Excerpt from Pleasanton Weekly April 5, 2019 issue:
2019_04_05.pls_.section1-pages-13
Full PDF Here (page 13 for Justin’s Heart of Gold)
April 5, 2019
Category: Home
April 6, 2019
Today I took my meds at 9:50 AM. I swear my alarm didn’t go off. I also checked the app and it said “every day”.
Maybe I’m being hypocritical right now but I swear it wasn’t my fault!
April 8, 2019 – Distributing Newspapers & Kina’s Coming!
Today I went to school and distributed my Pleasanton Weekly article. I showed it to four of my classmates, two of my teachers (including Mr. Lewin), and Amy McCarthy.
I received overwhelming support from my teachers and Amy. Amy told me, “They wouldn’t give just anyone an entire page.”
Kina, my classmate, saw in the article that I was releasing my cookbook. I didn’t tell her about my cookbook before, but she said, “Can I come?”
I thought I was going to the release alone, but now that Kina wants to come everything might change. Maybe I can invite other friends and they’ll also want to come?
April 10, 2019 – Four People are Coming
Okay, everything is awesome.
First, let me tell you what happened. After Kina told me she wanted to come (April 8, 2019), I thought “Wow! Maybe I’m important enough that people would take time out of their day to come?”
I went home and created invites for my cookbook release.
After that, I made a list of people I was considering to invite. Then, I very carefully crossed out name by name. I can’t invite everyone I know because seats are limited.
With my finished list of names, I created invites specifically or each one of them.
The next day I went to school and distributed my invites to each person.
Four people officially want to come: Sammie, Alexa, Ray, and Kina.
Sammie and Alexa are cheerleaders. Ray is my friend from last year. Kina is my classmate.
April 13, 2019 – Heart Beating Fast
Today, my heart was beating really fast. I was sitting down doing homework when it started beating up, but then it disappeared.
This reminds me of the heart palpitations of last year. They’re scary, but also harmless. However, it’s almost the one year mark, and I don’t think I should be feeling these sensations anymore.
Right?
April 17, 2019 – A Setback
Oops. We have to leave during block.
Let me explain: Beth called me a week ago and said, “You have to leave at two,” and I tried to protest but she insisted on it.
Then I told Kina, Ray, Sammie, and Alexa but they were all fine with it. Ray has PE during sixth period; Sammie, Alexa, Kina, and I have the same class during sixth period and that class is very easy.
Then today, someone told me April 30, 2019, would be a block schedule day. What that means is that we would have to leave during fifth period instead of sixth.
I talked to Ray, Kina, Sammie, and Alexa if they were fine with this and I got mixed responses.
Alexa is fine with this because ASL is also a nonsense class. Kina has History while Ray has Physics, but they’re fine missing it for me. However, Sammie has Math and she really doesn’t want to miss it.
I wrote to her, “hey, please come!” and she said “okay!”, so we’re all fine now.
April 20, 2019 – Practice for the Event
Today Victoria came to practice cooking for the event. At the cookbook release, my mom and Victoria will be preparing the food while I’m speaking.
We’re going to making Pancit. Pancit is my favourite recipe from the cookbook.
Edit: Chow Mein is now my favourite recipe from the cookbook.
We went over all the steps: from preparing the vegetables to cooking the meat to combining all the ingredients together.
I’m confident in my abilities to cook Pancit. My mom is also a great chef (she cooks every day). And Victoria will do amazing, as she is a professional chef.
April 23, 2019 – They Can’t Come
Okay, everything is going downhill.
The cookbook release will be on April 30, 2019, which is exactly a week from now.
Lena (pseudonym) told me, “Hey, my parents will just drive me to Palo Alto after school” and I was like, “Sure, go ahead” but she left TODAY.
She left a week early.
Now her parents are mad at her, and told her “you can’t go anymore”, which is a bust.
That’s fine, but then Sammie and Alexa called later, and said, “My cheer coach called us and said, if you miss April 30, you’ll be automatically disqualified from the team.”
So now they can’t come.
Okay, I’m down to two people coming: Kina & Ray.
Hahaha, this is great.
April 24, 2019 – Biopsy
Today I had a biopsy.
What’s a biopsy? A biopsy is when they take a piece of tissue. I had a cardiac biopsy which means they took a piece of tissue from my heart.
It was the same old, same old routine. I went to the Short Stay Unit, had a bunch of anxiety for putting the IV in me (because needles hurt), got the IV in me, met the doctors, and went in for the biopsy.
The biopsy is always in the groin. They’ve never done it in the neck before because of my scar.
During the biopsy, I prefer not to be unconscious. The more anesthesia you have means the more time you spend to recover. I’m pretty sure my ultimate goal is to go in and perform the biopsy without any anesthesia (not even happy juice), so that way I don’t have to get an IV in me. If you can’t tell, I hate IVs.
However, this time I faltered. In my biomedical sciences class at High School we watched a video of a biopsy, and I was thinking of that. I kept thinking of that string thingy going through my blood veins and down to my heart and I guess that freaked me out. They had to give me some more anesthetics to calm me down. Then I got high.
I hate how I have to lie down for four hours in recovery. I’m not allowed to roll over, sit up, or do anything. Just lie down and do nothing.
My doctor came in for a regular check up. Same old, same old. What medications I’m taking, my blood pressures, and any signs of illness.
My doctor said she was excited to come to my cookbook release. Coooooool. I’m still high tho.
April 25, 2019 – Grammarly
Today I got Grammarly.
Why? They were having a sale!
I’ve been thinking about getting Grammarly for a while because my writing isn’t that great, but it seemed like a rip off ($30 per month?!), but now with their sale prices dramatically decreased.
It may be a marketing scheme (who am I kidding it is), but according to them it’s their ten year anniversary, so they’re selling an annual plan for only $50.
What a steal! Much better than their $140 annual plan.
So, let’s see how Grammarly affects my writing. From now on, see if you can spot the difference.
Thanks capitalism!