FREE HUGS, Christmas, Huge Life Dump!

Ok so my last post didn't go so well...it was boring. So here's an interesting one! AFTER SO LONG @_@

So anyway Vaughn is probably like the coolest person on Earth. He had the best idea ever on a boring Saturday!

Part 1 - Give this stuff out:



They're "Happy Holidays" cards with money inside :)

Part 2 - GIVE FREE HUGS DOWNTOWN ON THE MALL






Vaughn told me he got well over 80 hugs from complete strangers and ended up in quite a few pictures. At one point a group came and got a picture, and then some other guy gave him a hug. The guy then proceeded to move toward one of the tourist group members, so Vaughn quickly called out "HUGS ALL AROUND!" and so then everyone nearby, about 20 or 30 people, hugged each other. Simply amazing.

Later that night, while he was in Dupont Circle, a teenager approached him. He came up and introduced himself as Zack. Vaughn described him as looking nice and about 15 or 16. He told him that he'd had a big fight with his parents so he was running away. Zack asked about Dupont Circle at night. Vaughn told me he was thinking "No, not at all. It's cold, lonely, and dangerous." Zack asked if he knew a place where he could stay; Vaughn said he didn't. So he bought Zack dinner from Subway and called the St. Luke's Homeless Shelter to pick him up and take him somewhere warm.
SUCH A KIND, AWESOME BROTHER!


Let's see, how about now I talk about Christmas-ITWASAMAZING!

Christmas Eve:
Spanish family came over for most of the day, and my grandparents from Florida came up :)
I completely forgot how FUN AND COOL they are! So we spent most of the day with them. Then we went to a service at the church that Chloe (cousin, 14), Nicole (cousin, 6), and I all participated in a little. That was kind of fun...but the real fun was AFTER!

After the church service, all our family came back home and the cousins, Vaughn, and I played Rock Band for a little while. Then a nice young lady from church came and joined us for dinner. Then the church's master (lol, she knows everything and it's like her second home) came and joined us too! So we had 10 family members and 2 church members over for our EXCELLENT DINNER OF PANCAKES, my favorite food!! :D


CHRISTMAS:
Ah, Christmas. We (all family minus Spaniards, who are staying in my other gparents' house) all woke up and quickly wrapped all our gifts (heh, we fail, especially me :P). Then we went down and did our stockings, which is a big deal for my mother's side of the family. That was really fun. Then we had a light breakfast and proceeded to gifts. Originally, the Spaniards were going to join us but decided not to. So the 8 of us opened all our gifts. Here's a list of the wonderful things I got:

AN ELECTRIC GUITAR AND AN AMP! YEEEEEEEEEEES AMAZING AND UNEXPECTED
A nice shirt and pants
6 pairs of awesome socks
Portable iPod speakers
The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS game)
Electric razor :P
Assorted food/candy in stocking

Really good loot this year! (Heh..I love using the word loot - thanks to Calvin and Hobbes!) After presents, the Spaniards came, and we had our Christmas lunch (not dinner lol) with another church friend. Then we all went on a short walk! AFTER alll that, everyone went home except for the gparents, and I went upstairs and tuned my guitar and played around...

Today (well now it's yesterday):
Today my Uncle Mark, Chloe, Vaughn, and I went downtown to the National Geographic building (museum?). We went through a really cool whale exhibit and then took some NICE pictures in the courtyard-area. Check out my Facebook for those pictures and more. Then we went into Georgetown to let Chloe look in all the shops and plan for her trip down there with her mother (who has the shopping $$). THEN we all went to see Marley & Me, which was really good. But it was SAAAAD. So many people were crying, especially little Nicole. She just couldn't stop. Honestly, I almost did. Marley and Major are both labs, just Marley is white. But they looked alike! So it was VERY SAD to watch near the end. I had to bite down hard on my tongue. And I know anyone who doesn't know me would be tempted to say I'm soft, or weak, or whatever else, but you're wrong. If you've ever had a dog, or still have one, this will get you. I swear, you'd have to be heartless not to react at all. But anyway...good movie, even better book. Read the book then see the movie!


SO THAT'S BEEN MY LIFE FOR THE PAST TIME :D
I really don't have much to say except I really need to learn Spanish! I want to understand and speak to my family in Spanish! I REALLY DO! :)


MERRY TIME AFTER CHRISTMAS AND
HAPPY ALMOST SORT OF NEW YEAR!

Hooooo boy

Oh my. I think I've done it again. I just don't have time to post as often...

So what have I been up to? Uh...well...Oh!
I came up to Pittsburgh as you all know! That was fun. Let's do that again sometime :)

I'm trying to convince my parents to take me up to Sewickley for Semi, but, sadly, I don't really think that will happen.


I went to a sweet 16 on Friday from 7:30 to midnight. It was this awesome dance party - lots of fun! Some of you have already been Facebook stalking me and have seen the pictures...*shudder* It was really cool though because it was a Devils/Angels themed party, so I went out and got this slick white tie. I'll put pictures up as soon as I get them from my brother...


In other news, my personal project is going pretty well. For those of you who have forgotten (like I would have), the personal project is a long-term interest-based project. For example, mine is learning to paint, and I've been working on it for the past three months. Most of the other students have been working on theirs through the summer.
I've gotten a decent amount of work done, so I'm happy. Would you like to see pictures of what I've done, or is that unimportant?


Hm...Oh. Well, I got a new iPod too. I had birthday money that I felt I should spend. Considering that everything else I wanted to buy, my mom told me "Your relatives are going to be asking about Christmas soon. What should I tell them", a new Nano was the only logical choice (Wow, I've successfully made it sound like I HAD to buy something and that there was this long drawn-out process!)...I really like it. It's shiny and red and it plays music! Haha, that's good enough for me ;)
But yeah, you can read about the new Nanos on Apple's website or Wikipedia. I really don't feel like writing it, heh...

And speaking of Apple and music, I found an iTunes gift card in a pile of already used cards that I for some reason kept. Lucky me! Haha...


Uh, let's see. What else is there...Heh, I really love being able to write in colloquial (everyday) language here. It makes life so much more enjoyable.

[GARRET used Colloquial Language!]
[GARRET's Quality of Life rose greatly!]

Haha...yeah...now I feel lame.
...Too bad :)


Ah. I'm back to the age-old question: What instrument do I want to play?
For a while I've thought the guitar, or preferably the bass guitar, would be that magic instrument. Now I'm having second thoughts...maybe I should pick the piano back up? Or how about I learn something completely CRAZY! But that would mess with my logic: the reason why I'm unsure about the bass guitar is because the kind of people who play it do not equal my persona. But I still think I should play it!

H'ok, moving on. Tomorrow is our last day of school! Then we have break which means...THANKSGIVING! I think this is the first time I've ever been EXCITED for Thanksgiving - and it has nothing to do with no school!...well, maybe partly...
I think it's because I keep seeing ads on TV with good Thanksgiving turkey, and now I want some OM NOM NOM


Hm...Haha, I watched the second half of The Santa Clause on the Disney Channel the other day. Then when it ended I watched last 2/3rds of The Karate Kid, Part II. Very good movie. Lemme give a quick rundown on why it's such a great movie:
It's not cheesy.
The fighting may not seem so real, but it's definitely serious. (i.e. people actually appear hurt, no one's a superhuman, etc.)
No one is all good or all bad.
It's set in Okinawa, Japan.
The music for the calmer scenes is well-composed.

The movie portrays love in a way lost to our society: in the 2/3rds I watched, there was one kiss (I think it may have been interrupted just before, though). Romance did not mean physical attraction or sex. It meant wanting to spend time with that person and wanting to protect them.

That's what I call a quality movie. That's just my opinion; to each his own.


What else is there to talk about...hm. Well. Here's a message for each of you who reads this.

Tom: Keep talking to me. It's fun and it keeps me away from homework.

Krista: I haven't talked to you in so long! We should totally have a late night/early morning chat while I'm supposed to be doing a project! Haha...do we dare try to name all 150 Pokemon again? HAHAHA YES

Alex: ALEX YOUR HAIR IS AWESOME

Chrissy: I'm still in shock that you read my WHOLE BLOG in one night! Haha we hardly talk...ah well, we will sometime. :P

Timmy: Are you still in Spain? How is it? Hope you're having an awesome year.



Have a nice day. - Bon Jovi

HOLY XIZOR!

It's been over two weeks! I'm so sorry I've put you all to tears from boredom! I know you count on this blog to actually enjoy life, so I'M SORRY! YOUR POOR PEOPLE!
Well, thank goodness! I have come to resuscitate you with my lovely, exciting life! And it has been indeed exciting...

PSAT
Too easy.

HOMECOMING

Amazing. After school there were 3 games: Varsity Volleyball and the Varsity soccer teams. That was really exciting. If you check Facebook soon (Krista, GET A FACEBOOK FOR ME!), I *may* change my picture to one from after the games. So I've discovered it's actually very fun and entertaining to go to soccer games after school. Here, people actually want to go to games. At Sewickley I never got that feeling, but whatever, I don't like comparing.

After the games there was a free dance at 7:00. It was lots of fun, too! I was one of the earliest people there (most people didn't come till after 7:30 or 8:00, poop on them), and at first it was kind of boring. As people started to arrive, all the guys (except me and the other new guys X[) clumped together against a back wall. Every five minutes you would look over and see them at the other side of the wall. Then another five minutes and they were back to their starting place. In short: they wouldn't dance. I'm just too cool to clump and not dance ;)

After a while about 85% of the 10th graders made a giant, amoeba-like blob and slowly began dancing. The other 15% either didn't dance or was cool - the cool group was where I was. We were the ones who legit enjoyed ourselves and had a lot of fun. Too bad about the other guys... >)_>)

Anyway, to wrap this up, Homecoming was really great. I gave up on having no life and did something with myself. And to think I wasn't going to go ;)

SCHOOL

School's been going pretty well. Last week was pretty rough, though. Monday was a major history test that I needed to do well on (and sort of did...better than last time). Tuesday I had two English projects due and I was supposed to have a math test. Our math teacher is so cool, though, that he postponed the test because (he's the coach) the Girls Varsity soccer team won! SO that was pushed back until Thursday or Friday. On the topic of test dates, I've found a lot of teachers, if there's a test date issue with part of the class, will give you a choice between two days. That means that each one of us can pick when we want to take the test, not just as a whole class. Pretty cool, pretty cool. :) So I took that math test Friday, Halloween, and I'm 99% sure I got EVERYTHING RIGHT. I checked my work, plugged things back in, all that. I think I got a perfect. But that was just part of my Halloween... ;}


THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER

Friday. Friday Friday Friday. Haaaaalloween. Costume and candy day. Friday, Halloween.


I painted my costume Thursday night. Friday was showtime. As my mother drove the van up the drive to the school, I saw that no one was dressed up - I was. Crap. Crap crap crap. Hooooly Xizor. What do I do if I'm somehow mistaken? What if no one dressed up?
But they had to. People were telling me what they were going to dress up as. But-But maybe they meant for tonight! Crap, what do I do?
Oh wait! Someone said she wasn't wearing her costume to school so I wouldn't see it. It sounded like she meant too bad I can't! Oh...maybe she didn't mean that! Maybe...maybe she meant she wasn't GOING to! CRAAAAAP!

We arrived at the top of the drive. Still no one dressed up. SHIZZZNNIIIT. WHAT DO I DO. I had a change of clothes, but I still wasn't sure. I get out of the car and the traffic guy (or whatever he is) kind of half-smiled, half-laughed. OH MY GOODNESS WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! Well, my mom had told me earlier "Rock that costume!", so I guess that's all I can do!...right?

As I walked to the building with our lockers (the Carriage House), STILL no one had a costume on. I should have known...I turned toward the door nervous as heck to be the only one who dressed up. As I got closer, I could see through the glass - people had costumes! I opened the door and saw down the hallway on either side people who had dressed up. Hooray! Immediately people reacted to my costume too: "Cool!" "Wow Wally! Nice costume!" "Wallace, that's so cool!" "Dude, he's got some comic book action going on!"

SWEET. TOTAL SUCCESS. I really did rock that costume! Not once for the rest of the day did I feel self-conscious about wearing it - skillzzzz. Now one sec, lemme go get my dad's camera and take those pictures off of it...brb

Here they are!






I AM TWO-FACE.

If you're wondering how I did that, I painted an old suit ;)
So I totally rocked the costume. Then I rocked out.


COLDPLAY

I went to the Coldplay concert on Halloween. It was amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, and all I can really say is that it was so much fun. You know, it's kind of hard to describe concerts, isn't it? What can you say? You really just had to be there...



So as you can see, life really is interesting. Worth living, isn't it. ;)

Oh, and look up Xizor, why don't you. :]

Thank you all for your lovely comments!


When Plans Fall Down.
--It was 12:30, or 1:00, or later, or something. I don't know the time, but it was late. The door opened, but I remained still. My vision was hazy at best, and it was dark. A figure appeared in the doorway. A strained, tired, eerily cheerful voice softly called out, "Garret. Garret." What do they want? What could they possibly want to do now? Please just leave me alone!
But that's not how they work. They get what they want - there are almost no conditions.
"Look who's here for you."
A new silhouette appears, close to the cold bed. It isn't one of the regulars, not like the old man who sometimes comes. Who is it?
As I look up, something strikes me about his head, and it clicks in mine.
Curly hair - Vaughn!
Vaughn came down to visit! YES! I thought Mom was waking me up so dad could say goodnight, but this is much better.
I had talked to Vaughn a couple hours before, and he told me how he has almost a week of no classes. When I asked what he was going to do, he said he'd be biking and crap. I found out the next morning he meant biking in DC.--

Vaughn drove 4 hours on Friday starting at like 9:00 to come down to DC. Pure awesomeness. He stayed through Wednesday, which was great. It was even better because it was a surprise visit!
And then my grandparents came too! So everyone was in DC! Tons of fun.


Quand il pleut la musique sort and quand il pleut la musique vient aussi

Je trouve que quand il pleut, je ne pense plus de la musique. Il n y'en a plus. Il sort. J'entends beaucoup la pluie et je l'aime. C'est presque impossible, ou peut-être vraiment impossible d'écouter mon iPod. Quand il pleut, il y a une autre musique dans le ciel. Vous le savez? Cette musique vous arrive aussi? Je vient de trouver ce phénomène...


DC

DC is one of the best cities and one of the worst cities. You can understand partly why DC is great; there's so much to do! There are monuments, museums, the Metro, buses to ride, places to go! But there's more. There's diversity, culture, places to eat, small shops to visit, livability, there's life.

But DC has a bad side. I'm not talking about the crime or the homeless. I'm talking about what some people have to do to live here. Children start going to daycare at outrageously young ages. Both parents have to work so much. There are more people with nannies than with dogs. There are probably a large number of people, foreigners especially, who do not fully understand how everything works in DC. Life in DC for many people is very stressful and full of work, and their children are raised by teachers and nannies. I find that kind of sad.


Pens-Caps at Pittsburgh

So I actually watched the Penguins-Capitals game the other night. The Pens were destroying the Caps 3-0 for most of the game, but then what happened? The Caps totally came back and tied the score. Then, as the game was nearing its end, there was a tricky shot made by the Caps. It went toward the net but shot back out so quickly it was unclear what happened. The shot went into review. It turns out it didn't hit the outer post (like some were hoping), but that it actually hit the post in the middle of the goal. Tricky. It counted, and the Caps won 4-3. Hmm.

What I can't decide is if that's good or bad. I live in DC, but I used to live in Pittsburgh. I never really got excited about the Pens until the end, but then again I'm not really thrilled by the Caps yet either...Who do I like?

PSAT & Homecoming

I take the practice PSAT tomorrow morning at 8:15. Three hours of testing. UGH. But that then leads to...homecoming! I wasn't originally going to go, but now I am. Should be pretty fun, but the last dance I went to (Semi) sucked. So we'll see. Although a dance at this school might actually be ok.


Aiyaaah! One mooore thing!

Last thing, I promise. Well, no I don't. Uh...nevermind then.
So I stayed after school and watched a WIS soccer (I actually prefer calling it football though) match. I actually ended up enjoying it. Good for me, right? The reason why I bothered writing this is because I don't think I've EVER gone to a school game at any school, unless I was in it or it was my brother's. What I mean is I've never been to a game just to go to it and have fun. I'm so lame...it's kind of sad. But I've discovered that *gasp* they're actually quite fun. I want to go to the next one! Hooray...


Well, that's all folks! I'll have more after the practice PSAT and homecoming tomorrow, but it might be Sunday. We'll see what happens.
Goodbye, world.

DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS

That's right, kiddies. Coldplay.
What about Coldplay, you ask? They're more than good, they're great!
But that's just extra. What I really have to say follows.

I am seeing Coldplay in concert on Halloween in DC. How fun.

Yeah, I really don't know what to say now. I don't want to brag because that's no fun, and I don't want to talk about how excited I am because I may as well brag. So I'm just going to end it there. Lemme know if you wanna chat sometime.
*Wallace

Onomatopeia & Shmorgasbord

In my world that means a bunch of random stuff. Appropriate title, no?

I have a school orientation thing Thursday. Bleh. School starts, as I said, the same day as SA, Sep. 2.

Today I talked with some people who are new to my church. Thank goodness there's actually someone else out there who knows things about language. They understand the similarities and differences, etc. etc. and all that jazz.

I need to buy a guitar. I don't know what to get though. If ANYBODY knows anything about buying a guitar *coughTomcough*, talk to me, cuz I've got questions and whatnot!

I'm nervous for school. I mean granted everyone is usually nervous before school, new or not, but this is crazy. New school, new friends, new curriculum/academic program, new city, new ways to get to school. Not really fun. But enough of that bad talk.


So, I've taken some new pictures of myself and some other cool pics! And, they would be here except the*twitch*friggin........cord*twitchtwictch*..............is..............MIIIIIIIIISSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!!!!! GAH! I can't upload any pics from my camera until I either A) find it B) replace it or C) buy a cardreader.
NOTICE: IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION REGARDING THE WHEREABOUTS OF A CORD YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I'M COUNTING ON YOU PEOPLE TO FIND IT!

Disappointing.../Avatard/Art

...but whatever. About the music, I mean.

I watched the finale to Avatar: The Last Airbender last night. I think I can be considered an Avatard now. I really liked it. If you're into that type of show, go watch it! THEN WATCH THE FINALE. AMAZING. But that's all I'm going to say from sounding like a babbling nerd who has no friends and no life. Maybe I already am one?

So yeah, while I'm on the topic, I hope to give you people something to look at over at dA. I'm planning on doing some form of Avatar art (I said I was an Avatard!) and maybe something *gasp* original! Oh, and I think that Tentacle Beast project kinda died...

Again, slightly disappointed about the lack of answers for my music problem, but whatever. Maybe they'll make an Avatar soundtrack I can buy...Ta ta!

MUSIC

Hey! Listen! (I'm such a nerd...and none of you know why I'm saying that now heh heh heh!)

So yeah. I WANT NEW MUSIC. But I don't know what to get. I've got 24 on Itunes from my bday, but what do I get?!


TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD BUY FROM ITUNES. Come on Aurley, your whole blog is about music! You too Alex - you've got good taste! Oh and Tom, too, although we notoriously don't like the same music...

Note: This is probably all I'll blog about until some of you people help me out. So if you want an interesting blog from me, I need an interesting life-IMEAN you need to tell me what I should get from Itunes.

Suggestions?/HISTORY

I have $24 from an Itunes gift card and I don't know what to get. Any suggestions? (Comment PLEASE I really don't know what to buy!)

Anyway...Today I was out for 6 hours helping my mom. Major got a shot, we inspected the place where we're boarding him next week, lots of errands for the smelly ol' dog.

Then we checked out our house from our 2nd time living here. I didn't think I would remember anything from it because, even though I was probably old enough to, I didn't find the place important at the time...That was great. I really do remember things about that house!

And then we talked about visiting my old school some time and BAM there were like 50 memories that came back at the same time! AWESOME. Then we ate at my favorite place to eat, The Silver Diner. Guess what - I have memories from there too! WHOO talk about a trip down memory lane (bleh I hate that expression...Oh well)!

So after that I got a haircut at a place my mom went to 9 years ago...so much history here! Now I'm home and I would really like to buy some more music for my Ipod so help me out yall!