1. What was the last thing you wrote?
A note to my brother earlier today. "Logan - Please turn on dryer :)"
2.What is the first thing you wrote that you still have?
Apparently when I was little, I gave my Uncle Chad a Valentine's Day card and sign it M-A-R-I-A-S-S because that's how you spell my name.
3. Write poetry?
Of course!
4. Angsty poetry?
I am 17.
5. Favorite genre of writing?
Romance...but not your mother's trashy romance and not teeny bop twilighty romance. (No offense to twilight fans) I like twilight but it's not my favorite writing.
6. How often do you get writer's block?
Quite often.
10. Do you type or write by hand?
I like to write by hand. There's just something about the way the pen feels in my hand.
11. Do you save everything you write?
Yes.
12. Do you ever go back to an idea after you have abandon it?
Yes. I feel like when I first have an idea I go wherever it wants me to and then I come to a point where I just have to take a break for awhile. I'll never completely abandon something I write though.
13. What is your most favorite thing you have ever written?
A few years ago I wrote one of my friends a poem for her birthday. It was about the perfect kind of friendship (Ours) it was so sweet and it made her day. It was nice to see someone so happy with my writing.
14. Have you ever written a romance or angsty teenage drama?
Yes. It's not done, to be honest I haven't truly started it. The idea came to me a few month ago. It was like a dream but I wasn't sleeping - so I guess more like a vision I had for a book. I'll work on it one of these days.
15. What is your favorite setting for your characters?
I'm not sure, because I haven't done that much story book writing. But I do LOVE to read books that take place near bodies of water and beautiful gardens.
16. How many writing projects are you working on?
Four.
17. Have you ever won an award for your writing?
Twice. In the fourth grade I wrote a paper on about dolphins and other such sea creatures, back when I wanted to be a marine biologist. My paper made me Star Student of the Month! Ha. And then Anita gave me the Superior Scribbler Award about a month ago.
18. What are five words you use the most?
I. And. Love. Sweetheart. Cute.
19. Name some characters you have created that are most like yourself?
Hmm...I got nothin'.
21. Where do you get ideas for your characters?
Life.
22. Do you ever write based on your dreams?
Yes. Those are the best ones.
23. Do you favor happy endings?
Yes. I don't want to finish a book and be disappointed in the end. I just like proper endings for whatever kind of book I am reading.
24. Does music help you write?
Music helps me through everything.
25. Quote something you have written. Whatever pops in your head.
I'd rather not.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
YOU GOTS DA MUNCHIES KID!
So I'm sitting at home on a Wednesday night with nothing to do... I know! I'll blog! Yay! :D
Now what should I blog about? Hmmmm...
Skating? Ehhh.
Books? Haven't done much reading lately.
Boys? Who cares.
Christmas? It is coming up, 15 days to be precise. Maybe next week.
Cooking?
FOOD! What a FANTABULOUS IDEA!
For the past two nights I've made dinner all by myself. YAY ME! Monday night I defrosted chicken without any help from the parentals. I cut off all the fatty parts (Which is HUGE! Those slimy suckers are gross!), marinaded the chicken in Italian dressing, added a slice of lemon, chopped rosemary, and cooked it to golden brown perfection. Then I added sauteed vegetables. I would say I did pretty well for my first big person dinner. Aren't you proud of your little girl!?!?!
Tuesday night, I wanted something with a little more flavor, more spice. So I was going through recipes on my iPhone using the Epicurious application. *ALL iPHONE USERS SHOULD HAVE THIS APPLICATION! I looked in the fridge, hmmm, not too much to work with. Have no fear! Epircurious is here! Hoisin sauce. I bet they have a recipe that calls for that!
Main Ingredients? Chicken.
Meal/Course? Main course please.
Keywords? Hoisin. Click Search.
19 recipes, that should be enough to come up with something. A lot of these recipes call for fresh ginger...I don't have that. Garlic! We always have that! (Open cabinet) Where's the garlic? Okay, moving on. Asian sesame oil? Umm no. Rice vinegar? Rice vinegar, what's that!? Why is the kitchen so empty? Uhhhh!!! Okay I can do this! I have hoisin sauce, worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger powder, that's probably the same, right? I'll figure it out.
What I learned...worcestershire sauce burns in a hot pan. Um okay, false start. Begin again, I'll just add a little bit of water this time. Throw in a sinus clearing amount of red pepper flakes, a little bit of ginger powder, hoisin sauce, chicken. 15-20 minutes later...smells good, looks cooked. Add minute rice and leftover veggies. TA-DA! OH LOOKY, I'm a lil' chiefy!
And it tasted good too!
Does anyone have a go-to, quick and easy recipe that they use when the fridge is running on empty?
Now what should I blog about? Hmmmm...
Skating? Ehhh.
Books? Haven't done much reading lately.
Boys? Who cares.
Christmas? It is coming up, 15 days to be precise. Maybe next week.
Cooking?
FOOD! What a FANTABULOUS IDEA!
For the past two nights I've made dinner all by myself. YAY ME! Monday night I defrosted chicken without any help from the parentals. I cut off all the fatty parts (Which is HUGE! Those slimy suckers are gross!), marinaded the chicken in Italian dressing, added a slice of lemon, chopped rosemary, and cooked it to golden brown perfection. Then I added sauteed vegetables. I would say I did pretty well for my first big person dinner. Aren't you proud of your little girl!?!?!
Tuesday night, I wanted something with a little more flavor, more spice. So I was going through recipes on my iPhone using the Epicurious application. *ALL iPHONE USERS SHOULD HAVE THIS APPLICATION! I looked in the fridge, hmmm, not too much to work with. Have no fear! Epircurious is here! Hoisin sauce. I bet they have a recipe that calls for that!
Main Ingredients? Chicken.
Meal/Course? Main course please.
Keywords? Hoisin. Click Search.
19 recipes, that should be enough to come up with something. A lot of these recipes call for fresh ginger...I don't have that. Garlic! We always have that! (Open cabinet) Where's the garlic? Okay, moving on. Asian sesame oil? Umm no. Rice vinegar? Rice vinegar, what's that!? Why is the kitchen so empty? Uhhhh!!! Okay I can do this! I have hoisin sauce, worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger powder, that's probably the same, right? I'll figure it out.
What I learned...worcestershire sauce burns in a hot pan. Um okay, false start. Begin again, I'll just add a little bit of water this time. Throw in a sinus clearing amount of red pepper flakes, a little bit of ginger powder, hoisin sauce, chicken. 15-20 minutes later...smells good, looks cooked. Add minute rice and leftover veggies. TA-DA! OH LOOKY, I'm a lil' chiefy!
And it tasted good too!
Does anyone have a go-to, quick and easy recipe that they use when the fridge is running on empty?
Monday, November 30, 2009
Ma soeur a un crayon jaune
"How do you say in French my sister has a yellow pencil?"
Ma soeur a un crayon jaune.
Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden. These are the stars of my all time favorite movie, Sabrina. No not the teenage witch. Sabrina is a romantic story about a young girl, Sabrina Fairchild, who falls head over heels for a rich young playboy, David Larrabee. Sabrina is the chauffeurs' daughter, who lives with her father, Thomas Fairchild, above the garage. Her crush is anything but a secret to her father, and he sends her to Paris in hopes that her infatuation with David will soon be forgotten.
She goes to Paris and returns to her home in Long Island a beautiful young woman still infatuated with David. David immediately takes notice in the new Sabrina and she becomes everything he had ever wanted. Now that David is after her, it's all Sabrina ever wanted. Or is it?
Sabrina is the best Audrey Hepburn movie in my opinion, and if you haven't already you should put that at the top of your Netflix Queue.
What is your favorite Audrey Hepburn movie?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Home from Delaware
Monday - Driving to Ashburn, Virginia
I know that in my last post I said we would be driving from Atlanta to Newark on Monday, but it wasn't until Monday morning that I found out we were only driving to Ashburn. Anyway...
According to Google Maps the 658 mile drive from Atlanta, Georgia to Ashburn, Virginia takes 10 hours and 11 minutes. Include traffic, two trips to the gas station, a Wendy's lunch break, bathroom break, and a Tom Tom that works 75% of the time you end up with...12 hours and 23 minutes and a very stiff neck. OH, I was just oozing with excitement! (insert forced smile here :D)
Wednesday - Short Program
We had a clean skate, and I soaked up every delicious moment of it. Every element was dead on, or at least it felt that way. How can I explain it...? Hmm, in my head it was something like this.
BAM, BAM, BAM. TA-DA!!! Now we bow. (Applause) Yes, thank you. Oh my God! That really just happened! As Anita would put it SQUEEEE!
Step off the ice. Coach standing there, (Is he breathing?) says, "How the bleep did you do that?" Yep, he's okay.
Wait for our scores. The announcer spouts off numbers, still too stunned to register any of them, and then...
Marissa Spector & Christopher Nolan are currently in first place.
Thoughts rush around and collide in my head. Oh that's great, I'm happy with how I skated. Damn, my feet are on fire, I'm gotta take off these bloody skates. Okay Marissa, that was good. There are still more couples to skate, and they're good. But great skate.
Walk to the locker room. Strip of the skates, wipe off the blades, rush to the bathroom to change. "Marissa?", Chris says. "I'm in here." "Kylie and Colin just skated, they're in second. We beat Kylie and Colin." Kylie and Colin...second...wait...that makes us first. "Wow." THAT'S INSANE! Are they sure? AHHHH!! Okay, can we go? I'm hungry.
Thursday - Long Program
People were surprised how we skated. Many people came up to me in the bathroom and complimented me. It was pretty cool, and OMG I couldn't wait to blog about it. Haha :)
Unfortunately we did not have such a great long program, and we came in fourth place. I was pretty bummed about it, but coach said a few things that made me feel a little bit better.
"You gotta turn the page."
"Marissa only has control over Marissa."
I knew he was right, but it was hard for me to swallow the fact that if we had skated the way we had the week before in Atlanta we quit possibly could have won.
So in order to go to Nationals you have to be in the top four, and we just barely made it in. It's stressful to think had we not have won short program we probably wouldn't have made it to Nationals again. But because that did happen it pulled us up into 3rd place. Bronze is good, same as last year, it would've been nice to see a bit of improvement placement wise, but I only have control over myself. I'll just work even harder to be ready for Nationals in January.
Friday - 6:15AM Flight
Check suitcase.
Strip.
Go through security.
Dress.
Stop to grab a hot cup of tea.
Walk to gate.
Wait...
Board plane to Detroit
Wait...
Become annoyed by the two loud talkers behind me.
Turn music to obnoxiously loud volume setting.
"Ma'am, please turn off your electronic device."
Take off.
Turn my electronic device back on.
Land.
Search for flight to Birmingham
Find gate B2 to Birmingham
Celebrate the fact I found my way through an airport without adults :)
Board plane to Birmingham.
Take off.
Turn music on.
Read a few pages from the book "WINGS" By Aprilynne Pike.
Realize after reading the same sentence five times over I'm too tired to read.
Doze off a few times.
Land.
Baggage Claim.
Oh, that's my Daddy...with flowers...How embarrassing!
I know that in my last post I said we would be driving from Atlanta to Newark on Monday, but it wasn't until Monday morning that I found out we were only driving to Ashburn. Anyway...
According to Google Maps the 658 mile drive from Atlanta, Georgia to Ashburn, Virginia takes 10 hours and 11 minutes. Include traffic, two trips to the gas station, a Wendy's lunch break, bathroom break, and a Tom Tom that works 75% of the time you end up with...12 hours and 23 minutes and a very stiff neck. OH, I was just oozing with excitement! (insert forced smile here :D)
Wednesday - Short Program
We had a clean skate, and I soaked up every delicious moment of it. Every element was dead on, or at least it felt that way. How can I explain it...? Hmm, in my head it was something like this.
BAM, BAM, BAM. TA-DA!!! Now we bow. (Applause) Yes, thank you. Oh my God! That really just happened! As Anita would put it SQUEEEE!
Step off the ice. Coach standing there, (Is he breathing?) says, "How the bleep did you do that?" Yep, he's okay.
Wait for our scores. The announcer spouts off numbers, still too stunned to register any of them, and then...
Marissa Spector & Christopher Nolan are currently in first place.
Thoughts rush around and collide in my head. Oh that's great, I'm happy with how I skated. Damn, my feet are on fire, I'm gotta take off these bloody skates. Okay Marissa, that was good. There are still more couples to skate, and they're good. But great skate.
Walk to the locker room. Strip of the skates, wipe off the blades, rush to the bathroom to change. "Marissa?", Chris says. "I'm in here." "Kylie and Colin just skated, they're in second. We beat Kylie and Colin." Kylie and Colin...second...wait...that makes us first. "Wow." THAT'S INSANE! Are they sure? AHHHH!! Okay, can we go? I'm hungry.
Thursday - Long Program
People were surprised how we skated. Many people came up to me in the bathroom and complimented me. It was pretty cool, and OMG I couldn't wait to blog about it. Haha :)
Unfortunately we did not have such a great long program, and we came in fourth place. I was pretty bummed about it, but coach said a few things that made me feel a little bit better.
"You gotta turn the page."
"Marissa only has control over Marissa."
I knew he was right, but it was hard for me to swallow the fact that if we had skated the way we had the week before in Atlanta we quit possibly could have won.
So in order to go to Nationals you have to be in the top four, and we just barely made it in. It's stressful to think had we not have won short program we probably wouldn't have made it to Nationals again. But because that did happen it pulled us up into 3rd place. Bronze is good, same as last year, it would've been nice to see a bit of improvement placement wise, but I only have control over myself. I'll just work even harder to be ready for Nationals in January.
Friday - 6:15AM Flight
Check suitcase.
Strip.
Go through security.
Dress.
Stop to grab a hot cup of tea.
Walk to gate.
Wait...
Board plane to Detroit
Wait...
Become annoyed by the two loud talkers behind me.
Turn music to obnoxiously loud volume setting.
"Ma'am, please turn off your electronic device."
Take off.
Turn my electronic device back on.
Land.
Search for flight to Birmingham
Find gate B2 to Birmingham
Celebrate the fact I found my way through an airport without adults :)
Board plane to Birmingham.
Take off.
Turn music on.
Read a few pages from the book "WINGS" By Aprilynne Pike.
Realize after reading the same sentence five times over I'm too tired to read.
Doze off a few times.
Land.
Baggage Claim.
Oh, that's my Daddy...with flowers...How embarrassing!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Skating in Newark
I leave tomorrow for Newark, Delaware to compete in the 2010 Eastern Sectional Figure Skating Championship.
On Friday my pairs partner and I skated in an exhibition (it's like competing without judges) in Atlanta. We skated a clean long program - no falls, no mistakes. It felt so great to go out there and finally get the results we wanted after all the hard work and early morning 3 hour practices we put in.
After the program I had this sigh of relief moment, that turned into this wonderful high. The feelings that rush through you while you're skating are so fantastic... Butterflies, Anxiousness, Exhaustion, Happiness - It all depends on how you skate, but when it's good it's good.
Then the "fans", you know those people who don't know you but will willing sit in a freezing cold room, while their butts stick to the cold metal chairs, only to watch what could very well turn out to be a complete disaster. Without them, skating would be lacking something.
Anyway, to have a room full of strangers cheering you on, and clapping for you is pretty awesome. OH, it's even better when people seek you out to tell you how well you skated. It's probably not so cool if they seek you out to tell you how bad you skated. So please don't ever come up to me in the bathroom and tell me how much I sucked it up.
I'm very excited about my trip...wait, no, let me correct myself. I'm very excited about competing this coming week. I am NOT excited about driving to Atlanta tonight, losing an hour, and then the 12 hour drive to Delaware. Blah. Endless nonsense of rest areas, Wendy's, and smelly gas stations. But at least the trip back home won't be so long. I'm flying out Friday at like 6 something in the freakin' AM! Which means I have to at the airport by 5, which means I have to be up by 4!! That's insane. Don't people like to sleep? I need 7 hours of sleep every night, or I'm bitchy the next day.
This was fun, but I need to finish packing (ugh)
On Friday my pairs partner and I skated in an exhibition (it's like competing without judges) in Atlanta. We skated a clean long program - no falls, no mistakes. It felt so great to go out there and finally get the results we wanted after all the hard work and early morning 3 hour practices we put in.
After the program I had this sigh of relief moment, that turned into this wonderful high. The feelings that rush through you while you're skating are so fantastic... Butterflies, Anxiousness, Exhaustion, Happiness - It all depends on how you skate, but when it's good it's good.
Then the "fans", you know those people who don't know you but will willing sit in a freezing cold room, while their butts stick to the cold metal chairs, only to watch what could very well turn out to be a complete disaster. Without them, skating would be lacking something.
Anyway, to have a room full of strangers cheering you on, and clapping for you is pretty awesome. OH, it's even better when people seek you out to tell you how well you skated. It's probably not so cool if they seek you out to tell you how bad you skated. So please don't ever come up to me in the bathroom and tell me how much I sucked it up.
I'm very excited about my trip...wait, no, let me correct myself. I'm very excited about competing this coming week. I am NOT excited about driving to Atlanta tonight, losing an hour, and then the 12 hour drive to Delaware. Blah. Endless nonsense of rest areas, Wendy's, and smelly gas stations. But at least the trip back home won't be so long. I'm flying out Friday at like 6 something in the freakin' AM! Which means I have to at the airport by 5, which means I have to be up by 4!! That's insane. Don't people like to sleep? I need 7 hours of sleep every night, or I'm bitchy the next day.
This was fun, but I need to finish packing (ugh)
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Fresh Meat
Okay, so I'm not sure what I want to blog about first. I think I'll start with the fact that I didn't want anything to do with blogging about a week ago, but Anita is VERY convincing. And now I have one. Now what?
Book wise I am reading Wings by Aprilynne Pike, given to me by Anita. It's a nice book, makes me laugh. Being that I'm homeschool and so is Laurel, the main character in Wings, I can relate to a lot of the things she goes through in the book. However, I don't have a blossom sprouting from my back and my parents aren't hippies.
So that's my first blog. I'm off to go watch The Godfather, Part 2 and to relax on this lazy Sunday.
Book wise I am reading Wings by Aprilynne Pike, given to me by Anita. It's a nice book, makes me laugh. Being that I'm homeschool and so is Laurel, the main character in Wings, I can relate to a lot of the things she goes through in the book. However, I don't have a blossom sprouting from my back and my parents aren't hippies.
So that's my first blog. I'm off to go watch The Godfather, Part 2 and to relax on this lazy Sunday.
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