Day 140: Eso es un SOS.

To be succinct, today was AWESOME.

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But because I am not Ernest Hemingway, and am actually rather garrulous, let me walk you through it.

When I woke up today, I said to Priya, "My body feels like I benched 100 pounds last night, then fell into a hole filled with ice and slept the night there." My physical and mental energy levels could only improve.

I read Sonnet 140 on the bus before becoming audience to a private vocal performance by a crazy talented 12-year-old singer. I know Laila will be famous one day, and I can't imagine being that confident at her age.

At school, I was greeted by Trent Saiget, who was just admitted to his top choice school. The University of San Diego is so lucky!

In the morning, I attended choir, where we had a substitute teacher. I got to talking to her after class, and when I mentioned that I am not quite sure what academic path I plan to pursue, she made a strong case for the statement "you never know where you'll end up." Ms. Huff was a music major in college, but contracted acute bronchitis in Russia early in her career, and now can hardly sing a few notes. "Grandma Ginny," however, also happened to be a huge American History buff, and now works as a substitute teacher as she publishes amazing books which praise the unsung heroes of the American Revolution and Civil War. She also travels around the country as the leader of a national initiative to plant historical trees from the original thirteen colonies along George Washington Parkway, and is developing her own website, which I encourage you all to explore: http://www.grandmaginny.com/. WOW.

During break, I stomped around school with Jenny rallying troops to help me decorate some of the bowls that I have been making. Thank you so much to Ryan, Doug, Bryce, Christina, and Jenny for their beautiful contributions (and Nizar for the photos he took) -- Ms. Cardone and I were very impressed!

Photo credit: Varlet Zahed

I then "socialized" with Jess and Angelica before my super special lunch date! I finally got to catch up with Ms. "Rachel" Kernodle, the world's cutest math teacher and one of the most multifaceted people I know. Though one could say math "dominated" our conversation, Ms. Kernodle has the coolest view of the subject of all time -- we discussed mathematics in terms of philosophy, music . . . even literature. Rachel is of the opinion that "given a little bit of time, [she] could convert [me] into someone who finds the same amount of beauty in math that [I] do in everything else" -- and I don't doubt this for a second. If only I had gotten to take a class with her!

This beauty can be found in Ms. Kernodle's classroom.

After lunch, I returned to the studio, where I decorated a bowl of my own, using the "slip trail" technique with underglaze.


Soon, I received a surprise guest -- my brother Zane! He decorated a bowl while I did another one, and we discussed the freedom and therapeutic value of Ceramics. He fully gets why I'm so into this, and it looks like he'll be enrolling soon!


After an abridged Clay Club meeting, I got to have coffee with Tierney Manning! (Today must have been my day to catch up with amazingly strong and beautiful female figures in my life.) As Tierney leaves town tomorrow night and I leave the country next week, we just managed to catch one another before our departures! And I'm so glad we did. I had the opportunity to debrief on my Gap Year and hear the approval and support of my big sis, as she shared happenings of her Tierney Year while I gaped in admiration of her character and heart.


Glowing and refreshed, I boarded the bus home, where Priya grew slightly tired of my interrupting her iPod-listening to gab about my day. She got over it, though, when she got to visit one of her best friends on the way home.

Marley is pretty excited to see Priya, and vice versa.

Back at my dwelling, I immediately boarded the treadmill, where I ran rather quickly while listening to songs that were rather slow. I sign off ready to explore the math "homework" Ms. Kernodle "assigned" me today.

Thank you again to everyone who made today so spectacular.

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Songs of the day: http://youtu.be/2IFF9yu5i3k and http://youtu.be/k8mtXwtapX4

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