When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind. - Michel de Montaigne

I love books. I have loved to read since I was six years old and still reading the American Girl series over and over again. I revel in the feeling of being taken away to somewhere new and exciting, removed from all of the trouble and stupidity of my own life. It's a marvelous feeling, one that has been lacking in my life since the academic year began. Every year when school comes around my reading gets shoved on the back burner. Whenever I stumble upon a good book I want read I say "I'll read it this summer" and I never do. It's so sad and finally, I'm sick of it. I will not stand for this injustice any longer! Thus, I will be attempting to limit my online chatting time in favor of my new "love interest" my book fetish. I'll still be around to chat frequently, but I won't stay on for as long or as late as I have been. The books are calling to me, and I must answer them.

But I didn't just tell all of you this to let you know my AIM hours will be limited from here on out. I have a far superior task in mind for you. My request is that you guys would all give me recommendations on what I should read. I'm calling on all of you book gurus out there to help me out and tell me what all of the must-reads out there are. Try to keep in mind what I might like, but don't let it limit your choices too much. I'm open to just about anything at this point. If I'm going to teach English I figure I should probably be widely and diversely read. So Nathan, Andy, Brad, and all you other book fiends, tell me what to read!

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. - Henry David Thoreau

I'm really tired. i was sick Friday night and on Saturday with that lovely stomach flu that's been going around and I still performed in my church choir at this weekend's four Easter services. I went to bed early last night and the night before but I'm still dragging. I guess I'll turn in early again tonight and hope/pray for the best, especially considering I have to get up early for Youth Light tomorrow morning.

Probably one of the coolest things about this weekend is the cool 16th birthday present I got from my Grandma Darlene. I couldn't find a picture of it online from Fred Meyer Jewelers so you'll have to be satisfied with my description. It's a pearl necklace with what I assume to be diamonds set in white gold with a single pearl hanging just below those settings. I have to get the chain shortened a bit so that the necklace doesn't hang down so low, but I'm still very pleased with it. All of the granddaughters get pearl necklaces for their 16th birthdays so I knew this was coming, but I was afraid it was going to be something not quite my taste as many of my presents from Grandma Darlene have been. This was not the case. If Grandma knows one thing it has to be jewelry. Any of the jewelry I've gotten from her in the past has been lovely and something I wear often.

I'll spare you the details of my unstimulating day and suffice it to say it wasn't especially wonderful, but since nothing really bad actually happened, it was good.

If anyone knows of a good service I could use so i can actually post some pictures of my own on this site that'd be really great. Just put something in the comments or use the link on the sidebar to send me an e-mail.

Now, go frolic with the llama for it is written, "To frolic, as a llama would, is to live."

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying. - Bertrand Russell

Now since you've all read Nathan's post about his recent scholarship-receiving feats I'll suffice it to say that I'm really proud of him for his achievement. I always knew he was smart.....But now, onto the injustice!

My best friend Jenell was running for ASB at Reynolds and she lost. She was one of the best candidates up there. She knew her stuff, her speech was excellent and she was obviously experienced and qualified. She would've filled her position beautifully. But no. Now, I must admit, there were many excellent candidates aside from my friend. Sharon Ko, Becky Wheeler and Katie Farlow all were elected, and rightly so, but the two male candidates did not seem very fit for ASB. One of them actually rapped during his speech, and the other is apparently not very responsible. Jenell should've easily beaten at least one of these guys, but the whole things was a sham. If the election process weren't such a popularity contest and based more on the aptitude and responsibility of the student, Jenell would've easily beaten those two guys, and if it had been based on the pure kindness of and their enthusiasm, Jenell would've wiped the floor with those boys. Jenell is so passionate about what she does and cares about other people so greatly, it just seems such a shame that she wasn't elected.

So as a result of this heinous crime I spent most of the day griping about how stupid the whole thing was and how disgusting this whole popularity contest was. So many of those people had good ideas and great plans for our school, and it seems that people only voted based one who they knew, who was cutest or whatever. It's just inexcusable. But in any case, Jenell is being a really good sport about it and is planning to run for Junior Class council in the upcoming weeks so I'm proud of her for that. My best friend is the coolest...

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J. R. R. Tolkien

Yeah, I'm kinda hungry right now and I really want an Orange Julius.

Ha, I started out having a really bad day, but it got progressively better and ended up just being super good by the end! Pro Cantorum actually sounded pretty good today, I was able to practice my piano today during my TA period and made progressin the song, I ate two boxes of Nerds at lunch, and I played Connect Four during math class with Shawn. What could be better than all that? Could it be, shopping? After school I went with my mother down to the outlet mall and bought a couple new shirts and a sweater. Yay!

So, I had a good day, and now that I found the recipe for Orange Julius online, I think I'm going to go make one.

For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. - J. R. R. Tolkien

I'll spare you the boring details about my classes because none of them were particularly interesting today. I still don't know what's up with me, I just feel like something is changing, and I'm still totally oblivious to what it is. It might just be my view on something in particular, or my view on life, or all of me. I'm totally in the dark here and all I can do is pray that God will shed some light on the situation.

Anyway, you people aren't here to read my sob stories, you want to be entertained! So in light of the rather odd dreams I've been having as of late, here is a site to help you "Uncover the secrets of your sleep". I think it's a kind of interesting theory, but I'd love to see your thoughts on it. :D

Change your thoughts and you change your world. -Norman Vincent Peale

Unfortunately, this is not always a good thing.

FBLA State was pretty fun. I went hot-tubbing with Rachel and Ashley, went shopping with Diana and Kristi....all kinds of good stuff. I got my Introduction to Business and Introduction to Business Communications tests done quickly spent the rest of the three days shadowing either Rachel or Kristi. I avoided many social gatherings (including the two dances) in favor of reading a book and was later mocked for this.

Last night I was "allowed" to be a voting delegate, but it was ok because I didn't have to walk across the bridge to that horrible restaurant. There was a downside to my being a voting delegate, but it really had nothing to do with the nature of the job, merely the people I enjoyed it with. Ah well, c'est la vie.

This morning started off strangely when I had this extremely odd dream....I really can't explain it save to say my piano teacher was there and a friend from school and now I'm kinda confused........ After quickly getting dressed and stowing our things in Stern's room, the entire RHS FBLA crew made our way to the closing ceremony for the state leadership conference. It was three and a half hours of mind-numbing tedium. Of course, there where the lovely breaks in the monotony when people from RHS did really well and I got to stand up and cheer for them, but in between those times I found solace in the comfort of my lovely book. I didn't get into the top ten in either of my events, but that's cool, I didn't really want to go to Denver anyway, I'd rather take voice lessons this summer or maybe get a job.

After returning home from my little trip I spent a little time returning to reality at home and then headed over to RHS to catch the tail-end of my Gov./Econ. class and then go to math. Math was not that bad, not that good, but when I got home I found myself feeling odd. I feel kinda disappointed that I didn't even make top ten in FBLA even though I knew I'd done my best, and I'm really confused about certain things in my life. My brain seems to be changin' itself up without telling me and is leaving me feeling a bit distraught. Something odd is going on way back in my subconscious that is making me feel a little out of it. I should probably just sit back, relax, and wait for this whole thing to blow over, but I really just wish I knew what my brain is hiding from me. It'd be nice to actually know and understand what's going on in my own head.....

So, if you see me in the halls and I look a little down, i"m ok, I just need therapy...or a good nap....

Lord, what fools these mortals be! - William Shakespeare

Honestly, what is it with you people!? I mean really..............

Actually, I really have nothing to complain about, (not that I ever do) I actually had a really good day! This morning I got to miss my first period class and half of my French class in favor of singing in choir for the OSU chamber choir director who then gave us some pointers on our pieces for league on April 13th. After we finished our pieces we all took a seat and got to listen to the chamber choir and an a cappella group from OSU. While the chamber choir was excellent, (they pretty much put Pro Cantorum to shame) I really want to talk about the a cappella group.

The group was called Outspoken and was comprised totally of men. Not only did they sound good, they were funny and they really got into their music. They reminded me a lot of the a cappella group that some guys from our church (and other churches in the area) started called Rescue. I really enjoyed the performance. Outspoken apparently has a CD coming out this month and I'm defiantly going to be picking it up.

After the performances I headed to class and had a boring old time. My French teacher tried to be "cute" by telling our class we had a test on Monday for the chapter we just started this week. It was her weak attempt at an April Fool's joke. I wanted to hurt her.

Nothing else really happened at school that merits mentioning.....oh yeah! I almost forgot! My Badminton partner and I have 5:0 losing streak as of 7th period today. I'm so proud.....

Since getting home I haven't really done anything super constructive (or very interesting for that matter) with my time. AT about 6:00 PM my parents took Nathan to the airport. He's going to Washington for the next few days to compete somehow for a full-ride scholarship to Whitworth in Spokane. While, the folks were gone I spent my time taking the Emode Classic IQ Test. The first time I took it my score was acceptable, it was in the 130's which is "superior" but that didn't satisfy me. I knew that a 140 or higher was genius level, and I wasn't about to let myself miss the opportunity to claim genius-hood by a few points, so I decided to re-take the test. I knew I hadn't really done my best on the test the first time, giving up on tough questions quickly, so I really wanted to redo the test. After two more attempts I reached my goal, my score is a lovely 142 which (in case you didn't know) is near-genius to genius level. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased.

I think you folks should all take the quiz and share your results. I'd be really interested to hear some of the scores, it might be...interesting.......

"In accordance with our principles of free enterprise and healthy competition, I'm going to ask you...to fight to the death for it." - Monty Python