Elinor Appreciation

Today is a very SPECIAL DAY. (Okay well, I mean now, it's a special night. . .)

My instinct at the moment is to declare that I do NOT do mushy, emotional, pieces of writing, but the truth is. . . I really do. (I mean, for heaven's sake, I spent 2 hours writing appreciation notes for everyone on my color guard team instead of doing homework)

But today is special because (drum roll please. . .) IT IS ELINOR'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Now you may be wondering: who is this person? This "Elinor" you speak of?
To answer that, I say: She is the kindest, most wonderful human being on earth. I am at a complete loss for how to put in to words just how much this girl means to me.

Five years ago, a new girl showed up at school, and was, by some coincidence, in nearly every single one of my classes. I normally kept to myself and didn't talk to people, but I was feeling especially daring one day. I just up and said "Okay, I'm going to make a new friend today."
Next thing I know, I'm telling this new girl to come see my choir show, and figuring out how we can hang out, and since then, things have gone farther. A LOT farther.

We've shared everything from muddy flag football to noodles coming out of noses, and somehow, it made for one of the greatest friendships on the planet earth.

This past year, I left my hometown, and some of the best friends a girl couldn't even dream of having. I will be honest: I cried. A lot (WHAT, don't judge, I'm a crier. . .) Normally, I cry in private. It's not something I like to share, and crying is like my way of venting. Some like punching pillows, others like yelling a lot. I like crying. Alone.

But when I really needed it, my best friend got on her Nokia brick (an ancient cell phone that is shaped like a brick, and is somehow just as tough. . .) and talked me through some of the hardest times I've ever had in my life, and I'm MOST grateful for what she's helped me through.

So.

Thank you, Elinor, for being you. For being my friend. For everything.

<3Achan

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Dear Friend,

Today was one of those days where I just wanted to bang my head against a brick wall. 

This morning I woke up late. No later than I would have expected though, I usually wake up "late." I try to be up early enough to you know, properly pack my things and eat breakfast, but as per the norm, I ended up just shoving all papers in sight into my backpack and walking out the door with an apple croissant in my hand. (The ones from Sam's Club are DELISH). 

I arrived at school on time, thankfully, and my morning started off with out a hitch. In AP Lang, we did corrections for a multiple choice practice. To be honest, none of us really tried. I put in minimal effort into the corrections, and we suspect that the answer key is wrong in some places anyways. (But, as the teacher is pregnant, and has officially gone on maternity leave, we'll just forgive her.)

Midway through corrections, my nose spontaneously decided to erupt like the Mt. Vesuvius of Pompeii. That is to say, I had blood pouring out of my nose like nobody's business. So then naturally I kind of freaked out a little. All I had was the little wad of toilet paper from my purse to save me, and I just sat there like "I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding." Blood dripped on the table, on the chair, in my purse, on my sweater... everywhere. In the end, my classmate, Michelle, kindly walked me down to the nurses office. The nurse informed me that the proper way to stop a nosebleed is to pinch it and sit for a while. Good to find out I've been doing all wrong my whole life. Especially since that was literally the 4th nosebleed with in two days...

After that, I left the nurse's only to find that everyone was heading off to activity period, and I completely forgot where I was supposed to go. See, we have this thing called "Activity Period" where we go to a classroom or the library, cafeteria, or gym for like 30 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

On the bright side, Michelle totally finished the last question of my corrections for me (she is my HERO). On the down side, I was completely dazed, and decided to just go to the library. I got there only to be told by my sister that I actually was supposed to be in the gym. But, meh, at that point I really didn't care.

Second period came and went, all was well... and then math class happened. Firstly, I got there and thought I'd lost my phone. Freaked out a little, but then got distracted by the fact that we had a test in front of us. I'm pretty sure I got NONE of those questions right. By lunch, I was completely drained. Not to mention, that we'd only taken PART 1 of the test. So after discovering that my phone was NOT where I thought it was. I just resigned my self to wallowing in my own despair. 

We returned to math class where I just completed the rest of the test without any enthusiasm.

Fourth period was okay. Which I guess meant that it was relatively awful, but by this time in the day, I JUST COULDN'T anymore. At least I found out that my phone was actually in my locker.

By the time I got home, I was ready to take a nap for two weeks, but NOOOOO. My water bottle spilled inside my purse. It was great. Then I had to quickly scarf down some macaroni, get dressed in nice clothes and go back to school for our school's NHS induction ceremony. 

From here, the story gets boring, because, well, as much as I complained about today, the Induction Ceremony was actually quite fun. I've already been inducted (last year) but I went in to help out. There was cake and friends, so, I'm okay now.

I think the greatest mistake of today has been deciding to write this post instead of doing homework, but my attitude today is just "Gah, screw this, Imma do what I want."

Great day eh?

<3 Alexis

Dear Valentine's Day Haters...

Since yesterday was Valentine's day, I felt I needed to put in my own little bit of love to the internet.

I'm a bit socially awkward, so Valentine's day came and went almost like any other day. Normally for Valentine's day, I buy those candy Valentines from Target and hand them to all of my friends. Problem is, this year I am completely broke and I didn't have the time to stop by a store to buy any candy anyways. (I'm sorry friends! I promise I love you!!!)

I've also noticed that one thing has been running rampant on the internet. VALENTINE'S DAY HATIN'!! The claim is that "You shouldn't only love your significant other/ loved ones for only ONE day out of the whole year"

While I understand that love shouldn't be reserved for only ONE DAY, I personally think that it's a ready wrapped excuse to waste money on ridiculous amounts of sweets and to spoil other people with copious levels of happiness. Most people only have the time or money to do this once a year. On a normal day, you can "love" people. There's nothing stopping you. Valentine's is for extreme shows of affection.

Anyways. I was just getting tired of people hatin' on showing lots of love and Valentine's day.

I hope you had a wonderful February 14th and that you were surrounded by people you love and that you were extremely happy.

Alexis <3

Thankful

Here I am, a week 'n a half after the ACTUAL Thanksgiving day. . . writing a Thanksgiving post.

I am thankful for a lot of things, so Imma just hop right into this!

1. Friends- I miss my old friends so much, but they're still a part of my life through facebook or instagram or skype and even good old fashioned phone calls. I'm also grateful for new friends too. Like with out my new guard buddies or classmates, I would be such a LONER...

2. Siblings- Being in a new place, like now, has made me really appreciate how much I actually love my siblings. I'm not able to hang out with friends as much, and Emma and Ben have been there to keep me company (even though they do annoy the crap outta me sometimes)

3. Parents- My parents are amazing, strong people. For some reason, I spend alot of time arguing with them, but I really am thankful for all they do for me.

4. Ice Cream- If not for ice cream, I would not be alive today. 'Nuff said.

What are you thankful for (even though it's wayyyy past Thanksgiving?)

BEDN Blitz #5- Mmmmuuhhhhh?

17- Rehearsal
18- Home
19- French Shtuff
20- Nicole's Blog

Hello there lovely and handsome friends (for those of you who happen to be male). How are you? Oh! Great you say? Well that's good to hear.

I, however, am a little tired and quite sore... Why? Well. Lets See. Yesterday, I had a Color Guard rehearsal from like six thirty to nine. Today, I had rehearsal from 9 to 6:30. We learned drill for our entire winter show, and learned bits of flag and dance.
See why now?

Tomorrow, we're going to get up way to early to drive ten hours to get to St. Louis. Though, I'm quite unprepared for a ten hour drive, I'm very excited to see my friends again. Over break, I'm going to stuff my face with food, hang all day with my buddies, then stay up all night talking with them. Good plan right? ;)

Lately, I've also been listening to a lot of French songs because I'm a nerd like that. Also because we had a project in French class that involved presenting French songs. It was actually quite fun.
Here are a few that I liked:

Papaoutai-Stromae
Dernier Danse- Indila
On Danse- M. Pokora
Soulman- Ben Oncle Soul

Also, I found this penpal webside called studentsoftheworld.info where you can put up an "ad" and message people via the website. It sounds creepy, but I find it actually rather interesting. Or maybe I'm just weird. Either way, give it a try if you want to awkwardly converse with foreign people :D

Finally, I found out today that a friend of mine named Nicole also has a blog. I read like two posts, and they were hilarious. Just the way she tells stories makes me laugh. Her blog is: nicolesundays.wordpress.com
(Nicole, if you read this, I hope you don't mind me posting it, but it really is good...)

Well, that's about all my brain is capable of thinking right now. I'll post another blitz either tomorrow or the day after to catch up. I hope you have a supercalafragalisticexpialidocious day/night or whatever time it is.

Okay I'll stop now.

K

bye

<3 Alexis

BEDN Blitz #3 - Happiness

Alright! Back to my Hippy Dippy Philosophical Chat Time!!!

I thought I'd talk about what makes me happy. First off, at the moment, we have brownies that my sister just made and they are DELISH. They make me very happy.

On a deeper level, I've been thinking about my friends from home alot, and I fill up with the warm fuzzies every time I remember something about them or a memory I share with them. So, I guess you would say "home" makes me happy.

Also, INSPIRATION makes me happy. I like feeling inspired. Whether it's to create something or to do something, I just like that feeling of being excited to do a project or putting an idea into action.
What inspires me? Well I spend a WHOLE bunch of time on YouTube. Its quite an unhealthy amount. Actually, now, this addiction is less severe, because I've been to busy to keep up with it. But this summer... Oh goodness. I had quite possibly the worst summer of my life, but YouTube and friends kept me from going crazy. They make me happy.

What makes you happy?

<3 Alexis

No One Like You

What a busy month its been. . .

I've been thinking a lot about home. I really miss my friends and just the way it was.
I used to think people would say "there's no one like you" just to say it. To be nice, to be sensitive, to fill in a card, whatever. But then I moved, and I was looking for a person or a group of people to be friends with at school, and I realized that no one really fit my cookie cutter image of an ideal friend. I wanted the casual nerdyness of my last group of friends. I wanted to find people with their drive to do good things without being too pretentious about it. Most of all I just wanted to find people that I could talk to with out feeling too embarrassed.

But then I realized that, especially with my new school being literally a brand new school, most people are concerned with sticking closer to their old friends, or they're not what I'm specifically looking for. I went in feeling like it would be easy to find them (after all I'd done it before right?), but now I'm feeling a little too picky...

But don't worry about me, I've found people I can talk to, and we might not be "bosom friends" or whatever the term is. . . but they're nice to me, and I like hanging out with them :)

I guess the point of this post is to point out just how diverse this world is in terms of people. Literally no one is like another person. But in a way that's good, because there are so many things to learn from different people!

Well, that's about it...

<3 Alexis

End of Summer! Tag

OO! Another tag I've been asked to do? (Feeling extra special. . .) Thank you Elinor :D

My friend Elinor, from writingmagic26.blogspot.com, has asked me to do her End of Summer! tag. Its basically a mish mosh list of stuff I did this summer!

So with out further ado, I shall get started! Enjoy!

I. . .
Took a week long vacation to Texas (Austin and the DFW area), during which my family spontaneously decided to move to Frisco, Tx.

Posing by a pond in Austin

Dad armed with stuffed animals, ready for the road!!

Went to a film camp at SLU, where I created a Fashion documentary with my group! We got to tour around downtown St. Louis to get footage, and I learned all about video editing!
(the camp blog: http://slufilmcamp.wordpress.com/)

Made my own back pack with floral fabric, large jeans, and a sewing machine!

Before. . . 

After. . .

Went BACK to Texas to look at houses! (to see Vlogs, visit my YouTube channel)

Went to a summer camp at the YMCA called Summer Stock, where we performed Aladdin Jr.! I was a CIT (Counselor in Training), therefore I did backstage crew.

A camper made these bracelets for me. How sweet! <3

The backdrop. One of the counselors and I spent hours drawing and fixing the paint.
It turned out amazing!!

On the last day of camp, the children were allowed to do the CITs and
counselors' hair and make up. Aren't I beautiful?

Had an awesome surprise birthday party with my friends in our kitchen!
 Went on a trip to Trout Lodge with my good friend Elinor, where we had lots of fun swimming and boating!

Elinor, Paddling away!

Emma, Ben and Dad in a canoe.
Dad looks so comfortable!! >u<

Baby birds, in a nest in the lakeside pavilion.

 Had a goodbye party with some of my close friends from school!
Barely passed my Driver's Test, and got my License.
Drove by myself with my siblings in the car, and no one died!! :D
Cleaned my room just for my friend (thanks Elinor!! :P)
Carried half a house's worth of stuff into a teeny tiny UHaul truck. (Backbreaking work I tell you!!)
Drove to Texas in two days.
Unloaded the truck and moved all the stuff up three floors of stairs.
Organized-ish our appartment.
Enrolled in school in Frisco.

Us at the new school, after driving four hours from Oklahoma!

Went shopping alot for school supplies, house essentials, and food.

Got allergic to Peanut Mochi (this morning. . .)

Flat lookin' Mochi.

Well, that about sums up my summer! I want to say nothing great or exciting happened but that's a big ol' lie. PLENTY happened. Its just that it didn't go the way I planned, but hey, when has life ever gone as planned?

School starts tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous, but also a bit excited. Wish me luck! :D

I hope you found this somewhat interesting :) I'm proud of the fact that I included lots of pictures. Hope you all had good summers!

<3 Alexis

A Seriously Good Birthday Haul

Wait I'm sixteen?! Since when?!?!?!?

Hey Guys!!! Its been 2 days since my birthday (on the 26th) and I still feel fifteen. It just hasn't quite sunk in yet, but I am grateful for all of the presents I've received!! Thanks to all who gave me a present :) <3
This will probably be a lengthy post because of pictures, but hey! Pictures are pictures :D !!

 So this here cutie pie's name is "Mr. Bob". The tag says "Fable" but that's not a cool enough name, so Emma named it "Mr. Bob" This is Emma's gift to me (she bought it way back in like March, but I still love it to death!) (Also, I'm not sure which gender it is. . . Its a bit gender confused :P)

 These two nail polishes are from my younger brother, Ben. He had a fun time checking them out at the cashiers. . . He had to explain to the girl there that they were for my birthday and not for himself (haha!) I really really love these colors. The yellow is called "Lets Meet" and the baby blue is called "Cinderella" (fitting right?)

 Here is an mp3 from my dad. I already have one but its at least four years old now and is filling up fast. It works just fine, but I'm running out of music space, so this will be good for the extra stuff I download! 

This is a shampoo that my mom bought for me at Target. I was smelling it and it smelled really good so she bought it for me. I really like it. (It might be a sign that she bought me shampoo though... maybe I need to wash up better? JK)

 This cute basket full of stuff is from my great friend Audrey!!! Keep reading for details :)

 The basket contained this adorable gold metallic notebook in which we are currently keeping ideas for YouTube videos. It is really quite handy for jotting down ideas that suddenly just pop into your head!

 This here is a note card holder. I mean who can live without a note card holder?! It'll actually be quite useful because I'm still in high school and this past year I used up a good 5 packs of note cards. This will be good for keeping them, and its just so cute!!!

 This is a cute Vera Bradley wallet in the style "Paisley meets Plaid". It's quite small, but its for when I get my license!! I cannot wait to get it, all I have to do now is practice parallel parking and then I CAN DRIVEEEEE!!!!!! WHOO WHOOOTTT!

 Next is this adorable make up bag with a mirror inside, also from Vera Bradley. This design is called "Heather". I don't have very much make up so I'll probably use it for a variety of things. But it'll definitely be useful nonetheless!!!

And finally in the basket were these two sticky note pads. I really like that they have that cover, because it'll protect them from sticking to other things when I keep them in my bag. I can't wait to use them for school!!

 Last but not least, I got a note from Audrey and a card from my epic history teacher, Mr. Schulz. I will be forever grateful for their kind thoughts:)

So thank you again to the people who gave me presents for my 16th birthday! Luv ya!

Alexis

Reliving the Past

So, today I was supposedly doing my math homework in my room. Actually I was watching a vlog of Joey Graceffa on YouTube (his latest one of PlayList live. one of the YouTube conventions I one day plan on attending :P) Here it is if you want to watch:

So anyhow, as I was watching this video, I was desperately wishing that I wasn't stuck in this snowy, depressing weather with a buttload of homework due in the next like three months. Then for some reason, I started thinking about like middle school n'stuff. THEN. . . I remembered that before Elinor started her second blog, she had to have a first!! So then I text her:

Me Elinor
creepy and random question, but is ur old blog still up?

Yeah. . . musicgirl-elinor.blogspot.com

So naturally, I headed over to take a look. Oh my goodness. It was like a #TBT on a Monday and in someone else's shoes. I could just imagine fetus Elinor tapping away at her computer. (By "fetus" I mean baby fifth/sixth grade Elinor :P) It's really quite insightful to read bits of your best friend's past that you knew nothing about. Call me creepy or stalker or whatever, but it was so cool to see her change just through what she wrote on her blog!

(*side note: Elinor, if you're reading this, please don't think I'm a crazy creeper!!)
(*side note number 2: But I guess you DID put it on the internet for the world to see...)

Well anyway, I found this post about volunteering, but the first bit was actually about an awards ceremony we had in seventh grade?? Most likely. She wrote that my parents were there and that they were so nice and that she felt bad for me because my mom fawned over her grades more than mine. Quite honestly, I don't even remember this whole incident, but Elinor, don't feel bad. My mother fawns over everyone!! :) She also called my mother and I "nice". That's so sweet! I've never really thought of my self as such. THANK YOU!

So anyway, I had this great long speech in my head that I was going to post, but it seems that that speech has given me the slip. I have no idea what I was going to say, but I think I've covered the main gist of it. I don't feel like this post would be in anyway useful to anyone, but I thought I just had to put it out there so I did. Thanks for reading!! :)

<3 from DuckDuck

Happy Valentines Day!!

Hello Everyone!

Today is Valentines day! (Otherwise known as #foreveralone day) I hope everyone today felt loved <3

I know I certainly did, but not just because they gave me candy :P If love was based on receiving or giving candy, I think that life would be missing something.

Well, this is a short post, but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Happy Valentine's Day!

Inspiration

So, as a first, non-introductory post, I feel that I should write WHY I would start a blog. So... Here goes:

I started a blog for quite a few reasons. One would definitely be the 5 snow days in a row that we've had now, especially since they're right after winter break. I have not been to school in almost three weeks, leaving me trapped at home in a circle of boredom. Because of this never ending boredom, I watch a lot of YouTube. YouTube intrigues me, but that is another post for another day. One YouTuber in particular really interests me. ZOELLA. She also has her own blog and I wanted to try one out!

But the most important reason of all must come from one of my bestest of friends, ElinOr Rigby. (That is a nickname and the name of her blog. To check it out go to this link : http://writingmagic26.blogspot.com/). I've read some of her blog posts and I must say they're funny and great! Her blog has inspired me to start my own. I met her four years ago when she moved here to Missouri. She has a version of the day we met in school on her blog. Its of her perspective of that day. It was interesting to see what she thought of our conversations and I want to share my point of view here.

To preface this story, I must inform you all that I used to be very quiet with nearly no friends. Before you go feeling sorry for me, I have to say that it suited me quite well. After all, being the socially awkward person I am, it was easier to just be by my self on the playground/ at school. When I went to middle school, though, I decided I was going to change and actually make friends. Especially my two best friends from elementary school were going to a different middle school than me. In sixth grade I made friends with another of my best friends in class, but in seventh grade, we got put on different teams. I was so sad, because I wouldn't be able to talk to her all day or see her very much. So once again, I had to make new friends. That's when E-Chan (another nickname) comes into the story. We were in PE on one of the first days of school, and we were running out side on the track. I don't remember exactly when/how we started to talk, but according to E-Chan's version of the story, she told me she just needed bigger lungs to run better, and I agreed. I do remember her saying something of the sort, but I don't remember what I had thought of that statement... But anyways, we just started up a conversation. I asked her where she was from. To me she was obviously a new kid because I'd lived here for my ENTIRE LIFE, and knew pretty much who everyone was. So, back to the point, she told me she had come from NY and explained her situation. Her dad was here with her, but her mom was still in NY doing something important. So, again, being the awkward person I am, I asked "Do you miss your mom?" As soon as this left my mouth I thought Oh no... what an insensitive thing to say!! So to make up for this blunder, I immediately told her a story of when my mom had went to Taiwan when I was in 5th grade, and how I had missed my mother. I had hoped that by doing this she wouldn't find it embarrassing to answer my question... I thought that I may have overdone it though considering I had been the only one talking for a good 10 minutes. Inside my head was a flurry of thoughts wondering if I had just messed up my chance to find a friend for the rest of the year... But to my surprise, she answered with "Yeah, I do miss her" I was so RELIEVED!! In the years to come, I found that E-Chan was quite an interesting person. Smart, fun, and inspiring. She was and is someone I want to be more like. I had never had a friend that I could constantly talk to everyday. And now, I've been friends with her for 4 years. I know now that we'll be friends for ever!

So if you have survived this massive blogpost, I congratulate you on your success. I just had to tell this story because it is important to me. That day in PE literally changed my life, and I didn't even know it. I want to say a massive thank you to E-Chan for all the things she's done for me :D

Post Number One

Hello Friends!

Welcome to my new blog! Its 2014, so I figured, well why not start a blog? New Year, New Me. Besides, I spend most of my life on the internet anyway. I might as well be doing something of my own instead of watching other people/ reading other people's stuff. Its a place that I can share my thoughts, opinions, ideas, etc.

I want to post regularly, but considering I still have school to work around, I'll have to be flexible. I'm thinking maybe at least once every two weeks. Shouldn't be hard right? I think and talk to much anyways... (With my friends anyways... Otherwise I think I'm a bit shy.)

So with that in mind... LET THE BLOGGING BEGIN!