Winter Break

There is very little that I absolutely have to do over this break, I finally get a two week break from dance which I am in desperate need of. I mostly plan to sit on my butt and eat a ton of junk food. On Monday I am the only one that is going to be home all day so I plan to curl up with my 2 rottweilers and finish The Life of Pi. I also plan to sit and watch all the episodes of Psych that I have missed due to my mom's 10 o'clock school night curfew, it will be a good day. I also have to make a Costco run because I plan to give each of my parents a mug with my face on it for Christmas presents. They have no idea that I am planning this so it should be funny to see how they react. My brothers are probably going to be extremely jealous that they didn't think of it themselves and will have to watch my parents drink out of the coolest mug ever. Sometime over the break I have to meet up with Camie and Molly for our Christmas present exchange. I plan to draw them both something amazing, but that is going to be a ton of effort on my part. I have a feeling that because I am going to be off school for so long my dad is going to put me to work out on the property because he has absolutely no sense of what is to cold when it comes to being outside. God forbid he use either of my muscle bound brothers, that would be way to easy. I will also spend some time at my Grandma Betty's house. She watches my little brother Daniel during the day and is nearly always willing to make me something to eat. I basically plan on gaining a few pounds due to all the food that I will without a doubt consume. But don't worry, because I have to stay in shape for Drill Team I am supposed to work out over the break, mainly focusing on running (endurance for our new kick routine) and flexibility (because we do either the splits or a toe-touch or both during nearly every routine) I have made plans with a few of my friends (Justin, Chandler, and Kyle) to go running on the track sometime over this two weeks. I have a feeling that I will not be able to keep up with them, I am very out of shape when it comes to my endurance. I also plan to have an emotional breakdown at sometime during the Christmasy days and text Colin even though I am not supposed to, who knows maybe something good will happen, long distance relationships aren't that hard I suppose. I will of course have Christmas dinner with my grandparents and unfortunately my cousin Shannon and her children (luckily my cousin Justin and his awful kids aren't going to be over while I am there). At my Dad's house we do our Christmas on Christmas Eve so my little brother Jake will probably wake us all up at 7ish or maybe even 6ish, my brother Terry will probably make plans to go to Starbucks at 4 in the morning and I will be the only one that gets up because he will over sleep or just decide that he doesn't care anymore and I will have gotten up for no reason and will spend the remaining time before Jake wakes us all up to try to fall back asleep. This Christmas will be a little weird because my stepmother and her family won't be there so we will have an unstressful morning and it will throw us all off. I know that on the 27th I have to go and clean Myrtle's apartment and then on the 28th I have to go to the Red Lion and do the Christmas Tree Forest tear down for 3 hours. That is all that I have planned so far for my break.

Poetry Out Loud and Me

The poem that I have chosen to memorize is Fairy-Tale Logic by A.E. Stallings. This first caught my eye with the title, I may be nearly 17 years old but I love fairy tales. They almost always have a happy ending, and frankly what girl doesn't like fairy tales. I love that this poem is mildly poking fun at all the tests and trials that people in fairy tales are willing to endure. They do some pretty crazy things. They cross sulphuric lakes in leaky boats, princes slay dragons, there is
always some sort of wild test that probably wouldn't happen in the real world.
I think that to perform this poem I will have to do little girly things, like spirit fingers when it refers to magic, and I really have to try not to play with my hair (its a nervous habit). Seeing as I already have a fairly girly voice I won't have to work very hard to get the fairy tale point across. My face will look happy, which it already nearly always does anyway. I don't feel like I will have to work very hard to convey the meaning of the poem, its pretty straight forward.
I think that after hearing this poem people will probably look at fairy tales in a whole new light. They will understand the references in the poem, like "the language of snakes, perhaps, an invisible cloak". People will recognise that as a Harry Potter reference and will probably laugh whether they like that series or not. It will be easy for people to connect to and they will probably get a good laugh out of it, I know I did.

Poetry Out Loud

Part 1:website cruising
1. Sadie and Maud by Gwendolyn Brooks
2. Ox Cart Man by Donald Hall
3. One Perfect Rose by Dorothy Parker
4. The Emperor of Ice-Cream by, Wallace Stevens
A Dream Within a Dream by, Edgar Allen Poe

Part 2:What do you Think?
1.I really liked the poem One Perfect Rose because it is sweet and every girl loves sweet things. I also liked it because it rhymed and I really prefer my poetry to rhyme because it is easier to remember when you are trying to memorize it and it is easier to read because you know where to put the emphasis.
2. I did not like The Emperor of Ice-Cream because I thought that it would be more fun just based on the title but when I actually started to read it I was a little bit disappointed because it didn't rhyme.
3. If I had to choose between these six poems I would choose to study One Perfect Rose. I really liked it because it is sweet and I would love to get a rose with a poem on it like the woman in this poem.

Part 3:
For me the easiest part of this will be voice and articulation because I am able to speak loudly and clearly thanks to my background in cheerleading and overall accuracy because I am able to remember things also thanks to my cheerleading background. The hardest part for me will be the body language because I get nervous and tend to play with my hair as well as the understanding of the poem because they are difficult for me to decipher.

Part 4: