Sunday, October 28, 2012

I Don't Even Know Anymore

Helly everyone!

This week was a mixed bag. But, then again, so is every week, really. There are always high points and low points. I guess this is what makes life real without the shield and anchor that was 'Iolani.

Highlights of the week include........see, I'm grasping the air just trying to figure out what exactly were the highlights of the week...hmm. Okay. Tuesday, we went on a Long's adventure that wasn't really an adventure. More of a party. Ping, Maria, four of Rebecca's architecture friends, Rebecca, and I all trekked down there to get some stuff. I bought Kit Kats for the office. Because it's October, we put out a pumpkin container on our office's counter where people come up for questions and help. We filled it with candies and chocolate but also kept several containers of goodies for ourselves inside. Everyone in the entire office gobbles up "dem Kit Kats" in no time so I figured, since we're running low, I'd pick up more. 

This week, I also signed up for Relay for Life, a cancer-fighting committee that plans this huge fundraising event that will take place in April. I'm excited!

On Friday night, I went to Eat the Street! We did it as a RAPS social so I went with other Regents and Presidentials (well, just one Presidential). The theme this month was "Dia (con tilde!) de los Muertos" so they had a bunch of Latin food. Oddly enough, Xtreme Tacos wasn't there! There were, however, a whole lot of baja-Mexican food trucks that I had never seen there before so that was good. No crepe booths, sadly, but there was a positively sinful dessert booth where they had marshmallows and truffles and chocolate mochi! I had to buy one; it was called a Chubby Fudgy Bowl. It was basically layers of chocolate mochi squares and whipped cream, topped with more whipped cream and strawberries. YUM. There were lots of people in costume (a couple of the Regents actually also came in costume), but mostly they had Day of the Dead make-up on. The hosts were having a contest for whoever showed up with the best skeleton-y make-up. Daisy and I were waiting for our carne asada fries at the Ono Grindz booth when I turned my head and I FOUND WALDO! I wanted to go and take a picture with him so I told Daisy I'd be back. I started walking towards him but I realized that he was with a girl and they were laughing and talking and I was like, "Shoot. No, Waldo's on a date. I can't go up to him and ask for a picture with him when he's on a date!" So I turned around. Gah, I so regret that! I'm pretty sure he would not have minded, especially if he chose to go in public wearing a Waldo costume. When I told a couple of the Regents what happened after, we looked around for him a bit to no avail. Ah next time, Waldo, I WILL get a picture with you. Anyway, on to the more important stuff at the Street: the FOOD! Daisy and I shared everything so that we could get our money's worth. The best bite we got was these skewers of mushroom and garlic chicken wrapped in bacon--really good! And it was also really cheap because both skewers, which were both pretty big, were only $3!

My entire Saturday was basically spent in Kahuku. Originally, I was supposed to go and help out at a robotics tournament at my old middle school but 'Iolani needed judges over in the north shore so I chose to go there instead (I'll still be helping out in a robotics tournament this weekend though). I had to get up early for rides at 6ish and I didn't get back home in town until around almost 7ish at night so it really was an all-day affair! It was good though. I judged three rounds of JV Policy which, considering that this was the very first debate tournament of the season, was pretty painful in a baby-freshmen-at-their-first-ever-tournament-making-only-three-minute-speeches kind of bad. For many other judges, they would have rather died than judge three rounds of JV early in the season but I really appreciated that the judge coordinators gave me these assignments. I remember what my very first debate tournament was like and how terrible my speeches were during those rounds. And I remember how much time I spent reading all of my judges' comments on the debate ballots after every tournament, analyzing and taking note of every criticism and suggestion. So I made sure to FILL UP DEM BALLOTS because I figured, hey, I know what it's like up there and I know that these kids need all of the help they can get before the next tournament. I was basically writing in my very best and neatest 0.25-inch (not joking) high font, single spaced, from the very top to the very bottom of the page, writing sideways on the margins and around the boxes when I ran out of space (which I did...for all three rounds). After each round, when I turned in my ballots, the coordinators would sigh and be like, "You can ALWAYS tell who's n ex-debater here..." Hey, I know what they wanna hear and know so that's what I give them. Besides judging, I also got to know the new members of the team. Most of the kids who came out to compete were freshmen and Josh had told me before that they were "pocket-sized" (really, he used those words) but I didn't understand what he meant until Saturday. They are the cutest and brightest little creatures ever and arrrggghh, I don't understand how no one has smothered them all to death with crazy love already! I have so much confidence in them after just talking to them on Saturday. We waited for an unusually long time for a debate tournament because the tabulations took extra long this time around. And at the very moment that we all decided to go out because Ayami and I wanted to teach the others Wah-Wah-Shwing, the awards start so we didn't get to play. We did, however, play that game where everyone looks down and at the count of three looks up to look at someone in the circle and if they're looking at each other, they're both out. That was fun, even if it was short. Everyone did really well but we didn't take any of the sweepstakes trophies. Shucks! But this can also be good because it's still early in the season and winning a trophy would have put the target on 'Iolani's back. Next time!

After that was the long journey home. We got caught in the post-surf meet traffic but that wasn't so bad. The waves looked so scary yet powerful at the same time. Now, by this time, I had a pretty terrible headache and I felt really sick. By the time Ayami and her mom dropped me off, I was really ready for bed. But not after I ended up throwing up everything I ate for the day in the bathroom right when I got home. So after I cleaned up, I went straight to sleep with only a couple of minutes of dinner when my dad got home. After that, it was just me and my pillow and my blanket, all through the tsunami warning happenings and such all the way until 9 am this morning. Mhhhmm, sleep.

The thing is this wasn't the first time. I don't remember if I told you guys on here but this also happened a couple of weeks ago. I came home with a terrible headache, threw up in the bathroom, and basically went to sleep it all of for the whole night and until late in the morning. The first time, I came home from canvassing which involved lots of walking from house to house in the hot sun for hours. This time, I came home from judging at a tournament. Amazing. Normal teens come home trashed after a rave. I come home trashed after trying to make a difference.

I think it's because I'm just not used to the long and high-energy days anymore. They just tire me out now. Which is really sad because I remember that all I really needed after a tournament was a good night's sleep. I mean, think of IDT season or States season! Those were basically no-sleep weekends! I don't think I'd be able to handle those anymore. Which is really sad, and they make me miss high school more, oddly. 

Okay, I think that's enough for today. I'm really ready for bed but I think I'll go and get some more reading done.

NaNoWriMo starts on Thursday! Kendall and I will be participating and aiming for Winner Status, of course. We are also doing something new this year: Vlogging! We'll be posting short and really informal videos with sanity assessments and updates on how our novels are going throughout the novel. Get excited guys. Here is the link to our shared channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChewyFruityVloginess

Okay, that's it for now. I'm gonna go. Have a happy Halloween everyone!

Risks: 32 
Hugs: 2
Current food obsessions/cravings: water
Playlists on Repeat: Split
Books Read Since Graduation: 6





Life of the Party

Hey guys! 

This week was cool and stuff, right? Yeah, it was. I found out that the poster that I thought was accidentally mailed to me was actually bought by Jen. Therefore, I ended up getting both posters, Wheeeew! 

Then, on Friday, we had our big surprise for Gavin because Rebecca flew in on Friday night. It worked out pretty well I thought. What happened was, on Friday, I went with Gavin to archery to spy on him kind of. Even though, I ended up being able to shoot for like two hours and it was a lot of fun. The reason I wanted to spy on him was because there was a chance that he would go out with the archery people after. So after that, my aunt came and picked me up and we got Rebecca from the airport at like 11 at night. 

By the time we got back to my dorm, we were talking with Gavin's roommate to figure out if was in his dorm yet or not, but he wasn't. So we ended up having to wait like an hour and a half at my dorm, until Gavin finally got back to his. Once he did, I texted him saying that I got this package on accident and that it was actually for him. I told him that I was going to bring it to him right away because he really needed to see what was inside of it. 

So we trekked over to his dorm and the put Rebecca in a box. It was sufficiently awkward and hilarious, especially when I taped the box up with Rebecca in it and then walked away to go grab her bags, then this guy came up to the box and was like "Are you okay?"

After that, I got Gavin to come downstairs and look at the box. I tried to get him to open it then and there, but he said he wanted to open it in his room. So he dragged the box to the elevator, down the hall, and into his room, all while Rebecca was in the box. I then gave Gavin a letter that came with the box, so he spent some time reading that. This whole thing took about 10-15 minutes, all while she was in the box. When he finally went down to open it, Rebecca burst out for air, dying of heat from inside the box. 

Overall, it went really well, Gavin was surprised and happy, and it was fun times. Then on Saturday, we made some lemon bars and then went downtown to go to the Boys Like Girls/All American Rejects concert. Unfortunately, I thought it was in the wrong place, so we ended up having to walk a mile and a half in the cold and rain to get to the actual place where the concert was, but that's okay.

We met up with Jaime there and went in. This was my first concert, so that was exciting and stuff. It was crazy though. So hot and sweaty, and people pushing and shoving their way to the front. We actually got really close up, like 2 or 3 people away from the front. The entire time, fending of drugged up people who were just flailing around all over the place. I really really enjoyed the Boys Like Girls set. I thought, overall that it was a lot better. The All American Rejects one was just kind of all over the place. But that's probably just cause I didn't like their lead singer that much. 

But yeah, in the end, everything was awesome. Gavin and Rebecca had to wake up at 5:30 this morning to get to the airport, and Rebecca fortunately got on a flight. So yeah, good weekend. 

Books Read: 11
Free Meals: 47
Why This Week Was Awesome: Family Reunion 
Song Stuck in My Head: Boys Like Girls songs, basically