XMAS LIST: What I want...

1. NO DRAMA:  Drama sucks, stresses me out. Not good!!

2. GO TO STATE:  Senior year, we've all worked hard. It's time!!

3. AP CALC TO MAGICALLY BECOME EASY:  That class makes me feel challenged. I don't like feeling insignificant.

4. REAL NICE BASKETBALL SCHOLARSHIP:  I've worked my butt off my whole life, really want this to pay off.  It would make college so much easier.

5. NEW IPOD:  Mine disappeared mysteriously.  Lack out music makes me cranky!

6. MY BUTT TO HEAL:  I can't go full throttle and I feel like I'm letting my team down.

7.  WEEK LONG VACATION:  After basketball ends a road trip or vacation with friends would be real nice, and well needed.

8. BASKETBALL TEAM TO STATE HEALTHY:  This would help us have an amazing season; go to state!

9. MY MOM TO BECOME LESS MOODY:  She's been real cranky lately.  I don't like being in the same house with her.

10. BRONCOS TO MAKE IT TO THE SUPER BOWL:  So I can tell people to suck it, mainly Cory.

To be, or not to be....(modern)

To live, or to die, which is better:
Do others believe it's more honorable to suffer
The obstacles and struggles this life offers
Or to change one's path in today's troubles,
By taking their own life.  To die--to sleep--
Never more; and by this is to kill
The pain, and life's misery
That everyone is bound to endure.  Death is but a wish
Only to be dreamt of.  To die--to sleep.
To sleep--in hope of dreaming: but, there's the catch!
When dead there will be no dreams
But also more mortal troubles,
Must give us time.  There's the respect
That makes the struggles of life so long lived.
Why would anyone want to endure the pain and heartache of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's humiliation,
The pains of hated love, the natural pause,
The rudeness of officials, and the rejects
That calm merit of the unworthy takes,
That he himself might his release make
With a razor blade?  Who would bare these burdens,
To work and struggle under a dreaded life,
But that is the dread of something after death--
The unknown terrain, from which
No traveller returns--confuses the mind,
In return makes us want to endure the pains we have
Then go places we are unsure of?
But over thinking makes cowards of us all,
And thus the actuality of acting
Is covered by the shadows of thought,
And components of the moments
with this concern their thoughts turn awry
And forget about action.--Oh!  There you are!
Beautiful Ophelia!--Goddess, in my prayers
Forgive me.

Damage Review of Thanksgiving Break

After examining the "break" I came to the conclusion that it was an overall wholesome, lazy, yet almost sleepless weekend.  Late Wednesday afternoon kick started the holiday, the night included almost no sleep, followed by an early morning which officially started fit of exhaustion, which I am still suffering from.  Turkey-day was full of over stuffing oneself, a lot of laying around, football watching, and a start of ruining the somewhat good shape I was in.  Black Friday would have been the death of me, to my benefit I skipped out on the shopping extravaganza and went running, visited the gym for two hours, and spent a quiet night at home with my mother.  Yet Saturday, my mother and I ventured into "Chaotic Billings," where hoards of committed shop-a-holics still lingered in hope of more holiday savings.  The frightening, overcrowded, disgusting bathrooms at the mall, which I reluctantly HAD to use before I peed my pants (I usually never use public restrooms, not even the high schools), may be the cause of the illness I seem to be encountering.  Sunday was an adventure all by itself.  It was spent "tree hunting" with a good proportion of the senior class.  The day overly consisted of unorganization, crappy lunch, and some violent cross winds, that tried to destroy our day's work of cutting, loading, and strapping the Christmas trees down to a flat bed trailer.  The night encompassed watching scary movies at a friend's and not accomplishing much homework.  Damages the weekend entailed:  scratches and bruises from attempting to be a lumberjack, headaches from annoying peers, high blood pressure from horror flicks, spending way to much money, and sleep deprivation.

I think I'll live!!

Most Emarrassing Moment.....or one of the many..

   After this volleyball season concluded at Districts in Three Forks, the three players, four managers, three coaches, bus driver and his wife, who were the only ones taking the bus home that night, decided to change it up and eat at Applebees, which is quite a treat compared to the usual greasy, fast food restaurant that we usually visit.  Jordan Moody, Daisy Flanagan, and I, being the only volleyball players, filled a booth together.  The usual scene at Applebees includes sports games, tons of people, and almost always a fine looking waiter.  To our great luck the girls and I got stuck with a creepy, overweight waitress that spelled overly of cheap perfume; while the manager table was being helped by a very good looking waiter.  Throughout the whole meal, we attempted to get the hot waiter's attention.  Finally we realized our attempts were kind of a lost cause.  This is when, I unknowly being a very humorous person said something "very" funny about Jordan's smelly shrimp meal, Jordan broke out into a fit of laughter.  This may not seem like an issue for "normal" people, but with Jordan, one who has bladder control issues, it was a big problem.  This fit resulted in her peeing her pants right there on that brick red, vinyl booth cushion.  Daisy and I sat there unaware of the pee situation, wondering why Jordan's face went from laughter-red to worried-white.  When Jordan finally revealed what had happened, we obviously started laughing hysterically, which caused me to knock a freshly refilled glass of raspberry lemonade into my crotch.  Not only did wee finally capture the hot waiter's attention, but we managed to receive the whole room's stares and glances.  Jordan and I, both overly embarrassed to leave the booth because of our soaked pants, sat there uneasily until Chuck, our bus driver, informed us we could head out to the bus at any point.  To say the least, I hustled out of there as if there was a bear behind me.  Very embarrassing, but at least my pants were soaked with lemonade, unlike my companions pee pants.

EXHAUSTED.....

When I'm so very tired

It's almost like I'm wired

I usually laugh nonstop

Or get so mad I threaten to call the cops

People tell me to shut up

They say I'm like an annoying pup

But I don't care

It's like my head is full of air

When this all becomes too much

And sanity seems out of touch

Sleep would be the best

You don't want to push yourself to the test

(I have also fallen asleep while eating, not my best moment.)

TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS TO DO WHEN ONE IS BORED...

(Note:  I wrote this when I was bored and these are the things that seemed most appealing at the time.)
1.  Take a nap.
        -This passes the time, maybe when you wake up someone will have something to do.
2.  Drive around.
        -Although it's expensive, many good conversations arise during drives.
3.  Watch a flick.
        -Usually this results in a nap, but you either fall asleep or watch a movie, win-win situation.
4.  Go to the gym.
        -Exercising is awesome.  Enough said.
5.  Facebook.
        -Creeping on people is a great way to entertain your time.
6.  Read a book.
        -Cures boredom and usually leaves you restless, so you want to go get something active accomplished, or leaves you content and ready for a nap.
7.  Listen to music.
        -Relaxes you and results in getting caught up in the world the lyrics create.
8.  Eat some grub.
        -Satisfies both your hunger and boredom.
9.  Annoy others.
        -Ends in laughter or getting  hit, hence ending boredom for that moment.
10.  Text people you haven't heard from in a while.
         -Catching up with old friends is fun and can be somewhat shocking.

Why is love so complicated?

Hasheem Thabeet is from Tanzania, Africa and played for UConn before entering the NBA.

(In today's feature of "High School Athletes," we will see why a loving a sport is complicated.)
ESPN-  What sport are you most involved in?
Athlete-  Basketball.
ESPN-  How long have you been playing basketball?
Athlete-  I have had a basketball in my hand for as long as I can remember, the first game I played in, with actual structure, was in Kindergarten back in my hometown which had a youth basketball program called "Little Dribblers."
ESPN-  You were playing a complete game of basketball in Kindergarten?  Dang, this relationship between you and basketball has had a long time to develop.  Are you two thinking about becoming serious? And by serious I mean taking it out of high school and playing at the collegiate level.
Athlete-  (chuckles)  Since about sixth grade, when I was able to talk to a Lady Griz player, I knew that's what I wanted.  Since then I've spent most of my time in a gym, missing time with my friends and other social events, in attempt to become the best.  And hoping that one day I would amount to enough to be able to enter the next level. 
ESPN-  What makes this love so complicated?
Athlete-  What isn't complicated about it? For starters you have to choose how to use your time, so much can influence and take away from your game.  Injuries are a huge set back.  After the hundreds of hours in the gym, you need to make sure you make your presence is known on the court, take control, want it!  The biggest issue that high school athletes face is whether they get looked at or not, I'm experiencing this now.  I guess we'll all know after this season.
ESPN- That is pretty complicated.  Well, good luck on your career.  Loving a sport is challenging, but overall it can be very rewarding.

Letter to Shakespeare

Dear Will,
    I'm going to be very blunt with you, please prepare your ego.  Your language makes no sense and it challenges my reading skills to exhaustion.  I understand that you were trying to impress your rich and royal audience with your fancy tongue, but you confuse the crap out of us "common folk."  Where are the plays wrote for us, the ones that don't need a side dictionary to decipher what is happening from scene to scene?  The only time your writing appeals to our vocabulary is when a character is incoherently drunk.  Are you saying that were as dumb as some one like yourself would be if you were under an influence of heavy drinking?  In my opinion, "Othello" was very dull until the last act.  Events were too drug out and everything was dramatized; which, I guess, drama is a big part of theatrics, but seriously you may have overdone it.  I really enjoyed the profanity and dirtiness the play had overall, mostly because half of the other students didn't catch onto it.  Concluding my thoughts, I'd just like to inform you (you know just a little friendly FYI), people can only die once; the multiple deaths per character were a bit ridiculous. 
                                                  Sincerely,
                                                                Katie Fitzpatrick

In 20 years, I will be.....

   I my life plans workout, I hope to be an orthopedic surgeon.  That is if I don't fail out of medical school.  Orthopedic surgeons, on average, make 1.4 million dollars a year starting out, and that to me could be pretty freaking sweet.  I would like to live somewhere other than Montana, perhaps northern California, Washington or anywhere on the west coast.  But I definitely could not handle living in a big city, I would need to commute there everyday in order to save my sanity because that many people would drive me nuts!  In the whole scheme of things being married or not never really crossed my mind, so I'm just going to play that by year.  I probably won't have kids, but if I do I would want one boy, that I would name Eli and he would become the cutest little cowboy-athlete ever, and I would adopt a child, preferably a boy, from Africa (he would probably make it into the NBA and I'd be set!).  I wouldn't have any girls, they are way too much work and drama.  Don't worry though, if my big life plans fail, I have a "Plan B."  If or when I fail out of medical school I would then sell all my belongings and assets and move to Africa, no where specific because I'm would end up going everywhere.  There I would learn the native languages and run around crazy like, doing whatever fits my fancy for that week or even day!  It's Africa, so I'm sure it's quite fitting to be crazy.  If my American money doesn't last long there I would guide people through the jungle and safari; I think this would work out because I speak English and would have a good knowledge of the culture, language, wildlife, and terrain by then.  When Africa starts to become to difficult for me to live when I get older, then maybe I'd move back to the United States, but who knows.  As of right now I hope the surgeon plan workouts and if it does I still plan on traveling to Africa.

Diagnosing Iago

   After extensive observations, it is clear that Iago is one messed up puppy.  This deceitful, conniving man only cares about himself.  He uses people, people who consider him an honest friend, in his schemes and twisted webs to manipulate others, often to either get them in trouble or to get him on top.  For example, Roderigo loyally follows Iago around like a lost dog ans acts as Iago's naive, lovestruck human puppet.  As of now Iago has had Roderigo rat out the marriage of Othello and Desdemona to her father, Brabantio, in hope to have Othello removed from as General and to fulfill Iago's jealous rage.  His rage is caused bu Othello's choice of second in command, Cassio.  Iago thought this choice foolish because Cassio has no battle experience and has only proved himself by intelligence, while Iago is a war veteran.  If Iago can't get back at Othello directly, he will try to take a stab at Cassio.  If he can get Cassio to fall, or fail Othello, then Iago would become lieutenant, or so he thinks.  Iago treats women with a nasty hate.  Especially those close to him, his wife, Emilia, and Desdemona.  In mt professional opinion, Iago can only see himself as a higher person if he puts those around him down.  He is a misogynist.  It's pathetic that he has no kind words about his wife and to satisfy his ruptures ego he must treat her like trash and shun her in public.  Overall what gets this guy off is watching others fall in hope of himself becoming on top and treating women like their only purpose in to reproduce and cook, in attempt to feed his greed for power and his sick ego.

Labor Day Weekend

Dear Diary,
      This past weekend was Labor Day weekend and with that we obviously received Labor Day (Monday) off from school.  Friday night really kicked things off with the first Herder football game, which took place in Red Lodge.  Our boys were expected to some real damage to this team and start the season off with a victory, as Red Lodge's football team last year fell short of what some may call "exceptional," (they sucked).  As to many's surprise the Rams turned out to be shockingly good, giving our boys a real good whooping.  The end score was 31-14, the Herders only scored in the fourth quarter when our opponents put in their second string.  But what is defeat?  Playing a better team and getting beat is just a better practice for later in the season.  The night wasn't a total loss though, I ended up laughing until I almost peed my pants with a friend while we were eating candy cigarettes from the amazing candy shop in Red Lodge.  Apparently I'm terrible at pretending to smoke, although I guess that's a good thing. 
     The next day tour volleyball team also made the trek to Red Lodge.  The past couple years Red Lodge has had a superb volleyball program, earning them second place in Class B State last year. We knew they were good, but we arrive scared.  To our shock, and everyone else's, we came out with a win in the first game.  Although they ended up winning the match in four games, we can really build strongly off our loss.  Highlight of the game had to have been when Haley Sargent received a spike right to the face from Tess Helerud (Red Lodge's best hitter) and it knocked her straight to the floor.  We actually kept the ball in play and returned it over the net, which is awesome.  I believe she received a dig for that in the stat book.   
    Sunday was pretty uneventful. I went to work mowing and weed eating up the boulder, and managed to sleep the remainder of the day away when I returned home. 
    On Labor Day the JV and Varsity had an optional volleyball scrimmage.  Of course I would go, I couldn't miss the opportunity to scrimmage with the coaches and have the chance to spike the ball at and block our assistant coach, Dale Wood.  The scrimmage encompassed many great and embarrassing moments.  Including when I missed a dig and out of shear frustration, I attempted to spike the ball off the bounce to get it to the other side of the net and to relieve some angry.  But, I totally whiffed and ended up on the floor in laughter.  Over all this weekend was both productive and restful.
    Until next time.....

The Last Time I Laughed Until I Cried

The last time I laughed until I cried was a about a year ago on the volleyball bus when we were returning from a game in Red Lodge.  I don't know if you have ever seen our volleyball team but as we may look lady-like, we are definitely not, especially when it comes to travel games.  This particular night Melissa, Hayley, and I all had some real bad gas problems going on. As you can imagine the back of the bus was pretty rank and stopping at the Columbus McDonald's didn't help matters any.  About halfway through our "gas" party Melissa had the genius idea to start "throwing" farts.  If you are unfamiliar with this term, it simply means farting into cupped hands and then throwing it at another.  At this time Maureen join us in the back and at the precise time of her finishing her food and walking past me to throw it in the garbage, I threw a fart right in her face, at a very close range.  Since the gas was already bad from far away, the close proximity of this intensified everything.  When Maureen received the fart she immediately started puking.  Everyone was laughing hysterically and most of us were also crying.  I think it's fair to say I won that battle. This was the last time I laughed until I cried.