Homelessness

So today I went to listen to Dr. Pete Gathje speak about homelessness in Memphis. After he went through and gave some statistics and the history of homelessness I then realized that this really is an issue in Memphis and everywhere else. I did not know that Tennessee are in the Top Ten States of Poverty. I usually thought of homelessness as people just living on the streets because they are just to lazy to get a job. Well, in reality some of them do try they just do not make the money they need to support them. Ill be honest whenever I see people on the street sometimes I will lend a hand but then sometimes I think to myself can they just not walk the nearest gas station and at least try to get a job! I know that is really bad on my part and my point of view has definitely changed after hearing some of the causes. Some of the causes include lack of affordable housing, lack of health care, substance abuse, mental illness and ect. Dr. Pete is apart of what is called he Manna House. This house is open three days a week from 8 am to 11 am. People can come in whenever they want and stay as long as they want. They get to drink coffee for free, get clothes and even take showers! I think this is such a nice thing to do. Although he also made it seem like there are no other organizations not helping the homeless when really there are. For example, around Christmas time when people go to the homeless shelter and bring food and toys. I am just so grateful that I am living a good life and do not have to worry about living out on the streets. (303)

Idol Gives Back

This is the second year for American Idol to host the Idol Gives Back Show. Idol Gives Back is for people to donate money to help out the less fortunate people all over the world. This night consisted of many celebrities and showed tapes of celebrities going over to Africa and other places around the world helping out people. I forgot how much money Ryan Seacrest said that was donated but I rememeber it was a big number! There was this one slide they showed I forgot where they went but it showed a little girl who was 8 months old. This little girl was born with malaria and was so infected that her brain was swelling bigger and bigger everyday and causing her to have seizures. When they traveled to Africa it showed Bono from U2 talking to this little boy who was infected with HIV. Idol Gives Back helped donate money to help and try to keep these kids in need to survive! It was a very inspiring night along with inspirational songs. The top 8 idol contestants sang Shout to the Lord and Seasons of Loveboth were very good. If any of you want to check this out you can go to americanidol.com and watch videos of Idol Gives Back. I think this is such a great thing for American Idol to do. (277)

MY OBSESSION!

Well what do you know, another blog on American Idol. This past week American idol was on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night! I had to work Tuesday and Thursday night and had dance on Wednesday night so I was not able to watch it at the time it came on. So, I had to TVO, even though I always do! There is just something different to me about watching it live and then watching it after you taped it. Anways on Tuesday night the contestants performed inspirational songs. My all time favorite David Archuleta sang “Angels” and what an amazing job he did… the judges loved it! My second favorite Jason Castro sang “somewhere over the rainbow” which was amazing too! I am so glad my two favorites did good! The other contestants were not that good and its not that they did not sing well, it was the song choice they picked. Wednesday night was the Idol Gives Back night and that was a good show. Thursday night was the elimination night and last year they did not send anybody home instead they sent two people home the following week. Well, I was very shocked and so were the judges and other people about the bottom three. I was especially shocked about Michael Johns getting eliminated. He was one of the most talented contestants on this show…I guess it just goes to show you that at this point in the competition no one is safe! I am just waiting on Kristy Lee Cook to go home…she is the least talented on this show and yet somehow she is still on here! It bugs me so bad! Next week, Mariah Carey is the mentor so I definitely will be posting another blog about the competition! (295)

i STILL LOVE our tigers!

I am sure everyone along with me agrees that Monday night was not as exciting as we thought it would be in fact it was depressing. I was so upset the whole day just because I had to work Monday night and was not able to watch the game so I had people calling and texting me the results! I wish I could have been somewhere watching it instead of work where I only saw twelve people. I was so mad they would not let us close early. The refs I heard were making bad calls and didn’t call the foul at the end where Kansas made the three pointer! I was upset at first but then I got to thinking that atleast we made it to national championship even if we did not walk away as champions! We still deserved to be there and also no other team has the record we had this year! The Tigers had a great year. Hopefully, we can come back next year and win it and I have a strong faith in the tigers that we can. Oh, and maybe Derrick Rose and CDR will decide to come back one more year =) (200)

dance competition continued

Well, if any of you read my last blog about my dance competition and want to know what the results were feel free to read. Last Sunday I had to be at White Station High for Showstoppers. I had to wake up at nine o clock in the morning to put my hair in curls and get it ready for the number that we were performing later on in the afternoon. We had to put curls in our hair so it would flip out and be teased like the people in the hairspray movie. After, all this time spent on everyone’s hair we realized that next time we are purchasing a wig to wear! HAHA. Anyways, we all got to the school around 10:30 and we did not go on until about one. The reason we got there so early was because we had to go over the number and also make sure we were stretched out good. We did a production and in our division there were four other numbers. The awards were not until around 4 o clock so believe me it was a loonnngg day! Well, the good news is that in our division we got first place and then we also got overall production which with overall we were up against about 8 other numbers! They put you in different age divisions. So , we were all pretty excited about the outcome and ready to go home and get some sleep. I thought we would have a break for a little while and not have so many practices but I was wrong. We have a show on April 25th to get ready for!(277)

the BIG paper

So our big paper is finally coming to an end! I cannot explain how relieving that is. Although, I will admit we should be really thankful that Wendy is letting us do it in sections. If you think about some teachers would just make us do it all at once. So thank you, Wendy for letting us do it in sections! Also, in a way it kind of makes it easier and make me concentrate on the paper more. It makes me think about what I am writing about more so that my paper makes more sense. I think I like the peer editing for this paper as well because other people point stuff out that I probably would not catch. The reason for that is because when you read your paper, you are going to read what you thought you wrote. Also, it gives me help on the structuring of my sentences and paragraphs! I find this paper not to be easy, but easier than any other paper that we have had to write just because of the help and advice Wendy has given us. Especially like on ecourseware where we go to the contents and click on “part-four” or whatever part we are working out. She breaks it down easier for us so it is not that hard for us. Thanks again Wendy! Haha. So I started on my part four yesterday and almost done, since we need to have it Tuesday in class! I am trying not to procrastinate on this anymore! GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PAPERS EVERYONE! (263)

busy day

Okay, so I had to work tonight which I really did not want to because I have had a massive headache all day and have been lying in bed not being able to sleep because of the pain but no one would cover for me! So anyways, I get to work at two o’clock and the salon assistant does not come in until three. Well, the school next to the tanning place I work at gets out at two o’clock, so of course I am going to get a bunch of girls and boys coming in to tan. I thought to myself, I am going to have an easy day at work, today. Well I was completely wrong! I saw like fourteen people in ten minutes. So, I have to go clean the beds because the assistant as yet to make it to work until her scheduled time. I came back up to the front to see a line of people. I was freaking out! After a busy couple hours at work, I come to find out that my salon assistant has to leave here at six and we close at eight. She has to go to another store to close because supposedly that store is busier! Yea right! So I am going to be stuck here probably pass eight o’clock because I will not be able to do any closing duties because it has been so busy! I am surprised there are a lot of people tanning on a Friday! It is never that busy, ever! (255)

SHOWSTOPPERS

This Sunday I have a dance competition at White Station High School. I am excited for it and ready for it be over at the same time. The reason behind that is the fact that I love to compete in competitions because I love to dance but over the past few weeks it has been so tiring!! We will have dance twice a week or maybe even three days a week when it is normally just on Wednesday nights. The reason for practicing so much is because we are doing a production number and there are two other classes plus my class doing this number. We are dancing to You Can’t Stop The Beat from the Musical, Hairspray and it is a really cute dance, just a lot of work has to go into it. These weeks have been so tiring for me and hard to wake up and do everything because I have school work, dance, and having to go to work! My manager does not get the point. She always puts work before your education and other activities you have to do. So basically I am just really ready for this competition to get here and be over with! I hope we win though! That will be really exciting! (211)

MEMPHIS TIGERS

I don’t know about any of you but I am really excited for the game on Saturday against UCLA! It is going to be an intense game, but I believe that the Tigers can pull it off and win! You can tell they want to win the Championship. Also, if they play against UCLA like they played the past two games I think we will have a GREAT chance of winning. As much as I hate to say it, I am kind of glad they lost against Tennessee just so they have the pressure off their back of being an undefeated team. I don’t know if it is similar but when I cheered in high school, we would always get first at whatever competition we competed at and it seemed as if everyone was out to beat Germantown. So, I kind of know what the pressure of being undefeated feels like. Anyways, back to the tigers… I really hope that not having Andre with them in San Antonio doesn’t affect them. I do not suspect that it would. At least I hope it doesn’t hold them back. I will be watching the game with my family and we will be supporting the tigers and wearing our final four shirts! By the way I got my family final four shirts and it was $109… yea I was a little upset about that!! GOOO TIGERSSS!!! (232)

FAVORITE SHOW UPDATE:

It is that time of the week again to post another update! Feel free to read or feel free to skip this one! Last Tuesday’s theme on American Idol was Dolly Parton’s songs and Dolly was the mentor. I was a little worried about all of the contestants singing their songs, especially David, who was my favorite. When the show started, I was so anxious to see David and wondering when he was going to come on. When they showed him with Dolly Parton together, I thought it was neat. Dolly said she believes that he will become a great, great singer. David picked Smokey Mountain Memories to sing and as usual, it was amazing! I am being totally honest when I say this…in that David gave me the chills. His voice is just so pure. Overall, the contestants did pretty well with their songs. I was amazed because it just seems so hard to top her songs off since she is considered a legend in country music. Wednesday night was the result show and every night on this show, the group sings a song together. The song they sang was Nine to Five…I love that song of Dolly’s. Anyways, of course David was safe! That made me even more excited and Ramielle went home. Next week is the idol gives back week so the contestants are singing inspirational songs! I can’t wait to see the top eight perform!
P.s. I know I am OBSESSED with this show! (251)

sweet summertime

i don't know about anyone else but i am really excited that we get out of school in less than a month and then it is summer time for us! i can not wait for it to be summer. I love when it is summer so you can sleep in and not have to worry about school work or anything! One of the reasons why i can't wait for us to be out of school and summer to be here is so all my friends that do not go to memphis come home and we can all hang out again! There are going to some memories made this summer for sure! Another reason would have to be the days where it is so nice and sunny outside that you can lay by the pool and get a nice tan! I love being tan in the summer, for some reason being tan just makes me feel a lot better about myself. I also love going to the beach during the summer. I think a few of us from high school are going to try and get a house this summer like for the fourth of july so we can spend time together! if this plan falls through it will definitely be a time that will not be forgotten! SO basically school needs to hurry up and come to and end so summer can begin! (233)

WEEKEND!

I am really excited about this weekend. I do not have to work at all and not having to work is such a relief right now because it is beginning to be busy season where i work and trust me when i say busy i mean LINES out the door and so many people waiting on beds to be ready to tan in. When you stand on your feet all day at work, it is so uncomfortable. Since i do not have to work this weekend i am going to catch up on my exercise because i definitely need to catch up on working out. I guess you could say it is time to get in shape for the summer time! Man, i can not wait. This weekend is also exciting because it starts off with the TIGERS playing! Can't wait to watch the game tonight. I am also hanging out with my friend Liz. I'm excited because us hanging out has been wayyy over due like about 3 months overdue ! She just got a new puppy so we are going to take Lucy Claire to the park tomorrow along with Rocky (my brothers dog). I hope it is a pretty day for the park tomorrow! I just can not wait to have a relaxing and fun weekend! (226)

GO TIGERS GO!

We all should be very excited to go to a school with such a great basketball team. It was a good game against Mississippi State to get into the sweet sixteen, but man how nerve wrecking was that! Ahh! I was so scared. Anways, we play Michigan State tonight and I must say I’m pretty excited and I think we can make it to the elite eight once again! They just need to get their head in the game and when they get fouled actually make the free throws because in the end that may be what causes us to win or lose! If we are up like ten points and only a few minutes left in the game I’m sure the other team will start fouling us just because everyone thinks we can’t make free throws! Memphis needs to show them wrong! We have such a strong team so I believe we can pull this game off and go into the elite eight! Tonight is going to be an exciting game to watch! And I don’t know about any of you but I kind of wanted Tennessee to win last night just so maybe we could play them again and show them who really is the best!!! (208)

another AI update

It’s time for another update on I guess you could say, my OBSESSION! American Idol is so addicting. I like it soo much that I watch it and also TVO it so I can go back and watch it. Anyways, last Tuesday the contestants had to sing songs from the year they were born. They all did pretty good! David Archuleta (my favorite), sand “You’re the Voice” by John Farhamn. I have never heard this song before, and now I really really like it. Each week before he goes on stage I get so anxious to see how well he is going to do and what song he picks. All the other contestants are definitely improving along with Mr. Archuleta! Haha. Wednesday was the result show, and Chikieze was sent home. I liked Chikieze and I really wanted Kristy Lee Cook to go home, I am just not a fan of hers! Well, next week Dolly Parton is their mentor. Even though I am not a Dolly Parton fan I still think that would be cool to meet her since she is someone famous in the country music industry. So, instead of singing country songs I believe the contestants are going to have to sing Dolly Parton songs! This is going to be an interesting one. Especially to see what the contestants pick and how they may rearrange the songs! Can’t wait! (232)

Brothers Wedding

okay, so im going to vent in this one! so if you dont want to read it feel free not to because its nothing to important. anyways my brother is getting married august 9th. and the main reasoin for writing this blog is well, my sister and i are not in the wedding. in my opinion, i honestly think that is really disrespectful to the family. i was really upset about it and i honestly didnt think my sister would be upset about it, but she is! she said something to my mom and my mom said something to my brother. when my mom talked to my brother, my brother had no idea that you usually have your sister or sisters in the wedding! my brother is so laid back and doesn't care about anything. his fiance has the five girls in her wedding who are her best friends and she was in their wedding. i know she knows it's the right think to do to ask the sisters to be in the wedding. i mean don't get me wroing i love my brothers fiance to death but this bothers me so much ! the wedding is going to be different to. its going to be in arkansas which is where she is from. instead of being in a church its going to be in a ballroom and everyone is going to be seated at tables. the reception food is going to be mexican good. i mean what if everyone doesn't like mexican food. i dont know it just bothers me that she is going this all her way and not letting my brother decided anything. but then again my brother doesn not care and won't speak up since he is so laid back. she is this because she is the only child and no offense to being the only child. i mean there is differences in being the only child and being raised to not have everything your way and being raised by having everything your way! i dont know im just really upset about this issue and felt like venting. i mean would anybody else be upset about this or am i over exaggerating?

Easter Sunday

well, as we all know easter is this sunday! i love the holidays because its a time where my whole family can be together! i love spending quality time with my family. it is so much fun being around the people who care for you and love you more than anyone! we always have so much fun together. i don't know if it is the same for any of you but the easter bunny still comes to visit me or should i say my parents!haha! i love getting easter baskets! my youngset cousins are twelve and nine and me and my older cousin who is twenty two still easter egg hunt! well, me and my cousin don't but we hide the eggs for my little cousins to fin! some may find this weird that we do this at an older age but we do! we love to do it! it's just a tradition and i guess you can say we are still kids at heart! also, eveyr year we dye eggs the day before easter! i actually just dyed some today! it is just another way to spend quality time with the family! its going to be weird though this easter because my brother nor sister will be with the family because they will be working! they are both cops and they work the holidays! what a bummer that is! well anyways, i hope everyone has a happy and safe easter!

Memphis in May!

i dont know if any of you are excited about music fest this year but i know i am! the line up this year is so awesome! i know its like a month away but i cant wait! i really want to see colbie calliat, the john butler trio(sarah, remember the blue dots!..that was so scary ahah), O.A.R, Matisyahu, and of course more! i really hope it doesnt rain this year though because that would be awesome if it doesnt. hopefully, it's warm too! i hate when it rains and it gets cold by the river ! the rain and the cold definitely dont mix well! haha. i love being downtown at music fest with a group of people! its fun except it sucks when you lose people in your group and sometimes your phone doesnt have service! it's so frustrating. I like memphis in may to because sometimes you see people you havent seen in awhile! although im really excited for music fest this year, i think the best music fest ever would be for INCUBUS to be there! they are my favorite band. Memphis in May would be complete if they were included in the line up !

My Job

okay, so i work at a tanning salon but i'm not going to mention where i work because i don't to put a bad name out there for this company! i have been working at this place since august 2006 and it's not that i hate it but it's just beginning to get more and more ridiculous. it is fun to work with all the people here and the manager does work around your school schedule and extra activities but let me get to the main part of this. They have no taken away our unlimted tanning and we are only allowed to tan in levels one and two, and if we want to tan in higher levels, we have to pay ! i mean i don't tan that much anyways but i just think this is kind of ridiculous considering we do work for this company and we as employees are the ones who bring in money for company and to keep the business alive! Another thing is that i know this is a job and should be taken seriously but its beginning to become more than a job! i mean this is not my career, this is just a part time job while i am in school. Another thing is when we put in a request off sometimes the manager does not take it into considertation and schedules us and leaves it up to us to find someone to cover it! like for example, for my graduation from high school i asked off way ahead of time and she scheduled me ! i told her she messed and she said that i was the one who would have to find someone to cover it. i said okay, i will but if no one will cover for me i am not coming in! well, she got mad at me. i mean if you're the manager and you schedule somoene whey they are not allowed to work, you as a manager should cover it.. don't you think? i'm also tired of dealing with bitchy customers! they act like everything is our fault. the other day i was working and some lady started going off talking about how the air condition doesn't work and that's a problem and we will lose business because of this. i honestly wanted to say lady, i am not a machanic but i kept my patience and was very nbice to her! well i just really wanted to let this out. i could go on and on about this! im just glad i let some of this out! whewww!

AMERICAN IDOL UPDATE!!!

okay, so i am writing another blog on this topic just to keep any of you who are interested updated on american idol, which is my favorite show of course ! Last Tuesday the contestants had to sing songs again from the Beatles song book. Honestly in my opinion no one will be able to sing as good as the Beatles so of course this would be another hard wekk for the contestants. Any of you who read my last blog on this topic would know my favorite contestant this season is seventeen year old.. David Archuleta. He definitely stepped up his game this past Tuesday. He was amazing. I mean Simon called it a Master Class and said it was amazing =). So i knew Mr. Archuleta would make it to the top ten (the top ten are the ones who go on the idol tour). As for the other contestants, some were really good as well and some it was just not their week. The results night was Wednesday night and the bottom three was a suprise to me. One of the best singers in this competition was in the bottom three. I was shocked. Amanda was sent home, and even though i don't like her she should have been the one to go home. well i will keep everyone updated for next wekk. Be ready! haha

Semi-Pro

I went to go see Semi-Pro while i was in Knoxville for Spring Break. I love Will Ferrell movies so of course i had to go see this one. The previews looked to be really funny, so i was all excited to go see this movie. Well, unfortuantely this was not one of my favorite movies he has been in. To me, it didn't really seem like it was a good movie script. There were some really random parts in it. I mean it was funny at parts I will give it that, but if i had to give it stars i would more than likely give this movie two or three stars. It just really did not impress me with how i thought it would. I also went to go see this in the afternoon, which i'm glad i did because i don't think it woud have been worth paying like nine dollars for a movie. Which i must say is completely ridiculous. They keep on raising the price. It's a lot cheaper to just wait for the movie to come out on video and go rent it at blockbuster or even kroger for like one dollar. This is my thought on this movie, if any of you have seen this movie feel free to leave comments on what ya'll think about it. I wonder if people feel the same way i feel about it. It just seemed like this movie wasn't as much as a comedy for Will Ferrel to star in.

My Major

Ok, so this past week I was thinking about school and i'm changing my major. My major was Elementary Education. I have always wanted to be a teacher. I used to play school when i was little and i love little kids. I took leadership 1010 last year where i went to campus school and did a field experience and in ACAD i tutored a kid at campus school. I loved it! For some reason, i just started thinking that teaching really was not for me. You have to have the gift to teach, and i really don't think i have that gift! So, i am changing my major to Exercise Science. I talked to my brother about it because thats what he went through to become a personal trainer. I'm going to go the PT route which is to become a physical therapist. Through the physical therapist major i'm going to go through the sports route so i can be a physical therapist for athletes. I think i will really enjoy this and also enjoy learning about our bodies. I'm also glad i decided to change my major this early on during school since i didn't really waste all my time on Education classes. I only had like 2 classes dealing with education and the rest have been general ed. classes.

This Past Thrusday....

So, my boyfriend and his sister which is one of my really close friends and their mom had some upsetting news on thursday morning. Their uncle was diagnosed with cancer of the throat about 7 months ago. Thye treated him with chemo and it went away...and then about 3 months ago it came back. So they gave him chemo again. Unfortuantely, it did not work this time. The hospital called Hospus(Sp?). This is where people come to your house to take care of you, which is the last possible thing they can do. On monday the doctors gave him till Saturday to live. Well, he passed away thursday morning. He was only 48 years old. My boyfriend and his sister were really close to their uncle..and actually i was to! He always went to Nationals with us for cheer. Also, whenever he came in town (since he lives in California..with the rest of my boyfriend's family) we would always go to buffalo wild wings and go see a movie. He also took us to Hawaii, which was an incredible experience. He would always call on a monthly basis to. I really wish i could go to the funeral but i just can't. I don't have the time! So, would ya'll please pray for their family. They are going through a hard time right now!

American Idol

I know everyone has a favorite show they watch and it's usually something like CSI, the O.C., One Tree Hill or something along those lines..but I have always been obsessed with American Idol. I love watching it from the very beginning to the end. I love watching the audition parts but i always usually have a favorite by the Top 12. This season my favorite person is David Archuleta. He is only 17 years old and i think he has an amazing voice. Last week during the top 12 performances they had to sing songs from the john lennon and paul mccartney song book. Unfortuantely, David did not do well. Since he is so young, he doesn't really know this type of music and under a lot of pressure from hearing how people think he will win American Idol, being the youngest on the show and just being really nervous with this song genre. He messed up his lyrics but still recovered well and made it through for next week which is the top 11. As much as i would love for david to win and i don't want him to. I think he will make it further without winning american idol just like Chris Daughtry did. I love chris daughtry as well. But i will prob be updating on this topic through my blogs. I also am i fan of jason castros and david cook on american idol as well. If any of you want to look up david singing go to youtube. com and type david archuleta! He has a lot going for him. Ok, enough on this blog ...since im just rambling on!

Spring Break!

So the past few years I have usually gone to the beach with some friends. I love going to the beach and just relaxing with friends and getting some sun, but this year my spring break was different! This year i went to knoxville to visit some friends from highschool. i stayed with my good friend kelly. I flew out there on friday and came home saturday. I know its only a six hour drive from here but i flew instead because my dad works at the airport and i got a cheap ticket. I figured that would be better than driving by myself. I was anxious to know if i would get on the flight because since i fly through my dad, i fly standby..which means i don't have a guarnteed spot. Anyways, i got on friday...thanks goodness! i was so excited to get away from memphis even though it was not somewhere with a beach! I had a lot of fun. I got to see all my friends and hang out with them...and i even got to relax. They still had school so i would just sleep in till about 12 and get up and go get lunch with some friends or go work out. And, of course we went out...which was really fun too! So all in all, i guess you could say i had a fun spring break!

DISTRACTED!!

Okay, so today is the day our blogs are due and I just really have nothing to write about anymore. The reason why I am posting these all at one time is because my computer is messed up and I have to go somewhere else to pose these blogs. I would go earlier in the week to do it but I can’t go somewhere every time to post a blog for one Monday and then Tuesday and so on. So what I do is I sit at home or in class and write my blogs down so I know what I am going to write. Then when it came to write my fifth blog I just had nothing to write about anymore. It’s like my brain went dead. For some reason, I’m not motivated to write anymore. It seems that I always get distracted too, especially when I have we have to put these on the computer I always end up getting on facebook or checking my email. That makes it a lot harder to because I lose my train of thought and it takes me awhile to get back on track. I really think I am ADD. I really should go get tested for it so I can get some medicine to help me focus more

Oxford

After school today I went to the dentist and then picked up my cousin and headed down to oxford. She needed a ride back because she rode home last night with my other cousin and his girlfriend for my brother’s graduation. They left this morning to go on a cruise so I decided to pick her up come down and spend some time with her. I never really get to see her that much because whenever she is home I’m always working or doing something else and then I’m always too busy to come down and see her but today was a perfect time to come stay with her. We are going to have a funnnn time tonight! I’m excited. We are so crazy when we get together…its insane! I love coming down to oxford to because I just love the different atmosphere with everyone although I could not see myself going to this school. Anyways, I just figured I would write about being down in oxford with my cousin because I am so blessed to have such a close relationship with my cousin. It is basically like we are sisters. Sorry that was such a pointless blog, I just really needed one last thing to write about

Freedom Writer's Speaker

In English class on Tuesday we had a tiny discussion about a speaker. The speaker is Erin Gruwell. She is coming somewhere here in Memphis to speak. I think it may be at Crichton College. The main reason why I want to go and listen to her speak is because the movie Freedom Writer’s is based off of her and her students. I watched this movie for one of my movie reviews that we had due in English. I loved the movie so much because it made me realize what it may be like when I start teaching. Sometimes you get lucky and get stuck with a good school and a good classroom and sometimes you get unlucky and you don’t get put at a good school and it is hard to manage a classroom. I’m really interested to hear what she has to talk about and maybe I can include some of her stuff in my paper since I’m writing on school assessment or maybe get some ideas. I’m also interested and seeing the students she brings with her because I heard she was bringing a few of her kids that were involved with Freedom Writer’s to talk as well.

Police Officer in the Family

Last night I had my brother’s graduation from the police academy. It started at seven and it was downtown at the city hall. So we had to leave my house by like five thirty to make sure we got down there on time with all the traffic there may have been and we also had to wait on my brother’s fiancé and her parents to come to my house. Well we didn’t up leaving the house until six…bad mistake! My mom decided to take poplar instead of park which was another bad mistake because there was wreck and the traffic was backed up. The next option we had was to get on the interstate and take river drive…well there was another wreck! My mom was freaking out thinking that we would not make it there in time and I kept on telling my mom its okay we have 45 minutes! But she still kept freaking out and started crying. Anyways, we finally made it there with twenty minutes until it started. It was weird to see my brother in a Police uniform. They gave out awards for physical fitness, academics, and gun range, leadership and then an overall excellence award. My brother received the physical fitness and overall excellence. That was really honoring. He was also second in his class with academics. Then came the pinning of the badges. My sister got to pin my brother because she is a police for Memphis to and if you have a relative in the police department or who has retired they can pin you. Afterwards we took a bunch of pictures and of course we had to take one with me, my brother and my sister. So I stood in the middle, because they both had their uniforms on. We took a regular one and then I put my brothers police hat on and said “THIS IS AS FAR AS I’m GOING TO BECOMING A POLICE OFFICER!!” because everyone always ask them so is your little sister the next leatherwood to become a police..haha yeaaa right! Overall, it was a good night and I’m so happy and proud for my brother.

GO TIGGEERRRSS!!!

I’m sure everywhere is so excited and anxious about the game tomorrow against Tennessee because I know I am. It is so exciting to go to a school where your basketball team is ranker number one in the nation. Our basketball team fully deserves the ranking they have too. I don’t know about any of you, but I really don’t think Tennessee deserves to be number two. I mean come on…they lost against Kentucky. Anyways, I was thinking about going up to the Forum tomorrow morning for the ESPN game day since if you go to that you will be guaranteed a seat at the game, but I just really don’t want to go that early and wait in line that long. I won’t be able to handle it. So I am probably going to go somewhere and watch it on a big screen TV with some people. It will still be exciting. Oh yea, I went and got a shirt to wear too. I’m sure some of you have seen it. It says Memphis basketball on the front and on the back it says the biggest game in town and Feb. 23, 2008. I can’t wait to sport that around wherever I go =). I can’t wait to see the TIGERS take over the VOLS! This is going to be one good game. I know they can do it and plus we get home advantage as well

Working out

I went to work out today! I did the ellipetical for thirty minutes, the bike for 20 minutes, a few weights, and did some ab workouts! Today was the first day I have been to work out in about five days! I need to work on this. I'll go for like four days straight and then quit for like a week. This won't help me at all to lose weight. I have to make it consistent especially if I want to lose weight, get in shape, and see results! I love seeing results it makes me confident in myself. One reason while ill stop going is because I get sore, but what good is it to just sit around and not go? The best way to get rid of your soreness is to work it out! So I am making a promise to myself that I will be consistent with my workouts and go to the gym whenever I have time. In fact, I am going to make sure I make the time to do it. Whenever i work out I fill so much better about myself and I am always full of energy! I love those two feelings. It makes me a happy person, and I don't feel like some bum!

Valentine's Day

How was everyone’s Valentine’s day? I honestly thought mine might have been spent single this year. Instead, it wasn’t! To make this story short, the reason why I thought that was because my ex-boyfriend of 3 and a half years broke up in December. We were together since I was 15 and he was 16. Anyways, we just were going through a lot and our schedules were conflicting and we just needed to put some stuff in the past. Everything is really good now and we are basically back together but without a title right now. It seems to be working really well. It just makes it feel like we aren’t tied down right now and it’s not stressful with our schedules. Some people may think that’s weird, but if you knew our situation then you would understand I’m sure! The whole point to this is that he was so sweet. I didn’t think we were going to do anything and the other day I heard my dog barking really loud but I didn’t get up to see what it was. Well, when I left my house for work I saw a box in front of my house door. He sent me a dozen roses!!! It was so thoughtful and then today I got another package and it was chocolate covered strawberries from some place in California. Those are my favorite. We also went to Carabbas for dinner. So all in all my Valentine’s day was perfect! I hope everyone else’s was!!

Freedom Writers

This movie is about the diaries of the students in room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School. One of the main characters is Eva. She is a student in room 203. She states that she doesn’t even want to be at school but her probation officer told her it was either school or boot camp. On her first day of school she was initiated into a gang, where basically the beat her up so bad. It was a way of saying that you won’t break. Everyone was against each other, but mainly the Latino, Asian, and African Americans fought for their territory.
Ms. Erin Gruwell became a teacher there in 1994. She wanted to teach here because she thought it was a good idea to have the school integrated. The lady asked her are you sure you can handle all of these students and Ms. G replied yes, if I do my job that will be lining up at the door.
The first day in the classroom Ms. G had to deal with a lot of nonsense between different people. The next day she came with a cd player that was playing Tupac to try and help them learn about poems, but they just totally shut her out and were being smart about everything. Eva said, “She thinks she can teach but she can’t”. She was just trying to do something fun so they would be interested in learning.
The next day as she was writing notes on the board there was a lot of laughing so she turned around to ask what was so funny, that’s when she noticed Jamal had a drawing of himself in his hand that Tito drew making fun of him. Ms. G goes on to state that this how the holocaust started. Eva screams out you don’t know our pain we go through. This is all about color, I hate white people. Ms. G said, “So you hate me?” and Eva said “yes!” and Ms. G said “that’s the whole problem, you don’t know who I am.” In order to get respect you have to give it.
Ms. Gruwell does a really neat thing. She tells the students that they are going to play a line game. This game is about asking a question and if it applies to you, you step up on the line. She continues asking questions. After this, she told them that she has a surprise for them. She got them journals to write in everyday. She told them that it won’t be graded and that she will not read them unless she is given permission by the student. She said she will have a cabinet open during the class and after class she will lock it. If they want her to read them that is where they will place them. Everyone left their journals in the cabinet for her to leave. You could tell by the look on her face she was thrilled and honored.
She took her students on a trip. On the trip they went on a tour. At the beginning of the tour each student for a card with a child on it and they got to know who they were and what camp they went to and if they were a survivor. She also had them a dinner at the hotel she worked at on the side. They had dinner with holocaust survivors. The students could not believe that Ms. Gruwell did this for them.
Ms. Gruwell was talking to the person underneath the principal and asking if she could use some books to read in class. The lady said no because they will be in bad condition afterwards because the students don’t care to read. So Ms. G went out on her own and bought the students a book called Durango Street and the Diary of Anne Frank. Eva like the book Durango Street so much she took it to her dad in prison. All the students could relate to this book. They also loved the Diary of Anne Frank. They did fundraisers so that they could have Ms. Deeds, which is the lady who helped the Franks, come and speak to them. Marcus wanted to escort her in, and he did. Marcus told her that he has never had a hero before and that she was his hero.
Then came sophomore year where they walked into room 203 again. Ms. G had a Toast of Change up. She told them that in the border bags there were four books, take the sparkling cider and make a toast to every voice that said you can’t is silenced, every reason that tells you things will never change disappears, and that it is turn for the new you. It was such an emotional part of the movie to hear what all the students had to say.
Ms. G had to fight to teach the same group of student’s junior year. They were upset when they found out they would not have her as a teacher junior year. She told them to not use her as another excuse to why you can’t make, and Eva said that’s not it, it’s the sign of respect for you. Ms. G gave them one final project. The project was to make their diaries into a book. They have something to say to people and that they are not just kids in a classroom anymore, they are writers who have their own voice and own stories. She told them to come with a title to call you, and they came up with The Freedom Writers Diary.
Ms. G had great news for them after she spoke with people at the school. They asked her if she will be teaching them junior year. She replied “no, I will be teaching you junior and senior year!!” All the students were so happy.
During this movie, the author showed his purpose well. To me his purpose was to show that someone can change an individual’s thoughts and hopes. That everyone has their own voice and should be heard. This was a great movie to watch considering that I am going to school to be a teacher. It was neat to watch a movie and understand in some ways that side of a teachers point to get across to students. These students became a family and respected Ms. G as their teacher. That is such an honor to have, to know that you have affected someone’s life in such a good way and made a positive change.
Many Freedom Writers were the first in their families to graduate high school and attend college. Ms. Erin Gruwell left Wilson high school to follow her students and teach at California State University at Long beach. The Freedom Writers Diary was published in 1999 and Ms. G and the Freedom Writers Foundation dedicated to recreating the success of room 203 classrooms throughout the country. I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie. This movie makes me want to teach even more.

Spring Break

I know it is a little bit to early to be writing a blog about spring break but I’m going to go ahead and ramble on about it. The reason for this is because I have to pick between two things. I’m not going to the beach this year so instead these are my two options: go to Knoxville for the boxing tournament they have and be with some of my good friends for our spring break or Lindsay who I talked about in my other blog had some news for me. She asked me the other day if I was doing anything for spring break and I told her about Knoxville and she was asked me if I would like to go to Orlando for the Memphis women’s basketball game March 6th because they need some extra girls to cheer at the game. Everything will be paid for like the plane ride and going to the parks and wherever they stay. I was excited about it. So I’m debating on what I should do? Either go visit my friends or go to Orlando. I think I may pick Orlando so that I can get to know the girls and show them what I can do like cheer wise so at try outs they have already seen me and maybe that will give me some extra points on making the squad. Who knows? Any opinions?

Tumbling

Well, as one of my previous blogs stated I am trying out for Memphis All-Girl cheer. So today me and this girl Lindsay who I cheered with on Germantown went to tumbling today. She cheers for Memphis All-Girl. I have to get back into this whole tumbling concept considering I haven’t really done a lot since February of last year after my senior year at nationals. So we got to the gym and of course stretched first so we can warm up our bodies. Then we just started doing the basic tumbling skills like back handsprings and back handspring backs and standing backs. We didn’t do any running tumbling today because I had to practice on my three and a back, in case no one knows what that is ..it is three toe touches in a row and then a back tuck. This is basically Memphis all girls trademark, they do it in the intro of the routine or in the middle. Anyways , we do all of our tumbling passes and the she told me some really really really great news! I am going to be so sore tomorrow! The try outs aren’t going to be until May 9, 10, and 11. I was so relieved because they are usually in April and I didn’t think I would be ready by then and didn’t think I would have enough time to go to enough tumbling practices. Stress was definitely lifted off of my shoulders. Well to end this whole non important blog, haha…the tryouts are open for anyone to come and watch! So, if you know anyone else trying out you are more than welcome to come!

Tuesday's Class

So this past Tuesday we went to go listen to Percival Evertt get interviewed. I’m not going to lie, I was sitting there and thinking to myself am I really sitting here listening to him get interviewed, because I thought we were going to listen to him read. I did actually enjoy it. It was kind of interesting to sit there and listen to his responses that he was given. When he mentioned how one of his students did some blog thing with her paper , I thought that was a neat and different way to do something to get other peoples opinions. I wish I could have stayed a little bit longer to see what else he had to say and what other questions the interviewers had to ask him but unfortuantely, I had to go to my intro to art class I had to attend. I don’t know if it was just me or if anyone else in the room felt the same way, but sitting there listening to the interviewers ask Percival Evertt questions and him respond to the questions, I felt like I was in an audience on a talk show on television. Something like Opra or Dr. Phil haha.

Once again..Cheerleading!

So this past Wednesday night was Germantown’s cheer show night! For any of you who read my last blog about Germantown Cheerleading, of course ya’ll know I would go to this to support them. They had a really good turn out. The past practices I have been to they haven’t gone full out so I was really excited to see what the full picture looked like! Of course, Chris the coach, made another entertaining routine. I wrote them a letter that one of the coaches is going to read to them. I thought I would do this just to give them more confidence and to pump them up! They actually leave today for Nationals. They have prelims tom and then finals on Sunday! So hopefully, they will do amazing! I will be waiting anxiously for the results since I cannot be there with them! I really wish I could be. Hopefully, they can go to nationals do their best , be Germantown and win back the National Title. It was taken away from us last year and I know they can get it back! They got it. I know they are going to do amazing! I have so much faith in all of the girls! I can tell they want it!

Procrasination

So, I’m really good at this thing called PROCRASINATION! As you can tell, I am writing my blogs so late. I know this sounds bad, but they just seem to slip my mind sometimes with all that I have going on. Sorry Mrs. Winter! Well, actually it’s not like they totally slip my mind because I do think about them during the day and think to myself oh that would be really good to write about, but I just never get around to writing them. I have got to fix this. Not only do I procrasinate on the blogs, but I tend to do it on everything..not just school stuff though. With school assignments I always wait to until the night off to do the homework for that certain class. It’s defintely going to catch up with me.When I wait until the last minute I always end up having late nights. I could be getting sleep instead, you know? So what I’m really trying to say is that I am going to work on my procrasination skills. I have got to get a move on. Starting today, I am going to be ahead on mostly everything! Brooxie and Sarah, stay on me! Haha because ya’ll are way ahead of me and we are usually in the same boat! haha

Stormy Weather

Throughout the whole day at school on Tuesday, I was just hoping the bad weather would hold off until I got home. Luckily enough it did, because last time it rained cats and dogs I was soaking wet and my umbrella almost broke! Anyways, when I got home I decided to lay down and take a nice nap before I went to work out. I fell asleep around two and woke up around 4:30 to the annoying sound of the tornado sirens going off and my dog barking so loud. Of course, I started freaking out because I hate storms. My dad, mom,me , and Rocky..which is the dog go down to our basement. After the first 30 minutes we were down there we got a call from my sister. She was just wondering if we are okay and everything because she is a memphis police and on their radio it said they spotted a tornado at Poplar and Germantown. Of course, I started freaking out more because our house is located right around that area. I was thinking to myself please don’t come this way please don’t come this way, but if it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go..you know? Anyways to make the long story short, we were down in the basement for atleast a good hour and a half and needless to say I did not get to go work out. But I’m just glad we are all okay and that no serious damage really happened.

GO GIANTS!

Okay, so I’m not a big fan of football, but everytime that superbowl comes around I have to watch it. My family always goes to my grandparents house and we have a huge cookout. This year we had a fish fry. The boys in the family decided this for out lovely superbowl meal. Anyways, so half of my family members were going for the Patriots and the others were of course going for the Giants. The half that went for the Giants are big Ole Miss fans, so of course, you got to root on the Giants with Eli being the quarterback. Well, I was on their side because I wanted the underdogs to win! Sorry Mr. Sexy Tom Brady, you did not win! Hahah. But anyways so we are watching the game while we eat, and occasionally doing the whole yelling and screaming football thing! To tell you the truth,I enjoyed watching this game it was reallyy good, but I was just anxiously waiting to see how this years half time show would turn out to be. Unfortunately, it did not impress me even though it was Tom Petty. The only half time show I enjoyed was about five or so years ago when it was Aerosmith,Nsync,Britney Spears, and Nelly. That was defintley the best! It’s going to be hard to top that one off in my opinion ha! Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year for another superbowl party with the family, and maybe the girls in the family can decided what to eat!

Thursday's In-Class Writing

This issue I'm going to be writing about is school assessment. I think I'm going to focus on the tests schools are giving now like Gateway, instead of focusing on Memphis city schools like I mentioned in class. I think the Gateway test and TCAP are ridiculous. For instance the gateway tests, you take the test and if you fail the testy ou have to take another semester of that course and take the test over again. It does not matter if you are passing the course or not. I took TCAP in elementary school and I think middle. I honestly don't understand why they give us the test. It doesn't even matter if you pass it or not you will still advance to the next grade. In fact, some teachers could careless about these kind of tests and that's not a good thing either. Another test I don't get is the creative writing essay we did in high school. Where the scores you could get were between a 1 and 6. Well the government gives you some random topic the day of the writing assessment and you don't know what it is until you flip the paper over and read it. The essay is timed as well. The thing I don't like about this is that it gets sent away and there are judges who read your paper. This is pointless because it is that persons opinion on what they think you should get. They could give you failing score, which means you would have to take it over again until you pass, or someone else could read it and give you a passing score. I'm planning on being a teacher when I graduate from school, so I want to look into this subject matter and figure out why they give these certain tests.

Germantown Cheerleading

Last night I went to Germantown High School's cheerleading practice. Some of you may be wondering why I went. I went because I cheered for Germantown the past three years. I wanted to go watch them practice because they only have like two weeks before they head of to nationals! Hopefully, they will be National Champions! It is such a great feeling. Anyways, during their practice I was yelling for them and saying BE SHARP!! YELL!! LOUDER!! KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!!!! I just wish I could have been on that blue mat with them doing the routine and yelling, but instead I was up in the front with the coach! That is kind of depressing. Haha! I was getting chills just watching how good they are! I wanted to be out there so bad. I wish I could stay in highschool forever and just cheer for Germantown ..to bad you can't haha! Okay, it may seem like I am obsessed with cheerleading but, I'm not. I just really love to perform in front of thousands of people! Cheerleading has really made me a more competitive and stronger person in life. One more thing, I always said I don't want to cheer in college. One because I always tell myself I want a life in college and cheer is 24/7 and another reason because I didn't really think college cheer would be for me. Well after the past practices of Germantown's I have been to it has changed my mind! I really think I'm going to tryout for Memphis All-Girl in April. YAY!

Manifesto

On Thursday, we were given the assignment to look up the word "manifesto" and write one of our own. Of course, I was not too excited about this assignment because I did not know what a manifesto was, and I figured it was not going to be that easy. What exactly is a manifesto? A manifesto is a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization. It basically states what a person believes in and what a person wants to get out of life. As I researched more on the word manifesto, I came across some famous ones. One of the most famous manifestos is The Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence states the United States of America's freedom from Great Britain. "The Declaration isconsidered to be the founding document of the United States ofAmerica, where July 4 is celebrated as Independence Day and thenation's birthday (Wikipedia)." This document states that everyone has the same rights. Dr. Seuss once said "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." I love this quote. I believe that you should not try to be someone you are not. It will get you nowhere in life. If someone does not like you for who you are, then you don't need them in your life (as mean as that sounds..we all know it's true... am I right?). I also believe that everything happens for a reason and noone can help it. I believe that you were given your life you have because you are strong enough to live it. We all know that life is like a roller-coaster, it has its ups and downs, but you just have to get over it and move on, because life is way to short to take anything for granted. I believe that you should live each day to the fullest, because you never know what the next day will bring. I also believe that noone should ever judge you on the mistakes you have made. No one is perfect, in fact, I believe that everyone is far from it. I do speak my mind and I am not afraid of what people think about me. That is one thing that does make me who I am. My family and my friends are my backbone. I have the most amazing family ever, without them I honestly would be nothing. They are the ones who have brought me up to who I am today and who have taught me to not let anyone bring you down. My dad is my hero. I look up to him so much and hopefully when my day comes to get married my husband will be a great father like mine. I am a daddy's girl, but I am not spoiled by no means. My friends mean everything to me. I love my true friends, without them I would be nothing as well. I am grateful to have not gone through the pain of losing someone very close to my heart in awhile. I honestly have no idea what I would do. I believe that Jesus Christ is my savior. I'm a very outgoing, friendly, lovable person. I am not shy at all. I believe that you should never judge a book by it's cover. You should always get to know someone before putting a label on them. I always try my best to treat people that way I want to be treated. I am very talkative person, and will talk to you about anything and everything. I can talk for hours to someone about pointless stuff. I really think I'm ADD and most of my friends would agree. I am very random, but again that's a little something of what makes me who I am. My goal in life is to be a teacher, which is currently my major and to be a mother. I love my major because I enjoy working with kids. My major is elementary education. It's a privilege to know you have impacted a student's life. I tutored a student last semester at campus school and it was an honor to watch the student grow in his subjects. I can't wait to become a teacher when I graduate. Another goal of mine is to have a family of my own in about five years and maybe eventually be a stay at home mom. I wouldn't mind being a dance teacher on the side (more than I am now). My grandmother owns a dance studio and I have grown up around dance my whole life. I have also taken dance for 18 years now, and it's something I love to do and something I enjoy. Well hopefully after reading this you have come to know alittle bit about me. I'm just a normal nineteen year old college student living my own life! =)

Court Date

So this past Tuesday I had court and had to be there at 8:30 a.m. So of course I was going to miss my first class which is at 8:00 and Ithought it would not take long so I could be at English at 9:40. Well,that turned out to be wrong. I did not leave court until about 9:15, so forget English, sorry Mrs. Winter that I missed your class by the way. I was really hoping I would not miss because after reading Mrs.Winter's e-mail it said we may have a quiz over our syllabus. I was freaking out because I didn't want to miss it just incase I would not be able to make it up due to court. After missing English class I told myself I would never miss another day. I really wish I could have been in class so I could hear all the questions that were asked, but no court got in the way! Ugh! So I called my friend Sarah Thursday morning before class, and asked her what we did and she went on telling me about we have this paper to write on a subject you pick and so on. I was like what? Well, if I would have gotten online and looked at the blogspot I would have seen it but I forgot. I have got to start remembering to look at it everyday and my email.