F

So I fail at chem, summer internships, swimming, SATs, and calc.

Things to look forward to until summer: SAT I in May, SAT II Math 2 and SAT II Chemistry in June, AP Chemistry and AP Calculus in May, other internship rejections, Saturday mornings devoted to AP Calc/Chem study sessions, ACTs?, last chances to make CCS, finals.

Everything is too hard. I just want to sleep more than 6 hours per night, get rid of the constant soreness from swimming, and NOT wake up feeling like I want to sleep forever. Yeah, fuck life.

Reality approaching

I am supposed to go take a practice SAT test tomorrow morning, like a simulated version of the real one. I really think I should go cause it would be very good practice but my mommy won't let me. She says I am too hard on myself and that I need my rest, but I think she is wrong! I just want to be prepared for the real SATs next year and practice makes perfect, right? Sure I am exhausted, but sleeping in is a fool's reason for missing an opportunity. But then again, I have no choice. My mommy is my ride.

Paycheck for election working arrived today. I need to save up to start buying gas for my (future) hand-me-down Ford Explorer haha.

I don't like a certain swimming picture of me in the yearbook but the underwater one turned out cool. And guess what? Coach talked about me and Gideon at CCS in the MHS Union, hehe. Which reminds me, I wonder if I got into journalism...

When the balloons were released into the air at the senior rally today, it was pretty depressing. I thought about all the seniors that I have gotten close to, but are LEAVING. How I would definitely miss talking to An Nguyen everyday and hunting for hot guys at meets, seeing Ivy Nguyen's smartass and beautiful face in 2nd period, watching Michelle Pham leading our swim team and being my 500 free buddy, making fun of Allison Hoang everyday, chilling or getting food with Ronald Manuel in 4th, doing "supplies!" to Michael Pham almost everyday, and laughing at Lauren Padilla's crazy antics. I love them all, and it seems to weird not being in their presence or be jealous that they are moving on with their lives and mine is kind of in a standstill. The Class of 09 definitely cannot be replaced and the people I have met in that class are some of the greatest people I have had the honor of knowing.

It's unofficial but if the thing I found out today is true, THEN THAT IS SO FREAKIN' AWESOME! When I know for sure, I will post an update :)

Liberation, to an extent

AP World History testing on Thursday, May 14:
- My first AP test... ever. And probably the beginning of more to come.
- World history test was easier than I thought, but I had to do some insane studying.
- Test period was boring as hell, a lot of personal information had to be bubbled in. Waste of an hour, doing basically nothing.
- 3 essays within a time period of 2 hours! Finished in time, phew.
- I had Diana's Chinese dynasties song stuck in my head the whole time! Wanna hear? I can sing it to you if you need help remembering the dynasties :D

Shang Zhou Qin Han, Shang Zhou Qin Han,
Sui Tang Song, Sui Tang Song,
Yuan Ming Qing Republic, Yuan Ming Qing Republic,
Mao Ze Dong, DENG! Mao Ze Dong, DENG!

CCS on Friday, May 15:
- My first CCS ever too. And who knows, hopefully more to come.
- Subway during 4th period with Ronald, Thi, Gideon, and Brian to get some healthy lunch into my system.
- Afterwards, the CCS kids (Me, Kevin, Kelvin, Tung, Gideon, Zach, Vincent) skipped 5th and 6th period to get to George Haines International Swim Center early. Hung out at the nearby library and played 10 fingers, then Truth or Dare. Learned some very surprising (and pretty nasty) things about those guys, but you gotta give them props for their honesty. I won't judge or love these boys any less, haha! It sucked being the only girl too, targeting people isn't fair!
- When we realized we could not avoid Pagan any longer, we went to get our deck passes (it feels so cool and official-like to flash a deck pass to the guy at the gate!) and CCS t-shirts.
- First reaction: OH MY GOSH everyone at CCS is freakin' HUGE!!! And WHITE! Barely any asians. I swear, I did not look very tall there and in terms of muscles, I had none. Even Gideon looked like he was average height compared to them, haha. Everyone had body-length fastskins too while I looked pretty dumb wearing a normal suit. I was nervous as hell and felt like I was about to throw up. I seriously contemplated hiding in the library until it was all over.
- Surprisingly, Coach was really supportive and I think that really helped me calm down a little. He was telling me all these little bits of technique I had to remember, then suddenly, "OH YEAH, and don't forget to have fun! And breathe." Afterwards, "Good job. You had a great season, most definitely." WTF who is this man?!?! He used to say, "Breathing is overrated!"
- My 100 back time was 1:06.18, the EXACT same time (even the milliseconds) as the time I got at League Finals. Kinda disappointed, but it's whatever. At least I didn't get last.
- Saw Michael Ngo, who I haven't seen in 4 years and now has CRAZY muscles and is super fast! Also saw Mr. Miyagi and his Olympic-qualifying buddies in their 400 relay. Seriously, his friends qualified for the real Olympics! Probably my last time seeing him, as he is about to graduate. How I will miss him...
- Went to dinner at Pasta Pomodoro. More exposing of secrets and discussions of how we might do SCSC this summer instead of MTW.

*Happy birthday again! Only 2 years of having almost every class period with you, and look how far we have gotten. I call you lots of things but it's all out of love and respect. You already know! So fuck you<3 Haha! When is that dinner that you did not invite me to? (;

AP Testing and CCS is over. Possibly the most stressful week of sophomore year is over. Finally time to get some real sleep in. After all of this, I kinda feel like I can take on the world.

In one breath

I have TONS of pictures to upload here, TONS of things to say to people, TONS of memories to jot down, TONS of feelings to express. This week = extremely stressful!

League Trials
- Qualified for 100 Back, 500 Free, 400 Free relay, and 200 medley relay (I wish I could have done more, but max. is 4 events)
- Volunteer timing at Boys trials. Sunglasses come in handy, hehe.
- Mr. Miyagi, daaaaamn. You got all the girls hooked! Too bad you have a girlfriend... how depressing ):

League Finals
- 2nd place in 100 Back! (but no PR, 1:06.18)
- 8th place in 500 Free (but no PR, 6:08)
- 30 second split in 50 back for relay (my PR!)
- 59 in 100 free!!! (my PR!) Woohoo, Junior Olympics time too :D
- Kelvin and Zach's pole dancing while counting for MY event, hahaha.
- Vincent's creepy face and announcer voice makes me laugh every single time, YOU are a funny boy.
- Insanely fast and tall superhuman (Nick Trowbridge) with a 50 in 100 back, HOLY &@#$!

Pictures from Finals and Trials:















Red Robin's
- Time to gain back all the fat we lost from hard practices!
- Kelvin's lap dancing for $1 (see video on Facebook, hahaha)
- Gideon eating everyone's leftovers (his own burger, plus half of 3 other people's burgers!) I don't know how he does it...
- An and his prom date (: A+G prom pictures, haha!
- Helium balloons! This is so much fun, this is so much fun!







Mother's Day
- My favorite person in the whole wide world! (Along with my brother and my daddy)
- Red iPod nano! She loved it (:

Wild turkey/chicks
- They hatched! But they lost their mommy, apparently she got attacked by some animal so she couldn't protect them and they scattered. My dad found 5 turkey chicks and 1 chicken chick (our experiment, putting a chicken egg in a turkey nest! haha) and we are now raising them in a box.
- They chirp a lot, I think they miss their mommy. But the sad thing is, we can't find a wild animal. That is just impossible.
- Wild animals grow a whole lot faster than domestic ones... interesting. They are a barely a week old and all their feathers on their wings have grown out. Hello there evolution.


Random
- I passed the written portion of CM testing for piano! 1 more level to go until Advanced (level 10)!
- My brother has a fever, I feel so helpless when he is sickly and weak. But don't worry, the doctor said its not swine flu.
- Practice this week is pretty painful, but very short. And I am the only girl stuck with 6 other guys in one pool. CCS IS IN 3 DAYS, omg omg omg fuck fuck fuck.

For YOU
- And like always, please do not ask me about these or try to guess who it is. Most likely, you will be wrong.
1. Yes, I noticed. But as I have said before, there is no point putting in effort if I don't see any in return. Lost some, gained some.
2. Why do you have to be here? It was fine not seeing you around, until now. Makes me feel like everything I do is awkward.
3. Shoot, I think I might like you. But if I admit it, it's kinda like I am trampling over a major friendship.
4. We have always been good friends, but I think a little too close and too clingy for comfort.
5. It surprises me that I look forward to seeing you everyday.
6. Thanks for putting up with me (and your welcome for putting up with you! lol!), but why the fuck does your birthday have to be in one of the most stressful weeks of sophomore year?!?!


Back to AP World studying... (Countdown: 2 DAYS!!!) I have an okay feeling about the test, but I am extremely nervous still. Wish me luck!

Why I am stressing out right now

- Probably the hardest week of practice in the swim season, everything muscle hurts like a motherrrrr. Leagues in 1 week, CCS in 2 weeks.
- AP World test in 15 days!!! Must keep studying...
- Bielski isn't letting Harrison's kids take the AP World practice test, which I desperately need!!
- CCS is the day after AP World test, and I found out I have a Chem test on the day of CCS. Yeah, thanks. Just keep piling it on -___-
- Mission college physics class is filling up (only like 6 spots left) but I still have to wait another 3 damn weeks to register.
- Online US History class this summer is FULL, uggggggggh.
- My chem project experiment pretty much failed so I have to redo it.
- Too late for lifeguarding job (didn't really want to do it anyways; already too dark!), Read to Succeed (same; would only have been able to attend half the sessions), and Wisdom Chinese Camp (same again; 60 hours/week with little kids the age of my brother, SHOOT ME!).
- My rugball team sucks, enough said.

On the brightside:
- I finally paid AP ($86) and swimming jacket/suit fees ($95) that should have been paid last year.
- I got to skip crazy Mollot's BORING ASS class today for ortho.
- Braces off within 2 months max!
- No more stupid STAR testing! No more test fatigue, confusion from scrambled up classes, and general exhaustion from all of the above.

Yeah, negatives definitely outweigh the positives. If I can't take Physics, my summer will be a complete waste (Well, other than the SAT classes that I already applied for). I need to rake in those community service hours somehow, any ideas?

Croque Madame

My dad found a turkey mom (also called a hen?) sitting on a nest in a bush in our front yard. It's their mating season and this mommy had a total of 13 turkey eggs she was keeping warm. Big family! So we hatched (haha, couldn't resist the pun) this idea that we should take 3 turkey eggs and replace them with 3 chicken eggs so we can have wild chickens roaming around when they pop out of that egg! Kinda like the Ugly Duckling where the goose raises the swan, except with turkeys and chickens (turkens? chickeys?) I took a picture of those 3 turkey eggs, along with a chicken egg, on my kitchen countertop that matches the pattern perfectly. I'll keep you guys updated.

The Union came out yesterday! My picture for Science Olympiad was in it, as well as Pagan saying he was proud of me for making CCS in swimming. Wow, it's so weird getting a compliment from him. What's even weirder? A hug for getting a minute flat in 100 free. I still can't believe it, he HAS changed.

Club swim meet today at Independence. Timing for 6 hours in the heat is extremely exhausting, but worth the 8 hours that Coach will sign hehe. It is great to be able to eat McDonalds while other people have to compete, kinda like laughing in the face of those suckers. Our next meet is Leagues, still 3 weeks away from now. Morning practice during spring break... yay?