indescribable

I read a tweet today that talked about happiness. The tweet said that happiness is not in your head, but in your heart. It's something you can feel be experiencing it, and that it isn't something from the outside world.
I'm not sure if it's true or not. I'm pretty sure part of it is true; I think happiness is a feeling and not in your head. Because if you go around sorting things out, like emotions, in your head, you will just get confused because emotions are tricky.
And I guess that's what I tried to do when I started these shenanigans; I tried to find out what happiness was. And just like in Oxford when you study something a lot, you know less about the subject after than you did before you studied it. This may seem paradoxical, but it's very true; your fixed ideas on things change as new ones are added, so when you think about what the main idea of something is, you have so many ideas that you can't think of just one.
Which is sort of cool, because then you have so many ideas that whatever you thought before has become a much bigger and more open thought.
So I ask myself the question, what is happiness? and it's really too hard to define. According to the dictionary, it's "a state of being content and joyful." This is like the definition you would give to an alien is they asked what we were feeling. Happiness is so much more than that. And sometimes it's indescribable. Sometimes happiness is just "that feeling inside".

the chemist

Sometimes all it takes is a little sodium hydroxide and agar cubes to make someone happy.
We were doing a lab in AP bio today about cell surface area (it was a mini lab) and we had to place cubes made of agar into 200mL of sodium hydroxide. And then the agar cubes turn into a bright, lava lamp pink color, and it was magical. Being the only person at my lab group who had never been in chemistry, I was not aware of these magical properties and I was completely amazed. And afterwards, to measure the amount of the cube that was difused with the base, we had to cut the cube. And that was even better. It's like cutting a little jell-o piece. And it's addicting-ly fun. I don't know why cutting a chemical-drenched cube of agar with a plastic knife is so much fun, but it is.
Ad the funny thing is, I don't even know anything about chemistry at all.
I didn't have to know anything about it enjoy it. And it was so simple, yet it was so much fun. And by the end of it, our whole lab table was laughing and having a ton of fun. It's not really about what you're doing, it's about giving new things a try and enjoying a learning experience.
Who knew chemistry could be so fun?

the sound of sunshine

It's hard to believe that yesterday was my 250th post. Time really does just slip away.
So our vacation came to a close, but we still have memories from the vacation, like the jellyfish sting scars on my legs..actully, I didn't get stng today because the waves were too rough for the spineless creatures. They really are spineless.
So today I was listening to some music in the car when we were coming home, and I think it had a great message. In fact, the song was running through my head all weekend, especially when we were swimming in the ocean. I found some of the lyrics since I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. Here's a little piece:

I wake up in the mornin' at 6 'o clock
They say there may be rain but the sun is hot
I wish I had some time just to kill today
And I wish I had a dime for every bill I got to pay

Some days you lose, you win,
and the water's as high as the times you're in
So I jump back in where I learned to swim
Try to keep my head above it the best I can
That's why

Here I am
Just waitin' for this storm to pass me by
And that's the sound of sunshine
Comin' down
And that's the sound of sunshine
Comin' down

("The Sound of Sunshine", Michael Franti & Spearhead)

The rest of the song is really good too, these are just the lines I like the best. And plus, it has a beachy, ocean theme to it.

more evil cnidarians and more fancy food

Some people get sunburned really bad. Some people get rashes. Some get colds and the flu. I get jellyfish stings.
Today I was trying to forget about what happened yesterday with the jellyfish and enjoy the waves today, but for some reason the jellyfish had other plans. My knee and my foot were already stung, so why not attack my stomach and my arm?
We might as well make our own vinegar spray.
But after that, and some more minor stings, we came back to the room and went out to one of my favorite places on the island. It's an Italian restaurant in the middle of a sketchy shopping center. It's one of those "diamonds in the ruff ", and the only way we found out about it is because we were just driving by a few years ago and we thought we would stop in. And we didn't think anything of it until we tasted the fabulous food.
And we got to go to the Salty Dog shirt store and walk around the pier and ocean which was a treat. It's really fun down there, and I'm glad we got to go. We actually saw a guy who dropped his keys into the water, and a few other people were helping him find them. It made me happy, but I wish we could have helped too.
I don't really know why I keep getting stung by jellyfish, but it's like a trade off; I still have a great day, even though I get stung. I just pray that they take a day off tomorrow. Or I'll add a part three to the evil cnidarians posts: I wonder which body part they will go for next..

evil cnidarians and fancy food

While frolicking in the ocean, a swarm of jellyfish that I didn't really see chafed against my leg and my foot and stung my knee and foot. I've been stung probably 15 times before, but this one hurt a lot more. It covered all of my knee, a few inches above, a few inches below, and behind. In fact, I cried like a little infant as the lifeguard sprayed the vinegar solution on it from a leaky spray bottle. There were a whole bunch of bumps and white lumps and all sorts of other things that jellyfish do when they unleash their wrath. So now my foot hurts and so does my knee and the back of my knee. Stupid cnidarians.
But we did get to go to one of the most fabulous places ever for dinner. It's the hotel's restaurant, and my absolute favorite thing to get is the Tuscan Chicken Milanese with mashed potatoes that taste like clouds (though I've never tasted a cloud) and vegetables cut into long strings. It's rather fancy, and it's my favorite way to eat vegetables. And it comes with a lemon butter sauce, tiny little tomato diced pieces, and peas that tasted good. Except they weren't peas, they were capers. You can tell I'm a culinary connoisseur.
It's like a beautiful symphony of tastes in your mouth when you eat it. And we got to finish it off with none other than a molten chocolate lava cake. One for my sister, and one for the rest of the family. We like to be equal, of course.
But right before dinner, after we moved into our fancy fancy new room, I sat on the porch and played my ukulele as the ocean breeze came up to our balcony. It was completely perfect.
So sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some. But that's what life's all about.

making lemonade

Hello from Hilton Head! One of my favorite beach vacation spots!
Unfortunately, given our bad luck with everything, the presidential suite we reserved was given away to some other folks who are now giddy and joyful in their happy little room. So after walking for an hour to different sub par rooms around the hotel, we finally got 2 rooms and they are going to try to get us the presidential suite.
SO after checking in at 10:30, we got to our room at midnight. So hopefully things will work out better.
Now is one of those times for a little cliche: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Turn something sour into something sweet. Even though this is completely absurd, we can turn it into something great. We still have a great ocean view, and the beach is waiting for us tomorrow. So instead of dwelling on what's going wrong, try to focus on the great things instead.
The glass is half full!

without words

The title of this post is also the title I gave to my essay, the one that I chopped in half, or probably more, for AP lit. Without words.
You can't write a blog without words, for one thing. But life can go on without words. It can be lived through actions, movements, gestures, colors, song, and all sorts of other things.
Who says that life can even be described with words?
Sometimes I have a great day, and I can't really even describe what I liked about it, but I know that I went to bed feeling happy and satisfied. Can words really show how we feel? Because emotions, while we have words that match up to them, are not tangible like words. And life is all about emotions and reactions. Intangible experiences and things that can only be felt, not described.
So sometimes a lack of words is OK. It just means you're experiencing life. Speechlessness is a sign of life's immeasurable boundaries.