The Modern Al Pacino

Every family has some strange holiday traditions. Mine just happens to center around the Mafia! Don't worry, I'm not about to divulge that my family has connections in high places. To be honest, we're more of a Chrismas hog kind of family than a dead-horse-head-in-the-bed kind of family, but does that make us boring? Uh, no. In fact, every year around Christmas my family (well, specifically my mom, aunt and I) curl up in front of the fire and click on... The Godfather, one, two and three (though we do spend most of the third movie mocking Mary Corleone's whine). It's festive, I know. Actually, this year was the first year I was allowed to participate in this tradition because, as you may guess, extremely violent histories about an illegal organisation aren't exactly the kind of Christmas special that my parents found suitable for a 12 year old. But hey, that choice was up to them!

After just the first five minutes of The Godfather 1, I was hooked! The storyline was tragic, intriguing, and brilliantly planned. Not to mention the great fight scenes! As it played out, I stayed up until about 2am in order to watch the second movie as well... I have no regrets! Which is really saying something because, if you know me, I love my sleep. However, despite my lovely Mafia-session the night before, the next morning I woke up... pretty depressed! Now, I've ruled out exhaustion because, though I did hit the sack ridiculously late, I also slept in until noon and therefore met the minimum 10 hours of sleep that I need every day during vacation. So if it wasn't fatigue, what was this horrible gnawing feeling in my stomach? I ate some donuts, mac and cheese and even (WOW) some real food - to no avail. My usually flamboyant vacation mood was stuck in the mud! That's when it hit me:

I was identifying with Al Pacino.

Well, technically I was identifying with Micheal Corleone, but tom-ay-to tom-ah-to.

But why? Why do I identify with the new head of the Mafia? Obviously this means that either a) I have an alter ego who is the head of the Mafia who comes to life as I am sleeping b) I am psychic and subconciously know my future or c) I need to ease up on the egg nog. Personally, I vote for choice a (this would really explain my exhaustion in Physics...) but unfortunately my parents claim to have evidence proving that I do not indeed transform into a Mafia Zombie and escape under the cover of night... Darn. But then what does that leave us? Why am I identifying with Al Pacino?

I suppose the second most rational answer (right after the Mafia Zombie thing) is that I see myself reflected in his character. Both Micheal and I are very studious, are attractive in that mysterious mastermind vampire way, and care deeply for our families. The only difference between us (besides that whole gender thing... and time frame...) is our situation. I am lucky enough to be enjoying a safe, (as far as I know... *squints suspiciously at the family cat*) untainted household, without the pressure to, you know, head the Mafia. On the other hand, Micheal Coreone grew up in a greatly disturbed (though supportive) home and was pressured by unavoidable circumstances to fall into a life of crime. I suppose that, in a way, I see Micheal as an alternate universe of myself, what my life would be if my home life were different. And I suppose that is what makes me so sad when I think about this movie - the idea that there are people out there, just like me, or even better, who are subjected to substandard lives, all due to bad luck.

So, yeah. Just thought I should let you know that I am Al Pacino. No big deal or anything.

The First Day of School/ What are You Passionate About?

So I was going to write one of those blogposts apologizing for not writing more and then listing a bunch of excuses for why (I was in Spain! It was Summer! My laptop was abducted by a watermelon with feet!), but then I realized none of you want to read that. Even though it's all true. Instead I thought I'd write about the emotional roller coaster that is the first day of school.

For those of you who don't know, Bella and I will both be Juniors this year. Sadly for us we live in different states so we cannot be Juniors together. Junior year is known by many to be the WORST YEAR EVER, a distinction that is only multiplied by the fact that I go to a crazy college prep school that firmly believes in its lifelong goal of giving its students stress ulcers. I know it's somewhere in the school motto. I just know it.

Anyways, the first day of school in Elementary and Middle School is a really happy day where you go to all your classes and do fun activities and get to know each other playing the name game. Not so in High School. These are the big leagues! Everything you thought you knew at the end of last year has been magically wiped from your memory and you traverse the loud, confusing halls in a daze.

• Fun Fact: This is actually my first time going back to a high school. So it was my first non-first-day-ever. Exciting stuff. Also a bit less exciting.  

This year, the biggest difference is that almost all of my classes are going to be awful and hard and I'm freaking out and they assigned homework the first day and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ok I'm back. Every teacher wants to know things about their new students. Who are they? What do they do in their spare time? What are their strengths and weaknesses? And what better way to find those things out than through a questionnaire?!!! YAY! Because every student likes to think of adjectives to describe themselves, or even worse, answer the vaguely worded question: "Who are you?"

I think no one says it better than Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. 

Let us all keep in mind that he is an international figure who has given hundreds, if not thousands of interviews. If that's the best he can come up with, I don't know what you expect from me. 

One question got me thinking though. It was an average, run of the mill, "What is your passion/ what do you love?" I didn't give it too much thought and just jotted down "running" to fill the space because it's easy. I run three seasons a year! Of course I'm passionate about it, right? Nahhh. I kind of hate running. But also it's the best. 

Later though, when I was on my team's 5-mile run in 97* heat, I did not love running so much. At the end of the run, my team met on the beach to stretch and jump in the water, and that's when I realized. One of the things I love most in the world is the beach!

I'm lucky enough to live in a place with miles and miles of lakefront with gorgeous (yet sometimes pretty sketchy) beaches. Puzzle that one out and try to guess where I live! 

I went to the beach with my best friends yesterday, and it was one of the best times I had all summer. Not just for being with friends, because we lazed around my attic a lot too this summer. It was rivaled only by my time on the beach in Spain, where I would go and read a book for hours or go on walks and swim with my (sadly much older) cousins. Wow. It's been a very parentheses-y day.

The beach is the best! Which is why it's so important to save it. Next time you go to the beach, please pick up your trash. Or if you're there and see a piece of trash lying near you, be a good person and throw it away. Don't just stop there! Take reusable bags to stores when you remember, or if you're going to multiple shopping destinations just get a bag from the first store and fill that with all the things you can. I understand that it's not always possible not to use plastic bags, but avoid it when it is! Plastic bags look suspiciously like jellyfish from underneath, which may not be a problem for us but is a huge problem for our friends the sea turtles. Green sea turtles have a diet consisting of mainly jellyfish and seaweed, and when they unwittingly take a bite of a plastic bag they often choke to death or become caught in the handles, thus also dying. Despite conservationists' efforts to release more baby sea turtles into the wild every year, populations are dwindling as sea turtles slowly die out. I don't know about you, but I want this little guy to have a future. 

Do what you can to reduce runoff from your lawn by not using artificial fertilizers, because that facilitates the growth of blue-green algae, an algae incredibly harmful to swimmers and lake inhabitants alike. Also, ride your bike places! Not only do bikes run on human body fat instead of expensive and environmentally harmful gasoline, but riding a bike every day is guaranteed to give you nicer legs by the end of the month. Fact. We can't let our beaches get gross and polluted!

I love the beach. What are you passionate about?

Some Advice

A koala should run for mayor. Then when it gave a concession speech after losing it could be like, "Why didn't you vote for me? I have all the necessary koalafications!" And then people would being a chant, gradually growing louder and louder until all you could hear was the roar of their voices crying, "RECOUNT! RECOUNT! RECOUNT! RECOUNT!" The winning mayor would find himself unable to face a recount in a race that he now saw so clearly should have gone to his opponent and hand over his mayoral keys to the city. The crowd would then hoist the koala up on their shoulders and attempt to make it dictator for life, only for the koala to calmly remark, "Wait. You're not really koalafied to do that." The populous would let out an enormous cheer that rivaled all others in history and proclaim their lasting admiration for such a humble, talented koala as they stampeded to a field of eucalyptus in celebration.

Years later, in a job interview following the koala's long and successful mayorship, the interviewer would ask, "So, you won the election. But what makes you qualified for this job?" And the koala would reply, "Don't you mean..... koalafied?" "HIRED."

It pays to be a koala in a recession.

Robots

Turns out we don't have any viewers. Most of you guys are robots. That sucks.

FINALS WEEK

Looks like Blue Umbrella Chick beat me to it, but here we go.

Finals week is fondly known by all students in high school and college as THE WORST WEEK EVER. The stress levels are through the roof and its hard to find a single person that hasn't developed a bit of a nervous tick, no matter how cool they seem on the outside. For example, today I saw a boy playing air drums. This might've been perfectly normal if he hadn't been playing two inches from his eyes and staring at his fingers with his eyebrows intently furrowed and a chemistry binder spread out in his lap. See what I mean? Everyone goes absolutely bonkers.

Most high school students I know (and I go to a school full of overachievers) would do anything to escape finals week. Yesterday I found myself wondering what would happen if I slipped into a mysterious coma that ended right after finals week was up. Surely a life-threatening medical emergency would be better than this? The answer was no. I believe that staying out of those types of situations should always be a priority.

But the best part of finals week for me has been discovering my yearly coping mechanism. Last year I chose to reread all of the Harry Potter books because I decided that I would much rather be a wizard than deal with reality. It was also a week full of copious room cleaning leading up to my finals, so that by the time I actually had to take them my room was immaculate and my closet was fit to burst with all the things I had "cleaned" out of the room's actual living space.This year, I was forced to write a nine page paper on the Magna Carta. About four pages in I cracked and all my thoughts gained a British accent. This is only the beginning, so I'm actually quite terrified for what's to come. All I can do are copious math reviews and positive thinking at this point. So, good luck my dear readers. I know you have an inner genius inside just bursting to get out. Unleash that genius and be spectacular! I believe in you, my loves.

Final Exams

Finals are approaching my dearest readers! You know what that means: this goody two shoes will be studying ALL WEEKEND LONG. Never mind that yours truly has A's in all of her classes (heh heh, lots of 90's and 91's... stressful) I will be freaking out nonstop for the next 9 days. I will be drawing up study sheets, writing cheat sheets in point 4 font, reading entire sections of my textbooks, and lashing out at those who interrupt me. I am just a paradox of organization, aren't I? WRONG!Though I will be doing all of the above, I will also be partaking in the most destructive activity known to human kind: procrastination. This means that all weekend I will be cleaning, reading 'fun' books, gardening, and shopping. It's a virtue, I know.
By the end of Sunday, my room will be spotless, i will have my outfits picked out for an entire month, I will be the best read person in Wisconsin, and my (currently barren) garden beds will be bursting with blooms. Unfortunately, I will also have studied for a grand total of twenty minutes... 

....But hey, at least everyone else is in the same boat, right? Right?

Sexy Noses

I must say, I feel extremely strange writing this, but I have recently realized just how amazing noses are. It all started in ceramics... Currently, I am crafting an epic triple face vase (it is what it sounds like, a vase with three faces sculpted on) with my talented pottery partner, Mara. It's actually working pretty well! She's quite good at crafting mouths, as well as eyelids, and I specialize in eyeballs and noses. At first when I began sculpting the two noses I thought "Oh, this will be easy! They're just noses! All the same."

Oh, how wrong I was! The longer I worked on the noses, the more obsessed I became! I started with simple noses, but as I progressed I realized how much personality is in each nose. By the end of the day, one of the noses I was commissioned to do was severely hunched, with a wart at the nape between the eyes! It was extremely fun to make, especially the flaring nostrils... The second nose was lumpy and fat, with notably small nostrils and a thick Roman bump at the middle, quite fascinating actually.
Needless to say, for the rest of the day I was spellbound by the noses of my peers. I literally could not take my eyes of the noses! I spotted adorable button noses, bent and broken ones, and one especially attractive, absurdly straight one. In fact, I was literally checking out the latter nose, don't judge me... The possessor was significantly creeped out, but it's okay because guess what! My nose is cute too! I've got that stereotypical 5-year old nose, a ski-slope bridge and a button tip. Come to think of it, Clara Bear also has a great nose! It's a little Roman and its got a cleft tip! You go girl!
Yes, I know what you're thinking "Wow, she's a real nose-obsessed creep! I think I'll stop reading this blog now..." But stop. Do not act all high and mighty with me! I just happen to have noticed what many mortals have overlooked: Noses. Noses, noses, noses. They're beautiful. It sounds weird, but think about it: noses are planted in the exact center of our faces! Besides our eyes, our noses are the first attribute that people notice about us. And, contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as an unattractive nose! Even if your nose is currently 'out of style' (psh, as if) that just means it has personality! And if your nose has personality, I envy you because I wish I could sculpt it.