I officialy hate emergency rooms. This is probably because I had a spinal tap around 12:30 this morning and my back is still sore. My arm hurts from the IV, and the medication (which is still in the process of running out) makes me sleepy. I slept from around 10:30-11 this morning until almost five. My headache is coming back, my fever is coming back, and I feel like crap.

I don't usually mind needles, but getting a bunch of blood drawn and then having a spinal tap sucks. I don't want to see another needle for a long time.

Okay... I think I'm done.

[/rant]

PS The green emoticon=doctor/nurse/etc

So, the trip back east was amazing[ly fun], but I've been home for a couple of weeks now. I got to spend some time with some friends that i hadn't seen in almost a year, and I got to spend some time getting to know my uncle (who, until this trip, I had never in my life spent more than half an hour at a time with). It was nice. Being home though....

I was happy to get home when I first got here, now I wish that I'd never come home. I mean, if I hadn't come home, I wouldn't have gotten into an argument with my friends, and I wouldn't have been hanging out by myself the last week. Life, and friends, are frustrating.

Anywho....

I sent off more query letters for my book yesterday. I hope I get in somewhere, but if not this time...it'll happen eventually. I won't pretend that I'm this amazing writer who will have a best-selling, top of the lists book, but I know that what I've written is better than some of the crap I've read. It's annoying. Just because they know people, or got into the business before it really took off, some people who write crap get published when people like me can't get in. Grrrrr....

Okay, so my sleep cycle is already messed up because of grad night last week, and now, even though I feel dead, my body is totally awake because of caffeine. Why did I drink that Dr. Pepper? WHY!?!?!?!? Anywho........

I figured since there's no chance that I'll be updating for at least three weeks (maybe four or five), I should probably put some kind of update on today...before I go to bed. Once I go to bed I won't have time to do anything but sleep for a few hours, run some errands, and pack.

Graduation was last week, and it was nuts. I still can't believe that high school is over. I devoted 14 years of my life to public education, and now it's done. I've spent the last four (or more) years with these people that I'll probably never see again. I'm gonna miss high school, just not the classes.

Anywho.... Since I don't think I should talk about my trip before it happens (I'll just get all excited and hyper), I guess that's it for now. It's my first time taking a plane, and I'm doing it by myself. Wish me luck. If you don't hear from me for more than two months, search the airports.

I am so tired I'd almost think I was in college. Wait a sec.... I almost AM in college. In one week I'll be standing at a podium getting my diploma. I think it's crazy. I've dedicated 14+ years of my life to public education (my mom was a teacher, so it's always been a part of my life...as long as I can remember, that is), and now it's over. So... What have I learned? Well, I guess the old poem "All I ever really need to know I learned in kindergarten" is probably pretty accurate.
~~~

"All I Really Need To Know
I Learned In Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum

- an excerpt from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten




All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile.... These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you
are - when you go out into the world, it is best
to hold hands and stick together."

Okay, so now I'm even more ticked off with this teacher than I was before. There's this girl in my class that's mad at me for some reason, and so she's being a real witch--no offense to any REAL witches out there--and she said to the teacher that I don't do anything, and then the teacher said that she'd seen me "sitting down rather than working" which is bull crap, and so she gave me a D (A D!!!!!!! ) on the assignment. It is so not fair! I think that that class (the students and teacher) have it out for me. Well...except for this one kid named Josh. He's an interesting guy. He draws all these random symbols and pictures on his arm with a sharpie. he's cool though. He at least isn't stupid like the rest of them are.