Lucy

Final Blog of this school year, and I am going to make it about my dog. I feel as though my dog deserves some recognition in the world before she passes away (not that it is going to be anytime soon. I just am doing it now). 

I have a yellow lab named Lucy. She is a girl (just to clear up any potential confusion). We got her when I was in 5th grade. My sister was still a dire lover of animals, and my brother just thought it was another toy to play with. She was so tiny, I could pick her up even as my 5th grade, small, self. 

When we brought her home, we let her explore the backyard (Which is large for a back yard). The grass was up to her belly and she was galloping around with her big paws. She was so happy!

That entire first summer, Lucy began to grow. We trained her well. She wasn't allowed to go into the living room or upstairs. She wasn't allowed on the furniture. There were several tricks and commands that she picked up quickly too. We taught her not to dig and gave her tons of love. In her free time, she slept. I can remember being so  bored with my dog because she never did anything. Then one hot day Lucy discovered the bathroom. What she discovered was that the tile was cool, and it was especially cool underneath the backside of the toilet. So that is where she spent her nap time from then on. When she was outside, her favorite thing to do was play soccer. I don't know why, but us kicking a ball around really got her excited. She's great defense. 

Now, Lucy is too big to fit under the toilet (the day she discovered this was a sad one. She moped to rest of the day, until she discovered the fire-place was just as cool), She is allowed in the living room, upstairs, and on some furniture. She doesn't bark and never has. The most menacing thing she has ever done is whip someone with her wagging tail. She loves to cuddle and watch TV.

There isn't anything that I am not going to miss about my dog. I'll miss her sneaky, stubborn ways. I'll miss her begging me for food at the dinner table. I'll miss her shoving her toys into my lap because she wants to play. I'll miss her incredibly excited jumping as we get ready to take her for a walk or a  car ride. I'll miss snuggling with her when there is a storm and she fears the thunder. I'll miss how she tilts her head when you ask her a question. And I'll miss her big brown eyes that always get me to hand over some food. I'll miss my dog so much =[

Lucy Joedog Sickles (My brother came up with her middle name)

If you ever come across her, watch out, she might lick you to death. 

Sarah.

Joseph

Let's continue on with the people I will miss in college, shall we?

My brother Joseph, oh he is quite the character. When he was just a baby, we used to call him Mr. Wrinkles because he would constantly raise his eyebrows and create 29387523872034  wrinkles on his forehead. Later in life, before he could decide things on his own, My sister and I would dress him up in poodle skirts and put make up on him. He even used to ask me to paint his toenails like spiderman!

Nowadays, Joseph is 11. I love his spirit and love for life. He is currently what I like to call a walking, talking, iPod. He sings all the time, any song that you can think of. These days, he can decide that he doesn't want to be dressed up like a 50's girl. So we have matching pajamas instead. On Thursdays, we wear batman pajama pants or boxers. On Sundays we wear our matching footie pajamas. 

I'm not too fooled by his lack of desire to dress up, he is still a little kid at heart. He still comes into my room at bed time asking if he can sleep with me, and when I say now, he still asks if I will come sleep in his room. He still sleeps with a light on. and his favorite movie is still Underdog. 

I am so proud of how active my brother is in sports, and how accepting of others he is. I love that he is growing to have a mind of his own and making his own decisions about his activities. I wish that he would spend a little less time on the Xbox, but he is a boy. And boys like video games. 

Though I won't miss the extra body in my tiny twin bed, I'll miss my brother's enthusiasm at the sight of me. You see, while I am in college, he is sure to go through puberty, realize that he is too old to be hugging and telling me that he loves me. I am trying to cherish this time that I have. When I come back, I'll try to remember this Joseph, not the annoying pervert he, like all teenage boys, is sure to become. 

Sarah

Kayla

As we all know, I am moving to Milwaukee for college in the fall. There are many people who I will not miss, but there are few that I will, one of them being my sister.

Kayla isn’t easy to define. She’s beautiful, a smart ass, self-conscious (though you’d never guess it), ornery, hipster, and like an onion. She doesn’t look like me (we don’t think). She gets into these spells where the only thing she wants to do is sit on you. She never sleeps. She’s the best.

Every morning, she takes forever to get ready. I go into our bathroom for my morning pee while she is getting ready in there and she complains about how my pee smells. And I tell her it is a bathroom and that is what people do in bathrooms. This exchange happens every single morning without fail. Some days it’s with a punch to the boob, others it is with a giggle and a flick of the vent switch.

It’s funny. When we were little we never got along. Her being bigger than me, she would sit on top of the over turned laundry basket, trapping me underneath. We were always fighting about one thing or another, and now that we get along, I’m leaving. My sister expressed this to me with a laugh, but I know her well enough to know that she is going to miss me. And I’ll miss her too. Who else is going to chase me around the house and noodle me? Who else will always be willing to watch Criminal Minds with me? Who else will understand me as well as she does?

What I love most about my sister is her personality. Though she looks like super-duper mainstream bitch on the outside, she is really like me on the inside. She loves my music. She has wild get togethers every single weekend at our house. She likes arts and crafts. She has the oddest sense of humor (one time at the dinner table, she envisioned me with hotdogs sticking out of my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. She didn’t stop laughing for days), and the most contagious laugh I have ever heard.

She has her good days and her bad. Her sarcasm is never-ending, but neither are her giggles or her love for cleanliness (Her room is spotless. If you touch something, she will know). Even though we still fight, and I hate her desire for perfection, I’m going to miss my sister in college. She won’t be there when I can’t sleep. She won’t be there when I have a desire to take pictures. And she won’t be there when I want to go shopping (she keeps me in check). I love Kayla.

Sarah

Flowers

The gesture is simple. Present the girl with a flower, and she will be yours forever, right? Well even if that isn’t so, being a girl, I know that we like flowers.

Honestly, it’s the thought that counts. We appreciate the fact that we were on your mind enough for you to want to do something special for us. For some reason I cannot fathom, it seems as though the majority of the male gender has forgotten how to impress women.

I always hear people talking about how their boyfriend didn’t do this, or their boyfriend did this but it wasn’t good enough. In this case, I don’t consider it the male’s fault. I wouldn’t want to get your whiney, unappreciative ass a flower either. If you expect it, you don’t deserve it. And bitch! Be happy you have someone who cares about you. Flowers don’t make a relationship.

However, it can be said that a flower makes a girls day. Today some seniors recieved flowers from parents or other students at Kennedy. I got some from my family, and then I walk into AP Lang to discover that Tommy Kaiser saved me a flower for no reason. It honestly was the highlight of my day!

Other notes:

Carnations are a douchebags flowers (unless those happen to be your favorite).

My favorite flower is a Tiger Lilly, just for reference in case you ever have the desire to send me some sort of flower at any random future date.

Roses are classic. If you don’t know what type of flower to get, get a rose. You can’t go wrong. Unless they don’t like flowers. Then you’re in trouble if it’s for an ungrateful person. A deserving person will thank you for the gesture anyway. And if they’re allergic to roses, offer to drive them to the hospital.

Sarah

Growing Up

This isn't about to be some graduation that is looming in the near future, no, this is about our society as a whole.

Lately I've been noticing that our society pushes us to grow up faster and faster, trying to make us mature at a younger age. Though yes, technically, we do physically mature at a younger age than in previous years, that doesn't mean that we are matured emotionally at that same young age.

Just as I was logging into my email on Yahoo, I noticed something about Miley Cyrus being pants-less. Now I am all about hating on Miley. I find her fake and ridiculous. So I decided to investigate. Little to my surprise, once again, Miley is trying too hard, and failing, at looking mature. In this story, at the Billboard awards, she is seen wearing nothing but a low cut blazer, with an atrocious hair cut stated by Yahoo as "appropriate for a singer in her 40s, but certainly not for a 19-year-old pop singer." Oh! Miley is only 19?! Wow imagine that.

However, Miley Cyrus is not the only one suffering from pressure provided by our society. Has anyone else noticed how in the movies, teenagers are played by people in their 20s? I mean, when I was little, I used to imagine how I would look when I was 17, but here I am, looking much younger than they do in the movies or on TV. I mean, look at Hannah Montana, since we were talking about Miley Cyrus. Her older brother's character is supposed to be a high schooler, but is played by an actor who is 35. Crazy huh? Don't believe me? Google it.

Finally, let's look at the grand Cosmopolitan. I don't mean grand in any sort of condescending manner, I love the magazine, but two issues in a row, they had young people. Dakota Fanning and Selena Gomez are both old enough to be high schoolers. High schoolers, on the cover of a sex magazine. Does anyone else see what is wrong with this?

Honestly, I feel like our society is so fucked up. This is just another example to prove my point.

Sarah

Grad Party Mania

The grad party season has begun. It is filled with free food (for the guests, not so much for the hosts), awkward family gatherings, people who you don’t know, and lots of money. The typical grad party is filled with good food, a shrine of pictures ranging from babyhood to graduation, tables and chairs, and cheesy decorations. For many, the stress of attending all graduation parties that they were invited to can be a little much. I suggest making a chart on Excel with the party times, people, and overlapping parties. Get organized.

At my graduation party, there will be no shrine of baby pictures. I see little of what they have to do with my graduating. Plus, I was not an attractive child. (Insert rude jokes about how I’ve never been attractive here). However, my mother has accumulated some of my awesome and many awards and framed them. Those will be on display. Prepare to be wowed by my awesomeness. (insert jokes about how i am not awesome here). I will have a poster board at my grad party, but it will be bare. At the bottom of my grad party invite, it says “bring your favorite photo memory of Sarah to ass to her collection!!” Bring photos bitches. I want that whole poster board filled with them.

Ever since I could make my own decisions, I decided, for some unknown reason, that I did not like birthday cake. So I would come up with some other treat to have for my birthday, with the same birthday cake concept because candles are mandatory. These ranged from cinnamon rolls to chocolate fountain. So guess what my grad party will be catering? All of my various birthday “cakes” made by none other than my mother and I. So get prepared for a feast of desserts.

Also, do not be offended if I do not attend your grad party. I find them awkward and uncomfortable, seeing as I don’t enjoy awkward social interactions. It’s not that I don’t like you. I just don’t like the general idea of a grad party.

Who thought of the idea for a grad party? I do not like them. It isn’t fair that I have to spend money on a fancy ta-do just to recieve money. Not cool.

Sarah

LAST ANNOTATED BIB EVER!!!!

Sparks, Nicholas. A Walk to Remember. New York, NY: Warner, 1999. 

THIS IS THE LAST ONE EVER. I DON'T LIKE THESE!!!!!

The final book that I read this last year of high school was A Walk to Remember. Again, another Nicholas Sparks novel, and again, a movie, and again, found on my mother's bookshelf.

I didn't find as much of a connection in this book as I did in The Notebook. It could be because I have not seen the movie, and that might have helped me connect the The Notebook. But with A Walk to Remember, the main character is supposedly in love with this girl, and I didn't feel it until we discovered that she had cancer.

However, this was a truly inspiring story, and the end is what was best. She actually didn't die from cancer! He was talking about how he never felt the need to take off his wedding band and blah blah blah, and it was because he was still married to her! She didn't die! That seriously made me so happy, I thought this was going to be another sad book.

There wasn't much relating that I could do with this book. I'm not dying from cancer, I'm not in love with someone who is dying from cancer, I don't torment priests, I didn't marry a girl who was dying from cancer. I don't know why, but I just didn't feel this book that much at all.

If there was one thing that it reminded me of though, it would be Merry Christmas Charlie Brown, mostly because they put on a Christmas play too. And the whole loving someone who is dying from cancer seems like something that would happen to Charlie Brown with his luck and all.


I dunno, this was a kind of disappointing Annotated Bib, and I apologize for that, but I just don't have anything more to say except, I'M DONE!

Also, here is my reading total for this term: 1094 pages.