n1 - An Interview with Austin Hopcia

For this round of interviews at The Bulldog, I had the pleasure of interviewing Austin Hopcia. The first thing I asked Austin was what his favorite song ever is. I thought this was a very good question, because I think music says a lot about a person. He couldn’t give think of his favorite song ever, but he replied that his favorite song at the moment is a song by the band Fun. called We Are Young. He first heard the song when it appeared on a commercial, and he’s liked it ever since. Next, I asked Austin if he could eat only one food for the rest of his life, what it would be. He answered immediately with Fettuccini Alfredo. According to him, his mom makes it often and it is the best Fettuccini Alfredo. When I asked Austin what his favorite subject in school is, he answered with math. He said math is his favorite subject, this year specifically, because it’s pretty easy and he’s good at it. He also added that math is his best subject this year. I knew Austin was a very athletic person, so I asked him which sports he played. Austin plays football, basketball, and baseball for Alden. When I asked Austin what his favorite is out of all of the sports he plays, he said baseball, partially because he’s best at it. Good choice Austin, baseball is my favorite out of those as well. Finally, I ended the interview by inquiring about what Austin wants to be when he grows up. He told me that he wished to become a journalist or broadcaster. His dream job would be getting a job with ESPN. And, in case any of you were wondering, Austin Hopcia DOES like the new Justin Bieber song. I can’t blame ya, Austin. It’s a great song.

n3 - The Seemingly Endless Job Search

As of right now, I have no job, and it’s really horrible. I would love to have a job so I could be productive after school and on the weekends while making money for myself. It’s imperative actually that I get a job as soon as possible so I can start saving up. The saddest part about this little story is that I had a job that I loved! It was perfect. A few months ago I was employed at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Clarence as a Clothing Attendant and I loved my job. I was in charge of the whole clothing section of the store, as well as the book tables. I folded and organized all of the clothes, hung up all of the returned clothes, and stacked books and DVD’s. I’ll admit it got a bit tedious at times, but I still enjoyed going to work. They have a really cool break room at BJ’s Wholesale Club as well, where I got to watch The Big Bang Theory and eat Christmas cookies on my breaks because I worked through all of December. Sadly, I was “laid off” at the beginning of January because they hired too many people during the holiday season and I was no longer needed. It’s horrible trying to find another job now, because I feel as if nothing will compare to the wonderful job I had at BJ’s Wholesale Club, however I have kept looking. Unsuccessfully. Although, my cousin works for a company downtown that makes sports apparel, like clothes with Bills and Sabres logos on it, and he told me that I can get a job with him there over the summer and it pays nine dollars an hour! That would be ideal, since it pays so much and it would be similar to the other job I had that I liked so much.

n2 - Spring and I have a love/hate relationship.

The season of spring gives me mixed feelings. I do, however, love many things about it. Most of all, I love the smell. Everything smells so clean and fresh after the cold and dry winter. It’s one of the best feelings in the world when you open the windows in your house on the first day of spring-like weather, and the entire house smells fresh and springy when you walk in. Along with the wonderful smelling air come warmer temperatures. If you know me at all, you know that I love the warm weather and everything to do with it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cold weather too, but not as much as the heat. This spring, especially, has had delightfully high temperatures accompanied by a plethora of sunshine. I have taken full advantage of this, and I have laid out on my back deck to tan for the past three days. Even though this spring is unusually and unseasonably warm, I love everything about it so far. Spring is a great season, but there also some things about it that I just can’t stand. First off, the ground seems relentlessly wet and mushy. Probably a combination of the melted snow and increased rain, the ground doesn’t really seems to dry out until, like, June. I hate this because the warm weather makes me want to walk around my yard barefoot, but I always sink into the ground and my feet get submerged in muddy puddles of water. Not that I mind that much, but it’s just really inconvenient and annoying sometimes. So, believe me, I definitely do love most things about spring. Just not everything. Oh! One of the greatest parts of spring? It means that we are just that much closer to summer. And summer means Crystal Beach!

m3 - Bicycles on the beach is not a good idea.

Probably the most embarrassing moment of my life took place in Crystal Beach, Ontario, this past summer. As you may recall from a lot of my previous blogs, we do A LOT of bike riding in CB. Furthermore, there are six kids that like to ride the bikes, and only four bikes available. It was a fine evening in Crystal Beach, and all of us had our evening plans to enjoy before we came back for the usual bonfire. My friend’s brother and his friend were occupying two of the bikes because they rode them to the candy store. This left two bikes remaining, and four people that wanted to take them. This left my friend and I in a rush to shower and get ready to go before our other two family friends. They wanted to go to the beach one last time, and we wanted to take the bikes to dinner. Our reason was much more vindicated, if you ask me, seeing as the beach was just a mile down the road from the cottage, and the restaurant my friend and I were going to be eating at was all the way into the heart of town. In the end, our friends ended up getting the bikes because my friend and I had to shower and such and our friends are guys so they don’t take nearly as long getting ready. Whatever. So as my friend and I were trudging down the road past the beach, thinking how miserable the walk would be, I had a genius idea. Since we were walking past the beach, why didn’t we just take the bikes from them?! Our friends were going to be swimming to the pier and they would never notice (until they got back from their swim). Since we were still a little leery of being caught by them, we were in a hurry trying to take the bikes and get out of there as soon as possible. My friend was ahead of me, I so I was trying to catch up. I was passing through the exit of the beach, so I thought it would be a good time to start riding my bike. However, the exit to the beach is obviously a trail of sand. I learned the hard way that evening that sand and bikes don’t mix. As I started pedaling, the tires were unable to ride on sand, and I fell completely over, after skidding forever trying to regain my balance. It was rough. To make it worse, the security guard standing on the beach, my friend, and everyone who happened to be walking by at the time laughed at me. Not to mention it kind of hurt really badly. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the most embarrassing moment of my life.

m4 - Going Veg!

I recently started vegetarianism again, so I thought that it would be a good topic for my choice blog! I did it once before when I was younger but it only lasted about two months. This time, I really want to make it last and possibly even make it a permanent decision. I would also like to try the vegan lifestyle at some point, but I am definitely not ready for that step yet. I think that after I am comfortable and used to being a vegetarian, I will be able to switch to being vegan for a little while, since vegans don’t eat anything that comes from an animal. No eggs, dairy, or seafood. It is no doubt challenging but definitely rewarding in the end. The main reason that I wanted to go vegetarian again was because it will help me to make healthier choices. And plus, I realized that when I eat healthy, I don’t eat very much meat anyway. So I decided to cut meat out of my diet entirely. Another main reason that I decide to make the change and switch to vegetarianism once again was because I was craving a change in life. I think it’s good to switch up your routine and lifestyle every once in a while, and this seemed like an exciting and reasonable route to take. My cousin is also a vegetarian, and has been for about five years. It’s nice to have someone close to me to share experiences with, like recipes and such. It has been about a week and a half since I started vegetarianism, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel healthier and more refreshed at the end of the day. It’s not a burden at all. I enjoy making my own meals that cater to my lifestyle.

m2 - Distracted driving is dumb!

Like Mr. Currin said, there really is no defense for texting and driving. Now that texting has become a necessary part of life, it is important that people take the right precautions while driving and communicating with people. Many of us don’t realize just how easy it is to get into a fatal crash or accident by trying to text while driving. Obviously no one purposely swerves into the oncoming lane of traffic or off the road into a guard rail. If it was an easy thing to do, there wouldn’t be countless accidents, injuries, and deaths relating to distracted driving due to texting. The same goes for talking on the phone while driving. Personally, with the new law that says that you cannot talk on the phone while driving at all causes problems even though it was trying to resolve a problem. I think it causes people to try so hard to find a way to get around the law (like putting the phone on your lap or on the seat next to you) and it distracts them just as much as talking on the phone would regularly. It’s no wonder that distracted driving causes so many accidents. I found these interesting statistics online:

·         Texting and driving decreases reaction time by 35%

·         Steering capability decreases by 91% while texting and driving

·         Drivers are six times more likely to get into a crash when dialing a number into their cell phone

It’s easy to find an alternative to texting or talking while driving, as well! So there really is no way to justify these dangerous actions. You can send texts while at long red lights. If you must send a text while driving, pull over on a spot of the road that is safe, or even pull into a driveway. Anything is better than possibly causing a tragic accidents or taking the life of yourself or others.

m1 - St. Patty's Day!

My mom’s side of the family is pretty Irish, so we usually always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in some way. We always have corned beef and cabbage for dinner on St. Patrick’s Day. However, this year I won’t even be able to eat it with the rest of my family, seeing how I recently have taken up vegetarianism again. In this case, I have no idea what I will do to celebrate it. I will of course wear green when the day comes, and possibly decorate my nails with festive colors and pictures (I’m thinking shamrocks). Also, last year on St. Patrick’s Day, I celebrated my Irish-ness by listening to a lot of The Dropkick Murphy’s. I suppose I should also buy a shamrock shake this march, since I haven’t had one in such a long time, and it would go right along with the festivities. Other than that, there is really no significant way that we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Dyngus Day, however, is a different story. My dad’s side of the family came straight from Poland, and there is even a rumor that we are part of a distant line of royalty. I don’t know how true it is, but it gives my aunts and I and excuse to act spoiled sometimes! My cousins always go downtown for Dyngus Day celebrations, so it’s much more of a big deal in my family than St. Patrick’s Day. I can’t wait until I’m out of high school and old enough to go out and celebrate with my cousins on the best Polish holiday ever! I’m proud of my heritage, and want to revel it! So I might not be as in touch with the Irish part of my heritage, but I am proud of it none the less. St. Patrick’s Day is sure to still be fun and exciting!

l4 - Tattoos and good food.

On Tuesday, February 28^th, I got my first tattoo! It was very exciting. I got it on the inside of my right ankle. In cursive writing, it says “You’re my Wonderwall”. I got that as my first tattoo because Wonderwall by Oasis has been my favorite song for as long as I can remember. Oasis is also one of my favorite bands. It’s a lovely and timeless line, and I’m very happy with it.

I was very nervous on my way to my appointment. I got my tattoo at Cowpok, on Elmwood. My cousin goes to D’Youville, which is only five minutes away from the place I got my tattoo, so she met me there and stayed with me while I got it done. I had no idea what to expect. When I walked in, the tattoo artist showed me what she had drawn up for me, and I liked it. It was just liked I pictured.

When she went to put the stencil on my ankle, it was difficult because I couldn’t get my leg in a position so it wouldn’t be crooked. So, she made me stand up on the table, and it was kind of awkward. I had to duck so my head wouldn’t hit the ceiling. But, I was glad she took the time to do it and get a good placement.

As she was about to start, I was feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves. The feeling was really weird, not what I expected. To me, it felt like someone took a mechanical pencil and drew on me with it as hard as they could. But the tattoo took only about five minutes. The pain wasn’t that bad at all.

Afterwards, my cousin and I walked to a new Mexican restaurant just down the street. It’s called Cantina Loco, and it’s on the corner of Allen and Elmwood. DELICIOUS. If you ever get the chance to go there, I highly recommend it. They have authentic Mexican dishes for cheap prices! It’s also newly renovated, and looks amazing inside.

I had a wonderful last (normally) day of February! A new fabulous tattoo that I love, and good Mexican food? I can’t complain.