#3: Be A Published Author

Hooray! Number 3 has actually been crossed off since I was in fifth grade, but I forgot about it until I ran across the book while cleaning out my closet. Yes, I published a poem in a (legit) book of poetry when I was eleven. I'm not making any promises that it was a good poem, but apparently these little publishers thought it was good enough. here's a picture of my name in the index:

COOL.

and no, I'm not going to post the poem because we all know no one wants to read it anyway. but YAY for another thing crossed off!

cheers,

lauren

maryland.

it is officially here, spring break 2011!

Instead of choosing from one of my ideas in my other post, Sydney & I decided we would take a little jaunt across the country to Washington DC. I've been here a thousand times because of all the family I have in the area, but Sydney had never been to the capital. We decided that we'd rather do something productive and useful with our time off instead of gaining weight from cheap beer and getting pre-mature skin cancer from too much sun exposure, so we booked Saturday-Saturday tickets to DC.

here are some things we've learned:

1. this city is AWESOME

2. the metro always takes longer than expected

3.  it's freezing.

4. it is possible to spend an entire day in one smithsonian

5. sydney & I should have our own talk show

5. maryland SUCKS

as most, or some, or at least one of you know, East Falls Church is in Virginia and not Maryland. but it all makes sense once you hear this WONDERFUL story of our adventure to DC.

March 11

11:00 pm: We leave for the airport. Our flight leaves at 12:40, so we decide to get there at least a little early. Sydney & I chuckle at the sign that says "The nation's friendliest airport", but little did we know that this fact was about to be proven even more wrong by the lovely Sky Harbor staff. We get up to security and this girl decide to load her 300 bags onto the table but not wait to push them through the x-ray machine. I line my stuff up behind hers, and the guy on the other side of the metal detector is urging me to walk through, so I leave the table. Then an extremely pleasant TSA worker comes up to me and asks "do you want to keep your stuff?" I answer a confused "yes?" and she tells me that I better stay at the table and push everything through or it's not going anywhere. I stand next to the table, pushing everyone's stuff through until my bag finally comes into view. Sydney, who had already passed through the metal detector, was looking for me, so I said "apparently I work here now." TSA was not pleased. I had to go through that new stupid little xray machine, and then since I left my license in my pocket had to get a pat down. really, sky harbor?

March 12

12:30 am: begin the longest. day. ever. After being denied the seats that we chose when booking our flight that were next to each other, sydney and I ask some girl to switch seats with me since the flight attendant at the booking counter refused to help us. We settle into our seats, and the man next to sydney in the aisle seat falls asleep almost immediately. The next 4 hours go by excruciating slow as we try to "sleep", which is impossible to do in the tiny little seats they give you.

6:50 am: FINALLY we get off the plane. we dash to the nearest dunkin donuts and get some breakfast and lots of coffee. we try to find a bus to take us to the AMTRAK station. we finally find the right bus, and head to the station.

8:50 am: we arrive at the AMTRAK station and find out that the first train to Union Station doesn't leave until 9:40. after we die a little on the inside, we buy our tickets and sit down across from these two people that are dressed exceptionally fancy for sitting in a train station. we actually saw those people on the metro yesterday on our way downtown. they were dressed very fancy again, and something about them made them very intriguing. sydney & I decided the most reasonable explanation for this is that they are vampires. ANYWAYS

9:40 am: we get on the AMTRAK train. it's extremely roomy compared the the airplane, and we can finally stretch our legs. the train ride is supposed to be like an hour, but it seemed shorter. now that I look at the text messages I sent at the time we got on the train and the metro, it probably did take about an hour on the train. maybe since my legs finally had circulation the time went by a little quicker.

10:30 am: the AMTRAK train drops us off at Union Station, finally in DC. we figure out the tickets and subway lines we have to take, and find our way to the first train. we get off at our first stop, and change lines to our final destination.

11:00 am: we get on the final train and find out that the track is closed a few stop down, at East Church Falls, as seen in the picture above. we're supposed to get off the train, onto a shuttle, and then back on the train at the next station. Sydney and I really want to die now.

11:30 am: We arrive at East Church Falls. we stand outside and FREEZE, but thankfully my cousin comes to pick us up so we don't have to take the shuttle and more of the train.
12:00 pm: We get to my aunt's house in Vienna, Virginia. Yes, THIRTEEN hours after we left my house the night before, we get to our final destination. We hadn't slept in over 26 hours. basically we don't remember anything that happened that day because we were the walking dead.

so overall, we really hate maryland and east falls church. sydney and I decided that after we survived that horrendous day together our friendship can now definitely handle anything, and we aren't going to kill each other. thankfully, after that fabulous day the trip has been super exciting! we got suite tickets to a wizards game, and have seen a ton of smithsonians and monuments. yay for the nation's capital!

cheers,

lauren

I just watched Aladdin

I honestly don't remember ever seeing this movie, so either I have never seen it at all, or it was such a long time ago that it has been wiped from my memory. It was made before I was even born! Isn't that so weird! The voice of Aladdin is DJ's boyfriend Steve from Full House. Also weird. But I was excited because it is an awesome movie! People (namely me) always say that the best Disney princess is Belle because she sees through the Beast's ugliness and falls in love with him anyway. But, she is also as stupid as the rest of them because she agrees to live in a house with a ravenous beast and talking furniture.

what is she on? 

So, we could come to the conclusion that the only smart princess is Jasmine, because she wants to escape palace life, she likes Aladdin when he is just a "street rat," doesn't fall for Prince Ali's tricks, but then falls in love with him when she realizes that he is actually Aladdin, and finally still loves him even though she finds out he is poor. I mean, it all happens a little quickly and it's kind of shallow, but the movie's only like an hour long.

Plus, she has a pet tiger. Which is the coolest thing ever.

Don't even lie, you know you want a pet tiger.

Cheers,

Cayla

p.s. I faltered a little bit yesterday and went on awkward family photos. But only for a little, and then I finished reading my book. I'm trying very hard.

oh hello

I understand we haven't spoken in a while. That is because I have been off writing a research paper, redoing my room and generally avoiding accountability. But anyway.. tomorrow is Mardi Gras! WOOOO GO CRAZYY! Which means that Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, which means my mother will most likely drag me to a 2 hour long mass that is only supposed to be 15 minutes like last year. This means Lent is starting on Wednesday as well. Lauren and I thought for a while about a good thing to give up. We decided that we were going to give up being mean. After a few days we realized that this would not be possible, and instead of failing midway through, we went off on our own to pick our own things to give up.
I decided I was going to give up websites that make me unproductive and eat up hours of my precious young life that I will never get back. I know you are all thinking facebook, but I really don't see the point of not going on this website, because I would just think about it all the time and then finally freak out and check it, or countdown the days until Sunday until I could go on. Now, I'm not saying that I am addicted to facebook, because I have gone entire vacations without even thinking about facebook (and really not missing much), but I just really don't want to give it up. I don't feel the need to explain myself to you, blog reader, and I really don't think you care anyway.
But back to what I am actually giving up. There is this annoying website, where you essentially dress-up these little dolls. And for some reason I have been addicted to it since I was a little kid, before lifetime bought it and it was still in korean. It is kind of relaxing, but it is useless and takes up me time. So that is definitely going away. Now onto the pure evil website that is currently the bane of my entire existence: stumbleupon.

Now I know what it feels like to be an addict

If you ever want to eat up an entire afternoon, please, feel free to hop onto this website. It will take over your life. It will take you to websites like http://www.cracked.com/ (which has kindly provided that picture and is not a drug reference) and you will go from article to article and you can't resist reading the next one and the next one because they are all so alluring. (FYI I put that link in there to test your will power DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!!) Stumbleupon is addicting, I want to kick it so bad, so I'm thinking that the wrath of God is good motivation to stop going on it every 5 seconds. Plus I haven't given something up for lent in like, ever, so now is probably a good time to start? I mean it might bring me cute pictures like this 

SO CUTE LITTLE MOUSE!!



 But it is preventing me from reading for my history test, which is BAD! I will keep you updated on how this goes. It will be interesting.

Cheers,

Cayla

p.s. found this too, hilarious stuff!

p.p.s What did I just tell you? Do not go to that website, what is wrong with you?

UPDATE: It is day 1 and I have nothing else to do. I came home, held Apolo, watched Freedom Writers and edited my research paper. Then I came downstairs and typed up all my edits for my paper and made a title page. Then I checked for Spanish homework (which I never do). Now I have nothing else to do and it is only 7:20. I guess I will go take a shower and read....