HM

Well, since everyone is going high maintenance crazy, I have decided to join you.


Obviously, it's kind of hard for me to be HM, since I get wet about twice a day, and I'm in the pool for about 3 hours or more a stretch...so, I talked to my HM swimmer friends. I was curious to know how they achieved the high maintenance look in the water without it melting into a ghostly nightmare. The answer? Waterproof make-up. So, to begin with, I started with waterproof mascara, to see if it really was waterproof. I looked at my face after practice, and there were no black blobs dripping on to my cheeks, as I've so often seen. So I thought that was pretty cool. Until I tried to get it off. It never clicked in my head that waterproof mascara won't wash off with water. I was now in a dilemma at 9:30 at night. Since I'm not honestly HM, I don't own "eye makeup remover", or "makeup remover" for that matter. So I went to sleep. And I woke up. With black smears under my eyes. Water didn't work. So, like a amateur, I scrubbed the makeup off, and went to school with bright red circles under my eyes. I have never tried wearing mascara or makeup since. And, it's no big loss. I'm glad not to have to worry about makeup.
I know that someday I will have to learn how to do my hair when it's dry (like on my mission in Sweden...), and I will probably be forced to wear makeup at my wedding (if I have one). But, it ain't likely that's gonna happen, and if I'm ever in distress, I'll just go to my mom.

Plus, I've never really liked makeup...I mean, look at that poor Tammy pictured above...

random

Well, well, well...I went downstairs to search for a movie. Then I noticed all the black unlabled tapes that we have. They are recordings of stuff that was shown on TV...I think. I know what's on about 5 of them: 24, season 5. But the other 30-something are unlabeled, or they have interesting names...Here are the top 6 :
6: "V"
5: "Dumbo...Starman"
4: "Beast"
3: "Aliens"
2: "X-Files"
1: "Mork and Mindy"

Now we are going to switch gears...I teach swim lessons to little kids. It's fun and exciting...until you get them in the water. Then you realize that you want to swim far away from them, or get out of the pool. They are a nightmare. Sure, they're obedient, and cute, and funny...but, still...I can never ever get used to the worst thing of all. They're slimy, sometimes white, sometimes with a tint of green...they float...they chase...they attack. Their name is: Boogers. I will never ever be able to hold that flinch in when I see that parasite jiggling out of some innocent kid's nose...and I am always powerless to say anything. It's fine when the booger is attached to the kid...it's a nightmare when it disappears. You never know where it is. Sometimes you look down, and there are four clusters coming in your wake. Sometimes one is stuck on your arm. Sometimes, but very rarely, they sneak onto your face, and in your mouth! Yech! Evil scum!

(I was gonna put a picture of a boogery kid here, but it made me lose my appetite: Look up in google images "booger" if you dare! Gross!)

By the way, I hope to never encounter what my poor sister had to encounter while teaching lessons. She encountered the vilest evil of all. She was doing a drill with her students, where the kid swims to her, she turns them around, and they swim back to the wall...well, as she picked up one kid to turn him around. He puked. Into her mouth. I believe that if such a thing happened to me, that kid probably would've been flung to Mars, and I would have to rinse out my mouth for twenty years.

Waterpolo, and...life.

This is Elyse , and no, she ain't kissin'. Also shown here is our awesome goalie, Timbrell. She has been named the best goalie of the state.



Water polo is such an interesting sport. I honestly still don't know why I do it. I mean, who wants to get in an uncomfortably tight suit (has to be tight, harder to grab...), put on a colored cap, whose function is to protect your ears from getting ripped off, jump in a pool of icy cold water, swim hard as you can, get dunked, kicked, bit, punched, slapped, splashed, grabbed, and picked, while your goal is to get this yellow volleyball in a net. After every hard game, my shoulder feels dislocated, I add a few more bruises to my collection, and I am very, very tired. Still, it's one of the funnest things I have ever participated in.

But to tell you the truth, the harder games are the funner games. The games you win easily leave you empty. You ain't overjoyed, nor happy, just...empty. But when you play in a game where you'd rather die than finish it, and win, you couldn't feel better or grander. You feel like you can smile alll day. (Then you realize trying to smile all day like Barbie is more painful than it looks.) Then the next day, when you wake up all sore and aching, you smile again, at the memory of such a nice, hard, all out game.


Sometimes life is the same way for me. I've noticed that many want the easy life, to be rich, to not have to work hard, or do anything. I don't think I could do that. I like to work hard. I like to learn, and to build things, and to do as much as I possibly can. There's a chapter in Anna Karenina, where a man named Levin, who is rich, goes and works with the peasants in the fields. "Often Levin had admired this life...the idea presented itself definitely to his mind that it was in his power to exchange the dreary, artificial, idle, and individualistic life he was leading for this laborious, pure, and socially delightful life." (Part three, Chapter XII) I've realized for the first time that if I happened to get rich, I would still want to work, and build, and learn.

By the way, we won the game last night, and we're in the championships with the upper hand!

Update: We won the championships! It was a purty dern hard game, tew.

Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband

http://www.shupe.net/jukebox.php
(Listen to "Banjo Boy" as you read...)

That's a little jukebox for you guys. My personal favorite is "Banjo Boy". (It's the first one that comes up, anyway...some of the songs won't work, because that's life.)

One of my favorite bands is Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. They play awesome music with quirky lyrics. I think the awesome part about these guys is they play bluegrass instruments!

Well, I don't have much to say, except that water polo state is goin on right now, so I'm hyper! We play Skyline tonight, and I hope we do swell because even though it's not a championship game, the outcome will pretty much determine who wins the tourney because if you win, you go straight on to the championship game. If you lose, you have to play tomorrow at 9:00, then if you win that game, you play in the championship game at 1:00, and if you win that, you forced a third game in which you have to play one more time at 3:30, because a team has to lose TWO times before getting kicked out.

I have to admit, it's all very confusing. All well. It's nice to be confused at times.

Mothers Day

Thankfully, the dratted AP tests are over. No, I don't want to talk about it. Thank you very much for your concern, though.

I recently saw Mission impossible III. I have to admit, I went to the movie on a whim with some friends, and we didn't do any proper research. None of us had seen the first or second movie...Anyway, back to the movie. It blew me away! It was simply 7/8 just action, fighting, etc., and 1/8 of talking...or less...some of it was just staring, too. Just thought I'd let ya know.

Okay, and onto the main content. Mother's Day. I'd like to reflect on how wonderful my mom is. Sure, like everyone said, she brought me into the world, educated me, nourished me, etc. But to tell the absolute truth, she made me who I am today. (My dad did too, of course, but it's mother's day! I'll tell you how my father made me who I am on Father's day...) My mom helped me to be the person I am. She helped me to be the swimmer I am...she bribed me when I was young to work hard and swim, even in the mornings, by myself, then go to school. I have to admit I only did it at first for the money and the treats. But now that I'm older and somewhat wiser, I realize that those practices really did help me become a good swimmer. She has done that in so many ways, and not just in swimming. At first, I didn't want to do whatever she wanted me to do, but because she made me do it, even though I was bawling, I've built character, and become a better person.

Excuse me while I go give my mom a hug, and eat the dinner she's been preparing for us for the past two hours...