Love love.

I'm pleased with my blogging frequency lately, but I know I should be studying for math so I will try to make this short.*

Mostly my life has fallen into a monotonous routine: school, tennis practice, homework, sleep, repeat. I have not been reading as much as I would like nor painting/doing other creative projects. Hopefully this will change.

Speaking of tennis, though, I made varsity! The only downfall has been not doing well in essentially challenge matches against teammates. I think a lot of it is a mental block. I know I can do better so when I don't I get frustrated easily. My goal is to approach this next week with a renewed enthusiasm and love for the game.

I must give watching the 2012 Australian Open Men's Finals match credit for inspiration. I only wish I could play as well as Rafael Nadal(2) and Novak Djokovic(1)! Still, the sheer amount of effort both maintained during a gripping five hour match, was, for lack of a better word, awesome. Granted they have abs of steel (see below) and practice nearly all the time, I can't say I won't pretend I am them if I happen to hit a really good shot.

(Besides, Djokovic isn't bad to look at.)
And yes, he did tear his shirt off hulk- style moments after he won the championship.

I suppose there's nothing else new in my life. What about you?

What I've been listening to lately:
"High and Dry" by Radiohead
"Tighten Up" by The Black Keys

*I said that only to then spend the past half an hour just watching YouTube videos, completely forgetting I had started this. No regrets.

The fault in our stars.

"I looked over at Augustus Waters, who looked back at me. You could almost see through his eyes they were so blue. "There will come a time," I said, "when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this"—I gestured encompassingly—"will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does." -- John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

I enjoyed the book -- if my ability to finish it in less than 48 hours is any indication -- but in efforts to keep the Internet more spoiler-free, I've resisted talking about it. For now, suffice to say it's one of my favorite books; one I will revisit years later and undoubtedly feel completely different about. Though I've never had to battle cancer personally, I have the most utmost respect and appreciation for those that do. I'm not sure I'd handle it as gracefully as Hazel.

I learn if I made Varsity tomorrow.

Fall back in love eventually.

These past few days of my winter break have made me happy to be alive. Despite having to deal with snobby, holier-than-thou people who shall remain nameless for their safety*, I'm happy. And even if I have to deal with a computer that likes to randomly crash, I will be content. I think it helps I made a pact with a friend to talk with them every day. It helps me feel less alone, y'know?

Wednesday I went to Zack's house for a belated Hanukkah party. (I'm not Jewish, but holla if you are. I'm looking at you, Isaac.) He and Emilia prepared traditional Jewish food, which was delicious. I think this year I am going to love trying new foods. And, hopefully, it will inspire a healthier lifestyle.

From left: gluten-free latkes, kugel, brisket and gluten-full latkes.

After the yummy meal, the party dissolved into playing Super Smash Bros. Usually I hate this video game, but by some stroke of luck, I won quite a few brawls that night and liked it. I always play as the character Kirby, a beast in marshmallow-y disguise. Always. Even if everyone makes fun of me for it. They just don't know what's good.

My friends being my friends.

On Thursday I had an adventure with Brianna. We explored a local park while we took turns taking photos of each other. I still feel like I have a lot I can learn from her and every time I spend time for a photoshoot, I think I gradually improve as a photographer.
I think with school starting back up on Monday I will have to be a weekend blogger. I will miss this free time for sure.

Have a good week, everyone!

*The Blogger Family assault team is a thing, right?

So this is the new year.

If having lived through 2011 has taught me anything, it's that plans inevitably never work out they way you envision them. Sometimes they turn out for the better, but sometimes, as in the case of last night, things turn out worse than imagined.

I didn't complete my 2011 Reading Challenge. Ultimately, I came up two short of my goal. I am the only one to blame for this. I've set up my new 2012 Reading Challenge for the same, seemingly lofty number of 50, yet I'm hoping I can be inspired by how close I came the year before.

Sparkler pictures with friends was a bust. Not only could just two of my friends show up, we essentially had a few measly glow sticks that emitted little to no light. We had to resort to mini flashlights instead. Since I had never done it before, I called it an experiment, and we agreed to try again in the future.

I was the youngest at the party I went to and thus didn't say/do much. We played Apples to Apples and Rockband, in which I was of course included, yet I was hyper aware of my age. The topics of roommates, getting drunk and drunk roommates are nothing I can add to, and that slowly annoyed me. Every time I did open my mouth to talk, I felt like I sounded stupid and was judged. I realize no one probably did this intentionally, it's just what happens. C'est la vie.

Fortunately, I can let those bad moments stay in the past. Let them be forgotten in favor of better memories. Cease to dwell on the negative, focus on the positive.

I am extremely excited for the things to come in 2012.

I hope you are, too.