Fighting the Current

"Normal" is a figment of underactive imaginations...

I don't know why I'm even bothering writing. I just felt like I needed to put that phrase somewhere. I just came up with it.

We've been assigned a project in school. An information literacy project. It's supposed to take a year total. My class is the guinea pigs for this experiment -- the school has never done it before. We have to have an idea of what we're doing by the end of March I think. My ideas so far are:
lost(but discovered) Maya cities -- which is probably a broad topic, because I think most, if not all, Maya cities were once lost
Maya or Aztecs or lesser known civilizations of that area -- which are very broad topics, more broad than they seem
recently discovered civilizations -- which I may not be able to find much information on
search for life beyond earth -- which might be hard to find reliable information for
paranormal arguments -- which may not be accepted by my school
Maya/Aztec comparisons -- again, a very broad topic
Maya/Aztec mythology/religion -- which is interesting, but I doubt I'd be able to find too much information on
ancient astronomy -- I really like this idea, but I don't know if I could or should get more specific with it
nature's tendency to bounce back -- which would make a very choppy paper I think
Meso-American languages -- which would be difficult to find, and maybe not possible for me to do

The problem with those topics is that I am really interested in all of them, but I don't know if I'd be able to have a teacher/advisor help with them. We have to have an "advisor" help us with our project along the way. It doesn't sound like they will be helping too much, but I don't know yet.

My foot is asleep!!!! I hate it when that happens. I have to stop sitting on my legs.

And one of my brothers just ran through the living room making airplane noises. I don't know why.

I went skiing on Saturday night. It was great. The weather was beautiful and I had a good time. I had been skiing twice before. (Once when I was about 8 or 9, and my brothers complained so we left without learning anything, and once last year. The time last year, I signed up for a snowboarding lesson. It was so hard for me. I just cannot be comfortable with the sensation of sliding down a hill sideways with my feet strapped to a board. I also don't really have enough ankle/foot strength to stop or turn sufficiently on a snowboard. I'm not heavy-footed and just couldn't turn. So after the lesson and trying it for a while, my dad and I went back to the lodge and switched boots [he was skiing and our shoe-sizes in those things were close enough that we could trade]. He tried snowboarding, while I tried skiing. I told him what to do and he told me what to do. Skiing was so much easier than snowboarding -- so much more natural. I resolved to get a skiing lesson next time we went.) So this was my first lesson in skiing. We went out to the mountains for the evening session. My brothers signed up for another snowboarding lesson and I signed up for a skiing one. We got to the bunny hill and were looking around for teachers. We had to ask one of the people in their staff lounge/trailer where the instructors were. They sent one down for skiing and told my brothers to wait until one of the other classes was done. The instructor was really nice. Since it was around 6 o'clock, there was no one else there for ski lessons, and I had a private lesson. I knew some of the basics and we covered them quickly. Then we went up to the tow-rope to the top. The first time I tried, I fell flat on my chest on the more-ice-than-fake-snow. I quickly got out of the way and was trying to get my skis back on when he said, "Ya don't see many skiers doing that. Mostly snowboarders. It's rare for that skiers to fall on the tow." Oh, thanks. At least I know I'm being unique, lol. The second time I hung on all the way to the top. I had made half-way down in little bits when I had to take a short break. My knees were hurting (I've had problems with them before) and I had been hesitant the entire time about taking the first turn downward. At one point I said I was afraid I'd hit someone and he casually replied that they were more likely to hit me. "I know that makes you feel so much better," he added at the end. Well, I made it to the bottom of the hill and made sure to thank him sincerely and profusely, because I know that he really wasn't supposed to teach me as much as he did. I doubt if it had been a lesson with other people that he would have gotten past teaching the tow-rope. I had only fallen twice during the lesson too -- once on the tow-rope, and once when I fell into a turn. The entire time I was there I only fell a total of four times. I can rarely claim that off-skis, lol.

As a snack later I got a soft pretzel which I swear tasted like cigarette-smoke. And on the car-ride home, I had a french fry which tasted like a cucumber, and I had a vanilla milkshake which tasted like strawberry near the very end. The only one I can't think of an explanation for is the cucumber fry. I mentioned those "flavors" to my dad and my brothers and of course I was made fun of for it.

Are there run-ons in there? Yeah, probably, but I'm not checking.

I have to write a paper on local history for English this Friday. I chose local industry because that was the subject I could find the most information on, and could write a 5-paragraph essay on. It's actually really interesting figuring out where things were and imagining the town centuries ago. It's also really interesting to make little connections to things I see often, or to things I've heard.

Well, I sure found enough to babble on about. Sorry I bored you to death. I have to get to bed now anyway. Goodnight...