First of all, welcome home, Jacoby!
Been really busy for the last month and a half. At school, we've had essay after essay, book after book, project after project! I had to write a 7 page in class essay with no earlier preparation in two hours on the monster in Lord of the Flies, I've got to finish reading 1984 over winter break, and I have to finish a project worth most of my semester grade in the first couple days back to school. We've been working on the same Career project for months!
Earlier this month, I was in my first Fencing tournament! It was awesome. The place it was at was so much more... organized, than the elementary school gym in issaquah, that I go to for lessons. It was a Regional Youth Circuit, and wasn't worth any national points. I did great in the early prelim rounds, winning 2 out of my 4 matches with the people in my pool. Once the real matches started though, I lost my first match to the only other student from my fencing school, 15-14. I had a big lead for a while, but had no concept of clock management and was too aggressive. She took back the lead by one and ran out the clock, while I tried desperately to get back the lead. FAIL. In the end, I got 9th place out of 12, and surprisingly enough, the girl who beat me in my first match, Jade, won in 3rd place. Congrats!
I've read a lot of great books lately. I spent weeks reading through the Belgariad series, and it is fantastic! One of the best fantasy series ever! I started the Mallorean, but just didn't get into it. I finished book one, but then moved onto something new. Today, I went to Barnes and Noble and got three new books. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, Magician: Apprentice (which I'm now reading) and Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist. I've heard it's amazing, and it's pretty good so far. I'll find out I guess.
I've also seen a lot of movies in the last two months. I've watched all of the X-Men movies, including the new one, I've watched Star Trek (twice! In the last two days! Awsome!!!), Up, Sherlock Holmes (Good movie!), Old dogs (ok), and 21, the blackjack one. Most of the movies I've seen have been terrific, and I'm excited to go see Avatar tomorrow. Supposed to be fantastic.
Now for the bad news...
Winter break has been very eventful, although that is not necessarily good. Not good at all. I spent the first week being lazy, playing the new call of duty game and ping pong at my dads. We celebrated our first christmas with our dad's girlfriend, Jackie, and her family. That was fun, but afterward, was when the bad started. We couldn't go skiing Christmas day, because Jackie's daughter, Caroline wasn't feeling well. Turned out that skiing was the worst of our problems. That night, Caroline was even worse, so they decided to be safe and take her to the hostpital. She had a Pneumonia that was resilient to antibiotics and one of her lungs was filled with fluid, and the other was half filled. A few more hours of waiting, and she'd have died. Because they couldn't get the antibiotics to work, the weren't sure whether or not she'd be all right. Last night, the antibiotics began working though, and she's gotten a little better, although I haven't gotten the most recent news, because I've been with my mom the last few days. I'm seeing my dad tomorrow though, so I'll ask then. Luckily, they think she'll live, although she'll have to spend the next few weeks in the hospital.
Well, good luck Caroline.
That's all I've got to talk about for now. Sorry I've been gone so long.