Sunday, May 16, 2010

2 WEEKS!!


Official countdown: 14 DAYS!!!!!! That's right suckas, I am leaving for Florida in two weeks. That's all. Two weeks and then I am free for the Summer. For the rest of the year. For eternity. Can life get any better? I think not. I am soo pumped right now!! I have been waiting for this for a couple months now and it's finally finally here. In preparation: I've been gathering the items necessary like my swimsuit, my tanning oil, my running shoes, my sunglasses, towels, cute dresses, cash mula, and a pocketful of joy. Haha not literally a pocketful of joy, but I know just how happy I am going to be down there!! 11 days of fun in the sun and when I get back? No worrying about being in school. No, far from it. I am going to be living the life: SUMMER 2010. How excited can we all get?!??! I don't know. I can get pretty dang exciting. It will be nothing but parties all day every day, oh and that suckish thing called working :( Did I tell you I have 2 jobs? Yeah...I am now working at OfficeMax AND Vanity. Today, was my first day of hell aka working both jobs in one day. I worked Vanity from 7-noon and Officemax 1230-330, and cheerleading 4-6. This upcoming week: Monday night, Vanity 5-7. Tuesday night, Officemax 4-9, Wednesday night, cheerleading 430-630, Thursday night, Officemax 4-9, Friday Officemax 4-9, Saturday Vanity 2-7. Saturday night, wedding for my dad's cousin, Sunday projects galore and cheerleading. Sound like an eventful week? Yeah, I'm thinking so too. What's even worse is that I have to finish all my final projects early, take some of my finals early, and get ready for Florida in less than two weeks. I guess it just kinda hit me today. I'm gonna be gone. But, there are so many things to do before I leave I don't know how I'm going to accomplish it all. I do know, however, that this next week I'm gonna have to rock the homework, get through the projects, and really buckle down for the short haul. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll get through...that is if Mr. Ayers would not give us so much dang stuff to do before the end of the year! I mean really we have three weeks and we still have to get through authors studies, video essays, and third term portfolios. Yowza that sounds like a lot!! PLUS: I have to finish a project for AP US History, write and memorize an oral final for Spanish, learn AND PASS my chemistry final, finish my experiment/make my display board/finish my project for AP Psychology, and learn the rest of math/be able to pass that final. So, I was thinking that when my AP exams were done, I would be done with school. But clearly, that was more than an understatement. So much to do, so little time! I'll get there with a little help from my friends. Sorry, I'm quoting movies now and simultaneously watching season finales of my favorite shows, and trying to work on projects, read, and do other homework. Now, I'm just rambling to get the rest of my words in for the week and I'm thinking this is enough so peace out g scout. One more week of blogging? Or two? I'm thinking just one.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Masectomy

Today, while working, I saw one of the scariest and most beautiful things I have ever seen that truly made me appreciate not only being in AP Lang and reading an essay about it, but being a woman and loving life. Today, I saw a woman with one breast. This was one of the most powerful things for me to see. Yeah, I've heard of breast cancer, I've even had an aunt who was diagnosed with it for awhile. She eventually came out of remission and she's doing okay now, but I know what it must have been like for her. According to http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/what_is_bc.jsp: Breast cancer is an uncontrolled growth of breast cells. The term “breast cancer” refers to a malignant tumor that has developed from cells in the breast. Usually breast cancer either begins in the cells of the lobules, which are the milk-producing glands, or the ducts, the passages that drain milk from the lobules to the nipple. Less commonly, breast cancer can begin in the stromal tissues, which include the fatty and fibrous connective tissues of the breast. Basically, there is no environmental cause to breast cancer it just happens. About 90% of breast cancers are due to genetic abnormalities that happen as a result of the aging process and the “wear and tear” of life in general. There's nothing women can do to avoid it. So shouldn't that make us all fear it? Yes, it really should, which is why I recommend getting a breast examination to make sure your health is A-OK. Anyways, there are several treatments to breast cancer, even including masectomy. A masectomy is the actual removal of a breast in order to prevent the cancer from spreading it. There are over 10,000 of these each year and women across the world lose "part of femininity" due to the cause. We all know that in this day and age, women idolize the perfect, slender, slim body with abnormally large breasts and a great ass. But guess what? No one's perfect. In fact, people are more beautiful when not perfect in my own opinion. But girls always want to be the prettiest one in the room. That being said, losing a part of them, their femininity, their breast makes them feel like less of a woman. I would completely understand the feeling. I know that while not having the best, I am blessed for what I have. I know that women with masectomies can feel like a worse person, and down on themselves, even depressed but this woman who came in to officemax today looked like the happiest woman alive. She was smiling, she was laughing, she was flirting with her husband, and she was at least 60 years old. With cancer plaguing the world, sometimes for people who get diagnosed its better to think about the quality of life, rather than the quantity of days. This woman inspired me to take a step back and realize, life is beautiful. No matter how you live it. Whatever you do, however, live it to the fullest..

Post=Party

I am officially DONE with AP Exams. Let the party begin!! I'm so happy I could scream. My exams were not even that bad. My AP US History exam was not too hard, it had lots of questions about doctrines and plans and everything and a couple of my essays involved the civil war and suburbanization and other junk that I knew alot about so I think I did really good. I took the weekend as prep time, even came home on Friday night and ended up studying til about 1 am. Took all day Sunday to study and Monday night also and finally, Tuesday. It felt like a cycle to me. Every morning for my exams I would get up, go to Panera, have a quick review session, drive to KTOS, take the test, get lunch, go back to school, go home, study, eat, sleep, repeat. But finally, I saw the light on Wednesday, at the mall, once I knew officially the stressful exams were over with. But I kind of got off topic on what I was going to talk about and that is the actual exams. For AP Pyschology, my multiple choice was not even that bad except a couple which I didn't really know. I think I did good on my essays, minus like a point or two from each, but overall good. For AP Language, the passages were super easy to read and understand and there's no doubt in my mind that I passed that one. My last essay was really fantastic, although I finished with practically 30 minutes left so I didn't really know what to do. So, I played with my chair by moving it up and down and such and did many other things too wasting the time. I can't tell you what the feeling was when that last timer went off but it was feelings of pure bliss. Now, I have almost three weeks before I leave for Florida, aka three weeks left of school and three weeks left of Hell. I am so pumped for summer and for Florida and for my senior year to finally begin! ONE MORE YEAR!:) I can hardly wait. I'm going to cherish every moment of it. Live life. Sieze all the days. Carpe me some diem.

Wanna know what I used to study??
www.apexvs.com

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Graduation


This weekend is the start to the numerous amounts of weekends filling my schedule with grad parties and I can tell you that I'm not super excited to go to any of them. First off, I think they're super awkward because you usually only know the person hosting them and then you don't know alot of the people there or half the people there dislike you. AKA my situation because I have a couple hater seniors who will probably make things really awkward for me at the grad parties I plan to attend. I plan on going with a couple girls to different ones based on the ones I think I really need to go to. But anyways, second off I think they're awkward because you never know what to eat and how much to eat of it. I think the grad parties all have really good food but it's weird to just eat in front of people and I never if I'm eating too much. Third off, I don't even know they expect grad gifts or what but my bank account does not afford for like 20 people to be having a good time in college. I don't know, also, if my relatives and what not expect me to take them with me to the people they know parties or what. Like, our old neighbor Mags. But, I doubt it. Anyways, grad parties also means that graduation is comign up really soon. That excites me because I'm one step closer to becoming the head hancho. That's right, next year I will finally be a senior. The top. The unstoppable. The number one. The best. Ahh there's so many names that I could call it, but basically we're the sh**. I'm really excited. I can't wait to sit on the senior bench and be in front of all the people when I walk across that graduation stage. But, I have a ways to go before I get there. I have to pass all my AP Exams, take all my required classes, and of course have a blast with my last year in high school. I'm really looking forward to cheer season and hopefully trying out to become an Iowa cheerleader. But, I have to train alot in order to get there. Right now, I'm just living life and feeling free, 'cus that's how it's supposed to be. Anyways, I was pondering the thought of going to graduation to see all the seniors, but I doubt some would like that plus I feel like it's gonna be really hot and sweaty and for what? So I can take some pics with people I'm not even close to? Ehhh. I know that I can volunteer to work at graduation by passing out pamphlets but do I really want to be on my feet that entire time? I think not. Plus, I think that basically means I have to stay for the entire thing and I don't want to do that. The seniors are leaving in T Minus 15 days. Let's get pumped Class of 2011. Oh bee tee dubs, I lost the election for vice president :( ehh I thought I was gonna win but oh well. Guess, we'll have a shitty prom cus our entire class officers are all boys except one chick who basically can be considered a boy anyways. Whatever, it's the voter's choice and their fault when prom sucks ass. Not too worrried.

Money Shortage

The economy is not the hottest right now, I'm sure we all know. With many people considering our current time period as perhaps another great depression, it's gotta be tough on the president. Plus, our time is now called: Great Recession. This is basically caused by numerous factors. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010#Easy_credit_conditions, it's caused by:

1.1 Growth of the housing bubble
1.2 Easy credit conditions
1.3 Sub-prime lending
1.4 Predatory lending
1.5 Deregulation
1.6 Increased debt burden or over-leveraging
1.7 Financial innovation and complexity
1.8 Incorrect pricing of risk
1.9 Boom and collapse of the shadow banking system
1.10 Commodity bubble
1.11 Systemic crisis
1.12 Role of economic forecasting
2 Financial markets impacts
2.1 Impacts on financial institutions
2.2 Credit markets and the shadow banking system
2.4 Global contagion

Basically, our economy sucks butthole right now, as I'm sure we're all aware. Alot of people are suffering current job loss, lower income, and increased taxes. I know that my parents are not exempt to this. My dad's been slowly using nearly 5,000 of income each year. It's made us watch our money a little more. No more going out whenever we wanted, buying that great new pair of jeans, or a new household item we really "need." Instead, we've worked as a family, to decrease our spending. It all started with my mom beginning to watch Oprah and the famous "Suze Orman" supposedly America's financial guru who gives advice on how Americans can life a profitable life. My mom has read her past two books and she's been the driving force behind the movement in the Rolfes household. She's helped all of us by making more dinners for us to eat at home, by keeping groceries in the house, and by coming up with family events that are cheap and inexpensive. My dad's tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to quit his excessive spending on inadequate items and overeating outside of the home. He's cut down his fast food trips, but as a result increased his spending on other things. For example, yesterday for my mom's birthday he got her a new washer and dryer for like 1200 dollars. My mom cried she was so pissed. Basically, she's got alot of ambitious goals for home improvement, and she wants to achieve them before she dies. So, we've all suffered through the economic recession. Including, myself. I've told you about going to Florida on June 6th, so I've been saving all my paychecks to have enough money for down there. Keep in mind, however, that the cost of living is much higher than what it once was and I've found out the hard way money really doesn't grow on trees, nor, apparently does it grow in my bank account. Last night I went to Wal-Mart to get note cards and sharpies for my flashcards and my card got declined. It was embarrassing I'll admit and when I got home I changed my statement: 9.37. That's all I have in my account. FML. I looked through my purchases: gas, prom stuff, yada yada bullshi* that I really shouldn't have paid for myself. Anyways, it's whatever. Pay Day is Friday. Hallelujah.

First One!

Tomorrow, is Doom Day. Aka my first AP Exam for the year. I am pretty nervous because it is my history exam for U.S. History and the past two history exams I have taken I have gotten twos on. However, in my defense the last one I took I was all drugged up on pain killers because I had broken my ankle and I literally fell asleep during the essay. But that's besides the point. Anyways, this year I have gotten a ton better at starting studying early. A couple weeks ago I bought this huge review book at Barnes N Noble. Basically, it summarizes all the chapters of our history book, which I have never even read a single one, into 19 comprehensive chapters. I've read this entire thing and now I think I'm even more prepared. Last night, I stayed up until 230 AM working on flashcards that cover all the things I need to know. I know approximately half of them, which probably isn't best but with enough repetition I will learn everything I need to know. There's a huge issue, however, with my huge study plan for tonight: I'm scheduled to work. I have been trying to get someone to work for me for the past week now, and no one can seem to do it. So, I'm technically supposed to work but I really honestly don't think I can. I was gonna call in sick, but I've realized that that's probably not gonna work because all my managers know that I've been trying to get out of work, so therefore they know I'm not sick. I told one of my cool managers that I couldn't find anyone to work for me and of my plan to call in sick, but he told me that was a really bad idea because all the managers would be super pissed off at me and they would know that I'd be lying. This has put me in such a shitty position and I honestly don't know what to do. My cool manager offered me the fact that he could let me go early, but I don't know what he means by early. So, I texted him and we'll decide from there. I do know that I really don't care if my managers are mad because I'll be done with working at OfficeMax soon enough. So, any advice? That'd be great. Anyways, I'm not as nervous about this history exam just because it's less information to know. The past two years was very broadening and included the entire world. AP U.S. History, however, only deals with the U.S. thereby giving it less content with stuff that we know more about because it relates to us. In order to prepare tonight, I'll be taking my second practice exam along with learning my flashcards and probably re-reading old study guides and what not. If I don't get off work til 930, well I'm fuc*ed. So, still big dilemma. Anyways, I've realized I'm hardcore dragging this post out and for no reason, so I'm gonna move on to my next one in an attempt to get all three done. So, BYE!

practice tests (for all AP classes):
www.apexvs.com