Friday September 18, 2015 {Happy Birthday Mom!!}

1. The day started early, when mom left for work. We took some time to shower, eat, and generally get ready, then the preparations began.

2. Today was my mom's birthday, and Isabelle and I had decided to clean the house. My mom is a wonderful person who does a lot of things. She works full-time, homeschools, and is a single parent at that. With all of that, there are some things that slip through the cracks sometimes, and I know it bothers her that our house is often not as clean as she would like it to be.

3. Isabelle and I had high hopes, and we did our best. Due to extenuating circumstances, our basement is still torn up and it's just generally a disaster. We knew there wasn't much we could do down there, so we focused on what we could do: the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathrooms. It took most of the day, but overall, I was happy with the results.

4. When mom got home from work, we headed out to dinner at D'anna's, a terrific Italian restaurant downtown. Though mom didn't know it yet, I was texting people all through dinner (yep, I was being a typical teenager). I was texting the families of our homeschool group however, giving them updates on our progress through dinner.

5. When we left D'Anna's, we walked a few block to Pure Bliss for desert, and Mom was very surprised to find all of our friends waiting there! I am honestly a terrible lair, so the fact that we pulled off this surprise party without her knowing anything is kind of amazing.

6. We hung out at Pure Bliss for a few hours, which was really great. I spent a lot of it talking with HW about all sorts of geeky stuff, including iPhone (which he has) vs. Android (which I have), various apps and podcasts, flags (the New Zealand flag redesign is really pretty exciting to watch), dance, Doctor Who, computer games, and Star Wars. The Star Wars segments were mostly him getting really exciting about things and telling me lots of things about it, only a small portion of which I understood. I don't share his excitement about all things Star Wars, but I can appreciate and enjoy his enthusiasm. :P

7. Afterwards, some of us walked to the Commerical Street Night Market, which is pretty cool. We didn't stay very long, but it was neat to check it out.

8. The Winslows dropped me off at home (mom and isabelle went home without going to the night market).

9. Read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

Happy Birthday Mom!! <3

Sunday August 24, 2015 {A Graduation and a Birthday}

1. Sunday morning we got up and headed out pretty quickly. My mom dropped me off at Village Books (our wonderful local independent bookstore) and then she and Isabelle went to the "Dog Days of Summer" event at Lake Padden.

2. I looked around for awhile before buying socks and fudge for my friend L, whose party I was going to go to, plus a card and chocolate for Emma, who just had a birthday. I also bought a book for myself (The Book Thief).

3. I ran into a person I knew vaguely (a friend of my dad's who I have been friends with on Facebook for a long time) and had a brief conversation with him about college and books and such. It pained me greatly to have to turn down an ARC he offered to grab for me (I can only have 4 out at a time, and I didn't have any to return, so I couldn't take another one). I don't know if I can say what book it was, but it's the book I'm most excited about that's coming out this fall.

4. Mom and Isabelle picked me up and we headed to L's graduation/birthday party. All sorts of people were there, and it was great.

5. We came home and watched the two last episodes of Gravity Falls. I'd seen the whole series before, but now Mom and Isabelle are caught up too.

6. Read the Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

Friday August 21, 2015 {The Lynden Fair}

1. We got up and headed to Stanwood to pick up my grandmother. We stopped at her house for a while while my mom made a few calls about the mold situation. We have this mold problem that is probably actually a plumbing issue, and that is really bad and needs to be fixed asap. Mom talked to an insurance person and a friend who was helping with it, and then we headed to Marysville to go shopping.

2. We went to the Seattle Outlets, which are not, despite the name, in Seattle. I suppose in the general scheme of things they are pretty near Seattle, but to me the name has always seemed strange because I think of them as very separate places. We were there for our annual end of summer shopping trip with my grandmother, and got clothes and shoes for the year.

3. We were there most of the day, and headed back midaftenoon. We dropped my grandmother back off in Stanwood, and then headed home.

4. Almost as soon as we got home, we left again. Mom dropped Isabelle and I, plus MP and IP off at the Northwest Washington Fair in Lynden. We met up with Spencer and Grace, and the four of us (Spencer, Grace, C. and I) wandered around looking at various things and eating lots of food. The three girls wandered off with the money they were given and weren't seen for most of the evening.

5. I think we got to the fair at about 6, and we left a little after 10, so we weren't actually there all that long. We didn't end up doing any rides or even going over to the carnival section at all. We spent most of our time looking at the animals and the various plants and quilts and other exhibits.

6. Spencer drove the five of us home and dropped Isabelle and I off at our house. It was a weird feeling driving with the three girls talking in the back and Spencer and I in the front talking about traffic laws and the fair and stuff. I've gotten pretty used to being pretty independent on my own lately, taking the bus to school and back, and doing a lot of stuff on my own. This was different though, it felt oddly domestic. :P

7. I was really tired when we got home. Read The Time Traveler's Wife, and crashed.

Bend Camping Trip 2015: Aug 12-16 2015

This week was the second year a big group of homeschool families all went to Bend, OR together to camp at Tumalo State Park. Instead of outlining each day, I'm going to do a rough outline of the whole trip here, and then to another post with some stories from the week.

First of all, we left Bellingham around 9:30am on Wednesday. We dropped by the Bagelry to get bagels on our way out, and then headed south. We stopped just south of Olympia to each lunch at a rest stop, and then powered through with just one more short bathroom break. We were delayed by having to take a detour off of Highway 26 because of a brush fire. We made it to the camp ground at around 6pm. That night, we made hot dogs as people slowly drifted in, and all went to bed relatively early.

Thursday: The younger kids all were up early and we all were up and eating breakfast by 9ish, and were heading out on our first rafting expedition by around 11. We took one short ride down the river (maybe 20ish minutes), then most of us headed back to the campsite to eat lunch. After lunch, we went back and did another, somewhat longer run. We hiked up about a mile, and then rode back down to the camp. HK and I took another long run, while most of the other kids played games. We had soup for dinner, made by my mom and Julie, and then most of us played The Resistance (an awesome game you should all check out) for a few hours and went to bed around 11:30.

Friday: It was a lot colder, and no one did any rafting. We mostly hung around the campsite for the morning, and played more of The Resistence, and then headed into town. We drove to Pilot Butte, which was a great view of the city and surrounding area, and then got ice cream. After that, we drove to a neighborhood park where most of the kids and dads played wiffle ball. We headed back to the campsite, and had currey for dinner, made by Connie. Most people headed to bed a bit sooner that night, but Isabelle, Spencer, Ted, and I ended up staying up til about 12:30 discussing the "happy chair" problem (maybe I'll explain that later), why people use drugs like LSD, the strangeness of Gonzo journalism, and much more.

Saturday: Julie took a bunch of the kids to Starbucks before I got up, and when I went to the fire, there was a much smaller than usual group awake. We ate breakfast, and got ready for our big rafting trip. The idea was to start at the spot we usually stopped and then ride all the way down to Tumalo, about 2 miles down stream. No one had gone that far before, so we didn't really know what to expect. It ended up being pretty mild, and a lot of fun. We got out in the tiny, tiny town of Tumalo, and some of the other adults came and picked us up. What had taken us close to two hours to raft took us less than ten minutes to drive. We ate chili for dinner, and played mafia. People drifted off to bed at all different times, and Mom, Isabelle, Ted, Spencer, and I were again the last to bed.

Sunday; We ate breakfast and started packing up to leave. We all left around 11:30. On the way south, we took I5 to Gresham, and then veered east, but going north, we went to Yakima, and then headed over Snoqualmie pass to Issaquah. That route was supposed to be faster, but ended up being much slower because of a slowdown on the pass that added over an hour to our trip. We ate dinner at the Chipotle in Issaquah, and made it home by 10pm.

Sunday July 5, 2015 {World Cup}

1. I got up really late, close to 10, which is really late for me.

2. Didn't do too much all morning, but we did get an invitation to go to a friend's house to watch the World Cup final.

3. Around 4, we headed to Connie's. I'm not really into sports in general, but it was an exciting game to watch (particularly since we won :P).

4. After the game was over, we all had some food. I discussed various Homeschool Academy plans with people. Spencer and I discussed what song I should do for my Literary Analysis class I'm teaching on Tuesday. I was having a hard time finding a song that would be interesting to people without being offensive. The song I originally planned on had some swearing in it, so we decided to skip that. We tentatively  decided on American Pie, but I'm still trying to think of something that might be a little more relevant to the kids in the class.

5. We came home, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Saturday July 4, 2015 {4th of July!}

1. Didn't do too much during the morning. Mom and Isabelle did some cooking and Isabelle painted Mom's nails (after declaring mine too short)

2. Isabelle cut about four inches off of my hair, which was slightly terrifying, but turned out quite well. It's not noticeably shorter to most people, but it feels shorter to me.

3. At around four, we headed to Julie's for the annual 4th of July party, which was fun.

4. There was a Klikaklu hunt, some sparklers, water balloons and guns (for those who were brave enough, which did not include me), Smash Bros, and lots of food.

5. A bit before 10, most of us headed downtown to watch the city's fireworks display, and then we headed home.

6. I had a strange experience during the Klikaklu hunt. We were on teams of three, and I was on a team with Isabelle and my friend C. We were running around the neighborhood, and I knew I wouldn't be able to run much because a) it was really hot and b) I didn't have my inhaler with me. If I had realized I was going to be running, I would have used my inhaler before we started on the hunt. I've obviously had bad experiences with asthma before, but after running for a bit uphill in the heat, I had what was definitely the worst asthma attack I have had. I usually just have my lungs close up, but my throat was closing too. One of the problems with that feeling is that it is so easy to panic because  you are physically unable to take in air. I've had enough experiences with asthma to be able to not panic and know that it will pass, but it's a scary feeling, and not something I'd like to repeat.

Friday July 3, 2015 {Boating}

1. Got up and did stuff around the house for a few hours.

2. I went downtown to meet up with a friend who I hadn't seen in a long time. It was good catching up with her, though I had to head home before too long to work on some stuff.

3. I worked for a while on the homeschool academy schedule. Some of us older homeschoolers (or former homeschoolers, in some cases) have decided to put together a series of free classes in the summer. I am teaching Irish dance, and co-teaching Geology and Writing. We had sent out polls to prospective students to find out what classes they wanted to take and when they were available, so I was going through the data and organizing it.

4. We walked to Gloria's to have dinner and go boating. It was beautiful out on the lake, though the boat ran into a few minor difficulties. The inter tube ran into some major difficulties, when the cover (which was attached to a rope attached to the boat) started to tear, and then came off of the tube entirely. I never ended up going on the inter tube, but it was fun riding in the boat.

5. We brought the boat back in and hung out for another hour or two before walking home.

6. After I got home, I ran through all the homeschool academy data I had organized, and put together a potential schedule. I realized that there was no way to put together a schedule that worked for everyone, but I was able to put together something that seemed to work for the most part.

7. Read some Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

Friday June 26, 2015 {Gay rights, debate, and a party!}

1. When I woke up this morning, I was looking at my email and FB notifications and such, and somehow the email from NPR (I'm on their mailing list about important world events, which I actually highly recommend) about the supreme court ruling was the last thing I saw. Mom came in a minute later and said "Have you seen the news? Obama's making a great speech." I did end up missing most of Obama's speech, but it was still an exciting way to start the morning! :)

2. Cleaned up the house a bit, moved furniture around, and did whatever else was required to prepare for the final current events class of the year.

3. Listened to the new Cortex podcast.

4. Current affairs class! It was the last class of the year, and it was debate style.We were divided into two teams and we debated a number of topic, with the parents voting on who won each round. My team won overall, but just barely. Our topics were - 1) if you could only read classic books or modern books, which should it be 2) Should school stop using grades 3) Should all dogs be allowed to get a license to be in public spaces (like service dogs do now) 4) Should we let Google move to Bham, and 5) Should their be family presidential term limits (ie, should Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton be allowed to be president).

5. After the debates, we all went to the Pyles house for a party! It was a ton of fun, and we played lots of Mafia and Bush Commando.

6. Ted told us that when he was in 9th grade, he did this challenge to transport 7 people 50 ft with only 4 feet touching the ground. We spent a long time trying to do it, and it was challenging. We did manage it eventually, though. Spencer had my arms/head, EK had my feet, and they each had a person on their backs, and there were two people sitting on me. It was crazy, but we did it, and I'm still a bit sore. :P

7. We left the party around midnight, and went home.

11th Grade Highlights

Since I am now officially done with my junior year of high school, I thought I'd share some of the year's highlights, in pictures! The rest of this post is all pictures, with captions. Enjoy a little taste of my year, in mostly chronological order.

Going out to dinner with friends before school started

Steampunk Halloween!

Performing in Dracula! I'm in this picture, can you find me?

Visiting the Lights of Christmas with friends, none of whom are in this photo :P

Curling Isabelle's hair before the Nutcracker.

Backstage selfie from the Nutcracker.

On stage in the Nutcracker.

Buying 12 boxes of tea for C. for Christmas!

Awesome early morning sleepover selfie.

My friends and I have our own shelf at Village Books!

Visiting the University of Victoria.

Hailey painted my nails at the Superbowl party

Our awesome current events to find out what we value most. For me? Community.

Visiting the University of Portland over spring break.

Seaside, OR

Pacific Lutheran University

Baking cookies at a sleepover

Teaching Latin

Painting this little guy was fun :)

Visiting the Pompeii exhibit at the Pacific Science Center

Lots of Geology homework that tested my drawing skills...

Mother's day selfie

My 17th birthday!

Working with friends to get C. a birthday gift he sorely needed.

Performing at the Scottish Highland Games!

Sunday June 7, 2015 {Highland Games}

1. Got up, got ready, and drove to Hovander Park. We hung around for a bit, and then danced on the side stage at 10:30. It wasn't a great performance, but it was okay.

2. We hung out for a while and ate lunch, then had our second performance. This time, we danced with live music. It was a much better (though certainly not perfect) performance.

3. We left pretty quickly after our second show. We went home, and I took a shower and changed, then we went to Connie's for a party.

4. The party was great - there was lots of good food and awesome people. Hailey, Claire, Hunter, HW, L., and I spent the entire party hanging out in the basement, which was super fun. Other people drifted in from time to time, but it was mostly some variation on that "teen" group. We had a great time.

5. Went home, read Sense and Sensibility, and went to bed.

For My IRL Friends...

Last night, I went and saw the Hobbit pt. 2 for the second time, this time with a bunch of friends (the Usual Suspects).

In December 2012, a new movie theater opened in my town, about ten minutes from my house. It is HUGE. It has sixteen theaters, including an IMAX theater, and all the theaters have stadium seating (there are no bad seats!). Since then, I have seen nine movies there (including the one last night). I have kept the tickets from all of them, and I recently realized that I had never been in the same theater twice, until last night.

For posterity, and my IRL friends who were curious, here are all the movies I've seen there, and the theater numbers.

12/20/12 - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Auditorium 8 (this is the IMAX one).
1/5/13 - Lincoln - Auditorium 12
5/12/13 - The Great Gatsby - Auditorium 14
5/30/13 - Star Trek Into Darkness - Auditorium 1
11/24/13 - Catching Fire - Auditorium 16
12/1/13 - Ender's Game - Auditorium 11
12/12/13 - The Book Thief - Auditorium 3
12/23/13 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Auditorium 9
1/12/14 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Auditorium 16

I know this is totally random, and most of you (or maybe all of you) don't care at all about this, but here it is.

Some Thoughts for 2014

This morning, I wrote this post, and then decided not to publish it. I thought it was too long, too strange, and too philosophical for this blog. But just now, I reread what I had written earlier, and I decided to post it anyway. Yeah, it's long, and confusing, and mainly fueled by sugar and sleep deprivation, but I kind of like it. This blog is many things, but at it's heart, it's a place for me to write. A place to write book reviews, and about my writing, and about what I'm thinking. This is the kind of thing I write, and so it belongs here. If anyone actually reads it all the way through and understands my thought process while writing it, I will be duly impressed. :)

Well, it's 2014 now. I went to a very fun party last night where I ate lots of food, talked a lot, played some poker, played a bunch of various card games (spoons, peanut butter, and more), talked books and movies and was generally nerdy, and just generally had fun with the "Usual Suspects." See my last post for more on that if you're confused.

Right now, I'm about to head out to park day to see if any other Bellingham homeschoolers bothered to come out on New Year's Day, but first I thought I'd try to find something to write about here.

I don't know about you, but when I eat too much sugar, and get too little sleep, I tend to get far too thoughtful and reflective. :)

Today, I've been thinking about something a friend said to me last night.  I was telling two friends about a project I'm thinking about taking on, and I was asking them if they were interested in helping at all. I mentioned that I thought maybe one of them could particularly help with a little writing part, and the other friend said to me, "But you're the writer."

While I didn't think anything of that comment in the moment, other than maybe he was right that it was kind of silly for me to ask people to write things for me, later I thought more about it.

The new year is often a time when people think about who they are and who they want to be. Right now, I often feel like I'm in an odd spot. When you're a teenager, you have every possibility open to you. You make choices that will affect you for the rest of your life. Right now, I'm 15 years old. I still have several years before I have to make the big decisions (college, jobs, etc.) that will change the course of my life. But I'm still at a point in my life where I can decide who I want to be, how I want to be seen, and in what direction I want my life to go.

Who you become is something you can change, but it's also a group project. There are a lot of people in my life, both kids and adults, who I think have a hand in that process. When my friend said to me last night, "You're the writer," while he probably didn't mean that much by it, it showed me part of how he sees me. When my friend's mom asked me how late the library was open on Tuesdays, fully expecting me to know the answer, that showed me part of how she sees me.

To make this even more confusing, I've been realizing that while how other people see me is important, there are sides of me that none of them have ever seen. Parts of me that I'm not sure I want them to see. There are parts of me that are unsure if I'm up to being "the writer" or the responsible person other people seem to think of me as.

But I rise to the occasion when I need to. When I need to be responsible for other people, or when I need to rise above my own fears, I can if other people expect it of me. There have been times when I'm not sure if I can keep it up. I have a reputation for being an overachiever, and for being on top of everything, but the reality isn't really always the same as the reputation. Sometime it's hard because I can't keep up with the way people think of me.

Sometimes I realize that I'm caught between who I want to be, and who I am. Where's the balance? Where do I want the balance to be? Is there even a difference?

What I'm trying to say here is that I'm realizing that how these people see me affects the person that I am, and that I have to decide if that's really the person I want to be. I have the ability right now to be anything. Do I want to be the writer? The booklover? The overachiever? Sometimes I'm not really sure.

Right now, I can decide who I want to be. I will always be "the writer." That's a title I'm proud to have. I'm thrilled to be considered a booklover, especially by my friends who are better read than I am. That's just one side of me, but it's a side I'm happy to let people see. I'm happy with who I am, but I'm also happy to think that that person isn't set in stone.

Thanks to my friend, whose comment sparked this post. If you're still reading at this point, you deserve a prize!