Goodness I've been busy, but good busy! When I start having time again (aka after this next week), I'll be back to blogging more regularly.

In a nutshell:
1. Knowledge Bowl is SO FREAKING DUDE. XD ("Dude" as in awesome) And we won our first match by two Two TWO points! YEAAAH!! Me + Holly + Jinny = can't touch this.
2. I got a tutoring job, Fridays from 3:30 to 4:30! Tutoring math.. I think it'll be coo. (btw, read "coo" in your head as if kat were saying it) Plus I got a $50 check :D
3. I have three articles to do for the Pioneer, BUT I have enough info to write up one of them, most of the info for another, and I have a planned interview date for the last one. So 75 more dollars are heading my way relatively soon :D
4. I'm learning a neato jam for piano -- Chopin's Etude in E Major, Opus 10 no. 3
5. Next week is my LAST WEEK of the school quarter, meaning the last week of ANTHRO 104!!! I LOVE JESUS.
6. Next week is finals week T_T;
7. Next week I have a pretty awesome horoscope:

Scorpio Horoscope for 12/06- 12/12

This week's scenario is highlighted by your ability to live your life with grace and joy. Friendship and romance will flourish this week. [ooh lalaa...] You're likely to get just about anything you want, Scorpio. [sweet!! I hope that translates into A+'s on all my finals, 4.0's for all my classes] Don't refuse any social invitations. [I just got an email from kat inquiring about a possible zoo playdate. This means I HAVE to go!] Forget the formalities, you need to go where you are needed, spreading your sunshine along the way. [I've got sun shiii~~~eeyiiine~~ on a clou-uudy daa~aaa~eeaaay...] You'll score more points by just being yourself. [*collar poppage* XD] Use conversation to draw others out of their shells. Ask questions, in order to make others think about what they're saying. If you hit a nerve, press harder. Deep issues may cause reactions. If you see trouble coming, protect those most in need. By week's end, you'll feel more like hibernating than partying. [definitely after all the finals] Keep some time for shopping and decorating, it'll get you into the spirit. Friendly people make for friendly times. [hells yes.] This horoscope provided by Astrology Source. Learn about your inner self, friends, and lovers.

a 4.0 in English 101. YES. One down, two to go...
Math 121 Final tomorrow, Anthro 104 on Friday :O

(That one survey that everyone's doing all of a sudden)

Yesterday, I had my Math 121 final which I'm pretty sure I aced, knock on wood. Also had knowledge bowl practice, and holy hell, I love knowledge bowl. Like, dude. I wish we could have six person teams though :/ My team yesterday was pretty rad-- me + emi + holly~~ And garrett's smart too (he's our Godfather XD) And Ronnie and Oregon kid were also there, and they both contributed one each *curt nod*. It was awesome; we were battling the two senior teams, and we beat ONE of them! Not the Aubrey-Lianne-Chris-Jeremy team, for obvious reasons if you know the people, but it was still rewarding. DAMNATION though, we need Scott on our team!!! Then we'd be killing. We'll con him into following us... emi has a plan, hehe.

Oh man, I woke up mega-early this morning (like, 5:30 am) and I could not get back to sleep. Blah. I'm super tired, but no sleepie. And I think... it's because I'm excited for the KB match XDXD lame but true! So as I wasn't asleep, I pulled out my E.E. Cummings Complete Poems 1904-1962 and found something awesome. I've read it before, but I finally understand it now after long analysis today (at least most of it.. the "strangers" part still confuses me a bit ^^; ):

(you being in love)

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Three reasons for screaming:
1) Meg got me a KICKASS handmade scarf for LATE-BDAY-EARLY-XMAS today!!!! Plus hand sanitizer (which I desperately needed, ESPECIALLY because of the hand dryness from excessive knowledge bowling XDXD) and these adorable stickers ^^ OMG THANKS MEG!!! I LOVE the scarf-- it's a perfect length, too! :D:D:D!!! Dammit, now I need to get her something equally awesome.. but how... T__T;;

2) WE WON OUR KNOWLEDGE BOWL MAAAATCH!!!!! Last time, Curtis got beat by Lakes by 30 points. After we changed up the teams, with a team of me-emi-holly and ronnie/michael (who were nice and awesome enough to let us three girls stay in every round :D thanks guys!!) we KICKED LAKE'S ASS BY 2 POINTS!!! XDDD YES!!!

3) As a JUNIOR team, WE WON TWO ROUNDS AND TIED THE THIRD ONE!! Accumulating a total of 33 points (btw, juniors should make it a goal to average 36 points by the end of the year. so we're awesome) And we beat this asshole team--who was convinced that we were stealing their answers after they GOT THEM WRONG--14 to 9. HA! For comparison, they beat our senior team 11 to 10 and crushed our sophomore team 17 to like.. 6. Moral of the story: we kick ass.

Two things I must always remember:
1) Never doubt Holly, especially not on parts of the brain
2) ALWAYS REMEMBER THE CHEATSHEET CHANT! (in our last round, we were down 7 to 4 (against peninsula, not lakes, but still) and a little after halfway through the round, me and holly figured out that we hadn't said our chant yet! after the ritual ensued, we came back to tie at 9-9! :D it was glorious.)

Now... I have to prepare for my anthro 104 final. UGH.

This Monday's Bulletin (for chs):
"Do you like to argue or get your way? You can learn how to do that more effectively by joining the Debate Team! The first meeting will be on Tuesday, Dec. 14th at 3:00 pm in room 211. See Mrs. Cassidy or Mrs. Sullivan if you have any questions."

OH MY GOD, WE HAVE A DEBATE TEAM NOW???? I wanna join!!! Dammit, but I think the schedule will conflict with knowledge bowl and tutoring.. T__T;;; unless we meet on Tuesdays and.. Saturdays.... I'm so there on the 14th though!!

Anyhow, I had an enjoyable evening with Kat! I got meself some 3 dolla moccasins XD and mcdonald's ice cream. A fine time indeed! And why is Trader Joe's so cool? Because we went, and it rather sucked. I mean, aisles of gourmet soy products. Is that now cool?

Ugh. Although I had a great day today (I had a wonderful evening at meg's with meg and kat, celebrating birthday cheer and eating fun, and jinny called me and we had a nice long conversation) I feel really gross right now. Ugggh.

Tomorrow I want to get up fairly early, go work out at the gym, and then spend the rest of the day doing something awesome. Exactly what, I do not know, but at least it won't be school.

Aw crap, I should really practice piano and write my three articles for the newspaper -_-;; I'll do it tomorrow...

...Dang, I just realized that Knowledge Bowl makes me excessively profane. XD Anyhoo, I'm going to finish this entry when I get back from aerobics! I'm definitely excited (although my back hurts so much from yesterday's aerobics -- we worked our back muscles, btw, so it's not me doing the exercises wrong ^^;; ). Bye for now!

[BACK! at 8:21] Circuit training was fun! We did kickboxing (just like we did yesterday), which was intense, crazy, and wonderful. After that, weight training and lots of squats. My butt is cramping up as I type. Hoo boy.

This week's been not too shabby. I bought presents and wrapped presents and gave presents and received presents, all more than a week before Christmas, hehe. A lot of my friends were so happy to receive their presents, even when they weren't much :D I felt so happy! I'm really glad that Jinny liked her present because I wasn't completely sure how she'd react... I gave her, ah, a homemade voodoo doll XD luckily she found it as hilarious as I did ^^ I still owe about 4-5 people presents, including Meg's, which I -did- have ready, but then I faced some difficulties and I couldn't finish in time >__<; I'll try to get that squared away.

Also, I exercised every weekday this past week-- which makes two weeks straight of exercising every weekday! :D I think I may have lost a pound because of it :O! My weight has been fluctuating from one to three pounds lighter than my usual for the last few days, a measurement that has been accurate for three different scales (yes, I checked three different scales XD). So AW YEAH!! I want to keep it up through the holidays. We'll see how that goes..

(and now a knowledge bowl rant, which you may want to skip)

WAY more fun than the kb match yesterday, however, was GOING TO CARO'S TERIYAKI PLACE WITH KAAAT!!!!!!! I LOVE our adventures in the "madhouse" of south tacoma way XD It was sooo fun and delicious. We then went to a cozy little coffee shop called "Escape," where I got biscotti and a hot cocoa. I'm not much of a drink drinker though, so I threw away almost all of it. Bah. I hate wasting money, but I just enjoy chewing and eating so much more than sipping. Nevertheless, I love cafes. Odd.

Then we went to SM Mart and felt like dying because we were so full hehe. I discovered that crouching over made me feel better, so I was hobbling around the store in a weird, half-arched position XD Very.. uh.. sexy. ... oh well, no one but kat and caro saw, so it's all good! When I went home, I couldn't sleep at all because of all of the caffeine. I hardly ever consume caffeine, so when I do get some... oh man. Cannot. Sleep. A. Wink.

Today was pretty stellar. Gave Heidi her xmas present, hung out with Meg, Jinny, and RAY in Intro to Business~~ DANG I hadn't talked to ray in forever!! it was so nice to see him again ^^ And he was sleeping, hehe, so he didn't realize at first that I was sitting a person over from him :) I hope he did well on his AP Calc test! After that, I went to lunch, then I tried to get my xmas present from Heidi's locker (she gave me her locker number and combo, but it was the WRONG ONE ~__~;; GEEZ heidi! hehe) with the assistance of Jessi, but to no avail for the reason just stated in the parentheses, then I ran into connie, and THEN! I went to chemistry with meg. OMG, Mangrum was so scroogey today! XD He almost actually got angry! But I felt so bad for Mangrum. He has HORRIBLE students in his class, other than like, the people in the back (meg, ali, barret, vanessa, and courtney. Oh and kyle who's in the front). Oh but then after class, Mangrum blamed the rowdiness of his class on ME! (jokingly, obviously) He was like, "well, it's usually not that bad.. but after YOU came in..." not that it could have been due to that class being the last hour and a half before winter break e_e;;

Then music club was cancelled, youth court was cancelled (for this upcoming tuesday), and then my tutoring job was cancelled. Oh, and korean club is cancelled tomorrow. So I went to aerobics :D And that's the rest of the story.

OKAY! I think I now have my blog pretty much caught up to date. Now I'm finally going to write the two newspaper articles that I have been procrastinating for weeks. *off to write*

Finished with one article. YES! And if the editor doesn't shorten anything, I'm getting a sweet five cents for each of the six hundred and fifty-eight words that I just wrote within the last two hours. Total of $32.90.

Two more articles to go.. one that I just may have enough info to write, and the other that I definitely do not have enough info to write. Plus I gotta edit the one I just did. Ah well, at least I have a lot less work that I did this morning! ^^

The gum that Heather gave me is incredibly cute (as shown here), but it has the most disgusting aftertaste in the world x__x bleh!

[EDIT: oh man guys, if you want to get me an xmas present, get me a tongue scraper XD for this stupid aftertaaaste!!]

OH MAN. I hung out with Kat this afternoon. We were supposed to go with Caro too, but she had to work T__T carooo~~~ you're killing us here!

Anyhow, omg. I had so much fun. First we checked out the Freighthouse Square, which was, unfortunately, quite the lame, but entertainingly lame. It had a cool Subway, aaand... antiques. So we ditched that place and explored around downtown Tacoma in search of a place to eat, always a scary ordeal. In the end (as usual) we decided to go back to University Place to eat somewhere. Our choice: Ruby Tuesdays! Much deliciousness. And note to self: Ruby Tuesdays' salad = nasty leaf crap. Get the fries.

THEN Kat had the peachy idea to go see a movie! I was hesitant at first because of my parents wanting me home early-ish, but DUDE, they let me! The movie started at 7:15 so we went for ice cream at McDonalds. Drivethrough. We always, always, ALWAYS have some sort of issue with drivethroughs. I asked the dude if we could have two small ice cream cones, and his response? "Yes, we have them." So I was like, "Umm, yeah, we want two of those." and he goes, "Yes." XDD And I'm looking back at Kat and she's cracking up and there's this looong weird fumbling and I finally say, slowly, "I'd like to order two small vanilla ice creams please" and finally he understood. When we drove up to the window, he was laughing at us! XD oh well. It was delicious ice cream.

And THEN! We went to the theatre and saw The Incredibles. It was, dare I say it? Most incredible. Aha ha ha. No seriously, it was awesome. Funny, cute, actiony, and completely engrossing. I was so into it XD The "I'm not strong enough" part (near the end) made me tear up~~ afterward, me and kat were FREAKING OUT about it!

Speaking of afterward, dang. It was so foggy. As in, Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer foggy. I was so scared to drive XD As Kat said, visibility of about, oh, 10 feet. At least we washed the cars today, and my dad fixed his headlights maybe yesterday. If not, whoa dang. We would have died.

Overall, I had a fabulous night. But somehow.. it still doesn't feel like break to me, even though I've had a week of break already. Isn't that weird? :/

Isn't it weird when someone you know in real life knows your sn, but you don't know who? Isn't it more weird when you can find out some of the mystery people's sns by hit logging via tabulas? Don't you wish those people would just IM you?

Not that I'm hinting at anything :P

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Only a few days late ^_^;; Sorry guys, I've been wrapped up with other stuff, so I couldn't write for a while.. Aghhh, I think I'm starting to be sucked into a very busy schedule with little rest and little sleep. Next month, I'm taking four classes at Pierce, working three jobs, competing in two clubs, and exercising daily. And OH crap, gotta study for the SATs, too. Ack. I can do it though! Yes! I can do it all!

...Well, even if it might be a bit of overload, I think it'll be worth it if I can pull it off. Plus, if the work is honestly too strenuous for me, I can always quit the jobs and clubs, or drop a class, even (if I do it right away). Grades and SATs above all else!

To be honest, I'm a little nervous, but I'm always a little anxious before the beginning of a new grading period at school. Blaaaah. I should stop thinking about this and cherish my last few days of break. *nod*

Now! In the last days of break, I need to...
+ Review stuff learned for Knowledge Bowl
+ Write up as much of the article for student email accounts as possible
+ Research for Debate Team (good LORD, it is hard -_-;; especially since we're starting, oh, almost three months late..)
+ Start studying for SATs (at least begin -_-; )
+ Write New Year's Resolutions
+ Relax~~!