Are Your Stars Aligned?

Lately I've been seeing a lot of horoscopes around. If you don't know what a horoscope is, you may have seen zodiac signs, like Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, which are all indicators of your horoscope. Horoscopes are a prediction of your future and traits based on when you were born and the alignment of the stars and planets at that point in time. People believe that the astrology can forecast what has happened, is happening, and will happen to those categorized under the same star alignment.

Photo Courtesy wikipedia.org

Zodiacs can be super fun and exciting, the question is whether you believe in them or not. Somehow these summaries of character always tend to be spot on. It's easy to classify these "spot on" predictions as just relatable prophecies though. I find it easy to believe that zodiac summaries are just a little insight that could very well be for anyone, and that all zodiacs are universally-relatable summaries about you that you want to read about yourself, and so you believe them. To give you an example, here's part of my zodiac, Cancer's, traits (according to horoscopes.lovetoknow.com):

"The tender-hearted trait that's so prominent in Cancer is often misunderstood by other zodiac signs. To complicate matters, Cancers find it difficult to communicate what they're feeling because they shut down all emotional responses when hurt. Most of the time, they seem emotionally immature when compared to other signs. While this might be true in some cases, most of the time it's simply that they have a uniquely receptive nature."

This article states that part of a Cancer's nature it to be "tender-hearted". Referring back to my point before, zodiacs and horoscopes just tell us what we want to hear, so we begin to believe it. I sure know that I could never turn down someone calling me tender-hearted, even if they've never even met me before. The next thing that the article says is that "Cancer is often misunderstood by other zodiac signs." Yes, I have absolutely felt misunderstood before, but hasn't everybody? I could easily fly my hands to my head and say, "It's like you've read my mind! I've always felt like an outsider and like no one ever truly understands!" Because in all honesty, I have completely experienced the feeling, but that's not to say it's not normal, let alone only limited to Cancers. The article also says things like "they have a uniquely receptive nature", which makes me feel boldly one-of-a-kind and special. Truthfully though, we all want to be told that our uniqueness is often confused for being an outcast, unexpected, or not normal, which is basically what this horoscope just did. If someone gives me as much of a compliment as "You're not inferior, you're just beautifully unique!", than I'd gladly believe them.

Photo Courtesy bodymemory.com

It's easy to pick apart zodiacs and horoscopes to the scientifically of how astrology can't possibly effect human behavior and it's all a false satisfaction for people through phycological manipulation, but that takes away the fun in it all, doesn't it? All in all I think that horoscopes can be a fun way to try and prepare yourself for what life might throw at you in the future, and maybe zodiacs can be a way of trying to figure yourself out a little bit better.

Liquid Sunshine

So you'll never guess what happened... The bipolar weather is back, yet again. After almost a week of partly cloudy and temperatures climbing up to fifty-five degrees, it was beautiful outside. Although the overcast clouds yesterday started to indicate the downpour we received today.

I could hear the rain drops by the time I went to bed last night. I actually am in love with falling asleep to the sound of a drizzle outside my window. Waking up seven hours later, the chilliness was what hit me first. The coldness made me want to climb even deeper into the warmth of my heavy down comforters. Then the smell started to creep up my nose. The wet pavement and running gutters wafted through my bedroom. I quickly shut my cracked window and got out of bed.

Photo Courtesy www.howtobeadadtoday.com

Heading outside to get in the car, the reflection of the gray sky was mirrored off of the blacktop driveway, and a mist slowly fell from the air, not even enough to call it a drizzle. I ran back inside to grab a raincoat. I love this kind of weather. I like how it makes the day at school so cozy, and somehow you feel the warmth radiating off of other people more just because of the cold outside. I like looking out the classroom window and noticing how smoky the sky looks. I like how everyone shows up to school in sweatshirts and scarfs. I don't see the rain as such a bad thing on a day like this.

The rain soon turned into sleet as the day began to get colder. By this evening the precipitation could easily be classified as snow. By the end of the day a thin layer of sugar veiled the ripening grass, it should probably be melted away by tomorrow or the next day. It feels as though every time the grass begins to fade to green, and the trees begin to foliate, and the flower begin to bloom, it must snow.

The rain made me want to curl up with a hot coa-coa and read a good book or watch an old movie. The coziness of the rain is completely evident to everyone as well. The weather tends to put people on the same page like that. It's even been thought and proven that a rainy day can change your mood. This is mostly thought to have to do with how much sunlight your body is exposed to, so on a dark rainy day, for example, the amount of sun your body is receiving will obviously be significantly less than a hot sunny day. Rainy days can also effect your internal clock.

I'm not necessarily even complaining about the rain. I definitely enjoy a lazy and snug day under the clouds every once an a while. I'm just glad that the forecast foresees the sun coming back by Wednesday ;-). Until than I'm more than content grabbing some cuddly blankets and some 90s movies to wait out the rain.

Song of the Week: Hide

Manicure Mania

I decided to treat myself to a manicure today since I had the afternoon off. Solar Nails was the sponsor of my painted fingernails. The prime reasoning behind my mani was my parched and cracking cuticles crying (tears of blood) for some help.

Solar Nails is located right in town inside of Prospector, so it was the most logical place to go coming straight from school. They are also walk-in, so the fact that I didn't have enough pre-planning time for the occasion wasn't a problem. They sat me down right away and a middle-aged Asian (from Vietnam, he told me specifically) clopped down a small China bowl with bubble-sudded water in front of me, and motioned for me to soak my hands. I slipped my hands into the lukewarm water, which could have preferably been a few degrees hotter. It took more than enjoyably long for the man to come back, but once he did he ripped my hands from the bowl and started going to town on my unfortunate winter-worn fingers. Clipping and filling and moisturizing my much-needed-of-it hands. 

First he took off the chipped forest-green polish that was previously on my fingers. I decided to go with a gel nail polish this time, because it lasts longer (and I was not planning on coming back any time soon). The man handed me some color wheels to choose which color polish I wanted, each color polish that they had was painted on an acrylic nail, about twenty of them all attached to a center wheel. They were pretty tacky and gross to touch. I finalized on black. After I picked the color he began to tackle the nightmare of my dry skin and cuticles, cutting away at my chapped fingers and hands then massaging lotion into them. He filed and buffed my nails and did little touches of this-and-that here-and-there. At this point the whole process was starting to become pretty tedious, having already been there for about half-an-hour. After this he started to actually paint my nails. The thing about getting gel polish is that after every single coat you have to stick your hand under a UV light for a minute; the whole process ends up resulting to at least twenty to thirty more minutes, driving the last of my patience off a cliff.

What I Payed For

When the guy was finally done with my manicure I was more than happy to whip out my wallet and happier than I should have been to pay the overpriced bill, but I was just ready to get the jeepers out of there. I'm definitely the type of person that wants something done right the first time, and I usually don't mind if it takes a little bit more time to do so, but in this case the hour and a half that I was there was about forty-five minutes past my typical leisure time limit.

My experience was mediocre and consumed WAY too much of my time, but to look at the bright side, my nails are 100% more presentable and should stay that way for "up to 2-weeks" thanks to my gel manicure.

Family Frenetics

This week is spring break for my cousins on the east coast. They came out to ski and see my family for vacation. My Dad's sister and her two daughters are really close with us, I think it's probably because out of all of our cousins we're closest in age to them. We also travel a lot together.

Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but having people in town on top of the heaps of third quarter school work and start of lacrosse season can get stressful. My time management definitely started to rip at the seams, and my sleep schedule has completely deteriorated (well what was left of it in the first place).

It's always a love hate, in this case the angel on my shoulder is reminding me how much I love spending time with my relatives, but the devil overing over my other shoulder is dragging me by my hair to my bed. By the end of their stay I am ashamed to say it's never too hard to say goodbye. I know everyone goes through this with their own family, one way or another. Whether it's staying up at all hours to fit your nearest and dearest into your schedule, or dealing with your in-laws, family can be a pain in the buttocks, but we love them for it ;-).

The past few days have consisted of many family dinners and pool competitions at the Kimche residence. The night they got in to town we ordered in Thai food. It's actually is nice to sit down and catch up with everyone at the dinner table. With everyone gathered around the dinner table at home, no one is hesitant in embarrassing, making fun of, or laughing at a single person sitting down. It's something I sort of love about my family. We give each other a hard time to remind each other how much we love them, in a sort of way. Family dinners are always the best.

Saturday was the one day where I actually got to spend the whole day with my cousins and aunt (mostly due to the fact that my school and sports have not paused). Park City, being the tourist town that it is, consists of many attractive tourist things to do, like walk up and down Main Street... and that's exactly what we did. Starting our day at around noon, we hit Main Street first thing.

Photo Courtesy www.parkcityvacationrentals.com

After Main Street we decided to go back home to grab swimsuits, and then went hot tubbing at our cousins hotel. Following the hot tub we went to see a movie. Nothing too crazy, but it was fun to spend time with my cousins.

I know that family time is important, even if it's short and sweet, because they're the ones that truly stick around through thick and thin, so a weekend with some of my extended family is always an enjoyable thing in the long run. Even if I'm not getting my sleep.

Tick Tock on the Internal Clock

Everyone has an "internal clock" that keeps on ticking, and can be disturbed by time changes, location changes, and even weather changes. Yesterday was daylight savings. We moved an hour ahead for the spring. I personally like daylight savings because I really do enjoy the extra hours of daylight in the evenings. Although I do find some effect of disorientation having to adjust to the time change. Even though it may not be significant (only an hour ahead), waking up having lost an hour did sort of put me in a weird mood for the day. I am also a person that doesn't adjust well with time differences, I always have a hard time adjusting to the jet lag when traveling on the east coast. Daylight savings is just a miniature version of that in my own backyard.

Photo Courtesy amarillo.com

Not only has daylight savings had my internal clock feeling wonky (and I'm sure I'm not the only one), but the weather has been inconstant as well, to say the very least. Several weeks ago it felt closet to mid-April or May, the flowers even started to bloom and it was frankly feeling like the end-of-spring beginning-of-summer time. The very next week we had a massive storm and got snow in heaps. It was absolutely freezing for the preceding week. The past week felt like an average winter weather routine, although these previous couple days the weather has started to warm back up again. I know we all get so excited for a little gasp of spring air in our lungs, and then when the snow comes it's like being shoved back under the drowning waters of winter. The weather definitely effects my internal clock, I've been experiencing a good deal of central confusion and lack of focus in school when it's warmer outside, and then when it gets cold again it sends me into a depression-like state. I know I can't be the only one either. Even some of our teachers have been having some talks about the behavioral issues at school, and my science teacher, Ms. McKenna, told us her insight on how she thought it was because of the warmer weather and inconsistency in the weather might be effecting our "internal clocks" and that could very likely be playing into the bad behavior in school come this time of year.

The weather and time change are just enough to have me feeling like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I'm sure that I'll get back into a steady routine within the next week or so, but I really do dislike the sense of disorientation and confusion that a disruption to my internal clock brings. I don't know, maybe I'm just extra sensitive when it comes to a stable routine. I can understand that maybe you haven't been effected at all by these wacky changes in time and weather, but long-story-short, know you're not the only one if that's the case. ;-)

Song of the Week: Pull Me Down

Windows to the Soul

If eyes are considered to be "the window to the soul", than I guess they must be pretty intriguing. I, for one, know that eyes are one of the first things I notice about someone. If someone has striking eyes I'll most likely find them more attractive and compelling to talk to.

Eyes come in different a variety of spectrums, as we all know. Brown eyes are a dominant trait, blue and green eyes are a recessive trait. This means that brown overrules blue in a genetic showdown. To explain a little further, everyone has two alleles (genetic symbols for a dominant or recessive trait), one from each parent. So lets say that we use an E to represent our eye color, if one were to have two big E's (EE), it means the they have brown eyes because brown is the dominant trait, and if someone were to have two little E's (ee), it would mean they had blue/green eyes, since blue/green eyes are recessive. If someone were to have a big E and a little E (Ee), it would mean they have brown eyes, because the big E dominates the little E, meaning brown overrules the blue/green because brown is the dominant trait. Lets say that your dad was "EE", and your mom was "ee", you would positively have brown eyes because your dad has two big E's. Now if your dad were to have "Ee", and your mom still had "ee", you could have a chance of receiving blue/green eyes. If both of your parents had "ee", you would definitely have blue/green eyes. It is possible that two brown eyed parents can have blue/green eyed kids, because if both parents have "Ee", it means they both have brown eyes because of the big E, but if their kids receive the little E from both sides they would have blue or green eyes. It is possible for two brown eyed parents to have blue/green eyed children, but it is impossible for two blue or green eyed parents to have a brown eyed kids.

Photo Courtesy harvard-wm.org

So if the Genetics 101 didn't bore to death I'll go on, now that we know the "why's" behind what color eye you have.

Eyes are dead center the middle of your head (horizontally) and perfectly balanced with two symmetrically on both sides (vertically), no wonder they're the first thing you notice when talking to someone. Once you find someones gaze it's always a special feeling when your eyeballs seal in eye contact. Sight is such a major part to humanity. I, for one, would definitely choose being deaf and able to see over blind and able to hear. By making that contact from eye to eye it connects something that is so fragile yet important to everyone, their sight. I crave eye contact in a conversation, and if I'm talking to someone who is uncomfortable making eye contact, it makes it uncomfortable for me to converse to them.

Photo Courtesy zeiss.co.uk

When I lock eyes with another person I love the unspoken bond I immediately feel with them. Somehow I sense that I can read deeper into them and somehow touch their unspoken feelings and emotion.

Eyes are truly fascinating and are definitely more than a ball of tough, slimy tissue. They're the windows to the soul.

Vegas Baby

As you may have yet to figure out, I do play lacrosse for Park City High School. Last weekend the girls Varsity and Junior Varsity went to a tournament in Las Vegas called Best of the West.

We left on Thursday afternoon (meaning school on Friday was bust *fist bump*). I spent the seven hour drive with my mother... The car ride actually wasn't as bad as I was mentally preparing myself for. On the way there we took a quick pit-stop at Café Rio with a few of the other girls on my team.

We pulled in to the Hampton Inn at approximately 10:00 PM. Arriving at the hotel is always a process. Finding out who you're rooming with and getting situated is can be substantially draining. Once everyone threw their suitcases in their room, that was all that was the only trace left of them there. Everyone was scattered through all of the second floor, gushing through the halls and jumping from room to room socializing. Eventually the social hour(s) started to die out and I found myself in bed watching the Titanic with my two other roommates. Leonardo DiCaprio is exceedingly attractive, to say the least.

The next morning the team had to be downstairs no later than 8:00 AM for a luxurious complimentary breakfast consisting of stale bagels, over-ripe fruit, and some eggs that resembled something closer to rubber than breakfast food. By 8:45 AM we were driving to the fields for a 9:00 AM practice. Getting to the fields was a little bit of a struggle due to a wrong right hand turn (go mom). The fields were super nice. You could still smell the fresh new paint on the turf. The sky was drowning in blue and not a cloud interrupted the atmosphere. It was decently warm, but nothing exotic. A cool breeze kept us from getting too hot. Our practice went well and our coaches were happy to go over a few things before any of our actual games.

Me: Captured by Julie Shipman

After our practice ended we all went back to the hotel to rest before our first game at 6:00 PM.

Playing under the lights was my favorite part of the whole tournament. I don't know what it is but something about playing on a lit field in the dark of night pumps me up. It's like the lights fuel my fury ;-). Ok maybe not to that extent, but I love the lights. We won our first game 15-3. Needless to say our team jelled. Our first time playing with each other felt like our one-hundredth.

The next several games went quite similarly. Scores like 16-4, 12-3, and 11-5 almost had me feeling sorry.

Play off day was better. We were playing better teams that were seeded. Our first game was against Juan Diego. It got a little rough and I honestly found myself on the ground half the time. We won.

Next game: Herriman. We won. Advancing us to the championship game against Brighton. The game was close. We were tied 7-7 at the whistle. We ended up winning off of a penalty shot in sudden death overtime.

I can confidently say that Park City is the Best of the West.

Photo/Bracket Courtesy bestofthewestlacrosse