Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Worst Day of My Life

Well “The worst day of my life” does not sound like a proper title for the kind of day I had on Thursday. Everything went wrong; I haven’t had a day with worse luck in my whole entire life.

The first thing that went wrong was pretty mild compared to what happened later, but it felt big at the time. My friend Audrey started daydreaming at lunch while I and Pippin were talking. Well I never knew that daydreaming could be so destructive! She opened her chocolate milk before she started daydreaming. For some reason Audrey always shakes her chocolate milk before drinking it. Get where this is going? She had an Alzheimer moment and forgot that she opened the lid. So she shook that milk, while aiming it right at me! You can imagine the devastating effect that had! Milk poured all down my torso, it seeped through my sleeves, and soaked into my pants! I was wearing my officer jacket that can’t be washed; and to top it all off that chocolate milk was freezing cold! I think the shirt I was wearing is ruined. For the rest of the school day I had to walk around sporting gigantic milk stains all over. You think that was bad? Haha, keep dreaming! Or rather don’t, you know that sometimes dreaming isn’t a good thing.

Accident number two was more painful than embarrassing, and it gave me a seriously bad headache. I was at the West Point girls’ basketball game waiting for the game to start. The boy officers somehow got a hold of a basketball. So they were passing it around when the only boy officer to be on the boys’ basketball team aimed a bad pass. That pass came crashing down on my head, ouch! All I could do was laugh at my bad luck and rub my aching cranium. It hurts to think about it!

And finally, the straw that broke the camel's back; my mom has a huge project at work that keeps her at work till very late, she has been working on this project all week. So on Thursday she wasn’t there to help with the third accident. Unfortunately my dad wasn’t either; he was on a business trip in St. George. Dad called and asked my Grandma to come pick me up from both of the girl’s basketball games after school. She agreed to pick me up both days. Grandma asked me when it would be best to come to my school and pick me up afterwards, I replied “I’m not sure, probably around 5:30 to around 6:00. Come in between that time, okay?” “Alrighty!” she assured me “I’ll be there!” Well I thought that when she said “Alrighty!” that she understood the fact that I wanted to be picked up from school.

So I went to the game with a stained shirt, and left with a headache. I got home from the game at 8:30 P.M., because everyone completely forgot about me. My parents couldn’t have picked me up, and my grandma somehow didn’t get the fact that she was supposed to come pick me up in the first place!

I got to the school at 5:30, right on time to be picked up by grandma! So I went into the school and grabbed my backpack and flute and went outside to wait in the cold as the sun set in the west. Slowly every officer, cheerleader, and basketball player was picked up by their loving and responsible guardians. I just stood their holding my heavy book-loaded backpack while thinking, “I guess I’m just going to have to wait for 6:00, I didn’t give her a very specific time!” Well by the time the clock struck 6:00 everyone was gone, except for me. And grandma didn’t show up. I started despairing a little bit. I walked around inside the school to warm myself up after standing outside for a half an hour. I didn’t have a cell phone that I could call anybody with. The school doesn’t have a free pay phone. So I roamed and waited hoping and praying that someone would have some telepathic power and think “Oh, Jojo is in trouble, I better go and rescue her!” This was the worst day of my live, so obviously that didn’t happen. I waited till seven o’clock, and then people started coming into the school! They were coming for an award ceremony for the Reflections Contest. Eventually someone I recognized came in. It was my next-door-neighbors! “Mrs. Jones!” I called after her, “Mrs. Jones!” I yelled until she heard me. She turned around and gaped at me in my stained officer jacket, “Jojo, what are you doing here?” she scrutinized my dirty clothes. “Nobody picked me up after the girls’ basketball game. Can I use your cell phone?” I asked, getting straight to the point. “Sure,” she replied looking at me sympathetically. First I dialed my house, my brother who was “sick” didn’t answer. “Can I try another number?” I asked Mrs. Jones desperately, she nodded. Next I tried my mom’s cell phone number, but to no avail. I felt a cold wave of panic crash into me, trying to drown me. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Jones, can I try one last number?” “Of, course you can. I just can’t believe that your parents haven’t picked you up by now.” She said shaking her head. “I just hope they haven’t called the police!” I punched in the last phone number that I could think of, my mom’s work number. As it rang I remembered something she had told me earlier in the day, “Jojo, I won’t be at my cube today, you won’t be able to reach me on my work phone number. I’ll be working in the lab. Just call the lab or grandma if you need something.” My teeth clenched together and I fought tears of anger and sadness. Why, why couldn’t my grandma keep her word? How had she possibly forgotten to pick me up? Was my brother Mike so sick that he hadn’t noticed that it was 7:00 P.M., and that he hadn’t seen me since 7:00 A.M.? I hung up the phone in defeat. Telephone numbers are my fatal flaw; I can’t memorize that many phone numbers! I couldn’t remember a new telephone number to save my live. “What is grandma’s phone number?” I racked my memory searching for a hint of hope, but I just couldn’t remember. “Mrs. Jones, could I possibly get a ride home with you after the awards?” “Sure!” She repeated that word for the second time that night. It seemed like everything was going to be alright after all. My brother hadn’t called the police, and finally I was going to be able to go home. The ceremony ended, and a frantic student body officer teacher came searching through the halls for me. Along with her was a man named David that my dad works with. “Jojo, you’re here!” They exclaimed when they found me, looking totally relieved. “Mrs. Dorp, David!” I shook my head feeling so embarrassed. My dad must have called the house and found out that I wasn’t there! “Oh my gosh, he called my student government teacher? Ugh, this is so embarrassing; I wish that I was invisible!” I thought wishing that I could just sink through the floor and never return. “Yep, I found her.” Said David in his deep voice, he was talking into a cell phone. He said a few more brief words into the phone and Mrs. Dorp told me how relieved she was that I was safe and sound. David took me home and everything was alright for the rest of the night. I was just glad to be home.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

A Belief in Fate




If you have ever read the "Leven Thumps" series you will probably call me Geth after reading this; because I strongly believe in fate.


When I was born my family was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. My dad worked for the active army airplane unit. He was a very good soldier! So, The U.S. army parachute team wanted my dad to move to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But Charlie another soldier, and my dad's best friend outside the family (who I talked about in an earlier blog called "Standing up against Bullies,") had just barely been stationed in Hawaii. My dad finished his first military assignment, so that meant that he had to reenlist. When a soldier swears into the army they sign a contract, that contract lasts for five years, and then they can either quit or re enlist. Which meant that he was able to re enlist and choose any army post that he wanted to work at (with the exception of Utah.) So, Dad re enlisted to Hawaii so we could live by Charlie.




After my dad sent in his re enlistment orders and told him that he wanted to go to Hawaii, things didn't turn out right. The army assignments manager didn't want to send dad to Hawaii. The army assignments manager did a nasty thing to our family. He switched the date of my dad's reenlistment papers so that it looked like he didn't turn the papers in on time. If you don't turn in your papers on time, they don't let you choose your next assignment. So my dad was assigned to go to Washington D.C. instead of Hawaii, all because of a very selfish and nasty man. Dad had no other choice than to accept although he wasn't very happy about it. But he did the smartest thing that any human being can do. He decided to kill the person who had wronged us. Not the kind of killing you're thinking about! But he decided to kill him with kindness so that he would feel guilt and remorse. He sent chocolate covered macadamian nuts a (delicious treat made in Hawaii) to the army assignment manager.




It worked! The assignment manager felt bad about what he had done to our family and promised that he would reassign my dad to Hawaii within the next 9 months, that promise was fulfilled. Because my dad was nice in a bad situation, he gained the respect of the assignments branch. He showed them that he could be flexible. Four years later a new special duty assignment came up and they needed someone to complete the assignment. The assignment involved joining an apache helicopter unit, in Utah! The same old assignment manager rewarded my Dad again and sent our family to Utah, knowing perfectly well that that was were my Dad's home was.




The special duty assignment that my dad was given didn't even exist until the point that he was assigned. It required specialized training, which my dad had, and the rank of sergeant first class, which my dad was at the time. It was like a one in a million chance! Nothing but fate could have put me right here in good old Utah!



Sunday, January 6, 2008

Your very own Star Wars name.


This is a funny thing that my mom showed me last year.


In Star Wars they have some pretty funky names like Obi-One-Kenobi. Well ever wondered what your funky Star Wars name would sound like? Read this blog and find out.


Step 1 Take the first three letters of your last name


Step 2 Take the first two letters of your first name.


You have now made your first name in Star Wars language, now to make a last name.


Step 3 Take the first two letters of your mom's maiden name


Step 4 Take the first three letters of the city that you were born in.


You now have an awesome Star Wars name, hope you like it! If you wouldn't mind, I would like to hear what your names are!

Creating a Superhero


Have you ever thought of what type of super power you would like to have if you could choose one? I do, pretty often. There are lots of cool super powers out there. Super strength, invisibility, lasers coming out of eyes, being able to freeze things, breathing fire, seeing into the future, reading peoples minds, being able to control certain elements, mind control, flexibility/ stretching, healing wounds, and flying are the most commonly known. Personally if I could choose from any of those I would choose the same thing every time, flying. Tons of people are scared of heights; personally I would go to the extent of saying that I love heights. Lots of people don't like rides like "The Tower of Terror" or "The Rocket." I think that they are the best rides ever! Most people get a horrible sensation in the pit of their stomach when they fall rapidly downward, for some reason I don't have that sense. When I am falling from heights like that, I love the feeling of the breeze whipping through my hair, and seeing all the beautiful things across the landscape, and the unexplainable sense of freedom.

Well now you know what power I would pick, but now I must sort out the specifics… Wings or no wings, well I can eliminate at least two types of wings that I wouldn't like to have. Fairy or butterfly wings, they are much too fragile! If I decided to become a hero and try to save people I would need a nice sturdy set of wings. If you touch butterflies wings then they can’t fly anymore. And big wings like a fairy are an easy target, thus giving you an obvious weakness. If I could pick wings I would pick angel wings. Those are really cool looking and intimidating in battle. But even though that would be the coolest thing to have pure white angel wings, I would never have wings if I could avoid it. The second your wings get damaged or hurt it becomes impossible to fly, and I wouldn’t want to lose my superpower! So I would go with no wings at all. To make up for having no cool wings I think it would be cool if I was so bright when flying that people would mistake me for a shooting star.

Sorry this blog is going to be pretty long with all my different opinions of becoming a superhero. Next would be the name of the superhero. There are lots of different ways to choose names for becoming a superhero. Probably the most common names for superheroes have something to do with their superpower or symbol, and then they add “man” “girl” “lady” “woman” or “boy” to the end or beginning of the name. Examples are; Batman, Spiderman, Superman. Or they have names that describe themselves then the added title of “man” “girl” etc. Examples of that would be; Wonderwoman or Pandagirl. So if you decided you wanted to fly and look like a shooting star while doing it good names would be; The Human Star, (just kidding lol!) Starlight, Star, Soar, The Shooting Star, Lightlady, Stargirl (Wait, I think that’s the name of a book…) Well now you’ve probably got the picture.

There would be a big problem if I became a superhero. I could never ever kill/defeat any of my enemies. I just couldn’t hurt someone like that, no matter what they had done to me or my family. I would definitely find some way to take revenge on them if they killed any innocent people. So you may wonder what my solution would be. Well that seems like an easy question to me. I would take all the super villains to an uncharted island and leave them there to think over what they had for the rest of their miserable lives. But that is pretty harsh, so I would fulfill one last request for them, (as long as it was harmless to others.) I would fulfill requests like, “I want to say one last word to my mother,” (even though that isn’t very supervillain-ish) or “Please provide me with food to eat.”

If you’ve put up with reading this blog then don’t worry you’re almost done. Now we have to worry about the costume. My costume would probably be pretty ugly. I’m not that great when it comes to fashion. Unfortunately I couldn’t break the hero custom of tight wearing. But trust me tights are a lot better than Superwoman’s tiny underwear thing. The colors that I would put on my outfit would be red and gold and the colors would glow. I just think that would be sweet. Unfortunately I would need some sort of protection/stunner if I were to fight villains. I think that high heels would suffice for a dangerous weapon. And then I would have some spiky metal gauntlets around my knuckles. Well that’s it now I’ve made a superhero, now you should make one too! It’s pretty fun!