Take Five, People, That’s a Wrap

Estoy: Okay, but suffering from a bad case of "the Fridays¹"
Currently Reading: Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Adult Fiction. 5/5, but there's a definite reason that it's adult.

Imagine if you will…poor schoolchildren being forced by their slightly insane and not even cool teacher to do a stupid assignment. Especially at the very end of the day on a Friday when the week feels like it's been forever though in reality it only lasted for four days. I'm sure that most of you don't have to imagine that; it has probably been a sad reality for you at sometime or other in your life. For those of you who have figured out that I'm not just into hypotheticals right now and that I'm actually maybe talking about my day, that is what I call talent.
So, you may be asking, what is said stupid assignment that us poor school children are being forced to do²? Well, today we were being forced to write a "commercial" persuading people to join the Greek army. Okay, we are studying Greek Mythology in English, and we are reading The Iliad (or a very cheap and not nearly as eloquent copy³), but explain to me how this translates into making a commercial so nonexistent people can join a nonexistent army in order to fight a nonexistent war? It doesn't, as close as I can figure. But if anyone has a good reason for it, drop me a line, kay? Anyhow, it was…well, quite a disaster if you ask me. Our group is slightly grouply impaired, i.e., we can't seem to do anything without arguing. Needless to say, I ended up writing the whole script. While I thought it sucked, my partners were quite pleased. Recording it didn't go too badly, and when we listened to all of the others, we discovered that everyone else's sucked as well. I guess there's really not much you can do with an assignment like that. Also on the subject of exciting English assignments would be our hero essay. Our hero has to be "a realistic person" who can "solve a [world] problem or improve the situation greatly." Again, I'm not quite sure how this relates to English and our subject right now (yes, I realize the Greeks had heroes, but they were hardly realistic. Half of them were deities), but I just chalk it up to the fact that our teacher is slightly insane. I believe I may have said that before. Anyhow, for those of you who either know me personally or at least have been keeping up with the books I'm reading, you know that, while I read a bit of pretty much everything, I love, love, love Science Fiction and Fantasy. So writing about a "realistic person" may not be too easy for me. I mean, no uber technology, no magic, no superhuman powers? Knowing my teacher, super smarts probably wouldn't go over to well, either. Obviously, this is going to be a bit of a problemo for Caryn. I don't know that I'll be able to make it interesting. Creative writing project? Hah. English has a way of sucking all the creativity right out of me.
On the plus side, I do have a band concert in 4 days! On the downside, we have one and a half rehearsals left. And oh yeah, people are still making way too many mistakes with the music. I mean, yesterday, a certain trombonist was say, a note sharp. Let me tell you, that is quite a bit of discord. I don't get it, I really don't. We've been playing for 4 and a half years now. We tune every day at the beginning of band. And we've had the music for probably around 2 months now. Practicing is not that hard! I think our band director is pretty nervous as well, but maybe everyone will practice this weekend! And maybe the sky is not really blue. Ah well, we can still hope, right? Well, wish us luck…we'll probably need it. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ Thanks to my State Studies teacher for that one!
² And if you weren't asking it…well, sorry, but I'm answering it anyways.
³ But somehow, it's still just as sexist. And worse, it's illustrated. Tell me, is there a reason why the Greek Goddesses couldn't seem to keep their boobs in their shirt/dress/toga/whatever it is they wore?

Veni, Vidi, Vici(1)

Estoy2: Braces-less for the first time in 2.5 years!!
Currently Reading: The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathon Stroud. YA Fantasy, 5/5.
The Golem’s Eye, by Jonathon Stroud. YA Fantasy, 5/5.
Green Rider, by Kristen Britain. YA/A Fantasy, 5/5.

I am glad to inform you that everything in my speck of the world is going fairly well right now. I would have written sooner, only there was really nothing for me to right about! It’s been awhile since finals, and I am pleased to announce that I made it through every class with an A! In fact, I think my lowest finals grade was a 93. So there you go. Hence the title; I felt I was entitled to a small brag. Okay, I’m over it. Unfortunately, every teacher has taken the opportunity the new semester presents to load us up with homework! I suspect it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t all assign it on the same nights, but I swear they plan it so they do. Plus my English teacher³ decided to be incredibly cool in that way he so often is⁴ and assign us a whole packet of work for Of Mice and Men rather than just bits like the other English teachers did. Ergo⁵, I have been rather busy for the last few nights. Actually, I like to do all of the work at my dad’s when I can, to waste time. But that doesn’t make it any more fun.
On a good note, I did get my braces off today. If you read my estoy⁶ note above, you already knew that. Though it was slightly painful at some times (I doubt my gums will ever be the same again) and a bit boring (what, it only took almost two hours…) I am soo glad. I love my teeth now. All my friends did the normal squealy “ohmigod, you got your braces off,”⁷ provided they even noticed that I got them off⁸, and my mom told my band teacher so he felt the need to make a big deal out of it as well. At least he didn’t do it in front of the class, though. Not that I really minded the attention, but it does get old next time. I swear, then next person who says, “Did you get your braces off?” rather than just stating that I did is going to get the answer, “No, I just turned them invisible.”⁹
That’s all from my end for now. Hope everyone else is having a great time. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ Well, first of all, I want to point out that I think this is the first time I’ve ever used a footnote in a title. I just thought that was kind of cool. But anyhow, I believe what I just said (wrote, typed, whatever) is Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered.” I mean, dear Bartimaeus mentioned it in passing, and I figured out the gist from the context. But I do humbly apologize if either my figuring skills are off of if Bartimaeus was just messing with us.
² For those of you who missed this the first time, estoy is a Spanish word meaning I am. Actually, it’s one of two…soy also means I am (and no, it has nothing to do with sauce), but it’s infinitive, the verb ser has more permanent meanings than the verb estar from which we get estoy. There are actually some phrases where the uses of ser and estar are opposite from what you’d think they’d be, but I suggest that if you just learned that here, you don’t attempt to speak Spanish without quite a bit of instruction.
³ For more one why I don’t like him, look a few posts down for my famous rant re: book talks.
⁴ That was sarcasm, for those of you who didn’t catch it…
⁵ Therefore, in Latin. My, you are getting an education today!
⁶ I am not going through this again. See ².
⁷ Well, okay, my friends aren’t usually squealy, but there are people who are.
⁸ There were two guys, one of them my friend’s boyfriend and one of them my band friend, who insisted that I’d never had braces.
⁹ I’ve actually already used this one once, but I think it’s good enough for another usage, don’t you agree?

Study Session One

Estoy: Stressed/Glad it’s finally Friday
Currently Reading: Nothing new, so I’ll review um, I know! Maximum Ride, by James Patterson. YA Science Fiction. 5/5. I would go 6/5 if I could. Love these books! For those smartasses¹ out there who are saying “Which one? There’s three, O Your Brilliance,” read all of them. But read The Angel Experiment first.

Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but this week has been so incredibly slow for me. It somehow feels like it’s been ages since we came back after Christmas. In reality, this is the first full week (we had Thursday and Friday of last week, too). I can’t believe it! So I hope you all had a better week than I did.
Part of the reason this week dragged on so badly is, I think, because pretty much all we did in classes was review². Why would you be doing this, I hear you asking. Well, my friends, it is because semester tests are all next week. Hence the name “finals week.” I guess it could be worse…apparently the tests were not so spread out at one time. Well, here’s how we do it, for those of you who don’t know³. Each final is 100 minutes long, and we have to be in the class for that whole period⁴. So, instead of a normal schedule with classes that are 50 minutes long⁵, we get to stay in one place with one teacher for 100 minutes! Yay! But I’m sort of rambling here. Anyhow, on Monday, we have 2^nd period finals (for me, health) from 8:30 until 10:10; 6^th period finals (my science) from 10:20 until 12:00; lunch from 12:00 to 1:00⁶; and 7^th period (Band! Yay!) from 1:05 until 2:45. And then we can go home. Tuesday and Wednesday are also structured in much the same way. On Tuesday, we have 3^rd period (Global Studies), 5^th period (Geometry), and 8^th period (English I). On Wednesday, we have 4^th period (Spanish II), 1^st period (nonexistent⁷), and then make ups. So on Wednesday, I get to go home at 10:10! That has me excited. Thursday is early release, hand in books for semester classes, etc., and then Friday is no school! So all in all, I think we’re pretty well off. Minus the tests, of course. I should be studying all weekend. But the key word there is should. I probably won’t be. I may do a bit of vocab review for Spanish and maybe some stuff for Global Studies because it’s gonna be a hard test, but that’s probably it. Oh, and I’ll make my note card for geometry. But I don’t study. It’s against my morals⁸. For anyone else who has tests soon, good luck. For those of you who have already taken them, hope you did well. And for those of you who don’t have them at all, I hate you⁹. Haha.
One last note: for those of you who have been keeping up with the Caryn-Gets-Marked-Way-Down-On-Her-Book-Report-That-She-Should-Have-Done-Really-Well-On saga, I have gained back two points. I managed to convince my teacher after he watched the tape that I had in fact, told him the genre of the book and described a main character. However, I still have a lower grade than I would have liked because I didn’t inform him that I was telling him about the conflict and climax, preferring instead to launch right into it with an (in my opinion, excellent) transition. Well, excuse me for trying to make my book report sound a bit more natural and less like just a speech. As one of my friends said, “I was trying to not treat him like the dumbass he is.¹⁰” Well said. Whatever, I’m sure I’ll still pass the class. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn
¹ Be a big boy…you can handle all of the swear words. And good job if you got that quote, though I’m rather mystified as to why you would be reading that section, still. Ah well.
² Okay, not all. But it seemed like it!!
³ For those of you who do, feel free to skip that part.
⁴ Why exactly this is, I’m not sure, but all I know is that we have to be. Leave it at that.
⁵ I think…I’ve never really done the math, and I have no idea what time we get out of classes. At least, not without thinking about it.
⁶ For those of you smart enough to figure out that the little ⁶ there wasn’t part of the time…good job. As I was going to say, I’m really excited about this because we all have lunch together! Usually, I have a different lunch from some of my friends, but not next week! Yay!
⁷ A first period class starts at 7:30, and I’m not quite that motivated, at least not my freshman year. And even if I was, my dad wouldn’t let me take a class that early. I forget why, something about not pushing myself too hard. Ha! As if.
⁸ Okay, not really, but I have never really studied that much out of class. I guess I study in other classes when I’m done with work for that class, but that’s it. I haven’t failed yet.
⁹ Umm, not really, that’s just jealousy speaking. But on the plus side, I do get Friday off! Ha!
¹⁰ The same thing happened to her. For the record (and I’m not meaning to sound full of myself or anything), the two of us are two of the smartest kids in the class.

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.

Intro

Hello and welcome to my blog! I know it sounds incredibly interesting, since the title shows off my extremely creative nature, and I promise you I'll do my best to keep you hooked.
Since you’re (hopefully) going to be reading this for a while, I should start by telling you un poco¹ about moi².
My name is Caryn. That’s all I’ll ever tell you of my name, so get used to it. Not that I’m incredibly paranoid or anything, but I’m not having any cyber-stalkers at my door. Nuh-uh. And my name? Yeah, it’s not all that common. Secondly, I live in the middle of Freaking Nowhere, USA³. And don’t ask me any more about that, either.
I am 5’4” ish, brown (sometimes) curly hair, big brown eyes, and a big smile. We’re not gonna go too much into how I think I look, cause we could go on for a while there. But suffice it to say, I’m usually happy with my appearance. It’s not like it’s gonna change or anything. And no, before you ask, I would never get plastic surgery.
I’m 14, a freshman in high school. Fun, fun. I find school in general to be pretty easy, and I spend a lot of my spare time reading. More on that later. I also enjoy computers (duh) and I play the clarinet and the guitar. I really love music. It’s like, my life! Yup, I’m a band geek. I’m actually pretty nerdy/geekish when you think about it. I actually like most of school. I love math. I’ve been in a few math and science competitions, actually. They’re fun. And I have trophies/medals from them. I love band and marching band. In my spare time, I read. I have soundtracks/band music on my iPod. And, oh yeah, I visit fansites. Wow, I’m cool, no?
You know, I’m generally not into labels either. Or, at least, not the prejudice that comes with them. But, whatever. I am who I am and I’m proud of it!
Anyhow…I also like sports. I tried out for volleyball, but I was cut. I didn’t try out for basketball, cause at the summer camp I attended, I was the worst one there. But I’m doing track—high jump and maybe pole vault and some sprints. I also love gym class. Yep, I do everything.
I think that’s probably enough information for you to absorb in one day, no? Uh-huh, that’s what I thought too.
Hopefully I’ll be back soon, giving you a glimpse of new and exciting happenings. Or, at least giving you a new and exciting perspective on things that are actually quite old and tedious. Until next time…

xxx
Caryn

¹ A bit (Spanish)
² Me (French, for those of you who are extremely languagely challenged…)
³ Thanks to a certain book for that quote there.