Sometimes I think about the things I miss out on...

The days pass, and each year I always have that empty hole at the bottom of my stomach. I realize that I don't get to do the things normal teens get to do. I never went to a football game, never to a high school dance, and kept myself away from clubs that struck my interest.

I can't help but to cry when I think about it. My parents are constantly on the move I don't think I've lived in a single house for more than 2 years. I am struggling through my teenage years, with nothing but books, and colleges to worry about. I never get to just go out and have fun. I am not allowed to screw up.

I am a Stepford daughter. Apparently, I can do no wrong. I bring home a grade any less than a B and I get the largest guilt trip anybody can possibly muster onto another. But for the rest of my siblings, it's good job I'm so proud. Yes, both my parents boast on how intelligent I am for a 2 months premature baby. But really what does that have to do with anything?

All I want is 2.5 more years of being a teenager. I don't want to miss out on things that will never happen once I graduate. I don't want my parents to force me into a field that I don't want to be in. I'm interested in the arts gosh darn it. I am not teacher, lawyer, or any of that other crap they seem to think I want to be!

I think about my life when I go to bed and how much I've missed out on because of the constant relocation and how I maybe affected in the long run and I could sit there and cry cry like a baby. But it won't ever do me any good and I know this but the only thing that I have to turn to is my writing. But sometimes I can't even bare to write.

Hope ALL is well,
God Bless,
Hugs Not Drugs,
Mercedes =)

The Fort Cherry Review

On my first day at Chartiers Valley I literally wanted to cry. I had never experienced a feeling like this in my entire life I felt insecure, unloved, forgotten, unimportant, lost, and completely embarrassed. The whole experience was awkward. The building is a circle not the normal two story rectangular building I was used to. Not one familiar face in the hallway, not one familiar voice saying don't fall, but that's just the humor of being at Fort Cherry Jr./Sr. High School. Located in McDonald, Pa Fort Cherry High School is not such a big school, but for their lack of size they make up for it in a big way. Being at such a small school was terrific, everyone knew each other, the teachers 90% of the time had an extremely warm and welcoming smile on their face when you walked in the room.

FCHS was one of the most rewarding places I've ever had the liberty of being. All the classrooms have a specific calling, every single one was different. Whether it was Mr. Hallowich's [history] big mouth or Mrs. Knight's [English] blogs, something was always going on. I felt worthy of intelligence while in both classrooms. The teachers there are irreplaceable. The school had a technology boom too! Even though it was a little tedious at times was incredibly useful. CVHS hasn't really dabbed into that yet. I felt as if I was preparing myself for the future. Being at such a close- knit school I gained friendships, friendships that I hope will remain as strong as they ever were.

All throughout the school there were a significant amount of places you "wander" to. The library, one of the few places I never wanted to leave. Ms. Perkins was the greatest she really bonded with all of the students and was loved by all. The nurse's office (I've paid my dues...once or twice, ok more than a dozen times) Mrs. Cowden was a genuine individual, who I adored even when I was in an above tolerable amount of pain and or discomfort. The classroom, one of the most important place behind the walls of FCHS, where wit beyond measure was a (wo)man's greatest and most desired treasure. Every single teacher brought something (joyous or repulsive) to the table (classroom). Though we had a slight bit of advantage thanks to the technology boom.

The hallways, the halls were pretty hazardous partially, no fully because of my two left feet. As for the pep rallies, let's just say CVHS is completely lacking in school spirit. It's only my first week and already I miss the Ranger crazed high school. But what can you do?

The classes at FCHS have a little bit more diversity as well. I actually had trouble picking my electives this time around because Yearbook is only offered to juniors , and concert choir I don't think I want to go down that road at CVHS ( unsatisfactory memos about the class). As for the "major" classes I am taking IBS Honors English, a bit more demanding than Advanced I am told, Chem Lab, IBS Honors World History (supposed to be taken in 11th grade), Spanish 3 (same deal), and Algebra 2. As for my horrifying choice for electives I chose Driver's Ed, a required course at FCHS, and Journalism, which has led me to write this article.

I can honestly say that FCHS has more of a variety when it comes to choosing electives and a lot of the electives at CVHS are AGAIN REQUIRED at FCHS and I have made a very stalwart consensus that this arrangement is particularly appalling and I eminently think that this will affect me in the near future. Where as students attending FCHS won't be as affected. So put your hands together for the members of FCHS's school board. Making up with it's diversity of academics, FCHS is lacking on what is known here as the FLEX program. This program is worth one credit, so it's just like a class, only it's spread out a 1/4 credit each high school year. The program was developed so that high school students can devave elop skills and the necessary requirements for their chosen field of work. I have concluded that this is a great program expect I now have 30 hours of community service due the end of January. But luckily for me I am moving.

The Mercedes Review in FCHS is a completely honest, unbiased review I am giving the school two thumbs way, way up. Congradulations you have altered my first judgement of FCHS, for better I promise not for worse. A complete group of 5 stars. FCHS is one of the most unique schools I have attended, and the only school I thought I had potential in. Thanks go out to everybody there for making the experience worthwhile. Of all the schools I have attended, I recommend Fort Cherry because big things come in small packages.

*Read the full article in October 2008's The Ant ( There's a paragraph and a few pictures more)
Remember Hugs Not Drugs,
Mercedes
=)

Highlights of the Presidential Debate

John McCain entered Tuesday's presidential debate needing Barack Obama to stumble or in the very least the GOP nominee had to deliver a performance that could help change the direction of the campaign. Election Day is closing in and valuable time is slipping away. Obama is making gains in key battleground states as well as in a couple of traditional Republican strongholds. Have you honestly listened to what he has to say?
Am I the only one listening?
Well am I?

Last night's debate was so boring. I dozed off. But I tivo-ed it and watched it this morning.

Hello? Anyone? Are you up for higher taxes and a crumbling economy?
Well Obama seems to be!

I was pro-Obama for a short while.
I thought all through the debate closely listening to everything each candidate had to say I was appalled by the constant "shakiness" in Mr. Obama's voice and believed that he was downright lying.Neither candidate had a stellar performance. Each failed to effectively use the town hall format to express compassion for the problems voters are facing. Instead, Obama and McCain used the debate as a soapbox to tout their policy positions and criticize one another on their policy stands.
There are still 27 days remaining in what has been a triathlon quest for the White House. The election isn't over, but McCain needs a quick change of course. He's got my vote.... well if I COULD VOTE anyway.
Mr. Obama is not ready to lead.

My name is Mercedes and I approve this message.....

I could be a FANTASTIC President, right?
God Bless,
Mercedes

9 Words Women Use =]

1. Fine : This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
2. Five Minutes : If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
3. Nothing : This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
4. Go Ahead : This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
5. Loud Sigh : This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)
6. That's Okay : This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
7. Thanks : A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome.
8 . Whatever : Is a women's way of saying drop dead
9. Don't worry about it, I got it : Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking "What's wrong?" For the woman's response refer to #3.

There was a star danced, and under that was I born. - William Shakespeare

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful person ever that was born 15 years ago yesterday! Ha can't you tell I am bored and coughing out my lungs well you can't really tell that I am coughing up my lungs but whatever here's a poem just for you:
The Birthday Cake
Today is my birthday
I think I'll make a cake
Mix and stir, stir and mix
Then into the oven to bake.
Here's the cake so nice and round,
I'll put icing on so white.
I'll put on all the candles
To make my birthday bright!

You like it yes no maybe so?
Another?

The Wish
Each birthday wish
I've ever made
Really does come true
Each year I wish
I'll grow some more
And every yearI DO!

Do you like this one? Let me know? I am not so sure? But guess what I am going to Pandolfo's to night to celebrate my birthday that was yesterday. send me belated birthday wishes....I love you!
Mercedes

Fate* will find a way. ~ Vigil

Fate*, Predestination, Fortune, Kismet, Destiny, or whatever YOU want to call it!

The Question:
What role has FATE* (Mrs. Knight's Favorite word) played in William Shakespeare's tragedy,Romeo and Juliet?

"For never was there a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo." (Romeo & Juliet, V, iii)

The main theme of fate*, in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, is shown throughout the play within subtle comments made by characters, the imagery in the stars, and different writing styles. The prologue describes Romeo's fate*, as well as Juliet's, which appears many times later in the play. Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet unwillingly realize their love has no chance in their current situation of war and hate. A tragic fate* awaits them. The two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are rivals throughout the entire play, until this tragic fate takes its toll on the lovers.
There are multiple events that foreshadow Romeo and Juliet's tragic future together. As early as the first scene of the play, there is evidence restating the information given in the prologue. "Romeo:?And makes himself an artificial night".This passage is a foreshadowing of Romeo's suicide. Montague adds to the effects of foreshadowing when he states, "Unless good council may the cause remove" In the first act, Romeo is introduced. His great sadness is obvious and the theme of love is presented. Through Romeo's mellow mood we see how desperate he is for love. Romeo falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of the "all mighty" Capulet. Romeo and Juliet were ultimately the ones responsible for their own deaths. The destinies of these two "star crossed lovers" were set from the start of the story, and almost all events that took place brought Romeo and Juliet closer to their inevitable fates.
There were entirely too many coincidences throughout the play, which further support my educated guess that FATE* has played a bigger role throughout the plan than Romeo and Juliet themselves! The first coincidence was that Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers, shared the unfortunate fate that they were from feuding families. The two of them were a perfect match, and were completely in love with each other, and the odds that one was a Montague and one was a Capulet were incredibly slim. They both showed their grief when they learned that the other was from the opposite family. "O dear account! my life is my foe's debt." (Act 1, Scene 5), and "My only love sprung from my only hate." (Act 1, Scene 5) were the two expressions that Romeo and Juliet exclaimed. Juliet had the right idea when she showed her frustration with the feud, and its influence on R&J's relationship, in her soliloquy on the balcony, and said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet..." (Act 2, Scene 2) Besides the fact that they probably would have never been able to live a peaceful life, none of the tragedies would have occurred had they not met in the first place. The scene, where the Montagues find out about the Capulet ball is another twist of fate*. The servant of Capulet, who happens to be illiterate, was given the job of telling people about the party, but only those specifically on a list written up by his master. Since he could not read, he was forced to ask two strangers to explain it to him. Those two people could have been anyone, but they just happened to be Romeo and Benvolio. When Juliet is "buried" twenty-four hours before Friar Lawrence planned, it gave Friar John less time to get the message to Romeo. Beside that, Balthazar came in on one day only to see how Juliet was doing. If Juliet would have been able to take the potion as scheduled, Balthazar would have seen Juliet doing well and been able to come back to Romeo with a report of good news. Romeo would then have had no reason to buy the poison and commit suicide. Friar Lawrence would have sent another messenger and all would have been well. Although Romeo and Juliet were responsible for their own physical deaths, fate* still played a big role in getting the two to even think about committing suicide. The most obvious example of fate was the quarantine in Mantua. Friar Lawrence's plan was that Juliet would be laid in the tomb, appearing to be dead, and when she woke up, Romeo would be there to meet her. Friar Lawrence was supposed to get a message to Mantua, where Romeo was at because of his banishment, and inform the boy about the plan. This is a seemingly perfect plan, and gives the readers a sense of hope, but the plan is ruined when the they discover that there was a quarantine in Mantua, and Romeo was unable to get the letter. This was the point in which Romeo decided that it would be best if he committed suicide. William Shakespeare had countless times where he could have saved both of them, but he does not. He gives the reader a little hope that the two will survive, but with each event, that hope is crushed. Although Romeo and Juliet did not have to kill themselves, none of the the tragedies would have occurred, had it not been written by such an unpredictable mind as Shakespeare's. Truly, fate* is the most dominant force in the play, and is most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Fate* played the most significant role in the horrendous events that seemed to follow Romeo & Juliet everywhere they went. From whether it was the day they met at the Capulets' party or the day they both committed suicide, fate* was practically there leading the way. In conclusion, this whole play revolves around fate*. All the main characters in this tragedy have a fatal flaw that eventually leads to their doom or grievance. As said by William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

*=Mrs. Knight's favorite word of all time (JK)

Love Always and Kids Remember Hugs NOT Drugs!,

Mercedes :-)

Merce's Fortune Cookies (ALL ORIGINAL)

My Brilliant Word Of Wisdom Don't Lose Them!
Stereotypes are by-products of a simple minded society.
--Mercedes Z.
Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.
-- Mercedes
Understanding that you know nothing, is the key of great knowledge.
-- Mercedes
Why is there never time to do it right, but always time to do it over?
-- Mercedes
A single tear can flood the heart.
-- Mercedes
First you must believe...in order to achieve!
-- Mercedes
Shoot for the moon -- even if you miss you'll still be among the stars!!!!!!!!!
--Mercedes Z.
To all of you idiots who try to steal my quotes without asking...well lets just say I see a knock out in you future!
Hugs Not Drugs,
Mercedes

A Place to See...Verona,Italy

In Fair Verona where we lay our scene is how Shakespeare begins his classic play of the two star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. And Verona has been living on the reputation ever since. One cannot go to Verona without stumbling over artifacts (or supposed artifacts) of the story. Yet, Verona is more than just the venue of a teen aged romance gone very wrong.

Verona, Italy, the pulchritudinous city, in which Romeo and Juliet takes place has remarkable history dating back to 89 B.C., which is a long time ago I might add. Verona is and was still very active in the art department. I decided to go a little more in depth and explain myself. I searched the Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Answers search engines and managed to get a microscopic amount of information so I am not going to give you an exact web page, at the end I will name a few. Well here goes nothing, Verona has preserved a remarkable number of monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold. The 15Th century takes place from 1401 to 1500 as I hope you would know this was the period that would be considered as the Renaissance, let me add that this was the only information in which www.wikipedia.com had offered! During the Renaissance, Verona produced major artists, (remarkably these are just minor examples) the architects Giocondo and Sanmichele and the painters Pisanello and Paolo Veronese, who embellished both Verona and Venice. Life in Verona in my opinion would be like something out of a fairytale, many architectures such as Juliet's balcony (see above) really this is pretty and all but the way it is described on the web page makes you believe its the most beautiful thing you could ever see (I don't believe that), and The Duomo (this will be pictured at the bottom).

Now for a little more information about the arts and all that hogwash. The Dominican church of St. Anastasia is a mine of wealth in early examples of paintings and sculpture, and one of the finest buildings in Italy of semi-Gothic style. It consists of a nave in six bays, aisles, transepts, each with two eastern chapels, and an apse, all vaulted with simple quadripartite brick groining. It was begun in 1261, but not completed till 1422, and is specially remarkable for its very beautiful and complete scheme of coloured decoration, much of which is contemporary with the building. The vaults are gracefully painted with floreated bands along the ribs and central patterns in each cell in rich soft colours on a white plastered ground.

Now lets hear about 15th century royalty (yay!) In the 15th Century we find an "Antonio Serenelli" is noted as a member of a delegation chosen by Bergamo, and is sent to Venice to request transfer of authority from Milan to Venice. On May 6th, he was present at the transfer of Power, which was a ceremonial transfer of the key to Girolamo Contarini. The Venice Government allowed Bergamo to retain their laws and allowed them many privileges, immunity, distinctions and one magistrate was appointed as a representative of the Venetian Government to Bergamo. In 1450 most of the family was in Verona. On August 11, 1450, in Verona we note the presence of "Bartolomeo Serenelli", son of "Sereno", who was son of "Pietro Serenelli", mentioned by Torresani, in a document notarized by Benassuti. Below as I said Before is the Duomo I think, personally that this is one of the lavish buildings I ever had the chance on seeing on the web.

Okay Now to the religion part. The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of western Europe. It encompassed a revival of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting (I remember doing stuff like that for the Renaissance fair in 5th grade), and educational reform. The Renaissance saw developments in most intellectual pursuits, but is perhaps best known for its artistic aspect and the contributions of such polymaths as Da Vinci and Michelangelo, who have inspired the term "Renaissance Men". The Renaissance received a major boost in the 15th century, when the Fall of Constantinople and the closing of its university by the Ottoman Turks forced thousands of Greek scholars to flee to Italy bringing with them the majority of the texts of Hellenic and Roman literature and law, that still survive today.

The Links:
www.the-orb.net/textbooks/muhlberger/15c_religion.html
www.southernct.edu/~ils69314/Radioshake/webquest.htm
http://www.wikipedia.org/
www.answers.com/topic/verona
http:/encyclopedia.jrank.org/VAN_VIR/VERONA.html
www.citylightsnews.com/serenelli/serenelli-history-eng.htm
www.1911encyclopedia.org/Verona
www.wga.hu/database/glossary/cities/verona.html
and of course to get the guelling assignment
knightsenglish9rocks.blogspot.com

*For the record this assignment was excruciatingly frustrating and detestable in so many ways I can't even explain. I managed to take in some imformation in though. I hope this is what you were looking for and that being said, to be honest I couldn't find class systems and occupations; the rest was not easy but arduous and backbreaking but upbeat. This was probably not the best work I have done so just be far warned if you are deeply chagrined after reading this, I will undividedly and completely agree with you. So have a great day, night, weekend, or whatever it is when you are reading this.

Hugs Not Drugs,

Miss Mercedes

MeRcE...YOU KNOW THE REST

Go Crazy Aahhhhhhh Insanity= Doing something the same way over & over again & expecting different results!

Insanity is everyday life for example, have you ever..., don't even say you haven't walked into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator and left with nothing in your hands, then five or ten minutes later walk yourself back out into the kitchen & open the fridge and have you not realize NOTHING absolutely nothing has changed! You still leave empty handed. Insanity can be described as doing things over and over again and expecting different results. This applies to all of us as human beings its in our nature to be considered insane. Believe me I know another example is the other day I was moving and unpacking my room downstairs and rearranged it several times and each time was just as worse as the last! What I didn't realize that no matter where I move anything I will always get the same results. But since I am utterly insane I forget to think but who cares..... Everyone is crazy in their own little way its just a part of life its like breathing, you can't without air and you can't live without insanity. Goodness gracious I think that deserved an Oscar ha ha ha.
Hugs Not Drugs ,
Merce...