I, like Lindsay, messed up the "Interesting Things."

So, here goes:

1. My parents are Olympic medalists in rowing. For anyone who wants to know, they were in the '88 and '92 (Seoul and Barcelona) Olympics. My dad won a bronze and my mom won a silver. Yes, that's how they met, and no, I don't row. For anyone who doesn't know, GBS doesn't have a crew team. Oh, and my mom rowed in a four and my dad in an eight.

2. I was born in England. Yes, I can imitate an English accent (I had one until I moved here.) We moved when I was six. And I've heard all the British jokes from when we were studying the Revolutionary War, so DON'T EVEN START.

3. I adore volleyball, beach volleyball, basketball, skiing, sailing, and track. I'm on the volleyball team and obviously I sail. For whoever's wondering, Sammie and I are going to be the next Misty May and Kerri Walsh. (Please tell me you know who they are...) I'm not the only sailing freak at GBS/N!!! I know two people who also have lake houses from both schools and who I sail with, so ha!!

4. Favorites

Favorite movie: John Tucker Must Die. No question.

Favorite book: Twilight, His Dark Materials and pretty much any fantasy/fiction

Favorite TV show: I barely watch any TV, but I do love Gossip Girl, Friends and Grey's Anatomy.

Favorite song currently: Shake It by Metrostation. (Don't ask.)

Favorite song of all time: Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down. I don't care how old it is, it's still totally awesome and is the top-played song on my iPod. I also love 1985 by Bowling for Soup.

Favorite food: Pasta with my mom's cream sauce.

Favorite dessert: I have a total sweet tooth for candy, cake, homemade cookies (see below post,) and ICE CREAM. Seriously, if someone ever wants to marry me, all he has to do is whip out a carton of Fisch Food from Ben & Jerry's and it's no question. Pies....I love apple/pumpkin pie, but otherwise they do nothing for me. Same goes for strudels and other things like that.

Favorite color: Bright yellow. But I hate actually wearing yellow.

Favorite numbers: 7 (just my lucky number), 13 (my sailing/family number), 22 (my birthday)

Favorite artist: 3 Doors Down, Good Charlotte

5. In 4th grade I went on a 6-month trip. We went to...

• Colorado to ski for three months
  

While in Colorado, we spent our first month in Telluride. Then we visited Boulder, Winter Park, and Steamboat during our car ride to Snowmass, where we rented another house for the rest of our stay. Thus, I'm a double black diamond skier.

• Caribbean to sail for two weeks

Halfway through our trip in Colorado we went to the Caribbean for a family sailing trip. We rented two huge sailboats and a bunch of my uncles, aunts, and grandparents came along for the ride. We did the same thing during this year's Spring Break.

• Hawaii

On our way to New Zealand and Australia, we stopped in Hawaii for a week. Our family friends the Williams came along with us. We visited Maui.

• New Zealand

We rented a camper van for three weeks in New Zealand, driving all around both islands and visiting all of the campsites. I have the most vivid memories of New Zealand. I remember the gorgeous waterfalls and fun campsites (one had a giant "pillow" trampoline that was awesome to bounce on.)

• Australia

First, we visited Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef. The snorkeling was amazing and the beaches fantastic. I remember eating breakfast and having a crane eat my sausage! Then, we traveled into the rainforest, stopping at a fun hotel where we stayed in cabins. They had huge spiders that were about the size of your face, and little ones EVERYWHERE. We took a jungle tour, "tree-swinging," or zipping through the canopy harnessed to a wire, swung on a real vine, saw crocodiles, and bit an ant's butt. (It was green, and it tasted like limes.)

• Hawaii

We stopped at Hawaii again on our way back, spending another leisurely week on the big island. We visited Kilauea, Maui's volcano, and saw the lava oozing down its sides. I remember seeing the silvery, just frozen lava and the slow-moving red lava towards the front. We stayed at a unique hotel with seven pools (Not really. They had seven small pools that fed into each other.)

6. Okay, I'll give a brief explanation of how I sail so I no one gets confused. Everyone has a letter and a number on their sail. The letter represents your lake, for example, my lake's letter is "A." The number is whatever you want. (Mine's 13.) During the summer, I race other boats on my lake and from other lakes.

7. I am obsessive-compulsive about my cookies.

Cookies

Well, I don't know about you guys, but that blog title would catch my interest! I just wanted everyone to know that I can talk about things other than sailing: baking is one of my many other loves. Rebekah and Lindsay know this (or at least I hope they do after the amount of cookies I brought to school last year, even through the "no sugar" rule.) But yeah, I love it. It all started in fourth grade when my Girl Scout troop did a thing on making cookies. My friend Elise and I got on this baking kick, and I've loved it ever since. 

By far the most popular cookie I make are my chocolate chip ones: that's right, Vicki! But those get kind of boring after awhile. So the other regulars I make are snickerdoodles, oatmeal scotchies, and sugar cookies simply because I love to decorate them. During Christmas I make gingerbread cookies or Great Spritz cookies (basically sugar cookies,) that we lay out with the carrots for Santa and his reindeer. ;) I'll use any excuse just to make cookies (or other baked goods,) I just made blondies yesterday. I also adore making scones.

Haha, I'm probably making you all hungry right now. But that's the funny thing about me: I'll eat one or two cookies, and lick the mixer, but otherwise I don't eat many. My family takes care of that for me. I'm also terribly picky: I refuse to eat cookies that aren't homemade and that aren't fresh out of the oven, unless they're Paradise Bakery molasses cookies. 

So you guys have lots to look forward to when my birthday rolls around!

My Poem

First Day of School 

Awesome summer’s over,

                        Fall’s begun.

A whole new crazy year,

                        Can I get through another one?

 

Groovy binders,

            Laughing teens.

The first day of school should be fun,

 By all means.

 

Yet I don’t feel fantastic,

            And not joyous either.

I feel out of place,

I think I need a breather.

 

All my school friends,

            Seem dandy and lively,

But on the contrary,

I feel rather lonely.

 

The royal kings at these school,

            Wouldn’t look at me twice.

A freshman, a girl,

Doesn’t matter if she’s nice.

 

Amazing adjectives,

            Don’t change my terrible mood,

It doesn’t matter how much he jumps or how well he coughs,

I still seem to brood.

 

Neither her machoness or the monster scare me,

            And leprechauns aren’t real anyways.

No matter how nautical, no matter how pious,

Her rainbow just doesn’t brighten my day.

 

No matter how well she does the Macarena,

            Or how much muscle he has.

Even kite-flying doesn’t interest me,

Or kleptos, or victories, or all that jazz.

 

At least, not until,

            A jubilant joke makes me laugh (heehee),

My silly sad thoughts stop.

 

Some scrumptious lunch,

            Mixed with my rambling thoughts,

Some marvelous stories,

Makes for a magical first day of school.