Day Seven: Nothing A Hug Can't Fix

After an extra day off it felt good to be back in school again...even if I did have to take a total of two math tests (the AMC, which Kendall was, of course, being the math geek he is, very excited to take, and then the math test I missed on Monday) and then had to do detention after school today.


Every morning, an attendance report--basically, a list of all the students who are home sick--is sent out to all of the faculty and staff. My name is rarely ever on that list so I guess I should not have been surprised at how many people noted my unusual absence on Monday. But, still. 


When I arrived at school this morning and crossed paths with my history teacher from my freshman year, she immediately asked me if I felt better, and if I was okay. A couple of my teachers also showed their concern. I got more than a few greetings of "Welcome back!" and "I hope you feel better, Jen!" from my peers. Even when I went into the Special Programs office to arrange something later on in the day, the ladies who work there asked me about my health and stress levels, lightly scolding me for not taking a break for myself once in a while. 


Then, there's the detention fiasco. Like I've said in a previous post, all of the teachers, administrators and students whom I've told about my getting busted for my skirt last Thursday have been relishing my bad luck. The teasing has been non-stop. All in good nature, of course. Detention wasn't so bad because I worked in the Main Office, and I work there for scholarship anyway so it was fun. I love working in there. Nevertheless, I won't be breaking dress code anytime soon. Most likely, never again.


One of the amazing things that I love about going to a small school is the cozy family-like atmosphere. Today was just one of those days that confirmed this idea because I felt so special. Whether they were sweet, asking me questions about my well-being, or funny, teasing me about getting detention, all of the people around me every day genuinely care about me.


And, come on, who can't help but be filled with high energy, being in a place like this?


After school, I hung out in the speech and debate room with a bunch of people, just telling stories and joking around with our coach. After that, I went out into the autoline and realized that I still hadn't given an official gift. So I turned to amazing and sweet Ayami who was walking right next to me. Ayami is only a sophomore but she is one of our team captains. There are times when she's young and childish and I have to be a mother to her. Most times, we're sisters. Once, at Nationals last summer, she took care of me and Rachel like we were her daughters. We've grown so close since I met her last year (I've shared a bed with her on school trips so many times!) and she is one of the people who make it so hard for me to think about having to graduate and leave. I asked her if she needed or wanted anything at that very moment and she said, "I could use a hug right now." So I put all of my things down on a bench nearby and the two of us hugged it out right there in the middle of the autoline for a good long while. Small, simple, but from the way Ayami hugged me back so tightly, I knew I was making a difference in her day!


I've been doing a lot of these spontaneous and simple gifts lately. Time for planned ones starting tomorrow!


Risks taken: 14

Hugs: 4 (1 of which was especially for Ayami!)

Current food cravings/obsessions: .....................................water....

Playlist(s) of the Week: Not a playlist....He is We on Spotify.

Day Four: DOMIN8

Don't throw things at me! I know, I know, I missed another day of BED[insert month here]...but really, it wouldn't be the same if I didn't miss at least one day, right? Then, I wouldn't be the Jen you all know.


Pssh, Kendall's gifts so far have been really good, I don't know what he's talking about! They're so him--small and out of the purple, but very thoughtful and sweet.


So I had the speech tournament at KCC early morning yesterday and that lasted up until 5:30 (I totally underestimated because I thought we'd be done by 3). Anyway, as Kendall already mentioned in his post because he's just so good at stealing other people's chances of telling their friends and the Internet important things (he tells people my jokes, too---ehh, I guess I should be used to it by now), I won first. *happy, but inconspicuous so as not to be obnoxious to others dance time* It felt satisfying because after the first round and seeing all my other competitors, I thought to myself, "THIS. IS. GOING. TO. BE. A. TOUGH. TOURNAMENT. TO. TRY. TO. WIN." Everyone was just so good and intense and eloquent and gahhhh. I had to make sure I brought my A game every single time. 


Anyway, my gift actually has something to do with the tournament. There were 8 people entered in this tournament--Nicki, Rachel, Kenneth, Emerald, Lauren, Ayami, my brother, Josh, and then little old me. Sometime during the two weeks of after school practices that we've been having, someone (I think it was Josh) started chanting the "The Power of 3 will set us free" mantra from the show Charmed, completely out of the purple. Soon, we were all coming up with rhymes for other numbers: The Power of 1 will get it done, the Power of 7 is sent from heaven...


And, of course, we came up with a mantra for our lucky number for this tournament: "The Power of 8 will dominate." We even joked about holding hands in a team circle and whispering it together over and over again to freak out other competitors--but we didn't.


Knowing that this is a pretty stressful time during the school year as it is, and that the KCC tournament is our penultimate chance of qualifying for the State tournament, I knew that this team needed some sort of boost. So I made personalized DOMIN8 cards! I wrote short and cheesy (they had to be cheesy, of course--it's me we're talking about here) messages of encouragement on the backs of each one, just to make sure that our team was pumped up and ready to do well. Usually, we're one of the smallest teams out of all the schools who compete, but we take pride in that we never let this stop us from climbing up to the top. 


Shown below are Josh's and my cards (yes, I also wrote one for myself........................what?.................it's the kinda crumpled one because it was in my purse the whole time). Because Josh's Program Reading (PR) speech was entitled "Stand Up" I wrote the following on the back of his card: JOSH! Stand Up, man! No, seriously, stand up and claim your PR trophy! 

Josh won 5th in PR and he qualified for States! WHOOOOOOO! I'm so proud of my little brother because he didn't get to compete at States last year, and he's been working so hard this year. He started off pretty weakly (he says so himself), kept working hard for every tournament and at the one before this, he got all Superior rankings and placed either 1st or 2nd for most of his rounds. And now he's in the top 5 out of 17, ready to conquer at States! I have so much love for him.


After the tournament, our parents picked us up and off we went to a family gathering. Yesterday was the 2nd year deathday of one of my dad's uncles......I think. (It's my dad's side, and I'm always confused about my dad's side of the family because he was adopted by, if I remember correctly, his grandfather's brother...so that kind of shifted the family tree one up and one to the side...right? My head hurts.) Anyway, as tradition dictates, we prayed for a good long while. It was completely in Ilocano and the prayer leader who came was really fast. I could catch and understand most of what she said but I didn't know any of the responses. Nevertheless, it felt good to pray with family and to remember Lolo Luis. There was an "altar" with bowls of food, drink and various offerings. And candles, of course.


Which brings me to the most interesting things I heard yesterday. After the prayer, I learned that the prayer leader was actually a religious healer type. She told stories of how she started her work in the first place, how she's connected to God and how the Virgin Mary taught her how to pray correctly. It's, I don't know the right word for this, but it's pretty SOMETHING to see someone as proof of the existence of a higher being. 


After that, we ate. A lot of food. Filipino food. I love food. I love family. I love eating food with family. We stayed there up until almost 9:30ish so I was pretty dead tired. I went straight to sleep once we got home and I didn't wake up until 10ish this morning. Which explains the absence of my Feb 4 blog post. I hope this will suffice. Later on, when I blog about today's gift, I will tell you more about what Kendall promised in his Friday post, the stories about my gifts, an update on my 13 Little Blue Envelopes quest and the surprising outcome of a risk I took the other day.


'Til then, tootles!


(This post will not have my usual ending counts because I have two blog posts today. For Feb 5 counts, see my Day Five post which will be up a little later.)