Pretzel Roll

HELLO!

Today was long run, homeworkhomeworkhomework, Rock the Block, and some time to talk to Frenchies.

What do you think of the slightly-altered blog design? Hopefully it isn't as hard to read now... I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to get a more customized design, but I'm still controlling how it looks, so this is as good as it's getting! I can alter it again or do something different, but I am LAZY and it may take a while for me to get around to that.

It feels like fall. Though I just got new shorts and tank tops from Margaret (stolen from her Goodwill pile). Good timing?

I don't dress transitionally. I wear the clothes for the weather that I want to have, which is currently shorts and flip-flops, despite the discomfort from the cross-country blisters. The blisters are a result of the snazzy new socks we got to race in, but wearing them for seven miles ended up torturing my poor feet. I was doing so well, too!

Every day at practice, I realize how naked I feel without my running watch. I'm generally so obsessive over time that not having a watch annoys me to no end. Especially on days like today when there's a bit of a workout going on. A new watch is on my list again, but then again, my list of stuff I want (*feels so greedy*) is too long and I'm too broke.

As the weather gets cooler, I keep thinking about indoor and outdoor track and whether or not I want to participate in either. I'm not really a track person but I love spending time with my team (especially my best friends that are runners, because I won't see them otherwise and their presence in my life is very important to me). I'll be so busy! D: Thus, I'm putting off decision-making until it is absolutely necessary. Help? :/

Tomorrow is going to be fun-- Lunch with Alex, Colin, and Molly, and then we'll be going to see the Tempest. I love Shakespeare class, and this week we'll be starting the Taming of the Shrew; I have a feeling that I'll adore it. Unfortunately I have lots of work to do other than that. On the bright side, I don't have Business Law on Monday morning! :D

Now, more homework. Sociology. Whoops.

A demain!
-Aly

Scones!

Salut!

Alors, aujourd’hui, je vais ecrire en français un petit peu :) J’espere que ça te derange pas trop! (Inquietez pas, je vais ecrire apres en anglais pour ceux qui savez pas le français.)

J’ai lavé ma voiture aujourd’hui! Ca prends beaucoup de temps, malheursement, alors je n’ai pas beaucoup fait à partir de ça. En fin, j’ai rien accompli aujourd’hui sauf faire le menage. Apres diner, j’ai fait la cuisine—j’ai fait les scones de myrtille avec un glaçage de citron. Ca m’a fait beaucoup de plaisir, parce que je vais les manger pour petit dejeuner demain matin! Ils sont très bons—mon frère m’a dit ça et il dit jamais les choses gentils au sujet de la cuisine que je fais! xD Mon premier cours de l’ecole à l’universite est demain matin, à 8h. Je ne suis pas pret!

En fin, j’ai dit au revoir à Via et maintenant, je vais au lit! :D

*****

Okay, In ENGLISH now! :D I just wanted to practice my French, since the only time I write in French is when I talk to my French friends… unfortunately, that’s never frequently enough, due to my busy schedule and the 6 hour time difference. Anway, I hope that didn’t annoy you too much, and any of you that speak French, feel free to correct me ;)

Today, I ended up washing my car, though I didn’t originally plan to. That took up most of the day, so I really didn’t do much else! I didn’t end up accomplishing anything today except a few chores. After dinner, I baked—I made blueberry scones with lemon icing, which are DELICIOUS, and a smoothie with leftover blueberries, some raspberries, strawberries, and cranberry juice. The scones will DEFINITELY be my breakfast tomorrow, and even my brother (who never compliments my cooking!) said they were good! xD

My first class at the community college is tomorrow morning at 8, so I have to get up reallyyyy early :( Luckily, I’ll have scones to look forward to as breakfast, instead of cereal! I’m not ready for this at all, so I really hope I’ll survive—I guess I’ll talk about it tomorrow?

After all that, I went over to Via’s to say goodbye, but didn’t cry. I’m still trying not to think about the fact that so many of my friends are so far away. GAHH MY LIFE IS BORING!

I’m going to bed now :)

BONSOIR/GOODNIGHT!

-Aly

P.S. What would you say if I make EVERY blog post from this month a food-title? I think I’ll make it my Thing.

Popsicles and Ice Cream

Hello again!

See what I said about blogging every day? I’m making this happen.

So, today was BUSY. Not that every day isn’t, but today was borderline hectic.

We had a long run this morning. My run was strangely satisfying. I wore my NEW SHOES which are the same as Molly’s shoes, which was of course, completely unintentional. It was sunny again, thus really humid, after all the rain we’ve had lately. My shoes are ALREADY dirty, but hopefully they won’t smell as bad as my spikes do anytime soon.

(For you non-cross-country-runners, spikes are the racing shoes we wear… and they have a very pungent odor. I refuse to take mine out of the box, and they stay in a corner of the basement where the stench can’t hurt the quality of life…)

Our coach brought Popsicles for us for after the run (YAY! TREATS!), and since there were so many of them, Molly and I got three each. We were laughing, being like “oh, Fattie Club is BACK IN SESSION!” and “I wonder if we can make this a thing?”, so Coach Cromwell took us off to the side for a Lecture. It wasn’t so much of a Lecture as it was an Expression of Worry About Our Mental Health, which made it rather humorous. But, in a way, it was complimentary and I think both Molly and I realized how awkward and difficult it must be for him to confront “girly” problems (even if they are perceived as problems, but aren’t).

Though it is funny to note his reaction to us senior girls with our water-guns at yesterday’s practice and then what he said to Molly and I today. We’re just enigmas. :)

Other than that, I spent today shopping for books with my mother, which ended in me getting a couple books from the Free Shelf (ONE IS A PLAY IN FRENCH!) and lots of Shakespeare. She finally showed me the houses she likes, one of which we will hopefully buy… as soon as our house sells.

After all that, I went to Via’s house (with Molly) to help her pack for college. That was fun, but the reasoning is sad. It SUCKS to say goodbye, and she’s not ready to leave. For that matter, I’m not ready for any of my “ex-senior” friends to be gone. I know I’ll keep in touch somehow and this won’t be goodbye forever (at least, I SINCERELY hope not!), but still, the whole people-leaving thing is just not fun as leaving yourself.

During all that, we stopped by Cold Stone. Hence, ice cream. Delicious, FattieClub worthy, ice cream. YAYYY SUMMER! (I’m holding on to Summertime for dear life, though I could do with some nice fall-like temperatures…)

A demain! ;)

-Aly

Goodbyes

Hello!

My plane will be leaving at 4:00(ish?) today to go to Philadelphia, and then on to Paris. We're flying out of Charlotte, so we're actually leaving a bit earlier than planned due to the fact that HOLIDAY TRAFFIC EATS TIME as if it were dessert.

At any rate, I'm really excited to leave, but honestly, the worst part of leaving is saying goodbye.

It's hard to say "goodbye" to somebody that you have every intention of staying in touch with. At the same time, there's that tiny pessimistic side that keeps reminding you that "things can never be the same". My goodbyes to friends go something like this:

Friend: Well, I guess this is it.
Me: Yeah. Kinda.
Friend: Why can't you just stay?
Me: I can't! I've been planning this for too long.
Friend: *sigh* I know. I'm just gonna miss you.
Me: Yeah, me too. *hugs*
Friend: Bye!
Me: See you in six months! Internet stalking! *waves and leaves*
(In my head-- Friend: Well, that was fail.)

Yeah.

It's not only the goodbyes to friends that are the problem, but when I leave for any trip that is longer than a few weeks (example: Europe trip in '07), I tend to say goodbye to everything (in my head at least).

I guess it's understandable, though. (Hopefully. If it's not then I'm just crazy and I like to think that I'm sane enough.)

As I walk from wherever I am for the last time (or drive. TECHNICALITY!), I'm watching everything go by (or that I pass by), and I'm trying not to wave to whatever it is. I will actually say it out loud a few times, and then look around anxiously to check that nobody is laughing at me. xD

So, as I leave my house today, I will be saying goodbye to everything-- when I get back, we won't be living here anymore, which makes this even more strange. This is the last time I'll be in my room, the last shower I take in my bathroom... so on and so forth. However strange and silly it is, I will miss sleeping in my own familiar bed with my pillows, driving my car (FRED!) around, and going to La Carretta with friends for lunch on far too many weekends. [No worries though! I'll miss my friends/family a lot more!]

I was going to send out a One Final Text from my phone letting everybody know that I love them and I'll miss them, but I figured it'll be easier to just write it in blog form and hope that you get it :)

Here are my final goodbyes:

To my "Last Brekkie" friends-- I'm glad we got to hang out one more time, and I expect extremely enthusiastic emails from you all the time.

To the friends that attended "The Last Lunch" -- I left with a bang! I'm glad you were there to laugh at me :)

To those of you that "Braved the Storm" to come to my birthday party -- I'm glad you didn't die on the way, and I'm glad we got to hang out and act like crazy people for a few hours. Your gifts were amazing, your creativity (ha. picture telephone...) was hysterical, and I'm sorry that my mom took far too many pictures. Don't worry, some of them are up on facebook already!

To all my other close friends, acquaintances, etc. -- If I didn't get to see you before I left, I'm sorry. It doesn't mean I love you any less. I WILL find ways to keep in touch.

I wish everybody a WONDERFUL Holiday season, a fantastic six months, and a great day.


SEE YOU IN SIX MONTHS!
-Aly

Splashing in Puddles

Bonsoir!

Of course, it's MONDAY!

I liked today. Most Mondays are just boring and uneventful, and so very EXHAUSTING that there is no way to glean any joy from the mundane activity of returning to the week. I found all that to be a LIE today.

I went to bed at 8:30pm Sunday night, so I was well-rested for my 6:50am alarm clock-- and miraculously made it out of my house by 7:48. Amdi, Molly, and I went to C&K Bagels ("Bagel Station II") for overpriced and exponentially-cream-cheesy bagels. We "creeped" in the parking lot while jamming out (Amdi's terminology xD) to my ipod. The day progressed, and there was nothing truly BAD about today-- Physics was rather fun, despite Monica's absense-- and I had fun. By the time practice rolled around, the sky was fairly clear and the temperature perfect for running.

Well, the weather didn't stay perfect for long, but despite the terrential downpour, lightning, thunder, wind, puddles, screaming, and lacking-shirt-ness, and having to huddle under a picnic area in the bathrooms, it was an AWESOME run. Actually, that's what MADE it an awesome run. I ran through every single puddle on the way back to school, and I haven't had that much fun running in a while. Cromwell gave me this look of "wow, really?" and Coach Amy was too busy trying to stop hyperventilating to care much for my loud splashing.

So that was today. And it was good. I'm glad-- I can do with days like this more often, because it just give me a better outlook on life.

I have a revelation for today, but it's not so much a revelation as a re-affirmation of something I think we all forget sometimes.

"Childlike" joy (joy in simple moments and pleasures) is the best kind of joy. It doesn't take much to be happy, and when the smallest things make your day great, the world isn't as bad as it seems.

I'm going to try to remember that in these coming weeks.

Quote for Today:
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. - Emily Dickinson

Hope you had a joyful day!
-Aly

Long Time; no Blog

Bonsoir!

I don't think it needs to be said, really, but I haven't posted here in forever. Again, I've been neglecting most the Blogger blogs in favor of tumblr, but I'm sort of falling out of my tumblr addiction these days. I want to write, and that's why I blog. Tumblr is used more for photography and Grand Statements about Life, which I really don't have right now.

At any rate, I'm busy right now. Not incredibly busy, but enough so that I spend a lot of time NOT doing things that I would rather be doing.

I don't know if I posted anything about this on THIS blog, but I passed my online classes! As in BOTH of them, which is rather unexpected. I thought I failed AFM for sure, and had barely scraped a passing grade of a D in French. I actually got C's in both, which is really not okay by my normal standards, but it's fine for all that...

This year, I'm taking super-easy courses, which basically means I have busywork and I spend days tyring not to take naps, because Molly makes me stay up late with her while she finishes all her AP homework. I'm taking AFM again, to get a better grade, as well as (block) Honors Environmental/Earth Science (it's a complete joke. I'm the oldest student in the class... gah, I hate the classes of '12 and '13...), Honors English 3, Honors Physics (my brother is in my class, which is a bit traumatizing), Honors Sociology, and Honors French V, which is my only truly challenging class. Unfortunately, Madame is out for a while because she just had surgery, so that is a lot less challenging than it ought to be, as our substitute is ... ehrm, not very good at French.

I thought I had a fun anecdote about Frenchly stuff to share, but I have forgotten it. *gnashes teeth*

I had a crappy week this past week, but the week before was AMAZING, so hopefully this week will be alright?

I'm running VARSITY at the Wolfpack Invitational on Saturday, but I shouldn't know that... I guessed, and Coach Amy will be telling me OFFICIALLY tomorrow!
This means I have to be INSPIRED and get un-running-rutted by SATURDAY so that I can validly force Lameface to show up to cheer me on. My motivations are so screwed up, geez.

Bonne nuit!
-Aly