the Spanish Vest Pocket Dictionary...

Quite the mouthful of a title for a book that fits in the back pocket of my jeans.

The book isn't actually my dictionary. I was cleaning out the drawers and cupboards at work today, and I came across the little book. It was hidden in a drawer full of old magazines and catalogues that we use for ordering toys and party supplies. The red-orange color and the long proclamation of the contents (I can use lots of words, too) were completely out of place. After examining it from a distance, I picked it up to take a closer look.

Memories cascaded into my mind the moment I opened the book. It was like a magic spell was cast when I touched it, bringing to life long forgotten happenings.

It was his book. He must have left it on the counter one day, and it just got swept into a drawer and forgotten. He used to thumb through it and find random Spanish words to learn their meanings. Sometimes he would read a word aloud and tell me to guess the meaning. I rarely got it right, but every once in while I'd surprise both of us.

Now The Spanish Vest Pocket Dictionary is sitting on my bedroom floor. It spent most of my shift in my back pocket, where it fits nicely. I've used it twice, too, to aid me in helping a customer who didn't speak English very well. The customer told me that he was looking for a "mantel." He brought up one of the plastic table covers, and he wanted to know what the translation of "mantel" is in English. It means "tablecloth."

I like things -- things as in those that remind me of people and places and events. Mostly things that remind me of people that I care about. Keeps them close, you know? Like having a friend you can take with you every day in your pocket.

It's funny what reminds me of people. It's funny how attached I get to objects -- even little objects, like a leaf given to me by a friend on a walk, or a pebble from a little girl, or movie ticket stubs from an outing. Add a book to the list of treasures -- at least until I can return it to its proper owner.

Thanks, vest pocket dictionary. Thanks for the memories, and thanks for helping me out today.

tulips...

I enjoy these flowers while they last, but they always look so sad and forlorn when their time is over. Kind of like how I feel now. I'm not being cynical, promise. Just tired. So very tired.

My family is not going to California for Spring Break. My dad's company is cutting back on people, so we decided to save the money for a "just in case" type of thing. I'm disappointed, but I'd be more disappointed if we'd gone and he'd lost his job when we came home. Instead, we're heading for St. George tomorrow morning. I'm supposed to be packing, but the poem idea popped into my head so I ditched the project. This poem isn't very good, but I'm emotionally worn out. It's hard to create when you just feel like giving up on the world and becoming a hermit in the mountains somewhere.

I think I did all right on the science test I had today. The Language Fair at UVU yesterday was good, even if I didn't have to wait around for three hours after I finished all of my assignment. My skit group got "Muy Bien" for our score, which was the second highest possible. Did I even mention the Language Fair before? Well, I did now. :)

Checked myself out with a note from mom today. Good thing too, because I was so frustrated with my Ceramics teacher that I was ready to chuck my project at him and walk out. He keeps changing his mind about what the vase will require. NOW we have to put this ugly brown slip stuff on the whole vase and carve our pictures into that. I wanted to glaze it pretty colors, because I want to put it in my child's nursery when I have kids someday. I want it to hold flowers and be pretty, not ugly brown. I hate having so many requirements for this vase. Maybe I'll just build a small one that fits his rubric and keep this one the way it is.

I better go pack now.

appreciation...

From Q.


From Danielle.

Thanks so much to Q and Danielle for the "Fabulous" Awards. I really appreciate it, and this poem is dedicated to you both. It isn't much, but it's how I felt.

I now nominate Kate, decor8, Jewel, and Summermoon.

I keep getting the feeling that my Seminary teacher is trying to get me to repent or something. All General Conference I felt like I needed to change some things, but I could maybe wait until later. Well, Seminary this week has been all about repentance and godly sorrow, sins and the Atonement (for more info, email me at wannabkenobi at gmail dot com or check out the LDS official website at www.lds.org) Maybe it is a hint or something.

The Alpine School District Language Fair is tomorrow. Yikes! I'm in charge of a skit, called "The Red Bench" or "La Banca Roja". I'm so nervous, because one girl didn't show up to practice today and another doesn't know her lines. Oh, well. Since it's a Judged Event, my teacher is giving me the automatic 100 points for the term project we have to do, no matter what score the judges give us. Sweet.

I struggled in Science today. Not because it was hard. No, it was because I kept falling asleep, or almost falling asleep. I still don't want to hear the famous "Go get a drink" from Mr. Clark, so I forced myself to keep my head up. I about cried with happiness when he told the class to go take a break.

Lunch consisted of something that was supposed to be spaghetti. It was more like rubberized yarn smothered in an extremely sweet red sauce, which tasted more like Kool-Aid than tomatoes, and chunky imitation ground beef. At least I think it was imitation ground beef. I have no idea what it might have been. At least the roll was good. School food generally is palatable, if only just. I mean, it totally isn't worth $1.75, but hey, it's better than not eating anything.

Ceramics was interesting today. We're starting a new project, meaning we wasted the day. That's just what happens. Mr. Steadman showed us how to make plaster molds of objects that we can use for sculptures; I brought a tape measure. Brad, an amazing and I mean aMAZING ceramicist (that seriously is a word? It didn't show up as misspelled or anything), brought a lightbulb. Awesome, no? So we made molds from oil based clay (yick) and then filled them with plaster. Double yick. It was fun, I guess. Just messy.

I accidentally double charged a lady at work today, and she was mad. She was even more mad when she found out I was new, and told the full-time employee (Paul, at the time) that they shouldn't have a new person running the cash register. When he asked her how else I would learn, she walked out. *sigh* I don't mean to cause problems. Problems just seem to follow me around. Other than that, it wasn't bad. I kept dropping things because I was scared to mess up again, and finally the other Paul (part-time) sent me in the back to get belts. I'm good at stocking belts. And merit badges. Good at that, too.

Well, today wasn't bad, I guess. It could have been worse, and it could have been a little better. That is my analysis. ;)

I'm done.

DBQ...

Since I'll be up late working on an essay for History (DBQ, or Document Based Question Essay) I probably won't be able to post much about the day. Just know that it was better than I thought it would be. :)

I did glaze two of my Ceramics projects, and finished a couple of the Science chapters that I missed. Behind in Spanish, which sucks because term ends on Friday. Multimedia is killer because I'm horrible at Flash animation. And he's got a girlfriend. Dang it.

3.14159…

Yes, it’s Pi Day. And I have been looking forward to it for a very long time, even though my family is having chocolate cake instead of actual pie. It’s from Costco, so it’s one of those demon chocolate so-rich-and-huge-it-should-be-sent-to-prison cakes. I’m excited much.

So, for yesterday. It was a big day and a happy day for the most part. Slept through first period again because I had nightmares all night and didn’t sleep well (thanks for letting me stay home, mom). Went to second period and made a total fool of myself in front of the class as I stumbled over my pronunciation of the Spanish words while I present on Vasco, Spain. Interesting stuff happened in class, such as awkward sitting positions by certain individuals and rude jokes. Not to mention that the tape job that’s attaching the projector to the ceiling sort of doesn’t work anymore…that was bad.

Study Hall finally came around, and I left class to go meet up with the rest of Science Club to get ready to board the bus for UVU. Can you spell excited? I can! Yay! Anyway, I know Science Club sounds totally dorky, and it kind of is, but you’ll totally wish you were brave enough to admit your nerdiness when you read what we did. *snicker*

First off, they fed us aMAZING pizza. Seriously, the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life. AND we didn’t have to pay for it. Score!!! We did have to work for it, though. By sharing everything we knew about pressure and its relationship to volume and temperature. After we ate, we built something. Something awesome. And I mean really freakin’ awesome.

We built cannons. For reals. Not super dangerous ones that shoot projectiles hundreds of yards, though. Kind of a let down, but it was still fun. ;) No, we made cannons that shoot ping pong balls. How it works is you have this thing sort of like a turkey baster, you know the ones with the round bulb on the end? We removed the plastic tube and somehow inserted lamp lighters into the hole. The lamp lighters create sparks inside the bulb thing. Once it works, you then take a cigarette/fire lighter and press down on the button to release the butane gas. Don’t light the actual flame, that’s bad. Just the gas button. Then, hurry up and put squeeze your ping pong ball into the hole. Twist your flint striker and…

BANG!!!

Or pop, whatever works. Out erupts the ping pong ball, along with a lot of flames and smoke. Pretty cool, no? See, I told you it’s cool to be a nerd. You get to blow stuff up. With permission. :)

After we finished up with that, we toured the chemistry labs (they’ll get better) and some other parts of the school. Our first guide was really weird. ‘Nough said. The second guide was cool. He’s an English major, and his wife is a ballroom dancer. Next year he’ll be going to Exeter College, Oxford University. The one in ENGLAND. NOT FAIR!!!! Oh, well. I wish him all the best. My favorite part of the tour was the library. Can I just die and go to heaven? Oh, man, it was amazing. I know where I’ll be hanging out when I finish high school and actually go to college on a real campus. So stoked, man!

Went back to school, showed off my cannon to my Ceramics class, and then drove home. Went to work. It was Dustin’s birthday, and he brought donuts. I asked him why he brought treats for us on his birthday, and he said, “It’s like the kids in elementary school, how they bring treats. It makes me feel little.” Then I just had to mention that he’ll be a quarter of a century old next year. That got a groan and a smack on the shoulder. *smirk* Dustin is awesome.

While at work, I was in the faculty printing room when the door opened. Dustin came in, looked around, and let out a mock sob. “WHY are there so many printers in this school?!” he moaned. I asked if he had to turn them all off due to the energy budget cuts, and he said, “No. I printed something, and I don’t know which one it went to.” I started to laugh and he sighed, leaving the room. About two minutes later, the printer I was standing next to spit out a paper. It was the one Dustin was looking for! Funny, no? Well, I thought it was.

Finally able to go home, I ate dinner with my family (can’t remember what it was, dang it) and got ready to go see my high school’s version of “The Tempest”. Overall, it was much better than I expected, seeing as it’s a high school doing Shakespeare. I saw “Macbeth” two years ago when they did it. Did not make a good impression. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised, except when we got “rained” on during the opening scene. THAT was annoying. There was someone in the back of the auditorium with a big water gun thing shooting it over everyone. Not cool, at all. That was the only thing I really didn’t like. Other than that, it was good. They had a raked stage (where they build up the stage and have stairs or a ramp leading up that the audience can’t see) and had covered it in sand. The set was super simple, with opaque sheet things hanging where the wings are at. It looked really good, and there weren’t any scene changes so it moved fast.

Then I went home. End of day.

TODAY!!!

Woke up, got dressed, and went to job interviews. Boy Scouts are weird. I’ve been offered a position at Scofield Boy Scouts Camp, but I have to think about accepting it. I’ll let you know what I decide. If I do, I’ll probably teach a couple of merit badge classes and/or work in the Trading Post (store). They also want me to be the camp artist (uh oh). That’s a frightening thought. I suck at art. They’ll find out, if I take the job.

I pretty much wasted the whole day after that. I’m still wasting it. I discovered Sorority Life on Facebook. Aka, I wasted my day. And now I’m getting redundant. Let’s just be done now, shall we?

I’m done. Redundancy at its finest, no?

Ohp, I forgot. I LOVE the Twilight soundtrack!!! Muse, Collective Soul, Paramore, Mutemath, Linkin Park, The Black Ghosts, and Robert Pattinson rock!!!

K. NOW I’m done. :)

Wait!! Today is Michelle's Birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!! (Dustin's sister, who I also work with)

trippin'...

As of today, I now know what the term "trippin'" means. Here's what happened:

In my Spanish 4 class today, several of my classmates were making jokes when my teacher told Leon that he would put some information in Leon's file. Leon freaked out, crying "Wait, I have a FILE?" Everyone started to laugh and joke about the file. They were all laughing and saying how the files in our teacher's room would incriminate Leon and make it impossible for him to get a job, blah, blah, blah.

I had no idea what they were talking about or why it was funny. Senor Mijares asked a student to translate for me why it was funny, but he never got around to it because he was laughing so hard. Calmly I told them that, duh, every single one of us has a file down in the office which has kept track of our schooling since we were enrolled in Kindergarten. They all stared at me and one of them proceeded to say that I was trippin'.

When I asked what that meant, they all started to laugh again. The boy who said I was whatever that was said it was like high or on one or something like that. The light clicked. "Oh!" I said, "So it's like a colloquialism!"

Dead silent, except for the raucous laughter of Senor Mijares and Mr. Cooper. Someone asked what a colloquialism is, and I took it upon myself to explain. "A colloquialism is a word or set of words which are native to a region, country, or culture. These words are also known as slang," I told them. Still dead silence, broken by the second burst of laughter from my teachers.

After this outburst in class, we set to work. We're learning the Future tense and Conditional Tense. One of the boys was called on to create a sentence for the class. He decided to make fun of his friend, Buck. Let me remind you they're both straight, just fyi. He (Breton) cleared his throat and said, "Esta noche, sacaria Buck en un dato, pero estoy feo." What he tried to say was "Tonight I would take Buck on a date, but he's ugly." What he really said (or in a sense said, I don't know if he used the right words) "Tonight I would take Buck on a date, but I'm ugly."

I laughed so hard! But no one else caught the wrong form of estar. He used "estoy," which is the first person singular of the verb. Baha!!! So while I was laughing, no one else got it. Senor Mijares called on me to explain the error. It was pretty much awesome.

Spanish class was the funniest part of my day. I went from not knowing anything about what they were talking about to completely turning the tables on them. I love being informed. ;)

*sigh* No homework tonight, or any homework that is absolutely necessary to my passing the classes. Ceramics is frustrating again because I keep dropping my clay on the floor. Slippery hands. AP Environmental Science was deadly boring, so I left with the hall pass when I started to fall asleep. Just went into the girls' bathroom and talked to some of the girls in Drama class who were in there. It's what girls do. Seminary was super fun. Most of the people were gone to go to the basketball game in Salt Lake (tournament game for the Lady Bruins-I heard we won), so we played a Scripture Mastery game the whole time. I scored like, 20 points for my team. Yes!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, a huge and heartfelt shout out to:

MY BIG BROTHER, NOW AGE 31!!!! I LOVE YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOSER!!!