Happy birthday to me…

So, I’m twenty now.

Woohoo.

Kelly ~/`~

You only like me for my literature!

I guess that books are popular things.

These are all of the search terms used to find my blog yesterday:

Search	Views
crank book	5
crank the book	4
quotes from crank by ellen hopkins	3
quotes from the book crank	3
crank ellen hopkins quotes	2
crank book recommend	1
setting for the story “crank” ellen hopk	1
amazing quote from glass the book sequel	1
quotes from impulse by ellen hopkins	1
crank- book	1
quotes from “crank” by ellen hopkins	1
crank book quotes	1
quotes from the book impulse by ellen ho	1
crank ellen hopkins page numbers	1
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the book crank	1
locks-of-love my-hair	1
crank by ellen hopkins, theme	1
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crank by ellen hopkins quotes	1
impulse book by ellen hopkins quotes	1
quotes from ellen hopkins books	1
“crank” book quotes	1
ellen hopkins book quotes	1

———-

On the topic of books, my friend Richie just lent me his copy of Crime and Punishment (you know you’re at homeschool prom when you leave with Dostoevsky, ha ha ha), and I need to get started on it because I’m pretty sure he wants it back.

I haven’t decided whether I’ll post a Spring Ball video or not yet, I think my sisters are going to some. Maybe I’ll post some pictures once I’ve got them on my computer. I can tell you now, it was a blast. Generally, on the day after a dance, the level of exhaustion and foot pain I am experiencing is about equal to the amount of fun I had, and right now I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Ha.

Oh gosh, speaking of that! A vanload of kids headed to the Ball were in an accident on their way there… two of the parents were already at the Ball working with the food, and they took off as soon as they heard. Later in the night we found out that everyone was fine, just a little shook up, except one of the kids hit their head and had to be checked for a concussion at the hospital. This would have been senior prom for one of the guys. I don’t know how everyone is now, but everyone’s been praying for them.

On a much more shallow note, this was the first time in six Spring Balls (yes, I’ve been to six… you can keep going to this one until you’re either twenty-five or married, whichever comes first) where I haven’t had a clothing disaster. In 2003, I couldn’t get my dress until about three days before the dance, meaning I didn’t have much to choose from, and it was pretty stressful (I hate shopping, particularly for clothes, so it was not fun). In 2004, I had dropped a bunch of weight because I was sick, so in every picture I’m incredibly pale and sickly looking. Also, my dress was a little too long, so the tulle got kind of shredded. The most embarrassing part, though, was my hands. I came in wearing gloves. Then, I danced with someone who had very sweaty hands, and had to take the gloves off to let them dry (They were SOAKED! I literally had to wring them out). Under the gloves, I had bandaids on several fingers (I was on the decorations committee that year, and had to cut out these giant plastic castles with a box cutter… it didn’t go so well), and some badly chipped bright red nail polish (in contrast to my pale lavender dress). I recieved two awards that night, which I had to accept in front of the whole group… and in every picture you can see my awful hands!

2005 deserves it’s own paragraph. You see, I had found a dress I loved at one of those events where people donate their old prom dresses and give them away. However, the dress had quite a few stains on it, had some very loosely sewn on buttons, a badly sewn zipper, and the halter straps were too short. I didn’t know how to sew very well yet, so I took it to a seamstress, and then a dry cleaner. Even after that there were some stubborn stains, and the organza on the skirt was badly wrinkled, so I had to work on it at home… and I worked on it basically until the day before the Ball. The day of the Ball, my mom was helping me get ready, and the very last thing was putting on the dress. As she’s zipping it up (mind you, we’re already running fifteen minutes late), the zipper completely breaks. Yes, breaks. Beyond repair. So, after freaking out for about five or ten minutes and crying all of my makeup off (This was just the icing on the cake of a very emotional few weeks.), my mom reminded me that I did have a different dress that I maybe I didn’t like as much, but it was still a dress.

(Oh look, 2005 is getting a second paragraph!) So, I dug up the other dress and realized it was strapless, which is a dress code no-no. I went digging through a box of ribbon, and found we had *just enough* of this ribbon that kind of matched my dress. (Let me pause for a moment and point out that I realize I am INCREDIBLY fortunate to have had a second dress and that I had ribbon to match the weird color of it… I was just too frazzled at the time to see that). My mom lent me some of her jewelry, I washed my face and re-did my makeup, and we rushed out the door (my sister was not happy with the hold up, ha ha ha). As I’m getting in the car… Laura slams her door on my hand. Cue more tears and having to wash face and fix makeup in the car on the way. I ended up having a good time once I got there… but everything leading up to it was a MESS.

In 2006, I got my dress from a free giveaway again. This dress was great, except the straps were a little too long, and there was a small hole and a few smudges near the hem. I talked to my sewing teacher, and she suggested that I take apart some silk flowers and sew the petals randomly around the hem to cover the smudges. Well, I was so busy with being on the decorating committee (again) that I didn’t get a chance to work on my dress until the night before the Ball. The next day, I headed off to the Ball, rushed through set-up, and had to get ready in the bathroom at the school where we were, with my sister and two friends who were also a on the committee. At this point, I realized a few things. One, I had gained some weight, and the front of the dress was pushing the dress-code limits in being low-cut. Two, I had forgotten to fix the straps. Three, the weight of the flower petals pulled the dress into a weird shape. Four, I couldn’t find my shoes ANYWHERE.

When we went back upstairs, my friend Chris had found my shoes (don’t ask me how, I don’t know). For the rest of the night, I had to deal with my straps constantly falling down off of my shoulders (which is a problem in ballroom dancing because they stop you from raising your arms for turns and stuff). Luckily, there were no *serious* wardrobe malfunctions, but still.

Last year was my senior year (I’ll mention now that I took an extra year of high school for the heck of it, so I would have technically been a senior in ’06), and I actually paid money for a dress for the first time since 2003 (it was a really cool dress ) This year’s disaster was a lot less epic than the previous ones. First, Laura didn’t have time to help me with my hair, so I was stuck doing it by myself. Hair-challenged me ended up with a fluffy cloud of weird and a purple thing tied in it to try to keep it down. Oh well, it wasn’t terrible, just not all that great. The other was my straps, which were doing the exact opposite of what they usually did… they were too short! The dress came with detachable straps, but I found that they were too long if I wore them normally. So, brilliant me came up with the idea to cross them in the back. It looked fine, and it worked well in the dress shop. But, after several hours of wearing them at the dance, I had nasty welts on the back of my neck where they dug in to my skin. Owww. Oh, and on the way to the after party at the bowling alley, one of the straps broke, so I had to take them out completely.

This year was incredibly non-disasterous for me… my hair cooperated, my makeup went on right on the first try, the dress and shoes fit, and everything was great. Well, I did have some falling straps, but I ended up just tucking them into my dress… this dress had three straps on each shoulder, and only one on each side was falling. However, Laura had her own fashion emergency when the zipper of her skirt broke while we were getting ready to leave (I had to sew her into her skirt), she forgot to do her nails and had to do them in the car, and one of the gathers in her skirt fell apart while she was dancing (one of our friends had spare safety pins, so I just pinned the gather back in place). She did luck out, though… her dress was long enough that she could wear her gym shoes under it without anyone noticing (gym shoes are against the dress code), so she was comfortable the whole night.

So, the Ball was a blast and there was no drama (as far as I know), and everyone was gorgeous and yeah.

(sorry if this post is rambley, I’m sooooooo tired right now.)

Kelly ~/`~

I should talk about bestsellers more often

… because my review of Crank just keeps getting more and more views… almost EVERY hit on my blog is from searching for Crank or Impulse or Ellen Hopkins quotes or whatever.  Geez.

Kelly ~/`~

So, I finished that banner.

Meh. Not terribly inspiring, but I’ll live.

Have I mentioned that I greatly dislike using WordPress right now? I’m kind of wishing I had opened a blogger account instead, but I don’t really feel like switching.

So, I finally added some artwork (and a few of my more artistic videos) to my Tailcast page. Go on over and add me and tell me I’m wonderful

Find more stills like this on Tailcast

The Spring Ball (aka homeschool prom… I know I’m not in high school, ha ha… you can keep going to this one until you’re either twenty-five or married) is tomorrow, and my sisters and I are having two friends over to get ready. Woo-hoo! Sadly, my best friend Naomi can’t make it this year, she’s off at college in Michigan for another two weeks

Yeah, I think that’s all.

Kelly ~/`~

That hundred subscriber video I said I’d make back in February or March?

Not gonna happen.

Why?

One:
I can’t think of anything original to say or do.

Two:
I’ve had the account and been posting videos for so long that a lot of my early subscribers don’t watch my videos any more.  On top of this, a good chunk of my subscribers are channels that only subscribe so you’ll subscribe back (have I mentioned I don’t sub4sub?) but never actually watch your videos.  There were even a few porn channels, but I try to block them.

All in all, I think fewer than half of my subscribers actually watch my videos.  I average about ten comments per video (a few more if it’s a response to a recent popular video, a few less if it’s a “vlog” type video), not including my own comments.

Let me stop to make a point: I am in NO WAY complaining! The couple of you who regularly watch/rate/comment on my videos are fantastic, and I have no problem with having a small audience.  As much as I would like to have more subscribers, it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of YouTube for me.

I just don’t feel like making a video to thank the people who don’t actually watch… kind of like how I don’t want to accept friend requests from total strangers who aren’t subscribed to me and to whom I am not subscribed… what’s the point? [/annoying youtube rant]

La la la… now that that’s out of the way…

I’m thinking of making a few more videos along the line of “Really big… what?”.  My family provides great fodder for comedy videos.

I think I’m done now.

Kelly ~/`~

PS – I’m trying to make a new banner for this page.  It’s not going so well

Feeling nostalgic today.

So, I’m turning twenty years old on the seventeenth of May. I guess that it’s put me in a nostalgic mood. So, I thought I’d do a textual form of some of these random facts-type videos. Maybe I’ll make video forms at some point… thoughts?

Fifty Things!

1. At Christmas time in 1987, when my mom was still pregnant with me, my family lived in a townhouse in a Chicago suburb. The house next to us at the end of the building was abandoned, and the water had not been shut off. The pipes burst, flooding the furnace for both our house and the abandoned one. Long story short, our house had fire and flood damage at the same time, even though our house didn’t technically catch fire and didn’t actually flood. There was so much carbon in our house that my family probably shouldn’t have survived, but they all did (my family at the time consisted of my parents, my just-about-to-turn-eight brother, our puppy, and our bird.)
2. As an infant, I had acid reflux, which caused ulcers in my esophogus.
3. As a toddler, I survived blood poisoning…
4. …a nasty spider bite (my mom thought I was going to die)…
5. …and a bizarre seizure that the doctors were never able to explain.
6. I could read by the age of three. When my dad would tell people this, they wouldn’t believe him, or they’d say that I’d just memorized the books my parents would read to me. To prove them wrong, he would have me read the newspaper out loud.
7. I couldn’t ride a bike without training wheels until I was eight.
8. I couldn’t tie my shoes until I was about ten.
9. In fourth grade, I won a Young Author’s award for my fiction story, “Meeting Mia”.
10. I was fourteen before I could remember the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
11. In fifth grade, I was one of five finalists in my school district’s D.A.R.E. essay contest, and for my efforts won the most hideous tee-shirt I’ve ever owned.
12. I proudly wore that tee shirt in public until I outgrew it.
13. I went to private school for sixth grade.
14. Sixth grade was the worst year of my life.
15. I would not trade sixth grade for the world.
16. I was homeschooled from seventh grade.
17. On September 11, 2001, my mom decided we’d have our first day of school. I was making one of those cute little knotted friendship bracelets (that was my big hobby at the time… ironic after reading point number eight), and my sisters and I were taking turns reading from a book about Squanto. A few pages into the book, my dad came hurrying down the stairs to tell us that Bob and Tom (the radio show) had just said something about the Trade Towers falling. (Also worth noting… I had no clue what the WTC was at this point).
18. In 2003, my dad had gastric bypass surgery (he either had to have that or back surgery to relieve severe pain in his back and legs). Both of my parents had to go to Indianapolis for a few weeks, the longest they’d ever been away from any of us kids. (They also had to miss my fifteenth birthday).
19. In 2004, some of my friends threw a surprise birthday party for Laura (my sister, she’s thirteen months younger than me) and me halfway between our birthdays. It was not only the first surprise party thrown for either of us, but the first non-family birthday party for us both.
20. I’ve only had one boyfriend. The relationship lasted from November of 2004 to Halloween of 2006.
21. I’ve never been kissed.
22. In April of 2005, an arsonist set our garage on fire. We lost everything inside (including our minivan, my brother’s brand-new safe, and my dad’s entire collection of tools), the siding on the entire back of the house melted, and the back deck and windows warped badly. We never found out who did it.
23. On St. Patrick’s Day of 2006, my mom went to the hospital to have a cyst removed from her ovary, that was supposedly causing terrible pain and fevers. During the procedure, the doctor bumped into her appendix, which immediately ruptured. Apparently, it had been infected far longer than any of the hospital staff had seen a case of appendicitis go, and had even started travelling into her large intestine. She ended up staying in the hospital for a week and a half. It was one of the scariest things I’d ever been through (she doesn’t remember any of it except coming home).
24. I did an extra year of high school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do afterwards.
25. After high school, I took a year-long sabbatical, because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do.
26. In January, I took the GED and passed with honors (had I gone to a regular high school, I would have been in the top four percent of my class).
27. I got a near-perfect score on the GED essay.
28. In the fall, I’ll be starting college (I’m studying to be a medical assistant).
29. Because I have a GED, my college made me take an extra admissions test to see if I’d be able to handle the workload. Not only did I answer more questions than most of the people that take it (I answered about 45 out of 50… most people answer 30 or less), but I had one of the highest scores they’d ever seen (you needed 16 to pass, the average score was 18-20, I had 33).
30. I still don’t consider myself particularly smart.
31. I have served on the leadership committee for the local branch of a national Christian organization of which I am a part, and have represented them as a delegate at the annual national meeting.
32. I taught myself to sing out of the book “Singing for Dummies”. Before I had that book, I couldn’t sing at all.
33. I am teaching myself the guitar.
34. I have never had a “real job”.
35. I have had paying jobs as a foot masseuse, babysitter, newspaper carrier, jewelry maker, seamstress, and graphic designer (and someone offered to pay me to set up a myspace page for him).
36. I used to be a gymnast.
37. I used to be a baton twirler.
38. I played the flute in the school orchestra in sixth grade, and marching band the following summer. It was the only thing I liked about school.
39. I joined a swim team when I couldn’t actually swim (and I learned pretty fast).
40. I grew my hair out for six years, and then cut it off and donated it to Locks of Love.
41. A hair stylist once bet me that she could make my hair curl. She couldn’t do it, so she styled my hair for free.
42. I have been ballroom dancing since 2002, and I wish I could make a career out of it.
43. I am a self-taught graphic designer.
44. I have been stuck in the Cleavland overnight with two foreign men whom I had never met before and who were each about ten years older than me.
45. In kindergarten, I was part of a study to see if five-year-olds could tell the difference between brand name and generic cereal. I couldn’t tell left from right, but I pretended that I could because I thought I’d get in trouble.
46. I finally flew in an airplane, traveled alone, and saw the ocean for the first time in May 2007. (I swam in it, too )
47. I still can’t drive.
48. I have auditioned for American Idol (and failed miserably).
49. I ripped up my bedroom carpet and tack strips all by myself.
50. I have never worn a bikini.

In my lifetime…

I want to…

1. …find my “soulmate”, marry only once, and have it last a lifetime. (Maybe even some kids… who knows?)
2. …do things that make the world better, even if I have to suffer to do them.
3. …be published.
4. …write and record an album (even if it’s just for myself).
5. …know what my purpose is. (or at least know a purpose… even if when I get to heaven I find out I was unknowingly fulfilling some other purpose).
6. …[be featured on YouTube... yeah, shallow, I know]…
7. …travel. A lot.
8. …leave a legacy (even if my name is not attatched to it).
9. …make a living at something I love, like writing, ballroom dancing or graphic art.
10. …save someone’s life (either directly or unknowingly).

Yeah… so… yup.
Theaarondelay said I am “hilariously awkward.” At least I’m entertaining

Okay bye.

Kelly ~/`~

Love

(video by Chris)
Just do it, before it’s too late.
Kelly ~/`~