Why I Feel Guilty When I Complain: A List

This is a reverse psychology rant. For every rant that exists in the universe, there is an anti-rant, and I'm hoping that when they both collide there will be a cosmic explosion and all angst/bitterness/anger/fear/sadness I'm feeling right now will disappear out of existence. Here goes nothing.

• I have no diseases or disorders, and take no medication. No OCD, ADHD, diabetes mellitus... nothing. I think I had an antibiotic, like, once, a long time ago, for an ear infection. Or strep throat. Or something. (You can tell it was really serious.)
• I've never broken a bone.
• I'm not even allergic to anything. Seriously. How many people can say that? How many??
• One of my natural talents is standardized-test-taking.
• I'm homeschooled. That means that, when your teacher finds out that she hates Gulliver's Travels as much as you do, you can change the curriculum mid-school-year.
• My brother. He's not evil, like some brothers. He's not even mean. He's my friend.
• God so loved the world, He gave His only-begotten Son...
• My parents are logical, reasonable people. I mean, I hear some stories from friends about how their parents are, and I'm just like, "Yeeeeaaah, mine are totally sane..." (Most of the time.)
• My dad. My research indicates that, among dads, he is an exceptional specimen. The man works for fun, as far as I can tell. He works. He comes home. He goes outside and chainsaws trees down. He cuts the lawn. He takes truckfuls of garbage to the dump. He builds me wooden nunchuks totally out of the blue. Of course, this does mean that I get pulled from writing and reading and doing fun things to stack wood in the heat/pouring rain/fresh air pretty regularly. I mean, he likes to read the paper, read a book and watch a football game, but he doesn't laze around like I've heard some dads do.
• ...And on a directly related note, we're not poor. I mean, we don't have a car-elevator or anything, but we don't have to worry about food. We can go to Powell's and buy a book when we want to.
• ...And on another semi-related note -- my laptop, commonly referred to as "The Precious". The Precious has an Intel Core i7 CPU. That's right, my friends, that's right. I sort-of-kind-of-not-really didn't tell them how superfluous such power is to the basic word-processing functions for which they were buying me the laptop. ...Buuuut they pretty much knew anyway, and they still bought it for me. <3
• Another of my natural talents is the English language -- an always useful and often fun talent.
• My mom. She shares much of my sense of humor, and is always ready to listen to what I have to say, and always harmonizes when I start singing. 

I'm sure there's more, but I'm tired and I'm going to bed. 

The anti-rant worked. Peaceful and sleepy is all I am now.

Goodnight, internet denizens.

In which I tell you about what's new... and also what's not-so-new. 

- So, today I got my black belt. (In taekwondo, if you haven't read my "About Me".) I've been doing taekwondo for about three years, and I did it. I finally got my black belt. It still hasn't sunk in. Of course, I won't get the belt for another few weeks, because they have to send away for it to Korea. Maybe it'll sink in then.

The test was today, and there were about a hundred poom belts in this medium-sized room with hardwood floors, a stage, and chandeliers. It looked like a ballroom, but we didn't dance. We did forms, board breaking and sparring. And then we clapped for about a thousand hours while every single person was called one-by-one to go up on stage and receive their certificate. I could go on, but this is a headline post.

- Tomorrow's Easter, as you all know. Every year the Younger Brother and I get Easter baskets filled with candy and various knick-knacks, and it just makes Easter morning a happy morning. You can't nurse a dismal mood when you're sorting through a basket of surprise delights.

- I'm looking for a job. I don't want one, but I need one. Probably more on this later.

- I have a piano recital next weekend. I'm doing two pieces: "The Theme from Clair de Lune" and "Hungarian Dance". "The Theme from Clair de Lune" means "the first three pages of Clair de Lune that I made up an ending for, because I couldn't learn the rest fast enough to play at the recital". Sounds a lot better the first way, though. 

Anyway, this last week I didn't tinkle the ivories at all. Not one bit. And then I went to my piano lesson yesterday and played my two pieces as good, if not better, than I had ever played them before. So, I have this theory. I'll practice insanely hard the first part of this week, and then let the piano lie dormant until the day of the recital. Then I'll practice a few times before we actually go to the recital, and then I'll perform. Sort of conserving the music until I really need it, if you will. Sure, it sounds kind of dangerous and risky and might backfire, but hey! What's life without a little risk?

- I've been working hard on The Chaos I Am. (See earlier post New Story if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) I'm trying to get to know Seyf better, but it's slow work.

Incidentally, I made a new cover for TCIA:

Whaddaya think? Would you read a story with this cover?

   

I have to admit I was impressed with myself, and so 

I'm bragging to you guys. =)