Tu me manques

Bonjour mes amis,

It seems it's been a long while since I've done any posts truly French related or using the language, and seeing as I need to prepare for the AP test come May, I figured I should start up again. First I must apologize because I only have twenty minutes to finish this post (I'm at school) and because I don't have my dictionary with me and it's been a while since I've reviewed my grammar. I'm planning on increasing my study time after the first trimester ends so I won't have anything to get caught up on or the like.

Aujourd'hui... c'est comme ci comme ca. Pas mal. Mais j'ai un examen pour les maths, et ce n'etait pas bon. Le choeur, aussi, n'etait pas bon. Apres l'ecole aujourd'hui, j'irai a Cub pour robotiques. Nous sommes sacherie nourriture pour l'argent. Je suis desolee, mais je n'ai pas l'accents et je n'ai pas les temps! Mon francais, ce n'est pas bon mais je practiquerai plus souvent. Je n'y manquerai pas.

A demain,
Mlle Delphine

"P.S. I Love You" Minus the Tragedy

Bonjour mes amis,

Read the title? Yep. That was my day today. Original plan to spend time with the boyfriend was to go around town, snapping pictures, just chatting. Little did I know he had a massive large setup for me in store.

Every day when we wake, we text each other good morning. This morning he told me to check my email before making coffee, so I figured O.K. he left me a cutesy message (as he does that), and jumped out of bed to go read it. Instead it has three attachments; one handwritten letter telling me how much I mean to him and how much I deserve a vacation, one handwritten letter with instructions telling me to go to the Western Union in K-Mart to pick up some money he left me, then go buy myself cough drops, gas, and a coffee, and one map showing me directions for something I'd need after coffee. I love handwritten things, I'm a sentimental person. And I love surprises. He's so sweet!

So I follow the instructions he's left me, and I sit down and enjoy my hot cocoa (I decided that I was so excited I was awake enough without coffee) for a while 'till it's 10:35 and he texts me saying it's time to meet a nice couple he knows. So I follow the directions on the map. Slowly driving down the small street looking for the house with the right address, I see a driveway with a big sign in the yard that read "Your Face, Your Body: Massage Studio." It turns out he didn't know this couple extremely well but they were indeed very nice people. I've never had a professional massage before but this was incredible. Something you have to experience to really explain. It was so relaxing and yet required so much trust and faith but.. Wow. It felt amazing though. An hour later, I dress and thank the wife, Ros, for the massage. She hands me an envelope with my name on it, and we say our farewells. I get in my car and read the handwritten letter inside.

I have a reservation for lunch at Buca di Beppo's. I've driven by it a million times to go to the Ortho and the mall and it was even right by the K-Mart from earlier, but I'd never noticed it till now. It was really cool inside! So many lights and art work and photos and awesomeness. The waiter was really nice too. I ordered what I wanted, and when I finished, the waiter went to take it back to box the left-overs. He comes back and says, "Lunch has been taken care of," and instead of a bill, there's another handwritten letter. I smile and thank him and read the letter.

I have an appointment for a nail salon in the mall! I've never had my nails done either but it's another thing I've wanted to do. I wasn't sure what all he had planned for me but I go there and I have a nice manicure and they paint my nails. They used a ton of different types of goos on my hands. I think the wax was the weirdest. Then for $5 I got a design on my ring fingers. It's really cute but the pictures don't do it justice so I won't even bother posting one here. This of course, came out of the $20 he gave me earlier, as my mother had insisted on giving me money for the cough drops so I had extra.

On my way home, I got to stop for gas so I have even more than I started with this morning.

My love, how every woman in this world isn't head over heels for you, I'll never know.

Á bientot,

Mlle Delphine

Guardian Angel, God, Karma, Luck, whatever it was: Thank You

Bonjour mes amis,

I've been having quite a time. This summer I discovered that the guy I've secretly adored for years but always dismissed it due to complications, thinking there was no way he'd ever feel the same, actually had feelings for me. Since then we've gotten pretty serious, though we have to keep things quiet due to said-complications. But Lord am I lucky to have someone who cares about me like he does. He's one of those guys that everyone dreams about but no one really believes exists. Let me tell you, ladies, he does, and he's all mine. He keeps me smiling even on the hard days. But I don't know what I've done to deserve a man like him.

I've also had a very busy school year. My grades are starting slip a little but no C's yet. I need to start working harder, in fact, I should be working right now. I have an English paper due tomorrow. But I need to get some thoughts out, and I feel that they're important enough that I'll find a way around it. I am very grateful that MEA (three days off of school) is this week because I need a little break from the world. School 8:05-3:00 plus theatre every day from 3:15 to 5ish, Spirit Players is Thursday mornings 7:20 to 7:50, plus random Robotics every week or so, especially with the planning for the Halloween Dance which is coming up on the 30th, so I have to skip my dad's weekend. I'm not happy about that. I miss him.

This weekend I was at his house for the last time until four weeks from now and I've been feeling exceptionally homesick so I cried a little before I left but managed to stop so I could leave without him knowing that I was upset. As soon as I started driving, the tears came back, but I told my wonderful angel that I'd drive safely, so I knew I needed to calm down. I stopped crying but was upset. Then it started to rain. I love the rain, it has so many different emotions tied into it. It's a very powerful thing, I think. It felt like the world was crying for me, because it knew I couldn't. I rolled down my window despite it being freezing, so I could smell the rain in the air. It relaxed me, in that refreshing way that crying does. Yet I wasn't getting cold. Confused, I checked and saw that I did indeed turn off the heat in the car.... but it was still going, keeping me warm, even when I knew I shouldn't waste the energy with my windows down. My car was looking out for me. I guess it's happy to have a full tank of gas for the first time in three months.

I'm not really sure how I made it home without an accident. I was in a terrible state, crying for a good ten minutes and even after I stopped, I really only had my eyes glued to the car in front of me on the interstate. I know I was swerving a little here and there. I shouldn't have been on the roads. I shouldn't have made it home without so much as a scratch- no, without so much as getting cold. But I did.

And now, for those of you who are left reading this really long, seemingly rambling post, I will explain why this all has so much significance. I am agnostic. To most I explain it as, "I understand that there is a possibility of God existing, but you can't prove it." In reality, it's more of a "I want to believe in God, but I don't know that I can trust Him if He doesn't do something significant to announce his presence." I have pretty bad trust issues, and I'm rather rebellious and question authority a lot. I was also raised to be Atheist and during debates I tend to claim it just because I get so frustrated with the way many religious people are so condescending from their high horses. For a while I searched for answers but gave up. I knew I wanted to believe, but I couldn't. I haven't given it much thought in a couple years, until the other week when I had one of these notorious condescending Christians being very rude towards Atheists when she clearly didn't understand the concepts. (Mind you, this is the same girl that tried to say that Christianity was the first religion.) Even though she angered me, she awoke my curiosity again. Of course, first I was mad and wanted to hear about the other side, why God couldn't possibly exist. But I never actually read into it, knowing how many flaws in logic are on that side, and instead it's just ever so quietly been on my mind.

And then I have nights like tonight, reflecting on the past few months and on life in general. How is it I met someone who truly adores me for me, who's willing to do anything to make me smile, who thinks exactly like me on big-picture ideas, and who I am completely, totally, and irrevocably in love with? He is religious but only lightly and doesn't talk about it unless people come to him. But when I was asking him about it the other week, he told me he prays every night before bed, thanking God for me. I started tearing up in the middle of school thinking that someone would do that for me. And tonight? I was a complete mess. I shouldn't have made it home in one piece. Why did I?

Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure. But I have this feeing... Call me crazy, but I feel like I was being looked after.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Edit: Shortly after posting this, I got the last text from a friend saying goodbye because he was deployed to Aghanistan last night (the early morning hours after posting this). While I knew it was coming for months, I just broke down crying at the thought of not seeing him for a year and him being so far away and in danger and, yeah. It was bad. I went online and checked for someone to talk to, and I told him, "I need a hug." As soon as I hit enter, I heard my step dad get up off the couch downstairs, walk upstairs, and he came and hugged me tight until I stopped crying.

Then I finally got to talk to my wonderful angel an hour or so later and he got me feeling 100% again as usual. I set my alarm, he talked to me until I fell asleep (which was pretty late so I would only get a few hours of sleep), and then I woke up at 7:20. My alarm was supposed to go off at 6 but never did so I got to sleep in. But that meant I was late and thus truent and thus had detention for the first time in my life. While I *could* have made it to school on time for first hour, I felt like a mess and I needed a shower and I wouldn't have time for breakfast and just everything was wrong. I texted my mother and she called in saying I had a dentist appointment to excuse me from hours one and two. This gave me enough time to write my English paper that was due today.

Lucky? I'm not sure that's what I want to call it. But now I really have to go to school!

À bientot.

Muse In Concert

Bonjour mes amis,

Last night I went to the Muse concert and it was absolutely AMAZING. Definitely one of the best nights of my life thus far! The lighting was incredible and it even got a good review in the paper. It's a shame it wasn't sold out, it ought to have been. The set list was fantastic, including a lot of songs every Muse fan knew and several that weren't quite as well known to add some variety in the mix. They went all out on their performance, it was spectacular. They each stood on one of these giant pillars to begin with and after a few songs they lowered so there was stuff on the floor of the stage and all sorts of craziness. In one song, the piano light up as he played. They did a cool instrumental version of the Star Spangled Banner and a cover of Feelin' Good.. at one point, one of the singers was using a megaphone. Epic.

But back to the pillars-- There was almost constant special lighting on them. It was a mix of artistic images and animations, lyrics, and live video feeds of closeups of the members of the band. There were SO many lights and lasers, it was amazing. Oh, did I mention I had a floor ticket? Yeah, the "No Moshing" on the wrist bands didn't do much.. For all of the upbeat songs, there was constant moshing. In fact, I have the crazy desire to start pumping my fist in the air and jumping up and down when I listen to some of their songs now.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Muse, it's a band from the U.K. that's sort of like alternative rock. They have a really cool sound to them though. Their newest album, The Resistance, was released November last year, so it's not quite one year old yet. The band itself, I believe, is 16. They had Supermassive Black Hole used in Twilight and Knights of Cydonia in Guitar Hero, so chances are you've heard them and just not recognized them. Here are those two songs, plus my personal favorite, Resistance.

Supermassive Black Hole

Knights of Cydonia

Resistance

Enjoy!

À demain,

Mlle Delphin

Montréal, Je t'adore

Bonjour mes amis,

As each day passes, I get that much closer to being able to move to Montréal and hopefully attend McGill University. The closer I get to being in Montréal, the more anxious I get and the more I desire to go! I've been keeping an eye out for things about it for a while now, including regularly checking The Montréal Buzz, reading Montreal 24, listening to la Radio-Canada, and *gasp* paying attention in U.S. History whenever Québec is mentioned. It always catches my attention when people mention Montréal or Québec, and it's probably the lone reason I ever go watch the news.

Finally, today when I was driving home, it hit me. I have these wonderful flowery dreams about the things I want to do with my life... but generally, they don't come true. But today? Today it hit me; I realized I am going to Montréal. I am. Me, Delphine Chevalier, the secret rebel who's always been afraid to do what she wants, is going to Montréal for college. I'm so excited. It's like when you get told something and you're in that initial "OH MY GOD THAT'S SO AMAZING!!" stage but you're still kind of experiencing the shock, and then the shock goes away so all that's left is "OH MY GOD THAT'S SO AMAZING!!"

Accompanying the realization that I'm going to be moving over a thousand miles away and into a different country, of course, came the realization that I'll be moving away from all of my friends and family. Another thing that I realized, though, is that not only do I know I can manage moving, as I've done it before, but this time it won't be as bad. Back when I moved to my mother's house for the first time, I felt alone in this world. I was hardly speaking with my father, my sister was out of the house, I didn't like my brother, my half brother was always out partying, and I didn't have that close relationship with my mother. Not to mention after dealing with some serious family issues for a few years, I had little to no self esteem and thus felt I had no friends (although that wasn't true). This time, I know that no matter how far I go, I have a mother, a father, a step-father, three protective older siblings, one little sibling that looks up to me, and loads of friends that love me. I also know that he will be there with me, and that alone is more than enough to get me through any difficulties my new life throws my way. No matter how hard things get, he always seems to make it better.

I'm not the type of person to shy away from my goals just because I know it will be hard. Usually it just makes me want to accomplish them more. When it comes to Montréal, this proves no different, because I know it will be worth it in the end and I'll learn so much from it.

But now I must return to reading two chapters of U.S. History, the lesson on the War of 1812 and writing about it, completing an entire English project on my own, and three or four math assignments. The scary part? I'm looking forward to it because I know it will lead to McGill, and thus, Montréal.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Muse

Bonjour mes amis!

Just so you've a fair warning, don't read my post if you're having guy troubles. As much as I want to ramble about him, I don't want anyone to feel bad because I know what that's like. Which is why I'm so excited now.

So yesterday, I was home sick. I'd been feeling nauseous for a good 24 hours with a sore throat and all of that, so I decided to take the day off of school. I had a bagel for breakfast around 8 or 9am, and then around 2pm a guy friend texted me making sure I'd eaten. While I said I'd had a bagel, I realized I should probably have lunch. So I went into the kitchen to make a sandwich. In our kitchen we have a window that faces out to the street and I noticed a FedEx truck drive by. (I know it's odd, but I always notice delivery trucks, because I know some day someone will send me something. Some day.) No biggie. But then it drove by again in the other direction. Then it stopped on the other side of the street. The man got out of the truck with something in his hand, ran up to our door, pushed the doorbell, and ran away. Must be something for my parents. Wonder what, it's not like they're expecting anything. So I go check the package.

It's addressed to me. Thoroughly confused, although happy to have received something in the mail, I open it. There's a seemingly empty envelope inside. I pull it out and open it, to discover something inside. I pull it out, and what do I see?

A TICKET TO SEE MUSE!!!

But wait. It has to be a mistake. I had been planning on going with some friends but I backed out because I couldn't afford to go. So I call my buddy Mark and ask, but he says they have all of their tickets, which were sitting in his room at that very moment. Now I'm completely lost.

And then I remembered my guy friend who'd checked on me to make sure I'd eaten. I had, after all, mentioned the situation to him. I text him, "Why am I holding a Muse ticket?" half expecting a reply that was just as confused as I was. His response?

"Because I want you to be able to stand out in a crowd and still feel that I'm beside you."

*Melt* You're such a sweetheart. I adore you.

I've never had ANYONE do something like that for me before. The most gifts I ever receive are the annual ripoff birthday-Christmas combination present (as my birthday falls on the 22nd of December), that is, if anyone remembers me at all. This didn't even have an occasion. And I know he's kind of tight on money, it's not like it was on a whim, "Hey, I'll buy her something because I can," it was definitely thought out. I was telling him how I'd have to brag to all of my friends about it today and he told me if they asked why, to tell them, "Because you're beautiful and I want to see you smile."

*Melt...again* I did indeed tell them that when they inquired. :)

Yeahhhhh. :)

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Sleep Deprived, Not Dead [Yet]!

Bonjour mes amis,

Today I'm home sick, so I have time to write again! How I miss just being able to ramble on my blog. But, life is being pretty exciting right now, which I can't argue against. I'm teching for the school musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, helping with costumes, props, makeup, hair, etc. I'm turning in my Spirit Players application on Friday, but it's more of a signup than an application, everyone gets in. It's a pretty cool group though! A lot of kids from theatre are in it, and it's basically us performing skits and whatnot to promote healthy lifestyles to kids in elementary schools in the area.

I also had my interview for robotics last week, and yesterday I got my acceptance letter! That's pretty awesome because there are loads of people who want to get in and only a small amount are allowed. I'm guessing I'll probably end up marketing, but CAD would be super fun too. CAD is Computer Aided Design.. Basically you get to help design the robot using computers. :) (Yes, I'ma geek, hush.)

Speech doesn't start until like Januaryish, but that'll be coming up in a few months as well. Robotics doesn't really kick off until that time as well but I know we'll be doing other stuff until then. They host the Halloween dance at the school every year, and while I've never gone, everyone who has always raves about it. The robotics team gets some serious love from our school.

Oh, and Ren Fest! I went to the Renaissance Festival a week or two ago and it was so much fun! But I wish I would've had a better costume. Mine will make a good Halloween costume (with some alterations to make it look a little more frightening) but it wasn't really in the right time period, probably a few hundred years later. At first I was just going to go for something more like what my mother has, you know, skirt, blouse, corset. Traditional. Then my mother started talking about gypsies and belly dancers and... Long story short, I want to go as a belly dancer next year. I love the jingly coins and whatnot on their costumes too! I also want to get some sort of instructional DVD for Christmas (Come on, what belly dancer doesn't know how to belly dance at least a little?) to my parents' dismay. But I'm excited. While Barb the French Bean over at Two Beans or Not Two Beans is going to be hotter than Shakira, I'm going to be able to shake it better than her! (;

Au Revoir!
Mlle Delphine

P.S. I'm so loving autumn. The leaves are changing, the weather is cool but not too cold, apple cider (particularly the Apple Blast from Caribou) is amazing, and I'm ready for pumpkins, apple picking, corn mazes, bonfires, hoodies, and Halloween!

Homecoming 2010

Bonjour mes amis!

This week has been totally AWESOME. I went shopping last Friday with my friend Jayme to look at Homecoming dresses. She ended up buying one online. I wtfpwned my Pre-Calc test and the half of the Physics test I took yesterday, I slacked off in all of my classes all week (I played cards during math and got yelled at by the teacher.. mehehehe). I got to watch the insane themed outfits people put together for each day of the week. I made an awesome two layer cake after baking four layers (two were unsuccessful. Don't ask.) which was quickly devoured before first hour, resulting in a group of boys literally bowing before me. I do believe I'll have to bake again soon. That same day, I had an amazing pumpkin-y cupcake, homemade, reserved for me. Yesterday another friend brought in a Homecoming-themed brownie, both of which were equally drool-worthy.

Yesterday it seemed as though the entire school was blue and gold, and I've made it my goal to make sure I own more blue and gold clothing for next year! All the classes were shortened thanks to the hour long pepfest at the end of the day, which was hilarious. I can never remember his name, but this guy with red curly hair who likes to turn it into an afro, did the Napoleon Dynomite dance.. it was bad, but in a hilarious way. He got a standing ovation. The dance team did awesome as always, same goes for the drum line! I lost my ability to scream for a little while after the pepfest. Then last night was the football game, and we beat our rivals. Surely this is only a sign of good things to come!

And today? Today is the day to party it up in celebration of kicking their asses and welcoming home all of the graduates who are visiting! I'm doing my nails now, then jumping in the shower in a little bit before heading over to Jayme's to do hair and makeup. Then we're off to a party for a few hours before the dance, then the dance till 11, and we'll see where things go from there. Usually ends up with an after party at someone's place. I'm so ready for today, just totally destress after all of the hell pre-calc and physics has put me through these past few weeks.

Homecoming 2010, Baby!!

Au revoir,

Mlle Delphine

Rambling Because Life is Good

Bonjour mes amis,

As the title states, this post is me rambling. I don't have any specific topic, I just feel like writing, and I haven't in a few days since this was my first week back in school. But really? Life IS good. I'm managing my classes (Yes, even Physics! ... Thus far) pretty well and on Monday during my open period I get to go chat with my counselor to get the information I need regarding independent study for AP French Language and AP Psychology. I've also been submitting some more applications trying to find a job. Hopefully something will turn up!

Extracurriculars are going well. I'm going to be throwing together a French club as best I can this year, at the wish of Mme Hanson, the district's French teacher. Then the other four days of the week will be teching after school for the school musical. I might audition for the winter one acts or just tech again, I have plenty of time to decide though. In late winter, Speech will be starting and it's my first year doing it even though I thought it sounded like fun last year. Oh, and the information for Spirit Players should be given out at some point next week! I'll have to make a post dedicated to that activity to give you an idea of what the hell I'm talking about.

My social life is ~*amazing*~ thus far this year. I caught the attention of my dream guy over the summer and while I can't give too many details, I can tell you, he is wonderful. Also, I noticed this week during school I'm much more outgoing than I have been in the past and it's nice to see that my hard work is paying off and I'm finally breaking free from my shell. In all of my classes I have people I can chat with (well, except APUSH but all focus is on the teacher in that one) and I always run into random people in the halls I talk to, even if I don't have classes with them. Plus, while I haven't made many plans with people, I am going to go shopping with my friend after school this Friday for new clothes and to get her a dress for Homecoming. We're kinda short on money so I'm just using my dress from last year, all I need are new shoes.

Oh, and did I mention my braces are FINALLY getting fixed tomorrow at 4pm? YEAH!!!! For the past month, the wires have been out of the back two brackets and as a result have been slicing and re-slicing open my cheeks. Pain comes most when I am forced to say "Quebec" instead of "Québec" (although mental pain always accompanies that no matter what) and while doing vocal warm ups in choir.

Yeah, life is good. :)

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Layout is Done. Physics is Not.

Bonjour mes amis,

Just so you know, I am quite fond of the new layout so I think it's here to stay!

I'm afraid I have nothing else exciting to share with you. Give it a day or two and you'll get to hear about how physics is kicking my butt.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Junior Year: Day One

Bonjour mes amis!

Today was my first day back in school since early June. It was mostly what I expected, to be honest, but still worth mentioning here. I got my license over the summer so it was my first time driving to school. I'm thankful my step dad warned me to go in the side way without the stop lights. He was right: there was already an accident there by time I arrived around 7:40am. School starts at 8:05. After standing in line for a half hour to get my schedule because they decided to make EVERYONE print them out individually after changing ALL of the passwords instead of just having them in the gym like previously, I went to AP U.S. History (Furthermore known as APUSH) about ten minutes late, feeling ready for the test I stayed up until midnight studying for. When I walked in, however, I was told I had open today. The class is a hybrid (Class every other day, opens when we don't have class) because there are so many students, but they never explained to us how this would work until we stumbled into class frantic about a test on the first day of the school year.

Second hour was AP Language and Composition (Furthermore known as AP Lang). We spent the whole hour listening to him give us directions explaining the summer homework.. that was due that day. Or so we thought! He extended the due date. I was kinda mad, but I just turned it in anyways instead of correcting a few mistakes- chances are he won't notice them anyways. Then he went over the syllabus we'd already signed and turned in at the end of last year. It sounds like this class won't really be covering any new material that Pre AP didn't cover. I'm a little disappointed, but we'll see how it goes.

Third hour is Team Sports, for my required gym credits. I hate gym with a bloody passion, but the teacher seems pretty nice, and to my surprise I knew one Sophomore in the class: Syd. She's a theatre buddy! I'm still trying to find a shirt to let sit in my gym locker for the next 3 months minus the occasional washing.

Fourth hour is Pre-Calculus Honors (furthermore known as Precalc). Simple stuff on the first day, but it's still a bit of a struggle because of how long it's been since we've worked on any of this slope crap. Worm is funny though, he picks on people and it's hilarious. I will probably end up spending time getting extra help before/after school. My goal for math this tri is a B+.

Fifth hour is choir. I love choir. 'Nuff said.

Sixth was open period. Not much today, I did my math homework and read a little bit. Tomorrow starts the French review.

Lastly, I had Physics Honors. Oh dear. I think I'm going to fail that class. I really hope I can get a study group together. It's not a normal college-level AP class, it's TWO YEARS of class shoved into one, and there is a high expectation for good math skills. Have I mentioned that math is my worst subject? We're starting math stuff tomorrow, and then on Monday we have our first test. Homework doesn't go towards our grades, period. I'm f'ed, that's usually what keeps me at a C or B in math class. Please, please, oh friends of Facebook, respond to my bribes of lots of home-baked goods at a study group!!

As for theatre, I've decided to just tech. While I do want to audition, Mme Hanson wants me to basically lead the French club, which I am totally enthused about, but I couldn't miss a day of practice for it every week without getting kicked out of the production. So I'll stick to being a costume/makeup/hair techie! Also, I wanted to ask Mave about Spirit Players (Acting for little kids to educate them about living a healthy life style. Think "Live Above the Influence" and that sort of thing), but I didn't see her after school. I think she leaves early or something, I'll try to find her again tomorrow.

So yeah, that's pretty much my first day. It was long... but I think this school year will be interesting. Challenging if nothing else.

Bring it on, Junior Year! (Just kidding. Please be nice.)

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

New Layout Time

Bonjour mes amis,

As much as I like the pretty background of the Eiffel Tower and the water color look and all of that, I hate how my long posts seem to "not fit" onto the blog. So don't be shocked if the layout changes a few times in the next few days. I'll send out another shout when I find something I'm as proud of as the original layout!

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Audrey

Bonjour mes amis,

Late Wednesday night, my friend came online and begged me to get her a ride to a town that's about a half hour from mine, because she was supposed to be cleaning a woman's house from the American Legion who just got out of the hospital. Well I agreed, and she generously offered half the pay. I set my alarm to wake me up at 8:00am so I have plenty of time to wake up and get ready for my friend who would be meeting me at my house at 9:00am sharp.

I woke up to her knocking on my window at 8:52am. I jumped out of bed, threw on some clean clothes, grabbed my keys and the Google Maps printed directions that had been prepared the night before, and we were on our way.

"Our way," in this case, meaning "We'll get there at some point in time but no promises when." First we missed the road we needed to turn onto because it was this little back road off of a six lane road that goes 55 mph. That's understandable. So we turn around, get on the correct road going the correct direction, and I ask my friend where the next turn is.

"About a mile," she says. Alright, I'm keeping my eyes peeled, checking each and every street sign. It never came. Like, ever. Using lots of guess work, a handy dandy atlas of the Metropolitan area, a quarter tank of gas, many U-turns, and an extra half hour of time, we eventually make it to this woman's house. It was quite the adventure.

Well, we walk into the house and she's sitting on the edge of her bed, so I introduce myself as we haven't met. She then begins to rant about how her husband left a huge mess on the laundry room floor with "soap and water everywhere, and then he just left it, like he couldn't see he made a mess!" but then the phone rang and it was a woman from the hospital calling to check up on her, so she dismissed us until she was done on the phone. Of course, we walked out into the living room but still heard every word of her yelling at the poor lady on the other end how miserable she is and how she's weak and can't do anything and all of that. First impression? An unhappy old woman, tough-looking, strict, likes her house clean, fights with the husband a lot.

She set us to work soon enough and we were careful to clean everything just so, although realistically the laundry room didn't need more than to be swept and have the rug vacuumed quickly. Unfortunately she had no mop, so I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor as my friend was outside watering plants, when I hear, "HELP!" from the other room.

I sprint into the room and ask if she's okay, and she's sitting on her bed, seemingly fine, but she says she's really dizzy and asked me to stand by her just in case, so I did, as I was genuinely concerned for her safety, and she took my hand and just held on for a few minutes. She kept saying how she "has to make it, I can't go back to that terrible hospital," and she seemed to be feeling something similar to what you experience when the body has a severe lack of oxygen- you feel very dizzy, nauseous, tunnel vision, that sort of thing. Unfortunate it happens a lot to me if I take more than a quick 10 minute shower, so my heart was aching for this lady. As she started to recover from it, she asked me to sit beside her because she still had to take her insulin. She let go of me and said, "Please stay here, I feel secure with you here."

I think that's one of the sweetest things I've ever heard anybody ever say to me.

The rest of the afternoon went well. We did more cleaning and tending to her when she wasn't feeling well. We looked through an entire closet full of medicine to find her something for her breathing, as she had two sores in her nose from where they had the tubes. (In hind sight, that really probably was what the dizzy spell was, since she was having issues breathing.) We "closed" the door ("No, the other way!" *Opens door confusedly* "Thanks, I don't like closed doors.") and turned on and off lights and recorded messages from her machine, we hung up all of her clothes ("The blue slacks go on the blue hangers. No, you have to fold them with the seams together. Yep like that, but here let's do it my way since my way is better, bring it here!"), we opened her mail and sent to return the "tent" as she had written on the package that contained a pair of elastic tan pants. The size labeled them as 3x but she swore they looked more like 5x. I guess I don't know any better, half the time I can't tell a small from a medium! At the end, she asked me to bring her the checkbook and a pen, and she told me how to write out the check. I was scolded for not writing it all in the stub first. I've only written one check before and it didn't have stubs. At some point during the hanging of clothing, she had another dizzy spell and my friend went to assist her that time. This time instead of just holding her hand, she was sitting on the edge of the bed with my friend standing, and put her arm around her and her head on my friend's chest, like she was giving her a hug. I know she must have been uncomfortable from the dizziness and whatnot, but it was so cute. She ended up doing the same thing with me once later too. Final impression? An unhappy old woman due to her recent health complications, strict but with her heart in the right place, highly OCD, and fights with her husband whom she loves.

I guess that's why they say to never judge a book by its cover. We left our names and numbers written down so she could call if she needed us again. She said she would, and I'm looking forward to it.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Dear Summer 2010

Bonjour l'été 2010,

School starts in eight days. I didn't get much of anything accomplished that I had set out to accomplish this summer. I spent time with friends but not enough. I got a piano but no stand (still!) and thus never finished learning a song. I didn't practice sight reading for choir. I never finished reading Wuthering Heights (I got bored after Cathy died...) or bought a second pair of jeans. Although to be fair, the jeans one will be cured in a few weeks. I don't have an awesome tan, and will yet again stand out like a sore thumb next to all the rich students at my school who spent their summers abroad or just vacationing in the states. I never got in shape, although I am going to work out today. I didn't find my job, but I am still filling out applications and turning them in. I didn't stick to my idea of being a choir director, but I'm not sure I want to risk not finding a job if I become a French teacher.

Thinking about all of this a few weeks ago, I was mildly disappointed in myself, but then I stopped to think of everything I did do this summer. I came to terms with quitting Synchronized Swimming. I improved my relationship with my parents. I discovered that Eminem actually has a song I like. I got to know my awesome friend, Kayla, better. I finally saw (and cried while watching) The Notebook, and P.S. I Love You. I got my license. I helped make my Renaissance Festival costume. I got in touch with an old friend of mine that I hadn't spent time with in years. I stayed in touch with a friend I've known since my early years in elementary school. I found a man who makes me feel beautiful, and as amazing as I think he is! I never gave up on getting a job, even though nothing has turned up yet. I learned how to cook French Toast and mini cinnamon rolls. I rediscovered my inner artist and discovered that I LOVE to paint. I managed to keep brushing up on my French, even though I've had no one all summer telling me to do so; I did it because I love the language. I've decided that I want to study in Québec, for sure ,100%. And, perhaps most important of all, I've worked to pursue my dream of studying in Québec. I've researched tons and I know I want to be in the Montréal area, and I have my first choice for a university already picked out. I know all of the legal processes I'm going to have to deal with when I do study abroad (Passport, Letter of Acceptance from a University, CAQ, Study Permit, but I don't need a temp resident visa). I've set goals for the coming school year (4.0 GPA, baby!) and you can be damn sure I'm going to do my best to accomplish them, even at the cost of my social life. I'm going to audition for every theatre performance this year because I'm *going* to get some sort of role this year. When I don' make it, I'll tech like last spring. I'm finally going to join Speech like I've always wanted. And, I'm going to join Spirit Players!

Yeah, I'd say summer 2010 has been a productive one. Much more than summer 2009, that was filled with endless partying and unfinished summer assignments. Now to go finish my summer assignments for *this* summer...

À l'année prochaine,

Mlle Delphine

Update: Studying in Québec

Bonjour mes amis!

I've already made it quite known on my blog that I really want to go to Québec for college (here was me excitedly talking about it if you missed that post) so this is sort of a little update as to how things are going.

The more and more I think about it, the more and more I find myself wondering: If I want to study music so badly, why did I completely drop it this summer like every other academic activity I dislike, yet continue brushing up on my French? I'm still not 100% positive where I want to go with that, but I'm really leaning more towards French. Even though I've been ridiculously lazy with incorporating French into my posts this past month (and a half..) or so, I have been doing other things related. I love French music! And I've been chatting online with people in French, and I've even taught my parents quite a bit of French. We'll see where things go, I have plenty of time yet.

However, I'm not quite so open with my family about how excited I am to go to Québec because I got a pretty negative response from my mother when I brought it up one evening. She's kept it in mind though, and I think the longer she dwells on the matter, the more she's starting to come around. When my aunt was over, she mentioned right away that I was thinking about Canada. She also must have brought it up at work, because today she said one of her co-workers recommended looking into a Canadian college (in Ontario, but the thought was still appreciated!) and instead of just ignoring it, she passed the message along. And then we were talking about the ACT versus the SAT (as most students here just take the ACT, but she wanted me to take both) when she asked me to see about the colleges I had been looking at. Which she of course knows, are in Québec. Mind you, I haven't brought this up to my father yet. I'm nervous about that because it will either be really easy and he'll be great, or he'll be very upset and will disapprove.

As for actual colleges go, my first choice all around is McGill University in Montreal. It's world renowned for being a great international school and it's made it into the world's top 25 university lists multiple times (the only Canadian school to do so!) among Harvard and Yale. It also offers courses that are in French but designed for students who've only learned it as a second language, along with English courses and whatnot. Very versatile. My other two universities I've looked at would only be if I indeed decide to pursue French as my major, which are UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) and the University of Montréal. My concern with these two is that while they are excellent schools, the classes are only taught in French, with little no help for English speakers. You also have to pass a test to prove that you are proficient enough in French to go to these schools at all. It's a little daunting, but either way I'll probably try. After all, my French comprehension is very high- it's just lacking more when it comes to writing and especially speaking. But I could stumble through a conversation. Let us hope I get to take French at the local University next year, or I'll never make it.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Balance

Bonjour mes amis,

Purpose. That was the word a woman once gave me to focus on. I don't know how she knew I needed a purpose, as I only saw her for a few hours out of my whole life and I never really spoke with her, but she was soooo right. That was probably one of (if not the) hardest year(s) of my life, and I still think about it pretty often today.

Success. This is my motivation, the concept of being successful. It is my reason for living and pressing on, no matter the circumstance. More for me than for other people I know, because my family is quite unsuccessful. My mother, father, and step-father are high school drop outs, my half-brother and brother are high school drop outs. My sister graduated high school, but failed out of college and has lived in her fiancé's parents' basement ever since. She has no job. I WILL make it farther than them. Let them laugh after I've gone and made myself who I want to be.

Balance. This is a new word I found today. I'm a hopeless romantic, when someone catches my eye, I get tunnel vision. Which kind of takes away from the concept of "success" and "purpose" especially with the guy I've had feelings for for a long while now, because he's one of those people you can just totally be yourself around and they always make you happy. However, no one can be happy with just one area of their life, you have to work on your work/schooling, your family life, that sort of thing. Oddly I have to thank Yahoo's horoscope for this word (and even Weird Al, since he prompted me to go check what my horoscope was).

So here's my effort to balance:

School starts on September 7th, and I have put a lot of thought into AP French and the things I need to do and work on, etc. But I need an actual plan. I'm an organized person, but I'm a lazy person, and without a plan I know things will fall apart by the second or third month of school. So you, my lucky readers, get a post filled with fluff you probably don't care about whatsoever. But if you do, feel free to comment or add suggestions!

[Week One]

9/7/10 (Tues) - Nothing. Use today to chat with people you haven't seen in ages since you're not going to after today. HW: After school, visit Mme Hanson, ask for the textbooks she mentioned.

9/8/10 (Wed) - Scan through textbooks for ideas on weekly vocab lists, begin HW. HW:Create 30 lists. Due Mon.

9/9/10 (Thurs) - Review tenses! Passé Composé (participes passés irréguliers), imparfait, conditionnel, subjuctif, futur, imperative, reflexive verbs HW:Create 30 lists. Due Mon.

9/10/10 (Fri) - Review lui/leur/en/y, conjugations of avoir, aller, etre, faire. HW:Create 30 lists. Due Mon.

[Week Two]

9/13/10 (Mon) - Go over conjugations of List 1 (present, p.c., imparfait, futur, conditionnel) & make some flash cards using them. Review other areas again based on need/time. HW: Print out 1 news article en francais (France/Quebec/Other).

9/14/10 (Tues) - Review List 1 flash cards. Spend hr in labs chatting onSharedTalk/LiveMocha. HW: LiveMocha complete lesson.

9/15/10 (Wed) - Review List 1 flash cards. Read article 1... a) WITHOUT resources b) looking up main words essential for understanding c) any other words you do not recognize. Summarize en Francais. HW:LiveMocha complete lesson

9/16/10 (Thurs) - Review List 1 flash cards. Search French About (Quebec!). HW: None.

9/17/10 (Fri) - Review List 1 flash cards. Journal 1 about your week en francais. HW: Watch a film in French you have already seen, without subtitles.

Basically each week during my open period I'm going to learn another list of vocabulary, read a news article switching off where it's from (France/Quebec/Other) each week, mix in other activities like chatting online with native French speakers in the computer lab, and end each week writing a journal using every vocab word I used. I'll be exposing myself to French music and movies as often as possible, and once I get a webcam I'll be able to practice speaking French more than just reading the paragraphs at LiveMocha to work on pronunciation.. What I do work on for actual speaking French will be at home. I'm too self conscious to do that at school.

Also, by the third week I should have my book, The Story of French, which I'll give myself a couple days each week to read it. It's in English but it should still be interesting, and hopefully I can get some French or bilingual books for Christmas since it's really only a few months into the school year. :)

Now that I'm sure you've either left my blog or fallen asleep...

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Paranoia or Genuinely Creepy?

Bonjour mes amis!

I got home today around 1, 1:30pm after spending all day yesterday with my friend and going back to her place for the evening, which was all very eventful but will (maybe) have to be put in another post. You see, when I got home I was quite tired as we had stayed up late and did a lot of running around, etc. So I sit at my computer.

My little step sister, who is 11, is the only other person home with me when she decides she wants to use the toaster (regardless of the fact I asked before we left if she wanted toast, of course) but my mother is weird and puts it away in the cupboard. So I'm halfway down the stairs to get the toaster down for her, when I hear a little squeak from my sister in the kitchen, and I ask if she found it.

"No, the construction guy just scared me," she giggled, still frozen in place from being startled. Confused, I then notice the man standing outside our kitchen window with the hard hat and shiny vest on, watering the bush with a garden hose. Very confused, but tired and thus not giving it any thought, I chuckle and get the toaster down, plug it in, and walk back upstairs.

It then occurs to me that not only is he supposed to be working in the road, he was using OUR hose and OUR water to water said-bush. Standing by OUR window, with two relatively young females home alone.

I went back downstairs and locked the doors and windows.

I texted my step dad about it and he went and yelled at him for using our water, but the guy claimed to have knocked on the door but no one answered, said he has daughters of his own and my step dad was convinced he only wanted water. Yeah, maybe if he knocked on the door with his finger nail...

À demain (I hope!)

Mlle Delphine

Painting My Face

Bonjour mes amis!

Non, before you flip, I'm not literally painting my face. Or caking on makeup.

The first part of my day consisted of anxiously awaiting my friend's phone call to say he got the gift. I was so nervous that, no joke, my palms were sweating. I mean, what if the painting wasn't as good as I thought it was? Or it was damaged during shipping? Or it gets there whole and he just plain and simple doesn't like it?

Boy was I wrong. He LOVES it!! I was SO relieved. He was talking about how it's the "nicest gift anyone's ever given me" and how it'll be the only thing he has hanging on his walls and how talented I am. But I think the best thing he said, was later when I told him I had just one more question that was important.

"Did it make you smile?"

"More than smile, it's nearly brought a tear to my eye. You made my birthday."

I think I did good. :) And as promised, here's the painting from a low-quality phone camera:

As for the second part of my day, my aunt came over to give us some free samples of Mary Kay products and talk about them, etc. It was actually really fun! The lip .. gloss, I guess? It's not super shiny though, that she had me try on looked really nice, and it's still on two hours later after I've drank and eaten a little bit. Same with the hand moisturizer stuff, and she said it also works wonders on feet. I really liked the foundation, but wish she had cover-up/concealer to try since mine doesn't work as well as I'd like. She had a lot more stuff she left at home, so my mother and I will have to visit her to try eye shadow colors and the like.

I don't know, typing about it here it seems silly, but this stuff just makes you feel good! And that's what make up is for, right? I'm crossing my fingers we can order the lip gloss, once we try one of the cover-ups, concealer, and moisturizer for my face. I have just normal Neutrogena cleanser that works really well but I can tell it dries out my skin. I know we probably won't, but maybe at least the lip gloss. Realistically you could probably get a cheap moisturizer at a department store, and my mother doesn't understand the importance of cover-up and foundation.

Oh, as a side note, I've noticed she's not only bad with technology, she's not the best with reading things in general. A few days ago on Facebook I posted about a few books I wanted to buy from Barnes & Noble and one of them was Princeton's ACT Review (2010 edition) and today she asked me why I'm thinking about applying to schools on the east coast because it's "so far!" Yeah, so far.. *cough* .. and then my mother told her I was thinking Québec. That was fun.

All in all, I've discovered that despite her bluntness, I really do like my aunt. What I don't like is my aunt and mother together. My mom gets much more, how do you say, aggressive? Attacking me for not doing chores well enough, making fun of the hair on my arm, saying I only want to go to Canada because it's cheaper, so on and so forth. Sigh.

Still, the reaction from my friend about the painting totally made my day. Maybe my week!

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Microblogging

Bonjour mes amis,

microblogging: the posting of very short entries on a blog

http://newsfeed.time.com/new-words-in-the-ode/#ixzz0x5Ke4Mb3

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Looking to Buy Red Heels for $3

Bonjour mes amis,

For a while I've kinda lost the desire to get new clothes and all that fashion stuff. But someone on Facebook linked something silly from ModCloth so I thought I'd check it out. I ended up just browsing through all of the tops, bottoms, shoes, and dresses. I now really want these:

(http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Hepcat+Dress+in+Black+Licorice)

(http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Shoes/Picnic+Pinup+Wedge)

I don't have anything even somewhat close to this, but I think it would look adorable. Or even a pair of closed-toe heels, so you could have some fun with patterned tights! I've always wanted a pair of red heels/pumps/wedges... and yet the only heels I own are black. Why is this? Because I'm too cheap to spend my money on new shoes. I'd rather spend it on things like shipping surprise birthday gifts to other countries that may or may not make it on time and in tact, so that when I get two teeth pulled out of my mouth I don't have enough money to go buy ibuprofen....

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Mrwggeghblehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Bonjour,

Two teeth pulled. Paaaaain. Watch two movies to get my mind off it? Paaaaain.

Stupid love stories.

Mlle Delphine

RAWR!

Bonjour mes amis,

My current state of mind (media inspired by Two Beans or Not Two Beans):

I was checking the status of the package I shipped on Friday, when I saw a bolded word so I went and scrolled over it, and it said "Your shipment has experienced an exception. Please read the description below." I look to the description below. It's *still* trying to get clearance at customs.

IT'S A ***Surprise, remember?*** NOT A BOMB, YOU RETARDED PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I'm going to start needing to buy hair dye soon at this rate. I haven't even mentioned to you the monster of a story about getting the right address while blow drying it with a hair dryer with the "cool" button taped down so I could ship it on Friday to be certain it would make it there before his birthday.

All I know, is if it's late, someone's getting hurt.

À demain,

Une très fachée Mlle Delphine

Surprise!

Bonjour mes amis,

I. Give. UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, it's not what you think, I promise. See, there's this birthday coming up for a close friend of mine that I've been working my butt off the past three weeks or so to prepare for. He, however, is very observant and knows me like no other, so I was terrified he'd realize something was up and the surprise wouldn't be as special. But he also happens to be the person I go to to talk about things when I'm sad or angry or happy and excited! You see my dilemma here? So, now I'm going to proceed to rant about how amazingly wonderful it is, and if it's at all possible that you (you know who you are!) happen to read my blog, you'd best be clicking a new link before I count to 10. Or I will be unhappy. You don't want to make me unhappy, do you???

1........

2........

3........

4........

5........

6........

7........

8........

9........

10!

Oh my goodness, so at first I had NO FREAKING CLUE what I was going to do to make your birthday special. I have limited options seeing as you live so far away, and I wracked my brain for all sorts of different ideas, and yet nothing seemed fitting. Then one night on Facebook, I saw you mention wanting to get a new tattoo, a phoenix with Celtic knots. My readers, you don't know this, but I am an artist at heart. I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil, but the past year I haven't managed to at all. Sure, doodles in my notebook, but nothing serious. I lacked motivation. And then I saw it: a bright red and orange phoenix shooting towards to stars with flames trailing behind its wings and tail, with the Celtic knots built into the bird itself. But it HAD to be in color, and I'm absolutely awful with my color mediums like colored pencils, markers, crayons, etc.

I also have a friend who has discovered she, too, is very artistic at heart, although she's been doing a lot of painting. So I decided that's how I would go about this project, although I've honestly never done much in the way of painting. Once or twice in elementary school, really was it. However, I get my visual artistic side from my father and he's always loved to watch that side of me grow, so when I was visiting him, I explained how I had this amazing idea for my new painting and I started telling him all about the colors and the design and everything. It worked. We ended up walking to my favorite art store ever, Wet Paint, and ended up spending way too much on paint supplies. We decided to settle on acrylics since I was pretty new to painting and oils take much longer to dry, not even taking into account how expensive oils are! There was also a big sale on canvas, so I got a box of ten for a great deal. (I love my stockpile of canvas sitting in my room, it's like it's waiting for me to get another idea.)

So then it began. Prior to this, all I had was a rough sketch. When I got home, I began working on transferring my rough sketch into a clean sketch to put on the canvases. Yes, canvases. See, I didn't exactly mention to my father I was planning on giving away this huge project of mine, so I'm making two. Sort of. I'll get to how that ended up later! (Edit: I never actually get to it later. Sorry, it'll come in the second post with the pictures!) But both sketches were on the two different canvases, fully complete about a week after I had started, only a few days before it was time to go to my father's house again. It was a grueling task, and I remembered why I hadn't found any motivation to draw anything in the past year. It's become too much work and not enough play. But finally, I got to start working with the paints.

I had to experiment quite a bit to figure out what I wanted to do. I had grown up hearing my dad talk about how it's better to have lots of thin layers than one thick layer, so that's what I tried to do. It was a slow process, although less painful than the sketching. After I had finished painting the bird's head, neck, and majority of its body, I was struggling to figure out how to give it a feathered appearance. Then I remembered what the woman in the art store had said....

*Wavey flashback*

She was still standing behind the counter, talking about the big options regarding different paints, "And Acrylics have some texture to them, you can really work with the paint."

*Wavey flashback ends*

That was it! I threw out my father's advice about the thin layers of paint and started mixing more paint together to get a small pool on the plate to dip the brushes into. I applied the colors with thick brush strokes, a little like Van Gough's Starry Night, and then would smooth out the edges to give it a bit of a softer, less dramatic look. This way of painting was fun. In a way, I sort of had my own impressionism revolution by breaking away from the rules about art I've learned. I was jumping away from drawing even though I was good at it, I was ignoring what my amazing artist of a father told me about painting, and I did what felt good to me. And you know what? It showed.

Not only did the painting start looking much more awesome and artistic, but I worked on it much more often and for longer periods of time because it was enjoyable. I finished about two weeks after I started, and I had spent an estimated 13 hours painting. During the process, I'd gotten paint quite literally everywhere. I had it smeared across my palm and elbow, I had paint on both of my cheeks, on my shoulder, under my nails, on my thighs and all over my clothing, carpet, and pillow that I'd been sitting on. But it was so much fun.

And now? The painting is finished. I bought his birthday card on Thursday, and mailed the present off on Friday. The expected arrival date is the 19th, which is perfect. The 19th is a Thursday, so it gives them two days for error before it could be late since his birthday is the 23rd, the following Monday. I am SO EXCITED! I love surprises and I really hope he likes it. I've shown several people a quick shot of the painting I took on my phone, and they've all been rather impressed, so I have a good feeling about this. Now I just have to hold up a little bit longer. I'm so tired of answering "pretty boring" or "I worked on some projects (implying homework projects. I don't like to lie!) today" when he asks how my day went. The painting is currently "IN TRANSIT TO E. SYRACUSE, NY US" and it's just a matter of waiting it out. I can keep my mouth shut a little longer... just a little longer.

And thank you, for rekindling the sleeping bed of coals into a living, breathing, raging, artistic flame.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

P.S. I'll post a couple pictures here after I know he's gotten the present.

Khol's Contest to Help Schools Like Mine!

Bonjour mes amis,

Today I have to do something I usually wouldn't ever ask of the followers of my blog and the random friends who stop in on occasion. If you haven't heard about it, Khol's (the giant clothing store company) is giving away $500,000 USD to FOUR schools in the U.S. I'm asking you, my lovely, wonderful readers who so kindly comment and leave messages to let me know you enjoy reading my ramblings, to vote for my high school. The ad is posted to the right!

While it's true all schools are always in need of more funding, my public high school is taking a very hard hit. We're losing 8% of our budget next year even though we have a severe overcrowding problem that needs a solution. As a result of this, additional classes, extracurriculars, and our renowned arts programs are taking a hard hit on top of the normal cuts schools deal with. For example, if a class doesn't have at least thirty students register for it, it doesn't happen that year. For this reason I had to skip French 3, and there is no French 5. Our pianist for the choirs was cut, and now the choir director has to attempt to play the piano while conducting, listening for errors, and coming up with new ideas! The stage manager who creates masterpieces for our school plays, musicals, and one acts, who manages lights and sound systems for all of the community events our auditorium is used for, and much, much, more, also was only given the next year to be at the high school before he, too, gets cut.

This is only a small taste of the newest issues are school is facing, beyond the normal running out of paper and that sort of thing. Please, it's a really simple action to click on the ad to your right to vote for Prior Lake High School, and potentially help us win $500,000.

Merci beaucoup et À demain,

Mlle Delphine

An Unsent Letter

August 9, 2010

2:00 a. m.

Bonjour mon ami,

Today is the first day I have ever cried tears of joy in my life, and it was because of you. It was late and I had nothing to do when I saw someone mention Love Gives Me Hope so I went and read all of the cute posts. All twenty-four pages until I was caught up. I cried because not only were they as precious as ever, but I realized I no longer was envious of the love these people know. I have someone amazing who makes me feel beautiful and wonderful and loved, every single day. And you don't even know it.

Avec toute mon affection,

Mlle Delphine

Voyageurs National Park - Jour Deux

Bonjour mes amis,

If you missed the first day, you can read about it here.

Saturday I got up bright and early again, but this time not until 6:30 or so. It was still cloudy but wasn't raining. While my parents and I waited for our hosts to wake, we went for a little cruise on the boat, which was fun but chilly. When we got back, they started to wake up and delicious French toast was served!

Then began the grand tour, my favorite part of the trip. We got back into the boat we rented while the family friends climbed into their boat, and they showed us around. First we headed up to Kettle Falls, which was probably about an hour boat ride away. Granted, our boat only had 40 HP so it wasn't fast. I loved this part because we actually crossed the border and got to be in Canada!!! I know, I'm a dork, but I'm a daydreaming dork who got the tiniest taste of her dream. The cool thing about Kettle Falls is that you can *only* fly or boat in, or snow mobile in the winter. Anyways, we walked up the trail and it lead to an overlook of the dam (I assume this would be the "falls" bit), and thus a little more of Canada.

We stopped in the hotel at the top of the hill with an awesome warped room. The floor wasn't just normally warped, it seriously bent down and was all crazy, it's hard to describe without a picture. Anyways, we walked around the gift shop but there wasn't much interesting. However, there was another little store at the bottom where the boats were parked and I noticed they had the same pure jam there as at the hotel. Because I wandered to look at them, I noticed on the bottom shelf there was a white can with big red text, something "Canada's." It was jam again, but it really was a Canadian jam; the back of the can had English and French. I bought it. (Edit: The jam is AMAZING.)

On the way back, we went down the Ash River and stopped to eat at the Ash Ka Nam. It was okay, but it literally took them an hour to get us our food and it really wasn't busy. We went onwards down the river and saw there was a waterfall with a man on the top, so one of our hosts, Terry, asked if we wanted to go up. I said sure, but wasn't that enthused. We ended up having to park the boats on the shore and climbing up the side of the hill, literally using feet and hands to get up some of the steep rock towards the top. I wish I would have thought to get some pictures on the way up!

It was so much fun! I had a huge grin on my face, despite the fact I wasn't graceful crazy enough to leap off of the log that had been split and was therefore unstable onto the highest point. Still, I was close to the top.

After that adventure, we made one more stop at the Ellsworth Rock Garden. It truly was a garden of rocks! The pictures couldn't begin to bring it justice, so I'll hope that my writing and your imagination can work together a bit here. Firstly, it was built on a hill so it had things at all sorts of levels. This man spent 21 years of his life designing and arranging rocks to make statues that depicted things like Native Americans, ducks, whales, etc. They were shockingly easy to recognize. The part I felt was especially awesome was the fact that he had built little stone walls. Short enough you could step over, but they added almost an Irish feel to the area, and it sort of guided how he wanted you to see things. Unfortunately it's been vandalized a lot since he passed away, but there are volunteers working to restore it to its former glory.

We headed back to our tent and the other couple's cabin, where the husband, Terry, got a soda out of the cooler. I was just standing there minding my own business, when he flicks water at me! He was looking at me kind of sideways and sarcastically said, "Oops, sorry. Did I get you wet?" And did it again. I dove for the cooler and cupped my hands to get some, but he had already run away. I called him out for being a chicken, and then awaited my moment for revenge.

Everyone was sitting at the beach and the couple's daughter wanted to go swimming, so she ran to get her swimsuit on. Mel, Terry's wife, asked if I wanted to as well, and I figured that would be best since Terry was already threatening to throw me in the lake. I've never been thrown in a lake before, so I figured I might as well go in prepared. When I returned in my bathing suit, Terry was at the end of the dock with his daughter. Muahahahahahahaha! I walked down to the end of the dock before taking off the pants I'd thrown on over my swim suit, and set down the water bottle I brought with (Yeah I know, it's suspicious, but I was planning on him being down at the beach!). Then I took my pants and water bottle, and set the jeans down on the bench next to Terry and asked him a question.

"Do you have a couple of towels? Because you're going to need one!" and then dumped the water on him. He jumped up and threw me in the lake, as promised... and then threw my jeans in too! But that was fine because it was sunset and I wasn't going anywhere that night. It was so worth it.

That evening, storm clouds came in. We sat at the end of the dock to watch the lightning. Well, sort of. Terry's family sat on one bench while my parents sat on another on the other side of the dock, so I sat down between them. Once it was dark enough for the stars to be easily seen, I laid back and looked at them while everyone else admired the lightning and chatted. It was really cool to listen as the storm slowly made its way towards us. The water started out gently lapping at the dock and shore, but over the course of an hour or so, the wind picked up and changed directions several times, with the water becoming more and more aggressive. I can now understand why it's so easy to connect a storm at sea to anger! Water really is a physical form of passion.

Afterwards, we went in and chatted for a bit before heading to bed. I know it probably doesn't sound like that amazing of a vacation to you guys, but I haven't gone anywhere in five years and this place was absolutely beautiful! Everyone was happy and having fun or relaxing. It was a lovely weekend, though tiresome.

Hope I didn't bore you too much!

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Voyageurs National Park - Jour Un

Bonjour, mes amis!

Due to my desire to ramble and tell details, I'm splitting this into two posts, one for Friday and the other for Saturday. We left early today (Sunday) so there's not much to tell.

Friday morning I woke up bright and early. Around four a.m., actually, although I didn't get out of bed until five a.m. We left ten minutes after six and during the five hour drive to Lake Kabetogama we stopped once to have brunch around ten or eleven a.m at boring old Perkins. We fueled up with a station that gets its gas from BP. I felt a little guilty.

As we turned onto the road that would take us to the resort we were staying at, my parents stopped at this giant fish thing. You know, one of those photo-op things where it's 9817392871928372 feet in the air and you're supposed to get on it? Yeah, no. I'm afraid of heights. They were kinda mad, I think.

Continuing on, we arrived at the little resort. When I say resort, I don't mean giant fancy hotel, I mean a cute little office building with some boats and cabins/trailer spots for rent. (Later it would prove to be gorgeous. You can see the live webcam of the dock I love here.) It was cloudy and drizzling as we put up the tent, and the rain kept building. I went for a little walk before we wandered into some tourist spots and stores looking for trinkets to buy. One of them had an awesome compass but I was talked out of getting it, and ended up buying a map of all of Voyageurs National Park. Pretty exciting start to my day.

Then we went to the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary. It was so cool! You get bused into the site where there is a two-story tall deck, complete with a gift shop, and then you can see the black bears that wander in.

There were five cubs in this one tree. So ador

able.

There were an estimated 30 bears in the area while we

were there. This was just one little section of the area.

Story has it, Vince was a logger who was just trying to earn some money for his poor family, and turned out to be very good at it. He'd hire loggers to work for him, and he'd cook sourdough pancakes for them in the morning. They then went out to work, but when Vince returned, his house was being raided by hungry bears! He shot hundreds of bears, so many he lost count. Finally when he thought they were all gone, he went back to his house only to discover more bears. So he changed his plan of attack.

Instead of trying to kill the bears, Vince set out some sourdough bread just for the bears, away from his home. It worked. He quickly became attached to the bears and kept feeding them well into his old age. As he got older, he started to worry about what would happen to his bears after he passed away, so he and some others founded The American Bear Association.

Since it was a good cause, I ended up buying a comfy new hoodie and a new book bag for the coming school year (Pray I never wear my sweater to school, with the matching bag!).

We didn't do much else that evening. We tried to have a bonfire but everything was too soggy, it rained literally all day. I went out to the dock and laid on a bench to look at the stars. They were gorgeous, and I saw my first shooting star! Four, to be exact.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Week Two: Exercise

Bonjour mes amis,

It's 10:30pm and I have to be up at 4am to dog pile into the car for a trip up north for the weekend, so this will be a short post with no French.

I was bad again, but in a different way. I worked REALLY hard Monday... which left me sore all week. In fact, my legs are *still* sore. I didn't work out at all the rest of the week, I decided I should let my poor abused body recover. But next week I've got it down. Not too much, not too little, juuuuuuuust right (Goldie Locks, anyone?). I hope.

I'll post again upon my return to share about the trip to Lake Kabby!

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Mission gâteau individuel de paradis

Bonjour mes amis,

If you are not currently drooling at the image of the gâteau individuel to your left, you certianly should be. My friend, E, over at Upon A Whim has been mentioning this little bakery called Sweets Bakeshop she saw for a while now and has been wanting to stop inside. Unfortunately we weren't able to make the trip together because she left on her vacation today. I did, however, stop by with my father just a few minutes ago.

This cupcake is the one I tried, titled the "Peanutbutter Cup" quite simply, and the ones my father and brother had, "Black and White" and "Triple Chocolate" were also bluntly named. But why would you need to be creative with the name when the cupcake itself is heaven?

Now, I've had good food before, the kind where as soon as you see the chef you look to see if they're carrying the famous dish with them (alas, they usually are not). But these cupcakes have an entire league of their own. They also, unfortunately, have an entire price range of their own. Each regular sized cupcake is $3.00 a peice, and you can get mini-cupcakes for $1.50 each. As you can imagine, the mini-cupcakes are bite-sized.

This of course, has spurred me to go on a mission. I must find a way to recreate these divine wonders! The first thing I noticed was how fluffy and soft the icing (frosting?) was; it was sort of like the consistancy of whipped cream. I think I'll probably start with that.

E, when you get home, we have a lot of baking to do.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

Week One: Exercise

Bonjour mes amis,

Right now it's Thursday evening, meaning tomorrow is Friday, meaning that my first week of attempting to exercise will be over. I must admit I'm rather disappointed with myself. I'm so lazy. Once I get going I'll work hard and feel great afterwards, but the problem is getting started! Monday I ran on the treadmill, Tuesday I didn't have time, last night I went for a run in the park, and tonight I did nothing even though I had no excuse. Tomorrow I'm going to run on the treadmill again, I think. Then I'll be at my dad's house for the weekend, and on Monday I'll return to starting the Slim in 6 program. I used it over spring break and it was an incredible work out!

As far as food goes, my only bad day was Tuesday. In the early afternoon a friend treated me to Dairy Queen and then after dinner, E's family served chocolate ice cream with raspberries. It was so good. Other than that I ate pretty well!

Next week I have to work harder. I promised a friend I would, which by itself should be enough motivation, but beyond that I don't want to be the last one to finish come gym (Aerobics, to be specific) in the fall. First time I've had any gym class since Freshman year. Ick. Plus, I just plain need to get in shape. I can do this!

À demain,

Mlle Delphine

No "If"s, "And"s, or "But"s

Bonjour mes amis,

Be it reading poems (Wild Geese by Mary Oliver), listening to music (Taking Chances - Glee, Cave In - Owl City), glancing at the school website ("The real meaning of travel, like that of a conversation by the fireside, is the discovery of oneself through contact with other people." -Paul Tournier), or even reading Facebook statuses ("Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain), I am constantly reminded of my dream to go to school in Québec.

So I'm going to do it. No "if"s, "and"s, or "but"s about it. Where there is a will, there is a way, and boy do I have the will. If it means I don't get a nice pair of shoes or new clothes for the school year, if it means I have to continue playing my piano by sitting on my bed, if it means I have to hang out at home and save some gas money, if it means I have to skip lunch here and there... I'm going to find the money. I'm going to go to Québec for school. I filled out a few more job applications tonight and I'm going to pick some others up tomorrow.

I'm going to make my dreams into reality.

À demain,

Mlle Delphine