Uneventful

Today, I didn't have anything to do so I just did my homework. I wish I had had my laptop with me so I could've worked more on my writing for the workshop on Wednesday, or my book so I could read more from my book for the workshop. But since I'm leaving early tomorrow, at least I'll get some extra time to do that.

Dressed for Stress

As it turns out, this week wasn't exactly as stressful as I thought it was going to be. After Tuesday, this week was pretty mellow.
I really enjoyed both of the workshops. I didn't expect critiquing peoples' writing to be that enjoyable. Like I said a few days ago, I'm not the type of person who is comfortable correcting people out of fear that they will get mad, but the workshop was a pretty calm and respectful environment in my opinion. I got some pretty good feedback on my piece and I hope that other people found my advice helpful.
The singing workshop was incredible. I'm really looking forward to performing it at StacLive. My favorite part of the song is when I get to go 'plup plup plup' although I have to practice that because I still am not entirely sure of the exact times that that happens.
Honestly, I am really hoping that I don't get sick until after February 1st. I really need my health for midterms and StacLive. I am already extremely lucky and surprised that I haven't gotten the flu yet. Usually I get it every year around this time.
I hope that everybody stays healthy, does well on the midterms, and enjoys StacLive, too.

Rushing

Today, I found out how busy I am this week. I have the singing workshop tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, and the writing workshop on Wednesday. I still have to critique the other writers' work, and finish the book I was given, and I'm just starting to feel very stressed with midterms coming up and all of the homework and tests I have this week. I'm not complaining. I'm really looking forward to the workshops, but I just have a lot on my plate. On top of this, I learned today that the StacArt project is due Wednesday and I had no extra time to finish it. All I had left to do required special materials, but I decided to use all I had available and finish today. I needed assorted garbage, so I called my mom and had her bring in various candies. I think everybody enjoyed that. I let everybody else eat them, I just told people I needed the wrappers back. I needed a plastic cup-shaped thing, and I was going to use a plastic cup, but I couldn't find one so I just drank all of my water and cut up my water bottle. I was going to use sandpaper for a cement sidewalk, but I ended up just painting the squares tan. Lastly, I was planning on using pictures of myself, but I ended up taking a picture of the red M&M from a wrapper and a picture of a random guy from the newspaper. Since I was hurrying myself to finish, I think the project was messy, but hey, it's something.

Writing Workshop

It was very, very strange for me to have to criticize the workshop leader's piece. It's one thing when you're at school dissecting other students' work or a core book. With students my age, I don't expect them to write at an award-winning level, so correcting their grammar or spelling or formatting is simple. Even with John freaking Steinbeck, you are able to either commend or criticize him, because, well, he's dead. It's not like he can defend himself. But when you are sitting in a room with a person and you have no choice but to tell him things that he did wrong, it is kind of nerve-wracking. I mean, if I were in the position of the workshop leader, I would want to get that advice, but as I am the type of person who hates hurting people's feelings, it hurt me to do so. Especially since he was 25 and I am only 14. It felt like I was in no position to judge him. I understand that criticism helps you and makes you stronger, but too many people get offended when people are only trying to help them with their work. Even though Alex told us to rip him apart, it was still uncomfortable because I'm not used to helping people by giving my own negative opinions.
I was not very proud of the writing I did for the workshop. Towards the end, I sort of just winged (wang?) it because I was sleepy and partly delusional. I quoted this guy named Alan Watts, really just because I found a quote from him while I was procrastinating. It didn't really have anything to do with what I was writing, but I tied it in anyway. Throughout most of it, all I was writing were my past experiences at trying to make friends. I hated how self-pitying I sounded. I think I tend to do that a lot, make people feel sorry for me because I didn't have many friends growing up. At first, I only told three stories from my early childhood, but I didn't have enough pages so I wrote one for every year of elementary school. I sort of ripped apart this girl named Lee Ella, but to be fair she was awful to me, and now she lives in Israel so it's not like she'll ever know, anyway. One thing that I think I did well, if I must say so is that I made my horribly embarrassing experiences sound humorous. I think that people like to do that when they feel bad for themselves. They feel like making a joke out of it will make them feel better, and like I said in my writing, embarrassing moments make for great stories in the future. Immediately after something happens, you think that you'll never tell anybody because it was too awful, but in a while, it's just a funny story.

Writing

Right now, I am on my six-and-a-halfth page of my writing for the workshop tomorrow. I had almost four pages done yesterday, but today I was reviewing it and I realized that I was running out of ideas for the topic, so I started over. I've been working since 6:30. I'm completely surprised that I've gotten so much done, even though not all of it is good to me. At least it's interesting, though.

Friday and Monday

I really enjoyed the trip on Friday. I loved the swings, especially because it is apparently socially frowned upon for people my age to go to playgrounds. I thought it was awesome how the ropes from the swings made the sheet move and sitting under the sheet was really therapeutic. Afterwards, my group went to this Ukrainian restaurant that Ellen knew about. I wish I'd ordered more ethnic food but I just got stuffed peppers, had some of Jess's Lithuanian soup and ate one of Shiana's pierogies. We ended up staying there for a while and then went to Sixteen Handles for frozen yogurt. Not the best plan, since we had to eat it outside. Then we met up at the theatre. I really liked the play, even though I've never seen King Kong before. I think it was better that way, since it lowered my expectations.One thing that I noticed was that the girl's voice actually sounded like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Today, IshnaSauce was trying to edit our video, but the old Mac in the StacRoom was very slow and took two hours to load, so we couldn't get anything done. Although, I am very excited about my very first workshop on Thursday.

A Resolute Piece of Pink Construction Paper

Today is January 1st, 2013. This general time of year is meant for giving, so I am giving you all my personal goals that I hope to reach this year. I wrote down ten of them, and I hope to achieve at least seven.

1. WORK TOWARDS MY GOLD AWARD. I'm a Girl Scout, as some may know already. I'm a Senior (I think) and I got my Silver Award last year. The Gold Award is an independent project that "reaches beyond the Girl Scout organization and provides a sustainable, lasting benefit to the girl's larger community." Girls usually earn their Gold Award in their Junior or Senior year.
2. GET ON THE HONOR ROLL. I just barely got on the Honor Roll in Quarter 1 with a 3.6667 GPA. In the past, I've gotten on the Honor Roll for one quarter per year. This year, I want to get on the Honor Roll every quarter. I think it might be attainable.
3. BE MORE POLITE. Although I think I'm a generally polite person, I realize that too often I take compliments without returning them, and I don't say bless you all the time, and sometimes I'm mean without thinking about it. I just want to be nicer this year.
4. GO OUTSIDE MORE OFTEN. I hate the outdoors, but I really want to experience more in the outside world. I want to take walks around the neighborhood, and learn how to, God forbid, climb a tree. Also, I might get my parents to buy me a quad to ride in Pennsylvania.
5. PAY MORE ATTENTION TO PERSONAL HYGIENE. Okay, don't jump to conclusions. I am a generally clean person. But this year I want to remember to wash my face every morning and brush my teeth three times a day like I'm supposed to.
6. NO MORE SODA AND COOKIES. Last year, I gave up soda, but I still caved every once in a while. But this year, I am going totally without and adding cookies to the mix. I have no self control when it comes to cookies.
7. LEARN THE NATIONAL ANTHEMS OF FIVE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. I just think that this would be a cool skill. I plan on mastering the Canadian, British, Scottish, Australian, and Guyanese national anthems by the end of the year.
8. READ TEN BOOKS. My reading has been sadly lagging lately. Enough said.
9. LEARN HOW TO COOK TEN MEALS SUCCESSFULLY. Cooking is a useful skill. I think that if I learn ten family recipes, then I'll be okay if I ever have to be on my own.
10. GROW MY HAIR OUT (NO HAIRCUTS). I love my hair. Part of my elaborate Gold Award plan involves donating my hair, which I was supposed to do last week, but I chickened out. I think that if I grow my hair out this year, I will have enough to donate without my hair being too short.

That's it. I'll be checking off the boxes as I complete them. Happy 2013!