30 Day Challenge: Day 4, and a plea to the guys and the girls

A picture of your night.

I like to wind down by dabbling in my makeup and doing fun, crazy looks.  You should see some of the things I do to my face sometimes!

Tonight I didn't actually play with my makeup much, I just was testing a new smoky eyeliner trick I made up.  But I did curl my hair, because if I curl my hair at night about an hour before I go to bed (it needs to cool completely) it looks great in the morning, and that cuts a good amount of time from my getting-ready schedule.

I'm pretty sure I just heard all the boys who read this blog go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH."  And oh?  What's that?  Ah, it's the collective clicking of a bunch of red X's in the top corner of their internet browsers.

Sorry.

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In other, more gender-neutral news, if there are even any males still with us after that one, I've got the terrible urge to read something amazing.  I want something with adventure; something that will make my heart pound.  Something with great writing and a dose of levity here and there?

Now that I'm done being overly-specific, do you have any suggestions?  Really, please let me know if you can think of anything.  Just leave a little comment.  And most of my commenters are girls, so let's switch it up.  Girls should definitely still comment on this one, but guys, don't be shy, I don't bite.

I see y'all on my followers list.  I know you're there.  I trust your knowledge on adventurous tales.  Boys seem to like that sort of thing, or so I hear.

Just give a blogger a hand.  I'll even announce which book I chose!

Thanks for not leaving me, even after all this effort I'm forcing you to put forth.

Sincerely,

A quick favor

Hiya everyone.  I'm just dropping by momentarily to ask for some prayer.  You see, it's exam week at my school and I have two big tests to take, plus some other schoolwork and various projects I have to get done by tomorrow night.  This morning, I woke up feeling terrible and am pretty sure I've come down with something akin to the flu, so I ask that you pray for me in all of this madness.

I need to be able to focus on my work and do well without letting my icky feelings overcome me and bind me up.

Thank you so much, my friends, and I'll be back with you as soon as my schedule clears up again.  I'll be praying for all of you Veritas Press kids like me out there who are taking exams this week, too!

With much love,

This is an SOS to the multilingual world

I'm rarely at a loss for words.  Not a day goes by where I don't have something completely irrelevant to say.

Until I moved to Italy.

I find myself stricken and at a complete crossroads on a daily basis.

"Do I just stand here and look dumb?  Or do I try really hard to say something in Italian, get it wrong, and look dumb?  Or do I speak English to them and look dumb?  I look so dumb!!!!!"

This is basically the thought process that courses through my synapses, which slowly putter out and disintegrate into minuscule pieces that fall out of my left ear.  I usually end up with a weak... "Uh, non ho capito.  I do not understand."  And they either roll their eyes and fire off rapid Italian at me, which is totally efficient, or they smile and say "Ok, ok."

No matter how they react, though, I always feel SO ridiculous.  Why am I not learning this faster?

And that's not even the problem.  I know Italian pretty well, but when it's just fired at me, I lose my mind and can't remember anything.  I can sit in the car saying "Quando arrivo a casa, non faccio NIENTE!"* and smile really big and it's great and everything's perfect.   But if someone asked me two minutes later, "Quando si arriva alla casa, che cosa fate?"** My right eye would twitch, my tongue would dry up, and I would say more "uh's" in a 30 second time span than you could ever believe possible.

Why is this?  What is so wrong with me that I can't speak a word of this language to actual Italians?

Someone help me.  I'm losing it.
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*  This means:  "When I arrive at the house, I'm not going to do ANYTHING!"
** This means:  "When you arrive at the house, what will you do?"