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