THE BLOG OF JESS

Hello. It's mid October now, and my memory is hazy. Whoops. Well, I believe I left off on Space Needle? I will quickly sum up the happenings (HOLD UP I JUST CAME ACROSS DEANMON AND CAS ON TUMBLR AHHHH OMG THEY'RE GONNA BE IN THE SAIJFOSIJFOISDFO this is for another blog post, sorry hahaha) of Seattle that I have not mentioned yet. It won't be in complete detail, unfortunately, but I'd better get this down before it completely vanishes from my memory. It won't be chronological order because, quite frankly, I can't remember what happened before what. 

1. Returned to the homeland. Visited the hospital I was born in. It was pretty small. Also visited where my family lived in Bremerton. Can you say 'Ghost Town'? It was a navy neighborhood, and the thing looked structurally unsound. Like, the wood was rotting, and I was panic-y that the stairs and porch would collapse under our weight. My parents told anecdotes of my sister's antics while living there.
   It was apparently a long drive to Bremerton from Seattle. I wouldn't know. I was asleep for most of the ride. But we ended up taking the ferry back to Seattle. The ferry was ferry fantastic (badum-chh).
2. My Sister's 22nd birthday! I actually think this happened the same day as the one above. Oh yeah, this was on August 4th. Heh. In the morning, after brushing my teeth, my sister called me into the bedroom, where of the two of us held a birthday dance party to the song '22' by Taylor Swift. On the white board in our suite, the two of us did alegbra equations because THAT'S WHAT FUN ADULTS DO!We went to the mall, and she got herself two cupcakes (which she kindly shared with me), my mom bought her a Birthday Cake flavored ice cream, and then the two of us played around in Barnes & Noble. We took pictures besides relevant books. Like one titled something along the lines of 'You're Getting Closer to Dying' and 'How to Be an Adult'. One of the highlights of our time in that place was finding all these hand puppets. My sister played with a squirrel one and had it lip sync to a rap song. Hahaha. Good times. Later that evening, at my grandparents' house, my aunt was like "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ASHLEY!" and my dad freaked out because just then he realized it was his first born's birthday. Yeah. He forgot my sister's birthday. Like, I remembered. My mom remembered. My dad forgot. I bet he felt bad about that. He later asked me if I remembered it was her birthday, and I definitely did. 
3. Mount Rainier. The next stop was this really amazing mountain. I was told the night before that we wouldn't be hiking up the thing, just driving, so I wore skinny jeans and things. We did drive up it, but then it turns out my dad is a liar and I did end up hiking up the thing. Skinny jeans are not to be worn when hiking up a mountain. Had my father not lied to me, I would've worn shorts. Dang, dad. Why you gotta do this to me. And cutting to the chase, my mom was complaining and slacking as we got higher up the thing (not really up the mountain the land around it is definitely not flat), I decided "Okay, we can stop here and then start heading back." My mom was wearing sandals... not appropriate footwear for hiking. I thought I was doing her a favor. She later stabs me in the back when we returned to the level land by claiming that "I gave up." First off, 'giving up' is an awful phrase to use. If anything I would have said "Met my limits". Only I didn't. I noticed how she was struggling, I made the executive decision to start going back down. I never said anything back to her, but ugh I hate the phrase "give up". It implies that a full effort was not given. Like I didn't try. Hate it. 
4. Downtown Seattle. I got to ride in the Seattle metro-system. Pretty nifty. It'd be super cool if my town had something like that. It'd be really convenient. Unfortunately, I live in the suburbs, not the city. And something as cool as that is no available to me. In downtown, I really dug how everything was laid out. The bricked ground reminded me of the CityWalk or whatever it's called in Universal Studios in California. I remember thinking "I wish cities looked like this". That day, I learned that the city I was looking for was SEATTLE.
   THere was this really cool fountain that had a walkway that goes through it. I walked through it three times, I think? I know the first time I was by myself, and I rushed and screamed. Another time was with my sister, I think. I was in front of her. This time, I took my time. Walked. Took in the feeling. The water pouring to my left and right, getting sprinkled with water as it hit the ground below me. My sister, though, was going through the panic that I went through the first time, and kept pushing me to go forward.
   We were with my parents, my grandpa, and my aunt. My aunt led us to the first Starbucks ever established. There was a happy man playing the guitar, singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and implored everyone to sing along with him. The line for the Starbucks was hella long. Dude, I don't even drink coffee, so... and there are literally other Starbucks on every other corner. It's all the same coffee.
   After that, we went through the Public Market. I bought a painting to put up in my room.
   After that, we walked down stairs, and went to the infamous 'Gum Wall'. It's a wall covered in an amazing layer of chewed gum. I love it. It's gross, but like, wow. And people keep adding onto it. My sister contributed to the gum wall. I did not.
   Going up and down more stairs, we went to this seaside thing. There was a big ferris wheel that I would have liked to go on, but, like, money.
   Lastly, my aunt parted ways with us, and everyone else when on a Duck tour. Basically, a duck tour is on this WWII ship that drives on both land and water. We got front row seats of the tour. My sister and I sat behind Max, our tour guide. It may have been one of the most fun tours I've been through. That sound track tho. It was amazing.
   After this day, I knew that Seattle is definitely a place I wouldn't mind living in. Seriously. Next to New York, Seattle is on my list of places I'd like to reside in. 

Hello. Out of all of the Nerd Herd, Vicki, I'd say is one of the members I know the least about. Thankfully, though, I have a lunch period with her, and am learning more about her. From this I've come up with the accurate description of: "smart, sarcastic, and always knows the right thing to say". And it's true. She's in the top 20(?) in our class rank, which is hella impressive. I don't know where I land in the class ranks. I've never felt like checking in with guidance and finding out. Anyway, she's also sarcastic. And I love that about her as well. She basically rolls with the punches. She has a good friend named Jaimie. On her phone, she's called 'Lord Vickilicious', and Jaimie's boyfriend has talked about how he's allowed to look all through Jaimie's phone except for the messages under Lord Vickilicious. When asked "What could you be hiding?" she nonchalantly replies "My nudes." I thought that was pretty funny, hahaha. Her sarcastic humor is the best, really. And lastly, what makes her a great friend, is that she always knows the right thing to say when a friend is down. It's astounding. I wish I had that kind of talent. I'm too socially awkward to come up with something outside of "I'm sorry, that sucks." She actually knows how to console a friend. She always knows the right thing to say. 
Not too long ago, I was crying over a thing that happened, and I shared my woes. And what she said back to me was really supportive and, like, I don't know how much she realizes how great she is. In two sentences, she's managed to cheer me up. 
This event has inspired me to write this post dedicated to her fantasticness. None of my friends really know of my blog, (although in the 1+ years I've had this thing, I've only shared it with them twice.) so I don't think she'd ever see this. But in the event that Vicki does come across this, I just wanna say thanks. You're a great friend, and I'm glad that we get to share a friendship together. 

Thanks for reading.
-Jess

Hello. How are you? My junior year of high school is doing pretty well. Overall, I'd say I'm happy. I definitely more busy this year. Gotta do those things that'll appeal to college applications, y'know? (Even though I barely have a clue on what I want to do, or what college I'd like to go to...) I don't remember if I've mentioned any of this before. I've been trying to not post regular blog posts until I've finished typing out my entire summer adventures, but ugh, there's so much to write, and I just don't feel like writing it sometimes. I have a couple days left to write, and then I have my final summer weekend, which I spent in Virginia. 
SO ABOUT MORE CURRENT EVENTS!
AP Language and Composition is a less intimidating class than I had anticipated. From what I can tell, it's easier than the Advanced Honors English class (which is supposed to rank lower than AP). They're reading all those classic pieces of literature that is written in an older version of English, with different slangs, and stuff. Meanwhile I'm reading a bunch of speeches and articles, analyzing every single detail. For instance, you wouldn't think that the speaker's use of 'he, they, we, I, me' aren't so important, but it iS VERY IMPORTANT. It contributes to the tone, and the overall message of a speech. I've learned how to present an argument effectively. I'm not going to dwell much into that because this isn't English class.
My dear friend, Bailey, her mom is currently in the process of opening a coffee shop called Java Joe's. It's biking distance from my home, maybe, like, a 20-30 minute bike ride. Not bad! I plan on being a loyal customer there. When the news was released to the public, (I got first dibs on this coffee shop knowledge. Best friend privileges, man.) at school, it seems like anyone who remotely knew of Bailey was saying they were going to try to get a job there. Like, not even friends with Bailey, but people who just knew of her. Bailey has complained on how annoying it is. She's fine with having the Nerd Herd working there, but those other peeps need to lay off, basically. 
So, I'm excited for that to open up so I can eat sandwiches and things there. Not coffee though, I don't drink coffee. And yeah, if you were wondering why I'm not going to try to apply there (and I'm sure I'd get in. Again, best friend privileges), there are two main reasons. 1. I don't drink coffee. That'd just be ironic and weird. And 2. I'm allergic to tree nuts, and other people like to have those fancy nutty things in their drinks. If I come in contact with that nonsense, bad things will happen. 
What else... Oh yeah! I've joined my high school's Quiddich team! Yes, quiddich is a real thing in the muggle world. It's like a merge of rugby, handball, and soccer? I haven't gotten to play any yet. But it'll happen, and it'll be pretty neat-o. I'm excited to see where that takes me. It'll be the first sport of any kind that I've joined, and of course the first and only sport I join is Quiddich. Why wouldn't it be. I think I've reached Ultimate Nerd status because of this. 
Around Rosh Hashanah, I had off from school, so Amy & I binged watched almost all of the movies. 
Almost all caught up...
Yesterday, I attended my school's 'Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged]'. It stars three guys, and they cover all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets in about 97 minutes. That performance has seriously changed my life hahahaha. No, but it was hilarious, I was laughing the entire time. There were a lot of innuendos. Only, it wasn't even innuendo, they just came out with it. They had hand puppets do the sex, and one of the guys said they were hung like donkey. Augh, it was so funny though. One of the best parts was when they covered Hamlet. It was the longest one out of all of the others. There was a part where they brought a girl from the audience to be Ophelia, and to help her understand what's going on in her mind, they had the entire audience help. The first four rows (which I was in), had to wave their hands back and forth while saying in a high pitched manner "mayBE! MAYbe not" over and over again. THen they had the back section on the left... do... something, I can't remember. BUT they had the beack right section of the audience yell "CUT THE CRAP, HAMLET, MY BIOLOGICAL CLOCK IS TICKING, AND I WANT BABIES NOW!" So they had all of us do all that at once and it was just a roar of fabulousness. 
When they finished their performance of Hamlet, they were like "Oh hey! We have extra time! Let's do it again! But FASTER!" So they did it again, faster. And when they finished that, they were like, "LET'S DO IT AGAIN. BUT EVEN F A S T E R!!!" So they did that, and it was so great. And when they finished THAT, they were like "Okay, one more time! Except... BACKWARDS." And they did it again, backwards. It was so great, and I loved it. I would love to watch it again. 
I love school plays, man. They're so great. Especially the actors. One of them, Roland I think is his name, he looks like Brad Pitt, and all the girls fangirl over him after his performance in Spamalot, which is funny, because he played Lancelot, who, in the play, turned out to be gay. We all saw him wearing a cod piece. Magic. 

Okay, that's it!
Thanks for reading. 
-Jess

Hello. Just a fun fact for ya! Writing stories are not easy. This is really a secret project, but I'm gonna write about it here anyway because I know none of the people I'm hiding it from read or even know about the existence of the blog. BUT if you happen to go by the names of either Vicki, Bailey, or Marianna... don't read this.

Hello. Continuing the saga of my summer vacation...
It was the last day at Allyza's house. After eating breakfast, my family said our goodbyes to Allyza's family, and went on our way.
With some time to kill before having to go to the airport to fly to our next destination, we vistited LACMA, the LA County Museum of Art under my sister's suggestion. It was pretty cool. We got to see that street light thing. Before, I didn't understand what the point of having all these streetlights all together like they are, but thanks to a plaque, I learned that it's supposed to be 'art' and the streetlights are from decades ago. 
Honestly, I like the Met much better. There were some art pieces that I wanted to know about that didn't even have labels or whatever on it or anything. I found that annoying. I tested, once again, my art history skills by trying to guess the time periods of art, and found that I'm not rusty quite yet. :) 
After that brief shindig, it was time to go to the airport and go to Seattle!
The flight was only 2 hours long. This is when I realized that however many days it'd take to drive somewhere, you can get there in that many hours by plane. So, while it'd take 2 days to drive from California to Washington, it only took 2 days by plane. Super neato. 
One thing I noticed about this new area is that 1) it's very green and 2) there are a lot of hills. I would not enjoy driving here. It'd be wayy too scary. I mean, driving on flat land is bad enough. Then I'd have to take into account the speed of the car rolling down a hill? Heck naw. 
Also, on the day that I went to Seattle was the day GISHWHES 2014 started. My friends must have been busy scavenging while I listened to my parents talk to family in a language I don't understand. Not that fun, for me, honestly. 
I learned that there was an event for GISHWHES in Seattle the next day. Misha would be there. And I really wanted to go. Unfortunately, the day and time it was happening, I was trapped at church, after worship services, with the same deal. I was standing around alone listening to my family talk to strangers in a language I don't understand. The amount of frustration and sadness I went through at that time. I could have met my idol, the person I look up to, my rolemodel... I could have met Misha Collins in the flesh... but couldn't. I am seriously still upset about this. One day I will meet Misha Collins. On my bucket list is to hug Misha. It will happen. It. Will. 
Instead of meeting Misha, my grandparents, after the extended hours of talking to others, took my family around town. At this point in time, I was feeling a terrible wave of home sickness. When I was with my friends in Cali, I was fine! My friends made me feel at home. Where I was then, with family who scarcely spoke English... the last thing I felt was at home. While we were at this seafood restaurant (mind you, I barely even like seafood) tears actually started to roll down my face. Since I managed to keep quiet, when my family noticed, they just assumed my allergies were acting up. Thank goodness for my history of having bad allergy attacks, otherwise I would have had to explain to them why I was sad, and that would have made me even more uncomfortable and probably explode into tears. 
After eating, we drove around more. It was exhausting sitting in a car for an extended period of time, listening to foreign words. I was sitting in the back between my sister and mother. I eventually lolled to sleep, awkwardly tilting my head onto my shoulder, trying to stay within my own personal space. By the end of my stay in Seattle, I grew a hatred towards sitting in the middle. It's the worst.
By the time I woke up, we were... looking... at... a college...???? A MeDiCaL COLlege???? Umm. Why?????????? I was in a very bad mood by the time I was forced to leave the car and take pictures by it. Seriously, what kind of 'tourist attraction' is this? A sucky one. 
THEN they took us to the Space Needle. That was actually pretty cool. Not at all as cool as the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, but cool enough. There weren't any rides that dangled you from the top of the tower. 
At the gift shop there, I bought a key chain with my name on it. My grandma encouraged me to get some for my friends at home, and given that I have 5 close friends, I at first declined. Then they told me to just choose 'a special friend', so I chose Amy. 8 years of friendship and 10 years of knowing each other should constitute the title of special friend. I looked for one that said 'Rosa' since she was also one of my closer friends, but alas, they didn't have her name. I took note to get something else for her at some other point in the trip. Along with the keychain, I also got a painting to decorate my room with.