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The random musings of a college girl who enjoys just about everything. I enjoy talking and reviewing, so please, feel free to stay a while, sit down, enjoy a coffee. While attempting to find a way to live forever I have come to at least recognize the truth so universal (though I can't say I've given up my quest). So this is my attempt at taking the most from life with the time I have. After all, forever is not so long.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Happy Guy Fawkes Day



   Remember, remember! 
    The fifth of November, 

    The Gunpowder treason and plot; 
    I know of no reason 
    Why the Gunpowder treason 
    Should ever be forgot! 
    Guy Fawkes and his companions 
    Did the scheme contrive, 
    To blow the King and Parliament 
    All up alive. 
    Threescore barrels, laid below, 
    To prove old England's overthrow. 
    But, by God's providence, him they catch, 
    With a dark lantern, lighting a match! 
    A stick and a stake 
    For King James's sake! 
    If you won't give me one, 
    I'll take two, 
    The better for me, 
    And the worse for you. 
    A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, 
    A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, 
    A pint of beer to wash it down, 
    And a jolly good fire to burn him. 
    Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! 
    Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! 
    Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

Celebration required with a burning of effigy, some fireworks, and a V for Vendetta movie night.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Bucket List: Parasailing


Hi everyone!

Instead of saying hello from my lovely Outer Banks beach house, I am now back at my own home in Pennsylvania. But not for very long.

I did promise to tell you all about my last day, though. And what a last day it was. The morning before we left I convinced my parents to let me do something that has been on my bucket list for a while: parasailing. And so we did. My mother and I went 1200 feet up in the air in the sound behind Duck, which is near Corolla. It was an amazing experience. I would highly recommend parasailing yourself sometime. Here is a picture of my mother and I on our adventure:

(I'm on the left)

What was also cool, on the way back to the docking area, our ship captain let me drive the boat. It was pretty straightforward, but also really cool at the same time. Afterwards, I went to fly a kite on the beach and say goodbye to the lovely ocean once more before having to head home. And then it was time to pack up and go.

We just arrived home today, Sunday, but only because last night we spent the night in Richmond with my mother’s friend. Her son is two, and absolutely adorable.

Short blog post, yes, but, at the same time, some pretty big news. It’s exciting to knock things off your bucket list. Mostly, though, it only makes me want to add more.

So start knocking them off!

Anyone else parasailed or want to go parasailing?

Have fun,

Sarah.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Outer Banks Part II


Hello again from the Outer Banks!

Tonight, I am taking leave of this beach and heading back to the wonderful land of Pennsylvania (but only for a day before I leave again!) This has been a good trip. Despite my musings that I could definitely see myself on a better beach, I can never deny a good vacation. Anything that relaxes me, let’s me read a good book and get some sun and swim in my favorite natural resource is a good vacation in my book. I will honestly be sad to leave it. Maybe it’ll be a good place to come back and write some day, for a few weeks at least. Beaches tend to have that effect on me. I feel as if even if I was working here I would have a certain carefree feeling I couldn’t get anywhere else.

Thursday was one of those more relaxing days, filled mostly with beaching. We also went to eat at a restaurant called Rt. 12 Steakhouse here in Corolla. As you can guess it was mostly meat, and as a non-meat eater, I couldn’t really tell you the results. My family really seemed to enjoy the selection there, though. The restaurant was recommended to us by others as well, so I’d say it was a pretty safe bet.

Friday, my dad signed our family up for a nature photography course at the science center on Currituck Beach. Now I am not much of a photographer, but I can vouch that it was a very interesting and informative class nonetheless. Basically our park ranger told us all of the basics of photography – use of lines, colors, positioning – and then showed us how to apply them to nature. I’ll show you a few of my shots. Like I said,I’m not much of a photographer, much less nature photography, but they’ll demonstrate what I did learn from the man.

An example of lines in a picture, and foreground and background.

There are bees on there, if you can't tell.
Again, excuse my photography skills.

He talked a lot about the use of vertical vs. horizontal. This is, obviously, a vertical example.


It was immensely hot outside, but we managed a good hour of taking pictures all around the wooded area next to the science center. I think my better nature photo came later in the day when we were feeding pancakes to the very hungry and very person-friendly turtles I mentioned in the last blog post:



So that’s the end to my vacation. Well, there is today. But, for the sake of keeping my blog posts shorter, you'll just have to tune in later tonight to see what it is that I did today. So just one more day. One more day that I’ll be doing something quite spectacular, something that has been on my bucket list for a while. 

Have you guys gone on vacation yet?

Have a good one,

Sarah.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Outer Banks


Hi everyone!

My life as of late has been the most hectic. I mean, that’s not unusual in the life of Sarah Taylor. I’ve been the busiest person I know even before I could walk. I guess that’s what I get coming from a family of people who love to travel. But, there have been some rather, well, I guess they would be significant changes in my life as of late.

For starters, I am now a high school graduate!

Happy days!

It has only hit me a couple of times that I’m going to be completely shifting my life around a lot in the next few months. So far after graduation life has continued on quite normally, if not less exciting than normal, with what I have to work every day and all that goodness. But I haven’t forgotten that I am going to die at the end of this year to what I’m still hoping is going to be a zombie apocalypse. So I have been cleaning the pool I work at thanking the divines for every single disgusting dead spider I have to sweep out of my pool cleaner.
Mostly so far I have decided I am going to greatly miss my few good friends that I have made over my years in high school. I probably couldn’t have maintained even small shreads of sanity without them.

In reference to college, I received my school schedule the other day. It looks pretty aligned with the kind of thing I would be expecting to be doing in my major (marine biology); chemistry and biology and that sort of thing. But I also got put into Precalculus, even when I’ve already taken a high school calculus course. Someone help me. It’s going to be a really unfortunate semester. But only that part. I’m hoping the rest will be something worth remembering. I’m honestly not very nervous about college, which many may find surprising. I just really want it to happen already.

So now, in the midst of my work and video game heavy summer, I am sitting currently on the couch in my family’s rented-for-a-week summer home in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. More specifically, we are staying on Corolla Beach ( which is apparently pronounced “cuh-rah-lah”). So far this has been exactly what I want in a vacation. I did aforemention that I am going into the field of marine biology, and living in landlocked Pennsylvania gives me a great depravity of the beautiful natural wonder we call the ocean. If I could stay all day and night down by the big blue I would.

My days have been the perfect combination of lazy-ness and moving around a bit. My family has been running around doing this and that, tourism things and such, but I’ve only joined in a couple ventures. Mostly just hanging around the beach boogie boarding, longboarding around the neighborhood, playing Frisbee, sleeping, that’s been my days thus far with a  few other things thrown in. Oh, and sitting in the hot tub. How can one forget that. On this particular day I did a more touristy thing: we went and visited the Kitty Hawk memorial, where the Wright brothers first invented and flew their airplane. I probably would’ve been more interested if I hadn’t been half asleep, as I’d gone boogie boarding for four hours the previous day and hadn’t slept well. It was pretty cool though. The best part of my day was driving along the beach looking for wild horses (which we didn’t get to see, sad face) and feeding very hungry and very friendly wild turtles. We fed them pancakes, right from our hands. They enjoyed it well enough. They didn’t let us pet them though.

I’ve been to better beaches, but Outer Banks is not so bad. It’s pretty around here. I’ve always liked beach scenery more than other views. Dunes and waves and muggy, salty air just appeals to me. I was surprised to find how small the beach was, though, with all the popularity is has. It took me a couple days to adjust to. I’m not a huge fan of overdeveloped, suburban looking areas, especially when they are more tourist-y looking places. I would much prefer something closer to Chincoteague beach, which is much less developed. Maybe that’s the ocean conservationist in me. Or just personal preference. I don’t know.

But it’s been fun.

How is your summer going? Any interesting adventures?

Sarah.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

A Couple Goals Met


Hello all.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but this was a pretty big event in my life and one that I’m so thrilled I got to do on my last year on earth before the zombies get me. Last week, the founder of To Write Love On Her Arms came to the campus that I live by to speak. Now, he is one of the few people I have honestly been dying to see over the past few years, so it was literally a dream come true when he came out on that stage and spoke. His presentation was very moving: I laughed, I cried, I was so inspired by everything he had to say. It was a pretty life altering event that will be forever stored as special in my memory. If Jamie Tworkowski ever comes to your town, or the whole entire To Write Love On Her Arms team comes, I would highly recommend going to one of their conferences. They are very well presented and very down to earth.  The honesty in the air is very refreshing, and it can help you kick start a bunch  of different changes in your communication or help seeking process.

Also, last Friday, a magical moment I have been also waiting for quite some time to witness was a live showing, called VyRT, by one of my all time favorite bands, 30 Seconds to Mars, introducing new songs and playing old ones in what they called The MARS Laboratory. It was an amazing moment, for quite a few reasons. Firstly, the band and the men who make it up themselves. They were all hilarious, and it was so much fun to feel like I was right there with them while they sang and told jokes and, yes, made vegan pancakes. And the music. The boys were accompanied by a string quartet, which, when combined with Jared Leto’s voice and the beautiful acoustic guitar, made for a stunning performance. And on top of all that, there were chat rooms while the stream was going on, so everyone, people from around the world, could talk and bond and communicate, mostly about the VyRT and the one thing we all love. I laughed. I cried. I was inspired. It was, all in all, an amazing night.

Also, now that it is May, 30/30 is done and over with. Sometime within the next week or so I will pick and choose some of the better poems that I wrote and share. I’d recommend you get out there and read everyone’s writing. It’s amazing what some people can come up with.

So, I knocked off a couple of things on my list.

How have you been doing?

Sarah. 

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The 52 Projects

Hello all.

There is a website I want to share with you. It is a website that I could probably only describe as life changing, and in your last year on earth, of course you want everything to be life changing. This website is called http://52projects.com/, and it is basically for what is implied in the title. A guy sometime ago came up with 52 projects that would deepen the appreciation for what you have and expand your horizons. The projects can be as simple as underlining your favorite passages in a book to riding a train to a random place and taking pictures of your destination. All of them provide a somewhat different perspective on things, though. I know I'm definitely planning on trying some of them during the summer when I have more free time. I would challenge you to do the same and see what the projects can do for your life.

Love,

Sarah.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

College and Juggling and Poems, Oh My!

Hello everyone!

I’m going to be upfront. Life has been stressful and busy lately. What with graduation coming up and school being that much harder, with all other activities and juggling at the same time personal negatives, it got a bit overwhelming for a while. Nevertheless, I am feeling chipper as ever again and looking forward to getting back on board with my life. It got chaotic and disorganized and I needed to pull myself back together. But here I am again.

College for me has been a big thing lately. Recently, over the weekend, I went to my school, Millersville University, for another open house solely for admitted students. I am looking forward to it. I’m sure most of you have been through this process, and many are going to go through. Experience is the best teacher, I suppose. I wouldn’t be able to do it alone, though. I have many thanks towards those who are helping me get prepared for this step. And a huge step it is!

How was university or graduating secondary school for all of you?

On another note, I got help from a teacher and she taught me to juggle! I know I wrote something like that on here not that long ago, and it was a pretty amazing and rewarding feeling to be able to actually do something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. I still need consistent practice (I am still not that great, but it is a work in progress), but I am not worried. It was a very basic process. Start with one ball, and throw it from the dominant hand to the other hand. The most important part from early on was to develop a good, easy toss that arced right about eye level. My teacher stressed that the most. Once one ball was down, then naturally two came in the progression. The hint that she gave then was to develop a good rhythm with the balls: when one is at the peak of its arc, throw the other. Even speak out loud if you have to. That part took the most practice, but once you had the rhythm and the easy toss down, getting three balls in wasn’t hard at all. The best part was, none of this took all that much time. She taught me in one class period and by the end of the class I was throwing three balls through a couple cycles. But, as I said, practice is key, so I have to be consistent with that.

Also, something that has been going on this whole month: National Poetry Writing Month, also known as NaPoWriMo or 30/30 (pronounced thirty thirty). Basically what happens the entire month is you write one poem a day. It’s a pretty daunting task, but very worth it once you see all the awesome poems that you can produce by the end of the month. It’s a little late in the month for those of you who haven’t previously heard of this, but there is always next year, and I would highly encourage participation. For those who do, I would love to read your poems! I will post a couple of mine on here some other day, maybe on the last day I will post my favorite. In the mean time, link me to blogs you know of or you like, and I will share them on here and take a look. Here is the  NaPoWriMo website: http://www.napowrimo.net/.

It’s nice to be writing again, I’ve missed all of you.

How have you been?

Adieu,

Sarah.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Summer Is Coming

I love summer.
But even more than I love summer, I desperately love Calvin and Hobbes.
I highly recommend that you read this lovely comic.
It is life changing.
It is good to be back.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Never, Never Give Up

Hello all.

This week for me has been an interesting one. Not so much in things done but in things pondered. Every now and then you have to step back from the business of life and give yourself time to think about things, especially when things are going rough for you. I’ve let my laziness get a hold of me again, but during this week it didn’t really bother me. I just need a break from everything to think.

Going to have a really short blog post tonight, with just a simple, simple message: in the face of adversity, keep going, because tomorrow morning the sun will still be shining.

I wanted to share a quote from one of my idols, Sir Winston Churchill, that gives me a good boost of motivation: “Sure I am of this, that you only have to endure to conquer. You only have to persevere to save yourselves.”

In a nutshell, keep going. There is always something better. Life will have its highs and lows, but you will only discover its wonderful highs if you get through the lows. I aim to fight through the lows as well as possible, because I have tasted the sweet, wonderful fruit that is an honestly content, joyful life.

If you are struggling with something, unload it. Cry, play music, run, dance, do something good for yourself. You are doing good. Keep breathing, take it slow, and give yourself a pat on the back. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve got this. I’m proud of all of you.

Sas aghapó.

Sarah.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Concert Review: Lights

Hello everyone.

It has been a very busy week for me, both in good ways and bad ways. Yesterday, however, was the best way to end a month and celebrate a leap day that I could imagine. As an avid concert goer, I can never turn down the invitation to attend a concert, especially not one with an artist I enjoy. Yesterday, I had the privilege to go to a concert featuring an electronica artist named Lights. And I’d like to advise you to do the same.

Lights is a gorgeous, tiny Canadian girl, dubbed at birth Valerie Poxleitner, who traveled around the world as a child of missionary parents and has apparently been making music from a very early age. She didn’t show up on the radar until a few years ago, but she has quickly gained popularity and is a rising star. I had heard of Lights a while ago, through a friend’s suggestion to listen to her, but I must say, and I did like her music, listening to it occasionally. After her concert, however, I now consider myself to be a big fan.

I have been to quite a few concerts in my short time on earth, but Lights’ definitely ranks in the top five of the best shows that I’ve seen. The combination of the infectious, bass heavy electronica, her gorgeous voice, and the amazing lightshow was one of the best I’ve ever seen. It was impossible not to enjoy everything coming together in a way so perfect that I haven’t exactly seen in many other concerts. Plus, Lights’ energy is also more than infectious. You can’t help smile at her; she wore a constant grin and was always dancing on stage, and she gets very into her music, obviously enjoying herself. I was in love with the concert after the first few songs, but the one that really seized me personally was her song “Flux and Flow.” Everything fell perfectly in place on that song; not only is it pretty intense to begin with, but the heavy bass combined with strobe lights and laser pointers timed perfectly to the music and Lights just rocking out on stage made it amazing.

The night was wrapped up perfectly when my friend with whom I went and I got to meet her. After waiting nearly an hour after the show, she finally stepped out of her tour bus and my friend and I got her autograph and pictures with her. She was super nice, and her equally fantastic fiancé Beau Bokan of Blessthefall was there as well.
Lights and I.

All in all, it was a beyond fantastic night. If you have never heard of Lights or haven’t give her a listen, I encourage you to do so. And then I encourage all of you to try and get to her concert. You won’t be disappointed.

Have a good one, and make as many adventures as you can.

Sarah.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Something to NOT Do: Catch Your Car On Fire

Hi everyone.

I had a very interesting weekend. Actually, it was pretty normal until about 10 PM last night.

You see, this is what happened: My friend and I were off to another friend’s house with the goal of watching movies and making silly videos all night. It was dark and incredible snowy, and I had a car that was not very well suited to the weather conditions. Needless to say, the two of us got stuck on a hill and ended up overheating my engine. After getting off of said hill, I noticed we were low on gas, so, luckily, my friend new someone who lived nearby and thought they might have some gas we could borrow to make it to the next town. As soon as we got out of the car, I noticed the hood was billowing smoke. I also noticed something that made my stomach drop: what looked like an ember from a fire was on my car. When I went to pull it off, I noticed that the hood of my car was melting.

What subsequently followed was, naturally, calling 911. The woman whose drive way we pulled into was on it, while their neighbor brought over a fire extinguisher to try and control the flames burning from the hood of my car. I called my family, and my friend grabbed what he could from the car. The flames kept growing stronger and stronger though, and the man had to give up the fight against the fire with the extinguisher. For the next ten minutes until the fire department got there, I watched my car become engulfed in flames.

Luckily, we are both okay and there was nothing terribly valuable in the car. It was still a terrifying experience that I would never recommend for anyone. I’m still stressed about it, but I’m sure that will fade in time. What I did take out of this though, is that it’s a really good time to be thankful and to just tell everyone I love how much I do love them, because near death experiences tend to make you see the brighter side of things more often than not.

I know I’ve complained about my more frequent than not car troubles on here before, and I have to say I am officially done with cars for a while. They stress me out.

I’m glad to be here still.

I’m glad you’re here.

Uħibbak, all of you.

Sarah.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

To Write Love On Her Arms

Hi again!

Tonight I’d like to share with you another charity related tidbit; my personal favorite nonprofit, actually. To Write Love On Her Arms is its name, and it is dedicated to finding help and providing support for those who are suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts, self harm, and addiction. While these things may be rather foreign to some people, they are definitely very real and not very foreign to me. I have known many, many people and had many friends go through at least one- if not more- of the things To Write Love On Her Arms (abbreviated TWLOHA) fights against. Because it has affected me the most personally, it is probably the charity that I am most passionate about. But more about that later.

I would sit here and try to tell you all about what TWLOHA is about, but I would like them to tell you their vision in their own beautiful written words: http://www.twloha.com/vision/. I plead you visit that site and at least give it a look over.

I’ve known about them for a while, and I can’t even quite remember how I came to first hear about TWLOHA. I think it was either through one of their shirts that I saw someone wearing, or possibly from seeing others participate in To Write Love On Her Arms day, which is a fan created day in which everyone writes love on their arms for a day in support of the charity. However so, it has become a part of my life that I can’t help but brag about. Not only does the group have their own day, but they also have their own conferences, called MOVE conferences, in which anyone can attend to learn about their vision, how to help themselves, and how to help others. I can only imagine that To Write Love On Her Arms has saved hundreds of lives through these, and also the stands that they keep open at various concerts throughout the year by sponsoring bands.

To Write Love On Her Arms also has a fancorp community, a street team that they wouldn’t be able to do much without. This street team is there to not only support TWLOHA , promote it, and gain new supporters, but also to help complete TWLOHA’s vision by completing outreach projects. The street team can give support by doing everything from sharing TWLOHA on various social networking sites to wearing a TWLOHA shirt while volunteering somewhere. The team also gives support to the community in little ways: one of the orders that I have done recently involved writing something encouraging on a post it note and leaving it in a public place. Whatever the thing is, big or small, the biggest reward comes in the form of the feeling that you are helping others, and maybe even actually helping someone out by volunteering or referring them to the organization. They also hand out reward points which you can spend to get merchandise from their store, but nothing compares to how awesome it is to support the charity.

I would suggest you at least check their main page out, and if you’re interested, just keep exploring the site to find out more. If you’re really into it then I definitely suggest you join the street team and become active. Whatever you do, I’d also like you to share your personal favorite charities with me below. I’d be really interested to see what everyone is passionate about.

Until next time,

Sarah.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Volunteering & New York City

Hi again.

I’d just like to share with you a little bit about an amazing opportunity that came to me. A few weeks ago a friend of mine got me in touch with a guy who was leading a mission trip of sorts to New York City. Namely what we would be doing there would be helping the homeless. I love doing things like that, so I was all over it and ready to go, even if it did mean I was going with a bunch of people I’ve never met before. That’s the fun of it though, going out and trying new things in sometimes scary situations. I wasn’t intimidated really, but it was definitely an out of comfort zone experience.

Anyway, it was one of the most amazing weekends of my life. If you’ve never done any kind of volunteer work, I would highly recommend it. Even if it doesn’t seem like something you’d like, try it anyway. Almost always I’ve found people come out of volunteer experiences feeling good about themselves and with a happier attitude about life, which I think is something we all need. It definitely doesn’t have to be as out there as going to New York City to hand out blankets and sandwiches to homeless people in bus stations at one in the morning; it could just be going to your nearby Animal Shelter or even a retirement home. Just anything to get you out there helping somebody or something for the better good.

The people who I went with were amazing as well. I’m not sure I’ve ever been around a more welcoming, kind group of people in my life. I’ve decided that I like going places with random people that I’ve never met before; it presents a great opportunity to get to know people who you haven’t known for forever. Growing up in a small town it’s hard to find people within a fifty mile radius who I don’t at least know by word of mouth, so it was nice to get out there with some people who I’d never met or even heard of before.

So that’s my little you should volunteer schpiel. But honestly, it’s definitely an experience, and even if you don’t enjoy helping others (though I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t) at least you’d take something away from it. It’d be good for anyone, guaranteed. And it’s always nice to make our world a little bit of a better place.

So get out there and do something that will change your life and someone else’s!

Sarah.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Raving About: Skrillex

Hello all.

For you today, I don’t have much, just something short and sweet. I’d like to rant to you about one of my favorite musicians, and though I’m a little late on reviewing his rise to fame (quite a few years late), I still think he deserves to be talked about, just in case some of you don’t know who he is. That musician’s name is Skrillex, and if you haven’t heard of him, please, I beg you, go look him up and take a look at his music.

Skrillex is just the stage name for this guy Sonny Moore, who is probably one of the greatest musicians of our time, in my opinion. Not only can this guy create amazing dubstep, which is an off genre of techno, but what most people don’t know is he was also the lead singer a while ago for a band called From First To Last. He can sing and play guitar. Pretty good too. Basically, he’s got every area of music covered pretty well, and he’s only twenty four. He started in From First to Last when he was just fifteen years old.

This guy basically made an entire genre famous almost overnight by music standards. I’ve been listening to Skrillex for a while, but one day I woke up and it seemed like the entire world was suddenly obsessed with his music. He hasn’t stopped there. With his recent new EP, Bangarang, Skrill has only climbed the rungs of success even more. He has quickly become one of my favorite musicians ever, and I can’t help but brag about his talent. So I would really enjoy it if you  checked him out. He won’t waste your time, I promise.

Ich liebe dich,

Sarah. 

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Why You Should Play An Instrument

Hello everyone.

Again, I have not been holding true to my word and I have been a slacker. Please forgive me.

My first report is that my juggling has been going… fairly well. We’ll leave it at that. I am a very uncoordinated person, so the fact that I can keep three balls in the air for even a couple of seconds is pretty impressive. I’ve also decided to try and add yoga to my daily schedule. Which is pretty busy to begin with. I think I might as well train myself to become an insomniac, because that seems the way my life is going. I actually like staying up pretty late. I feel like I get a lot more accomplished. Well, at least at night. The next morning my body is not so sure of that.

But there is also something that I’ve been meaning to post about: why you should learn to play a musical instrument as soon as possible, if you don’t already. Obviously there are several benefits to doing so.

Firstly, it gives you a sense of accomplishment. I know better than most that it’s hard to learn instruments at first, given that I play quite a few of them, but once you stick to it, there is nothing more gratifying that saying you can play that instrument and being able to learn whatever song you want on your chosen instrument. Granted, some are easier than other (bongos vs. clarinet) but they are all worth it in the end, because the learning never stops. Music is a constant process, and I think that’s part of what makes it so wonderful. You can always learn new songs or tunes on your instrument and keep feeling that same sense of accomplishment every time.

Secondly, the social aspect of it. I have been to so many parties, gatherings, social events, even places like a park where there are just people wandering around where either myself or someone else has broken out a guitar, and people just gravitate towards it. Guitar is the easiest to make friends using, but when you’re with others and you have your instrument, you can just pick it up and bam, almost always instant admiration. I have met countless people and made friends out of those I’d never even spoken to before just because someone or myself had a guitar out and was strumming it. It’s such a great way to break the ice. Another great way to meet others is to play a weird instrument that not many people can claim they play. I play ukulele, which usually results in people coming over and commenting on it. My friend plays the didgeridoo and will carry it around with him while we are out, and you wouldn’t believe how many people he meets just by having it on his back. It’s amazing.

Thirdly, and a mix of the first two, is the places playing an instrument will take you. Now not everyone makes money off of playing music, and it requires one to be really good at their chosen instrument to do so, but hey, if it becomes your passion, go for it! If all you ever even do is strum on your guitar alone in your room, there is still a certain gratification that you get from it that you can’t get anywhere else. The fun things you can do with an instrument and the people you meet are bonuses, but nothing ever holds a candle to how it feels to strum that first chord or learn your first song or play in front of your first crowd. It’s a different kind of experience that everyone should get.

That’s all I have for you tonight. I promise to start posting more often again.

Je T’aime,

Sarah.

Monday, January 23, 2012

What's Going On.

Hello all.

I honestly don’t have much to say today, just a few little tidbits about what I’ve been doing and what I’m going to be doing.

Over the weekend I went camping at a place up near Erie in Pennsylvania called Camp Judson. I’m always a fan of getaways, but Judson is a pretty special place. We had a small group of people with us, twenty or so, and it may be the first group of people I’ve ever been camping with where we all got along the whole time, which was pretty miraculous. Usually someone gets mad at each other when I go camping with lots of people. It was probably one of the most relaxing atmospheres I’ve been in in a really long time. It was so natural to be with the people there that it was like being around family. So, yeah. They were basically one of my many mini families. Which are very nice to have. It’s wonderful to be able to go somewhere else away from those who actually share your blood and have such a strong bond that’s unique in a way that your bond with other friends isn’t. I hope someone understands what I’m saying. It’s really fantastic actually. I love my families.

On other notes, there are a couple of things that I am going to be starting. The first is that I’m going to attempt to make a violin cover of Echelon by 30 Seconds to Mars (which my friend helped me in deciding, thank you), but it might take a while. Hopefully not too long, though. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to these things so I won’t let it be anything but so, and that can take me a while. But I hope it comes out wonderful whenever I’m done with it. The second is that I have decided to learn to juggle, as to knock off one of my bucket list items that I can actually do during the winter. I will be documenting my struggle to juggle on here, so stay tuned. Hopefully that one doesn’t take me too long to learn either, but knowing my excellent coordination skills it could take a while.

That’s really all I have for you for now. I hope you’re having a great time living life.

Ti amo,

Sarah.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Best Weird Hobby You Should Try

There are definitely strange hobbies out there. I mean, people do things like host national mooing contests and or unicycle for fun. Not that unicycling is weird, I’ve known many a unicycler. Personally, I obsessively collect pennies. I will throw away all other change and just keep the pennies. I harass friends to give me their pennies. I have so many I’ve had to start multiple jars for them. So that’s my weird hobby.

Sure, I’ve heard of a lot of weird hobbies before. Some time ago in my internet surfing, though, I stumbled across perhaps my favorite weird hobby ever, and one that I definitely want to try some day: extreme ironing. Yes, you heard me right. Extreme ironing.

So what is extreme ironing? Well, it’s pretty self explanatory. People take their ironing boards and a shirt and go iron in extreme conditions. I’ll show you some pictures, but perhaps my favorite one I’ve ever found of extreme ironing was a guy who was hanging suspended in the air by a rope at least a couple thousand feet off of a cliff, sitting there with his ironing board, ironing away. If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is.

But enough talk. I’ll let you see a few pictures for yourself.

Skydiving ironing.

Scuba diving ironing.

Antarctic ironing.

Back of a taxi ironing.

In the middle of the highway ironing.

You get the gist. Luckily, extreme ironing can be as simple as riding an intertube while ironing or placing your ironing board on the back of a cow, so it shouldn’t be that difficult for me to try this year. I think whenever it gets warm out again, I’m going to grab my kayak, head to our river, and try some extreme ironing. Hold me to that.

Until I can do that, I hope you find some way to do it. Maybe on a ski slope. Or for those of you in warmer areas, the possibilities are endless.

Have fun,

Sarah.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Donkey Basketball: If You Never Get to Try It, At Least Watch It.

Sorry to everyone for my lack of blog posting recently. I have been being lazy and that is very bad of me. Again, apologies.

But I would like to jump right to the point. There is something I did last week that, up until that day, I swore that my teacher was making it up. It was a little something called Donkey Basketball. It is exactly what it sounds like: the players ride donkeys while attempting to play basketball.

Now, this all got started because I am in a club called Science Olympiad. I’m sure some people have heard of it, others not. Basically, it is a scientific competition where we compete against other schools in varying areas of science. For example, last year I won a medal in ornithology, which is the study of birds. There are scientific areas ranging from biological things such as that to physics and chemistry. Anyway, enough about that. That’s not what I’m trying to tell you about here.

Our club needed to do a fundraiser so we could go to the competition this year, and our advisor right off the bat said that we were going to do Donkey Basketball. I had never even dreamed of such a thing, let alone heard of it, and for months I was suspicious of whether or not he was being serious. That is, until I found myself selling tickets to the students and general population. Even then, it was hard to believe I was going to do something as ridiculous as ride a donkey and play basketball at the same time.

Well the night finally came, and I found myself standing in a room with the Donkey Basketball owner, having him explain the rules to us. Needless to say what followed was probably one of the most interesting things I might ever see, no matter where I go. I don’t remember my first donkey’s name, but it was white and tall and hard to get on. At first, I just pulled on it’s reins and led it around the gym attempting to get the ball so that I could pass it to someone on a donkey on my team. In order to score a basket the team member who was shooting had to be on the donkey. My donkey was pretty easy to drag around, so I figured I might as well try and climb on it and ride it around. I figured it couldn’t be much worse than riding a horse, which I have experience doing. How bad of me to assume things like that.

The donkey started going really fast, as the man that owned the company was chasing them around the court with some stick that make noises when he hit it against the ground. I must’ve gotten freaked out or the donkey must’ve bucked or something, I’m not entirely sure, but the next thing I knew, I had fallen off my donkey and was laying on the ground with a throbbing left leg. Poor me. I stood up, and naturally limped painfully after my donkey. I didn’t let them take me out for a while though; I guess the reason that they did end up taking me out of the game was because I continued to limp for several minutes afterwards, something I didn’t notice until later.

For the next few days (and even until today) the lower left area of my back is in pain, though it was the worst the day after. My whole leg just stopped hurting yesterday. Ouch.

When I did convince them to let me back in, I managed to snag a donkey that was very… easy to ride. You must understand, I stand very tall for a girl at six feet, and this donkey was only about three feet, at the tallest. So for the rest of the game, instead of riding my donkey, I sort of just walked while I was on its back. Yeah. People got a kick out of that.

The picture to your left would be me (in the tie dye and the blue helmet) riding (or more or less walking while on its back) that tiny little donkey.

It was an interesting experience. If you ever, ever get the chance to see or even participate in something like this, I would highly recommend it. The laughs are endless, guaranteed. That is, unless for some reason you view it as animal cruelty. Then the laughs are rather limited, I would say.

So get out there and try it. Or just try something as wacky and bizarre as it. There are some pretty awesomely bizarre things out there. Maybe I’ll make a blog post of all the weird hobbies people have that I want to try.

Until then, te amo.

Sarah.

Monday, January 9, 2012

A Lament Mostly About Cars and Gas Stations But Also Including Southern Cooking

Have you ever just had one of those nights where things don’t want to go right for you?

Yeah, that happened to me tonight, mostly with my car. Now, I’m a gigantic fan of cars and all; they’re nice for getting places and doing things. But when they don’t want to cooperate, they are just downright annoying useless pieces of machinery. Can I get an amen from the congregation?

Anyway, what brought me upon this topic was my car being a particularly annoying piece of machinery tonight. Actually, it was more or less the absent mindedness of the owner and also the stupid gas stations that the car was attempting to be filled up at. I have to make a weekly trek to a town nearby called Brookville to go to my violin lesson (more on that later) and every time I go my mom usually asks me to fill up gas for her. Today, she asked me to go to Country Fair to get a gas card and use that to pay, but I didn’t know how to do that and didn’t leave early enough to have time, so I thought I’d make it quick and just stop at Flying J. So I pull in there, pull up to the gas pump and put in all my information and that good stuff, but when I pull out the nozzle to fill up my tank, the pump nozzle does not want to fit into the hole! I kid you not, I sat there for five minutes looking like an idiot trying to shove that thing in there before finally giving up and driving to my lesson. I thought, what the heck, I’ll just go to Country Fair after the lesson and get the gas card. Feeling brave, was I.
So I go to my lesson and it’s all fine and dandy. Once I got out I went right on over to Country Fair to get that gas card. I go in, enter my mom’s pin number on her debit card, get the gas card, and I’m thinking things are going fine now. Boy was I wrong. The dumb lady didn’t put any of the money onto the gas card, and dumb me didn’t realize after fifteen minutes of attempting to use the gas card that I should just go back inside and ask her about it. Needless to say, I was very frustrated and just used normal money to pay, which was apparently not the brightest idea. Sigh.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, my highway drive home just added to my bad time. For starters, I pulled into the highway ramp for those getting off the highway, and only noticed when I saw a big truck pulling off and driving right my way. I nearly had a heart attack. Obviously I am still alive (I was not hit and did not have a full on heart attack) but I am still very flustered right now from that. Oh, and then when I actually get on the highway, this trucker nearly hits me a couple times and keeps trying to pass me while he’s in the right lane and I’m trying to get to my exit. I had to speed up to 90 mph and swerve around in front of him to barely make it to the exit I was going to.

Alright. I’m done now. I just feel like most people can empathize with car/highway/gas station troubles, even if a couple of them were my fault. I guess that’s my adventure for the day.

On a lighter note, my friend and I today were talking about how delicious southern cooking was, and it reminded me of a particular southern food that I am really in the mood for right now: jambalaya. Being born in Alabama to a very long lineage of southerners and raised in Mississippi, I would say that their cuisine is pretty much flowing in my blood. All I have to say is for once, I am happy that WalMart is a national chain and stocks not only food you’d eat anywhere else but also southern staples, such as grits or okra. Over the years I’ve made most of my friends try southern cuisine, and most haven’t liked it, but I guarantee that no matter who you are you would probably like jambalaya. Because I am too lazy to look up our family recipe for it, I am just going to link to Emeril Lagasse’s Cajun Jambalaya: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/cajun-jambalaya-recipe2/index.html. You cannot go wrong with Emeril, so I thought it was pretty fool proof. Sounds tasty to me.

I’m glad we got that off on a good note, and I really hope whoever reads this will put some thought into trying the jambalaya, or a similar recipe. And also, thank you for listening to my car/highway/gas station rant. It was appreciated, believe me.

So until next time, go out there and have a couple adventures.

Sarah.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

A First Week's End

Hello all.

I’ve decided that the end of the week will just be a time for updating how things are going, letting everyone know what the plans for the future are, and probably sharing something cool depending on whether or not I have something cool to share. This particular week I will be doing all three, so everyone should be excited and show me their excitement.

First and foremost, I’ve got a little tale to tell. My “new year resolution” (it is put in quotation marks because I don’t exactly believe in making new year resolutions) this year was to start running every morning before school again, like I had been doing for the first couple months of the year. I would’ve continued my (very) early morning physical routine had it not been for an unfortunate event that sort of, quite literally, stopped me in my tracks.

Back then in the fall before Pennsylvania gets cold I would run outside on the streets around my house. The problem with this is that it was very, very dark, as I would usually run before six in the morning. Not only am I rather terrified of the dark (a little fact I forgot about when I started, but it didn’t stop me) but it being so pitch black outside made it rather difficult to see. One morning I decided I was going to lengthen my running time, so I took a different, longer path. As I was running on the side of the road, little did I know this new path had a drainage ditch about my height that went straight down right smack in the middle of it. Needless to say, one minute I was running and minding my own business, the next I was staring into a drainage pipe and wondering where the heck I was and why I was sitting in a puddle of water.

Woops.

Needless to say my new found fear of big holes sort of stopped me for a while, but I am fully intentional on starting to run again in the morning, though this time at a local gym. Hopefully no magical holes appear on the treadmill or I might give up running forever.

On a lighter note, the cool thing I would like to share with you this week happens to be one of my favorite websites of all time. It is called www.wanelo.com, and I think you should all go check it out because it is worth every second that you spend browsing it. It is a shopping site, but not exactly an average one. Instead of selling their own products, wanelo has its users post whatever they like that they’ve found on the internet, and every other user and the public can browse through. It’s sort of like polyvore or pinterest, I’d suppose, though I find wanelo’s set up much easier to use and navigate. Plus, most of the items are there are quirky and unusual, things you really wouldn’t find on any other site. I would recommend it to anybody, as they have everything from clothing to cooking utensils and books to furniture, but it is especially directed towards those with a flair for indie style.

Check it out, it’s pretty sweet.

Before I wrap up, I’d like to tell you one thing that’s on the bucket list that is going to take me all year to do. I saw it on a blog somewhere, though the name of said blog is now lost to me. From now on in my end of the week post, I’m going to be posting the phrase “I love you” in a different language. I think it’d be fun to learn to say such a common and wonderful phrase in 52 different languages; one for every week of the year. So this week, we’ll keep it simple and just start with plain old English.
I love you guys.

Have a great next week, and fill it with adventures beyond your imagination.

Sarah.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Four Ways to Keep Your New Habits

This season is a season that many find an inspiring one; it also one that has frustrated and irritated many. Around this time every year, people make their new year’s resolutions and vow that this year will be different. This year, they will lose that weight. This year, they will find true love. This year, they will learn to juggle and travel the world. Whatever it may be, we’ve all got new things we want to incorporate into our life. There always seems to be one problem though: making those new things stick.

You know what I mean. Being a healthier person is definitely one of the biggest ones that people tend to want to do. Problem is, most people never do it. I wish I could find some sort of percentage of people who actually complete the goals that they set for themselves and fully form their new habits. Guarantee it would be ridiculously low; lower than it ought to be. I’m not particularly different than anyone else when it comes to this, but I have managed to form for myself some really awesome habits and also teach myself how to do some really awesome things. This is what I’ve found from my experience forming new habits:

4. Be held accountable. This one is pretty basic, but a lot of people, especially shy people like me, tend to overlook it. It’s sort of ridiculous how easy it is to remember to keep doing something when you’ve got friends and family to remind you to do it and be proud of you when you do accomplish a goal. Nothing in life that you go through should ever be done alone, so telling someone about a habit you are trying to form is almost vitally important. They can help to motivate you when you’re down or remind you when you’ve forgotten. It may be frustrating sometimes, especially when electing someone to help you break a bad habit (like biting your fingernails), but in the end, it is more than worth it.

3. Take it slow. This may be on every single habit forming list in the universe, but it is also one that holds the truest. When people start a new project, from making new friends to learning to sew, there is always that rush of energy that motivates you for the first few days or weeks. Almost always after, folks tend to go into a slump. Why? Well, the main reason is that everyone nowadays wants instant gratification. Sometimes that can happen, like finally getting a new haircut you wanted, but more often than not, habits and new projects take time. You are not going to lose ten pounds over night, and that is something you must accept. You are not going to be able to run a marathon overnight, let alone in a month of training if you start from square one. If you keep at it, though, the final product is more than rewarding. So give it some time and take baby steps.

2. Do it your way. This is something I’d wish some self improvement blog had told me years ago, but something I had to figure out for myself. There is no plan out there for anything, from learning a new instrument to diets or being happy, whatever can come to your mind, that is 100% effective. In fact, most of the times, most people need to personalize more than they think they do. We are all individual, and upon realizing this we must also realize that the South Beach Diet may not work for everyone, and following a list on how to organize your life may just not be privy to your situation. So figure out what works for you and roll with it. You can even take from many different resources or get creative and come up with your own plan. All that really matters though is that you…

1. Just do it. People can give you all the advice in the world, but if you don’t take the initiative to just get out there and change things, then all that advice is going to be useless rabble in your head. You can pump yourself up all you want, but if you chicken out before the main event it is never going to get you anywhere. It’s not as scary as it seems to just do things. Take it from someone who has fears of everything, and has to conquer many of them on a daily basis. Despite whatever scares you, whatever you tell yourself, don’t delay. Just do it. Don’t wait for a holiday or next week or next month to start. There is no better time than now.

So that’s my little schpiel. I hope it is enjoyed and put to good use; I know I certainly intend on putting it to use. So until next time, keep living it up.

Sarah.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

What Will You Be Doing During Earth's Last Year?

For starters, I should probably introduce myself.

My name is Sarah. I am 18 years old. I live in a small town in the middle of western Pennsylvania, where nothing special really happens on a day-to-day basis, but it’s home. I like almost everything and dislike almost nothing. There is really nothing extraordinary about me, at least as far as I can tell. But what I plan to do… maybe that will be extraordinary.

As you all may know, there is this rumor flying about (I’m sure you’ve heard it by now) that the end of the world is coming on December 21st, 2012. Who knows what is going to happen on that day. Personally, I am rooting for either a rather clichéd zombie apocalypse (we’re talking full out World War Z) or some really cool alignment-of-the-planets-makes-the-world-go-boom nonsense. Whatever conspiracy theory fits your taste, it’s coming.

So what are you going to do since the world is supposedly ending? Most people are going to laugh it off and continue life like normal. While the world might end and it might not, I know what I’ll be doing: knocking off as many bucket list items as I possibly can this year and, as best as I can, living it up with my friends and family. I would like to take the opportunity and excuse of the world ending to make myself a better person and to do as many fun and crazy things that I can before it’s all over. Basically, I’m going to make it a year that I will never regret, and a year of fun times that I’ll be able to carry into the next life with me. And I’m going to track it the whole way.

Today, January 1, 2012, marks the first day of a new year, and a new, fantastic year it is going to be. Seeing as I slept most of the day away after staying awake all night at a NYE party, starting tomorrow, things will be going into effect. But procrastination of any sort will not be tolerated or continued, I swear. I’ve already got many of the things I want to do planned out, and updating often is going to be a new favorite hobby, I can already tell.

But honestly, it’s pretty boring if I do this alone and don’t really impact people with the things I am going to share, be it a crazy adventure, a new craft, or whatever is on the TV. I invite you to join me in living a crazy life for the last year of our lives.

As many great people have previously said, “If not now, when?”

I look forward to seeing our adventures that the good old two thousand and twelve brings.

Sarah.