Post Pittsburgh

Feeling: Regret
Now Playing: "Empty"- Metric

I don't recall ever going on vacation with my parents without getting lost. Rest assure, it took us awhile to find our hotel in the outskirts of Pittsburgh. The drive wasn't very interesting except it was raining like crazy for majority of the time; abit scary actually. I wanted to sleep for the most part but failed. It seems though whenever I do drift off, we end up stopping or reaching our destination, and I can't fall back asleep again.
The town we stayed in was called Carnegie, located on a mountain. We finally found Radisson on top of a hill and got into our room around 11. I made some tea and watched Letterman for awhile before my dad turned it off. I had a hard time falling asleep; my parents' snoring being a major cause. After talking on the phone and putting on some music, I was finally able to sleep; by that time, it was probably 3 already.

I woke up at 9 the next morning. After checking out, we headed into Pittsburgh for an exciting day under the rain. We drove down Forbe Ave. and passed University of Pittsburgh and its famous Tower of Learning, the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Hall, and finally Carnegie Mellon itself.
The building looked janky and was an unpleasant beige color with green trim things. The insides weren't better off either. Pittsburgh, being an old mining town, might contribute to why the insides of CMU looked like the inside of an old factory.
The only good building was the Social Science building, which had nice aesthetic appeals and could pass off as a museum. The recreation/food hall wasn't too bad either. I really liked the wall mural on the 2nd floor, which was an aerial view of Pittsburgh drawn in pencil that extended across the entire sets of walls. Around 12, We had brunch at the 2nd floor dining room; it was quite tasty, but probably because I was starving at that point from not having had any food all day.
Afterwards, we continued our tour of the campus. My dad wanted to go into every building and check out the class rooms. That became very tedious and boring after a certain point, but fortunately the campus was fairly small, and we actually covered all the grounds by the afternoon.
The most depressing moment of the day happened in the dining hall. On my way out after lunch, I picked up a student publication to discover the saddening news:

Friday April 21
concert: Phantom Planet & The Secret Machines, CFA Lawn, 7:30 pm,
FREE!

I've been wanting to see Phantom Planet for awhile, and I probably missed my most perfect chance. Secret Machines is a decent band too for the most part, I probably would have enjoyed them also. But no, life has to be hard.

I was pretty tired by the afternoon; it seemed as though I've been walking around forever. On our way out of the campus, we passed by the Conservatory and decided to stop by since there was an orchid show going on. Walking through the green house and taking pictures of flowers made me feel relaxed and happy. This was probably the best part of the day. Afterwards, we drove into the city and walked around before it started raining again. The rain was a killer, killing off our motivation to do anymore exploring; Off we went, good bye Pittsburgh. I'm not sure if I would be back ever again, but the experience hasn't been too terrible.

The Man The King The Girl The Spider

Mood:discouraged
What's on: "Take Me Out"- Franz Ferdinand

I really should be sleeping. I've been meaning to post after the match I was so looking forward to playing in. I lost, 1-8. The team lost, 0-5. I felt pretty down afterwards and for the rest of the day even though our performance wasn't too bad. I guess losing is pretty bitter regardless. I lied to Tim about leaving for Pittsburgh early so I could skip practice. I do feel guilty, but I wasn't in a mood to play tennis again.
I wasn't in a mood to go to school either. I skipped band on Wed., because I've been meaning to do so. I dislike all the music we're playing right now. The contest prep has been extremely redundant and boring, and I'm not even going to it. Since I didn't really have a good place to go, I went home and told my parents I wasn't feeling well from eating too many Bremer Cookies (from tennis treat bag). After a bit of nap and food, I returned for international Relations. Diplomacy finally ended after a really long and dumb negotiation. We got the day to rant about the whole ordeal.

Thursday was 4/20, and of course everyone was making lame jokes about it. I skipped tennis practice that afternoon and grabbed food with Clif at Loveshack. It was empty as usual, probably because none can afford the $6 calzones. The weird part was when the manager was dealing business in the table beside us with some food retailer I take it. Doesn't he have an office to do that?
Friday was skip day. I mentioned that I haven't been in a mood to go to school, so I wanted to skip Friday, since I'm leaving for Pittsburgh later and there wasn't much I would have missed. My parents were surprisingly okay with it, so that was a go. I ended up going to 3rd and 4th period, mainly for the calc check. Christine decided to skip band, and we ate at McDonald's before proceeding to drive around campus/Purdue west because she was hoping to catch her college Korean mad crush on the streets---unfortunately, the plan failed.

I spent the afternoon at the library finishing up a government worksheet, which is sad since that's what I would have been doing in class anyways.I didn't get home till 4, which is sad considering that's when I usually get home. So basically, I'm not very good at skipping school. My dad complained about me getting back so late when he never specified what time he wanted me to be back. I took a few minutes to pack for the 2 day trip and headed out: 7 hours of on the road goodness.

To be Continued... (because I really want to sleep now)

Tennis practice gone good?

Mood: no idea
What's on: "Badd Business"-Phantom Planet

I see Wednsdays as a checkpoint of the week. So far, I'm relieved that I didn't fail my calc test, but doing poorly on the Government test probably cancels that out. Calc is still not exciting as we've moved on to estimating functions with poly. Diplomacy is about the same: bad. Even though we managed to win last week, things are going poorly with the point distribution part of the game as everyone is hating on our coalition. I really want to stop caring and let the rest of my group handle it, but I don't know if that's the best approach to keep the winning title.
I haven't been looking forward to tennis thus far this week. I think I speak for most of our team that running miles suck. With out any warning last week, Tim made us run 2 miles on the hottest day yet during practice. He mentioned the next day that we'll be running again this week. Luckily, we haven't had to yet. Practice today was actually quite enjoyable. JV did 12 min. Round Robin matches for seeding of tomorrow's match against Carmel, apparently a formidable opponent that we're playing for the first time. I played doubles with Christine, and our only real challenge was against Liz and Hannah. As our round began, they got up to 4-0 fairly easily and were quite excited. Christine and I eventually got up and we kept a tight score through out the round. The score would tie, and they would get nervous; they would lead by 1, and start cheering hoping the time was up: It was 10 all, and they gained a point to 11. Tim called time after Liz's failed 1st serve. We had to finish out the point, so this was critical. Alas, 11-11. Best part yet, it was my turn to serve, and I haven't been confident/displeased with my serves lately, especially during the Terra Haute North match that we lost to. Keeping under the pressure, I got a nice and light 2nd serve over, which Liz proceeded to hit out. 12-11, we won.
I could tell they were pretty bitter afterwards, but hey, step aside Freshmen.
I played with my dad for awhile around 8. I wanted to work on some returns, but it was more so that I didn't have anything else to do. I'm actually looking forward to the match tomorrow even though Varsity will probably lose...I can still redeem myself by winning.

Really, it's an educational trip: reflection and other

Mood: Tired
What's on: "What Does Your Soul Look Like(Part 1)"-DJ Shadow


Spring break part 2 has ended. My overall attitude is positive.
College anxiety is over for the most part. (Still waiting for some financial packets, if that counts). Not surprisingly, Upenn rejected me. I was half expecting that after getting deferred from ED and didn't really bother sending them financial info (I ran out of space on the FAFSA anyways). So, no hard feelings on that. I was surprised that I got waitlisted at Cornell as opposed to being rejected. I figured getting only 2 emails from the time I sent in my application to the time I got my decision was a good indication that they didn't like me. I do note that I procrastinated the longest with Cornell's app, submitting the barely finished not proof-read supplement essays a minute before the deadline. So, I guess I didn't screw up that much.
The only college left was NYU, and I noticed the opened packet along with the rest of my mail. I don't know exactly how I feel about going there. NYC would be an awesome place to live at but intimidating at the same time.

Looking at tasks to be done this month, I would say I'm going to be busy. More days of school are going to be missed for Robotics, not to mention that it is going to be crazy. Though not finalized, I should probably make some college visits now that I have a few more options.Along with that, deciding a college is going to be the biggest task and challenge. I would rather not think about it now, but I'll have to decide soon enough. I guess the contributing factor for my general apathy in the whole process is the lack of "real" incentive.