My Long Overdue Writing

As I promised yesterday...writing! I actually got a few ideas for writing to post, but one of them seemed to promise the longest piece, so I chose that one. I was going to write it as a diary entry, but that's first-person and I wanted to post something third-person, since I already did a first-person piece. So I'm going to try to convert my idea into a third-person story. It's realistic fiction...again...I can't seem to think of anything else lately. It will suck terribly, so I suggest you stop reading now lest you waste a few minutes of your life reading some of the worst writing this world has ever seen.



       Laura stared out the car window, watching the sparkling white snowflakes drift merrily to the muddy asphalt, and disappear into the ugly brown sleet.
       "It's snooowwiiiing, it's snooowiiiinggggg!!!!" Ashley, Laura's younger sister sang in delight, bouncing around in her car seat, rapping at the glass as though she longed to break free from the buckles and belts fastening her to the seat of the car and race outside to the snow and wind.
       Mrs. Weiss, Laura's mother, turned around from the passenger seat in the car. "Sit still, Ashley," she chided her daughter, and then she addressed both of her daughters, saying, "There are a lot of cars stuck in the storm right now, so it could take us another few hours to reach Reno. Why don't you two take a nap?"
      Although she had been bubbling with excitement earlier, Ashley immediately cried, "Okay!" and leaned against the back of her chair and closed her eyes.
       Bored, Laura craned her neck so she could see the long line of cars stuck on the snowy highway, trudging along at about five miles per hour. Many cars had pulled off to the side to put snow chains on their car tires.
       Suddenly, all car movement came to a complete stop. Mr. Weiss muttered wearily, "There must be a heavily loaded truck up on the highway that can't climb up the mountain any more. Or maybe a car spun off the highway. I haven't seen such a bad storm in ten years."
      Sighing loudly, Laura slipped off her boots and pulled her knees to her chest. "How long will it take us to reach Reno, then?" she mumbled, but there was no answer except a deep, heavy breath from Ashley.
       A few minutes later, the cars started moving again. Laura sat up hopefully, but their SUV inched only a few feet forward and stopped again. Flopping back against the leather seat, Laura rolled her eyes and leaned her head against the cold window. Snow was falling more heavily than ever, so that Laura could hardly see anything but white.
       Just then, a man bundled up in thick layers of brightly colored clothing, wearing a neon green crossing-guard vest stopped at the window of the car in front of them, and appeared to be saying something to the people inside the car. Interested, Laura straightened and waited until the man came over to their car. Mrs. Weiss rolled down the window so he could speak, and snow blew into the car, stinging Laura's face and covering the seats in a thin sheet of white.
       "The highway is closed off now. It won't reopen for another three to five hours," the man announced, and then he left to go to the car behind the Weiss family.
       Seriously??!! Laura thought furiously. I have to sit in this car for another five hours with Ashley?
       Mr. Weiss and Mrs. Weiss exchanged worried glances. "You know, I think it would be better if we just...headed home," Mrs. Weiss suggested tentatively.
      As both parents had predicted, Laura exploded in fury and indignancy. "WHAT???!!" Laura spluttered. "We always go skiing for Christmas! When you saw the storm warning, I had to persuade you to keep our plans! Why do we have to go home? Why can't we park the car on the highway and wait for a few more hours? We've already been driving for six hours, haven't we? Might as well wait another three to five! I--"
      Mr. Weiss cut Laura off. "Laura," he started sternly.
      Ignoring her father Laura continued to fume. "What? What's wrong? We already drove this far, so there's no point to just head back! It's snowing just as hard on the road back home as the road to Reno! We--"
       "Laura!" Mrs. Weiss snapped. "Why don't we drive back to Sacramento, spend the night there, and then tomorrow morning, we can head back out for Reno."
       Mr. Weiss nodded appreciatively. "Yes, that's a great idea. Laura, why don't--"
       Interrupting her father just as he had earlier, Laura challenged, "It's going to take us a few hours to get back to Sacramento in this storm anyway! Why can't we just wait here?"
      Ashley had woken up from all of the shouting and commotion. "I'm hungry," she whined.
      "We can get food in Sacramento," Mrs. Weiss decided. "Besides, there aren't nearly as many cars headed away from Reno as there are to Reno. It'll only take an hour."
      Laura demanded angrily, "So the second Ashley says she's hungry, we turn right around to feed her spoiled face?! Yet when I really want to go to Reno, you just make some lame excuses and--"
     Livid, Mrs. Weiss cried, "Laura! Apologize to your sister!" Ashley had started crying.
     "No, I don't think I'll apologize for telling the truth," Laura snorted disrespectfully.



I couldn't think of how to end this. Anyway, it's a pointless story, just parents arguing with their child.

--Audrey

Winterlicious Tag

Thank you very much to July who tagged me with, as the title clearly states, the Winterlicious Tag!

Favorite Winter Movie: Miracle on 34th Street
Favorite Winter Holiday: Christmas (with New Year's as a very close second!)
Favorite Winter Drink: What qualifies as a winter drink, exactly? I like mint black tea, but if that doesn't count, I also enjoy hot cocoa with a candy cane melted into it.
Favorite Winter Accessory: snowflake necklace
One thing on your Christmas List: Barnes and Noble gift card (which I received, as you might know if you read my previous post)
One thing you regret: Not making sure that the hotel I was staying at had WiFi so I could blog
Five Pictures that have to do with winter or random:






Thank you to Google Images for the pictures! =)
And now to tag four others....
Fira Marine
Jessica
Kayla Anne
The awesome guy from www.entresting.com who I don't actually know and he won't actually do the tag, I think, but I can't think of anyone to tag that hasn't been tagged already...

--Audrey

A Belated Merry Christmas

Hi, everyone! I hope you had a very merry Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I think Kwanzaa starts today...and if you celebrate Chanuka, I hope that was a several days, and if you don't celebrate any of those, I hope you will have a happy New Year or a happy winter! For Christmas my parents gave me a $100 Barnes and Noble (a chain bookstore) gift card, which I am extremely happy about.
I really would've posted a lot earlier, but I went to Lake Tahoe in Nevada (which, by the way, has awesome sloped) and the hotel I was staying at had no WiFi, unless you buy it for like $25... But while I was on vacation, I had an idea for some long overdue writing to post, and July also gave me the Winterlicious Tag (which I will do in just a sec).

Right now, I seem to have the beginnings of the flu...stuffy nose, my head feels heavy, and my face is rather flushed. But I don't mind because I'm at home, with my family, well fed and happy, which unfortunately not everyone in the world can say. Anyway, not much else to say, so I think I'll get started on that Winterlicious Tag! Tomorrow I'll post the writing that I ought've posted loooong ago.

--Audrey

Guest Post: Vanessa

Hey, everyone!! Is anyone else positively DYING for Christmas break? Cuz I know I am XP
Happy Chanuka/Kwanzaa/Christmas/New Year/whatever you celebrate!
But more to the point, one of my best friends, Vanessa, is going to guest post! =)

When Audrey first asked me to guest post, I was forming a post in my head before I even accepted her offer (because, um, DUH I want to post on someone's blog!) I don't remember exactly what my evil brain was cooking up, but it was terrible and went something like this:

I'm not an artist. I can't draw or paint to save my life. I never had a knack for instruments. I can't sing or dance or design or decorate. I can't fold paper into pretty shapes or cut paper into pretty shapes. I'm not athletic either. I can't kick balls, catch balls, throw balls, run fast, jump over hurdles, swing rackets, do crazy tricks on four-inch beams, or do ten turns at once while balancing on the tips of my toes.

It went on like this, until I started to say that I always had writing, that I always loved writing, and writing was always there for me. And I'd turn that into a pretty little inspirational sob story. But I couldn't, because that is just totally FAKE. And wrong. Lies. False words that I'd put into my graduation speech. (except for the fact it is not in any way possible I'll be the valedictorian).

I don't mean to brag or anything, but truthfully, I'm not bad at everything but writing like I was going to say. If I do say so myself, I don't play the piano all too bad, and just two weeks ago I set my new mile-running record (6:23 WHAT NOW PEOPLES?!). But I knew I couldn't just blog up Audrey's awesome blog with my junky ramblings. So I obsessed over what I would write, how I could turn this guest post into something cool, something worthwhile that people wouldn't regret reading.

But unfortunately, I couldn't come up with anything, so you're just going to have to put up with my aforementioned junky ramblings. I thought I was going to write about...writing. How I love writing, how writing makes me happy, and all that mushy gushy cliche blah-blah-blah. I like to think of myself as a writer--I mean, I write. Not well, but I do write. And then, last night, or rather this morning, when I was technically supposed to be studying for a physics final that I took today and failed miserably, I knew what I was going to write about. This. These wonderfully amazingly breathtakingly awesome junky ramblings. Because that is what I write.

I could write an inspirational piece, if I tried. (Which I wouldn't). I could write about how happy writing makes me, because at least that's true. I could even post some of my many many manyyyy stories that I thought was a fantastical idea until I wrote about 2 pages and then my brilliant light was put out. But the truth is, that isn't what I write. I write about everything that comes to my mind, like whether pillows can be compared to iron in terms of brittleness and why concrete is grey and whether it's valid to complain about something that is wrong manner-wise but not breaking and rules or laws of any sort. And even if no one else but me cares about that, the fact remains that I care about it, and that's what matters in my writing. That I like what I'm writing, that I enjoy what I'm writing, that I feel like the writing is my own and not gushy inspirational words put into my head by my language arts teacher. Even though my writing sucks, generally has no point, and no one understands it...it's MY writing, and for me, that's all that matters.

 

    

 

    

And that's Vanessa! =) Very nice piece, I think. And inspirational. Although I don't quite get the part about pillows and iron...haha. And, um...a mile in 6:23??!!! Very impressive.
Please see Seana J Vixen's blog, she has a Christmas contest that she clearly wants people to enter! =D
~Audrey

What An Adorable Blog! Award

Thank you very much to the fabulous July, a totally awesome blogger who nominated me for the What An Adorable Blog! Award.

Rules of this award:
-- you must nominate 4 other bloggers
-- you must answer the following questions:

Q1: If you were stranded on a beach in the middle of nowhere, which three people would you have with you?
Molly, even though she’s extremely chatty XP, Alexa, and Cody Lundin, this totally awesome survivalist on Discovery Channel that’d get us three girls off the island in no time =).

Q2: Which celebrity would you love to meet?
Um…that’s hard…I’d have to go with Taylor Swift though. I really like her music.

Q3: If you won one million pounds/euros/other currency, what would you spend it on?
A MILLION dollars??!! I can’t even begin to imagine what that could buy me. I’d save $200,000 for college tuition, and use the rest to: buy more stuff for my awesome cat, buy BOOKS, help me get an agent to publish my NaNo novel, donate to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, donate to help soldiers overseas, and a vacation to Paris.

Q4: Pick two people you can't live without.
Oh…well, both my parents earn enough money individually to sustain our family’s life, but I can’t just put my mom and not my dad, or my dad and not my mom, so, although I’m totally copying from July (sorry!) my mom and dad.

Now, four other bloggers to nominate...hm, well...
Fira Marine because her blog is just totally awesome.
Jessica because her blog is also totally awesome, and she's an amazing writer AND artist.
Hermione because I really like her blog, and because she's a huge fan of Harry Potter like me =).
Kayla Anne because her blog is super cool, and she's really good at taking pictures of herself. Which I just can't do.

Have fun everybody I nominated, and I hope you aren't mad at me for making you do a post about your award!
 



 

Take It All

So unless you want to waste some of your precious time listening to me rant about the utterly ridiculous and stupid new game show "Take It All," I highly suggest you don't continue to read this post.
(totally off-topic question: Does anyone know how to change the text color of the "About Me?")

Brief overview of the game show: There are five people. The first person opens a "prize." The next person can either: open a new prize, or take the first person's prize. If someone wants your prize, you can't stop them--you have one "lock" that stops someone from taking your prize, only one in the game. At the end of the round, whoever has the cheapest prize has to go home empty-handed. There are four people; the game continues. Then there are 2 people left. They go to a "prizefight." So basically each person gets a cash prize, but they don't know how much it is. Then each player chooses either "Keep Mine" or "Take It All." If BOTH choose "Keep Mine" then BOTH keep the prizes they have accumulated through the rounds. If ONE puts "Keep Mine" and ONE puts "Take It All," the person who puts "Take It All" gets all the prizes-their own, and the other person's. If they BOTH choose "Take It All," then they BOTH get nothing. This last part is supposed to be the super-exciting part but it isn't, if you think about it, which is why this show is poorly designed.
(wow, still reading?) (go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_It_All_(game_show) for a better explanation of the game show--I can't explain things well).

So at first I thought OF COURSE you should choose "Take It All" because: IF the other person puts "Keep Mine" you get EVERYTHING. And if the other person puts "Take It All," maybe you get nothing, but at least the other person doesn't take your stuff.
Then, I sort of thought about it at a mathematical level. Assuming there's a fifty-fifty chance of choosing either "Keep Mine" or "Take It All."
IF you choose "Take It All" you have a 50% chance of getting NOTHING and 50% of getting EVERYTHING. If you choose "Keep Mine" you have a 50% chance of getting NOTHING and a 50% chance of getting HALF.
Well, DUH!!!! Are you going to flip a coin for $0/$200 or flip a coin for $0/$100?????!!!! (how I wish there was an interrobang key...but if it's on the Symbol section of Word I'm soo not going to copy-paste it and go through all that trouble, lazy me XD)
The last competition is basically determining whether or not you trust the other person enough to put "Keep Mine" so that you can both get money. So I thought maybe on the trust level, the game would be better designed.
But then I thought about it and it STILL makes more sense to put "Take It All." IF you DO trust the other person to put "Keep Mine," it's better to put "Take It All" 'cuz then you get EVERYTHING.
If you DO NOT trust the other person to put "Keep Mine," it's better to put "Take It All" because at least then the other person won't get your prizes.

If anyone's still reading this, and hasn't fallen asleep due to my poorly constructed, boring, rude rant, please tell me in the comments or Cbox whether there's something about this stupid show that I didn't quite understand!

The Useless Post

As the title of this useless post cleary states, this post is useless. But I haven't posted in quite a while and felt like I should, which is why I'm putting off three projects, an essay, massive amounts of other homework, and finals-studying to write this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi3aEGo8y-E Very cool Procrastination Musical =)


So I'm kind of tempted to leave this post at that, since I really have nothing going on with me. Unless you want to read about my mountainous stacks of homework (part of which is overdue) or my big, this-is-half-of-my-semester-grade-so-I-really-can't-screw-this-up projects, or my vain attempts to memorize pages upon pages of Spanish vocabulary, or my Nastily Exhausting not-Wizarding final Tests.

A semi-interesting story: On Sunday night, or more accurately Monday morning, when I was frantically trying to finish all my homework (that I totally didn't leave until that time) there was a loud shout from outside, which was quite scary, believe me, because one does not often hear a man yell "HEY!!!!" at the top of their lungs on a Monday morning at approximately 2:30 AM, the shout seeming to have come from your backyard. But when I looked outside, my neighbors were actually having some sort of party in their backyard... some sort of December 9th holiday I don't know about?

That's all =) Happy Holidays, everyone!