A day from each month :)

There are a lot of things I want to write about, things I'd like to share from AP Language (that class is so fun), and in general posts I've been putting off, but here is something I thought would be fun to do after I finished my year of memories! I will include a "memory" from one day of each month, and whether or not you (or I) understand it is going to be a mystery. Here we go:

January 31, 2009
Snowboarding! "Do you want poles, too?" (Rental guy)

Explanation: I was getting my board, and the grandpa-like rental man had been making fun of my seemingly nonexistent knowledge of the sport. Do I appear dumb enough to even think poles would help? :\ Oh dear.

February 23, 2009
Wolf and clock epiphany in Fleetwood's class

Explanation: I was sitting in Biology last year, facing the white board, which has the school's standard clock on top of it. There's always been a photo of a wolf there, and suddenly it clicked that the position of the wolf was perfect in that it looked like it was howling at the moon. And I went ballistic...and after Doc asked me why I was going insane and I explained, he started laughing and couldn't believe I would spend that much time figuring out why there was a picture of a wolf there. But anyway, I was wrong. It was random placement.

March 20, 2009
Threw up on my pants. Not exactly a good memory, but eventful all the same.

Explanation: That day was the stand-alone prompt essay day of DSTP (standardized testing) week. I happen to get very sick every time important tests come around (DSTP, PSAT, etc.) and that day I had been eating these Halls cough drops like candy. Little did I know, the type I was eating has a "laxative effect" (I quote the bag) and I was frequenting the bathroom. One of the times I coughed while I was using the toilet and somehow managed to trigger my gag reflex, and threw up on my pants. But not just any part of my pants, the back/butt of my pants (how this happened, I still have NO. IDEA.). Luckily I was wearing sweatpants and had shorts on underneath, and there was a teacher who I had never seen before in the bathroom, too. She offered to call the nurse for me and tell her I was coming down, and I went downstairs, washed my pants, dried them with a hairdryer, put them back on, and went back to class about an hour later. And finished my essay in time for lunch.

April 7, 2009
"Oh! You're like Jessie! I suggest you slap him with your backhand." (Eddie)

Explanation: Very long story short, I was have guy problems, especially with this one boy who would not leave me alone. I had been wailing and got really upset about how to handle the situation when my friend spontaneously asked me which of my tennis strokes were stronger...and he promptly recommended that I forcefully slap using that stroke. Awesome day. I loved tennis season.

May 5, 2009
Found out that I should have been playing Varsity...oh s***.

Explanation: Not exactly a good memory either, but definitely one I won't forget. The one tennis match I deliberately decided to skip happened to be the match against a fairly difficult team...and almost all of our varsity line-up had to take the Statistics midterm or something like that. And so I skipped...and the next day I found out I was supposed to play varsity doubles with Connie, my usual partner (who ended up playing with someone else and won their match, meaning we would have definitely won, too), and I felt like a complete idiot and Coach was really mad and we ran and did suicides all day the next day. FML. A big deal for someone who is really the opposite of athletic, and could barely play tennis. And lacks the self-confidence necessary for playing sports. On the plus side, it was kind of inspiring knowing what I could have done. Yeah, but it still sucks.

June 14, 2009
GOT INTO GOV SCHOOL!

Explanation: After weeks of panicking and skipping classes every day in order to finish making slides of my portfolio and rushing a bunch of outside-of-school art pastel paintings and freaking out over my luck about even being picked within my school (I would say that I had a easier chance getting into GS than getting picked from out of my art class), I finally got my acceptance packet which detailed the dates and events of my upcoming week of art, art, and art. I was screaming that day; it kind of paralleled the day I found out I got my first choice schedule for sophomore year, including the non-rotating, conflicting art class I wanted. Yes, I'm a dork.

July 14, 2009
Visited National Geographic’s headquarters in DC and talked to the Natural History photo editor (who is from Wilmington)!

Explanation: At NSLC: Journalism & Mass Comm., a summer program, one of the really cool things I got to do in my elective class (Nature Photography) was visit National Geographic. It was probably the most inspiring thing out of the whole 13-day D.C. adventure; seeing this woman, who had gone to my school's rival, go to a so-so college, and be able to work her way up to a photo editing position...amazing. She was in the midst of assembling the National Geographic spread on the huge trees (I can't believe my subscription ended right before that copy), and it was like getting an exclusive preview into your favorite movie series or book or something. Just fantastic. She told so many stories of how they figured out photo assignments and the people who pursued certain stories and how they came about (including the story of Alex the African Grey, which made me cry...and subsequently by his owner, Dr. Irene Pepperberg,'s novel about her studies with him). Not only this, but I also got to meet the techies/engineers who create all the exclusive equipment for the photographers...like a hippopotamus(?) suit. Sweet.

August 23, 2009
Vince’s birthday party (a.k.a. filming the REST OF PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE FILM!)

Explanation: I volunteered to help with the making of a short movie with a Thanksgiving-based theme. The pre-production was pretty hardcore for anything I expected, and filming was...a terrible, huge, time-consuming hassle. But this day was the day that we managed to film 4-5 scenes in one go, and pretty much knock out everything we needed on schedule. It was awesome and totally gratifying, not to mention it was received pretty well at church in November. I want to do more in the future!

September 15, 2009
“I went to art class and Hanel was like, ‘Where’s Mary Zheng?’” (Sean)

Explanation: Self-explanatory for the most part. Hanel, my art teacher for the duration of sophomore year, has trouble remembering names of current students, not to mention past students. So the fact that on the first day of AP Studio Art, he had specifically asked where I was...makes me kind of happy. I suppose that means he thought I had some talent. Hopefully I can retain it until next year, when I actually do take the class...

October 8, 2009
Exercised again :) found a Nano pocket in my running shorts!

Explanation: For some reason, whenever I buy clothes I always miss features of it. Skirts with pockets, for example...or in this case, running shorts with a hidden inner sleeve for keys, I'd guess. However, my iPod Nano also fit perfectly in it! I love surprises, even if it's the result of my lack of attentiveness. Heh :)

November 18, 2009
Had a really nice, calming talk with Billy about school and life in general, and then wrote a note about it.

Explanation: This happened after my French trip to NYC to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I did write a blog about it, so I think this is pretty self-explanatory, too. One of the randomly inspired pieces of writing that's actually meaningful to me.

December 13, 2009
Combined choir practice; lasagna and that delicious jello stuff for snacks!

Explanation: Each Christmas, the church assembles a program with an orchestra and choir. While I generally play in the orchestra, my lack of wooden clarinet and not playing for three-ish years meant that I would join the choir. Choir practice was tedious, but always ended in delicious snacks...this day, it happened to be LASAGNA (!!!), which I hadn't had in DECADES (okay, more like months. Maybe years.), and this wonderful coconut Asian jello cocktail thing my mother made. If you're Asian, you probably know what I'm talking about. But anyway, it was a delicious and overdone snack. I would never have expected both the jello soup stuff AND LASAGNA!!!

So there you go--a peek into my life in 2009. I'm not continuing with the memory diary this year, which makes life easier but also makes me miss it. Sometimes something funny happens and I excitedly make a mental note to record it in my Word Document, except...I don't have to anymore. A little bittersweet, but I guess routine does that to you.

Anyhow, it's getting late and I still have to change out of these usually heavenly but currently incredibly uncomfortable corduroys and into my jammies. Has anyone see that SNL skit about Jammies, by the way? It's worth checking out. Just my kind of disturbing ;).

But right, it was nice being able to just type for a bit. School has been overwhelmingly busy and although I've been making more time to do more things, blogging hasn't been a top priority for me. If I have time and enough motivation, I'll write something that interests me...otherwise, I'm on tumblr sputtering nonsensical rambles.

So good night, and happy (late) new years! I'll be doing a resolution post if time permits...well, eventually I'll have to, anyway. Maybe publicizing this goal will make it more possible. Hm.