Here is some old post I forgot to post, but I am going to now for no reason, it is Kind of Old as You Can Tell.... I am not sure what it even says actually :)

Fourth term! Finally! Well, to be honest I am not sure how excited I am. I love a few classes and don't want my time in them to be almost over, but I also am SO done with some classes. My favorite classes are foods, seminary and english. This seems a little ironic since I have always hated engish. I know what you're thinking, "If you hate english, than WHY are you taking it online too?!" and the answer is because I do that kind of thing. The main reason why I hate english is last year I didn't do well in english (because during one of the terms I decided not to do a huge assignment), and I figured that my grade just meant I sucked at english. Before last year I never liked it though. In seventh I liked the class, but yeah. Before seventh I hated english because in 6th grade I had too much english homework. Ok, I will stop making excuses, don't laugh at me, but I didn't learn to read until I was eight or so. When I was younger than that things were too complicated to do things like read, it's not like I was too lazy or stupid. When I did start to read I was like in second grade, reading kindergarten books. You can see how this might make me kind of embarrassed when I was little, because yes, people do notice. Now I can read, I am not behind and I don't struggle with that, but I have still never loved the actual english class.

Ok, that was kind of a weird story, back to the topic. This year I like english, last semester it was my favorite class by far. This semester I don't really sit by anyone I know, but I still like english. I also like blogging. It isn't a chore like I thought it might be, it is actually kind of fun and relieves stress. It gives you something to do, so you can say you are doing homework, but you are doing something not urgent or stressful (usually).

 This year I was surprised because I liked english from the beginning. I think that it is different this year, and having a teacher that cares has helped a lot. If I don't like something, I will fail at it. This year with the student of the month thing, I don't think Mr. Thompson knows how much it meant to me, because that sort of implies that I am good at writing, which I have never thought of myself as being. It gave me the encouragement that I have needed to do my best in that class and to try stepping out of my comfort zone to do things that I was too scared to do before. In english class it feels like I am part of it, not just observing. I like that I am called on or used as an example sometime, because like I am not really outgoing with that kind of thing. I think that the teacher really makes a difference, because it is just weird how much I have gone from pure hatred and dread to actually enjoyment of the subject. 

I was going to tell you about why I love seminary, but I am getting bored of talking (or typing), so I will keep it short. I love seminary, I love my class, I love my teacher, and I love how unstressed it makes me. I am quiet in some classes, and seminary is one of them, but I am really comfortable there. We were asking questions in class on yesterday and I started a question or comment out with "Hey.. sorry to like take up even more class time with-" but I was interrupted by my seminary teacher telling me NEVER to apologize, and about how good questions were. I get flustered and turn red when attention is drawn to me, but in seminary it doesn't seem to matter because the teacher wants you to ask questions and be brave enough to risk getting something wrong. I love that you never get in trouble in seminary, if I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing then the teacher will not get mad at me, he just assumes it is what is best for me or something. I have only spoken to my teacher a few times, but I am amazed at how open he is and how much he truly cares for everyone. He doesn't just say that he cares about each of us, he shows it and makes everyone feel like they are doing something good. I really look forward to that class everyday.

I like foods, but the only thing strange about that is I am not very compatible with the teacher. I don't like answering questions, but hey, you have to love food right? I also like my table that I sit at, it is very entertaining in class.

Those are my favorite classes, I could go on and on all day about them and about all the stories that relate to them, but for now that is all I have to say. 

Random Things, Dress Code, and Recent Events

(Sorry, I am breaking this up into a few unrelated sections, stay with me. I will do the writing in different colors and break up the stories with "~~~" so you can know when I am moving on...)

To start off, here is another quote, which was written in a persuasive essay from my mom to Taylor and was one of the foot notes(don't ask, it's a long story). It was the reference for a fact that she completely made up and said, "I made this up, but if I post it on the Internet, it might make it true." This may or may not be a true quote, but it was funny... and kind of true, people would believe that dancing will lower DUIs and higher ACT scores if you posted it online.


 I just read a few of my posts, wow I have changed, and those memories came back. Funny how you can forget the order events take place, or forget that one week you hated the world and everyone in it. In one of the posts it spent half the time talking about bagels (even though I actually don't like bagels); in another it hints that something bad happened, but I never actually say what happened; in still another I got to see when I was still figuring out blogger and half my blog was highlighted white and the other half was gray. 


Someone told me I should follow up on my "conforming to nonconformism" post this week, but I don't know quite how. I could elaborate on details, but that seems a tad redundant, so I think I might just move on. I have been worrying about what I could say more on Nonconformism, but most of it is just dark and useless, plus a little weird usually.

~~~

I wanted to post a little on how stupid the school dress code is, and how it is not enforced well. This week was the THIRD time I have gotten in trouble for clothing, and it was pretty stupid. First let me explain that I have worn shorts to school that have gotten some kind of comment like, "have you gotten in trouble for your shorts yet?" from several people. Shorts are okay I guess, but my shirts aren't. I have worn the same kinds of shirt for a while and not gotten in trouble. Shirts that have holes or a translucent cardigan over it, and never gotten in trouble. They are never provocative or suggest anything bad; and to be honest, they seem a lot better to me than the skirts I see some girls wear that show their underwear clearly. They are defiantly better in my mind than the very provocative shirts I see some girls wear. They can wear things that I don't even feel comfortable seeing them in, and I don't have issues with people wearing almost nothing. How is it that I can wear something that shows a little bit of my back and get in trouble, but someone can wear a shirt that shows their chest and is low cut and not get in trouble. This year is the first time I have gotten in trouble. The funny part is that is is always like a long sleeve shirt with a high neck line, but it somehow doesn't fit dress codes.


The dress codes allow for some people to slip under the radar and wear whatever they want, but get other people in trouble who aren't causing any problems. You can wear a tube too to school with a jacket over it and it is fine, but my sleeves need to be longer because you can see part of my shoulder under my jacket? There is a girl who I see that wears shirts where you can see her shoulders but she doesn't get punished for it. 


I saw a nice looking girl in the office getting in trouble for a hole in her jeans, but she shouldn't be, the jeans looked fine. The dress code is not fair, if you are going to have a strict dress code that is one thing, but you can't let some people slip under the radar, especially if they wear something like that every day. It is stupid and makes no sense. It is like police pulling over someone who is going a mile over the speed limit because they haven't met their ticket quota for the day, but they let a speeding car going 20 miles over go by and don't notice a thing.

~~~

I haven't said much about my week recently, so I am going to try and say something about what has actually been going on. Last month I met my new BFF Emma, she is friends with a girl from swim named Jacky, and she is really nice, so now we are going to be BFFs we decided. She is going to be a Lancer next year too, so I am starting to get excited about High School. I really hope we have classes next year and are friends.


Last weekend my sisters had an ice skating show. Adrienne (who is 10) had a solo, which means that now she is one of the older girls. She was so excited and I think she had a lot of fun. She did a group number called Black and White and a solo called Yellow. She looked amazing, she can do some really cool spins and almost has her axel I think. Getting your axel is a huge deal, there are two main groups of people, the older girls who have it, and the girls who don't, Adrienne is about to make the leap and become one of the girls that has it. She looked so good in her solo and was really happy, which is great.


Eliza (who is 7) had her group dances, and she looked great too. Her dances were Little Red Riding Hood and Elephant Walk or something like that. After the show everyone got to swim, and there I met Jane. Jane is going to be a Lancer next year too, and I have met her before, but have talked to her very little. She was really friendly and nice to me even though she didn't really know me. Meeting new people is making me more excited to go to high school.


Taylor and I have hardly any classes together, but we still see each other after school. Her sister loves to hate me. Her sister walked up to my locker this week just to tell me that I was stupid. She also tells me on a regular basis that no one likes me, and Taylor is just my friend because she feels bad for me. She always pushes me, so taylor tries to walk between us, which just means more Taylor gets hurt when her sister tries to shove me. Her sister also full on body slammed me on friday... I am going to miss school and Taylor's little sister always finding some cleaver way to insult me.

I am going to miss my teachers a little next year. Nothing like walking into a class two minutes late and having the teacher look at you, notice you don't want to talk about it, then just go on and not say a word about you being late (this teacher makes it a big deal when you are late). Also, it seems like my teachers this year know me more than any other year. My teachers know my personality and it is going to be kind of sad to leave them all. I know they don't really care usually, but I think a few of them took notice of me. English will never be as fun as it was this year because there is no guarantee I will have Taylor in my class and a teacher that is okay with people having fun in class as long as they get their work done.


One more week, plus the last week that doesn't really count, and it is all over. I am on the fence between sad and excited. I actually like school right now, not all of it, but some of it! On the other hand I am ready to move on, done with some of the people there. I am sure all of the people in my grade feel somewhat similar to this at one degree or another.

Conforming to Nonconformity

Announcing that you're a nonconformist is the same as telling me that you a conformist.  It's one thing to be unique and be yourself, but it is something else to try really hard to be something that you're not. The real nonconformists in the world never say that they are nonconformists, they just are different, and most people around them stay far away.  The real nonconformists don't try to be nonconformists, they just are.

More and more people I know are trying too hard to be different. Everyone wants to be a free spirit, everyone wants to be original and think differently from those around them, but the truth is this-  trying to be different is what everyone is doing, and has been doing for thousands of years,  so get over it. You are not the first one to see civil injustice, so don't be so proud of yourself for noticing it, you aren't the chosen one or super genius for pointing it out.  You are not the first person to see that things in the world aren't perfect, but going on and on is just annoying sometimes.  If these same people were out volunteering after school, instead of just complaining,  I would respect their opinion, but they aren't looking for the good around them, or contributing to it, they just whine.  If they did as much as they talked, we would have a great world.  Everyone would be Nelson Mandala.

In English class, we are reading a book called Stargirl.  Stargirl is loveable, she is different, unique, and doesn't care what anyone thinks.  She is loud and bubbly and wears crazy clothes.  For a while, everyone around her loves her, but then they just get tired of her.  Stargirl doesn't change when people get tired of her, because she is being herself, but if most people acted like that,  they would stop as soon as people got tired of it because all they really want is attention.  Trying to get a shock factor from everything you do is not being a nonconformist, Stargirl didn't try to get a shock factor, but sometimes she shocked people anyway.

One "nonconformist" told me recently that everything wrong with her life is because she lives in Utah. She said something like, "it is just Utah, the Mormons are the problem because EVERYONE but me is Mormon."   Well,  I just don't think that whatever is wrong with your life is all someone else's fault because of their religion.  And, the truth is, Mormons have a right to be here too.  They were driven out their houses in Illinois and Missouri by gunpoint and WALKED here so they could practice their religion without the threat of violence.  My ancestors took a six week boat trip from England to America and then walked to Utah to farm a piece of desert land.   Ever seen 17 Miracles?  Watch that and tell me if Mormons have a right to live in Utah.  Seriously, if the Mormon neighbors going to church and baking cookies are ruining your life, you need to get a life.  YOU need to stop worrying about what other people are doing.

Things are not perfect anywhere, and yes, Utah is kind of like a bubble sometimes, but is that always a bad thing? From going to Space Camp (I know, I am such a nerd, but yeah..) I met a lot of people from all over the country.  I made some really good friends, and met other people I didn't like at all.  In general, Utah boys are more.. respectful. The boys at Space Camp often had little respect for girls or women, and they treated us horribly. There were a lot of nice boys too, but they looked at girls differently than the people from where I live do. They treated girls like objects; I couldn't walk down the hallway without a boy making a sexual comment.  Sometimes I didn't even feel safe because of it.

When I got back home I was shocked by how nice everyone is and how the boys didn't say or do any of the things some of the camp boys did. This is a generalization and is not meant to reflect on all boys, but I wanted to make the point that a lot of times, a bubble is meant to protect you, which for the time being, I am MORE than fine with.  Whether you live here, or somewhere else, your life is not ruled by the people around you- your life is yours.  Go move to Texas if you like, but guess what?  It won't be much different being surrounded by a baptist preacher instead of an LDS bishop.  And if you hate people of every religion?  Go move to a communist country (or the moon).

In our school there is only one person I see as a nonconfomist in it's true meaning. That person I will call Stephanie. Stephanie doesn't care what you do or say. She does what she wants and doesn't follow social rules. She is her own person. You don't all love her or give her any attention. She wears black and is teased for how she looks and acts. She thinks everyone is an idiot, and everyone seems to feel the same about her. She isn't trying to be popular in a different group of people than the normal "popular" group, she is trying to live how she wants.

This has gotten her in trouble a lot, telling people just what she thinks of them. It is a two way thing though, people make fun of her and laugh, and she calls them morons. This year by saying hi to her and being nice I have seen her smile. She wants friends, she just doesn't know how. Today on the way back from home room in the portables we were talking and a snake slithered across my foot. She screamed, but I think it made her loosen up a bit. She started talking about how funny it was and how scary, and it was enjoyable.  She is as close to a nonconformist out of everyone I know. She is lonely, but she isn't going to change for you, so nonconformity is not quite as glamorous as you want it to be.

Being yourself is great, be unique and special and great in your own way, but make it true. Trying too hard to be strange and different is not different at all.  I appreciate genuine people; if you fit in, great!  And if you don't fit it, great!  I'm just glad that you are yourself.   I am not the only one who thinks this, I am not the first, nor am I the last, I know. This is not a new thought, but it is something that I want to say to people every time they try to be different or say "I am so weird!" or anything like that. By trying to be a nonconformist, you are being a conformist, to impress some group of people, which makes your whole effort a waste. Thanks for reading, hope I didn't offend you. But if I did, well... too bad...

Nurture vs Nature

"People say we have so much in common: You're amazing, and I am amazed by everything you do." 

-Patty Fiasco (All of those lines that resonate have me thinking about quotes, so I thought I'd share the one that has been stuck in my head all day.)

Ok, at swim yesterday I hurt my thumb. Well, it wasn't just my fault, because I had to lead lane lines (which is like the worst job ever) and the guys helping reel the lane lines in wouldn't listen. I was in a hurry and was getting frustrated, and I was about to just give up and make the only guy (let's call him Luke) listening lead them for me, but I decided I might as well just finish or wait until I got a little more annoyed. When I was making this decision the lane line got stuck and I told them to stop so I could fix it. I was fixing it and suddenly they decided to start reeling again... as fast as they could. The lane line jolted when they started reeling again and suddenly something went under my nail, it was either the slide you have to use to take them out or the wire holding the lines together. Either way, it hurt  a lot, and when I looked at it it was bleeding and hurt more than you would think it might. I made Luke finish up after that.

When I got home I was thinking about it, and I decided if it looked really gross today that I would go up to Luke and try and gross him out. I realized that only I do that, most people don't go up to random people and try to freak them out. Who else does that often? Migi. It took me a second, but she does that exact same thing. Migi is in seventh grade and tries to freak people out a lot, maybe more than me. She will go up to me in the hall and start talking to me, or yelling, or start introducing me to her friends. Once she saw one of my friends in the hall and yelled, "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?!" She also tells me that my friends are freaks, and that I am a freak for liking my friends, because they are freaks. She is very competitive and feisty, and she does things that no one else does.

She was on the cruise with me during spring break, and on the plane trip to california we had the same flight. At the airport she came up to me and said "Look at my thumb! I cut it yesterday, see how gross it looks?!" She said it about the same way as I say that when I hurt myself and it looks gross. What she does sometimes is freakishly similar to what I do, and I don't even see her everyday. What is strange is the fact that I don't see her everyday, so it's not nurture. We don't live in the same house with the same parents or siblings, but we are similar. When Adrienne acts the same kind of way I do I can say that she is used to seeing me do that, Migi however probably doesn't even remember living with me ever.

So how much of your personality is nurture and how much is nature? With Migi I notice a lot of similarities to me, but I also notice similarities to Roo. Roo is the same age as me and lives with Migi. How ever inaccurate this may be, I take it as a little sample of nurture vs nature. See, I am the one (between Roo and me) who is more likely to yell randomly and try to scare people; but Roo is the one who tells everyone (Okay, usually tells me) that they are (or I am) a freak.

Copper Cup

My favorite quote of the day is, "It was funny when you were talking to yourself for no reason," by Eliza. I have no topic that I am overly passionate to talk about right now, so I will tell you about the craziness of right now. Copper Cup is coming up in awhile, and it is really taking a toll on my house. Copper Cup is this huge ice skating competition that, through a strange turn of events, my mom and her friend now have to run on their own pretty much.

Before last year Copper cup was run by some lady, but last year she decided a little too late that she hated the Bountiful Rec. center, so she quit. Don't ask me how my mom got put in charge, but she did. After Copper Cup was over last year my mom said she would never do it again...But here we are again, and here she is running it. 

Last year my mom got put in charge of Copper Cup, and it actually ended up really good. Bountiful has an Olympic Medalist that skates with them, which helps in a lot of ways. The skater's name is Jozef Sabovcik, but everyone just calls him Jumpin' Joe. He does backflips and is 47 or 48 years old. He is the only 40-somthing man I know who can pull of skinny jeans and long hair. He is just really awesome. Here are some videos of him, I didn't see one of him at the Bountiful Rec. Center immediately, but here are some other ones. The one that has yellow spot lights on him is from 2009 and he does a backflip and some really cool spins. He doesn't really do any jumps besides his backflip in it, so I got you another one that has jumps in it. It is from 1997 and is a a US open competition I think. It shows some good jumps and two backflips (Plus his five year old son, who is pretty adorable). The 1996 one is the one with a close up of him in a blue shirt, and it has commentators, so it tells you more about him. I was going to just tell you were to go to see the backflips, but it is pretty awesome, and your just going to have to see his other jumps I guess.

Back to the story! Last year for Copper cup Joe got some foreign skaters to come. They were from Austria and they looked pretty awesome.

I was going to tell you about all of the day of Copper Cup drama, but my mom says I need to be done, so I will summarize it very quickly.

The day of Copper Cup my parents asked me if I wanted to go, and I was tired and it was early, so I said no. A while later my dad called about something, and he had to come home to pick it up or something. After I was done talking to my dad my mom called and told me that Rachel (Adrienne's skating friend's sister) really really wanted me there. Rachel is about 12 or 13, and she is really cute. She is shy and she never really talked to me, so I didn't think she noticed me at all, but I guess she did.

Since Rachel wanted me there a whole lot it sounded like, I hurried and got ready and went to the rink when my dad came to pick something up. When I got there I was assigned to sell stuff.

Rachel and I got to sell like flowers, stuffed animals, tee shirts, and Jamba Juice. It was a long time with not a lot to do, so I finally got to talk to Rachel. She was just as quiet as she always was at first, but she loosened up after a while and was really funny.

Skaters came by once in a while, and they had an air of "I am better than you" about them sometimes. One girl acted a little too much like a teenager for me, like acting too cool for Rachel and me. When I saw my mom I told her this and I guess the girl is actually really sweet and nice, she just wanted to look grown up because I was a year or two older than her.

Another skater was acting like Rachel and I, although more Rachel, were lower class citizens or something. She thought she was all cool because she actually skates, we were just there to sell stuff and because our sisters skate. It didn't really bother me too much until I saw how much it bothered Rachel. This girl knew that I was older than her, but Rachel was about the same age, so it was easier to boss Rachel around. Rachel got sick of it and said very matter-of-factly, "Well, my mom, and her mom set this whole thing up." That statement got us some instant credit and made the girl stop it for a second.

There were some nice skaters, the one who acted like a teenager was actually nice, too, I just judged her before I knew that she was nice. Besides the nice skaters and the Jamba Juices there were some other perks. One of the perks was Rachel and I got to go into the Judges' room. The room had snacks galore and we looked important being able to go in there (although I had to tell some people that my mom set this up and she told me to go in there, a few times).

We also had hours of nothing to do. We ended up doing a lot of weird trying to sell the stuffed animals, and by the end of the day we had named two of them. We found these two cows that were shaped like spheres. They made me laugh because they reminded me of Angry Birds. We named them Pig 1 and Pig 2. By the end of the day Rachel realized that just because I was a little older than her didn't mean I was better or super mature. The stuffed animals we didn't sell went back into storage, but we made sure to keep Pig 1 and Pig 2 were they wouldn't be lost, but so they wouldn't be sold either.

Now Rachel and I are not like super close because I rarely go to skating practice, and I think she is the same way, but I think we are friends. She has pet bunnies, and once she brought them to the rink.... Now that I think about it, the only time I go to the rink is if she wants me to, or if her mom says she's going to bring pets or something.

There is a lot more I could say about skating (it is more interesting than you think, kind of like a soap opera meets sit-com), but I have to go to bed. Maybe I'll talk about skating another time, but for now, goodnight happy next week starting tomorrow!

Adopted

I don't know what to post tonight, so I will tell you about how I go to extremes. You know Billy Joel? He has a song called "I go to Extremes" that I think describes me pretty well. I tend to defiantly go to extremes in almost everything. I do it sometimes just to prove to people that I am not who they think I am. When people assume something about me I try to prove them wrong. It bugs me like none other when people make assumptions, even if it is right, why do you think that you know? I have noticed that a lot with being adopted. Today in church my mom talked about my adoption for something, and everyone kept looking at me and after this girl came up and hugged me and said that you would never know. This didn't bug me, like at all, but it reminded me of what I have heard people assume. It almost always starts out with, "I don't want to offend you, but..." or, "So.. wait, never mind, I don't want to make you upset," or something along those lines. If you have said one of these then please don't be offended. Here are some of the things I have heard:
"Don't take this personally, but are your parents' murders?"
"You're adopted? You don't seem quiet or antisocial at all!"
"Umm... don't be offended, but what was the orphanage like?" (I am not an orphan FYI)
"But you don't seem adopted at all, you can't even tell!"
"Okay, but don't be offended... I was going to say that you must be adopted because your mom didn't love you."
I like these quotes because they are real and they show how little people know. I also have noticed from this and other things that have been said that being adopted is like a bad thing. I want to tell people, "Well, that just shows that my parents who I am living with are good have shown that they are good and can take care of me, your parents did not, they could be crappy and you are stuck with them, no guarantee that they are good like mine." Okay, I have only wanted to say that to the your-mom-must-not-love-you one, but still. Why is it a bad thing that I am adopted? Why is that to be pitied and looked down upon? It is not always, but really, why?! Maybe my parents don't have to both be dead or have murdered someone for me to be adopted! Also everyone assumes that it just kills me to even say it, but it really doesn't. With a few exceptions, I don't really feel much overwhelming emotion over that. People also ask me often, when they hear I am adopted, if I remember my parents, if I see my parents, and of course what they did. "Yes, I was 11 when I was adopted, Stupid" I want to tell them, because why do you assume I was a baby or something? I also like to answer the "do you ever see them?" question with saying that I see my dad sometimes, but my mom is dead, because it has a shock effect for some reason.
It is really annoying that being adopted is "bad." Like I said, it guarantees that my parents are able to take care of me, they have had to prove it. In seminary my teacher asked who in the class was adopted, and I was the only one who was brave enough to raise my hand. One kid (who was adopted) shouted that he wasn't and there was no chance that he was and stuff like that, and I think that there was at least one other person in the class besides us, but why is it something to be ashamed of I had to wonder. After I was the only one to raise my hand the seminary teacher said, "Ok, only Skittles," or something like that, and yeah, I felt embarrassed, because it was like saying that I was different and everyone stared it seemed like. I know that you all say that adoption is good or whatever, but maybe think before you say the first thing that comes to your head, because if you say, "your mother must not have loved you," even joking, you may have just said it to someone who was actually having a hard time because it was their dead mom's birthday and there may just be some back story you fail to see. I don't see why you judge or assume I need your pity, because odds are I really don't.

Cruise

Sorry, I haven't posted for a few weeks, but I will make up the 500 words from last week and this week (as if anyone really cares and counts, but you get the point). So, you wanna hear about the Disney Cruise? I can practically hear your excitement at the idea, so I will not keep you waiting any longer.

This spring break my whole extended family went on a cruise ship for the week. First thing you should know to understand the weird dynamics is there are only four people per cabin. My family has five people in it, so I stayed in a cabin with my cousins and great aunt. The exact people in it were my great aunt April, my cousin Roo, my cousin Serena, and me. April was pretty quiet, she was just chill throughout the week, but I really like her, she is funny and really easy going. Roo was who I was excited to room with because she is really funny, and she knows it. Part (okay, most) of what makes her funny is how funny she thinks she is. She will say something kind of funny thing, then exclaim. "I am so funny," or, more commonly, "I am a comedian!" She always says comedian really funny, so it is hard not to laugh. The first night at dinner Roo and I sat diagonally across from each other. She started out dinner by staring at me until I started laughing. Now, I laugh pretty easily, and Roo is the master at making me laugh without saying a word. She  looks at me and says something like, "Tickle, tickle, tickle!" and I will start laughing so hard it is a little bit rediculus. Usually looking at me is not going to make me laugh hysterically, but that night it did. By the time we got back to our cabin Roo was the one that was laughing so hard she looked drunk. The ship was rocking  lot, so she kept on falling, plus she kept saying that she was a comedian and laughing hysterically. We saw my four year old cousin on our way to the cabin and when we saw her holding a free beer card (don't ask me where it was from) Roo lost it completely and was just laying on the floor in front of an elevator laughing for a really long time.

On the first full day we were just at sea. Roo, Serena, and two of my other teenage girl cousins, Josie and Chelsea, wanted to suntan. I was a little slow with understanding what they were doing, and I didn't want to layout and suntan, so I kept a coverup on. I got bored with the suntanning, and after a while I fell asleep. I was bright red when I woke up and I was a little bit mad when I saw that they had all gone back inside. I went back to my cabin, and low and behold, who was there? That's right, the four who had totally just left. Only Josie looked a little bit embarrassed and she assured me they were going to come back and sorry they left me. I thought it was nice she said something, but I was still mad at the rest of them. They were heading off somewhere, and I decided not to follow. I fell asleep in the cabin and woke up only when someone came in. Either later that first day at sea or the next day we did a scavanger hunt that was one of the boat's organized activities. We won, but after we won we were all so hot we decided to go swimming, and when the swimming pool was like full to overflowing "we" decided to go tanning. I decided that I would go tan in front of the TV in our cabin, which worked out pretty well.

On the second day at sea I got in trouble at dinner because I guess Roo and I were distracting (although I think I may be the only one who had anything said to them...). The third day we were in Portia Vallarta (Sorry if that is bad spelling). While we were there most of my cousins and I went zip lining. Zip lining was a lot of fun, and after we were done we went to an outdoor restaurant like place where we got to swim, eat, play on the beach, and (you guessed it) sun tan some more! I didn't suntan nearly as much as Roo and the others because I don't want skin cancer and everyone was already making fun of my sunburn. (If you are going to suntan, don't wear a coverup, you may end up with some funky designs on your back.) My cousin/sister Migi and I spent a lot of time together that day and on the second day, so I spent a bit of time just talking to her in the shade. My sister Adrienne saw a snake sitting in a cage and asked me to hold it. I tried to say that I didn't want to ask one of the employees at the place we where at if I could, but she offered to come with me to ask and went right up to some guy and asked if I could. He told us to find the guy who took care of the animals, and when we did Adrienne told him I wanted to hold the boa constricter. It wasn't huge, but it was really cool. She took a picture of me, and after a minute everyone started to gather round us. My cousin/sister Rae asked to hold it next. After Rae held it Eliza (my 7 year old sister) wanted to hold it. It looked huge when Eliza held it, and everyone was amazed she was so brave. When the guy who takes care of the animals took it off Eliza's neck he tried to give it to Roo, who we now know is very un-okay with snakes.

My Grandma lives in Portia Vallarta, so I went and visited her while my cousins went shopping (she is my grandma not on their side). We had fun and I met this 11 year old girl who spoke almost no english. She knew a little bit, and I knew a very small amount of spanish, so we kind of talked, but mostly she did tricks in the pool and I gave her thumbs up. My dad speaks spanish so he translated a little, but we still didn't say a ton.

Later that day (the fourth day) we were at sea again. I don't know where to say this, since it happened all week, but I think here is as good a place as any to explain how a couple things worked. There were two four year olds on the trip, Trin and May. Rae and Trin live in Arizona, so they are close. May is living with Serena's family. Everyone wanted to hold and take care of Trin and May. Trin is used to undivided attention since she is so much younger than everyone, but May is the same way. They developed a little rivalry for attention and everyone thought it was so cute. I have never met May before, so I was very interested in her. Trin I know more, and she is a little more hyperactive. May is sweet and is very into cuddling and love. May will crawl on your lap and give you a kiss or hug you. Trin, if you try and hold her, will kick you in the jaw until you let her go. I am not saying that one is better than the other, but I do think it is a little sad that Trin got more attention sometimes, which made me have more of a chance to hold May.

The fifth day we went to Cabo San Lucas. Migi was at my side from the beginning of the say asking if this boy she knows named Lucas was really my friend's little brother. Migi likes to talk, but she seems to talk to me by arguing and insulting me. It is cute because I know that she really can't hate Lucas all that much if she happens to know what shirts he wears everyday. She also loves to hate one of my friends. She calls him names and says how stupid he is, but again, I don't think she hates him all that much if she loves insulting him every chance she gets.

In Cabo we went snorkeling. There where some cool fish and it was pretty awesome. There was this blue fish that I saw that was really cool, and some guy gave me and my uncle each a cracker which made the fish swarm around you. On the boat from where we were snorkeling back to the main island there was like an hour or so ride. I fell asleep on that, but it was nice.

Hey, I will finish this later, but I am tired, so goodnight.