I hate people

I realize that a lot of times on this blog, I've been very negative. I'm not sorry for it though. This blog is definitely not all sunshine and rainbows and glitter. It's the real stuff that seriously gets me pissed off.
Today in my history class, a guy asked my teacher, "If you had a son that was gay, what would you do with him?"
What would you do with him?
The teacher just looks at the kid and says, "What would I do with him? Well I've never been put in that situation before, but if I was I guess I wouldn't be happy about it, but I wouldn't disown him or anything."
Way to go Mr. _________ (I don't mention many names besides close friends on my blog)
Then the kid says, "Well wouldn't you try to make him be straight?"
Teacher: "Like I said, I've never been in that situation before but I'd like to think I wouldn't." or something like that, because as he was talking, a guy in the back who I'd always thought was sort of funny said, "You could always beat him until he was straight." His comment solicited several laughs and a few snickers.
Needless to say, I lost any respect I had for those individuals today.
Why are there always people like that? Why can't everyone just leave other people alone? EVERYONE is different from everyone else, so why do we pick at those differences? Is it just because they aren't us?
You've all for the most part kept up with my blog, at least I hope you have, and you know that I hate ignorance of any kind. One of my favorite comedians has a song called Rant and he basically talks about how some churches say God is all loving, but hates gay people. I'm sorry, but if that's what it means to be a Christian, you can count me out. I understand that some people say, "But it's in the Bible!" Yeah, yeah, yeah. Save it. There's a whole lot in the Bible that we don't follow anymore, but people choose to look at the Bible in ways that benefit themselves. And don't people realize that God didn't write the Bible?
For the most part, I hope I have readers that agree with what I write on here because it's really nice to know that I'm not the only one with the same views.
Why can't people be accepting? Why can't they walk a mile in others shoes? If I ever had a child that was gay, I'd probably love them even more. Think of the crap that they have to go through on a daily basis. Someone who thinks that people can choose to be gay, (which I think is total BS)  why would someone choose to be bullied to the point of killing themselves over people not agreeing with who they are?
Think about it, would you want to be called a homo or a fag for the rest of your life? I know I wouldn't. People have called me a lesbian before and it hurt my feelings a little, until I realized how strong any gay, bi, and lesbian person has to be to put up with that shit everyday.
And why does it matter? Why can't they get married to? It's not like we're going to run out of straight people. It's not like it's a contagious disease.
This is the segregation of our generation. We can either sit back and let it happen, or we can take a stand for what we believe in. Because if you ask me,

Here are some sites to support gay rights and to help end bullying.

http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ The Trevor Project, Preventing suicide among LGBTQ teens.
http://gayrights.change.org/ This is a social petition, sign it!
http://www.itgetsbetter.org/ This sites gives plenty of examples about how life really does get better for LGBTQ youth.

Chocolate, spiders, and alcohol

My brother planting a nice chocolate kiss/mustache on my dad's head.  

Today I went to a chocolate party with my mom. Yes, there actually is such a thing and it's probably the greatest thing ever invented... EVER.
So I filled my plate up with chocolate and everything else there just about and it was wiped out ridiculously fast. Don't get me wrong, I only went back up there to reload on some of this spicy chocolate dip that can go with anything, but when I came back to my seat, I realized that I had just completely stocked up again.
I sincerely went up there with good intentions, I was thinking all like, Yeah! A few carrots and some more dip..don't mind if I do... But then... I saw the cheese.
I am a sucker for cheese, and chocolate, so I got a few cubes of cheese. But then I saw the fondue dip.
This little deal went on for a while until my brain was all like, What happened to just a few carrots, Sara? Which is why I went back to my seat knowing that I had done the right thing.
At one point during the party, the chocolate person made chocolate martinis and was walking around seeing if anyone wanted unleaded.
She looked straight at me and said, "Unleaded or leaded?"
Me: "I'm fifteen, so..."
Chocolate lady: "Oh my gosh! I'm sorry! You look a lot older!"
Me to my mom: "That's the second time something like that has happened in the past three months."
Mom: "At least this one didn't assume you were a school teacher."

After the many fattening snacks were devoured, and my favorite kid to babysit ever (Megan, you might remember her from this post) had given me an awesome duct tape bracelet, we went home and I got in the shower.
Well, I was about to get in the shower when I realized two things:

1. It is generally not smart to leave a flat iron plugged in for very long periods of time
2. There was a gigantic spider in my tub.

Now of course since I have a fear of spiders, I'm exaggerating... just a tad. But I'm not kidding, this spider was the size of a half dollar. You guys know by now that I'm no sissy girl, I don't care about mud and dirt and painted nails or even snakes. But me and spiders? We aren't exactly friends.
So I screamed. Not like a crazy-lady-who-sits-beside-me-in-spin-class BFBCC (Burp Fart Battle Cry Combo), but it was a pretty decent scream. I ran down the stairs and told dad to kill it and got this response: "Man up and be a girl!" Yes, because that makes so much sense.
So he kills it, by washing it down the tub's drain.
The entire time I was in the shower, I was staring at the drain half expecting to see a radio active spider crawl up from the black hole and bite me. Of course, then I'd be spider girl which would be pretty freaking awesome, right? :)

Peace, love, and radio active spiders,
                                                         ~Sara

More pictures :)

My little brother :)

Dying flower

Winking

After about five hours working on and off with my five reports, one poster, and half a song for guitar class, I'm all done! Thank goodness! :)
I also decided that I am what you might call a procrastinator. I put just about everything off until the very last minute... It's not a good thing to be.
Which is why I'm making a pledge to never again wait until the day before a deadline to start on something.
By now you're probably thinking, why is this post called winking?
Today in lunch, my right contact was really drying out. Some of you may have noticed that sometimes I blink one eye before the other one? Well it's thanks to the stupid contacts. If it weren't for the fact that I look like even more of a nerd with my glasses on, I'd wear them all the time. So, as I was staring in the general direction of the line that people stand in to put their trays, I blinked only my right eye.
Then Kimberlee says, "Did you just awkwardly wink at that guy?" I looked up, and to my embarrassment, there is a guy walking up to the line giving me a weird look. Thanks contacts that refuse to be moist, thanks a lot.
To make matters even worse, on the way out of the cafeteria, I elbowed this other guy. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty darn stupid.
I that's when I decided to never go to lunch again.

Peace, love, and awkward involuntary winks,
~Sara

Tired

With the way school is, I feel like I have barely any time to myself anymore. Last night I would have loved to get on here and write a big long post about how everything was going with me, or maybe about some weird thing that I thought about, but no. What did I do? I played guitar until my back hurt so bad that I had to take an Ibuprofen. So I didn't have time to blog, or write, or make dubstep, or paint. Or.. maybe work on the five page report I have to do over Egyptian mythology.. Nope, I played guitar because I'm tired of being a idiot child in there! Sure, I can play a few chords pretty good, but when it comes to picking? Ha! Count me out. I'm sorry if my stubby little fingers can't keep up. I really do love that class though. There's tons of really cool people in there! Though there are a few that annoy the crap outta me when they turn guitar class into American Idol. Seriously people? Namely people from my own gender. Which is why I don't sing in there. Because I'd rather not be approached by people singing to me "Goodbye, Earl" by the Dixie Chicks.
Call me crazy, but I've already gone over the fact that I'm not a very social person. At all.
And believe me, there's people in there that have done just that thing.

All of that stress, plus the extra stress that I put on myself, is why I'm tired.
I'm tired ALL the time now! I'm, tired when I wake up, I'm tired in the middle of the day, and I'm tired when I go to sleep. Honestly, if anyone knows any good ways to not be tired, I'll take them! Besides energy drinks.. I hate them for the most part. :)

Peace, love, and lazy bums,
~Sara

Really cool genre of music... Dubstep :)

Thanks to Jacksfilms on YouTube, I discovered this awesome music! It's so different and I absolutely HAD to learn how to make it :) Granted, I suck right now, but I'm still learning! Here are some videos that will help explain what Dubstep and Drops are :) (The Drop is when the music goes from awesome, to OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING!) The first video is just telling you how to make it, the rest are just downright awesome Dubstep tracks :) I also threw in a few great Dubstep dancers :) How they do it, I have no idea... But they're really awesome to watch!
The great thing about this genre is, it can sound like anything. My favorites are the ones that stop right before the drop :)
                                                          Truly insane, this guy is awesome!

                                                                   How to make it
                                                     (the drop in this one is really cool)

                 The concept of this video is pretty dumb, but guns shooting dubstep music? I think yes :)

Whoa....

Spin class

If any of you have ever been to a spin class at a gym, then you'll really know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then I'll have to paint the picture for you.
First of all, a spin class is where you get on those little spin bikes. They're sort of like recumbent bikes, only you can go a whole lot faster on them. Secondly, our spin class takes place in a dark room with a big mirror on one wall that reflects the little string lights that hang around it. Lastly, there is pretty loud upbeat music.
So now that you have the background, let's get back to the story.
I had never been to a spin class before today. My mom had gone last weekend but I had spent the night at Paige's and we didn't go to sleep until sometime that morning. Spin class is on Saturdays at 8:15.
Mom went without me and had a blast, so I figured I'd try it out. We already go to Zumba and even though I have all the coordination of a dying mule (first thing I thought of), and I love it! Which is why I was like, "What the heck, it won't hurt to try." WRONG! That class kicked my butt!
Which, coincidentally, is what my mom said to me right before we left and I was thinking, haha yeah right. I can take a bike class! No problem!
We walked in, got on our bikes, and started to warm up. A creepy old man was sitting on the bike directly across from me and he kept looking at me. I started to wish I'd worn longer shorts.
There was an old lady sitting right next to me. Now, when I say old, I mean that she looked around sixty or so but sounded like she was a ninety yer old smoker. But how, you might be wondering, could you tell what she sounded like when the music was so loud?
Here's how.
Every time we'd sprint or stand up for a few seconds (which felt like eternity), when we'd sit down, this lady would go, "AHHHHHH!" I mean she yelled it. The farther along we got into the class, the more annoying she got. She eventually moved on the the point where she was adding in a few extra sounds into her yelling to switch it up a little bit. "ARRRGGGH!" "YIIIIIH!" And, my personal favorite, "ARRGHH" *pause* BURP.
I kid you not, this little old women let out a belch that made me want to get off my bike right there and make her say excuse me. That, or get her a medic to find out what the crap was wrong with her. My mom finally figured out who was doing all of the carrying on, and after that every time she yelled out or let out the occasional burp, we'd look at each other and laugh. Nothing says family bonding time like laughing over an old screaming woman who had possibly eaten something that didn't quite agree with her.
Wow this is a long post! But hopefully it made you laugh :)

Peace, love, and lots of burping,

~Sara

People who annoy me

Tonight I realized something. By now, if you've kept up with my blog all this time, you've realized something as well: I realize a lot of things. Anyways, tonight i found out that my tolerance for annoying people isn't very good.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty tolerant person, but when it comes down to people who are fake and just plain mean, I can't take it. We've all had to deal with them, those people that attach themselves to your particular group of friends and follow you everywhere. They make things really awkward don't they? Yep!
I also realized that girls in general annoy me, which is so funny because I am a girl! Haha.. I think I've had a tad too much caffeine..
It's not that all girls bother me, obviously. I have some really awesome girlfriends, but I'm talking about the stereotypical drama starters that go through boyfriends as fast as a woodchuck goes through wood. Like that saying? I just made it up. Ingenious right? Anyway, I had to "take a shift" with this girl that was hanging around us, but no one really liked. Now everyone knows that I'm anti-social. If you don't think that, then you've never seen me when I'm either by myself or with people I don't really know all that well. So when two other girls came up and noticed my lack of social skills, the first thing they said to me? Okay, wait a second. Let's back up to when they first walked up. Not only did these girls walk up and only say hello to the said annoying girl in question, they completely bypassed the fact that I was even there. Honestly, I could have cared less because I didn't really like either of them, but still. So what was the first thing they said to me?
"Why is she so quiet?" And actually, they said that to the annoying girl who I'll now call Aggie. I turned around and looked at them, smiled a little and said, "I just like being quiet."
And it's the truth! I really do like being quiet...sometimes. It gives me time to think. For instance, the whole time I was standing there, staring blankly at the football field, I was thinking about writing this very post.
Then they got back to talking about cheer leading and I tuned them out again. Until Paige walked up with cheese fries. That was good enough reason for me to pay attention again :)
Honestly, I don't understand why Aggie picked us. She was obviously only using us to get what she wanted which was to be able to go to the F-ball game. She was grounded under the condition that she could go places as long as a friend was with her. Don't ask me to explain, it's a really long story that would bore you to tears.
How many of us have to pretend to be someone we aren't just to deal with these people? I really wish that any of us had been brave enough to just say it like it is, but we weren't. What about you? How do you handle these types of situations?

~Sara

Drafts

I was looking through my posts and I was overwhelmed with how many posts have never been completed!
Most of them aren't published because I don't know how readers will respond to the content, but some of them just haven't been posted. And then I thought, how many other bloggers do the very same thing? Write an entire post and then save it, never planning on publishing it on the principle that some people might not like your views on something? Which is why from now on, I'm posting everything that I write on here.
I'm not holding back anymore because I really want to know if other people have the same views as me :)
From now on, expect to see even more controversial topics popping up on my blog :)

Embarrasing moments!

Today in lunch, we had nachos of all things. Which is why when I dumped the entire contents of my tray (excluding the re fried beans, they stayed exactly where they were) all over the floor surrounding my seat, I was thinking: Why was it not hot dog day or something?
The girls at the table next to ours looked up at me with disgust, as if I'd committed murder. Then again, those girls look that way no matter what, so I wasn't that offended.
One of the guys that we sit with walked up about that time and just looked at the mess. He looked a me and said, "Did you do that?" And I nodded. So then he said, "Sma-hoooth!" And then I wasn't embarrassed anymore. Well, mostly.
Then I had to go find the janitors and tell them what I did. So they started cleaning while I walked in and got another lunch. Ah, the beauty of being me.
I have embarrassing moments all the time, so it's hard to single out my most embarrassing moment. When I figure it out, I'll be sure to tell you though!
What about you? Have you had any embarrassing moments lately?

Funny stuff!

I know this is an abnormally short post from me, but I really want to work on my story. So here are a few videos that Grammar Nazi's with a good sense of humor should laugh their heads off at!

I know I skipped number five, it's not the best :) But the rest are pretty great!

And then I started thinking...

Last night, some of you might have watched the Perseid meteor shower. I set out with great intentions, I even set my alarm clock for 2:30 a.m. so that I could go outside and watch the skies. When my brother woke me up at 2, I'm not sure what he was exactly telling me because I was still half asleep, I'm guessing he said something along the lines of, "I've been outside and haven't seen any." So I tried to go back to sleep.
Somewhere during the time that I was still working on going back to sleep, I started thinking.

WARNING! The rest of the post is very nerdy and it gets even worse towards the end. If you don't want to read it, Watch the video! It's cooler anyway :)
Most of you know by now that when I start thinking, I really start thinking. Usually it's pretty easy to tell when I'm lost in thought. My symptoms include: A blank stare into nothing, biting the inside of my cheek, a glazed over look in my eyes and my eyebrows are usually pulled together in concentration.
So as I laid there, just thinking, I started feeling pretty insignificant.
For those of you that don't know, the Perseid meteor shower is actually made up of dust and other particles. That's right, dust. Sure, we aren't talking about the sort of dust most of us are familiar with, we're talking about bits of comet that was left behind in the path of Earth's orbit, but you get the idea.
The Earth to us is huge. The Earth compared to the entire universe...is even smaller than a fleck of dust.


To sort of put this into perspective, If this web page represents the sun, the period at the end of this sentence represents the Earth. 


I had to make that last sentence smaller to be true to the website where I found the information. :)

Think about it! This page is suppose to be the sun. That period up there is suppose to be the Earth. 

Compared to just our galaxy alone, the sun is an ant!

Compared to our entire universe which no one knows the size of because it never stops growing, the sun is 

microscopic. And the sun is a MILLION times bigger than the Earth!   

Here is a video to make you feel even smaller. 


I can't even wrap my mind around how tiny we are! 

Well, that was the first ever Nerd Day post! For future reference, any day is nerd day in my book. I'm going to dedicate a page to all of this scientific stuff and just cool stuff in general that I find fascinating :) 


Thanks for reading! 

Where I got some of my information :) 

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_big_is_Earth_compared_to_the_Universe

 

Awesome website

I stumbled across a website one day not too long ago called Youniverse. It's a really great website and pretty much got my personality exactly right on every level :) To take the tests, you click the picture which strikes you the most. Then it gives you your visual DNA. Here are a few examples of what I got! If you check out this site, please comment with your test results! I want to see what everyone else got :)


Mind: The Questioner- You are a highly creative person who likes to question the norm. You're always keen to broaden your outlook on life. You are fond of learning and may sometimes choose to shy away from the world, immersed in books or surfing the net. You can find the written word very comforting. You probably enjoy being surrounded by books. You've got a thirst for knowledge and an almost nerdy love of tiny details.


Art: The Happy Dabbler- Your creativity lies in everyday objects. You don't need to roll up your sleeves or embark on a major project to get creative. And in fact you may not have much time for grand artistic schemes. But you still find plenty of ways to express yourself in your daily life. It s just a natural reflection of who you are.
Deep down you have a curious spirit and like exploring new places and ideas. Your creativity is reflective and philosophical. You are definitely a deep thinker. 


Those were just two of my test results, but I figured that you would get bored reading all of them :) 

The bird

Mom's hand :)

Today in guitar class, I was flipped off a couple of times. Was I offended? No! Because the flippers in question didn't mean to flip anyone off. The song that they were playing doesn't use the middle finger which gives you two options. You could stick it straight up in the air and flip off the entire class, or you could do what I and most of the other students do and just put it on another string. Proof that musicians have a great sense of humor :)

We had to get up and play in front of everyone in the class and my hands were shaking so bad that I screwed up a few times :( I played Bad Moon Rising because I know it by heart. The bad thing about that song? It's really fast. Sure, I could have slowed it down considering my hands were trembling so bad, but that would have thrown off the beat! So I played fast, slipped on a few notes, but in the end everyone clapped :)
They also said I was the most improved out of everyone in the class which wasn't true. If you know me, you know that I'm a very quiet person and it takes me a while to get used to people. Since I'm like that, only Shelby had really heard me play. So actually, I had been able to play that song for months, but what they don't know won't kill them :)
The teacher should have called me out on not playing the chords like he taught us, but what he said was, "Great job, Sara. Excellent timing and good left hand." So needless to say, I felt pretty good about myself.
The only issue is that we have to show improvement next week. I'm not the fastest learner when it comes to guitar, so unless I sing, I'm not sure what I'll do.
Maybe one of these days, I'll be brave enough to sing in front of people, but today? Not happening.
Maybe I'll do a cover of a song and post it on here first just to get feedback :)

~Sara

Colored fingers

Shadow :)

Yearbook class has to be my favorite class this semester. Well, I guess it ties with guitar. :)
Today we made posters telling students when fall pictures would be made. Paige, Kelsey, and I were all in the same group and we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. :)
While the other groups stayed centered around the theme of taking pictures, we used fingerprints.
It was Kelsey who had the idea for using our finger prints on the poster and I'd like to say that it was a genius idea! I'm always looking for a good enough excuse to give in to my inner kindergartner :) So we set to work coloring our hands with markers.

I know that the markers say that they're washable, but they're lying. The proof is still on my hands that have been washed at least five times since I've been home. That's not counting the Germ-x that I used in a last effort to get rid of the ink.
Essentially the poster told when the pictures would be made and around the words, were little finger prints.
Sure, I got a few weird looks from a student or two on my way back to pick up my guitar, but did I care? The answer is no. My hands were freaking awesome!
Getting to the point of this post, sometimes it's okay to just be silly. I think a lot of us forget that as we grow up, and it makes me sad. So wear crazy socks, paint your hands all the colors of the rainbow, and never ever forget what it was like to be a kid. :)

~Sara

13 Reasons

I just finished Thirteen Reasons Why by brilliant Jay Asher. First of all, I'm not going to give anything away that isn't either A) on the back of the book or B) on one of the first few pages of the book.

Essentially, the book is about a girl who killed herself, but left behind  several tapes telling not only why she did it, but who helped her make the decision. This isn't going to be a book review, so don't stop reading now. Mostly this is a discussion based around one of the main themes of the book.

This book really made me think about how much we affect other people's lives without even really knowing it. More than that, the extent to which we affect them. Something that we may think is entirely harmless can be taken very seriously. Another thought worth thinking about is how people deal with everything differently.
I guess in the long run, that's the real reason behind most depressions.
If you understand what I'm getting at, keep  reading. If you don't, skip to the end where I finally get to the point.

Suicide is a very hard thing to come to terms with. So many people are affected by one person's choice to end their own life. I think the hardest thing for people to wrap their heads around is, how could they? How could they do something so awful? People have their reasons. Sometimes the reasons don't make sense to anyone but the person going through with it, but they have them. In this character's case, she was very misunderstood and she really needed someone to trust, but she never found one. She lost hope too quickly.
When I was reading this book, for the first few reasons, I didn't really understand why someone could kill themselves over things like that. Towards the end, it made a lot more sense.
I felt so sad while I was reading it, thinking of how many teens who may be in the same situation as her.

There's always hope. Even though you might not be able to envision a future where you're happy, there is one. The disgusting thing that stood out to me in this book was the way her peers treated her. It was so much like something that you would actually see happening. It made me feel so bad for listening to rumors and laughing. It made me feel awful about how we treat one another.
We are all so quick to judge, no matter what we say. We look at people and don't really see them. We see the viscous rumors that people start for the fun of it. But tell me, how much fun do you get out of watching a classmate or anyone for that matter, wither away like that?

Next time you hear a rumor, no matter how tempting it might be to laugh and gossip about the victim, really think about how they felt when they heard the same rumor.
I honestly think this book has changed me and that everyone should read it.

~Sara

Good songs :)

A while back I posted ten songs (I think) that were happy or encouraging. Today, I'm posting a few songs that may not really be happy at all. A few of them are actually pretty sad if you listen to the words.
Which is why I'm writing this! Really listen to the words in songs. Some of the lyrics might surprise you!

I'll Follow You Into the Dark- Death Cab for Cutie

Dance Me to the End of Love- The Civil Wars

Run- Snow Patrol

Roll Away Your Stone- Mumford and Sons

Out of these four songs, which was your favorite? :)

Lack of time

Sorry for the really quick post today! I've had  lot going on and I've just now had the time to actually try to post something today. I'm working on about four other drafts of posts right now, But they may take a little time to finish. I thought I would at least have one done tonight but I'm really tired. Which is why instead, I'm posting a few stray pictures that don't really fit anywhere else. I know, I know. Hold your applause. Thanks for being patient!
~Sara

A stack of good books

Here is a stack of books that I really loved and I know others will love as well :)

From the top: Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Stargirl and Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher
Virals by Kathy Reichs
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvater
Matched by Allie Condie
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen
The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
#1 City of Bones
#2 City of Ashes
#3 City of Glass
#4 City of Fallen Angels

Wolves in cages

The last thing I expected to see at the fair today were wolves in little cages.
I'm an animal lover right? Which is why it shocked me when I saw a little area marked "See the Wolves".
Initially, I'd said that I didn't want to go in and see them because of how sad it was. I changed my mind when I realized that it was a great opportunity to blog about.
I paid a dollar and walked inside and saw this wolf standing at the cage bars, looking out at the muddy fair grounds.

It broke my heart seeing her just looking out from the bars like that. On the wall, a sign assured everyone that these animals were part of the North Carolina animal sanctuary, but the carny outside didn't look like anyone that I would picture working at an animal sanctuary. I could smell the stench of his cigarette from inside the small trailer.

I'm not sure if they were actually treated well, but the wolf in the picture never stopped pacing around the cage.

This wolf's eyes were so pretty and yellow. 

How awful it must be, to go from being completely wild, to being trapped in a small cage surrounded by staring faces.

Here's something that was a little coincidental and somewhat funny due to the circumstances.

See that camper? It says "Beck's Bunkhouse". In the book Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, one of the main characters is Beck and he's the pack leader of the wolves :) 
You can see how this is ironic if you've read the books. 


We should never take for granted any of the wonderful creatures living around us.

~Sara

Fair Pictures!

One of my all time favorites :) Even if it's a little blurry :)

Prepare yourself!

More pictures later! 

Day one: Research

Ah research..... Did I just spend thirty minutes sifting through pages and pages of brain tumor symptoms? I most certainly did. Don't be alarmed, I don't have a tumor. What I do have is a brand spanking new story to write and barely any knowledge about tumors.
I can officially say that I have learned the difference between malignant and benign tumors and what an encapsulated tumor is. I love story research :) Tumor X-rays? Not so much...
Since I need the information, I can just get over all the gross pictures that pop up on the medical websites. Like bacterial skin infections...*shudder* I could never ever be a dermatologist.
I set the story in Missouri, another place I know relatively nothing about.
This should be an adventure!

~Sara

Answering thoughtful questions

When I get bored I find random things on the Internet. Here's a list of questions that I decided to answer and post :) I really loved everyone of these questions, but there were fifty of them. So I'm only answering 26 of them right now. I'll put the other half on here later.

1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? I'd be 19, in college and working on my psychology degree.
2. Which is worse, failing or never trying? Never trying, because if you don't try, how will you ever know how a situation might have turned out?
3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do? I think a big part of that is because at certain times in our lives, we've all tried to fit in with the wrong people.
4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done? Probably, people talk really big about what they're going to do and then do something completely different.
5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world? What an easy question! I would give everyone the gift of understanding others. You can't have peace without understanding why other people do what they do.
6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich? Psychology :) A psychologist is someone that helps other people work through their problems so they can be happy again :)
7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing? This year, I'm doing everything I believe in.
8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently? I wouldn't have a computer for one thing, or video games. So much of our lives are wasted by doing stuff like what I'm doing now. I would live pretty on the edge also and I wouldn't have any kids. If I had kids and knew I would die before I could see them grow up, what would be the point?
9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken? I left my old group of friends who were awful to me and found new ones :)
10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things? Doing the right things. There's no right way to do much of anything is there?
11. You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire.  They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend.  The criticism is distasteful and unjustified.  What do you do? This is a hard question because situations have happened like this before only I was the victim. No one came to my rescue did they? Which is why I would have to stand up for her.
12. If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be? Firstly, I don't think that a newborn would actually remember the advice to begin with, but assuming they would, I would tell them to live without limits and chase their dreams. That in itself is pretty much what everyone should do :)
13. Would you break the law to save a loved one? Depends on what they did. If they robbed a house and murdered someone for no reason, then no. If I believed that they were falsely accused then probably.
14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity? Best question so far! I think that you have to be somewhat insane if you're creative anyway :) I usually see creativity now when I think something strange, but a few years ago, I thought I was losing it.
15. What’s something you know you do differently than most people? Considering I have OCD and Anxiety, I do a few things a little differently, but all of that aside I'd say that I tend to get lost in deep thoughts more than most people. I question a lot of things.
16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy? Because we're all different people! When I get excited over seeing a shooting star or a new notebook, I don't expect everyone to have the same amount of enthusiasm.
17. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?  What's holding you back? Finishing a novel. That is my one biggest dream that still hasn't been completed. I'm my own worst enemy in that case. I keep telling myself that what I'm writing isn't up to other people's standards.
18. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of? Figuratively speaking, yes. I'm holding onto quite a few things that I should let go of.
19. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why? Another great question! Australia :) Because it's another big dream I have and because I've always wanted to live there. My friends think I'm crazy for this (besides Dylan because he understands the way I think the best haha) but I think that it's crazy to stay in one place forever.
20. Do you push the elevator button more than once?  Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster? Nope, I press it once then quickly hit the "close doors" button, if there's no one else in the elevator, I do a dance :)
21. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton? Worried genius, because simpletons don't think about the same sorts of things. I don't think I could ever let go of my crazy imagination haha
22. Why are you, you? That, is a tough one. Why are any of us the way we are? I think that our personalities are shaped by both the events and people that we meet early on in our lives.
23. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend? Not as much as I should be.
24. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you? Losing touch with a friend who lives close by. It's happened to me before, and I hope it never happens again. You have to dwell on your mistakes more than you'd like because you're faced with it every single day.
25. What are you most grateful for? My parents without a doubt. They have raised both my brother and I to be pretty good kids, if I do say so myself :) We're the farthest thing from spoiled and don't expect anything to be handed to us. I'm closer to my mom than my dad, but I think that's because we're so much alike. Since we have similar personalities, we fight more than I'd like, but it never lasts very long and we always say we're sorry.

That's it for part one of the deep and thoughtful questions! :) I'm making a new page to store these sorts of things so that you don't have to scroll through such long posts!

~Sara

The story I need to tell

In the summer before eighth grade, I had an idea for a story. I know, I have ideas all the time, but this one has stayed with me ever since. I fell in love with the characters and the story that they were telling. I'm not sure how it would have ended, I never actually thought that far into it. I do know that one day, I need to get around to rewriting it. The very beginning of it was a prologue that was somewhat lengthy, but overall I think it sets the story up exactly right. So here's what I've been thinking. Since I love the main characters so much, but don't really like the setting and a few other big plot points, I'm going to start it over. I think that it's about time that I finish a story don't you? Unless it's total crap, I'm going to finish this one. As added incentive to finish, I'm making up a deadline and posting the countdown on this blog. That way, I can pretend like I have a time limit that I have to stick to. Also, I will be posting a few excerpts on here, but no lengthy ones. I sort of want to keep this under wraps until I know I'm going to finish it :) 

~Sara

The napping dilemma

Today I was babysitting a girl down the street. We were watching Bolt on TV when I started to feel really  sleepy. I don't mean just sort of tired, I'm talking about the kind of tired where you keep waking yourself up without realizing that you fell asleep in the first place. I was mad at myself because for one thing, I'm not being paid to sleep on the couch. So I devised a plan. Every time I woke myself up, I would say something to keep myself awake that much longer. "That puppy is so cute!" Megan, the little girl, agreed with me and we went back to watching the movie. Not five minutes later, I had started to doze again so I said, not at all enthusiastically, "What a cool scooter." There was no answer. I looked over at the other couch and saw that Megan was sound asleep. Thank goodness! Now I could sleep without feeling guilty! I fell asleep as fast as I think I ever have on that couch, with the TV on, sunlight streaming in through the windows, and in a house that wasn't my own. I think that's a record for me!
There are so many different kinds of sleep, and this one fell into the category of, "Exhausted Babysitting Teenager". I woke myself up several times to make sure she was still asleep and not having to fend for herself in the kitchen. I even had a few dreams. When I woke up, I had time to finish Lord of the Flies and write more on a story. Paige, right now the mind reader story is on hold. I'm working on a weirder one right now, but I still think you'll like it :)
Really quick, since school officially starts back this Friday, I know I won't get to write as much. But I'll still post everyday :)

~Sara

If only life was simple like the Internet

If life had a delete or undo button, I'd be a pretty happy camper. It would be so much easier!
Number one, if life was like a social network, you would never have to fake like certain people. You could just block them from ever talking to you! Another thing that I would love, you could report people for being rude, a feature I know I would use. You could say you were offline if all you needed was to be left alone.
You would never lose track of the people that come and go through our lives, you could hold onto them until they decided to sign out forever. See what I did there? I thought it was clever... :)
Life is sometimes so amazing with twists and turns and new faces, but sometimes it leaves you devastated with your back against a huge wall. Sometimes you find out things that make you want to question people that you would rather not. Sometimes it makes you question yourself to the point where you break.
And then sometimes it's beautiful. It's the moments that take your breath away that really count. It's the friends that love you and build you up that count. My advice to anyone reading this; if you want to start completely over, do it. I am, at the start of this year I'm changing for the better. I'm not going to lose a chance to be totally honest with people about my feelings which most of the time go unspoken. I'm standing up for every last thing that I believe in. I'm going to listen to myself more than before. Best of all? I'm not taking anyone's crap. Be true to yourself and don't be a push over like I've been. Stand your ground!

~Sara