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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 21^st, 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.