Christmas!

Well, today is "Christmas Adam" as Anthony said. (The day before Christmas is Christmas Eve, so the day after Christmas must be Christmas Adam, right?)
Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the whole year. We always eat a candlelit italian dinner with the entire family, and sing Christmas carols, and then open presents. This year I got a green shirt with a bear on it that's saying "You know...sometimes I feel pretty average.." and some navy comfy pants. I also got some really good apple tea, chocolate, a $15 iTunes gift card, and some sort of decoration composed of cardboard and tape from Anthony. Also, I got an awesome card from Lisa.(that's the picture on the right) On Christmas Day we always go over to my Grandma Rumpza's house. I got some really nice earrings from my aunt Laura, and $50 as always from Grandma. Thus ends the list of Christmas Presents.

Personality.

Well, I figured out why I keep getting "Melancholic" as my result on personality tests. It is not, in fact, that I'm too phlegmatic to take a stupid test, it it because I have both and outward and inward personality. Inside of the chocolate truffle that is me, I am flavored Phlegmatic-sanguine, but I have a Melancholic outer shell. I always thought I was Phlegmatic-Melancholic, but it turns out, I am not. The Sanguine part of me is very influenced by certain other people. For example, say there is a person who I don't really like but I think they're okay. Well, someone mentions how annoying they are, and then I start noticing it, and I start thinking they're annoying. And then it gets to the point where everything they say is annoying. But I am mostly Phlegmatic. I'm not as affected by things as most people, and I barely ever get mad. But there are certain things that make me mad so easily. Actually, pretty much only one thing. Annoyingly Hyperactive people. There is a big difference between people who are hyper, and people who are hyper AND annoying. That's why I have so much trouble with Peter. He can't help it, he's got ADHD, but it annoys me to the death. So...yes. Even Phlegmatics have their personality clashes. Another part of my personality is that, though I might be sort of unaffected by most things, there are some things that I have stronger opinions on. That is me in a nutshell. Or..chocolate truffle shell. And now I feel like going to Legacy.

Medly of randomness.

Well, as a continuation of my birthday presents, I now have everything mentioned in the previous post, as well as a card from Rachael, another card from Frannie, a card from Iris, a pretty scarf, The abominable snowman chapstick, and an awesome coffee mug from Iris; Mambas (well, those are gone now), and a hat like Steph's from Frannie, and beads and some pretty embroidery from Rachael, and a picture of himself on a paper heart on a ribbon from Adam. Also, Lisa gave me a choice between two present: a hat like Steph's, or a pretty navy blue dress. I'm gonna choose the dress, because the hat looks silly on me, because it's too poofy.
In other news, I watched the Bleach movie this weekend. It was really dumb. At least it had the Japanese audio on it, because I couldn't have watched it if it was that horrible english dub. But, it was pretty much like watching the Bounto fillers, only without the Bounto part. "Oh no. Someone's going to destroy Soul Society...again. Oh, wait. Ichigo has another girlfriend. Oh, wait. She's a nobody, so once she disappears, he'll forget all about her, and thus no one will ever refer to her in the anime." So...yeah...it was dumb. The anime is way way way way way better.
Also, I (finally) watched Gladiatorfor the first time. Aside from almost falling asleep because it was late, I enjoyed it a lot, except for mr. creepy i-love-my-sister-and-i-look-like-I'm-dead, but it's not like I'm supposed to like him, anyways. (and yes, I do know what his real name is...)
I also am finally up-to-date on Heroes! Unfortunately, it is no longer super super awesome, it is only awesome, because my favorite character is dead. Stupid silly-face-ugly-man Mr. Petrelli killed Adam!!!! I literally shouted "NOOOOOOOO!" when he killed him. Basically, Mr. Petrelli only took away his powers, but, since Adam's 400 years old, and he can't heal anoymore, he turned into dust. So...yeah. At least they got in some good Adam lines before he died. Like when Hiro's trying to get Adam to tell him who stole the formula. Random question: What ever happened to the whole, "I am going to kill everyone you care about, Hiro." because he didn't seem to care anymore.
Finally, I saw Speed Racer, which is an awesome movie. The end of the Grand prix probably would have given some Japanese people seizures, though. :)
Well, next week is Thanksgiving, which is the one holiday of the year when I am NOT thankful, because I hate it. The smell of turkey makes me feel sick. The only good things about it are that we get two days off from school and John is finally coming home. YAY!

My Birthday

Happy Veteran's Day/Martin of Tours Feast Day/only day of the year with four of the same digits/End of WWI/signing of mayflower compact/Henry Wade and Abigail Adam's Birthdays (pins!)/MY Birthday!
Yup. The world revolves around my birthday. well, for presents today I got a certificate for one free swimsuit from Diviine Modestee, an awesome card from Frannie, and a book by Anthony, dedicated to me, listing a bunch of saint's names,. I love that kid. My birthday was pretty awesome this year, I guess.

Heroes!

Well, 'tis the day before my birthday. I already got one present last night, a $20 gift certificate to Barnes&Noble :)
Lately, I have started watching heroes, because Joe said I should, and I am a little over halfway through the terrible twos (meaning season 2 that everybody hated, but other than the ultimate stupidity produced by having Bob, Mohinder, and Matt all in the same room, it's not so bad.) I do like season two because it has Adam in it, and he is definetly my favorite character! Yay for the englishman!
I was all disappointed when Hiro leaves ancient Japan, because then Takezo Kensei is gone (I knew he wasn't dead though) But then he comes in and he's all like, "Peter, we're gonna change the future." and I said "YAY! HE'S BACK!"
My second favorite character is Hiro, cuz he's silly. Joe's favorite character is Syler, but I think he's annoying,and his eyebrows are weird, so...
My least favorite character is Mohinder Suresh, because he doesn't do anything, he doesn't have any powers, but half the show still revolves around him (and he doesn't even have a cool Indian accent) and also Bob, because he is the most horrible actor I have ever seen, Matt Parkman, because he's annoying, and Maya, because she's really whiny. Oh, also West. I hate him, too. He's really annoying (he's played by the person who plays Hunter in the Office)

Chicago: Day 2

Well, day 1 ended with a karaoke pizza party (yay!) where I had really good rootbeer. (the kind that comes in a beer bottle, only it's not quite as good as on tap)
Day 2, we went to Mitsuwa, and I had real ramen, and it had some naruto in it, which didn't really taste like anything. Then we went to the grocery section, where I got Japanese Melon pop, and waffely Ice cream treats. Then, we went to the bookstore part, and I got the book "No, David!" in Japanese, which is super awesome. Then we rented The Neverending Story from Blockbuster and watched it while eating Jimmy John's. The next day, we got up at 5:30, ran to the bus stop because it was already there, and spent another long boring trip back on Megabus. There was this movie playing in the bus about this woman whose Muslim husband wanted to visit his family in Iran, and she went with him, but he wouldn't let her go back home, and finally she escaped with her daughter. I kept thinking , "Oh hey, that part's like Blink." :)

Chicago: Day 1

Well, yesterday, I hopped on Megabus at 4:00 PM with my brother Joe and we went to Chicago to visit Steph. We didn't get there until 12:30 AM, and then we crashed at her apartment. I slept in till 10 and then we went to Chinatown with Lisa and Nathan. Steph bought me a really cute monkey bowl as an early birthday present (pix later). And I bought one of those cool Chinese spoons that look like they're from outer space! When we got back, we watched the new Office episode. Then, Stephanie, Lisa, and I played dressup (yay). (pix later) Basically, we just took pictures in random outfits. I've been wearing Steph's pipe-smoking hat the whole day so far, because I think it looks really cute. We ate lunch in Chinatown, where I discovered that I actually do like Chinese food very much. It was super good :)
Pizza'a coming soon, so I gotta go. More tomorrow!

Ode to Grammar

'Twas noon and all the scrumptious loaves
Were eaten, not a crumb to save,
We went up to the grammar cove
In a great big 8th grade wave

"Beware Lit/Comp, though it is fun,
And mistakes that you must catch
Remember your gerunds, be sure to run
From games of mix and match!"

We took our grammar swords in hand,
Long time our fearsome foes we fought
Then rested we in our little band,
And chatted quite a lot

And is we sat in the neighborhood,
The grammar king, who has no name,
Came running as fast as he could,
His grammar sword aflame

1-2-1-2 and through and through,
Our grammar swords went snicker-snack
We left him, blue, defeated, too
And triumphantly went back

"The grammar king is gone? Well, Hey!
We're free of grammar, boy, oh boy!
Oh frabjous day, calloh callay!"
We chortled in our joy

'Twas noon and all the scrumptious loaves
Were eaten, not a crumb to save,
We went up to the grammar cove
In a great big 8th grade wave



This is sort of hard to get if you don't know about my 8th grade lit/comp class. I wrote this spin-off poem for Mrs. Bassett, and, in case you didn't notice, it's just like the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carrol. The "Grammar king", by the way, is Mr. Baulsbaugh. (if I'm spelling that right)

If I had a billion dollars....

The million..or billlion...dollar question...
What Mary would do with a billion dollars?
-Send Iris through high school at Trinity, and all her siblings, too.
-Get voice lessons from Dr. J.
-Get my family out of all financial trouble.
-Get everyone in my family out of debt (especially Stephanie, so she won't have to be so stingy with money :D)
-Pay everyone in my family through college, and Nathan through Grad school.
-Buy Spore.
-Get a Mac with a terrabyte of space :)
-Give a million to Rachael, Frannie, and Iris.
-Stimulate the economy (yay!)
-Get a TV and a karaoke machine.
-iPhone.
-Get 3 movies from netflix instead of 2.
-go into a store and buy everything there. (cuz seriously, that would be fun.)
-Get some new clothes.
-Buy a time machine, go invest in Google, come back, be trillions of dollars richer, and then buy out Microsoft and give it to Apple.
-set aside a couple million for my kids.
-give the rest to dad so he won't have to work and get all stressed.

Finally! A New Post! :O

Well...I suppose I should tell you about all my teachers, now that I've had time to observe them.
Ms. Shmitz: She's nice, I guess, but she makes us write a lot of notes.
Ms. Pentozzi: Also nice. And she ALWAYS says, "Does that..make sense?"
Mrs. Singleton: She's also nice. And she gives us candy when we play games :D
Mrs. Berg: Okay. She sounds like Jan from The Office. I keep waiting for there to be someone in our history book named Michael. (oh, yeah. She's also nice. :) )

This concludes my extra short post, but I shall hopefully post something else after I go to the Nativity County Fair.

Song of the Day!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkpgd851dm4

Yay! more boring stuff!

I am going to try for a MORE DETAILED MOVIE REVIEW!!!! *gasp*
ahem...
Mr. Deeds:
A few random parts were funny, like the Monopoly guy, but other than that, I mean, it was Adam Sandler, so...
and Winona Ryder? go back to Little Women where you belong! gah!
and then that old guy with the pipe annoyed the crap outta me, same with That creepy guy who likes Winona, and the bad guy with the ugly beard. l Overall, a dumb movie that I will probly never watch again. And it had the dumb guy from transformers!!! "I am asking...politely..back off." you know, that guy. I hate him!!!!!!!

Life is Beautiful:
gah! I want to learn Italian! It's so pretty! I didn't really think the end was that sad, I mean, yeah, he gets shot, but it's sorta anti-climatic. like, "eh. There he goes. whatever." Joshua was so cute! I want a little boy like that someday, Italian speaking and all! xD

I have sadly neglected this blog.

I'm sorry, blog, but nothing's really been going on. I mean, school's started, but most of my classes are just boring.....
Thus I shall do a few movie reviews of recent Netflix/Blockbusters I have seen:

Princess Mononoke: Overall, pretty good. I don't see why some people think it's te best movie ever, but whatever. Totoro can't be beaten, sorry.

The Devil Wears Prada- I finally saw it. It was pretty good. All the time I was watching it I kept thinking of Michael going "Coat!" and "Steaaaaakkkk! I need Steeeeaaaaaakkk!"

The Transporter: We got this one from blockbuster because it was a Blu-Ray, and John just got a PS3. It was okay, I guess. The bad guy looked a lot like my cousin Aaron....

Porco Rosso- It was okay, but I didn't like the ending, and why didn't they ever tell you how he became a pig? Other than that, just the fact that it was about an Italian pig who flies an airplane made it pretty sweet. The ending was really really disappointing though. (don't take it from me, though, because I used to think the ending of Castaway was dumb cuz you never got to see what was in the package...)

so...yes. Boring movie reviews by Mary. Joy.

Haven't posted in a long time, so.....

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Mary who forgot to post on her blog for a long time, because she didn't really have anything to say. So, I have a message from her to you. It says, "Nothing much has been happening. I saw Penelope the other day. I liked it. Also, I bought a Japanese tea set for $17, complete with a little teapot and four matching cups, (The cool Japanese kinds without handles.) so drinking tea just became way more fun. Other than that, nothing is going on.
Sincerely,
Mary"

A Shooting Star Miracle.

Yesterday, I was sitting with John on the roof (you can get there by climbing out his window) and John was smoking a cigar. We talked about falling stars. John told me he's seen lots at college (he goes to Benedictine in Kansas, so it's like, out in the country.) but, as he said, you never see them in the city. There were about 20 stars out in the middle of Saint Paul, at around 11:30 yesterday. Well, I started thinking about this book I'm reading called Captivating, and it talked about how God shows his love for us through beautiful sunsets, starry nights, and other beautiful works of nature. For example, one of the writers of the book was sitting on the beach near the sea, with no one else around, and a huge whale came impossibly close and spouted a huge spray of water from his blowhole. He knew that it was a sign from God just to him, because no one else saw it. His wife was sitting by herself by the sea one day, and she asked God to send her a whale. He didn't send her a whale, but as she was walking along the beach she saw a brightly colored starfish. As she rounded a corner, she saw the ground completely covered with all sorts of delicate starfish, and she knew that that was God's gift to her. So, right then and there, up on the roof, I asked him to show me how much he loved me. I suggested maybe sending a shooting star, since I'd never seen one. Five minutes later, I looked at the sky and and said, "Look!" A gigantic star came shooting right over us, bigger than any John had seen in the country (the star itself was a little smaller than a dime, plus it had a super long tail) and one of the longest shooting stars he'd seen (most last less than a second, but this one was 2-3 seconds long.) It was breathtaking. It was a miracle.

Life is like a River.

Well...I have said I'm a terrible poet, but now I realize it's because I'm more of a story writer. When I'm drifting off to sleep, I always think of stories, making them up as I go, and when I have a dream, when I wake up, I always imagine the rest of it. Well, yesterday, Rachael gave me the idea of life is like a river, and in less than five minutes, I wrote this. (I didn't edit it at all, just so you know)
Life is a river, with all its twists and turns, and we are all little tiny leaves, lost in the current, swept away by rapids till we can calmly float through still waters again. And, though the current tries and tries again the push us under, we manage to stay adrift. We are held up by a stray twig or log until we reach safety. There is no knowing where the river ends, or where it meets the sea, but once we're there we'll know that our whole lives were about getting there--to the vast ocean where we belong. And although a few of us may be washed ashore by the relentless waves of the river, we all hope and pray that we'll make it through, that we'll reach the ocean.

Then I decided I didn't like the imagery, so I tried again:

Life is a river, with all its twists and turns, and we are all lost in the current, swept away by rapids till we can calmly float through still waters again. And though, along the way, dirt ad leaves clog the water, trying to bring us down, we manage to stay adrift, and the waves wash us along to safety. There is no knowing where the river ends, or where it meets the sea, but once we're there, we'll know that our whole lives were about getting there--to the vast ocean where we belong. And although a few of us may be washed ashore, dragged down by dirt and debris, we all hope and pray that we'll make it through, that we'll reach the ocean.

Rant!

ok. I'm mad. apparently, Dr. J has decided that Chamber singers is only for 12th grade. As soon as school starts again, I'm so going to talk to him about that. I mean, I've waited since before 7th grade to finally be in a choir where everyone can actually carry a tune, because in choirs you don't try out for, there's always one or two people that can't, and they make the whole choir sound like crap. If he limits Chamber singers to 12th grade, then pretty much whoever wants to can get in. And there goes Mary's hope of someday getting into a good choir....
Joe says that he probly won't keep it that way, since a lot of people will be mad, he also says that since I'm a good singer (relatively, you know. And, I mean, I can carry a tune cuz I'm a Rumpza)
and I don't get into trouble all the time, Dr. J will like me, and, thus, I can tell him that I hate his idea and he might listen. *sigh* Well, maybe I can still be in a musical someday.

A buncha random things! Yay!

So, I just finished the book Thr3e by Ted Dekker. It was really...weird. I mean, it's like this guy being threatened by this killer to confess his sins, and at the end it turns out it's all one person who was multiple personalities. Of course, I don't think it's much weirder than some of Ted Dekker's other books. Showdown was by far the weirdest, I think. I didn't really like it.(oh, and since Lisa and Nathan are moving, they apparently had it, so I now own a copy of the one Ted Dekker book I'm least likely to read again)
So there, Stephanie (Bowar). I've officially read every single Ted Dekker book that he has not co-written with Frank Peretti and whoever else.And you stil need to read the Circle Trilogy.
Also, Stephanie (Rumpza this time) put the movie Stardust on our Netflix, cuz she wanted me to watch it, and that is a very good movie, even if Yvaine was played by the same person who starred in that really dumb math movie I watched with Steph called proof. (Steph watched it simply because it was filmed on the U of C campus, and she'd just graduated and wanted to see i it again, because she'd seen it on orientation on her first year of U of C.)
Word of advice from Mary: Never watch it. It was SO dumb. and the ending was stupid too. Plus, it was about Math, and, if you didn't know already, I HATE math.

The Dark Knight!!!!

yay!!! I saw it today!!! And man, Joker is soooo creepy! Heath Ledger did an AMAZING job! His goal was basically to make everyone kill each other. And the magic trick at the beginning was awesome. He walked into a room full of people, and they said something like, "Why should we hire you?" and then he said, "How about a magic trick? I'm going to make this pencil disappear." He slammed a pencil into the table so that it was upright, and then he took the nearest guy and slammed his face into the pencil, and said, "Ta Da!" So It was a super cool movie, but it was also depressing. And they used a different actress to play Rachel Dawes! That really made me mad. It was the girl from Stranger Than Fiction (good movie, even if it does have Will Ferrel in it) I liked the old Rachel better :(
And Scarecrow was there at the start, but thankfully he wasn't in the rest of the movie (he's so ugly, it really annoys me. His cheekbones stick out and his eyes are really creepy) It also really annoyed me how the joker kept licking his lips. It was really creepy.
Overall, I would say it was a good movie. It was a little too depressing, but "The night is darkest just before the dawn."

Interesting experience for Mer-Mer today.

Well, it was really hot today. As usual, I didn't really drink anything. At 5:00, I went to church. When we got there, I felt really weak for a second, but the feeling passed, so I didn't really care. At the end of Mass, we said a prayer. In the middle, I started to feel out of breath. I thought it was my imagination, so I tried to take a few deep breaths. When we stood up for the end, My vision clouded and I saw mostly black, and I felt really dizzy. I covered my eyes and sat down. I think I dreampt, but I can't remember what it was about. When I woke up, I couldn't remember what happened for a second. My mom was asking me if I was okay, and someone else went to get me some water. Barely any time had passed. I suddenly remembered what happened. Then, I drank some water and went home. It was only the second time I've ever fainted in my life. The first time was when I was in first grade, I cut my thumb with a scissors, and I went to the nurses office. I basically walked in, then woke up on the floor with the principal standing over me. I must've fainted because of the blood or something.

11 things you (maybe) didn't know about Mary

1. In a smiling contest (whoever smiles first loses), I will almost always lose.
2. My favorite types of movies are romance, comedy, and action.
3. I am not completely obsessed with LotR, and neither is my sister Stephanie (she's really more obsessed with philosophy, especially Jean Luc Marion, who teaches at U of C sometimes. She's dropped the Lord of the Rings phase mostly)
4. I am absolutely obsessed with The Office, anime (BLEACH!), and computer!
5. I almost never play WoW, ad I'll probably cancel my account until the Wrath of the Lich King comes out (that's the new expansion pack)
6. If you give me too much sugar, I will turn into my sister Lisa (meaning, I will be extremely hyper)
7. I love music, and I want to write a song but , as of yet, I have no lyrics (and I'm a terrible poet)
8. I get all A's with not very much effort, and I have zero motivation. Also, I can memorize things super easily.
9. I love dressing up.
10. When I was little (less than 5) I wanted to be a mom when I grew up (still do, actually :P)
11. since I was born on 11/11/93, 11 is my favorite number :)

Is the glass half empty? Or half full?

You know, everyone always thinks I'm a pessimist who hates everything. Maybe I'm just morbid. The way I see it, the glass is half empty and half full. I don't really care which, but I usually say the glass is half full. Although, I really want this one mug I saw called The Pessimist's mug that has a mark halfway and says, "This Glass is now half empty"
Anyways, just to prove I don't hate everything, I shall list some things I like...
Mary likes:
chocolate
candy
root beer (especially on tap)
anime
BLEACH
the wind (favorite element)
swimming
SINGING! (I think I'd die without it)
reading
drawing
watching movies
playing board games
being with my whole family
being around John and Joe
teasing Steph about Ian Skemp (I'll tell you about that one later....)
the office
strawberries
ice cream
Arts&crafts
God <---so obvious I forgot
Mary
my friends
giving people gifts
getting gifts
cute clothes
computer
the internet
cherry trees
most things Japanese
my drawing tablet
my iPod video
music
christmas carols (we always sing them as a family)
Kitties!
DDR
Soul Calibur 3
Warcraft
making Music videos
romance!
Tea garden/bubble tea
shakes
froozies
smoothies
Legacy
Izzy's
the library
beads
awesomely nerdy stuff
Awesome stuff
paper lanterns
air conditioners
big warm fuzzy blankets
spiderman
cameras
babies
toddlers
little kids
good jokes
Sammy, David, Grace, Maeve, Brennan, Shaun (kids my mom watches)
Tillie Page
triceratops
singing
pandas
Buca di Beppo
Teddy Bears
Polar Bears
manga
Guitar
jewelry
earrings
My Pikachu sweatshirt
whales
nice cars
Jazz (from Transformers)
pictures
Klondikes
swing dancing
weddings
wine coolers
irish cream cake
cheesecake
birthdays
Snuffy's
pizza
Cloverfield
You've Got Mail
Ratatouille
Meets the Robinsons
Enchanted
fairytales
books by Ted Dekker
books by Regina Doman
books by Shannon Hale
singing
Batman
veggie tales
The Simpsons
The Onion News Network
And many more I can't think of off the top of my head....

Dislikes....
dogs
the devil
talking to old people
freckles
preppy girls
veggies
puns
dumb jokes
innappropriate humor
people asking too many questions
people in my family hearing me singing.
lies
Harry Potter (except for Frannie's dad. he's cool.)
Nicholas Cage
Britney Spears
Hannah Montana
High School Musical
when people dislike me
being left out
immature kids
and some more I can't think of I'm sure...

wow. A lot more likes than dislikes. Gonna call me a pessimist now? huh? Yeah, I didn't think so....

Wall-E

I went to see Wall-E yesterday for the fourth of July. it was good, but don't believe anyone when they tell you it's the best Pixar movie so far. It didn't even come close to the Incredibles, amd it wasn't funny. At all. But it was very cute.
Also, at about 11:00 PM, Joe, Peter, and I decided to set off Joe's firework that he got a really long time ago, so we did. Then we felt really bad for the neighbors, because it was way too loud. oh well. Viva la shorta posta!

More about Meh.

I am very strange. I almost have a split personality. At home, I'm a quiet, blah sort of person, but when I'm with someone like Iris, Rachael, or Lisa, someone really energetic, I'm a lot more talkative (this is also true with just my friends in general) Contrary (Please...nobody start asking me how my garden grows....) to my personality, I am a hopeless romantic. I love chick flicks and cheesy songs (my favorites are always the sad ones). I Love anime, especially anime with romance in them! Bleach, for example, is the best anime ever. It has tons of action and an awesome plot, though some people find it confusing, I don't. Basically it's about a guy named Ichigo Kurosaki who meets a death god (shinigami. What they basically do is kill the evil spirits, or hollows, and send the good spirits to soul society. Ichigo is able to see ghosts and shinigami.)
and, when a hollow attacks his house, this shinigami, Rukia Kuchiki, attempts to kill it, but Ichigo gets in the way, and Rukia is badly wounded. She gives Ichigo her shinigami powers so that he can save his family, but unfortunately, this is a terrible crime for a shinigami. She is sentenced to death in Soul Society, and so Ichigo and some friends (Orihime Inoue, Sado (Chad) Yasutora, and Uryuu Ishida) go to rescue her. They succeed, but then find out that Aizen, a very powerful shinigami, has betrayed Soul Society and plans to launch an attack. After they get back to earth, Orihime Inoue is kidnapped by Aizen, and given one day to say goodbye to one person. At the beginning of Bleach, Orihime is a very happy-go-lucky type of person, but later on reveals she may have feelings for Ichigo and has a more in depth character. Anyways, Orihime chooses to say goodbye to Ichigo, although he was asleep when she said goodbye. And it was then that she told him she loved him.(he was still sleeping)
Once Ichigo found out she was missing, he went to get her back with Sado and Uryuu, and Rukia and another shinigami, Renji, joined them. So yes...that's where the storyline is currently. But Bleach is awesome because it has a good plot, good character developement, romance (yay!) and action. So..this post ended up being less about me and more about my favorite anime, but who cares?

Cabin

The reason I haven't posted in a while (as some of you already know) was that I was at a friend's cabin with my family, and they had no internet (I have no idea how I survived, but I did :P)
So...yeah. I played Monopoly with John, Joe, Steph, Lisa, Tommy, and Peter. Joe and I formed an alliance and helped each other get monopolys, and when Steph left the game she gave us all her money and made us promise to end our alliance. We did, but then we made a new one 5 seconds later :)
Joe, John, Steph, Lisa, and Nathan smoked cigars, and I got to drink lots of wine coolers :D
I also learned to play poker, and I beat John, Nathan, Steph, and Joe. Stephanie, Lisa, and I went horseback riding. We got to canter right through a stream, which was really cool and it felt a lot like a movie, then my horse randomly started cantering really fast and I almost lost the reins. But yeah, it was fun. We went to lake Itasca, and I walked across the Mississippi. Anthony earned a new nickname--"The Heat"--and he beat Joe 3 times playing Ping Pong (and Joe was trying, too) The Heat has dark eyes that have a certain quality about them that make him look Mexican, so Joe and John kept making jokes about it, like if someone asked where Anthony went, Joe would say, "Oh, he went South of the Border."

Buca

I Love Buca. It's the best Italian restaurant ever! Well, yesterday, we went to celebrate my parent's 25th aniversary, Stephanie's graduation, and the end of the school year. My dad told John, who is only 20, that he could take a few sips of wine. In the end, it added up to about a glass of wine, and John, having absolutely no tolerance, was pretty buzzed. He was talking about how everything looked about 10 feet away from him. So Joe and I started singing "What do you do with a drunken Sailor" and tried to remember as many verses as we could, including "Put him in a longboat till he's sober", "Shave his belly with a rusty razor", and "Put him to sleep with the captain's daughter" (note: the captain's daughter was a nine-tailed whip, not a person.) So, after we had lots of fun there, we went home and John, Steph, and Nathan smoked cigars while Peter, Lisa, and I played Egyptian Rats. Then Steph, Jonh, Peter, and I went to McDonalds to buy $1 sundaes. on the way, we sang Bohemian rhapsody with all the harmonies, and when we were waiting at the window for our ice cream, we were blasting the Pokemon theme. Then I watched this movie called Proof with Stephanie. Don't ever watch it, it's about math. She wanted to watch it because it was filmed at the University of Chicago, where she went to college, and it was a really nerdy movie, just like that college. And it was really weird, but the worst part was the ending, it was like, "Hey--what? it's over? But...what happens?"
Oh yeah and Stephanie bought this awesome song nd gave it to me, too. It's a little weird, but also really cool. I think it's Russian and English, but I'm not sure. This is the first part of the song (with a Bleach Music Video!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlJHh5zCRWs

Photoshop

I haven't posted in forever, so I'm doing two posts today :)

Anyways....

Photoshop is awesome.  Macs are also awesome, and those who try to disagree obviously have never used a Mac in their life.  Anyways, I am currently working on a certain vector art, which, by the way, takes forever!  And for those who don't know, which is probably everyone reading this, vector art is something you can do on photoshop that allows you to trace along the lines of a picture.  It takes forever!  There are three people in said picture, and so far, I haven't even finished outlining one, and the only color I have put in is her eyes.  blegh....I wish it would go faster.  But I also have my handy dandy drawing tablet, and that really helps.  No more of this drawing with my mouse crap.  

So, my parents are at my sister Stephanie's graduation in Chicago, and Lisa (Mrs. Lunsford) and her husband, Nathan, are watching us.  (and for those who don't know, although I'm fairly certain everyone does, Mrs. Lunsford is my oldest sister)  

Anyways, she dragged me off to a park yesterday while I wanted to read,  in order to play tennis, which I absolutely failed at, and Joe kept making fun of me....

and then we played Sand Monster on the playground.  And then we went home (finally) and I ate berries and cream, and finished my book.  :)

also, for anyone who wonders why I never post on this blog, here is my reason:

Mary's day:

Mary woke up at about 11:00 AM.  "Dang.  Look's like it's lunch time." she told herself, after putting in her contacts. (her eyes are really bad, one of then is 20/600, and the other isn't much better) She brushed her long hair and went downstairs.  She picked out a can of Cambell's chicken noodle soup, and, after heating it up, poured it into a giant cup and sat down to eat it with a giant spoon, while reading the daily comics.  He favorites were Bizarro and Rhymes with Orange.  after she finished lunch, she did her daily chore of sweeping the dining room, then went upstairs.  In the attic, she settled down to playing computer.  Her favorite game was WoW (World of Warcraft) and, because she was sick of her level 70 character, she was working on a new Tauren Shammy.  After an hour or two, she stopped and decided to go read for a while.  If she had a good books, she would be reading in her room for a few hours.  If not, then she would either go back on the computer or go downstairs and vainly search for something to do.  After she ate supper with her family, Mary would somehow waste her time until 10:00 PM, when she would either go to bed, read, or watch her brothers play computer and listen to them talking (they could make quite the comic duo).  Before she hit the sack, she went downstairs and brushed her teeth, taking her retainers out and brushing them also, although it was impossible to get them 100% clean, and he had stopped trying.  Then she went upstairs, read a chapter from The Imitation of Mary, a book her sister Stephanie had given her for her confirmation, took her contacts out, and went to sleep.  Her day had been fine.  Not good, not bad, just fine.  Just like always.

The Midnight Dancers

So, I just got the fourth book in the fairy tale series by Regina Doman (more info at www.fairytalenovels.com) Basically, they're all modern retellings of fairy tales. The first one, The Shadow of the Bear, is a retelling of Snow White and Rose Red, which almost no one escept me has ever read :P
The second one, Black as Night, is a retelling of Snow White, and the third, Waking Rose, is a reltelling of Sleeping Beauty.
All these books are about the same people. The first three are about Rose and Blanche Briar, who live in New York with their mom, and the fourth, a retelling of the twelve dancing princesses, is about Rose's friend from college, whose name is Paul. These are awesome books, I highly recommend them, especially if you like fairy tales. They're also Catholic, which is awesome. Anyways, so yesterday I started and finished the fourth one. There's a summary on the website I linked before, so I won't bother explaining it, but it's really awesome! :3

Haven't posted in a long time, so.....

Well, it's summer, nothing much is happening, which is why I haven't posted for a while. Yesterday, I watched Cloverfield for the first time. People reading this may not know this, but I LOVE chick flicks (doesn't seem to fit my personality, does it?) and romantic movies :)
But I didn't like Cloverfield. The ending was to unsatisfying. You don't even know whether they lived or not! I'm inclined to think that they did, since the camera survived, but they never tell you, and it really bothers me! Gragh!!!! For those who haven't seen Cloverfield, it's a movie from the point of view of a civilian in a city being attacked by a giant monster. It's a group of 6 people, and one guy has a camera, and he's filming as they attempt to escape, and save their friend, who is stuck in her apartment. Eventually, everyone dies of various causes except two people. Wait, actually 3, because one of them makes it out safely (at least I think so) and we don't know about the other two, which really bothers me. Another thing that really bothers me is Marlene, a grl who gets bitten by a giant spider-thing that came from the huge monster. She has a huge bite mark on her back that's all purple and gooey, and she just says, "I'm fine." If it were me, I'd be running around screaming, "I'VE BEEN BITTEN! SOMEONE HELP ME!!! IT'S PROBABLY POISONOUS!!!!" but she didn't. And then, when blood started coming out of her mouth and her eyes, she just says, "I don't feel good...." A which point someone notices she's been bitten, and they put her in a quarantine tent in which her stomach explodes. Gahh! that was so annoying. But actually, I liked the movie, it was just annoying at some parts.
So...yes...Mary's rant about Cloverfield.

I also saw Iron Man. I like that movie, it's awesome. I dunno what my favorite part was, though. *starts humming the theme song*

Orals

Wow. I am so lucky. Last year, I got Mrs. Soriano, and my oral lasted 10 minutes. This year, I was freaked out over that one really hard Medieval History question about the eras of the Medieval period. Well, I got there, and found out my teacher was Mrs. Salmon. Talk about luck. She skipped the Medieval History part because she had me for Medieval History, so she already knew what I knew about it. I can't believe I got awesome teachers two years in a row. Before my oral, I was praying, "O please god. Let me get Mrs. Salmon." I actually did pray that....
wow. That was an awesome oral.
:)

Kids

Kids are the cutest things ever. Since I haven't given much background about myself, I will start now. First of all, I have 7 brothers and sisters (8 if you count Nathan):
Nathan Alan (24): Technically, he's not really my brother, he's my brother-in-law, but whatever. I don't know that much about him. He's got dark hair and a beard and blue eyes. He's about a foot taller than Lisa, and he's pretty funny.
Elizabeth Anne (Lisa for short) (24): Really hyper and crazy. She has brown straight hair and brown eyes. She's always coming over and saying, "Hey, Mary! Let's go do something!!!! So you wanna come read while I sew!!!!" and other stuff like that.
Stephanie Louise (Steph) (22): Dark hair and brown eyes, Steph is a nerd. She goes to the University of Chicago. She is obsessed with the Lord of the Rings (not as much as she used to be).
John Michael (20): Light brown hair, blue eyes, remnant of a goatee. He is very funny, especially paired with Joe. He also makes songs and beats.

Joseph Mark (Joe) (16): Brown hair, brown eyes, super funny, although he's shy at school. Joe's awesome :)

Peter Dominic (12): brown eyes, brown hair, ADHD. He can be really annoying, but also funny.

Thomas Clyde (Tommy) (9): blond hair, blue eyes, loves football.

Anthony James (AJ) (6): The amazing kid! This kid can do DDR on Heavy mode, plus, he is super smart and good at sports. When he was 1 1/2 he knocked Lisa over. I taught him how to do multiplication just by telling him what it was, and he can also solve the problem x+-5=-8

My mom does Day Care, and these are the little kids she watches:

Grace Green: I think shes about 3. She has long light brown hair and huge brown eyes. She is soooo cute! sometimes, when she's in a good mood, I'll come home and she'll just say, "Mary!" and run up and hug me.

Sammy Spanier: ok, he's about 2. Blond hair and blue eyes, a little chubby. He is super energetic all the time, and is known to start jumping around and shouting, "It's a big airplane! Airplane!" everytime he hears one go overhead. He also loves cars, and whenever he sees a bus go past, he'll shout, "Bus! School Bus! City bus!!!"

David (don't know his last name): 1, I think. He has dark hair and huge dark eyes. He is super chubby, which makes him even more cute. He can't say much, but he can say "Hello." and sometimes, he's say touchdown, which sounds more like, "Taa Daa!"

Once, Grace and Sammy (his mom is from Wisconsin, i think)had an argument. Sammy said, "Go Packers!" and grace said, "No! Go Vikings!" which kept on for about a minute....
I love kids.

Storms and Such

Well, I remembered why I have so few crosses to carry---I'm too phlegmatic. For example, about a day after my last post, I didn't really care much about not getting lessons from Mr. Jorlett. I can't stay upset for long, which is really great, although it makes it almost too easy to carry crosses with joy :P
Today I went over to my Grandma's house. I was expecting it to be really boring, as most visits are, but instead, it was AMAZING! She lives out in the country, and when the storm passed through, we had the garage door open, and we looked out, and I got to see clouds being formed into funnels. They were amazing! half the clouds in the sky were going one way, the other clouds were going the opposite direction, towards them. Then the hail fell. My little brother Anthony found a golf ball sized hail. And when we got a tornado warning, all the kids went down to the basement, and I comforted the little kids who were scared. My cousin Johnny was freaking out, saying that he was scared, what if the cloud touched down, and I had to tell him at least five times that funnel clouds don't touch down that often, and that even if it did, we'd be fine. But yeah, it was the best visit to my grandma's ever. I love storms.

Carrying Crosses with Joy

Well, I found out that lessons from Mr. Jorlett cost $30 for half an hour. Not surprising, considering he's world class. But $30 is too expensive for my family, so I can't have lessons from him. I haven't had many disappointments in my life, I'm generally not very sad ever, but this was a big disappointment. I mean, this is probably the only chance I'll ever get in my life to take lessons from a world class director. It's already amazing that he came to Trinity, but it would have been so cool if I could take voice lessons from him. I read a chapter each night of a book Stephanie (my sister) gave me for my confirmation called "The Imitation of Mary". I few nights ago, the chapter talked about carrying your crosses with joy, because, how can you hate something that God has sent? How can you say, "God, take this cross off my shoulders and don't send me anymore troubles." We should love our crosses that God sends us, which is really hard to do sometimes. Not getting voice lessons from Dr. J is one of my crosses. It is small, compared to many crosses other people have to bear, but I want to really try to carry it with joy. I'm never very joyful to begin with, I am a bit of a pessimist, so it's not going to be easy. I think that carrying a cross with joy is a cross in itself, because what I want to do is moan and complain and feel sorry for myself. But I have decided to at least try.

I'm trying my best to remember to post once a day :)

I have zero motivation. So it's pretty surprising that I've kept this up this long. Last summer, I said, "I'm gonna learn hiragana this summer! (hiragana is part of the japanese alphabet). Well, I started learning it.....
But after I learned the first five lines (Japanese cpnsonants are always paired with vowels, so hiragana starts off with A, I, U, E, O, then Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko, then Sa, Shi, Su, Se, So....etc)
then I quit. I didn't want to quit, I just never got around to learning the rest. Yes, Mary is lazy and completely unmotivated. The only thing that motivates me is a sense of duty. I have to clean my room and do my chore and do my homework, so I do it, even if it is somewhat sloppy. So, I told myself again "This summer I WILL learn hiragana." I wonder if I ever actually will......I hope so, but you never know...
Also, I'm going to take voice lessons. It would be awesome if I could take them from Dr. J (he's world class, so it's not like I could find anyone better) but he lives far away. I've heard he teaches at Trinity though. Is this true??? If so, then I really want to take lessons from him. But if he doesn't, I'm taking lessons from a Trinity graduate, who also taught Iris violin, and who judged the Bach competition this year. I've never taken voice lessons in my life, so it will be interesting. Sometimes, I wonder how a person knows when their voice has changed. Because I know that it's bad for your voice to use vibrato when it hasn't changed yet...
Sometimes, when I sing, I notice a little vibrato, and then I worry if it's bad, or if my voice has already changed? My brother says my voice has probably already changed, because girls mature faster than boys, and boys' voices change in 9th or 10th grade....
I dunno...

another post :O

Ok, so, we had a "Poetry Cafe" in Lit/Comp, and we had candy. Man, I LOVE watching what happens to me when I get sugar. So, Iris started to bounce her pencil case into the air with her books and I sad, "What, are you trying to be a pancake lady?" Then she said, "No, it's a flapjack." in a southern accent, "with soda."
So I started doing it too.....
Oh yes, by the way, for anyone who wonders (not that anyone actually reads this anyways, it's probably really boring) The poem I did for the cafe was Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, by Roald Dahl:
As soon as Wolf began to feel
That he would like a decent meal,
He went and knocked on Grandma's door.
When Grandma opened it, she saw
The sharp white teeth, the horrid grin,
And Wolfie said, ``May I come in?''
Poor Grandmamma was terrified,
``He's going to eat me up!'' she cried.

And she was absolutely right.
He ate her up in one big bite.
But Grandmamma was small and tough,
And Wolfie wailed, ``That's not enough!
I haven't yet begun to feel
That I have had a decent meal!''
He ran around the kitchen yelping,
``I've got to have a second helping!''
Then added with a frightful leer,
``I'm therefore going to wait right here
Till Little Miss Red Riding Hood
Comes home from walking in the wood.''
He quickly put on Grandma's clothes,
(Of course he hadn't eaten those).
He dressed himself in coat and hat.
He put on shoes, and after that
He even brushed and curled his hair,
Then sat himself in Grandma's chair.
In came the little girl in red.
She stopped. She stared. And then she said,

``What great big ears you have, Grandma.''
``All the better to hear you with,'' the Wolf replied.
``What great big eyes you have, Grandma.''
said Little Red Riding Hood.
``All the better to see you with,'' the Wolf replied.

He sat there watching her and smiled.
He thought, I'm going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma
She's going to taste like caviar.

Then Little Red Riding Hood said, ``But Grandma,
what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.''

``That's wrong!'' cried Wolf. ``Have you forgot
To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
Ah well, no matter what you say,
I'm going to eat you anyway.''
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
A few weeks later, in the wood,
I came across Miss Riding Hood.
But what a change! No cloak of red,
No silly hood upon her head.
She said, ``Hello, and do please note
My lovely furry wolfskin coat.

Ok, two posts, same day. Probably never happening again.

Well, I went to my HGRA game tonight. I found out I'm the color green and our team s South Korea. Two people on my team, Maddie and Anna, both go to Highland, where Iris is going next year. Apparently, they hate private schools because private schools aren't as 'exciting'.
Wow. That really surprised me. They wanted to be in a public school with druggies and smokers and kids who drink? Apparently, it's 'interesting' how the boys fight all the time. I was thinking to myself, "Man, if you really think public schools are better, than you're missing out majorly."
They asked me, "Oh, you have to wear uniforms? And is your school all religious and stuff." I wanted to say, "Yes we wear uniforms, and they're better than no uniforms, because Idon't have to have an anxiety attack about what I'm going to wear in the morning (not that I really would anyway, but that's really not the point) and as for religious, /i like having religion at school, whereas in public schools, you can't talk about Christianity or Catholicism, because not everyone is a Christian, and I like the 'religious' part of Trinity." but I didn't say that. I just said, "Yeah, we have to wear uniforms." I really feel sorry for public school kids. Public schools must be like...Nativity on steroids *shudders* ugh...I'd die after a week in a public school....
Thank God for Private schools :)

Hello

This is the first, and probably last post I'll ever write on this blog, because I'll forget, or I'll have nothing to say. I know they'll probably be super short, but oh well. Today was the last Tuesday of the school year. I can't believe that in three days I'll be in high school! I don't really want the school year to end yet, though, because I love (almost) all my teachers, plus, Iris isn't going to Trinity next year. I am excited for summer, though. At the end of June, I'll be going on my first family vacation in years. I mean, we've had family vacations a lot, but we haven't gone as a whole family for a long time. And Lisa and even Nathan (my brother-in-law) are coming! It's going to be so fun! I can't wait! I also am excited for when Stephanie comes home. John already came home on Sunday, and it's really fun having him around again. He set up his big HD-TV in the attic, so now we can watch movies up here. I'm trying to learn some Flight of the Conchords on my guitar, but it's really hard T_T
I can't believe I've kept talking so much, I never have anything to say! Ugh, I have an HGRA soccer game tonight. It's not that I'm not excited, I just haven't met my team, and I'm a little afraid that they'll be preppy girls. I've had bad experiences with preps at my old school. I don't blame them for not liking me, I've always been a little weird, but even now, when Iris and I go visit for a play or something, they'll say, "Hi Iris!" ... I'm not kidding, this actually happened. Maybe it was because I'm so quiet that they didn't notice me, but you never know....
so, yeah...bad experiences with preps and "popular" girls.
Well, thanks for actually reading this post, it was probably boring as the dickens :P