Christmas List!

Current mood: procrastinator!
Currently reading: The Society of S—Susan Hubbard. Adult, Sci-Fi and fantasy. 5/5 so far!

So far, I haven’t had an extremely big week. Just same old, same old…swimming in gym class, lessons in all my other classes. Ah, school. It’s almost nice to be in such a mindless routine. Almost.
I’m getting pretty pumped for Christmas! I can’t believe it’s only¹…12 days away! God, actually that’s really really scary. I have most of my prezzies for my friends, and I’m getting the rest of them tomorrow, but my family? Not so much. I have no idea what my sister even wants for Christmas. She will be home tomorrow², so I guess I can ask her then. I thought that I’d post my Christmas list today, just in case any of my online admirers care to…buy me anything. Not really, I just thought it’d be interesting. Now if I could only find where I put it…!
Clothes:
-sweaters—it gets cold where I live, and I get cold more easily than the average person. Therefore, I spend a lot of time in sweaters. Winter is about 5 months long here, after all.
-skinny jeans—what can I say? I love skinnies…stylish yet comfortable. And I just love jeans in general.
-other cute, random, and exciting things—just because I didn’t specifically list it here doesn’t mean I don’t want it! I have a slight clothes fetish, okay?
-slouch boots—preferably black suede. I know suede is not the best for snowy areas, but it just looks better than leather!
-converse—of any color other than black and brown, cause those are the two I already have. Preferably high tops as well, cause everyone knows that low tops aren’t as cool.
Jewelry:
-big necklaces—I love necklaces. I wear them all the time. But I’m a person for loud jewelry. I don’t generally wear really delicate-looking stuff. It’s just not me.
-bangles—almost as good as necklaces. Bracelets are fun, too. I enjoy the whole “dressing up” thing. It’s a way to amuse yourself!
-skinny headbands—the wide ones don’t look good on me, but they’re a good way to hold your hair back. Really, they are!
Jewelry Box: actually, I already know I’m getting this one, cause I was there when my mom bought it for me. Haha. And when we checked it out on self-checkout? The item name that came up was “Jew Box.” Is someone at Wal-Mart feeling slightly racist??
Leather Ligature: for my clarinet. They may not be as pretty as the other ones, but they make your tone a lot better. Therefore, I want one!
Journal: I’m almost out of paper in my other one. I need a new one! I like to write. Enough said.
Lip Gloss: Chap stick—with color! What else could a girl need, you know?³
Books: (this may be pretty long…)
-Maximum Ride 1, 2, and 3, by James Patterson. Yep, 1holly and Molly⁴ got me hooked. And now these are some of my faves.
-Artemis Fowl 5, by Eoin Colfer, in paperback. I know it’s out already, but our Barnes & Noble won’t have it til freaking March 15! On the observant side, that’s exactly⁵….four months before The Time Paradox⁶ is scheduled for release. But back on topic…
-Pretties and Specials, by Scott Westerfield. I love Scott Westerfield, and while I understand that these books were a bit too sci-fi for people to get into, I absolutely loved them. Note—read Extras as well. It has a new main character and an exciting plot!
-Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, by JRR Tolkien. I have the other two, but not the third one. This is one of my favorite fantasy series!
-New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer, if it’s out in paperback. I only get books in paperback, if you couldn’t tell. I love these books…vampire books are always fun!
Well, that’s about it for the list today! Hope everyone here has a good weekend and all! Until next time….
xxx

Caryn

¹ *counts on fingers*
² She’s currently at college in Washington
³ actually, a lot…but that’s beside the point.
⁴ that rhymed…special!
⁵ *counts on fingers…* again!
⁶ Which is Artemis Fowl 6, for those of you on the less-informed circuit.

Moving Day (Part 3)

Hey all…sorry there’s such a backlog on my blog entries. I really need to get with it, don’t I? I’ll just quickly post what we did on Sunday and then update you on the rest of my fan-tab-u-lous¹ week.

Sunday morning, instead of being referred to as a “moving morning,” would better fall under the heading of “nothing-important-really-happening.” This was actually sort of a lucky break for me, cause I was mucho sore from moving things the day before. Back on topic, it’s apparently state law here in nowheresville that you have to inspect your apartment (or condo, I suppose), and record any…deficiencies you find for posterity² when you first rent it. With any normal person, this job wouldn’t take too long…maybe a half an hour at the most. But with my dad? We didn’t get done til 1 in the afternoon! Mind you, we weren’t doing it all morning…I didn’t even get up until about 9, and then spent about an hour “doing homework^3”. So all in all, we probably didn’t get started until about 10:30 or 11. But still, that’s a long time inspecting. We had to write down every chip in the paint, dent in the wall, slightly bent part of the ceiling⁴, and splatter of paint on the doors. Actually, to be more accurate, Dad wrote it all down. I followed him with my notebook⁵ and did some more “homework” while he freaked out about random faulty paint jobs. All in all, not the best morning I’ve ever had.
After our almost freakishly late lunch, he decided to go look at the closing furniture store in my town to see if we could get anything that we needed for bargain prices. We ended up getting me a new bed⁶, which I have mixed feelings about. On the plus side, it was an extremely good deal and probably better than anything else I might have gotten for the same price⁷, and it’s really comfortable. On the not-so-plus side, now that I have a bed, I can start staying at his house regularly. And he doesn’t even have internet yet. Joy.
By about 3 o’clock, Dad finally got his head in order and decided to start moving things. We didn’t take much that day, just the rest of the stuff from his room and some more food for me (I’ll tell you why I need that some other time…) and then the entertainment center. The nice thing about this was, it took a lot of time, and when we got back to his place and got everything inside, it was pretty much time for dinner. So that meant no more moving things that night! While I was preparing dinner (Campbell’s soup out of a can…yum, yum), my dad hooked up the VCR to the TV. We had taped two basketball games on Saturday, and we watched one of them (Duke vs. Michigan) during dinner. I won’t bore you with everything I could say about this at the time (Duke is my team), but suffice it to say that Duke won…by a lot. When that was over, I just decided to go to bed⁸ and thus avoid talking to him. As you can see, my weekend was so fun it was unbelievable. Until next time…

xxx
Caryn

By the way…2 points to BlackOpal for catching my book reference. Figured you’d get it!

¹ of course without that tinge of sarcasm…
² umm, not really on the posterity thing. But you take my point.
³ because apparently “reading Harry Potter” has been added to my curriculum ;)
⁴ in our apartment, we have those school ceilings…the ones with the removable tiles.
⁵ the one with the story I’m writing in it
⁶ actually, it was just the mattress and box springs, but whatever.
⁷ for those of you who missed the memo the first time, my dad is extremely cheap.
⁸ on my new mattress, mind you

Moving Day (Part 2)

Sorry I haven’t been on anywhere all weekend…I was stuck with my dad who doesn’t even have a dresser for my room, much less a computer with an internet connection. Here’s my weekend. Saturday-We got to move—again. As I said before, my dad’s apartment is a nice place. It’s just him I dislike. He and my mom have come to a custody agreement¹, but since they haven’t really told me about it yet², we’re just doing a temporary arrangement now. Well, that’s also due to the fact that up until Sunday, my dad didn’t have a bed for me. So I had to stay with him all freaking weekend long while he borrowed my bed from my mom’s apartment. I think I’ll be staying with her for the rest of the week, but you never know. Anyhow, all annoying things aside, we actually got quite a bit moved over there on Saturday. Okay, so maybe moving is quite an annoyance as well, but you get my point. The first thing we moved was all of the bedroom stuff. Well, all of Dad’s bedroom stuff would be closer to the truth. I don’t have much bedroom stuff that will be going over there. But all of Dad’s stuff was brought over to his new place and dumped unceremoniously on the floor in his room. I wouldn’t want to be him cleaning that mess up! Then we brought his dressers—I was amazed at how few clothes guys can really survive with—and then his bed. It’s, I believe, a queen-sized bed, and very awkward to carry. And, oh yeah, hea-vy! We had to lift both the mattress and the box springs on top of his van³ and drive to his new place with it. Thankfully, it’s only about a half of a mile away from Mom’s. Small town life. We somehow managed to get his whole bed into the apartment without major incident—a good thing, since he tends to be slightly anal about his possessions getting ruled. Yes, Grub⁴. Next came my bed. Actually, the one we took was my sister’s bed, but since she’s in Washington at college, we figured it would be safe to borrow it for the weekend. Plus, it needs to be fixed. Half of the legs on one end of her bed was cut off⁵ so we need to remedy that before it’s sleep-on-able⁶. We also brought a few more of Dad’s possessions and some stuff for the bathroom (gotta have that!) and the TV. Then, it was time for me to pack what I’d need for the weekend and Monday, and then say goodbye to Mom for the night. It was hard on both of us, let me tell you. Dad and I drove over to his place for the last time that night and took everything inside. He then went to get dinner for me⁷ while I made my bed and unpacked the bathroom stuff. When he came back, he set up the TV so I could watch the two-hour long Red-Green special (“You’re watching Red Green and no one can stop you”)⁸ while I ate. For the record, it was 8’o’clock by that point. After that, needless to say, I went to bed. On my mattress which was laying on the floor. Ah well, it was still comfy. And let me tell you, moving is hard work! Until next time…

xxx
Caryn

¹ But only for now—he wouldn’t move out til they did. We’ll fight it later.
² My mom has, though she wasn’t supposed to—she wouldn’t keep it from me. Shh!
³ Minivan, if you want to get technical, since he for some reason won’t get a U-haul for a day. Oh yeah…it’s because he’s too cheap to.
⁴ Kudos to you if you get it.
⁵ To clarify, the legs weren’t removed…just shortened.
⁶ Shut up. It’s a word.
⁷ Wendy’s—do what tastes right^{©® (and whatever else you need there…)}

⁸ We’re now in week 3 of pledge week, er, period.

Poem And More...

Sorry I haven't posted recently...but nothing exciting has been happening. Just same old same old, klutzy behaviors and all. And a couple of interesting days in band. Well, here's something I wrote yesterday. Hope you like it...until next time.

xxx

Caryn

"Like That"

7.12.2007

And it's not like I care "like that"
But just for once want you to bleed
Now tell me, does it seem so bad
To ask what you once had of me?
Because so many years I cried
I guess I should be glad they're gone
But with this feeling here inside
Not being there is just so wrong.
So ask me, "What's wrong with your brain?
Does something make you want to bleed?
Are you a sucker for the pain
That I push down inside of me?"
And now I don't know what to say
As I see how I really am,
Just wishing I could have my way
Without a longing for your hand.
But did I really give you up?
Or have I loved you all along?
My other feeble stabs at love
A shield for my only one?
And do you think of me that way?
I know that, once upon a time
I ruined cause I wouldn't say
That you were really on my mind.
And are we meant to be or cursed?
One of those love that never happened
Though it was so clear from the first
One of those loves that just should have been?
I've now exhausted all my love
So I slip back to my standby
Of lapping adoration up
And then I turn away and cry.

-Caryn

Kudos to you if you can figure out what this means...and where I really stand. I don't get it yet.

You may know who this is about, though.

Concert! (and the rest of my day)

Concert! (And the rest of my day)

Well, today I managed to do not only one embarrassing thing, but two. Or, I guess, other people said they were embarrassing. As for me, I don't get embarrassed all that easily. The first was in gym class. We're learning the sidestroke today—something I've been able to do for ages—and my teacher picked me to demonstrate the sidestroke to the rest of the class. The first time wasn't so bad…all I had to do was swim across in front of them while they observed from the edge of the pool. The second time, our teacher had the bright idea of showing everyone my glide by having me see how few strokes I could get across the pool it. So I went across, in 7 or 9 (I think) and he told me to come back and see if I could do better. I came back, apparently swimming crooked on the way, and when I was really close to the wall, I looked up and realized I was really really close to Sam with my leading arm. Yes, Sam is a boy, not just a nickname for one of my girlfriends. And he was sitting with his legs, like, in the pool. And then he had to make some gross joke about it. Ugh. Then, next period after class, I went outside to get to my next class (you would too if you had to hike all the way across our giganticly spread out school) and slipped on the ice there and totally totally wiped out. I was with Wiley at the time, and he laughed soo hard about it! And made fun of me. As I so eloquently put it later, the ground and I had a tripping match, and I lost. Anyhow, falling made my pants extremely muddy…and then in band (7^th period), our teacher noticed that my pants were muddy and asked me loudly in front of the whole class if I fell. Needless to say, Wiley answered that one for me! Actually, the first time my teacher asked me, we were in the middle of playing. Wiley is 1^st clarinet, his girlfriend¹ Katie is 2^nd, and I am 3^rd. So of course Katie had been told. All 3 of us cracked up in the middle of the song. Not good. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever live it down.
Concert tonight! I'm pretty excited, cause I love band so much! I don't know if we're prepared…some people in our band were having issues today. But I still want to do it! The only downside is that we have to wear the "maniforms." We call them that because our uniforms have man pants, I swear. So, for the night, all of us girls get to play dress up! Though I do think I'd make a pretty hot guy..;) That's all for now. Until next time…

xxx Caryn
¹ As of Friday in band

Swimming!

currently reading: nothing. I can't be arsed.
current mood: okay-ish?

First period class: Gym. And I am one of the lucky people who happens to be in the middle of their swimming unit at the moment. Actually, not even the middle. We just started it on Friday. Of course, swimming in gym class is just loads of fun. Especially since all the popular¹ guys are in my class. I know, lucky me, right? Wrong.
Today, all we did the whole time was work on our strokes and kicks separately, since most of my class apparently put them together yet, and it's absolute hell. The strokes, I'm very good at. I've been taking swimming lessons for the past, oh, eight years, so my skills have definitely had enough time to develop themselves. But when we do the kicking? Not fun. It's so tiring for me! Yeah I may be a bit our of shape, but still…hated it!
When we were working on our backstroke kick (which is just doing the flutter kick on our backs), enough water went up my nose to drown me. My nose has been hurting ever since. And when we were working on our front crawl stroke with floaties taking place of the kicking, I swallowed half of the pool. Not being able to do it all together really gets my timing off, let me tell you. I seriously hope you can't die from a chlorine overdose.
On the bright side, when you swim in gym class, you get plenty of time to shower off and get dressed. And the showers are very warm. On the not-so-bright side, I have gym class first thing in the morning, so all day… Ugh. It's hard to do your hair in a gym locker room, and I'm sure I'd feel the same way about makeup if I wore that as well. As it is, my hair now looks like absolute shit!
And I've just gotta mention, if you haven't done it already (and you're a Potter fan), check out James Potter and the Hall of Elder's Crossing. And I'll probably be nagging you about this for the next…what is it? 18 days. Well, enjoy, until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ read: obnoxious and annoying

Moving Day (Part 1) and James Potter

Today I got to help my dad move¹ into his new place. It’s very pretty inside, with cream-colored walls and brown carpet, but it is a pretty small apartment. However, it’s not like it will be full or anything. It’ll just be him and sometimes me, depending on what happens with custody.
Maybe I should bring you guys up to speed on what’s happening. My parents are going to get a divorce (my dad’s idea) and they’re currently in the living-in-separate-places stage. There’s no way this is gonna blow over, so I’m just ready for what comes. For the record, my dad is a pretty big asshole²…he’s incredibly controlling of everything around him and totally OCD about odd things as well. Right now, he’s obsessing over his diet, and won’t eat certain foods because his allergic reactions to them “make his head feel funny.” In my opinion, it’s not the food that’s making his head feel funny. His head is funny. Anyhow, both my mom and I are ready for him to leave, and I’m crossing my fingers for as little of him as possible. I definitely want to live with my mom.
When it comes down to it, I didn’t really get to do much today. I put hangers in all of the closets and then wandered around, looking at the place. At least I got some exercise. The landlady came over and I met her as well. She seemed to be very nice, and her grandson Bryce is in my science class. It’s a small world! Actually, it’s just a small town and I knew that already.
Also, heads up for James Potter and the Hall of Elder’s Crossing—The ultimate Harry Potter fanfic (title is link). I’m currently enjoying it! I’m not gonna give out the passwords here, but if you’re one of my forum friends who wants to know, PM me and I’ll think about it. Until next time…

xxx
Caryn

¹ redefined for today as go-in-and-scope-out-the-new-place
² Excuse my French

Christmas Fever

Currently Reading: Undercover (Beth Kephart) YA fiction & romance, 3/5
Mood: Exhilarated

Ah, so it was the Christmas stroll today. For those of you who don’t know what that is (probably most of you), that’s when all the businesses on Main have well…booths and all in the street, there’s other random food venues there, you can do crafts, go Christmas shopping, and take sleigh rides through the park. And, oh yeah, Santa is there. Of course.
So right now, you’re thinking “sounds fun,” aren’t you? Well, yeah, but then factor in the like, 6 degree weather and then the wind chill that probably takes it well below zero. Sounds like frostbite waiting to happen.
The choir that my mom used to direct sang as we walked down Main with Santa and used our “singing power” to light the gigantic arachnoid¹ Christmas trees strung up over the traffic lights…and it took way too long. My mom is good friends with the new director, so she was asked to come and help out. Lucky me got to help too, and I’ll tell you, by the end of the procession, I swear both my feet and hands were encased in blocks of ice. It was that bad. Thankfully, the fire station at the end of the route always has hot chocolate (and we’re talking burn-your-tongue-hot here) and cookies. So I lived.
Earlier today, I went Christmas shopping…and ran a few other errands as well. Man, everywhere we went was incredibly loud and crowded. Ah, Christmas season. Gotta love it, no? Until next time…

xxx
Caryn

¹ resembling a spider's web.