Procrastination

I'm having some major issues getting work done today. I literally have 12 hours until I need to be eating breakfast and heading off to class, and still have an unbelievable amount of work left to do. So I thought I'd write a post, so that there literally is nothing left for me to do except my two (big, mostly un-started) assignments due tomorrow, pack, and go to volleyball.
I had tennis class today and it was a lot of fun. But it also made me realize, I'm kind of a dork. I never really thought of myself as a dork before, but today, I felt extremely dorky. Maybe it was because of my outfit -- sneakers, knee braces, comfy blue pants from like 8th grade, a Marist long sleeve shirt with a $4 Old Navy fleece over it, and black gloves. Yea... I guess it was the outfit...
But other than feeling a bit dorky, it was so much fun to be outside, learning from an awesome teacher (who happens to be the Men's Varsity Tennis Team Head Coach), and being active for once. And then, pretty soon, I'll be headed off to volleyball to be active again today! This has got to be a record...
Enough procrastinating... I'm in serious danger of having to pull an all-nighter, go to an 8 am class, finish my work, pick up a prospective student at 11, take her to lunch, to my 12:30 class, my 2:00 class, and then head home, have dinner with the family, including Joce and Armani, and maybe Steven, and then go to the Galway HS play, Beauty and the Beast. That is way too busy a day to have after pulling an all-nighter...

Things I'd forgotten...

The other day in Readings in Journalism (that class seems to be a trend for blog-inspirations) we read a story called "American Man at Age 10" by Susan Orlean. She basically followed a typical 10 year old around for a while, and wrote about his life. Some of the things she wrote about, I had completely forgotten I had done/seen/heard. So I started to make a list.
Here it is (in no particular order):
I had forgotten about...
- having to put the chairs up at school at the end of the day
- computer lab games
- marble jars
- free homework passes
- Mrs. Koines' "oops" coupons
- diarammas
- sitting in "squads" in gym class
- counting at the water fountain
- paintings in the bathrooms
- the RTC room
- pulling a card
- wearing snow boots and snow pants on the bus; Ashley P., Sarah Todd and I all crammed into one seat
- missing the bus
- the mini-courses bus ride
- dancing for 1/2 a song with a boy
- Karilee teaching me about shaving my legs
- carpenter pants
- platform shoes
- Giga pets - cubbies
- spelling bees
- toe socks that I could never wear because of my weird toes
- beaded bracelets
- beanie babies - TGIF - Boy Meets World!
- Full House

- Furbies
- S-I-T on the R-U-G in Mrs. Griffin's class
- letter people in kindergarten
- playing with water babies with Lauren (and hiding them so we could get them first the next day)
- walking through the high school to get to band
- Halloween parades
- Pet Day
- my grandparents driving me to school
- Amelia Bedelia
- walking to school with Dan and Dave
- Jo-Jo teasing me about Dante
- Trix cereal
- my dad always saying "Home again, home again, jiggity jig" when we'd pull onto McMaster Street
- watching my sister's plays and bringing her flowers
- Malta's Magic
- warheads
- the swing in my old house's backyard
- the green house
- the skate boarders across the street that I always thought were going to break into my house
- having dreams about witches
- Doris and Warren next door at the old house- her giving us rhubarb
- the Cline's
- the upstairs bathroom tub and popping the little balls in the bowl (still not sure what they were, but I thought I was so badass for popping them)
- the scary laundry room
- playing Pet Shop with Lauren
- Junior Achievement
- Jocelynn filling up pools with balloons in them in the front yard for some holiday
- Alan's 40th Birthday Party- David wearing a grass skirt and bikini top
- Cathy Fragale who loved Lisa Frank
- Mrs. Tomeck dumping out Andrew Carpenter's entire desk onto the floor
- childhood books
- chicken pox
- how much braces sucked
- losing teeth
- Dr. Rulos's office- the rug, eye test, and Pedialyte under the tables
- my snowman

- Amanda Webb
- square dancing in gym, sweaty hands, hoping to be in a group with cute boys
- gymnastics
- making up dance routines
- Mrs. Riggins
- Mr. B on rollerskates
- Mad Minutes
- playing Jeopardy with my dad, keeping track of our points with coins
- lock downs
- Star Lab
- sitting boy-girl-boy-girl at the cafeteria tables when we got in trouble
- having to raise our hand to throw away food
- the Soc Hop
- Luke Bateholts popping bottle tops in the cafeteria
- Mrs. Druziak always yelling at me for eating in the hallway
- too-pink lipstick
- line leaders
- dipping my pinky in my mom's peppermint schnapps
- watching the Wizard of Oz with Jocelynn, making a yellow brick road for the living room
- Aunt Betsy
- church school excitement because of Garrett and Martin
- the playground
- running the mile
- Mrs. Weaver
- Sarah Todd and I getting in trouble on our first day
- blowing on the grass to make that whistling noise while watching the other kids play kickball
- indoor recess, found out by looking at the flag
- jumping over the light tile
- the "Sankowski kids"
- Mr. Brickner
- learning to light matches, and having the boys do it for me
- Ken Ponte
- being called chipmunk
- being teased about the gravestone with the last name Wheeler
- Mrs. Koines' couch
- THINK
- Karilee always eating my dunkaroos
- sitting every other seat in the auditorium in 8th grade for movies
- the giving tree assembly
- going to Dan and Dave's after school- Ben Hurtt trying to kiss me, his dad's name was Buddah
- Camp Chingachgook- everyone singing to Jayce and I for our birthdays
- Candi Ridge
- sitting on the edge of Grandpa's recliner
- the TV show "David the Gnome"
- Armani losing it when Grandpa died, him and Gianni leaving notes to him on his coffin
- Christmas Eve that year
- putting my dad's hair in tons of little pig tails
- sitting in Mrs. V's class when the news about 9/11 came through
- Mr. Joe
- Mr. Gray- calling us Simba, Nala, Wheels

The list could continue for ever. There are so many things I don't want to forget...

Memory

Today in my Readings in Journalism class, we read a piece called "Memory" about people with Alzheimer's disease, and it struck a cord close to home (is that a mix of two phrases? My brain is fried...). For the past few months, my family has been dealing with the process of my Grandma Wheeler losing her memory. On Monday, she was moved into an assisted living apartment. The only question I have is, where did my Dramma go?
Where is the Canasta playing, wise-cracking, sarcastic Grandma? Where is the Grandma who would tease me about my grades, how I hold my pencil, and my awful first eyebrow plucking experience?
She seems to be lost in her own mind, at times totally fine, and at other times asking my dad's gray-haired friend if he's in 11th grade or 12th grade now.
My parents aren't taking it too well. They don't seem to be able to grasp the idea that the woman who is sitting on that hospital bed, sneakers on, bags packed, ready to escape the place she's essentially been held captive in for over two weeks, is someone with a disease. A horrible disease that makes you forget your sister died, makes you forget where you live, makes you forget who just left the room.
It is someone who, before about a year ago, was completely in control of her life, completely independent, completely lucid. In her mind, she's not old, and her forgetfulness is nothing to be worried about. "Who doesn't forget things?" she always asks us.
While she's forgetting, I'm struggling to remember. I don't want to forget the times that I had with her, singing show tunes while playing double-solitaire, showing her endless pictures, projects, and papers from school, drinking the best milkshakes in the world.
I need to remember, because soon, I'll be the only one with those memories.

So much for writing everyday...

Dialup= not blog friendly. Therefore, as you can see, there are no posts from over break.
But I am going to make an effort to post everyday I'm at college. Break was amazing. My sister and I planned lots of surprises for my mom's birthday, and she loved it. Julia came home from San Francisco, and we had a surprise dinner for her with all of her sisters and friends (they "hid" behind their scarves so she wouldn't be able to tell who they were).

I had a great time with my friends, Steven and my family. Gianni turned into man in the month I've been gone. Look how much taller he is than me now... 9th grade next year.

It was an ideal week and 4 days, even though I wasn't laying in the sun, sunbathing somewhere. Although, my sister and I decided to start sleeping downstairs where it was warmer than 60 degrees (as opposed to in my room), and the one morning the sun was coming in right at my face, and I didn't even turn away (as my dad noticed) because it felt like I was on the beach.
I babysat for the Barrows, which was hysterical. Erin grew up so fast!
I'll write more when I have more time. Right now I have to go brush my teeth, have the nightly chat with Steven, and then get some work done... or upload pictures to Facebook, whichever one ends up winning over on my priority level...

Time for a break...

I finally get a break from my schedule-driven life. No more yellow boxes meaning free time, blue meaning class, green meaning other. For the next week and a half, there will just be boxes for friends, family, and sleeping... and of course doctor's appointments, work, driving to the airport to pick up a surprise, haircuts, and Easter! Then... it will be back to reality...

"Amy Stories"

"Oh no... this sounds like an "Amy story," one of my fellow LAS (Literary Arts Society)'ers said tonight. Apparently, my stories all seem to fall into a type... that type being the long rambling kind with random tidbits that have nothing to do with the point of the story, all leading up to an anti-climatic, not so funny final line. People usually laugh more at my attempts to get to the end of the story, than they do at the part that I find funny. At least I make them laugh I guess.
Maybe it's just because I find everything funny, which Jayce can attest to... I usually ended up being the only one laughing at every stupid thing he did. Maybe it's a nervous habit, but I find myself giggling at practically everything anyone says. Sometimes it's because I'm thinking in my head about what they said, or something that what they said made me think. Kinda of like what Tonya does, when she just starts cracking up, and can't stop laughing for long enough to tell us what was so funny.
I also have been dubbed an "interrupter" by LAS. I'm really bad at waiting for people to be done with their story before I jump in with whatever I'm thinking. I've decided it's a) because I know I'm not going to be able to remember what I was going to say by the end of their story because I feel like I have short-term memory lately and b) because if I don't say it, I'm just going to be thinking about it hard the whole time they're talking so I won't forget it by the time they're done. Either way, it means I'm a pretty bad listener, which is always something I thought I was good at. I'm an especially bad listener at LAS for some reason, not sure why, but I always seem to come out with the most random, occasionally awkward comments. Maybe it's because LAS is one of the only times during the week that I'm actually thinking on somewhat of a deeper level.
Thinking on a deeper level, like I should be right now, about my 8-10 page paper due Friday about "In Cold Blood" that I haven't started yet...

Inspiration

Today, I was inspired in class. You might be thinking, "Well that's not news, you're in college!" but sometimes, classes can go weeks, even semesters without leaving me with the least bit of inspiration. They sometimes even leave me feeling less inspired than when I walked in the door.
But today, I was inspired in class. I was inspired to write. Every day. To "stretch my muscles," as my teacher, Dr. Lyn Lepre said. And why shouldn't I? I love writing. Ever since Garrett asked me to dance in 4th grade, I've kept a diary. Sometimes, I'd neglect it for a week, and then have three pages of gossip to catch up on (mostly during those tumultuous Middle School years). Other times, I can go without writing for half a year, and be able to sum up that time period in a page.
Dr. Lepre suggested that starting a blog would help us to show our talent, to maybe help us get an internship, or a job. But I want to do it for myself. To give myself an outlet, and to write down what is happening in my life.
It seems that my life is flying by, (Steven can attest to this, as I often say, "Well last year at One Acts, our grade..." and he'll remind me that senior year of High School was, in fact, two years ago). Which seems insane. I've done so much in those two years, and yet if I tried to sum it up right now, I'm not exactly sure what I would write.
I guess I'd begin with the move to Marist College. I had to arrive early for band camp. My "band buddy" sucked, not helping at ALL; she even broke my lamp. It was a terrifying three days. I had to talk to people I didn't know, and wasn't even sure if I wanted to know. I had my dorm room to myself, and spent my spare time tacking pictures onto the wall of friends and family.
Then, my roommate arrived. We had chatted on instant messenger a little, and I had pre-judged her to be a slutty, ditsy, California beach-bum. Which, when I put it that way, she kind of was. Well, minus the slutty part. Actually, she's pretty smart too. And if by beach-bum, it somehow connotates a hard-working, dedicated water polo player then, well, she's that too.
My cousins teased me, role playing a potential future conversation between Kelly and I:
Amy: What sport do you play?
Kelly: Water polo. What do you play? Like, intramural volleyball or something???
Amy: Uh... actually, yeah.
The first time I saw her, I was coming back from band camp, hot, sweaty, and a little annoyed I had to take the stairs, because the elevators were jam packed with luggage and irritated parents moving in their non-band freshman into a 9 story dorm. I opened the door, and there was Kelly. She exclaimed, "Hiii!" and hugged me. From that point on, I knew everything was going to be okay.
I don't know how I lucked out so fantastically with the roommate I was assigned freshman year. Most people have horror stories; I just have hundreds of memories. Like convincing ourselves that we should write a book about how Tetris is a metaphor for life; or converting to the California time zone, which meant we were up until 2 or 3 am every morning so that she could talk to her boyfriend, Jeff, on her webcam; to sunbathing on the green; or dishing about the latest scandal with our friends from home; or chips and salsa parties on the floor with Rachel (Kelly later told me that she was ready to kill me after the first week of school because I ate chips and salsa all the time, and apparently I'm a really loud chewer...); or rearranging our room, quite haphazardly; or asking for endless advice, sharing secrets, and laughing until we cried. She was everything I could have asked for in a freshman year roommate, and more. And then she left. More on that later.
The first semester was pretty much hell for me. I liked my classes and clubs, but hated the dorm life. It was loud, and dirty, and annoying. It seemed as though all anyone did on Friday and Saturday... and Tuesday and Thursday, for that matter, nights was pre-game (loudly) in their rooms, go out to skeezy bars, get ridiculously drunk, come back to the dorm, cry (loudly) in the hallway, throw-up in the bathroom, and pass out in their beds until 1 pm the next day. That was not how I wanted to spend my time; these were not people I wanted to spend my time with.
But eventually, I found my real friends, and made some great memories. My two best decisions were making an intramural volleyball team (adding to my cousins' jokes) and joining Literary Arts Society. For volleyball, I was having difficulty figuring out how to make a team, as I knew practically no one. But knowing that, out of the 1100 students in our class, there had to be 6 people who wanted to play volleyball once a week for half an hour, I started my search. I ended up finding some pretty cool people, and through those people, met more cool people.
As for Literary Arts Society, it's where I feel at home. With them, the hours pass by so quickly, and I never seem to care that I have a paper due the next morning at 8 am, or that I really need to be packing to leave the next day. We have our meeting, and then we just stay, and rant, and laugh, and give ourselves some down time with some awesome people.
Second semester was a lot better. Spring is my favorite time here, with people playing Frisbee and sunbathing on the green, going swimming at the pool, going to the water polo games, wearing tee-shirts and capris, looking forward to summer, etc. I'm going to be so sad to miss it next year, when I'll be abroad. More on that later.
So anyway, that was freshman year. It was a roller coaster of emotions... sometimes I felt like I was stuck, upside-down, at the peak of the highest coaster in the world, other times I felt like I was free-falling, the wind in my face, smiling widely.
The summer after freshman year, I had the opportunity to go to Peru with my High School. It was the trip of a lifetime, and I'll never forget the memories from that trip (I might even list them in detail later, to make sure I won't forget them).
And now, I'm back here again, 3 and a half semesters in my belt, four and a half to go. And then life begins. But I can't think about that now. I have reading due for tomorrow, an essay due for Friday, and I just spent an hour writing. And I don't regret it at all.