new life

This week has been fairly horrible, but! the later part of today probably makes up for everything. Anyway, I'm becoming more of an optimistic thinker.

- I didn't win a portfolio award for the Scholastics competition, but my Haiti piece that I'm gifting to someone next week did win a merit award!

- I also discovered that the reason why none of my other pieces had received awards is because unlike past years, this time the judges aren't pulling pieces out of portfolios to be adjudicated, which makes total sense. Not that I believe all my artwork is A+ quality, but I did spend an awful lot of time on some of them, which I thought would earn me a few keys :(.

- This means that my midterm grade will not automatically be a C, since the art teachers will be looking over everyone's portfolio a second time to see the quality of work, since the original "how-many-awards-you-win-determines-your-midterm-grade" policy is nullified due to the new judging rule.

But anyway,

- I got out of school early because it's an A-day...awesome.

- I ate at PureBread for lunch--I've been craving their Akita Panini for something like three weeks. It was the most gratifying meal I've had in quite some time. Akita's the first thing I tried there, and the only thing I've had there as a result. Portobella mushrooms serve as thee perfect "meat" to a sandwich.

- While I was at PureBread, I happened to have a spare piece of paper and pen in my wristlet, thus was able to plan out in what direction my AP Art portfolio is going. It seems like I have much time, but I know I need to keep chugging along in order to make this work. I'm going to get a 5. I have to.

- Went to A.C. Moore and found the perfect sized canvas for the next piece I had in mind. Although I had to wait an extra 15 minutes in line because I realized my canvas packaging was ripped, it was worth it because!

- It's snowing!

(However, I almost died twice sliding on the ice...I've never driven in the snow before, actually.)

- You know how when a steady flurry begins and the snow dust on the road flies around as cars drive on it due to heat/wind/not being wet and slushy/etc.? I'm not sure for the actual reasoning behind this, but I think it's the coolest, most beautiful thing ever. It's like the snow has a personality, but it also reminds me of chocolate swirls at the same time. I don't think I'm being coherent. I wish I had brought my video Nano with me to take some footage.

- After getting home, I took Abu for a walk! He hasn't had exercise of that sort in...yeah this is embarrassing to admit, but anyway, it was well-deserved. He's a good boy :).

And now I'm home. It's just hitting 3pm, and I may/may not have an art lesson tonight depending on the snow...nonetheless, I'm going to take a break and watch some Psych and work out the details of my next oil piece. So excited!

(If my productivity level continues to grow from when my motivation began last night, I think I'll be superwoman by the time winter break is over. Crossed fingers! I really need momentum.)

so grateful.

I have a tendency of absorbing other's emotions and regurgitating them at a x10 amplified level. A little weird, but if you ever see me screaming out of happiness or extremely undoubtedly upset, 99% of the time, the situation has nothing to do with me.

So without further ado, Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV): "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

He is so, so in control, always giving us more than what we deserve in the most creative ways--in the most effective ways--to help us understand how much He actually really, completely, truly loves us.

I don't want to be a volcano of pure bliss when things aren't confirmed yet, but it looks like I won't be going to China this summer :(...but it's a perfectly acceptable opportunity cost for something like this, especially because the benefits of not going admittedly have always outweighed the costs of going. Thank you so, so much, Father. And as if I needed anymore motivation (perpetually, actually!), this is perfect. So, so perfect.

My ten-ish hours of homework, on the other hand, is nothing close to perfect, BUT! No reason to complain. Ever. How lucky am I to have a world-class education mapped out for me?

Incredibly.

(PS: Hillsong United was nothing short of amazing two nights ago. As if life cannot get any better. See the April 16th devotion in My Utmost for His Highest for more. And even crazier, this all ties in with last night's Bible study to form a very, very successfully enlightening and words-cannot-describe weekend.)

(PPS: Also, I can now officially drive alone. Continual prayer for my (and everyone around me...) safety, please!)

efficiency!!!

So junior year has certainly turned into quite an adventure...I was expecting a lot of work, but being bogged down with 50 pages of reading/outlining on the first day was beyond me. I've been keeping up all right thus far, but I know that if I don't make this blog short and get working before my art lesson (first one in two months!) then I'll be sleeping at 1am or later tonight.

I lack the amount of efficiency I need to make my academics and extracurriculars mesh together comfortably; however, I am quickly developing it. Yesterday was an all-work day minus one bit of video chatting, and I finished everything before 12am, which is pretty impressive for everything I had to cover.

Another thing I'm ridiculously thankful for is driving. Because I miss a different class each day, sometimes two, my workload is lightened by the slightest--though sometimes it plays a huge disadvantage, but it's better to get it over with now rather than later in the year. (Speaking of, I drove on the highway today :) getting better!)

I honestly hate having large gaps between posts, since I don't know where to start and where to end. Hence the choppy paragraphs and lack of connection...So shall I list what's new?

-I got a (RED) iPod Nano for my birthday (early since Austin wanted to see it before he leaves for college). I'm super paranoid about getting it scratched, and so today I wrapped it in a plastic baggy before bringing it to school. The bad news? Abu found it this afternoon in my backpack and tried biting it...luckily he only got the ear buds, which are still completely functional though not perfect in appearance, and so I am so, so, so thankful right now...though a little mad at him.

-I finally have all my supplies for school, which doesn't sound all that life-changing but last week was terrible since I had no set location for all my handouts and it just bothered me to no end. Now I have no excuse to get anything but A's, eh? ...Bah.

-On Saturday, my family and I went to the Guitar Center near KOP to get my Gretsch fixed. Thanks to my stupidity, the repair will cost ~$40, but would have been unavoidable, now that I think about it, since Gretsch doesn't cover output jacks anyway. I did pull out one of the pick-up's wire, which would be covered, but since it was a deliberate act of accidentally pulling it out with the output jack, the techie will wedge it in tighter and hopefully eliminate all future accidents concerning the wire...

Oh; on that note, my dad just came home with my guitar :) time to check it out and get on my way to art class. I'm excited to start using my FM transmitter again! It's been gathering dust for a while, now.

Anyway I'm going to try to keep writing on this, even though it does take up a significant amount of my time (you wouldn't think, seeing these entries are fairly short...), since it does help me develop fluidity in writing and some other stuff, though I don't write super formally or anything. But okay, that's enough for now.

overwhelmed (a bit)

1) The 7th grade welcome night for youth group went pretty well, I think. Games could have gone smoother, but I'm not going to blame anyone for that...Seems like I'll be helping with it from now on, so I'll just say it'll only get better :). Learn from experience, yes?

2) I was super-duper nervous about small groups, since this was the first time I've lead as an actual...leader; however my group is very talkative (surprisingly), and I think we'll all click nicely. Seeing we already have. Yeah :).

3) My mommy's kind of stressing me out about my whole birthday party situation. I've never been one to have huge extravagant bashes, however for my 16th I do feel like I should at least acknowledge that I'm aging. Supposedly 16 is a very sweet year, but I kind of doubt that seeing I'm taking APs for the first time and my pick was probably not the best...But it seems that at the moment, the most likely thing that will happen is maybe a shopping trip in the morning with a few girls and a dinner at night with a bunch of church people. Perhaps a movie and some random games at my place? It's way too small to host anything in, though (in my opinion). I'd like to do something with school friends only, too, and I guess I have time to think of something? I never really do, though, which is a real shame. School really does get in the way of things, though. I don't want anything complicated else I will become the reason for incomplete homework assignments and lack of thorough studying...Yeahhh...

4) On that note, I was going to get snowboarding gear for my birthday (kind of a stretch, since if that's my birthday present, what the heck was my 50d/Gretsch? Ha, ha), and since Ski Bum has a huge sale next weekend I mentioned it to my mom. Money's pretty tight since Dartmouth's tuition skyrocketed and this is Austin's last year (good thing, bad thing) so my mom was pretty hesitant about discussing it--the reason why she brought up my birthday plans...I think she expects me to do something crazy and expensive? But if I don't get equip now, I guess it's not a big deal since I have plenty of time before ski ways open and I've time to learn how to properly board. Where there's a will, there's a way :) so no worries from me! I'm glad I'm calm about this already. I was kind of scared I'd start writing a huge complaining, spoiled-brat post. Hopefully this is kind of different from that.

5) Did I mention I start driving on the 9th? I'm SO. EXCITED. There was this huge issue of me maybe not being able to learn before my birthday, but seeing I end the driving portion on the 22nd of September, it should be no problem. Thank God :) if I wasn't going to finish in time, it would be a huge problem come time for me to drive alone, and being able to go to school by myself during DSTPs (HA. NO MORE READING/WRITING/MATH FOR ME!!!) and for tennis season, workload permitted. Ja ja ja so this is all very intriguing to me. Also, apparently my driving partner is a sophomore...interesting.

6) My family and I are going to Rehoboth/Lewes tomorrow :). It'll be fun; I've only been to the beach once this summer, I think? I love the ocean, though...I definitely plan on spending time there in the winter and spring, when I can drive myself places. There's no point in living along the coast if you don't fully take advantage of it. So I'd also like to start visiting more beaches in the area soon? But anyway, tomorrow will most likely be a shopping-oriented trip. I am in dire need of a new wardrobe ;).

7) I think waiting is a good thing.