My Heater Almost Blew Up Today

Yes people, you read that right.

I was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching Police Women of Cincinnati while my dad stood in the kitchen checking his phone. Suddenly, without warning we heard a scary whirring noise, similar to the one Buddy from Elf makes when trying to explain what the heater sounds like to his dad.

Moments later we started smelling smoke. My dad kicked his butt into gear and ran to the basement. As if by fate, my mom called. I answered and the conversation started with "HI MOM CANT TALK RIGHT NOW THE HOUSE IS MAKING A WEIRD SOUNDS AND SMELLS LIKE FIRE!!!"

probably not very comforting.

Anyways, while still on the phone I run downstairs to the utility room where dad is standing looking like he's about to pee his pants. He's fiddling with the heater and yells

"Eden Go Up stairs and turn the heater down!"

I run upstairs. The heater is dead. The entire house is smokey.
I book it like roadrunner down to the basement, sure to find that my dad will either be.
a. Dead
b. having an asthma attack
c. yelling at me to go wake up my brother and grab the fire box to evacuate.

but he's still standing there, looking like his pants are wet, and the whirring noise has stopped. Already I can feel the air thinning back to normal.
What happened, according to my dad, was that the fan which blows heat through the house was dead, causing it to start and fail, hence the whirring noise. Apparently when that happens, just like in your computer, it starts to burn. hence the smoke.

Realizing that I still have the phone in my hand, slightly shaken I say: "Okaymomeverythingsfixedcan'twaittoseeyouwhenyougethomeBYE." and hang up.

So the house is fine, and everyone needs to go change their underwear...but dad turned off the heater so we SHOULD be all good. However, now all the windows are open to air out the smoke smell so it's about -20 degrees inside and we can hear the coyotes from the field howling their heads off. Honestly, we moved into the house and things have just been getting weirder and weirder. So...I guess the final note here is: If I'm not alive tomorrow morning, please make sure someone feeds my cat.

~Eden

Lean On Me

when you're not strooonnnggg
and I'l be your frieeenddd. I'll help you caaaaryy on. for, it won't be loooong
till I'm gonna need, somebody to leaaaannnn on

All singing aside this is actually kind of a serious post.

At first, I didn't really have an idea for it. The only thing was Lean On Me being stuck in my head, seeing as how we are singing it in choir. then it occurred to me.
insight.

In my last post I mentioned how I was never able to picture myself, or my life, outside of high school. Which led me to believe that there WAS no life outside of high school. Up until this very day I pretty much wrote this off as a universal truth. Today I began to face the reality of how not only will MY life will continue to go beyond the asbestos-covered walls of NHS, but the lives of my peers will continue as well. An honestly, it makes me all the more excited to think that soon I won't have to live in a world where not only is everyone super obnoxious, but where you don't feel like your life revolves around doing homework.

Where will my fellow classmates be in five years? ten? twenty? fifty? it's crazy to think that the guy that sits behind me in physics could be the next president (actually that's probably a lie, he's a dolt) or that the girl next to me in choir could be as famous as Lady Gaga...minus the meat suit. They'll all have careers, kids, perhaps an affair or two. kidding...that was supposed to be funny.

It's hard to tell if the people we rely on most now will continue to serve the same purpose and bring the same joy when as we go through our lives. Perhaps we will lose them, or misuse them, and new ones may come along and show us new adventures and new love. I hope that in my life my friends, or maybe just some of them, end up being with me for a very long time.

I look at adults in my life, my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and see that even though very few of their friends remain, due to geographic distance, age, or communication disconnection, they still live a great life.

I believe that friends in high school are really essential to the social growth and change that occurs. It's a scary and somewhat confusing process, and without people to confide in or help you in whatever way possible, it becomes ten times the task you originally thought it was.


I'm not even sure that the concept fits that well with the song Lean On Me, but hey, it's the words are true. well all need someone in our lives to help us carry the loads we lug around, whether they help by listening or making you laugh they are still important.

Just at this very moment I've decided something. At least once a week I will post a deep insightful post about life with the song lyrics as a title. Genius? Hell yes.

I.B. Signing my life away?

As second semester of sophomore year is starting, us Pre-Ib kids are making the critical decision to either STAY in IB or switch into AP. I'm proud to say that today I finalized my decision....
drum roll please...

I am doing IB.
Though i don't think that it's the big shocker you think it is. I'm a smart kid, and I really don't mind school. Also, it was kind of difficult to compare the two, considering that the AP world is about as foreign to me as Madagascar was to the zoo animals in that crappy dreamworks movie.

Moving on.

All this IB hubub is making me think more and more about the future, and my life outside of high school...and college for that matter. I've never pictured myself getting old. I've always imagined myself the sparkling creature you see today, wrinkle-free and not on anyone's pay roll.

But I guess things change and it's about as inevitable as death and taxes. All these thoughts evoke the questions: How to I make the most of my life? What should I do to make ME happy?

I guess the key is to take it step by step. Right now? Well, my next step is the spring break trip to Europe. The step after that? Turning 16 the week after, and consequently obtaining a license...and therefore obtaining...

FREEDOM!

High School Pet Peeves

I really love high school. I do. I mean, I like being social, seeing my friends, and I say, with much hesitation, I kinda dig learning. With the exception of a few subjects. But sometimes....grrrRgRRRRGRRRRRRR. People or things make me upset. Here's a list of the things that make me want to punch small furry animals.

1. People who walk too slow in the hallways:
Seriously, I KNOW we have 10 minutes to get to class, but if there's 2 minutes left and I have to get across the school, because my last class got out late, the last thing I need is rows upon rows of people who are moving at a snail's pace because they can't stand to be far away from each other. SERIOUSLY. My granny could out-stroll you.

2.Awkward Hall Lovers:
This term was coined by my dear friend Greta. In short, these are the couples who cling to each other in the halls during passing periods and sit there fondling each other, and you have to avoid them while trying to not get some sort of sexually transmitted disease.

3. The lunches:
Sometimes I go off campus for lunch, but seeing as I have no car and no license, I am usually stuck eating some gross variety of pre-frozen greasy unidentifiable slop. One that would make prisoners quiver in their booties. Y-U-C-K

4. Trying to get my schedule changed:
If you have a class you don't want or shouldn't be taking, good luck finding a replacement there, brother. Counseling? not that helpful. Usually they tell you that everything is full and attempt to stick you in some sort of aiding position, which my mother considers "a useless waste of brain power" haha. oh, mom.

5. Freshmen:
This is a pretty standard one at my school. Mostly they don't respect ANY of the other grades, and feel they need to break the stereotype by being even more irritating. They just get in the way. I cannot count how many times I've heard freshmen girls SQUEALING at the top of their lungs about how they just got their permit and "oh-mah-gawsh driver's ed sucks so bad" and whatnot.

shut. up.

What's worse is when they cut in the lunch line. You THOUGHT you were the tenth person in line, but then twenty minutes goes by and you realize a huge bubble of freshman accumulated towards the beginning and now your the one who gets the last cold slice of questionable pizza. murder me.

So if you are offended by anything in this list, sorry, but that's the way it goes and you have to suck it up. Feel free to punch the closest standing human being out of frustration. that's my gift to you.

Breaking the Cycle

Wake up.
Get dressed, Put on makeup, Straighten hair, throw in a headband for good measure.
Eat breakfast
Go to school
1st period
2nd period
3rd period
Lunch
4th period
Bus
Home
Homework
dinner
dishes
TV
Bed
Repeat.

This is basically how every Monday through Friday looks for me, and probably for a lot of other students at my high school, with the exception of the overly social children who are permanently attached to the hips of all their friends.
Or all their Facebook friends.
the second being the worst variety.

Perhaps I'm exaggerating a little, I mean, I do text, listen to music, talk on the phone, and party <-(This last ones usually on the weekends). Let me make this clear: I. Have. a. Social Life. I'm not some dweeb writing a blog because I'm depressed with my life and want to vent about how everyone hates me.

But sometimes I feel like everyone gets stuck. We get into a pattern, or cycle, if you wish to humor the title. We fill our days with what we have to, or need to do, and sometimes are unable to take a step back and do something different.

I don't wish to generalize, but a lot of people my age just sit.
and they sit.
and they go through their life.
in that cycle.
and they wait.
expecting something to happen.
and nothing does.
And they are disappointed.

But really, how can we expect something to happen if nothing really ever changes? How can we long for our lives to have a bit more excitement, if we base it on being...for lack of a better word...boring.

In high school, we are always striving for something. This could be an A on the next exam, the big win for the varsity football team, or to get that total hottie (yeah, I'm a girl, I use phrases like "total hottie"...) to notice you and FINALLY finally ask you to homecoming. We get so caught up in these goals that when they don't happen, we feel like we have failed. So we retreat back into that cycle, where we do nothing but the safe an familiar, only poking our heads out of that safe cocoon on occasion.

So here's how it goes. In 2011, I vow to break the cycle. I vow to do the unexpected when everybody else is not. I vow to be spontaneous and creative, and possibly a little irrational to get me through the day, the week, the month, or hell, the whole damn year.

So here's my challenge to you, oh readers. Be spontaneous today. TP a house (remember not to damage the property). Go for a jog around the neighborhood, take your little brother to ice cream. Build a pillow fort with the neighbor. whatever floats your boat, but do it with a desire to be happy. and do it with a desire to break the cycle.

Why I Feel It's Necesary To Start a Blog.

I think starting a blog is a pretty interesting thing to do. For some, it becomes a means of catharsis, and for others, it's a tool used to grab attention from anyone and everyone. Personally, I find it to be neither. I think starting a blog was a decision made in order to speak freely, but without feeling limited to status messages and worrying about how many "likes" it will get. Perhaps it will become an escape, but right now my mission statement goes a little something like this: Crack open the teenage brain and see what spills out. Actually, what spills out would probably be really a gross ooze of some sort, so we won't go there.

Anyways.
The point here is to be truthful, humorous, and to unwrap teenage life from the inside out. Perhaps some posts will be melancholy, some might be joyous, and others might be introspective. I can't promise I will post on any sort of strict basis, or publish fantastically long novels with every post. But sometimes short and sweet is exactly what people need. So I hope you are willing to take the leap with me, dear (and currently nonexistent readers)...nothing but real life going on here.
Are you with me?

xo
Eden