Regrets: or why I don't use backspace

I don't use the backspace button when I blog. Well that's a bit of a lie. I use it to fix typos every once in a while, but that's about it. Everything all 3 readers see me write here is my first draft. I want to use this a place where I can write what I want and not regret it, so that's why I don't use backspace.


I don't ever really regret writing anything here, but there are things I regret.



I regret never really giving playing football a fair shot

I regret not trying to play soccer in college

I regret taking AP Calc

I regret not taking Chorus

I regret not ever asking her out

I regret not telling my mom "I love you" before bed last night

I regret breaking up with her last year

I regret not cleaning my room last night

I regret caring so much about college

I regret not visiting my uncle in the hospital last year

I regret quitting the drums

I regret never really working hard at songwriting



Well this made me sad.....

Proud: or living vicariously through my friends

I guess It's just the nature of senior year, but a lot of my friends are being recognized for their hard work. I've seen friends get into college, win athletic awards, make all-conference teams, and do all sorts of incredible things, and that's just SO cool! I had some cool plans this weekend. I saw and spent time with:

A kid who's headed to the Naval Academy

A girl who's now headed to Boston College

A boy who earned a starting spot on the varsity basketball team

A girl who deserves to get into any college in the country

My best friend, who's already 2/2 for colleges and is his class vice-president

A guy who won the soccer team MVP award

A future d1 athlete

A guy who, in my opinion is the embodiment of almost every good quality I can think of

and that's just scratching the surface....

I think Caroline wrote a similar post a while ago about how her friends are "going places." I couldn't agree more. There are few things more satisfying then seeing the people around you succeed and get the things they deserve.

my weekend, or why I go almost no work done.

So up until now, senior year wasn't exactly all that it's cracked up to be. Everyone who said it's the easiest year and that it's so much fun are big fat liars. Or so I thought.

Friday night, I had a basketball game. I didn't play a single minute. The highlight of the game for me was making a 3 during warm-ups. But it was still pretty cool. A bunch of my friends were back from college and came, and we won. They were the team that beat us in the championship game last year, so it was pretty cool. I headed to the locker room and celebrated with my team. Then I checked my phone. I had a text from my friend that said "Michigan?"

I didn't expect my decision until later so I freaked out. I ran to Ms. P and begged her to let me use her computer to check. I log onto my email and there it is. "YOUR UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ADMISSIONS DECISION." I was freaking out. Alone in the training room, I clicked the email. "Congrats!" the email said, "Welcome to the College of Literature, Science, and Arts and the University of Michigan family."

I knocked over the trashcan next to Ms. P's desk with my spastic flailing. It was so exciting. Michigan is an incredible school, and the fact that I'm lucky enough to get accepted there is just absolutely mind-boggling. I called my mom and dad and told them. As I was getting ready to leave, I got asked to go to downtown Annapolis with some friends. I was so down.

I promptly got lost on the way there, which was good. Eventually I found my way there, and tried to park. This dude pulled out right in front of me and I parked pretty much instantly. Then I made an idiot of myself in some little nicknack store, playing around with the toy guns and stuff with my friend. We eventually just sat down and talked.

When I got home, I talked to my parents. We talked about college, and the future. It was honestly great to see them so proud. That was probably the best part about getting in. They talked about the future and how much potential I had. It was so exciting.

Then on saturday I went to go hang out with my best friend who I hadn't seen in about 2 months. He used to live down the street before he moved, and now it's hard to get out and see him, so I'm glad I could. We just chilled, watched football, goofed off, ordered pizza, and played video games. It was so much fun.

Sunday I headed home, and then went right to basketball practice. It was a good 2 hours of exercise, and it felt great, in the way a good gym workout does. Then I found out the Redskins won and are headed to the playoffs. After that, I had my soccer dinner.

I changed into khakis and a shirt really quickly and headed there. It made me a little sad and I really missed soccer season, but it was also a ton of fun. I won the team leadership award and a team MVP award.

I lost a lot of steam in this post, but I won't hit backspace. But basically it was pretty much the perfect weekend. Expect some sort of unnecessarily deep analysis in the coming days.

Quotes 3.0

I know all 0 people who read this really missed my annoying, rambling, stupidly introspective quote posts, but I'm gonna start them again. Today's quoter (quotee?) is the one and only Jay Principio. The quote:

"Danny is a mango"

This brings up a lot of memories. Memories of hilarious jokes in pre-calc, and then much less hilarious derivatives in Calculus. But the thing that it really reminds me of is Indian Creek. I know this is a stretch, but hear me out.

I really, really, really did not want to go to Indian Creek for high school. I begged and pleaded my parents to let me go literally anywhere else. I was passive-aggressively leaving little fliers for other schools on their desks. It was bad. I hated the middle school with all of my heart. It was a place full of the typical preteen hormone-filled angsty bullshit, plus a bunch of kids who were, to put it lightly, dickheads. I was petrified at the thought of having to spend another 4 years with those kids.

And then I didn't. My experiences at the high school were pretty much the exact opposite of the middle school. No more angry teachers telling my parents I had ADD, no more kids calling me a fag, none of that. I say now that Indian Creek is the best thing that ever happened to me. at the start of my freshman year I was, for lack of a better term, a fuck-up. Now I'm class president, a 3 sport varsity athlete, and on the heads list. No way does that happen at any other school. No way can I do tech crew for the musical and play soccer on the SAME DAY! Indian Creek has opened so many doors for me it's incredible.

But my favorite thing about Indian Creek is the people. I really like my teachers. There's not a single teacher I can think of that I haven't had at least one honest, interesting conversation with. But the teachers aren't really the point either. It's the kids.

I guess you could say I'm one of those people with a "best friend." The downside? He lives in Rockville. This means I don't have a go-to person at school. Instead I have about 20 people I consider "friends." Probably more, now that I think of it. The point is, I have an inside joke or 5 with almost everyone at Indian Creek. From jokes with the SGA president to jokes with the backup goalie for the lacrosse team, I have them all. I know senior, juniors, sophomores, and even a couple freshmen. (although I don't honestly know most of the freshmen's names.) It's so cool, and the "Danny is a Mango" thing is just the best example I have. All those stupid little jokes are honestly what gets me through the day sometimes.

So when I started this blog I didn't mean for it to sound like an ad for ICS, which it probably does. But the main point was to write about how much I like a lot of my friends at Indian Creek, and I try to just dump my mind out into my blog, so I refuse to hit backspace.

That's it for now. Peace

College Angst

I just wanna know, god damn it. I don't care if I get rejected at this point, I just want to know. UNC sent me an email and the subject was like "UNC ADMISSIONS" and I almost pissed my pants. Like come on, seriously? And all it said was something like "Happy holidays from the University of North Carolina" That's such garbage. What takes so long? Why can't they just release decisions when they make them, why draw it out until some stupid arbitrary date? It's pointless. I guess I don't see it from the school's point of view, but all I can think about is how much this sucks.

Another really unneccesarily short blog post.

I'm so disappointed in myself right now because I just don't have the energy for a long blog post. This is becoming a habit lately.... I'm about to explode.

HAIL YEAH!

HAIL TO THE REDSKINS, HAIL VICTORY! HAIL TO THE REDSKINS, FIGHT FOR ALL DC!



that was awesome

Calculus

So this is gonna be way shorter and lamer then my normal blogs, but screw it I'm tired.


I hate Calculus, and i suck at it. I think I did well on the test today. That;s about it, no deep underlying meaning here.


peace

Basketball

I mentioned this a bit in my super long post about soccer, but I'm gonna talk a bit more in depth right now.

I've played sports all my life. I've played a sport literally every season except one at Indian Creek, and that was because of an injury. I decided to try basketball again this year. I was kinda nervous about it, but decided to go for it. I was hurt, and it took me a while to actually get to practicing. The thing is, I don't really like basketball. It's fun to cheer on the bench and it's ok to play, but the game itself just isn't really that fun to me. My favorite part of practice is the loose ball drill, because diving on the floor reminds me of soccer.

Here's the thing. Basketball is a huge commitment. We practiced until 8 last night, and that wasn't that far out of the ordinary. It feels like I'm faking it, if that makes sense. My heart isn't into it. It seems like the guys on the team all really are into it, and I'm not. It feels like I don't belong.

On the bus to practice yesterday, everyone was giving each other shit, like always. It turned into someone shou/enting something like  "Your girlfriend looks like Helga from Hey Arnold!" and somebody shouting back "Your girlfriend can dunk on you!" and so on and so forth. Everyone on the bus was laughing their asses off, and I just kinda sat there. I guess it just feels like I'm not really a part of the team, and that sucks.

There's a twitter account that's something like @whitebasketballproblems where the bio is "average athleticism, average height, above average GPA, and below average skill." That's me, and it kinda hurts. It feels sometimes like the only reason I'm on the team is to help people with their grades during team study hall, and that honestly hurts a bit.

/endrant

Quotes 2.5

So it cut off like half of my last blog, so let's try this again. Just for a reminder, the quote is:



"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." -JFK


So i was talking about challenge. And about why we should seek out challenge. I support challenges. I think that if you try hard at something difficult, you still succeed. 

But the mountain thing is what really gets me, even more than the comment about Rice and Texas, which is probably more similar to JFK's point. People climb mountains not just because they're hard, but because they're there. Curiosity is such a driving factor in humanity. That's why we go to the moon, too. Because we want to know what's there. OUr daily lives wouldn't change if we didn't know what was on the moon, but we look anyway. We invest billions of dollars in research, because we want to know.



This was bad, i'm sorry. It's gotten all confused because my blog cut me off and stuff. Next quote series will be better. I promise. 

Quotes part 2

So this is one I heard on a mixtape by a dude called DeLaZoo. He used parts of the speech this was from as an intro to a song called "to the moon." I didn't like the song, but I did like the quote.

"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." -JFK


So this looks like a doozy, and it is, so we're gonna split this up into two parts, one for each paragraph.

He asks a good question. Why? why go to the moon, why climb mountains, why play above your head, why take up these challenges. Would it benefit Rice to play Texas, to get creamed? Or would it be better to play some tiny division 3 school for an easy win. Nobody would think badly of Rice for avoiding Texas.

Part 1 in the exciting new quotes series!

So i'm trying something new.

"I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is."- Derek Zoolander


So I'm sitting here watching Zoolander with my family, having convinced my Grandma she'd love it. And I realized that among the idiocy, Derek kinda has a point. Which is kinda the point, but I digress.
This is gonna be pretty stereotypical, so get ready for the "teenager trying to find himself" blog post.

There's all sorts of levels of self-awareness I'm trying to dig past here, so bear with me for a minute.


I have literally no clue what I want to do with my life. zero. zip. zilch. Not even a little bit. It's freaking terrifying, man. I could end up being an accountant in Florida, or a mountain climber in Alaska. I could be a businessman in Cleveland, or an athletic trainer here in Maryland. I just don't know.

I've lived in the same house my whole life. I've left the east coast 3 times. Once to visit my sister in Ohio, once to visit the university of Michigan. The last one though, is the one that's important. I went to Wyoming. Clear across the country, with no idea what I was getting myself into. And the thing is, it was the best experience of my life! I immersed myself in a completely new world, and never wanted to leave. Getting on that plane home was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

So back to the point! I'm gonna go far away, and go do things! I haven't really told my parents yet, but there is no way in hell I'm going to the University of Maryland. College is supposed to be about finding yourself, and changing, and becoming a better person. I don't want to do that 10 minutes from my house. My parents aren't gonna like it. But here's the deal. Absolute WORST case scenario, I can go to Alabama. They've offered me full tuition, and I could get a job or take loans for room and board. Because I swear to god, I'm not going to Maryland.

I'm getting the hell out of here, and I'm not looking back.

Live from Ann Arbor!

Holy poop this place is awesome. I'm in a bit of a rush now, but basic summary

Big
Awesome Campus
Big
Ann Arbor is cool
Big
The stadium is huge
Big
Cool Dorms
Big
Big
Big

Lets do this!

1. What book are you reading now?  

 oh god this is embarrassing. My reading habits feel so... personal. I'm reading "Godless." It's about a water tower. 

2. What are your favorite books?

My stock answer is always "the giggler treatment." A dude gets poop placed under his shoe by mischevious blue creature. 

 

3. How did you learn to read?  

Mi madre y mi padre. 

4. What foreign languages do you read? 

Spanish, I guess. 

 

5. What’s the funniest book you ever read? 

A book I read back in my middle school days called "The Day my Butt Went Psycho." It's sequel was "Zombie Butts from Uranus." Not even joking. 

 

6. What books have changed the way you look at the world or the way you live your life?

Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. No question. 

  

7. What books have affirmed what you believe about life or the way you look at things? 

"A Civil War." It's about the army-navy football game. 

8. What are some of the scariest books you ever read?

A book called "The Eyes of Kid Midas"

9. About how many books do you think you have read in your life? 

Way to many to count

10. How much would you say you’ve paid in library fines in your life? 

Way to much. over 100 bucks. 

 

11. How many books per month do you usually borrow from the library? 

8?

 

12. Do you read in bed?

all the time

13. Do you ever read while walking or driving? 

all the time

 

14. OK, let’s get real. Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever read a book? 

On the top of the mountain. 

 

15. Do you listen to audio books? 

No, too slow.

 

16. Has anyone ever read aloud to you or you to them? 

yeah, but it gets annoying. 

 

17. What was the most difficult book to read?

Wuthering Heights. That was awful. 

18. What books do you intend to read but keep putting off? 

ASOIAF

 

19. Do you buy new or used books, paperbacks or hardcovers, leather or collector’s? 

All of the above

 

20. How do you feel about writing in books? 

Against

 

21. Do you lend books?

yes

22. What were your favorite books as a child? 

all of them

 

23. Do you ever read the ending first?

Hell no

Patagonia

This post was inspired by two things. First, my backpacking expedition this summer. Second, a documentary called 180 degrees south on Netflix. In the documentary, the main dude just up and leaves his whole life to head all the way down to Patagonia.

Is it bad that I have dreams of this? Of waking up in the morning and not having obligations? Of going where the world takes me? When I went backpacking this summer, the thing I loved the most was the sense of freedom. When I woke up, I had the whole day in front of me to do what I want. My group could decide to hike an extra mile to another possible campsite, or not. It was up to us, and it was incredible. It wasn't just the choice, it was the environment.

Which brings me to another issue. It's kinda related, I guess. I think I might want to go into an environmental/earth studies major, and maybe into environmental law or something. There's a conservation program at the University of Montana that looks absolutely incredible. It's too late, and I'm to exhausted from today to go any farther tonight, but this'll be finished tomorrow.

of posts yet to come

This isn't so much of a blog post as it is me telling all 2 people that care that I'm planning out another long, relatively impressive blog post. It's about my grandparents. So get excited!

Sorry this so lame :(

A retrospective

So like the title says, I have so much damn stuff I want to write about, and I'm only doing one blog a day. So up first is soccer, because it's a long one and I'm home with a messed up shoulder.

Soccer's always been a huge part of my life, going back to when I was just 5. I've always played club, and indoor, and pretty much played every day of the year. When I got to high school, I scaled it back. I decided that I wanted to expand myself, branch out into new things, and that with that big of a commitment I couldn't do that. I still played for Indian Creek, but it was a step down. I didn't have multiple practices a day, and I wasn't playing as competitively. I hated it. There were some kids on that team who made me hate going to practice every day. That doesn't mean there weren't some good times. Even though there were the kids I hate, there were also kids I consider some of my best friends to this day. I have some terrible memories from that first season of Indian Creek soccer, but some great ones too.

Then sophomore year rolled up. I wasn't sure if I wanted to play, but I decided that I couldn't give up on such a huge part of my life. I couldn't let some jerky kids take away my identity as a soccer player. So I played. I kept my identity as a soccer player, hung out with my friends, and did my best to ignore the jerks.

Junior year was the difference. That was when I really started to enjoy playing soccer at Indian Creek. It was when I started to get confused when my friends would complain about practice, like it's some sort of terrible obligation. I absolutely loved practice because it was 2 and a 1/2 hours every day where I got to do one of the things I love the most. We had a new coach, and I "got" him. He cared. A lot. We pulled together as a team. We made the playoffs. Then we lost. It left an awful taste in my mouth.

Then there was this year. Objectively, it was about the same season as last year. Same record, same loss in the first round of the playoffs. But this year was by far the best year of Indian Creek Soccer I've ever been a part of. It was the attitude amongst the kids on the team. We took it seriously. It reminded me of playing club, where people loved the game and practiced like they meant it. In our playoff game, I got hurt. The athletic trainer wouldn't let me play the second half, and I sat on the bench thinking. I remembered all 4 years of soccer, and I got so sad. When the game was about to end, coach subbed out all the other seniors. As they walked off the field, I saw tears in their eyes. And I felt them in mine. Indian Creek soccer had been a huge part of my life for 4 years, and it just ended. That was it. We walked off the field, onto the bus, and went home.

That was it. No more practice, no more games, no more bus rides, nothing. It's rough. I credit that freshman season of soccer for quite honestly turning my life around. I was the most unorganized slacker to ever hit the face of the earth, and I was terrified of trying to do much because I was just this puny little freshman. When I got to start, and I got this huge responsibility it gave me a much needed boost of confidence. It was what gave the confidence to run for student government, and what gave me a reason to do well in school.

At the start of this year, I figured I was ready to be done with it. It didn't really hit me that it would be the actually end. I was slapped in the face by the finality of it. And it made me realize that I don't want it to end. I'm planning on playing in college now. I can't handle not playing in some way shape or form. Soccer is still a huge part of my identity, and it's not something I'm ready to give up.

My doggy

I have a dog. She's really my only friend. It's kind of pathetic. Ne exaggeration, I spent last Saturday night alone at my house taking pictures of her. Even my parents went to a party. I thought the teenager was supposed to be the cool one who stays out late and goes to parties. My dog's pretty old. I think she's 12 now, and she's gotten pretty fat.

She's been around since I was 4. My mom likes to tell the story of how we got her. She's a shelter dog, and we went to pick her out in the middle of september. My dad took my sister and I to pick one out and we decided on Severn. I ran into the house as soon as we got home and screamed out "OH MY GOD MOM WE FOUND THE CUTEST DOG EVER BUT DAD SAID WE CANT HAVE HER UNLESS YOU SAY YES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SAY YES!!!"

And that's how I got a dog!

Power outages

Power outages are a pain in the ass. I hate it when it happens, but there are some redeeming qualities. It gives me a chance to play pokemon. I could play Pokemon whenever I want, but I always feel like I should be doing something else. Even if I play a video game, Call of Duty is somehow "better" than Pokemon in my mind. With the power out, the only option is Pokemon on my gameboy. It's pretty nice, not gonna lie.

Saturday Night Live

I absolutely love Saturday Night Live! I feel like I start 1/2 my blogs with "I absolutely love ______".
But it's true in this case. The reason I love Saturday Night live isn't because it's funny. It's not for the guest hosts. It's because to people who watch Saturday Night Live, the whole show is one great inside joke. When you find out someone else is a part of that elite club, you immediately have common ground. You launch into long conversations about if you've seen some random sketch from 5 years ago.

Easy Mac

Shoutout to Alex Loechel for the Title/Topic of this post!

I absolutely love easy mac. It's like my crack. But the thing about easy mac is that it always tastes better when someone else makes it. It's weird, it's EASY mac, it shouldn't be a big deal to make it, but for some reason it is.

One day with my friend, we decided to make easy mac. We boiled the water, set everything up, and put the mac into the water. And then my friend turned off the heat and ruined the macaroni. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this was, but loechel wrote the topic and I decided to run with it!

Why Ryan Fitzpatrick is my idol

In case you didn't know, Ryan Fitzpatrick is the Quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. He's a good quarterback, but that's not why I admire him. I admire him for a choice he made all the way back when he was in high school.

He was recruited to play football at big schools, schools on the level of Alabama or USC. Seems pretty typical for a star high school quarterback, right? The thing is, Fitzpatrick was and still is a genius. He had a 4.0 GPA and scored just off perfect on his SAT. He had a big decision to make: play football and chase his dream, or get the education he could earn and make use of. HE decided on both, passing up scholarships, NFL opportunities, and parties at bigger football schools to go to Harvard and play football there.

This is a decision I've struggled with myself, but on a much smaller scale. I could probably play division 3 soccer, but I made the decision that my education is more important. The odds of myself becoming a professional soccer player are pretty slim, so I figure that the education will be much more important to my future. Fitzapatrick decided the same thing.


This didn't mean that he didn't work hard to make it to the NFL. He did, and he succeeded. That's why I admire him. He picked his education over 4 years of football, and got everything he could out of it. He spent 4 years playing college football, and made it to the NFL. Plus he has a Harvard degree as backup.

Not bad.

OH CRAP!!

I just realized that I had been saving all of my blog posts instead of posting them for the past week and a half or however long. That's just great.

Anyway, let me talk for a minute about failure. Yesterday I failed pretty hard. I lost my soccer game in overtime, which sucked, but it's not the end of the world. What is actually a  bigger problem would be my grade in Calculus. I don't get it. I work my butt off, I have an A or B in every other class (at least I think so, nobody actually TELLS ME) but I have a D- in Calc. I don't understand what the hell I have to do to get this grade up. It just seems so unfair that this one grade could ruin my chances of going to college where I'm never going to have to do it again. I don't plan on working with math, I don't understand why Calculus is necessary for me. I wish I had taken statistics, which might actually be useful instead of getting talked into taking Calculus by my parents. They get mad at me for not doing well in a class they made me take. Meanwhile, neither of them can do algebra. It just doesn't seem fair.

Battle of the Beltway

It's a difficult position, living between Baltimore and D.C. I never know who to root for. Football's easy because my grandfather was a Redskins fan and neither of my parents care much one way or the other. My main dilemma is in baseball. Orioles or Nationals? If i root for the nats, i have a clean slate of all D.C. teams. If I root for the Orioles, I can support a team that really represents the state I'm in and a team I've supported for longer. Decisions, decisions.

The joys of procrastination

I love doing things at the last minute. It's always a good feeling knowing that you got something done JUST as it was due. And in form, I'm submitting this blog at 5:59.

SATs

I completely forgot I had the SATs tomorrow. I am NOT excited. I always do fine on standardized tests, but they're all so long and boring, it's almost unbearable.

Playing cards with one hand

My grandparents have always loved to play hand and foot. It's by far their favorite card game, and they played almost every week with their friends Phyllis and Bert. My grandfather got diagnosed with cancer about a year ago, and has been dealing with it on and off since. A couple months ago, it got bad, and he ended up in a lot of pain. He got his arm amputated about 2 weeks ago.

Before that, he was in a lot of pain. He didn't talk much, and was on a lot of pain meds. Now, he's back. He might not have an arm, but he's back to being who he was. I called the other day to check up on him, and asked what he was doing. He told me he was playing hand and foot with Phyllis and Bert. In the background I hear a voice scream "AND LOSING." He chuckled, and I almost cried. It was like I had gotten my grandfather back.

I was a little curious though. I said "Hey Pa (that's what I call him) how do you play hand and foot? How do you hold the cards?" He responded "I don't play hand and foot, I play foot and foot." I literally fell on the floor laughing. My grandfather had his sense of humor back, and I couldn't be more excited.

The Joys of Being on a Team

Let me get this out of the way first. I don't like everyone on my soccer team. There are people on that team I consider friends, and people on that team I can't stand. But the thing is, once I'm on the field, it doesn't matter. I sometimes worry that with everything happening in my life, it's a little ridiculous to attach so much importance to a game. And that's what it really is, a game. But I don't really want to settle into that little realm where I act like nothing's important, or that it's uncool to care about things.

Being on a team is a great feeling. I love knowing that there are 15 other people all working hard towards the same goal as me. If you think that's lame, I don't care.

Being sick sucks

I woke up this morning and tried to talk, which was my first mistake. It came out sounding like I was an 8 year old girl who doing her best Batman impression. It was awful, and being sick is awful. I hope I'm better by monday.

When it feels right

There's a song called "good day" by a band called Nappy Roots. In the chorus of the song, the line goes something like "it's gonna be a good day, and ain't nobody gotta cry today, 'cause ain't nobody gonna die today." it's something vaguely like that.

That's what today felt like. I got all of my work turned in, I was on top of things, and we won a big game against our rival school. I spend my entire life stressed out dealing with a million different commitments, and it's awesome right now, just sitting here, knowing I have nothing to do.

Why Yom Kippur is REALLY the day of atonement

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, where you supposedly apologize for all the bad things you did in the past year and get a clean slate for the new year. You fast, as a way of making up for your mistakes. Turns out that god wanted to punish me a bit more. I woke up not only hungry, but sick. I spent my Yom Kippur "atoning" for my mistakes by throwing up all day.

Why I Love Sports

I absolutely love sports. I wake up in the morning and watch sportscenter, spend my lunchtime arguing about the Redskins secondary, and spend my time afterschool playing sports. Sports have always been a huge part of my life, since I was 6 years old and decided that soccer practice was more important than Hebrew School. In that way, I think sports have had a bigger influence on my life than my religion. It means that when everyone at school is talking about the latest episode of "Honey-boo-boo" or whatever, I can't join in because I was busy watching reruns of soccer games from 2007.

I don't like people who hate sports. I get disliking football, or basketball, or soccer, or some individual sport, but i refuse to believe that in the wide world of sports, you can't find just one sport you enjoy. I believe in a sound mind in a sound body, and I hold just as much animosity towards "dumb jocks." Sports are great, and if you disagree, you're wrong.

My dad's been bugging me to write my college essays, which I haven't started yet. So i figured the first step would be to figure out exactly how many I had to write. 16 essays. Why? what insight does a college glean from an essay about my favorite food? I just don't get it.

Petty Problems

I lost my soccer game today. We were tied 1-1 at halftime, and we ended up losing 5-1. I was upset, I had worked hard, but I got over it quickly, and was confused by my team mates. People sulked all the way home, totally upset. people even got mad at me for not being upset enough. I tried to explain my viewpoint.

IT'S JUST A SOCCER GAME

Seriously, it isn't the end of the world. there are so many more important things to worry about.

How I get to school, or why everyone should be afraid of me driving in the mornings

I'm not sure what to write about here, but I guess I'll just start with my drive to school. Actually, let's go with my morning routine.

6:15- My alarm goes off

6:15- I go back to sleep

6:30- My mom comes in and tells me to wake up.

6:32- My mom tells me to wake up again

6:35- "DANIEL, THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M TELLING YOU TO WAKE UP!"

6:36- Scramble out of bed in fear

6:37- Hop in the shower

6:47- Get out of the shower, still half asleep

6:50- Start getting dressed

6:52- Get distracted by something

7:10 Realize that i have to go, finish getting dressed

7:15- Make it downstairs, grab a powerbar to eat.

7:20- Make it to the car, grab an Arnold Palmer from the stash I keep hidden in my trunk

7:22- Get to the Mullin house, pick up Jack.

7:32- Hit every red light down 450 in front of the Bowie Library

7:45- finally hit old 450, get stuck behind an 18-wheeler

7:55- get to Sunny's house, pick him up

8:02- Finally get to school

8:05- Stuff my soccer gear in the locker room

8:06- Head to the music room to practice unnecessary solo number 80432.

8:08- Start Practicing

8:12- Take quick break

8:20- Practice some more

8:31- Cry deeply

8:35-Put away sax, head to class

8:40- Get to class

Boom, now you know about my morning routine. I'm sure that was absolutely thrilling.

What up, blog? Welcome to..... The Yarmulke Chronicles! I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so hopefully you're new tot this whole reading thing, because if you have any real frame of reference for what a blog should be, you will most likely be disappointed. So now that I've set the expectations so low, hopefully I can exceed them!

I originally came up with the name for this blog while discussing possible mixtape names with a friend, back when I was convinced I was going to become a rapper. It was pretty hard for be to write raps though, because I was lacking something important. If you made a venn diagram, with one circle labeled "THINGS THAT SUCCESSFUL RAPPERS WRITE ABOUT" and the other labeled "THINGS I HAVE EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE" there would be almost no overlap. I don't think there's much of a market for a hardcore rap about waking up, driving 5 mph over the speed limit to school, doing all of my homework, and not shooting anyone or doing any sort of hard drugs.

So basically, I'm your average high schooler trying to figure out how I'm going to make it through my senior year without having some sort of psychotic meltdown that everyone whispers about at lunch, even though the teachers tell them not too. When I die from a brain aneurysm caused by trying to understand college application #9048, I hope that my friends actually listen to me, and put "America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad ass speed."- Eleanor Roosevelt on my tombstone.

Peace y'all