My thoughts, My life

Okay, that was a lie. I only somewhat understand German. While I was stuck taking Spanish all my friends (all my friends that I hang out with and talk to on a regular basis) took German, the language I wanted to take. My mom made me take Spanish on the basis that in America it's more practical. The thing is, I want to move to Europe where knowing German is probably more practical. I've wanted to move there since I was in eighth grade. Plus I suck at Spanish. No matter what I do, I just am not that good at it. No entiendo Espanol. Okay, that's also a lie, but you get what I'm saying!! Three of my German Speaking friends in their sweet German shirts! Grayci, Bailey, and Autumn (credit: Autumn) When they feel like being butts they'll start speaking German to each other, so I wind up sitting there going "I hate you guys" and speaking to myself in horrible Spanish. I just want to say something, I don't hate the Spanish language, I just don't unders...

I'm kinda maybe possibly grounded until tomorrow (the truth does not set you free btw!!), and all I can do is go to work and go to skiing. So I told my mom Marlo wanted me to do a volume ski this weekend (which is true) and so I went to Mt. Itasca and skied for about two and a half hours. This building at the top of the wall. We call it "the shack" All I did the entire time was climb. I went up to the top came back and went up again. The last hour all I did was go straight up the switch back and the wall (the entire wall, not just the first hill but all three) and then come down part of the service road where I'd take a sharp right turn up and do the biathlon loop because there's a wicked downhill which would connect me back to the service road and then take one of three options until I got back to the bottom where I'd start again. I did that over and over for an hour!! At the top of the wall. See those tracks? Mostly me. I climbed it a lot.... ...

So I decided to make pancakes yesterday, because....well why not? I mean who doesn't like pancakes in the middle of the afternoon? Okay, that part's a lie, it was 11ish. Forgive me? But when I make pancakes i don't want some boring plain old thing sitting on my plate. NEIN!! Ich will flavor! (See how I incorporated some German u in there?) This is what I ended up with: Looks edible I originally was just going to make chocolate chip pancakes, but decided it needed more flavor and they wound up being more of a chocolate chip-fruity pebbles-splash of vanilla- hint of cinnamon pancakes.Which sounds kind of gross, but is actually really good. I didn't even put peanut butter on them! Mainly cause we're out of peanut butter...but whatever it still counts. The finished product It looks a little different but not bad! I ate three of them and then saved the rest of the batter and ate the rest for breakfast this morning. And by rest I mean there was enough for one ...

When you read my blog it  may seem that I suck at writing, but I really don't. I promise! I am actually a pretty decent writer, well at least when it comes to papers and essays. I just wanted to clear that up before telling you some news. The essay that I interviewed Matt Liebsch and Tad Elliott for has been graded and returned! I did a lot better than I thought, because after I turned it in I realized that one of my paragraphs on eating disorders could've been done better and that there were some areas where I could've worded things differently. I guess I'm just never fully satisfied when it comes to essays and papers. Anyways.... I wound up getting a 123 out of 125, and those two lost points where due to stupid mistakes in grammar. Not only did I receive  one of the highest grades in the class, but my professor wants me to enter it and my narrative into these two contests the college is doing!! I'm not sure if I'll enter into the narrative contest, but ...

I'm just going to get right in it. It wasn't my best race. What I mean by that is that I did do pretty well considering, but mentally I wasn't in it. It pains me to say, but I actually gave up in the race. I've never done that before but I just couldn't go on. I don't know why it happened and I hope it doesn't happen again. Maybe I'm not ready for JNQ. I don't know, but it's best not to linger on such thoughts. Let's just move on and let me tell you how the team did. So everyone is in agreement that the conditions weren't ideal, and none of us had our best race. There was a heavy snowfall right before the races and we all had to deal with a couple inches of powdery death. Thank goodness it was classic and not skate! Everyone was either slipping and sliding or stuck. Holly actually stopped and wiped off her skis a couple times! All in all, no fun for anyone. On the brighter side of things Maggie and I took 9th and 8th respectively. Ins...

So we got screwed over for Yellowstone this year. The bus is first come, first serve. That is the rule and it is even on the paperwork three times. Well Bonnie overbooked the buses and so she gave our seats away!! She gave them to Duluth East kids who signed up later and didn't bother to tell us about it until the week before we were supposed to leave. It's not just us Rapids kids whose seats she gave away, but people from other teams that aren't Duluth East. Made me so mad. Thankfully Hans' family let Maggie and I hitch a ride in their van, since they were already driving to Yellowstone anyways. So we wound up with eight of us crammed into their van. Two adults, four upperclassmen, a preteen and a youngin.Not to mention all our crap and equipment. For eighteen-twenty hours. Though I almost couldn't go, but because my doctor's incompetent and said that I'd be cleared for sports by Sunday even though it'd only been a week since the accident. Eventuall...

Since we were screwed over for Yellowstone (I'll explain in the next post) we were able to go to Snowball after all. Just to let you know when I say Bromate I mean Hans.  It was so bad because two days before Snowball I realized that I only had my dress. No shoes, no plans for hair and makeup, no idea what I was going to do! I remember talking on the phone with my friend Autumn and she had no plans either, it was then that we started our new saying of "I just don't even care." Best saying ever. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have used it since then! Autumn (credit- Autumn's phone) So we were on the phone talking to each other and both of us were in our dresses walking around our respective houses, trying to figure out what to do. I managed to find a pair of heels, and we decided to go to our friend Sara's early and just get ready there. This is my attractive friend Sara (credit- Sara)  On dance say I accompanied Autumn to get ...

The Sunday before Snowball (girls ask guy winter formal) I was out on my road bike. In the dark. I was going to Marcus's house because we were texting and he was like "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Which is something we do quite often, and last time I had called him and yelled "WHAT??" into the phone. Well this time I decided I would show up at his front door and do it to his face, and then just leave. It didn't work out that way.... This is what I posted on Facebook that night: That awkward moment when... you're biking and take a turn and hit some ice and wipe out and are just laying there trying to catch your breath when this car turns around and a guy gets out and tries to help but you cant help but be a sarcastic tough guy and try to apologize but hes all like "naw its cool" and asks if you can stand and after a couple tries you get up and then he asks "can you put we ight on your leg" and so you do but for only a second and say...

Okay so the cross country running season finally ended with a section race that made me want to cry. Actually I did cry. It was pitiful. My friend Autumn had been an alternate and was waiting at the finish with my inhaler and after taking it I just kind of collapsed into her arms and cried. It was just a bad race for me and I probably shouldn't have gone. I was still having knee problems and hadn't been allowed to run all month so....ya....to make things more awkward I cried on Hans. Hans in Yellowstone (photo credit- Eric Sampson) Well the bus ride back managed to get me back into a good mood. Emma and I wound up debating over which gender is more confusing with Benat, Hans, and Evan. It was quite entertaining, and I'm really glad they were there. I even managed to stretch the $5 I had and bought cheese, crackers, peanut butter, french fries, a shake, and something else. I think I may have bought poptarts. Then skiing started. But I'll save that for later posts....

See, I told you I'd talk about something other than Benat! So first let me explain what MEA is. MEA is Minnesota Education Association. Which means that teachers throughout Minnesota get together and do whatever, but most importantly it means a four day weekend for students! For MEA I went to Duluth with Upward Bound to visit colleges. Us upperclassmen took vans and the underclassmen took a bus. Why separate us? Because us older kids were spending the night in Duluth and the younger kids were not. But ya, so we went to Duluth and had a good time and also learned that maybe I will attend college in Minnesota after all! Thursday: Woke up early and headed to ICC to hop into a van and head towards Duluth! I sat next to Bailey who sat next to Wyatt. The three of us were in front of Kaitlin, Tim, and Jade who were in front of Hannah, Shawn and Jake (yes, the ex-boyfriend Jake). Sitting shot gun was Hallie and Julie was driving. It was a good ride though as usual I fell asleep. I don...

Sorry, but I'm going to talk about Benat again. What can I say, I'm a teenage girl. Talking about boys is what I do, so just deal. Okay, so the Wednesday following the Sunday of the whole "let's-be-friends" thing Benat and I went biking around town. At one point we wound up at the show boat landing, where we found this beautiful fall tree that we just had to climb. The brunches were high up so I took his bike and used it to get up the tree, while he just monkey'd up it. I mean, he just flew up that tree (lie, it took a couple tries and then he flew up it). We finished climbing and he swings down, once again, like a monkey. As I'm up there going "Uhhh....I think I can't get down." Don't judge me! It was quite a drop, I have an injured knee, and we had a meet the next day! What's his solution? He puts his arms up and goes "I got this" expecting me to jump. Into his arms. From the tree. My response to such a preposterous thi...

This is a long one. I need input. Also writing this on metaphorical paper might help me think things through. So once again, there's a boy. Which makes it sound like there have been a lot of boys but there really hasn't been....anyways... There's this boy. He's like perfect. He runs, he skis, he enjoys long hikes through the mountains, he somewhat bikes, astrophysics is a hobby of his, he enjoys laying out and looking at the stars, etc. etc. He's like the male version of me, but taller, and stronger, and not awkward, and attractive. I mean seriously he even watched the Steven Hawkins videos on Netflix, which I also watched and led to an interesting conversation. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Let's start from the beginning. So the first time I met him was at a cross country meet (the Little Falls meet, it was his first).Autumn, Sara and I were trying to do homework a little ways away from the rest of the team (and everyone else), but Will and Hans ke...

No, it's not a joke. That was how today went. I had a date with a Dr. Wheeler today in Duluth and brought along Tony my coach/engineer, my nurse mom, and my friend/mentor/bike coach/PT Alan. Tony rode with us and we met Alan down there since he was teaching a class that day. It was an interesting ride down. Tony and my mom have just like never talked or really ever seen each other. All she knows about him is that we spend a lot of time together training, that his wife is really nice and that Josh (my older brother) anjd his son used to be friends. When Tony and I are together it's usually for skiing/training purposes. We haven't really been in a social situation like this before, so it was slightly odd. The way down was nice because we were able to talk about USSA racing, about high school racing this year, and a little about training. Tony and my mom also were able to talk, which I liked because it's always nice to have your coach and mom know each other on more th...

Okay, this one really is going to be short. I don't really have much to say besides what's about to be said. So....read on! First off do you know what a triathlon is? Or what the Timberman triathlon is? You don't? Let me explain then. A triathlon is where you swim, bike, and run. You're timed in each event and your transition time (how long it takes you to go from one event to the next) also counts against you. The Timberman is a triathlon held in Grand Rapids MN. It has a long course (mile swim, 26.2 mile bike, and a 10K run. But don't quote me on the bike) and a sprint course (1/3 mile swim, 13.1 mile bike, and a 5K run, but don't quote me on the bike again). It's a fun event put on every year and draws a nice crowd of people from every age and fitness level. I did the short course and this is how it went: Swim The swim was by far my worst event. I did it in my sports bra and spandex shorts (last year I did it in normal shorts and nearly lost them!...