Bonjour!

I bet that a ton of you are asking yourself why in the world I would name my "goodbye" blog Bonjour. I also bet you didn't know Bonjour is like Aloha: it means both hello and goodbye. This may be the end of Junior High school, but it's also the beginning to the rest of our lives. I'd like to first say thanks to everyone. Everyone in my life has helped me in one way or another, and I'm glad I can call most of them friends.  From my 'gang' to my eight grade buddies, I love you all. Jamie told me the other day that I've become 'popular' even though that is definetly not the case. I am not popular, but I do have many, many good friends. Now I want to do particular shout outs to certain people, but don't feel left out if I don't mention you. It's sort of impossible to mention every person that's helped me this year, so I'll adress the main ones.

First, thanks to all my teachers. You've helped me so much, and I love talking to you all and listening to you rant in class.

Now, there's the students.
Honor's English people, thanks for entertaining me with your random blogs. You guys are amazing even though half of you don't even know I read your blogs. (I be creepin')

• Moogle Kid, you amaze me sometimes with your wit and memory. (Anime and compliments...good times.) Don't forget that one project on um....ok, your memory's way better. :)
• Deep Sea Zombie, you've been one of my best friends this year. Thanks for not getting weird when Mirana went on her little, 'you two would look so good together!' rampage.
• Pretty Pony, thanks for being an amazing cello buddy! It's been fun seeing your (huge!) house and stuffing myself with candy and cheetos. Have fun at Davis, and I'll miss you!
• Happy Sidekick & Day Dreamer, thank you so much for coming to Layton with me! Do you realise we're the only ones going into that orchestra from Fairfield? Your blogs were really fun to follow as well. It's crazy how alike some of your posts are, yet how different. I especially loved it when you both wrote about one trip, but your voices and perspectives were so different I thought they were completely different trips!
• Skittles, you are amazing. Thanks for being my dance partner and keeping me sane through Dickson's class, and thank you so much for being my 'complain about the world' buddy. *high five*

My friends who are fortunate enough to not be in Honor's English (just kidding, I love this class):

• Da Gang. I can't even describe how soothing it is to have a group of friends that just kind of are. You guys have really helped me this year, and I'm sorry if I acted like a jerk. I need to branch out a little, you know? But you guys are still amazing, and I'm glad I'll be seeing you all next year!
• Eighth Grade Buddies: from screaming my name in the hall, to chatting behind me in Orchestra (you know who you are!) and even running away from fake spiders, you guys were an amazing stress relief. Remember to enjoy your life!
• Alexis's 'lil group: thanks for letting me merge in, even when I didn't know a lot of you. Micah, thanks for telling me all about your boy trouble, and thanks Solomon for saying stuff like, "that's interesting" and you are so welcome for the potatoes :)
• Pretty Pony's medely of people: You guys are fun to hang out with, even if only at lunch. Thanks for giving up your seats, (such gentlement :P) and including me in everything.

And I would definitely like to thank Bryce for making my year so much funner. You made me realize that the sadness in life doesn't matter, it's what you do with it that counts.

I'm going to stop before I start sobbing, but thanks again! My ninth grade year was a blast because of all of you.

Someone

I had an odd feeling today, and I realized I wanted to start writing a song. This song doesn't really have a tune that's constant, since I made it on the spot, but I rather like it. It's kind of like a poem, with a bit of singing added in. Here it is: "Someone" by moi.

I want you to know
Something I found not long ago
'Cuz someone you know
Has changed

This is me, this is who I want to be
And don't tell me to be
Someone else!
Someone new!
Someone just like you!

Because it's not who I really am
Just the shell of a truth
I'm not who you knew

I'm not the girl from yesterday
I'm not the one who
Got away

And don't tell me you want me back
Because I'm not like that.

I'm not like that, ay ay ay
Because I'm not like that, ay ay ay ayaaa
I'm not the girl you knew.

I want to be, someone you'd never know
And I won't be
Someone else!
Someone new!
Someone just like you!

You wouldn't like me anyway
If weren't for the tears
of yesterday

Because I am not what you think
I'm a person
Who knows the truth
And it doesn't include you!

No, no, no
It's just me.

Bloody Vegetable!

My mom bought me some avocados the other day, and I just got around to chopping them up for a salad. I took out the pit like always, but stopped before I threw it away.
Are avocado pits toxic? Can you eat them?
Flashed through my mind, and I set it on the counter to dissect after I'd finished my salad. When I got around to cutting it up, it didn't want to cooperate. So, because I had nothing better to do, I stuck it in my mouth and sucked on it for a while. Don't judge me. After about five minutes of trying really hard not to bite it, I pulled it out and peeled off the thin layer between the meat of the seed and the meat of the actual avocado. To my surprise, I found a nut that looked kind of like a peanut. Before I could even think, I bit into it.
Bleh.
That pit was nasty. It was bitter and opposite of the avocado flesh, sharp and jagged instead of smooth and creamy. I jumped on the computer to see if I needed to call the poison control, and I came up with various sources that had little to nothing in common with the others. One said the core contained cyanide.(Click Here) Another said it was a great source of soluble fiber (whatever that is. [Yumm...Avocado smoothies]). And yet another said that it contained a crap load of potassium, but too much would kill you. (Raw Health...hehe)
What am I supposed to believe?
I went back to examine my littler avocado seed, and found my tooth marks in the side.
It was bleeding.
No, it wasn't turning black. No, it wasn't a tiny animal resting inside a fatty veggy. It was an avocado pit, bleeding. 
I turned to the all powerful Google for the answer, and got a boring explanation on how it was the tannin in the pit oxidizing. (Yahoo Answers. Not very reliable....but still.) My mind didn't want to accept it; I kept thinking, "oh goodness, it's alive! It's not really a vegetable....or a fruit!".
And now I'm not sure what's up with my brain, but I think I'm feeling a little woozy. Maybe I'll go lie down for a while and tell myself that people put it in smoothies all the time....
Ta-ta for now!

Bugmania

Today I had the pleasure of digging out my side yard, and setting up a small patio type thing. It was long, grueling work, but definitely worth it. Not because it looks amazing now, no. It was worth it because of all the life I got to see crawling among the weeds and ivy.
There were beetles and stink bugs and wood bugs, plus about a million different species of spiders. (ok, more like six- but still!) There was so many creatures, it made my head spin.
It was even funner to see my mom study me every time I approached, looking for a spider or other bug on my arm. She's terrified of them. Which makes each discovery so much better.
I found one crawling up the wall, a small brown spider that didn't have opaque legs or the tell-tale violin marking on it's back. I always check for those before picking it up with my bare hands, so I don't end up spider-meat.Anyway I found it and immediately named it Kevin. I picked it up and walked slowly over to my mom sitting on her little bench, taking a breather. She glanced up at me and said, "What?" I stopped and smiled. "Do you want to meet Kevin?" I replied, watching her every movement. She got a strange look in her eye. "There's no one here. Who exactly am I meeting?" I revealed the spider on my arm and she jumped up, scared out of her mind. After a few minutes she walked back to the patio, gloves on her hands and a bucket in her arms. She wouldn't come any closer until I told her that no, I did not still have Kevin on me, and no, I had not picked up another bug.
I laughed the whole time I was shoveling up rocks, keeping an eye out for more specimens. I also found a centipede, (Carl) and a wood bug (Woody) trying to scamper away. My entire family started saying, "Just squish it, Julie." whenever I would stop and stare attentively at movement on the wall or the ground. Of course I never did.
I also had to weed whack the rocks in my front yard. I was wearing a white dress I hadn't bothered to change out of, and I ended up with a very awkward Marilyn Monroe moment. Luckily there was no-one around to notice, but I immediately ducked into my window to change into more yard work friendly clothes.
And my strawberries are growing so well! My attempt at a garden has come out with more than just weeds and dead tomatoes, as I expected it would.
My outdoor escapades have gone remarkably well. Now I have to stop myself from walking out the front door in my bare feet and large T-shirt, or climbing out of the window to check once more on my strawberries. Once you get a taste of nature, you never go back. At least I never will.
And I will end this tidbit of life with a warning: the number one most hated creature at this moment, the one you should all look out for, the one my sister has been whining up a storm about, da-ta-da! Aphids. Once you're infested, you're screwed. So protect your plants from this terrible menace!
:D

Au Naturale....Not.

I've always adored nature, and I've been begging my family to take me to the mountains to have a nice long hike. They finally relented, but decided to choose an extremely short trail. We had no idea that at the end of the trail was this beautiful waterfall, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. On the way up I had to endure yelling and singing, not to mention my dad tugging on my braids and my sister screaming, "Julie!". The scenery was impressive, and the plant life was pretty diverse for the dry mountains of Utah. Other than my family, the hike was a lot of fun. (OK, maybe they were kind of entertaining as well.)
We went up a sandy trail covered with hoof prints and sneaker dents and came to some short oak trees. As we went on we discovered cacti and sage mixed in with a lot more sand and dirt. We also noticed the impressive view, and I looked up to find a small golden puppy looking down on us from an outcropping of rock. My mom had my camera, or else I would have a picture of the most realistic Simba look-alike I had ever seen. Seconds later I saw a man up there, assuaging my fears of a lost puppy I desperately wanted to rescue. All my maternal instincts weren't assuaged though, because seconds later I came across this bad boy.

Yep. Some idiot decided to litter. Those little voices in my head started screaming. I could imagine the plant next to it a few years form now, crying and begging for someone to please help it. I can also imagine a French guy coming to Utah and going on this trail and seeing this litter and basing his entire opinion of the US on this stupid act of idiocy. And it didn't stop there. There was tons more litter on the trail, including candy (not wrappers, the entire candy), bottles, lids, pieces of metal, pennies, cans, T-shirts and even what looked like two bookcases on their sides. I mean, really? My dad summed it up in a sentence I never would have thought of: "The world is just a human litter box."

This is wrong. I could rant for days on this, but I'll just let a little creative photography tell the story for me. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. 

* All the garbage I could fit in my pocket from the trail, plus three pennies.