Your Last Expectation

So I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm thankful for my dog not dying after getting hit by a car and seriously injured and I'm thankful that he is back to his normal self.
How's that for an intro?
I had a really marvelous time at my family's up in the middle of nowhere New England.
This is how my day went:
Went to the grocery store/got coffee in the morning with my aunt and cousin Jessica.
They shortchanged my aunt twenty dollars and we had to go back.
Barely made it in time for the meal.
At the meal my brother disappeared (he's 31 so it wasn't a scary situation--calm down)
Turns out my dear brother Joel got ill right before he started to eat and went to lie down upstairs.
I ate lunch then graded papers with my cousin Stephanie for her third-graders until 8 at night.
Then we saw "The Next Three Days" and if you have not seen it yet you are missing out big time.
I went to bed at 1 am and got up at 6:30 am for Black Friday.

Wonderful day.

My brother Jason, his wife Sara and their little girl Ava went down to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving sadly. I missed them a lot because we have gotten very close since Jay became sick. He's doing a lot better though. Watching what he eats still and Sara tells us he looks fantastic now.

I have some secrets I'm keeping from you all for a little while. But I will fill you in soon, maybe by Christmas. I'd love to tell you now but let's keep it quiet.

Cue the excuses.
I'm sorry I haven't posted. I've been having a really busy year. My principal had been very tough on our class this year and won't let us fundraise for prom, class trip, or yearbook. It's getting ridiculous. She also has told us we need to meet with her on a certain day and when we try to she refuses to talk with us. I've also been busy getting things done before this break and I actually am procrastinating on a paper due in a couple days in my government class. It's not a major paper. Just a bit of a nuisance.

My school has been difficult about the application process right now. They refuse to send things out until people contact them saying it's getting late. This does not make sense to me. I am not a fan of my school at the moment.

It's been a rough couple months but there's been a few positive notes. I'm ready for a real vacation. I was on full throttle this entire break so I haven't had a moment to pause yet. I thought I'd update you all before I slowed down. Tomorrow I'll take it easier. Scout's honor. I'm not a scout though. So strike that. I promise. There you go.

I love this picture. Not so sure who it's by but it reminds me of Les enfants du paradis, which is my all time favorite film.

Peace, Love, and Gazelles,
Maggie

Thought to be overactive nerves.

So I sent out my applications.
Kind of.
I still need to get my transcripts and recommendation letters sent.
I did my essays and I am hoping they went alright. I didn't want to ask my new literature teacher to review them because he has been looking really critically and negatively at my writing recently and I don't need any more negativity than I put on my college process myself. He's partially why I have not been writing on my blog because he really had been putting me down as a writer in the past couple months. Needless to say, he is not my favorite at the moment and not the person I would use to review my college essay. I had my dad look it over instead. He said he thought it was excellent and that was good enough for me.
Now the only thing that is left is to wait, and wait, and wait.
All of my insides will be upside down until I get an answer, hopefully good. Knock on wood. Kiss a frog. No black cats. Closed umbrellas. Throw salt over your left shoulder. And all that jazz.
Peace, Love and Porcupines,
Maggie

Half way into the exit.

Hey there Blogworld-
I'm back from the great beyond.
I have been uncharacteristically busy recently. Let's go over the basics:
-I am now seventeen years old. Write it down everyone, that's important stuff right there I tell you.
- I got my driver's license. Today. Most nerve-wracking experience and even though it took only five minutes it was painful.
- I started my college class. Yesterday we learned how to do hat tricks. I think I might be able to get a decent grade in it.
- School would be fatal if you took away my best friend. Thanks, Jessie.

I got invited to pages.videojug.com by the editor Jemma. That is exciting.
I also realized I got a job offer in my email. Unfortunately it is only for a Halloween store that will be closing in a couple weeks. Got put into spam. And it was sent two weeks ago. SO thanks a lot technology. You are very unhelpful when it comes to job hunting.
I still have not started my college essays. Even thought they aren't due to December and I get severely stressed out whenever someone brings them up. Apparently this makes me a slacker.

I looked at MCLA a couple weeks ago and I love it there, but I also love Franklin Pierce University, so we're going to have see what happens. I'll definitely keep you posted on that though.

Oh and my brother is doing better. He has Crohn's Disease. So he has to watch what he eats.

Peace, Love and Walruses,
Maggie

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. " - Jim Rohn

I admit I do not have any clue who Jim Rohn is. But I like the quote because it pretty much sums up how I feel about school.
I completed the first "week" (it really was only three days but I'm going to run with this if you don't mind) back. It was pretty good. I went back Wednesday and had homework from six o'clock until ten o'clock. But the actual day was fantastic and I would not trade it for anything. It was probably the best first day back to school since second grade.
The teachers however have not been making the transition back the least bit easy on us. Let's put it this way: I had three papers due the very next day and they instituted a "Zero Tolerance Late Work Policy". We get a twenty percent reduction if we turn it in late the first time, but the second time we get a zero and still have to complete the homework after school with the teacher and they call your parents. I have never turned in homework late before but now I am just absolutely terrified.
Thursday dragged on for so long though. I do not have any clue why but it seemed to go on forever. I was so tired by the end of it but after that Friday was great. We read "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe in Literature which is one of my absolute favorites.
This year may be tough but I think I'm up for it. Let's hope.
Peace, Love, and Ravens,
Maggie

Progress for the sake of Progress' sake

Quick update: my apologetics teacher has changed! I no longer have any idea on what to expect now. I know it's my teacher who taught Worldviews last year but he's never taught Apologetics since I have been at the school. So... I guess we'll find out together! I don't really like this teacher however. He's kind of a jerk.

Peace, Love, and Penguins,

Maggie

P.S. It took longer to find a picture than to write this post. Sad fact.

Let the credits play

So let's make this a more personal entry, sound good? Okay.

Senior year excites me and stresses me out but it's honestly not the main focus. Everything else seems to be getting in the way of that thought. My mind is focused on my brother who is getting really anxious about how the doctor told him he has lesions on his esophagus and my brother is a really strong person. Him and my mom are the strongest people I know and it really scares me to see him going in and out of the hospital. It has made me have a lot more sympathy for those people who have little babies that are stuck in the hospital. And it makes me mad that people have children like that and still have more children they make suffer through the same fate. My mom, my brother and I all have the same anxiety problem. We also don't let anyone see it. The only way I know what he is going through is from talking with his wife. He didn't even tell us about the lesions never mind that he's freaked out about it. It's at the point where it's all I can think about. School seems like the last thing on the list to be concerned about. Why should I get worried or waste time thinking about that when my brother is afraid for himself now that he has his little girl and his wife needing him? School will go but my brother is part of me. I'm scared for him and I don't know what to do. At the end of every day I feel worn out and exhausted and it's all I can do to go to sleep. He's gone through so much only to wind up here? What's the point of that?

Countdown to the End

That title actually makes a lot more sense then I realized. I have less than two and a half weeks until I go back to school. When I finally go back, it will be the start of my last year. I am extremely excited to get out of there. I want to get out of my school and away from almost everyone. I want to get to college and then I want to get on my own completely. I want to get an apartment in the city and leave every morning and come back every evening and not be accountable to anyone but me. I want a job, I want to do things myself because I'm sick of people doing things for me and then they turn around and guilt me about it. Alright, so to give you all a heads up: I am transforming this blog from an anything goes kind of thing into a Senior Year Blog. I'm going to keep track of nearly everything that happens this year. So let's start with the most I know about how my senior year is looking right now:

A Period: Apologetics- this class scares me a little bit. I have an essay due at least once a week in that class. I have worked with the teacher on different projects for the past four years and it's fairly likely that I will be one of his top students this year considering I'm going to be the year book editor this year and he's the guy that oversees the yearbook. But it still makes me pretty nervous.

B Period: American Government- this course does not scare me considering I've had the same teacher for history for four years and this will be my fifth. However, it still seems like the more difficult course that I've had with him.

C Period: Study Hall!!! <3>

D Period: American Literature- I don't want to go to class. I don't want to go to class. I don't want to go to class. I don't want to go to class. I don't want to go to class. I don't want to go to class. I have a new teacher for this class and he's known for being more difficult as a fifth grade teacher than all our high school's teachers combined. He TERRIFIES me.

E Period: Lunch.<3>

F Period: Study hall. Horrible people in there that I never talk with.

G Period: Study Hall. More horrible people I don't like and never talk to.

H Period: Finance. AKA my dad's class. It's going to be embarrassing.

Somewhere I'm supposed to also fit in my independent Spanish 5 class with my mom who is the spanish teacher at my school. UGH. Not looking forward to that either.

Next, I have, hopefully, dual enrollment for one class a semester at a local college. Which I have to go to orientation for on Thursday. I also have my first driving lesson on Thursday. :/ Ick.

More later.

Peace Love and Orangoutangs,

Maggie