NOT BREAKING NEWS

I realized something a while ago.

To my understanding, you read my blog because, for some reason unbeknownst to me, you are interested in me/my life/my thoughts and opinions.

But while I've been very busy not keeping you all up to date on my life, things have been merrily chugging along in Meredithworld.

That should really be a theme park... Or maybe we can just go with this:

But I digress.

Anyway. Since you guys are interested in my life (and if you really aren't, please remember that ignorance is bliss and don't inform me otherwise) I decided to get you caught up on some of the majorer things that I've done or been up to, supplemented of course with tons of pictures and GIFs because hellurrrrr I just really like them and they suit my motives.

1. I finished school and passed another semester of college with my dignity mostly intact.

2. I turned in my final English assignment, a big research paper that pretty much killed my brain. When I turned it in I was all like

and when I got it back the teacher was all like "ONE HUNDRED AND THREE" so I was pretty happy.

3. I got a cute little coffeemaker and now I can make hot tea in my room whenever I want to.

4. I apparently signed up to work in our church nursery with Mom over the summer. I'll be a regular old Mary Poppins, I just know it.

 

5. I went to my first opera. And had a blast. And went to the second showing. And fangirled a leetle.

6. I wore heels to the aforementioned opera, unwillingly.

7. I signed up for music camp in the summer. And another music camp. And I found out that apparently my summer is going to busy. Yay.

8. I went to a lot of lectures and concerts and such and felt very classy and cosmopolitan and sophisticated.

9. Mom and I watched two seasons of Call the Midwife. It's a totally cute show, but I don't recommend it for...anyone, really.

10. I entered a few things in the homeschool art show and won a few prizes. And I also painted and did other various artsy things.

Like a boss.

11. I went to the beach with mi familia. The water is finally getting warm and swimmy.

12. I got rid of my textbooks from this past semester and emptied out my school bag for the last time.

13. I took the SAT again. And had a terrifying proctor. Again. I think they should just do this at the beginning of the test

because really. Let's talk real to each other like grown-ups, shall we?

14. After vegging out a little to reward myself for surviving a pretty brutal semester, I realized that I'm officially a high school senior now. Which means the next year is going to be full of college stuff, GPA's, transcripts, senior photos, graduation gowns, stress, and did I mention stress?

So yeah. There's a brief summary-ish of the past month or so. Now for the future, to sum up my feelings going into this summer...

Let's hope I get one.

True Confessions

I turned sixteen about a month ago, so by my own standards, I'm now officially old. When I was turning ten I thought I would never make it to sixteen. I couldn't wait to be older and have more independence and get to do all kinds of fun things. But now that I am older, and I know what it's actually like, all I want is to be a toddler again.
So sometimes I like to channel my inner screaming spoiled brat.

My name is Meredith, and I am a sixteen-year-old toddler. These are my true confessions.

1. Sometimes I just sit on the couch crying over literary analyses and chemical equations that need to be balanced and life that needs to be figured out, and then I just holler across the house at the top of my lungs and demand leftover pizza and apple juice.

2. I sleep with a blankie, and have difficulty sleeping without my blankie.
Not to mention that I actually still have a blankie, not to mention that I still call it my blankie...

3. I am not above lying in the middle of the floor if I happen to be tired.

4. I'm scared of ordering for myself in restaurants, buying my own things in stores, and going in fitting rooms that have guards - I mean employees - outside.

5. I don't like brushing my hair.

6. I am a HUGE fan of Max and Ruby.

7. Goldfish crackers are my one weakness.

8. Dog = PUPPY!!!!!! Cat = KITTY!!!!!!

9. I really like crayons and markers.

10. I'm scared to cross the street by myself.

11. I still kind of get excited that I can use the big forks now.

And don't even get me started on the Toddlers and Tiaras girls. They are all my spirit animals.

Every. Day.

Out of the mouths of babes...

YESYESYESYESYES

Preach it, girlie.

Now I have to go study... *pouty face* I DON'T WANNA!!!!!!

Skepticality

I think I'm a skeptic.

Although, since a skeptic is someone who is "inclined to question or doubt all accepted opinions," maybe I'm just going to decide that my opinion about what a skeptic is differs from the generally accepted opinion about what a skeptic is. And how am I to know that my differing opinion matches with any other skeptics' differing opinions? Can we legitimately clump all skeptics/anti-skeptics into one category? What if I think I'm a skeptic, but the generally accepted opinion would say that I'm not? Does it still count? Is there any way to really know who's a skeptic and who isn't?

You could say I'm skeptic about being a skeptic.
Something else I'm skeptic about - why in the world isn't skepticality a word?
It should be. So I'm going to use it.

And I have now officially achieved a level of English lexical proficiency equaled only by Shakespeare.

If you can't find the word you're looking for, make one up.

There's something else you could be skeptical about - can you even do that?

So I definitely do question or doubt several accepted opinions. But certainly not all.
I don't question the opinion that people should work in order to get paid, or that getting a physical at the doctor's kind of sucks.
I'm a selective skeptic.

But there are a few things that I'm just not buying. And since I know you guys think I'm everrrrr so iiiiiinteresting... I decided to talk about me a little bit.

I'm skeptical quite frequently in my English Comp II class. For example, we recently read "A Good Man is Hard to Find," a very bummerific story. Apparently the author is well-known for her character development, which is supposed to be very good. One of the characters was described as having a face "as broad and innocent as a cabbage." So my teacher was telling us about all the possible meanings of that - cabbage is a very common vegetable, cabbage isn't especially pretty, cabbage isn't very well-liked, etc... And I was sitting there being very skeptical. Could it possibly be that maybe the author just happened to be from THE SOUTH where cabbage is LITERALLY EVERYWHERE and MAYBE SHE REALLY JUST MEANT CABBAGE AND NOTHING ELSE?
Of course not. That would be dumb. Of course the author wants you to read into every single thing they say and not just think, "Oh, cabbage, oh, okay, moving on."
Of course. I keep getting in trouble in that class for not taking assignments seriously. But really, there's no way that everything that literary analysts draw from just six or seven words is always perfectly aligned with the original intent of the author.

I am skeptical when it comes to hippie literary analysis.

I'm skeptical when using social media. I've talked about my social media before, so you all know I rather like it. However, a lot of people post things publicly with ulterior motives or just to spite one specific person and the rest of us are just sitting there like

 I guess that's not really something that makes me skeptical so much as something that really annoys me.
If you do this - please stop.
But seriously, consider Facebook poking for a minute. Other than being a fun and noncommittal way to annoy your friends (despite being invented just as a way to get someone's attention and let them know that you exist), why do we have it? I use it only because I like to pick on the people I like the most, and it enables me to do so.
But those of you who know me in real life know that if I want to get your attention, I'll either kick you in the shins, slap you upside the head, sneak up behind you and give you an energetic hug, make a weird animal noise, or - shocker - say your name (preferably in a really weird voice or accompanied by a terrifying face). I really wish that there was some way to mod your Facebook to allow for some of these more realistic actions.

You know, I got really off topic, and now I'm quite skeptical as to whether or not this post is going to make any sense.

But what if I decide my opinion about what makes sense differs from the generally accepted opinion about what makes sense? Would my sense still count as nonsense, or would it be sense, and just a different sort of sense? Or would it be nonsense to someone else whose sense is nonsense to me? Is there any way to truly define what makes sense and what is nonsense? And what if your opinion differs from my differing opinion?

Well, then you just might be a skeptic, too.

Randomness

I'm weird.
I don't know how this happened, but it's true.

(I also wonder when it is that being weird became some badge of honor rather than a disgrace)

There are a lot of random things I randomly do/think/say/shouldn't randomly say, that make me the randomly random person that I randomly am, so naturally, I'M GONNA TELL YOU GUYS.

Top 10 Random Things About Me
1. I can go from really super quiet to REALLY SUPER LOUD AND SPASTIC in about 2.78 seconds.
2. I positively despise white chocolate. I think it's a disgrace to humanity and the good name of chocolate.
3. I say "Your face" in situations where it really doesn't apply at all, simply because it's become a knee-jerk reaction.
4. I am incredibly obsessed with Jane Austen movies, and particularly the romantic interests of the female protagonists. (i.e. Mr. Darcy, Captain Wentworth -AAAH- etc..)
5. I'm ridiculously paranoid about crossing the street. It takes me like half an hour to get across a fifteen foot crosswalk.
6. I don't like hot drinks.
7. I am against white mint chocolate chip ice cream. It must be green, or it doesn't taste right.
8. I am very easily startled by bugs, people, phones, potato chips, dogs, hats, sheet music, doors, backpacks, trees, glasses, lotion, water, frisbees, flowers, and did I mention bugs? I don't like bugs...
9. I'm kind of obsessed with the way things smell. My room has about fourteen different air fresheners (okay, two), I do happy dances over my body spray, and I immediately flip over any guy wearing a decent cologne.
10. I laugh loud, long, and a lot. (But most of you probably knew this already)
11. I'm not good with numbers.

HERE'S A RANDOM PICTURE OKAY BAI

How to Get Ununinspired

I realized that like my last twenty-six blog posts have started out with "I'm really sorry" or something along those lines, so this time I'm not even going to bother.

I regret nothing.

Okay, I lied, I seriously wish that I had posted at least one more time than I did over the last almost-month (which would put me at a grand total of one post). I do, however, feel that I had a good reason for my non-presence in the blogging world.

I was uninspired.

Yep. See that right there? That was me. Sad, but true.
As bummerific as being uninspired was/is, I know that I cannot possibly be the only person to suffer from it.

So here is a top ten list for you guys!

HOW TO WRITE UNUNINSPIRED BLOG POSTS

1. Look up quotes, think about them, and write your thoughts on them.
2. Think of a random top ten list to post. (I promise you guys this one actually does not apply to this post; however, I have used it numerous times in the past.)
3. Do something fun, unusual, exciting, adventurous, silly, unique, insane, adrenaline-pumping, dangerous, special, or crazy (preferably all of the above). Take pictures.
4. Find a really old picture and post a memory it brought to mind.
5. Post something random, funny, and so completely out there that all your fans will love you forever. (I like to think I'm an expert at this one)
6. Post an inspiring message about self-motivation, beauty, love, friendship, family, or something like that.
7. Read other people's blogs. (Oftentimes I find that I am not alone in leaving my blog untouched for long periods of time, and then I feel better about myself.)
8. Sit and think for a while before you start to write. I've found that some of my best topics come to mind at a whim.
9. Dissect a fetal pig.
10. Write a journal post. Not like an "OH DIARY LET ME TELL YOU THE SECRETS OF MINE INNERMOST HEART," but rather, let your readers in to your life. Let them get to know you, your interests, how you pass your time (Half my time is spent wishing that I was a better blogger), your family, and such like. It could be fun! ;)

Another thing that I've discovered is the power of the scheduled post. When I am in an inspired mood, I find myself  wanting to write post after post after post, but not wanting to overwhelm you, my readers. So I write as many posts as I wish, but schedule each for a different day. That way, you can cheat and make it look like you are a most inspired person, when really, you just wrote like ten posts in one day and spread them out. (Life hack right there, people. You should thank me.)

Now go! Take what I have taught you! Be ununinspired bloggers!

It's a SPECIAL DAY!!!!

You're so special, I got Jane Austen herself just for you. 

Happy birthday Sarah! You know which Sarah you are, and despite the fact that I'm sure some other Sarah has a birthday today, this is a birthday wish special for oh-so-special YOU from yours truly! I have so enjoyed getting to know you and be your friend! I love your humor and encouragement and competition and craziness and weirdness and scariness and gangstaness. :) I hope your day was wonderful!! <3

I am a terrible blogger

I am sorry, dear friends. I have failed you yet again by not posting in over two weeks.
I had one duty: to entertain you all with my droll humor and stories from the viewpoint of a high-school, home-school, almost-done-with-school...

WAIT. WHAT DID THAT SAY?

I.
Am.
Almost.
Done.
With.
School.

Cool.

Now being done with school is always a momentous occasion, because this of course means that summer vacation is upon us. However, this year it is extra exciting for me because two things.
One, I'll be starting my junior year in the fall, which means I am halfway through high school! And two, I'm dual enrolling come August as well! Yes, yes, yes, hold your applause. (I know you didn't really applaud)

I have now taken the SAT and the PERT, so I'm basically a scholar, DUH.
I have run a mile in eleven minutes, so I am getting better.
I have seen The Importance of Being Earnest and loved it. A lot.
I have run insane numbers of errands in three days.
I have made an idiot of myself myriad times.
I have decided that I am now a runner. Officially. (Running sounds so much nicer than glorified walking, which is depressing, albeit accurate)

Random word:

Schadenfreude
 scha·den·freu·de

Noun
Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

Thus concludes the end of my blog post. (Lovely redundancy, eh?) I am not even going to bother saying that I will never fail you again; in fact, I'm going to tell you now - EXPECT ME TO FAIL. 

I have issues

I was signing up for camp earlier and one of the things I had to fill in was this section.

"Does the camper have any emotional or behavioral issues?"

Oh yes, I have many, many emotional and behavioral issues. I will list just the most potentially dangerous ones here for sake of time - I know you have a lot of applications to go through.
For starters, sometimes I truly believe that I am a tree. I like to stand perfectly still in one spot and feel my branches and leaves blow in the wind. Sometimes I grow to twenty times my normal size and turn green when I get angry. I always run with scissors. I go ballistic whenever I hear the word "milkshake". Occasionally I will curl up into a fetal position and not move until I have recited the entire dictionary inside my head. I suffer from blennophobia, phobophobia, consecotaleophobia, and I am a kleptomaniac. There are many more things I feel I should list, but I have run out of room on the application.

Yep. I'm really excited to go to camp. x)

I am a celebrity

It's been a little while since I caught you all up on what I've been doing/reading/listening to/all that jazz.
You probably don't care to find out, but I'm going to tell you anyway! :)

What I've been doing:
School, friends, running, music, video games, music, art, school. Ah, yes, school - always the alpha and omega.

What I've been reading:
Besides my Bible, really the only book I've been reading is The Count of Monte Cristo. Yes, it is a required book; however, I am enjoying it immensely and will probably reread it someday (Despite the fact that it's like 900 million pages long)

What I've been listening to:
This I actually have to divide into two categories...
What I've been listening to while running  
1. Ever Ever After by Carrie Underwood
2. What Faith Can Do by Kutless
3. God Girl by Jamie Grace
4. What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction (I'm sorry guys, but I'm human)
5. Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns
What I've been listening to all the rest of the time
1. My Straight No Chaser album, which is Christmas music but I really don't care. :)
2. Far and Away soundtrack
3. Liszt, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff
4. Ever Ever After by Carrie Underwood (Yeah, I kind of really like that song right now)
5. Favorite Song by tobyMac <----- weird name

What I've been watching:
Besides the obvious MUSICALS MUSICALS AND MORE MUSICALS, I've been enjoying Persuasion (thank you Sarah!!!!) a LOT. It's actually been almost a week since I last watched it, so I'll probably be popping that in soon. So yes, movies like that and also comedies. Anything that makes me laugh my head off I love. :D

What I've been eating:
Chicken. Twice baked potatoes. Cookies. Peanut butter. Pizza. Bread. Cheese. Chicken.
Tada!

Anywho...that has been my life lately! THanakKS forOROR LissssTTNEEING!!

For Ruth

Happy birthday Ruth! I hope your day is wonderful, special, beautiful, fun, bubbly, colorful, and all those other appropriate adjectives! I'm so thankful that we became friends and you are such a blessing and encouragement to me! <3

Public pianos for Pensacola

So guys, there's this thing happening around town and I'm sooo excited!
It's a new project started by a lady who teaches piano (and harpsichord and a whole truckload of other things) at the University of West Florida and I'm not sure all of the technical details of the whole thing but let me say this, I am so jitterigimously ticklefied! I absolutely cannot wait!!
This lovely thing is that there are going to be pianos all around Pensacola!
PUBLIC pianos!
As in, ANYBODY can play them!
And I played one of them today! As far as I know there are only two thus far and they aren't at their final locations as of yet, but I think this is just the coolest thing! This is something that I've heard about before that I think was done in New York and I was so jealous but now it's happening here! I think I may just hog the piano from the world so nobody else can play and only me.
Anywho, these are like old pianos that have been somewhat restored and painted up really cool! Here's the one that I played today!

 Okay, Geoffrey played too...but that's the cool thing: anybody can do it! Even if you've never had a lesson in your life (which honestly could be somewhat painful in some cases...but I digress)

See the lovely Spanish man photobombing my picture? ;)
It's a gorgeous piece of art, although I can't say it's a particularly lovely piano musically speaking...
This is just getting started but I'm really excited! So keep an eye out for these pianos around the town!
I think this one is going in the Maritime Stadium and there's another one destined for the airport.
Also I played Pirates on this piano today.

A birthday story

Once upon a time there were two girls. They were very good friends, and they liked to laugh and tease each other and talk. The girls were together with their friends for classes one day. The church where they met was surrounded by mysterious woods which begged to be explored. The girls knew that it would be a very bad idea to go in the woods, and they never did. But one day, the girls were tired of not being able to talk just the two of them. Wherever they went, people would follow them. They needed to be off by themselves so they could talk. The first little girl suggested that they go into the woods. The second little girl agreed. And so, despite their better judgment, the two girls started into the woods. They discovered what looked to be a rotted out old chair, probably devoured long ago by termites and raccoons. They continued on through the woods, stepping barefoot over moss and leaves. The girls avoided broken glass and thorns, wasps and spider webs, simply being happy of their opportunity to talk without worry of disruption. Unfortunately, the girls forgot that the adults in charge of them would be very worried that they could not be found. The two girls ventured back around to where the other children were playing in the sunshine. They spotted a very worried mother advancing towards them and walked as a pair condemned. The mother lectured them briefly and put the two girls in timeout together to think about what they'd done. The two girls are very sorry today for what they did, although they don't regret the memory that they made together.

Happy birthday, Bria! Thank you for sticking with me in timeout, and everything else! <3

On my birthday

So today I turn fifteen. That marks a very special occasion. Cuz I'm fifteen. You know what happens when you turn fifteen?
You're old enough to get your driver's permit!! x)
You're the same age as Lizbeth, Jesse, Joel, and who all knows who else! For now...
The song "Fifteen" by Taylor Swift finally applies to you.
So yeah! Also my mommy made me a cake which looks delicious...I think we may have to test it just to make sure though. It is chocolate with chocolate ganache filling, chocolate buttercream, and various chocolate bars all over the top...diabetes in cake form, in other words. But it looks yummy.
So instead of being all selfish and such like I normally would be on my birthday, instead I'm going to post sixteen things I'm thankful for, one for each year and one to grow on! :)
1. My God, my salvation, and the Bible - without these things I would be nothing, doomed to hell. But thank goodness I'm not!
2. My parents - I really don't know where I'd be without them. (Get it?? Cuz I wouldn't BE without them!! LOLOLOLOL)
3. My friends - you all are amazing and I love you so much!
4. Specifically my best friend Allie - she's such a blessing to me!! <3
5. Musicals
6. Chocolate
7. Frisbee
8. Facebook, texting, Skype, blogging - anything that keeps me in touch with everyone I love!
9. Linus - more on him later... <3
10. Jokes, pranks, humor, laughter - it makes my life soo much better!!
11. My grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, random people who I'm not sure are related to me but they always show up at the family reunions, so what can I say - you all keep my life interesting and are so supportive!! You're always there with a hug, or support, or a lame pickup line...
12. My camera
13. Sparkly zebra print socks
14. Squash
15. MUSIC - ANY KIND - it makes me so happy!!
16. ALL OF MY FOLLOWERS!! I LOVE YOU GUYS SOO MUCH!! <3 Thank you all!!

I go spazzo

HAAIII GUIIZZEE!!!
I don't really feel like saying anything deep or meaningful, because I'm just soo excited! This week is gonna be fuunn!! x)
Today I am going bowling...which I have a feeling could warrant a good self-ridicule post at a later date.
Tonight my little sister has a spelling bee...she's nervous...
Wednesday is nothing special...except maybe one teeny little thing...
Thursday we have PE...
Friday we have co-op...and that night we get to go to Fine Arts at PCC to hear the Jaffe family! I'm suuuuper pumped for that, like soo much it's kind of insane...it's just gonna be one boss concert. Legit.
Saturday is gonna be boring as boring goes. And by boring I mean SO TOTES NOT BORING.
So yeah! I'm in a good, crazy mood today, and thusly I pity anyone who has to come in contact with me!
I hope your Monday is going as great as mine is, and that your week will be fun too!
I'm going to shut up and go eat breakfast now.