Amanda's blog

Today… Wed-nes-day

manda95 — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:42:40 +0000

Well it’s a Wednesday and of course that means it’s my second least favorite day of the week after Monday. First of all its a formal dress day at school and we have to wear our blazers and have a long chapel service (full 45 minutes) with communion and everything. I’m not really one of those people who don’t like church or chapel, whatever you want to call it, it’s just all those prayers for communion and Rite II take too long and I hear them every Sunday anyways (which happens to be my 4th least favorite a.k.a my 4th favorite). Well anyways also we get out of school 15 minutes later and have 10 minutes less of lunch. I like lunch, why can’t we just take the 10 minutes out of 7th or 8th period? Maybe 5th cause we get 10 extra minutes every other day. Well to go on with my story of today I have to first start with the fact that I’m in basketball and happen to have morning practices almost every Wednesday. I wake up at 5:10 or so, get dressed and ready with my gym bag and everything and then leave at 5:50…. Fun! So this morning I suddenly jolt awake freaking out thinking I’ve missed basketball even though I had set 5 alarms (2 with music on my radio and 3 on viabrate next to my bed) and had not heard any of them. So I look over at one of the three alarm clocks in my room and notice it’s only 4:08. Great! Now I have to wait for one hour until I actually need to be up. I check my phone and notice a new message, “Sent 1:17″, I reply and try to fall back asleep but fail. So… not being able to fall asleep I think about all the complicated stuff going on in my life right now. That didn’t help in trying to fall asleep at all. My mind was busy whirring around when I am finally brought to reality by the loud hip-hop music blarring out the speakers. I jump up happy that I can finally do something and turn it and all the other alarms off. I prepare for the bright-and-early practice and leave at 4:47. At practice I, diving for the ball so it does not bounce out of bounds try to stop myself but fail and slide right into the bleachers falling on my butt into the corner where the metal step meets the rough bench. Ouch. Everyone’s laughing, including me, because it is definitely something that would happen to me and just one of those rare moments that releases all previous anxiety of “when are we finally going to get out???” After getting up still laughing and discovering a violet scrape above my hip, I keep playing and finally get out. Being a freshmen, getting the last shower and only having 5 minutes after my shower to get ready and dressed does not help my day. I get to Website Design work on my website (www.esdeagles.com/photo) that really needs to be finished. I go to chapel and survive. Then I quickly drop into the Eagle’s Nest to get some Goldfish and a cookie then go to Biology and after to Latin where I took a test that I really needed to get an A+ in but don’t think I did. After I went to lunch, then math, and then photography where I worked on my monochramatic self-portrait. After that I went to World Cultures where I was satisfactory on a quiz but not great and then off to English where I worked on my website project on Dionysus (the Greek god of wine). That’s how my day went… an average plain school day with the exception of my fabulous stunt into the bleachers.

It’s the Best Season of All!!!

manda95 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:45:11 +0000

Winter- 1.

the cold season between autumn and spring in northern latitudes (in the Northern Hemisphere from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox; in the Southern Hemisphere from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox).

the months of December, January, and February in the U.S.

Well… It’s cold outside. Everyone’s trying to get all bundled up and warm which I think is nearly impossible but hey, we do have a fire going. When you step outside you feel this instant chill go all the way through you. I think what’s worse than not having the appropriate sweatshirt for the weather is not having the best sweatshirt and having wet hair. I quickly entered the Cook Building and noticed that my hair felt like icicles. If I stayed out there long enough my hair just might grow little isicles around it. Not really, is that even possible?

Oh yeah, another thing, Christmas. My family would normally have all our decorations up and running, including the Christmas tree, but we don’t. We have our wreath, some outside lights but we still need the iscicles hung), and some indoor lights. But no, we do not have a Christmas tree yet. I told my mom that if we do not get a Christmas tree up by Christmas Eve, it will be the worst Christmas ever, she lauged.

WordPress vs. LiveJournal

manda95 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:40:14 +0000

Well I am required to compar to websites that are free blog sites. I chose LiveJournal because when I tried Blogger/ blogspot I had trouble creating my account. LiveJournal puts advertisements on YOUR page. It bugged me. I did not like have car advertisement on MY page. WordPress has a clean feeling without any extras you don’t want. I like WordPress much better than LiveJournal.

Snow in Dallas

manda95 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:37:16 +0000

It’s a first! For as long as I can remember we have never actually had REAL snow in Dallas. It has always been a small ice storm. I woke up this morning, dressed, ate and straightened my hair (which I rarely do) and then went outside to hop in the car and drive to sch0ol. When I opened the back door I realized first that there was a slush “storm”. Second I realized there was no point of straightening my hair.

At about 7:45 this morning the slush turned into actual snow, 8:10 it started sticking to grass, 8:20 it started sticking to the ground trees, and fences. The khuory at school is spectacular, but the waterfall is still running.

Well I guess this whole thing gives us a good reason to buy 2 or 3 hot chocolates or mochas a day. I do sorta miss the ice since then we can’t come to school because of icy roads and it is “hazardous”.

Stress and the Affects

manda95 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:32:04 +0000

Stressed Out? Me too...

This week has definitely been my most stressful week. Science and World Cultures test on Tuesday, Latin test on Wednesday, The Odyssey test on Thursday, not to mention the two Biology Labs due Thursday and the Latin motto project and World Cultures roughdraft on Suleiman due Friday which is also a very hectic day because of all the grandparents that will flood the school starting at 9:40. Most people would just respond too my complaints by saying, “Welcome to highschool Amanda!” Ugh…

The effects of stress change the physical make up of both the body and brain.

Doesn't this look peaceful?

Ways to Relieve Stress:

1) Escape to a far off distant land (go on vacation)

2) Meditate (yoga or just sit and think about life, and yes that was suppose to sound a tad bit cheesy)

3) Listen to your favorite music or just calm music

Vacations

manda95 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:31:46 +0000

Grand Tetons

The Yellowstone Area

This summer I went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Best National Parks I have ever been to, though Yosemite was quite beautiful in California. The Grand Tetons have the most beautiful mountains and greenest forests in the summer. The 13 mile hike up to Inspiration Point at Jenny Lake and farther to the first major fork in the trail is totally worth it. We walked with many rest points at the river until we reached the fork at the second hidden waterfall. There we had lunch, went down a little ways where we saw a huge moose and then walked back. On the way back my cousin and I spotted another moose and later a grizzly bear across the river.

Turks and Caicos

Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos

Saturday: Woke up at 5 am to drive to the airport and hop on a plane to fly to paradise. It was worth it. We first arrived in Miami and waited 2 hours to board our next plane which then took us to the islands. Once we landed and got the rental car (which, once all our bags were in, only had room for 3 people) we drove to their version of Wal-mart. It was a big blue and yellow building with almost everything you could imagine needing on vacation, from cheap sunglasses and sand mats to rum and wine bottles that looked like they had washed up on shore. We bought flip flops, a sand mat, knock-off ray bans and oakleys, and or course the adults got some liquor. When we reached the resort we unpacked and got situated and then went down to the beach where we found the most prestine beaches.

Sunday:

Monday: We woke up at 6:30 and drove to the Provo dive shop, boarded a boat and went out to ”The Football Field” and ”The Cathedral/ Catacombs” to scuba dive. The first dive we saw a shark, turtle, four or five lobsters, big groupers and many many exotic colored fish. After an hour break or so we got back in the water and went on our second dive. That dive we saw a turtle, another shark, and huge schools of fish.

Tuesday:

Wednesday: We woke up at 6:30 and drove to the Provo dive shop, boarded a boat and went out to ____ and ______ to scuba dive. The first dive we saw a gigantic school of fish that were swimming in a circle. I dove into the middle of them and for 5 seconds they kept swimming but after they quickly scattered in many directions. After an hour and a half break we entered the water for the second time that day. That dive we saw many green moray and spotted moray eels, and a few sting rays.

Thursday: My friend Kaitlin and I just hung out in the condo half the day, which some might say was a huge waste since we were in the middle of paradise, but I did catch up on much needed sleep. At lunch time we went down to the beach and ran to the end and back. We did walk some but it was still really fun. The whole thing was probably one mile or something. That night, Thanksgiving, we went to Calico Jacks and I ate a ceasar salad with shrimp with a shirley temple.

Friday: We all decided to take a ferry across to North Caicos and drive to West Caicos from there.

Saturday: