Tori's Weekly Tirade 2.28.16

Hello everyone! 
Sunday comes a lot faster than I used to think that it did! 

Here are some amazing highlights of my week! 

-Monday, I took the world's toughest math test (I'm exaggerating, but it was hard) and managed to score above the class average. I'm thankful that even though I'm kind of struggling with this college class, that I'm still in the top half. 

-We ended up having some snow days this week. As much as I love not having school, I'm ready for warm weather. It doesn't seem that I'm going to get my wish though- it's supposed to snow three days this week. Ew. I am far more than ready for spring. 

-Friday night, I finally saw Deadpool with my friend (best friend, in case anyone cares) Bethany. We ate at a buffet restaurant with her sister and her sister's best friend, went into Ulta for a few minutes, and then to Kroger and Sheetz afterwards. I'm gonna miss these kinds of nights after we both go to college. 
*sigh* 
The joy of senior year is finally here- and it includes going to eat food and Kroger/Walmart past 10pm. 

-Patrick came to visit me yesterday. I don't really have to say anything about that. 
It was absolutely wonderful. 
He was kind of sick though, but that just meant that he fell asleep later in the evening and I got to play with his hair. 
We also went looking for prom dresses yesterday, and I fell in love with this mermaid style, lace-up back, beautiful dress that was blue and indigo... But the price tag wasn't half as pretty. Ha ha... We'll see what kind of dress I end up wearing to prom. 
I love spending time around him. A lot. 

-This one is actually blog related- 3,500 reads! I've had this blog for a little over a year, and have 3,500 reads. That is positively wonderful. A big thank you to all of my readers, as I could not have come this far without you guys!

-...I started Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy last night. Yeah. Season 4. I kind of love this show. 

~ 

Anyways, this week has been pretty good. I like weeks like this. Laid back, chilled out, completely void of general expectation. 

...Oh yeah. I finished the FAFSA. (Shoutout to my mom for somehow maintaining patience through that tedious process.) I also submitted a couple of college scholarship applications after we finished it. 
So far, I haven't heard anything. 
I haven't heard from UNC yet either. I'm waiting patiently (or trying to at least) for them to contact me with their decision. 

I'm beginning to feel like I qualify for the most impatient person ever. 

~ 

On another note, I'm getting really sick of church people. I don't particularly identify as a "church person" anymore because of said church people. Liiiiike- I'm just disgusted to be quite honest. 

And by church people, I'm not generalizing all of the people who go to church. I'm talking about a specific few on my Facebook timeline that love to put other people down and hop up on their high-horses. 

They ride the fence (and probably have a bad wedgie with saddle sores by now) about everything, they kiss the behind of every minister in power without consideration or reflection, and they love to talk about how religious they are. 

It's not my fault that their so called "apostle" epistle's me off. 

They don't even follow the shepherd anymore, you know? They follow the other sheep. The big, bold sheep. Right now though, a lot of the sheep are chasing around wolves in sheeps' clothing. That bothers me just a little bit, you know?

Maybe you do, maybe you don't... But I'm just sharing my opinion. 

~

Anywaaaays. 

I'm gonna hop off of here and go watch some Grey's Anatomy. 

Have a good week, everyone!

Happy first week of March! Grab a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's and a green shirt, and kiss a leprechaun.

Let's wish the snow away, and do something productive this week. 

:)

-tori(:

p.s. I wrote another slam poem. I'm not sure if I'm going to post it, but if you'd like to read it, feel free to email me or message me on Facebook. 

Tori's Weekly Tirade 2.21.16

Hey babes! 

This week has been, well, pretty stressful to say the least. Not necessarily bad stressful, just casual stressful. 

Monday kicked off the week with a 2 hour delay that should've been a cancellation. Our road was too bad for me to go to school, so my parents decided to let Nicholaus (my brother, for those of you who might be new here) and I stay home for the day. 

Sunday night I started falling down the dark abyss that is Grey's Anatomy... You can guess what I did with an impromptu snow day on Monday! I am now about a third of the way through Season 3, and I really enjoy the value of the show. It's kind of weird watching hospital stuff happen from the doctor perspective instead of from the patient/relative of a patient perspective. 

Anyways, the rest of the week has included cramming for my college math test tomorrow, constantly checking my college online accounts for decisions, and running through scenes in theatre. High School Musical is finally coming along, like, a lot. It's so cool to watch it come together. I can't wait until the show days are finally here. 

That's about it for the week. Nothing eventful has really happened besides that. I'm taking my own notes now in College Algebra, because I realized that I'm not gonna pass the class without them. They've helped immensely.

Friday was pretty awesome. My [epic, amazing, awesome] mom surprised me with some new books (both Nicholas Sparks- thanks mom!!!!) and so I've started on one of them. It's about a lawyer from Chapel Hill- go figure, right? The book has really made me think about my freshman year. When I lived in North Carolina, my friends thought I was insane because I managed to read almost every Nicholas Sparks book in the library at my high school. Now that he's come out with several new books, I'm playing catch up. 

But as I read I couldn't help but think.
Graduation is 90 days away... 
Which is terrifying and thrilling all the same. 
I think that the Class of 2016 is realizing that we really are growing up. 

My weekend kind of reinforced that whole thing. 

My friend Bethany texted me on Friday night because she wanted a tag-along buddy to go to this open house thing at Marshall University. (That's where she's going. I've been accepted there, but I'm not going there.) Anyways, we left around 2 yesterday afternoon, and headed to Huntington. 

Me, being me, decided to read all the way there. Bethany slept... I may have used her phone to listen to music all the way there. No shame. 

We got there and she registered, then she met the deans and professors and all of those important people. She's going to be a science major (and by that, I mean pre-med.) So I, the philosophic history nerd that wants to teach preschoolers and get a doctorate in writing, was surrounded by people who are probably going to make more money than I see in my entire life. 

*sigh* 

After her meet and greet thing was over, we went to watch a production of Mauritius. It was about two sisters who were fighting over a book of stamps after their mother passed away. I rather enjoyed it, but I thought that my friend's grandmother was going to pass out if they used the f-word one more time. It wasn't a vulgar production at all. It was a movement-styled production, with simple costuming and very talented actors and actresses. It conveyed the honest emotions and exchanges between people when someone dies. 

So people cursed- big deal! It was a very relatable play. 

We headed to our hotel after that, which was a hilarious trial and error situation. None of us wanted to use a GPS. Thanks to our lack of want to use a GPS, we drove around for almost 40 minutes looking for the hotel. When we finally found it, Bethany and I ordered pizza. 

Yes.
Ordered pizza.
At 11pm. 
:) 

Shortly after that, we fell asleep watching Grey's Anatomy on my phone via the life saving network that is Netflix. 

BUT THEN, 
THEN WE WERE AWOKEN BY THE WORST,
AND I MEAN THE WORST,
ALARM CLOCK IN THE HISTORY OF ALARM CLOCKS.

It sounded like a fire alarm, went off an hour early, and caused me to have a nightmare about hotels after I fell back asleep. My life literally flashed before my eyes when it went off. You know how we have fight-or-flight adrenaline resources that kick in when we're in danger? That happened. My heart (and head) pounded for like an hour afterwards. 

Our ride home was pretty nice. We sang show tunes... And Justin Bieber... And just kind of talked about music and life and all of that fun stuff. We reflected on being freshmen, and how much we've both grown up since then. 

People aren't lying when they say that your senior year flies by! I'm definitely enjoying every minute of it, though. 

Anyways, just wanted to check back in with you guys. I shall see you guys next week- hopefully with some information about an audition I have on Friday, and some miscellaneous college information. 

Have a good week, guys!

xxoo, Tori <3

p.s. Happy belated Birthday, Bethany!!! 

Tori's Weekly Tirade 2.14.16

Hi guys!

So my blogger friend Brittney challenged me to blog every day for a year. 

(Find her at My Life As Brittney.) 

However, due to my need to procrastinate sometimes and put things off, I think it would be better to use her technique and have a set day to blog every week about that week. But to differentiate from her, it's probably going to be more of a messy complication than a neat little list. 

[Meanwhile, I am currently sitting and scrolling through a thesaurus page trying to come up with a witty name for this, and failing miserably. So in the true spirit of writing, I am going to write my post and then meet you guys at the end of it with a name. Maybe. We'll see.] 

~ 

This past week has been mostly uneventful. 

Oh wait, no it wasn't! The Super Bowl happened on Sunday and it was absolutely, well, actually it was pretty boring. I wasn't feeling the hype. 

I loved the halftime show, though. I like Coldplay a lot. Lady Gaga also slaughtered the national anthem (and if you disagree, then you can eat my socks.)

It snowed (again!) this week. 

Let's be honest here. When I say that it snowed in a post, I imagine that people who don't live in West Virginia think of a skiff of snow and kids playing in it. That sometimes happens, but usually that's November snow. February/March snow in West Virginia is accompanied by bitter cold conditions and a lot of snow days. Snow days that have to be made up in June, unless you're a senior. (Like me! Woo!)

Anyways, we had school on Monday and it kind of sucked a lot. To me at least it sucked a lot. We had an early release because of snow, and that was pretty awesome. Monday kind of sucked, tbh. Some people think that they own places just because they're in positions of authority, which couldn't be further from the truth. (#StillTooGood!)

Aaaaand then it snowed

and snowed

and snowed 

and the windchill dipped way below zero

and Raleigh County's Board of Education still insisted upon waiting until 5am Tuesday-Thursday to tell us that school was cancelled. 

Then Friday was normal schedule and ended up being an insanely good day. It was the pre-Valentine's hysteria for people who cared. For people like me, it was a day to catch up on the crap-ton of algebra that I missed all week. (#CollegeStudentProbs, am I right? Don't worry. I hate myself too for that hashtag.) 

Also, I'm an office aid for fourth block instead of taking a real class. Mostly because I'm lazy and would rather run errands for office people than sleeping through some irrelevant elective class. Hey, at least I'm honest about it! 

I'm technically an attendance office aid, which is literally turning out to be my favorite part about this whole semester. Well, let's just say that someone might have left some cupcakes sitting on a table in the office on Friday. And some candy. And a staff member got locked in a classroom. And it snowed a lot. 

Now we're awaiting another snow and ice storm that's probably gonna keep us home from school yet another week. (Local college campuses have already cancelled school, but the RCBOE hasn't... Go figure!) But I'll definitely let you guys know next week what happens. 

Oh! By the way- for anyone keeping up with my college/professional goals. 

As of today, I will be receiving admission (..or rejection, but I'm an optimist!) letters to the two campuses of the University of North Carolina that I applied to. Chapel Hill will always be my first choice, but I also applied to Charlotte because of their education program. 

I'm going to get my degree to teach, because I know that if I don't then I'll end up regretting it. It just depends on which campus accepts me as to how that will work. 

If Chapel Hill doesn't accept me as a freshman, then I will probably go to Charlotte for two years to work on my education degree and then transfer to Chapel Hill to work on the Journalism degree that my heart so desires. Some people probably think that I'm insane, but I'm not. I just have these goals that I really want to achieve in life. 

Say a prayer that Chapel Hill says yes- it would mean a lot if you guys did! 

Because quite frankly, God's got this. 

*sunglasses emoji*

Time to go help my dad finish dinner! I shall talk to you guys next week! 

-Tori! :)

p.s. Aha! I've done it! "Tori's Weekly Tirade" sounds like me, so that's what I'ma go with for now. (For those who don't know, tirade means "outburst" or "long list of criticisms" which is... fitting. Ranting is like an outburst, right?) 

p.p.s. This week I also sent in a couple of professional proposals to write for some big-deal online blogs. The website editors have passed me along to the actual editors... Pretty exciting! I'll (of course) keep everyone posted. 

p.p.p.s. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! *heart eyes emoji* 

Tori Talks Politics 2.10.16

Hi friends! Well, friends, acquaintances, and creepers. Welcome to the controversy that is Tori's blog. Today, with all of the primaries going on, I thought that I would put in my political two-sense by creating a questionnaire and answering the questions for you guys. I'm not sure that all of you know my political views, but I might as well share (and explain!) them for you guys. 

Some of you are going to be...probably more than a little bit shocked. Oh well. Here you go! 

~

What political party do you affiliate yourself with?

I identify as a member of the Democratic Party, and yes- I am old enough to be affiliated, and I am registered to vote in the 2016 election. (You know, just in case any of you were rolling your eyes at a seventeen year old blogging about politics. I know a thing or two about a thing or two... Just saying!) 

Which 2016 presidential candidate do you most agree with? Why?

Bernie Sanders! (#FeelTheBern2k16!) 

I agree with his policy ideas regarding health care, as well as ways he wants to alter the way that the economy and taxes work to make sure that America is livable for everyone- regardless of socioeconomic status. 

"But he's a socialist!" 

Your point is? He's someone who is advocating against all of this racism, sexism, homophobia, and class-separation issues. He's acknowledging that America does still struggle with these things, and wants to start the ball rolling in the right direction for discrimination to be lowered. He is also massively disgusted with Wall Street politicians... Need I say more?

Which 2016 presidential candidate do you least agree with? Why?

It's a dead tie between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. 

Donald is very racist and misogynistic, but also enjoys generalizing whole groups of people based on religion and wants to prevent their entry (even entry by legal immigration) into the United States... Which is wrong, and slightly too Adolf Hitler for me. 

Hillary has hopped on the liberal bandwagon to receive votes, and claims to stand for things that she didn't twenty years ago. She is also in legal trouble, and under investigation by the FBI. This means, dear readers, that she could potentially be replaced by her Vice President when she is indicted (...again) by the FBI for withholding information. If she gets elected, you guys better have been voting for her VP. 

Are you pro-choice, pro-life, or undecided?

Let me begin by saying that personally I would never have an abortion. It goes against my personal beliefs and convictions, so I just wouldn't do it. I have friends who have miscarried, and I've seen them cry over losing something that some people willingly get rid of. 

I used to be massively against the whole Pro-Choice movement, until I realized... 

Hold up.

That's exactly what it is. 

It's women having a choice about what they do.

People pull out the statistics about deaths (of mother and fetus) and infertility, but they never talk about this part.. In the history of America, when abortions have been illegal, many women died from back alley abortions. All because birth control had been dubbed "sinful" and abortions were criminal. 

Some people like to say that they are "pro-life" because the baby could "always be put up for adoption!" Guess what? I work with foster kids at a summer camp. I have close friends, as does my mother, who have children or grandchildren that have been victimized by the system. I've met children on so much unnecessary medication that they wish they were dead. Little kids, not teenagers... If you use adoption as an excuse to be "pro-life," then you are no such thing, you are pro-birth.

True pro-choice people (aka me) don't see abortion as the only option. Open adoption is a beautiful thing. Deciding to raise your baby is a beautiful thing. But, that isn't my decision to make. It is not my body there for it is not my choice. 

A bunch of men in business suits have no business to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies- especially when so many men today sexualize and then slut shame women. If you're gonna complain that a woman got pregnant, but promote abstinence over true sexual education (including birth control education), then you really have no business having an opinion over whether or not abortion should be legal or not. 

I'm not saying that you should go have an abortion, I'm just saying that maybe less women would need them if we opened our eyes as a society and offered things like real sex-ed, and made birth control a (free) social norm. 

Are you for gay marriage or against gay marriage?

Well... I'm not gonna elaborate much...

But I'm just gonna say that Christians (and other religions) that oppose this might want to realize that if they were loving people instead of constantly condemning and judging them, that maybe... People wouldn't be looking for love in every place they thought they could find it? 

But yes. I'm mostly for it. 

My best friend has every right to marry someone, and if he gets married someday, then I will support his decisions and love him regardless. (@ said friend, I love you to death, boo!)

Are you for the legalization of marijuana (recreational/medicinally)?

More medicinally than anything. For things like auto-immune diseases and to treat seizure disorders. Not necessarily smoking it, but the use of cannabis as a healing agent. 

What amendment would you add to the Constitution, given the opportunity?

The right to an equal life for everyone. This would include free, nondiscriminatory health care... For everyone. Regardless of sex, sexual orientation/identity, race, and age. It would also outline the legality of the death penalty. 

What religious organization (if any) do you associate with/what are your personal beliefs regarding religion?

I'm a Christian. I've seen God heal people, and believe with my whole heart that Jesus died to save the world. Which some people will shake their head at because of everything I've said before, but my personal convictions should not have a role in what someone who doesn't have them is allowed/not allowed to do.

Yes, I love leading people to the Lord. 

But I have Muslim friends, agnostic friends, atheist friends, etc. who Biblically aren't held to the same standard that I personally am as a Christian. 

So why should my religion dictate what someone else does? 

Oh, 

wait,

you're right... 

It shouldn't! 

:)

~

I know that some of you are high-fiving me through the computer screen, some of you are calling your churches to add me to the prayer chain, some of you are just sitting there in awe of the fact that a seventeen year old actually knows what she's talking about. 

Regardless, I just wanted to throw all of this out there. I have closeted liberal friends who are too afraid to speak their mind because of the churches they go to, their parents, their peers, or anything else. 

I am, well, not that person. If I was, I wouldn't be blogging all the time on a public blog for whomever wants to read it. I'm opinionated and sassy... But I'm also levelheaded and realistic about things. 

It's 2016 people, let's get with the program! 

(Also, I respect all opposing political beliefs. I also expect you to respect mine, even if you disagree.)

Thank you guys. 

-Tori :D 

p.s. I don't talk about reads like I used to when I was on Wattpad, but I still pay attention... I'm a couple hundred reads past 3,000! You guys keep my dream of writing alive, as I get to share this awesome (face-lifted!) blog with the world. (Literally, people all the way in Thailand and Poland read my blog... Wow!!!) 

p.p.s. Also, I took the background/header picture for this. It was something I posted on Facebook in memory of my grandad who loved that overlook. I hope you like it. :)

"So, What Are You Guys?" 2.6.16

To begin this post, I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to my best friend in this whole world, Patrick. He is finally eighteen, and I wanted him to have a special day... So since no one else has the motivation to make that happen for him, I'm gonna write about him. 

I know that I promised you guys a gazillion (not sure how many times I'm supposed to use zero in that number, but I'm sure it's enough) years ago that I'd write about Patrick. Well, in real time, it's probably been slightly under a year since I mentioned him as my spunky brown-eyed boyfriend. 

Well, I guess I better explain some stuff, because he isn't exactly my boyfriend anymore. 

I'll begin by telling you enough about him to satisfy your brain, but little enough so that he won't sigh dramatically at me when I read this to him later. He's about an inch or so taller than me, he's lanky but strong enough to pick me up, and has this floppy brown hair that he sometimes gets cut and styled, but it inevitably becomes the floppy brown-ness that I love it to be. His eyes are... Brown. Not murky brown, but like... Well. Imagine melting the richest chocolate ever, and then swirling some caramel around the middle of it. The twist is that it never dries or hardens, it just swirls on and on. 

...So I might still be a tad bit of a romantic when it comes to describing him. Judge me. I've been like this for almost six years. 

Anyways, he's obsessed with Star Wars. He loves playing Pokemon. His favorite color depends on his mood, but it's typically purple or green. Aaaaand he likes loud music. And mint chocolate chip ice-cream or any flavor of gelato. Oh, and his best friend aside from me is a ginger. (@ said ginger, you're welcome for the plug.) 

That's essentially him in a couple of romanticized paragraphs. 

Anyways, I met Pat when we were twelve in a social studies class because I couldn't shut up. So my teacher, who I loved and hated at different points during the seventh grade, decided to move me in front of him. He was this loud, funny kind of kid that I just...wasn't used to. We became friends almost immediately. 

That year, we "dated" (which in a 7th grader's mind includes staring at each other awkwardly from across a classroom, calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend, having exclusive dibs on them when the teacher says you can work with a partner, and passing them notes in class.) for like, 2(ish) weeks. I wrote him love letters with my signature pink pen, and then purple when the pink one ran out of ink. 

I don't know how much "love" came to play in this, or at least love the way that I interpret it now, but he was funny and had kind eyes. Oh! And he let me put my head on his desk when we watched boring movies in that history class. 

Eighth grade was less eventful, I think. Except, we got cast as leads in a play. He "dated" some other girls, but at the end of the year he broke it off with all of them, and we actually started dating. Ya know? Because getting our mom's to let us hang out all summer was our idea of dating. 

He was my first kiss. He made me laugh a lot. I forced him to watch High School Musical 3 almost 100 times, I think. We slow danced every time "Can I Have This Dance" came on. We were...pretty dorky. 

And then.... Summer ended, school started, and I moved away. 

I'll spare you the gory details of the fights that we had after that, because I dislike dwelling on them. They happened. We went around 5 months not talking, and then we both caved in and became best friends again. 

He's called me at midnight almost every year since I moved via FaceTime for a New Year's kiss. (One of these days, I might get a real one, lol.) This year was the exception to that, but that was okay because his mom and her fiancé ended up taking us out for dinner that same weekend. Which was pretty cool. I ate off of his plate a couple of times. 

We've "dated" on and off for a few years.
But-
From experience, it's really difficult to date someone when you're 190-200 miles away from them. Not because you don't love them, but because it's just...weird. 

Which leads me to the main point of all of this rambling about this awesome dude named Patrick. 

We get asked a lot if we're dating. The most popular way that people ask that is usually in a variation of this: 

"So... What are you and Patrick/Tori?" 

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"What are you guys???" 

Well ladies and gentlemen, I come to you today with an answer to that question! Fasten your seat belts! 

Patrick and I are....... 
Best. Friends. 

As of right now, we aren't dating. No, I'm not lying to you guys. Patrick and I haven't "officially dated" since December 2014. 

But I turn your attention back to my statement above about long distance dating. It isn't impossible, because we've done it. 

The hard part about it is when you actually do answer yes to those questions. You get bombarded with things like, "you're too young" and "do you even really know him if he doesn't live here???" 

Well, first of all, yes. I do know him. 

And even though we aren't dating, I still love him. 
You know, like that. 

When he comes to visit, he gives the absolute best hugs, and in case anyone wondered, the best kisses too. 

My mother told me when I started talking about boys and dating (I was probably in third or fourth grade the first time that she said this..) something that I have said to Patrick, to my friends, to my adult friends, to my peers- to anyone with ears really. And now, with you guys!

"Grow up and marry your best friend." 

Not gonna lie, I used to roll my eyes all the way back into my head and go,"But mo-om, everyone else has a boyfriend!" Now though, I completely understand what she's getting at. 

It is a lot of drama to deal with having a "boyfriend" or a "girlfriend." People ask a lot of questions, other people get jealous, and you argue a lot more. 

There's also this preeminent fear of breaking up hanging over you all the time. 

When you're best friends? You apologize to each other. You try to improve your communication skills, and work things out a lot easier. You don't run to your friends about everything, because that person is who you run to about everything. It really helps out, in the spectrum of things. 

Well, I'm only seventeen. I know that God has all of this stuff for me to do in life, places to go, people to meet, things to learn... But for [almost] six years, regardless of who or what, I've gotten to tag along and spend another person's life with them.. Even from 200 miles away. The feeling of having a partner in crime is one that I'm pretty open to... 

And Patrick? Today is special. Just as special as it was the day you turned 13 on Super Bowl Sunday when Madonna performed. It's your day. :) And I know that even though I'm sat here, up in West Virginia, that there will indeed be other birthdays. Let's just make it a new habit to be with each other when they happen. Aaaand... I love you, Patrick. 

And I love the rest of you, too! 

This was just a little story time thing that I wanted to share for anyone who was interested about that mysterious boy that comes to visit Tori sometimes. He's pretty cool. :p 

-Tori <3 

p.s. HUGE shoutout to my new friend Brittney. I found her blog and her Facebook and she's pretty cool.. She talked to me a lot about some stuff and it really helped. Go read HER most recent blog post over on My Life As Brittney: 

https://mylifeasbrittney.com/2016/02/06/what-made-me-smile-this-week-13/