kateywfw-blog - Tumblr blog

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These past months, I have been bullet journaling. If you don't know what bullet journaling is, its a organizing system which you can use as a sketch book, to-do lists, and many other purposes. I have found it extremely helpful and fun for me. I am a person who needs to be organized and I love experimenting with different layouts and colors. Above I put a picture of this months monthly spread and one of the weekly spreads. I pick a theme every month which I incorporate into each page, this month I chose succulents and cacti. I not only love to draw out the calendars and make the theme come to life, but I love keeping up with them. It is a way to keep me organized and creative. 

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This past weekend, their was a murder by stabbing at the Winchester public library. My house is less than a mile away and I visit the library often. I often hear about these devastating tragedies but it never gives me a real sense of the loss when it happened across the country. Because this happened so close to home for me, it gives me a real feeling of loss and sorrow. Their are still details being released but the suspect graduated from Winchester high school and lived in Winchester. The day after the tragedy, I walked over to the library with my camera for photo 2 and shot around the library. Being next to the library made the whole thing feel even more real than it already had. 

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Movie Review

The other day, I had finished all of my homework by 7:30 so I decided to take the opportunity to watch a movie. I have been seeing commercials for Mamma Mia 2 thats coming out this summer and It looks really good. My best friend who I see all movies with said she would only see it with me if I watched the original. I figured that I would watch that because she said I would like it. I loved it! I can't believe I haven't seen it before because I all the movies I watch are basically that genre, musicals. It was so upbeat and funny! The only bad part was that the quality of the filming was not the best because it came out in 2008.  I also loved it because I already knew some of the songs because they are so famous! If you like romance, comedy, and music, I would definitely recommend watching Mamma Mia!

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This picture is from a grocery store in Hawaii. We went in to get milk, pasta, and fruit and somehow ended up in the ice cream section... I was looking for either ben and Jerry's or haugendaus and stumbled upon this flavor. I dragged my brother and parents over to the isle and we all started laughing hysterically in the middle of the grocery store!

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Beauty Blogging for Hunger

Today in class, we had a beauty pageant for sentences we found beautiful from the book “Hunger” by Lan Samantha Chang. The sentence I chose to model was, “I loved to stand in that room and look out of its one large window, past the iron fire stairs and over the small backyards, crisscrossed by a lattice of laundry lines.” pg. 15. This sentence is in a part of the book where Min is explaining the layout of the house she lived in wit Tian. It was not a nice big house, but they couldn't imagine living anywhere else. The literary device that intrigues me in this sentence is all the imagery. I can just picture standing in that room with sunlight coming in through the window warming my face and looking out at the laundry lines. This sentence seems dreamy and like a place you would want to be in when in reality, this place is not the best place to live. The tone of the sentence is calm and sentimental because of the child she hopes will some day inhabit this room. The mood of the sentence is very content and it relaxes the reader before all the relationship problems that will soon enter their household. I think this sentence is effective because it really allows the reader to travel to this place and it makes the reader picture this beautiful place when in reality it is not. I think that because of that, this sentence has real power and beauty. 

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This is a picture I took over the summer when I was in Newport visiting my friend. We walked into this small cute shop on the boardwalk and there was a wall of these coasters with hilarious quotes on them. We spent a good half hour in the shop reading all the coasters. I had an amazing trip, but this was one of my favorite parts of the trip! My favorite coster says, “I would like to think I’ll die a heroic death, but more likely I'll trip over my dog and choke on a spoonful of frosting. 

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I am not in a happy mood today because my dad and brother are leaving this afternoon for Florida for a week and my mom and I are stuck here in the snow. My brother is in 6th grade, so he is on break this week and so he and my dad are going to visit my grandparents in Florida. I know that I have two weeks in march when he is in school and Im going to Florida then with my best friend, but I just got my new bathing suits and I wish I could go swimming now. Anyway, I hope they have fun while I'm here freezing my butt off. 

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These images are from my trip to Hawaii last summer. These pictures are on top of the Maui volcano. My brother, mom, and dad, and I drove up the volcano. When driving up, we saw bikers biking both up and down the volcano. My brother and I were interested but my dad is terrified of heights, so he did not understand why the bikers made the decision to bike. Once we got to the top, the view was spectacular. I would absolutely travel up the volcano again, I would just wear black shoes because of all the red volcano dust...

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This is an appreciation post for my best friend Annie DePreist. I have known Annie since I was 2 years old. We met because she lived across the street from my grandparents, and after my move, she now lives a half mile away from me. I have always been the girl that gets sucked into drama at school without even knowing it and then I start to think their is nothing I can do to stay myself. When Im with Annie, I am myself and it has been that way since I was a toddler. Her house is my second home and mine is hers. we do everything together, I go to her house in Nantucket every summer and she used to come to mine in New Hampshire before we sold it. This march break, the two of us are flying to Florida for a week to visit my grandparents. This Friday night she came over at 5:30 and we dropped her off Saturday at 5:45. If I didn't have Annie, I would be lost. 

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The Bad Week

The week of failures everywhere you turn

The week of backstabbers creeping up behind you

The week of disappointment knocking on your door

The week of loss jumping on your back

The week of hope just not pulling through

The week of targeting. You

The week of i don't know why i deserve this

The week of no sleep

The week of i don't deserve this

The week of whom are my real friends

The week of what did i do

The week of nothing i could do

The week of trying my best

The week of it doesn't pay off

The week of crying every night

The week of how can i be myself

The week of trying not to scream at everyone i pass in the hallway

The week of why is my mind turned off

The week of how on earth can someone do this

The week of drifting away to who knows where

The week of not knowing why

The week of lost hope and lost trust

The week of gained nothing

The week of who has the conscience for this

The week of i can't lie about this

The week of missing homework

The week of failing grades

The week of unfairness

The week of too much ice cream

The week of not succeeding

It's been a bad week if you couldn't tell

I don't know what I'll do if next week isn't better

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Dear past Katey,

You are a lucky kid. You have the best parents in the world and soon you'll get a little brother who you will love like crazy. The first school you will go to is Children's Own School. This part of your life is not very important but please enjoy nap time while you can. Next you will go to Belmont day school, not everyone their is nice. But, you will make some of the best friends like Maddy, Margo, and Altea. Your also going to meet some of the best teachers. so look out for Mr. Toppa, Ms. Lloyd, Ms. Twarog, and Mr. Spencer. Just a heads up, 4th grade is going to be bad. Your going to learn that you have a learning disability and you will get bullied. Mom is the most important person to go to during this time. Then fast forward to high school, your gonna end up at the Cambridge school of Weston. Your gonna meet lots of people and some of them are not great, but some of them are the best humans you meet. Don't worry, you'll find your place. Trough your whole life, your biggest helpers are Mom, Dad, Owen, Annie, and Hannah so don't take them for granted. You'll learn who you are pretty early in life, just promise me that you will stay true to who you are because you are loved. 

Love, your biggest fan 

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Overland is a summer camp that I have been going to for the past 3 years and I am going on another trip this summer. Overland is a camp where their is 2 leaders and 12 campers. The trips include introduction trips, biking, hiking, service, and language. In the past I have done 2 introduction trips and 1 biking trip. This photo is from the biking trip last year. The trip was called Cape Cod and the Islands and we biked all over Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. The trip was two weeks and I had an amazing time. I am so exited for my trip this summer in which I will bike the length of Vermont!

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This is a collection of photos from my time two summers ago in Pamplona, Spain. I was lucky emote to visit many parts of France and Spain. When in Pamplona, I was able to experience the running of the bulls, from a balcony above the event of course. This experience is one that I am glad I got to experience, but would not do again. We went to the running of the bulls, which was the day after the big celebration that was the night before. Because of this, the streets were absolutely revolting. Their was broken beer bottles, and trash everywhere. However, this was not our main focus. Once we were safely on the balcony above the streets, we saw the view of the top right picture. We waited and waited and eventually the running began. It only lasted a minute but it was an incredible sight to see. After this, we left the balcony and waited for the car to drive us back to the hotel. We traveled with our family friends, these are the kids with me and my brother and in the bottom right its my dad and their dad because they thought they were cool. Overall, it was a great day. 

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Tea Reading week 2

This week I read Giant Days : Volume two by Allison+Tresman+Sarin+Cogar. I read volume one over the summer and loved it. Giant days is a graphic novel about three girls in their freshman year of collage. These three girls are all opposites of each other. One girl, Susan is the layer back tom boy who always ends up as the rock of the group. Esther is the goth, bad girl who boys drool over; she's kind of a mess. Then theirs Daisy who is the innocent blond who was home schooled her whole life before collage. Because she experienced such a dramatic change, she becomes the sweet/crazy one of the three. I really enjoyed this book and plan to read volume three next week. 

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SNOW

A perfect fall of light powdery snow

Blizzards allowing kids to miss school

Cars covered in snow

Days of close roads

Every snowflake different from the next

Fresh snow for new forts

Getting on snow gear

Hot chocolate is steaming

Ice cold snow falling from the frozen sky

Jumping into the piles

Kind hearted neighbors offer warmth

Looking for the ball you left outside

Movies all day long

Nights by the fire

Optimistic looking for school closings

Playing with the neighbors

Quiet snow falling outside your window

Reading a book in your warm bed

Sledding down the hills

The heat is blasting

Undefiable freezing wind

Varying opinions on who the shoveler is

Watching the plows pass by

X is the shape your arms are in to protest school tomorrow

Yay is what you hear the kids shouting

Zipping down the hill on your sled

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My Head (a poem)

What's going on up there in that weird pink thing you call a brain How much can it handle Do you give it room to breath I think when you get a headache, it's your brain telling you to think about less things Their is always at least one thing your brain is thinking about You see for a normal person it might be anywhere from 1-15 For me it's 15-100 Maybe that's why i get so many headaches Sometimes i laugh Sometimes i cry Sometimes when i cry i'm thinking about something sad… and something funny… and something crazy You see what i mean? No you don't Just because you think you do, doesn't mean you do When people say “i totally get it” it has a much different effect than when someone says “tell me about it” When you think you finally understand, i'm going to tell you that you understand about 1 in 1000 thoughts that are in my head right now. You probably get distracted when you hear a fire truck or a bee buzzing or wind blowing or your very own breath… or maybe that's just me I think that i am the only me and that you are the only you. I don't have to understand you and you don't have to understand me So stop trying I really appreciate you doing this but you are wasting your time Unless you are me, unless you have my brain, you will never understand. So stop trying.

by: Katey Finnerty 

This poem is extremely important to me because it is how I feel at certain times in my life. 

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Thoughts on “If I had a daughter” by Sarah Kay

Instead of “Mom”, she’s gonna call me “Point B.” Because that way, she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And I’m going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands so that she has to learn the entire universe before she can say “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.” She’s gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry, so the first time she realizes that Wonder-woman isn’t coming, I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t have to wear the cape all by herself. Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I’ve tried. And “Baby,” I’ll tell her “don’t keep your nose up in the air like that, I know that trick, you’re just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else, find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him.” But I know that she will anyway, so instead I’ll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boats nearby, ‘cause there is no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix. Okay, there’s a few heartbreaks chocolate can’t fix. But that’s what the rain boots are for, because rain will wash away everything if you let it. I want her to see the world through the underside of a glass bottom boat, to look through a magnifying glass at the galaxies that exist on the pin point of a human mind. Because that’s how my mom taught me. That there’ll be days like this, “There’ll be days like this my momma said” when you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises. When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you wanna save are the ones standing on your cape. When your boots will fill with rain and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say “thank you,” ‘cause there is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s sent away. You will put the “wind” in win some lose some, you will put the “star” in starting over and over, and no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life. And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting I am pretty damn naive but I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it. “Baby,” I’ll tell her “remember your mama is a worrier but your papa is a warrior and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.” Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things and always apologize when you’ve done something wrong but don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.Your voice is small but don’t ever stop singing and when they finally hand you heartbreak, slip hatred and war under your doorstep and hand you handouts on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.

This poem has a lot of meaning to me. I think that it is really powerful and if a little girl saw this, it would be inspiring to have her want to be a mom because of this. If I have a daughter in the future, this poem describes how I would like to raise her. I think this poem in powers girls. Young girls are brought up with stereotypes of what a girl should be. If a girl was raised like this, she would be strong and powerful and break down any barriers in her way. I first saw this poem in eighth grade and performed it in a poetry slam at my school. Earlier this year, I was in a Cabaret class at school and used this poem in our performance. This poem really speaks to me on a deep level because I can relate to both wanting to be this mother and wanting to be this girl.