Friday, April 27, 2012

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Pancakes

    We go to school for eight hours a day. Eight class periods of lectures, tests, quizzes, projects, basically cramming as much knowledge as your brain can take. Needless to say, I think the average high school student's mind is mildly fried by the end of a full day of school. This is why I think that everyone should have a lunch period. If I took eight classes straight through the day, I'm not sure what I would do. My lunch period is what I look forward to in my day. It's a time when I can shut off my mind for 49 minutes, sit with my friends, and let my brain ease off of overdrive.
    I'm going to preface the beginning of this story with the fact that I sit with three of my favorite people in the world during my lunch. They're the kind of friends I don't really have to worry about what I say when I'm around, because no matter how stupid it may be, we can all just laugh about it. Now, we may not have the most intellectual conversations in the world...but that doesn't meant that they're not the most entertaining in the world. We spent our entire lunch period today inserting the word "pancake" into movie titles, band names, etc. For example, Blink 182 becomes Blink 18pancake. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows becomes Harry Potter and the Deathly Pancakes. Sir Mix A Lot is Sir Mix A Pancake. I could go on and on.
    When I told my Mom about this lunch conversation, she gave me that "you're a stupid teenager" face. We've all gotten it from our parents at one point or another. But honestly, I don't care that those 49 minutes consisted of possibly the most pointless conversation of my life. During this time, I did not have a stressful thought about my upcoming physics test. I didn't dwell on the fact that I haven't started studying for AP tests yet. All I did, was think of great movie titles that we could drizzle in butter and syrup. Everyone needs to have a time in their day when they can kick back, let go of their worries, and simply discuss The Girl With The Pancake Tattoo.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Hopping Down The Bunny Trail

     Happy Easter to all! At the moment, I hope that you're scouring your house or backyard for hidden pastel eggs, or indulging in your basket full of chocolate, or sharing a wholesome brunch with people that you love. However, is it just me, or is Easter one of those holidays that I just forget about. There's nothing wrong with it, it's a perfectly lovely holiday. We get Friday off of school, I love treasure hunts, and I love brunch. So what is it that makes this holiday so forgettable to me?
     I've pondered the memorability of this holiday several times, and I've come to one conclusion. There are just too many darn things I don't understand about the holiday! Obviously, Easter is quite the religious holiday. Coming from a religiously neutral family doesn't really help me in understanding the technical aspects as to what happened on this day that made it so special. I know that it starts with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), where you feast and party and sin until the sun goes down. Then on Ash Wednesday, Lent begins, where you give up something you regularly indulge in. Then there's Good Friday, which who even knows what's happening on that day? Then on Easter Sunday, Lent is over and an over sized bunny invades your home and leaves eggs. Excuse me for being confused.
     Now this brings me to my biggest confusion. The eggs. If it's an Easter Bunny that is leaving you these little treats...why the heck is he leaving you eggs? Am I the only one who's perplexed by this? Bunny's do not lay eggs. Where did they get these eggs? Were they stolen? Is the Easter bunny really a bandit, nabbing eggs from innocent birds' nests?
     Don't get me wrong, I really do like Mardi Gras, and Good Friday, and Easter, and all that jazz; they're very enjoyable holidays. It's just that every year it seems they just sneak up on me. I'm always counting down to holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, however Easter just seems to go right under my nose every year. In order to cure this lapse in memory, I think it's about time I do some reading up on the true significance of Easter. We've all heard the Christmas stories told and retold since before we can remember. We know the tale of the first Thanksgiving by heart. Now I think it's the Easter Bunny's turn, it's time to learn about his origins and culture.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Can't Pick Your Family

   Everyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty big on family. Being honest, my parents and sisters are some of my best friends. We're one of those families that eats dinner together every night, we tell each other about our days, spend weekends going to restaurants and movies together, etc. Usually when I tell friends about how much I love my family, they look upon it with envy. However, there is another element to family that they don't take into account. Extended family.
    It's Easter weekend, so naturally, a lot of my friends' families are getting together. So all day Thursday, all I heard was how much my friends love their cousins. They tell me that their cousins are some of their best friends, they love spending time with them, their aunts are like second mothers to them, they can't believe their extended family lives so far away. Unfortunately, my extended family isn't quite as close.
   I realize that every family - no exceptions - have that crazy uncle, or eccentric grandma, or something of the sort. Everyone has their family drama they have to deal with. However, my extended family happens to have a lot of that kind of drama. Luckily, my parents, sisters, and I try to stay out of it as much as we can. But regardless of what we may want to think, they are our family. They're our flesh and blood, however hard that may be to accept. Dealing with family drama is never fun or easy. For the most part, in my case, it's just embarrassing and extremely disappointing. However, at some point, I realized that I just have to accept that it is what it is. You can pick your friends, but you cannot pick your family, as hard as you may try.
    In times of family drama, I try to keep in mind how much I adore other aspects of my family. I shove thoughts of scandal and heartache out of my head, and replace it with good times we've had, and the better times that will come in the future. Sometimes it can be difficult not to roll your eyes at family dinners when your crazy aunt goes on a rant about subjects far passed everyone's comfort zone. But you just have to accept that everyone has their own brand of family crazy, and that is the rule, not the exception.