Thursday, August 27, 2009

Check It Out

I've been posting some random stuff over on tumblr. Check it out @ http://pijablor.tumblr.com/

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Maine Pics

My sister loves snails







Canada






Lighthouse in Canada (I forget the name)







Bass Lighthouse (I know this one!)









LOON



Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Make Up Your Minds!

This is me venting once again... graduation is rolling around on June 10th. Both sets of grandparents and my uncle are coming don for the big event. Since it is graduation and it's kind of  a big deal, my parents tell me to pick somewhere to go eat before the ceremony. I receive an email from my mother listing a bunch of restaurants on the Riverwalk. I've never eaten on the Riverwalk so I don't really know what I'm looking for. So, I pick a restaurant that seems to fit my needs. My grandmother decides its not very nice. "Pick somewhere a little more fancy," she tells me. So I pull up the list and search once again. Finally I decide upon a new restaurant. Today I get an email from my mother saying it'll be too hard to find parking by the boardwalk and that the new restaurant I picked is too expensive. So, I told them that I give up. "Take me to McDonalds. I don't care anymore." Now I'm being difficult. Imagine that.

The same situation arose with my birthday. My mom's birthday is about two weeks before mine. She always picks some wildly expensive place to eat. Always. When my birthday rolls around, the food budget had been decimated. So, if we go out to eat at all it is always somewhere really cheap. Or, as we've been doing for the past few years, I get to pick what my dad cooks me for dinner at home. Of course, if I ask for shrimp we end up eating salmon with broccoli (instead of the green beans I wanted). Normally I don't really care that much. I don't need some big celebration. It's just that this year my dad has decided that his "old men's baseball league" is more important than my birthday so I'll be getting no special dinner with my family. I never really cared about all my other birthdays because they were like meaningless years where nothing exciting gets to happen. But this year is 18. And that feels important. I'll be considered an adult. I'll be able to vote. I'll be leaving for college and starting to make a place for myself in this world. And for my birthday both my dad and my sister will be gone. Happy birthday to me...

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Italy Photos III

I've been gone a while due to my internet deciding to just quit working for the whole week. Anyway... here are some more of my photo from the epic Italy adventure. Hope you like 'em. 


(Pantheon, Rome)








(Vatican, Rome)












(Fountain of Trevi, Rome)











(Spanish Steps, Rome)


Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Every Kid's Dream Is My Nightmare

Arthur Conan Doyle once said, "I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." I can not think of a statement that fits more perfectly than that quote for my life in this moment. For three days I have been completely idle in school and I have never been more tired. With AP tests looming ever closer, my teachers' curriculums are coming to an end. The whole year has revolved around preparing us for these AP exams. Now that they are so near, there is nothing left to learn. I do not have new material to be learned in any of my classes. So I sit idle. It is hard to be productive when nobody will give you work to do. My life has revolved around teachers telling me what I will learn and what assignments I will complete. Now that has all ended. There is constantly free time. Endless free time. Don't get me wrong; I study for my AP exams. I just can't study one subject for 7 straight hours. Most kids would be jealous of my easy school day filled with nothing but sitting around. The only thing changing is the classroom. But for me, "In idleness there is perpetual despair." I do not like sitting around. I want to be learning. It may not always be fun but it gives me a sense of fulfillment. I am slowly losing all enthusiasm to get up and proceed through the day. I need education. I need to be challenged. If the system can't provide that for me, then I'll teach myself. That seems to be the only solution. 

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Nature

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.







My profession is always to be alert, to find God in nature, to know God's lurking places, to attend to all the oratorios and the operas in nature.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Insomnia Journals

I don't really have insomnia. This is a weird night. I went bed around midnight (which is really late for me) only to wake up at 3 am ready to start my day. Try as I might, I could not fall back asleep. But, truthfully, I didn't really want to. I was having one of those really boring dreams where its super short and just replays over and over and over. Kind of like a record that keeps skipping. So now I am writing this blog at 4:36 am while listening to Frank Sinatra. While this is fun in itself, I fear that I will be dead by this afternoon. And I have a ton of tests to study for. How very inconvenient. Maybe I'll go get an early jump on that... I've got nothing better to do!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Photography Contest

As I mentioned in a previous post, I entered a photography contest at school for the school paper. As I was told, none of my pictures fit into the specified categories for competition. But, luckily for me, the judges like my photos so much that they made a special category just for me. It was the kind of like the Overall Best Photographer category. Below I have put the pictures that "won" or were displayed in the paper. I may have already posted some of them.















































Thursday, April 16, 2009

Italy Photos II

I've been gone for a while. Sorry about that (to all four of my followers). I didn't really have anything exciting to write about. To make up for it (and because I still don't have anything interesting to write about) I've decided to put up a few more of my Italy photos. I hope you like them.

Also, I entered a photography contest for the school newspaper.  The results are supposed to come out tomorrow so I'll keep you posted on that as well. Hope your week has been going well.





(Pompeii)












(Pompeii)












(Pompeii)











(Sorrento)










(Sorrento)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Bad Day.

Today was a bad day. Actually it wasn't but the events of the past thirty minutes turned it into a bad day. This is the part where I'm going to ramble angrily about things that will make you question my sanity and probably make you think, "This girl does not know the definition of a bad day." But being a teen, and having all that teen angst, I'm using that as an excuse to be dramatic and angry. So here it goes:

Every day I run. Every single day of every week of every month. Occasionally I take a rest day but not often. Today I did not get to run. And that really pisses me off. Running, for me, started out as self-inflicted torture. I hated every second of it, and some days I still do. But, I need to lose weight and this is the way to do it. Good old-fashioned exercise. And now I actually kind of enjoy it. 

On days I have work right after school I run on the treadmill for 30 minutes. The way I survive staring at the same thing for 30 minutes is by watching a movie while I run. Well today, I turn on my TV and start my movie. I'm stretching before in my very zen state of mind, somewhat stoked for this run. I feel like today will be a successful run day.

I look up at the TV and everything is in black and white. The movie is not supposed to be in black and white... normally I may not mind but I wanna get started on my run but I can't just not figure out what is wrong. So I begin to assess the problem, my anger level already rising. Soon I realize this is not a fixable problem. The DVD player just decided to go haywire on me. By the time I figure this out, its too late to run. I'll never get in my 30 minutes and still have time to shower and get to work. So at this point I'm really pissed and my whole day is shot to hell. And nobody in my family is sympathetic to my plight. I'm just whining at my faulty technology. And I am. But it may help if someone could be a little empathetic to my problem instead of totally indifferent. And changing the subject will not fix my problem. 

Alright, well that was my angry rambling about the stupid DVD player that ruined my day. I just hope I can plaster on a convincing enough smile for the customers at work, lest I accidently rub off some of my misery and anger onto them. The bosses would not be happy about that. Now I'll just have to run double tomorrow... assuming I can fix the DVD player by some miracle of magic. Oh joy.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Photos IV

Here are some more of my photos:

(Taken in Acadia National Park, Maine)





(Taken in Maine)




(Taken in Maine)




(Jordan Pond, Maine)



(Jordan Pond, Maine)

Monday, March 30, 2009

Italy Video

While in Italy I shot some random video clips on my smaller digital camera.

This video is essentially those clips streamed together.

Also there are a few of my pictures from the trip at the end.

The video is relatively shaky so be warned.

Unfortunately, there is no video in Cinque Terra because my camera fell out of my camera bag and buried itself in my backpack. Thus I did not notice its absence until we were already out and about. 

The older people you may continually notice in the edge of the clips would be my lovely grandparents. 

Alright, well enjoy!


Sunday, March 29, 2009

My Dog is Socially Awkward

Today I took my dog, Bear, to a dog park. I never knew these things existed in San Antonio, much less where to find one. Well, my mom found one so we decided to take Bear there since he is lonely. As he jumped out the car he seemed pretty excited to be in a new place. I walked him on the leash into the fenced in area that made up the "park." Once we got into the park where there were dogs of every kind running free he suddenly stopped being excited. He got nervous. He started shaking and drooling. I decided to take a risk and take him off the leash. I thought he might sprint away and start making friends. But, of course, he didn't. He stayed frozen at my side. "Go on," I urged him. He just looked at me. "Go play!" I insisted, gesturing out into the air. He seemed to understand that a little better but he still didn't move. I started walking. "Make some friends..." I tried suggesting only halfheartedly. To my surprise he trotted away... straight to the nearest person. Wrong kind of friend.


The whole time we were there he maintained contact with my body, refusing to even acknowledge that the other dogs even existed. The only time he ever tried to be friendly was to passing people. My dog is socially awkward and does not know how to interact with other dogs. Even when other dogs would come up to him and get right in his face or sniff him he acted as if they weren't there. It was pretty strange. I can't pretend to understand.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Loneliness


"The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved."





"Loneliness is part of being human. It reminds us that we are not complete in ourselves."





"The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passer-by to come and love us."





"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other only in passing, only a signal shown, and a distance voice in the darkness. So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, and then darkness and a silence."

Thursday, March 26, 2009

You Never What!?

Today it was raining. Normally, I'm all for the rain. I love the big claps of thunder and the fact that water is falling from the sky. I like that rain is a free form of watering plants. I love rain, as long as I don't have to drive in it.

So, today it was raining as I was walking to my third period class. You should know that my third period class is way out in a portable. Of course I was soaked by the time I got there. But, this story isn't about rain. When I got into the portable I was slightly grumpy because the rain wasn't showing signs of letting up and I did not want to have to drive home in in later. 

My friend, Anastasia, saw me and exclaimed, "I have never seen you wear earrings in my life!!!" I couldn't help but give her the "you're an idiot" glare. I told her she had never seen me wear earrings because before yesterday I never had holes in my ears in which to put earrings. 

"You never what!? You've never had your ears pierced!?" I restrained myself from making a mean, sarcastic retorts. I simply nodded and let her happily examine my ears as if they were a precious treasure. I mean after all, she was the only person who had noticed. 

So, that's the story of the day. After 17 years of life, I finally got my ears pierced. I may be an oddity but at least its finally done. I will say it hurt, a lot. Now I just have to keep them from getting infected. Woo.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Checking Here I Come



I was recently "promoted" at work. I work at HEB as a bagger or as a CSA as they like to say to try and jazz it up. CSA means check stand assistant. I officially am getting moved up to be a checker now. I say promoted sarcastically because I should have started at checking from day one. Unfortunately that did not happen because somebody *cough* my sister *cough* told me that you could not apply to HEB as a checker. You HAD to apply as a bagger then get promoted to checker.


Well my sister, having had limited job experience at the time, was not aware that because I had previous experience handling money, I COULD apply as a checker. So, I wasted 8 long months of my time bagging until I could finally pin down one of my managers and get them to schedule me for checker training. But, it has finally happened! I completed my 16 hours of checker training and will get to start ringing people up on Thursday. 


I'm sure I learned lots of useful stuff by bagging for 8 LONG months but being a kid, I care
 more about the money! I get a $1.40 pay raise and I am excited. I could have been earning checker wages this whole time. I hardly plan to stay at HEB my whole life so for now I want to make as much money as possible doing a job that is less than desirable. I have to pay for college somehow, right? 

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Photos III

Some more of my photos:

(Taken in Salem, Massachusetts)




(Taken in Surry, Maine)




(Taken in Saint Martin)




(Taken in Acadia National Park, Maine)




(Taken in Texas)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Italy Photos

Simply put, Italy was amazing. Upon landing I was a bit unsure of what to think. The airport looked like any other airport. But, the second we hit the road, I knew we were no longer in the U.S. This place was simply gorgeous. Everything was so green and clean! I have to admit, there are so many differences its stunning. I'm glad to be home but I'm sure going to miss it. I'll probably have some little stories to share over the next few days. But, for now, enjoy a few of the pictures from the trip.


Some of my Italy Photos

(Cinque Terra)









(Cinque Terra)










(Venice)










(Venice)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Home at Last

I'm finally back from my amazing vacation. Unfortunately, I've got a ton of stuff to do now that I'm back in the "real world." I may take a day or two to get any real posts up but I promise to include pictures. Thanks for your patience! 

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Temporary Goodbye

To all FOUR of my followers, I must bid thee a temporary goodbye. As of tomorrow at 2:30 PM I shall be on a plane on my way to ITALY!!! I know y'all are all very jealous and will miss me oh-so-much (hint the heavy sarcasm on that last part), but I'll be back on the 17th and post lots of lovely Italian pictures (hopefully). Since I have no funny little stories from my boring day I'll leave some more of my old pictures for your enjoyment. Hope your next week will be as great as mine.

Some more of my photos:

(Taken in Salem, Massachusetts)




(Taken in Surry, Maine)




(Taken in Saint Martin)




(Taken in Acadia National Park, Maine)




(Taken in Texas)