the radio

The familiar sounds of K102 are playing lightly right now in the math resource center, I am a teacher's assistant for Denny and it can get pretty quiet up here. I don't know what I would do without the music. Music in general is something that makes people happy. I know for myself, my mood will instantly brighten if I here the lyrics to one of my favorite songs. There is simply nothing better than that moment when a song comes on the radio that perfectly outlines your mood, whether it's happy or sad. While I'm driving, music is a constant. Whoever sits in the passenger's seat next to me knows that as soon as a radio station turns to static, I like it turned immediately. Another station, for constant music. That's just the way I like it.

thinking

thinking

no more worry about the coming hurricane

lie me down and sleep

with no tomorrow

crouching like a hungry beast

no more fear of what will be 

and what will shiver lost in freezing accusations 

I will not think

no never think again 

I will just live

pasta parties

I remember when I first joined the Champlin Park swim team in eighth grade I was very confused on what these famous "pasta parties" were. There was one scheduled the night before almost every swim meet. Only later did I discover the deliciousness and magic that occurred at these events. After a long practice, the team would be given directions to the location of that night's pasta party. It was always at someone on the team's house, a different swimmer every time. I would climb into our family's truck and my dad said he would drive me. When I got there, I noticed the mountain of various types of shoes that everyone had taken off and left in the entryway. I placed mine near the others, hoping that they wouldn't be lost in the sea of shoes. Walking down the hallway there was familiar chatter and laughter that I was used to. And the kitchen, the first time I saw it.... SO much food, it was amazing. I wasn't hungry before but after seeing the various types of pasta, salads and garlic bread, I heard my stomach growl. I filled up my plate and grabbed a glass of milk when I realized the dessert table. No room was left on my plate though! I made a mental note to grab a cookie later and sat down next to a group of friendly upperclassman swimmers. They greeted me and I smiled, taking my seat I began to nibble on everything. I looked around and saw the other girls wolfing down their food like it was some sort of Olympic event. One of them mentioned that they were on their third plate of food! Another girl had an entire plate of just garlic bread. It was like Thanksgiving, only with Italian food. It was so good, I quickly realized I was beginning to eat faster as well. "Carboloading". Apparently eating a bunch of carbohydrates before a big race was somehow beneficial to you. I'm not sure how that works, but all I know is, I'm a fan!

bridesmaids

On Saturday my family has a tradition of watching a movie together. I was excited for this weekend because I knew Bridesmaids was finally on On Demand. We were watching it in the afternoon instead of Saturday night because my family always watches the Gophers play football. (They would lose terribly to NDSU that Saturday, an embarrassment, but this is not a football rant post...) The movie was filled with tons of recognizable and favorite faces: John Hamm, who I love to watch as Don Draper in Mad Men, the actress that played "Sookie" in Gilmore Girls as well as two of my favorite Saturday Night Live ladies. It was hilarious, just like everyone had told me. Every time people had talked about it, they seemed surprised that I hadn't seen it yet since I am known for knowing everything about films. I laughed at every line, especially one of my favorite's of the movie where the mom mentioned that the movie Castaway had just been added to Netflix, saying "it's like Forest Gump on an island!"

college applications

Sitting at the kitchen table, I notice that I have over ten tabs open on my computer. Links to my email, my resume, all of my essays, the webistes for the different colleges I'm applying to and iTunes. I always imagined applying to colleges as this very exciting time... and it is, but I never pictured entering my information in thousands of sites. Applying to colleges is exciting, just not actual application part. That has evoked other feelings including anxiety and stress. My mom sitting near me, reading, is laughing at all of my mini panic attacks and exclamations that come out of my mouth every minute. After the long process of entering, and reentering my name and my senior schedule, etc. I press the button that says submit. A huge weight is taken off my shoulder, I've applied. And now that stress is replaced by the anxiety of acceptance.

slippery when wet.

Last night was our third dual swim meet. The new swimmers are becoming used to the rules and how everything works; there's no more mad rushes to get people to their races.

After diving, our team was getting ready for the second half of the meet. Lexi, one of our best swimmers on the team, was walking to check the line-up when she began to slip on the pool deck. I was standing behind her, and quickly grabbed her holding her up. She was screaming in pain and I noticed that her knee wasn't where it was supposed to be. It had been dislocated. You know when there's a scary situation, or something is going terribly wrong and it feels like it's moving in slow motion? That's how it was. I saw Lexi push her knee back into place and she then fell again, but arms still holding her, brought her to the ground slowly. I kept her head from splitting on the wet cold tiled flooring, just call me a lifesaver.

state of frenzy

Tonight, September 21st, 2011, is the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony. As one of the officers this year, I will be giving a speech on one of the four pillars of NHS. My speech tonight is on the pillar of leadership; I have written and practiced my speech. Done. No problem for me, public speaking has never been a difficulty for me, probably because I enjoy talking too much.

The past few weeks during my fourth hour, which I spend being a Teacher's Assistant for Kim Denny, I have folded the programs, assembled the "candles" and printed out the certificates. Hours and hours of work just for this one night. This morning we had the practice ceremony during advisement, us officers went through and said everyone's names when we discovered that the spell corrections I had fixed on the program had not gone through. New member Logan's name still said "Lauren", oops. So after advisement, instead of going to my normal class, French level 5, Mrs. Denny and I raced back up to her computer, eager to fix the problem. We needed to print 200 new copies of the program and fold them by tonight.

As soon as we got to the room, we discovered another big problem. Denny was certain that she had left her jump drive---which contained the program template---at home! She gathered her things quickly and raced home. I sat and waited for a few minutes before deciding that I should keep looking around for that little red jump drive. The first desk drawer I opened contained the jump drive attached to a lanyard that said, "Rebels". I had found it! By opening the same drawer that I had seen Denny open to check if it was there five times. I quickly called her leaving a message of relief, telling her to come back to the school. Proud of myself, I sat down on her chair and typed in the correct spellings of names. Such relief.