Leah Noreman                                                              February 3^rd, 2009

          I wasn’t a particularly negative kid, although I wasn’t always that positive either. I was somewhere in between, in the medium of the two. But in eighth grade, things got a little complicated. The last week of August, right before eighth grade started, Mom was incredibly sick: vomiting, diarrhea, migraines, you name it. Finally, the day before Labor Day, we took mom to the ER. I remember driving to the hospital, Dad driving and Mom in the passenger seat, hunched over her trash can she brought from her bathroom. For the past week, she had carried that thing around like a baby carries a blanket. I was in the seat behind my dad, watching my mom, cringing with both disgust and sympathy (I’m not very good with vomiting).

          We pulled up to the back of the Emergency Room. I remember me and my two siblings checking my mom in. After waiting with my mom in the waiting room for about an hour, my aunt came and picked up me, my brother and my sister, and took us to her house. I don’t remember what we did at Aunt Jill and Uncle Ron’s house really; I just remember we watched TV and ate dinner and played a bit of video games with my cousin Mike. My dad picked us up later that night, around 9 PM. I remember the car ride home was really silent and Dad’s face looked pretty pale and grim.

          Waking up the next morning was a little strange. At that point in time, Mom used to wake up in the mornings with us. It was the day before school started, and that meant we had to make sure we had all our school supplies ready to take in the next day for the first day of school. But, since mom was still in the hospital, in the morning dad just went to see her and told me to make breakfast for my brother, Seth and my sister, Anna. At the time, my brother was 10 years old and my sister was only 7 years old.

          For the next few days, while mom was still in the hospital getting tests done, dad put me in charge. He was almost always working or at the hospital with mom. For dinner, people from our church would bring us dinner many nights out of the week, or even order food to be delivered at our house. For the nights we didn’t get food, I’d cook for Seth and Anna.

          After a couple of days, tests showed mom had a brain tumor. The doctors at the hospital biopsied it and told my parents it was cancerous. That night Dad came home from the hospital and calmly told us what they had found out today and that tomorrow mom was going in for surgery to get the tumor removed.

Once the tumor was removed, my parents went to a many different doctors to find out what options Mom had for treatment of the cancer. The doctors here on Long Island wanted her to go straight to radiation. My parents wanted to find a doctor that didn’t want to jump straight to radiation because once you have radiation treatments, you can’t really have them later on in life if you need them again (because it’s so strong and poisonous to a person’s body). Mom received a referral for a doctor in New York City; my parents both really liked the doctor and her opinions of my mother’s case. She suggested chemotherapy, which is not as strong as radiation, but strong nonetheless.

Months passed by, and mom was part of a clinical trial where she took chemotherapy orally through a pill. Months after months of taking chemo on and off, she is still on it today. It amazes me how positive she’s been through her whole illness. Sure, there’s been time where I see her break down a bit; but hey, that’s humanity, right? She always keeps her head high and focuses on the positive things. In September my Mom got a call from one of her many doctors, and they told her that she most likely will never be off chemo completely. I was in the car when she got the call. She was visibly shaken, upset and afraid. I saw the hope quickly drain from her eyes. That’s heavy news – being on chemo the rest of your life. Through sporting events, birthday parties, weddings, concerts… that’s difficult to fathom.

That night, I heard her and dad discussing the news as I fell asleep. They realized how good the news was. It’s hard to be on chemotherapy – it’s a stress on your emotions and your body. Mom’s been on it on and off for four years already and she’s doing phenomenally; doing the things she normally did before she got sick, and more. The doctor said that if she completely stopped chemo now it’s a strong possibility that down the road her cancer came back. And if her cancer returned, and she started back on chemo, there’s a good possibility that her body would have built immunity to it and wouldn’t respond to the treatments. However, if mom did stay on the chemo, it should prevent the cancer from returning.

I still am amazed how positive my parents have been through the whole ordeal. It’s insane how wrong things can go, but how happy people still can be. I used to be negative the majority of the time.

I think what has caused me to be a lot more positive are two main things. One is how strong and healthy [despite the cancer] my mom has been. She has been so strong through the whole ordeal. Most people don’t know she has cancer or is on chemo unless we mention it to them. My mom does all the stuff she did before she was sick, and more. She’s stayed so positive through it all. Once in a while she gets down, but quickly recovers and becomes very positive again.

The fact that she remains so positive encourages me to be the same. I don’t think I’d have as great of an outlook on life if my mom wasn’t going through what she is going through. If she can be so positive and so strong, then I can definitely get through normal endeavors and keep my head high.

About three weeks prior to the event, dad told us that he had a surprise for us. We had to act really good in order for us to be able to receive the surprise. I, of course, asked him what would happen if we didn’t behave up to his standards, and he said, of course, we wouldn’t be able to receive the surprise. And we would be very mad if we missed out. And boy, was he right.

Then, the concert…

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Since I’ve tweeted about it for over two years, and people keep asking me, I figured I would give a brief description of what Combat Conditioning is.

Combat Conditioning is a type of workout that is designed to make a baseball [or softball] player more explosive at hitting and moreover pitching. It “conditions your body for combat in the game”, so to speak. The video below will be able to show you a tidbit of what we do. Combat conditioning doesn’t just focus on how fast you can throw the ball, it also pushes you to increase in athleticism.

I am rushing to get this out, so here are two quotes about Combat and about Rob Wolforth, the man who created it.

“Coach Wolforth is known as “The Pitching Coaches Pitching Coach” and his program has assisted hundreds of high school and college pitchers gain 7-15 mph in just weeks and months instead of years and has been instrumental in supporting 27 athletes in his facility to be drafted and over 40 obtain college scholarships in the past 5 years!“

“More importantly than the milestones of reaching a pitcher’s maximum levels in velocity, it is my belief that Ron’s approach is based foremost in the health and conditioning of a player and secondarily in developing every MPH that player has in him or her. These two themes seem to run hand in hand in every thing about the programs that he produces.”

But wait… I’m not a pitcher for baseball. Actually, I don’t pitch at all. Why would I still do this combat training?

It’s challenging. It keeps me in shape. It helps me throw faster and stronger. It also helps me be not just ‘fit’, but to be athletically active. It improves my explosiveness, which is key to being a successful, consistent hitter. I do play softball [=

But, it is a really good workout for anyone to do. As long as your push yourself and don’t cheat yourself. But that’s like it is for anything else – you get what you put out of something what you put in it. Cheers and I hope you enjoy the video! [=

Yes, I know a bunch of you are tired of hearing about this book/movie. The thing is, that the book is really good. I technically haven’t read it [fully..yet...], but I have listened to about half of the novel via listening to the Audiobook.

Anyway, there was a bunch of hype starting a few months back about this book. I know the novel been out since 2005, but it just recently has become popular.

I really didn’t think I’d be a Twilight fan. A bunch of my friends urged me to read it. But, I am a busy girl and I didn’t really have/made time to read. But finally, I decided along with my best friend Derek, to get the audio book. I had the audio book sitting around on Derek’s computer for a while, and since he’s not at my house at the moment, I kept meaning to ask him to send it to me. anyway, I eventually remembered and he eventually sent it to me, and I spent that whole night [until I fell asleep] listening to it. The first chapter or two went a bit slow, but all the hype of the book encouraged me to keep reading. Boy I’m glad I did!

I saw the movie late November and at that point I had only listened to about the first nine or ten chapters… but I had a good idea on what the book was about. [It has 24 chapters].

People said you have to read [or in my case, listen] to the book before you see the movie, or you can’t appreciate the movie the same way at all. From what I noticed, most of the stuff in the movie is the same as in the book, except one particular scene in the woods with Bella and Edward in the middle of the movie.

However, some scenes in the movie will seem awkward and is hard to appreciate unless you have absorbed the book. There is a decent amount of exact quotes from the book that are included in the film. There is only one scene that I know of that is prominently different than the novel.

Since I spent Wednesday and Thursday night [before seeing the movie on Saturday night] and some of Friday listening to the Audiobook, I noticed that a good amount of quotes were directly quoted in the movie. Obviously, the movie can’t be word from word to the book, but I think when the characters spoke exact quotes from the book, that it was fititng and appropriate in the movie.

All in all, I believe that people should take time to read to novel or listen to the audio book. The first two or three chapters I believe are a bit slow, but after that it’s a really good story and difficult to put down. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I suggest completing the novel first, then watching the film. If you have already seen the film and disliked it [but have not completed the novel yet], I suggest you complete the novel then watch the film again.

Well………. at my school, SADD stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions. On grim reaper day, a few people ‘die’ every half hour – to represent the amount of people who die in drunk driving car accidents [per half hour]. Also, the whole day at school there’s a car from the impound lot [or wherever the cars go after they get crashed and dumped] that is all banged up and sits in the middle of the loop at school.

There are a few kids who try and make the other kids laugh. Nobody gets detention or any way penalized – we’re volunteering to do it. It just defeats the purpose and impact we have on the students if we talk or laugh or acknowledge anyone. We’re supposed to create awareness to others about the dangers of drinking and driving. I don’t think it’s odd at all…

It’s really hard not speaking during the day. However, you can choose what period you ‘die’ during the day, periods 1-8. It’s worth not speaking. There are parties every weekend, many of them — and it’s fine to party [IMHO] but people really need to be smart about *not* driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

By senior year, everyone besides a select few has grown to realize the seriousness of this issue and have grown out of the immaturity level which when they try and make people participating in this day laugh. Also, it’s really effected us [the seniors], and the juniors because of the car accident that killed my classmate in January ‘08 – the week of midterms [ here ] [ here ] [ here ].

Drunk Driving Stats:

• For young drivers (15-20 years old), alcohol involvement is higher among males than among females. In 2005, 24% of the young male drivers involved in fatal crashes had been drinking at the time of the crash, compared with 12% of the young female drivers involved in fatal crashes.
• Drivers are less likely to use seat belts when they have been drinking. In 2005, 64% of the young drivers of passenger vehicles involved in fatal crashes who had been drinking were unrestrained. Of the young drivers who had been drinking and were killed in crashes, 74% were unrestrained.
• In 2005, 39% of fatal crashes (all age groups) involved alcohol. The rate of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes is more than three times higher at night than during the day (59% vs. 18%).

Stats found on the SADD website via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Related to Brightkite post here.

Age is just a number… Just because I am a certain number does that mean that I don’t understand something that people of a higher number understand or feel what people older than me feel. Sometimes I know more than people think. I don’t think like a 16 year old. I shouldn’t be looked down upon because I am a sixteen year old. Just because I’m sixteen doesn’t mean that I have to only be with people my physical age. My physical age is much different than my mental age.

It reminds me of the Holocaust, when people got a number tattooed on their arm. It was just a number. It didn’t define who the person was, what they were like, what they could do…but to the nazi’s that was all they needed to know about the Jews. You were just a number. You weren’t important. Age is just a number. I am not just a number. I am a person.

Just because I am a certain number doesn’t mean that I am just like everyone with my number. In fact, it means nothing. Age is just a number.

I was speaking to Jeremy Vaught via skype today, and found out that he helps run Seesmic’s blog. He encouraged me to check out Seesmic. So, I checked it out a bit – watched some videos, read the blog a bit. Then, I stumbled upon this post.

I have never known or heard of Craig before, but this post made me become teary-eyed. It really touched me. So this post goes out to all his family, friends, and followers. Rest In Peace, Craig.

Most of you know that feeling. That dry lump in your throat. Your stomach churning. You wait for a response, and subconsciously hold your breath. Whatever answer you are waiting for, you can’t help but hope that it comes.

Just about a million things run through your head. It’s hard to accept that everything doesn’t work out perfectly; the way you planned it out in your head. Don’t get me wrong; just because it’s not the way you planned it doesn’t mean that everything that you worked for, that your thought about, is meaningless.

Plans change, you have to be willing to accept that. Just because things aren’t going to be perfectly the way you though it out in your own head; doesn’t mean that everything has gone awry and is not going to work out. Sometimes things change. These changes, although many times are not apparent when they first occur, will end up working for the better. All I can say it that working for the best and staying positive no matter what are two ways you can always stay in control.

It’s like getting into the batters box as a softball player and thinking about how you sucked in warm ups. Thinking about the past, about negative things, will not help you do well in the present. Focusing on the positive things will help you grow; help you achieve what you’re reaching towards.

It’s not always easy, but if you set your mind to it, you can do it. I’ve been told this over and over by loved ones, and I have always brushed this off and though to myself “They don’t know me. They don’t know what I’m going through.”

They may not know everything that I’m going through; but people have their fair share of problems. And different levels of what they can and can’t handle.

I feel as though I’ve matured and realized that they are right. I am from now on, going to try and keep a positive attitude. Being extremely hormonal and having a lot of stress; it will be very tough. I know I will have my days; everyone does. But hopefully I will do a good job making myself and others better and more positive people.

Since I have a love for twitter, I’ve been debating on whether to use a twitter application or just keep the Twitter page open in a tab I’ve tried out. The first application I tried out was Twitterific.

I didn’t like how everything is so clustered together in one little column; Direct Messages and @replies are colour coded to try and make it easy to differentiate between them and regular tweets.A feature that I loved about Twitterific was that it had the latest read tweet selected, which was a lighter grey compared to the darker grey of all other tweets. When twitterific updated, it stayed on the most recently read tweet; and all you have to do is scroll up to read the tweets. That way, you won’t lose track or forget what tweet you read last when it refreshes.

This is something I wishTweetDeck had. It comes really handy for me because I’m not always at my computer, and even when I am I am not always able to just switch over and check TweetDeck, then go back to what I’m doing.

I jumped over to the TweetDeck Forum and casted my votes on what they should change. On the other hand, a positive aspect of TweetDeck, is that you can completely personalize it with colours of your choice. Also, you can add columns like Direct Messages, @replies, search words [searches either only the people you’re following (called “Local”) or all tweets (called “Global), depending on which you select.

Another feature TweetDeck has is called “Group”. This feature allows you to select certain people and group them in a group. That group will be in a seperate column, as well as your original “All Tweets” column.

The original screenshot can be viewed here.

Hey guys. Yea. First blog post.
I’m a n00b. okay, okay. for real tho.

So I’m kinda sorta maybe in Budapest, Hungary right now. I have never been out of the USA except for trips to Canada. So, yes, I have never been off North America. Until Now. Well, a few hours before that. Buttttttt…. you get an idea [;

Well I only have 8 minutes left to write this [dad is making me get off at 1am local Budapest time] so I’ll keep it short and sweet [hopefully].

It’s so cool walking around the streets of Budapest and hearing Hungarian and many other languages. It’s very diverse here.  Also, it’s more environmentally friendly here. The buses run on electricity instead of petrol.  Also, the streets are pretty clean. Like, it’s very different from New York. I barely see any litter around.

People park over the curbs; on the sidewalk! What?! That’s so strange. I guess since most streets, even in the city [of Budapest] the streets are relatively narrow. So it makes more room to park halfway on the sidewalk.

So far, Europe is different. And I mean that in the best way. It’s so beautiful here! The food is different, the clothing style is different, the transportation [subway, cars, ect.] are different… even the air is different!

I apologize for this being totally scatter-brained. I will edit this post at a later date and update it with photos, links, ect.

Also, I really appreaciate everyone who wrote me a plane letter. It kept me smiling for literally the whole 7 hours 46 minutes flight. I personally handwrote back each one of you a letter. I need your addresses. E-mail them to me! I will reply to your plane letter reminding you.

Well, I must grab some Zzz’s; but hopefully I will be allowed on fatherly’s craptop dell tomorrow sometime. It is a national holiday, so basically nothing will be open. We’re going over to family’s apartment and the seeing fireworks! =]

I miss you all so very much. I am carrying around a notebook and writing stuff down so I don’t forget. I miss twitter! [=

Peace & Love
-Leah Rachel<3