Memory

This past summer I hung out with Brittney and Spike, and there was one time we had together that was a blast. We had all eaten dinner at a place where Derek works and weren’t sure what to do afterwards. Spike told us that Walker was working at the Marsh down the street and we could go hang out with him. It seemed like something to do, so we all drove over to there. It didn’t take long to find Walker; he was bagging some groceries for an older lady. He asked his supervisor right away if he could go on break. So he did and while he was walking over to us he put a black pick in his hair. We laughed at him because it looked ridiculous. If you know Walker he already has the afro going on, and to add the pick just topped off he look. He told us that when he got off work, which was in about five minutes, we could head over to his house. It was getting dark out so I told him that I couldn’t stay too long and I had to take Brittney home as well. He said that was fine.
So I drove up to his house with Brittney in my car. I was talking to her along the way, and hadn’t paid attention to where exactly we were going. That didn’t help us when we were rushing home later. When we first got to Walkers, it was really awkward and we just walked around for a bit. Spike picked up a basketball that was lying on the ground and began playing with it. It pretty much broke the ice.
Somehow during our miniature game of basketball, Walker talked to talk about how he accidentally lit his garage on fire, like full on lit it on fire. I don’t quite remember the details of how he managed to do that, but anyone who lights their house on fire has to be somewhat insane. While looking into his garage, I saw a bunch of rotten apples near the wheels of what looked like an Olds. Brittney asked Walker what was going on with all the crazy looking apples on the ground, and he told us that they were from his apple tree.
Spike picked one up and chucked it at the backboard of the basketball goal. And let me tell you, it splattered everywhere! It looked like someone had put an apple into a paintball machine and blasted it onto the backboard. The rest of us stood there in amazement for a moment, until we decided to join in on the fun. It felt like being little kids again. We picked up more and more disgusting looking apples and chucked them at the basketball goal. Sometimes the apples would clear above the board but that didn’t stop us. We would just run after them and throw them at the other side of the board.
When curfew came around, neither Brittney nor I wanted to leave. We were having such a good time and Walker was making us laugh so hard! It was great to be able to do stupid, yet fun, things like that for a night.

Response to Class Take 2

I’m really surprised at how involved our class is with discussions. We’ve been talking about The Great Gatsby and Nickel and Dimed for over two weeks, and so far we’ve been having the most thoughtful and mature conversations. I see so much growth from our junior class (Sorry Tony and Christina) compared to last year. I remember Mr. Priest would continuously get aggregated because we couldn’t connect to the reading and therefore, the talks we would have would be shallow. During our first block in AP, we all walked with headaches because we pushed the discussions so far. It was great. We went beyond and above what I thought any of us was capable of.

I look forward to the next block period (which is in about an hour) and hopefully, I won’t walk out with a headache.

"How I Start to Write"

“How I Started to Write: The Art of the Personal Essay” is a really interesting piece of writing. Carlos Fuentes starts his story in Panama, where he was born, telling you in an expressive style about his mother. He describes how his father’s job left him without a real feeling for his home country. Carlos Fuentes does a great job at telling you what happens to him, unlike in other stories where it will just state the facts. His style is influenced by his Mexican heritage and he uses it to shape is writing style. Fuentes talks about how he is a Scorpio, and how that exemplifies who he is as a person. He lets background show throughout his writing. The writer that he is consists of his life story as well as how the stories of others have affected him. Fuentes uses a distinctive style that would be difficult to copy because of the experiences he has.

Response to "I could tell you stories"

NOTE: I started this post this past weekend (hence why it says Sunday August 26) but decided to come back to it after class today.


"Red Sky in the Morning," was the reading for this past Friday and from what I hear, sparked some great in class discussions. I was absent on Friday and after the discussion we had in class Monday (today), it makes a lot more sense.

There are many different ways for us to interpret "I could tell you stories." In my opinion, when the middle-aged woman says this, she means that a lot of things have happened to her and the young man (who is in fact her husband) that are interesting. Some people in class thought that she really didn't have anything to say, or it meant that there was so much to tell, but I don’t think that is the case. She could tell you stories but it wouldn’t lead up to the experience. And instead of going on further to explain them, the women closes her eyes and falls asleep leaving the author to wonder why she didn’t. The woman leaves this air of mystery and allows the reader to jump to whatever conclusions they want to.

“A story, we sense, is the only possible habitation for the burden of our witnessing," was an important quote that we broke down in class today. When I first read this I didn't understand it, but after we talked about it, it makes perfect sense and I think it's very true. The first part, “A story, we sense, is the only possible habitation...” basically means that the story is never as good as the real thing and its hard to recreate it. Listening to stories really is not the same as being there, but it’s the closest we come to the experience. The second part, “…For the burden of our witnessing.” means that it’s our duty to tell the story of our experience. We have a responsibility to share those moments with someone else, so that they too can be a part of it.

Response to AP English

My thoughts over AP English so far are generally that I like the class and it’s a challenge. The way it is taught is similar to that in Introduction to Writing. I don’t mind the writing assignments every night in this class mostly because we have a good discussion about them that day. It’s nice that they only have to about 250 words and they aren’t too formal. It seems to be a reasonable workload. You challenge us to think. It’s also nice to be able to write about topics that aren’t dictated upon you. I feel like you give us some food for thought before we have to go off and write a topic.
We’re definitely analyzing The Great Gatsby and Nickel and Dimed more so than I thought we would. I’m glad that the reading that we were assigned to do over the summer is actually getting talked about, unlike previous years. It really helps that Maggie asks LaMagdeleine to repeat herself often or to say something in a different way. It makes me feel like I understand the material better, especially when LaMagdeleine gives examples. I don’t always understand things first time around, so I’m happy someone else is asking all the questions besides myself.
We talked today in class about how with certain teachers, you write how you think the teacher wants you to. For example, if you were to take a history class, you would write more about facts and key dates. You wouldn’t write how you typically would with your friends. I found that interesting because I do that subconsciously. I never thought my quality of work was better in certain classes than others until today.