What swimming and school do to you

The annual and long-awaited Monterey meet was this weekend. I am pooped. I don't think I have been this sore yet in the past.. year. If I sit for 5 minutes, I feel like someone is continually punching my back. And walking is pretty excruciating, I feel like I just ran miles and miles. Even just sitting down feels like someone has been sitting on my lap for quite a long time. Everything hurts, more than usual. So my mom put on 4 of those Asian patches that HURT LIKE HELL when you try to peel them off. It kinda helped. Advil did too. And sleep, yum.

In general, I guess I'm pretty satisfied with my results, although I always have those nagging regrets. I received the 1st place High Point Champion trophy for the girls 15-18 age group.. that made everything worthwhile :D And MTW got the 1st place team trophy for the highest scoring team. But there was an air of sadness cause it was Alex's last meet with us; he will be dearly missed. I hope he liked our card and acoustic rendition of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. And I know I could have gotten better times and I know what I need to work on now: faster recovery in free, faster kick in fly and back, IM turns, stop saving my energy for the last lap!!! I absolutely hate the feeling of being out-touched by a few tenths or hundredths of a second. If I lose, I would rest easier knowing I lost by an entire body length than by the length of a fingernail.

I wish I could have camped out with the team.. but my mom doesn't like the Monterey fog and the cold breeze that results from it. I'm glad we didn't though, a hotel is like heaven. My major back and leg pain would not have been very pleasant at all if I slept on the hard dirt floor. But I did visit the campsite around sunset and enjoy the potluck, making the s'mores, climbing the trees, ignoring the "no trespassing sign", touching electric fences, playing mafia, hunting for bambi, stepping on the poison ivy, nonstop laughing with Vincent, and feeding Victor, LOL. I love my team :)

I am not at all pleased with school. My grades so far are putting me in a super bad mood and a few people said that it shows. I feel like I'm settling. I can do better, I know it. School is one of my top priorities and I feel like I'm losing this competition. I CANNOT lose.

1. I know you don't, but try to understand. We have entirely different priorities. I act like it's nothing, but it's more than that to me.
2. I think it's the end, but I do hope it's the beginning.
3. Thanks for not even bothering to try.
4. It bothers me when you act like nothing has happened.

Consistency

I'm starting to fall into a routine with school, swimming, etc. I like routine, it's simple and things don't often go wrong or get screwed up. Without obstacles, I get things accomplished the way I want them to be. I guess I could be better, but I'm satisfied. Despite the fact that I am sleeping later than usual (which is no surprise considering my stupid homework), my mood has been quite positive. Like Mr. Hentschke would say, our bodies love and need stability. I feel stable, therefore I feel happy.

Oh yeah, I am torn. I hate being so undecisive. What to do? Maybe I should just be like that Harvey guy from Dark Knight and just flip a coin. Sorry, but I want both.

Split down the middle

First week of school was so looooong. I do love my teachers and I'm quite satisfied with my schedule overall. I just need to step up my game with those honors/AP classes. It's only the first week, but my homework is already taking more time to complete than it did in sophomore year.

So a faulty laneline at the MTW pool kinda split my middle right finger in half.. there's this nasty red line extending all the way down the middle of my middle finger. If you pry it open, you can see past my external layer of skin. It's pretty freaky but pretty cool!

My brother just won all 8 worlds of Super Mario Bros. He is so proud of himself and my whole family is too LOL. Maybe now I can finally have my DS back; he rarely shares with me even though it is MINE ):

I spent all of Saturday morning watching the Little Leagues baseball World Series international championships. The Chinese Taipei team owned Mexico in the semifinals, so the final game is between the US and China. I always feel guilty cheering for either team when they play against each other. It's like the Olympics all over again... It was a surprisingly interesting game and baseball will forever remind me of Mrs. Mellera.

I DEFINITELY do not show this in any way, but I am very grateful for you, especially now. You are surprisingly easy to talk to. Thanks.

Looking up

My grades are off to a bad start, disappointing pretest results. But it's only up from here, right? Oh I hope. I'm really settling into my classes now. I love the people in most of my classes.. they're a good mix of familiar faces and plenty of new opputunities.

Practice was fun today. Vincent was being crazier and nastier than normal, and that's always fun to experience. Oh man, this boy...! haha.

I think I should stop using a one-shoulder bag. It's really messing up my right shoulder now. I can't even do fly correctly and my shoulders hurt all the time. Maybe it's time to revive my blanc et noir argyle Jansport backpack. Oh, and I can't wait for Monterey! Hopefully we'll get to camp this year.

BeeMcGee = Mr. Colburn's name for our associate principal, Mr. McGarry. Hahaha! Mr. Colburn is awesome, I love him already.

Five days is oh-so-long! Where's the weekend?! I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever! I'm looking forward to it :)

Ugly day

My second day of junior year sucked. I'm so damn tired of school already and we have 178 days to go. Today is one of those days where it seems like the entire world turns on you. Everything is pissing me off and I'm being annoying to my parents. And I have no clue where my $100 calculator is; someone borrowed it and never returned it and I hate myself for not remembering who it was.

My myspace is officially deleted.. it's about time I got rid of it. Facebook and blogspot FTW.

Love/hate... sometimes, it's hard to differentiate.

Junior year introductions

So today was the first day of my junior year, the day I have been dreading since.. oh I don't know, the beginning of summer pretty much.

I'm quite happy with the people I have in my classes, more familar faces than I had previously thought. But I was entirely right about the workload, it's pretty bad already and it's only gonna get crazier. So to make myself feel better, I got some froyo afterschool :)

A rundown:
1st - AP Calc AB, Ms. Nguyen: Rumors abound that she is a hard teacher, not as lenient as Mr. Bautista, but will prepare you well for the AP test. That's gonna be one of my hard classes, I can tell already. She has a take-no-crap attitude, but seems like a generally nice and helpful teacher overall. We have a quiz on the unit circle tomorrow, which I never fully learned with Mrs. Leggin.
2nd - Honors English, Conradson: She is such a cute lady. I didn't know she was Mr. Hanley's wife! The stuff we are gonna do in class looks to be pretty boring though; we're gonna read books I never would have taken a second glance at. A WHOLE LOT of in class essays during the year, FML. We had a project due and a test today.. ALREADY, and we have an in-class essay tomorrow. The people in this class are awesome though, a whoooole lot of familar faces :)
3rd - French 3, Topping: She seems to be a fun lady, definitely won't drive me crazy like Mollot. Topping speaks too much French though damn it, and we have to write an entire letter in French that's due tomorrow. The kids from Mollot are gonna be so behind cause we barely learned anything... Oh btw, my new French name is Simone because Bettina said it sounded "sassy."
4th - Anatomy, Hentschke: He's awesome! Seems to be pretty lenient (doesn't believe in weekend homework YAY!) and has a sense of humor. I'm worried about memorizing body parts though, my memory sucks. But he has 3 microwaves in his class so I don't have to eat school food! Haha.
5th - AP Chem, Meyer: She's cool, so many memories in that class and here we are again. It's definitely gonna be a demanding class though (no lunch? no SSR?). I'm gonna struggle a whole lot more than I did with Honors Chem. Some fun people in that class though.
6th - Journalism, Colburn: He has a wicked sense of humor! As long as I do the work, that class is pretty much my free period. "I'm gonna talk about stuff, you're gonna learn stuff, then you're gonna do stuff."

On the brightside, I will be at college in exactly 2 years.. hooray. It's hard to believe that it was only two years ago that I was a freshmen, it seems like a lifetime ago. And it was nice to see people I haven't seen all summer; no one has changed all that much.

Oh, I am so lost on what to do because either way, someone gets hurt. And I feel like anything I do will be absolutely wrong and irreversible. I just need some time.

Junior year

1. AP Calculus AB - Nguyen
2. Honors English - Conradson
3. French 3 - Topping
4. Anatomy - Henshke
5. AP Chemistry - Meyer
6. Journalism - Colburn

I better get ready to work my ass off this year. I must keep reminding myself that I have GREAT teachers, even though have a reputation for being really hard. Maybe I should have gone the easy road with Roy and Bautista (like freakin' Kevin!)... but I guess I will have to rely on more miracles/hard work this year. On the bright side, I'm superdooperly glad that Physics and US History were taken care of this summer! Two things that I will never have to worry about again. HELL YEAH! :D

I have been so in love with Japanese food lately. I've even grown a bit fond of raw fish (well, just tuna and salmon), but only in dainty little portions. I still have to work up the nerve to get that Sashimi plate that my mom always gets. I don't think a plate of jello-like creatures can really satisfy me.

My brother and I have kinda been on a rollercoaster ride. He can bring out the absolute worst in me and I hate it. I don't want to be annoyed by my brother but I am on a daily basis. And then I remind myself that he is my favorite person in the whole wide world, and then I feel like shit for being mean to him. He's still young, we all make mistakes (even though he seems to make so much more than the average kid). He gets me so stressed out, but he always makes me laugh. He is so odd.

My grandma's health is getting worse. It's starting to really worry me now. I don't want my grandparents to ever get old.

Maybe I overreacted, maybe I didn't; I don't really know. I think we need a real heart-to-heart talk sometime soon.

Junior year at-a-glance

My "locked" schedule, as determined by the loooovely Ms. Harke. I am pretty pleased with it, I got most of the teachers I wanted. Hopefully, I pass US History this summer so I can take Ceramics 4th period instead (and have 3 electives, hehe).

1st - AP Calculus AB (Nguyen)
2nd - Honors English (Conradson)
3rd - Anatomy (Henschtke)
4th - AP US History (Ducote)
5th - AP Chemistry (Meyer)
6th - Journalism (Colburn)

I have been taking naps on a daily basis now... I NEVER take naps! I think I am stressing out a little with all the crap I have to do, almost as stressed as I was during the school year. Did I mention that Tram found a white hair on me? I believe it represents my sophomore year, cause at the root, the hair was black... but it gradually turned to brown and blonde then WHITE for at least 5 inches, then at the very tip was black hair again (which probably represents June, which was kinda laidback).

1st 6 weeks of last 12 weeks

^ Confusing, no? (;

A <--PE (yay for rugball! yay for osbourne!)
A <--Honors Chemistry (barely... 93.01%. the tests kill me.)
A- <--AP World History (a stupid, useless class)
A <--Precalculus (almost complete flexibility on homework haha)
A- <--English IIA (0.4% away from a solid A, damn)
A <--French II (only half participation points cause of swimming)

Another 6 weeks and sophomore year will be overrrrrr! Almost halfway through high school, hello junior year!

Update

Haven't had the time or effort to blog much (hey, a preview of next year, when I will have no time to do anything whatsoever).

Speaking of next year, it's that time of year to pick classes! I looooove picking classes, more so than I like taking them. My junior year schedule, if everything works out perfectly: Honors English (Hanley), AP US History (Ducote), AP Calculus AB (Nguyen), AP Chemistry (Meyer), Journalism (Colburn), and Ceramics (Already my favorite class haha). I think I have too many AP classes and I am quite sure that I will regret it. But I usually underestimate myself and I do know that if I say that I commit to it, I will. If you aim low, you expect nothing else than failing. Aim high, try harder, get better results, right? (Kinda like my attitude towards swimming? Ehh... not really.)

Also this summer, physics at Mission. I am considering Santa Clara swimming (4 hours of BRUTAL practice a day, plus an hour of conditioning twice a week!) but I don't know if I can handle it. I WANT to get better at swimming and I know I can improve, I'm just unsure if I will be able to keep up. Rumors of Santa Clara really scare the shit out of me.

Speaking of swimming... (wow, everything just flows together!) we lost badly against Santa Clara. This was our last meet before Leagues in a month. Coach was pretty unhappy at the start of the meet, apparently Los Altos was being unfair in something. I got a PR in 500 free though (6:07) and 1st in 100 back (1:06). Even still, I am kinda disappointed about the 100 back cause I am not maintaining my CCS time! Why!? I did it once, can't I do it again? I have 5 weeks left, make it or break it (Ugh, reminds me of stupid, useless STAR testing).

Gideon took a picture of Ryan Lochte in the "steamy" boys locker room! My loves are P, R, and D (in that order, hehe). Only Wendy knows who they are (;

Guess what? I found out something that made me scream today. I still want to scream... WOOOOHOOOO! I can't believe I got it! Well actually, it is still unofficial but STILL! AHHHHHH! :D

Oh yeah, and that alliance is plain stupid. At least have the balls to do it individually, instead of taking a shortcut. It leaves everyone else in the dust and is completely unfair to them. What hypocrites.