For those who are unaware, this is the correct way to use the "Hello/Goodbye" phrase. Many people would type in, "Hello homework, goodbye life," and that is terribly incorrect. (It makes me cringe just to type it that way.) Whenever you're addressing something, whether it be animate or not, you should place a comma before the name. Get it? So, obviously, if you're going to use the comma correctly, it would look silly to use another comma after it, so you should use the semicolon instead. That's not the real reason you should use the semicolon, but I was having a hard time explaining it. Think about the way it's written, though, and see if you can understand it. I could explain it better, but this paragraph would become way too big if I did.

Wow. I'm sorry about the grammar lesson, but I just couldn't resist. It's a habit, I suppose. I blame it on a friend; she taught me far too much about the English language. Now, let's get to writing that blog.

Last week I was playing "e-mail tag" with my counselor. Back and forth we went, writing e-mails to each other in order to get an appointment for me to speak with her. I finally settled for a phone appointment on Friday so she could help me choose classes for this semester -- or take what was left of the classes, anyway. I had procrastinated, waiting until the last minute to grab classes -- a dumb mistake on my part. She was swamped with phone calls and e-mails all week from others who had also procrastinated.

After a 20-minute conversation (note that dash!) on the phone, I was feeling a bit relieved to have important questions answered and more of an idea about which classes I needed to choose. Finally, after a bit more of thinking, I settled for geography, California History, art and introduction to humanities. Since then I have logged in to the humanities class and decided it was too hard (and an unnecessary class, because my requirement was already filled), so I dropped that class. I am going to grab an English class that starts in October, but I will have to e-mail my counselor again and have her add it for me.

At this point, I have read three chapters about California's history and need to write my essay, which was due last week. I'll need to read the next three chapters, write another essay and participate in the class discussions by Sunday. I also have three chapters of geography homework that I'll need to finish by Wed., Sept. 10. It's going to be a nightmare when English and art start in October. For now, as long as I can catch up on homework, it may get a bit easier.

I guess my point here, really, is that I'm an idiot. The whole problem for me is that I'm a procrastinator. If I had gotten my license to drive, I'd be going to BC instead of Taft, and I'd be halfway done with my journalism classes. But I'm not; I haven't even started! Since I'm enrolled in Taft, I can only take online/offline classes, because I don't have the license. I procrastinated even further by not enrolling this fall until one week into the semester. I'm an idiot.

I'm feeling hopeless right now, but things will get better. I hope. I had better get off and write that essay.

I have been bored. I've taken quite a few pictures this summer, but not as many as I took last summer when I first got the camera. I've run out of things to blog about, so I'm going to post a bunch of pictures instead.

I'm not sure who I am anymore. I took pictures first, I think. I tried taking pictures, at least, but I bit the dust most of the time. (My fill-in phrase for "sucked.") Then I wound up in journalism, where I found out I could copy edit a story better than anyone else in the class. That was amazing, and so much fun. Of course, there was always writing. I've always enjoyed writing. Then photography suddenly came into the picture. (No pun intended.) I learned a thing or two about photography, and my pictures are turning out better than ever before.

What the heck? Photography/photojournalism? Copy editing? Writing/reporting? Aren't journalists supposed to pick one field and stick to it? This has never made sense to me. How did I go from dreaming of becoming a farmer to being so confused about where I'm supposed to go in the journalism world?

I think I was better off being a freshman in high school who had never thought about farming or journalism. I was just a girl.

This is so uncool. And it's not cool when I'm dreaming about photography, either.

Oh, man. Where did that come from? I'm sorry. I hope you didn't read through the whole thing and bore yourself to sleep. Speaking of sleep, I think I'm going to bed.

Robin

I've had many different cats in my life, but I don't think I've ever had a cat like Callie.

Last year two of our older cats passed on due to old age. That was rough for me because I can get too attached to my animals very easily. Although I missed them, I really wanted another cat or dog to keep my company around the house. At that point we were down to one dog and one cat. I had been asking my parents if they'd let me have another animal, but they refused. They had to make an exception, though.

On Feb. 29, 2008, just a few days before my birthday, my brother looked out the window and saw a kitten walking around, looking scared and meowing. My dad had walked by, but he didn't see it, so we went outside to see it for ourselves. She was scared and very hesitant to walk up to us. After a little while I was able to get her to come up to me, and I slowly began to pet her, hoping she wouldn't run away.

When my dad came back he told me to go get some canned food and a bowl of milk. It didn't take her very long to engulf nearly the entire can of food -- and we're not talking about the tiny cans. She ate and drank as if she hadn't eaten for quite some time, but we'll never know what she had been eating before we found her.

We all took turns holding her and petting her in the garage. Every time we finished petting her our hands would be covered in dirt. She was literally covered in fleas, indicating the fact that she had been living outside and wasn't being cared for by anyone. Even though she was dirty we had all decided to keep her, because she deserved a good home. A kitten that adorable just didn't deserve to live on her own.

We left her in the garage that night with a litter box, food and water, because we didn't want her in the house with all of her fleas and dirt. We put some medicine on her back that night to help kill the fleas, and we later found a flea collar for her. The next day we brought her in the house and kept her in a large cage so she could see us but wouldn't find a hiding place somewhere in the house.

After she had her bath she was a free kitty. We let her run around the house wherever she wanted to go, but she liked to hide in places we couldn't find her. She was definitely home after the bath. There was no turning back at that point.

My chihuahua, Paco, doesn't like anyone outside our family. He wasn't sure what to do when he first saw Callie, but since she's been here they have become good friends. They play with each other when they're bored, and they're about the same size, so it's not much of a problem for either of them. He still gets territorial when she's in his way and will growl, but it doesn't bother her too much.

I love my kitten so much, and I miss her right now. I'm out of town, but I'll give her a big hug when I get home. Sorry it's so long, but it's just a long story. Imagine how long it would have been if I had given EVERY detail. Boy, you wouldn't make it through that story.

I'm exhausted and my eyes are closing, so I'm going to go to bed. I'm too tired to reread and edit it tonight, so if you find any errors, which I know you will, just laugh silently and keep it to yourself. You're not perfect either, you know. Ha. Good night!

Robin

 Ahhh...sweet, peaceful blogs! Don't ask why I abandoned my blog three months ago. I'm attempting to revive it again.

I'm not sure when the wars started in my garden, but it's been going on for  a while now. I think it started with my dad. I attempted to start the germination process in April so I would have some plants for my garden, because the weather was getting warm. I kept urging my dad to get the tractor out and till the soil. The seeds would be sprouting soon, I had hoped, and they would need a place to go, although I did have plenty of pots to transplant them into for the meantime.

Finally, long after I had gotten the seeds to sprout and start growing, he tilled the soil and created the rows. At that point I didn't know what to do, really, and took a bit of  a break. The weather got cold again and I didn't want to transplant my seedlings while it was cold outside. He, on the other hand, insisted that it would be better to work in the garden while it was still cold, so he began tilling the soil in front of the fence outside the chicken coop and later began planting the tomatoes in the tomato garden. After he had planted about 15 tomatoes, I came out in the cold weather with a sweatshirt and decided to help him. I planted the last 12 plants -- three beefsteak, three pink brandywines, three sugar lumps and three red cherries. It's hard to tell which types he had planted in the back row, but I'm quite sure of what I planted in the front row, because I'm more organized.

I find myself constantly disagreeing with the way he does things, even though I know he has much more experience than I do. He planted two rows of potatoes, two rows of onions, a row of various peppers and a row of two okra types. What was once "my" garden (last year!) has suddenly become "our" garden. I still need him to go back and fix the rows, because he didn't get them straight enough the first time and wants them straighter. I can't plant the corn and beans until he does this, and it's driving me insane. I still need to plant my zucchini and crookneck squash, which are still in pots but blooming nonetheless. They need some room to spread their roots so they can actually produce squash.

Shoot. That's not even the worst part. While we're disagreeing about what goes where, who's doing what, etc., there are other little pests wreaking havoc on our garden. Dang it! Every day it's some else. I'm watching everything with my own eyes, feeling helpless. I guess I'll have to write that in another blog post at another time. I didn't know I could even write this much. Strange. Anyway, stay tuned for more stories about the gardening wars at Robin's house. I'm going to go do some Googling on gardening.

Robin

It isn't easy for me, anyway!

I've been thinking about starting a blog on The Northwest Voice for days.

So, here I am. I'm finally starting a blog. It's not going to be easy. I'm a blogger on Bakersfield.com, but I never have anything to write about, so I usually just leave comments or read the blogs. I know the blogging traffic is practically dead on here, so I won't have to worry too much about who's reading it, although I shouldn't let go of that thought altogether.

I've been reading The Northwest Voice online for years now. I remember when Lauren was the editor, and I remember when Maria took over, and then Lisa. Now it's Dana, and I recognize her because she's contributed myriad stories. (Yes, I know you're going to read this.) I don't live in the city, so I never received the print edition at home. I have not yet decided whether to subscribe.

I've never contributed anything because I've never had anything to write about. I was a journalism student for one year during my junior year at Liberty, and it didn't take very long for me to realize that journalism is my destiny -- or so it seems. I ditched senior year for independent study, but I continued as the "undercover" copy editor for The Revolution during that year. I'm currently taking a break from journalism, but I certainly miss it.

If you haven't noticed, I love to write. I also love orthography, etymology and copy editing. It almost scares me to admit that I love copy editing, because I know it's not a task many people enjoy doing.

Well, I had a rough day, so I think it's best if I stop boring you all and call it a night. I'm sorry about my long post. I seem to have a problem with writing too much and boring people. I'm starting two online classes and have a Spanish test next week, so I'll come back to blog about something if I find any spare time. That's all for now. Au revoir!

Robin

Note from Robin: I'm playing the copy-and-paste game. I'm copying my original post from my Bakersfield.com blog and pasting it here on The Northwest Voice. Why? Because I'm proud of them, of course! :)

FINALLY!

My brother-in-law's band, Lost Ocean, is finally getting the media coverage it deserves!

Since most of you folks are older, you probably won't care as much for their band as your kids will; the music's probably meant more for younger people. But I've been waiting a long time for The Californian to actually write a story about his band, because they were signed to Credential a long time ago.

I didn't know if I'd ever see the day. :)

Well, anyway, I'm proud of him and his other band members. I guess there isn't much more to say than that. I wish I could call and congratulate them, but I don't want to bother them while they're on tour. I'm sure my sister will talk to him soon.

I'll post the links for anyone who's interested and doesn't feel like getting them from the story.

Official Web site: LostOceanMusic.com

PureVolume Web site

MySpace Web site

N.L. Belardes' blog post

Psssst. Hey, Belardes, I know you're out there somewhere, because I've seen you on Bakersfield.com before. You don't mind if I have a link to your blog post, do you?

Enjoy!!

Robin

P.S. If anyone knows where my newspaper has been going and would like to tell me, that would be wonderful. I haven't been able to find my newspaper for a while now, so my only news source is the Internet. Isn't that sad? I want to see it on paper!

Another note: Someone passed along my blog post to Belardes and he left a comment on my blog. Here's the link to his reply to my blog post, which he posted on his own blog, "Paperback Writer." Thanks, Belardes! And thanks, also, whomever it was that passed the note along to Belardes!