It is only Sunday, but my Memorial Day Weekend has been pretty crazy. Yesterday my family and I put together a garage and bake sale for the benefit of the cross country team. We raised over $600 for the team! It was great, I had a ton of fun, and I got some pretty cool stuff for free.
I received an old organ yesterday. A very old organ. The organ was made in the 1960s, but it is still in beautiful condition today. The organ is also very unique, to the left it has a pad where you push down buttons to play chords. On the right you have all your keys. I've been taking piano lessons for about 2 years so I thought it would be smart to pick the organ up. Right now it is sitting in my room waiting to be played.
When I wasn't working at the bake sale yesterday, I was walking around checking out other garage sales. Since it was memorial day weekend, there were a ton of other garage sales in town. I ended up falling in love with an old record player I found at one of the garage sales. I bought the record player, with 2 speakers, and 3 records. When hooked up to the speakers, the record player sounds beautiful. My Mom is happy because, now she can listen to her old records as well.
Aside from garage sales, I've been training for the steeplechase in track. The steeplechase is long distance hurdling on a track. You have to jump over 5 barricades (hurdles) per lap. One of the barricades has a water pit you have to jump over. Falling in the water pit usually spells disaster. I'm going to the state qualifiers for steeplechase which is as far as I will probably go. I don't expect to go to states for steeplechase. So I have practice tomorrow, and then a barbecue after practice. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Water for Elephants, an amazing movie!
Just got home from seeing Water for Elephants! I was planning on reading the book before I saw the movie, but unfortunately I never got around to doing that. I think I would've liked the book better than the movie. Most of the time books ARE better than the actual movie is.
The movie took place in the 1920s during the depression era. A veterinary student (Jacob Jankowski) about to graduate from Cornell University, when he receives the news that his parents had been killed in a car accident. He leaves short of school when he finds out that his father is deeply in debt. His dad had been spending a lot of money on his education. Jacob immediately packs his possessions and leaves home. He ends up hoping a train that belongs to a circus show knows as The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.
He ends up working for the circus, and meets the head-trainer August and his wife, Marlena. Jacob ends up falling in love with Marlena. I can't tell you about the rest of the movie because if I did, I would spoil it for you.
Overall it was a really good movie. I just wished that they had picked different people the play the rolls of Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson) and Marlena (Reese Witherspoon).
Photos from my Holga camera are coming in on Monday for the first time! I'm really excited, and I can't wait to upload them to the blog!
The movie took place in the 1920s during the depression era. A veterinary student (Jacob Jankowski) about to graduate from Cornell University, when he receives the news that his parents had been killed in a car accident. He leaves short of school when he finds out that his father is deeply in debt. His dad had been spending a lot of money on his education. Jacob immediately packs his possessions and leaves home. He ends up hoping a train that belongs to a circus show knows as The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.
He ends up working for the circus, and meets the head-trainer August and his wife, Marlena. Jacob ends up falling in love with Marlena. I can't tell you about the rest of the movie because if I did, I would spoil it for you.
Overall it was a really good movie. I just wished that they had picked different people the play the rolls of Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson) and Marlena (Reese Witherspoon).
Photos from my Holga camera are coming in on Monday for the first time! I'm really excited, and I can't wait to upload them to the blog!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
A Pretty Good Book
Just finished Impossible by Nancy Werlin. Overall, it was an okay book. Impossible was rather silly, over dramatic, and cheesy. I would recommend the book for teenage girls, not teenage boys.
The story takes place in some suburbs outside of Boston, and the story follows the tale of Lucy Scarborough. Lucy was raised by foster parents when her mom went mad after her birth. Lucy becomes pregnant at 17, just like her mother, and when she does she finds her mom's old diary. The diary tells Lucy about the Curse, and how she will go mad after she gives birth unless she can complete 3 impossible tasks. These tasks are named in the Scarborough Fair ballad (a different version) and they are, make a seamless shirt, find and acre of land between saltwater and sea strand, and plow the field with a goat horn and sow it with one grain of corn. The Elfin Knight, (the one who brought the curse upon Lucy's family) lurks in the background as he tries to make completing these tasks more difficult.
Overall it was a pretty fast read. The book was fast paced, and the end of the book will suprise you! Right now I'm reading a dark and depressing book called The Boy From the Basement. The book is scary, but good. I'd recommend reading The Boy From the Basement as well as Impossible.
The story takes place in some suburbs outside of Boston, and the story follows the tale of Lucy Scarborough. Lucy was raised by foster parents when her mom went mad after her birth. Lucy becomes pregnant at 17, just like her mother, and when she does she finds her mom's old diary. The diary tells Lucy about the Curse, and how she will go mad after she gives birth unless she can complete 3 impossible tasks. These tasks are named in the Scarborough Fair ballad (a different version) and they are, make a seamless shirt, find and acre of land between saltwater and sea strand, and plow the field with a goat horn and sow it with one grain of corn. The Elfin Knight, (the one who brought the curse upon Lucy's family) lurks in the background as he tries to make completing these tasks more difficult.
Overall it was a pretty fast read. The book was fast paced, and the end of the book will suprise you! Right now I'm reading a dark and depressing book called The Boy From the Basement. The book is scary, but good. I'd recommend reading The Boy From the Basement as well as Impossible.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Jalapeno Eating Contest!
Last night, I participated in a Jalapeño eating contest at a local restaurant with some friends. The winner of the contest received 100 dollars, unfortunately I was not a winner. You got two bowls of Jalapeño peppers, and one minute to eat as many as you can. The winner of the contest ate 15 in one minute! I was only able to eat 4....
The peppers were huge! I had a hard time trying to eat as many as I could in one minute because, they required so much chewing. The hotness of them didn't bother me until after the contest was over. It was great fun, and afterwards my friends and I went to Price Chopper to do some terrorizing.
In Price Chopper we did everything that teenagers would do in a Price Chopper. We took bottles of cooking oil and stuck them in the freezers, rearranged the cards, and played dodge ball with the bouncy balls. It was a ton of fun.
The track meet this past Friday was fun as well. I had personal records in both of my events. I ran the mile (1600) in 5 minutes and 20 seconds, and in the 2 mile (3200) I ran 11 minutes 27 seconds.
Happy Mother's Day!
The peppers were huge! I had a hard time trying to eat as many as I could in one minute because, they required so much chewing. The hotness of them didn't bother me until after the contest was over. It was great fun, and afterwards my friends and I went to Price Chopper to do some terrorizing.
In Price Chopper we did everything that teenagers would do in a Price Chopper. We took bottles of cooking oil and stuck them in the freezers, rearranged the cards, and played dodge ball with the bouncy balls. It was a ton of fun.
The track meet this past Friday was fun as well. I had personal records in both of my events. I ran the mile (1600) in 5 minutes and 20 seconds, and in the 2 mile (3200) I ran 11 minutes 27 seconds.
Happy Mother's Day!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Tired Out!
Resting at home because I am exhausted. On Sunday I ran a 5K race in Troy N.Y. The 5K was nice, it was a road race, very flat. My time for the race was 18 minutes and 22 seconds a personal record for me! I got fourth overall and third in my age group.
Then on Tuesday I ran in a track meet. This track meet was all relay events, and boy did I hate it. I did the longer distance races, and running long distances on tracks is one of the most mentally and physically exhausting things you could ever do.
NY State testing also started this week. We've been taking tests all day long and doing nothing else. This is when school begins to bother me. School is so inactive, boring, and stressful. People only enjoy school when there at lunch eating. School lunches are yet another thing that bothers me so deeply. I always bring my lunch from home for 2 reasons.
1. School lunches are disgusting
2. They are unhealthy
If the U.S. wants to solve it's obesity problem, the U.S. could start with proper health and nutrition education, and better lunch programs. You walk into the lunchroom and you see tons of ice cream, muffins, desserts, and unhealthy snacks. The main meal is normally unhealthy as well. People need to realize that this food is pre-made, frozen, and shipped thousands of miles to get into the mouths of the students at school. The food is salty, fattening, and loaded with sugar. The meat comes from cows that are abused and fed hormones. The chickens are fed hormones as well. If there was an organic lunch program that would probably be a good place to start.
Piano lesson tomorrow, then another track meet on Friday. Jalapeno eating contest on Saturday WooHoo!!!
Then on Tuesday I ran in a track meet. This track meet was all relay events, and boy did I hate it. I did the longer distance races, and running long distances on tracks is one of the most mentally and physically exhausting things you could ever do.
NY State testing also started this week. We've been taking tests all day long and doing nothing else. This is when school begins to bother me. School is so inactive, boring, and stressful. People only enjoy school when there at lunch eating. School lunches are yet another thing that bothers me so deeply. I always bring my lunch from home for 2 reasons.
1. School lunches are disgusting
2. They are unhealthy
If the U.S. wants to solve it's obesity problem, the U.S. could start with proper health and nutrition education, and better lunch programs. You walk into the lunchroom and you see tons of ice cream, muffins, desserts, and unhealthy snacks. The main meal is normally unhealthy as well. People need to realize that this food is pre-made, frozen, and shipped thousands of miles to get into the mouths of the students at school. The food is salty, fattening, and loaded with sugar. The meat comes from cows that are abused and fed hormones. The chickens are fed hormones as well. If there was an organic lunch program that would probably be a good place to start.
Piano lesson tomorrow, then another track meet on Friday. Jalapeno eating contest on Saturday WooHoo!!!
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