Ahh… November. My favorite month. I love it because it is my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas preparations. This month is a bit crazy but I’m still in the holiday spirit. SATs, independent study draft due, APUSH, AP Chem… but I’m loving it! Oh, and I need to get my temps sometime. I don’t know why I keep putting that off…

So today I raked for a bit. At the end, the sun was shining brightly on all the leaves. I remembered hiding in the leaves as a kid. So I just stood with my back to the leaves and let myself fall. I didn’t remember how wet leaves can be. It was a bit icky.

I love Christmas. I’m in such a Christmasey mood. I’ve already planned my make present for all my friends and made a shopping list for it. It’s going to take all of November! (I’d say what it is but a certain someone reads this blog, and she or he is a recipient of the present.)

Two things about history class

1. Debating about my favorite topic is amazingly invigorating.

2. History makes me even more confident about my political beliefs.

I made these on July 31st, but never posted the photos. They were sooooo good.

Um, hello. Well. Life has been insane. My Papa was really ill since early September, and he passed away a week ago. I never, ever realized how much I loved him or how much he did in my life. I’ll really miss him. And my mom was in the hospital… she’s fine, but, even though it was three weeks ago, she still isn’t all the way better. Because of all this, I put myself on a back burner of sorts, which wasn’t at all good for my health.

But this long, three day weekend I recouperated, and even read three books. I read Exclusively Chloe and Dear Julia, both of which are undeniably cotton candy chic lit.

I also love to cook and bake. It really helps me emotionally. It’s my Dad’s birthday soon, and I’m making him splenda recipe Pumpkin pie. Yum.

Well, I need to work on AP Chem (I never, EVER thought I would take that class. But I adore it and it is my favorite of the whole day.)

Update: New cupcakes must must must be made. Craving some sweet.

I love to bake, and when things get absolutely crazy, baking calms me down. So, last night I bought a book called 500 Cupcakes: the only cupcake compendium you’ll ever need. There were some bad reviews, but my cupcakes came out really, really well. This morning I decided to make half a dozen “applesauce & cinnamon cupcakes.” They were more muffinish cupcakes than cupcakes, but they still were amazing.

Since I’m trying to be healthy, I substituted smart balance for butter, splenda for sugar, and halved the walnuts. The recipe actually called for pecans, but we did not have them. Next time, I definitely would want to add more splenda. They were not sweet enough for me, which made them more like muffins.

In general, the book is really sweet. The title is somewhat misleading; there are far less than 500 original recipes. Each recipe has 3 variations that I could have thought of myself.

Each cupcake is 130 calories. I should have made them smaller, since in the oven, they almost went over the edge of the cupcake baking cups. Next time, I’ll make 8 probably.

Tuesday: worked on History, went out to Subway

Wenesday: worked on History, took SAT, made stir fry

Thursday: worked on History, went out shopping, made lasagna

Friday: worked on history, made cookies, went to a going away party

Work just seems to get pushed out of the way. Ugh.

After days and days of distraction, I worked for a full school day + some. Eight until six, with an hour lunch break. Finished my english reading logs to my satisfaction.

I know that I’m the opposite of a procrastinator to the most extreme degree. I started studying french the first week of summer. I finished my history reading by the first week of July. I’m 90% done with my English homework. But I still hate days when I accomplish absolutely nothing. Which equals today. I highlight half of the first chapter of my textbook. I read a bit for the SAT. But everything else was just fun. I drew an ostrich, went school shopping, went out to breakfast, made a memory book page, looked over a few SAT words. And that’s all.

I only got seven hours of sleep last night, though. That changes perspective.

Ugh. I still hate not succeeding in finishing anything.

Wow. I never thought I’d go almost two months without posting. Summer has been completely amazing and satisfying. I had surgery and my wisdom teeth out, but surprisingly, having my wisdom teeth out was far more awful. I had them out Monday and I still can’t eat hard foods. Ice cream and mashed potatoes fulfill my entire diet at the moment. The medicine they gave me made me feel out of it for three days, but now I’m fine. I’ve also studied for the SAT, studied for the PSAT (which is harder for me… confusing, right?), looked into colleges, gone to a summer institute, researched at the historical society, done my summer reading and logs, and half a book in French. Whew. I would have gotten a job but I was going to be out for four weeks of the summer (second institute week got cancelled).

I think I should blog a bit more. Today was an extremely exciting day for me. I met with the state representative at our local library for a sort of “town hall.” About seven people showed up. I realized two things: government really is not made up of the token issues people scream about, i.e. abortion and global warming, and I both liked Republicans more and Republicans less. The second part sounds very odd, because that sounds impossible. I really enjoyed seeing a Republican who wasn’t folksy and talking down to the people like Sarah Palin, who didn’t scream about America being a Christian nation, and who wasn’t afraid to insult Rush Limbaugh. She didn’t insult Rush Limbaugh, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t listen to him either. Local Republicans seem about a five worlds apart from the ones in Washington. I think that is due to political strategy. I also liked Republicans less in that she made me realize why I am dead set on a few of my opinions. I disagreed with her about mandates on small businesses – and I don’t think that I’ll change my opinion about that anytime soon. I got annoyed frankly, with her talking in circles, but then I became annoyed with myself for being annoyed, ironically. I don’t know everything, and I hate those moments where I think my opinion is absolutely better than other people’s (I mean, other than opinions on racism.) I don’t even think that consciously and don’t believe it. Sometimes, in a conversation, one gets so enthused that they can’t see the other side as clearly as they did before. That didn’t happen today, but I didn’t appreciate her opinion enough.

Also, my independent study is simply flourishing. I love researching, and with it going well, and my interest in government blossoming, I know that I have picked the right career path out. Today was an extremely successful day of research, even though I didn’t accomplish the most that I have. It’s simply the fact that I had a real breakthrough and saw my project well for the first time. I can’t wait to continue.

I’m visiting colleges this fall, I think. It’s a bit nerve-wracking, really, because I don’t know if I’m aiming too high. The only statistics I have are SATs. I should probably practice those SAT words now…