Quiz Bowl Guy Update :)

 Hey y'all! 

So today, I talked to Quiz Bowl Guy #1 (the one who lives in Shreveport who I met in a coffee shop for the most awkward quasi date ever)! Under the pretext of needing to find names for his plants, he called me and we ended up talking about lots of other things, from college and academics to travelling. We ended up FaceTiming "so that I could see the plants" and he complimented my headband!! I know that might seem silly, but he's really sweet and I think we truly understand each other. Ms. King, we even spent 10 minutes talking about Othello since I hadn't read it and he thought there might be Quiz Bowl questions about it (he knows how much I love Quiz Bowl haha). He's intellectual but also funny and easygoing. He's cute (and no it's not just me, he's definitely attractive lol) but also one of the kindest, most genuine people I've ever met. (He was the one who told me, "you're really smart!") 

Anyway, I just wanted to update y'all on my Quiz Bowl guy status and let y'all know that I might've finally found my Jack. :) I hope y'all are having similarly good luck with your love lives! Let me know in the comments. 

Love from 

Clara

Wandavision

Hi, y'all,

I'm a few hours late, but my WiFi was down last night. Last week, I got into Wandavision, and I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but it's a good series for anyone who is a fan of the MCU. If you want to get into it, at least watch Age Of Ulton, Infinity War, and Endgame before so you have a basic idea of what's going on. If you're already a fan and haven't seen it yet, watch it asap. The first three episodes are really confusing, but by the fourth one, it all comes together. Let me know if any of y'all are watching it.

Yours truly,
Hunter

Book recommendations?

 Hey lovelies, 

I’ve gotten into this habit where I read both the Bible and at least a chapter of a book (right now it’s Warbreaker by Branden Sanderson) every night. I used to read for fun a lot before highschool. It’s not that I didn’t read for fun 9th, 10th, or 11th grade, but that it wasn’t something that I did on a regular basis. I need books that are genuinely fun to read because I don’t want reading to become a chore again. Does anyone have any book recommendations for me?

(I’m open to most genres, but I’m not the biggest fan of nonfiction, books about wars, or existential literature.)

Thank y’all!! 

my LYRE contest piece

Hey y'all, so once again I don't know what to post this week, so I decided to share the piece that won third place in the LYRE contest :) I would've shared the first place piece, but it was like 14 pages long. So, here, have this instead.

Mr. Morgan

I didn’t even learn the name of

This hurricane because I

Thought it would pass us like

All of the others this year. It

Didn’t. We have no power and no

Internet, and consequently nothing

To do. I come downstairs on the

Second day of no power to

Find that the flashlights piled

Up on the kitchen counter the

Night before have been removed,

And in their place sit

Three bottles of sweetly flavored

Jackson Morgan liqueurs.

Banana Pudding Cream,

Peaches & Cream,

Peppermint Mocha.

I can tell that the Peppermint

Mocha is the favorite, because

It has the least liqueur left.

There is also a stray

Bottle of Tullamore Dew, “The

Legendary Irish Whiskey”

(Triple distilled) sitting on

The counter. Good to

Know that my parents can find

Ways to entertain themselves

In the midst of a hurricane.

I Hate Men.

 I hate men.

Girl Scout Cookies

 Hi, 

I want girl scout cookies, but I don't know any girl scouts to buy them from. My friend Miles' sister recently stopped doing it and now I no longer have a supplier. I know some of them are selling in neighborhoods, but since I don't live in one, I don't exactly have easy access. Does anyone know of any places I can get them? I'm willing to drive anywhere if I'm being honest.  I just want a few boxes of Lemonades, which is the only cookie that I eat from the scouts.

Also, I want to start something, Thin Mints suck. I hate them so so much and I don't understand how anyone likes them. Or how they put them in the freezer and then eat them. Sick 

Anyways, please comment below and locations, 

Rikki 

Update: if anyone wants cookies and can't find any girl scouts to buy them from in person, check out this link that ships in cookies from a group in New York that allows children in youth centers to join. 

Troop 6000

Piano Competition!

 Hey y'all, 

I know I've done a lot of posts about French horn, so I thought I'd spice it up and write one about piano. I'm preparing for the Festival, which is a competition done by the Louisiana Federation of Music Clubs that I've participated in for 12 years. You have to play two pieces - one required piece from a list of approved pieces in your level of difficulty (I'm in the Musically Advanced 2 category), and another piece of  your choice. You get a rating of superior recitalist, superior, excellent, fair, needs improvement, etc., and if you get a superior or a superior recitalist for 3 consecutive years, you get a gold cup. I have 3 gold cups, and if I get a rating of superior or superior recitalist again this year, I'll get my fourth gold cup, so the pressure is on. The competition is virtual this year, so I have to record videos of my pieces by next Monday. I'm a bit nervous but also excited. The pieces I'm playing this year are Praeludium by MacDowell and the first movement of Sonata no. 8 in C Minor (Sonata Pathetique) by Beethoven. I particularly love the Beethoven, because it has a lot of really heavy chords that make me feel like I can do anything, not to mention it's extremely cathartic to play. I've had a bit of trouble recording it because I always speed up too much, but hopefully I'll get a good recording before Monday. 

          I keep waiting for my Mr. Darcy to fall madly in love with me over my *exquisite* piano playing. Hopefully he'll sweep me off my feet sometime soon. (Maybe he'll turn out to be one of my Quiz Bowl guys... who knows haha). Anyway, if y'all feel so inclined, look up these two pieces and let me know which one you like better. 

Love from 

Clara

 

Ryn’s Netflix Pick 🍿

 

Because I said so. This chick flick reminds me a lot of my own relationship with my mom. Starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore the film details the complex relationships between a mother and her three daughters, focusing on her youngest child who has yet to settle down. The young flower child, much a reflection of her mother, learns along with her mother that some things in life are not always as expected. I could tell you more about the amazing movie but you'll just have to trust me and see for yourself. Why? Because I said so.

_ _ _ _ _ * _ * *** * _ * _ * _ _ _ _ * * * (Morse Code)

 Hey guys! So I managed to finish all my homework last night before 9pm, so I had some free time on my hands. Therefore, I decided to learn morse code! It was actually pretty easy. I had been trying to learn one letter a day, but then I found a video that explained everything much faster and simpler. I think I have a pretty good handle on the alphabet, and numbers 1 - 10 are also very easy. I can't really receive messages so well, but if I wrote down the code and then took some time to go back and translate I think I could do it. I tried to explain it to my mom last night, but I suppose it's a lot to explain in a few minutes. I'm going to try and teach my dad and brother tonight if I don't have too much work. We always joked in our family that we would have a secret language. We thought it would be Mandarin (for obvious reasons) but those lessons fell through several years ago. I'm not sure how tapping would work for the dashes (long), but I still think it would be cool to communicate with people in a non-traditional way. If you'd like to learn or already know it and want to practice, let me know! It's actually really fun! 

**   _ _ * *   _ _ **   _ * _ _

(pardon any mistakes; I did just learn this last night)

Also, the title is not letting me properly space the letters, so here is morse code in morse code below:

_ _       _ _ _      * _ *      ***      *             _ * _ *      _ _ _      _ * *      * 

Giving Up Dessert

 Hey y'all, 

Every year for Lent, I attempt to give up dessert, and I always struggle because I live for dessert. We always have dessert at my house, whether it's cookies, chocolate cake, King Cake, lemon cake, ice cream, pie, etc. I generally indulge in dessert at least once a day (who am I kidding? at least 3 times a day haha). To make it easier on myself, I'm allowing myself to eat dessert on Sundays, since Lent is only 40 days but the six Sundays between Mardi Gras and Easter make the number of days between Mardi Gras and Easter actually 46 days. I'm also going to eat dessert on my birthday, which almost invariably falls during Lent. Other than that, I'm trying to eat more healthily in general so that I don't crave dessert as much. I've started eating carrots, which are actually so delicious, and celery, which isn't bad as long as it's not mushy. Have y'all decided to give up anything for Lent? If so, how are y'all faring? Let me know in the comments. 

Love from 

Clara 

Say Yes to the Dress

 I hope y'all had amazing breaks, and Laura, I hope your break got better! We only have 9 weeks of school left (plus AP exams) and Spring Break! I must say, though, that with graduation comes stress, especially about college choices (I have not decided yet!) and the dress we are going to wear. I tried to figure out were the tradition came from for the white dress, and all I found was that it came from a sense of 19th century uniformity. Today, most schools use graduation gowns, but we are special so we need special traditions. Actually, in some ways it is super exciting because I get to wear my mother's wedding dress! we are getting it modified (taking off the shoulder pads is a must), but I am so excited to wear it!  It feels like a sort-of legacy thing. We agreed that I would not wear it for my actual wedding (it isn't truly my style, but it is gorgeous), so using it for something is super exciting. Has anyone else chosen their dress? 

UPDATE: DOUBLE MAD

 IT WASN’T EVEN A CRASH

IT WAS TREES

TREES

ON THE ROAD

AND IT TOOK AN HOUR AND 40 MIN AND POLICEMEN AND FIREMEN TO MOVE THEM

Update: I am angry

Thank you for registering for a campus visit with Millsaps College. We’re all eager and excited to have the opportunity to show you around campus and talk to you about all things Millsaps! Due to the inclement weather and unsafe travel conditions, it is highly probable that campus will remain closed through Thursday, February 18^th. While no decision has been made official yet, I would encourage you to err on the side of caution, not travel in these conditions, and look into rescheduling your on-campus visit.

That’s the email that I got at 1:45 pm, but didn’t see until just now because they sent it to my school email and not my personal email, which is what they’ve been sending everything else to. Like at 10 this morning, I got a “thanks for scheduling your tour, we’re looking forward to having you tomorrow, please fill out this covid form, etc.” notice sent to my personal email. So whyyyyyy would they send literally everything to my personal email and then very critical info to a different email and not my personal email? They also didn’t send it to my parents, and they normally send all the same info to them that they send me. I’m not checking my school email as frequently as I’m checking my personal email, because why would I be?

Had we known that they’re probably gonna cancel tomorrow’s tour (they also said that they cancelled the one today), we wouldn’t have gone. We would have gone a different route altogether, and therefore, not be stuck in this cluster of idiots who don’t know how to drive. Car still hasn’t moved btw.

Marbles = lost

Hi guys! So I’m spending Monday-Thursday of Mardi Gras break doing college visits (I’ve already made a mental decision of the one I want to enroll in, but I’m going to save that for next week when blogging is mandatory), and today I toured Sewanee at 3 pm. Our next stop is Jackson, Mississippi, so I can tour Millsaps, and we’re currently about 40 minutes away from our hotel. HOWEVER, the roads are kind of icy, and some trucks thought that it would be a super cool idea to crash, and so now we’re stuck! Sitting. In the car. We can’t move, and we’re probably going to be stuck here for at least another hour or two because the crash was really recent and emergency vehicles haven’t even arrived yet. So that’s really really cool that we were already going to arrive at the hotel at around 11 pm, but now it’ll be midnight if we’re lucky. And my tour tomorrow is at 9:45. Very cool.

It also just started raining as I was typing this. Raining ice. Sleeting. Yeah.

My COVID Adventure

Hi, y'all,

As many of you know, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. It's definitely been an interesting experience. I've learned to manage the headaches (which have almost completely gone away) with caffeine and tylenol, and hot showers helped with the sinuses. Fortunately, I like to take my showers at a temperature slighlty below boiling, so not much changed. However, the hardest thing to adapt to was the loss of taste. Last night was the peak of the no taste symptoms, and I cried over thr inability to taste the cheese sticks I was eating as well as not being able to differentiate between my fourth Coke Zero of the night and Listerine. Nonetheless, I was happily surprised to sip my 2PM morning iced coffee and taste all the artificial sweeteners. The one taste that hasn't returned yet is salt, which make eating potato chips interesting.

Despite all the annoying symptoms, I'm surviving. I even managed to finish all 16 seasons of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. I also finished WandaVision (highly recommend) and hope to finish How to Get Away With Murder, the modern reboot of One Day at a Time, and the latest two seasons of the Crown. As you can tell, I have a lot of TV planned a head of me. Maybe I'll re-watch Schitt's Creek for the eighth time, who knows. Anyways, my ten days happen to end on the Sunday before school starts, so I should be cleared to return to school on Monday with everyone else. See you then!

Yours truly,
Hunter

I don't cook, I don't clean

 Hi, 

I'm bored again. I thought I would share this with the blog because it's not the most common knowledge: I can't cook. 

Correction, I can cook basic things but I hate it. I've never understood why people like cooking. It's so stressful and I'd rather stress over other, still pointless things. But tonight, I actually cooked for myself. I made this feta pasta dish that has been blowing up online. I needed to see what the hype was about and if it was even worth it. 

It was worth it. It was so worth it. It was also extremely easy, which made it taste even better. I'll link the recipe below because I 10/10 recommend. The flavor mixture is just amazing, although I did take out the cloves of garlic the recipe asks for. I don't like garlic that much, so if you use powdered seasoning it gives it just enough flavor and doesn't overpower. 

Feta Pasta Recipe

That's all I have to say. 

Aesthetics Poll

 Hey y'all! This one was a collaborative effort between Rikki and I to find pictures that fit the aesthetics well enough. I've been seeing a lot of aesthetic content on TikTok lately, and there's a lot of different kinds. Like, a crazy amount. There's really popular aesthetics, like alt and soft girl, which have a really broad meaning of what they are and who fits into that category. Others are more set, like VSCO and animal print. I just thought this would be a fun change to the normal poll etiquette, as this will solely be pictures and no descriptions. Just choose what you think all of our aesthetics are based around the general vibes you get from the pictures.

Poll link is at the bottom. It's also a hyperlink this time (you're welcome, Hunter), and I made it so that you can choose multiple aesthetics for people, since not everyone fits into just one of these categories.

Dark Academia:

      

Light Academia:

     

Cottagecore:

      

Soft Girl:

      

Skater/Roller Girl:

      

VSCO:

      

Alt:

      

Art Deco:

      

Femme Fatale:

      

Pastel:

      

80s:

      

Modern:

      

Thriftcore:

      

Animal Print:

      

Athletic:

      

Night Life:

      

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepXCaHhhBtFU-pZ1SICX_1OH8M22eaiZL_oJd1CSm3rUTMtA/viewform?usp=sf_link