Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

I recently had Orientation at BGSU, where I will be attending college in the fall. Overall, it was a pleasant experience: I had some questions answered, found out more about the campus, and made some new friends. Through finding out more about the college, though, I began to have more questions. For example, I took the AP Tests for English Language, English Literature and French Language, and BG hasn't counted any of that credit yet, which is making me nervous. I don't yet have a French class in my schedule, and I'm planning on minoring in French, AND I'm stuck in a Freshman Comp class until my AP credit rescues me. The academic advisors weren't very helpful in answering these questions... but hey, I'm supposed to be a little confused at this time in my life, right?

In less than 2 days, I can start checking my MyBGSU portal to see if I've been assigned a roommate. I'm anxious to find out what she will be like. After all, she will be the first person I'll share a room with for awhile. Plus, we have to figure out who's bringing what to our dorm room. I'm actually a tad obsessed with that detail right now-- all the money in the checking account I just opened is burning a hole in my pocket! I'm dead set on buying a mini-fridge, and I've already picked out the perfect one (it had to have a separate freezer, be under 5 cubic feet in volume, less than 36" in height, and consume less than 1.5 amps of power). I've found other things as well, but I wouldn't want to bore you.

Speaking of boring, I had to go to the dentist today. It was a new dentist, whom I'd met before, but wasn't well acquainted with: he is the father of one of the boys on my brother J.'s soccer team (he actually always mixes up me and my sister, L., who is 5 years younger than I am). I did not have a pleasant experience. I know what you must be thinking: "Going to the dentist is never a pleasant experience." Well, going to my old dentist was actually a pleasant experience. The décor was tasteful and pleasant, the people there really seemed to care about you, and there wasn't much invasive poking and prodding. This new dentist's office I went to today was very drab (it looked like the place had not had an updated paint job since the '70s); the dental hygienist who worked on me was perky, in an obnoxious, fake way; plus, right after she told me that I had inflamed gums, then poked me repeatedly in the gum with her little metal tool. It was awful... I really want to go back to my old dentist. I don't know why we changed, honestly. I was also thinking of changing my Optician, but what if I can't find one better than the one I already have? I don't know what to think.

As a side note, my dad really wants to go camping over July 4th weekend. I (and the rest of my family, it seems) really want to just stay home. My family has been away from home over the Fourth for the past few years, and since this is the last summer before I go off to college, it seems like we should enjoy those traditions we do at home, rather than spending 4 days in our RV at a nearby campground. I've tried conveying these things to him, but he is extremely stubborn, and it would be over his birthday (we haven't found him a gift yet, because he is extremely hard to buy for-- he returns basically everything he receives, just like Rachel from Friends). Besides, we're going on a European excursion in less than 10 days, so it seems like we should focus more on planning that vacation than trying to pull together a camping trip at the last minute. Maybe it's just my skewed teenage logic, I dunno....

Another side note: my mom is frantically trying to potty train my little sister, N., before my mom, dad and I go to Europe. Plus, she's almost 3 1/2, so she is getting a bit too big to be wearing diapers. N. is being extremely stubborn about this matter, however, which makes the whole process much harder. My mom even bribed her with her own dry erase board, but N. doesn't even feel ashamed when she uses her pants rather than a toilet. My mom's getting so desperate that she's considering buying this book online that's "Guaranteed to Potty Train Your Child in Three Days Flat!" (it smells like a scam to me...)

Well, write you next time-- I'm going to hang out with my friend, C., whom I haven't seen in awhile.

A Week in the Life

Whew! It's been quite a week. 

We managed to get everything done in time for my graduation party (well, basically everything-- we still had to fix one of the light fixtures and do a couple other small things after the party). The party went very well, by the way! A bunch of relatives I vaguely recognized were there, as well as my closest friends, and even a couple of my teachers (Mr. M, for example, whom I had as a teacher for all 4 years of high school). It was funny to see all these people from different compartments of my life interacting with each other. Never in my wildest dreams would I think my English teacher would be playing corn hole with my youngest brother, but it happened nevertheless! My great aunts were chatting with my neighbors, my grandparents were talking to my friend K., who's a rebellious artist, and many other strange exchanges went on. It was really fun, though-- the cake my mom ordered was delicious, as was most of the other food; the company was pleasant; and the graduation gifts were plentiful. I got over $1,000 in cash/checks, then I got a couple gift cards and a couple material gifts.

Monday, my mom (who's a teacher), my siblings and I stayed at home and did nothing. It was well-deserved after that week of hard work. I feel kinda bad that my dad still had to go to work, when he had probably worked the hardest out of all of us.

Tuesday, I had a golf tournament. My high school coach MC-ed the event, so he invited his team (alumni included) to participate. I played with two of my friends from the team, as well as a coach from a neighboring district. We played pretty well, and had a lot of fun-- we scored 82 on 18 holes. Of course, the group that won the tournament was a bunch of male coaches, who scored 56 on 18 (jeez!). Then, on the way home, my car started smoking... it appeared to be the air conditioning unit, so I drove home without using it (I just rolled the windows down). Then I got a little lost on the way home, so it took me roughly 90 minutes to get home instead of the 40 minutes it took me to get there. That evening, I felt extremely tired, though I shouldn't have been, because I'd been in a golf cart the whole day. I thought I might've gotten sick, because my mom had been feeling the same way lately.

Wednesday, I opened my own checking account, which was nice: it really made me feel grown-up. The banker who set me up with it was really cool. He kept joking with me and such, which made the experience more enjoyable. Afterwards, I bought my new purple iPod nano, which is pretty much amazing! My iPod mini died out of old age this March, so I've been iPod-less for a few months. 

Thursday, I played golf again, with a couple of people from my high school team and my sister. It was pretty fun, but I didn't play as well as on Tuesday, obviously. We didn't keep score, and I'm kind of glad about that.

Yesterday, my mom and I hosted my sister's cell group (a bible study connected with my church who also does fun activities). We had a teaching on Esther, then we saw Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, which was quite good (I liked the first one as well).

Today, it's my parents' 22nd wedding anniversary, as well as my church's carnival (in benefit of an inter-city school that my church sponsors). My mom made my dad a mix CD of popular songs from the year they got married (1987), and my dad got my mom a bouquet of flowers. They're also going out tonight alone, while I watch the kids (sigh). The carnival should be fun as well: our family is in charge of the popcorn and corn hole booth (two things we enjoy very much!). 

Tomorrow's Father's Day, and I don't really have anything planned... I mean, I picked out a card at CVS last night (in which I wrote a really cheesy haiku), but I don't really have a gift for him. My father and I aren't exactly best friends, either. Hopefully I'll think of something and not have to go with my back-up plan: winning him a "Walking With Jesus" beach ball from our corn hole booth at the carnival today. Wish me luck!

The Remodeling Saga Continues....

It's been like Trading Spaces at my house for the past week!

Last night, I stayed up until 4 am helping my dad with our kitchen cabinets. Everyone else had gone to bed hours before, but we kept working-- we attached the cabinet doors and painted them (about 20 cabinets in all). By the time we went to bed, our hands were covered in green wood stain and we had bits of sawdust under our fingernails from sanding and drilling into the cabinet doors. The picture at left was taken this afternoon. Wood stain sure takes a long time to dry... I hope it's dry by Sunday (that's when my graduation party is)-- it might be a bit awkward if my guests bumped up against the cabinets and got green stains all over their clothing...

The new granite countertop was put in on Wednesday. It looks better than I thought it would-- I preferred a type of granite called "Firenze," which had more green in it than the granite we ultimately chose ("Cloud Nine"). My mom has been obsessing over the countertop... I think my dad should be a little jealous by now. C;

The deck is coming along quite well, too. Two of my uncles and my grandpa came over and basically built it today. We still have to put the fence part around it, but that won't be too bad.

I think we may actually get this done on time. (Hm, I'd better knock on wood to make sure I didn't just jinx myself-- but I'll have to be careful not to touch the (still wet) wood stain!)

Moving, Writing and Reading

I'm feeling kind of regretful today... one of my best friends, S., is moving out of state in a few days, and I probably won't see her again for awhile. It was kind of inevitable, since all of my friends are moving away to college, but it would've been nice to have the summer together.

I met her my freshman year of high school-- I had taken Enriched Physical Earth System Sciences (PESS 9), and was getting a D in the class (while not learning anything), so I got my counselor to transfer me to a regular PESS class. My teacher assigned me to sit right next to S., and we got to be fast friends by forming an alliance against a mean girl in our class. We've been friends ever since... but our senior year, S. and I didn't have much time to hang out with each other. After all, we don't take the same classes (she takes the regular classes and I'm usually in the enriched stuff), and we were both busy with our lousy amounts of homework. I regret not spending more time with S. then. We're planning on spending time together every day this week (yesterday, my friend K. and I went over to her house and we played board games and stuff). I love spending time with my friends, 'cause they're awesome! ^o^ 

But I digress; S. is a very good friend, and I'll miss her terribly. I have her new address and I plan on writing her often, but it's not exactly the same as hanging out on the weekends or whatever. Still-- I think we can preserve our friendship that way. I've never had a real pen pal before-- well, I wrote to my favorite uncle when I was a kid, but that really doesn't count.... ^^;

On a lighter note, I'm going to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian today, and I heard that it's supposed to be funny. And today, I'm starting the Pride and Prejudice audiobook I borrowed from the library. I decided to read it for two reasons:

1. I really enjoyed the Kiera Knightly version of the movie, so I thought I'd like the book (because the book is almost always better than the movie), and
2. Unlike most of my AP Literature class, I enjoyed reading Wuthering Heights, which was written around the same time (only a 34 year difference in publication dates), so maybe the styles will be similar.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to that. Besides, it will make my tasks today not seem so bad if I'm listening to Pride and Prejudice on CD.  :D

Graduation (and other things)

Okay, so yesterday I graduated high school. People make a huge deal out of it, and until recently, I had no idea why-- I mean, isn't it more of an achievement to graduate college? But yeah, I guess I didn't really think about how big of a transition this is compared to switching schools in the past. Going into elementary school was kinda scary, just because I hadn't been to school before. Then my transition to middle school was kinda uneasy because I was nervous about remembering locker combinations for the first time (I had three that I had to remember, too: my regular locker, my band locker and my gym locker). Then going into high school I was nervous I'd get lost, because my high school was so much bigger than my middle school or my elementary school. In the end, though, these worries are very trivial, and I basically got over these fears on the first day. Plus, my family and friends were there to support me. Now that I've graduated high school and I'll be going off to college soon, I'll be all on my own for the first time in my life: no parents or siblings to support me, and not even my friends will be there for me, since we're all going to different schools. My friends and family won't be too far away, since I'll be going to college in-state, but I'm still anxious about all this. Sure, college will be awesome-- if I'm able to make some friends there, and not miss my family too much. I don't want to be the college student who comes home every weekend because she doesn't want to hang out with people from her college. I want college to feel like home to me... though that might be hard with the 15'x10' room that I have to share with another human being. It's a difficult time right now, but one thing that's keeping me going is that I got through tough transitions in the past, and I'm able to laugh at my foolish worries, so I hope I can laugh about this later. 

Aside from that, my grad party is in less than a week, and my dad chose this time to remodel the whole kitchen. Well, he actually says that he's not remodeling the kitchen, he's just:

• replacing the floor
• painting the walls
• staining the woodwork and cabinets
• putting knobs on all drawers and cabinets
• replacing the countertops
• changing the lighting
• replacing all the large appliances

Yeah, he's definitely not remodeling the kitchen. Anyway, all this non-remodeling is driving me nuts. My dad's been sanding the cabinets and everything so he can stain them, and the sawdust has gotten into every nook and cranny in the entire house. That makes for a whole lot of daily dusting. And wood stain smells nasty... but the new floor is in, and that looks really nice! I think it will look really good when it's all done, but I kinda doubt we'll get everything done in time. Especially since my dad dismembered our deck this weekend, and is apparently intending to rebuild that before the party as well. Let's just say I've been spending a lot of time at Lowe's lately.

Anyway, I should probably do something constructive today, since I have basically just slept all day. Until next time, dear readers!