Happy New Year!

Sorry I didn't post all Christmas break. I've been busy. Anyway for the one, maybe two, people who actually visit this blog here is my account of the holidays. The day after I got out of school I went to the movies with my four friends (yes Chelsey does indeed have friends). Then three of them decided to come to my house to make cookies. The only problem was that we were all in separate cars, traffic was heavy, and they didn't know how to get to my house. Well, I (assisted by my sister) explained to them where my house was and showed them my super ugly car (which they all agreed was indeed the ugliest car ever) so that they might recognize my house by the car (if of course I arrived first which I didn't think was a problem considering that they were taking a long-cut and I was going the shorter way). Well, I pulled out of the parking lot and into the parking lot of the mall since the theater and mall are right next to each other, but there was a horrible line to get out onto the main road because of course it's the mall at Christmas time. Of course I wasn't going to wait. I tried to get out by another exit which happily (I thought) wasn't crowded. Yes, I thought I was brilliant until (dum dum dum!)... I realized that I could only turn right when I needed to turn left! So I was forced to go the wrong way. Finally I found a back road and weaved through the country back home, but I was so afraid that I wouldn't be there when everyone else arrived and that without the landmark of my big ugly car, they would be unable to recognize my house. I new that I had to hurry to make up the time, but I didn't speed....(much). Fortunately I did get there first and for a while I felt better until (dum dum dum!)...I started eating cookies. I had just vowed the day before that I hated cookies and wouldn't eat another for three days, but you know how weak I am for cookies. I mean really: sugar, fat, ooey-gooey yumminess - what more could you want?! Anyway we had fun making (and eating) them, but I did finally resolve that I didn't really need the cookies so I gave most of them away to my friends. You know this entry is kinda long and I haven't even gotten to Christmas yet! Okay Christmas morning was really, really pathetic. My whole family got up late and we had to rush to get ready for church. Meanwhile, my sentimental sister was whining because we couldn't open presents before church which broke the 16 year tradition that we open presents as soon as we get up. When we got home we did finally open the gifts. I got a bunch of chocolate, some earrings, a gift card from my uncle, two exercise outfits, a hair dryer and that Lord of the Rings Trivia Game that I've been wanting. So that was Christmas. However I was all in a frenzy about what to do on my birthday. For the last few days all I had done was lay around the house and it was making me very grumpy. Despite my mother's suggestion that we could have "fun" just bumming out at home, I wanted something to do, but I couldn't decide. On the 27th I received a flyer in the mail about this interesting summer program and decided to apply, but when I looked over the application it asked me to name some books I had recently read. I was quite behind on reading because I'm so busy during the school year that I can only read what is required, but now I had to read something. I thought of The Count of Monte Cristo which I had started but never really got into because it was so long (1462 pages!!). I promised myself to finish it before school started again and so for the next 8 days I did little more that eat, sleep, read, and run. For my birthday on the 29th, I finally decided to go to Barnes and Noble and drink coffee, read, and look at other books. Afterwards we went to a Japanese restaurant much, I believe, to the dissatisfaction of my family. My mother was alright with it, but my dad and sister are terrified of anything foreign, but boo-hoo for them; it wasn't their birthday! Afterwards we came home for cake (a carrot cake that I made myself) and presents. I got a $50 Barnes card from my grandmother, $10 from my aunt, uncle and cousins, $20 from my grandparents in New York, a cute bracelet and scarf from my friend, a really nice bar of French lavender soap from my mom's friend, an antique looking clock, and a lovely picture for my room. I stayed up until 2 AM watching Pride and Prejudice with my sister. I then resumed my reading. We didn't do anything for the New Year. I just stayed up until midnight reading. The party we were going to have was postponed because everyone was going to be out of town. Yesterday I went with my mom's friend who works at my sister's school and helped her out with some secretarial type stuff and earned $20. Last night I finished The Count of Monte Cristo. It was very, very good! If you will notice, I added it to my favorite books list. Today all I've done is work on applications for summer programs. They require endless essays and paperwork. The only thing I regret is that I didn't read The Lord of the Rings as I had hoped to. I was reminded of it when I heard a story about it on the radio today. The speaker said it had been rated best book of the century (duh!) and he then related how Tolkien almost gave up getting the book published when a friend of his had him read parts of it for a recording. Apparently reading his work encouraged him and he finally succeeded. They played a clip of it. I think he had a nice accent. Anyway that was my break!
Oh, I want to know how many people actually visit this blog. If you have, PLEASE leave a comment telling me so.