Library = refuge

I was too tired yesterday to talk about my day. I actually had a really relaxing evening - and by that, I mean that I didn't do my math homework and biked down to the library instead. I stopped by this really cute café, Laura's, and got a black & white mocha. Yummy!!!

Then I went to library, picked a random book off the shelves (Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination, by Helen Fielding) and sat down, sipping my mocha and spending an hour or two in the cozy sofa.

It was nice.

Today, as soon as I am getting home from school, I am driving for 5 hours to Lillestrøm - hooray!

Sleepy... ZZzzzzz

Wow... I really should be in bed now! I have just had waaay too much fun downloading songs for the long car trip to Lillestrøm / Oslo tomorrow.
Anyway, here is a really cool song that I found - yeah, I know Jason Derulo is very cliche - but it describes my sentiments exactly: Single and loving it!



I promise that the next time I blog there won't be any more songs/videos - just me and my real thoughts. Later, peeps!

Good Music is the cure to a Bad Morning

I had a pretty stressful morning, but that's something that's only my fault. I was really irritated with my mom for about an hour, but when I heard these songs I totally calmed down. Doesn't Coffey have a unique voice?!
EnJOY!!!

Complain, complain...

I feel so tired.
This weekend, I had to skip band practice on Friday to get enough time to study for my test. On saturday, I was in a confirmation all day - also, my family from Trondheim came down to visit us (I haven't seen them in a year!)

On Sunday, I taught Sunday school and then practiced for about an hour for my test. Karoline came over, and we practiced a bit more, and then we watched Ugly Betty for a little bit :) After she left, I called Danny Hurd and we talked on the phone for about an hour. After that, we went on skype and had a webcam convo. It was sooo nice to talk to him - we haven't had a real conversation in about 8 months.

Yesterday, I was so stressed out about my test that I forgot to eat! I spent my entire recess freaking out, reading maniacally through my notes. Also, I had to get my stitches removed. (I cleverly planned my appointment in the middle of Spanish class.) I only had about two stitches, and it went really quickly, but I still had to wait for about half an hour at the doctor's before she had time to see me. (Luckily I brought my social studies notes to the waiting room.)

Afterwards, I didn't go back to spanish class right away. I went to the library and practiced some more. (Wow, aren't I a badass? Skipping Spanish to go the LIBRARY and STUDY? Woah!) I squeezed back into my seat 5 minutes before the class was over. "Sorry, they made me wait FOREVER in the waiting room!" I told my teacher.

My test went really badly.
I remembered EVERYTHING - so I was busy writing down the entire textbook from memory on each question. I spent an HOUR writing down the first two answers! That means I only had half an hour to finish the last four problems. So, the first answers were about two pages long each, and I know my teacher is going to take points off for not being "precise" enough in my answers. The other answers were only a few sentences, and he'll take of points for not writing enough. This was the most important Social Studies test for me, and I totally blew it! FML!

...I'm going to ask my teacher if I can take it again.

When I got home from school, I was really exhausted and depressed (and hungry). Thankfully, mom agreed to take me to the library. That cheered me up a bit. She let me skip yoga, though, and I spent the evening on the couch, watching a movie.

Anyway, tonight I have bible group. It'll be fun, but I'm really, really tired. I would LOVE just to have an evening on my own. Next Tuesday, I have a science test. (UGH!!!) And on Wednesday, I have a cardio test (kill me NOW!). This weekend, I am going to travel to Lillestrøm (a town about 5 hours away from here) because Amanda has her first dance competition.

We are leaving right after school on Friday, and we're not getting back until Sunday night. I won't have time to practice for my test, or go jogging. I also have a science report to write, friends to keep in touch with, a book to write, and a cardio test I need to exercise for.

Luckily, after Wednesday, we have a five-day weekend (we get both Thursday, Friday, and Monday off from school). After that, though, are EXAMS!!! And the weekend after that is the "Pinsefestivalen" - a church festival for families. I'm nervous about that one for a WHOLE 'nother reason that I'm not going to talk about here ;)

As you can see, my next month is just packed.
... I need a hug.

You really CAN'T make this stuff up!

Hi again.
I'm extremely tired today. I'm not dead-upset, though, but I certainly have felt better. I have a huge test on Monday, and I'm going to be at a family party all tomorrow, so I have to spend tonight + my entire Sunday practicing for my test.

But nooooo! I have band practice tonight, and Sunday school on Sunday. I'm planning on skipping out on band practice, though, since I desperately need to write notes for my test. Oh yeah, and I'm hanging out with Karoline on Sunday night.

I also have to make time to do a good bit of jogging (we have our cardio test in two weeks), and I'm in the middle of a really good book. So I guess I wouldn't have anything against making time to read that, too. Not to mention the book I'm actually writing.

As you can imagine, all this stuff is piling up quite a bit. I had to tell the church that I wouldn't be able to write an article for them that they asked me to do. I would have loved to, but I already have one published, and the next one was due in 10 days. No way I could make that deadline with all this stuff on my plate.

Anyway, I hope that I can make some time to relax this weekend, too.

Oh yeah... so, guess what!

I went jogging yesterday after school again. As I coasted into the driveway after a long ride home, I saw a green car parked in our driveway. Someone was sitting in the car, and I automatically assumed it was my uncle (they have a green car).

My uncle and I have an inside humor thing going on, so as I biked past I stuck my tongue out at the person inside. The man turned around, and - horror of horrors - it wasn't my uncle! I quickly withdrew my tongue and ran inside.

"MOM!" I said, alarmed. "Why is there a strange man sitting in a car in our driveway?"
"That's the piano-tuner, sweetie," she told me.

GRRREAT -
I stuck my tongue out at the piano-tuner!!!

Needless to say, when he actually came inside, I locked myself in the bathroom with a good book and didn't come out until he had left. Ahahaha!

I almost forgot: Today is the last day of my candy-abstinence thing! Yaaaayy!

Heeey there!
I'm sorry that I haven't written anything in about a week. It's not that I haven't had the time, I just didn't have the motivation (or anything interesting to write about). Mostly, I've just been reading a lot and exercising.

Yesterday, for example, I didn't bother to change out of my gym clothes after school, because I was biking home in the rain and didn't want my normal clothes to get wet. When I got home, though, I was already dressed, so I dropped off my backpack and biked straight up to the "lysløype" - a trail in the forest that I love to run on - and jogged for about an hour before coming home.

Since the rain had been pouring the entire time, I jumped in the shower immediately and warmed up. I can honestly say it was one of the BEST showers in my entire lifetime - no jokes :)

I spent the rest of the evening lounging on the couch and reading. Thankfully, since I exericised so much, my parents didn't badger me for being such a layabout - I nearly finished my book, too. It's called "A blessing in disguise" by Pamela Fudge, and really is quite a find!

(Oh yeah - I've been finding loads of HILARIOUS Harry Potter pics on the internet. Enjoy.)

But, speaking of books, I went to the library for about two hours on Tuesday. At first my mom told me she would drive me, but after a few minutes she changed her mind. When I asked her why, she said "There's going to be an oil crisis in about 20 years, if we don't stop using so much gasoline."

CAN YOU BELIEVE HER?!
Yes, I know there's going to be an oil crisis, but I hardly believe a ten-minute drive to the library is going to decide the fate of the earth two decades from now.

I was pretty pissed for a few minutes, but decided to suck it up and bike down there myself. The weather was pretty glorious, so I actually enjoyed staying down there a while. I discovered an entire corner devoted to English literature (thank goodness for that!) and a really cute couch, to boot. I think I'll be spending more time there from now on, reading and such. How fun is that? :)

OH, I've also spent a bit of time writing on my story, too. I'm halfway into the second chapter, and on the 7th page. Not a bad begining, if I may say so myself! Also, I haven't eaten candy, chocolate, cake, cookies, ice cream or had any soda pop for three weeks! Thank goodness I'm giving myself a break this weekend - my cousin is getting confirmed, and we're throwing a HUGE party - so I'm looking forward to enjoying sugar for the first time in a while.

Well, I need to get a move on with my Social Studies homework (big test on Monday), so I will blog later. TTYL, homies! <3>

Lighthouse

I found this video. Most of you have probably seen it / heard the music already, but I have to share it one more time. It is so beautiful it almost made me cry (and I'm sitting in class)!

The ironic thing is that it is a visual representation of my book - lonely people who come together, and experience something magical that gives them their joy back. The most ironic part, though, is that I had been planning on calling my book "Lighthouse" as a symbolic hope in the darkness. The video stole my idea - darn video!

Haha, but no, it's still very beautiful. Watch it.

My first operation - ouch!

Out of all the 6.75 billion people on the planet, I am one of the few who can genuinely say that I am HAPPY. Nothing in my life is perfect, but I have amazing friends, a wonderful family, and a bright future ahead of me. You can't ask for more than that, right?

I know that I haven't been writing about very interesting things on my blog lately, but I'm so tired that it's easier for me just to write down what I've been up to instead of my complex, cryptic and sometimes incomprehensible musings. (I should probably keep most of those to myself... haha.)

I haven't been on facebook for 2 days, and it is EXTREMELY difficult to stop myself from clicking on the small "facebook" button on my bookmark list. I almost blew it yesterday (on the first day) by clicking on the facebook button, but I managed to close the window before the page loaded. (Did I mention that I'm trying to not use facebook for a week?)

Also, it's been three weeks since I stopped eating candy, cake, cookies, ice cream and drinking soda. Go me! (On Tuesday, though, when Sigve and Miriam came over, they had bought a doughnut for me. Since they bought it and brought it over to my house, I couldn't say no, you know? So I guess I cheated by eating a doughnut, but it was very small. So there. ;)

Yesterday in gym class, we could choose between soccer and playing volley ball with one of the other classes. I played volley ball, along with a few other girls. I used to think that my class was sporty, but they are NOTHING compared to the psycho-sporty kids in the other class. Luckily, I totally managed to keep up! I got in quite a few really good hits, and a bunch of perfect serves. (I also caught the ball a few times ...with my throat. Ouch.)

After gym, I didn't bother changing out my exercise clothes so I went jogging for the second day in a row. Afterwards, I made dinner, practiced for my math test and watched Supersize Me with my sister, Linn. Normally, I can't watch that movie because it makes me feel bad about all the crap I've been eating, but since I have abstained from any sort of junk food I felt that I could watch that film with a clear conscience for the first time in years.

It didn't work out exactly like that - after a while, I started feeling like a serious couch-potato and had to stop the film half-way to go outside and jump on the trampoline and play a little Frisbee with my sisters. We were outside for about an hour.

When I came inside, I wrote a little bit on my story and went straight to bed. This morning, though, I was EXTREMELY tired, even though I got like 9 hours of sleep. (Ugh... being a teenager sucks!) I had to get driven to school by my dad, since I was running late for class. Luckily, my teacher was five minutes late, too, so I squeezed into the classroom about thirty seconds after him. That's what I call perfect timing!

At lunch, instead of going home on Thursdays like I normally do, I biked downtown to the doctor's office. I had to remove two moles - one from my leg, and one from my stomach - because they had started to change. It probably wasn't cancer, but better safe than sorry!

Anyway, the only part of the process that really hurt was when she gave me a shot of anesthetics, one in each area. Before she gave me the first shot, I asked her if it was going to hurt. She told me that it was going to "feel like a mosquito bite".

Mosquito bite, my AS*!

Anyway, I was laying down for the rest of the time, so I didn't see or feel her scraping away my skin, or stitching it back together again. I'm grateful for that. By now, though, the painkillers are long gone. It feels really sore, and when I look at my white band-aid I can see a huge, dark stain that spreads across the entire lower half. (Eww... blood.)

After I was done at the doctor's, I still had an hour before I had to be back at school so I bought a sandwich at this really cute café, "Kjøkkenskapet" ("The Kitchen Cupboard"), and brought it down to the park by the ocean to eat. I also stopped by the library, and picked up the second book in the true-blood series. (I'd rather read the books than watch the TV-series. I'm more interested in the plot than in the sex, lol.)

After school, Sofie, Rolf, Håkon and I went over to Sofie's house to practice for the math test. It was really fun, even though we didn't practice AT ALL! Instead, we at pizza and had a really engaging conversation for the rest of the evening. It was really, really fun.

Now, I am extremely tired, but also pretty happy. I have a few negatives in my life right now, too, but that's not for blog-talk. I prefer to focus on the positive :)



Life is good, guys!!!

My sister Linn and I in the photo above. Speaking of Linn, she left for a soccer camp today, and I miss her already! I don't know how I'm going to manage three days without her :(

I wish every day was like this one!

We had our English final today. I expected it to be really easy, but it was actually pretty difficult! Well, okay, not difficult. (But it would be difficult if I wasn't already predisposed to get a full score.) We had to analyze a cryptic poem, and write an article about discrimination. In my essay I argued that when rappers treat women like sexpots on MTV, it is discrimination against our integrity as females. (Let's just hope that whoever grades my test doesn't like rap music very much, haha!)

I got done around 11 o'clock. Surprisingly, I was actually one of the later kids in the class to get done. When I got home, though, no one was at home, so I made some delicious whole wheat tacos (with chicken and vegetables... yeah, I'm healthy!) and read Harry Potter.

Afterward, I studied for my math final next week and read in a new devotional book that I have. I got back from jogging about an hour ago, and now Sigve, Miriam and Fredrik are coming over for bible group. I gotta go pick up the house - see you later, alligators!

Impossible

I think that it's impossible to hate a person.
You can hate something they said or did. You can hate a characteristic or feature, or an ideal that they hold. But it is impossible to thoroughly hate a person, from top to toe, because deep down we all have the same goal - to be happy.
And there's nothing to hate about that.

Slow down

Hey guys :)
Thanks so much for the positive response you guys gave me when I let you know that I was blogging again! It means a lot.

I only have about 5 minutes now until I have to go to bed, but I want to share a little bit about my day. I taught Sunday school this morning. The little 5 year-olds are so cute! I love them so much! They are so shy and funny, and they always remember my name (even though it's been a month since I taught Sunday school last).

We talked a little bit about Easter and the Resurrection, and then each kid got a little box of dirt and some seeds to plant. Then we played tug-a-war. Little kids are a BLAST!

When I got home, my sisters and I hung out a lot. I read up a bit on Spanish for my big test tomorrow (scary!!!), before making the characters from my new book on Sims. (Wow... I am SUCH a nerd!) It was really fun, though, and it helped me visualize the characters and their surroundings.

Okay, I have to go to bed now, but I hope that you guys had an AMAZING day!
See some of you at school tomorrow (blaaahhh... school).

Today is a good day

Hi there! :)
Wow... it feels really strange to be blogging again. (In a good way, though!)
Since I'm assuming that most of you who are reading this already know about my previous blogging mishap, I'm not going into the gory details here.

Other than that, however, life is going really well! Yesterday, after school, I hung out with my friend Karoline downtown. We sat at a really cute café and drank mocha's. Yummy...! Afterwards, she came with me to band practice while she waited for the bus.

She's the first friend who's heard me sing in the band. It was really fun ;)



After band I biked home and hung out with my sister, Linn. For a while we jumped on the trampoline, but we ended up just sitting and talking.

Oh, speaking of being outside - it smells like sulfur! It is really gross! It's because of the volcano that erupted on Iceland. It's kind of cool, though, that something that happened so far away (well... not THAT far away) can affect us over here in Norway.

But it seriously sucks that it smells like horse feces outside, and our summer is going to be a lot colder because of all the ash in the atmosphere, blah blah blah. I mean, COME ON! Our summer is cold enough already!

I'm not going to let something as minuscule as a volcano eruption ruin my mood, though! After Linn and I jumped on the trampoline, we went inside and watched a really funny movie called Sydney White (starring Amanda Bynes and Sara Paxton). She slept over in my room afterwards. (She slept in my bed, I slept on the floor.)

Today I went and worked out with Sigve and Trond, two guys from the band. Since I don't have a gym membership, I got a free trial workout. It was really fun. Afterward, we stopped by the mall and grabbed a coffe. Or rather, an Irish Creme Latte. De-licious!

I know what you're thinking - isn't Michelle drinking a little too much sweet coffee? Normally I would agree, but I think I'm overcompensating for the fact that I haven't had any candy/chocolate/cookies/cake/ice cream/soda for the past two weeks. Yeah, that's right - I am quitting sweets cold turkey. Go me!

I just got done with some homework, and planning for Sunday school tomorrow. Now I'm going to beg my dad for a ride up to my friend Hege's house, where I'm going to watch a movie with some old classmates of mine.



(Hege, Phillip and I in the photo above)

I'm just really, really thankful right now for all of my amazing friends, both here in Norway and overseas. Even though nothing in my life is perfect, and school is really stressful (finals coming up), I'm incredibly happy right now.

Oh, by the way - I am working on a new book / project thingy! It's really exciting, and I can't tell you what it's about yet. I haven't started writing it yet, but I'm mapping out the plot and developing characters. The genre is realistic fiction (that's a first!).

As it is, I'm waaay too excited about it to wait for NaNoWriMo to come around, so I'm going to start as soon as possible - hopefully tomorrow! Current word count: 0.

Stay safe, everyone!