BOOM!

Like that? That's my impression of the (likely illegal) fireworks I'm hearing right now from my neighborhood. 

Everyone on blogger is posting about their wonderful New Years resolutions, and I'm not even going to lie, it's super boring to read about. 

Nobody cares if you're going to do twenty push-ups every morning from now on. Seriously. We all know you can't do that many push-ups. 

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, I'm going to tell you about a resolutions of mine, but this actually involves you. 

I want to get to know all my followers a little better. It's no fun talking about my life to complete strangers. (In fact, that almost makes you all stalkers. Think about it.) So lets make a resolution to become friends! 

And lets start right now! Comment below with one interesting fact about yourself and lets start a conversation! (Even if you don't have an account, make sure to include your first name. It's kinda difficult to make friends with someone who's anonymous.) 

Oh, and happy New Years! 

Always,

Abby Noel

I Want to Wake up in a City That Never Sleeps

For the past few days, I was enjoying my very first trip to New York City! It's been a lot of fun, and I have tons to tell you but I'm going to make this pretty short because I was stuck on a train today for hours and all I really want to do is go to sleep. 

First of all, during the whole trip I had to resist the urge to reenact Elf. If you have seen that movie, good. Keep reading. If you haven't seen that movie, get out. 

My parents were close to duck tapping my mouth at one point when the quoting got really bad. It's amazing just how many things we saw that I could easily associate with something from that movie. 

Seriously, if you haven't seen it, I forbid you from returning to the internet until you do. And based off of how much you like the internet, I suggest you get to it.

 Obviously, going from the little town of YoudontneedtoknowtherealnameofwhereIlive to big New York City, things were very different. However, one thing that I found to be pretty consistent no matter where you are is human stupidity. 

While standing in line for the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, my dad and I overheard an argument between two men about one very basic scientific principle- hot air rises. 

Most people can agree that yes, hot air rises, and that would be the end of the conversation. But one man was thoroughly convinced that hot air only rises indoors.  

Yes folks, a grown man argued that hot air only rises inside of buildings. 

His friend was almost onto something when he insisted that heat rises outside, too. That was until he told him the reason- because the higher you are, the closer you are to the sun. 

Come on, people. I learned this in second grade.

And now- Photos! 

Always,

Abby Noel

P.S. I hope you all liked having my friend Katie fill in while I was gone! We were talking about maybe having her as a monthly guest poster, what do you think? 

Heck Family Christmas: A Post By Katie

     Hey everyone! Abby, as in Always Abby Noel, has asked me to do a guest post so here I am! If you have not read some of the past posts, then you should probably know that my family is...well...special. Most of the time they are alright, but when you have all 15 of us in one house, it's one interesting Christmas.

     My last name has a lot to do with the events of my Christmas. You see, I have a hyphenated last name. My mother was a Heck, and my father was a last name I won't tell you so that I will not get kidnapped (sorry I just saw the movie Taken..) and when they got married, they decided to combine their names instead of just choosing one like normal people in hopes of one day, they could give their child a 30 letter name and make her spend hours filling her name in on a stupid test scan tron. Thanks mom and dad.

Anyways, both the Hecks, and the (let's just call them Smiths) Smiths are quite interesting people. The Hecks are red necks, like hardcore rednecks. And the Smiths are the EXACT opposite. They are stuck up and own like 3 houses. Most of the time we spend Christmas with each family on different days, but the Smiths were traveling, so we combined them. The Hecks are fun on Christmas, and so are the Smiths, but put them together and it becomes a different word for Heck...

The entire family arrived two days before Christmas and everything seemed to be working out fine. Then at around 4:45 Christmas morn, everything changed. It became a Christmas we would never forget.

At 4:45 am, my almost 20 year old brother woke everyone up and proclaimed that Santa had arrived at our house. In the process of opening presents, some dirty looks were exchanged. Mainly when my 7 year old cousin received an iPhone 4s and a 3-D DS. Everyone on that side of the family was thrilled, but the Hecks glared at them. The Hecks think that the only gifts given should be total necessities and so my uncle got three different types of hunting bows as well as propane. Just Imagine wrapping that. My mom has the maturity level of an 8 year old, so she gave my brother and I Zuh-Zuh pets. He was actually really pumped and called his roommate to brag later on.

We had planned to eat dinner at about 7 pm so my uncle on the Heck side put the ham in the roaster at 4 pm so it would be done at 7 on the dot. Well at 6:45 when he checked it, it was still frozen. As it turns out, you are supposed to turn the roaster on. Who would've guessed? Well because it was so late, we microwaved pieces of the ham. Apparently when you microwave ham, it shrinks and becomes really tough. Causing it to be inedible. We had frozen pizza kits as our Christmas dinner.

Then of course there was the savage fight in the backyard between two of my Heck cousins. They are brothers and one commented on the other's girlfriend's unfortunate looking face and fought in the backyard for about 10 minutes before their father spilt them up. Brotherly Love at it's finest.

All left this morning, but to my surprise, they all agreed to meet up next year.

The Smith-Hecks (my brother, my parents and me) are just ecstatic.

Always,

Katie Smith-Heck

(Don't Google that, it's not my real last name)

Joyeux Noël!

I couldn't resist saying it in French- it sounds prettier and has my name in it, how could I say no? 

I wanted to share with you guys a little story-Yesterday my family and I helped out at a church outreach program that does a community dinner every month for the homeless and less fortunate in the area. We were serving as "waiters" and bringing the people their food and getting drinks, and so on. 

While bringing someone a plate, my sister overheard a woman asking a little boy what he asked Santa for this year. He responded- "A house." 

That completely broke my heart. I hope he gets his wish. 

I also hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! 

Always,

Abby Noel 

Since you all want to know...

The kiss happened in rehearsal today.

What a lovely 15th birthday present.

Always,

Abby Noel 

So that wasn't too bad...

(If you haven't read the post below this, I suggest you do, otherwise this isn't going to make any sense)

So I didn't end up actually kissing him at rehearsal today, but we did get just about as close as possible.

And I must say... it wasn't bad at all.

I just decided to have fun with it, you know? Like when the assistant director told him to hold my hands, I grabbed for his hands. I heard someone watching say "Ohh.. feisty!" 

And he told me I smell good, so that was nice.

This really won't be as bad as I thought.

Always,

Abby Noel 

Beautifully horrible circumstances...

Let me just get this out- my first kiss will be fake. 

That's right, the one moment I've dreamt of ever since my first crush in kindergarten, will be fake.

You all remember the play I told you about in which I got the second biggest female lead? Well I will now be playing the biggest lead. As in- Antigone herself. The character the play is named after. 

The girl that was originally cast as Antigone can't play the part anymore because of a problem that you all don't really need to know. 

But nonetheless, I now have that part.

I should be happy, right? Ecstatic, even. But in the play, Antigone must kiss her fiance. I have to be completely professional about this, but I can't help having some reservations about it.

Some of you might not understand this, but I hope maybe some of you girls will. People say stage kisses "don't count."  But to me, my first kiss will be my first kiss. I don't care where it is, who it's with, and whether or not it had to be done. Regardless of how professional I'm going to be about it, this is still going to mean a lot to me. 

And it'll mean nothing to him. He's too professional about it to care. 

Sorry guys for going all cliche-little-girl on here, but I just needed to get this all out.

Always,

Abby Noel 

MAMBO! (um...again)

Today was the second dance rehearsal for West Side Story and both my brain and my legs hurt. The first day was definitely easier. This time we got into learning a bunch of really complicated steps, along with jumps and spins and other fancy dance stuff. Those moves themselves weren't all that hard, but putting them to music that is super fast makes me want to just crawl in a corner and melt.

Now I live in fear because I know that that day will come when I must trade my sweaty socks for dance heels and manage to not fall and break my face. That terrifies me. 

One thing I've learned about dancing is that it makes you want to do one thing and one thing alone- EAT. I came home today and literally absorbed a whole box of mac&cheese. (Cooked, of course. Absorbing hard pasta and cheese flavored powder would be quite unpleasant.) 

Another thing I've learned is that I have "pretty dancer legs". I'm not sure what that means, but it sounded nice and came with a smile, so I took it as a compliment. 

Always,

Abby Noel 

If I ever got a tattoo...

...it would look like this-

Isn't it lovely? 

I drew it after finishing a math quiz today and now I want it for real. 

I told someone and they said- "I hope you enjoy excruciating pain." 

Apparently the palm is the most painful place to get a tattoo. 

Oh well, beauty is pain.

Always,

Abby Noel 

MAMBO!♫

The first dance rehearsal for West Side Story was today and it was

 AMAZING!!!

The dance was a bit hard to pick up because it has a lot of hip movement, and I kinda have the anatomy of an awkward toothpick. But I think I finally got it after a while. 

Unfortunately I haven't found out whether I'm going to be a shark or a jet (for those who don't know the musical, those are the two different gangs) but I'm hoping for the sharks. They get to sing America and I love that song with all of my heart! (If you don't know this musical, listen to that song, it's amazing. And no, it's not the patriotic one also called "America", just look it up.)

I don't think my legs have realized yet that they just danced for three hours straight because they aren't sore at all. However, I'll likely wake up in the morning tomorrow and want to chop them off. 

Always,

Abby Noel

P.S. If you comment on a post, can you at least put in your first name? I like to respond to comments and it feels weird responding to anonymous people. You could be a robot, for all I know. 

P. P. S. OOH- this is good but completely off topic! I have the highest grade in my honors science class! 97% 

I Like the Island Manhattan!

Right about now I am dying for West Side Story to start. The first rehearsal is on Thursday, and we're going to be learning the dance to the Mambo scene at the school dance when Maria and Tony first meet. Now I'm not a dancer at all, (I get winded walking up stairs) so I've been preparing by playing Just Dance on the Wii. It's actually pretty pathetic. 

(I think it's amazing that for once I came up with a title that connects everything I want to talk about.) I still need ideas of stuff to do when I go to New York City. Anyone who's been there, please give suggestions! 

Also today I came to the conclusion that when I get my own house (or apartment, or trailer, or cardboard box...etc.) I'm going to get a ton of pets. I went to a pet store today and saw the adorable little mice that they sell so people can feed their snakes, and I almost cried. I just wanted to take them all home with me and save their furry little lives. 

Well I hope everyone's having a great day! (Better than those mice, at least)

While you're here, why not comment? I'd love to make some new blogger friends.

Always,

Abby Noel 

My brain is currently incapable of coming up with a good title for this post...soo....PICTURES

Always,

Abby Noel 

Where did you people come from?

I had a spaz attack this morning while checking my blog when I noticed that I now have 121 followers. I swear just a few days ago I was at 114. Welcome everyone new, and thanks for following! 

Always,

Abby Noel

That awkward moment that you realize your last Facebook status makes you sound like a shallow jerk.

While I was borderline stalking my friends on Facebook (my favorite pass-time) I came across this-

In all honesty kid, you may not want an ugly face, but no one wants an ugly personality. 

Always,

Abby Noel