You Talkin' to ME?

Yes, I know the title happens to be a movie quote. Spoken my the incomparable Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. This happens to be a movie that I have never seen.

But it IS a perfect segway into what I will be talking about.

No, it's not about taxis. Or their drivers.

Not Robert De Niro, either.

But MOVIES. Yes, those wonderful things we watch as entertainment. Can be used to make us cry, laugh, smile, or just to numb our minds from our own dull lives. We go see them with friends in a theater and make a nice night out of it. We watch them with people in our homes, at a party; or alone, to make it a cozy night in with a beloved pet, blankets, and hot chocolate.

Wikipedia defines a film as "a series of still or moving pictures."

I define it as "Pure awesomeness squeezed into 3 hours or less. Usually."

Now go watch one.

I mean, who needs a social life? Not me. Not you.

You're reading this blog, aren't you?

Now go watch Harry Potter or something.

There's Something about Finals

Finals week is quickly approaching.

I have mixed feelings on the subject.

On the one hand, finals week means absolutely no homework. It also means that afterwards, I get two much-needed weeks of break.

However, it also means, you know, FINALS. The most stressful times in a high-school student's life besides college applications for seniors.

Most of the time, I don't really worry about my finals. I usually get good grades the whole year and I retain most of the information I am taught, so studying for them is a piece of cake.

I actually look forward to finals week because it is one week with no homework (my least favorite part of education), and I get to have two weeks or two months of no school, depending on which finals week of the year.

This year is a little bit of a different story.

I'm in high school now.

Duh.

And the tests have consequently gotten harder and harder.

This sucks. A lot.

For my French final, I have to speak in french for a full 50 minutes without stopping. Then I have to write in french for another 50 minutes.

Does my teacher realize that we are only into the FIRST SEMESTER of FRENCH 1?!

I can't speak that much french! You haven't taught us enough.

My english teacher's tests are some of the most difficult ones I have ever taken. So the final will be near impossible.

Science is easy and the final will be easy. Phew.

Math final... eh. It'll probably be hard, but definitely manageable. Algebra II is so much easier than Geometry.

And no finals for P.E. or Museum!

So yeah, I'm looking forward to Finals Week.

But I'm also stressing. Big time.

Help.

Papa

This is an essay that I wrote about my Papa. The assignment was to write about a moment in your life that matured you. This is the result.

            The day was St. Patrick’s Day, March 2011. The streets of San Francisco were filled with people wearing green, going out to pubs, and laughing. Inside the hospital room, however, it was a different story. My grandfather, Paul Dennis Clary III, was dying of heart failure after battling it for over 20 years.

            It was a Thursday morning. I was off at school, blissfully unaware of what was happening an hour away. I received a note in my first period class, excusing me from school. Usually, I would be excited about this. It was a free pass to get out of class! But the pass read, “Family Emergency” under the reason of absence. I knew something must have been wrong. I thought about what it might be, but pushed it out of my mind.

            Alas, my mother confirmed what I had already suspected: Papa was dying.

“Mom,” I said worriedly, “what’s going on?”

“Papa is in the hospital. The whole family is there. We’re going up there now,” my mother responded.

We had had many false alarms before (he survived about 5 heart attacks before this, his first being in ’78), so I assumed that was all it was, a false alarm. ‘He’ll be okay,’ I told myself. ‘Everything will be fine.’

Within an hour, we were at the hospital. I am sure now that my mother broke a couple laws to get us there so quickly, but that was the last thing on my mind at that point. I was practically sick with worry. When we arrived at the hospital, everything seemed wrong. There were far too many cheery decorations in the hallways and on doors. Everything was green and sparkly; the opposite of how we felt.

 We found our way to the hospital room, and the waiting room where most of my family was located. We didn’t say much to each other, but we were all leaning on one another’s shoulders. Some were crying, some were hugging, a few were pacing, and others sat in the corner, staring off into space. None of us really knew what to do or what to say.

A little while later, I did something for the first time that I’m sure I will have to do again. I called the people most important to me to tell them the news. I first called my best friends Beth and Sam. I tried to get the words out, but after several attempts at clear communication I just broke down. They were incredibly supportive and patient with me. Both of them just sat there and let me cry to them and murmured encouraging words to me through the spotty connection. After that, I wasn’t sure whom to call. I decided on my two best childhood friends, the two people who had gotten me through the most in my young life, Jessie and Ana. I don’t remember exactly what Ana said, but I will never forget my conversation with Jessie.

“Jess, uh… Um… Well…” I tried to spit out.

“What’s going on Liana?” Jessie said worriedly.

“I… Um… My Papa’s dying.”

Now I was with Jessie when she lost her grandpa. It had been several years before this. We were at her house alone, when the phone rang. It was her aunt, telling her that her grandpa had just died. She completely broke down, right then and there. I had no idea what to do. We were only about ten years old. So I just sat with her for a while, and held her while she cried.

“Liana… You were there for me when this happened to me. You told me it would all get better, and that you would stick by my side no matter what. So that is what I will say to you. I can tell you now, from experience, that it DOES in fact get better. Your whole entire gigantic family will be with you every step of the way, and so will I. You are so special to me and I know this will be hard. I know how much he meant to you. You have so many people who are here to support you. I love you so much.”

And with that, I snapped.

For the next few hours, I was virtually a zombie without any desire to eat raw human flesh. I roamed the halls of the hospital, walking aimlessly around. My parents were too distracted to even realize that I had left the waiting room. It was so packed with my, in fact, “gigantic family,” that no one really knew who was there and what was going on.

It was strange. It was like I was in some parallel universe where nothing was as it should be. I saw my aunts, uncles, and older cousins who I had looked up to for my entire life just standing there, broken. Broken, just like me. My cousin Xavier, who is the epitome of manliness, was standing in the hallway, leaning on the railing, crying shamelessly into the phone. My brother Patrick, from whom I never saw so much as a tremble of the lip, was leaning into my mom and staring off into nothing. My whole family that had always seemed to me so strong and unbreakable was cracked.

At this point, time was irrelevant to me. I might’ve been there an hour, or a few days. I couldn’t make sense of anything anymore. My whole world was crashing. After some indefinite amount of time, a priest came out of my Papa’s hospital room, and told us it was time. We knew what to do.

We all filed one by one, holding each other’s hands, into the tiny room. We stayed connected and formed a circle around Papa’s bed. The priest began reciting prayers while my family and I stood there, watching Papa, squeezing each other’s hands, and had tears fill our eyes. The priest said one last prayer before it happened. It was an Irish prayer, an homage to the heritage my papa wore so proudly. It was the same prayer that had hung by our front door for as long as I can remember. I found myself mouthing along to the words:

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

-       Origin Unknown

After the priest finished, Papa opened his eyes. We knew he was still here with us, not yet gone. He seemed to be trying so hard to look around at us. His eyes couldn’t quite make it around the room, so he settled to stare at what was right in front of them. It seemed to be me. The last eye contact he would ever make was with me.

I matured immensely during this experience. I learned how to contact people who are most important to me, vital to my survival, and would want to know what’s going on. I learned that it’s okay to cry when something of this magnitude happens, no matter what. More than any of that, though, I learned to keep my family and friends close to me. The best families and the best friends are the perfect medicine for when anything happens. Due to this experience, I have matured in a way that not everyone can say. I have loved and lost. I have watched a man die. In my opinion, there is no more maturing and realistic experience that anyone can live through.

Only Because I'm a Loser on the Internet

So I'm a bit of a loser.

I legitimately will choose to be alone basically all weekend, even when I am asked to hang out. Even if it's something awesome.

From the hilarious blog of CATVERSUSHUMAN. 

Yeah, this is my life. Except I have only one cat. And no laser pointer. But you get what I mean.

Most People's Perfect Day:

(may include, but is not limited to)

- A Party

- A Concert

- Clubbin'!

- Drinking (Alcohol)

- Scary Movies

- Staying Out Until The Sun Comes Up

- People

You get the idea. A good round of stylish, socializing, and cool fun. The key word being socializing.

My Perfect Day:

- A Good Book

- My Bed or The Couch

- My Computer

- Drinking (Juice, Tea, Cocoa, etc.)

- Disney or Harry Potter

- An Early Night In

- Alone with my Cat

The other day, on my Friday off from school, I was basically laying around in my room until noon. Then, around two o'clock, I decided to clean. Pretty spontaneously. 

So, for the first time since I moved into that house about 5 years ago, I organized my entire room. Just for fun. It took almost 8 hours. I was working from 2:00 to around 9:30. At one point during the evening, at four or five, my friend called me to hang out.

Everyone was going to go see a movie or just hang around downtown engaging in teenage shenanigans. Mind you, very innocent shenanigans. The few friends I have are quite wholesome. :]

But I told her, "Well, I'm pretty invested in what I'm doing."

"Well what are you doing?" she asked me.

"Cleaning.."

Yeah, I'm that many lames.

That's me. Alone and friendless, except my cat and the people who have to love me like my family. And my cat doesn't even like me that much.

But that's the way I like it!

Hilarity in the Form of Pictures

Chortle. :D I linked this so if you can't read it/zoom in, you can see it on the page.

Do want. ^

Yeah. Basically the best joke ever.

ZING!

*No copyright infringement intended. None of these pictures are mine, I just think they're basically the most hilarious/awesome pictures ever.

Things.

My English teacher, Mrs. Jackson, would not approve of my vague title. She would tell me to be more specific. But "Things" is just about how specific I want to get at the moment.

Because my lovely friend Nicole wanted me to, I will mention her in this post. Because "ID BETTER BE AFTER ALL THAT HAPPENDED(;" were her exact words. So here's to you, Nicole. You are so beautiful, and wonderful, and I love you so much! And you boost my self esteem into planetary distances. Perhaps even galaxy-wide distances.

So school is... stressful. And awesome. And stressful. And drama-filled. And slow. And fast. And... stressful. High School, am I right?

None of previous said things about school were even real sentences. Maybe I should work on that. You know, proper sentence sTruCTuRe. Ha, even that wasn't grammatically correct. Perhaps paying more attention in English would do me some good, rather than writing goofy things on my "study" paper.

But I really don't care at the moment. I am past caring. Today, I took a bible test (with a secular focus, to help with spotting allusions to the bible in literature) and I'm pretty sure I didn't do very well. Usually, that would freak me out, but this time it didn't. I retained barely any of the information I read, and some of the questions on the test truly had me stumped. But I didn't care. I know, I know, I'm probably going to hell for this.

Halloween is almost upon us! What are you dressing uP as? You'd better be dressing up, because what other point to Halloween is there? That's how you get candy, for God's sake! I had a dream a couple nights ago, where I was going to go as "Flo, the Progressive Girl" from the commercials, but my mom said it was too expensive. So in the dream, I was like, "Oh, no worries. I'll just wear my dragon/dinosaur costume!" And I tried it on, and it was smashing! But then I woke up to realize I don't actually have a dragon/dino costume. Kind of depressing, I know.

Science Humor: Two men walk into a bar, and the first says "I'll order some H2O." The other man says, "I'll have some H2O too!" The second man died.
...
Get it? 'Cause H2O2 is peroxide! Poisonous! But he was just trying to say that he would like some water as well! Anyone? Just me? All right.

Did you know that "alright" is never actually correct? It's not even a word, it's always "all right."

Speaking of grammar, I saw this hilarious picture the other day of a status:
"There, their, and they're. Get it right your in college."

Its funny because the dude used the wrong "your!" It should have been "you're" to show that it was a conjunction between "you" and "are!"

Oh man. It's no wonder I have no  real  friends...

Just kidding! I do have friends. At least my mom says so... But no, really. They are wonderful people who help me with all of my problems. They help me through all of the hard times.

My Grandpa Chuck died on Tuesday. I had gone and saw him just a day earlier. He is passed now, in a better place in better health.

I will miss him so much, as will the rest of my family.

This means that there will be a funeral. It will be held in Provo, Utah, a city I have definitely praised before. Despite the dark cloud hanging over the visit, I think I will enjoy myself. It will give me a chance to see my amazing cousins and catch up with them, and I can visit with the friends I made on my last visit. But I still feel incredibly guilty for being happy.

So yeah, I'm sad right now. But I am also happy. Which adds guilt. Of course.

But besides that, I am doing fairly well. Did anyone see the new post on Hyperbole and a Half? I did! She hasn't posted in roughly five months and now, finally, Allie's much anticipated return to the internet world!

So that's my life right now.

Links to Things

*Doctor What - A charlieissocoolike song. He's a british babe. Yeah. And its about DOCTOR WHO! Winning..


*MEEKAKITTY - When We First Met video. Its super cute and makes me happy inside. Its moments like when I'm watching this that you see the super girly part of me really shine.


*Video from mimmblemimmble. She is very deep and awesome. This video may lack some of the depth her other videos may have, but I love it. I identify with her SO MUCH.


*Nat's YouTube channel: communitychannel. I know, lame name. But give her a chance, hey? She's freaking hilarious. And Asian. And Australian.


*Pokemon Theme Song. 'Nuff said.


*A Day in the Life of Voldemort - KickThePj. Because he's just that cool.

I was bored and I wanted to post about unimportant things. These are not by any means my favorite things on the internet, though they are definitely among my favorites. And I wanted to make a proper rainbow. So I didn't add any more links after that last one. But hey, its Harry Potter related, which is pretty damn good to end with.