Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Pictures


I suppose I should start posting pictures on here. That's what a blog is for, right? Unfortunately I don't have any.
*browses iPhoto*
Oh. Well, here's one of my dad and sister and me. My dad is on the left, sis in the middle, and the one cracking up is me.

Happy New Year's Eve!

I'm waiting for midnight right now. I would normally be tired, due to the fact that I'm usually crawling into bed at eight o'clock. But I am at a party, which is keeping me awake. Things have cooled down and I snuck upstairs to do a little blogging and get away from all the craziness.
I'm having fun, eating hor doeuve's or however it's spelled and swaying slightly to create the image of dancing. I can never dance at parties, I feel too self-conscious. Hence my hate of Bronco Nights.
I was excited about a new year, a fresh start, a new set of changes. But all these cliches couldn't change the truth. A new year doesn't stay new for long. Soon it's just another year, and nothing changes.
Wishing you a happy healthy 2009, anyway. Enjoy the fireworks.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Frost

I gasped aloud today. I don’t think I have ever done that before; just gasped because I was so moved by something. “Moved” isn’t the right word, but one solitary word never covers everything one needs to say...
I woke up early and was trucking over to my grandma’s house by nine in the morning to give my Bruciepoop his walk. I wanted to get back while the day was still young so I could get to work on my parents’ Christmas present. (I wanted to make them a little something on top of the other stuff.) Anyway, I was strolling along, all bundled up, when I noticed some frost on the grass...
Frost is a beautiful thing. It’s amazing what Mother Nature can produce, incredible what power some things have over me. Of course I had to crouch down and get a closer look at the ice-encrusted grass. Each shoot was covered in a icy layer of frosty sheen. I plucked one off and was bedazzled as I looked at how each particle of ice clung so steadfastly to its piece of grass. For the few freezing hours of early winter morning, a couple blessed areas of grass are enrobed in a layer of sparkling diamonds. A fallen leaf has gotten in on this deal, too. It is nestled into the patch of jewels, bearing its own frosty sheen. I let the shoot of grass I am holding flutter to the ground, and take up the leaf instead. Suddenly itching to bathe myself in these gems, I scrape off the ice particles between forefinger and middle and admire the tiny mound of glittery frost that lies there. Then I look back at the leaf, still being held in my other hand. I have robbed it. Look at me, with my fingerful of ice, and look at the leaf it belongs to. It has been diminished to an ugly, lowly form. This leaf is now nothing but a soggy, drippy, wet leaf. Wet leaves are meant to be scraped up and tossed into a big black garbage bag. Wet leaves do not belong in this winter wonderland. I whisper my apologies to it and fling it away. Then I look up, and this is when I gasp. And just like with a dramatic, theatrical gasp, my hand takes on a life of its own, and comes up to cover my mouth. I couldn’t believe I had just done that. I couldn’t believe I had just gasped.
The grass stretches out for several meters, and rolls slightly to give it a hilly look. And covering this is a delicately arranged sheet of glistening thousand-karat diamonds. The glistening, glittering, stunning array is what induced the Gasp, I suppose. Teeny ice pixies seemed to be hiding within the display, winking at me and inviting me to float on into this gorgeous place. Why, I do believe I will, thanks. I guess there are fairies here, too, because there is glitter sprinkled everywhere. It smelled like clouds and spearmint and tiaras. It wasn’t as beautiful as snow, but it’s as close as I’m ever going to get.
Later I went back into the neighborhood and revisited where the sidewalk ends. Then I noticed a chain-link fence with a door that had been left open. It seemed to open up right into the expressway, but I stepped through anyway to see if there was anything interesting. To the right was another little gateway that seemed to twist back into the neighborhood. Ooh-hoo, what was this? I wandered over... only to find out that I had been tricked. It was just that little trail that runs alongside Almaden Expressway. Oh well, might as well walk it anyway. I’d never actually been on this trail, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant. Cars were roaring down the road at a zillion-and-one miles per hour, with only some tall shrubs between me and them. They spring up taller and thicken their branches for me, but it doesn’t really help. I thank them anyway as I pop out at the intersection on the other end.
And that’s about it.

Blog Quiz

Saw this on another blog, thought I'd repost:

Name four bad habits you have:
1. Trying to confuse people and end up confusing myself
2. Fiddling with things
3. Humming and singing at inappropriate times
4. Too much time on the computer!!

Name four things that you wish you had:
1. Longer eyelashes
2. Earplugs
3. Cinnamon gum
4. Six billion dollars

Name four scents you love:
1. My cat
2. Devil's food cake
3. Vanilla Palm
4. Hollister room spray

Name four things you'd never wear:
1. Tube top
2. White shorts
3. Orange polka-dotted sweat strap
4. Nose ring

Name four things you are thinking about right now:
1. Not her again...
2. GOD SHUT UP!!!
3. Is that fennel?
4. Again with the turmeric!
(That is truly what I was thinking, I just put down exactly what I was thinking at the moment.)

Name four things that you have done today:
1. Walked Bruceter
2. Walked to the library
3. Wrapped gifts
4. Ate dinner

Name the last four things you have bought:
1. Christmas gift for my sister
2. a package of Hot Tamales
3.
Christmas gift for my friend
4.
Christmas gift for my other friend


Name four bands/groups/genres most people don't know you like:
1. I don't
2. really
3. listen to
4. music


Name four drinks you regularly drink:
1. Water
2. Tea
3. Hot cocoa
4. That's it

Name four random facts about yourself:
1. My name is Jeni
2. I am a girl
3. I am thirteen years old
4. My hair is brown


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Volleyball

Volleyball rocks. (No surprise there!) But this year en la clase de educacion fisica, (P.E.) it is rocking even more. It is rocking my socks off... literally. That's a funny story that I'll tell you about later...
I find myself actually looking forward to P.E. nowadays, and am disappointed when the whistle blows and we have to sit in our neat little rows and holler "BUILDING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS!!!" (If you had Mornhinweg, you'd get it.) Mostly I suck but still, es muy divertido. I can serve well, and (some of) my bumps go over the net, at least. I can't set, though. If it seems as if I need to, I would rather back up and bump instead. Es mas facil. Anyway, that's just about it.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Almost Dead

I'm bored. Too bad I have nothing to write about.
Oh yeah... How about that life-threatening experience that occurred on Tuesday? Now I have a title, yay.
Well, we are finally doing something fun in P.E., after agonizing months of swimming and weight training: Volleyball! Yesterday we were practicing serving, but everybody was crammed into three courts. We were supposed to aim for our partner on the other side, which was just about impossible. So instead, Deli and I both scootched up closer to the net and practiced bumping and setting instead. So much safer. But we were squished between Jesse and Louie, both people who were practicing serving, and both people who hit the ball hard. Okay, I can't really drag the story on more than I have. Jesse, who was standing way back behind me because he was serving, hit the ball, and it went way up in the air... but I was in front of him, so I should I know that the ball was plummeting towards my head?
Actually, all the people screaming "DUCK! DUCK! WATCH OUT!" finally gave me the hint, so I tried to find the ball in the air, but it was too late because as soon as I moved, the ball skimmed past my shoulder and landed with a BANG that sounded like a bomb going off. They said if I hadn't turned to see where the ball was, it would have hot me straight-on. Or maybe they were just craving a little drama.
By the way, don't think it was too big of a deal. There were only about four or five witnesses...

Enjoy this picture of my cat:

Where The Sidewalk Ends

Okay, okay. I stole my title from the fabulous Shel Silverstein. Who can blame me? It's a thought-provoking phrase. Well, it's the title to a collection of his poetry that my grandma has, and I've always been fascinated by the cover. It depicts a cute little person peeking over the edge of a slab of sidewalk that protrudes into the center of the book but drops off leaving empty space below it. Like the sidewalk would ever just end... no. We have made the world too normal. Every sidewalk ends with a curb and a street to step onto when you are finished with it. If a sidewalk like that ever managed to exist, somebody would come by with gallons of tar and a truck of concrete, and fix it up to look exactly like every other sidewalk in this wretchedly normalistic world.
Oh God, I got carried away again. Sorry about that.
Well, today I found a place where the sidewalk ends. I was walking Bruceter, and decided to venture into an unfamiliar neighborhood. So. I walked... and walked... down a long stretch of sidewalk. It appeared to be the left border of the neighborhood, with streets that would lead you in deeper to the heart of the 'hood. But however alluring this extraordinarily ordinary neighborhood looked, I chose to stay on this strip of sidewalk. I would walk until I saw the end of it, then turn around and wander. It stayed straight, but had a curve at the very end to create a makeshift, half-done court for the last house of the row. Did I mention there was no sidewalk on the other side? Just street and gutter. Strange... ish. Anyway, there was a car parked at the periphery of the concrete and I couldn't quite see where it ended. I walked to the end, and it, well, ended. Just ended, ran right into the dusty dirt. A sidewalk with no curb? Bizarre!! (heavy sarcasm...) In normal cases, it would curve around to create a court and run back out on the other side of the road. But not here. I had found a place where the sidewalk ends...

So, it wasn't that weird, but I needed something to write about. Heh. Oh yeah, more weirdness. I began walking back, not really paying attention or anything. I had been sort of disconnected the whole day, but I guess I was more off than I thought. I was walking, me and my feet, my feet and the sidewalk. Until I suddenly realized I had drifted off into the middle of the street. And there was a truck coming at me, and it hit me, and I almost got out of the way, but not quite, and suddenly I was on the ground and everything hurt, and the driver was sweating and my mother was crying and now I am writing from my hospital bed.
No, just kidding. It was a quiet road in the corner of the neighborhood, and I was just sort of drifting along in a haze. But then, I don't know how, but my brain told me that I was in the middle of the street. How does one manage to travel from the sidewalk to the road without even realizing it? When I got back to my grandma's, she gave me a chocolate-covered cherry and that helped to clear my head.

:)