I Love Christmas Time

I think that besides Thanksgiving, Christmas is my favorite time of year. Although the real meaning has been horribly distorted by the obscene amount of commercialism and materialism that seems to spontaenously seep from department stores , the overall feeling still makes itself known in the radio station that has been playing Christmas music since Novermber second, the first trip to the closet where all the decorations are kept, and the excitement and anticipation of being with family. Add to this the fact that school is done for the year (it sounds longer than the actual two weeks that we really have off) and its shaping up to be a merry season after all.
I actuall get by quite easily this year, considering its my senior year in high school. I only have three final exams, and two of them are elective credits (choir and spanish) and the other is english, which I've got a pretty good handle on. My course load has not been exactly staggering this year, either. I take great joy in the fact that I can brag to my sisters about not having any homework - for three weeks straight. It's actually a running joke in my family. My mom will ask me "Mike, have any homework?" and I'll just look at her and laugh.
One interesting thing, though, is my government class. It's called "We the People" and I love it. The class centers around the Constitution and how laws are interpreted and applied to our society, in the present as well as in contemporary times. The class goes to a mock debate at the congressional district level (in place of a final exam), and the top two schools from each district go to the State competition. My school happened to be one of them, and our state competition date is January ninth. I'm very excited to go and I feel reasonably prepared.
My family is all doing well, although Katie may have stress fractures in her legs from playing basketball. We're still waiting for the lab results, but we hope it'll be good news. Lexi had her first choir concert on Thursday and she did very well. She is in the advanced "Chamber" choir and had an excellent performance. The beginning choir was, well, a bunch of beginners. That's all I have to say about that.
The boys are also doing well. Nick had a trumpet solo (accompained by the piano) in his Jr. High band concert and was very good. Lucas had his Sixth grade Christmas concert as well and while he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, he did a good job.
So...I think that's everything. I hope you all (and by that I mean the maybe three people who read this) have a Merry Christmas and to please not get sucked in by the flashy commercials and deals that the stores are having. Also to remember that the actual reason we celebrate Christmas is in the name itself. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Holy cow Thanksgiving's Over!

How did this happen?! What happened to the "Spirit of Thanksgiving" and all the food? Oh, yeah, I forgot. The food is in our fridge (and will be for another two weeks), and while we were all very thankful for my mom for expertly cooking the food, nobody seemed to be thankful enough for the opportuntiy to wash dishes afterward. Weird, huh? But they got done, and I think there will be some excellent pictures on my mom's blog to give you an accurate representation of just how daunting the task of washing eighteen sets of dishes can be. But overall, we had a great time. My cousins and their parents came over, as well as grandparents from both sides of my family. We even had a fire pit in the street in our front yard, but the younger boys were supprisingly uninterested in it, in favor of those stupid, newfangled electronic devices (our Wii and the computer). Something just doesn't seem right when young boys won't gather 'round a fire and try to see how long they can hold their hands in the flames, or aren't throwing things in it. My mother was very disappointed.
Well, I have more news. I've been accepted into Arizona State University, as well as Nothern Arizona University. But something even more exciting happened, concerning ASU. I've been awarded the Provost Scholarship, a renewable scholarship valued at seven thousand five hundred dollars a year! When I opened the letter, I thought that they had made a mistake and that there was ANOTHER Michael Corbitt. But there's not, and I'm so excited. Now, I know that ASU is not BYU, but I only have six months after I graduate before I turn nineteen, and I was thinking of getting my general education done down here and then when I get back, I would apply to BYU and then finish my required years up there. Hey, should I ask my parents about this? Is this something that they would like to know about? Naw, I think a suprise would be more fun.

Holy cow its already Thanksgiving!

Well, at the behest of my mother, I have decided to post another entry. I feel like no time at all has passed since I have last posted, but then I saw the dates on my blog and was met with the shocking reality.
There is not much going on in my life at the present. I am enjoying school, mainly due to the fact that I have had little to no homework this entire year. Another reason is that I generally like to learn. Hey! Stop laughing back there! But seriously, I guess that my mom ate something very strange when she was pregnant with me to have instilled this trait in me, but its there. I especially enjoy my government class, We the People. It's a debate class based on Constitutional issues. We have a regional mock hearing coming up on December sixth, and we are very confident. This is only the second or third year that my school has offered this class, so we are fairly inexperienced compared to other schools, but again, we are confident that we'll do well at our competition.
My sister Lexi just finished performing in her school play, Shakespear's "Comedy of Errors." She was very good, and I was pleasantly suprised by how well the rest of the cast performed. Lexi rehearsed and practiced for about eight weeks and it paid off.
Katie, my other sister, made the varsity basketball team, and we are all very excited for her. This is her...third?...year playing basketball and she loves it, even of she comes home sore and bruised.
Nick and Luke are doing fine in school and with their respective instruments. Lucas just had a concert where he played very well for only beginning about a year ago. Nick is constantly "challenging" the other trumpeters in his band for first and second chair postitions and is very excited by the fact that he can usurp another student from the glory seat.
Oh yeah, I turned eighteen on Wednesday of last week. I felt so old, especially when I brought home a permisson slip from school for my mom to sign. When she wouldn't do it I started to explain what it was for, but then she said, "Michael, you're an adult now. I don't have to sign these anymore." It left me speechless for a second, but then I was elated at the realization. Add to that the fact that I got my own Costco membership card today, and I am feeling pretty good about my age. Who ever said that getting older was a bad thing? Wait, did I just see a gray hair?!

School is in session

So this being my senior year in high school, I decided to take a break from the rigorous schedule that I had maintained throughout my first three years. I have five classes, and three of them are electives. Here's the breakdown:
First Hour: Seminary. I am really excited to have this class for my first hour because it sets a great tone for the rest of the day. Also, I love my teacher, Bro. Stirling. We are studying the New Testament this year and I am anxious to learn about the life of Jesus Christ.
Second Hour: We the People. This is my government credit, but it is more focused on the Constitution and how laws are made. It also centers closely on debates and trials. I am excited for this class because first of all it seemed interesting, and second, it is taught by one of my favorite teachers ever, Mr. Farrlley. He was my history teacher last year and I loved his classes, so I am incredibly glad to have him again.
Third Hour: Spanish. This is my third year of spanish, and second with this particular teacher, Senora Schell. She was my teacher last year and I learned so much from her that I wanted to continue on with my spanish education, even though it wasn't required. She is expecting a baby on the thirtieth of September, so she probably will not come back until around the Christmas break.
Fourth Hour: Master Chorale. This is my choir class and I am greateful to have it. I was in the Jazz Ensemble last year and loved it, but I also wanted to be in the Master Chorale because of the kinds of songs they sang and what they did outside of school (festivals and competitions). This years teacher is different than last year, but I still like him. He is not a fun as last year's guy, but much more technical and better at telling us how to be better.
Fifth Hour: My english class, AP Literature, is really fun, but mostly because of the people in it. I have had this teacher for two years before this, and I really like her style and she tries to make her classes fun. I am not sure how I feel about the class yet, but I am hopeful. We do much reading and analyzing of characters and stuff that I don't even look for in a story, which adds to my consternation of the coursework.
After school I either go to work at Hot Dog On a Stick, or go home to do my homework, the latter of which seems to be strangely nonexistent as of late, and the former much more prevalent. I am not complaining though, it's more money for me.
I had the best feeling on my second day of school. Since I am a senior, I know tons of people. Well going to lunch after third hour, I literally said hello to about six different people. It was an awesome feeling! I felt popular for maybe the thrid time in my high school career.
So that is my day in a nutshell. Again, I apologize to my sister Katie for the inexcusable gap between this post and the one previous to this. I'm sure this ritual of me begging for my sister's forgiveness will be an ongoing process, so to the two of you besides Katie who read this, in the future, you can most likely just skip the last paragraph in every entry that I post. Sorry for the inconvience.

Summer Activities (now that it's over)

Well, as you know, I am not a frequent blogger. A shock, I know. But occasionally, I do find the time to relate the events of my life. Like right now.
So this summer I really did not do a great variety of things. I went to EFY in Provo and shared a room with my friend Brad. It was awesome. Our company name was "Able to bear it" and the people and counsellors were great. After that, my dad, brother Nick, and I went to Scout Camp while my sister went to Girls' Camp, just a few miles away. My dad and I has the prestigious title of "Camp Cook". And we earned it. We made stuff like pancakes and eggs every morning, barbecued pork sandwhiches, and beef stew.
I have been working very often this summer. I don''t mind much because I like my co-workers and I get paid for it, so it's nice. For those of you who don't know, I work at Hot Dog on a Stick. Ok, quit the giggles back there. I am actually realy excited because today I am learning how to open the store. I can already close down by myself, so once I learn how to open, I can do everything.
I also have been going to summer school for my required computer class. I needed a semester of a computers class to graduate, and have never gotten around to doing it, so I got it done this summer. At first, I wanted to know if there was a way that I could test out of it and receive the credit anyway, but alas, there was not. So I had to endure four weeks of four hours a day, Monday through Thrusday of sitting in the computer lab, doing nothing because I had already finished the simple project the teacher had given us. But at least its over, and I got the credit.

Well, that pretty much brings you all up to speed (though I am not sure who all of you are). So I'll see you all the next time that something cool happens to me and I wait forever to blog about it. That's just how I roll.

Blogging is an everyday thing?

Everybody knows that blogging is something that you do every couple of days, right? That was my perception of the idea, but evidently, I was wrong. I have just been informed by my sister, who is an extreme blogaholic, that a person with a blog should blog every day. Let me respond with the following statement: Nobody has a life interesting enough that they need to relate the events of their day every day. Nobody, save for celebrities, and they do not even have to worry about it because they have the paparazzi and tabloids to take care of that for them. So there. Pbbbth!
So last night, I had a couple of my buddies over and we held the first ever Virtual Olympics. We played the Wii. It was really fun, we had an awesome tennis match, then some bowling. I also tried my skill at boxing, and to my chagrin, I awoke this morning with my arms and shoulders groaning in protest from the workout. I tell you, if everybody played the Wii, gyms and personal trainers would go out of business.
Well, that is all that I have to say about that. See, for people like me, blogging is just something to fill the hours. I don't have tons to write about, but Ilike putting my opinion out there. Now I get to go swimming, which I could not do last night like I wanted to because the stupid community pools were closed. But they are open now, so my family and I are going now. I feel like I should leave you all with some sort of saying or clever quote, but I cannot think of one, so I will just write about something later.

Long time, no....whatever. You know what I mean.

So, in response to the numerous calls for a new post (most from my mother and sister) I have conceded to take the time to scribe the recent events that have occured in my life. Yes, I am still practicing my higher vocabulary, for high school ended not but three weeks ago. Sorry, I am done.
Well, I attended a wedding for the daughter of a woman whom my mother works with. It was a great ceremony and the reception was wonderful. The bride looked beautiful and the groom had the classic bemused, happy I'm-not-quite-sure-what-just-happened look. At the reception, my family and I got a table that was unobtrusive and out of the way in the corner. Our plans at not being noticed were ruined when the head waited said that we were to be the first to eat. D'oh! Oh well. The food was really good, chicken parmesian (YES!) and spaghetti and meatballs. Another interesting point was when the waiters were walking around serving sparkling cider to the kids and champagne to the older folks, guess which one I was served? Yep, the alcoholic version. It kind of made me feel cool, but the yeasty smell got to me after a while.
Today (Wednesday) I was watching Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightley) with my sister Lexi and it made me feel good that we could understand all the verbal spears that the characters throw at each other. Yeah for intelligence!
And that leads up to now, so as I have nothing else to blog about, I must say adieu, to you and you and you.

Just one more day...

I only have one more half-day of school for this year, and I cannot wait for it to be over. I have a final exam in Pre-Calculus, and that is it because I took the AP United States History test, and that takes the place of my final in that class. I am so glad that I took that test, because I cannot take any more finals. Isn't it strange how I can have A's in all of my other classes except for math? I hate that. I am especially annoyed when there is someone who is younger than you and he is so much better at math than you. That really bothers me. Isn't there always someone like that. I mean, that's cool for them, and I hope that they do something to help the world and everything, but could you just learn in an all-advanced class please? That would make the rest of us older failures much happier.

Welcome!

So this is my first attempt at anything computer related that is unassociated with school, and I am incredibly excited. I have that feeling that we get when we are little kids and our parents ask us to help them with some menial task because they are either too lazy or want to make us feel good, and we feel like we have accomplished some insurmountable task and that we deserve a cookie. Yes, long-winded but bear with me. As I have said, this is my first attempt, so you will just have to be patient with me until I can get it to look all nice and presentable.
After all, Rome wasn't built in a day.