Where I’m From

I am from video cassette labels, from Crayola and Apple.

I am from the clovers in the apartment building playground, which made me feel as if I were in Alice in Wonderland.

I am from the Taotaomona tree, the vines with the tiny pink flowers in them growing on fences.

I am from Thanksgiving at Great-Grandma’s and long legs, from Joe Babauta and Batangan and Agustin.

I am from the tone-deaf singers and smart alecks.

From Pinching pennies and Clean that up!

I am from winter solstice and Darwin, then to midnight mass on Easter and nightly novenas.

I’m from Guam and the Murphy clan, chicken adobo and apple pie.

From the bunches of my great-grandma’s bananas that my teenage dad gobbled up, and the wedding ring of my late grandmother, which my mom tried to hunt down in vain.

I am from the picture frames on Grandma’s wall, featured in the new, brightly colored photos which catch eyes

While the black and white photos of grandparents unknown to my cousins and siblings fade, accumulating dust over the years

Where our pictures will be moved aside as well, for the photos of the next generation to come.

*This poem was written for my AP English class, with a template from George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From".

Hyperactive Hyperosmiac

I realize that I haven't posted a post on my blog, which is meant for posting posts on, since... a long time ago. So I decided to write something tonight instead of finishing my swimming worksheet! YAY!

I will tell you all about how it is to be a hyperosmiac.
Firstly, I am a hyperosmiac.
What is a hyperosmiac, you ask?
Well, that's a good question, and it deserves an equally good answer: A hyperosmiac is a person who has a very acute sense of smell (having hyperosmia), which I possess. I smell things all the time, just ask my parents or friends. I seem to smell everything I come into contact with, and that is not an exaggeration. I won't get into detail with the unusual things I smell, to spare you all from future cringing and disapproving eyebrow-raising for the next time you see me.
My dad told me that I should find something I'm really passionate about, so that I can pursue a career in that field. I think smelling things is something I am pretty passionate about, but I don't know if there are any jobs in which I could put my hyperosmiac powers to good use. Readers, please tell me if you know of any careers involving smelling. Tanx!
I will end this topic with a picture of my nose, because what is a hyperosmiac without a nose? Nothing, that's what!

20 Things I Absolutely Love

Since 1) nobody around here knows much about me and 2) Dad suggested it, I'm going to tell you about 20 things I absolutely love.

1. music. well that's rather obvious, since I'm a human being and basically every human being likes some type of music. However, I feel this is something valid to list because I listen to music frequently and I play the electric guitar.

2. candy/sweets, which is the probable cause of the newly thickened layer of fat around my torso. I've always been pretty skinny, but now it seems my sweet tooth is catching up to me as my metabolism is slowing down. Anyway, I love almost any candy, excluding some types of chocolate (i.e. dark choc., kit-kats, crunch or anything with rice stuff in it, ones with fruity filling). I actually used to hate chocolate as a young child. Basically all desserts are good with me though.

3. guys. OKAY NOW, I'm not some guy-obsessed freak, but I do enjoy looking at pictures of handsome celebrities and occasionally looking at whichever guapo people I happen to see on Guam (which is a rare happening). Some of my faves include Billie Joe Armstrong, Gerard Way, Rivers Cuomo, Michael Cera, Johnny Depp, Brandon Routh, Jim Sturgess, James Franco, etc. Perhaps the fact that I attend an all-girls school contributes to my boy-craze.

4. speaking en Espanol. I'm currently taking Spanish II at my school and I am enamorada con Spanish. I've recently been integrating Spanish words into my regular vocabulary for fun. A few of my fave Spanish words are "chinchoso" "molestar" "cuna" and "callate"

5. MySpace! I am a proud MySpace addict and I wouldn't mind marrying Tom. Just kidding. (but not really) Sadly, I've given up MySpace for Lent. It's okay though because every time I feel like signing in, I remember that I'm doing it for Jesus and that I have to stick to my commitment.

6. YouTube. I consider it to be one of the world's greatest inventions, along with Google. I have my own YouTube channel, chloebillie, on which I post videos of myself singing, talking, acting, or just being weird with family/friends. YouTube also rocks because you can find just about any video clips of musicians, your favorite t.v. shows, weird/funny people, news, how-tos, etc.

7. Google. As I mentioned before, Google is one of the world's greatest inventions. Seriously. I love being able to look anything up; it's made my life so much easier. Plus it's a good way to stalk people.

8. making creepy jokes like the ones I've made here. Gosh, I hope I'm not freaking you out.

9. That's-what-she-saids. Oh my God, I cannot express to you how much I love these jokes. I first heard them from Michael Scott (Steve Carell) on the Office a few years ago and I started saying it often in middle school, not knowing what it meant. Now I feel rather stupid, but at least I get the joke. My friends and I have been making that's-what-she-saids for most of 2009 and it's still not getting old.

10. my family. I feel pretty guilty for listing this after "that's-what-she-saids" and MySpace. Family is uber important to me. Though I have a super-humongous family (including family from both my stepparents), I feel very close to everyone in it. I can always be my weird self around them and trust them with anything. That sounds pretty vague and sappy, but I can't express it in another way.

11. friends! They're great to tell jokes to, mooch off of, share secrets with, and for talking to. I have a ton of friends, but I think I'm only my true self around a handful of them. I try to contain my weirdness around the ones I'm not too-too close to, so as not to scare them off.

12. Vanessa V. my best friend in the whole entire universe. I have my handful of close friends, but she's the only one who gets me completely. We understand each other even when we don't fully describe what we're thinking or talking about, and we have a sort of distinctive BFF language which I can't actually understand when watching us speak it in a video. She's been my best friend for about 4-5 years now and will hopefully be my best friend for the rest of my life :D

13. Singing! I sing practically all the time - loudly, quietly to myself, along with my iPod, or in my head. I love love love musicals and songs from t.v. shows. I like secular songs as well as religious ones, which I've learned/picked up from Church and my five years at Catholic school.

14. Jesus. Who is cooler than Jesus? Seriously. We've even modeled our calendar around the year of his birth (though Jesus was actually born a few years before the year 1 AD).

15. Apple TV. My dad bought it around a year ago and it is the frrrreaking BOMB. You can watch basically any movie or t.v. show on it and it also has YOUTUBE. Awesome, right? I know.

16. video games. Now I'm no game freak like my brothers, but I do enjoy my share of Rock Band (expert on singing, hard on guitar/drums, thank you very much ;D), Guitar Hero, the Sims, Mario Kart, DS games, and Super Smash Brothers.

17. drawing. I've been drawing since I was like 2 or something. I won a few art contests in elementary school and even had my artwork framed in a gallery, but as I grew older I became discouraged by other artists who seemed better than me. However, I still enjoy sketching fictional characters in a drawing journal and doodling in my school notebooks.

18. writing. My Great-Grandpa, Grandma, and Dad are/were all writers, so I guess it runs in the family. I like writing my thoughts and stories. I've been told I'm a good writer but I personally can't tell. I enjoy writing things in which I can display my creativity but I'm usually subjected to writing boring essays for school. bleh.

19. Twilight<3 Edward Cullen is my lovegod :D He's the ultimate man/not man. I do not care if you hate Twilight. So just shut up and take your non-Twilight butt out of here if you've got a problem. Oh, and Harry Potter is awesome too! My dad and I read all of them :D

20. PUNS & inside jokes. They're very punny. Hi-yoooo!

Hola, amigos!

I'm Chloe, and I'm gonna start a blog. or I've already started one. which is this one. yeah. Okay, sorry, I sound like an idiot but I'm not sure what I want to talk about. I guess this blog is just going to be me talking about stuff. Well duh, Chloe. but yeah, I'm just going to be writing about whatever I feel should be written about. I'll be doing some rants, praises, random thoughts, etc. etc. Hmm, I suspect you might want to know why I'm blogging in the first place. Well, here is a list of reasons:



1. I have nothing to do.
2. I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile.
3. I enjoy writing about stuff.
4. My dad's a blogging inspiration - maybe you've heard of him. He's Leo Babauta, the Zen Habits guy. haha.

5. I feel my opinions should be shared with the world.

BTW, this blog/blog title is sort of a spin-off of my YouTube account/user: chloebillie. Check me out if you like.

Look out for my posts later! Salaam alaykum & god bless :)

~Chloe