Very Funny Duet

Ha, I just realized the initials of that make VFD, that strange acronym from the Series of Unfortunate Events. Cool! ^_^
But seriously, this YouTube movie is hilarious. I saw it on another friend's blog, and I knew that I had to pass this on to my readers.
And besides, I think the song is catchy, and I needed a reason to blog, I think. Enjoy! ^_~

Best. Birthday. EVER!

Alright. I'm up early, like I said I would be, and now I'm going to tell you why I think my 19th birthday was better than ANY other birthday that came in my past. Pardon me if this is a bit long... (Perhaps before you read on, you might like to see how my last birthday went, so you can really compare them. Here's the link to birthday #18.)

24 hours ago, Annette and I woke up and got ready for a great day. I dressed in clothes that we'd found while in Boston, and made me feel really pretty. You know how you sometimes need to get used to the idea that you're a year older, because you still feel like a kid at heart? For some reason, I didn't really have that feeling. I feel like I was ready for this year, like I really am my age. It may not be the most glamorous age (right smack between 18 and 20), but I love it so far and I'm going to make this year of my life count.

Moving on. We had a wonderful breakfast at home with our family, and then we exchanged cards and presents. See those cards below? That is hand-made, people. Every year, since we could hold a pencil and use scissors, my twin and I have made personalized cards to each other. Our parents and little brother Adam made awesome cards for us too, but there's just something about getting a card from your twin sister, you know?

The left one (19-shaped) was my card to Annette, and the right one (balloony 19) was her card to me. Do these cards belong in a Hallmarks store or what? ^_^

Here's my sister and I posing with the presents we got each other on the 6th. I have a new journal (I always love those!) and Annette has a big crossword book, with 350 puzzles in it (she's already solved 3 of them. With my and Adam's help, of course, but still. 1% done already? O,o)

Oh, but one of the best things about this morning is that Annette and I didn't just exchange cards and presents. We also exchanged poems and songs. I wrote her something special on my poetry blog [click here to see it] and somehow (I have NO idea how she did it without my knowledge) she wrote me my very own birthday song. It was absolutely awesome! Not to mention very catchy. ^_^ She had the help of our dad and a little thing called Band-in-a-Box, but it was still one of the very best gifts I got that day. You should have seen my reaction. ^_^ Maybe sometime soon I'll be able to put a video of it up here, so you can hear what an awesome song it was.

Afterwards we hung out for a couple hours and watched stuff on YouTube, but the next big thing we did was go to our Toastmasters club. It's funny that our birthday fell on a Tuesday, because that's when we have our meetings. For the first time, my parents came along with us as guests so they could be a part of our club on our b-day. Sadly, not a lot of people came (3 people besides the 5 of us! O,o), but we still ran a fun meeting. I still hold the opinion that, no matter how many TM clubs we visited in Boston this year, our club trumps them all. It's the best.

Next stop of the day was a fantastic lunch at the best restaurant in the world, Sweet Tomatoes. (I've mentioned how good it is before, right?) I got myself 2 heaping plates of salad from the salad bar as well as some pasta. I was pretty satisfied with just that. But man, you should have seen my brother Adam eat. He just kept coming back with more helpings. I don't know where he puts it all. =P Well, he's a growing boy, I guess. He's almost as tall as me now, doncha know! *sniff* They grow up so fast. !_! Also something really special happened at that restaurant. Before we left, Annette and I were surprised when a bunch of Sweet Tomatoes workers came to our table, singing the Birthday song to us and bearing a plate with 2 chocolate muffins surrounded by ice cream and with 2 lit candles stuck in the muffins. In all the times we went to Sweet Tomatoes, I don't remember this ever happening, so that was way awesome. I couldn't fit another bite in my mouth at that point, but it was still fun blowing out the candles. ^_^

After our birthday feast, we went to the theater to see a movie together. Now, there were a few things playing that we wanted to see: Charlie St. Cloud, Despicable Me, Dinner for Shmucks, Grown Ups. It was hard for us to pick one that all of us could agree on, but finally we went with Grown Ups. At first I really didn't want to see it, because I've seen the previews and I thought the movie looked silly, but finally I relented. Hey, it's got some funny people in it, I knew these guys. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Boy, was I glad that we saw this movie on our birthday! It was the best possible film we could have picked. So, so, SO hilarious! I don't remember LOL-ing so much in a theater in a long time. So many pratfalls and jokes and funny situations. It was full of sweet moments too, when it came to their kids. The theater audience around us also gave really good reactions to the movie, so that really added to the experience. All the oohs, ahs, laughs and flinches in just the right places. So yeah, really good movie. I highly recommend it.

Now all of that might have made an awesome birthday, but for me, it didn't end there. Once we got home, I checked out Facebook and was glad to see that lots of people had wished me a happy one. Then I looked at Google Reader and I saw that a very special person had blogged about me turning 19. I thought that was so sweet of him and awesome. Here's the link, if you don't believe me. Right after that, I checked my inbox and found out that my friend had wrote me an email saying he planned on calling me that night, for the first time ever! Minutes after I read that email, he did! ^___^

Now Jacoby Nielsen and I have been close long-distance friends for a few months shy of 2 years, but we've never done anything like that before. We've tried to talk on a couple occasions, but those were a bit awkward. We do much better with virtual conversation, it seems. But last night, we sat and talked for a good half-hour or so, right up until my phone ran out of battery. It was a fun and very interesting conversation! I had relatives and friends call my sister and I throughout the day, of course, but this was, without a doubt, the most awesome and memorable birthday call I've ever gotten. When we were finally done talking and said goodbye to each other, Annette told me I looked like I was on Cloud 19. That was pretty accurate, I think. ^_^

And that, my friends, was my 19th birthday. I hope you enjoyed reading this. And if you have any doubts that my account was the whole truth and nothing but the truth, here's my sister's blog with her side of the story. I'd say that our stories match up pretty well. ^_^

P-A-R-T, Why? 'Cause I Gotta!

Whoo! It's my birthday, it's my birthday, we're gonna party like it's my birthday! ^_^

♫How old am I now? How old am I now?

I'm 19 years old today, How old am I now?♪

That's right! For those who haven't heard yet, it's my 19th birthday today! ^___^

More updates later. Just stay tuned.

~~~ Edited later that night... much later ~~~

OMG! Today was the best birthday ever! No, I'm serious! It was better than the last one. In fact, right now I'm thinking my 19th b-day rocked 10 times better than all my past awesome birthdays COMBINED! Are you feeling the excitement? ARE YOU? Great, then I'll tell you all about what happened today...

But... not right here. Or right now. I think it would be much too long an explanation for one post. Plus it's really late right now, almost midnight. So I'll tell you what: I'll wake up early and work on my next post that tells the story of my totally epic birthday. I'll have it up as soon as I can sometime tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's some pictures that will give you a small preview of what an awesome day I had. Maybe you can even figure it out for yourselves what I did today. ^_~

Oh! I also wanted to mention that just yesterday, my mom took Annette and I out to treat us to a pedicure/ manicure. It was really fun. I got hot pink nails while my twin got purple nails that have very subtle sparkles. See how much fun we had? Also shown below is a picture my mom took of us before we all went to Toastmasters. I think the two of us really look our age. ^_^

Advice from the odd Bruce Coville

After reading a couple of awesome anthology books in Boston, I've decided that I'm going to try my hand at writing short stories. I've already started writing about a robot whose owners kick it out of their house and discovers how to be it's own master. I've got lots of other ideas as well that I can hardly wait to get into. ^_^

One particular author I have to thank for my newfound inspiration is Bruce Coville. He wrote Oddly Enough and Odder Than Ever, two collections of funny, smart, and fascinating short stories. I wanted to reserve more books from him from my library, so I looked the guy up on Wikipedia to see what else he had under his sleeve. The article on Bruce Coville had a link to his website in it (http://brucecoville.com/), so I checked it out. After visiting a few pages, I found this piece of awesome authorly advice that I thought was certainly worth sharing.

How Can I Become A Better Writer?
First, read a lot. Filling your brain with good stuff is an important part of the job.

Second, write a lot. Keep a journal—it's one of the best tools a writer has. Also, write down ideas when they come to you. The human brain is cranky. If you want an idea, your mind will probably refuse to give it to you. But if you are doing something else, sometimes ideas just come floating by. The trick is to save ideas when they come to you. If you get a great idea today, it will probably be gone before you get around to writing about it—unless you write it down.

Third, and most important of all—never give up. You must believe in yourself, even when no one else does. People will think you are crazy. They will think you are conceited. You will get discouraged. You will think it is hopeless. You will think you are never going to get your work published. And if you give up, that will be true. You must believe in yourself, and Never Give Up.

I know that sounds discouraging, but if it talks you out of wanting to be a writer, then you probably wouldn't have made it anyway. I know many people who are better writers than I am who will never be published, because they couldn't stand getting rejected while they were trying to break in.Talent is only part of what it takes to be a writer. Luck and courage and mostly just plain old sticking to it are just as important.

Here are a couple of other little tricks you can start using today:

• When you're trying to make a scene come alive, use more than one of the senses. By that I mean don't just tell me what a place looks like; tell me what it smells like and what it sounds like.
• To help make your characters more memorable, give them some little trait that is unusual, something to help them stick in the reader's mind.
• Read your writing out loud. This will help you when you are revising.
• Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it—never give up.

Good luck. Happy reading—and writing!
—Bruce Coville

As if I never left ^_^

Ah, it is so nice to be home. ^_^ My family and I arrived just last night.

*sigh* Back to good old familiar...

Later this afternoon my twin and I will be getting our birds (Sasha and Sammy) back from our awesome pet sitter friend. Can't wait to see our sweet, beloved cockatiel boys again! Then tomorrow all of us will go to the beach, see our friends again and get a much deserved tan. Whoo!

And then on Tuesday September 7th, it's Annette's and my 19th birthday!

^_^ *PARTY!* ^_^

We don't really have a plan about what to do on our special day, but we've got some cool ideas floating around. You can bet that it'll be awesome. ^_~

Until next time! *Magenta out.*