Speeding up the Octaves

22 May 2006 - 7:32 PM

So I missed my Sunday blogging this week. Oh well.

Monday
I took my mom to work and headed to practice, but apparently, someone forgot to tell my coach that we weren't going to be using the pool at Baker anymore. So, practice got cancelled, but I didn't want to go home yet, because my friend's band concert was on that side of town, and it would be pointless to drive home and back just because I had nothing to do. It took me awhile to find the building I was supposed to be going to. Once there, I really had nothing to do for a good two hours. At one point, the idea came into my head to go to Melissa's house and see her, but unfortunately, I didn't have the directions on me. Then, I decided to try and get a map using my PSP. I drove around the surrounding neighborhoods for a good 45 minutes trying to find an unprotected wireless internet connection. It wasn't too hard to find wireless connections, because I was near a number of legal offices. Sadly, my PSP wasn't able to navigate the interactive maps, so I couldn't figure out where I was going. I ended up just waiting until they started selling tickets to the concert.

After I sat down, a few people came and sat next to me. I recognized one of them from a very long time ago. I don't even think I had any class with her, but I remembered her from elementary school. It was very interesting for me to have come across such an old acquaintance. I'm glad that I went to the concert, because I hadn't been to a school band performance since 8th grade, when I was part of the band. It was also nice for my friend, because her parents couldn't make it to the show, which was the last performance of the year.

Tuesday
So today was the first day of dive practice for the week, considering it got cancelled yesterday. The good thing was that we were practicing at the same pool that we'd be competing at on Saturday, so we had time to get used to the boards. It was also an indoor pool, which is always nice. The one thing that did suck was that practice started at 2:00, which didn't give me much time to get down there. I had to tell Sarah and Courtney to find different rides home for the rest of the week.

Wednesday
My dad had to take the car for deliveries, so he was supposed to take me to practice right after school. Well, he ended up being later than he should've been, so I changed and stretched at the school while I waited for him. We showed up about ten minutes late, but it wasn't too bad, because they weren't even in the water yet when I arrived. Practice was really good. I was getting great tops and better kickouts than usual. Too bad they didn't stay...

Thursday
Had a Chemistry test today. It was alright. I got a B on it, which is fair enough for me, I suppose. Practice was nothing special. It was longer than the other practices of the week though. I ended up leaving 6th period about half an hour early in an attempt to get down there by 1:00 because we had the boards from 1:00 to 3:00 as opposed to 2:00 to 3:00

Friday
We started debates in History today after we finished watching All the President's Men. We were supposed to do three debates in one day, but only had enough time for the one on abortion. That was lucky, because I wasn't completely prepared to take part in my debate on same-sex marriage. Practice seemed to be getting worse. I had to leave directly at 3:00 so I could get home, help my dad load the car, and let my parents go to work on time. After I showered, I looked around on Myspace for a bit. I ended up finding one of my sister's friends. If you look at my main Myspace page and notice the scan of the card from CJ's memorial service... she was his wife. I ended up reading a large portion of her online blog. It really gave me some insight to how she's been holding up over the past five months. If you'd like, you can read her blogs as well. There's an address in one of her Myspace blogs. In my friends, she's Tamsen on the 6th page.

I would have liked to see Melissa today, but by the time my dad got home at 8:30-9:00, I didn't think it would be wise to go out until midnight and then get less-than-sufficient sleep before the meet the following day. I was waiting for her to call after she got back from a play that she went to, but fell asleep about five minutes before she texted me, so that made me feel like a pretty big douchebag.

Saturday
I woke up at 7:00 today to drive down to the pool and get ready for the state dive meet. My dad went with me and left to his friend's house during warmups before he came back when the meet started. My mom caught a ride later on with my grandpa. It made me feel good that they actually wanted to watch one of the meets for once. My sister and her boyfriend also showed up near the end of the meet. Other than that, there weren't really any others who came to support me, with the exception of some divers who were cheering on divers from their school, as well.

I got about the same score at state as I got at regionals - about 300. Sadly, this left me in last place, just as I got last year, haha. The first-place winners really surprised me, though. Even though the kids from Reno were really good, a sophomore from Green Valley took first for the men by about 2 points. What was even more incredible was that the women's first place winner, a senior from Sierra Vista, had even failed a dive. I was very happy to see her win, because she should have gone to state last year, but failed two dives at regionals, which disqualified her.

After the meet, I ran some errands with my dad, came home, showered, and took a nap. After I took my mom to work, I picked up Niki and Chris and we went to SkyMania because I really wanted to go, given that I hadn't gone in three weeks in an attempt to strengthen my feet-first entries for diving. I dropped Niki and Chris off afterward, changed into presentable clothing, and drove over to Melissa's house. I took a different route than the directions I printed, so I almost got lost. The only change was that I didn't take the freeway. I actually probably ended up traveling less miles by skipping the freeway. When I showed up in her neighborhood, I discovered that my printed directions led me to... the emergency exit for her neighborhood. Haha! I ended up turning back and following another two cars in through the gate. Melissa and I talked in her room for a bit, but when her little brother and parents got home, we went for a walk... I'd never done that with anyone before - just gone for an evening walk. We went a short distance to a nearby park, where we talked some more and made official our relationship. It being spring, there were many bugs out, so eventually, we walked back to her house. We sat outside in my car, listening to music, and ended up playing a game of chess on her cell phone. We ended in a stalemate.

Soon, it was time for me to head home. We said our goodbyes, and I got about two miles away when I received a phone call from her. She had left her cell phone in my car, and I had left my PSP in her room. So, I turned around, and fortunately caught another person driving in through the gate to the neighborhood... at 12:30 in the morning... weird. We exchanged electronics, said goodbyes again, and I drove home.

On a sidenote, I like the one area on Jones that is about 50-100 yards of absolutely dark road, only lit by headlights. Jones is also a fun street to drive on at night. I made it from her house to my house - roughly a 14-mile stretch - in about 20 minutes. That was even with the mixup where I had know prior knowledge that Jones and Alexander switch names at Rancho because someone decided to get smart and cut the two perpendicular streets with a fucking diagonal street. Lawl.

Sunday
Today, I picked up my first suit. It fits well, and I have a few good shirt and tie combinations to go along with it. My mom thought it impractical to buy only one suit for an entire week in D.C., so she told me to buy two more, since the deal was three for $500 and I already bought one. My dad and I picked out two more suits, but didn't have the money, so we had the manager hold them until Wednesday. I also bought my quarter-project book at Borders because I had to return the one I checked out from the library on account of their policy on turning in all books at a certain point before the end of the school year. I've come to the conclusion that my Sundays at home are probably the most relaxing thing I can do. I don't have to worry about going to see anyone, and I am able to clean and organize things on my own time without rush.

Well, it's Monday, but I don't feel like writing more. Maybe later on tonight... Maybe tomorrow... Maybe next Sunday.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

"If saw the sun fall down, I'd pick it up and make a crown - one that was a perfect fit for you."

14 May 2006 - 5:16 PM

That's a pretty good quote from "If", off The Red Hot Chili Peppers' new album, Stadium Arcadium
Okay, so I failed at that 'writing more frequently' thing.

Monday
Dive practice was pretty pointless because I tried to get an inward double somersault, but couldn't get it completely around, so I didn't even end up putting it on my dive list for this week. The only thing I accomplished was getting my front 1½ with ½ twist to go higher.

Tuesday
~cough~

Wednesday
AP Chemistry test today!
Wish I had studied more. I left about half of my free-response stuff blank. After the test, Chris, Dallas, and I went to Palermo's and got some pizza. When we came back, Biscuit asked us where we were coming from, and when we told her that we had just picked up lunch after our AP test, she... told us not to do it anymore. Haha! It's so great to be us, because if we were any other kids, she would've taken us to the dean's office for truancy, probably. We went back to 6th period and watched more of The Patriot, which we had been watching since Monday.

My ride to dive practice was on the other side of town, so she couldn't pick me up. I spent about 45 minutes to an hour trying to find another ride, because this was going to be the last day of practice before regionals. Finally, a friend from Cimarron picked me up and we got to practice on time.

Thursday
Pretty uneventful school day, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't have dive practice because the girls' regional competition was today.

Friday
We had a quiz in Precalc, which I did fair on. I got 30/32. I'll see which question I missed on Monday. As for the French quiz, I'm pretty sure I bombed that. I probably got 12 or 13 out of 20 right. I should really start studying for those things. We did a lab in Chemistry, but ended up running out of time. We'll have to start all over again on Monday or something. In History, we did this thing that was supposed to tell you what political party you belonged to depending on your answers. My answers turned out 6 to 4, making me a Republican. Then, we decided which kinds of debates we wanted to do in class. Anybody who participates will get extra credit, and seeing as I need extra credit in that class, I tried to shimmy my way into one of them. I volunteered for the debate on same-sex marriage, and I'm on the side that says it should be permissible. We're supposed to do a little research on it and have the debates this upcoming Friday. It should be pretty good.

Today was the men's regional diving competition at UNLV's Buchanan Natatorium. I didn't have any friends to give me rides, so I had one of the other divers pick me up. He ran a little late, but it was ok. When we got there, everybody got kinda bummed, because they knew that the two best divers in the region had just shown up, haha. With 15 minutes less warmup time than they had, we still took the top two places in the competition.

Afterward, the divers just had fun while waiting for the scores to get organized. We did synchronized 1½ somersaults with a full twist off both 1-meter and 3-meter. Then, I tried a front 2½ pike off 3-meter, which I had never tried before. I wish I had held on a little longer, because I came out a bit early. Then, I tried that continuous spin off 3-meter again. I got further through, and landed more on my head after 3½ spins. The crowd was going wild by now, with all of these divers just having as much fun as they could with the boards. We tried some inward 2½ tucks off 3-meter and then Mike told me to try a front 1½ with 2 twists. I had never even attempted that many twists before, but decided to go for it anyway. I put my earplugs in, hurdled, and tried my hardest. When I came out, before I hit the water, I saw everybody who was standing under the board. Needless to say, I smacked a couple of things. By this time, people were scared for my physical well-being, and asked me to stop. Haha! It was probably a good idea, because the burn scar on my right arm was purple from smacking so much.

Awards were handed out, and then we took pictures on the boards of all the divers and the winners and everything, and then I decided to do one very last dive for the night. It was a gainer in the 'method' position, meaning once I got into the air, I grabbed my ankles and pulled them behind my back, making a huge arch with my back. I ended up over-flipping it, so at the end, I let go of my legs and landed on my ass, which sent a splash up large enough to get water on a majority of the crowd that was standing on deck.

On the way home, Shea and I decided to fly our balloons out the window for pride purposes. They ended up catching lots of wind and banging against the car, and soon, they detatched from the strings and flew off.

When I got home, I showered and went to sleep. Even though I was in a good mood about being eligible for state competition, I was still pretty disappointed that there were absolutely no spectators at the meet for Durango. It makes me wonder if anybody will care to watch me next week.

Saturday
My brothers wanted to go to Mother's Day lunch today instead of Sunday, so we had dim sum at about noon. Afterward, I went with my sister to her house to get some family pictures off her computer so that I could make a collage for my mom for Mother's Day. After I took my mom to work, I worked on the collage for about three hours, which left it about half done with 21 pictures on it. Then, I picked people up and started on the way to meet Erica, Melissa, Alexa, and Mareena at the Las Vegas Drive-In to see Just My Luck and Take the Lead. We... got lost on the way there, to say the least. I ended up going too far down Lake Mead, then going back up, getting to the street I was supposed to be on, then going the wrong way again, and then I couldn't turn back and go in the right direction because there was some kind of rollover in the desert with a truck (that must have really sucked), and then I found myself in a random neighborhood, mind you, in the ghetto. I was tired to dicking around, so I finally decided to pull over and asked for directions. Luckily, there was a huge mass of black people hanging out, having a barbecue - haha! I pulled up to a few people and asked where I could find the Las Vegas Drive-In. One guy was like, "What!?!" as if I were a threat to him. Fortunately, another one of the guys was willing to help. He told me how to get around the accident and then make my way there. I was grateful, yet still a bit intimidated, so I ended up saying thanks and bye as I was driving away.

Finally, we found the place, and then we bought our entry ticket and drove in. Too bad the guy directed me to the wrong movie. When I got back up to the front, Erica and her friends had shown up, and were going in the right direction. I followed them and parked beside them, backwards, because we ended up opening the back door of the Explorer and lying down. It was a good idea to bring pillows and blankets, because Niki and Chris went up on top of the car for the first movie while everybody else was chilling in the car. Between movies, we were going to go to the concession stand, but ended up not doing so because Erica's car wouldn't start up. We had to go around to about 6 or 7 people before we found some jumper cables. We got the car started up, but then she turned it off, and we were fucked again. We decided not to go to concessions, and just watched the second movie. It was a bit more awkward among everybody during the second movie, as Niki was the only one up top, while Erica and one friend sat on the bumper, Chris and another friend sat on the ground, and Melissa and I were the only ones left to lie down in the car. I understand that people didn't want to be too intrusive, as Melissa and I were lying with each other, but I honestly felt really bad that they weren't comfortable in making themselves comfortable.

After the movies, we jumped Erica's car up again and went our separate ways. I dropped the guys off at home, then came back to work on that collage some more. I worked pretty fast, and finished the other half in about two hours. I was about to set the collage mat into the frame that I had my dad buy when I noticed it was scratched. Now, even though I couldn't find the receipt and couldn't ask for it because my dad was asleep, I had to go back up to Wal-Mart and exchange it. I got one that seemed fine, but when I got home again, I found that the top left corner was chipped off on the plastic cover. I was done fucking with it at this point, and it wasn't very visible after it was lain in the black frame, so I just put the collage mat in anyway. As I was setting it in, my mom came home. I finished setting it while my mom stood curiously at my door, waiting for me to open it, and then just in time, I gave it to her for Mother's Day. That was a pretty close call. She really liked it. Here's a picture of it.

Sunday
I went with my dad to get a suit fitted for my trip to Presidential Classroom. It ended up costing about $350 for a suit, shirt, matching tie, cuff links, and handkerchief, and a belt. Then it was another $10 for me to buy some dress socks at Wal-Mart. I should still buy some dress shoes.



So there's my week. After a few bumps and worries, I finally made my way to the state diving competition again.
Schoolwork is lightening up a little, as half of my classes - the AP classes - are finished with preparing us for the exams because we've taken them already.
And, I'm sorry to be kissing and telling, but it looks like I may finally be nearing a relationship after being single for 6 months.

Things are starting to look up =)

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

When you live like this, you have to tell about it...

7 May 2006 - 11:41 AM

So it's been a pretty eventful week... Sorry I missed writing for the first 7 days of May. I'll try to recount all...

Monday
Today was the AP English Language and Composition test. If you didn't take it, you don't know how incredibly awful it was. It was lucky that the last passage in the multiple choice section only had about 6 questions to it, because I didn't even get to it. I hated the essays, too. Think about writing an essay about an essay about pink flamingoes and an essay that analyzes an excerpt that was only three sentences long, but occupied an entire page of text. Ugh. Afterward, I was gonna just go home or get something to eat or something, but even though Mr. Deming said he didn't care, he said he'd still have to mark us absent, so I ended up staying while we looked at political cartoons in class.

It was more relaxing to go to dive practice than usual, because anything would be better than that AP test. I've like, grown to hate the pool at Baker, because it has so much chlorine in it that my skin starts drying out to the point of peeling. When I got home, I didn't even bother doing homework, 'cause I didn't go to any of my classes anyway, so I didn't have much.

Tuesday
It was a considerably bad school day. My English teacher is officially a mega BITCH for giving us another essay assignment even though we hadn't turned in the previous one and most of her students still have more AP tests to take. I was glad to get out of her classroom as soon as possible, as she was fine with sending people to other classrooms. Niki and I went to Deming's room. Mr. Barnett, on the other hand, took into consideration that people are taking AP tests, and took the courtesy of covering one section of the book over two days. I ended up with one homework assignment from today and one homework assignment from yesterday, but at least I was instructed on the material. In fourth period, French, I received the vocabulary from yesterday and a few assignments from yesterday and today. I don't know why, but the barrage of work just broke me down, and I was just about burnt out by the end of the period. There was still Chemistry and History to go. Yay.

Luckily, diving practice was cancelled because the pump at UNLV broke and the pool at Baker was unavailable, so I was able to sleep all day and do some of that homework during the night.

Wednesday
In second period, Mrs. Christiernsson was going to be presented with the award for Teacher of the Year by Durango's ROTC. As her second period students, we were given the option of attending the presentation down on the football field or going to another teacher's classroom. Obviously, Niki, Dallas, and I went to Mr. Deming's classroom. You may be wondering, "Why didn't you go to the ceremony?" Well, let's just say that I wouldn't think it right to watch one of my least admired teachers of the year get presented with the award for Teacher of the Year.

Diving was going kinda shitty. I couldn't come out right on my back 1½, no matter what position I tried it in, so at the end of practice, I made my last dive a back double. It had a pretty good top, and made it around, so I decided to make it one of my dives for the upcoming meet on Friday, along with my reverse 1½, which I hadn't thrown since spring break.

Thursday
I didn't take many of my classes seriously because I knew that I'd be skipping them tomorrow for the AP US History exam. At diving practice, I was doing really shitty. Remember how I told you that I hadn't thrown that reverse 1½ since spring break? Well, it ended up being a really shitty dive. I could barely get it around and it was extremely far out. I spent the rest of practice trying to get even a reverse somersault to go up as opposed to out. When I went home, I downloaded a couple videos of divers doing reverses so that I could understand what I was supposed to be doing.

Chris came over for a little bit to make a few CDs so that he could reformat his computer because it was acting like shit and Nicole needed to use it the next day. I was half asleep the entire time he was here, and after he left, I slept through the whole night. I felt like I slept longer than I had, too, because whenever I woke up and thought it was time to get up for school, it would still be hours early.

Friday
Now who wouldn't want to end their week with another AP test? Well, me, for one. Haha! I was going to study in first period, but we ended up doing something for a change. It's always just my luck that that happens. We were supposed to go to every room in the 200 hallway and put zip ties on the computers so that it was a little harder to open them up and take shit. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... It doesn't really stop anybody, so long as they have a pair of scissors. I guess you'd prefer the school district to buy a few hundred Master locks for the computers. Fuck that. Anyway, I had to walk around to some rooms and go "Hi, I'm working for Mr. K, and I need to put this little piece of plastic on your computer." I told my classmates, or my 'team', as I liked to call them, that I was gonna take the first hallway. They didn't listen, and started doing it as well. Then, as I started doing a few other classrooms, they disappeared. It turns out one of the guys went upstairs, even though we were supposed to start in just one hallway. The entire thing got fucked up, and I only got a little bit of studying done.

I think I was confident in answering 2 of the 75 multiple choice questions. The DBQ killed me, but I think I did better on the free response essays. That ten minutes of studying in first period gave me information on the Plessy v. Ferguson case, which I was very fortunately able to fit into my second essay. After the test, I was dying to relax, so Dallas, Niki, Erica, and I went down to Palermo's to get some pizza. It had to be take out, because we were still planning on going to sixth period, but we had half an hour, so it wasn't much of a rush. We came back and ate in Mr. Deming's classroom, because he didn't care, considering we just took the AP test for his class and it was sixth period on a Friday. After lunch, everybody got bored and started writing and drawing on the board. While a couple people played Hangman, I went up to the adjacent board and started drawing. I was determined to finish my drawing, so I stayed about 5 minutes after the bell. This is what I ended up with. I thought it was pretty good.

Not only was today the day of the AP History test, but it was also the first 11-dive meet of the year. You didn't get invited because it was in Henderson, so I pretty much knew that you wouldn't be able to come. I didn't have many options for a ride, so I rode around with my dad while he delivered products until we came near the area. It took awhile to find the place, and when we finally did, we were stopped at an intersection, so I just hopped out and ran over.

The meet was fair, I supppose. Overall, I got third place among all guys from both regions. It would've been fourth place if this other guy, Blake, had competed. This was a joke meet though, so I guess he didn't feel the need to come. I'm still proud of myself because my final score was 150 points higher than my highest 11-dive meet last year. The most interesting thing was that the dive that got the highest scores was one that I had never competed - a back double somersault. Everything else was between bad and mediocre. I had one of the other divers record me, and now that I watch those videos... I realize that I really do need lots of work on my entries. When I compile them together, I'll be able to put them on my Myspace. After the end of the meet, we were all doing fun dives for the hell of it, and I decided to go off the 3-meter board and see how many spins I could get in. My hurdle wasn't that great, but I did get about 3¼ spins before landing on my face/chest. I'll try to get more next time.

I got a ride home from one of the divers, because I didn't know if my dad was going to be able to pick me up. When we got on the road, he called, and he was there, about to pick me up. I didn't bother making my friend turn around, so I just had him drop me off at Ricardo's on Flamingo and Decatur because my dad and I were going to get some dinner for Cinco de Mayo. When he showed up, there was still a bit of a wait, so we just gave the buzzer back and looked for another restaurant. All other restaurants were busy as hell too, so we just went to Roberto's and took food home.

I wanted to get drunk for Cinco de Mayo, but nobody had anything, so the next best thing was to go see Mission: Impossible III. It was pretty good. I liked it.

Saturday
After falling asleep at 1:30 the night before, I had to wake up at about 7:00 to drive down to Fremont Street with Bo to participate in Race for the Cure. It turned out well, but my feet got a bit sore. When I came home, I crashed from 11:30 until 3:30.

My feet were sore and my dive coach didn't want me jumping on trampolines because it screws up my feet-first entries, so we didn't end up going to SkyMania this week. Instead, I started talking with Erica, and we decided to bring a bunch of friends to dinner and a movie. I picked up Briana, Chris, and Sarah and we went up to PF Chang's to meet them for dinner. We showed up first, so I called them and asked for a table for 9. It was lucky that we were seated so quickly. However... after we sat down, I got a call back from Erica. It turns out one of her friends invited her friend, who invited like, four more people. Now we were getting scared, because we didn't think we'd be able to seat everybody together. Luckily though, they showed up and the waitress told us that she could move us right away. We started following her, behind the bar but in front of the kitchen, and I thought we were being led to the other side of the restaurant. Nope. There was a private table between the bar and the kitchen for large parties, and we were definitely a large party. Yay!

Dinner went well, and Chris and I managed to converse well with the others. When the check came though, things got confusing. Even though we had a party of 13 by the end of the meal, they hadn't included gratuity. Then, as we collected money to pay for the check... we came up about $30 over. It was nice, considering the mess I got into when I went to homecoming with a large group and ended up paying the $50 deficiency that we ended up having because of all the cheap asses. Though, it was hard to determine where the extra money should go. We didn't want to leave a tip that huge, but we didn't know who paid too much. Eventually, we decided to let people take a couple of bucks from the extra cash if they wanted and then just left the rest for a tip. As we were leaving, I think one guy discovered that he accidentally paid twice as much as he was supposed to, and put $40 in for the total $97 check. Lawl.

When we showed up at the Suncoast to see Take the Lead at 9:25... The dick of a security guard started questioning us on our age. I told the man that I was 18, but didn't have ID on me... even though I was holding my wallet in my hands, haha! The others, however, didn't catch on, and told him that they weren't 18. He asked us to leave on account of curfew, which he claimed to have been 9:00.
W
T
F
!
So then we tried to figure out what to do. I knew that the same movie was going to start in 20 minutes at The Orleans, where the security doesn't consist of a mob of fuckburglars, but it was also at The Orleans, a good 10- to 15-mile drive away, and we were at about the midpoint between my house and the houses of these friends from Shadow Ridge. This threw the idea out the window, especially considering the price of gas and the set curfews of some people by their parents. So then Erica called her friend, who told us where we could find a park to hang out at. It was very close, so we were happy to get there.

You need to understand one thing at this point. I loved this park! This place was the first park I'd been to in years that still had sand under the swings, as opposed to that shitty astroturf junk. There were also water-shooting elephant sculptures, which we would've played around more had we brought bathing suits/ had it been further into summer. I drove my car up to the grass and turned up the stereo, and we hung out in the sand and talked all night. Chris and I dug a hole for fun, and at the end of the night, we buried my legs in it and took pictures. Those will be up on my Myspace soon, after Erica sends them to me.

As the night came to a close, my group of friends said our goodbyes to the Shadow Ridge kids and we went our separate ways. I had been talking all night about how I was supposed to cook hamburgers when I got home, so Briana grew hungry for a hamburger. We stopped at Jack in the Box on the way back and everybody got food. I dropped Chris off at his house and Sarah and Briana off at Briana's house, and then went to Food 4 Less to buy buns for the hamburgers. After I got home, I took a shower. When I undressed, I discovered that there was still sand in my pockets. Haha! After the shower, I was going to lie down for a quick minute before cooking. That minute lasted until about 9:45 this morning. Haha!

Sunday
It's been a long, eventful week, and I'm amazed that I was able to recap the most of it. God only knows when I will write again, so I hope you've enjoyed it. I really need to start writing more often, because covering a whole week tends to take about two hours to write. As for today, I have some studying and a little homework to do, but other than that, it's just another relaxing Sunday.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

Tunak Tunak Tun

30 April 2006 - 4:23 PM

Well, I thought it was good.

Jake showed me that video awhile ago. It's a lot harder to dance to that kind of music than you think... but we'll get to that later.

Thursday
I confronted the English teacher today about our preparation methods. It definitely gave the 'wtf' vibe to her, so we'll see how well that all works out for the rest of the year. The History teacher conducted a practice AP test for all students to take if they wanted to. Everyone had to take the multiple choice test in class, but if anybody wanted to leave after school and skip the essay portion, they were free to go.
Everybody left after the multiple choice portion of the test.
I was going to stay for the essays, but Dallas was my ride home, and he wasn't staying. The next day, Nikita told me that she was in Mrs. Hansen's class after school and saw Deming come in with a look of dismay, because he had made so many copies to administer a test that students requested he give out, yet no more than one person was willing to comply.

Friday
The last school day before the English AP exam and we... read the preparation guidelines that I feel we should've read before we started learning anything.

My dive meet kinda sucked, to say the least. I failed another dive. It wasn't the same dive as last week, which is a good thing. I just need to learn how to spot my dives, because coming out of a spin based on instinct doesn't work 100% of the time. Dallas and Brittany showed up for the meet, but Sarah couldn't find the place. Eventually, after the meet, she and her ride found me, but because Dallas had left, we had to get a ride back to my house from her friend. We hung out at my house for about an hour and a half, talking, and eventually watching a few funny videos... hence, the video at the beginning of this blog. After, I dropped her off at her friend's house. When I came home, I talked online with Erica until around 3:30. We sent amusing pictures back and forth.

Saturday
Ohh, what a day. I woke up far too early. Soon enough, I fell back asleep. By the time I had woken back up, it was too late for me to take a shower and leave enough hot water for my mom to get ready for work, so I just put some stuff in the car so that I could freshen up my hair later on, when I picked up Sarah. I dropped my mom off at work, picked up Sarah, and then we had to pick up her friend before we could be on our way to SkyMania. Her friend lived up in Summerlin, completely in the opposite direction. I'd never actually used a roundabout before. It was interesting. Now comes the dilemma.

We were supposed to meet Erica and her friends at SkyMania at 5:00, because they were going to start jumping at 4:30. Well, after we picked up Sarah's friend Justin and got on the road - a supposed 24-minute drive from his house, according to MSN Maps - it was about 4:50. That, coupled with medium traffic, was definitely not going to let us show up as scheduled. Ten minutes into our destination drive, I got a call - from Erica's phone, obviously...
They were asking for directions.
Yes! Now I didn't feel so bad about being late. Soon, we came to realize that they were on the same freeway as us. In fact, they were about two or three exits behind us. We showed up, were walking toward the door, and saw them get out of their car.

It turns out, Sarah's friend wasn't in the system anymore... Well, kinda. The manager - who's always a dick - asked his name, address, and date of birth. Justin answered everything correctly... except the computer had him in as 25 years old. Because of this, they wouldn't let him jump.
Gayyy.
He just watched us jump part of the time and went nextdoor to the indoor skatepark for the other part. When we were leaving, I heard someone yell my name. It was Sexton yelling. He and Mitch had just shown up with their girlfriends. It was... awkward, to say the least.

Anyway, after that, we made the usual stop at 7-Eleven. I bought a P'EatZZa Sandwich. It was actually pretty good. I couldn't figure out what ingredient was in it that made it all fall together nicely.

We went to The Palms to see Stick It. It was a pretty cute movie, I guess. Storyline was mediocre. Doesn't really matter to me. I pretty much wanted to see it for the gymnastics part, 'cause I'm weird with flips like that. The girls were pretty cute, too. After the movie, we hung out with Briana Striano, because she was working at the concession stand. It was really funny to see the way she handled customers, because it wasn't necessarily professional. Haha!

A barrage of customers came about after 15 minutes, and we grew bored, so we needed something to do. I had no other suggestions, so I conceded to go to a hookah lounge, as Sarah and Justin requested.
Peer Pressure: 1. China Boy: 0.
There was one by my house, and it was nearly empty... but they wouldn't let us in. See, there was a fight this weekend, and that particular restaurant was reserved for Oscar De La Hoya.
Lawl.

They directed us toward another, up on Spring Mountain and Durango. Ten minutes earlier and we would've had a worse time getting through pedestrian traffic, because the Extreme Thing had just let out. We parked and walked up to the door, but when we tried walking in, they told us that on weekends, they don't let people in who are wearing shorts. We were pissed, and started to leave. When we pulled back up to the door and had Sarah ask about another available lounge... The doorman agreed to let us in.
Yay for Sarah! The only one of us with boobs!
The place was interesting. Good Mediterranean food, chocolate mint flavored tobacco, and a live Mediterranean band. That's right. I tried smoking tobacco for the first time.
Peer Pressure for the win.
I saw a few people there that I recognized from the hallways at school. One was a very beautiful girl who always walks by when I hold the door open before second period. She never says anything though, much less even gives me a look. She has a very efficient way of ignoring me and looking straight ahead into the hallway when she walks by. It's kind of weird.
Anyway, after dinner, we finally agreed to go with Sarah onto the dance floor. It is very hard to dance to Mediterranean music. I definitely need to learn to dance.

We left at about 11:45 to take Justin home. Now, when we left at the beginning of the night to go to SkyMania, Justin realized he forgot his wallet. So, I lent him $20 before we got there. Then, I paid for his dinner and hookah at the restaurant, $15. He was also supposed to pay me $10 for gas, since he lives so far away. When we got to his house, he paid me back... $16. $11 of which was in $1 bills. Sarah paid me the difference, and will get it back from him next time she sees him. I dropped Sarah off at home and then came back home for the night. Somehow, after picking everything up out of the car, I managed to lock the keys in, but out of my own sight, under a pillow. Good thing we have two sets of keys.

I was talking to Erica online, and the most interesting thing happened.
She offered to hook me up with her friend.
Lawl!
We'll see how that turns out. I still wonder how that distance factor would ever turn out.

Sunday
It's taken so long to write this blog because I've been watching Goldeneye the entire time. I noticed that Sean Bean looks a lot different now than he did 11 years ago. I'm also trying to draw a picture in my mind of him in Troy, because I don't remember that well. I have to do a practice Chemistry AP test sometime today. That means an hour and a half with nothing but some paper and a pencil. Not even a calculator. That should be fun... After that, it's down to as much studying as I can do to prepare for the Language and Composition AP test tomorrow.
Wish me luck.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

Myspace has replaced the most popular internet term 'lol' with 'comments'

26 April 2006 - 3:22 PM

So yeah. It's been about an entire week since the last post. Sorry about that. I've been busy... and lazy.

Let's see if I can remember anything from that far back...

Thursday
Yeah, nope. I don't seem to be able to remember anything. Umm... Dive practice was fun, as usual...

Friday
Dive meet today. Whoo! Toughest competition matchup!

Too bad nobody showed up.

Niki had no ride. Sarah thought she had a ride, but then it turned out she didn't, so then she couldn't get a ride because her mom couldn't drive. Dallas likely never told Brittany about it, and it was their 8-month anyway, so they went to dinner and a movie and got drunk. Chris wanted to come, but had to work.

Corban came, as he promised he would, along with his girlfriend, who I hadn't seen since last dive season. The school's swim coach came too. I suppose it's better that no more than they showed up, because I failed the required twist dive. No big deal, I suppose. I still beat my score from week 1, and I'm nearly sure to get scores on that same dive this week.

I contemplated going out after I got home and showered, but I was pretty tired, and had to wake up the next morning for a math competition in Henderson.

~
Warning! Skip paragraph if you want to avoid too much information!
~
So yeah. This week was the first time I competed in a traditional Speedo, and I was a bit self-conscious about the hair around my 'situation', as Dane Cook calls it. So before the meet, I got in the shower with my razor and shaved my 'situation'. Well, I've got the Gillette Fusion razor, so at the end, I was using the single blade on the back side to make a last run-through. Well, the slightest move in the wrong direction and... I cut my ass cheek. It burned like hell, and I put liquid bandage on it in an attempt to seal it up before the meet, so that made it burn more - especially since I had to avoid sitting down or letting my cheeks touch each other before it dried.

Yeah. I thought you'd read it, too.

Saturday
My mom called around 5:30 for me to pick her up from work. I waited about five minutes before leaving because I didn't want to be half-asleep at the wheel again, considering it almost got me into an accident a couple weeks ago. While waiting for my mom, I noticed a black Ford GT outside in valet parking. I'd never seen one before, so I got out and looked it over. I really want one now, because it looks amazing. After my mom came out, while waiting at the red light to turn, the owner drove up next to us in it. Of course, he took off much faster than we, but it was great to see it drive.

I stayed up and did my homework until Bo picked me up at 7:10 to go down to Green Valley High School for The Southern Nevada Mathematics Council’s 24th Annual Secondary Mathematics Contest, in which I took the comprehensive examination. We picked up Chris and John, picked up breakfast at a McDonald's with drive-up ordering (no speakers/headsets), and went on our way. Being a student with no calculus education, I feel I bombed the test pretty hard. Mr. Bartling was there, and showed us the tattoo that he got. On the meat of his shoulder, he got "e^i~pi~" (symbols - not exactly like that) tattooed. It was very... interesting... to see.

So here's the funny stuff from the day. On the back of a package of peanuts, I noticed the warning, which made me laugh pretty hard. Then, when we left the competition, Bo and I got into a heated argument on whether or not it would be good to roll the windows down. The conversation started with me:
-"Dude. I'm sorry I don't like man sweat circulating around in the car with nowhere to go."
-"Oh, like there's a difference between man sweat and woman sweat?"
-"It's all fluids, Bo. Would you prefer man cum or woman cum?"
~Remember - We were in pretty heated argument, so instead of "Man cum?" it came out...
-"Man cum!"
Haha! We were dying in the car on that one. Later on, we're driving along when Bo freaks out and twitches like hell. We're all like, "Dude, what the fuck was that about?" and he responds, "I don't know... It was like a butterfly or something..."
We all fuckin' died right there. That quote made our day.

Niki showed up with Lucille in his mom's car when my dad came home. We hung out for a bit, I showered, and we left to drop off his mom's car before we went to see Silent Hill with Sarah. On the way, Niki and I raced. He was ahead for a bit, and would've beaten me by miles if he hadn't stopped in a crosswalk at a red light. Top speed probably hit 85 going up Tropicana, and we both ran a mustard at the same time on Trop. and Durango going about 75. I finally pulled ahead of him, but then slowed down for the stopped traffic ahead of us, and he made a very ballsy move to get back in front while I freaked out on whether or not he'd see the cars ahead of us and brake. After that, this fucker got between us, drove slowly, and let Niki beat me. That fucker... Good race though.

Silent Hill was pretty interesting. Very gory, to describe it most. Afterwards, we dropped Lucille off at home and went to SkyMania. It was just Sarah, Niki, and me because Mitch went with his friends earlier - grew impatient/ went with his new girlfriend... - I tried working on a front somersault with a full twist, considering it would help me get better at that dive that I failed the day before. We hung out at Niki's house afterward, and I fell asleep on his couch because I don't pay attention to his WoW shit, which is what he was showing to Sarah. They didn't wake me up around midnight like I expected them to, so my dad called at 12:30 wondering where I was, and that's when I took Sarah home and retired to bed myself when I came home.

Erica was supposed to come to this side of town today, but ended up going out with her friends for her school's prom. She invited me to an art show the next day, but I declined on account of homework. Like this blog, I haven't been current with my horoscopes either. When I checked my emails, Thursday's said, "Venus, planet of creative inspiration, harmonizes with Jupiter, planet of the big purchase. If you are falling in love with the idea of art, plan for a weekend at the museum or galleries. Does a partner with artistic vision make desire any sweeter?"

Doh!

Sunday
I spent quite a bit of time procrastinating... Didn't start my research paper until 2:00 AM. I got half of it done, which was enough to get full participation credit when we turned in rough drafts the next day.

Monday
I took my mom to work before I took the car to practice. Afterwards, I went to Food 4 Less to go grocery shopping - much needed for my house at the time. My mom gave me $100 to spend.
I spent $112.
It's good though, because now I won't have a half-and-half choice between dinner every night on whether I want Cup Noodles or frozen corn dogs.

Tuesday
I've finally put everything together in that front 1½, full twist that I need to. It's making it around and I'm able to square out and get a chance to dive it in. Yay! I got a haircut before practice and realized that I should've gotten it before spring break, when my face tanned. There are now white spots where my sideburns used to be. I made steak for dinner and fell asleep until morning.

Wednesday
The day is only half-way through. A woman came into History class talking about the upcoming blood drive, but I won't be able to donate because I won't be 17 years of age yet. Our activities in English are not preparing us at all for the test that we will be taking in FIVE FUCKING DAYS!!! I'm about to leave for dive practice, so I hope you've enjoyed my writings

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

I'm 37?!?

20 April 2006 - 3:12 AM

That's right. This is my 37th post. If you don't know the significance of the number 37, then you obviously haven't seen Clerks.
Therefore...
Concordantly...
Ergo...
Go shoot yourself.

Speaking of, Clerks II trailers are floating around the web, and the movie is coming out in August. I'm excited! It looks hilarious. Rosario Dawson is my queen. 12 years in the making of a sequel. It's gotta have something good, right?

Also, Niki pointed out that it's 4/20 right now.
Woot.
I guess.
Too bad I'm not a stoner anymore. That's not a bad thing though, so it's all good.

Sunday
The procrastination never stops. I didn't do much homework... just PreCalc and... shut up, okay? Goodbye spring break. We had a good run.

Monday
I had to pick Chris up for school because his household's car has broken down. Shitty, because it makes us more late. After school, he and his dad dropped his dad's computer off at my house because it was having some problems - it wouldn't start up. Easily enough, I just had to start up in Safe Mode and do a system restore back to like, December. <-- That right there - you should learn how to do, just in case you turn into a retard and manage to fuck up your computer. even though it has Windows XP SP2 and Norton SystemWorks on it, you can definitely still manage to make your computer go crazy... if you're stupid enough. Anyway, I installed Norton SystemWorks and Microsoft Office on it, updated it, removed some startup programs/ programs in general, and created a new restore point. That way, if something ever goes wrong again, I will simply have to set it back to the way I left it. Smart? Yes.

Diving. Well, let's just say this:
I.
Hate.
Wind.
With such a passion. This week's required dive is a twister, which I did really well on last week. But, with the wind and everything, I just couldn't get it right. I probably had one of the worst smacks ever - landed on my back... when I was supposed to be doing a full twisting front 1½. Ouchies. I came home. Showered. Slept. Woke up and thought to myself, "Fuck. Didn't do homework again."

Tuesday
My English class is getting progressively more retarded. The AP test is the Monday after next, and we're concentrating on a fucking research report. We're going over the practice tests we take, but we never really learned how to come to conclusions and get the right answers, so it's pretty much just guessing - all the time. I keep telling people that I would probably learn more if I smashed my head against rocks.

Diving was pretty good. I seemed to be doing better on that front 1½ with a full twist. After that, we moved on to my fronts - I'll be competing a front double and a front 2½ this week. Well, they were going pretty well, so I decided to just say 'fuck it' and attempt a front triple. A tiny bit more spin or a tiny bit more rotation and a good kickout and I could've had it! I was still in a ball when I hit the water, but the top of my back and my calves were the only things that smacked. Pretty good for a first attempt, if you ask me. I've never seen anybody attempt it off the 1-meter, either.

By the way - You, the person reading this, should go to the dive meet this Friday at UNLV at 7:00. The main matchup is Durango against Palo Verde - Me against Shea Byers, my toughest competition. I could use the support, and knowing the enthusiasm that I usually get from students at Durango, you've probably never been to a dive meet, so why not go? With the low number of divers from the region, it'll probably be over by 8:30 or shortly after.

Today, I sent a [seemingly] random message to Erica, Niki's friend from Shadow Ridge. When I came back from practice, she had responded to it, saying that her school's upcoming prom was making her feel like Valentine's Day all over again, which she spent alone, as I did this year. In about a fraction of a second, I decided to make a move and attempt to make her feel better. I offered to be her date to her school's prom, given I could get my hands on a suit by week's end and that my school doesn't have a junior prom. Well, she told me that it was a nice offer, but simply too late for her to get a ticket/dress. Then she explained why she wasn't set to go in the first place... Let's just say that the guy she was supposed to go with... is an uber douchebag. From the way Niki tells it, that's the description of most of the people at her school. Okay, I'll admit, guys can be really fucked up sometimes. I'm trying my best not to do that, so long as I can help it.

Wednesday
I showed up to school about two minutes before the last bell rang. The Tech teacher said he had been waiting for me because they were all going somewhere to do something. Fortunately, the Tech teacher's pretty cool, and left me to answer the phone and do my homework, like I usually do in that class. English was once again retarded. In one of the stories that I was reading for a practice test, I came across the word 'lawless', but for a second, only saw 'lawl'.
LAWL!
Chemistry test today. Overall 50/55 points because of some really minuscule mistakes. Good test nonetheless.

I called my brother after school at about 2:30. It was pretty good talking to him. After I got off the phone with him, I wandered off into slumber, only to be woken up at 3:30 by my friend, who gives me rides to diving most days of the week.

We were outside again, but the weather was great today. Today was the day that we figured out what was wrong with that front twister. Apparently, when I was twisting, I was wrapping my right arm above my head, my left arm around my chest, and spinning left. Well, I overheard Shea telling another diver that whichever direction you turn, that's which arm should go above your head. Well, this completely changed the way I had to approach the dive, and I didn't start getting it right until the end of practice. I only worked on that front twister for all of practice. Tomorrow, I'm going to need to spend like, half an hour on that dive and then just move on, because it's only one of six that I'm going to be competing on Friday. The front somersaults shouldn't be hard to handle, but I still have yet to work on a reverse dive, a back 1½, and an inward 1½. Oh well. I'll get it.

The chlorine and sun are killing my skin. Even though I put sunblock on when we dive outside, my face is so dry that it's about to fall off. I tried helping it by soaking in the bathtub after my shower when I got home. Then I went downstairs for dinner - corn dogs and guacamole with chips. It's not the healthiest of meals, but hey, it's not like we have much else in this house right now. I fell asleep from 8:00 until 1:23, and I've been up since. I should probably start homework soon.
HA!

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

P.S. - If you haven't figured out by now, I'll throw out a public service announcement:
When you read the word 'today', apply it to the day that the instance falls under. Thanks.

"I didn't climb my way to the top of the food chain to eat fucking lettuce!"

16 April 2006 - 1:55 AM

Thursday
Diving pratice... Enough said.

Friday
Practice again. This time, though, I pulled off a reverse 1½ and a reverse double. I am hopeful that I will attempt a reverse 1½ with ½ twist sometime this season, because I saw it in a diving video while I was looking around on Google Video. At the end of practice, there were only two people left - me and this kid Grant. The coach decided to have a little fun with it, so she had us do synchronized diving for the last fifteen minutes. It was pretty fun. I can't wait to do it next week with Shea, because now we can both do a 1½ with a full twist.

I finally bought a chamois. There was only one out of all the 5 sports stores that I tried to get one from. I already want a new one - one that's smaller than 17"x27"...

I didn't feel like leaving the house or anything, so I just slept through from about 6:00 to 11:30 and then talked online/ invited people to the NAMO barbecue.

Saturday
It's been a fun day. I started by moving my alternate, useless computer into Victor's room. It's been taking up space for awhile, so I finally decided to ditch it from my room. The next step is organizing... Anyway, after moving the computer, I took the RAM out of it and put it in my computer. For some reason, it gave me the hardest time installing. I had to reset the CMOS jumper a couple of times and turn the power supply on and off -- if you understood that at all...

Then I showered and packed up to leave for the barbecue. I had no ride, and didn't know when my dad would be heading home, so I began walking. After reaching Twain, I remembered what Sexton told me last week about walking backwards to try and help shin splints. So, I said 'why not?' to myself and walked most of the way there backwards. Now I know 'why not'. My shoes are worn in the back, and the plastic irritated my heel, which, later on in the day, caused the soggy skin to peel off. Ew. Jake picked me up near Flamingo and took me the rest of the way.

The barbecue was really fun. We tossed a couple of frisbees around, climbed trees, ate, and just hung out, talking. At the end, instead of simple cleanup, we decided to throw the soda bottles and cans into the air and let them come crashing onto the street. Don't worry, we picked everything up afterward. The first one was the best byfar - thrown by me, of course. It landed straight on the top of the bottle and shot back up thirty feet into the air. Extreme! Haha! One of the neighbors called the police soon after, but we were so calmed down by the time the guy got there that he had no reason to believe that we were the ones who were being complained about. Plus, we cleaned our shit up, which showed that we were just having a good time, not making a mess of things.

After we left the park, we went to my house to hang out - me, Chris, Sarah, Billy, and Kyle. Kyle had to leave soon after, but Chris and I talked to each other a bit extensively, as did Sarah and Billy. Overall, the day was really good.


Ok, done listing things. Now I want to throw a bit of input in.

Niki showed me a blog earlier today of this guy who would be willing to give up his computer, WoW account, Diablo account, and money to have a girlfriend. Sure, we had a bit of a laugh about how desperate this guy seemed - what with him talking in every entry about how he longs for someone to hold - but... you know, it's not like I don't feel the same way. Every day here alone in my room just makes me sad when I think about it. Why the fuck do you think I have a body pillow? I need something to cuddle up to and wrap my arms around at night...

Billy and Sarah's conversation earlier tonight started off talking about sexual experiences. Not to sound hedonistic, but I really can't wait for the days that I will be able to take part in those conversations. Chris was surprised to discover that when it comes to sexual activity, I'm a n00b.

Conclusion: I need a girl.

Goodnight.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

~Sigh~

13 April 2006 - 12:34 AM

Nice time...

Long day...

I put on sunscreen today because I got burnt yesterday and didn't want it to get worse today. At practice, I did better on my front 2½, got back into doing my back 1½, and threw a back double and a front 1½ with a full twist for the first time. Overall, that makes a good practice. On the back 1½ pike, I slapped hella hard on my back - so hard that I think I burst all my back-acne under my skin. Yeah, I know that you didn't want to know that, but oh well. I also failed to get the front 1½ with a full twist all the way around when I tried it the second time. It was a good thing I put my earplugs in, because when I came up, one was missing. That means that if I hadn't been wearing them, I would've burst the eardrum again.

I took my mom to work again and then came home to fix dinner - steak. I left my house at about 5:00 to pick Billy up and head to The Orleans to pick up tickets to see Scary Movie 4 with Bo, Lucille, and Niki. When I showed up at Billy's house, he wasn't there. He didn't even know we were seeing a free movie. Of the first 60 people to show up who were were supposed to get the only tickets... Billy and I were 64 and 65. That's alright. There were plenty of seats in that theatre, and they let all of us in. The movie was pretty funny. It could've been better, but whatever; it was free.

Bo took Lucille and Niki home, so I only had to drop Billy off. I had to fix up Billy's computer fans because his dad had been screwing with his shit. On the way home, Sarah Williams called me and asked me to go see The Benchwarmers with her and some of her friends. At first, I accepted, granted she would pick me up. Then, though, there was the fact that I invited Chris and Nicole to come over to watch The World Poker Tour, where my mom was to be televised dealing the last hand. They couldn't go because Nicole had to be home at 11:30, so I cancelled with Sarah so that they could hang out.

They pretty much stood me up. They never came.

Do you remember the diver a couple of weeks ago who took an interest in me? Well, tonight, she questioned my behavior. She said that ever since I asked her if she was getting led on, I've been bitter towards her, and that I've seemed perturbed. Well, I think that's all a bunch of bullshit, honestly. Most of the time, I only see her at practice, and she makes as little an attempt to make conversation as I do. At the party after a meet a few weeks ago, when I showed up, I took the first open place next to the fire, which happened to be next to her - she moved away from me when that happened. Then, she invited me to a party, but I declined because I already had plans to go to SkyMania. That night, she called when my friends and I were on the way home. We really weren't talking, but it takes two for that to be the situation. She made a brash statement and then signed off without saying goodbye.

You know, I thought I was doing the right thing by telling someone that it would be better not to get too attached before she got let down. I guess I was wrong. I guess she would've preferred to get led on more, and then have me tell her that I don't like her in that way.

I give up.

Goodnight.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

Gonna try to make this short 'cause I'm tired as hell

12 April 2006 - 12:36 AM

Monday
I drove my dad to his meeting and then went to the doctor on my own. He checked me out and agreed to let me dive again.

Yes!

So then I came home, went to the pharmacy for my mom, and had her drive me to practice and then pick up my dad. On the way, while waiting at a red light in the left-turn lane, the lady in front of me inched forward and accidentally bumped the lady in front of her. The woman wouldn't let the situation slide, so I had to change lanes just to get out of there. Practice was okay, I suppose. I spent more than half of it working on one dive because my technique is all screwed up now. I've completely had to change approach. After practice, I fell asleep for the remainder of the afternoon, to nobody's surprise I'm sure.

Tuesday
Practice was much better. I attempted a front 2½ today. It was fun, but it needs lots of work. I didn't know where to kick out, so I ended up slapping both of my arms on the water. I made sure to put my earplugs in when I attempted my twister.

I took my mom to work, showered, picked up Billy, and went down to The Orleans to pick up tickets to see La Mujer de me Hermano, a Spanish movie that was showing for free. Tickets weren't to be handed out until 5:30. Billy and I showed up at about 4:55. They didn't hand out tickets until about 6:30, after Lucille and Niki showed up.

I just love how inefficient the Spanish are.

After the movie, we hung out at my house for a bit, but I had to take Lucille home around 9:45, so we did that. Then, we went to Niki's house to hang out. His mom bought pizza, Billy and Niki played WoW, and I started watching a movie with Niki's mom until I had to head home. When I returned home, I realized that my friends are fucking retards, and didn't think to close the gate when we left the house. So from 9:45 until 12:10, my house was absolutely open to the public. After walking in, I decided to make a quick round about the house with a sharp knife in my hand, just in case anybody decided to come in.

There's my two cents, and my two days.

Take it easy, but strike hard
Vaniah Schwenoha

Rule #4: Never make a promise you can't keep

10 April 2006 - 3:36 AM

I watched Transporter 2 sometime after writing my last blog. That line is in there somewhere...

Friday (night)
After texting three divers who were already either there or on their way there, I had to get a hold of Dallas and ask him to take me to the dive meet. He, Brittany, and I had a bit of a time trying to get there because there was an accident on the freeway. We took the exit just before the accident, because that's our luck. The entrance ramp to get back on from that exit happened to be the only one that was being worked on, so we had to take a detour. It was kinda interesting, since we were in the ghetto and Dallas almost hit like, three cars in the span of thirty feet. We eventually found our way back to the freeway and then got off on Las Vegas Blvd. They dropped me off and went on their way to the Fashion Show Mall.

By the time I showed up, the dive meet was already a third of the way done. I watched the rest of the meet and then helped coach the other region's divers until my ride was ready to leave. She drives a pretty nice truck - I think it's an F-150. Ah, now I remember... This is where I started watching Transporter 2. I had to leave before I could finish it, though, because I was supposed to be meeting Nicole, Niki, and Chris at the movie theatre to see Lucky Number Slevin. When I showed up, they hadn't arrived yet. Michelle and Matt were there though - I didn't know they were seeing it with us. The movie was really good. That makes three good movies in a row. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Chris and Nicole had to leave before the conclusion because Nicole had to be home at 11:30. After the movie, I took Niki home, came home myself, and watched the rest of Transporter 2 before falling asleep.

Saturday
It was a pretty busy day. I went to two banks to deposit money for my mom. After I got back, my grandpa picked my mom and me up to go to the cemetary to celebrate what, in my mom's words, is called 'Chinese dead-people day'... Maybe I'll look into the real name for it later. Anyway, we, my sister, her boyfriend, my two maternal uncles, and four of my maternal cousins had a picnic at my grandmother's grave. It may sound odd to you, but the place was really nice during the day, especially since it was clear and bright outside. I caught up a little with some family members who I never talk to and felt that kind of familial love and togetherness that is very much missing from my household.

My mom's friend has started picking her up for work on Fridays and Saturdays, so I didn't have to take my mom to work on this day. This also left my dad with more time to use the car. When he came home, he had bought another item from Goodwill - an oak file cabinet. I got mad at him for spending money on something that the house didn't need, considering our house looks like shit 24/7, especially since my mom is always broke no matter how much she works. Later on, we talked for a bit, discussing his business and the validity of my argument. The conversation was cut short on account of a phone call to him and the need for me to start picking people up to go to SkyMania for the night.

Being on time this time was more important than usual, considering everybody was supposed to be meeting there, instead of me picking everybody up. John was transportation for Mike, Mitch, Sexton, and Cesar (spelling). I also invited my cousin, who was in town for the week, and was interested in the place when I told her about it at lunch earlier in the day. I was left only to pick up Sarah, Chris, and Niki. Soon after departing to our final destination, Mitch called, telling me to steer clear of The Strip, because they had been in traffic for half an hour. I wasn't very happy about it, but I hopped on the 215 in an attempt to make up time. It may have been faster than waiting on Tropicana, but damn, it was a long trip. If you just look at a map, you'll see how far out of the way it was to have gotten on that freeway. We took the 215 to the 515, or the 95, as most usual freeway drivers will call it. I got off the 215 on that exit because it was the only familiar exit I saw. It's a good thing we got off there, because if we had gone farther, we would've gone even more out of the way. We took the 515 to Tropicana and then soon after made it to SkyMania.

Just a few minutes shy of 8:00, our set time, and still wondering where my cousin was, we decided to get on at 8:30. Not too bad considering we usually show up an hour after the time that we set and that there was bad traffic. My cousin showed up with one of her friends, which was pretty cool. They only jumped for half an hour and then left. She's pretty good though, as far as backflips go. Another friend of mine was unexpectedly there, too. He brought quite a few family members and his girlfriend, which I thought was pretty cool, being that I was the one to show him the place.

As far as my jumping goes, it was pretty good. ~ Skip this paragraph if you don't know enough about the place to know what I'm talking about. ~ Most of my jumps onto the crash pad were done with feet together - still trying to get dive practice in wherever I go. I backflipped over the gap, and eventually tried it through the hoop. Apparently, Mike's were better in his and Chris' opinion, because his body was higher up in the hoop. I think mine were better because I actually started the flip backwards and his started sideways, but whatever. The employees stopped us from filming each other because we're not supposed to bring things on the court, and the only video that I thought we had - where Niki was recording - somehow didn't get recorded. I'll bet that it was because the lens got bent. Well, we'll just have to go sometime during the week, when it's not busy, and get some good video. I need to get some kind of lower-leg workout, because when I come down hard from a jump, my right shin almost feels like it's going to snap.

Everybody stopped at Sonic afterward to get something to eat. Then we left to do our thing and meet back up at Mitch's house. My passengers and I stopped at my house to pick up an air splint for Sexton because he rolled his ankle at SkyMania and was having lots of trouble walking on it. We stayed there longer than I thought we were going to, and because I left my phone in the car, I didn't answer a few calls from Davey and Jordan, who I was supposed to be picking up when I dropped Niki off. Finally, we left my house, dropped Niki off, picked them up, dropped Chris off, and went to Mitch's house.

I didn't drink much - only a shot. Half of the reason was that the environment just doesn't fit me that well, being that they were all smoking Black & Milds and smoking hookah, and that I hate smoke. The other half of the reason is... those kids don't know how to mix drinks. I mean fuck, all they had was a fifth of Smirnoff Apple, a fifth of 99 Berries (whatever that was supposed to taste like), some cranberry juice, and a 3-liter of diet cola. I would've been more content drinking half a bottle of Bacardi Limon with nothing else. I need to teach those guys how to drink - that is, if I attempt to drink with them again. I don't know if I will, because that house just doesn't give me the right vibes. They always insist on listening to thumping rap, with nothing else in-between. I like rap, don't get me wrong, but variety is good.

I was falling asleep on the couch, with more than 6 people around me smoking flavored tobacco. Finally, Mitch told me that I could go sleep in his room. Sexton helped me get set up, and I went back into the living room one last time to get my PSP. I'm not so sure that I got it to listen to music as much as I got it so that it wouldn't get stolen. With a game and a 2GB memory stick in it, I definitely want to keep an eye on it more often than before.

Sunday
For the first time in a few weeks, my mom needed a ride home from work. She called at 6:00, and I was able to leave Mitch's house undetected. It was a good thing that I didn't drink last night. After I dropped her off at home, I grabbed a bottle of water to save for later and went through the drive-thru at McDonald's for some breakfast. Not wanting to have to give up parts of my meal or have to go out again to get food for others, I ate my two McGriddles in the car in front of Mitch's house. The door was locked when I walked up - probably by Mitch's roommate, who had work at 6:30. Luckily, Sexton was up, and let me in. I got back to the room, but my place in bed had already been replaced. I was forced to sleep on the floor.

I suppose I'll put in here that while I was sleeping on the floor, I had a dream that I was able to remember. In this dream, I was forced to kill someone - at least I think I killed him. The setup was that this crazed man jumped in the driver seat of my car and started taking off. The car door was still open, so I jumped in and wrestled him to the ground of the car, where he laid his head back on the gas pedal in an attempt to harm everyone in the car. I managed to get my hand down and put on the emergency brake. After I fought him some more, I think I threw his body out of the car. ~ I don't know why I decided to include this. I guess it's just because I thought about it after I left Mitch's house - that I killed someone in my dream...

It was very uncomfortable sleeping on that floor with no pillow and nothing familiar besides my music, so when I woke up for the third time from discomfort, at 9:30, I collected my shit and headed home. I slept soundly in my own bed from then until 3:00 PM. The rest of the day went very slow, with nothing to do. My right ass cheek is more sore than the rest of my body - I'm willing to bet that it's because of all the driving I did yesterday. I realized sometime in the afternoon that it was Dallas' birthday, so I sent him a text. He was going out to dinner with family, so it's not like we were gonna go out and do anything. I guess I fell asleep in the evening sometime from boredom, and woke up around 1:30 AM.

Are you STILL reading!?! Holy shit, you've gotta be more bored than I am, and I just sat here for more than an hour and wrote it all...

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

First blog written during the day in awhile...

7 April 2006 - 5:14 PM

Wednesday
The weather was horrible. For the divers that needed to learn the required reverse dive for the meet this Friday, there was still practice. I know how shitty it is to slap on the water, and I know how shitty it is to have to dive in the wind on a cloudy day... These three divers that were there to practice had to endure both. They were determined though, and one of them finally, after all these weeks, got his reverse somersault down. It looks pretty good, might I add. Other than that, I don't really remember the rest of the day. Probably because I sleep until morning and then rush through homework.

Thursday
Meh. School wasn't that great. Obviously, the rest of this day will refer to practice. I can't wait to get back into the water next week. Honestly, I don't really give a shit about what the doctor will say when I go back for another followup on Monday. On the way home, I fell asleep in the car. Naturally, I decided to take a nap when I got home. The nap lasted... until 2:30. Then, I tried reading my English textbook. It, being my English textbook, lulled me back to sleep. I woke again around 4:30 and started my lab book for Chem.

Friday
The entire school day was spent attempting to finish my lab book. I worked on it through all of Tech, English, and PreCalc. I finally finished it at lunch, did my Chem. homework from lunch through French, and had everything done on time. I didn't do that great on my French vocab test, but I'm sure it won't kill me in the long run, since that class is easy.

After school, my mom came into my room and told me that $1250 was taken out of her bank account without notice. She panicked and cancelled the debit card. The money was taken out from the Presidential Classroom. I guess that means I got accepted to attend. Sweet!

Aside from that, I just watched Shaun of the Dead, and I should soon be on my way to the dive meet.

Have a nice night.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

10% Luck; 20% Skill...

April 4 2006 - 11:05 PM

15% Concentrated Power of Will; 5% Pleasure; 50% Pain; 100% Reason to Remember the Name.

^From "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor

Among other songs I have recently downloaded:
Fort Minor - Where'd You Go?
30 Seconds to Mars - I'll Attack
Bad Religion - Los Angeles is Burning
Chris Brown - Say Goodbye
Chris Brown - Yo
Rise Against - Give It All
Will Smith - Party Starter

Ok, now onto my past few days...

Sunday
Nothing. I've realized that that's what I reserve Sundays for. I tell everybody that I have homework to do, but it's just a reason to stay home all day and avoid interruptions. It's healthy in the sense that I can just relax with myself for a bit, but decidedly unhealthy for my academics.

Monday
Pretty interesting, if I do say so myself. I found out that I did just as well on my History test as I do on all History tests... 72% after the curve. Oh well. I'll just have to put effort into the rest of the quarter... Maybe. After school, I needed to get a signature from the principal to apply for Presidential Classroom, a week-long experience in Washington, DC. I have to say, he is a pretty friendly person, and very easy to talk to.

Post-leaving school, I took people home. Here is where the first idiot driver came into my day. After dropping Chris off at home, I trekked back to Torrey Pines to take Niki to Decker Elementary to help out his mom. Middle school had just gotten out, and the school speed limit was in effect. Yes, I understand that the speed limit is low so that people are at less risk if they decide to run out into the street, but the driver in front of me was driving at like, 10 mph. I switched lanes to make sure that I wouldn't get caught at the light on Torrey Pines and Flamingo, but had to switch back on the other side of the intersection because the street turns into a one-lane-per-direction street with a turn lane in the middle. Well, the driver who I got behind after switching lanes before the light had no clue what was going on, because he/she was still doing 15 mph after the end of the school zone, and wasting my time. Finally, I got into the left-turn lane and tried to assure myself that I didn't have to deal with that fucktard again. Nope. I was about to turn, and out of nowhere, the asshole turned right in front of me - no signal, turning from the lane to the right of the left-turn lane. By this time, I was so angry with all drivers that I punched the horn. I dropped Niki off, took Courtney home, and finally arrived at home, remarkably unharmed.

I bought my new Memory Stick Pro Duo for my PSP today ('today' referring to the day that this paragraph falls under). I will soon have 2GB storage space on it. Woot! It is still not certain, but it is very likely that I will be selling my 1GB card to Wilson for $45. If you want to put up a higher bid, you're free to do so.

There was a bit of confusion as to how I'd be getting to diving practice. Finally, it was decided that I would take my mom to work and then head to practice from there. In the area that I drop her off, there's so much construction that people driving through have to be attentive drivers, so I didn't have a problem there - thank God. I went to practice, where I simply helped coach the board that the coach herself was not attending. It was actually very promising to do so. Even though I may not have had much influence on many divers, I still got to be the one coaching a guy who had successfully thrown a back 1½ and a reverse 1½ for the first time. There's definitely some competition in store for me when I get back on the board. Another diver wasn't having such a good day, and he wasn't optimistic about it at all. I think that the first few weeks of success have gotten to his head, and he doesn't think he needs more work. Just a side note: there is always work to be done.

On the way home from practice, a taxi ran the red left-turn light in front of him, jumped from the leftmost left-turn lane, and pulled out in front of me, me being the driver who was heading straight. I think my car horn is learning my touch more and more every week.

I got home, cooked some dinner, and then did... I have no idea. I woke up in the morning without any finished homework.

Tuesday
I was able to finish all daily homework in Tech relatively quickly. In the middle of class, though, a fan in my computer started going crazy, and I thought it was about to blow up. The teacher's gonna have to get that thing checked out...

After school, I had to go to my brother's house to get a signature authorizing the use of his credit card to pay for Presidential Classroom, if I get accepted. My dad mailed the application and got a certified mail receipt, meaning someone will have to sign for it when it arrives.

I didn't go to practice today. It wasn't because I didn't want to go to practice, or that I didn't have a ride - It's because I fell asleep. My dad thought that I wasn't going to go, and my phone was on vibrate, so it didn't wake me up when my ride showed up to my house and called. I feel bad for having her stop at my house when I didn't even go. Ugh. I need a car of my own.

Aside from all that, I added one of Niki's old friends from Shadow Ridge to my Myspace friends list because she's cute and seems interesting. Why is it that everybody I interest myself in is either taken or G.U. (Geographically Undesirable)?

Well, I've stalled on homework long enough by writing this blog, and I will probably stall a bit more by going downstairs to get some dessert, so I better get going. Have a nice night.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

Praying for love in a lap dance... And paying in naivety

2 April 2006 - 1: 51 AM

Yeah, I've been listening to Panic! At The Disco a lot lately. Whatever.

I think I totally pwned at school on Friday. I worried all day about my test in History, but after seeing the key after school, I think I actually did well on it - at least compared to my other tests. Then there was the French test on the subjunctive. Cool cool, as French always is. Monkeys could pass that class with as good a teacher as Mr. Chandler. After school, I had to fill up on gas. That was pretty interesting, since my dad insists I fill the tank to the brim. At least half a pint of gas must've spilled onto the ground. One of these days, I'm going to fill the tank, and when I start the car, it's going to blow me up.

Mike kept bugging me in French class about going to SkyMania on Friday night. He said that because my dad would have the car all night, we would be able to get Mitch's dad's truck for me to drive down there. Well, after awhile, it became apparent that we would not be getting the truck for the night. So, I abandoned all plans for the night and opted to get picked up by a diver to go to the meet and help out. It was entertaining, I suppose. While I was there, Sexton picked up Mitch and Mike and they went to SkyMania. Fuckers. Haha! Also while I was there, I found out that all may not be lost for me going to regionals this year. I need to attend three meets out of six. I will have missed three meets by next Friday, and after that I will need another week off. The fortunate fact, though, is that the week after is spring break - no meet. So if I can get back in the water two weeks from now, I should be set. Yay!

After the meet, one of the divers invited the rest of us to a birthday party at another diver's house. As I had nothing else planned, I figured I'd go, so long as I got dropped off at my house first to pick up my car, because my dad was home already. That girl's house was fucking huge. There were fire pits in the backyard with shattered glass in them to add effect. She also had a huge heated pool with a generic diving board and a jacuzzi. Had I known that there would be swimming, I would've brought something to swim in and an earplug. But, since I didn't, and since I tempted myself too much, I just stripped down to my boxers and jumped in. A few divers and I had fun with the board and all, but I didn't do many head-first dives - didn't want to put too much pressure on the ear by going near the bottom of the pool.

During the party, Mike kept calling me, trying to get me to pick him, Mitch, and Sexton up. It became extremely annoying, seeing as he called a total of 8 times within one hour. Motherfucker kept nagging me like he was my girlfriend or some shit. So, I finally left the party at 11:00 to pick his whiny ass up. When I showed up to get them, only two of them were there, and Mike was commanding me to go to Pep Boys without immediately giving me an explanation. He finally told me why - we had to go pick up Sexton... who ran there... after they threw an egg at a car and the driver started chasing them... The next time that shit happens, I'm dropping them back off at home.

We went back to my house, and I took a shower to assure myself about the sanity of my ear. When I came back from the shower, Mitch was on the phone - he and Sarah were breaking up. It's never a comfortable situation to talk about, so I'll just leave it at that. After hanging out a little, everybody retired to bed.

In the morning, we woke up rather early - about 10:00. We just kinda sat around and hung out until about 12:00, when we walked down to Dairy Queen for everybody to get picked up. When they left, I came back home, showered, and waited to take my mom to work. After taking her, I picked up Sarah and Billy and we went to see V for Vendetta - finally. It was, as others speculated, a great movie. When it finished, I took Billy home and Sarah and I went to Dallas' house to hang out and kill time. When they had to leave to go to dinner, we left and I drove near the houses of the passengers who I would soon be picking up to go to SkyMania. With nothing but more time to kill, I stopped at McDonald's and got dinner - it caught up with me later at SkyMania, when I started getting stomach cramps.

I picked up Sexton, Niki, Mike, and Mitch, in that order. We made record time on the drive down to SkyMania - an amazing 15 minutes from Tropicana and Jones. As always, there were retard drivers out there. Whatever. The place was pretty empty, which was way cool. I got some good flips in, one of which was caught on camera. Next time I'm there, I may ask another one of the workers how old she is, for obvious reasons. It may seem that I'm just looking for any girl, which I may be doing, but Cecilee was friendly before we formally met. This other girl is just cute, so I may see who she is on the inside. It might not be that I'm looking for a girl, but that I'm looking to see how people react to straightforward flirting, as I've never really come out to a girl and said, "you interest me." It's probably a bad idea, but hey, as I've now said three times in this blog... whatever.

After SkyMania, I dropped everybody off and drove home. I showered, realized I didn't pick up the 5 lbs. of sugar that I told my mom I'd get, and left again to the grocery store. When I came back, I sat down and wrote this blog. By the way, April Fool's Day is also my parents' anniversary. It went subtly unnoticed, which I kinda feel bad about, because I didn't acknowledge it. Don't you feel special to have followed my day for so long?

Goodnight.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

P.S. - Have any of you noticed that I always write these late at night?

Once again... Fuuuuck.

31 March 2006 - 12:19 AM

I did nothing yesterday. Absolutely nothing. With my parents out to dinner with the car, I couldn't go out to see a movie or anything, which is what I wanted to do, since there were two showing for free and I didn't have school the next day. So instead, all I did was sit around at home, watching videos online... for more than four hours. Ugh.

I woke up this morning and watched the rest of Troy, which I started watching before I fell asleep last night. Good movie, by the way. I didn't get to finish it until after my appointment with my doctor. Man, that place was nothing but bad news. Fortunately, my ear is on its way to healing up. Unfortunately, the doc thinks that it's still infected. He prescribed more antibiotics. He also conferred with another doctor and came to the decision that I shouldn't dive for another two weeks. Fuck. Do you know what that means? That means that if I don't compete by the 14th, I'm not going to have four meets throughout the season. I won't even qualify for regionals.

The only thing I had going for me... just jumped out the window.

I almost started tearing in the doctor's office. That's how much this sucks. After the doctor, my dad and I picked up some breakfast at McDonald's (I had a 2-for-1 coupon for a McGriddle - Yay!), picked up my antibiotics, and picked up my dad's shirts from the dry cleaner. By the time we got home, it was 10:30 - too late to attempt showing up at the practice Lang/Comp AP test, which started at 9:00 (the time of my appointment), so I just stayed home, and missed out on the 20 points (one full percentage point) of extra credit that I will certainly need in that class for this quarter, considering the first grades in the book are 36% and 78%.

I finished my breakfast and my movie, organized a briefcase folder on my PSP for the files that I work on at school and home, and fell asleep from 12:00 to 3:00. Then I went Myspacing for an hour, as I usually do, reading through everybody's bulletins, and then went to sleep again until 8:15. My mom cooked dinner tonight. It was delicious, as always - she cooked peppersteak. Afterward, I watched three hours of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. And now, I've written to you. I suppose that means I'm done.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha

Fuuuuck.

29 March 2006 - 12:09 AM

I should be doing homework right now. Then again, I felt it would be a good idea to write this now because if I don't, I might forget some stuff.

Sunday
It was a boring hell of a day. Supposed to be reserved for half of my weekend homework, the only thing I accomplished was writing my personal essay for my application to receive the Harvard Prize Book award. I went with my dad to his friends house to try and help with his computer, since he said it wasn't working as fast as usual. Going over there always kinda creeps me out. He lives in the ghetto, for lack of a better word, yet he's got a respectably fast computer and large TV. He lives with his girlfriend, who has been lying in a hospital bed for years without leaving it because her body is deteriorating. Yeah, it's definitely something that I don't like to see, but my dad's a saint for visiting him as much as he does, my mom's just as good for bringing sandwiches home from work so that they can eat, and I've known that guy since I was like, two years old, and he's good at heart. Our house may not make us look magnificent, but my family is a pretty caring bunch of people.

Anyway, I couldn't get anything done with the computer. I have no idea why. The guy claims that he could give two shits less about the files on it, so I'll probably go over and reformat it over the next weekend to get it working right again. Maybe I'll dust it out, too, because it definitely needs that.

Monday
After stalling the day before, I finally got up at about 5:00 AM and started reading my book. It took me the whole fucking day to read it because I kept getting interrupted. I didn't finish until about 5:15 Tuesday morning, and that was because I had to rush to do it in order to write the project that was supposed to go along with it and get turned in that day. I'm sure I'll read the last few chapters soon so I can get a real feel for the ending. Anyway... those interruptions... We had to call the phone company down because our house phone was all kinds of fucked up. When he showed up, I had to wait at the door while he went around the neighborhood checking the lines. It actually wasn't that bad, because I got to sit at the front doorstep and read with nothing but the sound of nature and the neighborhood traffic around me. I would've climbed into my tree in the front yard, but I didn't want to risk upsetting my allergies, considering it's now Spring and I have a gigantic mulberry tree in the front.

I really need to stop putting things off, seeing as I would read some, then fall asleep for a little, then repeat the process.

Tuesday
Could've been much better. I had to zoom through the project that was due today in English, get ready for school, etc. It's a miracle that our spiral notebooks weren't due in that class too, or I'd be off to a very bad start in the gradebook for this quarter. In my standards, my start in the gradebook in PreCalculus isn't great. We had a quiz today, and on the one graphing problem, I totally blew off that it was an inequality, so it's not a perfect paper. Oh well. It shouldn't kill my grade too much, especially since last quarter's grade was over 103%. At lunch, I had to figure out how to do the Chemistry homework that I didn't do. The rest of the schoolday wasn't really that interesting.

The ride home was pretty interesting. I didn't feel like dealing with the one-lane road that Rainbow has become, so I tried taking Hacienda. We cut through a little bit of traffic by cutting through the desert, but the line to turn left from Hacienda to Rainbow was still pretty long, so it took a few cycles through the lights before we got to go. On the way to Sarah's house, I tried speeding up to switch lanes, but Eric Barnes decided to be uncool, and kept pace with me. Finally, I had to slow down to get over. Asshole. After dropping Sarah off, it was down Flamingo to drop Chris off. So many people cut you off that it's ridiculous. I anticipate their dickish maneuvers, and switch lanes accordingly. I wanted to get back at this old bitch, so I made sure to cut her off before we got to the next stop light. People shouldn't be so careless when it's raining on the streets. Then, from Torrey Pines down to Jones, some fucker started using the shoulder as a lane. Now, I do this when I'm going to be turning soon, but this fucker got in the lane right after Torrey Pines. If you know the area, you know that it's another 1/3 of a mile until there's another driveway to turn right into. I decided to give the guy a scare and I swerved into the shoulder right in front of him. Afterward, he got back into the righthand lane. That's right, bitch.

The day went by as it usually does, with me doing nothing and then falling asleep. I woke up at about 10:30 and insisted on getting something to eat because I was starving. When I came back upstairs, I checked my phone. I had received a text from this girl I know, but it was written to a girl. I got the feeling that she texted to the wrong number. However, she did mention her new blog, which I found on Myspace. In it, she mentioned me and how she was disappointed that I'm not gonna play 'Mr. Right' for her. It kinda portrayed me as the bad guy, which never makes me feel good. Yeah, I knew before I asked her that she was flirting with me, but assumptions leave room for misconceptions, so I had to make sure and ask. I had to find out if she was getting led on by me because I didn't want her to be. It's not that I'm completely uninterested in her right now, it's just that I didn't want her getting her hopes up on something so uncertain. We go to different schools and I know her through diving. We barely know each other, so it's a little early to decide what's up. She's a senior, and will probably be moving away after the summer to go to college.

All that aside, I can't say for certain that I can handle a girlfriend right now. I'm worrying the hell out of myself with school and diving and my physical health regarding it. Throwing in a girlfriend right now would cause me to create more obligations for myself to talk on the phone every night and do more on weekends than I already do, because I believe my significant other should receive attention, regardless of my other affairs. Believe me, I'd love to go to the movies all the time, but I usually only have the car late Friday night - when I should be having dive meets - and then all of Saturday night, and I just love going to SkyMania too much not to go once a week (Saturdays). Dorky, but whatever. I'm a SkyManiac. Shoot me.

I've gotten off track. My point here is that, contrary to what she customarily constitutes being an 'inconsiderate asshole', in reality I'm trying to be the opposite. I don't want her to be getting her hopes up if I don't even know what I want right now. It has been my personal experience that when rejection - for lack of a better word - comes sooner, it's easier news to take.

Please don't think I like doing the things I do. I mean, Christ, relationships and relationship attempts have been grim for me for quite awhile. It's never the usual breakup in my life. With Jessica W., I should've told her sooner that we'd grown far apart; instead, I let it go on for another couple of months. Hailey led me on, rejected me, went out with one of my good friends, and then ended up asking me out a year later, to which I felt inclined to reject due to the lack of communication over the past months, where she or I could have changed more than the other expected. I thought my relationship with Marlena was good, but it turned out to be a huge act, and she threw me away like a parking ticket. I'm an absolute asshole for doing what I did to Lilian. I'm not much better for straightforwardly asking Cecilee if she loved her boyfriend or not and whether or not she thought we would go out. And now I've tried to prevent heartbreak before a feeling got too carried away, but that didn't turn out right either.

"That's what life is: A series of down endings."
-Dante Hicks (Clerks, 1994), relating to Star Wars: The Empire Strike Back

Thanks for reading.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha