Growing Pains

Growing Pains

What's a name
When in the darknes we all look the same
Holding candles, looking for the flame,
For the fire to chase the night away
As we wait for daylight to... break...?

What is life kept to ourselves,
Careful words composed?
It's a book upon the shelf, the story never told.

We are friends
Chasing photos of our happier days,
Clinging to the ones they can't erase.
Going on to find the perfect place
Where we can love each other.
We can find each other,
We can shape the world again!

Oh, What is life kept to ourselves,
Careful words composed?
It's a book upon the shelf, the story never told...
Pages turn and then unfold
To show us where we've been
As the signs along the road
To lead us home again.

I feel like I've been turned inside out.
I've come so far I can't turn around.
But I don't know the next steps to take
'Cause all you left were me and the growing pains.

WHAT IS LIFE kept to ourselves,
Careful words composed?
It's a book upon the shelf, the story never told...
Pages turn and then unfold
To show us where we've been
As the signs along the road
To lead us home again...
Oh, Oh..............

My Excuses for Not Blogging

Hey my bloggies! I have missed you guys so much! So, you may have already guessed why I was gone for so long because you probably already know. "Grades got you down?" Yes. "Love got you down?" Yes, yes, yes. BUT! I got the grades up, but sadly, my mom said no about joining the worship team this week because of how low my math grade was. Right before the end of the quarter, I just barely raised it to a C. In Social Studies I'm really good, but I just had to lose my binder that had all my assignments in it right before the end of the quarter. Seriously, guys... seriously? But don't worry, that's under control, too. Now I've got As, Bs, and Cs! Success!

Lately, life has been so competitive, like... I'm always running after something. Always trying to get there before someone else. I got Coldplay's "Mylo Xyloto" album the day it came out---again, success---and there's a song on it called "Major Minus" (I'm learning it on guitar by the way). It's a really fun song, sharp on the acoustic guitar, and here's some of the lyrics:

"They got one eye watching you
One eye on what you do
So be careful who it is you're talking to.
They got one eye watching you
One eye on what you do
So be careful what it is you're trying to do.
And be careful when you're walking into view.
Just be careful when you're walking into view.
OOH OOH OOH! OOH OOH OOH OOOH!
Got one eye on the road and one on YOU!
OOH OOH OOH! OOH OOH OOH OOOH!
Got one eye on the road and one on..."

Well that's me. Whenever I'm in competitive mode, it's BAD. I can't focus. And if I'm competing against you, oh boy, I'd hate to be you. At first I try to hide that we both want the same thing and I want it before you can reach it. Then I realize I don't like you. Then I try to hide that I don't like you. Then I realize that I don't care how you feel if I don't like you. Then I REALLY don't like you. Then I get the signs that you have a problem with me. Then I don't care about that either because that means I can openly have a problem with you. Then I get mean. So, "Major Minus" says one thing about me:

If we want the same thing and I see that you're a real opponent, I work my hardest to get up there, but I also have an eye on your progress. I've "got one eye on the road and one on you."

So yeah. That's my school life right now. Which is not so fun, because then, I go home to hear my dad yell, "HOMEWORK! DO YOUR HOMEWORK! HOPE, I KNOW YOU HEAR ME! I KNOW YOU HATE MATH (editor's note: Then he brings up how he hated math and ended up having a job centered around it)! YOU'RE GONNA NEED IT ONE DAY! I DON'T KNOW NO NEWS REPORTER WITH A BACHELOR OF ARTS THAT DIDN'T TAKE MATH IN COLLEGE! DEAL WITH IT!" And then after the math lecture I have to actually do the work, and by then it's eleven at night, and then I still have to take a shower, and then I still have a little bit of homework to finish, and by then it's at least 11:30 before I realize I haven't written a page of "Unspoken" or "On Death's Edge," I haven't thought up a single poem, I haven't looked up any new songs, I haven't dared to touch my guitar, and the blog has not been updated. And by then my mom is making me go to sleep, saying I'll be too tired in the morn.

Is that a legitimate reason for not blogging? 

"Skyscraper"... Who Did it Better?

Lisa Cimorelli and Christina Grimmie. Both participated in the battle of the covers and did great. Both covered "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato. They have different voices entirely and did the song different ways: Cimorelli chose Acappella, Christina played along with piano. They are different but the same. Why? Both chose to tackle the difficult, incredible, impossible high note. But the question is, dearest...

Who did it better?

I don't like picking favorites because both are marvelous singers. I say the two are equal because, you see, I liked Christina's version better because she had an instrument playing and the Cimorelli girls... their Acappella skills could enhance (they don't have anyone doing bass/low vocals--- I'm tellin' ya, that's the problem!). But without a doubt, Lisa did sing the high note better than Christina did, that I must admit. So, here they are, equal. Christina's cover was better, Lisa's note was stronger. Alright? Don't give me hatemail. I am human, I have a right to an opinion. So, I say, (and this is Lisa's motto basically) "Haters, BACK OFF!"

Here's a cool mashup of Megan and Liz, CIMORELLI, Boyce Avenue, Megan Nicole, Tiffany Alvord, and Christina Grimmie.

Enjoy life and love what you have! And don't forget:

Rock on!
-Hope<3

Battle of the Covers

I have been playing around on YouTube lately (I'm @Gymnastix1710, and it's no use visiting my channel because I have no videos uploaded.) and found some really cool stuff. I came across some covers that I liked, so, I chose Megan and Liz, CIMORELLI, and Christina Grimmie.

"Price Tag".

^^^THIS^^^ is the first Cimorelli song I heard.

Dude, that baby looks like Dora the Explorer. Not an insult, because I kinda looked like that when I was a baby. Chubby cheeks, almond eyes, chubby body... been there, done that. I'm not Asian, but no one said I had to be.

"Skyscraper".

Christina Grimmie's voice is amazing! She sings pop and that's not my favorite genre by any means, but her voice is awesome! Blog about her or something!

I don't know who is who, but whoever is on guitar: Nice guitar! It's pretty! A fact: These girls are twins whose birthday is the day before mine. Mine is November 22, theirs is obviously the 21st.

Rock on,
Hope!

P.S. November 22. Keep that date in mind every time you click a post or post a comment, because every time you do that, you are getting me closer and closer to my goal: 13,000 pageviews by my thirteenth brithday! Make this little dreamer's dream come true!

P.P.S. Oh, and does anyone know how to put your own original song on iTunes?

The Sound of Music is the Sound of Love

My passion for music is something indescribable. Like, seriously. I can't verbalize it. Music is something so beautiful there isn't much to say. So, I decided to write an entire blog post about my love of music! I'm going to try my hardest to put this stuff in words.

I haven't always loved music. In fact, I just started actually listening to music last year. You may be thinking, "How is that possible??? We can't be friends!" I've always been surrounded by music but I took it for granted, you know. Like, remember when I first started using a blog playlist and had over 100 songs on it about a year and a half ago? Yeah, I honestly didn't really like at least 75 of those songs. So that explains why the playlist is so little right now: I have songs on it that I actually like.

Music is in my genes. It's the one thing that I love about my family. With my mom playing alto clarinet in high school and my dad being a bassist, I was almost guaranteed to have some sort of musical talent. My mom is one of those people that can play an instrument but later decide they don't wanna do it anymore even though they got to play in orchestras. My dad is one of those people that can figure out any instrument you put in front of him. You give him a trumpet, he'll play it. You give him a guitar, he'll strum it. You give him a bass, he'll go crazy without it. You put a drumset in front of him, he'll... he'll do something with it.

And then there's me. Seemingly the only child in the house that has received musical talent from them. My sisters (no brothers, as you'd imagine there's a lot of drama) are good at school stuff, Charity is good at tennis and track, and then I'm the odd woman out. Cheerleading, gymnastics, piano... you name it.

I remember back in first grade in Sunday School at church, we were making "guitars", the tissue box kind. I had done it many times before when I was younger, but it was that moment when the guitar was finished that I noticed something strange. It clicked in my head that this "guitar" would never work, because:

1. The rubber bands sounded more like a bass than a guitar.
2. There were no frets. I didn't know what frets were, but I knew that something was missing.
3. There were no tuning things.
4. There were only four strings, ahem, rubber bands.
5. It was too small. It was the size of a ukelele, but the sound was on the other end of the spectrum.
6. It was ugly.

And it was that moment that I decided I wanted a guitar. A real guitar. I begged my parents for months until that snowy day of December 2006, beginning of second grade. Finally--- my own guitar. Pink, acoustic, small enough for me to play, and meant for a left-handed person. It was perfect, and still is. I still play it to this day, because, I just started playing it this year. It's a long story... let's just say that I took my first guitar lesson from my dad in January 2007 (big mistake) and he was trying to teach me all these four-finger chords when guys, I could barely hold that guitar. He was trying to get me to read sheet music when I was positive he was trying to teach me Chinese. So yeah... not the best music experience I've had... let's just say I started crying and never wanted to even see that guitar ever again. But, guitar isn't that painful. Four-finger chords are not the devil. Do they hurt? Heck yes, but I'll live. However, sheet music still is the equivalent to Chinese. Good thing I'm taking Basic Chinese next semester at school with a whole bunch of my friends!

And I'll never forget the first time I strummed a guitar and felt the vibration make its way to my nerves.

Not long after getting my guitar I got a keyboard. I fell in love with that like that. I'm not big on piano now, but I play it every chance I get. I play by ear because of that whole Sheet Music/Latin/Chinese thing. Plus, I've never played a piano chord in my life. Oh wait, that's a lie... but I don't think that chord really existed, so yeah. Never played a piano chord in my life. But I'm working on it. I've figured it out.

And after that, I began singing. Now, it may take a while to convince some of you that I actually can sing. I'm not conceited, either. I don't think I have the best voice on earth because I've got work to do, but my voice is something I am very confident about. If you know me because of school and I gave you my URL, you're probably thinking, "Hope. Can't. Sing." And I am alright with that. Because when I sing "Friday", that's technically not my real voice. I'm not purposely singing out of tune, I'm just putting no effort into it. I'm not gonna walk the halls singing like Regina Spektor, y'all. So, I wanted to start singing in fourth grade, but I made a lot of excuses, so I waited until fifth grade in which I made too many excuses. In sixth grade I forced myself to make a move, and next thing I know, I'm leading the vocals (thanks to the actual leader being in Paris) in the band on a Sunday night in front a fair amount of our church and singing harmony at Nationals in Phoenix. All in my second year of singing.

And then after that (you may be thinking, "How many more instruments will this girl talk about before I fall asleep on the keyboard?"), I was just sitting in my house, all done with my seventh grade homeschool stuff, as bored as a dog (sorry, Lexi...). Faith and I were just listening to music and she decided to turn on some Regina Spektor music. Now, don't get me wrong, Regina rocks, but.... These were some annoying songs Faith was playing. So, she turned on "Fidelity". I was so freaking bored. I wanted to try something new. I turned around to see the 6 feet tall bass that had been standing there, way out of tune, in need of a repair, for no less than two years. No one had touched it since it had entered our house. So I turned up the music, walked over to the lonely bass sitting in the corner, and started plucking it. Just plucking and picking whichever string seemed right. "That actually sounds pretty good," Faith told me. It sounded great. So simple. I wasn't playing any notes or chords... just plucking. And that's the day I fell in love with bass.

AND THEN, a couple months ago I was playing with a drumset... ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH.

And then, it finally clicked. And then, music revealed its beauty to me.

There's a Paralyzing Quiet Like Sirens...

Okay, I am almost a week late, y'all. BUT! I was just so excited and kept forgetting to post about this: I WAS APART OF THE FIRST 100 TO PRE-ORDER DEAS VAIL'S NEW ALBUM!!!!! Which means, I was also a part of the first 100 to purchase the album, period. I think I was the eighty-something person to do so.

Well, school was alright. I got caught talking in science class (I was talking about our homework, though... it wasn't that bad, and I was whispering... kinda loudly, but still, I was whispering). I think I'm gonna fail the math test. Otherwise, today was good. My grades went up. I don't know how I'm surviving in math. I'm living on a prayer in that class (absolutely no pun intended... okay, there was pun intended).

SO! Back to the CD! Here's their entire album for you to listen to. If you haven't been paying attention to the bazillion Deas Vail posts I have written, you should know that you are guaranteed to like their music unless you like that cheap American pop stuff. Deas Vail is an indie rock band, but their genre of rock is a very, very soft rock. Some of their songs are a little pop-ish (ever heard "Growing Pains"?). They have some harder songs, like my favorites: "Surface" and "Life In These Little Boats". But if you love music, you love Deas Vail.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, here's one word that you're familiar with: "Excuses". You know that I was in the Fine Arts Festival earlier this year. And you know that performing this song, in which I sang harmony, sent my group to Nationals. You know (or did I not tell you?) that we placed second in Ohio. And you know that that song is the reason why I am in love with Deas Vail. So let's get it started!

"Desire", Track 1, is amazing. A little repetitive, yes, (oh no, I'm critiquing it with the black hat! My art teacher is gonna love me!) but great. It was my favorite song on the album for a long time, but then I started exploring the album and my heart went to other songs. But, Laura, the awesome pianist whose autograph I now have (I'll explain in a bit), has a solo in this song! Have her sing more often, guys!

"Sixteen". I was in love with this song when it first came out. Now I hate it because I abused YouTube's replay button.

"Quiet like Sirens"---- one of my favorite Deas Vail songs! As you see, I kinda named this post after it. Deas Vail, you can go on and say, "Oh! That's flattering!" And I'll say, "It's alright, you can't help being awesome, can you?" My only complaint is that the beginning instrumental sounds too similar to "The Right mistakes", another song I love.

I've quoted this song, too, too many times. So I'm not gonna say ANYTHING. Not even gonna mention that I quoted this song in "Autumn is Here". I'm not even gonna say that "summer days are held in a photograph. It's never the same. We can't go back."

"Bad Dreams" reminds me of an old, 1950, ice cream shoppe. Yes, I said ice cream. I was listening to this song on the bus and started dosing off, but to be safe I switched tracks because, well, I didn't want to miss school. This song is great to fall asleep to, but don't get carried away... you don't want to have any bad dreams, do you?

"Wake Up And Sleep" reminds me of Weezer. Am I alone here? Or am I right?



Dearest, this is like, my favorite song on this album! Well, they've got some good songs, so I don't know...



This is probably my favorite song on this album. And is it me, or are the chords in the opening instrumental almost exactly the same as those in "Time" by Hans Zimmer? Either way, both songs are beautiful. I should be able to describe it other way, but the best word I can think of is beautiful. Which, by the way, "beautiful" is such a beautiful word to me. I can't describe it... it's just beautiful. Like the word "love" sends shivers down my spine--- no wonder I bought a shirt that has love's definition on it!



Well, what do you think of Deas Vail's album???? Sweet??? Awesome? Well, if you like those songs, you haven't heard the best of the best Deas Vail songs yet. You just haven't. I was lucky, I received an autographed poster and wristband for being in the first 100 to pre-order the album! And yes, they are legit autographs... I checked.

You have to check out:

"Shoreline"

"Birds"

"Gone"

And look up "Life in These Little Boats"--- it has a lot of bass in it! You can also check out "Surface" in the blog playlist.

Rock on,

Hope!

These Are the Words That I HATE!

The words I hate:

1. Critique
2. Specify (ew! Specify!)
3. Graphs
4. Linear (like linear relationships)
5. Annotation
6. Evidence

Yeah. There are a few words that I really, really hate. And they are ALL school related. Yes, I said all. Give me a minute to explain.

Critique.
That word just scares me! My art teacher says that word all the time and she uses these hats for what part of the brain you should be using or something like that. Those hats scare me because I always forget what hat stands for what and it's juse one big mess. But anyway, that word "Critique". It sends shivers down my spine. I'm quite a critic, myself, though. Here's something that happened over the summer:

*In Phoenix, Nathan E. does a 'flip' into the deep end of the hotel's swimming pool--- the hotel that Relient K checked into the day after we left! Aw, the sad memory is coming back...*

HOPE: That was a really ugly front tuck, Nathan.
NATHAN: What was wrong with it?
HOPE: You didn't point your toes. AND, your body form was just plain sloppy. PLUS, you can't just flop your arms around, they have to hug your knees. (Is it obvious that I competed in gymnastics?)
*Nathan tries again.*
HOPE: That was great!
*He kinda smiled.*
HOPE: However, you forgot to point your toes.
*He frowned, but kinda laughed, too.*
NATHAN: YOU'RE A CRITIC!!! I'm not a gymnast, Hope! If it's so easy, you do it!
HOPE: No.
NATHAN: CRITIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I guess I'm a critic??? But anyways, the word critique just scares me. If you went to my school and were in my grade, you would know... you would just know.

Specify.
That word scares me because if I try to explain something my hardest, and you say I need to specify, that just stresses me out and it makes me so mad, because I'M TRYING MY HARDEST, PEOPLE! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!! THAT GOES FOR YOU, TOO, VICE-PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS AND MATH MAGICIANS AND SID THE SCIENCE KID (ever heard of him?)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graphs.
Graphs can make a grown man cry. This I believe because it can make this young woman cry. And women endure more pain than men ever will for quite obvious reasons. Math kills me. I have noticed a pattern. I have a lot of friends who write novels and poems that hate math. You've seen some of my poems like "Yellow Sun" and "From the 105th Floor" on here. And now you know that I hate math and want nothing to do with it for the rest of my life. In college, I am taking the smallest amount of math possible to get my Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Communication and Creative Writing Master (and maybe I'll take some music courses at North Central University, since Drew's brother went there and had a good experience, I think I might go).

Back to that word. Graphs just make me pull my hair out. Ever wanted to cry, but couldn't because you knew you shouldn't and your eyes were too dry anyway? That's what graphs do to me!

Linear relationships, go on and kill me now.
I don't like linear relationships, because for the most part, they are graphs.

Annotation.
I don't believe in annotating. I just don't. It's stating the obvious when the thing is written right there. WASTE OF TIME, I TELL YA! WASTE OF TIME!

Evidence.
My U.S. History teacher is big on this one. "If you have claim, back it up with evidence," He says. And his wife is my Science teacher, so they both say that a lot. I can't, I just can't, back it up with evidence! I stutter, I can't think up a good word to say (not that I cuss or anything bad), and so evidence scares me. I once wanted to be a lawyer and now I know why that will never work for me.

Ghosts in Time

                                Sorry, now is not the time to step into my life.
Now is not the time to give me a second glance,
I'm still searching for meaning in my life,
I'm still in need of a second chance tonight.
I'm traveling slowly, wind pulling me closely
While I'm drowning quickly, water bringing me down.
I've been running far away from You now,
I'm too scared lay it all down,
And here in Your shadow, I'm terrified of Your presence.
I've been running for too long and I don't know where to stop,
My heart is falling from my chest making a loud, gory plop.
What am I now?
A soul? The remains of a soul?
Perhaps I am a ghost, just another ghost in time.
Take my hand and pull me back
Get my life back on track.
I want to see You and I need to believe in You
I need to come alive,
Come on now and awaken me
                                              Before I lose another heartbeat.

The Baby of Shame.

Shame. Shame on you. Shame. The baby of shame frowns upon you.

Ha ha, do you like how I made the baby extra large? If you don't like that, babies come in different sizes, you know.

Better?

Well, this particular baby has been haunting me, my classmates, and a small amount of teachers for weeks. If you have seen me in this past two weeks, you've seen this baby before. Saying that, you probably jumped when you saw the picture suddenly appear on my blog, the one place you imagined it wouldn't be (or maybe you saw it coming and was just waiting for it to happen).

It starts here.
We had this project for art class, and my message was to pay attention. There's this kid standing in front of a bus that's gonna run her over, and I was looking for screaming faces. There are some funny faces out there, people, you just have to look! So, before you ask or comment or whatever: No, I did not use this photo for the project. But, I did print it out! The creepy thing is I've seen that picture before... I'M NOT KIDDING!

SURPRISE!!!!!
I showed this baby to everyone in my half of the eighth grade because I'm the most popular girl in my half of the grade, Right? (Not really.) So, my bus arrives really early for school everyday and I arrive before most of my friends, except for the ones on my bus which are few because there are several districts at my school. So, I stuck the baby in this kid's cubby, thinking he'd just laugh or something. Next thing I know, I walk by his cubby and some kids from our grade are standing by his cubby, looking at the baby like, "What the heck"! The baby has magical powers: It's out for your locker next! ("If I was out for blood, I'd never get filled up..." {"Out For Blood", Farewell Flight} is the baby of shame's motto!)

Baby marked absent.
It is what it is: The baby was absent from school for two complete days! Or so I thought! I was so scared when I lost it--- "Has anyone seen the Baby of Shame???? I think I lost it! Please, if you took it or know where it is, let me know!" Yeah, I take the Baby of Shame very, very seriously. I'm gonna be an amazing mom of eight kids, that I know. So yeah, I lost the baby and yesterday during math, I thought I left my math book in my cubby, so I asked the teacher if I could go and see if it was in there. My math book wasn't in there and I was mad, so I furiously scanned my cubby to find at the very back, THE BABY OF SHAME! That made my day.

Lost and Found!
An incident that happened awhile ago, the first time I lost it, (what you just read was the second time I lost the baby) I was doing my homework at my computer desk. So I'm just listening to music (you know what band it was) and doing U.S. History work when I look up and see the baby of shame! I'm like "you're creepy!" And the baby's like, "Right back at ya." But yeah. That "Doctor Who" video on "Eighth Graders Anonymous" was playing at the time, and it was CREEEEPPPYYY!!!

"I still find that creepy."
So, I had the baby sitting out in History one day. Our teacher kinda walks around the room while we work, and he came by me and saw the baby. "Who's that???" He asked. He had just returned me a homework paper, so my natural reaction was "Hope Ezell?" which I know is weird. "No, the baby," He said. "OHH," I remembered, "Yeah, that's the Baby of Shame." I kinda giggled and he was just like, "hmmm...".

In art today, I had the baby sitting out. "Who's that?" The teacher asked. "The Baby of Shame", I responded. I explained to her how I got it and she was like, "I still find that creepy."

Wherever you go, it goes with you!
In Health, we got to use Macbooks, and we were Googling stuff. Then this girl started giggling and she was like, "Hope, I just found that baby on Google Images." I saw what she searched and it had NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT BABY! I have no idea how or why the baby showed up, but it was there. It made me laugh... like, seriously.

I hope you liked reaidng about the story behind that baby!

Rock on,
Hope!

Yellow Sun

You got me
   Like that yellow sun,
    Can't contain the emotions,
      They have just begun.
     I suddenly woke up
   And felt a love
 Too strong to ignore,
And now I'm yours.
   Grace is like the river,
      The current unable to fight.
     And there's a smile
   That I just can't hide
  Because you came into my life.
    You, it's you,
      It's you who made it new,
   You're why my life's worth living
Why the yellow sun is shining.

Tick-Tock Goes the Clock...

...'Til River kills the Doctor.

(I have a video for this, so visit Eighth Graders Anonymous.)

Oh my, I am way late, but did you see the last two "Doctor Who" episodes?! "The Wedding of River Song" was epic!

I love everything about that show. The music, the monsters, the companions, the Doctor. Oh, the Doctor. I love the way he turns around with that mischievious smile that tells you something amazing is about to happen, the way you know he won't die, how he is when he's angry, his British accent... You get the point by now.

Well, in the latest episode he was supposed to die... For real, this time. I was terrified because he really died and they were all like "No" and I was all like crying on the couch, but then River revealed the secret she saw in the twinkle of his eye: The Doctor is not dead!!! I knew my prayer paid off:

"Dear Jesus, if it is Your will, let the Doctor live. I love Matt Smith... He can't die or I will not watch that show EVER AGAIN."

The thing about "Doctor Who" is that I will never be good enough at writing to make a series so successful. "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" don't cone close to the Doctor, either.

I'm hooked. I'm Hope, and I'm a BBC American... FOREVER!

I can't wait for Christmas, when the show returns!

However, one question was left unanswered. The Doctor is alive, but...

Who is the Doctor? Doctor... Who???

All Things Me!

Ugh, I have not blogged often AT ALL lately. Darn you, school! Like, seriously. So here's an update on me since I don't have time to write the posts I really wanted to compose.

School.
Well, it was "Friday, Friday" but no one was gettin' down. Not even me. No one felt like it. So what if we got no homework for the weekend? That day still sucked. So, I was in a great mood and was singing "Friday"--- the usual. Just being Hope, or as my close friends at school call me, Raising Hope Not the Pope (and we weren't even aware that there is a show called "Raising Hope" now). I'll let you decide what the worst day is.

1. Finding out that one of your best friends is leaving the school forever
2. Your pinky is causing you some serious pain
3. Your vice-principal yells at everyone and threatens to take stuff out of your cubby (I'll explain the cubby part in a bit)
4. You almost get hit in the face with a soccer ball (I'm tellin' you--- it was seriously gonna hit me!)
5. Your P.E. teacher yells at the whole class for excessive loudness
6. You get a B on a Health paper and get the option to revise it, when you have had to revise Health papers all year and you're getting sick of it
7. The day you're early to catch the bus, the bus decides to be late
8. This was all caused because of the assembly at which the vice-principal yelled at everyone
9. Even your happy, excited, fun advisor is in a bad mood
10. EVERYONE is in a bad mood
11. All of the above.

Add all that together and that was my Friday. My pinky was hurting because me and Mister Crow (he goes to my school, in case you're wondering who he is) were playing Ninja, I had my hand facing upward, he's taller than me (and guys, I'm pretty tall) and his hand crashed down on my pinky, the pinky made a loud and gory noise, and now I've got it in tape and bobby pins. I don't know how many times he apologized, and I don't want to rub it in his face that he killed my pinky!

I don't know why the vice-principal yelled at us. She said we were irresponsible or something and that we needed to be more organized. So, we have cubbys (it would help if you wouldn't laugh at that) instead of lockers and she said that if there's stuff hanging out, she'll take it. So after the assembly I ran like Forrest Gump to my cubby--- I had sweatpants hanging out of it! Yeah. It's stressful being at a school like that. Our school's Science Olympiad team placed 9th in either the nation or state, I don't remember. And we're the second place STEM school in our state. Our stereotype: The "smart" school.

So yeah. Friday sucked. In Gym class (sixth period), I was really bummed--- everyone was. Some kids were having fun, though, so I thought it was just me. "Today sucks," I said. "I KNOW!" A whole bunch of kids agreed.

Music, be my escape.
Well, I added some songs to the blog playlist (and finally got rid of the 9/11 one). I'm learning three songs on guitar--- success! "Lovers In Japan" and "Strawberry Swing" (both by Coldplay) and "Size Matters" (Joe Nichols). I'm still not on my Youth group's worship team, but I will be... soon. Once the schedule lightens up. Also, I am currently writing a song--- the first one I've actually liked! Way to go, Hope!

Writing!
Some ideas have popped in my mind lately. Like that horror story I had in mind, "Fourteen"? I'm gonna start working on it when I'm fourteen and will have it published before I turn fifteen.

"Unspoken" is almost finished! At first I was like, "I suck at this. This story is going nowhere." Now I'm like, "Whoa, girl! You underestimated yourself badly!" I've definitely grown up since the "Drama Queen" series and "The Perfect Race".

"On Death's Edge" is getting started. Yay. This is gonna be one sweet novel that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy--- it uses fantasy for Harley (main character) to challenge herself and realize how she's living in reality.

And that song I'm writing. I can't wait to add in some guitar chords, piano melodies, and bass. It's gonna rock when it's done!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah. That's me.

Rock on,
Hope!