours. There are things she does that I can not stand sometimes and in my opinion that just makes our friendship better. No person is perfect, no one is without their flaws. When friends are able to see that their friends have problems and maybe even be annoyed by those problems it shows that they have a good friendship. Obviously, it takes more than that but that is one thing that is important to me. I think I will have to ask Kara if she thinks any of the things I do are obnoxious... Ha ha.

I think I will move on to Ian, now, because he is who is on my mind tonight. Ian and I also met through mutual friends. Though I do not think we were ever really introduced. It was more like 'oh, I know who you are, you hang out with so-and-so' than anything else.

As I mentioned earlier, Ian and I first started talking to each other in our 8th grade U.S. History class. There was a group of us who sat in a corner and would talk all the way through class (Kara was never part of this group... that I remember). In October of 9th grade Ian called me one night and asked if I would like to go to the haunted house with him and some other friends. (On a quick side note, it just struck me how long ago this feels and how not long ago it really was... Almost two years, but not quite. And yet it seems like four.) I agreed to meet him at the elementary school by my house and then we would see who else was able to come.

To our luck it turned up that no one could come with us. We still had a great time, though. I remember one part of the haunted house that is hilarious looking back on it. We got to this bedroom and noticed that we had to go through a closet full of coats and clothes. We were both so sure that there was going to be something in the closet and neither of us wanted to go first. We were squealing and shoving each other and basically just not moving forward. Eventually a creepy guy from the last room came in and scared us to go through what was just a closet full of clothing.

After we were done at the haunted house that night we went to Burger Stop and I refused his offer to get me something. Then he walked me back to the elementary school we met at. It was dark, it was late, and I knew I was in trouble. However, I still think that that night was awesome. I had so much fun and Ian and I were starting to become good friends.

However, that night he told me that he was done going to Fairfield. He was going to be home schooled from now on. I am not the kind of person who typically hangs out with friends outside of school (more so then) and so I knew I would not be seeing Ian very much anymore.

In fact, over the next year I saw him once, for his birthday, and only had a few very short 'hi, how are you' conversations. Then in March Ian got a Facebook. I am looking at his page right now and it is funny to see all of the messages he got from people who had not heard from him in ages. After that we started talking again and hung out a couple times.

Now we basically talk to each other everyday. Yesterday, he came over to my house and we did basically nothing for hours one end. We have spent days at Lagoon, bowling, walking all over Layton. Give us some free time and we will find something to do or talk about. He has helped me through more than one hard moment in the past few months, though I am not sure he knows it.

Anyway, it is late and this blog has taken me a long time to write... I do not even know if there is anything worth reading here... Oh well. I guess I will find my inspiration again eventually.

...

My mind is such a mess lately. That is my excuse for not writing anything in two weeks. Another excuse could be that I have been busy... At least for one week. The last week has been a blur of procrastination for the most part. It's summer, I shouldn't have anything to procrastinate, right? Wrong. Summer reading, along with my duties as editor in chief for the school paper and reporter for FBLA are all things that I just can't get myself to actually work on. I need to, though.

The week before, however, was quite busy. Sunday the 19th found me at my grandparents house for a barbecue in celebration of my grandpa's birthday on the 20th. The next morning I was up early and packing for an overnight FBLA officer retreat. I had been really nervous about this since I heard about it, because I didn't really know any of the other officers and they all knew each other. I was still nervous about it for the first few hours that I was there.

What the retreat was really, was a way for us to get started on planning the year as well as getting to know each other. The work part of it was really successful, in my opinion. However, the fun part didn't come until after all of that. When we got done working we went back to our condo to have dinner and basically hang out for the rest of the night. It was really fun.

I was beat at air hockey and Foosball by people who were more experienced at those games. The losing didn't matter though, because I was finding that I was easily becoming friends with these people. I played pool with three other girls and we had a lot of fun (none of us were that good at it). After a while everyone got together to play catchphrase. That was interesting, for sure. We did a lot of other things too, but the best part of it to me was just talking. Of course, the two guys who were there didn't really take part in that, but it was great getting to know the girls.

We talked a ton that day, about everything: Harry Potter, our families, embarrassing things that happened to us, etc. The funnest part of it was after curfew, though. At midnight the boys had to go upstairs and the girls had to stay in the basement to "sleep". What actually ended up happening was most of us gathering in the one small bedroom and talking about boys. It was great. I know that may seem weird, because I don't talk about guys with my sisters and not with any of my friends other than Kara, but I honestly enjoyed it.

Anyway, I was back home at around 12 the next day. I had to get straight to work on getting ready for our 5 day camping trip to Flaming Gorge. Which was crazy and deserves a blog to itself, complete with pictures, to come at a later date.

So, that's why I haven't written in the past two weeks... And now I don't know what to write about...

I've been thinking about this blog for the last hour. So many topics have ran through my mind that it is ridiculous. I thought about writing about my best friend. I thought about writing about my family. I even was thinking about writing about how much things have changed lately. The conversations I've been having that all seem to feature the fact that it has been four years since I met whoever I was talking to (because the fact is, I met everyone who really matters (outside of my family) four years ago or less). Then there's the things that I could write about that wouldn't matter or that would be weird for certain people to read...

Anyway, something just happened... I might write on it later, but for now, I'm out.

One Month Later, It Is Getting Better

Just over a month ago something happened to me that totally changed me. That morning I had gone to my Summer Biology class and once I got home from that I had a Newspaper Editor's meeting to go to. It was a good day because I did not have to ask my busy parents for rides to these things I had to do. I had gotten my driver license a week before and I had been using a car that was not really mine, I was just borrowing it until my Celica was finished - it was meant to be my little sister's car - for five days. It was great. My fabulous summer was about to pan out. I had a job, the freedom of a car, and a best friend who would be returning from Europe/Arizona in a couple of weeks. This was going to be the best summer of my life.

After the Newspaper meeting I headed to the bank to deposit my check and cash Emily's. We had agreed to split the cost on Sims 3 and I was going to go pick it up as soon as I had the money. I did all of that without a problem. Still happy, still loving life. Not aware that all of that was going to be shattered (though not as badly as it could have) within the hour. I was driving home from Target and it was rush hour. I got to the intersection at Main Street by Walmart and could not get over to turn left like I wanted to. I did not think this was a big deal; I knew the area well and could get home by continuing west.

I then thought that I might be able to turn into the gas station or any of the parking lots in that area and get myself onto King Street. But it was really busy and I got nervous about the cars behind me. So I kept heading west. Eventually I turned onto Sugar Street and when I got to the corner where I would turn left onto Gentile I realized that I would never get out of there (not in the sense that it could mean, though). I never did get out of there. I thought I was good to go. To my left I was clear, to my right I was clear. So I went. And a truck hit me. That may sound like it was the truck's fault. It was not. However, I have not yet figured out how to word it clearly.

I remember the car being pushed north-west and it shot forward. The driver's side window was broken. I slammed the break, though I do not remember having done so, and turned the key frantically. I tried to get it out of the ignition once the car was turned off but it would not come out. Later, my mom told me that she was able to get it out just fine. I looked around the car frantically for my cell phone. I felt like I could not breath. I was not crying yet. I somehow managed to call home and my mom picked up. Every time I had called her that day she had been worried. "Are you ok?" She would ask. "I'm fine mom" would be my reply, as if I would get into an accident. Jeez, mom have a little faith. That sounds stupid doesn't it? It was honestly what I thought though. When she answered this time she did not ask if I was ok. She just said hello. I did not say hello back. What I remember saying is this: "Mom, mom. Mom, I was in an accident. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And then there were a lot more 'I'm sorrys' as my mom tried to figure out where I was and told me that she was coming.

After a moment I got out of the car. Things are such a blur to me that I do not remember what I did while I was waiting for my mom and my step dad to get there. I did not start crying until she was there. Until, she parked across the street at the gas station and came running to me. She hugged me and held onto her. I don't really know what else happened. The police came. My mom and Bill talked with them and I was told to sit in my mom's car. So I did.

I was so lucky that the only injuries I got were a small scratch above my left elbow and a headache. Later we realized that it must have been my head that broke the window. The truck had hit further forward on the car. If it had not I probably would have been very seriously injured. I am lucky.

I am not really sure why I decided to finally write about this today. Whenever I think about it I feel this overpowering sense of guilt. Because as much as I talk about how it has affected my summer - how I lost that freedom, how I could not drive to Lagoon for work anymore and therefore have no money, how I will no longer get that Celica or how I basically spent my savings bond on that accident - I do realize that it has affected the rest of my family too. I do not have a job anymore (mostly because I realized that I did not want to work at Lagoon) and so my mom is paying insurance on a car that we no longer have and a driver who is not even driving anything. Emily does not get the Civic (instead she gets the Celica) which was her car in the first place, etc, etc.

For the past month my life has been crazy. I have been trying so hard to figure out how to make everything right again. I think I'm beginning to get there. I spent all day yesterday filling out job applications online and Carley helped me by driving me around to pick up applications as well. I have realized that I can not fix it entirely. Thirty seconds and one bad decision. Who would have thought?

Anyway, I am lucky. Lucky that I was not hurt worse. Lucky that my family is supportive. Lucky that I can get a new job and a car and still be able to drive. I am lucky that, contrary to what I thought just days afterward, I am loving my life. Lucky that I am happy. I am lucky that I have friends who were concerned as well as friends who, after they realized I was all right, were able to laugh about it and help me feel just a little bit better if only for a minute.

A month after the fact and it still hurts sometimes. When Bill and mom are talking about the car that was supposed to be mine or when I wonder who is going to hire me and when I will be able to afford to register my dad's old van that I will be using or when I think about all of the money that I cost myself and my parents, it hurts.

However, with the amount of applications I filled out yesterday, I should have new job soon, and after a while I will have the money I need to register and insure the van. My friends and I have ways of hanging out without spending money. I was able to ride the bus to and from my Summer Biology class. My summer hasn't been ruined after all. There was a rough patch that I am now making my way out of, but it is definitely going to be just fine. This last half of summer is still going to be great.

My mom wrote about the accident a lot sooner after it happened. She also has pictures of the car.

Summer and Father's Day

Today, June 21, is a good day. It is the first real day of summer, the longest day of the year, and Father's Day. School has been out for a couple weeks and life is moving forward. We have not gotten many chances to enjoy the sun yet, but as I look out my window I can see that today is not one full of clouds and rain... Completely.

I do not remember ever having this much rain in the summer. In fact, my mom told me a week or so ago that she does not even remember ever having this much rain. I guess it all is just coming together to create my summer that does not feel like summer. Now wait, I am not complaining. I know it probably sounds like I am... But I am not. I actually like that it is really rainy because if it were not then I would really feel like I am missing something while I am in class or at work. I am missing some things, but they do not seem as big as it would if I was stuck in class or at work when it was warm and sunny outside. I love warm and sunny weather.

However, I did not start this blog today to talk about the weather. I started it, for the first time in weeks (whoops!), because today is Father's Day and I just happen to be so lucky as to have two fathers to celebrate on this awesome day.

To tell you the truth, I am not really celebrating them both today. This is because my dad lives in California. We celebrated his birthday and Father's day with him in May, while we were at my sister's high school graduation in Ohio. However, I am thinking about them both. They are both awesome people and I love them and today I just thought that I would share a little bit of that.

The first of my "fathers", as I have already mentioned, is my dad. My dad is a computer programmer who does not like to stay in one place. He is incredibly talented and definitely incredibly smart, but he just does not like to be in one job for too long. That is how he ended up in California. He had been running his own company for a while, probably over a year or two or three or four (I do not really know, my time when it comes to my visits with him is really messed up), and I guess he just decided that he was ready to have a boss again. He started looking around. At first he talked a lot about Oregon and other places like that. He had been talking about moving for so many years that I did not really think that it would happen. You see, my dad does not always follow through with things he talks about. He just has too many ideas and too many plans. I think I got that from him. However, eventually he got this job out in California. He moved over a year ago.

My dad is a goofy guy. I have so many odd memories of us. A long time ago, probably more than four years back, my dad lived in my grandma's basement. I can not remember if this was when we still went to see him every weekend and not every other weekend, but that does not really matter. We spent a lot of our time in really simple ways and then really not all at the same time back then. A lot of Saturdays were just spent hanging around grandma's house, playing on the trampoline or watching tv with dad downstairs. One particular Saturday we were listening to music, watching tv, eating breakfast (or lunch or snacks or whatever), running through the house... Whatever, while dad was cleaning up the basement. There was this one particular song that he loved: The Country Death Song. It is a good song. In fact, I wish I had it on my laptop (fixing that as I type... Ha ha.) It is a crazy song. The lyrics are not something you would expect to find a dad dancing around the room singing to his daughters. I loved it, though. I love that song.

When you live more than half an hour away from your dad you find that you spend a lot of time in the car when you go to visit him. Or at least, that is how it was with us. We always were doing something, always going somewhere. So we all got very used to travel small talking/goofing off. We would listen to the radio while some of us talked or joked or played. You would not expect the driver of a vehicle to be participating that much in all of that, but he usually did. One thing that he always seemed to do... It would be quiet in the car or the person up front with him would be quiet or someone in the back would be quiet... Whoever it was, he would look at them (whether directly if they sat next to him or through the rearview mirror) and say/sing "On the first day of Christmas my Mackie gave to me..." and sometimes he would go on or sometimes he would stop there. Always using the nickname he preferred for each of us, because we each have a nickname. I have always been Mac or Mackie or some other form of it. Always.

He is also a tall guy. Practically a giant. None of us will ever reach his size. Which is cool. I love that he is so much taller than all of us. At least that will never change. He crazy red hair. It is really really long now. His hair is kind of a thing between me and him. Every time I see it it is so much longer and every time I tell him: "Dad, seriously, you really need a haircut." And we have been doing this for years. I love it. Some people do not always think I am joking. Sometimes the joke turns sour when someone will get mad at me, but it is never dad. He gets that I am just kidding. I really think is long hair is awesome. It is kind of who he is now. He did not used to be like that. The long hair would no have fit him during the days of our weekly visits.

Mmm. I can not get the image of my dad dancing and singing with his 5 daughters in my grandma's basement (or anywhere for that matter) out of my head. It is definitely one I cherish.

Anyway, dad. I do not know if you read my blog anymore... Whether because you are just too busy or whatever else... But if you are, know that I am thinking about you. That I miss you (I pretty much always miss you). That I think you are awesome. That I love you. Happy Father's Day.

The next "Father" that I am celebrating today is my step dad. At this point in my life he has been around longer than not. And though we may not seem like the best of friends sometimes, and though we did not neccessarily 'click' from the very beginning, I have no idea what any of us (me, my sisters, my mom) would ever do without him.

Bill is a goofy guy too. However, his is a different kind of goofy. I could never see him dancing or singing like my dad does. It is just not him. Which is good, because I think if I saw anyone other than my dad doing that I would find them plain strange... Well... My dad is actually pretty strange. Bill does a lot of impersinations. A lot of the time I do not get them, but they are funny anyway. They make me laugh.

My family is really close. We all do a lot of things together. We watch a lot of movies and play a lot of games. We go camping and boating and four wheeling. We hang out in the back yard or in the living room and just talk. Just last night we all stayed up playing Mario Kart. Laughing and screaming as Mario passed Yoshi (which is amazing because the person playing Mario sucks... he he.) or Baby Daisy got first place again. It was great. It was great that Bill stayed up and played with us even though he had to get up really early to go to work this morning.

When we watch movies, more often than not we will be watching something that Bill and my mom have seen and loved. It is always fun because I like a lot of the same things as my parents. A long time ago (back when we were all night owls) we would spend all night watching movies and Bill would be the last one up as we all lay asleep on the couch. Eventually the tv would get turned off and we would all go to bed after talking about the movie for a few minutes: what we slept through, what was good, when they saw it the first time... Anything.

Bill and I like a lot of the same foods. The only main exception that I know of is fish. I can not stand fish. However, basically anything else he cooks I eat. I love spicy things. He probably he things that are a lot more spicy than I would ever eat, but I like spicy food more than anyone else in my family beside him. I also eat the same kind of steak as him. When we go to a restauraunt that I've never been to before I ask him what I should get.

Bill always has projects going and often they sit there for a long time without being finished. However, a lot more gets done than not. He built the wall that turned our basement into the bedroom that I loved until I had to move upstairs because Abby and Linzie needed more space, he fixes the dryer, the washer, the dishwasher, toys, skateboards, boats, four wheelers, cars, name it and he has probably been asked to fix it.

I remember how things were before he and my mom got together... A little bit at least. We had a sock basket where all of our socks went and we would have to dig through it everyday to find socks that matched, we never went camping, we did not have movie nights or game nights. Our favorite dinner was cheesy spaghetti (and what is wrong with that? I love cheesy spaghetti....) However, I love grill nights a lot more.

I do not know. There is so much I could say about Bill. He is there for me. That is a really important one. He is there for all of us. He does so much for all of us girls. Of course there have been hard times. Everybody has them. The important thing is that we all stick together. We are there for him and he is there for us.

Happy Father's Day Bill. You are amazing. Thanks so much for all that you do for me. I love you. And I am sad that you had to work today and that we can not just all hang out. Waking up, making you breakfast, and watching cartoons with you at 5 this morning was fun though. You rock. :D

So yeah. There is my Father's Day blog. I just wanted to say a little something since it was been over two weeks since my last blog. Happy Father's Day. Happy first day of summer! Let us hope the sun decides to stick around!

Losing Friends, Gaining Memories

The last day of school is always one of mixed emotions. Students are so excited to see the year coming to an end and summer coming toward them at full speed. They are also sad to lose some friends (either by going to different schools or moving to new places). I do not think there is really any way to fix it other than by putting yourself in the right frame of mind. This is what I had to tell my little sister today (a girl she knew is moving to Germany and she is very sad about it) and what I am feeling that I need to be reminded of right now. Things happen. We're teenagers and, to be frank, we are never the most reliable friends. I know that. However, it still sucks to be left out or to have a friend promise they will stay in touch just to never hear from them again. I know that we have these problems and I know that we all just have to learn to deal with them, it is just life, but it still hurts. So I understand why my little sister was crying about her friend today, I understand why all of the ninth graders at Fairfield were having a hard time. I am having a hard time with a friend situation, myself.

mL is a great friend of mine and I believe I have mentioned her in this blog several times before. I met her in my 8th grade science class. Mrs. Nelson's sixth period, second semester. We spent a while sitting next to each other. I am not going to lie and say that we were best friends from the start. No, we were merely acquaintances for a while. Then, in 9th grade I pretty much just told myself that she was my friend and I started hanging out with her a lot more. We became really good friends. On her birthday that year I had a sleepover at her house. That sleepover ended up spanning the whole weekend. It was just way too much fun. Every time that I have spent a night at her house since it has turned into a weekend long adventure. We have done school projects together and we have had conversations about serious issues. I have helped her through bad times and she has (whether knowingly or not) helped me through a lot as well. We were really close all through 9th grade and we even did some things together last summer (which is major for me because I never do anything with anyone during the summer (with exception of the summer I spent with Morgan)) and it was great.

I bet anyone reading this can hear the 'but' at the end of that sentence.

High school was never something I was nervous about. mL and I had planned our schedules together, and with any luck we would have had the exact same schedule. If that had happened we probably would be a lot closer now than we are. However, I found things that I really wanted to do that mL did not. So we decided that a few differences in our schedules would not hurt.

There is another girl who fits into this tale that I am weaving. Her name, for now, is Fern. Fern is a girl that I have known since... 4th grade? I am not sure. The important thing, though, is that Fern and I never got along. We hung out with the same people but we had completely different personalities and very similar tempers. Needless to say, we got into a lot of arguements during elementary school. Neither of us liked each other. So when we got to junior high we were not around each other much. She found her niche and I found mine. I honestly never ran into her until 8th grade science. Then we pretended as if nothing had ever happened. We were friends and all that was between us was stupid elementary school arguements. Which was true. However, when two people clash like that there is not much room for friendship.

mL and Fern became good friends. I like to think that during 9th grade and the summer after I was closer to mL than Fern was, but I do not know. Anyway, Fern had first lunch while mL and I had second lunch. So never actually had to be around Fern and mL together during 9th grade. I never realized they were such good friends. Then, when we got to high school we all started hanging out together. There was only one lunch. I only had one class with mL and Fern had at least one that I know of. We kind of started to drift apart that first semester. And, though I tell mL that I do not know why that is, I know exactly why. It did not take very long to realize that Fern really did get on my nerves. Now that we all had only one lunch, Fern was always around. She was constantly talking to mL and they were becoming closer by the day. I was becoming farther and farther (Which I do not mind, I think it happened for a reason. I found my true best friend. I can honestly tell Kara anything and even if we disagree we will always still be friends. She is like another sister to me.) and I honestly hardly noticed it.

There was this big weight being held over all of us, though. All year long we knew that it was going to be our last year with mL. We knew that we would not have all summer with her and that in the blink of an eye she would be gone. Second semester came along and mL and I started talking again, but we had lost that bond that we had had before. She was still one of my closest friends and I still loved her (I always will) but we had gone four and a half months without talking to each other hardly at all. We found out when and where mL was moving. It was time to start planning for her big goodbye.

She and I have plans. Big ones that will hopefully follow through. We will have one more sleep over weekend. We will watch some of the movies on my list of "Movies mL Has Not Seen That I Love" and maybe we will go to Lagoon. However, there are people who would be mad at me for even considering taking a weekend of our now limited time with her.

Fern now considers mL her best friend. I do not care about that. However, the fact that Fern thinks that she owns all of mL's time before she moves makes me so mad. I am going to miss her to. More than she will ever know. mL was the first friend that I ever got really close to. She was the first girl who I let really know me. Her was family was the first (outside of my own) that I ever really became comfortable with (and still remains the only one).

What hurts even worse is that there all of these activites being planned, one that I even suggested, that I'm really not even being informed about. I do not know if it is just because I have been busy or what, but it sucks because I am going to miss mL too. I want memories of her last few weeks here also.

mL and I have all of these ideas for after she moves: I am going to go visit her, she is going to come visit me, and even though she will be living in a completely different state she will be forced to come on my senior trip with me. However, I know how hard it is for people to actually implement plans when they are living completely different lives in completely different places. I do not want to become the old friend who turns into simple emails here and there. It would suck to have another friend go away without some majorly good memories to look back on. I need proof. I need pictures. Just the memories are never enough. Memories fade, they turn into a fog that comes in every once in a while. I do not have pictures! I am not making memories because I can not come to things when I am given the details the minute it is happening. And it sucks that I am becoming an afterthought already.

So, I understand. I get why my little sister is upset that a friend she has not hung out with in a while moved to Germany today. I am also beginning to feel very hypocritical about telling her that she should not be upset. I am upset. I am really upset. I will be all right, though. I know that. I need to really grasp, though. It is one thing to know something and another to feel it. I need to feel that it will be fine. I need to feel that mL moving is not going to absolutely, totally, and completely suck for a long time. Right now I do not feel that. Right now I just can not picture mL not being around. It seems impossible to me. And it really, really, really sucks.

Time and Again

It's about that time of year again. The time when everyone starts counting down the days like minutes. Plans for summer are beginning to come into place. Classes are pretty much done. Most students are wondering why they have to continue to come to school for these last few weeks (If we didn't have to come the last two weeks then the last two weeks of school would just be moved back and... Well, it's just a never ending circle.)

My sisters and I are flying to Ohio tomorrow. My oldest sister, who lives there, is graduating from high school on Sunday. I never thought that I would actually get to go to her graduation. But I am. And I never thought that the day I would get my driver license (my step dad is constantly telling me that it is "driver license" and not "driver's license") would come so fast. But it has. And again I'm left thinking about time. And change.

In the last year my environment, my life, and even my personality, have all changed a lot. Not completely. I still live at my house, but I definitely spend more time here. I don't go to Fairfield Junior High anymore. Instead, I go to Layton High School. I'm not involved in the school so much and a lot less people there know me. As for my personality... Well, go back to my first blogs. I think you can tell from my writing style alone that I have changed. Sure, I may still be talking about pretty much the same things, but I'm different. I don't form my sentences the same way. I don't have the same habits. However, I've changed so much more than that. I've matured.

My two littlest sisters start at Fairfield Junior High next year. They are twins, like me and Carley. However, they are identical. I wonder if they will have more friends than I did, if they will love the school as much as I did (To an extent I still do, but I believe that part of me maturing was realizing that as much as I loved Fairfield, it was the people there that really made it so great. I still spend time with the people. So I really never lost Fairfield. And if I really did suddenly miss it that much, then I could always just go over and sit on my favorite stairs for a while. I spent a lot of time doing that.), if they will be as involved... Basically, I wonder how different their experience there will be from mine.

Not that I will ever really know the answer to that.

Almost a year ago I had my last day at Fairfield. I can tell you what I did that day. In AL I said goodbye to my class and had them all sign my pretend yearbook (I wouldn't get mine until I was on the bus to the airport the next day) and helped Mrs. Nelson with yellow mark day. Then in English I wrote my final journal for Mr. T (more on that in a bit) and we talked about my grade... I had to look that up on Mr. T's website. It must have been a really short talk because I don't remember it. I don't even know if we did anything else that day. I doubt it. In Orchestra, Mrs. Tuke talked to all of us 9th graders about how much she would miss us all who weren't going to Davis and I played my viola for the last time in a group setting like that (I think I almost cried when Mrs. Tuke was talking). In guitar I think we were allowed to pretty much do whatever we wanted. So I went out to the field and watched some of the science classes launch rockets. I am pretty sure that I just talked entirely through Algebra II that day. I know we weren't doing anything. After all, the entire class was 9th graders and it was our last day of classes (for some it was just our last day, others would have Lagoon Day and Yearbook Day to look forward to). I actually, don't remember what I did at luch that day. I was really really sad that it was my last day and I think I was probably thinking/talking about that. In science I went out and launched my own rocket. Which, as I remember, did pretty well. Then I hung out with Emma O. for a while. My last period of the day was spent talking to Mrs. Barney and some of the other yearbook people, plus I think I went out and watched the rockets again. After school I had my last ever AL meeting, my last ever time staying after school as a student there. I have a picture from that meeting. It isn't of me, but rather three of my closest friends. I also have a picture of me sitting on the stairs waiting for my ride after that meeting. I was crying.

That night was the 9th grade dance. I didn't go because I had a lot of studying and preparing to do for the National Science Olympiad competition in Washington DC that weekend. However, I've seen pictures and my friends tell me that it was a lot of fun.

It seems like that day was in another lifetime. I remember it, I remember how I felt, but I don't feel like it actually happened. It could very well have been a dream if I didn't have the pictures to show that it wasn't.

The other day I was cleaning my room and I found something. A red spiral notbook with purple lettering in my best friend's handwriting on the front cover. My journal from Mr. T's English class. And then I remembered what that last journal had been about. It was a response to a letter we had written to ourselves earlier in the year. I responded. Asked some questions for my future self. Then I made a promise to myself that every year I will make it my goal to write another letter on May 28th. I will fill up the last pages of that notebook, or at least that is what I told Mr. T.

I still plan on writing it. In fact, when I get back from Ohio I am going to post the old letter before I start writing this year's.

Anyway... I just lost my train of thought.

This was a really long blog. So I think it makes up for my lack of posting lately. :D Even though the contents were pretty much pointless.

Busy Busy Busy

So, I realize that until last week I went a month without writing anything in this blog. That is... sad? Disappointing? Both, really. Here's the thing: high school is really freaking crazy. Especially now that we are into the last term of the school year. The last half term of the school year, really. I am working like crazy to put together things for next years newspaper. Along with trying to keep my grades up while fighting a really really bad case of spring fever.

I cannot wait until this year is over. I cannot wait until next year starts. Next year is going to be totally amazing!!! Absolutely, completely amazing. I am not sure why other than that my classes are going to be really really awesome.

Yeah... I don't know. There isn't really a whole lot to write about right now. Life is life and I'm trying to live it. I'm crazy busy and yet I'm still having fun with the stuff I am doing.

..............

I don't know.

Editor Update

I just wanted to update really quickly to inform anyone who doesn't know about the results of my editor application.

I don't have time to write much about it right now, I have been very busy lately, but I thought since I found out before spring break I ought to put it up here sometime soon.

So:

I am one of two Editors In Chief for Layton High School's Centurion next year. There are also two Layout Editors and a Managing Editor that I will be working with. It is really an awesome opportunity and I am very excited to see what happens with it next year.

Becoming Editor of The Centurion

I applied to be editor for my school Newspaper for the 2009-2010 school year last week. In the application we had to answer a bunch of questions and then put together a page that introduced us. The page had to have all of the features of a newspaper and it had to answer four different questions:
1. What qualities do you have that would make you a good editor?
2. Why do you want to be an editor?
3. What are your intentions?
4. What would you keep and what would you change?

I was so determined to make editor that I worked on this almost non-stop for four days. I even spent a whole weekend on it. Everything you see in this picture was made by me (my mom did give me the idea for the title). I even took the picture of myself. It was actually really really fun and I think I came up with a really good product.

Now we are all just waiting to find out what we will be doing as editors for next year. There are four girls that originally tried out and I was the only sophomore amongst them. Today, however, we discovered that one of the people who had originally planned to try out, and then ended up not turning in the application, had decided that she wanted to try out. This is really frustrating.

I do not have anything against this other girl. She is a sophomore as well and she is really nice. She is a great writer. I think it will be really great to be an editor with her. The thing that bugs me is that she got to turn in her application more than a week after we did. That, and now that she is deciding to apply again we all have to wait until the end of the week to find out what is going on. We were supposed to know last Friday.

So, I do not know. It is a frustrating thing. I am way excited about it, though. I think the other three girls who tried out (besides me and the other sophomore) will be really great to work with next year. I think we will put out a great product together.

That is all I know for now. I will keep this updated as I know more. Hopefully we will all know our positions by Friday.

Looking Back, Answering Questions

I have not logged in to the Honors English board for a while now. There was a time last year when I was actively involved in some of the discussions going on and I was sure that I would continue to be (just like I was sure that I would continue to blog), but that has not been the case.

I have been going to Layton High for almost a year now and I am surprised to see how much things have changed in that time. I spent yesterday with a friend that I had not seen since October of 2007. I was surprised the second I saw him just to see how different he looked. We spent about six hours walking around, just talking about our lives. It was great. It made me think about how different thing are now.

So, this morning I found myself logging on to the Honors English board to read some old posts. I got to the log in screen and I had a second of memory loss. I could not even remember whether I had used Madie or Madison as my screen name. After that I logged in and went straight to the section titled "Honors English 2008". I read through my introduction and my answers to questions number one and number 2. Then I got to question number 3, which is going to be the main topic of this blog once I get around to it.

Question number 3, due on October 14, 2007 says this:

Write a discussion question you would like to see posted in this forum, and then write your response to the question.

My answer was very basic. It is pretty obvious that I had not actually spent very much time thinking about it at all and just ended up throwing something on there. However, at the very bottom of my post I said this:

Is there anyone other than me and Carley that just want to answer everyone's questions? Because I have the strongest urge to do so.

Now, about a year and a half later, I am going to try to answer these questions.

SB: I'd ask what people think of The Count of Monte Cristo. Do you enjoy it? Why? Is it interesting? What do you like and dislike about it? Also who is your favorite character and how can you relate to them or why are they your favorite character?

Oh, wow. And the first question stumps me. I know that I loved The Count of Monte Cristo. It took me a long time to get into it, but once I did I thought it was absolutely great. I remember thinking that the story line was so original and so interesting. I know, that since it was my first classic, I did not like how difficult it was to read at first, but eventually I did not mind that so much. The part of this question that I can not really answer is my favorite character. I do not honestly remember who I liked or why. Maybe I will have to read it again sometime soon.

NL: I would ask: Do you think spelling is important (all the time, including when you write notes to others, posting in blogs and discussion boards, or even writing notes to yourself, etc.) and why or why not?

As a writer, I think that spelling is very important. Even when I am instant messaging or texting my friends I use proper punctuation and spelling. I believe that if I let it slip too much I will start putting the 'text speak' into my writing and make myself look like an idiot (or a typical teenager who does nothing but text). I think that many people do not think that spelling and grammar are important in informal settings. I think that is both very sad and very bad for our society.

BS: Well, I think I would ask," What is your favorite genre of literature? Why is it your favorite? How much time would you spend reading it if you had time? How much time do you spend reading it?"

My favorite genre of literature is definitely fiction. However, fiction is so wide a genre that it is not a very specific answer. I can not give one more specific though. I love fantasy, mystery, romance, horror, and historical fiction all alike. I love getting into a good book with interesting characters and a good plot. If I had all the time in the world I would probably spend about half of it reading. As much as I love reading a good book, I would still want to spend time with my family and friends. However, I am not very social and so I can honestly say that I would not mind spending half of my time reading if I had new books to read. Sadly, I do not spend nearly that much time reading. Lately, I have not had very much time at all to read. That is something I do not like. The problem is that when I have a good book I am hooked on it. I can not concentrate in class or on my homework. So I do most of my reading in the summer. I always have. However, I do get some reading done during the school year.

BB: How far are you in the book? What part are you on? Do you get it? Who is your favorite charactor and Why? Are you reading the regular one or abridged?

The first part of this question is outdated. I finished the book at the very end of that term. I had put it off for so long because it was more difficult reading than I had encountered before. I understood it pretty well. I had my mom help me a bit when the reading got difficult because she had read it before. I read the abridged version. However, I had my dad buy me the unabriged and I am thinking that I might try to tackle that this summer.

JC: I would ask what their favorite book is? why is is your favorite? and what, in your opinion is a good book?

I have so many favorite books. This is one of the most difficult questions to answer (along with my favorite author, movie, song, band, etc.). For a long time my favorite book was The Talisman by Stephen King but, while that is still pretty high up on my list, now I have read so many other great books that I can not honestly say which is my favorite. In my opinion a good book can be so many things. It does not necessarily have to be well written. The Twilight saga would be my first example of this. I do not believe it is a well written book, but I enjoyed it. The series is far from being one of my favorites. But they are good books. I think a good book has to have an interesting plot. Otherwise, what would be the point in reading it? I think that a good book can not be too descriptive. The reader has to be able to imagine it themselves. I think I will leave it at that. Though, I will put this topic on my list of things to write a full blog post about... Eventually.

CR: Have you ever read a certain book/poem, or maybe even an essay that changed the way you think, feel or act? I bet if you really take the time to think about it then you'd come up with not only one occasion, but with possibly several.

This is a really really good question. I have read so many books that have shaped the way I think now. The first that comes to mind is The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank. I read this book in seventh grade. I remember how hard it was for me to get through it because it was real. Anne Frank really existed and really went through the hardships that her diary describes. Her father really was the only one from the family to survive. It really happened. It was a hard thing to realize as a 13 year old. I had studied World War II before and I had known of the horrific things that had happened during that time, but I had never really imagined them really happening to a girl who, at the beginning of it all, was my age. There also fictional books that have changed the way I thought. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King is one of them. It was the first real novel that I read (not including the Harry Potter books). In the book, nine year old Trisha gets lost in the woods. It was a story of fear and survival. I was about ten or eleven when I read it. There are many other books along with these. I believe that the way that I think about the world, the universe, has been shaped by the books I have read even more than my own experiences. I have not experienced much. I have read a lot.

MM: "When reading examples of "classic" literature, do you notice any similarities between "classic" writings and the writing of today? If so, what are they? Give some examples."

The main similarity that I have noticed between classic literature and modern literature is the emotion. The basics of the human characters. I guess that is simple. It is not very hard to guess that human nature is going to be the same in literature... But to me that is the basis of all literature. Plus, I think that the basics of almost any plot can be found in more than just one novel. I do not know. I guess I am probably not explaining it right... I do not really know how to explain it.

HH: I would probably ask what genere of book is their favorite, and why is it their favorite.

I have already said that fiction books are my favorite, but I did not really explain why. I guess the main reason is that I can start reading a fiction book and get totally pulled into it. I forget whatever else I should be doing (because I am a procrastinator) or anything that is worrying me and just get lost in the story and the characters. It is absolutely one of my favorite things in life. Without good books I would probably be way more stressed than I am most of the time.

MLH: What do you think the most important part about writing a short story is? Why do you think that it is so important? Is that the most important part in a book as well?

I think the most important part in the actual writing of a short story is not worrying about whether or not it will be liked. I think it is important that before worrying about how much it will be read and liked by other people you have to first get your story out. You have to put it on paper and create the plot and the characters before you can worry about all of that. Then once the story is written the writer can edit it and make sure that it is readable and likeable. I definitely think that this is important in a novel as well. I read a book by Stephen King titled On Writing. He said that it is always important to write first with the door shut. Then when the first draft is done you can let people see it and worry about whether or not they like it.

IH: What would you do if you had to escape from some horried prision like Edmound Dantes? What would you do in your spare time?

I honestly do not think I read this question last year. Ha ha. Uhm.. If I had to escape from prison like Edmound Dantes... I would most likely get my ideas from a book that I had read because that is where I get my ideas anyway. In my spare time... I would contemplate escaping most likely... Uhm... I do not really know. It has been sooo long since I have read that book.

MM: I would probably ask "Where is your favorite place to read and do homework; in the house, in the yard, in a tree, and so forth? Why is this your favorite place to read or do homework? Does it stimulate your brain cells? Or does it remind you of good times? (It doesn't have to be the same answer!)

My favorite place to read is outside anywhere that is sunny. My favorite place to do homework is in my room, usually at night when I know that there is nothing else going on in the house that I could be missing out on. Ha ha. The reason I like to read outside is that I like the air. I think that the air outside is just... Good for reading? Ha ha. It is something that I really love. I can not really explain it though. The reason I like doing homework in my bedroom is that I can not concentrate when I think there are fun conversations or anything going on in my house. I have so much fun with my family that merely thinking about it distracts me.

EO: What do you think about this whole honors english thing?

Well, looking back on it now I am so glad that I stuck with it for the entire year. I really enjoyed the board discussions and the ready and the blogs. I also enjoyed the two parties we had... The one that was really successful and the one that really... was not. Ha ha. I loved reading other people's blogs even though I hardly ever commented on them. I also liked having a reason to read those classics. I probably never would have read The Count of Monte Cristo, Dandelion Wine, or Great Expectations had it not been for that class. I loved all of those books. The whole year was just so great. It also helps that Mr. T was the greatest teacher I have ever had.

AW: What is your favorite part about Honors English. Is is the blogs, the discussion board, or the reading assignments? Why?

My favorite part of Honors English was a combination of the people and the reading. I loved reading the books and then talking about them to other people in the class or Mr. T. I thought it was great that at the end of a lot of the conversations Mr. T and I had he would say "Blog that." and sometimes I would and sometimes I wouldn't. I loved so many parts of that class that it is hard to choose one specific favorite.

JW: O.K., here's the question; Do you have any pets?

Uhm... Kind of a random question. Yes, I have four pets. I have two dogs, both Shib Inus. One girl and one boy. And I have two leopard geckos. One girl and one boy. The dogs names are Koda and Breezy and the lizards names are Starsky and Hutch (we named them before we knew that one of them was a girl).

TB: Hmmm....my question would be what do you think of grammar punk?

I actually did not mind grammar punk. I thought it was fun to write the sentences and what was even more fun than that was brainstorming the words for the sentences. It was really a lot of fun because all year I was lucky to have some really funny people in my class.

MR (me): My question is: What is your biggest problem with writing and completing stories, novels, and just writing in general?

(And I'm just going to post my answer from before)

My biggest problem with writing stories is that I have way to many ideas coming to me. I'll think of an idea, and then I'll start writing. I'll have a good couple of pages written in my notebook, and then I put it down for the night and go to sleep. Going to sleep is what kills the story. I tell myself that I have to keep writing, and then a month or even a year later I'll find the notebook I started writing the story in. The first few pages of the notebook are written on, and then the rest is empty. I write a little bit more of the story if the idea was good enough to still be interesting, and then I put the notebook down again. It would take hundreds of years to finish a book this way. It makes me sad, because Carley has written and completed several stories, and she always tells me that I need to finish one so I know what it feels like to finish a story, and I will. Hopefully one day I will find a plot line that will keep me interested until the very last punctuation, but until then I think I'll keep to short stories. I've got one posted on my blog, and I'm going to try to continue it, but I would love it if some people would read it and tell me what they thought so I could have enough reason to continue.

HS: Why do you think reading is important?

There are so many things that make reading important. To me one of the more important ones is knowledge. I think that without reading a person puts a very real limit on the knowledge. They hold themselves back from being as smart as they can be, from being the person they can be.

MP: Think of a good book that you've read recentley. Did you feel that it was one that you could really enjoy? Did it paint a vivid picture in your mind as to what the character is doing, acting, and feeling? Could you imagine yourself standing along side this character, fighting their battles?

I just finished reading a book called Nightworld. Nightworld itself is the name of the series, but the books come in threes. So Nightworld 1 contains three different books in it. It was a really good book. I think it was another one, though, that I liked more for the story than for the writing. It was not terrific writing and it did not really paint a picture in my head. Mostly I just thought that L.J. Smith's ideas were really good and really interesting.

SZ: If you could go anywhere in the world for one week where would you go? Why would you go there? And what would you plan to do?

If I could go anywhere in the world for a week then I would go to the United Kingdom. I would start out in Scotland and make my way down into England and maybe Wales. I have wanted to go there for so many years now. It is my dream to visit England and Scotland because I think that it would be amazing to see how people live there and even just to explore. I do not really know what I would plan. Probably just a lot of sight seeing. I would definitely see Stone Henge because I have always wanted to see that.

AT: Who is your favorite author and why? Why do the books this author writes appeal to you more than the books of other authors? Name some characteristics of the author's writing style that keep the reader entertained, help make the book interesting, and why they make that person a good author.

It is really hard to pick a favorite author, but for now I think I will go with Stephen King. I love his writing because he creates real characters. Often when reading his books I like to think about what I would do if I were to meet him. I would probably ask him if he actually has to try to make his characters sound so real or if it just comes naturally to him. His plots are definitely interesting, and they always hold my attention. He has an incredible imagination and I admire his writing style.

BW: Which University is better, U of U, or BYU? State why? Is it a strong opinion?

Uhm... Well I do not really care. Personally if it were which I would rather go to then I would choose U of U. I am not LDS and so I just would not go there mostly because it is more expensive. Other than that... Go George Washington University! Ha ha. Or even Southern Utah University.

AB: Who is your favorite author and what kind of books do they write? Why do you like reading those books.

I think we will go with James Patterson this time. He writes fiction. Some mystery/action and some fantasy/action. He has even written a couple of romances that I really like. I like reading his books because they are interesting. They have good plots and good characters and I even like how he writes short chapters. It makes it easier to put them down when I absolutely have to. I do not have to stop in the middle of a chapter when reading his books.

SO: Have you ever had a life changing experience? What was it? In what way did it change your life? Have you benefited from this change or not?

I think everyone has had a life changing experience. Several of them I am sure. They are part of life. Uhm... Well the experience that comes to my mind first is something that happened during last year... I think it was the beginning of ninth grade. My cousin has cancer. She is... four years old. One weekend in November of 2007 we planned a benefit concert for her. The singer was Brenn Hill. There was also a silent auction before hand. My sisters and I brought suckers and hot chocolate and helped set up and clean up. It changed me because I had never seen so many people come together to help one person. And to see that happen, to be part of that, was the best feeling.

LS: What is your favorite instrument and why?

Hmm... I play the viola and the guitar so I love both of those instruments. But my absolute favorite instrument ever is the Cello. I love that it can create amazingly beautiful sounds both in a group and alone. I think it is a gorgeous instrument (is that weird?) and I think that it would be the best instrument to play and I regret not learning to play it.

CH: What is your favorite movie(s)?

I have soooo many. My sisters are currently talking about movies so I think I will just mention a couple of movies that they are talking about that I love: 10 Things I Hate About You, Dark Knight, Miss Potter, Little Women, City of Angels, Practical Magic, Titanic, Because I Said So, and like... a million more.

RW: What is your favorite kind of music, band, andwhy are this your favorite.

Wow. Ok. ^^ Grammar. I am just copying these questions exactly as they were on the board.

I love all kinds of music. My favorite band right now is Paramore. I do not really know why. I just like their music. I have loved them for a very long while now.

DA: When you enter a book store, lets say Barnes and Noble, what section do you go to first? Why?

I go straight to the young adult section that is like... One aisle right in front of the kid section. I check out books there first before going to the shelves of my favorite authors. I do this because I just think that the books there are books that can be really good but not for adults... I do not really know how to explain it...

PB: What do you take for granted? life? house? money? clothes?

I definitely take my family for granted. They are so amazing and I know I do not appreciate them enough or what they do for me. I try, but sometimes I just do not do so well with it. I know that is something I should work on. I am a very very lucky person to have what I do.

ZH: I would ask what books do you want to read? Are they long? Do you have time to read all of them? Are you required to read other books?

There are so many... I think I want to make a list sometime and post it up here. They are very different. Some short, some long. Some immature, some more mature. I will read most of them eventually. I wish there was enough time in life to read everything. I am not really required to read anything for school this year... Which is weird.

CR: What do you think is your hardest subject this year?Why is it your hardest? What is your easiest? Why is it you easiest?

My hardest subject this year is AP European History. It is my hardest because it takes a lot of work. A lot of studying and a lot of reading and a lot of memorizing. My easiest subject, sadly, is Honors English. The reason for this is that we have hardly read anything, we have only written three essays, and she says that for the rest of the year we will be focusing on poetry. I just wish we had been able to read more. It was supposed to be world literature but we have only covered Africa, Greece, and now Asia.

AS: Where do people who write books get their ideas from to put in the story and come up with the story?

I think this question is very basic. Any writer gets there ideas from their heads along with the people and things around them. I know I get my ideas from everywhere. Anything can get my imagination moving. I think most writers are that way. I think they have to be.

LH: What do you think is the most important part of life? What makes it so important...so special?

I think that the most important part of life is going for your goals. Knowing what you want to do and doing it. I can not think of the words to explain why this is important. It just... It just is. Ha ha.

IU: If you could have any series of books on your shelf what would it be and why?

There is this series of my mom's that I have read recently. It is by Diana Gabaldon and I absolutely love them. They are the reason that I really really want to go to Scotland. I own the second book but the rest are my mom's. One day I hope to own them all. If I could have my mom's book collection I would be so happy.

Alright, so toward the end I skipped a lot of questions because they got very repetitive. But here they are. A lot of these answers would have been very different if I had answered them the week of this discussion. Time has changed a lot. It is good, but it is strange.