"For the First Time in Forever"... Friday

   Hey guys!
   Wow... it sure has been a while! How are you all? I'm doing relatively well, considering the past few days. In case you haven't heard, I was admitted to the hospital on Sunday. On Monday, they removed my port, which was very much infected; and on Wednesday the doctors sent me home with a drain. Today is Friday, and I still have not been allowed back to school! Apparently, I am "contagious" as long as the drain is in. I find that rather odd; wouldn't you think it's the other way around?
   I've been sitting around the house, desperately looking for something fun to do... I've emailed all my teachers so that I can catch up on schoolwork. I've worked a bit on the novel I'm writing (I'll tell you more about that in a later post), I've played piano and violin a bit... Last night, my parents went to church, and my grandpa took me and my siblings out to eat. That was pretty fun. I've also worked A LOT on my anime drawings  that I've been working on! I'm now "taking orders" from some of my friends at school; they tell me the names of anime characters they really like, and I look the characters  up and draw them! I'll see if I can figure out how to upload some of my pictures to this post.
   All right, time for a major announcement! You guys ready? September 20-26 is Mito Awareness Week!!! Make sure to wear lots of green, and if your friends ask why... tell them all about mitochondrial myopathy! If you have any questions for me, about mito or my life with mito, please post them in the comments section! I will be going through and answering them throughout the week. I'm also trying to make a few more short, informational videos... I'll upload them as soon as they're done! And, if you would like some cool ideas for how to spread awareness, you can go to this link: http://www.umdf.org/site/pp.aspx?c=8qKOJ0MvF7LUG&b=7934679
I want to try the Light Bulb Campaign, myself! I wonder if people at my school would buy the light bulbs? Well, you never know until you try, right?
    So, that's about it! I will be posting all throughout Mitochondrial Myopathy Awareness Week. Have a great day, and I'll give you guys an update soon!

These characters are Edward and Winry, from the
anime show Full Metal Alchemist.

Edward and Winry are usually shipped together;
their ship name is EdWin. Aren't they just the
cutest?

This is Romeo, a fire mage from the anime
show Fairy Tail. He doesn't usually have
cat ears... I just thought he'd be cute as a neko!

This is Wendy, also from Fairy Tail. Her magic
type is Air Dragon Slayer (meaning, support and
healing magics). She doesn't usually have
cat ears, either.

I have to say, this one is my favorite! The character's
name is Skylar Val. And unlike the others, she is not
from an anime or manga. In fact... this is one of the
characters from the novel I am writing! I drew her how
I envisioned her. Skylar's a pretty cool girl.

Friday with Friends

    Hey everyone!!
    I don't know about you, but I've been having a pretty fantastic week! Usually, I complain about summer being completely and totally boring... but this week, not so much.
    On Monday, my friends Ameena and Jake went to the library with me (we spent almost as much time talking as we did looking at books!) and then we went back to my house to hang out. I turned on the karaoke machine, and we had a lot of fun singing! ... My sister and I teamed up to get a video of Jake and my brother, James, singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley together. It was awesome!
    After Jake left, Ameena and I did some more karaoke, and then we turned on Just Dance 4. We danced to a couple of songs (she kept winning...!), my mom asked me to go check the mail. That kind of surprised me for a few reasons: It was hot outside; I had a friend over; you have to go down the stairs and walk to the street, then back up the driveway and go on the stairs again to get inside; my brother was right there, and he could have done it! Even though I was a little confused, I walked out onto the front porch -- and saw something even more surprising. There were three cars out in the driveway.
    One of the cars belonged to my mom, and it was normal for it to be there. However, my dad's car was also there, when he should've been at work! I didn't recognize the third car, though the driver did look familiar..... I was getting ready to walk back inside and call for my mom, when the door on the passenger's side of my dad's car opened, and someone stepped out. It took a minute for me to recognize her... but when she said, "Hi Mattie!" and laughed, I realized it was one of my best friends, Carlee!!!
    See, Carlee used to live about five minutes from my house, and we would hang out all the time. But then, because of her dad's job, she had to move -- all the way to Maryland! We email and text all the time, but it's not quite the same. And all summer, we've been trying to figure out a way that she could come visit for a week or so, but every time I asked her about it, she kind of avoided my questions. So I was thinking that I wasn't going to get to see her at all. But apparently, everyone had known about her visit since April -- everyone, except for me!! (Even my brother knew, and he's terrible with secrets!)
    When I realized that it was her, I may or may not have screamed. And it's possible that I might have run down the stairs and tackled her. And then screamed some more. Yes, some of my neighbors were outside, and yes, they were staring. Honestly though, I don't really care if they think I'm crazy... because right now, Carlee is sitting on the couch in my living room!! :) She's staying for a couple of weeks, and flying back home right before school starts. We've already done a lot of fun, crazy stuff together, and we have a lot of time to do even more fun, crazy stuff before she leaves!! So, um, wish my parents luck... because they're the ones who will have to deal with this Dynamic Duo!

~ Mattie (aka Matt Matt, when talking to Carlee)

Speedy Sunday

I know I've already posted two different things this week... but today was so exciting, I just had to tell you guys!
I didn't do a whole lot today. I slept in this morning, and ended up skipping church because I was still kinda tired. My mom and I stayed home while everyone else went; she and I cleaned up some, and then we just sat around (me on my phone, her on her computer). When the rest of the family got home, my parents left to go shopping for school supplies. My siblings and I did a little more tidying up, and then I played around on Facebook and YouTube (I'm watching this awesome anime show called Fairy Tail... I may have gotten my brother addicted to it as well!).
When my parents got back home, my mom told me to go get dressed -- because yes, I was still wearing my pajamas. I asked where we were going... but she didn't really give me an answer, and just sent me to put on some regular clothes. When I came back upstairs, she kinda threw my phone (which contains my learner's permit and library card) at me, and we left. I was still confused, but got in the car anyways.
She drove us to this gigantic church parking lot. Our car was the only one there, and there were no other people around. I started to get excited, figuring out what was going on... and my suspicions were confirmed when she got out of the car and switched seats with me!! My mom showed me how to use the blinkers, put the car in reverse, park, brake, and turn. It was absolutely AWESOME!!!!!
I will admit that I nearly hit the curb. Multiple times. But hey, this was my first time behind the wheel! The fact that I didn't hit anything is pretty impressive -- to me, anyways.
After about an hour or so, my mom asked if I wanted to drive home! I was pretty shocked/excited/terrified, and of course I immediately said yes!! So we took some back roads to get back to our house, driving very. Very. Slowly. When I first saw another car (some guy working for Papa John's) behind us, I kinda freaked out, thinking I would have to start speeding up. Thankfully, he didn't follow us for long, and I never actually had to go faster. Of course, I did face a different, scarier obstacle... cars coming the opposite direction! I may or may not have screamed when I saw the first one. (And the second, and third.)
But, we did make it home without hitting anything! I got awfully close to the curb a few times, but never hit it. I managed to pull into the driveway without driving into the mailbox -- bonus!!!

I wonder if anyone will take me out again tomorrow....
~ Mattie (soon-to-be NASCAR driver!)

Free-verse Friday

When the TV is on, but nobody's really watching,
When the dogs are all laid out on the couch and floor,
When they're hyper and running all over the place,
When you can wear whatever, whenever,
When there's some song you know playing in the other room,
When you can sing along and no one judges,
When it doesn't matter whether your shoes are on or off,
When you just can't find the matching shoe,
When you can read a book in peace and quiet,
When there's no peace or quiet to be found,
When dinner is magically served right on time,
When you have to brave the fridge to find your dinner,
When everyone's arguing over who gets the computer,
When you complain about the phone dying - but it's currently charging,
When someone spills juice on the carpet, but no one knows who,
When no one wants to take the dogs outside ("it's your turn!"),
When you have a headache and shut yourself in your room for an hour, and no one questions it,
When they all welcome you back when you feel better,
When you want to kill anyone who suggests you take a nap,
And when you go pass out on your bed voluntarily around noon the next day...

That's when you know you're at home.

Movie Star Monday

Hey guys!
Even though my birthday was waaayyy back in April, I never really got the chance to celebrate it with my friends! So on Friday, my mom let me have a party with three other girls at the house. I wanted to go all-out.... Hollywood style!
My mom put this really pretty tablecloth on the kitchen table, with a candle in the middle. In fact, there were multiple candles all around the living room! I made little name cards for everyone, and on each card I wrote their full name, as well as their "Hollywood career". For example, since my friend Kathryn is in the middle of writing a book, I made her an author of novels and short stories. Emilia plays the flute, so she was a musician; and Ameena loves any kind of art or fashion, so she became a fashion designer! I was an author and musician.
For dinner we had cheese fondue (and pizza, of course), with sparkling cider to drink and chocolate fondue for dessert! I may or may not have gotten chocolate all over my face at one point.... but it tasted good!
We all played Just Dance 4 on the Kinect, and sang karaoke very, very loudly! We also had many long discussions and debates about this anime show, Fairy Tail, that we all watch. There was a lot of talking about boys, crushes, and boyfriends. And we played Truth or Dare for a while. Some of those dares were crazy...!
Two of my friends left later that night, but Kathryn was able to sleep over! My mom gave the two of us a bedtime of 1:00 am, which was a pretty big deal for me. After all, I usually have to go to bed at 8:30 pm during the summer! In the morning, we talked some and ate French toast before my friend's dad came to pick her up.
I have to say, this was probably one of the best birthday parties ever! I really enjoyed hanging out with my friends and being crazy. Fashionably crazy. Hey, can you name a single star who isn't/wasn't crazy during their career? In a way, pretending to be famous is a whole lot better than actually being famous -- though when I become a best-selling author, I may feel totally different about that. ;-)
I hope that you all had a great weekend, too!! I'm going to try to start posting more often, so be looking for another update from me! Oh, and I would love to hear about what your dream career would be. Please post it in the comments below!! Thanks!
~ Mattie (pianist, violinist, author, artist, movie star)

Terrifying (and terrific!) Tuesday

Hey guys!
So as some of you may have heard... I had a great weekend! I was invited to act in a commercial for the Jim Ellis car dealership -- and I was a zombie! Yep, you read that right.
My dad took me to the dealership, where we would be doing most of the shooting. We were supposed to be there by 7am, which meant that I had to get up at 6 o'clock! On a school day, I don't get up until 7:30, so that was pretty early for me. Before I even got my makeup or costume on, I was already feeling like a zombie!
I'm not going to spoil the "plot" of the commercial for you; you'll have to wait until August and watch it for yourselves! It will start running when the Walking Dead comes back on. Fortunately, it shouldn't be hard to find. I think they're going to play it on Facebook, YouTube, and a bunch of different TV stations. (I'm going to be famous!)
Two guys from the Walking Dead came to do our makeup and costumes! We all looked terrifyingly gore-geous. :) There were eight actors total; two of them were "the couple" and the rest of us were zombies. There were three "featured" zombies and I was one of them! The featured zombies got extra (scary) makeup, and we appeared in more scenes.
With the makeup, some of us literally looked dead! It made it seem like our skin was rotting off... which was both gross and cool. Outside, it was so hot that some of the makeup started to melt! Thankfully, it was mostly fixable. Oh, and it was kind of weird -- when one of the guys started to sweat, his sweat turned orange! But none of the makeup he was wearing was yellow, red, or orange.... strange, right?
About two minutes before we filmed the first scene, we went through Zombie 101: where you learn to act like a zombie in five minutes or less! (I came up with that myself.) They showed us how to walk like the undead -- shoulders slumped, arms dangling, shuffling forwards with one foot dragging. It felt really weird, and some of the others were acting a tiny bit embarrassed, but it was fun too. I thought I did the "zombie stare" really well, if I do say so myself.... the key is to keep your eyes unfocused, and let them just sort of wander.
Almost twelve hours after we started shooting, we finished. My dad and I drove home, where I got to show off my beautiful, grey-green face to the rest of my family. My brother helped me peel it off -- which is more difficult than you would think! The latex/cotton that was around my eyes really didn't want to peel up, but it had no qualms about cracking when I smiled. (In case you were wondering: a room full of smiling zombies on their phones, talking, joking around and waiting for the filming to start looks pretty strange.)

On Sunday, we had a great Father's Day!!! My mom, brother, sister and I all wrote letters to my dad. We gave him subscriptions to magazines about building and woodworking, new clothes, a fishing rod my brother picked out, and a bag of Candy Crush candies -- "chocolatey drops with sprinkles", according to the package. At church, they had popcorn, games, and little photo booths for all the families. There was a drawing for the dads, where they gave away a Big Green Egg to one of the fathers at the church; a man named Pat won. He's an awesome guy, who's really nice, and everyone was really happy for him!

I hope that all of you had a great Father's Day!
Mattie

Spoken-word Sunday

To see today's blog post:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx0U1sPS8k5WVE15MVR6cEpqTE0/view?usp=sharing

Happy Birthday to My Mom!

Today is a very special day....
It's my mom's birthday!! I've kind of started a tradition of writing a poem for people on their birthdays, especially my family members. Because I love my mom so much, and because she's so special to me, I wanted to share this with you guys, too.

Happy Birthday to My Mom

When I’m weak, you take my hand

You pull me up, and help me stand.

You make me laugh when I frown,

And cheer me up when I feel down.

You kiss away my tears at night,

And hug me tight with all your might.

Whether you know it or not,

You’re beautiful inside and out;

Mama, you’re caring and kind,

And that’s what shines throughout!

I don’t know if you understand

How much I appreciate you every day;

How much I love and adore you;

To me you’re perfect in every way.

Thank you for being there for me,

Thank you for showing me what I can be.

Thank you for never going away,

Thank you for being my star during the day.

Thank you for teaching me all that I know,

And thank you for never letting me go.

You’re the best mom ever, and I just want to say:

"I love you, Mommy! Happy Birthday!"

Thrilling Thursday

School today was awesome!!

In math, we had a quiz over logarithms -- which I don't particularly love, but the quiz was actually pretty easy! I finished mine early, and got to read until the end of the class.

In language arts, we had a small-group "Socratic seminar". My friends Emilia, Ameena, and Kaci all teamed up with me. We asked each other questions that we had formed about chapters 27-29 of "To Kill A Mockingbird." (I've finished the book already... and it is amazing!!! I can't wait for the sequel -- go Harper Lee!) While we worked, Kaci tried this new hairstyle from Pinterest on me. It looked really pretty, so I left it in. :)

At lunch, my friend Jake (from State Farm) asked me if I wanted to go to Barnes and Noble with him on Saturday! We both love the same books and authors, and I've just recently finished the second book of an AMAZING trilogy that he recommended to me. When I got home from school today, I asked my mom, and she said that I can maybe go... she has to talk to my dad about it. But I'm feeling optimistic!

In chemistry, my class has been reviewing for their Gateway Test all week. I would have been reviewed with them, but there are two problems with that: one, I haven't taken Biology, which is what the Gateway is going to be about this year; and two, I'm only a freshman, so I'm not taking the Gateway! Today, my teacher set up a game to review pretty much every unit of bio: Nutrition, Cell Processes, Genetics, Energy Transformations, and Ecology Changes. At each station, you and the other 3 or 4 members of your team would have exactly seven minutes to write down everything you knew about that particular subject! I asked my teacher, and she said that even though I don't need to review, I could join the review game. I went and joined my friend Lauren's team. I was kind of surprised -- even without taking the course, I knew a lot of the information!! And when we got to the "Cell Processes" station, I started rattling off vocab terms... "mitochondria", "glucose", "ATP", "cellular respiration", etc. Everything that I said was related to the mitochondria (surprise! I know a lot about that!), and I think that we wrote more than any other team!!

In Yearbook, since we've pretty much finished working on the actual yearbook, I just sat in my chair and read a book. I'm currently re-reading "Ender's Game", because it's really good but I've forgotten some of the details/events.

When we got home, I started on my online work. It's not as fun as my on-campus classes, but it's still school! So I can't dislike it, not really.

Yesterday, I actually got ahead in my Health course, so I didn't have to do any work there today. But I did anyways!! Guess who doesn't have to work on Health tomorrow!

In my AP Human Geography class, I've finally caught up on my work. Ever since my last hospital stay, I've been having a little bit of trouble keeping up. But today, I was right on track with the schedule, and only had one assignment! And the one assignment that I had to complete was looking over a PowerPoint about urban development. I finished pretty quickly.

And I didn't have any homework from my on-campus teachers, so I decided to go on and work on my eADAP (electronic Alcohol and Drug Awareness Program) course. This course is required for me to get a driver's license before I turn 18. I got one lesson and a review done in about 20 minutes, and then I was finished with work for today!

So then, I had enough time to log into my blog account and write to you guys while listening to one of my favorite soundtracks. Lindsey Stirling is an incredible musician... I wish I could play violin like her!! If you've never heard of her before, go on YouTube and listen to the song "Shatter Me" (sung by Lindsey Hale). Then, post any thoughts about her musical skills below. I'm counting on you guys!

Did anyone else have a "Thrilling Thursday"? If so, tell me about it in the comments!

Sunny Saturday

Today is the perfect day to go outside!!
My dad has already gone out and washed his car, and now he's working on a construction project. My mom is currently trying to take a nap on the couch, and my sister is away at her "Spanish immersion camp", where she isn't allowed to speak any English for the entire weekend!!
It's all bright and sunny and warm (no more jackets! yay!). My brother and I went outside earlier, and we acted out some of a book that I read the other day. The book is called "Mistborn," and my friend Jake recommended it to me. (And now, I'm recommending it to you!) James and I acted out a lot of the story line... but we gave ourselves different names than in the actual book, and had slightly different personalities. One great thing about us having great imaginations? We were able to make up some really cool -- and weird -- things, and it was a lot of fun!
After we finished pursuing careers as actors, I came inside, while James went and played with his friend.
I'm kind of wishing that it was a little windier outside... the weather would be absolutely perfect for flying a kite!! But hey, at least we got some sun. :)

Free-verse Friday

Hey guys! Today is a "free-verse Friday", so I thought I'd share a poem with you! I initially wrote this one for my Language Arts poetry portfolio. It's about trying to fit in, trying to be "popular". My entire portfolio was school-related; everything I wrote connected to my high school, or school in general. This one just seemed to fit. My teacher's feedback on this poem was, and I quote, "I do not miss being a teenager." That definitely made me laugh -- but yeah, I get what he meant.

Popularity
Popular.

What does that mean?

Is “popularity” simply the number

Of friends? Or does it mean

The brand of clothing

The type of makeup

You wear,

You buy,

The amount of money

You spend?

Is it the grade you make in your classes?

Popular.

What does that mean?

To be “popular”,

Do you have to dress up

Like a Barbie doll:

Pink

And lace

And sparkles?

Is “popularity” how happy you are,

How successful you’ll be,

The number of times that you laugh?

To be popular, must you

Lie, cheat, twist people’s words,

Act kind, but attack as soon as their back is turned?

Is that what we all

Strive for?

Popular.

What does it mean?

Summary Saturday

Hey guys!!
Wow, it's been a while!!!! I have SO much to share with you. Where to begin?

Let's see.... On Feb. 27, I went to the Regional Science Fair! I was totally excited to be there -- it was my first year EVER going to a science fair, and I was at the regionals!!! My project was on handicapped parking, and studying how many people parked there illegally. It was exciting... and nerve-wracking! I was so happy that my friends Ethan, Analisa, and Shelby were also there, because I had no idea what I was doing (neither did they)! Since we were all from the same school, we all had our project displays set up near each other. When the judges came through, I was super nervous, but it went pretty well! At the awards ceremony that night, I was awarded 2nd place for my category, Behavioral and Social Sciences!!!! 2nd wasn't high enough to move on to the state level, but I'm still proud of it. My first science fair, and I got that high of a score from the judges!!
I also made two new friends -- seniors from another school, named Katie and Ryan. Their project display was right next to mine, so we got to chat for three and a half hours while the judging was taking place! They were awesome. :)
We went to these two "breakout sessions" before lunch and the judging started. The first session was actually pretty interesting -- the guest speaker was teaching us about careers that were pharmacy-related. He had actually worked at the CDC, and gone to school for 25 years before that!! (25 years.... that's a long time! I haven't even been alive that long.) The second session was about how to get into good colleges. Did you know that there is only a 5% chance of someone getting into Harvard or Emory? I didn't!
Also, when we were doing this career expo at the fair, I ran into my friend Maddie (short for Madeline), who I met at summer camp! We hadn't seen each other in 2 years, so we had a lot to talk about!!

The other day at school, all the rising sophomores had to pick their electives for next year, and make sure that they were put down for the right core classes, too. I'm going to be taking all gifted classes again. My social studies and science classes are both AP (I only took one AP course this year)!! And I chose, for my electives: newspaper, yearbook, French, and AV Film Tech. I'm super excited!!!

Because I love poetry so much, and I write it all the time at school, one of the LA teachers told me about this poetry contest that was going on. It's called the Poet Laureate Prize. Any highschooler in the state could submit an original poem! The deadline for the contest was yesterday -- and guess when I wrote my poem? Yesterday!! I had been really nervous, and tried to pick the perfect poem that I had written already, but couldn't choose. So instead, I started to write some! It was difficult -- I'd been experiencing some serious writer's block, which is about the worst thing that can happen to a poet! But somehow I managed to start, and finish, my poem so that I could submit it in time. My poem is a free-verse (or spoken-word) poem, so it doesn't really rhyme. It sounds better when you read it out loud, almost just saying it like a paragraph, instead of a poem. I'm pretty proud of this one. It's my first ever spoken-word, and it's called "Hands Wide Open". I'm pasting it right here so you guys can read it!!!!

More often than we know, stars

Fall – fall out of the sky, beautiful streaks

That disappear long before we are ready for them to go.

More often than we know, flowers

Bloom – bloom in the grass, colorful dots

That die and fade long before we are ready for them to go.

Keep this in mind as you travel through life;

Walk through life with your eyes

Wide open – open, looking all around you,

Trying to notice those small occurrences, those examples of

The butterfly effect, shooting stars, blooming flowers.

Walk through life with your arms

Out – arms out, with your hands open,

Trying to catch the fairy dust and glitter that we lose sight of

As we age.

Yes, if you walk through life like that you will

Probably get something in

Your eye, but that’s ok – everyone cries sometimes.

Yes, if you walk through life like that you will

Certainly catch pain, hurt, and blisters, but that’s ok – because

If you don’t reach out in the world, how will anyone else know

That there is someone who cares, someone

Who can help ease their pain?

And if your eyes are closed and your arms tucked in,

You will never see the butterfly effect occurring, you will be invisible to those around you.

Don’t let yourself be the one burning out,

Instead be the one who burns the brightest in

The sky.

Ok, now moving on to another subject. My mom gave me the idea of starting a "vlog" on here, and naming each day. Like, you all know about Throwback Thursday, right? Well, I would do things like Medical Monday, Free-verse Friday, and (like today) Summary Saturday. Whenever anyone comments on my posts, I would respond on a Feedback Friday.

What do you guys think of this? And if you have any ideas for what I can use for some post titles, please post them in the comments!! I would love to hear any of your thoughts/opinions!

Have a great rest of the weekend, guys!!!!