Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I know what you really are, creep.

I don't like to talk about religion on here (it's kind of private thing for me) but I think it's relevant to tell you that I've given up Mt Dew for Lent. I'm sort of addicted to Mt Dew, it's the only pop I drink. Besides Crush, but I don't really count that because it doesn't have caffeine. For the past three-ish weeks now I've gotten home from school and suffered from caffeine headaches. On top of the migraines I usually get about 6th hour. How much longer until Easter? The plus side is that I've been drinking a ton more water. But the other down side? I've began having dreams about Mt Dew. Yes, dreams. So I wake up craving Mt Dew everyday. That certainly helps the cause a whole lot. (Thank you subconscious!)

Now the real reason behind this post. A boy. Not just a boy, but the boy I mentioned in a post a while back. I'm well aware this all happened like 3 months ago. But I'm the type of person who gets mad really fast, quickly becomes indifferent, and then a long while later gets to thinking about it and becomes angry again. This boy and I aren't friends anymore. Like at all. Which that in the first place kind of hurts me. I mean we were friends like a year ago before all this stuff went down. Now he hardly ever talks to me. In fact, most of the time he acts like I'm not there. Like I don't exist. It's actually insulting, I was one of your close friends and then all of sudden I'm nothing? He could at least give me some excuse. I probably would have settled for an extremely lame one.

But now there's this rumor going around school. See, one of his best friends is this girl, we'll call her Ernestine. They do everything together, even with her boyfriend. I found out from my sister's friend that this boy may or may not have gotten Ernestine pregnant. Gotten her pregnant back in December. Hmmm, you may ask, wasn't that when this boy and you were talking? Yes, yes it was. So not only did he possibly have sex with her while we were talking, he might also have gotten her pregnant. And I know that I could be freaking out over nothing. It's all possibly and might and may or may not. But there shouldn't be rumors like that in the first place. From my experience there's always something true, however small, in a rumor. (Plus she hasn't shown up for soccer, which started like a month ago, even though she's a huge soccer freak. And her stomach is questionably round. And according to one of my friends hard. I don't know, that's just what I've heard.)

Also, sometimes he'll come up to me and randomly start a conversation. Like the past 3 months just didn't happen. And then he'll go back to, "Kate who?" Make up your freaking mind. I'll play nice, but I know what you are. A shady, good for nothing, piece of shit who plays the whole nice, quiet guy thing for his advantage. I know what you're all about buddy. Oh, and now I see him walking around school talking to these two freshmen girls. Why would a senior suddenly want to be friends with two freshmen girls he has never talked to before two months before graduation? While your best friend might be pregnant with your baby? Creep.

Whew. Just had to get that out of my system. My friends have heard this a thousand and one times so I thought I would share it with you guys. =]

(BEDA in 3 days! Yes, I've decided to do it.)

Friday, March 25, 2011

Day 07

I couldn't decide between two items so I decided to include both of them.
A picture of you most treasured item(s).
I know it's kind of cliche for a girl's favorite item to be a a pair of shoes but I can't help myself. I've had these boots since the 7th grade. So I've had them for about 5 years now. (I have a mild addiction to boots. You should see my collection.) The inside of them are worn down. What traction there once was is now completely gone. The toe of one boot is completely torn. And the black is worn down and stained. I know it's kind of ridiculous to have a pair of shoes for so long, especially if they're falling apart. But I got these shoes right before I turned 13 and I feel like they've been through everything with me. I don't really even care that they're not that cute anymore. During the winter I wear them practically everyday. I'll probably keep wearing them until it's physically impossible to keep them on my feet. And even then I doubt if I'll throw them out.
You can't really tell what that is, but it's a bracelet with a piano charm on it. I don't usually wear a whole lot of jewelry but I wear this one a lot. My gramma F gave it to me for my 16th birthday last year. She got me a piano charm because my birthday was right after I won the piano competition. She's given me lots of presents over the years, and to be honest I've gotten rid of about half of them. (What? Don't look at me like that. She had like 30 people to buy for, it's not like she could be choosy.) But this one was really special to me because I know she put a lot of thought and trouble into getting it for me. It's also the last birthday present she ever gave me. I would say last present but she had bought her Christmas presents before she died. All the women in the family got watches and all the men got billfolds (it was easier for her to stick to one main theme). I'll keep this for the rest of my life and probably pass it down to my daughter if (when) she takes up piano.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ahem.

So I logged on with the intention of posting a Day 07 blog. But then I realized I had to catch up on all the blog posts I've missed this week. So I didn't have time to take a picture, upload it, upload it to the blog, and then write an entire blog. I promise I will do it tomorrow when I get home from school! Provided I haven't passed out. Our school is having a blood drive tomorrow and it'll be the first time I've given blood. I've had my blood drawn before, but not like this. I'm super nervous.


Will this picture make up for it? I hope so. (I realize it's mean to make fun of the poor girl, but seriously. Look at Leo being all nice. She forgot her lunch box!)

Fine. Here's a gif of two little fluffy animals frolicking in the snow. So adorable!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Day 06

A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.
Hands down, Chelsea Handler. She's probably one of my favorite people. If you've never heard of her (which I don't believe is possible) she's the host of Chelsea Lately on E! It starts off with a round table wear she and three other comedians talk about current events. And then she interviews a celebrity. Chelsea is my all-time favorite comedian (next to Kathy Griffin). Mostly just because she's a bitch and really sarcastic and she really doesn't really care what people think (to an extent, I understand that all celebrities really do care). If I could go to a taping of Chelsea Lately or one of her comedy shows I might be happy for the rest of my life. I was super excited when I found out about After Lately. It's about what goes on during the day when they're not taping. It's hilarious. She hosted this year's VMAs. And to be honest I really don't care that she did a terrible job and was possibly drunk and/or high. I really don't. I guess I just love her so much because she basically has my sense of humor, except she can pull it off really well. I like people who have that "I just don't give a fuck" attitude.

(Side note: I might possibly be doing BEDA. I haven't decided for sure yet.)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Take me now.

Because any man who can stand on a roof top, iron nonexistent clothes, and look this good can just take me. I will travel to Africa and hunt blood diamonds with you! I don't care!

Tis all.

Fact: embarassing pictures are my favorite kind.

I think my life is coming in full circle. Last night as I was getting ready to go over to my friend Kristi's house (she's one of my oldest friends, we haven't done anything recently but every time we get together it's like no time's gone by) when two of my old friends (Morgan and Jordin) rang my doorbell. I was absolutely flabbergasted (I love this word). I never expected to see them there. They said they wanted to kidnap me and take me to Krekel's (the best greasy food joint ever). I felt kind of like a jerk, like I was blowing them off, but I really did have plans.

So I met them at Rock Springs (it's like a mini-national park) and we went hiking and basically talked about what happened all those months ago. They said they were sorry for letting things get so bad and that we hadn't been friends for so long. And honestly, I felt kind of bad. I mean, I know I was right in what I did. I didn't like the things they were doing. But I still love them and all. In the end, we made up. They say they don't party much any more (we'll see). But honestly, if they want to party, whatever. I just won't go with them. I have other friends I can do things with. But they are the people that know me the best and I feel so comfortable with them. I can tell them anything and they won't judge me. So I guess we'll see how this goes. Everything's not back to how it used to be (I haven't talked to the other two yet), but I feel like it could get there. I can't lie, I've had the best times of my life with those girls. Just this time last year was when we became super close, weird that it's happening at the same time again.

Anywho, this little thingie was passed onto me by Free to Dance and I highly suggest you check out her blog, it's one of my favorites. The rules are as follows:
  1. List three things that you love about yourself.
  2. Post a picture that you love.
  3. List five bloggers to whom you are passing this along.
So here it goes!
  1. My musical ability. I'm not trying to brag, but I'm a relatively talented musician. I've played piano since I was six years old and flute since I was nine years old. To be honest, I don't think it's too hard to become a good musician. It just takes a lot of practice. So what I mean is my musical expression. Whenever I play I'm really expressive and put emotions and colors into the music. (To be somewhat hippie) I would say I try to feel the music and make others feel it to. Just last year I won top award for my piano playing at the local university. And my friend Haley and I were a half point away from getting a perfect score for our flute duet at the Solo and Ensemble contest.
  2. My sense of humor. (I know DB used this one but it really is one of my favorite things about myself.) I have a really dry, kind of mean sense of humor. (Some might say bitchy.) But I always manage to lighten up the tension in the most serious situations. People have told me that my one-liners are the best. Usually I say something awkwardly true and it's as easy as that. I know I'm not funny all the time, but I don't like it when things get super serious so I like to try and lighten things up. Plus it sometimes lets me get away with being bitchy (I try not to be but sometimes I can't help it).
  3. My honesty. I think I get it from my dad, he's an extremely honest person. I hate lying and whenever I do lie I get this awful feeling in my stomach. I just think it's so gross to be dishonest. I want people to be able to trust me and know that I would never lie to them. I'll admit it's gotten me into some bad situations. Sometimes I'm too blunt and hurt peoples feelings. I feel bad when I do, but like I said I hate to lie. The bad thing is that sometimes I expect people to be just as honest as me. Which usually results in my feelings getting hurt (i.e. the whole situation with my friends back in November). But when I say something I feel good knowing that people can take my word for it.
 This was hard because I have so many favorite pictures. That is not a flattering picture at all. Of any of us. In fact they would probably hate me if they knew I used this picture. The girl standing up in the sunroof is Morgan and the one driving is Kayla. We all look so ridiculous. I think I took this when we ran to the grocery store to get stuff for s'mores for one of the many bonfires we had last summer. (The air freshener says, "Smile if you're not wearing any panties." Typical Kayla.)

the lexical gap, allyson kate, The Anxious Apple Core, Imagine Me Complexly, and Victoria's World are some of my favorite blogs. I strongly suggest you check them out.

That's all for now! Another blog for the 30 Day Picture Challenge should be up tomorrow or the day after.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

*Deep breath in. Deep breath out.*

Can you feel it? The soft breeze dancing through you hair, mussing it up? The caressing touch of  the warm sun rays making you all at once feel sleepy, yet invigorated? Or maybe it's something more than that. It's the brown grass tinged with green. It's the skeletal trees with their tiny buds growing just that much bigger everyday. It's the singing of the birds waking you up in the morning, the scampering of a squirrel as he descends his throne, the smell of rain always present in the air.

Spring always holds a feeling of hope. Hope that the dark days of winter will finally let go of its hold on our minds. Hope that life will begin again, make us sane once more. Winter has the feeling of night. What we do and say doesn't really matter, because who will see it anyways? Winter, night--everything is done in secret, in a dreamland. Reality is a myth and no one follows the rules anymore. But with Spring comes the light and everything is real once more. Everyone and everything wakes up and realizes that there is something in this life worth living for.

I welcome the cold days that will most likely follow this one of warmth. Because I know that just around the corner are many days of warmth, growth, happy rain, and awakening. I begin to feel again, to defrost.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Day 05

A picture of your favorite memory.
Every year the 8th grade U.S. history teacher at our school takes a group of 8th graders to Washington, D.C. the week after school lets out. Anyone can go, it's kind of expensive so they do fundraisers all year long. I went my 8th grade year, and honestly, I loved it. There's about 80 people in my class and about 20 of us went on the trip, a bunch of my close friends included. We got on the charter bus at the middle school and traveled all day and through the night. (Sleeping on a charter bus is NOT fun. At one point I was stretched across two seats. The next thing I know I'm waking up and I'm somehow underneath the seats. I really don't know.) We spend the next three days none stop sight seeing. The White House, all the various memorials, George Washington's plantation, the Smithsonian (only two museums, it would be impossible to see them all), the Holocaust museum (so awe-inspiring, I can't even begin to describe it. If you ever get the chance, go), the Newseum, the Capitol building, Arlington, Congressional Library, and so much more I know I'm leaving out. It's none stop. By the time we got home I was absolutely exhausted.

The main reason this is my favorite memory is because it was kind of my first view into adult life, in a way. There were only two adult chaperones and neither of them were parents. It was also the first trip I had ever taken without my family. When we had finally gotten to the hotel I called my parents. Next thing I know, out of the blue, I'm bawling my eyes out. It totally came out of nowhere. I think I hadn't realized until then just how far I was from my parents. But that was the only part of the trip I had any homesickness. However, it was the first time I had ever cried because I also realized that I wasn't a little kid anymore. I knew that I was starting to grow up and become more adult and mature. (I say more, not completely.) I'll be honest I've cried at other times when something totally catches me off guard and I realize I'm on my own and my parents can't just come in and make everything better. I'll admit that it's scary growing up. At some point in the near-ish future I'll be completely independent and on my own. It's terrifying but also kind of exhilarating.

And I'm getting off topic... I also looove Washington, D.C., probably the most out of any big city I've been to. It astounded me that all those things we've heard about in history class happened here. All the those presidents lived here. It made history more real, not just some story of something that happened a long time ago. Besides all the history it's really pretty there. I love the rush of big cities and something about D.C. just had it for me. I'd really like to see D.C. when all the cherry blossom trees are in bloom. My friend went the December of 2010 and she said it was gorgeous. My family's taking our annual summer vacation there at the beginning of June. I'm so excited. My aunt Patti's going to come to and maybe my aunt Connie, uncle Tom, and cousin Aaron. (To be honest I'm not all that excited to go with the last three. I don't mean to bash them, I love them. But I just don't want to vacation with a bunch of people. Plus Aaron's younger and they'll probably expect Conor and me to babysit. Not happening.) My mom's cousin and her family live around there so we're going to visit them. So around June you can probably expect stories and pictures.




(Not sure what the 30 Day Picture Challenge is?)

Sunday, March 13, 2011

My Hectic Week

I know this might not technically be "very soon" according to regular time, but in Kate time I think I'm doing pretty good. Last Tuesday was the WYSE Sectionals at EIU. EIU's about an hour and fifteen minutes away, so we had to catch the bus before school at like 7:30. Not too bad, that's usually when I leave my house in the morning. We did terrible, everyone kind of expected that though. My friend Caleb finished 3rd in computer graphics, so he'll go to the state competition at the U of I. One plus was the guy sitting to my left. He was very good looking. (Maybe that's why I didn't do so good? I try to give myself more credit than that, it was hard. But still. I'm only human. Plus the guy on my right was annoying. He'd get done super early and just stare at us. I don't care if you're a genius, that's no excuse to be rude.)

We got done with testing around lunch time. So we went to the food court in the student union for lunch. I saw my cousin Kelsi there (she goes to college at EIU). I didn't get to talk to her for long, unfortunately, because the band members had to get on the bus to go back to the college in our town for the band festival. Which, I have to admit, sucked. We played last so, of course, everyone had left. My grandparents came, though, and my mom, too, since she works there.

Mass band
On Thursday we had the all county mass band. Basically what it is is 7 bands from the same county all get together at one of the high schools. In the morning the honor band (about 50 students) rehearses with the guest director. We eat lunch and then the rest of the bands come (about 250 including those from the morning) and rehearse all afternoon. We eat dinner, get changed into dress clothes, and have a concert at 7. The way our band director does it is he takes volunteers to do honor band. Except this year there weren't enough to picked people. I was picked. Yaaaay, not. Because of this I played for pretty much 12 hours straight. This is extremely tiring, more than you would think. The guest conductor was kind of a jerk. He kept throwing mini-tantrums. Of course, you know how they are, so at the actual concert he was Mr. Personality. The good thing was that the girl sitting next to me in honor band was hilarious. She was so sarcastic, we bonded over the fact that neither of us wanted to be there.

Now we get to the good part of my week. The St. Patrick's Day Parade! As you may or may not know St. Patty's day is March 17. Well our town, like most, has the celebration the Saturday before. My family is of Irish heritage and takes extreme pride in it. (We're not like recently descendant, our family's been here since the Civil War. But hey, we're still Irish!) My dad also belongs to the local KC Hall (he's one degree from being one of the head honchos) and so about 10 years ago they approached him about organizing the parade. And, of course, he jumped at the chance. My dad looooves St. Patty's Day. So the month before we spend our time contacting groups and sending out messages to papers about finding people to be in the parade. This year we had 55 groups enter (well over 900 people) and since the weather was so nice (it can get iffy) a lot more showed up unannounced.

A company downtown has a massive parking lot so they let us use that to organize all the people. We break it up into 6 sections. A bunch of my aunts, uncles, spouses, cousin, my brother, mom, and I all volunteer to help organize. The KC Hall pays for us to have breakfast, so we all have breakfast at the Downtown Cafe at 7:45 and get ready. It gets so chaotic when people start showing up. My mom and her friend Sue guard the entrance and tell people where to go. And then the various family members are split up between the sections and tell the people in what order they go. A local Verizon store loans us walkie-talkies and the park district loans us 4 golf cart. It's chaotic, but fun.

Bagpipers at the KC Hall
The fire engines and police cars always lead the parade. Well one of the firemen asked my dad if he had anyone who wanted to ride. That way we could tell them to slow down if there was too much of a gap. My dad told my aunt Mary and me that we could do it. (Originally he asked my cousin Michael and me, but Michael, Conor, and my cousin Aaron were taking a golf cart in the parade and throwing candy.) It was so much fun! We waved and I even got to make the siren go. Basically all my childhood dreams came true. (I sat up front with the driver, who was middle aged. My aunt sat in the back with others. The other young, hot firemen. Not fair Aunt Mary. Not fair.) Then when it was over we went down to the KC Hall for the big celebration. We ate lunch, there were carriage rides, and of course anyone over 21 got drunk. Typical St. Patrick's Day, but it's my dad's favorite day of the year.

Well that was nice and long. I promise the next one will be short, and soon. Soon in normal time, not Kate time. Have a good week!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Day 04

A picture of a habit you wish you didn't have.
No matter how hard I laugh my eyes always water. To the point that I'm basically crying when I laugh. I don't even know how many times I'm sitting there laughing about something and someone walks up and goes, "Oh my God, Kate! What's wrong?! Why are you crying?!" And then I have to go on and explain how I cry when I laugh. Which makes my friends laugh because they know how much it annoys me. Which makes me laugh because when other people laugh I can't help but laugh to. I laugh pretty easily. It's gotten so bad that I now wear almost all waterproof make up. I don't want my make up to always be running, but waterproof make up is impossible to take off.

(I'm not sure if this is actually a habit? I mean it's not really voluntary. Obviously I'd stop it if I could. But my other habit is picking at my cuticles. I tried to find a picture on Google, but that was a mistake. The pictures were so gross, I couldn't share that one with you guys.)

(In case you hadn't noticed I'd like to point out my pink/red eye. Last spring I got sick and then after that my eye got all blood shot and was constantly irritated. It got to the point where I couldn't wear a contact on that eye. It was so gross. And of course I got made fun of. All the time.)

Well, my friend's texting me about the trig homework so I better go do that (why do I always post when I should be doing my trig homework? Literally, the only times I blog are when I have trig homework to do). Oh, and I have some other things I want to blog about. So that'll happen very soon!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Day 03

A picture of the cast from your favorite show.
I think that Gilmore Girls will forever be my favorite show. I remember watching it for the first time in like the fifth grade and loving it. At one point I wanted to be exactly like Rory and then grow up to be exactly like Lorelei. And, of course, who didn't love Luke? Honestly, how could you not? The plot is just real enough to possibly happen in real life, but not quite. All the lines are witty and funny. The show makes you want to live in a town like Stars Hollow. Which, come on, let's be real, there probably aren't very many towns like in the world. All the small towns I know aren't like that. I pretty much grew up watching this show, and I will probably spend the rest of my life trying to be like Rory and Lorelei. Except the whole stealing a yacht and dropping out of college thing. Oh, or get pregnant while I'm still in high school. I'm gonna try real hard not to do either of those.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Show Me the Money!

(I could really use some right now...)
Top 2 Things You've Learned About Money
  1. Impulse shopping is not a good idea. I'll admit this is a pretty obvious one. But it's probably one of my worst habits, I just can't help myself! Nothing's more exciting than finding a random little trinket that you can't live without. It's worse when I go shopping with my dad because we're both impulse shoppers. We practically encourage each other. But I can't even describe how cluttered my room is because of this habit. I've got so much useless crap taking space in my room, it's ridiculous. If you didn't plan on buying it, it most likely won't be of any use. Therefore, you've wasted money that could be spent on more practical things. (However, I do acknowledge the fact that impulse shopping can be fun and okay in some instances. Like if you're on a trip and find something that you probably won't at home.)
  2. Being frugal isn't a bad thing. Again, a pretty obvious one, but I think it's super important. Both my parents are accountants, so you can imagine the type of household I grew up in. Well, my dad isn't exactly frugal... He loves to spend just as much as I do, which is a lot. But my mom keeps a type grip on the check book. She's probably the most frugal person I know, if not the most frugal in the world. It use to annoy me so much when she wouldn't buy me things that I really wanted or we had to by the cheaper brand. But now that I'm older I understand a lot more. Because she's so frugal she's able to by us nicer things for holidays or birthdays. Also, we've gone on a family vacation every summer for as long as I can remember. Which isn't cheap. But because she's so frugal we've been able to do this, and I'm grateful for that. I've had some of the best times on those trips and I really do believe those experiences have brought us closer as a family. Things like that are really only possible from saving your money. Oh, and bills. Never forget the bills.