Them Apples: BEDSY Day 18 (Friday Sept. 30th, 2011)

First Friday blog of the year!

I'm exhausted, but I SHANT leave you without an entry tonight. You know you're tired when going to bed at 8:30 on a school night sounds like a fantastic idea.

Pretty normal day at school. English is still killing me, though. It's gotten so bad that it's starting to effect y other classes. I can't handle that. Switching out is sounding like a better idea each and every day.

But we're not going to talk about English. We're going to talk about apples.

In celebration of the beginning of October, I'm going apple picking tomorrow. (It's not just because it's the first of October. It just happened to be the first weekend that was free...) My family has an apple orchard. And a vineyard. Neither are particularly big, but they're enough to make a small amount of money. But I guess that's not really important.

But what is important is that this is something I do with my dad and my grandma and a few of my aunts and uncles every year. Or at least we try to do every year. We make the three-hour drive over to the orchards, pick for about two hours, then come back home. We really try (or at least my dad does) to do this and involve as many people as possible since my family doesn't really get the chance to be all together all of the time throughout the year. We only manage two or three times at the very least when we actually have everyone together. This is kind of one of those times. We stop at the usual restaurants at the usual times (a bakery in the morning to get breakfast/lunch and cookies and a small butcher shop where they sell yard-long sticks of house-made pepperoni; one of the hydroelectric dams along the river just outside the orchard; a small, family-run diner for a hot dinner after spending the day being whipped by the wind out in the field). I'm driving over with my grandma and one of my aunts, who will surely keep me entertained while I'm not either sleeping or doing homework. I almost always seem to have homework to do on these trips as well. One year, I had to read The Odyssey during the drive.

Sadly, it may be my last time making this trip, at least for another year, since I'll be at school by this time next year and be unable to get away like I can now. My dad'll still do this every year for as long as he can, as will my grandma...but I don't know when my next time will be.

I guess another thing that I have to think about is who will take care of this place, this place that is, literally, as old as I am (the first trees were planted right around the time I was born)...I know my dad won't be around forever, and this orchard is kind of his baby. His other baby. He's a teacher, but in reality he's a farmer at heart. I wonder if he expects me to uphold this piece of land, to take responsibility for it when he can't do it anymore.

Don't get me wrong. This is the twenty-first century. We don't have to till the land ourselves anymore or water it by hand, or even spend weeks and weeks harvesting it. We have machines and other people to do that for us. But there's still the "overseeing" of the land that still remains, even in this time where machine has replaced man in many aspects of life...It's not something I can see myself faithfully doing in thirty years...but I don't want my dad's (and my grandfather's, actually) dream to go to waste.

This weekend just turned into a bigger deal than I thought it would be. I just wanna go pick apples.

Survival of the Fittest: BEDSY Day 17 (Thursday Sept. 29th, 2011)

We took part in the county-wide earthquake drill today at school.

Told you my life was exciting.

But the actual drill wasn't the interesting/funny part. It's kind of what would happen in the case of a real emergency (not that a natural disaster is, in any way, humorous...but just hear me out).

So, the first day of school, I walk into my government class, and we get to choose where we sit. I was one of the first people to class, since my previous one was, literally, right next door. So I and one of my friends got first dibs. We sat on the right side of the room (if we were to look toward the front).

For the rest of the seven-minute passing period (even though it really wasn't seven minutes, since it was the first day...it was more like nine minutes.), the rest of my class trickled in and we figured out the logistics of our seating chart (my teacher wants us to sit boy-girl-boy-girl in EVERY direction). So class starts. My teacher walks in and she smiles and point to the right side (the side I was on) and said that we were the smart ones. We all look at each other confusedly, so my teacher said "Let me explain."

She walks to the aisle that separates the two groups of tables and explains how the fault line of the school runs right down the middle of the groups of desks. Meaning that if the building were to experience an earthquake, it would collapse at the line. Specifically the left side of the line. So everyone who had to sit on the left side would probably die in the event of a real earthquake. Thus making us, on the right side, the smarter, more likely to survive bunch of students.

Except I'm on the very edge of the right side, like six inches from the fault line. So maybe I'll die too.

So while we were preparing ourselves for the drill, we, on the right side, were commenting on if we should leave the left side inside the building while the rest of us went outside to line up. Since, you know, they probably wouldn't be alive to make it outside. But we let them out anyway.

Interesting story for today is over. Tomorrow is Friday. Weekend should be interesting. I'll tell you about it in the next blog, though. I promise to actually put one up tomorrow. Especially since I won't be able to put one up until Sunday afternoon. We're not doing that two weeks in a row.

Listening to: more Hans Zimmer. This guy is magic. Also listening to my conscience telling me that I need to finish my English and Calculus homework. Should probably do that.

Grand Old Ivy: BEDSY Day 16 (Wednesday Sept. 28th, 2011)

Right. I was going to talk about college tonight.

Since it's Senior year and all, I guess it's okay to start talking about this kind of stuff.

My mom is making me turn in all of my stuff super early. Like October 10th, early. And I'm applying to three different schools. Oh my...Luckily, two of those schools offered me a free, expedited application, so I only really have to focus on the one other application. Which, funnily enough, is for the school that I really, really want to go to. But there's still a lot of stuff to take care of...

Like my essay. These admissions people (and I'm speaking for all of them) need to have some sort of creativity when it comes to the essay question. Most prompts include sharing an experience that really altered your life, your reasons why you want to attend their college, or a challenge that you had to overcome.

Really? Colleges want you to "sell" yourself. But what if you aren't particularly good at that...without sounding too pretentious or egotistic or narcissistic? Or boring? And then you have your activities. You feel like such an un-socialized loner when you have seven slots to fill in all of the clubs and activities you've done in high school...and you only manage to fill out one. Makes you wonder if you spent your time in high school wisely.

Not to mention you have to tell the school what you want to do with yourself for the next three, four, five years of your life. That's an intense decision. I know you can change it at any time and what not (I had a teacher who changed his major two weeks before finals his senior year of college. no lie) but it's still kind of a big deal. After much internal debate and little sleep, I think I've finally figured mine out. I think.

I've never been absolutely sure, but I've also been going back and forth on this for the last few years, which might actually mean that it should be the field I go into and study.

I want to be a teacher.

Don't ask me what I want to teach yet. I've just crossed the emotional and psychological hurdle of choosing a general career choice/field of study. I'll probably give myself and ulcer or aneurysm if I try to figure out what I want to teach. Give it time. I'll get back to you on that. Maybe.

Anyway, important decisions and accomplishments must be made within the next two weeks. *gulp*

I hope I make it. I hope I get in...

Samely Same: BEDSY Day 15 (Tuesday Sept. 27th, 2011)

It's Tuesday. Yay.

I've got to stop posting/starting these things at 10 p.m. I'm tired, and I should go to bed...but I still have an entry to write...and they end up being super short and uninteresting. Something I need to work on.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be the LAST day that I'll ever have to work on Heart of Darkness. I'm ready to put this book out of my mind. I want to read Crime and Punishment.

Promise to have a longer entry tomorrow, guys. And one that's posted at a decent hour.

Today was awesome because: It was supposed to rain today...but it turned out to be super sunny and warm. :)

I Scream, You Scream: BEDSY Day 14 (Monday, Sept. 26th, 2011)

First night in a long time that I haven't had that much homework. And the homework that I did have, I finished before I got home. But even that stuff isn't due until Wednesday. I have absolutely no homework due tomorrow. Hooray!!

Grades thus far are bearable...I know I shouldn't be saying this, since I expect myself to do well in all of my classes...but with the workload I have so far, I'm okay with less than perfect grades. For the time-being. AP Lit I can handle having a 'B' in; AP Calc--surprisingly, I have an A; Honors Humanities, I have not only an A, but also 100%...but I don't find that to be much of an achievement, since the work, while interesting, is quite easy. AP Gov on the other hand...I have a C+. At this point, I'm hoping the 25 missing points only is attributed to the fact that that particular assignment has yet to be put into the grade book. If not...we've got problems....

Hope everything is going well for you all tonight. It's really stormy and windy where I live. I like it.

Why today  was awesome: I had peanut-butter ice cream tonight. It was delicious.

Listening to: Eric Clapton's live and unplugged version of "Layla". This song...this song...there is not a more perfect live song out there.

Enough to Power a Small Town: BEDSY Day 13 (Friday Sept. 23rd, 2011)

Football game last night. We won. Against a team that we're pretty much guaranteed to beat whenever we play them. We almost couldn't keep u with the amount of times we had to play our school's fight song. 38-7 was the final score. Yeah.

Anyway, also had our first "real" performance of our field show last night, which went really well. Our theme this year is Elvis. Nothing like the classics to get the audience pumped.

Speaking of getting pumped and peppy, we also had our first pep assembly of the year. I have to hand it to our ASB. They're awesome. (For those who don't know, ASB stands for Associated Student Body, and they take care of all of the school activities like the dances and the assemblies and whatnot.) Like I said, they're awesome. And super creative. And not super focused only on the sports in our school. They gave the band a shout-out during the assembly, and we got our own little spot to perform. It was nice to be recognized for once. ASB last year kind of dropped the ball...

Not to mention they had a flash dance in the middle of the assembly. To "Party Rock Anthem". With glow sticks. 'nough said.

Next game is in two weeks, on the 7th of October. Hopefully we'll have the majority of the show music ready by then. It'd be nice to actually finish a show this year.

I really need to work on actually blogging on Friday instead of waiting until the weekend to do it...

Today was awesome because: There was so much excitement and energy around me all day long because of the football game and the assembly. It was electric.

Chopped, Vlogbrothers, and John Williams: BEDSY Day 12 (Thursday September 22nd, 2011)

Tonight is a night of recovery. My only homework that's due tomorrow is a review worksheet for a Chemistry test and about 10 pages of reading for AP Government. I like this.

So I've been pretty much relaxing all night, letting myself watch YouTube videos shamelessly. And TV. I haven't watched TV in about a week, due to the amount of homework I've had. I've been watching cooking shows and Jeopadry. This is how I spend my nights.



Why today was awesome: signed up for my last drive! :D

Alone in a Crowded Room: BEDSY Day 11 (Wednesday September 21st, 2011)

It's time to stop complaining about school and start being philosophical.

Or just stop complaining about school.

But I'd still like to talk about school. But in a more general sense.

I go to one of the biggest high schools in the state, based on population. This is because there is, really, only one high school in the town where it's located...so EVERY student in town goes there. There are a few who go to another one that is kind of in the area, but it's only consists kids whose parents have the time and the money to send them there...so not very many.

Anyway, yes, my high school has the biggest student population in the state, with respect to the physical size of the high school. Those are some crowded hallways. Your first year, you definitely get that "small fish in a big pond" syndrome. I'm sure any new high school student can tell you that that isn't very fun at all. You go through junior high/middle school and become really close with your group of friends and then 8th/9th grade comes around (depending on whether you went to a middle school or a junior high) and you make this pact to have these grand adventures in high school and always stick together and whatnot...

And then you realize that you don't have any classes  with any of them once you get up to high school. You rarely even see them in the hallways, if at all. Your paths rarely cross when you switch classes. It's unnerving, especially when you were so accustomed to being able to walk through almost the entire school during passing period in junior high. You're lucky if you manage to have a friend or two at lunch.

Sophomore year, my band director--for whom I have complete and utmost respect--told the class how important it was for us (as a band) to stick together, as a family. For how many students were in this school, no matter how "popular" you were, it was physically impossible to meet every single student. It just was. That being said, it was important to keep as many people, friends, colleagues, as close to you as possible.


Thus ends my serious rant. Back to your lives, citizens. (Ten brownie points for whoever gets that reference...)

Today was awesome because: I did my second to last drive for driver's ed. SO close to getting my license.
Listening to: "Dark Blue"--Jack's Mannequin

Will Work for...: BEDSY Day 10 (Tuesday Sept. 20th, 2011)

Nay, this is not a blog where I complain about homework.

This is a blog where I complain about ENGLISH homework. And how much of it I have.

However, today, I walked into my AP Lit. class alongside my fellow sleep-deprived classmates, to find that our teacher had brought us orange juice, doughnuts, and coffee.

THE MAN BROUGHT US COFFEE.

I trust anyone who brings me coffee. And it was GOOD coffee...like the big jug of Starbucks coffee that grown-ups buy for business meetings and whatnot.

(This was especially appreciated today since I had not the chance to get some this morning because we had no water in our house because one of our pipes burst last night.)

He also gave us an apology for not being super clear in what he wanted from us, and when he wanted all those assignments due. But, he clarified, that did not necessarily mean that the work would ease up...it is AP, after all. It was just an unfortunate occurrence that we started off the year with the hardest book we will possibly ever read. Ever. This did not help the situation at all. While this man is, perhaps, not my favorite teacher ever...I do have to give him props for manning up like that. I have some respect for him. Possibly enough to stay in the class for at least a few more weeks.

Maybe once this book is over, I'll start complaining about something else.

I've Got a Dream: BEDSY Day 9 (Monday Sept. 19th, 2011)

...that, one night, I might be able to go to bed before 11 o'clock.

...that I might be able to open a book without wanting to vomit. Or resisting the urge to analyze every waking character in the text.

...that I might finally get on top of my homework.

...that I might get out of this year with a decent GPA.



Listening to: Tangled soundtrack. Definitely a mood lifter.

Better Late than Never, BEDSY Day 8 (Friday Sept. 16th, 2011)

If you're wondering why it took until Sunday afternoon/evening to post this, it is not because I was lazy and/or forgot.

It has taken me almost three days to cool off from what was one of the most horrendous experiences of my life, and I felt like you guys didn't need to read something I wrote under that influence.

It's still not quite out of my system, but I feel cool-headed enough to type it out.

Let me put it shortly: I have, probably, the worst English teacher on the face of the planet.

You know that wheelbarrow I was talking about?  He contributed to most of it.

Thursday night/Friday morning, I spent a grand total of 12--that's right, TWELVE--hours on homework, 95% of which was for this teacher. And I completed almost nothing. I had to finish reading Heart of Darkness, FIFTY pages of it, and do quotes and analysis, PLUS a four-page worksheet for our summer independent novels. All between Wednesday and Friday. I didn't sleep Thursday night. I'm still recovering. That wheel barrow was full of a two-ton cinder block, and I felt like I was chiseling away at it with a plastic spoon. And this is only the first week of school.

@*^% my life. It's as if this guy thinks we DON'T have other classes in addition to his own, not to mention other AP classes. I'm fortunate enough to only have two AP classes on the days I have English. Some poor souls have three. Some have a fourth on the day we don't have English. I don't understand his logic.

It seems as though I've done an awful lot of complaining--mostly about homework--on this blog so far. That is not the purpose of this project. The purpose of this project is to chronicle every day of my Senior year. But if every day seems to go like this...it may not be a year worth remembering.

The Midnight Oil Rig: BEDSY Day 7 (Thursday Sept. 15, 2011)

It's 10:49 at night here. And I'm not even remotely close to being done with my homework. I don't even know how I got to be so far behind. I honestly don't know. All three of my classes have something due, something big.

I'm on less than 24 hours of sleep for this entire week. I haven't gone to bed before 11 any night either. Thank God tomorrow's Friday. I also have found myself not getting home until later times than usual, leaving less time in which to do do homework. Fantastic.

Short entry is short, again. My apologies. You'll probably get a longer one tomorrow, as it is Friday, and I have NOTHING after school. Hallelujah.

I'm not getting any sleep tonight. I'm just accepting that right now. My eyes hurt. I may need coffee in about two hours. Maybe you'll see me tomorrow. If I'm still alive.

I'd Like Some Cheese with That Whine: BEDSY, Day 6 (Wednesday Sept. 14th, 2011)

This week has been awful. Absolutely awful.

I and a few of my friends had a really close call this morning. Remember that wheel-barrow full of homework that I mentioned yesterday? Well, by the time I finally decided to call it quits, I probably only had half of it done. I told my self that I was going to wake up early and finish it before going off to school, where I would have about 45 more minutes to work, and then I would have it all done.

That didn't exactly happen the way I thought it would.

I slept through my alarm by and hour. A WHOLE FREAKING HOUR. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I ran around the house trying to get stuff ready, scarfing down my breakfast so I could work in the car. The entire 30-minute commute, I worked in a furry. I got to school, still had about 40 minutes to complete stuff.

Next thing I knew it was 8:05 and I still had next to nothing done. And neither did two of my friends. We were pretty much screwed.

We walked into class with our heads held disbelievingly high, knowing that we--our grades included--would not ,make it through the class period. The one thing I did have done was gone over at the very beginning of class, and the things that I hadn't completed were due at the end of class. Perhaps I still had time. Fortunately, I sit in the very back corner of the room, so I discretely went about working on my homework while we discussed the reading from the night before.

And then we were still talking about the reading. And we kept on talking and talking and talking...and then we only had 15 minutes of class left. Glancing at the clock and noting the time, my teacher decided that everything we were supposed to do today--and everything that was due today--would just be put off until next class, which is Friday.

I would've jumped out of my seat and cheered if not for the fear of getting laughed at or questioned.

But something tells me that's all the luck I'm going to have in that class for this year, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

And now it's gone.

Sad thing about this whole situation...I still have a ton of homework. And no time in which to do it.

Much Ado About Nothing, BEDSY Day 5 (Tuesday Sept. 13th, 2011)

Brief entry will be brief.

Seriously, I have almost nothing to say about today. At least not now. I only got home about 45 minutes ago, and I just ate dinner, and I still have to do my wheel barrow-sized load of homework that is due tomorrow morning. Plus I am incredibly tired. My brain doesn't function well on little sleep.

Tomorrow's edition will be livelier. I promise. I'll give it some coffee. Maybe add a few shots of espresso to it...Just to give it a little kick.

Listening to: Hans Zimmer's "The Prince of Egypt". This man is a genius.

The Instantaneous, CTFxC, Head and the Heart Blog

I'm multi-tasking.

I'm blogging, listening to music, doing (or I guess I should say re-doing) calculus homework, and catching up on YouTube videos. Yep, school has definitely started. Looks like I'll be doing this for the next eight-and-a-half months.

First Monday of the year. Pretty full day, as will be the days to follow. I've got about five different things going on in English right now, including annotating/dissecting our latest novel/novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Hardest book I've probably read thus far. The language, thankfully, it not too terribly difficult, it's just the fact that this book is incredibly dense. Like pumpernickel bread dense. And it's only 72 pages...The way my teacher put our assignments, apparently I'll have read this book about three times by the time we actually finish it. God help me.

I told my mom we were reading it. She's a book connoisseur/former English teacher. She even said she hated this book. And that she didn't read it until she was a junior in college. A junior. In college. Oy vey...

So I've got all of that on my plate....plus the twenty-ish problems that I have for calc that I haven't remotely started. And about that earlier comment...I did do my homework from last time...I just forgot several parts to it that pretty much required me to do it all over again. Along with my homework that I got today. It's days like these that I'm thankful that we have a rotating schedule.

And then I had Humanities. In which we had a whole half hour before the end of the day to finish our homework. Which I did.

As much as I may complain about homework on this blog, I really prefer to be busy than just sitting on my hands every day when I get home from school. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Four hours later, and I'm deciding to call it a night.

Listening to: Mumford and Sons, Simon and Garfunkel, The Eagles, soundtracks from the Harry Potter movies, The Head and the Heart

Watching: CTFxC (Charles Trippy, Internet Killed Television), YourAverageAdam, italktosnakes (Kristina Horner)

Strike Up the Band, BEDSY Day 3 (Friday Sept. 9th, 2011)

And so the year of band has begun.

Actually, it's been going since August 15th, when we started camp. Truthfully, though, once you start...you never stop. Until you graduate. Even over the summer.

Friday and Saturday were a whirlwind of activities, all of which were band-related. Friday night was our first football game. Did a watered-down version of our half-time show due to the lack of time we had to re-polish it after a two-week break. But the audience didn't seem to mind. They never do.

The rest of the game went well. We won. People had a good time. Weather was decent...it's nights like these that I remember in mid-October when it's 45 degrees and raining--no, POURING.

The real fun happened the next morning, though.

Literally less than twelve hours after I left my school after the game, I had to be back at 5 a.m. at get on a bus to go to Seattle for a band event at the University of Washington. Where we would spend all day. In the 80+ degree weather. With no shade. In wool and polyester uniforms. Not exactly my idea of a good time.

This is my third year with my high school band, and I've come to love the things I've been able to do and experience because of it. But I'm not ashamed to say that I H-A-T-E Husky Band Day. The weather is never decent. My sophomore year, it was just as hot, if not hotter. Last year, it was a torrential downpour. It's like the weather gods decide on this day every year and say to themselves "Let's see...how badly can we %@&* with the weather and make these poor kids even more tired/cranky/miserable than they probably already are?" Jerks.

And even when the weather is decent, I don't really understand the point of this day. It's chaotic. It's unorganized. It's...30+ bands from around the state (this year there was one from Nevada there as well...I sure hope they had other plans for being up here other than just going to Husky Band Day...) come and perform the National Anthem and the half-time show for one of the UW football games. I guess the only benefit of this is the opportunity to see the UW Marching Band. They're cool. A few kids from my high school's band, people I know, have made it in, and I got to see them yesterday. But that's still not worth the early morning and dehydration and heat and...no, not at all.

This is probably the one thing I absolutely WILL NOT miss next year...

Luckily, though, once this event is done, it's done. Now we can focus on our show and concert music and getting ready for Hawaii...

Why do we need to get ready for Hawaii, you may ask? I guess you'll just have to wait for another entry...

Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program, BEDSY Day 2 (Thursday Sept. 8th, 2011)

First full, normal day of school. And a full day it was, too. Started off with AP Senior English...40-minute timed write over one of the books we read over the summer, followed by a 50-question test over the SECOND book we read over the summer. (We got a choice between three. I chose Jane Eyre.) The timed write--which, for the past two years, have not exactly been my strongest point--actually felt pretty decent, for not having done one in about three months. I'll probably say differently when I get this essay back on Monday.

Next up was AP Calculus. I'm actually really excited for this class, as nerdy as that sounds. (No lies, though, I'm a huge nerd.) This inherent excitement is not because I LOVE math--although to take this class and be willing to endure it, you probably should have at least a tolerance for the subject--but because I have the best classmates. Ever. My six-person group consists of five of my closest friends. And my teacher is crazy. But it's a cool kind of crazy. Totally okay with that.

My day wrapped up with a brief introduction in my Honors Humanities class to archaeology. And a jazz band meeting after school.

Did I mention I've already had three non-syllabus-signing homework assignments?

Tomorrow is Friday, though. Thank goodness. Who knew three days could take this long...

Today was awesome because: I finally got my Pottermore welcome e-mail. And I got sorted. Into Hufflepuff. : )

The Last First Day: BEDSY Day 1 (Wednesday September 7th, 2011)

Despite the fact that I, officially, only spent two hours at school, I had a nice breakfast of cinnamon apple pancakes with two of my good friends, and classes were fourteen minutes long...

I'm exhausted. the first day of school is always WAY too over-stimulating...even though it's probably the easiest day of the ENTIRE YEAR.

As of yet, my classes are fantastic. I have good people in all of mu classes, even though each and every one of my classes will be quite challenging. Blasted AP classes.

Speaking of which...unfortunately, this first installment of BEDSY must be cut short on account of the fact that I must go and do English homework that is due at 8:10 tomorrow morning. Yay...

Why today was awesome: I KNOW I will have a blast in all of my classes this year...despite the heavy workload that will surely come with them.

BEDSY Eve (BEDSY: Day -1)

Night before I launch this whole project.

Excited? Yes.

Nervous? Definitely, in more ways than one, I might add.

Before we get started, I'd like to establish some ground rules...

• There is to be one blog entry for every scheduled school day of the year, half and whole days, and even snow days will fall into this category, though the entry will clarify them as such. Sick days are also included.
• There is no set word length for the entries.
• Weekends will be permitted to be used for catching up on a day or two if needed.
• Extra entries for special occasions (holidays, extra words of wisdom, rants, etc.) are permitted, but may not be substituted for the daily BEDSY blog. They must/will be labeled differently and as a separate entity from the official blog.
• If I miss a day completely, for whatever reason, consequences will occur...though I'm not exactly sure what those will consist of yet...

*Amendments may be made as circumstances require throughout this project...*


I guess this is it, then, as tomorrow, Wednesday September 7th, is the first day of school, my last first day of free public education....and Friday, June 8th will bring the end of it.

Luckily, though, I don't have to be there for the entire day, as the first half of the day is reserved solely for sophomores and helping them get to their classes without getting lost, and then everyone else comes at lunch to get their schedules and whatnot.

Unfortunately, this will probably be the easiest day I'll have this year. The real work begins on Thursday.

Anyway, I'm going to try and retain what I can of my childhood before tomorrow. Maybe I'll go read some Harry Potter and/or watch one of the movies...probably both...

Here's to a good year. Wish me luck.