That’s right. We went as carolers! I actually did this a couple years ago with Ben and Sophie, but it was still cute.

We sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” at every door. Our greatest achievement was when we got a Hispanic man with a thick New York accent to leave the World Series and tell us how great we were, laughing and yelling “CAHrolers! They went as CAHrolers!”. Our low point was when we rang the doorbell, stood on the step, and waited while we watched a man fill up his glass at the sink. Eventually, his wife came to answer the door, and asked us if we were singing to everybody. We said yes; he said “I bet they pay you to stop”. Then after we got our candy their very small and annoying dog,  known as Coco, chased us down the driveway.

In our neighborhood, most people go to town to trick-or-treat, which means that all the new people buy way more candy than they need, and if you bother to trudge down their driveway you will be greatly rewarded. Gabrielle eloquently expressed this at one house by attempting to say “I love newbies!” as we walked down the steps, but misspoke and ended up saying “I love boobies!”.

We also got a lot of “So…do you know what holiday it is?” and “Did I miss something?”. I suggested that we go trick-or-treating at Christmas and see if we can score more candy, but Gabrielle said no. Then I suggested we go to the extremely conservative, Halloween-is-evil type Christians down the road and sing “Jesus Got Run Over By a Reindeer”, but she vetoed that too.

Her version here.

You all know what comes Thursday: Thanksgiving!

So naturally I’m writing about Halloween.

This is my pumpkin. Getting the pumpkins was quite an adventure for Mom and Sophie, but that’s a story for another day.

I hollowed out the pumpkin and realized I had no idea what to carve. Mom offered several suggestions, began to demonstrate, and this was the end result. Pretty cool huh?

Sophie was a wizard. Guess who’s been reading Harry Potter?

Dad took the kids around, while Gabrielle and I went on our own.  Unfortunately our ride cancelled, which meant we ultimately visited a lot fewer houses than we would have, because the houses out here are too far apart and their driveways are too darn long.

Can you guess what we were dressed up as?

Answer to come tomorrow, along with details of our journey, because frankly I’m rather tired.

I started out as an anti-Yankees fan.

Mainly because nearly everyone around here is:  they grew up in New York, their extended family lives in the Bronx, “best team ever”, “26 rings”, etc etc. I’m not actually sure why, but nearly everybody I know is a Yankees fan…so of course back in fourth grade I decided I was a) going to follow baseball, and b) not be a Yankees fan.

I quickly learned that this meant I must either root for the Mets or the Red Sox. The Phillies, despite being from Pennsylvania, weren’t really on my radar at that point. I chose the Red Sox…because they have the coolest name in baseball.  (The Senators would have been a close second until they no longer existed.)

So I started following baseball religiously and I became one of those people who argues about it constantly and says things like “the Angels are 34 and 50″ , when in fact no one really cares. I listen to the games, when I remember, and I always check the stats in the next morning’s paper.

I was insanely happy first in 2004, when the Red Sox won their first title in an eternity and broke the curse of the bambino; and then in 2007, when they beat my friend’s beloved Rockies.  I made fun of the Yankee’s payroll, I don’t think they should have fired Torre, I gloated at the Indians slaughtering them by 20 points or so both times it happened, and I was hoping for a Yankees-Dodgers series this year. Of course, the Dodgers were supposed to crush the Yankees in four games.

Instead, it’s the Phillies and the Yankees.

Obviously I hope the Phillies win…back-to-back championships for PA, and defeat for the Yankees.

Please, people, they do not need one more thing to brag about: 26 should be more than enough.

Sophie and I are playing 20 Questions.

I have been taking Logic this year (memoria press), and I absolutely love it. It makes perfect sense, is fascinating, and the teacher is funny.

Ben has occasionally wandered through when I’ve been watching the DVD.

Me: OK, I’m thinking of something.

Sophie: Ummm…animal, vegetable, or mineral?

Ben: No Soph, don’t ask that! What you ask is, How many notes does it have?

Me: …four.

Ben:  Sophie, that means it’s animated but not sentient. So it’s an animal.

I pretty much just stood there in shock. How many 13-year-olds, without studying, memorize the Poryphyian Tree?

I am proud to be his sister =)

This is the one subject this year that I actually loathe.

For the first time EVER in my entire school history, I am getting a consistent B and working my butt off to maintain. NOT a good feeling.

I’m not sure why this is: I don’t know how I fail to grasp the concepts. Something goes wrong in the units and conversions (I converted a whole problem last week into m/sec, when it turns out it was supposed to be mph because it was a problem involving a BMW. Aughh.)

This is stuff you run into in real life, everyday situations…it should not be so difficult!

 

I need a tutor.

 

 

Actual conversation today:

Boyfriend: How’s physics?

Me: Awful. I don’t know why I can’t figure out how long it takes a car to brake.

Him: Easy…you got a ten-year warranty, ten years and four months or so.

for my class “Creative Expression”, on shopping, an Activity Dear to the Hearts of the American People.

 Except for during The Recession. Which Is Bush’s Fault. And is Now Over because Ben Bernanke Says So. Never mind that people are still losing their jobs left right and center.

Last week we went to Kohl’s. Kohl’s is a department store where we had numerous gift certificates (or “Kohl Bucks”) to spend. This turned out to be nearly impossible.

 

You wouldn’t think so, would you? You’d think that it would be practically EASY for two girls and their mother to shop indiscriminately.

Nope.

As Mom said, “What we have here is a forced shopping situation”.

This is how humans react when faced with one:

• Step One: Return ugly purses. Of course the salesperson makes a mistake, which requires several more salespeople of succeedingly higher levels of management to rectify.
• Step Two: Clothes Shopping. I don’t like clothes shopping because…it involves shopping. And clothes. Neither of which are high on my list of priorities. Also, you have to try things on, which is always kind of hellish isn’t it?
• Step Three: Buying Clothes. This step involves using your Kohl Bucks, which is a little hassle.
• Step Four: Setting off the security alarm because the clerk forgot to take off the tag.
• Step Five: Housewares Shopping. Blah.
• Step Six: Try and figure out what the codes on the speaker mean…for example, “Rainbow seven! Rainbow seven!”
• Step Seven: Sit in the shoe area while Mom takes over the Housewares Shopping
• Step Eight: Don’t Laugh when Mom realizes she has had her shirt on inside-out for the last half hour.
• Step Nine: Set off the alarm for no discernable reason.
• Step Ten: Buy housewares and discover that, due to several inexplicable and mysterious sales and discounts, we still have not spent all our Kohl Bucks.
• Step Eleven: Mom goes to shop for towels while Sophie and I play on the escalators.
• Step Twelve: Purchase towels. Again encounter the discount monster.
• Step Thirteen: Go stir-crazy from 3 hours of shopping. Mom runs off to buy an expensive item so the Kohl Bucks are sure to be spent. I go up the down escalator.
• Step Fourteen: Buy the ridiculously pricey item. End up having to pay $3 instead of $20…discounts at work, folks!
• Step Fifteen: Escape the store. Eat taco bell. Take 2 tylenol.

Driving. BLAHHHH.

I would be perfectly happy and an excellent driver….if only there was no reverse, neutral, hills, highway, or curves.

Since there are, I really, really loathe driving.

I tend to use the word “stupid” a lot. My mother has bellowed the word “JEEEEZUS” twice. I have hit the garage door 3 times. I have pointed out to my parents that this is not as bad as their friend’s son, who drove over a TREE, approximately 18 times.

On the other hand, driving has brought out some interesting differences in my parents.

Dad tends to stiffen as a passenger, beginning with the garage (which I ONLY hit 3 times), and constantly give little tips, such as “track the curve!” or “stay to the left!”. His right foot is in a constant state of extension, and he taps (by which I mean “crushes”) it vigorously against the floorboards when I need to brake.

He also has this tendency to speak like a robot as soon as he gets into the passenger seat (true example: “Prepare to execute the lateral maneuver!”) and to warn me of all possible emergencies that could arise (true example: Notice the pedestrians!”) (Note to the true example: they were 3 blocks away).

True example #3:

Dad: Watch out for this truck up here!

Mom: Doug. It’s 200 yards away and on the other side of the road.

Mom, on the other hand, tends to remain silent (read: off in her own little world of knitting and books and singing) and only speak up when there are actual emergencies, such as I am about to hit a sign on the highway.  Until she gets a bee in her bonnet, and then I’m in trouble. She likes to invent little excercises, such as “Drive 20 miles per hour while telling me how to make a proper turn” or “take a mint while keeping your eyes on the road”.

I never anticipated that she would be the calmer parent in the passenger seat.

I once asked how she did it, and she said “valium”. Ha. Ha.

Ben and Sophie are forced to be my passengers, and spend most of their time cracking jokes.

Actual conversation from last week:

Mom: Look out your window and tell me if you see the lines.

Me: NOOOO! I’ll crash.

Mom: No you won’t honey, just look quickly.

Me: NO! Stupid lines.

Mom: DO. IT.

Me: (Looks. And immediately swerves to the left) STUPID DRIVING!

Mom: Oh Lordy. Did you see them?

Me: What?

Mom: The lines, sweetheart.

Me: Yes. Stupid lines.

Ben: Did you see them out the driver’s window or the passenger’s, Liv?

An interesting list of words that started out as acronyms that I came across recently…most of them you’ll know, but still.

(actually…I looked it up. After reading The View From Saturday for Language Arts. I highly recommend that book, by the way. It’s lovely. I was however disappointed that POSH and TIP are thought not to be acronyms, like the book asserts.)

• Sonar
• Laser
• Radar
• Scuba
• Gestapo
• OK
• Interpol

So guess what my driving school’s name is?

That’s right: The Sheila S. C——- School of Automotive Excellence.

Their record is spotless!

However, it has only been a month and a half.

And today, I nearly crashed into a little old man who was coming out of the dialysis center. After we got through that one, I parked (crookedly!) and mom asked what my backup plan was. This is my backup plan: Jesus Take the Wheel. My main plan is drive 5 or 10 under the speed limit if at all possible, never move my arms from their position, avoid other cars and people and animals at all costs, and say “hoooooly crap” and “ahhh scary!” a lot.

This is possibly not the best approach.

I asked mom yesterday if we could drive in a different neighborhood where I don’t know anyone (about 2 minutes after forcing my friend’s mother off the road) and she replied, “No honey, I think people need to become aware of the danger.”

I’ve driven to violin lesson 2 weeks in a row: the first time, I pulled in wrong and had to get out of the car to walk over and punch in the keycode; the second time, I slowed wayyyy down for a speed hump only to realized that there was no speed hump; and then I discovered that it is a bad idea to talk with your hands while you drive.

Driving is a lot harder than it looks.

Part two.

I promised!!

This has been a really strange school year: I took the PSATs (189 composite…above average but not my goal)…and I did two AP classes (but didn’t take the AP tests), and I did Sonlight Core which was REALLY FREAKING DIFFICULT, and I did a LOT of music…and I was a total bum. So my average day has been get up between ten and eleven, shower eat and school, leave for rehearsal at 12:30, get back around three, and cram in school between then and six.

I want next year to be fun! I want to have time to do extra things like debate team and community music groups,  I want to score over 200 on the PSATs and do well on the real SATS, district orchestra, etc etc etc…oh so many goals

AND I ONLY HAVE TWO YEARS LEFT AT HOME: HOW CRAZY IS THAT?

So I’m doing summer school! And I am actually going to get up at a decent hour and do work!

I will not be done with literature till July, unfortunately…and then I will start next year in September.

In math I am doing a course that is designed to take three semesters. If I do three days a week I’ll be done in September and can spend October reviewing basic algebra and geometry before the test. Then no more math till January! Which clears up concert season.

Science I just have to finish out the end of the year…half a test, a dissection, and an experiment and I’m done! Then next year is physics.

I am teaching myself psychology for fun out of an old college textbook I bought at a garage sale.

I am continuing Latin and Word Power Made Easy (My vocabulary book, which I ignored for the better part of the year, actually did it, adored it, and felt like a fool) and starting back with French II. Oh and logic on DVD.

I am getting a bunch of books from the school and library to read for fun school, especially history because history is the one subject I’m not any good in at all.

Is fun school an oxymoronic phrase? I mean that I’m getting educational books to read because I’m interested, not for credit. Meanwhile, Ben has decided to breed a blue raspberry.

I’ll let you know how all of this goes next week.