Month / October 2019

by Sarena

Binge With Me

Hey! I’m great at procrastinating, thus I’ve watched more TV than I probably should oops. I’m here to recommend some stuff for you to watch if you’re bored. I think I’m going to stick to TV series, but I might throw in a movie next time if I do this again.

Alright starting with Number 1, drumroll please…Brooklyn Nine-Nine!

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First, Andy Samberg is the funniest person ever. He’s such a great actor, and the role of Jake Peralta is perfect for him. He’s a sassy, sarcastic, investigative detective well known for his “cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool… cool” and his obsession with the movie Die Hard. He has some of the best quotes of the show: “I guess that’s your new best friend now, Santiago. Emphasis on ‘Iago,’ backstabber…What the hell’s Othello? I’m calling you the parrot from Aladdin.” He delivers some fantastic lines, but it’s not only him, Gina, Charles, Rosa, Amy, Terry, and Holt are all amazing characters on their own as well. They’re a bunch of NYPD officers, yet with the number of shenanigans they get up to, you could’ve fooled me. You get so much insight into each character, even the side ones, that you just fall in love with the show. I highly recommend if you haven’t seen it before, there are 6 seasons of entertainment in store for you.

Next up we have The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina!

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So I have watched the ’90s sitcom of Sabrina the Teenage Witch countless times, I’m pretty sure I watched the animated series growing up too. I cannot stress how much I love this adaptation of the story though. I’m normally not one for anything even remotely scary (I was scarred for life after seeing this one horror movie my brother was watching, when I was very young), but this? This is amazing. It’s not like super scary by any means, but it is mystical. I love how much the story plays into the magical/witchy parts that the sitcom didn’t. Kiernan Shipka plays Sabrina, who has some nice outfits by the way, and she has to decide between the mortal world of her friends and the dark realm of the Spellman family. The show actually has the same writers as Riverdale, but that show is so cringeworthy that it’s laughable. I can’t believe the writers are the same because the shows are worlds apart, like Sabrina is so good, and Riverdale is so yikes. Anyway, if you’re up for some witchy antics you need to watch this show. It’s dramatic, intense, and often witty with the help of everyone’s favorite “let’s blow up the Vatican” warlock cousin, Ambrose. The plot is a lot to wrap your head around, but it’s fascinating. Also, they know how to throw in a musical number *cough Riverdale cough.* There are only 2 seasons out at the moment, but I’m pretty sure more are in the works.

I think that’s it for today so happy binging everyone!

by Sarena

Real Talk

Hey guys, I normally like to keep the blog lighthearted and fun. But today I wanted to hop on and just write some thoughts from this week. I know it’s a bit different, so you’re welcome to skip this blog and move along lol. Anyway, nothing really significant caused this; I’ve just been feeling kind of down lately, and while I could definitely name superficial reasons for this, that’s besides the point. Life is full of ups and downs, and I’m aware of that. However, sometimes the lows don’t seem to compensate for the highs. Also, before I continue, I’m ok everyone don’t worry. Continuing, I’ve been at a pretty decent neutral lately, and I hadn’t noticed it at first. I don’t normally think about being ok, because I’m pretty sure most people don’t consciously dwell on their emotions (wow I’m throwing in some psych thoughts, yay introspection)? So yeah it was like being at the end of a roller coaster, a flat calm after you know all the excitement is over. Except, I forgot that it’s a cycle, so the end is just the beginning. Life has decided to start up and be a series of ups and downs again. The worst part of it all is that the ups are significantly shorter than the downs. There were a few days in the past week where I felt like I was on top of the world. Being around my friends made me so happy. Now we’ve gotten to the point where I just want to sleep all the time, and I’m just too tired to do anything. I’m not particularly excited for this ride, but here we go. At least I know I have people to lean on when I’m struggling. Ok we’re going to stop there, I don’t want to make this too sad. I promise that next time I’ll be back with something fun, bye!

by Sarena

“It’s Friday…any plan of being a productive member of society is officially thrown out the window.

Hi! How is everyone’s weekend going? I’ve actually really enjoyed myself the past two days, even though work was not so great. We were understaffed by two people? So I was running around flipping burgers, taking orders, and frying food for 7 hours. That’s not really my ideal day at work, but oh well at least it kept me busy and distracted. Anyway, I’m just here to blog about something I really enjoyed doing Friday.

I’m about to sound like the most boring person ever…which I kind of am, but typically all I do is homework? Like all I do is homework. Everyday after school, before and after work (yes even on my break), and then Sundays before and after dance. Seriously, when I say all I do is homework and study, I really mean it. And yes of course sometimes I get distracted, but for the most part I stay home and do school work. I’ve managed to get this far without much consequence, and good grades (thank goodness otherwise what would be the point lol). However, I’ve finally become more aware of it? I just feel like I need to learn to balance out my life more, because it’s so unfair to myself to always be doing work. It gets really exhausting and then in the future, when I look back on my teen years, I really don’t want it to all be about school. Yes, school is still very important to me and essentially my top priority. But, I think I need to start putting my well being up there in my priorities as well. I’m sure there are people out there who throw themselves into work, and then forget to relax and take a break every once in a while, so I just wanted to tell you guys how one simple thing made me smile for the entire weekend 🙂

Starting off, this new boba place opened a few weeks ago, and I had wanted to go so bad. But you guessed it, school and testing got in the way. I had plans to go on one of our half days, but nope. So I made it my goal to drive down and get my boba this Friday. It was great, I got a matcha milk cap and that was really nice. Then, my friend and I weren’t sure what we wanted to do (also it was pretty cold so we didn’t want to stand around and ponder what to do). So we decided to just drive home lol we literally drove 30mins for only boba (if this doesn’t prove how much I wanted boba then idk what does). For some reason, we just didn’t feel like going back to my house yet. Thus, for the next hour we just drove around aimlessly. We blasted music, which our similar music taste was actually what brought us to be friends in the first place, and we sang at the top of our lungs. I loved it. I had such a good time. Just taking an hour to be with a friend, I guess I really needed the social connection? I see my friends all the time at school obviously, but having it be just us two acting like idiots lifted my spirits more than I can describe in words. So if anyone out there is struggling to balance work and play (work hard but play hard too y’all lol), I really recommend taking an hour out of your day, grabbing a friend, and driving around to nowhere. I had a really great Friday night for the first time in what feels like forever, so I hope you enjoyed this little anecdote. See you next time!

by Sarena

A Friend Of A Friend Of A Friend

Hey, hope everyone is having a good day! I’m actually not doing too bad today lol my brother made me a mocha with 3 shots of expresso yesterday so like I’m pretty awake over here. I survived my Psych midterm even though I had intended to study more. Good news: it didn’t feel so hard. So a few posts back, I talked about homecoming. I actually met a “new” friend, not really but sort of? He’s a mutual friend, you know one of those “Oh yeah I know of him, but I don’t know him, know him” kind of people. His parents happened to be in New York today, and apparently he was going to be stranded after school until 6:00pm. I felt bad so I offered to drive him home. First time I’ve been to his house, and oh my god. It looks like a Youtuber vlogger house? It’s so nice like are we sure we’re still in Misery? Oops I mean Missouri. Anyway, he actually is a Youtuber (go subscribe @NicLeb because random shoutout why not?). He’s been to Coachella and interviewed some pretty famous people like Zac Efron and Billie Eilish. He’s super cool? He’s also a really great, funny person. If you ever read this Nic, heyy. Somebody commented on his recent video that he reminds them a little of Joey Graceffa, actually kind of true. Ok moving back to the subject at hand, he gave me a little house tour. His house is so pretty! There’s a nice pool in the backyard with a patio and grill set up. He also has an in home basement theater situation, like who actually has freaking recliners set up in front of a large screen? Apparently Nic does. He also has three ovens and three fridges in his house, who needs that much food? I don’t know, but honestly each person in his household could have their own separate food storage unit. This boy is really out here living that LA girl life. I am really glad I met him though, he’s super fun to be around and he always finds a way to lighten the mood. Can’t wait to invade your house Nic 🙂 That’s all for today, and yes I know it’s boring oops, bye!

by Sarena

Just Some Tuesday Thoughts

Hey again lol surprise, surprise I’m procrastinating homework. At least this time it’s NOT Chem…it’s just Psych, and a midterm that I may or may not have tomorrow oops. I’ll be fine lol I just won’t sleep, high schoolers and sleeping? What a crazy concept. Anyway while writing this blog I’m watching Friends. I’m on Season 6, “The One with Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E,” and every time I watch the show I swear it gets more entertaining. The characters are ridiculous, and it’s in the best way possible. Like right at this moment Joey is just wearing a pile of clothes and doing some lunges, oh and here comes the depressed “I miss you” music vibes lol. Omg this show is honestly great, I can’t. I’m sure most everyone has watched it, but if you haven’t, I seriously recommend you do so. It’s just a great show for a good laugh, for unwinding from a long day, or just for some background noise while doing other work. I know there are some people that don’t like the show lol, actually for the longest time I didn’t watch the show because I didn’t think I would like it. But you have to love some melodrama sometimes..:)

Besides what I’m currently watching, I just want to chuck in a quick blurb about how spontaneous my parents are? Last night my mom tells me that her and my dad are leaving for Chicago in a few hours, and I’m here like since when? More than a few hours notice would’ve been much appreciated mom, but ok whatever. Anyway, I like how she didn’t even check up on my brother or I today; they’re just down there having fun with my mom’s younger brother. I swear, my parents have more fun than I do. My mom actually called me a little while ago, but it wasn’t to say how are you or anything like that, no, she wanted to know if I wanted this one snack because she was out shopping. Great parenting am I right? It’s so ironic because this is coming from the same people who still warn me every time that the stovetop is hot…right because I would never have guessed that. I think I’m going to hit pause on this parent rant…I should study at some point tonight, might as well be now. Thanks for sticking around to the end of this nonsense blog. Hopefully next time I’ll have something better to talk about, bye!

by Sarena

A Quick Recap

Here’s a quick recap a few nice things that happened this week, mainly because 1) I’m sure everyone would like a reason to smile and 2) I’m procrastinating AP Chem homework lol, but what’s new about that? I love that class but a lab report, pre lab, and a nomenclature quiz tomorrow? Yeah uh that’s a bit too much for me. Anyway, not that it’s of great importance or anything, but I thought it would be fun to just share some quick anecdotes.

I’m going to start with a silly one, like this shouldn’t make me as happy as it does but whatever. So for Chem, my teacher has us make element squares. Basically you choose an element, then include its symbol, mass, and atomic number, and you create a drawing or some sort of artistic representation that has nothing to do with the actual element itself. This time around I chose Tungsten and drew “Wonderland.” After everyone completes their element squares, we vote on which ones will go up on the back wall. Sadly there were a few other Tungsten squares this time and mine didn’t make it up there. But, my teacher liked mine so much that he put it up on the bulletin board outside his classroom, and this just made me really happy. I can’t explain why, but I thought that was nice because he usually just throws all the losers in the recycle bin…yeah that would’ve hurt a little.

Next up I get to talk about one of my amazing friends. I met him Freshman or Sophomore year in French, although we had never really talked. Recently I met him again at my friend’s senior party, and we really hit it off. Turns out we’re pretty similar, so that’s super cool. We’re both pretty busy people, so we don’t get to see each other much. Anyway, the other night I was working on Psych notes (I swear all I ever do is homework; I’m like the most boring person ever rip) and he texted me saying he had a drink for me. He works at a Starbucks, and we were just talking the other day about how I needed caffeine and I was jealous that he had coffee. He caught me off guard, and I was beyond elated. Just earlier I had thought about visiting my brother at work, and asking him to make me a drink. So yeah, basically my friend is a lifesaver who also happens to feed my caffeine addiction lol (quick note: he brought a caramel macchiato; sugar and caffeine let’s goo).

Last one and this is still about my amazing friend up there. We decided to have a movie night, and he asked me what snacks to bring. I’m a pretty indecisive person, so I just said that I don’t care. I also happened to have a house that’s always chock full of food. Anyone need a snack? So then he came over later with a big Target bag of snacks, and I looked at him awestruck like wow you didn’t need to do that. Turns out we didn’t even eat any of the snacks lol too busy talking over the movie. When he was about to head out, I reminded him to grab his bag because it looked like he had forgotten. He proceeded to persuade me to keep it, and I’m just here like what did I do to deserve such a kind human being in my life, seriously. I’ve been snacking on popcorn, coffee, and ice cream all week, thanks dude 🙂 Alright I hope everyone has a good week, I’ll be back soon!

by Sarena

Skater Girl

Hey! I just wanted to pop on the blog because lately I’ve been thinking about this. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, I might have but I don’t know honestly, anyway I’m a competitive figure skater. I started skating when I was around 4 years old? Imagine a tiny little thing on the ice, yeah that was me lol. It used to be my identity. Whenever someone would ask, “What’s a fun fact about you?” It was my go to answer. It’s weird to think that I trained for hours and hours. I competed my entire childhood and most of my adolescence. Meanwhile now, I haven’t been on the ice in months. Thinking back, there was never a point in time where I wouldn’t skate multiple times within a week. If I ever left for a month long vacation, I would always feel guilty about not being able to practice. In all fairness, sometimes I actually would bring my skates with me. I literally traveled overseas with my skates because it felt wrong to not have them. Skating has been such a huge part of my life. It’s been a great teacher and friend. However, that definitely doesn’t mean it was without faults. I have so many memories of times where I was so overwhelmed that I just wanted to give up. Then again, I was always so adamant about sticking with it. I never would have believed that I would give up the sport so easily. Yet, even though I haven’t been on the ice in so long, I haven’t give up. It’s still such a huge part of my life, and I still feel so connected to it. It’s like a feeling that a part of me is missing without it. I guess that happens when you grow up doing something you love. I still watch skating videos, and from time to time I’ll keep up with scoring changes and competitions. I may not be as involved in the community as I was before, but I’m still extremely passionate about it. I love the sport. I truly do. It’s just now I’ve found some more balance in my life. I can’t say that all those days I struggled were my favorite, but enduring all that has lead me to where I am today. I’m waiting to take those first steps back on the ice, and I know when I do, I’ll feel at home.

Sorry that this sounds like an essay or something lol. I’ve just been reflecting a lot on life lately (thanks Psychology class), and I really wanted these thoughts in writing. Sort of to reinforce my feelings, but also to manifest that I will take those steps again as if nothing ever changed. Alright, next time I’ll try to be more lighthearted, bye!

by Sarena

Homecoming!

This past weekend was Homecoming! Yay fun…yeah it was only ok. It was a definite improvement from last year, but that’s not too hard to top.

As a quick recap, last year one of my friend’s from another school asked one of my friend’s to homecoming. Well there were a few problems with that, 1) they didn’t know each other, 2) he was unaware that she wanted him to be her date, and 3) she had a crush on him, but he had absolutely no idea. It was an uncomfortable situation overall to say the least, I had to be an awkward third wheel and facilitate conversation because these people had only ever talked on Snapchat…I don’t think I could sound any more Gen Z than that sentence right there. Wow. Someone please explain to me why people think having a heart on Snap suddenly means you’re best friends and you’re just meant to be. So yeah she essentially ignored me even though we had planned to go to each other’s homecomings when we were children. It’s totally fine lol no hard feelings. I was upset for awhile, but to disclose the full story seems like an invasion of privacy, and I’ve honestly just moved on. We’ve somewhat reached a conclusion to the whole situation. Although that’s kind of a work in progress, so I might update that whenever I see her next.

Moving on to this year, she’s out of the picture; however, the drama is still going strong. I didn’t plan anything this year because I’ve been swamped with life and all its wonders, but I eventually decided to go with some people. Honestly highlight of the night was probably that I finally got to wear this dress that I’ve had since summer. It’s lavender—my current favorite color. Either that, or accidentally matching colors with one of my friends, and then our parents saying we don’t even look like friends. In context, they made us walk next to each other, and it was just kinda awkward since we’re not dating (which no one believes) so it wasn’t like we were going to just hold hands and like skip across the park lol. Anyway, pictures took forever and someone decided to push back our dinner reservation. We had already planned for 6:00pm and the doors closed at 8:30pm, already not ideal. Then it got pushed back to 6:30pm, accounting for time it takes food to get ready, time to eat, time to drive, we were cutting it close. In addition to time management stress, it was also great to deal with people, that I swear were best friends literally a few weeks ago, who hated the other’s guts. Tension at a divided dinner table is really fun, and then the after parties were situations of their own. This is all I’m going to bore you with lol until next time, I hope that everyone else has/had a more enjoyable homecoming!