Summer is almost over...

So I promised that I would try to write more, and unfortunately I got busy and didn't. Well here I am posting again!

Anyways. So a week ago, exactly, I was driving to Baton Rouge after spending the day in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. IT WAS AWESOME. In a, "I'm finally in Louisiana, learning about all these problems from people who are being effected by them" way.

Some background as to how this was happening. My friend who is part of an environmental group with me told me about this environmental leadership training camp (basically grassroots organizing) and she was going to the one in Louisiana. So the camp was called SPROG and it was put on by Sierra Student Coalition. There were 39 other greenies, and it was so nice to be around people who care as much as I do. Not that I don't have friends that care, its just nice to know that we aren't the only ones. And I now have connections in other areas of the country!

That aside. The 16th was an optional volunteer trip that I went on. We were toured around by a staff member from a community group called BISCO. The first stop was to show the difference between a federal levee and a levee in need of repair. The difference was amazing. The federal levee actually wasn't even funded by the federal government like it was supposed to be. The community raised $30 million dollars through taxes and some state funding to build a 7 mile stretch. But, the federal government was supposed to build more once they did that. And they haven't. The levees help build up land again. Something that is much needed since Louisiana loses 1 football field of land every 38 min. From across the water we could see a BP staging area which we visited later. Next we went to see this community that looks like a ghost town since many people have been abandoning it due to land loss. It was sad. I felt like I was back in the Egyptian slums. Trash everywhere and rickety old houses. While there our guide stopped to talk to another local who was talking about shrimp fishing. They aren't catching too much, but they are getting by. I also couldn't believe this because in the past 30 min I saw the effects of land loss, a bp staging area and heard from a local fisherman. So the next stop was the staging area. We saw the shipping containers filled with waste, and as we were learning about what's going on there, a truck pulls in ready for its next load. The waste is either being recycled, having minerals extracted or being thrown in landfills. From there we drove to LUMCON (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium - a research station. On our drive down we passed a bp claims/community center, shrimp boats with oil booms and just plain ol' shrimp boats. At LUMCON we got to go up to the observation tower from which we could see the Gulf of Mexico (and some oil rigs in the distance), some shrimpers, another bp staging area, and more signs of the land loss. We then went back to Thibodeaux and helped BISCO with a community event. We were almost caught in the tropical storm so we hung out at our day's guide's house and ate pizza. Then the day was over and we had to drive back to Baton Rouge.

It's weird to think this was all just a week ago because it is so fresh in my mind.
I'm writing an article about the land loss/Louisiana in general.

I miss my fellow Sproggers...
Especially the guy who could ballroom dance and is a photographer. ;)

no aid for people with AIDS

I just read this article about how the federal program that helps people with AIDS and HIV receive medication is having to cut back because of economic downturns. I know it could never happen but I wish that pharmaceutical companies could just suck it up and give people the medication they need. These people are unemployed and don't have the money for so much medication so they can live. It IS a matter of life or death and these companies don't care. For one man it costs him $4,500 a month for medication alone, and he is unemployed. I can't imagine it would be easy to get a job if you have AIDS and now because he missed the deadline to re-enroll in the federal program he can't get the medicine. The program is just ridiculous in general, they have to re-enroll every 6 months. That is such a hassle and its not like AIDS would go away within those 6 months. I suppose they have to make sure the people actually NEED the free meds but that exposes another issue. Should people really have to pay in order to live? The constitution says everyone has a right to life, but these medications and treatments for life-threatening ailments are costly and therefore not everyone can afford them. What if this treatment was free? What if the pharmaceutical companies sucked it up and only made a profit on the non-dependent for living medications like viagra and botox? I suppose the drugs cost money to make but its still just seems ridiculous. I guess the people with AIDS or HIV should have been more careful. But for some it wasn't their fault, contaminated blood supplies could have caused it. But back to the original issue, the federal program is being cut in different states who don't want to deal with it. Louisiana cut it because they said the waiting list was giving people false hope. Well there shouldn't be a waiting list and in economic hard times like now what we need to do is stop wasting our money on stuff like the war and focus on more pressing issues at home like AIDS and the oil spill.

On a side note I haven't seen any headlines about the oil spill in forever, it hasn't gone away though....

volontiers

I REALLY want to go down to Louisiana or somewhere South to help with the oil spill. I feel I have to do something or I will regret it. But, a bunch of things say you have to be 18 and every site seems to make it difficult to volunteer! What happened to mobilizing people for the effort and why must I be 18? I'd do it with my mom if I had to. I am so motivated to do this, it's frustrating doing nothing. I can't just sit here and do nothing, whining about how terrible it is. I HAVE to go down there and get my hands covered in oil and get the real experience. I want to wash some birds and save some turtles. Why do I need to be a veterinarian or something to do so? They offer specialized training, but again I have to be 18. What I should do is talk to them and show them my determination, but I don't want to drive all the way to Louisiana just to be turned away for being young. What happened to youth empowerment? The youth is the most active, usually. Just look at the 1960s. I think one of the problems is laws have been passed to keep children from being in danger. But I am willing to take the risk and I know my mom wants me to go anyways.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/27/us/201005_oil-spill-photo-gallery.html

^ that is not sand

j'ai retourné un peu différent

I have decided to start blogging again but about real-er things. like my thoughts on what is going on in the world such as oil spills or politics or local things. the old blog was much more "dear diary..." style this will be more opinion/editorial style.

STRESS

Ok so the entire year people have asked me in wonder how I am not dying of stress. Well I've finally reached that point.

I am sooooo busy what is wrong with me! I love my work and I love my after school activities and I love my classes but they are starting to be too much to handle. But I can't drop any of them! On top of that I don't seem to be able to go to bed early enough, which results in much sleeping in and coming to my first classes late. SUMMER COME SOON! But I already know I am in for a busy summer. And being so busy is terrible because I really want to do this great article for my newspaper but I don't have time!

hmmm maybe I'll cover Model UN.....

I wonder if I can get kids on the record saying they are there to blow it off or there to be serious and regard "the other side" as people blowing off the class. I wonder if I can get them saying that they come high and drunk to class....... hmmm this might actually be good.

update!

OK so I think I am over this whole Nick thing and I think I'm over Garrett and pretty much any guy you could name right now. Which is nice, for me of course. Though I'm just kinda like OK... now what! Guys are not everything though. And I am glad I am remembering that. Now if I just have the guts to break off what ever this thing is with Garrett...

lalalala I'm going to France and will speak en français avec les beaux mecs :)

(if you don't speak french that means im speaking in french with pretty guys)

But I'm really nervous because I am going to stay with a family and they are supposed to have contacted me by now and haven't! Ahhh!!

Oh well I'm excited!

Nick...

Im talking to Nick again, cute environmentalist from MUN, literally right now on facebook. he had broken up with his girlfriend and is like i want to get back even though i just broke up with her. I really want to scream at him why not me??

instead all i can say is im sorry

ahh hes all like now i have to get her back... this is just making me sad i want to ask why!!!

to fill you in about him, i met him in the fall, he wasn't in my committee but he was a friend of a girl i met in mine. and he was adorable and she gave him my number and we started texting and i found out (without him knowing anything about me) how similar we are. it was ridiculous. and so we were like completely crushing on each other even though he lived far away and he's all like its destiny! and im like i wish this would work but its long distance and he seemed to agree. and then about a week after a month of texting each other cute things he stops and i check on facebook. 2 days after his last "destiny" text he was listed as in a relationship with an old girlfriend and they wrote on each others walls disgustingly sweet messages.

in fact one of the reasons i started liking garrett was because i compared them a bit....

i miss him

here he is talking about whats-her-name:

She's one of those people you meet and you don't want them to slip through your hands

I just can't help but wish it was me he was talking about.

damn i'm so cliché

lalalalala

OK so I would like to apologize to any bloggers whose blogs I read because for some reason I cannot comment on any including my own. If it is a comment moderation thing I'd like to apologize if the comments were sent multiple times. CORRECTION: I can comment now!

ok so today Kevin - who is basically an adult hall monitor but he's cool - was talking about how I like spencer I was like wow you are clearly wrong and it took much convincing. then he was like ok well I have to go harass your boyfriend and I was like say hi to Garrett for me. Even though I am not sure I consider him my boyfriend, but he found out about that.... yup

Ugh I am still all confused about the whole Garrett thing. Well we might hang Friday so maybe that'll change. I think I'm going to ask him where he thinks this relationship is going.

Maybe not. I'm fine with letting it play out.

ACTs

WOOOO ACTs tomorrow! So very excited!!!

Ugh, standardized testing is just so stupid. You have no idea what I'm like by looking at a test score! Luckily, I really want to go to College of the Atlantic and they are all hippie-like and ooohhhh we don't need your test scores.

On to what I really want to talk about.

So I've been kinda going out with this boy, Garrett and I really liked him in December and we kinda hung out but we've never really made anything official (though maybe now he thinks it is) but I don't know I'm kind of losing interest but sometimes I'm not. UGH make up your mind, Katie! And on the Italy trip I spent time with Max again and I at least thought I miss being with him and I really wanted to get together but I don't know if its just because we were spending time together again. And he still hasn't really had a girlfriend other than me and I would feel so bad breaking up with him again.

Hahaha everyone thinks I like Spencer - part of it I think was me trying to hide the whole Max thing. Even my mom commented, "do you like spencer?" and I was like HELL NO. I apparently can't be friends with a guy without someone thinking I am madly in love with them. Ok, I admit I did talk about him a lot, but he does so many ridiculous things.

Then there is the whole Michael thing. I liked him in November and I guess he's been in love with me all year or something and I can't help thinking that I'd be going out with him right now if he had asked me out. And I just feel bad because now it's so obvious and I hate disappointing people.

Well like they say on SO many standardized test prep things - go to bed early. so that's what I'll do.

Goodnight :)

im back

OK so I officially fail at blogging, over 1 month of a post hiatus - I apologize if anyone was disappointed. Though I doubt anyone was.

Why did i not post?
Basically, i was in Italy for the last week of February and it was AMAZING and GORGEOUS. <3
before that hmm i had A LOT of homework and was trying to not go on the computer and sidetrack myself.

umm ms. sugar & spice, you'll understand this: its not spencer it is possibly max so you were slightly off

some people are soooo stupid though - this girl when we were on a ferry asked, "how does the boat float with all these cars on it?" what? really? you are that dense? i don't understand how people get to high school when they are that stupid.

oh i found this blog called guilty planet and everyone says it sounds sooo much like me. its wonderful, she talks about not eating fish and stuff.

well i have to do latin homework and recover from switching my time zone

rambling some more....

Today I had my ballroom dance final. It was pretty fun, I did tango and swing and actually my partner is kinda the guy im dating. sorta. Im confused. Because he asked me out in december before break and we like hung out twice. we went present shopping and he took me to breakfast another time. And we've had coffee together after school a few times. and we text like everyday (but thats not exactly a relationship) But anyways the reason im confused is at least he used to say it was unofficial but that was because we are both really busy. but now i think he is more serious but we haven't really done anything and hes really sweet but we only ever really act like couple in ballroom. But i guess we were the cutest and best performance. i was really happy. and the other night he called me darling which i thought was cute. oh god im going all mushy... ew. but yeah it makes me really happy. but i am confused because i don't know if we are official now or what and i want us to hang out more and stuff.

Oh and today i had a meeting with my parents and the school counselor about colleges and stuff. so that was cool i got to here about all these other colleges i hadn't even considered, for marine biology of course. but now i have to research all of them and stuff. but im kinda excited.

today has been good. im happy.

New Music!

So i've been buying a lot of music lately. My newest albums are Phoenix's "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" and Vampire Weekend's "Contra".

They are both reallly fantastic!

I heart vampire weekend! (yes i wrote out heart because the html coding doesn't like the less than 3...) And i just discovered Phoenix (their song "1901" is on the cadillac commercial, but i hadn't seen that commercial until after my friend played it in our newspaper class)

Oh and yesterday i hung out with friends from middle school. See i went to this nerdy tiny middle school and often i'm just glad i am not there anymore because too much of the other people is intense and possibly damaging to social skills but every once in a while its nice to see them again. And i actually had more fun this time than i though i would so that was nice.

ahh old teachers

so this was posted by my old middle school teacher, actually the same one who the title of my blog comes from. She's awesome. basically she posted this because my facebook status was talking about kicking my sister's ex's ass because hes been bitching about her lately ans saying nasty things about all women in general. so this is what she said:

Katie and Colleen, can I just say that you are two of the most amazing young women it is my good fortune to know? Katie, you are strong, loyal, brilliant, grounded, talented and motivated. You will move mountains, and lead others to great things. Colleen, you are brilliant, unique, adventurous, out-of-the-box, non-conformist and highly creative. You will blaze a new trail and light up the world. And if anyone - ANYONE - has anything negative to say about either of you, please refer them to me. I will take great pleasure in setting them straight.

I love her and miss her as a teacher. It was a great confidence and happiness booster

rambling

Ugh school is tomorrow. I just wish weekends were longer so I could actually catch up on sleep, I actually am looking forward to school. It doesn't help though that on weekends your parents load you with stuff to do and you want to see people so homework doesn't get done until 11 on Sunday night.

Wow, I am not a typical teenage girl: I just complained about parents, school, sleep, and homework. I should add in some friend and boy drama and I could just bore you to death with my normal teenage girl-osity.

Speaking of -osities, have you read the Georgia Nicolson series? I re-discovered them on my book shelf. I love her.

Also on the topic of rediscovering I found the movie love and other disasters with Brittany Murphy. It's a really fantastic movie. Its a chick filck but oh well its still good. Didn't she die recently? I don't know I don't really pay attention to celebrities.

watch this movie she is fabulous and posh and Audrey Hepburn-esque:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lc6C4juTVg

last night

So last night I saw The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Which is an incredibly sad movie. I literally cried for an hour. I'm not even kidding. Of course this was mostly due to stupid hormones you get from being a teenager AND being a girl. So I was basically an emotional wreck. And it wasn't just like tears falling down my face it was sobbing heavily. I wanted to go into the TV and scream at the people in the movie. Honestly I'm normally not this emotional. BUT HUMANS CAN BE SO HORRIBLE.

If you don't know the movie its about a boy in Germany in WWII and his dad is a high up SS officer who had been moved to a run a work camp. The boy can see it from his room and thinks its a funny farm where everyone wears striped pajamas. His parents tell him not to go in the back yard. But being a typical 8-year-old boy, he goes goes there anyways and finds a woods that lead to the work camp, he finds another boy his age in the camp and they become friends. Anyways I won't ruin the rest.

I have kinda lost faith in humanity. I am studying the Rwandan Genocide in Model U.N. right now too so this all combined with being a member of STAND is a lot to handle. I just don't understand how someone could kill another human. Sure they can tell themselves that the other person isn't human but isn't there some guilt still because you can't completely trick yourself. And how could the United Nations sit by and do basically nothing in Rwanda when it was created after WWII to prevent that from happening ever again!

Also people just don't seem to care about the world anymore. I feel like a lot of people don't listen to me or to other teenagers who are passionate about world issues. I mean in science yesterday I started talking about habitat for humanity's restore and how the money goes to help build homes for people and the guys in my class are like "I'm Katie, lets save Fish! hahahaha just shut up." And its frustrating because I sometimes forget that there are other people who actually care about what is going on in the world instead of just themselves.

I'm not saying you can't care about yourself, because I am a teenager and of course i can be self-centered sometimes, but at least I try to do things about the environment and genocide and all the other world issues. I met a guy who was like me in a lot of ways and I guess I liked him because he was so passionate about the world as well, but he lives in Grand Rapids and hasn't texted me back lately. Probably because he now has a girlfriend.

And i could probably rant some more but then people probably won't listen so I'll wrap it up. anyways my mom saw me crying and she reminded me that I have to focus on how much good there is in the world, and that there are people like me. And I'll be out of high school soon so i'll be able to make a difference in the world.

So if you are feeling like I do i hope it helps to here there is someone else who thinks like you. And even if you aren't remember all the beauty and good in this world.

comments!

Yay! I got comments! This makes me pretty happy. And one was from someone i didn't even know! By the way Nessa O. its ok it didn't freak me out, it was actually pretty cool. anyways thats all i have to go to work so ill post later!

blood

I cut my finger today in science.

It hurts a bunch now..... idk why I don't think it is infected. And its not like weird chemicals were on the glass because the beaker just had water.

And if you are the friend who probably wants to say sorry again, honestly it isn't your fault. I should have checked for broken glass before cleaning where glass had just broken.

anyways around the cut sometimes feels a bit tingly. And it hurts, that could also have something to do with typing and poking it a bunch to see if there was glass in it.

but yeah i realized how weird i am because of this. I was sucking the blood off my finger and everyone like freaked out and called me weird and a vampire. (Which was even funnier since I watched twilight last night hahaha) But honestly, blood tastes good. Its all metallic-y and yeah. Though the weirder thing was that when I was a kid I would pick my scabs to lick the blood.

Oh and today it just wouldn't stop bleeding, I was like what the heck! The student helper person was like are you a hemophiliac? And I couldn't help but wonder if i actually am (and that i am since if you go by the literal meaning it means love blood and i kinda do... :P) I don't know blood is just fascinating to me.

twilight

i am watching twilight with my parents

hahahahaha

i am very protective over you

i don't have the strength to stay away from you anymore

here we go again....

My mom was just talking to her "partner" (aka boyfriend) on the phone. when she hung up she turned to me and said, "Why do I have to keep reinventing myself every man I'm with?" She was crying. I was thinking "oh goodness another meltdown", though it always hurts to see her so sad. She leans on me so much. I sometimes feel like the mother. And honestly I don't think she is reinventing herself this time since what she is "reinventing" herself to be, is something she has talked about for at least 5 years. Also she says this periodically. She doesn't seem as happy with him as she has been but then again all relationships go through rough patches. And when he is here she is kinda happy or really happy. So I don't know. Maybe she just can't handle being able to do what she wants full time.

pretty storms

On the last day of school before break a friend and I went to UMMA's The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast. It was stunning. I found a new favourite painter: Gustave Courbet. He had some beautiful paintings of stormy seas it was just lovely. This one (Titled: La Vague or The Wave)was fantastic though the picture does not nearly do it enough justice, the colour and depth are much richer when face to face with it.

Another pretty one was by Édouard Manet, titled: The Beach at Berck



http://www.umma.umich.edu/view/past/2009-lens.html

hi

So I've never made a blog before but I saw my friend's blog and I kind of like it a lot. You know who you are! :) I follow her so you probably can find her. So this will probably random things. The name comes from a line in a poem my teacher wrote about me in 8th grade. It was all about my aspirations to become a marine biologist.

OMG so my step dad is watching science channel and this guy can make Smarties (the canadian/british ones) invisible! but only one colour at a time.

sorry i just thought that was really cool.

yeah so i'll probably post again later