Religion

I have nothing to really tell you about this week. It was a good week, but nothing I am really dying to tell everyone. In geography we are learning about other religions. I personally really like learning about other religion, but I get that some people don't. What I don't get, and cannot stand though is people mocking other religions. Some boys in my geography class make fun of some of the religious things, and it kills me how little they understand. It bugs me also when people make fun of the LDS church because it is so common here. I think that people want to be different and see things in a unique way, but making fun of someone's beliefs is not the way to do that. People will say things about Mormons, and it isn't always true. 

At space camp, most of the boys made fun of the LDS church. They taunted us with endless jokes about how we were supposedly polygamous, or, a two years ago, about us being Amish. The Amish jokes were strange to me, I had heard a little bit about the common belief the Mormons practiced polygamy, but I hadn't heard that we were Amish. The boys would ask us if we could go to public schools and if we had cars or if we just used buggies. The polygamous jokes got old, but the Amish ones were interesting to me; is everyone really that uniformed? I realize that this all was kind of extreme because these boys had, for the most part, never really talked to someone of the LDS faith, but it shows that people don't know enough to make a good judgement often, but that doesn't stop them from judging.

I was in foods this week when this topic kind of hit home. Some of the people in my group started making fun of religion. This girl was mocking an LDS saying, "Your body is a temple." She was telling us about how she had gone to an LDS dance, and when she was kicked out for immodest clothing she had made fun of that statement in a kind of offensive way. Now, Shelby has issues with that statement too, but she doesn't make fun of it in the same way. Shelby's thing is that it bugs her when she has writing on her and people tell her that her body is a temple. She tells them, "Yes, and these are the flowers," referring to the writing. The girl in my foods class perverted the saying though, which seems a little different. I guess they are both ways of saying, "Yeah, I don't really care," but they have a different tone.

What made me so upset about the mocking was (a) she was at a Mormon dance, she should respect their beliefs and standards when she is there, (b) she had no respect at all for what people truly believe, and (c) she knows nothing about what she is talking about.

I take religious persecution or even just making jokes about religion, more seriously than most, I think. It is what people believe, so why do we laugh at it? Saying a joke is about a Jew never had, and never will make a joke funny to me. What has the whole Jewish community done to you? You are making fun of not just one person, and it is just rude, not funny. You can't judge a whole belief system on something you heard or common rumor. The holocaust happened because everyone was so ready to blame the Jews. I am not saying that that is the only factor that created this mass genocide, but it is a great factor.

If you don't agree, then you can comment or talk to me, but this is a big deal to me. I take it maybe a little more seriously than I should, but religion is not something you can just ridicule. Thanks for reading, sorry if you are offended.

Long Week End Awesomeness

This week there was a long weekend, it was not just a three day weekend either, it was a four day weekend! I have done almost no homework over this long weekend too, so it has been pretty great. I actually have quite a bit of homework piling up, but I have been too busy to do it.

The beginning of the week was good, I was really excited the whole week for the weekend. I turned in the poem for the poetry contest we had to enter the Friday before last (wow, that sounds like Yoda, it is probably horrible grammar), and I admit I was stressing a little about it this week. The poem I wrote was very... personal I guess you could say. It wasn't like some deep thought about humanity, but I don't want anyone to see it. Mr. Thompson laughed when I gave it to him, but that may have been because I looked like I didn't want him to see it.

The week ended on Thursday and me and Allie decided to go see a movie with some swim friends on Thursday night. We went and saw The Muppets at Kaysville Theatre then went to this little fast food place we always go to after we go to the Kaysville Theatre. The movie was good, but I was tired, so it was a little boring. I liked after the movie though, when we were at the fast food place, because we all got to talk and just hang out.

My mom took me home, and she gave my friend a ride home too, but on the way she decided to go to the grocery store. I guess that friend didn't really mind having to go to Smith's to pick out pink ice cream, so it was okay. After I got home I had to help my mom decorate for Eliza's birthday.

Eliza is now seven. Her birthday was on Friday, and we had a very pink party for her. Our whole house was pink and covered in heart, it still is actually. We decorated up until her friends arrived, and it was a lot of work, well not for me, but for my mom it was. Her party was cute and great, lots of pink ice cream, pink cake, pink sugar cookies, and a few other pink foods.

After her party we went to dinner. I was in a hurry though, because Maddi invited me to her house. I got to her house and hung out for a few hours. There were a lot of other girls there, but I was sad when Taylor never came. It was really fun, and it was kind of a break from my normal group of friends.

Saturday came and I realized I really need to do my homework, so I decided to do some art stuff. I had studio art last semester, and there was always a huge assignment that I needed done ASAP, so when I didn't want to do my other homework I would work on art. I do not have art this semester, so that doesn't really work now, but my parents were gone, so there was no one to tell me to use my time to get one of the mountains of homework I have done.

After stalling several hours, I got a little bit done, but still not a lot. I did, however, decide to go to the mall with Allie, Jacky, and Bre. I have told you a little about Allie, but I haven't told you about the other two, so here it is: Jacky is really good friends with Allie, and Bre is one of my friends from school who is on the swim team.

We went to the mall, and I actually had a lot of fun. Allie is really fun to shop with, because she always has something to say. After Jacky and Bre went home, Allie and I talked a lot and it was really interesting to hear what she had to say. She is one person who is truly entertaining to talk to.

Shopping was probably my favorite thing this weekend, but it's hard to say. I liked having a full social calendar, because I really don't usually get to see my friends that much. Besides swim I have homework, and my friends do too, so hanging out is hard, but this weekend was a lot of fun.

Goodnight, happy long weekend! (There is still one more day of it, Hallelujah!)

So Yeah...

This week has been pretty awesome. I told you about Monday already, so I won't go over that again. Tuesday was great. For Young Women's on Tuesday (Young Women's is like the girls at church who are 12-18, there is like an activity every week) we did this talent show thing. It took a bit of planning, but it was really cool in the end. I didn't do anything, but I helped set it up and I ate ice cream after, so it was fun.  I started missing swim a lot this week, I went to surfers (the younger team), but it wasn't the same. I miss all my friends from normal swim.

 Wednesday was not as good, I kinda made a mistake in biology and everyone laughed, but I was really embarrassed and wanted to hide the rest of class. I went to swim after school, but swim made it worse. I forgot how much I don't get along with some people. I ended up really mad, and I even got Coach K mad at me. Coach K is my favorite coach, he is really funny and mellow. He rarely gets really mad, and he is good with people who are sassy to him. He has only gotten really frustrated with me twice, which is pretty amazing because I am a total brat to him sometimes. I don't do what he tells me to a lot, or I bug him every time he gives a new set, by telling him it should be breast stroke. I get my way sometimes and he gives us a breast stroke set or modifies it or tells me some way to cheat at it.

One time he told me, "You have been swimming this long and NEVER figured that out?!" Another time he asked Shelby to text me in the mornings to make sure that I had matching socks on, because I was probably couldn't figure that out on my own, which has only happened a few times...  Coach K had a good humor about my messing up. He is also really honest, on Wednesday I kept asking for help on my flip turns, but he said no. I said I probably had the worst flip turns out of everyone in the pool probably, and when one of my friends told me it wasn't that bad probably, he told us all that my flip turns really did suck. He asked after "Oh, did you want me to sugar coat that?" No, I didn't, that is why I love Coach K.

Okay, back to my story. I went to swim, Coach K got angry with me for the second time ever because I got out of the pool half way through a set. I am not one of those people (you only know who I am talking about probably if you swim, but you know the type of person for anything) who gets out of the pool and just like sits random sets out. I started to get out of the pool, and Coach K got like really mad for some reason, but I explained to him that I really had to get out. I had to get out because I was wearing contacts, but I forgot to take them out before swim.

This kid kept splashing me and my friends, not in a friendly way, in a rude way, and hadn't listened when I kept telling him to stop because my contacts were getting messed up and really hurt. I went to the bathroom to try to get my contacts out, or at least see if they were in still. When I got back my eyes were really red, so it looked like I might have been crying. Coach K asked if I was okay and he was really concerned, but I said yeah and got back in. When I got in I started swimming in a very focused manner, even though the kid kept splashing and being annoying. I decided to just spend the last half our to forty-five minutes of practice on a continuous swim (which means not stopping). I HATE backstroke, but I spent half of the set on backstroke, and I was so focused and mad I decided to just not stop for anything, so a few people may have been kicked.

I need to stop now, but yeah, the rest of my week was good, which ended with a dance on Saturday night that was really fun. Maybe I will tell you about that all next week... or maybe I won't... We'll see! Bye, and Happy Valentines Day!

Today

Today we went out to dinner, on the way out I had an Andes Mint. I started telling my mom about how if I had two billion dollars I would build a castle out of Andes Mints, I went on to explain that I would make sure that there was a huge air conditioned dome around it, but mid-sentence my mom interrupted me with "I'm sorry, am I still supposed to be paying attention still?" It was a wonderful moment, especially because it is not at all surprising for her to say. When we got home my mom started making Angel Food cake, yesterday was my dad's birthday, so she was makings Angel's Food cake for Trifle. I guess the instructions on the box were very complicated, because she said it was cake for the OCD, then proceeded to read them out loud to me. She started reading "Sprinkle 1/4 of the flour mixture over the egg white mixture. Fold (cut down through batter, across bottom, up, and over the top, turning the bowl often) flour mixture into the whipped egg whites gently using a wire whisk or slotted spoon. Repeat three more times; making sure to fold after each flour addition." She then repeated the "Fold flour mixture" steps while she did them. It was kind of funny because she was so concentrated, but at the end she exclaimed that she had not used a wire whisk (oh the horror), so the cake would be totally ruined.
The rest of today was pretty awesome too. (Sorry to skip around from the end of the day to the beginning.) I went to school and had first period geography. I can't stand my geography class, but it was bearable today. I was in a great mood, and realized when I got to homeroom that I had no homework. No homework is an amazing thing, especially on A days, because I have math second period and tend to do my homework for it in homeroom. I used my random half hour of free time doing nothing, but it was kind of nice to not be racing the clock for once. I was walking from homeroom to math, and I saw a girl who no one really talks to. I had math with her last year, and I try to talk to her when I see her. I have never seen her smile for more than a second, but today I went up to talk to her and she smiled the whole time. She was in a good mood, and it made me happy, because I think she usually doesn't like school because of all the rude people there.
I was in an even better mood from talking to her by the time I got to math than I had been in geography. People seemed friendly a lot today, and I was happy when I understood the math and helped other people in it. After math I had lunch though, this semester I have no super close friends in either of my lunches, but it's not like I have to sit alone in a corner. I didn't want  to go to lunch, so I procrastinated going by talking to my friend before she had English third period. Turns out my procrastinating was a bad idea, because by the time I got to lunch  there were pretty much no empty seats left. With my friends I had lunch with last semester I would just share a seat or something, but I didn't know these friends well enough to be comfortable just like making a seat for myself. I went and sat at an empty seat a little bit farther down the table. I hate sitting alone because not only do you feel alone, everyone around you thinks your alone. One of the girls felt sorry for me, as is the case usually when you sit alone, and talked to me for a second, but she had friends to talk to so I assured her I usually sit with other people, there just weren't any seats. After a while people leave the lunch room, so there was a couple empty seats by the friends I sit by most the time. I went over and talked to them, but I didn't really have anything to say, so it felt a little awkward. A girl named Sariah sat down by me and we talked for the rest of lunch period. She is nice, so my compday was good again.
Next period I had seminary, which is probably my favorite class. I have a really cool teacher and my class is really cool. Biology managed to bring my day down, but over all today rocked. I had a lot of random encounters with people, but all of them good. I saw an elderly lady from my old neighborhood after school (who is really nice and sweet, but I haven't seen her in a long time) and got to talk to her. She gave me cookies and said that I dressed classy, so really nothing you can say will make this day not amazing.