Braces

            I have had braces for over 3 years, in fact over 3 and a half years yay… oh wait never mind.  Braces suck and I don’t know how else to describe them, and they are really just a hassle.  There is brushing, the appointments, and the lovely rubber bands for months on end… oh and don’t forget the diet change.

            If you think that brushing your teeth is time consuming, try it with braces.  You have to make sure to brush from every angle of the brackets, wires, and hooks every time.  Plus, food gets stuck so much easier and is that much harder to get out.  The biggest fear with not brushing is the dreaded stains after the braces come off, for me it is basically a given after almost 4 years I will have some sort of stain though, especially with my coffee love.

            The monthly appointments to the orthodontist are so much fun.  I can never wait until my next one.  I really hope you knew that was sarcasm.  Spending a good almost hour every 4-6 weeks well they basically tell you to just come back again in another 4-6 weeks, I’ve lost track of how much time I have spent laying in the chairs at the orthodontist.

            For me, the longest and most difficult part of the braces part has been the rubber bands.  I have been wearing rubber bands for I have no idea how long.  They are always breaking and are everywhere in my house and car by now.  In fact, this post topic was decided when I yawned and my rubber band snapped.

            The favorite part everybody says when they get braces is when they can no longer chew gum, well technically.  Although in some ways braces have been convenient in getting me out of eating foods, such as celery, in middle school when I really didn’t want to eat it, now I’m just tired of not being able to eat a caramel apple.

            I remember looking forward to getting braces, now I look back and laugh at myself.  Just remember kids, braces suck.

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Gardening... Strawberries

            Today was in the seventies, like what is this, this has not happened in forever.  I was finally able to feel comfortable with planting all of the strawberry plants in my hanging trellis off of my deck that my dad and brother put up for me last year.  Yeah, I’m one of those crazy garden people and I don’t know why but I am so deal with it.  I was so excited to be able to plant my strawberries that I couldn’t wait to do it and did it right after I got home from work even though I was so tired and just really needed a nap.

            This is going to be one of those awkward blog posts with tips about gardening I’m just super excited so sorry if I start to ramble.  The unfortunate thing with strawberry plants are that they take need to be planted a good 18 inches apart from each other and are always sending out these things called “runners” from the base plant.  If you are planting strawberries, I would recommend when you plant them, plant something like radishes or carrots around them that will be able to be harvested within a few weeks so that you aren’t wasting all of the extra growing space in your garden.

            Strawberry plants are also very frustrating in the fact that they usually have very crappy growing years for their first year, and then only last a good 3-4 years before being burned out.  The way that you avoid having them all have the same good years is pinch the blossoms off of every other plant the first year, after the third year go through and remove all of the plants on one half and replant the next spring doing the same with the other half the next fall.  This is to avoid having them all have the same first year twice, and pinching off the blossoms gives them a good second year but nothing the first season which is why you only do half.

            Have fun growing, oh and don’t forget to water all your plants.

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Country Concerts

            In case you didn’t know, and most likely you didn’t, Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Tour” was in Des Moines, Iowa last night.  I happened to have tickets to the show with my mother, and it in many ways may have been the best concert I have ever been to.  It took place at the Wells Fargo Arena which was the same location I saw Carrie Underwood a few months ago, and there were a lot of differences I found in them and liked more in one than in the other.

            Generally you go to a concert for the music so I am going to start with that.  Carrie Underwood has been my favorite artist for as far back as I can remember, but I’m not really that old so probably shortly after she was off of American Idol.  I love so many of her songs and I love her voice.  Unfortunately the night she was in Des Moines she was losing her voice so I was slightly disappointed in a few of the songs and she played a shorter set than normal.

            During Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away Tour she played a lot of her more recent songs that were not necessarily as known or popular.  I have all of her albums except the most recent one, but I still did not know quite a few of the songs she sang which was very disappointing to me.

             Now to talk about Kenny Chesney’s music, I do not always actively listen to country but I knew every single song he sang except for two of them.  This to me was able to keep me very entertained and I was able to enjoy all of the music since he was playing his more popular music rather than just his newer music.

            To get away from the music part of the concert, I’m going to talk about the set and costuming of Carrie Underwood which was just awesome.  She had some of the prettiest dresses, cutest outfits, and I loved her shoes.  She did a lot of costume changes and had awesome backgrounds.  At one point, Carrie even went on a stage over the floor part of the crowd.  Carrie also had some really good lighting that was never over powering or too bright.

            When it came to Kenney Chesney’s staging, well it stayed the same.  He also never changed outfits which I find a little more normal since he is a guy and all.  His original stage was never anything all that special though, he just had screens with pictures and videos playing throughout.  However, I did like how his stage had a spot that stuck out into the crowd on the floor in the middle.  His lighting, however, for a majority of the time was very obnoxious and over powering.  For me it was disorienting, and made it difficult for my mom to drive home later.

            The last thing I will discuss is the opening acts.  Carrie Underwood had Hunter Hayes with her.  Hunter Hayes was the other person I really wanted to see at the time so I was really happy when I found out they were together.  I knew a lot of his songs and he is pretty well known.  To put it nice and short, to have him there made me very happy.  Hunter was also very good and had very good staging.

            Kenney Chesney in Des Moines had two opening acts, in some places he has more.  I heard Kacey Musgraves and the Eli Young Band.  I had never heard of Kacey and she mainly sang songs by some other artists but she did have one song that is relatively new she wrote that I have been hearing quite a lot.  Eli Young Band has been around for about ten years and has a few songs that are pretty popular.  They even sing like my all- time favorite song and it left me almost in tears.

            All in all, both concerts were very good and I am glad I went to both of them.  I will have to thank my mom for buying the tickets and taking me with her even if the Carrie Underwood ones were my birthday present.  Last night’s Kenny Chesney concert was much better though than what I can remember from the one I went to years ago with my mom when our seats were occupied by people who couldn’t fit just in their seats, and after being put in other seats had beer poured on us…  I’m glad I went last night J

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Fads

            I am going to make this blog post in response to my dear friend Finley's latest blog post.  He had a blog post about hats but I found the actual purpose to be about fads.  I wanted to talk mainly about the last point he made and the big hair fad in the 70s.

            If you ever stop to think about it, many of the fashions from the 70s and 80s have been coming back.  The poofs in the hair and in general a lot of the clothes are all coming back from the time of my parents.

            A couple of years ago I was so confused why everyone was going from wearing boot cut jeans to skinny jeans.  I used to think that they were the craziest idea ever, but a few years later I am wearing usually only skinny jeans.  In case you didn’t know, skinny jeans are a returning fad, as Finley would say, from the 70s and 80s.

            Another fad would be neon.  Nowadays you can walk into quite a few stores, and they have a whole section of neon clothes, or at least they did last summer.  Once again, neon is from the time of my parents and it had its return to us.

            The biggest shock I have had with returning fads would have to be the idea of poofs in the hair.  Now it is quite common to simply poof your bangs or the front part of your hair to keep it out of your hair at any time.  Other people will wear a headband and put a big poof in the back.  I used to think that this was the craziest thing ever when the fad began to return, but now I do it too.

            It really is weird the way that fads come and go, being recycled and returning as the generations age.  I’m just hoping that shoulder pads never come back, I don’t think I would be able to handle that fad.

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A True Friend

            Everyone has friends or at least a friend, hopefully.  I don’t know anybody that doesn’t have at least one good friend that they can always talk to.  Sometimes they may be just like you and sometimes they may be the exact opposite of you.  No matter how much you have in common, they are still your best friend that you can always trust.  To me there are some important things you should have in every friend ship, such as trust, respect, and some similarities in personality.

            Trust is a big deal in any relationship, but in a friendship I think it is vitally important.  You have to be able to have someone that you can talk to about all your problems and tell all your secrets to, and I think that that should be your friend.  However, if you are telling your friend all your secrets, you have to be able to trust that they won’t judge you, but most importantly would be trust that they won’t tell anybody else.

            Those may be the most important parts of trust in a friendship, but there are also some smaller things that you have to be able to trust a friend with.  As a high school student, you have to trust your friend not to ditch you and plans you make at the last minute, or leave you hanging at school or lunch.  That may seem like something really small, but as a student in high school it can sometimes become a huge deal to be ditched.

            In a friendship, respect for each other is a huge deal.  If your friend is always putting you down, they are probably not a good friend.  If your best friend constantly calls you and can’t give you a break, it is probably time to reevaluate your friendship.  A friend is someone that doesn’t judge you for the things you do and wear, or other friends you may talk to.  A true friend is someone that respects the decisions you make, as long as you aren’t hurting yourself or others.

            Personality, it is simple.  A friendship where you like nothing the same would probably not work out.  If you are a straight –A nerd and your friend is a straight C procrastinator, there will probably end up being a lot of fighting over whether there should be hang outs during the week.  A differing personality can also cause issues in clothes, if your friend likes one thing and you like another style, they may always be judging your clothes, but that also can go back to how much they respect you.  The bottom line though, if you have nothing in common the friendship probably won’t be able to last long before someone gets annoyed with the other.

            Just remember, a friend is a friend.  If you get along and have fun together don’t sweat it.  If your friend is bringing you down, you might need to reevaluate the friendship.  In a lot of ways a friendship is like any other relationship, so think before you act and don’t do anything you are going to regret.  These are only my opinion about a friendship. 

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Winter

The brown, barren earth

A chill runs through

Howling in its anguish

For it is alone

 

Glass panes fall to earth                                                                                                       5

Like a window being shattered

As white waves wash

Over this lonely land

 

A lone wolf cries out

But only the wind responds                                                                                                10

Howling in its anguish

For they are alone

 

Glass is snow

Piercing my skin

As white waves wash                                                                                                         15

Over this barren land

 

 

1)      Line 2-3, Personification.  “A chill runs through Howling in its anguish” I personified the wind by having it running through the land as it is howling out in anguish; however, wind is not able to have feelings but giving it the personification of having feelings of anguish emphasizes the lonely and desolate place.

2)      Line 13, Metaphor.  “Glass is snow” I make the comparison that glass is similar to snow as it hits me.  The piercing made by sharp pieces of glass, and the piercing chill of snow are compared to each other in order to not only make it clear that the glass falling is snow, but also to keep the lonely and somber mood of the poem.

3)      Line 5-6, Simile.  “Glass panes fall to earth Like a window being shattered” I am comparing the glass falling to earth similar to when a window is shattered and broken.  I am able to help clarify the image I want readers to see as the glass falls to earth through the use of a simile.

4)      Lines 3-4 & 11-12, Lines 7-8 & 15-16, Parallelism.  I end each stanza of the poem using the same alternating phrases.  I am able to emphasize the snow covered lonely land by repeating the same lines with only a few word changes.

5)      Line 1, Imagery.  “The brown barren earth” I am able to use visual imagery right at the beginning of the poem to create a scene for my reader.  Throughout the poem I continue to use imagery to remind the reader of the visual and at times auditory and tactile scene in the poem.

6)      Line 2, Metonymy.  “A chill runs through” the chill that is being discussed in the poem has replaced wind in order to give the reader the feel of the cold in the scene.

7)      Line 3 & 11, Diction.  “Howling in its anguish” I use the word anguish out of many other words I could have used.   I chose anguish in order to give the feeling of pain and that it doesn’t want to be alone or there.  It is able to keep the somber tone of the poem.

Spring

It is finally Spring! Well kind of… I mean it was warm today but I think tomorrow it is going to be like 40 degrees again.  The weather today got me thinking about all the things I always have to do each Spring.  I’m sure that you probably have to do many of the same things, you might have not thought about it yet though.

1.      I found out today it is very important to make sure that your shorts and tank tops fit.  Unfortunately, or fortunately if you are looking at it differently, I lost a lot of weight since last summer and therefore none of my clothes fit.  Most likely you are going to want to try on some or all of your clothes just to verify that you will have clothes to wear when it warms up.  I would recommend taking whatever doesn’t fit to a local consignment store.  If you don’t know what that is, it is a store that will pay you money for your clothes and you can even do some shopping while you are there for clothes at discounted costs.  I went through my clothes today and next weekend I now have 3 large bags full of clothes to sell.

2.      Another thing it is time to start thinking about is your summer job, if you haven’t already.  If you worked somewhere last year, most likely they will send you a letter requesting you return again for another season.  If not, there are plenty of places that will hire you for seasonal work.  There are seed companies looking for pollinators and detasslers, garden shops looking for additional stockers and sellers, ice cream shops that are open only when the weather is warm, and cities looking for lifeguards and camp counselors.  There are plenty of jobs out there if you really try to look and search around.

3.      If you have a garden, it is probably time that you start making sure you have plants and seeds, and that your garden is ready to go.  This year it has stayed much cooler and therefore I have not been able to plant anything yet.  This is kind of worrying since most years I am planting radishes, carrots, and onions before now and I’m getting ready to plant other things.  I’m sure for other gardeners this is also concerning them as the growing season will probably be shorter this year than average, making things like melons difficult to grow.

Today got me thinking about Spring a lot more.  Maybe it got you thinking too and hopefully it will start to warm up more so that we can all enjoy the time of year.

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