End of the Year Reflection

Good morning people. How ya doin'? I'm so tired right now. I had a karate tournament all weekend. It was so much fun, but also exhausting. I'll write more about it later.

So, I've been doing this blog for my English class. We started it at the beginning of the year, and now thats the year's almost over, so is the blog project. This last post is supposed to be a reflection of the year. I'm supposed to write about how I've changed this year.

How have I changed this year? I started out the year as a shy, awkward nerd with 4 friends. Now, I'm still shy and awkward (and nerdy), but not as much. I have a lot more friends and I talk a lot more than I used to. I think that could be partly because of this blog. When I can talk to people with out having to worry about what I say, I start to get more comfortable with talking.

I'm also one of those people who doesn't show their feelings. When I have somewhere like this where I can just vent, it becomes so much easier to deal with the emotion's I try to keep hidden.

How else have I changed? I honestly have no idea. I've become a better writer and violinist. I've injured myself countless times at karate. Just yesterday, I totally messed up my leg. It's fine now, but it really hurt yesterday.

Okay, well, I think that's it. Before I go, I want to thank all my wonderful readers (if I have any). You guys have been great. Although I don't understand why you would take time out of your day to read this, I'm grateful to anyone who did. My goal for this year was to get at least 500 views. I got more than 800. Readers, you really are amazing.

Image courtesy of Booklikes

Hey, if you like Dr. Who (a super amazing show), check out my friend Kimberly's blog.

Finally. The end of Chapter 4...

Hi, peeps. I'm really bored right now. Does anyone else ever find life extremely boring? I think that quite a lot actually, especially when I'm at school. School is terrible. I go to Treasure Mountain, and the building is way too small for the amount of kids. It's so crowded. It's also really boring. I usually read through all my non-important classes. At least then I'm doing something I find interesting.

Image Courtesy of Stylipics
This is kinda what my baskets looked like.

So, I just got home from making Easter baskets. Don't ask why a Jewish girl was making Easter baskets. It was weird. I've never made Easter baskets before, so I had no idea what to put in them. I still have no idea. I just put random stuff in. There was a lot of candy, and I like candy, so I put a lot of that in my baskets. I also put some bubbles and stickers in, 'cause everyone loves those. Anyways, it was kinda fun. 

Where did I leave off last time? Oh, yeah. Shawn takes Anny and Maggie to the apartment they will be staying in. Maggie recognizes the room as the apartment she and Anny's dad had lived in before Anny's brother was born.

Mom wandered into one of the two side rooms. “One thing has changed,” I heard her say. I followed my mom into the room. It was a small bedroom. There was a bed pushed up against one wall, a closet and dresser along the opposite wall, and a small desk at the foot of the bed.

“We redid this room for Anny,” Shawn said. I looked from him to my mother, confused again. Mom answered her questioning look.

“This was Kyle’s room before we moved. It’s yours now.” Mom stood in the middle of the bedroom for a bit longer before walking out.

“I’ll get your stuff,” he said to me over his shoulder as he followed her. He came back a few seconds later, carrying my bag. “Right, now that you’re all settled, it’s time for your tour. Let’s go.” Shawn dropped the bag on my new bed and walked out again, not waiting for me to follow him. He must have realized that I wasn’t behind him, because he stuck his head back through the doorway. “You coming?” he asked me.

“Yeah, just give me a second,” I answered. I looked around the bedroom and

sighed. It actually wasn’t that different from my room at home. It was small, with a bed in

one corner and a dresser in another. The only important difference was that there was no balcony outside. There wasn’t even a window. What would I do when I couldn’t sleep? I would die if I couldn’t see the stars. I sighed again and followed Shawn into the main room, where he was talking to Mom.

“Ah, look who’s arrived,” he said, catching sight of me standing in the doorway to my room. “The tour. We’ll be off then. I assume you don’t need a tour of the place, Maggie?” he asked.

“No. I think I still know my around. I’ve only been gone for seventeen years, after I lived here for more than twenty.”

“Okay. See you later. Come on, Anny.” He left the room and I followed him into the hallway outside. He walked away down the hall without waiting for me, and I had to run to catch up. “So, what do you want to see first?” he asked me.

“All of it.”

Disneyland trip for school, anyone?

Guess what people? I just got back from Disneyland! I went there on a field trip for orchestra (that's right, I got to go to Disneyland for school). It was so much fun. We were there for two days. I did all the super fun roller coasters and not-so-fun kiddy rides. My favorite was California Screamin', the biggest roller coaster in the park. I did it twice. It was great.

The reason we went to Disneyland was for a Heritage Festival. We played and were judged Saturday morning. The award ceremony was Saturday night. We had to wait for 45 minutes just to be seated at that. It was worth the wait. We won four different awards! The first one was the gold in our division. To get that, we had to get a score of over 90/100. The second award was the Adjudicators award. We had to get a score higher than a 92/100 to get that. We were the only instrumental group to get that one. The third was the Outstanding Orchestra Award. That means that we got the highest score out of all the orchestra's there. Impressive, right? I'm not exactly sure what the fourth award was for, but it could get us an invitation to play at Carnegie Hall. Pretty cool, huh? It was really exciting.

As it turns out, winning the Heritage Festival wasn't my favorite part of the trip. On Friday afternoon, I met my cousins in the park. They live about 10 minutes away, so it was an easy trip for them. They are the cutest little people in the world. The boy is two years old. His name is Eli, and he is the sweetest, most good-natured two-year-old I have ever met. His sister, Ava, is four months old. She is so tiny and cute. That was the first time I'd met her. Meeting them and their parents in Disneyland was a lot of fun. We got to go on a few rides with them before we got dinner and they had to go.

Me holding laughing Ava

Me with Eli and Ava. Aren't they adorable?

Just so everyone know's, waking up at 3 in the morning, sitting on a bus for 14 hours, and then staying up till 11 at night playing cards is fun but not smart if you're going to be walking around Disneyland the next day. I was so tired by the end of the day. That combined with the 94 degree heat and the lack of open water rides was almost unbearable. But, I managed to pul through and still have a good time.

Are you guys jealous that I got to go to Disneyland for school? I know some people who are. It's too bad for you peeps. It was awesome!

Christmas Special

Image Courtesy of Miss Kate Cuttables

Hi people. I know I haven't posted anything in a while, and I left you with a kinda big cliffhanger. Sorry, but you're gonna have to wait another week to know what happens with Anny and Shawn next. I'm not posting a part of their story this week because it's Christmas (yay for you people who celebrate this holiday) and I wanted to post a Christmas special, but I was too lazy to write one. So, no story this week. Just me talking.

I'm Jewish, so I don't celebrate Christmas. What do people do on Christmas? I've decorated a tree once (I helped my neighbors), I drank eggnog once (I didn't really like it), and I've never woken up ridiculously early to open presents. I usually sleep in super late, maybe go see a movie with my family, or just hang out at home doing nothing all day. Last year, I hung out with my younger cousins at my grandma's house, and we got Chinese food for dinner. That was fun. Today, me and my family are going to see The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. I hope it's good. I can't wait to see it.

You know what really annoys me? When people forget that not everyone celebrates Christmas. I play violin in my school orchestra, and in the four years that I have been in an orchestra during the holiday season, I've played one or two Hanukkah/Jewish songs, and for one of them, I almost had to beg our teacher to let us play it, and then we didn't get the music until the day of the concert. This year, we played four Christmas songs and one classical song. Does anyone else think that this is unfair? I know Jews are a minority here, but that doesn't mean that everyone else can forget about us.

Well, that's it for today. All my thoughts about Christmas. I'll post the next part of my story next week. Merry Christmas and Happy (belated) Hanukkah (to any other Jews out there)!