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What I was Like in High School (with photographic evidence)

July 2, 2011 by carol anne 4 Comments

Day 2 of Bloggy Summer Camp, What were you like in high school? What extracurricular activities, if any, did you take part in during high school? Did you consider yourself a writer?


me, sophomore year

Oh my gosh! What was I like in high school? I was a nerdy girl for sure but I was not without friends or people to eat lunch with. For me high school was a growing period. I started high school in the third track, which greatly disappointed my mother and I suppose myself. By senior year I’d worked my way up to first track and graduated 66th out of 233 girls. I don’t think I went one marking period without honors of some sort.

I suppose to tell you about myself in high school I’d have to first tell you about myself in grade (elementary) school. I was a misfit, a shy, nervous kid with an over-protective and anxious mother. If you are unsure how closely related humans are to the animal kingdom look no further than elementary school classrooms and schoolyards. Children can definitely sniff out the weaker child. I hated going to school each day so I looked forward to leaving the confines of my really, really, very small grade school to the much bigger high school.

I’m a misfit. I’ve always been a misfit but I found people who liked me as I was (am) in high school. I expanded my horizons and I blossomed as a person in high school. Back in grade school my second grade teacher told my mom that the other kids were bullying me and that I should grow a backbone. Yeah, I don’t know. I went to Catholic school. What can I say? I suppose it took until my freshman year in high school to grow that backbone. It was then that I had my most proud moment. I’m stealing the next snippet from my About Me section here on Soapboxville. One of my proudest high school moments came during freshman year in my religion class. A girl who liked to bully me (and I’m sure others) wanted my homework, but it was time to hand it in and I was more afraid of the nun who taught the class than the aforementioned bully so I wouldn’t give it to her. She had her friend (*snickers* they always have the friends do the dirty work) tell me to meet her in the bathroom after school. Being no dummy I just said no and lived in mortal fear for a few days. She never did anything and I’ve refused to allow anyone to bully me since.

It was that moment and an amazing algebra teacher that gave me legs to stand on and confidence. I finally started passing math and with that incredible achievement my spirits were bolstered, as was my self-esteem. From there I began my journey to adulthood. From there I walked toward the positive and the rest of my life. Somewhere between freshman year and graduation I learned to love and believe in myself. Every ounce of success I’ve ever had I owe to Ms. Danovich (algebra teacher) and that moment freshman year. Dear 2nd grade teacher, I grew that backbone and wings with no help from you.

Changing gears to move on to fluffier topics, I was a hair metal fan during the New Kids on the Block craze. I loved Bon Jovi and Motley Crue and Poison and Guns and Roses. I actually bought Appetite for Destruction on cassette on my way home from school at a small record shop on Passyunk Ave. I went to my first concert at the Philadelphia Spectrum (RIP) during my freshman year. We saw Bon Jovi. I went with my best friend Jenn and mom sent my brother with us for protection. *laughs*

In my life I’ve never wanted to be anything but a writer. My high school had a yearly literary publication that was distributed with our yearbooks, The Patroness. I was published twice during my 4 years. I don’t remember the second poem but this is the first poem I ever had published. I wish I could find my copies of The Patroness so I could remember what my second poem was.

Dancing Here Alone

Dancing here alone I hear a beautiful melody

a melancholy melody

Played on a piano

A beautiful, beautiful song

As I dance here all alone

All by myself

I dance so quietly

So beautifully

So, so alone

All by myself

The melody plays on and on

Inside my head I hear it

I feel it in my limbs

I dance, I dance

In my heart I feel it

In my ears I hear it

Through my feet I channel it

So alone

Alone in my heart

Alone in my room

Alone

I hear a beautiful melody

A melancholy melody

I think that’s about it for tonight’s walk down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed reminiscing about my high school years with me.

Graduation Photo

For even more embarrassing high school-themed photos visit my Embarrassing Photos — The Prom Pics post here.

Posted in: General Ramblings, Soul Baring Ramblings Tagged: high school memories

Soapboxville Comes To You From Here

July 1, 2011 by carol anne 2 Comments

Hey! Good afternoon kids. I hope this note finds you all deep in preparations for your Independence Day celebrations. We don’t have much planned this year. I think the most we’ll do is perhaps catch a showing of the new Transformers movie. It’s going to be hot and I’m still feeling the tiring effects of my radiation treatments.

As you know I’ve been trying to blog twice a day since my treatments ended so that I can write on topics other than myself and to keep my mind sharp after many months of dwelling on sickness and myself. I stumbled upon Calliope’s Summer Camp project on Twitter this morning and decided to sign up. Today’s assignment is an easy one, provide a photo or sketch or dramatic rendering of the space where you normally blog.

I actually share my space with Cupcake and Snowball so on my floor under the desk you will see kitty toys and what I think must be the pieces of an orange toy that Cuppy loved to death, literally. I can’t seem to find it but I have found it’s eyes, whiskers and some fuzz. *laughs* Moving on, I enjoy sharing my space with Cuppy and Snowy, lately Cuppy’s been joining me as I blog in the afternoon.

The first photo is of my desk and window. The second photo is of the kitties’ area (taken a few years ago now) and the last one is of Cuppy joining me one afternoon this weekend.

Posted in: General Ramblings, Photos Tagged: Cuppy, Photos, Summer Camp, Where I Blog

Writing With Writing Prompts (flexing my mental muscles)

June 30, 2011 by carol anne 7 Comments

Today I’m flexing my mental muscles using writing prompts. The first is the 100 Word Challenge from Verbal Verbosity’s site. The second is a prompt from Writing Basics Magazine.

The 100 Word Challenge focuses on one word, which is resistance. This is my first attempt at the 100 Word Challenge and normally I just write about what I’m thinking or feeling at that moment. Forming 100 words around one word is more difficult than you’d imagine. So with that said I offer you my first attempt at the 100 Word Challenge. (cover your eyes things are about to get ugly)

Resistance

“You know,” he said, “Only the Borg believe that resistance is futile. Don’t you?” I was taken with his geeky charm and his courage of conviction. I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to take him home and feed him soup or follow him on this week’s crusade.

He pushed his glasses back up his nose and smiled at me. Part Clark Kent, part Victor Laszlo, part Sam Seaborn he continued on explaining that I in no way needed to accompany him on this latest quest to save the world from or perhaps for the baby seals. I was too distracted by the tape on his glasses to answer.

109 words (I’m wordy I can’t help myself)

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The writing prompt from Writing Basics asks you to spend 30 minutes writing on a certain topic. This week’s topic is: You’re late for work because you overslept, but your boss hates oversleeps. He does love entertaining stories so create an outlandish reason as to why you were late. The rules also say not to waste time revising or haggling over word use so please expect this first attempt to be a rough, rough, very rough draft. I normally don’t write fiction so this is a big stretch for me.

Why I’m Late For Work

*short girl rushes through office door looking disheveled with dripping hair* *She rambles excitedly at her rather stern looking boss.*

Oh my God Bill, you’ll never guess what happened to me. A transformer blew up at the end of my block last night. Yes. You heard me correctly. A transformer, yes an electric transformer blew up. Well I suppose technically it blew up after being drove into by a tractor trailer which skidded on the icy road and hit the pole, which fell on Mr. Digiovanni’s car, which then brought the pole and transformer crashing into the church yard across the street. You should have heard it. It sounded like an explosion. What? Oh yeah I guess it was an explosion. But it sounded like such a bigger explosion.

We’ve been sitting in the dark since at least midnight. I haven’t had a clock to look at since the power went out so I’m not quite sure what time exactly everything happened. Of course there was no sleep to be had with all the noise and lights from the squad of emergency vehicles dispatched to the scene, not to mention the generators and power tools the guys from the power company were using to you know turn the lights back on.

I don’t know what that truck driver was thinking driving out on those icy roads last night. What would possess someone to be out on the road driving a 48 footer in the dark during an ice storm?

It’s a good thing we were already prepared for the overnight ice storm. I already had candles and matches out on the kitchen counter in case the ice brought power lines down. I’m so glad I stopped at the store on my way home last night to buy batteries for my flashlights. Who knew? Go figure.

I was dozing off on the couch with Boris snoozing on the floor next to me. *laughs* No. Boris is not my husband. Boris is my 100 pound Samoyed. I think I started dozing while watching the re-air of Keith Olbermann’s new show on the Current TV. The house was nice and cozy and the streets outside were quite. Only the sounds of the ice hitting the windows could be heard. It was glorious. I’d already had my evening shower and my nightly cup of tea and I was all cozy in my footed jammies.

Imagine my surprise when I woke to the sounds of a transformer exploding and a house in darkness. I wasn’t sure what had happened so I shook of my sleepiness and went to the front door. The ice storm had frozen my screen door shut so it took some pushing and shoving to force it open. When I finally got the door open Mrs. O’Malley was on her way back from the corner and she filled me in on all the news. It seems the police believe the truck was going too fast when it tried to turn off the highway and onto the city streets. It skidded on the ice as the driver hit the brakes. The truck didn’t stop at the pole it continued across the street and into the 24-hour Dunkin’ Donuts. Luckily no one was sitting in Dunkin’ Donuts and the workers ran for their lives when they saw the headlights heading their way. The truck came to a stop at the counter. I hope one of the news-guys got a picture of that. It looked like the truck was patiently waiting for its donut. I threw some clothes on and went to see the destruction with my own two eyes. Boris enjoyed an unexpected trip outside in the cold air but I was shivering so I didn’t stay long.

I think I finally fell asleep at around 4am. The electricity was still off and my cell phone was dead so there was no way to set an alarm. I’m a light sleeper so I thought I’ll just doze. I must have been more tired than I thought I was because the next time I opened my eyes the sun was up. I jumped in the shower hoping there would be at least some hot water left from before the power went out. There wasn’t. I was doubly disappointed to find that with no electricity comes no hair dryers so I stood drip-drying in my freezing cold bedroom with no TV and no radio to tell me the time. What? Oh, no we haven’t owned a battery-operated radio since boom boxes went out of style. Yeah, I suppose it would be a good idea to have a radio just in case. I suppose we could use a wall phone too. Yeah. I’ll work on that for next time.

I was even more disappointed to find that with no electricity comes no toast. I painted quite the pathetic picture as I stood anxiously awaiting my morning toast when it dawned on me that of course the toaster wasn’t working either. I finally just fed Boris and got in the car to come here. The police had the other end of the street blocked off so the power company guys could keep working so I had to back out of the street. Did I mention my husband slept through everything? Unbelievable.

So that’s why I’m late for work.

written in 29 mins., 54 secs.

_________________________________________________

So there you have it, my first attempts at using writing prompts to keep my mind active and working while I recover from my radiation treatments.

Posted in: Fiction, General Ramblings Tagged: 100 word challenge, Fiction, Writing, writing prompts

All About April

April 4, 2011 by carol anne Leave a Comment

I’m sorry kids. I forgot to post this on Friday. As it turns out my memory lapse turned out to be a good thing. I just heard on CNN that the Space Shuttle mission has been pushed back 10 days to April 29. My original document had it listed on April 19 so my laziness brings you a more accurate post. *laughs*

Everything you wanted to know about April can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April

More fun holidays here http://library.thinkquest.org/2886/ and here http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/april.htm

April is National Poetry Month.

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/47 has lesson plans and tip sheets for teachers and plenty of info about National Poetry Month.

April is also …

• International Guitar Month,

• Keep America Beautiful Month http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=kids_tips

• National Garden Month http://www.nationalgardenmonth.org/ http://www.kidsgardening.org/ has classroom activities and projects. There are lots and lots of gardens to visit in Philadelphia area.

• National Autism Awareness Month. http://www.autism-society.org/about-us/national-autism-awareness-month/

According to http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/National_Symbols/American_Hollidays.html Apri is also …

• National Fresh Celery Month

• National Pecan Month

• National Soft Pretzel Month

• National Soy Foods Months

Additionally …

April 2 is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day

April 6 is National Caramel Popcorn Day

April 12 is National Licorice Day

April 18 is National Animal Crackers Day

April 22 is National Jelly Bean Day

April 26 is National Pretzel Day

April 28 is National Blueberry Pie Day

April 30 is National Oatmeal Cookie Day

The first Sunday in April is Opening Day for Major League Baseball. (April 3) The Phillies actual home opener is Friday, April 1 @ 1:05pm. The game will be shown on Channel 17.

April 2nd, which is Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday is also International Children’s Book Day. http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=269

The first international Olympic Games of the modern era began on April 6, 1896. The next summer Olympics will take place in London next year July 27-August 12, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Summer_Olympics

April 7th is World Health Day.

April 7th is No Housework Day.

April 10-16 is National Library Week. http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek/index.cfm

April 10th is National Sibling Day. http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/April/siblingday.htm

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 when the Confederate Army fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.

April 14th is Look up at the Sky Day. http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/April/lookupatskyday.htm

April 14th is also Reach as High as You Can Day.

April 15th is Leonardo Da Vinci’s birthday. There is an exhibit at the Franklin Institute until May. They have an Educator’s Guide on their site for grades K-12. http://www.fi.edu/leonardo/leonardo.edguide.pdf

Saturday April 16th is Record Store Day. http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home

They have a Facebook page too http://www.facebook.com/RecordStoreDay

The Boston Marathon is Monday, April 18. I suppose it could be cute to have a small indoor marathon in honor of the day.

April 18th is also International Jugglers Day. http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/April/jugglersday.htm

April 22nd is Earth Day. http://www.earthday.org/

William Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated on April 23.

April 25th is World Penguin Day. Kid Zone has preschool lesson plans about penguins. http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/index.htm

April 27th is Tell a Story Day. http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/April/tellastoryday.htm

Arbor Day is the last Friday in April in PA, NJ and DE (April 29, 2011) the state trees for each state are …

PA: Eastern Hemlock

NJ: Northern Red Oak

DE: American Holly

You can find out what day each state celebrates Arbor Day and what each state’s tree is here http://forestry.about.com/cs/urbanforestry/a/arbor_day_date.htm

The Arbor Day Foundation offers resources for connecting kids with nature here http://www.arborday.org/explore/

They also have a Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/natureexplore

There are a few arboretums to visit in the Philadelphia area.

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is scheduled for Friday, April 29 at 11am their time so I think once Europe’s Daylight Savings Time catches up to ours on March 27 we’ll be back to being 5 hours behind London so I’m guessing TV coverage will begin at around 6am our time.

The second to last space shuttle launch is scheduled for April 29. The shuttle scheduled to launch is the Endeavour. NASA has all kinds of cool stuff or teachers but unfortunately they start with Kindergarten and go up from there. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/index.html

April 30th is National Honesty Day. http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/April/honestyday.htm

Posted in: General Ramblings Tagged: All About April, April, April is

Super Full Moon • March 19, 2011

March 19, 2011 by carol anne 2 Comments

Tonight the moon is the closest it’s been to Earth in 18 years. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky tonight so tonight’s photos aren’t quite as interesting as last night’s. I’m just glad I was able to document this lunar event.

The first photo is from the first rest stop on the Atlantic City Expressway as you’re leaving Atlantic City. I’d hoped to get a photo of the moon with the city as a backdrop but the opportunity did not present itself while were there so the hubs graciously stopped to let me try for a skyline shot. It was not to be, but I like this photo well enough.

I took the next two when I got home. Neither are as good as the photos from last night but again, I’m just glad I was able to get out and take a few photos to document this lunar event.

Posted in: General Ramblings Tagged: full moon, Full Super Moon March 19, March 19, moon, super moon
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