Driving a standard is pretty fucking awesome, if I may say so myself.
I mean, I'm not really good yet, and I still have real nail-biters when there's cars like 6 inches behind me on a hill and I have to start from a dead stop.
And it'd be good to get good, cause I'll have to be if I ever wanna drive to Seattle, cause it's not easy to drive anything there.
There's all sorts of REALLY steep hills right at intersections, some of which aren't easy even with automatics, you have to use the gas and the brake at the same time to stop the car from rolling back into the car behind you.
I mean, even my parents, who've been driving standard for 35 years have killed the car a few times in Seattle.

But my parents are really fuckin infuriating when I drive with them. Like the chew my ass when I don't signal on fucking neighborhood turns, or when I don't come to a complete stop totally behind the line at every stop sign.
Meanwhile they're buzzed, and hardly ever signalling, and they never, ever completely stop at stop signs, forget about behind the fucking line.

But that's the problem with being a kid. Even if you're right, it doesn't matter if your parents want to be unfair, cause they have all the power.

So I have to just tell myself to hold it in, cause even if they're being massively stupid, if I can just hold it in for 6 more months, I won't need them to drive.
And I have to keep my grades up too, right, about that....

So, head swim coach P talked to me on Friday about my swimming. As I've started caring less, I've been doing less work, sitting out more in sets, and hanging out with this guy I'll call Rad Russian, or RR, cause he's Rad and Russian, and it's from South Park.
And I know that RR influences me to swim less, cause basically all he does is party when not at swimming, and while at swimming does practically nothing and then gets out and I usually follow him. Cause I don't agree with that, partying all the time and nothing else, but he's awesome, and I don't really care.

You know, actually, I'll talk about that now, and this will probably sound like I'm bragging and it's probably because I am.

When I ride mah bike to swimming, there's a group of kids I see sometimes sitting behind the 7-11, they look young, younger than me, I think 9th grade, maybe even 8th, all just sitting there, cigarettes poking out of their mouths...
Now, having them there doesn't really bother me, I don't care... But I disagree on several counts.
First, smoking, ewww. Not to sound like a pussy, but it's really bad for you. I know a girl who smokes and she says when she climbs flights of stairs she gets out of breath cause she's fucked up her lungs. And second, I haven't really seen a legitimate reason for it. It seems like the kinda thing you do from peer pressure, and then cause you're addicted to it.
Drinking is where it's at.

But, also, I disagree cause I think it's stupid. That girl I know that smokes, basically all she does all day is smoke and drink and get high, and does no schoolwork. Now, I'm sorry, that's stupid...
I don't know what she's thinking she's gonna do when she gets out of high school, but jesus. Can you just think a little about the future?
Same with RR, life is all about balancing work and pleasure, I mean, relax, have fun, but you have to set some time aside for working to ensure that you can still have fun in the future.

Whatever, I regret bringing it up...

Anyway, coach P told me to stop being an "ass" (which thrilled me, she's a fucking Mormon, the worst word I've ever heard her use before today in the nearly 5 years I've known her is "crap") and to start working again, cause she wants to take me to Nationals one day.
Now that'd be fun beyond belief, but I don't see it happening... I'm good, above average, mostly from the prodigious amount of work I've put forth in past years, but Nationals requires something a little more :P
And she doesn't want me to become like RR, well, I don't see that happening either.

Maybe, I can try harder.

But, she did surprise me. Cause she asked why my last name is changed on FB, and it's cause an 11-year old camp friend FB married me, so I changed my last name to his, and so I told her a camp friend sent me a marriage request, and she laughed and was just like "so is this like a boyfriend or just a friend" and she said it so, normally, I was surprised.
I mean, Utah county, where most of the towns are over 90% Mormon, is the most Republican county in the most Republican state in the country. Liberalness is not something I expect.
That impressed me, and I liked it :P

Now, I'll end by saying, once again, g'night Oasies!