My Loverly Trampoline

Hello there, and happy Singles Awareness Day!

Right now I am enjoying some delicious strawberry-flavored Life Savers and some Dove chocolates. They're quite good. ^^ I'm listening to "I've Just Seen a Face" from the movie Across the Universe. Great film. Go watch it--now.

Today I mostly did nothing, just chilled around the house. This morning I was having a bad start to my day, and so I went where I usually go to think a while: my giant trampoline outside.

Our trampoline stands about 3 feet tall and at most 12 feet across, with blue padding around the edges and a dotted circle in the middle like a landing platform. It stands right in front of our jungle gym, and sometimes we like to climb to the top and jump onto the trampoline. And then of course my mother runs screaming out of the house and yells that only one person should be jumping at a time(yeah, right) and what on earth are we doing?! Pretty funny, actually.

Other fun games include: Moonwalking around the edge in a frenzied race, double bouncing your friends(you bounce right before they do and it shoots them miles into the air--loads of fun), bouncing onto your back or butt, and then standing up again on the bounce up, bouncing on your back and flipping over, handstands, playing "popcorn"(someone lays curled in a ball in the middle, and everyone else bounces around them, trying to get them to unclasp their hands from their knees), people crawling around on the trampoline while someone underneath tries to hit or tickle them.

On lonely days, though, when you just need to chill for a while, you can go outside and just lay on the trampoline. Usually no one will bother you, unless it's your younger sister who wants to play. If you turn over and rest your head in your arms, you can see the ground and it feels almost as though you're levitating. At night you can just lay there and stargaze. Trampolines are also good for having deep conversations with friends, playing jokes on best friends, making new friends.

What is your favorite thinking spot? Where do you go for random bits of inspiration?

~Joanna

Slump.

Reading: Rite by Tad Williams
Listening to: "Kimi ni Negai wo" by Miyavi
Drinking: Diet Pepsi
What I'm doing right now: Procrastinating. Aren't we all?

I've been in an artistic slump as of late. Actually, for the past few years. My inspiration has been in steady decline and I have no idea what to do... I don't even really feel motivated to write this blog anymore, although I've just begun. I consider myself an artist and yet I don't remember the last time I completed a picture. I also write stories but never seem to finish them. When I sing I don't know why I am singing anymore.

I think that I am serving two masters: Creativity and the Expectations of Others. Rarely do the needs of the two coincide. I'm constantly busy with the outrageous amount of pointless school work my teachers heap on me and trying to keep my grades up in Pre-Calc(curse it!). By the time I'm done forcing my way through the day I have no energy left in the end. I want to do something creative to take my mind off things but I'm too lazy to even pick up a pencil. :P I try to avoid stress as much as possible, so this makes me pretty lazy. Whenever I think about the amount of work I have I purposely put it out of my mind. Everything becomes a chore at some point. Including art. And it sucks.

As for life in general, I just got over being dreadfully sick. About a week and a half ago I went to school with a bad fever and dizzy spells, and by 2nd period I knew I had to go home. I hit the sack as soon as I got to my room, until sometime in the afternoon. Then I watched a couple movies and was peeling an orange standing up in the kitchen. I remember asking my mom to peel the orange for me because I wasn't sure if I could lift my hand that far, and then the next thing I know I'm lying on the cool bathroom floor with my parents standing over me. Whenever people describe their experiences of passing out, they say "Everything went dark," but really there's just a lapse in your memory and suddenly you're somewhere else. What happened was that my blood pressure was too low and blood wasn't getting to my head, so my brain shut itself off. My dad managed to catch me and take the knife out of my hand before I stabbed myself though.

And I performed my solos this weekend for the Solo & Ensemble competition. The best score is Superior, and under that is Excellent, Good, Poor, etc. I sang "Solvejg's Song" by Edvard Grieg which has some high coloratura parts which were difficult, and then my other one was Bach's "Bist Du Bei Mir" which was easy for me because it was in German. I was still really congested during my performance, so my breathing was terrible and my voice cracked on the first note, which never happened before. I also panicked and it took me a little while to remember the lyrics. Therefore I got only an Excellent. I hate being sick. But I don't really mind too much. It wasn't my fault, and the judges were really harsh this year. Many people who should have gotten Superiors got Excellents instead. Bah.

Well, here's my Calvin and Hobbes post: :)



With that, signing off.
~Joanna