KAY

My stomach churned and my heart was beating so hard I thought I actually heard it resonate in my ears when Mrs. Beckford summoned us to her office, straight out of devotion. Not solely out of fear, because I did not do anything wrong, but out of excitement. I've never been one of the 'bad girls' before; I was the only 'good girl' out of the three of us that went into the place of intended punishment and interrogation. So, naturally, I thought what an experience it is to be on the other side unknown to me.

Prior to that, we met with the Boarding Director downstairs. Apparently, the three of us girls as Munro-based boarders we were allegedly 'leaving the boarding school with a man' in the wee hours of the dark morning without telling anyone, which leaves room for intended innuendos. One of the groundsmen saw us at six in the morning hopping into a car, and told authorities. It was actually out physics teacher taking us to Munro to catch the bus for the trip.

Being new, I expected that the teacher would take car of the notifications such as briefing the principal and otherwise. I understand that one of us should have told the Boarding Director, but I made mistake: I assumed that would have been taken care of too. I did not know the school runs that way. However I understand their distress.

I feel bad only about being called into Mrs Beckford's office for something negative, but otherwise, I am ok, because I know I haven't done anything wrong. It's actually the first time in my life that I've been summoned to the VP's office for something negative. We are supposed to meet with her again on Monday. I expect full pressuring interrogation.

The trip in itself was informative, we did a lab on operating amplifiers at the Univerisity of the West Indies as well as went through a tutorial on the whole topic for CAPE. Good learning! :p

PS: D'oh! Happy new year, merry belated xmas and happy holidays! My college applications are coming along well. Christmas and New year's was a period chock full of massive essay writing and correcting for me, fortunately I am no longer plunged deep and drowning anymore, just waddling at the surface. ;)

'BRRRRIIING!!' goes the bell at 6:00 clock every morning, though I am usually up about half hour earlier in order to avoid the masses in line for the morning shower. Because of this, I, as well as my best dorm friend, am burdened with the task of waking up some of the girls in the dorm.

On arriving, i wanted to go home So badly but I eventually got used to the system. Boarding at Hampton can be fun but very noisy. I like the quiet and I study best in the quiet however I am trying to get used to studying with music. Better that than the noise. The girls are really sweet and sociable, at least, the ones that I share a dorm with. The food, in my opinion, tastes good for a boarding school, especially on Sundays, my mouth waters for the french toast in the morning and the fried chicken in the afternoon. Hampton, for me, is just for boarding and I do all my classes at Munro, the brother school, along with 13 other girls, because of the dreaded Physics.

At Munro, the impact of being one of only thirteen girls within the midst of approximately 1400 boys was overwhelming. Not in a particularly bad or good way, its just that us girls are singled out and there are eyes on me ... everywhere ... Munro boys, oh boy - VERY TALKATIVE. More so than the girls! But in the same way, they are nicer than the girls and perhaps, easier to talk to, save for the few freaky ones who wish to talk about sex and sex only.

Classes are more hectic than at my previous school, we cover a lot of work which I am grateful for, because I really need to get my one's next year. During my free time I go to the Library. The library. I love the library as nerdy as it might sound. Books that I would love to read that have been unattainable to me are right there ready and waiting - Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen, Dean Koontz - like heaven already! I usually go there with my best Munro friend.

By the second day of school I made a fparticular close friend who I hang out with at Munro, she is so sweet, we stick together like glue nowadays and students marvel at how close we are though we have just met a few weeks ago. We have almost all the same classes together.

In my opinion, Munro and Hampton has a very good school spirit! They have cheer practice before every football game, which was something new to me.

My general schedule is wake up, bathe, dress, eat, quad, sign out, hop on the munro bus (munro/hampton use those really old huge school buses), go to class, hop on the hampton bus with many smelly boys, bathe, eat, go to quad, study and sleep. We do not have phones nor internet are we allowed to. Yes, it took some good 'getting used to'.

I take everyday in stride, I know what I am there to do - get my one's - and I intend to.

The sky is bleak and cool, the house is quiet and serene and the delicious scent of red peas bubbling up in seasoned water on the stove downstairs is wafting up to my room. I will miss this if I end up boarding at Hampton, if I do end up there. So, my CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations) results were not up to my standards so I find myself willing to go to another school for a year. I'm ok with going.

The day I first saw my results shock made my heart climb up to my throat, but that first feeling subsided. Immediately after was denial, then in the blink of an eye, a form of acceptance, because I really did prepare myself for the worse. But after getting good results for CXC, CAPE results still somewhat had me in a daze. I didn't fail, I only failed to get the grade which I desired.

In other news, I was filled with the Holy Ghost on Tuesday night, August 18. The feeling is indescribable, I remember feeling something slowly come over me, almost like a bubbling feeling, head first. I remember singing out loud and then I started to move uncontrollably and shouted with all my might, a series of 'Hallelujahs'. I was jumping and moving my arms, everything became a blur. I felt someone take of my glasses, I felt my hat fall off and I remember clutching the clothing of the reverend that stood before me because I remember seeing his red and black clothing. Someone held me around my waist and at that time I screamed - 'ahhh!' and suddenly felt weak and fell to the floor. Soon after I got up and felt back in my own body, still a little weak, my throat was hurting and I tried to talk but I was so hoarse. Other young people were filled as well, and being filled is a regular thing at church, but a first for me.

Speaking of church, tomorrow will make one year since I have been baptized, and roughly a year since I've been a member of Santa Hill City of Faith, which is a pentecostal church.

Lastly, and the reason for this post: Happy year old birthday to my blog, I'm only four days late but who's counting? To celebrate, I suppose some changes are in order in terms of the site, also, the period of time I take to update.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must check on the first half of my typical sunday dinner.

Three weeks ago on June 29, 2009, I came home from the pharmacy with my father and sister to see my cousin's shocked face forcing me to admit that I was in the house all along. It was about 9:00 or so, and I was talking to my mother over the phone and laughing on the inside at this crazy girl with poppy-cock stories. She urged me to admit that I was in the house and her expression made me laugh out loud, which only made her urge me more. She said that someone was in the kitchen and at that time I became concerned, and relayed the information to my father.

My father became alert, he quickly ran downstairs to look around the kitchen area if anything was stolen or worse, the person was still there. After finding no clues and probing my cousin for more detail on the matter, I left my father to continue his interview with my cousin and went to my room. A few minutes later I came out to hear my father, with a machete in hand, telling me that the prowler smashed the window of his car and stole his leather briefcase that he bought during his business trip to China, with all the important documents and a small amount of money within.

I was a bit confused, my room was the closest to the car, I can look through the window and see it, it is very close by, and I didn't hear a thing. That was strange to me, very strange.

Later on into the night, the police, after what seemed like an eternity and a day, came by to assess the damage and hear the report. I retired to bed thinking that this is the first time this has ever happened so seriously and we all did a wrong thing by leaving the back door of the house open. Not long after I fell asleep.

The next morning, I was told that the prowler folded up all the documents my father had in his briefcase neatly and placed them by the outside kitchen. As much as I was glad that my father retrieved his important documents, I found it very odd that the supposed thief would be so kind as to return them, not to mention, fold them and place them neatly.

Since that incident, father has gotten locks for the grills of the windows and doors, a security system for the house, new bulbs for outside, an alarm for his car and also urging my sister, cousin and me to ensure that all doors are locked at all times.

Just this morning, father told me that a prowler, unknowing whether it was the same one or another, broke into my mother's car and stole a bag of rice and the keys to our house in Mona, Kingston, tried to break into the house and tried to break into my father's car but might have been scared off by the alarm on the car. The security camera caught him in action, which is a really good thing. The police have been alerted so the question to ask now is: what will happen next?

This is not turning into one-entry-a-month blog! Sure it may look that way, but it's not! However, I did not write an entry to talk about my poor habits at updating, I have come to say I have a summer job! I'm working at Island Traffic Authority and it's the first time I've had a summer job.

My previous summers have been spent enjoying summer the way it should be - camps, convention. spending the holiday with family, going to America, or staying home and working on personal projects -- a summer job was not a priority and that is why this is the first for me. I never even sought out a job, father came up to me on a Sunday and said, 'you'll start work on Tuesday at ITA, give me your resume' and I said, 'O.K!' and that was that.

Work is ... slow. I'm not doing it for the money but that is a nice reward. Filing, pasting in motor vehicle records and writing them up as well is quite boring. My colleagues are great though, they are fun and make me laugh a good number of times for the day, but I hate the CD's one of them is always bringing to pop into the radio. I like that I get to occupy my time during the day though. So far I've learnt a good deal about cars, knowing nothing from the start to knowing the names of the different types. Only thing is I couldn't identify any if I saw them plain and in broad daylight, but I will get there.

As for dressing, I try to mix it up and I am proud to say I've never repeated a blouse for the three weeks I've worked there so far. YES! What? I am a girl and as much as I hate to admit it, these things concerns me.