Dear Blog,
Phew, this years has just flown by. I'm here to review the news headlines and the celebrity news that happened in 2008, as well as what happened in my life. Well, first, the gas prices went up and then went back down, we elected our first black president, Mr. Barack Obama, um, the economy has taken a downward spiral and the budget cuts have been stressful for teachers and many other people.
As for big celebrity news, all I can remember at this moment is that Ellen and Portia de Rossi got married, due to the gay marriage law being passed. If you ask me, I have no comment on whether or not this was a good move.
There have also been the sad passing of the much loved Heath Ledger, and Bernie Mac. Others include, Charlton Heston, Dody Goodman (Grease, TV Cinderella, ugly stepsister) Randy Pausch, who Mr.Shier had us watch a video of, George Carlin, and the news anchor, Tim Russert. Those are all the ones that struck me as interesting and the ones that I've actually seen and enjoyed.
Now for what happened in my life. Well, I've had rubber bands put on, in weird places in my mouth, but I'm slowly getting used to it. Last spring break, I got to drive down to LA with my mom to see Wicked. We also met up with my Uncle Bob at the Universal Citywalk, where we also saw Horton Hears a Who.
Wicked was, awesome, wickedly awesome. It was everything I hoped it would be an more. We got to stand at the backstage door and get autographs. I got a pat on the shoulder from Caissie Levy, who had played Elphaba. My shoes were uncomfortable and had heels, but I enjoyed it very much. I especially loved going to the LA zoo and getting a stuffed gorilla.
One exciting thing we did on the way there was actually go to the Santa Maria boardwalk. I got to go on a very exciting yellow roller coaster and I got two corndogs from Hot Dog on a Stick. We passed by the famous Muscle Beach and me and my mom got our pictures taken in a photo booth.
We had fun walking down the Walk of Fame and going into every souvenier shop to find a portrait thing of Julie Andrews. The souveniers they had were really cool, like plastic Oscars, shirts, and many more.
We stopped in at an old memoribillia store and the owner let me look through a huge stack of Julie Andrews pictures. My mom let me pick out two.
On the way home we stopped by this pea soup place and I got a stuffed ape there, which I named Bippity to go with my other gorilla.
Another very exciting thing was having my uncle go to a Julie Andrews booksigning and getting her memoir signed for me. We were originally gonna have my uncle give his cell phone to Julie Anderews, but they wouldn't allow it, so he kept his phone on in his pocket and called me before stepping up to the table.
I remember hearing him talk to her and tell her everything that I told him to say, like how influenced I was by her, she responded, "She must love alot of my movies then" or something along those lines. I know I emitted a little squeak. The whole moment was very exciting for me. A few days later, the book arrived in the mail with a note from my uncle and one of the pages signed in brown Sharpie, "Love From Julie Andrews"
I also stumbled upon Puzzle Pirates after an almost two year hiatus of not playing it. The first day I played, I found and joined an awesome crew named The Mystical Shadows. Some of the pirates inclued, our captian, Debbibebbi, some of the officers, Quinnius, my roommate in a cabin that he owns, Waterdog, Thebobinator, two of the coolest, funniest pirates of them all and also two of my closest friends on the game besides deb and Quinnius. Theres also Vess and my new friend emmer, who just struck up a conversation with me about how she likes my username.
Theres also Rastapirate and some other pirates, who I forgot to mention, but are cool all the same. I also have a rat familiar named "Templeton" he was helpful in finding me a new friend, who loves the name, "Templeton" and "Charlotte's Web" The pirate in question is Pop- something. I'll remember it.
One movie that me and my mom obessed over this year was Mamma Mia, the stage show that became a movie. We saw the movie three times on the big screen, one of which was the sing-along version and when it came out on DVD, there was a discussion about who would get it for Christmas.
It turns out that on Christmas Eve, a family friend, Patti gave my Mom a copy of the two-disc edition. I kinda freaked out because I had gotten my mom the exact same thing. My dad took me to Target and Savemart, before we finally found the right edition at Blockbuster.
In conclusion, I now own the copy Patti gave her and my mom has the copy I gave her for Christmas, so I guess we are both happy.
For Christmas, my mom got me a copy of "Look Who's Talking" from Walmart You know, the one with the voice of Bruce Willis, and John Travolta and Kirstie Alley? Well after watching it, I got hooked and wanted to get the second one, so I found it on Barnes and Noble and ordered it from the store with the gift card, I got from my mom's sister's family.
On my 17th birthday, I got to go to a Kidnap breakfast thing with some students from the fifth grade at Breen. It was a moment I'll never forget. After that, we drove up to a vineyard to visit my aunt Robin, a doll make who gave me a Mary Poppins doll that she had made, complete with an umbrella, carpet bag, little parrot at the end, and the flowered hat.
For dinner we went to Dos Coyotes where I got a stuffed Uni, a Webkinz spaniel, Enchanted on DVD, and other things that i can't remember.
At my IEP meeting in December, we found out that I had FINAALLY passed the CAHSHEE, after trying for about two years. After the meeting we called my grandmother, my aunt, and anybody else we could think of.
The very first thing we did after finding out, as calling my math tutor, Heidi, who works with my dad at his school. She helped me out on Sundays over the summer and was a big help, so my dad promised her a bonus if I passed, so we got her a gift card from Borders.
To celebrate, my mom took me to Build-a-Bear Workshop, as promised, many months ago. Which reminds me, the other bear workshop, Teddy Crafters, went out of business. Anyway, we went in and I came out with a stuffed bunny in a cardboard house. I had named her Beatrice.
She is so cuddly and sweet. I had dressed her in underwear, jeans and a white shirt with a pink sparkly top. Her ears have little pink bows and she wears a pair of pink Sketchers shoes. For the next two days, my mom accused me of abusing her and even took her away from me twice the first night.
Some great movies I got to see include, Ghost Town, the very beginning of My Best Friends Girl, (my mom took me out after one to many sexual references, not suitable for my ears), of course, Mamma Mia, Get Smart, the funniest movie evah!!!, Space Chimps, also a very good movie, High School Musical 3, which was very fun. I saw it with the ILS class. My friend, Aly and I squealed every time Zac Efron had a close-up. She also shared her popcorn with me. The ride back to school was very cloudy and rainy.
My clases this year include:
-Leadership PE
-LOYO (Living on Your Own)
-Math
-World History
-Tech Theatre (quite possible the best class and teacher ever)
-English
-Study Skills
Here is a paragraph on my year so far in each of thses classes
Leadership PE is very fun. I have my friends in that class, who I am excited to see and look forward to seeing every Blue day, April, Danielle, Erica, Kelley, Becca and David. Swimming, Volleyball and Basketball were my favorites so far. While swimming, me Danielle and April visited Atlantis and pretended to steal the Mona Lisa , not to mention visit the Emmys while wearing beautiful dresses. Me and Danielle had very crazy adventures while we walked around the track.
Living on Your Own as difficult but very fun. We had to pair up to create a married couple. I paired up with Kelly to create Molly and Henry Crayola. Our roommate project was easily the most stressful. I was reluctantly stuck with Ian and David, but everything turned out rather well.
Math was and is somewhat fun andf stressful. I am doing better, thanks to the help from Heidi and Mrs. Heath. Recently I paired up with Alana to work together. At the beginning of the year, I didnt like her, but then I got used to her. Mr. Shier was cool and told funny stories as usual.
World History is cool and fun with Mr. Knight, who is pretty awesome. He likes to poke fun at me, since I sit in the front row. His assistant Mrs. Tynnen is also really neat. I was distracted by a girl in my class, let's call her, Sally. She constantly hummed and called on Mrs. T for help. Projects were very fun. We got to do a PowerPoint project on European holidays. I did Germany.
Whilst in the computer lab, since i was done with my Germany powerpoint, I was fooling around and eventually got hooked on making a powerpoint about my very own imaginary country called Myfavoritethingsland. When I showed it to Ms. T and Mr. Knight, they laughed and even gave me suggestions.
Tech theatre is quite possibly the best class I have ever taken. Mrs. Toepke is the best. She is funny, sweet, kind and many other things. She knows me really well, since I've been in her classes since I was a freshman. My friends in this class include, Ben, Chris (who is also in my English class), Dominique, Alexis, and some other students, who's name just flew out of my mind.
There is much more to say about Tech theatre, but I cannot put it into words.
English is both hard and stressful, but, Mrs. Worth and dreamy Mr. Richardson make it fun. We eat popcorn, read short stories and write in our journals. At one point we even had to pair up and make up a story using certain vocabulary words. I chose Mr. Richardson and we came up with a story about a guy who likes peanut butter, but has run out and has to go and buy more, despite his fear of people. His name is Rick.
We also had a plane survival thing were we slit up in groups and had to work together to decide how to survive the plane crash. I was voted the most likely to die early and most stubborn. It was all in good fun and Mr. Richardson said, patting me on the shoulder, "We tease because we care about you, Maddie"
Study Skills was not at all fun,but I am managing it well. Mrs. Heath is more fun than Mrs. Montano, but more strict and more stubborn. I miss Mrs. Kinsella's class. At least in her class we got to watch the Food Network channel.
And last but not least, there is the SAW club. Our new president is Krissy. She is a bit more strict and harder to get along with than Julie, but I'm managing. Marley and Corrine are the funnest people.
Anyway, enough about school. This is supposed to be a look back on 2008. I think I did quite well. I am getting long alot better with Brittany, we have a new Adapted PE teacher, Chris Purdy, who is more relaxed and crazier than Carly, Blue and Kibbie, my dogs, are still good. My family is healthy and wonderful. Chris, my brother, has taken up knitting and gave me a pink and black knit cap for Christmas.
Ben is still a pretty cool brother. He has a new girlfriend named Whitley, who is really nice and funny.
I have a better relationship with my mom thanks to the LA trip. We were a pretty good team this year.
My dad and I are pretty cool. He took me to McDonalds for New Year's Eve dinner and most recntly to Dos Coyotes. He also took me to a Rivercats game in April, his students were in thier claender so he got free tickets. In December he took me to see a performance of Annie at his school, where he's been teaching art for 14 years.
My hand is getting tired. I'd better stop and go on Puzzle Pirates while I listen to my NEW I pod shuffle, which I got for Christmas. I've already put about 60 songs already on it. As for my Christy story I am at 603 pages so far. Right now I am working on Jo-Anne.
PS:
Also, during Thanksgiving break, I got to go to a youth group event with my one of my very best buddies, Rachel and another friend, Devin. We had fun and we laughed alot. The turkey they served was very delicious.
My friend Rachel Hart, is very cool, funny and many other things. I'm super glad she is one of my best friends! To Rachel: I miss you, girl, and we had a fun time on Saturday with your laptop and going to Savemart. I hope we get to do that again very soon, buddy of mine!
Well, I will write again on 1-1-2010, looking back on 2009.
Toodles,
Maddie Addie, Wonder Writer, AKA Mariavontrap on Puzzle Pirates.
