Friday the Pained Day

Yesterday was Friday the 13th but if you know me well you'll know that my bad luck is year round and doesn't need to be pegged to a specific date. That's why my Friday the 13th bad luck ran a little earlier than it was supposed to.

Thursday morning I decided to take my bike to school since I would be conducting my science fair project after school (I live almost a mile away and get home in less than 5 minutes on my bike since its all downhill, woo hoo!). So I was riding my bike and as I was turning at the intersection to go up the hill (the morning commute isn't as quick and easy) my bike's handle became loose somehow and I ended up turning far more to the right than I was supposed to causing me to hit the freaking bolt that holds to signal light pole down. Thank God I didn't hit the pole itself otherwise I would have been in a lot of pain!

The second bad thing to happen to me that day was the science fair experiment itself which was a complete fail with lots of made up results since everything my partner and I were doing went wrong. I'd rather not go into details but on a final note would like to say: I really don't like high school science. Or the fact that I always spell the word experiment like this: expirement. It doesn't matter that I know that I how to properly spell it but every time I have to write that word I always spell it wrong the first time, notice that it's wrong, and then I fix it.

Then as I rode my bike home I was turning into my street and I really don't know what it was but something squishy flew into my eye not only producing a very icky feeling but momentarily blinding me and almost crashing into a car parked on the side of the street! It was a terrifying 10 seconds that I pray no one saw.

For the actual day of bad luck here's a list of what happened: My algebra teacher taught something new on a review day that I didn't really understand, I got a bad quiz in French, I got my finger stuck in a little hole on my water bottle's top for like 2 minutes, I tripped going up the stairs at home, I tripped at work walking backwards and I stubbed my finger getting some ice cream from the freezer causing it to swell up and be sore for the next two to three days. You might be thinking FYL but that is a typical day in my life, regardless whether its the 13th or not.

UYL,
Andre

Election Season

It's almost palpable, the anxiety and excitement of election season. Hushed whispers in the hall about who is running against whom and people spewing false information, rumors starting everywhere. But I really love the school election season as stress producing as it is. I mean sure my heart races a little faster thinking about the day in which I will stand in front of my peers and speak to them and I'm pretty sure my hair is falling out because I think about my mini judgement day. But it really shows you how you stand among your peers.

I am a firm believer that elections are popularity contest. There's no question about it they just are. But it's how you define popularity that really counts. You see, for me popularity means how well liked you are by your peers not necessarily how well known you are. It's like sure everyone knows soandso the school flirt but does that mean people will vote for her? Probably not. Which is why I always get super confident about elections right before they occur.

Back in elementary school was when I started thinking about ruling the worl-- err, school. I had a very close group of friends that all dedicated their support to me. So I foolishly ran for Class Treasurer (wow, what is it with me and money??) with about 5 votes for sure. Needless to say I was crushed, both in elections and emotionally. It was my wake up call that I was either a) a loser, b) not popular or c) needed to expand my social horizons. Since I doubted it was a or b (using my definition of popularity) it was time for me to act upon c.

***Brain Blast!!! I just finished writing a draft for my election speech even though I was like mid-blog-post! Now back to the story***

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to "expand my social horizons" at Mark Twain Middle School because I moved to the Dominican Republic which I could write a freaking novel about but I'll just say I meet some life-changing people who made me, a pretty shy and introverted person, a little more outgoing. So after watching some of my peers give their speeches Freshman year I promised myself that I would run for a position for sophomore year. And when election season came around I picked up my packet, filled in the necessary info, write my speech and was then forced to give it in front my fellow Class of 2013 peers, all 400+ of them. Now I could lie and say I obliterated my opponent but frankly there were none. I ran unopposed which was pretty anticlimactic and boring.

Even though I'm not hoping for an opponent this year I don't think I would be devastated because I most certainly held true to my 6th grade promise to go beyond my social circle. I no longer have a total of 4 close friends. I have gone beyond my close-knit group of Mersal, Emma and Melody and now am friends with a wide range of people. I'm friends with the nerdy people, the "popular crowd", the "weird" kids (who really aren't that weird), the jocks and I even have contacts in the JROTC (aka army kids) group. And that's just people who fit into a certain stereotype because not everyone fits in to a stereotype. Even though I'm a little shy and it takes me a while to warm up to people I have tried to make friends with at least half the people in my class. Which is why I always get confident because I know I must have met at least 200 sophomores and had some type of friendship with them, whether its just borrowing a pencil or saying hi in the hallways. Whether those people will vote for me is something I will find out on May 25th.

Update You Later,
Andre

Food for (my) Thought(s)

So here I am eating Mac and Cheese wondering what in the world to write about. I think I may have blogger's block because I have not been able to come up with any witty or funny stories! I could tell you about my day and how I had a Mother's Day brunch with my mom and grandma or about how I actually knew what to do for the chemistry homework or even about working at my job. But the fact of the matter is that none of those moments are blog-worthy. So instead I will write about something thtat has been on my mind lately.

Clapping.

I'm not entirely sure why we clap. Sure we clap when someone is done giving a presentation or when a big announcement is made but why? I mean, we can do the same thing by telling people what a good job they did or how proud we are of them. Or we could just stomp or feet. Regardless I'm still beating around the bush here. What I really want to talk about is clapping for yourself! I find it so awkward when I am in a situation where I must clap for myself. Isn't it sort of vain?

Picture this: I'm at the Padres Latinos meeting on Saturday because that is a requirement as my role as Secretary in the Hispanic Leadership Club (Oh yeah I could have blogged about that...Well guess what guys? I'm the new secretary for the Hispanic Leadership Club. I had to go a very thorough interview and application process which I found a little weird since most clubs just hold elections for their officers. anyways back to the story) and they were announcing all the new officers. The new officers would stand up and go to the front of the room where they would either a) applaud for themselves or b) stand there awkwardly. I was the latter because I sincerely don't know what the politically correct thing to do is. I mean I understand when you are part of a group and your all clapping for each other but what do you do when you're alone???

What do you guys think?

UYL,
Andre

French (is a) Joke 101

Hey guys, sorry I’ve been MIA but I’ve had a lot going on through my mind and just couldn’t sit down and focus. This past week has been going well but I definitely feel like its crunch time with a lot of the teacher’s who are trying to teach us everything before Finals or SOLs (the Virginia Standards Of Learning). Work has also been draining me of energy since I get to bed so late. Not that I’m complaining or anything, but I do feel quite tired. I’m actually kind of falling asleep writing this right now. BUT I felt the need to update you a little on my life. My French class to be specific.

French…well French 3 is kind of a joke to be honest, I don’t do much and still get excellent grades…on one hand I enjoy having a class where I can unwind and just horse around with my classmates because this is their last year taking French (you need 3 language credits to graduate) and they don’t really care much about the language. But then on the other hand I feel like I’m not learning anything which is terrible since next year I’ll be taking IB French I which is considerably harder. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to buckle down and actually learn the language.

But for now I’ll just stick to goofing around. Here’s just a small taste of what my classmates and I actually do during class.

Ok well this was actually an assignment where we had to talk about a countries environment so we decided to just create our own continent!

This is Abel's country.

and this is my little island! It's an extreme sport resort mainly inhabited by...squirrels!

I SWEAR I did not draw this, I found it in some random desk but what a nice surprise it was!

Such intense concentration.

So that last picture is actually really funny because somewhere, somehow Luke (the bald one) found a giant rubber band and them being the physicist they are decided to use it as a catapult style thing! They launched everything from paper balls to crayons to tissue boxes...the teacher? Oblivious. Another big thing is paper airplanes, they are flying around the class all the time. And that is how I spend most of my french class =]

UYL,

Andre

A+

All my life I always thought I was A+ material. Why not, after all it's in my veins. No, literally, I have A+ blood type. For those of you that don't remember, about a month and a half ago I donated blood (you can read about it here) through Inova Blood Donor Services. I remember them explaining how after they draw blood they'll send it to a lab and run it up for some test and then if I have anything that should get checked they'll notify me but if not I should receive a donor card in the mail. Well ladies and gentlemen I thankfully got my card in the mail along with a little surprise.

What??? O POSITIVE?!? How can this be? But I thought I was A+ material! I quickly called me mother to ask her if this is true and (not to make her look like a bad parent) but she thought I was A+ too! I am going to have to scour through all the medical records my mom keeps and see if it mentions my blood type anywhere and make sure that Inova isn't wrong. How scary is that though? I spent my whole life believing I was A+ blood type and now I found out I am not. It's like my whole identity changed! Well, not really but I'm glad I know the truth now. Had I been in a situation where I need a blood transfusion (I leave the gruesome accident to your imagination) and said I was A+ I could have had a hemolytic reaction and died! Good thing that crises is averted.

 So now I went from having the 2nd most common blood type to having the most common blood type in the US of A. I guess there is one upside to this and its that I can donate to all (positive) blood groups now instead of just A or AB. However, I'm screwed because now I can only receive blood from O+ or O-. What I can take out form this experience though is that I need to go donate blood more often (I'm actually just 3 days away from being able to donate).

UYL,
O+ Andre