9/27/23

I don't really remember everything that happened today because it was a week ago, but here's the important stuff I guess.

In EN100 it was our day to play "Grammardy" (I think that's what it was called) which was like Jeopardy but about the weird sentences we've been learning about (compound-complex, stuff like that). So I thought that'd be pretty fun. When it got to my turn on our team, I picked "Redlining" which no one else had yet, so I didn't really know what it was, and someone told me to pick 500 so I did, and that happened to be the daily double, so it was worth 1000 points. But it was the hardest question ever. I had to write a sentence with an adverbial phrase and like ten other specifications and I had to talk to my team for like 5 minutes to understand what I was doing but I eventually got it. The other team was mad we took so long. We also still lost to the other team, so they won a Powerball ticket. The rules were that if they won the lottery, our team would still get 1,000,000 dollars. I would've actually been so mad if they won, cause the jackpot was like, 80 million, but they didn't win.

I don't remember what happened in the other classes, probably just notes, but after my last class I went to Dollar Tree to get stuff for the puppy. I ended up only getting a bag of Canine Carry-Outs to try and train it and a teal collar.

When I got home, Janell and I gave the puppy a bath since we found out that it had fleas. Luckily he kind of liked water. We gave the bath in Janell's bathtub downstairs. But that went okay. He still had some fleas afterward so we'll have to give him another bath.

That's all I remember. I'm sure for the rest of the day I kept playing with Chowder. 6/10.

9/26/23

Today I may have made a bad decision. But I guess I'll start from the top. I got ready and left for SEMO.

I took the fifteen minute walk to my English literature class. It was alright, pretty normal. We were talking about More's Utopia book. And that's literally all we did, talk.

After that I realized that my UI100 class was online today, so I sat at a table and started to do that, but didn't get very far. It's a bunch of quizzes you take to determine what careers you'd be good at.

Then I went to the gym for a little bit because I needed to waste some time because I wanted to go to my grandma's house but Terri was still there. So I had a quick little normal workout.

Then, I went to my grandma's house, talked to her for a bit, and went upstairs. I put a pizza in the air fryer, opened my tablet, and turned on the TV while sitting on my new couch. It was comfy. I was planning on doing some of my homework but ended up watching TV. There was a show called Stargate SG-1 on and a weird other show called Grimm that came on after that. I kinda like watching live TV sometimes. My pizza was also really good. I got to use my new utensils and plate. So that was fun. Then I said bye to my grandma and left because I had to get my car serviced at 2:30.

I was a little late but whatever. It was at Morlan Chrysler. I pulled my car into the garage area and went inside to give the guy my keys. He also told me it would be $143 for him to diagnose what was wrong with my ABS and traction control light. I said alright even though that seemed like a lot. I sat in the waiting room and ate some Sun Chips because they had chips you could eat. I wanted a Cherry Pepsi, too, but didn't get it because some other people came and sat down and I didn't want them to think was a weird. After FOREVER the guy came and got me and he only charged me $63 for some reason but said I had a bad left bearing and it would be over $300 for the part and labor. But I didn't do that today. I'll call later I guess. I left and called Janell because we had been secretly discussing something; getting a new puppy.

There was a Craigslist post I found the day of the auction and I'd been thinking about it. I emailed the guy yesterday and he said they were still available and everything so after the car service I asked if we could come look today. When I got home I went to look for a kennel that would work but my dad caught me and said I'd better not think about getting a dog. But then, the seller messaged back and said today was fine, so I left to go up to Perryville. I put the dog kennel, some blankets, and sussy baka in my car.

So I left at a little after 5:00 and messaged the guy it'd probably be around 6 when I got there and he said that'd be fine. Janell was going to meet me there, but since the place was outside of Perryville, I figured I'd better just pick her up, so I went to the Perry Park Center because that's where her cross country meet was. It took me forever to find her but I did and we drove to where the address was.

I actually really liked the area back there, it reminded me of Virginia. It was on T-road, which I'd never been on, and past a place called Silver Lake. The houses back there were kind of hit or miss, some looked nice and some looked trashy. So Janell and I had no idea what to expect and were kind of scared. Eventually we turned onto a gravel road and my mom called Janell. She just told her we were driving around. So then I started driving again and the house was right up ahead. And it was a trashy house. It looked like a shed. But there were puppies in the front yard in a fence, so at least it wasn't a scam like Janell was thinking.

We got out of the car and a man walked out of the shed house. He looked kind of like a hillbilly with his marines shirt and beard and stuff, but he ended up being really nice. An older woman also walked out, but we didn't talk to her. Janell and I looked at the puppies for I don't even know how long, probably 45 minutes, and we couldn't decide on a puppy. There were also little baby puppies from a different litter. Both of the parent dogs seemed clean and nice. The man would pick up puppies to let us pet them and hold them and we narrowed it down to two puppies; one with brown eyes and dark on its face and back, and a lighter tan one with green eyes. I couldn't decide so Janell said she liked the tan one better. I think she just said that because that's the one she was holding, but whatever, it was as good as any. So I shook the guys hand (and found out that his name was Gene) and we loaded the puppy into my car.

So then I drove back to Perryville to drop Janell off at her car, and while we drove we thought of names for the dog. I don't remember all of the names, but when we got back to the Perry Park Center, Janell said Chili, and I said it's more the color of chowder so now she's stuck on the name Chowder, which I guess is kind of a cute name. And I love clam chowder. So for now its name is Chowder.

I dropped Janell off and moved the puppy to the front seat with me. So far it was doing pretty good. He was just chillin. He did throw up like 4 times though. But yeah we drove home listening to some 70s music. My phone took me the curvy way to the interstate making me take the Biehle exit for some reason, but whatever.

We got home and Max and Opal started growing at it when we got it out of the car. Also it was dark by now and after 8:00. Janell and I put the dog in the hallway by the pantry and I got all of the dirty throw up towels out while she cleaned the dog with a wet wipe from the vomit on him. My mom was home shortly and she actually liked the dog. He was still nervous and didn't move too much. We took him down to the sun room then because that's where he'd be sleeping. While we were down there, my dad got home and he was absolutely pissed. He called me upstairs and kept going on about how I disobeyed him, but I think my dad needed me to do something like this because he still thinks he has total control over all of my actions. He only calmed down a little when I agreed to pay for everything for the puppy and schedule the vet appointments and stuff. Guess I'll need to get a job again. I've been looking for a job anyway.

So yeah, today was good. If I didn't get the puppy, we probably never would've gotten one. Well maybe once Max died we would've. But Opal needed a friend, so yeah. I think it'll be a good dog. Today was a 7/10.

9/25/23

This morning I was tired. But I eventually got out of bed and got ready, grabbed a meat stick, an energy drink, and a bag of Cheetos, and left. When I was walking out to my car, I heard a kid crying and that kinda freaked me out, but then I realized my dad had customers down at his building. I don't know why they were there at 8:00, but that's beyond me.

So yeah I got to the parking lot and stuff with plenty of time and went to Environmental Biology. I don't know why, but that class feels like it takes forever now. It didn't feel like that at the beginning of the semester. I started reading The Long Walk towards the end to try and make time go faster.

English Composition was alright. Zach picked me first to write on the board again. At least this time I knew what I was doing. I had to write a simple sentence and wrote, "I went to the park." For basically the whole hour, people were just writing sentences on the board. He said next class is when we're doing the competition and he said the winner's are going to have an opportunity to win millions of dollars. I feel like he's going to give the winners scratch-off tickets. Also at the end of the hour, I waited a bit afterwards because I want to at least acknowledge to Zach my 100 on my draft. I need to thank him or something. But there were other people talking to him so I couldn't. Maybe next time.

In Intro to Archaeology, Rickard picked me to pick the question at the beginning and I said favorite place you've traveled to. I guess a lot of people don't travel that much because some people have only gone up to an hour or so away. But I said Halifax was my favorite. I don't know if it's my complete favorite, but it was a really fun place to visit. Then we took notes for the rest of the hour and talked about what is in our bedrooms.

Afterwards I went to the library and sat in a new spot upstairs and worked on this blog.

I don't even remember what happened in philosophy because that class is so boring. It was back in Carnahan since they got the thermostat fixed. I think I read The Long Walk.

Afterwards I went home instead of the gym because I was tired. I watched TV, did some homework, played the keyboard, and that was it.

Today was 5/10 average.

9/24/23

I woke up at Nana's house at 8:00 and got ready and left. I would've gone to McDonald's for breakfast but didn't have my wallet.

I went home and played some Fortnite and didn't do much until we had to go to the auction. Yeah, the auction was today. I kinda hate auctions because the last ones we went to sucked and they take all day and I never get what I want.

Anyways, my mom and I left to go to it and she left really early for some reason. Like, we left at 11:30 and the auction started at 12:30. But we got Culver's beforehand, so that was good. But yeah, we got to the auction pretty early still. Also, my mom thought it was at the Chateau, like the old person community, but it was actually on Chateau Drive in a normal community. We looked around at all the stuff and found things we wanted to bid on. The first thing I looked at was the Ford Ranger. This thing was nice. 1998, 43,000 miles, green, had a camper shell, it was perfect. But I really didn't need another vehicle. Then we looked at the couch. My mom plopped down on it when we first got there, but it seemed like an alright couch. It looked better in person than in pictures. Then we looked at all the stuff on the trailers (my mom calls them wagons). The stuff that stood out to me was a CD cassette player boombox thing, a box with tropical wall decor, and a Crown Royal mirror. And guess what? I didn't end up getting any of it. That's why I hate auctions. But yeah, this thing took all day. The box of wall decor went over $20, the mirror went for over $30, and the truck went for $7,800. Then we got to the couch. My mom had said that she was not leaving here without the couch. They started at $25 and I was really hoping we'd get it cheap. But nope, there just had to be a little bitch-ass motherfucka there who ran this damned couch up to 475 DOLLARS. But we won. When mom was bidding, my dad started stressing and telling her to stop but she didn't. I'm kind of proud of mom because normally she would've. But I also feel bad, because $475? Really? That's a lot for a couch. The hide-a-bed couch at the last auction we went to went up to $35 and my mom said she wasn't going higher on that one. I have no idea why this one was so important. I guess because it was La-Z-Boy and could come apart. But yeah we got it and I wanted to flip that ugly hag off that ran us up, but I settled for a couple of dirty looks in her direction. We put the top part of the couch that came apart in my mom's car and the bottom main section that didn't come apart in the back of my dad's truck. Then we went ahead and drove to my Nana's to put it in the upstairs.

I rode with my dad there and he was talking about how mom's bidding wasn't the best because of how fast she was doing it. But whatever, what's done is done. We got there and back the truck up close to the porch. I took the tarp off that we'd put on it because it was sprinkling a little, and folded that up. When my mom got there we ate, because she brought McDonald's. My double cheeseburger tasted better than usual. I also got a sweet tea. After we ate we went out to get the couch. I was pretty confident that it would fit upstairs, but when we actually started doing it I got a little doubtful. We had to do a lot of maneuvering to even get it in the front door. Then we had to flip it and lean it back to fit it into the living room. Then we had to move the other chair and TV and really struggled to get it up the stairs and around the corner. If the couch was an inch wider it wouldn't have fit. But this one did, eventually. My mom had her Reimann-red face while getting it up there. But we got it and put fabric things on the bottom so we could scoot it. I got it into place and that was that. I think it was worth it. It's so much better with a sofa up there. Then we went home.

I played some guitar, watched some Breaking Bad, and that was it. I hated the auction today. We got the one thing we wanted, but it took all day and cost way more than we wanted. I love the couch, but today was a 4/10.

9/23/23

Today I felt SUPER unproductive. I woke up at around 10:00 I think, but didn't really do anything except play the PS4 and watching YouTube.

Later on that day my mom had to go to June's to get the eggs from her chickens or something and said I better have my English Literature exam done. So I got that done after 45 minutes and missed one on it. I just looked most of the answers up since they were almost the same from the other quizzes. My mom also brought me Dairy Queen and that was good. Their gravy is literally the best thing ever.

Then after that I decided my day was way to boring and decided to go to my grandma's because my dad was working on her house there. When I got there I guess he was about done, but we still talked and stuff. He had been cleaning the gutters and pressure washing the house and porch. He also said the ladder electrocuted him and we found that a wire was touching a gutter, which I guess electrified the whole roof and then the ladder he'd tried to climb. I went upstairs and watered my ivy and watched TV while my dad put my grandma to bed. Then I told my dad I might stay the night here tonight. He said he was going to Taco Bell and he acted like he kinda wanted me to go with him, so I did. The line took a long time, but that's okay. He got his $5 combo box and I got my beefy melt burrito with no sour cream. He also got an extra cup so we could split his Baja Blast. I waited until I was back at Nana's house before I ate.

When we got back there, I decided I was going to stay and used my air fryer for the first time to warm up my burrito. For the rest of the night I didn't do much. On TV I watched Family Feud, but it wasn't on for very long. Paranormal Activity 3 was on, but there's no way I wanted to watch that because it was my first night in Nana's upstairs and I would've been freaked out. I ended up having to watch Olivia Rodrigo's concert because there was literally nothing else on. Then I laid in bed doing nothing until 2:00 before I fell asleep. I had to charge my phone with my tablet's usb port because I needed my phone near me for the alarm and there wasn't a usb port to plug into the wall. but it worked out. I needed the alarm because I wanted to leave before Morgan got here in the morning.

Today started out boring and unproductive but ended up alright and I spent the night upstairs for the first time and got to hang out with my dad. 5/10.

9/22/23

Today I set several alarms for 7:00, an hour before I normally get up, because I didn't really study for my exam yesterday that I should've. I guess those alarms didn't go off or something because I got up at normal time. But I got ready and left, grabbing a Stonie stick and a cheese stick.

I tried reading over the review key he sent out but didn't comprehend that much because I was also trying to drive. When I got to SEMO I studied on the way to Magill. Nelish said we could get there early if we needed more time to do the exam and I got there five minutes early, and he wasn't even there. Everyone was waiting outside of the classroom. That gave me extra time to study, though. I thought the hardest stuff would be the properties of water, morphological species concept, or some of the definitions. When he gave us the exam, it looked like the practice exam but wasn't. The questions were worded differently. Like instead of describing morphological species concept, he had us describe biological species concept. The main thing I didn't know were the classes of molecules of life, or something like that. Completely guessed on that. I said energy, nutrients, water, and air, and now looking it up, I realize I'm stupid. It's proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. I didn't know those were molecules. But the true and false were easy.

In EN100 I made a fool of myself. I guess my brain was still set on Environmental Biology because I was OUT OF IT. Zach had me go to the front and told me to write a dependent clause. I had no thoughts in my brain. I was just like, "ummmmm" until Zach told me to right, "Although it is Friday." That was embarrassing. I was also going to tell him thanks for giving me 100 on my literacy narrative but Rozena stayed after to talk to him so I didn't get to. Oh yeah, I haven't talked about that yet. On Wednesday Zach said that someone had gotten a 100 on their rough draft and I hadn't checked my grade yet, but I figured it couldn't have been me. Guess what. It was me. I got a 100. He left his really detailed comment about how good of a writer I was and how he only got one 100 last year and it was on the final draft. So boom. That's how it's done.

After that class I made a fool out of myself again because I went to Brandt 101 for archaeology, but the door was locked and Rickard was in her office and she was like, "Dude the class is online today." She didn't really say that. But yeah I guess class was online. So I went to the library and took the online quiz. I was really contemplating this one question and that was the only one I got wrong. Should've contemplated longer.

I spent the rest of the time catching up on some of these stupid blog posts. Just kidding, I like writing these.

Then I went to Readings in Philosophy which was in Heritage Room in the UC today because the air conditioner in Carnahan wasn't working. Apparently we have a paper we're going to have to write for this class at some time. This class was boring so I started reading The Long Walk again. I started that book at the start of the semester but kinda got away from it.

After that was over I went to the gym. There was a Maserati in the parking lot that's alarm kept going off. Dr. Baldwin was in the gym already. I guess he goes everyday. And of course it's the same time I go. But yeah I just did my normal stuff.

Then After the gym I went to Culver's and used 10 of the tokens I had to get a free kids meal. I also got the Flavor of the Day which was turtle. So that was good. I read some Red Lobster reviews while I was eating to see if I was ever mentioned but I don't think I was. At the end I mixed blue Powerade, Mountain Dew, and Sprite to get a Baja Blast and then left.

At home I didn't do that much either. I don't think I had any homework. I watched a movie called Coming to America that had Eddie Murphy in it. I thought it was actually really good. Pretty funny. I think that's about it.

6/10 day. Wasn't too boring.

9/21/23

Today I didn't have any classes because the one class I did have was out because we have an online exam we have to take. So I woke up at 7:00, I guess out of routine, but then fell asleep until 11:50. I really didn't do much the whole day. I played some Fortnite because I was bored, I don't usually play Fortnite.

My dad did have to take the dogs to the vet today so I went with him to get a little something interesting going on in my life. I don't know why, but I just wasn't feeling up to par today. I got freshened up and stuff and thought that'd make it better but it didn't really. My dad was talking to me a lot but I just didn't feel like talking back and it makes me feel bad, but I had no motivation to talk to him. Especially when his conversations were all about politics and stuff. But I really do want to talk to him more, and sometimes I do, today just wasn't one of these days.

But yeah the dogs went in the back seat of the Impala where we had lots of blankets down. The vet we were going to was Tilsit Road Animal Clinic, the same one we were at that one time when Max almost bit the lady. We got there and I was in charge of Opal while my dad was in charge of Max. We walked in, got their weights and waited for a bit. There was a white pit bull with a brown patch around its eye that came out of the back and the dogs kind of barked at each other for a bit. They weren't too crazy though. Eventually, they got started on them and Max went first. He had to get a couple of shots for rabies or parvo or something and he started growling as soon as the vet started touching him, so they put a blue fabric muzzle around his snout, which was definitely a good idea because Max hates vets for some reason. So he was growling and kicking around and made it really hard for them. Opal was a little better. They put her on the table and she was a little rowdy, but didn't growl. She stuck her head into the vets arm. They also got their blood drawn so we had to wait for those results. We put the dogs back in the car while we waited. When they came back it said Max had heartworms pretty bad and would need treatment. I went out to the car because my dad was talking to the vet about this. I don't know what they were talking about, but it took forever. Two more cars pulled up and there was a husky and a little shi tsu thing. I listened to the radio and put Opal in the front seat with me. Then I got Opal out and walked around. There was an old black and white dog in a cage in a barn and it and Opal barked at each other. Finally my dad came out and we left. So that was the vet experience.

My dad was contemplating going to Anne's but talked himself out of it when he remembered Anne hates German Shepherds because she apparently got attacked by one when she was little. We talked about the pros and cons of apartments on the way home. Such a good conversation.

My mom made burgers, but they were that lean white meat pork burgers that weren't as good as normal pork burgers, so I toasted some bread, put provolone, bacon, A1, and some secret sauce stuff on it to make it better. I also ate a lot of stuff today. I felt like I did. I don't know why but I just couldn't get enough food, and it was all junk food. Like Cheetos, Goldfish, Fritos, an oatmeal cream pie. And that also made me feel worse because I didn't want to eat it but I was hungry. I need better self control.

Today was a 4/10. The vet made it interesting, but that was the only thing. Maybe also no school.

9/19/23

Today I woke up kinda alright. My dad was outside so I got up by myself and got ready and left with a Stonie's stick to eat. I got to the parking lot with plenty of time and had a nice walk to the building. I wore a hoodie today because I really want to wear my brown Nike hoodie and luckily I don't think it'll be too hot today.

The English Lit class was alright. My seat was gone so I sat in the back. But then we moved anyway because we had to get in groups based on our questions we asked for homework yesterday. I got paired with Dustin, Grant, and Keaton. I didn't know any of them and also didn't know what they were talking about because I didn't read Everyman. But it was still kinda fun. Then Kendrick asked a question to Bronson and I started to answer, but then I realized it was the other Bronson she was talking to. I am never going to get used to that. But whatever that class was alright.

Then I went to the upstairs part of the library and worked on blog posts since I don't think I have any homework.

UI100 was kinda normal. We were talking about plagiarism and cheating today. The guy behind me hit me on the shoulder with the sign in sheet. Like, he did not have to do that. Could've just told me to turn around to get it. But I ended up having to work with him on our assignment. We didn't really work together though. We had to copy stuff from an article without plagiarizing and then email it to Songyon. Pretty sure I didn't do it right.

After class I left and I opened Danny's snap (the frat guy I met at the football game) and he invited me to a party on Friday, but I told him I don't know I'll think about it, cause you know, I'm not really that kinda guy, but I still wanna experience a party at some point. And then right after I texted him back, I saw Caroline. I thought she was going to Wyoming, so that was surprising. But yeah, we caught up a little. I still don't know why she is going to SEMO instead of there.

Then I went home and didn't do much for the rest of the day. I watched Breaking Bad and started watching Silence of the Lambs because I've heard of it for a long time and never watched it. I got an hour into it, but just couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll try again later.

6/10 day.

6/23/23

Today was day we were leaving on our main vacation of the year. This morning we really didn't do much. My dad was being extra annoying this morning. I didn't finish writing the thank you cards from my graduation party last night and for some reason he was obsessed with me writing those this morning. And somehow he doesn't really that the more annoying he is, the less likely I'm going to do what he wants me to do. So I only got two cards written this morning when I probably would've gotten a lot more written if he hadn't been absolutely ridiculously nagging me.

Janell had a Dr. Lawrence checkup for her knees and a physical therapy appointment also for her knees I guess, so her and mom were gone for the morning. When they got back we actually started getting ready for the trip. We got everything ready that we didn't pack last night, locked the buildings and cars, said bye to Opal, and eventually left at around 2:00.

The ride up to St. Louis seemed to go really fast. I tried listening to some genres of music that I don't normally listen to, like Kanye West. That kinda music isn't really bad, but it's not really my thing. But yeah, the ride to the airport went pretty well.

When we got to Parking Lot C, my parents couldn't figure out how to get covered parking so we parked in the sun. Then we waited at a shuttle stop near where we parked and a shuttle guy picked us up. He actually said he was risking his job by picking us up since he wasn't the one who was supposed to cover our area, but he did anyways for some reason. There was a cute little baby that was waving to me on the shuttle so I waved back. We also had to stand because the shuttle was full. I made sure to tell the driver thanks for taking us.

Then we walked into the airport, I got my picture next to the China China sculpture, we got our bags checked in, went down an escalator, went through security, and that was about it. Dad had to have an extra check in security. I guess he was suspicious or forgot to take his belt off or something, I don't know. Janell and I went to the Starbucks in the airport for some coffee. I wasn't going to get anything, but ended up getting a caramel macchiato. The line was moving so slow because there was only one lady working. Also for some reason I think the lady working took some of the money she was supposed to give back to us and put it in her tip jar. That was probably a felony but Janell and I didn't say anything. Anyways, the coffee was good. Then we decided to go to Chili's in the airport because everyone was kind of hungry. The service was a little slow, but it was an airport and it was busy so no one cared. I ordered baked potato soup, and when I tell you it was scrumptious, I mean it was scrumptious. Best soup I've ever had.

After that we sat in the airport forever. I'm trying to remember what happened but our flight was somehow delayed by several hours. We left Chili's at 5:30 and boarded the plane at 9:00. So we were just sitting around doing nothing that whole time. I tried reading my book I brought, The Virginian, but I don't think I got very far. I mainly just listened to music. We finally boarded the airplane and had a nice flight. I opened my tablet and turned on Whiplash since the plane had a movie program or something. I don't think Janell liked the movie very much.

We got to Boston at 1:00 AM, got our luggage, and went out to a garage area to wait for a taxi. This also took a long time because there was a long line. My dad was talking to the German guy behind us in line and started asking him about the name 'Windeknecht' which he'd never heard of. After waiting 40 minutes, we got in our taxi at 2:00. The vibes were really cool, I don't know how to explain it. Our only view of actual Boston was from the taxi. We got to our hotel after a while and pretty much went right to bed.

I wrote half of this the day of and the other half 3 months later, so I'm trying my best to get all of the details. I remember this day being really fun even though there was a lot of waiting. New experiences always make a day better. 8/10.

9/18/23

Today I didn't want to get up. Probably because it was 2:00 before I went to bed. I was almost late this morning because I left at 8:35. I also forgot breakfast, but I got an Alani energy drink.

In Environmental Biology, I realized I have a lot of homework due today. So in that class I finished some of my UI100 work, which included writing 300 words about my involvement on campus. I wrote about the football game I went to Saturday because that's literally the only thing I've participated in on campus. I also found out I have an exam for this class on Friday. And there might not be class Wednesday, I don't know.

In EN100, we split into groups even though we aren't actually doing the group work until next week or something. But anyway, they were picked by team captains, Rozena and that one other guy, I think his name's Josh, and I was the very first one picked. It was by Rozena, which doesn't really say much, but still. I still got it. I don't really remember what else went on in that class. We didn't really do vocab. I think we watched some videos. Oh yeah, we also did a quiz to see how well we knew appositive phrases and clauses and stuff, but luckily it wasn't for a grade because I only knew like 2 questions.

In Intro to Arch, we actually went outside today and made unit squares. I got grouped in with my tablemates, who are a little different and smell kind of bad, but whatever. We went to Parker Field and used tape measures to make meter long squares and then used string to tie around stakes. I didn't really understand at first because she was talking about Pythagorean theorem and stuff, but it was pretty easy. I also got to take the elevator in Brandt which I'd never done.

I worked on some homework in the library for a bit but eventually just went and walked around outside. There was a big hoard of people by the UC Center and I thought it was like an LGBTQ parade or something cause there were pride flags but there was actually a radical Christian old guy named Gary and I guess he's pretty infamous for visiting campuses and protesting a ton of stuff. So there were a bunch of people over there protesting him. I guess they just happened to all be LGBT. But yeah, I stayed away from that.

Philosophy was kinda normal. I started counting sort ofs again but then decided I should work on my stuff, so I got some of that done.

After that class I sat at a table outside of Scully and worked on my literacy narrative rough draft for an hour until I thought it was good enough to turn in. I also got all my other stuff done except for the Everyman questions and quiz. I'll do that tonight.

After that I was really hungry and decided to go to Chick-fil-A to use my free meal card. So I went there and got an 8-count nugget and sweet tea and it tasted better than usual. Then I drove around a bit while I ate and decided to go to the gym since I had some energy in my system. This time I went for over 11 minutes and got to 65 floors on the stairclimber. Also Dr. Baldwin was there again on the elliptical. I don't know if he saw me or not. There were actually a lot of people in there, so I made it a quick workout because I think I do better when it's not busy.

After that I went home. My mom called me on the way home and said she got food - a McDonald's cheeseburger for me, since it was apparently 50 cent cheeseburger day, and ribs from Sam's. Sounded good to me. The cheeseburger was obviously delicious. I love Mickey D's. I didn't end up eating ribs even thought they looked good. Then I played guitar, watch Breaking Bad, and played with Opal. That was about it. I took a shower, listened to Frank Sinatra CD, and felt kind of productive and stuff. And I procrastinated the Everyman stuff until 1:00 AM because I was trying to win a game of Minesweeper.

Today was alright. Little better than average maybe. 6/10.

9/14/23

Today I really didn't want to get up. I was up until like, 2:00 last night procrastinating. I ended up leaving at 9:05. I had a Belveeta and Chewy Dip to eat. That meant I got to SEMO some time around 9:18. And I had to make the long walk. So I was a little late, like 2 minutes.

English Literature was same as always. Still talking about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. We watched the intro of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That's a good movie. That was about it.

Then I went to the library, won a game of Minesweeper, and wrote some blog posts. That's it.

My tablet was about to die so I left. I didn't really wanna just go home, though, because there was nothing to do there. So I went to Cape and decided to go to Sam's. Since it was noon they were giving out quite a few samples, but I just got one from the burger stand. I also saw Papa Dehne and said hi but I don't know if he recognized me. Then I got a meat pizza combo because the little burger bite wasn't enough. The line was super long, but I waited anyways. I got sweet tea for my drink, and I knew I was taking a risk, but I figured it couldn't be that bad. When I got out to my car and drank a sip, it was the worst tea ever. It tasted like Gold Peak tea, which I hate. It tasted so artificial.

Then I drove around trying to find a place to eat my pizza. I ended up at the mall at a nice spot under a tree. At least the pizza was good. There was also a farmer's market going on but I didn't go because why would I. I also went to Goodwill after this but left after like, 2 minutes, because there was nothing there.

Then I went home, played some guitar, some Cities Skylines, and that's about it. I did my two discussion posts as late as possible at like, 11:30. I also finished Jaws and started Jaws 2. It took me several days to finish Jaws because I kept falling asleep during it somehow. Oh yeah, my mom also made that taco hamburger helper and it was really good.

4/10 day honestly. I felt like I accomplished nothing.

9/13/23

Today I was also tired when I woke up but my parents were acting like I wasn't getting up at all. My dad kept yelling up at me and my mom called me twice. Like girl, I'm up, I'm just laying down. I had a plain leftover waffle on the way to SEMO.

Environmental Biology was boring again. Still talking about chemistry and electrons and stuff. I sat one seat to the right of where I normally sit. Got a bit of a different perspective today.

English Composition was kinda fun. For some reason, when Mr. Allen (it feels weird calling him Zach even though he said not to address him as Mr. Allen) called on me for an example sentence for livid, I said homework makes me livid. Don't know where that came from. We had to work with partners to make example thesis statements. He had a box where we picked topics from. My two topics were "conversion therapy for gays" and "topless women rights." Very interesting. I guess they were supposed to be controversial. My partner was the same one who I peer reviewed with. I still don't know her name. We picked the one about topless women. We didn't really know what we were doing, because we were supposed to use specific transition words and a specific type of thesis, like informative, argumentative, stuff like that. But we ran out of time so it didn't matter.

Archaeology class was just notes, but it's always kinda fun. Also I saw Lara, the German girl who went to Saxony, and waved to her beforehand. Anyways, the intro question today was what our favorite animal was and I said whales. Yeah then it was just notes. At least this class always feels like it goes by fast. The first two felt SO slow today.

Afterwards I walked to the library to work on stuff, but I saw Jackson Haertling sitting in there so I did a 180 and decided to go outside of Scully. I was debating that anyways because it's good weather. I got behind a tour group and felt like I was in high school again, even though I never went on a college tour. For some reason there were horses in Parker Field (i think that's what it's called). Cheyenne Higgs was also with the horses but I don't think she saw me. Wonder if she still has Gunner. So I got to Scully and got to watch the horses while I finished yesterday's blog. That's really all I worked on. I don't feel like doing homework.

In my philosophy class, I tried counting how many times he said "sort of" again, but I got a little sleepy towards the end of the class, so this data probably isn't as good. He did have a record breaking moment, though. 117 sort ofs in 10 minutes. 11.7 sort ofs per minute. That was accurate, too, because that was only twenty minutes into the class. Pretty crazy. He talked about Cephalus's view of justice today.

After that I did the calculations for like, 5 minutes and left. I didn't want to go to the gym today, but I did anyways. I told myself I'm at least going every MWF. I actually had a pretty good workout. I felt like I could go longer than 10 minutes on the stairclimber today. But I didn't, I did my 60 floors and was out of there. Then I got a beefy melt burrito with no sour cream from Taco Bell. It was delicious. The worker was kinda cute, too. I also had to pay with change because I only had 20s.

Anywayssss, I went home, ate some of my mom beef and broccoli, played some geetar, and fell asleep and woke up at like, 9:00. I went downstairs and watched YouTube or something. I've been watching hockey clips recently. Getting ready for the next season. Hopefully NHL66.ir will work this year, since last year it didn't. I procrastinated my English Literature homework for as long as I could but eventually did it. Got my two questions turned in for Gawain and did the quiz. Luckily there was a quizlet I found that had the answers. 15/16. Not too bad.

That was it. 5/10 day. Average.

9/12/23

Today I kinda didn't want to get up. I've been waking up pretty well the past few weeks but today may've been one of the worst. But eventually I got up, got ready, grabbed one of those Hillshire Farm salami and cracker things and left.

I was a little late to English Literature because I had to park all the way in the commuter lot and make the fifteen minute walk to Grauel. I also had to turn around when I was like, 15 seconds out, because I forgot my phone. Anyways English Lit was alright. We talked about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which I didn't read, but I read the summary so that should be enough. Not much else happened in that class except I almost fell asleep for the last 15 minutes.

Afterwards I went to the library and started writing my rough draft for English Composition. I saw Mason Mayhew walk by and waved to him. I also saw Anya and waved to her. And then Mason came back 30 minutes later and dapped me up. That's about it.

In First Year Seminar, I went to the classroom where I thought it was, but it was empty and dark in there so I checked my emails and saw it was on the floor above me. But I found it. The class was kind of boring. We talked about planning for the entire hour. Also Shin Songyon, (I think that's her name) the professor, gave us Hi-Chews.

After that class I sat at a table outside of Scully again to do some work, mainly my philosophy discussion post, but my dad called me and said that Nana needed to be readjusted because her pillow fell out from behind her head. So I left, but decided to get food first.

I went to Wendy's because I had some coupons for free combo meals. The thing was, the coupons were pretty sketchy. It had written on it that you could get a complimentary combo, but it was pretty vague so I went in instead of going through the drive-thru. The worker was pretty confused when I gave it to him and asked where I got it. I said I'm pretty sure we bought it from a silent auction at my school. He had to get his manager and her fingerprint for some reason but eventually I got it. I also got the cheapest combo because I felt bad, which was 10 piece chicken nuggets. I didn't realize how good Wendy's fries were. Their sweet tea was also good. Chicken was alright.

Then I went to my grandma's to help her. I also had a bunch of stuff to drop off over there. So I went in and my dad instructed me through the camera how to put her pillow. I brought up the stuff which consisted of a fire extinguisher, some weird lightbulbs my mom bought, a toothbrush holder, Old Spice body wash I stole from Health Point, a trash can from the camper, and a weird stick that supposed to give me TV channels. I set everything up and ate my Wendy's up there. The TV stick actually worked, I didn't really expect it to. I was there for probably an hour before I left.

I went home after I left and my mom called me while I was on Frank's Hill road and said she was getting off work and we would go to the fair after that. I kind of forgot we were going to the fair today. So yeah I went home and Janell was already there. Then my mom got home and my dad came up from working and we got ready and left. I'm kinda glad Janell went because I thought it was just going to be me, my mom, and my dad, and that would be kind of sad.

Anyways we got to the fair and Janell saw Seth's car when we parked. Admission was cheaper today for some reason. Probably because it was still kinda early on a Tuesday. But yeah, I always like the fair. Last year I didn't get to go because Red Lobster had me scheduled all through the week. The first thing we did here was eat. That's also the main reason we came. I got a corndog from my favorite stand. My mom and dad also did. Janell got a lot bigger corndog from some other place.

We sat in a horizontal line on a weird green bench after we got some ribbon fries.

Then we went over and looked at the goats and sheep. We kinda skipped the cows, chickens, rabbits, and stuff. We saw the Theresa who used to make our cakes. I also saw Zach and his mom when we were walking to the animals. After that we went to the Arena building and my mom and Janell got distracted by Scentsy's. We also saw my mom's three cousins. I saw Adric from EN100 but I don't really know him so I didn't say anything. We looked at pictures and vegetables and stuff in the Arena building. Janell bought some freeze dried gummy worms for $7. After that I refilled our sweet tea and my dad got a funnel cake and we went over to the conservation department area. We also stopped and talked to Alex, Diana, and Bruce Cells. Apparently he's going to College of the Ozarks to become a chef. Interesting. There wasn't much at the conservation area but I like going over there anyways. There were some catfish. Then we left after that. It was pretty fun. At least I got to go this year.

At home I finished my Philosophy discussion and went to bed.

8/10 day today. At least I had stuff to do.

9/11/23

Today my alarm went off at 7:45 and I got up at 8. I dunked my head under the bath faucet because that's what I've done every morning the past couple weeks. I've had really bad bed head lately and the only way to flatten my hair down is water. I had a leftover waffle from yesterday so I microwaved it, put some syrup and whipped cream on it, and left. I also got a slice of zucchini bread that my dad told me to take and put it in my backpack for later. I had to eat the waffle on the way there.

I got to the parking lot and walked to my Environmental Biology class. It was kinda boring like usual. We just went over the PowerPoint lecture which was about matter and chemistry and stuff today. Not very exciting.

After that class I walked to EN100 over at Grauel. Today I learned that Zach, the teacher, had the same haircut as me when he was in high school. He said that's why I remind him of him. Me and him are kind of friends. That's embarrassing. But you know, he always asked me how I'm doing and calls on me and stuff. Anyways in that class I was really nervous because I didn't know if we needed to have our rough drafts of our literacy narratives done to peer review today. Apparently it wasn't a big deal and nobody finished their rough drafts. He did still make us partner up and talk about peer reviewing. Me and the girl next to me were partners (I don't remember her name) and we read over each other's outlines. Hers was about her being a kitchen manager while in high school, which I thought was a pretty good topic. Mine was about the policeman speech I gave in 5th grade because I didn't realize that it could be about any learning experience, I thought it had to be about literacy since that's what a literacy narrative is. We also did a little game with two groups where we had to pick formal and casual words for one of our vocab words. So at least that class wasn't that boring today. Oh yeah and we also watched a 9/11 video. I almost forgot about that. It was good that he actually recognized it, though, because none of the other teachers did.

Intro to Archaeology was about the same as always. I like how sometimes during attendance, we'll have to answer questions and today's was what our favorite drink was. I said sweet tea, obviously. We started talking about ancient America today which is kinda cool. Paleoindian stuff. That's about it.

After that I walked to the library and did some UI100 quizzes that were due today, retook my Env Bio homework from other day that wouldn't let me retake and got 16/20 instead of 15/20. Great. I read the summary of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight since I don't have my LI260 book with me. Seemed interesting. And then I started writing this blog post.

Then at like, 1:22, I walked over to Carnahan for my philosophy class. Today I was going to do an experiment in that class, so I took my tablet out. Dr. Baldwin, the professor, I've noticed says the phrase, 'sort of' a lot. So I counted every time he said it, which was 373 times in 50 minutes. I also timed how many times he said it every 10 minutes and then averaged that down to around 7.5 times every minute. That was still more interesting than Socrates. I could do it again to get better results. It actually kept me engaged better than usual.

After class I sat outside of Scully and did those calculations. I didn't really have any other homework. So after my little experiment was done I went to my car and went to Health Point. I've been trying to get into working out again and this'll be the third time this week. I just did the normal ab machine, tricep dips, probably some other stuff, and the stair climber. I was finally able to make it to the 10 minutes. The last two times I could only do 5. It's crazy how your endurance can go down that much. At the beginning of the summer I could pretty easily do 10 minutes on level 17. But today I went over 10 minutes to get to 60 floors climbed. So that was pretty good. I also saw Dr. Baldwin again at the gym. He was here the other day on the elliptical but today he was walking the track. I'm 99% sure it's him.

After that I was going to go to my grandma's to unload some stuff and water my ivy I have over there but my mom called and said my dad was doing it, so I didn't go over there. Instead I went to Culver's and got the flavor of the day, which was literally the best. I think it was salted caramel pecan pie. So good. Then I went home.

At home I didn't do much. I've been trying to learn the Santeria solo but it really annoys my mom and sister. I'm getting decent at the first part. My mom made grilled lemon pepper chicken for supper. I also warmed up some mashed potatoes, but shredded cheese on it and some seasoning. Really good. Then I watched some Breaking Bad and that's about it. I did have a little more homework, posting the Sir Gawain questions, and I did those really late at like 12:45 but they weren't due until 9:30 in the morning.

Meh day. Good ice cream. 6/10.

9/7/23

Today was the worst day ever. I'll just explain it real quick.

So I only had my one class today, English Literature, and that wasn't really anything too special. The professor commented on my Sublime shirt.

After that class I went to the library to get some homework done. I got a little bit done, but then the motorcycle guy messaged me.

So for some backstory, yesterday, the motorcycle guy on Facebook Marketplace lowered the price of the motorcycle I was obsessed with from $2,000 to $1,600. So obviously I messaged him again that I was interested and I said I could probably pick it up tomorrow because I'm literally free all day after 10:45. He said there was already someone scheduled to pick it up tomorrow but he would message me if they didn't show.

So then today, he messaged me that the guy didn't show up and that I could get it. So obviously I was really excited because yesterday I was talking to Janell how there was probably a less than 1% chance he'd message me. But he did, so I drove home as fast as I could and my dad was like, "Why are you so happy?" and I told him that he'd be mad. So I told him about it and he was more than mad. I pulled out every argument and counter-question whatever that I could, but for some reason he absolutely despises me and motorcycles. He said I didn't have his blessing to go get it. What does that even mean. At least mom realizes that this is something I really want. She still didn't want me going to get it. Says it's too far away. The thing is, St. Louis is not that far away. Some people drive two hours every day to get to class or a job or whatever. Also Janell was literally in St. Louis doing a tour of the courthouse up there today. I could've gone up there, got it, and been back by 4:30. Instead, they said no and I did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. I'm trying to live my life to the fullest out here and instead I just have to stay home, playing video games and eating pop tarts. It's stupid.

1/10 day. Lost best chance I had.

9/5/23

Today was the first day of school this week since yesterday was Labor Day. I got up pretty good today because it was my later day and I didn't have to be at class until 9:30. So yeah I got ready and left. My mom made me a breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, and like, 4 of those little sausage links in it. It was pretty good.

I got to class with plenty of time even though it was a long walk from the commuter parking to Grauel. The first class today is English Literature I, and this class always feels like an eternity because it's my only 1 hour 15 minute class while all my other are only 50 minutes. But I really like the teacher for this class, Susan Kendrick. I don't really know her official title or whatever. Some like to be called Prof, some like being called Dr, I don't know. This is also the class that the other Bronson is in. I didn't talk to him today, though. Anyways in this class we talked about Judith, The Wanderer, and the Wife's Lament. I didn't even really end up reading these because I forgot about them, but they're just Anglo-Saxon poems.

After that class I had a break so I went to the library like I do and started working on my blog again. I started making my summer recap since I didn't write during the summer. I also did my Environmental Biology homework and got a 15/20, and it said you have 3 attempts for the homework, but it didn't let me retake it. So I guess I got a 75% on it. That kinda sucks. It took me like an hour, too.

Anyways, my second and last class today is First Year Seminar, which was in the University Center Ballroom, which luckily we went to during Camp Redhawk, because I would not have known where that was otherwise. In that class a guy talked to us about school shootings for the entire hour. We watched some videos that the school shooter from Florida took before he shot up a school. So we learned prevention and what to do and stuff. He was a pretty cool teacher. Afterwards we had to sign the roll call sheet or whatever and we need our Southeast ID Key or something, but I forgot my wallet, but luckily I found the key on the mySemo app. That wasn't really that big of a deal, I don't know why I included it.

After class I went to Brandt Hall because no one is ever there and I brushed my teeth in the bathroom because I had an orthodontist appointment at 2:00. Luckily no one walked in on me. I barely made it to the orthodontist on time because there was a semi parked in the middle of the road by Taco Bell and I had to wait for it, and then I hit almost every single light red.

The orthodontist visit went pretty good considering it was an orthodontist visit. The person working on me was really nice and we talked a lot about music, shows, and college. It was kind of funny that the only rock song she liked was Carry on My Wayward Son since that's kind of an inside joke between Janell and I. So at the appointment I got a wire put on my top brackets and they replaced my bottom wire. Kate said I had to turn the stupid palate expander 8 more times until I'm done. So yeah, that's it for that.

Afterwards I wanted to try to get some money out of my Wisely card because I'd never used an ATM before because its wanted to charge me every time. I saw that Target had an in-network ATM so I went there to use it. It took me forever to find it but eventually I did. It was in front of the registers and I felt like everyone was looking at me since it was right there so I only withdrew 100 dollars. I needed to withdraw 2000 for my motorcycle fund, but that would've been too weird. Also I don't even know if you can withdraw that much. But yeah, if I want a motorcycle, I need the physical cash, so I might as well be prepared for it. I really wanted that one Honda CB400t on Facebook and even messaged the guy selling it, but my parents are so against it it's crazy. Makes me almost not even want one.

After Target I went home because I didn't have anything else to do. I played some Fallout 4, which has literally been my game of the summer. For supper we had steak bites, baked sweet potatoes, and applesauce; a classic. I didn't really do anything else this evening. I didn't have any homework that I knew of. I restarted Breaking Bad the other day so I watched some of that. I've also been kind of stopped up for the past day or two and I felt fine today until like, 10 o'clock when I got a really runny nose. So I took a Sudafed and Tylenol and went to bed at like, 11.

Today was alright, but nothing special. Probably a 6/10.

5/12/23

I'm writing this over a week after it happened so I'm just gonna write what I can remember. We did graduation practice the day after the awards ceremony, so that's what we did today. Oh, it's starting to come back to me now. I had to get there at 7:00, so pretty early. They had a senior breakfast with all sorts of stuff and some Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwiches which really weren't that good. The blue Hawaiian Punch was really good. They also had graduation pictures that day and I don't think mine turned out that great. The guy messed my hair up before the picture because he said it wasn't under my cap. But whatever.

Then after that they still had us go to chapel. I thought we were supposed to be done with all of that but I guess not. So I got to see Jesse and Matthew and them again. Then was graduation practice. It was pretty boring. They made us all practice walking in like, three times. I walked in with Matthew Theiss and sat between Aaron Zoellner and Carter Williams. They would not be my first choices. So yeah, practice was pretty boring. At the end they gave us our Beta Cords that we got for being in Beta Club. And that's about it. After that I went to Cape because I didn't really wanna go home yet.

I realized that today was the release day for Tears of the Kingdom, the new Zelda game. I didn't really know if I wanted to get it because I don't play video games that much anymore, but I looked up some reviews and saw it was supposed to be good. Also I really liked Breath of the Wild. So I went to Walmart and bought it. It ended up being $75 after tax. Crazy. But I also stole a Lego Minifigure because I saw they had Disney ones. I know I shouldn't steal, but $5 for 10 cents of plastic is ridiculous. Also tax on the game was $5 so it kinda worked out. I got the mean skeleton from Coco and it actually looks really cool.

I think I got a pretzel from Sam's on the way home. Probably also a blue Icee. So good.

On the way home I saw something near the bridge but drove past it. I thought it looked like a small furry thing. I was thinking it was a hedgehog or something so once I got home I got on my bike and rode back to look at it. When I got there I realized it was just a cool looking turtle. I don't know where I saw the fur. But I picked it up and moved it down near the creek. That's two animals saved in two days. Maybe I should go into something environmental. It is fun.

I put in the Zelda game but it had to update so I took a nap and played it some when I woke up. I thought it was pretty fun. Lots of creativity.

So that was the day. I think it actually turned out pretty good. 7/10. No more going to school until graduation next Sunday.

5/11/23

I'm writing this five days after the fact so I'm gonna try to remember. Today I didn't have classes but still had to go to school for the awards ceremony. So I got up and got ready for that. I wore my blue short-sleeve button-up that I always wear and some khakis.

The actual awards ceremony was not that great. I rode with my dad to get there because we didn't want to waste gas taking four different cars. That also meant I was late because my dad is the slowest driver ever, even when he says he's going to rush. So I got there a couple minutes late and everyone else was already in the gym seated. I had to squeeze in on the end next to Claybob.

So yeah, the real reason the ceremony wasn't all that great was because I wasn't mentioned much. I wasn't expecting much but that doesn't mean I wasn't hoping. I got called up for the one thing I knew I'd get. The Copper Dome Scholarship from SEMO. That's literally a guaranteed scholarship. You still have to have decent grades and ACT scores but still basically guaranteed. At least I got called up for something. I was lowkey hoping to get one of the mystery awards or whatever but I didn't. Stupid teachers didn't think to refer me.

After that I brought my tablet in from my dad's car to get it wiped. My dad held the door open for me so I wouldn't get locked out of the school. Mrs. Lang, who I don't think likes me very much, was the one to wipe it.

She said to come back in fifteen minutes so I went out to the commons where they were doing some alumni thing or something, I don't know. There was only one alumni there and she gave a little speech. Lily's dad and Ian's dad also congratulated me. I think both of their names are Todd. Anyways, they also had food there so I had some grapes, strawberries, cheese, and Gardetto's. Pretty good. Then I got my tablet back and my dad and I left.

When we got home I turned my tablet on and stuff to make sure it was alright. It was. I finally had Aristotle and all the blocked stuff gone. Then I realized Windows still wasn't activated. So I was getting kind of worried about that because I needed to be in the administration's network or something and I couldn't do that anymore because the tablet wasn't a part of the administration anymore. So I spent forever trying to do that. I eventually got it by running the command prompt as an administrator and finding the product key to put in and activate. All works out in the end.

Then I went outside and walked in the creek. I found two longnose gar in a little area and followed them around for a while. Then I went back to the house to get my underwater camera to try and take cool pictures of them. I found out the water wasn't as clear as it looked and you couldn't even see a foot in front of you in the pictures. But yeah, I was probably out there for well over an hour. They were pretty cool. Both about 2 foot long, one reddish and one gray. Then one of them started swimming downstream and the water got really shallow and it beached itself. I got all of this on camera. So I decided I was going to help it. The best solution I could think of was getting a bucket to push it the rest of the way down the stream because there was no way I was touching a gar. So I ran up to the house, grabbed a green five-gallon bucket from the garage, and got on the Mule with Opal because I wasn't running back. The bucket ended up working and I saved it. Then when I got back to the house and started researching gars I figured out that they can basically breathe water and air. So I wouldn't have had to rush that much. Still saved it.

Pretty eventful day, but also not very eventful at all. 5/10.

5/10/23

Today was our last day of classes. I probably should've been more excited but I really wasn't. It's not like school's out yet. Tomorrow is the awards ceremony and Friday is graduation practice. And then I also have to actually graduate next Sunday. Then I'll be free. A couple of months ago, I had all these plans for the last day of school. I would take pictures with everyone and finally open up and talk more since I had nothing to lose. I really didn't end up doing either of those.

Nothing much happened in the morning. I drove Janell to school today so she wouldn't have a tantrum like yesterday. Chapel was just praise bad or "worship team" which I guess was they are actually called. They played like three songs. Then Mr. Simpson thanked everyone and that was that.

We finished the documentary in Mr. Simpson's class. At the end of the hour we could give him a hug, high five, handshake, or fist bump. I gave him a nice firm handshake and I felt like he appreciated it because a lot of other people just gave fist bumps.

In Personal Finance, Mr. Meyer was there again and we had to make a word scramble or word search or something. So I just put a bunch of finance vocab words into a word scrambler generator and that was done. Then I played some more Minesweeper.

In Lifetime Sports we luckily did not have our croquet test. Mrs. Birk just asked us the six colors associated with croquet. Then we went outside and played the worst game of croquet of my life. I didn't even get through the middle wicket. Probably because I got a bad mallet.

Lunch was soup day which is always pretty good. Zach got his video training for the Dirty 30 Challenge by Eli. The grilled cheese was especially good today. Dipped that baby in the potato soup and it was heavenly. Also had some broccoli and some of that weird peanut butter with chocolate chips in it.

In Modern Literature we had a little discussion about the bobbed hair thing we watched yesterday. Pretty boring I didn't really participate. Then she gave us a survey of her class. At the end of the hour Camryn took a selfie of us to put in her scrapbook.

In Band and Choir we were out in the gym for both classes. I asked Hansell to come to my graduation party and luckily he wanted to. My mom made these really embarrassing cards and didn't okay them with me but whatever. He said I looked a little zesty in one of the pictures and I can't disagree. Then in Choir, Janell invited Maeson and Marlee and I asked Jesse if he wanted to go and he said yeah. So at least there'll be some people. I also finished signing some cards in this class.

In Chemistry, they reviewed again and I wrote this post and played, you guessed it, Minesweeper. Gotta beat that score. Actually yesterday I did beat it. I think I got a 332.

After school I was able to ask Eli, Zach, Bryce, and Matthew Chambless to the party before they left. While leaving school I listened to Closing Time by Semisonic. Then I realized this morning I listened to We've Only Just Begun on the radio and the first line is, "We've only just begun to live," and the last line of Closing Time is, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." So they're both about beginnings and first and last and stuff. Thought that was cool.

I don't really remember what I did the rest of the day. I think my mom had me try on some clothes. She got me two button ups. One kind of looked like the ocean and I actually liked it. The other was a really weird cut shirt that looked like I was showing off my chest. Sent that one to the returns.

Also I realized that I lost my over 500 day Snapchat streak with Camryn. I keep forgetting about Snapchat and then never getting on it. Kind of sad to lose that big of a streak though. And for some reason it said I could recover this other smaller one but not that one. Whatever, I don't really care.

So that was that, my last day of classes. Wasn't as great as I thought or hoped it would be. 6/10.

5/9/23

Today I got up at 7:00, got a shower, got dressed and hurried out the door because I was about to be late. I rode with Janell even though I wanted to drive today because she said she already had all her stuff in her car. Janell somehow left her phone in the trunk so I got out to grab it and I threw it into the backseat and it hit the seatbelt clicker. Janell freaked out and did one of her classic unnatural cuss word uses. That made it awkward the rest of the way to school.

At school I guess I had my last small group session and it was not something to remember. It was boring and I don't even remember what we did.

In Christian Response we watched Jesus Camp again. This time they were actually at the camp and the people were still going crazy crying, speaking in tongues, and yelling. Crazy stuff.

In Personal Finance, Mr. Meyer was there because who knows where Mrs. Mitchell is. We did a graphic design project where we promote a product for some reason. I made mine over my school tablet because I didn't know what else to promote.

We had our last croquet game in Lifetime Sports. It was me, Anna, Evan, Noah, Kallie, and Mike. During the middle of it I had to go do my senior spotlight and get posted on Facebook by Dawn Ozark. I just had to get my picture taken and tell her my favorite memory and class and stuff. I said my favorite memory was getting prom king and my favorite class was Law in Action. We ended up getting 21 points in the croquet game.

I actually brought my lunch today because it was chicken slab on bun. My mom packed me some Ruffles, a peanut butter jelly sandwich, applesauce, and some orange slices. I saved the orange slices for last because I thought they would be the best but they really weren't. They were kind of dry and flavorless. Also Bryce's sister came to sit with us at lunch because she brought Bryce Sonic. I didn't talk to her.

We watched a movie called Bernice Gets a Bob or something in Modern Literature. Towards the end I fell asleep and apparently the end was the plot twist so I missed that. But the Camryn said that Bernice ended up giving Margorine a bob instead of herself. What a plot twist.

Choir and Band were probably the same as always. We played the same songs we've been playing. They had us sign some cards for the seniors.

Lastly is Chemistry and I played Minesweeper the whole time again because they were reviewing for the final. I've noticed that Mr. Gholson says, "Heavily missed," a lot.

After school Janell made us go to Sonic so we did, since she was the one who drove. I ended up getting some chili tater tots and they were DELICIOUS. Then we went home and I didn't do anything else for the rest of the night. I started re-watching Andor and rode my bike a bit around the yard. I wanted to play a game of croquet but Janell completely refused. I guess she has something against it. I also learned how to actually juggle. Pretty cool.

Today was alright. Didn't have much going on. 6/10. One day of class left.

5/8/23

I don't really remember what happened yesterday because I'm writing this on Tuesday. I always forget Mondays but that's why I try to blog, to remember. So let me think.

Mr. Ruark had the chapel today. I don't really remember what it was about. I think it had to do with seniors. After chapel they recognized the bowling team and had us come down in front of everyone. The only people there were me, Bryce, and Ian. I don't know where Mike and Evan were. Then they had all the senior come down to watch a class of 2023 video that videography made. They also had us link arms for some reason. I was between Caroline and Zach. I wasn't even in the stupid video. There were more juniors in it than seniors anyway. Videography doesn't know what's going on I guess.

In Christian Response we started watching a movie documentary thing called Jesus Camp. It was kind of comparing hardcore Islam to hardcore Christianity because it showed this church in Kansas City that was crazy and were speaking in tongues and spazzing out and stuff. In my opinion, the church director lady was totally indoctrinating the kids at the church and camp. But part of the documentary was funny. I think some of the clips would go viral on TikTok. I might try uploading some. Always on that grind.

In Personal Finance we watched a Dave Ramsey video. I was playing Minesweeper at first and then turned off my tablet completely but then Mrs. Mitchell started death staring me, so I opened my tablet back up and then I realized our assignment was to take notes over the video, so I started doing that. Dave was only talking about stuff we already learned though like emergency funds and compounding interest so I didn't see the point.

In Lifetime Sports we didn't go outside because this morning it started raining pretty hard and everything was still wet, so we played kickball inside instead. It was alright. I got on the team I didn't want to be on. At least I wasn't the last one to be picked like Kennady. But yeah, it was fun. I had some good kicks.

Lunch was orange chicken but I ordered a salad because I hate orange chicken. The salad wasn't that good either, though. The first couple times I ordered salad it was good but now it's bleh. I also had a packet of apple slices and they were also not good. They were slimy and soggy. Also their expiration date was 5/8/23, which was today.

In Modern Literature we read a short story by Roald Dahl called "The Umbrella Man." It was a cute little story. We also did a journal entry about what all we learned from the books in that class this semester.

In Band and Choir we just did the usual dumb stuff.

We reviewed in Chemistry, which means I wrote blog entries and played games the whole time.

After school I drove home and didn't really do much for the rest of the day. I brainstormed a bit because I want to try and write a short story to publish. And I tried watching Star Wars on my tablet but it wouldn't load.

That's about it. Today's a 5/10 because nothing happened. Only 2 days left of school now.

5/7/23

I don't think I did much this day. I woke up at around 10:45 and didn't really do anything.

I went out to the pool because we've been filling it up and noticed the robot wasn't really working, so I got it out and tried fixing it but it still didn't really work.

At 2:30 I left to go to Caroline's graduation party. It was at this Arcadian Valley Event place and it was pretty nice. Janell also went but drove separate because I had work later. It was honestly kind of awkward. I knew people there but there wasn't really anyone for me to talk to. I talked to Josey Wahlers and Emma Dunning for a bit. Then eventually I sat down with Clay, Anna Mueller, and Paige Seibel. The best part about the party was the food. I had lemonade, fruit punch, a sandwich, Cheetos, cookies, and fruit and cheese. So that was about it. Oh and I also took pictures with Caroline and wrote my favorite memory with her on a Jenga block. I put "All of the parties you had and riding 4-wheelers," as my memory because she did have some pretty fun parties back during Nell Holcomb.

I left the party at 3:30 to go to work. I HATE working on Sundays. And at this point those are usually the only days I work. I hate them because when I come in, there's no night floor plan, Armonee doesn't care and doesn't tell me who's on or anything, and I have no idea what's going on. The floorplan on the computer is always a mess and I'll have no idea who's here or what time servers are going to get here. So that's how it was then but luckily we weren't that busy when I first got there. Lindsey, Alex, Jennifer, and Carletha were the servers tonight which were pretty typical for a Sunday. I think Rich, Ricky and Maria were all there as managers. Tammy was also there in the beginning but I think she left. But work wasn't that bad once I got everything settled out. At the end of the day these three old ladies came in wanting to order some deep-fried shrimp. They reminded me of the old ladies from Hercules. But I had to get Maria up there because they kept changing their order.

Once I left I went to Kidd's to fill up with gas since it was below 3 dollars again. Once I was about to leave there it started pouring down rain like, super hard. So I had to drive home in that.

I don't remember what I did when I got home but overall this day was like a 5/10. Pretty average, not the best.

5/6/23

Today was the day of the actual state bowling. I was hard to get up but eventually got up to my alarm at 7:15. My mom brought me a waffle from the lobby for breakfast. So yeah, I got ready and we left.

We were supposed to be there at 8:00 but nothing really started until at least 9:00. It was so boring. When we actually started, we weren't that great. I don't know what we were averaging, but it wasn't that good.

A few games later, we were doing better. I wasn't really keeping up with everyone's scores but our average went up. I was kind of stressing out because I was definitely the worst on the team. At one point every person had a strike except for one of my frames. But whatever.

We took a break for lunch at noon. By that time we were in the top five I think. I had also started doing better. Lunch was a sack lunch with a ham and cheese sandwich, cookies, and you could pick chips and a drink. I tried that new Starry drink and had some Cheetos. Then we ate in my mom's car and I accidentally wore my bowling shoes outside. Then when we got back in and I went to wash my hands, Tyler was like, "Dude, why are your bowling shoes on in the bathroom?" So yeah, he probably would've freaked out if he'd of known I wore them outside. I don't really care though.

Bowling started again and we did better. I got more strikes and spares. Finally we were done, but not really. We'd bowled the 24 games but needed a position round for some reason. We scored really low in the position round and moved from 2nd to 4th. Then we bowled against the 3rd place team and won and then bowled against the 2nd place team and barely won. That was probably the best moment of the day. Ian had to bowl a strike on the last frame or we'd lose. He through a strike and we won by one. I thought Bryce was gonna cry.

Then it was us against the 1st place team, Seckman. The first game, I bowled a gutter ball but then spared. We also lost that game. We played them again because it was best out of three. We won the second game. The last game they ended up winning. I really didn't care. I bowled good on the last game so at least it's not my fault. It was fun but a long day. It was probably 5 o'clock when we left. But yeah, I did end up winning some scholarship money, $2,600 split among the team. So that's $520. That's like six Red Lobster shifts. Not bad. Josh tried making everyone emotional at the end by talking about how much we mean to him and whatever. Then we took some pictures and left.

From the bowling alley we went straight home. I think I was still watching The Mandalorian on the way home. We also stopped at Jack in the Box and I got a cheeseburger, sweet tea, fries, and secret sauce, which I was hoping would be better. The burger was delicious though. Then it was a pretty normal ride home.

We got home and didn't really do anything. That night though there were a lot of weird bugs in the kitchen that I guess somehow got in through a window. Janell started going crazy and my mom got out of bed and we started vacuuming them off the ceiling and table. Kind of gross.

Today was cool because we got 2nd at state and that's a pretty big accomplishment, but it still felt like a waste of time. 6/10.

5/5/23

I'm writing this a few days later from when it happened so hopefully I remember everything. Today was the day we were going to state for bowling, and they'd told us a couple of weeks ago that we wouldn't have school so that we could drive to Union and get practice time but apparently we still did have school.

At school I forgot who had chapel, but afterwards was the send-off for the bowling team. It was pretty embarrassing. They wanted me to walk through first, but I wouldn't, so I don't remember who walked first. I just walked through, gave a few people high-fives, and that was it. Then Mrs. Adams took some pictures of us outside. Ew.

In Christian Response I don't remember what we did at all. That means it must've been boring and useless. We just had a test the day before so maybe it was a free day or something.

I'm pretty sure in Personal Finance we did another assignment on stocks. Oh, I remember now. It was the one we had gotten the day before that I didn't work on at all. So I spent most of the hour working on that.

In Lifetime Sports we played croquet again. The people we played weren't as fun and in general it just wasn't as good as the other times, but whatever.

I thought at lunch I could leave but nobody else did except Evan, but he leaves anyways to go to CTC or something, so I stayed. Lunch also sucked because it was Culvers day and I forgot to order again.

After lunch I still didn't leave because I didn't know if we were supposed to. They said at noon we could but I didn't wanna just walk out. So I went to 4th hour where I took the test over Wes Moore. At least I got it out of the way so I don't have to do it later. Those Modern Lit tests are so hard because my hand always feels like it's gonna fall off by the end of it. So much writing.

After 4th hour I finally left because Eli was like, "Weren't you supposed to leave at 12." So I signed out and left. It always feels great leaving early. I went home and my mom was going kind of crazy telling me to get ready. I still had to get a shower and shave and stuff because it'd been a few days. And then we left.

On the way up there I started watching season 3 of The Mandalorian because I didn't even realize it had come out yet. That's basically all I did on the way there. That and talk to my mom some. She was pretty talkative.

When we got to Union we went to our hotel, a Super 8, and unloaded our one suitcase. My mom said our room had a smell but I didn't smell anything. I thought it was a pretty nice hotel. Our room was 103 and right across from the pool on the first floor. I probably would've gone swimming but Bryce and his mom were in room 101 right next to us. In the hotel room I kept watching The Mandalorian and I think I fell asleep for a bit. We had to be at practice at 5:00 and I really didn't want to go, but I had to.

Oasis Lanes was where the bowling would be taking place. I thought it was a nice place. The outside made it look small and janky but it wasn't bad. My mom just had to get there early and got there at 4:55. Of course nobody else I knew showed up until like, 5:20. We even got there before Josh. So it was me and him awkwardly waiting for a bit. Eventually everyone was there and we started bowling. We did baker games to practice and I have to admit, I was decent. I was feeling pretty confident for tomorrow. After he said we were free to go at 7:00, I was the first one outta there. Wasn't gonna bowl more than I had to.

After that my mom and I went to Walmart because we couldn't decide on a place to eat. We got some Mexican Street Corn Cheetos, Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips, a couple of frozen meals, and a box of Hershey's-filled Chips Ahoy. A pretty good supper.

Back at the hotel room I watched more Mandalorian and ate a frozen pizza. It was pretty good. I also texted Aiden a bit more. I guess me and her are still a thing.

That night I slept really good. I went to bed at around 11:00 and didn't wake up 'til the morning. My mom said a dog barking woke her up at 2 in the morning.

But yeah, good day. 7/10. Skipped out on school and got to travel a bit.

5/4/23

This morning I woke up and it wasn't really that bad of a morning. I didn't really mind going to school which was a nice change. I got ready and rode with Janell to school. I also had a watermelon energy drink. It was probably a nicer morning because my dad wasn't obnoxious and kind of let us get up on our own.

At school I was studying for Christian Response in homeroom when I was called out to the hallway. It was something for Saxony TV. Peyton and Paige led me and Cory to Mr. Simpson's room where the whole nerd squad was: Zach, Bryce, Eli, and Carter. They said we had to answer to questions; what was our favorite Saxony memory and what word made us cringe. I could not think of a cringy word for the life of me. I said my favorite memory was sophomore year going to Springfield and Branson for the band tour. Half of the other guys said "moist" was the cringiest word so I also said that. I am so basic. At least I kind of said it in a funny way.

The Christian Response test wasn't that bad. I memorized an acronym with Janell this morning for the timeline which was "Go Janell, cut Luke's ass till midnight" which helped me memorize the order of Galatians, James, Corinthians, Luke, Acts, Timothy, and the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. But then the test said I got all those wrong, so hopefully that was Simpson's mistake because the study guide said I was right.

In Personal Finance we were supposed to be working on another stock assignment but I was finishing all of these blog posts instead so I still need to work on whatever thing we have to do. Also, do you know who lowkey annoys me? Gabe Hendon. He's nice and everything but he just does little annoying things like always accidentally touching the mouse that turns on the computer in front of me, constantly rocking back and fourth and bouncing his leg, and he keeps giggling at everything Maggie Hillin says. But you know, he's pretty cool.

In Lifetime Sports we played croquet again but I wasn't really any better than yesterday. I was kind of worse, but it was still really fun. Today me and Anna played Kennady, Michael, Kallie, Max, and probably someone else I'm forgetting. So that was fun. I think we scored 24, but I don't really understand the point system in that game.

Lunch was Buffalo Wild Wings AND I FORGOT TO ORDER. This would be my last time to have a restaurant day at Saxony and I forgot to order. And I love Buffalo Wild Wings. Instead I got a disgusting turkey sub and put BWW's sauce on it. It was gross and I didn't finish it. I also had some broccoli and Garden Salsa Sun Chips. I've been on a little broccoli kick lately. But yeah, that was a disappointing lunch. And everyone around me also had BWW. Ugh.

In Modern Literature, we went over the study guide for our test tomorrow about Wes Moore. I had to fill out the guide as we were going over it because I didn't do it. It was really boring, but when is that class not.

In Band we played the same stupid songs we've been playing for months. All the Small Things, Exaltations, Light Eternal, probably some more, I don't know. In Choir we sang some songs, but I don't even remember what we're singing. I played Minesweeper most of the time. I'm trying to beat my hard mode record of 360 seconds.

In Chemistry we had a little test that was 25 questions, and I had NO idea what any of the answers were. I couldn't even tell you the name of the unit we were on. I used my best educated guesses on each question. Also, he put in some grades and I went from an 86 to an 82. If I drop below 80 I have to take the final. This test may have put me there. Not good.

After school, Janell I went to Las Brisas, my favorite Mexican restaurant. We said we were celebrating an early Cinco de Mayo. I got basic chicken, cheese, and rice, but it is sooo good there. I think Janell got a chimichanga. It was fun.

We went home after that and I set up a croquet course in our yard because I thought it would be fun to play with the family. Well, Janell said she was going to play but never did and stayed in her room the whole evening. My dad played a round with me after he got done at his building. My mom was at a meeting or something that evening so she wasn't even there. But yeah, my dad beat me. It was still fun though.

That night I made some ravioli and went up to my room to watch Star Wars since it was May 4th and I almost forgot. It had actually been a long time since I watched the original trilogy. I only watched the first one today, but I definitely need to rewatch them all. I also worked on that SafeSport thing for bowling because I needed it done by tomorrow. By 1 o'clock I finished Star Wars and SafeSport training. Hallelujah. Then I went to bed.

Today was a 7/10. Croquet, Las Brisas, and Star Wars made it good. Chemistry, Buffalo Wild Wings, and the interview made it kind of bad.

5/3/23

Today I kind of didn't want to go to school but I had to because there's a track meet today. It was like, past 1 o'clock when I went to bed because of my long bath and I was also looking for my retainer but never found it. So anyways, I had to go to school. Janell stayed home because she said her head hurt, but it obviously was an excuse.

In Christian Response we did a Kahoot for our test tomorrow. I got like 15/20 place so not that good. But our unit is kind of interesting this time. It's kind of like apologetics but also history. If I fail this test tomorrow, I'll probably have to take the final because I have an A- and I think I have to take the final if I have a B+ or lower.

In Personal Finance we did some corporate stock assignment that took like 4 minutes. Then I played Minesweeper for the rest of the time.

In Lifetime Sports we played croquet and it was actually pretty fun today. Me and Anna were going against Bryce, Savannah, Reid, Aydin, Noah, and probably someone else that I'm forgetting.

Lunch was barbeque nachos, which are usually pretty good, but my pulled pork tasted weird and was all clumped together so I didn't really eat it. But I ate broccoli and apples and learned that macaroni and cheese tastes really good with ranch dressing.

In Modern Literature we watched these really boring interviews about Wes Moore and his parents. I'm pretty sure Camryn and I both fell asleep.

Band and Choir were alright. I played some Minesweeper, Frogger, Contra III, and Snake in Choir with Jesse. Jack is still kind of annoying like he was a couple of months ago, but I usually just ignore him now.

I got to skip seventh hour because of the track meet today. It was a throwers only meet which I'd never been to before. So I changed into shorts and got ready to leave with everyone on the smaller white bus. I was thinking about driving by myself but thought it would be funner going with the others. It really wasn't.

The drive down there was not that great. The bus was hot and the sun was in my face and I couldn't get comfortable. I played Angry Birds Star Wars for most of the drive and listened to Smoking Popes. We got to Ste. Genevieve at around 3:30. I actually really like Ste. Genevieve. All of the houses and buildings are so cute and historic. I didn't realize that it was the first colonial settlement in Missouri. I kind of want to move up there.

So yeah, we got there and set up a tarp to put our stuff on. Boys discus was first and I was in the first flight because I suck. Joe, Matthew Hitt and Zach were also planning on throwing discus. Unfortunately for Matt, Micah's name was down instead of his so he didn't get to throw. So yeah we waited forever and my throws sucked. 25 meters was my best yesterday. Also Joe kept talking to me while I was trying to throw. Then I waited around the discus area for another hour or so for Joe to throw because I had to shag for him. Joe did not throw that good. His best was 27 and he hit the metal pole twice during warmups. Maybe that was karma for being annoying to everyone.

For the rest of the time I just laid on the tarp and rested while getting a tan. It wasn't really that bad. Apparently there was going to be a throwers 4 by 1 and that would've actually been really fun. They were going to use a banana as the baton and the last runner would have to eat the banana. But that wasn't going on until all of the other events were done and everyone on our team was done so we went ahead and left.

We went to Dairy Queen afterwards and I was kind of worried I didn't have money. But then I linked my Wisely card to Apple Pay and that solved that. I got my classic chicken strip meal deal with limonada Agua Fresco and a hot fudge sundae. Either Dairy Queen stopped giving out the bread or they just forgot but either way, I didn't get my piece of Texas toast and I'm kind of upset about it.

We got back on the bus and went home. The ride back was alright. Played some more Angry Birds and listened to The Police and Kansas. When we got back to the school I left pretty soon and Weiser was like, "Thanks for being on the team." Kind of nice of him.

I hit a rabbit on the way home, so that was kind of sad. When I got home I started working on my SafeSport thing I need to get done for bowling after a few games of Smash Bros. That stupid bowling thing is going to take me forever. I didn't even have time to study for Christian Response and I think I was also definitely getting a migraine last night so I went to bed. I also texted Aiden a bit last night.

Anyways, today was alright. Kind of boring but not too boring. It was like a 6/10.