Sara's Poppyseed Crackers

So, I think I just wound up making one of the most important desicions of my life, as I know it: I've just dropped out of my Algebra 070 class at AB-Tech, for good. I'd like to write for a little while about that, right now. There are so many different reasons behind why I did what I did...My mom doesn't know yet, but she'd not going to be happy at all when she finds out. Niether is my dad, but I seriously don't give a damn. I'm eighteen years old now, and I believe that I should have dropped that particular class a long time ago. I've already officially signed up to retake the entire course when next semester starts, and I can honestly say that I don't mind having to do so at all. At the moment I just have so many other things of far greater import than just one silly college algebra class, which I would have surely failed and wasted my tuition on in the first place.

Now, with the two or three weeks remaining in this current semester, I plan to concentrate fully on improving my testing skills in Thelbert Dowdy's American History I class, while at the same time really hoping and praying that I don't fail in my quest to complete that one, as well. I don't think I will, but tonight I seem to be rather highly aware of the fact that I don't think at all sometimes. I'm not a happy person, by any means, and me unofficially dropping out of my Algebra 070 course is going to take an immense toll on my self-esteem, following up to this upcoming Christmastime. I'm going to have to take matters even farther into my own hands and inform my parents of my rash and sudden decision tonight, of all nights, just to get it over and done with, for better or for worse...Maybe I'll kind of get lucky and they'll actually see that I've done the best thing I could have ever possibly done, concerning my education for the remainder of this year. But even if my parents don't understand why I've done this, I certainly know why I've done it, and I know that I've made the right decision.

That's all that matters. I wash my hands of it completely, now. When I retake Algebra 070 next semester, I'll be far better prepared than I evidently was for this go-around. I'll definitely know what I should expect with the new teacher I've been assigned, as well as with any online homework I might be given in the future, and that way I believe I'll finally succeed.

Fairview Community Center

Sometimes the randomest kind of thoughts fly through my head! Like, right now, I seem to be thinking something along the lines of: "Contra-dancing is weird, and I'm never going to do it again." In fact, I believe that there's a pretty good possibility that I might swallow my pride and want to go Contra-dancing again with Anna and her family, if only because I have nothing better to do on that particular night, but at the moment I almost don't feel like dancing at all...which is totally new to me, since in the past I've always jumped at any opportunity to get up and cut some kind of shine in front of a crowd.

Maybe I'm just beginning to feel that way because it's so cold outside at the moment. It's already well into the month of December now, after all. I think my problem is just that since I haven't experienced any real wintertime weather for such a long time, I've forgotten what Decembers around here in the mountains are truly like. But I suppose that I'd better just muster up all the courage I have and deal with it, because soon enough December will be gone entirely and I'll be faced with the bone-aching chills of New Year's Day in January.

I believe that I'm actually already very much ready for Christmastime to come this year, unlike most people I know, even though I haven't went downtown yet to get any nice gifts for anybody. As if I could ever afford to do such a thing, anway. This Christmas it's more than likely that I'll simply make a ton of great food and hand that out to all the members of my family, as well as some friends instead of gifts, since I always have far more time to cook than shop. I won't mind having to cook for everybody this year if I can work out some kind of plan that will allow me to have at least half of the kitchen all to myself for a few consecutive hours so that I can listed to Regina Spektor's awesome latest CD, rather appropriately entitled "Begin to Hope", and sing along to that in peace.

This year, I'd wanted to go down over there towards the Earth Fare store at Westgate and get some kind of weird and unusual meat that I could experiment cooking with, like venison, or even a leg of lamb. If I found the time to go and get something like that, I figured that I could try and make some kind of interesting and new salad with it, like one of those Romanian salads that I've successfully put together before, which usually consist of absolutely nothing more than a head of cold, pale green Iceburg lettuce, several carefully seeded and washed bright red Roma tomatoes, half a handful of combined sea salt and pepper, and a few tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil or some kind of vinegar, if you actually enjoy the strange taste and smell of vinegar, and are into that kind of thing.

I made it a rule in my house quite a long time ago that whenever I'm making a Romanian salad, every single ingredient that does into it must be completely organic, for the best results. But that's not normally something I would tell the guests that come over to my house to eat my salads and lamb. It always seems to somehow weird them out, in a way. My guests generall have no idea of how to successfully hide the predicament I've put them in, fixing them organic foods that are prepared in very complex and weird ways. I don't know why my Romanian salads scare them so much...

At the moment, it's exactly 1:40 in the afternoon. That means that it's about nine o' clock at night right now in Scandinavia, as well as in a lot of other European countries. That's entirely aside from the point of this post, however, whatever that originally was...