Blog 40: Graduation

"This is my final blog.  I can't believe it.  I have officially done my forty blogs that I need.  I decided that I would make this little essay entry about graduation.  I thought this would be a good topic because it has been on my mind a lot lately.  Probably just as every other senior in the world at this time of year."

That above quote is something I wrote months ago in this exact entry.  I completely forgot about it until today.  I now only have two days left of high school and am even more excited than I was back then.  SO many new things are going to happen in the next year.  College.  That should be a really interesting new experience.  I'll be going to a new and different state and leaving all of my friends I've made over the past 13 years behind.  A new chapter in my life.  It has always sounded like such a cliche to me, but now it feels like the right phrase to use.  I can't believe it.

Blog 39: Rearranging

This past weekend I decided to do some rearranging.  I thought, why not?  I have always wanted to do and I had the time.  What inspired me was going to one of my friends' houses.  She has an amazing bedroom.  Kind of my dream room.  Connected to her ceiling halfway around her room is a little shelf.  The shelf is completely filled with movies.  The room is mainly a black, white and gray room.  Then she has amazing furniture.  Her desk and dresser are beautiful and what she has on them is even better.  Her desk and a huge mirror on it and her dresser has a stack of Seventeen, Teen Vogue and Cosmo magazines.  It also has assorted lotions and perfumes.  There is also a ledge around her room that has books all lined up on it.  Finally, she has an amazing closet filled with clothes and shelves with her shoes on them.  
After leaving her house I felt inspired.  She knows how much I love her room and told me that I should change my room then if I so desired. I have two connecting rooms.  One has my bed in it, and one is a sitting room with a couch, tv, etc.  I can't really arrange my room with the beds in it, but I arranged my other room. I didn't do much at all, but just the slight adjustments I made, made such a difference in my mind.  It made is seem much more spacious and I love it.  I basically just switched my table and benches, but I really like it.  I also am now thinking about staining my benches with a dark stain because they have always been just plain wood.  We will see!

Blog 38: 2 Months and Counting

I can't believe that in just a little over two months I will be boarding a plane for Florida.  This past week all of my friends and I bought our plane ticket and I am beyond excited.  We also got a really good deal on tickets which made me really happy.  

I've been trying to really save up my money for this trip.  I have bought close to nothing except necessities for about a month.  I am pretty proud of myself.  All of my friends are talking about buying all these clothes for the week but I have decided that I have enough clothes already.  

My biggest concern is that I still need to get work off.  I am actually a little scared to ask for it off.  Spring break is the biggest/busiest time of the year at my job and I hope it is not an issue that I need it off.  I have been trying to make myself call my boss and ask her.  I always have hated asking for time off.  I always feel like I am doing something wrong or being a burden even when I'm not.

So many amazing thoughts have been flowing through my mind when it comes to spring break.  I can't believe I am going to get to spend a whole week with my friends.  I think it'll be my best memory of high school and something I will remember for the rest of my life.   I am going to be taking pictures like a crazy person.  I already warned my friends that I will probably annoy them with my excessive picture taking.  I'm okay with that though.  This trip will be too good for me to not want to take photos.   

Blog 37: 3rd Quarter

Third quarter is something that I am not necessarily looking forward to. I am, but I'm not.  For the most part, I really like my classes right now.  I have a lot of my good friends in them and I really love all of the people in my lunch.  I am excited for a new quarter so some of the actual classes I am taking get switched up. 
Next quarter, I don't really know anyone in my classes which makes me a little bit nervous.  Since this year people can take so many different electives and classes, it is hard to know who will be in each class.I also can't believe it will be the third quarter in my senior year.  After tomorrow, I am half way through being completely done with high school and I can't even believe it.  These past four years have gone by so incredibly fast.  Everyone told me they would, but I almost didn't believe it.  This year I am trying not to take a single moment for granted.  Every time I hang out with my friends I think about how much I am going to miss all of them next year.  Not a single pair out of my good group of friends are going to college together.  We all say that we'll see each other over break and the summer, but I know that with each year, that fades. 
As third quarter approaches, I have really started to reflect on high school.  I really hope I make this last semester the best one of high school.  I feel that this one could be the best because for the most part, my friends aren't stressed about college choices and applying anymore.  That was definitely a huge stressor of the first semester.  A lot of great things I think are going to happen this semester, the last one of high school. 

Blog 36: Next Weekend

Starting today, I know the rest of my week is going to be really good.  Especially this upcoming weekend.  Thursday is a half day of school and then we don't have school on Friday.  On Thursday night I have a couple of my friends sleeping over at my house which should be super fun. We haven't hung out in quite a long time and it will be good to see them again.  We'll probably have a movie night or something like that.  They are coming over right after school is over so at about 1ish.  I am really excited and can hardly wait.  I don't even really know why we have to come to school tomorrow.  I took all my finals today and tomorrow is going to be a really short day anyway. 
Then on Friday during the day I am going out with two of my second cousins.  I haven't seen them in a long time and one of them texted me and said she'd take me out for dinner, movies or anything I wabted.  I just suggested that we go shopping.  So I am meeting them at one of their houses and then we are going to go shopping at the Albertville Outlets.  I'm sure we will have tons of fun because we have a lot to catch up on.
Then on Saturday, there is a company party for where I work.  We are going to go to Buck Hill and if we want we can go tubing.  We are also having appetizers and drinks at a restaurant at Buck.  I don't really know what to expect because I am somewhat of a newbie at the company. I am not completely because I have been there for about six months, but I am still the newest one there.  I hope my friend Sarah goes or else I am not even sure that I will.
Then on Sunday morning, early, I have to go to work.  I a lot of the times like working in the mornings though because it is a longer shift and then I have the rest of my day when I'm done.  However, I don't like waking up early in the morning. 

Blog 35: Today

Today I was supposed to go on a Live retreat with the high school.  I was really looking forward to it, but now I'm not going.  My friend Jenna and I were supposed to go together. She was going to drive me and we would miss the whole day of school.  The retreat was with 4th graders from Westwood Elementary.  Last night she texted me and said she was no longer going.  She said she was too stressed out about finals and her mom didn't want her to go.  That made me kind of sad.  I was really excited to go.
So now I am here at school today.  It seems pretty pointless for me to be here.  In physics first hour, we had a review day, which wasn't super necessary.  Then in math second hour, we had a review day, which was also not necessary.  I was done with all of my assignments and we ony have a quiz tomorrow.  I am also done with my Creative Writing final project, I just have to finish up these blogs.  Then for Work Program, we're having a study hall day.  Finally, for Government class, we're watching a movie.  Well we also could be working on a review sheet for the final, but I'm not.  We don't have to take the final in that class if you have an A, and I do so I've just been sitting there for two days watching a movie.  I will probably study for physics today though.  That is the one test I have that I'm actually a little nervous about.  Other than that, this week is going to be pretty easy with not a whole lot to do. 

Blog 34: Sunday

Sunday was almost as good of a day as Saturday.  It was actually probably a tie.  It was my friend Micaela's birthday and party.  Unfortunately, I had to work until 8 o'clock.  My day started out rather well, I woke up at about nine and then went down to feed my animals.  I had to pack for the party I was going to later and then get ready for work.  I left for work at about 1:30.  My shift was 2-8.  It was a pretty good shift.  I cleaned a lot of dogs' rooms and it was super, super cold.  After work, I couldn't go straight to Micaela's.  Everyone was going out to dinner at Crave and there reservation was at 7.  So I went to my grandparents house and got changed and ready to go.  My friend Rachel texted me when they were leaving Crave and I went over to Micaela's at about 9:30. 
It was a super fun party.  There were about twenty of us there which made it that much more fun.  I gave her, her present and we had some delicious cake.  We then watched Mean Girls and Pitch Perfect, stereotypical teenage girl movies.  Everyone started to go to bed at about two in the morning.  Only six of us slept over out of the twenty or so.  My friend Bre and I stayed up until five something, we are always the last ones up.  It was a super fun party and overall a pretty awesome day. 

Blog 33: College

I have finally made up my mind as to where I will be attending college next year.  I am going to go to Franciscan University of Steubenville Ohio.  I never thought I would go there, ever.  My sister attends there, and I have visited a couple times.  The first few times I went there, I thought it was a lovely school, but that it really wasn't for me.  All the people seemed pretty conservative and the school has a small population of about 3,000.
All of my qualifications for school that I always had in my mind, aren't included in Steubenville, but for some reason I still absolutely love it.  When I thought of college before, I always said I wanted a big school, I wanted it to be in Minnesota and I wanted it to be a fairly cheap school.  Well none of this is true about Steubenville.  The school is super small, it is in Ohio and it is way more than I really want to spend on college.  I also realized that all the things I said I wanted, kind of turned out to be false.  When I went and visited big colleges, I hated them.  I started to think about it and realized I wanted to go out of state too.
There were also many things I love about Steubenville specifically.  It is a gorgeous, cute little campus, all the people seem super sweet and nice, and when I was there, I had the campus feel, which I liked a lot.  They also have a ton of fun intramueral sports, wonderful acedemic opportunities and a fantastic study abroad program.
I am still trying to get other people on board with the school.  My dad isn't really a fan, he doesn't like how much the school costs, or how conservative it is.  I'm also trying to convince one of my friends to go to school there with me, but it's not going so well. I got her to apply, but that is as far as it has really gone.  It would be a blast if she goes with me, but I don't think she wants to go that far away from home. 

Blog 32: Saturday

This Saturday was such a busy day, and I loved it. I slept over at my friends house on Friday night which was really fun.  We went over to another friends for a movie night.  On saturday morning we woke up at 10:30 and then at noon we went to Caribou for a little spring break meeting.  We had to figure out when we were buying our plane tickets and all of that jazz because people have been starting to freak out.  We ended up staying until three o'clock.  After that, I had to go to one of my jobs.  I clean my dad's office building as one of my jobs, so my friend and I went to do that.  Cleaning took until about 4:30 which was good because my friend and I were meeting her mom for dinner at 5. 
We ended up going to Perkins for dinner in Prior Lake.  We discussed what had happened at the spring break meeting and a lot of other things.  We went out to dinner because my friend Bre's little sister Alyssa had a dance show at the high school at 7.  Alyssa is on the middle school dance team, but the event was also the high school dance team as well as some other local dance lines.  I watched that with Bre, her mom and one of our other friends, Micaela.  The show got over at about 7:40.
After that at about 8, I suggested that maybe we should go and see the One Acts.  I knew they started at 7:30 and I thought that we should support one of our friends that is in them.  We missed the first one, but watched the second two.  They ended up getting done at about 9:30.  We left the high school at ten and I got home after 10:30. It was a reallyy fun and busy day.

Blog 31: Fail

Everything seemed to be going pretty good with the Spring Break plans until recently.  We have all been trying to get our tickets for a long time and haven't gotten it done.  I have really been trying to get this done so it will stop stressing me out.  I looked today and the cheapest tickets are over six hundred dollars.  I am so, so mad.  When we looked before they were only about four hundred dollars.  I am so upset.  We should have bought tickets months ago.  I felt like maybe writing about this would make me feel better.  I don't know that it really is.  It is actually making me frustrated because I'm thinking about it in detail again.
I am having issues in deciding whether or not I should go.  I mean, the lodging is really cheap and so is the car, but I still don't want to pay that much for a ticket. We are all going to college next year and I seem to be the only one that cares about that factor.  I don't want to go into college with even less money than I have now.  College costs so much money and I'm going to have to take out loans.  I wanted to buy my plane ticket so long ago. I was also really mad because I have 47,000 sky miles or whatever you call them for Delta Airlines.  To get a free ticket to Orlando during spring break time is 50,000 miles. Of course I am 3,000 miles short.  It is the icing on top of the cake, just my luck.
I really hope that this all gets figured out.  And very, very soon.  This was supposed to be fun, not stress me out.  Now I just don't know what to do.  I don't know if I should go or not.  I know it would be a blast if I went with all of my friends, but is a lot of money that I could use for other things.  I guess we will have to see. Fail.

Blog 30: Music

My last blog encouraged me to write an entire blog about music.  I love music.  All types.  When I say that, I mean it.  A lot of people say they love all music and have many exceptions.  It is very hard for me to find a genre of music I dislike. I love classics.  Rock music from the 70's and 80's is awesome.  I even like as far back as Elvis stuff.  I also think that 90's music is pretty great.  The Goo Goo Dolls and Third Eye Blind are a couple of my favorites from the 90's.
Music from now is also great.  I kind of like older music though because it reminds me more of when I was a kid.  Especially the music from the 1990's.  I'm barely a child of the 90's, but I still am.  However, I like music from these days because of the memories I have with certain songs.  I always remember things based off of a song that was playing at the time it seems.  I always remember music. Songs also help me to remember movies.  
Music is a big part of my life.  I have always loved singing since I was a little kid.  The majority of my family is fairly good singers.  My grandpa is also a great piano player and I have always loved to listen to him play.  There's something about the way he plays.  He has inspired me musically.  Because of him, I think is why I became interested in singing.  Of course now we listen to completely different types of music.  I think the only kind of music he'll listen to is choral music.  Choir concerts at the high school he always loves.  He basically says that all music on the radio, "is just noise."

Blog 29: Poetry

Recently I have had to write a lot of poetry.  After I'm done with this blog I will have to write some more.  Last week, my poetry portfolio was do.  That consisted of thirty poems, about fifteen structured and fifteen free-writes.  Now we have to do our final project where one of the options is to do an additional poetry portfolio.  I am doing this one.  Fortunately, this one only needs twenty poems. I feel like for the past two weeks all I have been doing is writing poems.
For this poetry portfolio, my theme is School.  For the last one, we didn't need to have a theme.  I think I may be running out of ideas.  My creativity seems to be fading.  I have been working really hard at it and I hope I think of more things to write about.  I have written about basically every subject I have and a bunch of other randomness.
I am currently brainstorming ideas for poetry as I am writing this.  I am also listening to some Third Eye Blind on my computer.  I love Third Eye Blind, classic 90's.  My favorite.  I thought that maybe music could be an inspiration for poetry.  Not necessarily Third Eye Blind, but music in general.  I listen to classical music often when I am trying to concentrate or brainstorm.  Especially when I try to soak up information, like studying for physics.  It helps to decrease my stress level and just think freely. 

Blog 28: Physics

My least favorite class this year is Physics, by far.  It is also probably my least favorite class that I have ever taken.  I have always disliked science more than other subjects.  I may dislike just because people assume that I should be good at it or something.  Since I am fairly good at math, people think that must mean I’m a genius at science too.  That is very, very false. 

Some science was okay for me.  I actually really enjoyed Anatomy & Physiology.  It was kind of difficult, but it made sense.  Physics will never make sense.  No matter how long I study or do practice problems, nothing helps me.  Chemistry was kind of the same way.  I took Chemistry when I was a sophomore because I did “fast track.” I thought it was really difficult.  Physics is even harder.  People warned me not to take it, but since I did do the fast track, I had to. 

My dad also thinks I should be really good at physics for some weird reason. Since he was good at it in high school, he seems to think that means I’m going to be a pro at it.  That makes me frustrated, I tend to be a little better at history and English than math and science.   

Blog 27: Spring Break

I am getting incredibly excited for spring break this year.  This will be the first year that I have gone on spring break with people other than my family.  One of my friends has a timeshare in Florida right by Disney World.  So a group of ten of us is going over spring break.  We have been planning this forever and are super excited.  We haven’t bought plane tickets though, which I’m really not happy about. 

A lot of my friends are already trying to plane what they want to put in their suitcases already.  I’m trying to save up my money so this trip doesn’t use all of it.   I made a promise to myself not to buy any clothes for a month.  From January 1^st to February 1^st I am planning on buying nothing clothes related.  I’ve made it so far.  Although, it has only been nine days so far.  That’s pretty good for a girl.  If I can make it until then, I am going to try to go until March.  We’ll see how this goes.

I am so pumped for spring break, but not even the Disney World part.  I’ve been to Disney World twice and Disney Land once, so I’m not super thrilled about that part.  I’m more excited to hang out with my friends, swim and go to the beach!  

Blog 26: Super Fans

This year, a couple of my friends and I decided to be sports “Super Fans.”  To be a super fan we have to go to one of each sporting event, including boys and girls.  So far we have been doing really well.  I think of all of my friends, I am the most into succeeding at this.  My friend Rachel is too.  She made t-shirts that have all the sports listed on the back so we can check them off as we go. 

Last night I made a calendar for January and February, listing all of the home sporting events for the winter sports.  At least of the ones we haven’t gone to.  I have gone to so many sports already.  We’ve went to tennis, boys and girls soccer, football games, and many more.  This winter season we have already gone to gymnastics.  I still need to do basketball, hockey and skiing. 

I love going to all the different sporting events.  It is something that I wish I had done all of high school.  It is obviously a lot easier now that all my friends and I can drive.  It is also probably quite a bit more fun since we know people on the varsity sports teams.  I am really excited to get to see all of the sports.  I realized that before this year, all I had ever really watched was football and soccer.  It was so interesting to me to watch swimming and gymnastics.  Those were two sports I had never watched besides in the Olympics and I didn’t even know really how they were scored.

Blog 25: Typical Day of Work

There are only two shifts per day at Paws & Pals. There is a 6:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and a 2:00 p.m. to close. (At least 7:00 p.m.) Since I can only work morning shifts on the weekends, I’ll describe a typical Sunday morning shift. When we arrive in the morning, we let all of the dogs outside for a two hour play period. One of the staff members goes outside with the dogs while the other stays inside to clean the dogs’ rooms. We sweep and mop them out, dump their water and empty their food bowls. Then we poor them fresh water and start preparing breakfast for the dogs. Later on, we bring the dogs back inside and put them in their rooms. We feed them breakfast and give the ones that need medications their meds and then it is our break time. After break, we deep clean rooms that need to be done and wash dishes. Also, on Sundays, we gather up the belongings of dogs that are leaving that day. At 11ish they go outside again for their second two hour play period. The person inside once again fills their waters and then does other various cleaning activities inside. When the dogs come back in, we feed the dogs that need lunch and we typically end our shift with a break.

On Monday nights, the shift is somewhat different. Since many dogs check out on Sundays, Monday is a big cleaning day. Typically, when I arrive at work at about 2:15 and I go and see who is there for daycare. I make sure I know everyone who is there and if not, I ask. I then usually deep clean rooms for the majority of my shift. I also spend time petting the daycare dogs and bringing them up front when they are getting picked up. At about 4 o’clock, I start making the boarding dogs’ dinners. They get fed and then it’s back to cleaning. I take my dinner break at 5:30 and let the boarding dogs outside at 6. One person goes outside with them until 7:15 p.m. The other person stays inside and sweeps the isles, does dishes, laundry and fills up waters for the dogs. We then bring the dogs inside and put them in their rooms and turn on classical music for them. Then the isles need to be mopped. After that we make sure everything is picked up and we clock out.

Blog 24: Vikings

Last week, the Minnesota Vikings played the Green Bay Packers and won the game! That caused them to be able to go to the playoffs this week.  In the playoff wildcard game on Saturday night, the Vikings once again faced the Packers.  This time, they weren't so lucky.  I was pleasantly surprised last week when they won, it was an awesome game! I was sad that Adrian Peterson didn't break the record, only 8 yards short, but I was still happy they won.  
This week was a different story.  Christian Ponder was out, which wasn't very good for the Vikes.  Everyone always complains about him, but he's the bet we've got.  Joe Webb was our quarterback and unfortunately didn't do very well.  I felt kind of bad for him.  He's only ever played three games in the NFL.  He won his other two, but being thrown in the playoff game with as little experience as he has, wasn't very lucky for him.  He seems to be an amazing athlete, but maybe not quarterback.
My two cousins and uncle came over to my house on Saturday night to watch the game.  They were pretty sad, but I don't know if anyone really expected us to win.  My cousin LOVES Joe Webb.  He thinks he's the best athlete of all time.  I really like the guy too.  He was super happy to see him play, but sad to see him not do too well.  However, I think Webb did make a few good plays.  I love football, and I'm really sad to see the Vikings be out, but I'm happy and surprised that they made it this far!

Blog 23: Rawhide

Every year in Arizona my family and I go to a place called Rawhide.  I don't know why I love it so much, but every year I really look forward to it.  It is a country western place.  It has a nice restaurant and tons of other fun activities.  Some days there are rodeos, I love watching the bull riding.  There is also a mechanical bull that my sister finally rode this year.  Every year she talks about doing it, but this year she finally did.
We usually go to Rawhide on New Year's Eve.  At least that's what we have done for the last few years.  It is always my favorite night.  There are so many people and so much country music.  There are live bands and   fireworks at midnight.  I used to always love to ride the donkeys and do the hay ride when I was younger.  At Rawhide, there are also a ton of old time shops.  They have cowboy hats and boots and different candies.
This year at Rawhide was the best one yet.  It was really cold for it being Arizona this year on New Year's Eve.  They had a ton of bonfires all around, I loved the smell of them.  There was a live singer and there weren't many people listening to him yet because the night was still young.  For some reason, I proposed the idea that we go and start dancing in front of the stage.  The man then talked to us in between songs and asked if any one was a singer, I said yes.  I drug my sister up on the stage and we sang with the guy for about 15 minutes.  It was so much fun!  More and more people started to come and listen to us sing.  I was nervous at first but then I was just having too much fun to be scared.  Little did we know that there were speakers projecting our voices around the entire place!

Blog 22: Arizona

Every year I leave for Arizona on the twenty sixth of December.  I go with my sister, my grandparents and my cousin.  We stay until the first of January.  I look forward to that week every year.  We always go swimming and play a lot of sports which is my favorite part.  Tennis is my favorite thing to play, but everyone else seems to like to play pickleball better.  I think that is really fun too. I also love soaking up some sun because Minnesota winters are usually pretty depressing. 
This year on my trip, I met some pretty interesting people.  My grandparents have a house in Arizona that is in a 55 plus community.  This allows them to have the pool, various game courts and a club house.  While at the club house, my cousin and I met an old man named Jim.  He has lived in the park for quite some time and he is Greek.  He had a great accent and I loved talking with him.  He told me stories about when he first came to America and about how he owned his own restaurant.  I loved to listen to him tell stories, and I think he loved to have someone listen.  For the rest of the week whenever we saw him, we would say hi and talk to him.
One night at the hot tub, my sister, cousin and I met another interesting guy.  He was from Canada.  He was probably in his mid thirties and had a wonderful accent as well.  We never learned his name even though we saw and spoke to him numerous times.  He said he came to the park five weeks a year to see his parents.  I was thinking that I have get whatever job that guy has that allows him to travel so much.
I love meeting new people in Arizona, because a lot of the time, I end up seeing and talking to them again the next year.  

Blog 21: Christmas Day

Christmas Day was a fun one.  My sister and I awoke at my grandparent's house where we ate caramel rolls.  We also opened sstocking stuffers.  We have a rule that they have to be ten dollars or under.  After that my sister and I headed home to spend the day with my dad.
We had decided earlier that we were going to have a movie day.  We celebrated Christmas earlier in the year when my other grandparents were home.  They are snowbirds so they are usually not home in December.  I voted to watch Elf, or have a Die Hard marathon. We did neither.  I wasn't really too surprised.  We did end up watching Die Hard 3, but we didn't have a marathon.  We also then watched the Bourne Legacy because we had never seen it. My sister and I then opened presents with my dad and step-mom.  
Every year on December 26, my sister and I go to Arizona with my grandparents.  So, Christmas is also usually a packing day.  I packed my suitcase completely full as I always do.  I think I'm getting a ittle bit better at bringing fewer things, but I could just be saying that to make myself feel better.  We are always such procrastinators with packing.  I stayed up until midnight on Christmas and I had to get up at four a.m. for my flight.   

Blog 20: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a pretty busy day for me this year.  I had to work on Christmas Eve this year until about 8 o'clock.  After I was done with work I went back to my grandparents and had a really nice time.  My uncle, two cousins and my sister were there.  I was happy that they waited for me to eat our delicious dinner.  We had prime rib and baked potatos.  After we ate we opened presents.  I got some really nice gifts from friends and family that had been put under the Christmas tree.  I got some clothes and movies and many other lovey things.  We always open presents in order from the youngest to oldest.  We've always done it that way.  It always starts with my twelve year old cousin Scott and ends with my grandpa Jerry.
After we were done opening presents we played Sour Apples to Apples.  We had so much fun and of course my uncle won.  He always seems to win when we play games...I think he cheats.  I love that game and it's really fun to play with the family.
That night, my sister and I stayed at my grandparents. We always do on Christmas Eve because on Christmas morning, my grandma makes caramel rolls.  After that, we head home to spend the day with my dad.