Um I love skulling. Someday I will buy a single shell and live on/near a lake and go out on the water all the time. Maybe also I will have a sunfish. 

Just brought out the alarm clock with the ipod dock. I'm very excited to wake up to Party in the USA tomorrow. 

Current Mood: excited

Hey so apparently if you get first in the regional fair you are automatically entered into the international fair in Reno, NV for a week.  So that's pretty freakin' sweet.

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: mentir- marie-mai

So today I went to the Western Mass Science fair. There were 108 teams there. Cindy and I won. The first prize was split between us and another team, but still, pretty freaking sweet. We get $300 and automatic entry into the state fair for winning, and we also won the special award from Genzyme, which is going to get us even more money and awesome stuff. So yeah, finally redemption after last year's failure/ drama.

Current Mood: exhausted

What I've learned from this week:

Sleep is good. Stress is not.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: C'est la Vie- Bewitched

I went to bed early last night even though I didn't do any of my homework, but I felt good this morning, not exhausted. I managed to get everything done in Study Hall/ Physics class, except the flynn freewrite, but there was no way I could've read 80 pages last night, and I really don't want to get behind/ I want to actually get something out of this class besides a good grade. Yet when I saw Mrs. Baldwin this morning she told me I looked really stressed and that I should relax a bunch, I told her I would in June. In retrospect, I don't know why I took on so many long term projects this year when I secretly hate them because there's ALWAYS something else you can do. I've decided that the way I'm going to get through this upcoming semester is to make sleep a priority (with exceptions of course, but for the most part) because otherwise it will be bad for my health and sanity.

I'm looking forward to lifeguarding this evening and getting my 3 hours of more or less sauna meditation. I mean, paying attention of course, but there's something about simply sitting and observing for a long period of time that's really nice.

I might just save all of my homework for my study halls tomorrow.

I'm having kettlecorn for dinner and I think I just ate a kernel that my dog licked.

I played the piano for like 10 minutes this afternoon, even though I didn't really have the time, and realized how much I had missed it. I think I'm becoming more of an artist as time passes, not necessarily meaning I'm getting more skilled, but I appreciate the process much more. I love that focused time of creating and using the other side of my brain.
 

Current Mood: overstimulated
Current Music: quiet

I like Obama. I like when he talks, I like his politics, I like his family. I like that history was made today, even though I wish him being the first Black president wasn't such a big deal. I wish that it didn't need to even be mentioned, except in the demographics of the presidents, along with which ones were over 6 ft tall or something. But we're on our way. I really like the feeling of being proud of being American. That I agree with what is being said by the leader of my country. I can't say that I've really ever felt that way before; I was 9 when George W. Bush was inaugurated, so I remember when Clinton was president, but I didn't know anything about his politics or anything. I'm pretty sure the 2000 election was when I asked my aunt what the difference between Democrats and Republicans was, and she told me biasedly enough that I didn't understand why anyone would want to be a Republican.

Today was a good day, despite, and maybe partially because of the fact that we actually did work in all of my classes, yet still got to see all of the inauguration during Band/Lunch. I protested actually doing stuff, but it feels good to come home having accomplished something. Mrs. Olds liked my letter draft, so I'm going to type it up and go forward with it. It turns out sending a 25 lb. package to Burkina Faso will be like $900, so we're going to have to rethink that, but it might end up being even better.

I talked to Mrs. Baldwin today, in the first time in a while, which was good, though I felt guilty because she was overstressed, even though she always is. But she's going to be a camp rec, so that's cool.

Bad event of the day: I was trying to drive away from Rite Aid, after realizing that I didn't have any money with me, so I couldn't buy chapstick, and the key wouldn't turn in the ignition. I freaked out, and couldn't get in contact with my parents so I sat there for a while, and then called my sister who told me that the wheel was locked and that I should shake the wheel and it would work. And it did, so it was all good, except it turned out she was out to dinner with her boss and co-workers, so I felt bad.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine- The Fifth Dimension

I've been pretty productive this 3 day weekend, but not about homework, about everything else. Maybe writing a list will get me to do some of the stuff that I really need to do for tomorrow.

Also, I had a banana earlier and the smell of the peal is making me hungry because it reminds me of banana bread.
Did:

• Wrote a draft of the letter for the WISE project
• Caught up on Fatal Purity reading so that I'm now where I was supposed to be for Friday...but I have another 51 pages to read for tomorrow
• Prepared for camp interview with a list of reasons why I want to be staff and why I'm a good candidate
• Went to the gym and went on the eliptical machine for 1/2 an hour today
• Went cross-country skiing yesterday
• Swam 20 laps on Saturday
• Talked on skype with Cindy about Science Fair stuff
• Set up the other DVD player to the TV because the one that's supposed to work gets really finicky and tells you that there's something wrong with your disk, and then figured out how to make it play
• Took down the poster of stupid Bush quotes that I've had for like 6 years and replaced it with a happy inspirational Obama poster
• Did my French reading
• Read poems for English and looked up vocab

Still to do:

• Make a "database" for one of the poems for English
• Type (and do) the physics lab
• Attempt to study for the test tomorrow
• Read 51 pages in Fatal Purity
• Freewrite?
• Read and take notes on Citizens
• Work on St. Lawrence application
• Mom's birthday?
• SLEEP

Too bad most of the stuff on the Did list didn't have to get done, but all the stuff on the still to do list needs to be done tonight except for the last 3. Yeah, I don't think that's actually going to happen though. It's good though, because if I had done all the stuff I had had to do, I just would have lazed around, but since I did most of the 1st list stuff in procrastination of the 2nd stuff, I will ultimately get more done.

I've noticed that I've become quite a list maker recently.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Fallin'-Dispatch

It occurs to me that I really like journaling and therefore having to keep a journal for the WISE project is for the most part not a big deal, though it is a little annoying to have to summarize meetings I've just had, but it's good to have a record of it. I'm really excited about this project, but I feel like I don't explain it well when I tell other people, or maybe it's just only interesting to me, because people do not react nearly as excitedly as I am.

I'm sorry if I already described this. I'm looking at different perspectives of peace around the world. I feel like peace is one of those words that everyone uses, and is defined as the absence of conflict, but it's more than that. So I'm sending off a chain letter of sorts to pretty much every contact I have (well not really, but at least every international contact I have) imploring them to think about peace and create something that describes peace for them, and then pass it on. I think it could end up being really fascinating to see what people do and where it goes, but I worry that I'm asking too much of people. I guess we'll see. So yeah, if anyone wants to participate, or knows anyone who would, that would be awesome.

Also, I think my crocheted green hat is turning into a beret. Does that make me a marine-wannabe?

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: So Far Away- Carole King

I was thinking the other day about how this constantly becomes an outlet of teen angst for me, but I guess that's really to be expected. And it's better than bottling it all up inside, or bashing my head against the wall repeatedly.

We got back our essay test for Modern Euro today from like 5 weeks ago. The one that I wasn't sure about half of the terms in the question and I just started rambling on and on about halfway through. I made a nervous face when he said he was giving them back, and Mr. Flynn said to me, "oh, yours wasn't very good, Molly." "Yeah..." So then I swear he hands every paper back before mine on purpose just to make me nervous, and I got an A. Apparently he had been being sarcastic, but sometimes it's hard to tell with that man. The comments were like, excellent and creative and clear. Which is funny, because when I do something that I think is good, well more for English, but still, it's not that good. I could feel my ego swelling throughout the whole class period, like A's are really hard to get in the H wing. A-'s sure, but they have this phobia of giving higher than a 95, because there's always room for improvement when you're writing and developing ideas, so a 95 becomes the highest attainable grade, and everything gets shifted down. This is frustrating when trying to compare classes, but it makes you feel so good if you actually do get mid-90s. I think Modern Euro is the one class I'm still going to be trying at by the end of the year. I mean, probably not doing all of the reading, because I don't do that now, but for papers and stuff I will. I'm so much less stressed about the next test we have. It feels really weird to have tests in that class though, it's just not the way that Mr. Flynn jives, usually.

My life is mad-busy right now. And even though I have this stress feeling pressing down on me and making me feel anxious and rushed( which also has to do with being 15 minutes late to everything today and speeding everywhere) I'm actually feeling good. I'm going to be done applying to all of the schools I really want to go to on Thursday, Haverford is the only one left, and I'm going to try to finish the essay tonight, after I do my french reading and prepare a french presentation. Tomorrow night is the Drama class's production of Almost, Maine, and I really want to go, but I can't if I don't finish with Haverford, so that is my motivation.

The thing about having a lot of projects going, though, is that whenever something gets accomplished for one of them, I get a boost for everything else. I finished the spreadsheet of everyone in musical today, I might be calling the show (?) and we're applying for a grant for Burkina Faso penpalling, AND we might go to the UN soon-ish.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Up the Junction-Squeeze