Anorexia

Happy New Years EVE! In about 7 hours, it will be 2011!  In celebration of this occasion, we are now watching The Sorcerers Apprentice in our hotel room! Clad in white robes and beige socks, my parents are eating cookies in the two sofa chairs and me and nick are slouched and moody like all good teenagers should be. (I don't know what my parents excuse is...)
Later tonight our plans will get a little more exciting though, don't you worry.  We have made reservations at the Biltmore Estate Hotel (ON the B. Estate, but not the actual Biltmore Castle Building Thing.  If that makes sense) for a New Years Eve dinner.  Our reservations are for 9 p.m., and then after we will return to the hotel room and probably watch the ball drop on ABC and eat some more.
Surprisingly enough, we actually DO venture out of our cozy hotel room.  We actually just came back from the tour of the Biltmore that we took and lunch.  (Of course, everything we do has to some how involve food.)  But the tour was really nice! The place was amazing.  Everything was so huge and...fancy!  The most impressive area was the indoor pool.  It was SO deep and HUGE! And FANCY!  The entire house was five floors...the main floor included the GIANT dinning room...the next floor up included the guests' quarters (The Vanderbilts rented out rooms for friends and family) and the third floor held the Vanderbilts' rooms.  (Mrs. Vanderbilt had pink crown molding.  Some things don't change)  Then the basement floor had the maids and butlers quarters, (They had over 30 maids and butlers back in the day)  then the POOL, and a mini BOWLING ALLEY, EXERCISE ROOM and kitchen.  The very highest floor wasn't apart of our tour (the jerks...) but it was still such a cool thing to see.
After the tour, we ate at a place called Rezaz, which was kinda good and weird at the same time.

As for yesterday, we drove around the HUMONGOUS Estate, and had lunch (More food!) at The Biltmore Estate Hotel Thingy, which was pretty darn good. (Which is why we decided we're going to eat there tonight) After we went to Antler Hill Village (Also inside the Estate.) and looked inside the shops and stuff.  Then we drove to a local grocery store (NOT inside the Estate) and picked up stuff for Pasta! And we ate! At the hotel. (In our fancy mini kitchen) We watched another movie. While we ate cookies.

My family is anorexic.

Happy New Years Eve once again, and best wishes for 2011!

I'm off to go eat-I mean, watch a movie!

Love,
Danielle

Greetings From Asheville, North Carolina

Hello from The Biltmore Residence! (Do not be fooled...I'm not talking about the Biltmore Estates, that's the big one.  This is just a sort of shalait/hotel room/suite thing NEAR the big one.) We are in room 114, with a view of...trees and the street. Ah well! Over all, this is a really good room!  For one, it's really quite big!  When you walk in, you see a round table with four chairs (and place mats!) to your right, and a little living room with a stone fire-place (Flat screen on top!) and sofa chairs and a couch, to your left.  There is also a mini kitchen, including a big fridge, microwave, oven, sink and stove top. (And toaster and coffee-maker and cooking utensils and CUPBOARDS...) As you continue down the hallway (Oh yes, there is a HALLWAY) there are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, both equipped with queen (or king, if your a stinkin' adult) beds and nightstands and..um, oh yeah, FLAT SCREENS (aaaand DVD player) But you want to know the best part of all?  The soap.  The soap, comes out of the package, WITHOUT a center. Its like a ring of soap with a big hole in the middle!  It's supposed to avoid wasting the middle of the soap which most people don't use and throw out because it's too small.  So no middle means no waste!  Isn't that cool!?  Come on, you have to admit, that's pretty cool.  The package was also made out of recycled stuff too, in case you were wondering.
Anyway, yesterday we left at 8:30 a.m. for my orthodontist appointment, (who graciously changed my wires and induced pain in my mouth) and then we hit the road! Everything was going great until we crossed the border...into Tennessee.  For all of you who do not have a U.S map in front of you, Tennessee is a bordering state of Virginia...but so is North Carolina, so we really shouldn't have gone through it.  It was actually quite funny. 
Once we were in the right state, we drove to Asheville, and checked into our hotel.  After settling in, we went out for dinner, which we reserved for 7:45 at The Corner Kitchen, the best restaurant in Asheville.  I had the meatloaf, but the best was desert...Amy's Own Key Lime Tart.  I've always wanted to try Key Lime pie, so I was like: OMG
And soon I was like: *burp
It was very good. Very. Good.
Then we returned to our room, for some relaxation in front of the t.v. (Sounds like home!)
Today we are going to tour the outside of the Biltmore Estate and such.  The weather is supposed to reach 47 degrees Fahrenheit, so it should be comfortable, considering there's snow on the ground.  We are now about to have breakfast, (My dad went out and got us flavored bagels and stuff...) and then we'll get ready to go out.
So goodbye for now, but I'll be baaack!

Love,
Danielle

What My Day Will Be Like Tomorrow...And The Next Day...And The Next Day

The plans have been confirmed...we are driving down to North Carolina to a nice hotel near the Biltmore...tomorrow.  Before our seven hour drive, that is sure to be filled with family fun in a tight space, I will be seeing my orthodontist so he can do slightly torturous things to my teeth, guaranteed to make my road trip even more enjoyable.  I am currently in the process of packing...and stressing out.  Instead of being able to completely relax and enjoy my upcoming vacation, I have to worry about homework. Oh, yes, I said homework.  Now you must be thinking, what kind of sick creature gives innocent children HOMEWORK over winter break? I am wondering the same thing my friend. The only difference is YOU don't actually have to do it.
Let's take a look at my agenda, shall we? I have a Christmas Review Packet from my wonderful math teacher.  Oh look, it even has two little orange stains on the front, isn't that adorable. Ten pages, bless her soul.  It is definitely a Christmas Packet.  Sort of like a Christmas Miracle. DOESN'T IT REMIND YOU OF THAT TOO?
Now what else...Oh yes, it looks like I have a Civics essay to write as well. 250 words on why I am proud to be an American. Shucks, y'all.
And last and most definitely least, six pieces of music for a guitar exam, each aprox. three pages long, to have perfected by, well, let's see, MONDAY.  These pieces of music, in case you were interested, we should be able to play them in 7th AND 5th position, both of which we were never taught. Yeah, I'm laughing too buster.

So, it looks like my Christmas Miracle Packet, Civics Book, AND my guitar are coming along for the ride tomorrow.

And what a ride that will be.


I'm not sure if I will be able to or get the time to post anything in NC, so in case I don't, I wish you all a Happy New Year, hope it's the best one yet! (Free of Christmas Miracles and Teacherswhoarenothuman.)

Love,
Danielle

Nothing Like Dark-Circles Under My Eyes For Christmas

Merry Late Christmas! Wow, I am BAD with this on-time thing.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas! This year was a very good Christmas for me! Let me share with you the Adventure That Is Christmas In The Matta House.

It's Christmas Eve, and the family is watching Christmas movies and specials. And when I say family, I mean Danielle and occasionally Nicholas, since Mother and Father are sprawled out on a various piece of furniture, snoring like their life depended on it.  Anyway, so finally the family decides to trudge upstairs.  While slightly drugged Mother and Father (I'm only joking..they are actually just sleep-walking) place their wrapped gifts under the tree, Nicholas and Danielle get ready for bed.  Because she is so nice and considerate, and an all-round wonderful person, Danielle offered to have a sleep-over with her brother.  After setting up the Santa Tracker (So accurate, it's amazing! It's as if they made it up all themselves) and reading half a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (It's reading, not brain-washing the younger peoples of the world into becoming mini Harry Potter zombies, thank you very much), the children turn off the lights and go to sleep (Please note that is is MUCH after Mother and Father, since they fell asleep under the tree)
Barely five minutes has gone by, when Nicholas sits up and shifts position, shaking the entire bed in the process.  The next five minutes, and he does it again.  This repeats for the next HOUR AND A HALF with additional sighs and grumbles. Any longer and the floor would have caved in.  Finally, at 2 a.m., Nicholas decides to get up and go to his own bed, and Danielle can now sleep in peace. For 4 hours.  Then, Nicholas returns.  It is the Danielle-and-Nicholas Rule, after all, that whoever wakes up first on Christmas Day, must go and wake the other up immediately.  So that's what he does (because he is obviously a physco) and the two kids walk cautiously down the stairs and 6 a.m.  They are pleasantly surprised with the sight of LOTS of presents under the tree! (And two strange, lumpy-looking shapes, but that was they're parents dormant bodies, of course)
So they open all sorts of great gifts and and spend the rest of the day enjoying them and cooking and eating!

Here is what I gave to my family:

~A 60 dollar gift certificate to a very fancy restaurant that we have here called Lightfoot for my parents to have a 'romantic' evening together.
~The Despicable Me Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy Combo Pack and the Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 (a.k.a, movies 1-4, for those of you who are Harry Potter challenged) for Wii (Is this endorsement or what?!) for Nick. Cost me a lot of moola. A lot.

That may not seem much to you, but trust me, my wallet was hurtin' after these purchases. I had 12 bucks left afterwards.  Luckily, I received $60 from my Grandmother and Uncle George in Boston, and a $75 dollar check from my Nona (Godmother) in California, so my wallet is very happy now! And my Uncle Bernie (as found in Boston as well.  He's selling fast now folks, so buy up quickly, before the winter season!) gave me a very unique gift that I will not yet mention, but don't fret my darlings, there will be more about that later! Also my Aunt Natalie has sent something in the mail, and my Thia Venetia (Thia=Aunt) sent a very generous donation to the Danielle Foundation when my grandparents were here.  So thank you all very much for thinking of me and for the gift you gave me! I appreciate it very much! Also, I must thank my grandparents in Greece as well, because I would not have been able to buy ANY of those Christmas gifts if it were not for the money they gave me while they were here. So thank you family! Love you all so much!

And of course, thank you to my brother and parents too, for such a wonderful Christmas and for their presents too.  Hope you enjoy yours!

So, with that, I must be off! I have a lot of work to do (the details on that are for another post, another day, try not to get too disappointed) and I am hungry as a...hm.  What animal can I use that will not be offensive to my calm and exquisite demeanor?

Also, I will be posting a list of all the other gifts I got this year one of these days...so keep an eye out for that, because I know, and you know, that you want to know ;)

Love,
Danielle

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

Santa...I Am Your Father

In 24 minutes...it will be Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas Eve...for 24 minutes.

Santa is in Rhode Island, according to the trusty NORAD Santa Tracker...and I'm out dawgs.

Night!

Love,
Danielle

Unofficial Plans For New Years -_- And a Face That Speaks a Thousand Words

Merry 21st of December everyone! Only four more days until Christmas...and those will most definitely be the longest four days EVER.  And I guarantee that Christmas Day will come and go quicker than any other day in the year, and you'll want to make this face ---->  -_- (Don't you just love that face? It has so many meanings...) But never the less, I am excited!
So, as usual, the Matta family is practicing their home staying skills this Christmas, though I am almost 85% sure that we are doing something for New Years.  At first we were thinking New York City, (which we have been to lots o times) and then we thought Quebec, Canada.  But our hottest option was the Biltmore in North Carolina, which is a really big mansion thingy originally owned by a really rich family called the Vanderbilts.  (Go open up an American history textbook if you don't know that name.  Come on people, that's what we go to school for!)  We wouldn't stay in the Biltmore, but near it, and we would tour it and stuff like that.  Apparently everyone under the good ol' American sun has been to it except for us, so I think it's about time we do that.  Except there are a few complications, such as possibly weather, and the hotel we wanted is booked...that kind of thing.
So I still don't know what the heck we are doing for New Years, but knowing us, it's sure to be full of reflection of the past year and finding our inner serenity that is surely buried deep within us.  'Cause that's just what we do in this family. Oh yeah.
As for Christmas...well, you all will just have to wait four more days, now won't you?  I'll try to blog on Christmas day, though no promises can be made!  Hope everyone has their gifts bought and wrapped and ready to go!

Love,
Danielle
(And in case any of you were wondering, we still have school until Wednesday   -_-. There it is again!  It's just popping up everywhere these days!)

A Bunch of TJ Test Info (Hopefully) For the Last Time and Getting To Know Danielle's Loving Friends

Yello family members. So, this blog feels a little outdated already, which is only because I am forced to talk about the TJ Test and such...since that would only be UNFAIR of me to not tell you about. (When I say you, I pretty much mean my mother, my father and occasionally an uncle here and there.) I'm going to try and make it as short and simple as possible, because I seriously feel like wasting your time writing about Christmas instead of school much more.

Alrighty. Saturday morning, wake up at 6:30 a.m., get ready, eat large breakfast (I can already tell this is going to be a very overly-detailed-"short-and-simple"-typical-Danielle sort of post.) drive to Harper Park Middle School, place of my testing.  Father drops me off, I go in...sign in sort of...go to the classroom I will be taking the test in.  Luck does not fail me and one of my good friends who has also applied is in my room (yay!) though it didn't make much of a difference since we were watched like PRISON INMATES and were not allowed to speak, sniff, or breathe.  This was basically the case for the entire time we were held captive- I mean, waiting inside that room. We were given the test (which had a lock and chain around it...just kidding...it had an official seal from her Majesty, the Queen) and the rules and stuff were explained.  Two hours to complete a 95 question test, 45 verbal (English) and 50 math (vomit). We could start at any section in the test we liked, we could go back any time during the two hours, and we would be told when half our time was up.  This was all explained very convincingly to us by the nice woman with a whip and nunchucks in her hands. 
My strategy was this: start the math section first. Do as much as I can until half-time...then switch to the verbal section, finish before time is up, and go back and do questions I skipped or wasn't sure about.  This seemed like a good plan to me, since I am a lot stronger in the English department than the math one, and doing the math one first gave me more time and less stress to work on it.

Ha Ha hA.

Let me put this lightly people: I Sucked.  I know that may seem harsh, but honestly, there is no other word for it.   I was in no way prepared for what came once time began.  For starters, in the midst of all the anticipation and anxiety, I started on the verbal section first, instead of the math one, like I had previously planned to.  Halfway through my third question, I realized my mistake, and flipped to the math section.  There I did less than 22 questions until the announcement went up that HALF THE TIME WAS GONE. I can tell you right now, that was the quickest two hours in my entire life, because before I knew it, all the time was up.  I completed the verbal section...except for like, 5 questions, because I was rushing so much to try and get more math questions done I accidentally skipped them.  In the end, I didn't complete 28 questions out of 50 on the math section, because of the time limit. Here was my biggest mistake:
When I thought I knew how to work out a problem, I spent time on it, and sometimes ending up getting an answer that was not one of the choices.  Instead of taking a guess on the closest answer or best estimation, I SKIPPED THE PROBLEM, thinking I would have time at the end to go back and work it out again. But what I DIDN'T think of, was that I had already wasted time on that problem, with no result.  At least if I had guessed, that problem would have been completed and I'd have a 25% chance of getting the answer correct.  Instead, it was left blank, and no credit was received. This was the case for alot of the problems.  It wasn't that they were exceptionally hard...in fact, the ones that I did do were pretty easy...it was the fact that I made bad testing strategies and needed for time.

Anyway, it was quite stressful, all of it, though I'm very glad it's all done and over with.  I will NEVER apply again, not because I do not wish to redeem myself and try the test again (I definitely would) but I would never do that to me...apply to a different high school while I'm a high schooler in a high school...wait, let me re-phrase that.  I am quite obviously not getting in this year, which of course I am a bit disappointed, but I was a lot worse last week, and now I've come to terms with it. I can't say I'm not a little bit happy to know I will continue going to school with all my friends and classmates.

*I INTERRUPT THIS MOMENT WITH AN IMPORTANT NEWS REPORT! IT IS SNOWING RIGHT NOW FOLKS, I REPEAT, IT IS SNOWING AND STICKING TO THE GROUND RIGHT NOW! WHOOOOOOOP! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!  DO THE CHICKEN! DO THE ROBOT! DO THE JERK!  KISS YO MAMAS AND SLAP YOUR KNEE, IT'S SNOOOOWING!*

Which means that I will be attending Tuscorora High School, and other than the friend benefit, it is also a much much much shorter commute, which my parents (and me) like.  But I would never, as a freshman next year, apply again to TJ, just because that would be 100 times harder to switch out of a school that I have already adapted to and began to feel comfortable in.  I know my education is very important, but quite honestly, if I have the ability to get into the university I want to go to when I'm older, I'll be able to do it with or without TJ.  TJ was an opportunity, but not a requirement for me.  Obviously it wasn't meant to be, and that's really ok with me.

And trust me, my friends couldn't have been anymore supportive.

I quote:
"If I'm honest, I was praying you wouldn't get in."
"YESSSSSS!"
"Not to sound inconsiderate or anything, but I can't say I'm not glad."
"I didn't pray for you at all."
"Huh? You applied to TJ? Who the heck does that?"
"Do I know you?"

Yeah.

Love,
Danielle

O...M...G....

3 words.



TJ. Test. Tomorrow.


Ok, technically that's 4 words.


But let's not get technical.


Wish me luck!!!!


Love,
Danielle