Christmas and New Year!

I've been busy.

That's all I can say.

So, I would fill you in on my weekend spent in Ocala.

December 24th- Spent the afternoon at a friend's house. It was his birthday. I feel sorry for him. When people get him gifts, they bundle up his birthday and Christmas.

I got this from Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney: It's not fair because you get cheated out of getting another gift. I'm sure they've been doing this for years.

A cartoon comes up with a picture of a man handing another man a gift. He says, "Here, Jesus, this is for your birthday AND Christmas!"

I then spent three hours in a car, playing on my iPad 2, which I got as an early Christmas gift on December 4th. It got passed as my mom's birthday gift. Forgot to get her something. At least I got to play with it for a few weeks before the day I was supposed to get it.

The rest of the day was a blur. I texted my friend until 12:30 am.

December 25th- Spent the day chopping seed pods off palm trees. It was scorching. Last year on the same day, I spent the morning next to a gas fire. This year, I wanted to camp out inside a freezer for several weeks.

December 26th- Dug dirt out from a drainage pipe. Spent another three hours in the car going back. Went to swim practice right afterwards. Hit an all-time low because of car sickness. Coach could tell something was wrong. He asked me when I was heading towards the benches if I was sleepwalking.

Got back from practice. Finally opened Christmas gifts. I got:

-six mini Pocket Bac bottles of hand sanitizers plus a rubber case for hanging on to your backpack or lunch box.

-gray glitter nail polish

-a silver ring with a large heart on it

-a Games on the Go Card Case containing a deck of go fish cards, a deck of crazy eights cards, and a deck of regular cards. That would be awesome for swim meets. The team loves to play card games while waiting for their events.

-a bar of Toblerone chocolate, which I get every year.

That's great, because those are really useful. I love the little hand sanitizers because I'm a clean freak, and those smell really nice. I've been wanting a new nail polish color, and I like the glitter ones. My old deck of cards are so torn up, I could tell which cards are which just from the bends in them. And I just like the Toblerone chocolate. It's "the finest in Switzerland." :D

Hope your holidays went well!

Oh, and New Year's Eve is just around the corner. Better come up with some resolutions for the year which everybody said is going to end. Coach wants me to get over my lack of confidence by giving my a resolution. He joked that he was going to get me a tattoo that says, "Yes I Can!" so I will be reminded that I can and have the ability to overcome obstacles and achieve my goals if I believe in myself and try hard enough.

It's going to be on the inside of my eyelids.

Veterans Day and Swim-o-Rama

It's that time of year again! Yeah, I know, I already used this exact same title for an earlier post. But that's because it both happens comtemporarily. Last year, the seventh graders got to celebrate Veterans Day with the All-American Heroes Rally. That's one of the upsides of being smack in the middle. Since I'm in eighth grade, of course I didn't get to participate again. I did, however, play patriotic songs for this year's seventh graders. The advanced orchestra gets that special right: playing at special events. Actual veterans came to the rally, and they gave speeches on being a veteran and what it means to them. The seventh graders also put together poems, posters, and a play. We need to show our appreciation for veterans. Yesterday, I set aside my schedule and spent some time thinking about the veterans. Everyone should do that.

The Swim-o-Rama is our main fundraising event for the Maclay Dolphins. Without it, the heater wouldn't be on. Then, we'd turn into popsicles. Then, someone will have to haul us out like Inuit ice fishers. Then, they'd have to defreeze us...okay, I'm done. Point is, this mandatory event for all members of the team takes place in the prelude of winter. We all swim as many laps as we can for one hour, and then we eat food! The actual fundraising part is we collect pledges for each lap. If I get a few people to pledge a total of 10 cents per lap, and I swim 100 laps in one hour, that's ten dollars (just an example. That's not enough money to keep the heater on). The fun part is bragging rights for swimming the most laps. Record is about 170 laps. That is crazy fast. And the food, of course. Food is always good.

Halloween! And Red Ribbon Week!

Okay, so with Halloween nearing closer and closer, I've decided to put it into overdrive. Meaning I'm still not doing anything. Halloween is great, although it always sneaks up on me, just like Christmas or New Year's. It's also Red Ribbon Week, and our school is having its annual door contest. This year is different, however. They have some basic rules, such as no decorating the surrounding wall, and no three-dimensional objects not on the door. It has to be on the DOOR, and ONLY the DOOR. I believe that was aimed at the teacher whose class won last year because they covered the entire wall surrounding their door, along with the actual door. AND they had objects on the floor. It was a science experiment, with test tubes containing chemicals that will fizz or bubble or whatever when you pour one into the other. It was supposed to be what drugs do to you, but I've never seen a smoker or an alcohol addict fizzing foam out of their mouths.

Anyway, the timing of these two events couldn't have been more compatible. Since Halloween is so close to the door contest, most students agree that incorporating skeletons and tombstones in the design is tying both events together; the pagan holiday, and smoking and the use of alcohol will eventually turn anybody into a skeleton underneath a tombstone.

My Birthday! (And other stuff that's slightly less important) :D

Today is my birthday! I'm excited (how often do you turn 14? ...I thought so.) since today worked out pretty well. There was a meet at Maclay, so practice was going to be in the gym. What's the point of going to gym practice? So, I skipped today in order to celebrate with lasagna and cheesecake! I also invited two of my friends over. One of them had to leave two hours later though, because apparently, since it rained today, the meet was cancelled. So practice was back. I still didn't go cuz I ate too much. But I still had to finish my homework. My teachers are being kind of inconsiderate (no offense) since they don't seem to remember that besides them, we have five other classes, so we have at least five other subjects' worth of homework. That's usually not the case, since two of my classes rarely have homework, but still. I just finished reading my book for my assignment in language arts on Monday, and now I have to find another book to read by tomorrow! I'm being forced-read to death. I also have a National History Day Fair project due in four months. That's a lot of time, but I've barely got anything done. I'm creating a website on the music of the Baroque Era. When I'm done, I'll post the link.

Oh, and since I'm on the subject of school, there's going to be an 8th grade cruise trip to Panama City on the 30th. I'm wearing a black and white dress which I'm starting to have doubts about. Maybe I'll just wear the dress I wore to the funeral. The other one doesn't look like something I would wear. I'm not the dressy kind of person.

Late Blog Assignment and New Video

Well, it's been a few weeks, and I have not posted even once. I need to finish quickly, since school ends in one week. I'll do it as soon as I learn how to sign in.

Oh, and this video showed up after going through some old things from memory lane. It's a video of me when I was eight years old; five years ago. My uncle sent me a gift from Thailand for Children's Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pgtvKA3QaQ&feature=related

Blog Assignment (And Friday the 13th)

I got an assignment in language arts. It is to create a blog about a book and let our classmates see and comment on it. It's going to be fun (sarcasm)!

Our book is The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman. We are to come up with twenty analytical questions about the book; something that's provocative. I will be keeping a school-assignment blog aside from this one too.

Oooh, and today's also Friday the 13th. The so-called bad luck day. That's only because in the past, computer viruses have been released on this date. It has nothing to do with luck. I didn't get hurt all day (although somebody I know got his fair share of physical pain for Friday 13th).

Thai Dance and Two Relays

I got sucked in and had to perform another Thai dance on the 27th. This one was at the Senior Center again. Maybe it was because of the new outfit, but I looked a lot better than last time. I got a lot more graceful, I guess. It took me five years to be able to dance like that!
Here's the link for my performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJuCVKVvgK0

On April 29th, my swim team had a relay picnic and awards ceremony. It was also the same day as the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society. I participated in both. The relay wasn't bad. There were two; IM (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle) and medley (Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle). I've never done a medley relay before, so I got the order of the strokes mixed up. I still swam the correct strokes, though. So after our lane won the first relay and tied for first on the second one, we wrapped our freezing selves in towels and the awards were handed out. Almost everybody got a spinning trophy for coming to practice during winter. About six or seven people received a "special" award for different qualities. I was one of those. It was a "Yes! I Can!!!" plaque. I kept underestimating my speed all during winter and wanting to be anywhere but first, so I guess that's why I got it. The food the parent volunteers brought in were delicious. After stuffing ourselves, we had to get BACK in the water and pull the mats over the pool because we forgot to do it before we got out for awards.
Here's the video for the second relay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahnu0yCHM4I

Oh, I'm lane 2, by the way. I'm in the next closest lane since the first one wasn't used. I'm the one in the blue DOLF cap and purple-and-black swimsuit.

Wait until the end; the team in lane 3 said they won, but it looks like we tied.

Beef O' Brady's Luncheon and Lincoln Invitational

On Wednesday, April 20th, I attended the annual limo ride to Beef O' Brady's on Kerry Forest Parkway. This trip is only for the math students. We got to ride in four limos. After getting to Beef O' Brady's, we got in the buffet line. When we were done eating, awards were handed out. I received a trophy for ranking 8th place in Algebra in our school. I also got a certificate from the Math Olympiad competition. After awards, we rode around in the limo for about an hour.

Today was the day of the Lincoln Invitational. This math competition was for Leon County middle schoolers only. There were two tests you had to take; each one hour and 45 questions long. There were two divisions; Division A and Division B. Division A were for the team members, meaning the top four students in each category of Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Geometry. Division B was everybody else. I was glad, because that meant the top four spots were clear for anybody. I did okay in the first test, scoring a 65 out of 180. Anything above a 50 is considered decent. On the second test, though, I scored a 97 out of 180. The second test was a lot easier, and it was topics we covered in Algebra last week. At around 2:00, the awards ceremony started. The scoring was traditional; 4 points for each correct answer, 0 points for blank answer, and -1 for each wrong answer. Your two scores will be combined and averaged out to determine your ranking. They were handing out trophies for the top 15 instead of the top 10, so I received an award for 13th place.

Unicycle Club

I have joined Unicycle Club due to the math competition on a Friday. About a month ago, math practice was cancelled for the day because the teacher had drive the math team to a competition. I had nowhere else to go and an hour to kill, so I walked past the auditorium and saw the people in the Unicycle Club peddling behind the glass double doors. My friend/acquaintance slammed into the glass, opening the door for me. When I walked in, there were one-wheelers everywhere. The unicyclers were riding back and forth and across the open floor. I just stood there like a lump (courtesy goes to the novel "Freak the Mighty" for the expression), watching everybody, when one of the rider's mother asked me if I wanted to try. I was hesitant, since everybody I saw can ride really well, and I know half of the members. Most of them were pretty supportive, and by the end of the hour, I could ride along the wall. Realizing how much fun that was, I decided to join. I borrowed a unicycle from the school and I have been practicing every day over Spring Break. I can ride a short distance without holding on to the wall now.

ATAC Swim Meet

Last week, the three-day Mac Crutchfield Invitational Swim Meet took place on January 29-31. The host team, ATAC, took pretty much all of the medals. Their times were amazing. Maclay Northside Dolphins (which is my team) placed near the bottom, if not last.

So I entered in four events in my very first swim meet. The first one, 500 yard freestyle, was on Friday. My time for that was seven minutes. I didn't watch the rest of the meet for that day for I had to go to bed early for the math competition in Pensacola on Saturday.
After bombing the individual test and doing okay in the team test in Pensacola, I went back to the Leach Center the next morning to compete in my other three events. Since it went in order from age and gender, I was always in the first heat (First heats of every event are always 13-14 girls, 13-14 boys, etc.). The events I signed up for on Sunday were 100 yard free, 50 yard free, and 100 yard butterfly. I did okay in 100 free and fly, but I did pretty well on the 50 free. This video is the 100 free event. I'm the one in the blue DOLF cap in the far right lane. I took second place in my heat.