Wednesday, August 25, 2010

School Supply Shopping - by Anna

One of the enormous benefits of being a senior at my school (and also by coincidence of our school deciding to go "paperless" and therefore renting out netbooks to everyone) is that we hardly have to carry anything. The current contents of my backpack are as follows: Two spiral notebooks, one composition notebook, five two-pocket folders (only 3 in use) and one textbook that is actually quite small. There are also my basic essentials that I always have with me - my small pencil bag, my planner, and my calculator. When it all adds up, my backpack is actually quite light. In fact, I switched out my old backpack for a small biking backpack. But the best part is, I don't have to use my locker at all! In the past I would store my textbooks, folders, binders, notebooks, backup stash of pens and pencils, purse, etc. But this year I need very little, I have no binders to swap out between classes, and only one textbook! Now, with the added weight of the computer bag and the netbook, that's another story, but I think I could really get used to this minimalism.

So Kristen and I went school supply shopping for the very few things we needed, and I am proud to say I got it all for $5. Kristen had to spend an extra $5 for a binder for AP Biology, but seriously, what a deal! And when we spread it all out to put our names on everything, it was just so colorful and cheery, we couldn't resist taking a picture. Here's to low-stress, successful back-to-school shopping!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

What is the Point?

I am sorry to tell you that there will be no ukulele chords or an iPod music video. It is just me. That is all that I can give you. I feel like I must find something creative and exciting for my first blog to follow suit from Anna and Maggie, however, I am currently waiting in an airport and there is just nothing creative and exciting to document.


Since no one has really introduced the blog or the purpose of it then I guess I will explain what we would like to do with this blog project. I can only speak for myself but I believe this is what all of us would like to accoplish. All of us are friends (obviously) and we share a lot of interests and ideas but there is always a portion of them that we are not involved in. Even though we respect our different interests, we know little about these "hidden" interests.

Since I can only speak directly for myself and I think that Anna and Maggie will echo these thoughts. We want to use this blog to mesh all of our interests together, the ones that we share (like the music video, and I also play the uke) and the ones that we don't. This blog will be filled with stories, poems, venting, vlogs, music videos, pictures, anything that inspires us.

Here is my first contribution:

Like I said, I am in an airport waiting on a flight, my mom had to drop me off early because she had a doctor appointment and this is the first time that I am going to be flying alone. It's kinda exciting and pretty scary. Its not like I do not know the process of security and how airports work, but the fact that I am on my own to fend for myself quite honestly freaks the *beep* out of me. I have to tell you that I think I'm pretty well traveled and I know how to carry myself in public situations with luggage and what-not so its less scary then it may be for some people. The reason why I am even on this flight alone is because my dad has a conference in Portland. This seemed like a good enough reason to look at colleges in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland and Seattle. I figure that I may as well get used to flying alone because in just one short year, I may have to do this about 4 or 5 times a year. Back to the present, I have another hour until my plane is scheduled to take off. I am just typing in text edit and I will keep you updated on the experience of flying alone. Have I told you that I leave KC and then go to Denver and then from Denver I switch planes and then I fly to Salt Lake City and THEN I just stay on the plane and then that goes to Portland *hypervenatlating* ok, calm down Kristen, everything will be allllllriiight....

(a couple hours pass)

Alright, I have a story to tell you. First, I always travel with a wrist watch, ALWAYS. This makes sense because I'd rather just not turn my cell phone on, not to mention I am not completely sure how to turn it into Airplane Mode. If i have another flight to catch then I'm going to want to know what time it is, right? Yes, right, so I look at my watch and it is 11:00 when I am walking up those tunnels from the airplane to the terminal and my connecting flight is supposed to leave at 11:30!!! I have no idea where I am supposed to go because I've never flown through Denver! I run down from the gate I just left (C47) and run to where the signs say C1 to C31 because my gate that I need to be at is C30.  I finally get to the gate and they are JUST starting to board. Whew! I barely made it. But wait, why does the sign say that its boarding for Tampa..that doesn't make sense...do I have the wrong gate? No. Salt Lake City and Portland definately flashed along the screen. What is going on? My plane isn't going to Florida and then to Oregon, thats rediculous! So I start to freak out a little bit...ok a lotta bit...then I find a person and ask if the next flight is going to portland and he said yes at 11:30...this is the 10:30 flight....Oh man...I definately forgot about the time change between KC and Denver didn't I? yep!

After my freak out I just sat down and ended up talking to a nice middle-aged man (who happened to be working on a mac *salute*) Then my flight to Portland went fine! Well as fine as sitting next to mormon who thought catholic school was definitely not what it is..other than that, she was delightful!

Kristen